#hunter who feels weird about the whole thing for reasons he refuses to acknowledge or unpack: hand over the eyescream we're commiserating

[crimeronan]

Woke up today thinking it’d be really fucking funny if Luz and Willow get their shit together re: any dating stuff before any of the others do mainly cause I’m just picturing Amity being really bitey bitchy jealous about Willow being brave enough to actually pursue Luz at all which leads to Amity pulling the “wow I didn’t think you were this type of social climber” card and Willow Uno Reversing her with the “Do you think the only reason people date is to improve in social status? Wow. That’s really pathetic. You’re really pathetic. Not to mention an insult to Luz insinuating nobody would want to date her for any reason other than her crown. Man, you suck.”

Cue Amity curled up in a corner eating eyescream because Fuck She Got Absolutely Fucked with that one

THIS IS HILARIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL. GET HER ASS!!!!!

[iamleesi]

THE HUNTERS & THE SOLDIER

Pairing: Avenger! Bucky Barnes x OC! Avenger Reader

Summary: You and Bucky think there’s something the brothers are hiding. You and Dean go to investigate and let’s just say you leave the scene feeling worse than before.

Warnings: Mention of a missing person, mention of an alcoholic, creepy stuff.

Other: English isn’t my first language so I apologize for eventual mistakes. -> 18+ !!

-> Masterlist

-> Part two ; Part four

-> Investigation (03)

As the shrill sound of the alarm pierced silence of the morning, you groaned and reluctantly cracked open your eyes. God, if you were tired. You and Bucky had spent the whole previous night with Sam and Dean, talking about the case and getting to know each other a little better. It had been a bit awkward, though, because Bucky didn’t even try to look interested and you weren’t really the social butterfly either.

But those two? Dean was about as social as a dead snake and Sam… at least Sam tried. But it was kind of hard considering the evident fight the two brothers had going on, whatever the reason was.

Tossing aside the sheets, you swung your legs over the edge of the bed, your feet meeting the cold hardwood floor. The sunlight filtered through the curtains and you lazily rubbed your eyes and got up, walking towards the bathroom to take a quick shower.

You didn’t sleep much last night, as your mind kept reminding you of the case you were working on. You had dealt with Hydra-related missions before, but never like this. And for some reason, this time you felt a shiver run down your spine every time you thought about it.

You walked downstairs all refreshed, even if you wouldn’t be opposite to hop into bed once again, and the scent of coffee filled the rooms. You figured it must have been Bucky, since the spot on the couch where he slept on last night was empty. He had refused to sleep in the same bed as you and, honestly, you didn’t comply much. No reason to make the situation more awkward than it already was.

As you walked into the kitchen, your eyes immediately fell on Bucky who was engrossed in the files of the case spread out on the table.

You cleared your throat, breaking the silence as you sat down a few seats away from him. “Morning.”

Bucky glanced up, almost as if he didn’t even hear you walk in. But you know he did, he was just not acknowledging you. “Took you long enough.” He muttered.

You rolled your eyes as you poured yourself some coffee, frowning when you noticed some muffins on the table as well. “Who are those from?”

“I bought them this morning.” He grunted. “As a sweet husband buying breakfast for his wife.”

“Mrs Barnes appreciates.” You mocked him, as you didn’t think twice about eating one of those delicious muffins. You were starving without even realizing. “Anything new?” You asked, referring to the files.

“No.” He simply said. “But I think those two are hiding something.” He admitted, and that made you frown.

“Who? Sam and Dean?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, his eyes finding yours. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice their behavior yesterday. They’re also related, Fury never sends siblings on a mission together since it could compromise the whole thing if feelings are involved.”

“I did notice, that’s why I called Fury.” You said. “He told me they’re good in what they do and that he had no other options.”

“Sounds weird.” He muttered.

“Very. But Fury knows what he’s doing, so… let’s just go with the flow.” You shrugged, biting the chocolate muffin. “Mrs Barnes would also love some pizza tonight.” You hinted, smirking at his annoyed expression.

“Eat that quickly because Dean is taking you on a trip today.” He rolled his eyes at you, getting up. “Should be here anytime now, I met him early this morning.”

“Uh?”

“He insisted on taking you to interrogate Cassandra’s family today, the nurse. See if you can find a lead or something.” He explained.

“Wasn’t I supposed to be the stay at home wife?” You raises a brown but didn’t complain. You could never complain if it meant trying to solve this case and go back home as soon as possible.

“Change of plans.”

“And you? What are you doing today?” You inquired. Knowing him, he’d never stay at home doing nothing.

“Sam’s gonna come over. There are a few files of missing people we need to look at.”

* * * *

You and Dean stood in front Cassandra’s parents’ house, both of you dressed formally for this. He gave you a fake badge that you had no idea how he got, but didn’t pry as it wasn’t the right time. He adjusted his tie, before turning to look at you. “Ready?” His voice was low, and he wanted to make sure you both were on the same page before starting.

Your nod was all he needed before he ran the bell, the sound was heard even from the outside.

It didn’t take long for someone to open the door, and soon enough it cracked open revealing Mrs Miller’s tear-streaked face. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her expression a mix of grief and suspicion.

“What do you want?” She snapped looking mostly at you rather than him, her voice full of bitterness.

Dean flashed his badge and the action reminded you to do the same, his expression remained stoic mirroring your own. “Mrs Miller, we’re the with the FBI. We need to ask you a few questions about your daughter.”

“Stepdaughter.” She clarified. The woman’s gaze flickered between the both of you, her demeanor was guarded which was rather suspicious. Or maybe it was just grief and she wanted to be left alone, you didn’t know. “I’ve already told the police everything I know. I don’t have time for this.”

You stepped forward as soon as you understood that she was about to close the door. “We understand this is a difficult time for you, Mrs Miller, but we’re here to know more about Cassandra. We want to bring her home.”

“Just…” The woman hesitated for a moment before reluctantly stepping aside, allowing you and Dean to walk inside. “Be quick.”

As you and him stepped over the threshold, you took your time to see your surrounding which weren’t exactly what you expected. Inside, the atmosphere was stagnant. You could see that all the windows in your sight were locked and dusty, which is something you didn’t notice from the outside.

At each step you took towards the living room, the flower beneath your weight cracked. The furniture was dusty, clearly untouched in a long, long time and the cobwebs hung from the ceiling - they almost occupied every angle of the house. The thing that really made you shiver were those pictures hanged on the walls.

The faces of Cassandra’s family starred back at you, their eyes seemed cold and lifeless. There was something off about the way they were arranged, but you couldn’t wrap your head around what it was.

You and Dean sat down onto the worn couch of the dusty living room, the tension could be cut with a knife. Mrs Miller hovered nearby, her movements seemed stiff and unnatural like a marionette being pulled by invisible strings.

On one side, you could understand. This woman had lost her only daughter just a few days ago - even if there were no proof she was dead, both you and Dean suspected it and maybe she thought so too.

Still, you knew something wasn’t quite right with the oldest woman.

Dean’s voice cut through the silence and the tense atmosphere as he began to ask questions about Cassandra’s whereabouts, his tone firm yet empathetic. “Can you tell us about Cassandra’s routine? Did she mention anything unusual happening to her the days before she went missing?” 

Mrs Miller shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her eyes flickering for the slightest moment towards the staircase. “She - she was always so independent. She didn’t have - she didn’t tell me much about her comings and goings.” Not once she met his eyes. Nor yours. “She - she had - she had an ex boyfriend I think.”

You saw it then. There was a guardedness in her response, as if she was scared to say the wrong thing and spill too much information.

“Can you think of anyone who wanted to harm Cassandra in anyway?” You inquired, your eyes fixed solely on her. “Maybe this ex boyfriend of hers?“

Mrs Miller’s gaze shifted nervously between you and the man at your side, but when you spoke up her eyes locked onto yours with an intensity that sent a chill down your spine. Nothing ever scared you, but this somehow felt almost supernatural. “Adam was - is - was - an alcoholic. Yes, yes he is an alcoholic.”

“Can you tell us more about their relationship?” You asked, trying to keep your tone neutral.

Mrs Miller’s lips tightened, her eyes staring into yours - she seemed to despise you. She looked at Dean normally, but whenever she turned to look at you it felt like she wanted to come for your neck. “Why do you want to know about - about Adam? What does he have to do with any of this - leave him alone! Please leave him alone!”

“Mrs Miller, we’re not accusing anyone. We just want to know more about Cassandra.” Dean said softly, trying to calm her down.

Her eyes widened, her breath coming in shallow gasps. “She - she was always so careful. Always looked over her shoulders - oh, he needs to eat, do you mind letting him eat?” She started to ramble incoherent words after wards, which left both you and Dean momentarily speechless. “He needs to eat now - it’s the voices. Always whispering - he needs to eat. Always - I need to feed him… where’s my husband? My husband, where’s my husband?”

“It’s best if we leave, Dean.” You whispered as Mrs Miller’s sanity became thinner by the second.

The look she gave you felt almost threatening, as if you had asked something way too personal. “No. He needs to eat.” She said sternly. “Everyone in this family loved her. Everyone. Everyone.” She started to nervously pinch her arm, and you wondered if perhaps you asked the wrong thing. “Everyone loved her.” She repeated again, as if it was a mantra.

Dean was about to say something when you all heard a sudden noise from upstairs, a sharp bang that reverberated through the quiet house. It happened once, then twice and then it transformed to something that you associated with someone scratching wood.

“We should take a look upstairs.” Dean said, keeping his voice slow and steady considering that woman seemed to be getting worse by the second.

In fact, without any of you two saying another word, her composure began to crack; her breathing became more ragged and erratic. Then, without you could comprehend what the fuck was going on, she erupted into a fit of hysterical laughter, the sound echoing off the walls like a sinister symphony.

Before you or Dean could react, Mrs Miller rose to her feet in an instant, her movements were frenetic and unpredictable. “You can’t help her! No one can!” Her laugh intensified if possible.

You wish to say you never assisted to something like this before, but you’d lie. Your composure in front of her meltdown was something that would leave people questioning whether you were sane yourself or not.

“Mrs Mil-”

The woman cut him off in an instant. “You need to leave! You can’t help her!” She yelled, her voice echoing through the house and the cracks on the walls.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Dean wanting to interviene but you were quick to grab his arm. “Dean.” You warned, your voice low as the woman started to throw things around. “Let’s go.”

With one last glance at the crazy woman before you, Dean nodded - to your surprise, he had that same look on your face. He didn’t seem fazed by what was happening which left you with a few questions. Together you made your way to the door with Mrs Miller hysterical screams echoing in your ears. 

You two stepped out of there closing the door behind you. Without a word you walked towards his car, but you suddenly stopped in your tracks - slowly, almost as if you felt someone watching you, you turned around again. Your eyes drifted to the upstairs window and your blood ran cold.

In the dim light, a shadowy figure loomed from behind the window; it’s form distorted and twisted. It seemed to sway ominously as if taunting you from the darkness. That thing stared back at you with those empty eyes - literally empty eyes, and your legs refused to move.

Dean followed your gaze, his jaw clenched. “It’s not my imagination, is it?” He muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

“No.” You answered, your voice not louder than his.

You felt him grab your arm, and the next thing you knew is that he pulled you inside the car and drove away from the house - and you swore you were still feeling those empty eyes on you even when you were far away from it.

[superhusbands4ever]

life is far away from fair - The Bad Batch (Ao3)

Words: 1562 | Rated: Gen | Hunter & Tech & Crosshair (& Rex, kinda)

Canon through Episode 3: Replacements | Lotta Angst

~

“Do you think he’s eating enough?”

Hunter pulled his eyes from where he’d been blankly watching the hyperspace lane fly by.

Tech was sitting in the copilot seat, fiddling with his inhibitor chip scanner. Wrecker and Echo were back in the bunks, staying with Omega after the girl had woken them all screaming from a nightmare.

Hunter certainly couldn’t blame her. He shuddered when he thought about their time in that Zygerrian camp, the collars around his brothers necks, Omega’s screaming and crying, begging the slavers to stop as they cracked the electro-whip at his back—

They were all sleeping a little rough after that. Thankfully they’d found Rex’s scrambled beacon not too long after and were able to take a couple of days to relax before Crosshair and his team found them and they had to—

And before Cody—

He was grateful to their ori’vod for helping them escape, but prying Echo from the other man was the hardest thing Hunter had done after leaving Kamino without their kih’vod. He hoped Rex was okay.

He hoped Rex was still alive.

Little gods, everything was so karked these days.

Omega was able to fall back asleep pretty quickly with Wrecker holding her, but Hunter hadn’t been able to, so he offered to take the first watch in the cockpit. They were in hyperspace and on autopilot, so there was really no reason for him to keep watch, but he needed some time to gather his thoughts.

Tech had come in an hour later, mumbling under his breath about Wrecker and Echo snoring before dropping into the seat beside Hunter and messing with his scanner.

They’d been sitting in silence for a while, Hunter lost in his own mind, before Tech’s voice broke through the silence.

He was still toying with the device in his hands, his voice the same clinical monotone as always, and he was carefully avoiding looking in Hunter’s direction.

“He has a faster metabolism of course, so if he doesn’t eat often enough he gets—“

“Dizzy spells,” Hunter finished, watching Tech carefully. “Yeah, I remember.”

“And he’s always been weird about eating,” Tech continued as if Hunter hadn’t spoken. “Statistically speaking, with the number of times we had to take him to the mess ourselves versus the number of times he went willingly, it’s unlikely that he’s—“

“I don’t know if he’s eating, Tech,” Hunter said softly, cutting the man off before he could work himself up. “I hope he is.”

Tech nodded, pulling a small screwdriver from somewhere and poking at his scanner.

It was instantaneous when my chip came out. I still remembered everything I’d done, but I was in control again.

Tech had been quiet about Crosshair since they left Kamino. While Wrecker and Echo and even Omega had expressed some fear for Crosshair and a longing to get him back, Tech hadn’t said much. A few passing comments about the chips, mentioning Cross’s name only when absolutely necessary to the conversation — speaking about their youngest brother almost clinically, as if everything was normal and they hadn’t broken the one rule they set for themselves when they left him behind.

It was strange at first, because he and Cross had always been close. Being the two youngest of the batch they tended to drift together more often than not. Crosshair was a man of few words while Tech tended to be a man of many. They balanced each other out, in a way. Crosshair was the only one Tech tolerated casual touch from. Tech was the only one Crosshair let near him when he was injured or sick. It was weird to be on the ship and see the two of them not in the cockpit together, Tech rambling about something or another while Crosshair rolled his eyes and tried to hide a smile. It was strange, at first, that Tech didn’t seem to want to acknowledge their brother was gone.

Hunter hadn’t said anything about it because he wasn’t sure what to do. Tech tended to struggle with complex emotions. He didn’t always know how to explain what he was feeling, and he struggled socially because of it.

But having known Tech since he was barely over two growth cycles old, Hunter knew Tech was really good at saying a lot of words without actually saying anything at all. And usually to figure out what he was feeling, actions spoke louder than words.

Theoretically, if you get the chip out, you should get Crosshair back.

He saw the way Tech would clam up and get tongue tied when Crosshair was mentioned. He remembered the way Tech had snapped at him on Salucamai about the chips. He’d leave the room when Wrecker would tell Echo and Omega stories about their time as cadets, the way 99 had brought them together and the way they became the squad they were today.

(Before.)

He saw the way Tech had barely put his inhibitor chip scanner down since their run-in with Rex, constantly fiddling and tinkering with it since Rex told them that the effects of the chip were reversible. Since Rex had given them hope that there was a chance they could get their brother back.

“I don’t understand.”

Hunter looked at Tech, who stared down at the device in his hands.

“You don’t understand what?”

“Why Crosshair?” Tech said slowly, brows furrowing. “All five of us have the chip. Why did only his work? I’ve been trying to figure it out. There’s no logic to it.”

“I don’t know,” Hunter said, having spent too much time asking himself and any higher power in the universe listening the same question. “Sometimes things don’t have a reason. Sometimes things… just happen. There’s not always a logical explanation.”

Tech scowled and his jaw clenched, obviously unsatisfied with the answer, but didn’t argue.

It was like I was watching someone else control my body from the inside. No matter how much I tried to scream, I couldn’t even open my mouth.

“If anything it feels like some kind of sick, cosmic joke,” Hunter finally said the words that had been plaguing him since the order came down and everything changed. “The one clone out of all of us who hated regs and following orders more than anything…”

I was only under its control for a couple of hours at most, but it still felt like a part of me had been ripped out. Sometimes I wake up and I still feel like I’m not myself.

“I hope he’s fighting it.”

Hunter jerked back at the venom in Tech’s tone. It was the most emotion he’d shown the whole conversation, and it was the first time he’d heard Tech sound truly angry about their brother. It was the first time since leaving Kamino that Tech had sounded anything other than indifferent and unperturbed about it all. The tone made him sound so similar to their brother that Hunter was almost surprised to look over and see goggles instead of a crosshair tattoo.

I can’t even imagine how the others might feel. The ones who have been under longer. How much of them are still left.

Tech turned to look at Hunter, finally, and Hunter felt his heart clench at the fire burning in Tech’s eyes.

“I hope he’s fighting back, like he used to,” Tech whispered. “If there’s even a little bit of our Cross’ika left in him, I hope he’s giving them hell.”

I don’t know the long term effects of the chip. I can’t imagine what that might do to someone’s mind.

Hunter thought about Rex, about the way he said he tried to fight the chip before being sucked under its control. That despite realizing what was happening, the split second where he realized Fives was right and this was Palpatine’s plan all along, he’d still been helpless to it’s pull before it dragged him under mentally kicking and screaming.

The order was to execute the Jedi for treason against the Republic, he’d said. But the order also said to execute any clone who refused to comply.

He thought about Crosshair and the way he’d consistently questioned Hunter about letting the Padawan go. The way he’d spit and yelled and called Hunter unfit and incapable, but never lifted a weapon toward them. He’d been angry and confused and lashed out like an frightened and injured tooka backed into a corner.

He did fight it, Hunter desperately wanted to tell his little brother. He already was, he wanted to say, because Crosshair may have yelled and argued and said things that made Hunter feel like he’d been stabbed through the chest, Crosshair never actually tried to stop them, let alone kill them.

But then he thinks of Crosshair in the hanger bay, his vod’ika, armor as blank and empty as the eyes that looked down the scope of the rifle as he shot down Wrecker and taunted Hunter without second thought, and he doesn’t know what to believe.

Once that chip finally comes out, I can’t guarantee how much of the Crosshair you knew will be left behind.

“I hope so, too,” he said instead, praying to the Maker and the Force and Manda and anyone who was listening that by the time they got to Crosshair there was still enough of their baby brother left to be saved.

~

(that bit with Rex and Cody is a reference to another fic I am currently writing that will be published... eventually idk)

[likethecities]

In “Defense” of Bo-Katan in Mandalorian S2

(or, why Bo’s refusal to accept Boba as Mandalorian in 2x08, after Din did accept it in 2x06, is internally consistent with her character and view of Mandalore, and is not only because she’s a self-serving ass*)

*(although she is both of those things)

NOTE: This is a discussion of why her view of Boba is logical for her character and where I hope/think it will go in S3 and the concept of “Mandalorian”. It is NOT an endorsement for her behavior.

This is ONLY based in current, Disney canon, not Legends. In Legends, Jango was the leader of Mandalore for several years if not decades. However! that line conflicts with TCW. So we’re using the old rule of “if it conflicts, current canon wins” and tossing it out.  If it gets recanonized, we can come back to it.

Okay first! Let’s break down the major Mandalorian characters/factions in the Mandalorian.

Din Djarin/Children of the Watch

Bo-Katan Kryze/Nite Owls

Boba and Jango Fett

What do they have in common? All three groups place a lot of practical and symbolic/ancestral value on their beskar armor. Bo and Din also place a lot of importance on the value of the Way, although with different interpretations. Lastly, Bo specifically cares about Mandalore as a place. Unsurprisingly, they all have different interpretations of what it means to be Mandalorian.

Let’s start with Din and the Children of the Watch (CotW). Here’s what we know about their definition of Mandalorian:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor

foundlings/non-Mandalorian children can be raised Mandalorian

very strict interpretation of the Way/Creed

non-Mandalorians cannot wear Mandalorian armor

As a final note, they don’t appear to have much actual beskar. Most of their armor, though forged in Mandalorian style, isn’t made of beskar, but other metals instead. It’s a big deal when Din rolls up with enough beskar to forge a whole suit; that kind of windfall doesn’t just happen.

So when S2 rolls around and Din runs into people wearing Mandalorian armor who don’t follow the Way as he knows it, he assumes they aren’t Mandalorian, with the following results:

Cobb (2x01): admits to not being Mandalorian when Din challenges him, offers to return armor to Din (standing in as a representative of all Mandalorians) once Din helps him. Din agrees, helps, and then leaves with the armor.

Bo-Katan/Nite Owls (2x03): claim a different interpretation of the Way, declare ownership over their armor through family heritage. Din recognizes their claim.

Boba (2x06): identifies himself as the rightful owner of the armor, refuses to claim clan ties or the Creed.  Din (eventually) recognizes his claim.

Once Din has accepted that other Mandalorians don’t have the same interpretation of the Way that he does, he’s willing to accept proof of ownership as enough.  Likely, this is because the CotW don’t have much beskar, and so they recognize prior claims much more strictly. For Din, at least, owning the beskar is enough to drop the argument about being Mandalorian or not. Now let’s move to Bo and her supporters. Here’s what we know about them:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor: status symbol, but not required by all members

looser interpretation of the Way

high value on clan/community membership, or connection to Mandalore as a planet

non-Mandalorians cannot (or at least shouldn’t) wear Mandalorian armor

We know from SW Rebels and TCW that Bo, her followers, and most of the Mandalore-based people that you do not have to wear armor to be Mandalorian. Sabine’s father is an artist and is never seen fighting or wearing armor, but no one questions that he’s Mandalorian. The armor and Creed alone aren’t a requirement.

How else do we know this? Because Bo spent several seasons backing Pre Viszla and the darksaber for the Mandalorian throne, but when Viszla lost the darksaber - and his head - to Maul, Bo objected. Maul wasn’t Mandalorian; he didn’t care about the place, the community, the culture, or the Way. So Bo turned to Satine, the leader that she had just deposed, as a more “Mandalorian” challenger. Satine still has her House Kryze ties and close attachment to Mandalore as a place; that was enough to make her Mandalorian and a better choice than Maul, even though she’d nearly completely broken with old Mandalorian ways.

(And, we should note, that some Mandalorians did switch their allegiance to Maul after this, because they recognized the right of the darksaber over any community or clan ties. They’re also still Mandalorian.)

So when Bo and her team meet Din, they recognize Din as Mandalorian.  He’s part of a Mandalorian offshoot sect: that’s his clan/community. They think his rules are weird and antiquated*, but they recognize them as related to the Way as they know it.

*yes, Bo is a jerk about this, because Bo is a jerk about a lot of things. She does accept it, though, which is the important part for this discussion.

Okay, now let’s turn to Boba.

Boba never explicitly claims to be Mandalorian, with Din in 2x06 or in the bar 2x08. He says that Jango was a Mandalorian foundling, but despite Din giving him multiple opportunities to claim to be Mandalorian, Boba rebuffs every single one.  He doesn’t have any clan or community ties, and he doesn’t care about the planet; he’s actively derisive about Bo’s goal to retake it. He doesn’t appear to follow any parts of the Way.  Frankly, Boba doesn’t seem to even want to be Mandalorian, he just puts up with being associated with them because of the armor.  He certainly doesn’t care who considers themselves Mandalorian or why. The only things that Boba cares about are that a) his ownership of his armor is acknowledged, and b) he’s recognized as Jango Fett’s son. That’s it.

Again, for Din, that’s enough. Boba can prove that the armor is his and he can prove that Jango obtained it properly (ie, as a Mandalorian foundling). Conflict solved, everyone move on.

For Bo and her followers, that’s not enough. The armor isn’t the sole thing that marks you as Mandalorian, and Boba (and Jango after becoming a bounty hunter, apparently for much of his adult life) has none of the clan/community ties that are part of her definition and no attachment to the planet or culture of Mandalore.  Ergo, he’s not Mandalorian, and rightfully-obtained armor or not, him wearing it is against their culture. And yes, Bo is being racist (something -ist, at least) when she calls Jango his “donor”, but she also has a point. There are millions of Jango Fett clones in the galaxy, and none of them were raised in Mandalorian culture or have any connection to Mandalore except DNA.  Rewatching the bar scene, she doesn’t seem to have any idea who Boba is until she recognizes his voice and identifies him as a clone.  Why should he or any clone deserve to wear Mandalorian armor, especially when they don’t participate in Mandalorian culture?

(the answer, obviously, is because Jango raised Boba as his son and heir and chose to pass down his armor/ship accordingly. But Bo has no reason to know this and she wouldn’t consider him Mandalorian either way, so there’s no point in Boba proving his ownership even if he cared enough about her opinion to bother.)

This also ties into the problem of the darksaber. Gideon isn’t Mandalorian, and it seems likely he obtained the sword when the Imperial Remant “glassed” the planet, so he’s not recognized as ruler of Mandalore even when he holds the darksaber. Din

is

Mandalorian, and he won it in combat. That’s an undeniable claim. He’s also worked with Bo multiple times, it’s not his fault that Gideon outplayed both of them, and he’s very, very good in a fight. Bo really wants that weapon to shore up her claim, but she also knows it’s not very honorable to attack an ally who didn’t ask for this, and she probably doesn’t want to risk the possibility that she might lose. She’s in a bind.

Similarly, Din really doesn’t want the darksaber or the responsibilities that go with it, but he can’t just hand it over because that’s against the Creed. Sabine did, but she never “won” the darksaber; she just picked it up out of Maul’s garbage cave, which was vague enough for everyone to accept her passing it up. (She was also probably 17 or 18 at the time and was considered a traitor by most Mandalorians, which probably helped). But Din is also very honorable; if he can’t find a way to pass the saber off, he’ll probably feel obligated to fulfill the requirements to the best of his abilities until he either does find someone else to take them or accepts them permanently (kinda like Grogu himself HMMMMMM).  We already know that Din is fairly good at diplomacy from 2x01, but he’s never worked with Mandalorians outside of his clan before, so he’s got a steep learning curve.

So my guess: S3 is going to be about reuniting the disparate Mandalorian groups, all of whom have different versions of what it means to be Mandalorian, and finding some common ground. They will either attempt to retake Mandalore or find somewhere else to make a homeland, or possibly make the decision to stay dispersed. If Bo stays as a major character, we might see her trying to recruit Din into her clan to influence him; if not, she might slink off and wait to see how he does.

Something that could be cool? Din putting a lot of effort into trying to connect with other Mandalorians and Bo admitting that he’s actually doing a pretty good job, even if she wanted to do it herself!  #growth for both of them.  Meanwhile Boba, who again appears to not give two shits about any of this, will probably be chilling on Tatooine, maybe throwing some info or weapons Din’s way if he thinks Din actually has a shot at something.  Or ignoring all of them and taking over the Hutt empire instead, who knows.

Either way, I hope we get more discussion of what happened to Mandalore, Mandalorian identity, and Mandalorian politics in S3.

[luverofralts]

Post Arkhelios

Once again, Arkhelios fell into relative peace after more mysterious deaths. How long that peace would last and when the next horrific murder would occur, no one knew. People were still on guard for any weird occurrences, which meant that when a plate had collected flies around it, the servo with no flesh was sent to clean it up.

Things at home for Abe were progressing slowly, but still progressing nonetheless. Elaine wasn’t exactly thrilled to be a grandmother this young, but that had been her son’s decision to make.

For the first time in her life, Elaine had sat her children down and spoken about the past, no matter how much it hurt. Abe had been shocked to learn that his mother was in fact the other biological parent of Hunter Bellamy. He had just assumed that she would have told them when the Durants found out, considering that Launce was dating her at time Hunter was conceived. Since she hadn’t, that was all Abe needed to ignore the possibility of being related to Hunter. Who wanted to think about their mom’s love life as a teenager?

Lucy had thought the whole situation had been rather obvious from the instant the Durants knew, but didn’t want to pry. She knew that her mother tended to lock her feelings up inside of her and never acknowledge them. Just as she had done with her feelings about her ex-husband, Elaine had dealt with Launce finding out about their son by working overtime, and inventing reasons to keep busy. Launce had even come over after meeting Hunter to confront her, and Elaine had walked right past him, got in her car and left for the office. She hadn’t spoken to him since, and was now actively avoiding talking to him or his family. The fact that her ex-husband ran off with his wife also did complicate matters.

Instead of repressing her feelings, Elaine was starting to work through them. Abe’s condition had forced her to confront a lot of the pain in her past, and some nights she did go to bed and cry in privacy. It was kind of liberating actually. She no longer had this giant secret to keep, and could move on with her life now. She wasn’t ready to meet Hunter, or talk with Launce about what had happened, but it was comforting to know that her kids knew and still accepted her.

Oriana was also kind. She had seen Abraham’s bad side for herself many times, and could easily guess how he would treat his pregnant teenage daughter. She had deeply loved Benvolio, the brother whose death had been the catalyst for creating Hunter in the first place, and knew all too well how different the settlement had felt after Benvolio’s loss. Just as Elaine and Launce had struggled with their grief back then, Abe and Roman had their own struggles with family expectations, and the trauma of whatever the end of her marriage to Ian had devolved into. History so often repeated itself when you looked at the bigger picture, but Elaine was determined to break the destructive cycles. She would be there for her kids more, and maybe look into a working from home set up. Elaine absolutely hated her son’s choice of partner, but she was at least glad that Roman knew about the pregnancy, and her son wouldn’t have to plan his future alone like she had.

With Arkhelios’ relatively small amount of land, and the fact that Abraham and Salem had been such good friends, the Helios’ house was actually very close to the Bellamys’. Since the double funeral, the Bellamys had closed rank around Roman, making it impossible to speak to him. He had no cell phone, no access to a computer, and Elaine was pretty sure that her number had been blocked when she tried calling their house line.

It went against every instinct Elaine had, but she knew that her son wanted Roman Bellamy, so she would suck up her feelings about the matter and get him Roman Bellamy.

That was easier said than done. Kamalani’s return to Arkhelios had caused the Bellamy house to become a fortress. Elaine could see Roman watching through the windows of his house at times, and standing longingly on the lawn until he was suddenly chased back into the house by a swarm of bees. 

There was some kind of plan in motion against them, Elaine was certain of that. Kamalani frequently walked the edges of her ex-inlaws’ property with intense deliberation, clearly looking for something. While Oriana had pulled Nicholas’ old crib set out and begun setting up the beginnings of a nursery, the Bellamys hadn’t made any plans regarding their first great-grandchild. Elaine had been expecting angry lawyers demanding custody and child support, or at least the refusal to pay child support to Abe. Instead there was just nothing. They went about their normal business aside from keeping Roman under lock and key. They were either willfully denying reality, or plotting something. To figure out which it was, she would need to get close to them. It would be preferable to get Roman alone, but It didn’t look like Kamalani was going to let that happen any time soon. So to get to a Bellamy, she would just have to use a Bellamy.

[gamerwoo]

Mingi: Child’s Play (Part 2)

Characters: Mingi x female reader (featuring stray kids) ((also yes i know the first part was gender neutral but i wrote this not knowing if i’d be writing smut so))

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, angst, fluffy-ish ending, little bit of crack, implied smut

Word count: 2,313

Summary: Your pack and Mingi’s pack both want the two of you to get along despite both of you refusing to. So since you want to act like children, they’re going to treat you as such and put you in time out until you work out your problems.

a/n: everybody wanted a second part and I said I’d only do a second part if Romi asked for one so everybody say thank you @songmingki​ ❤ (even though it took me m o n t h s to actually get it done) ((i also truly had no idea for what to do for a second part that i haven’t done already for other fics so........this is what happened)). 

Tags: @philopatris @sensiblebutch​ 

Part One

San didn’t want to be down $25. That was the only reason he was pushing for Mingi to make up with you -- well, that, and the fact that Mingi would literally die if his mate denied him or he kept himself away from you. But Mingi was stubborn about some childhood rivalry that he would do exactly that, not caring if it killed him.

Yeah, it looked like San would be out some money. But he had until Sunday. Two days to get you and Mingi to hate-fuck each other. Definitely a weird goal to hold your pack brother to, but a goal he was determined to get him to.

But if he knew how you saw things, he would know how impossible that would be.

“We’re not fucking doing this,” you told Chan, pointing your finger at him.

“_____, you don’t have a choice,” Chan told you with a shrug.

“But--”

“Wasn’t this like, years ago?” Minho asked. “What do you hate this guy for, anyway?”

And if you were honest, you didn’t even remember anymore. You and Mingi had hated each other for so long that you’d forgotten what you hated him for in the first place. And the fact you were silent as you racked your brain for the answer had Chan crossing his arms over his chest.

“Exactly,” he huffed. “I’m sorry, _____, but you need to get over this dumb enemy thing. Not even just because we have to help them, but because you’re going to end up killing yourself just because you hate a guy and you don’t even know why you hate him!”

“Yeah, we don’t want to lose you, _____...” Hyunjin’s voice was quiet as he gave you a sad, almost desperate look.

You let out a deep sigh, the crease between your eyebrows not going away, much like the unhappy look on your face as you grumbled, “Yeah, well, you’re gonna have to start picking out headstones.”

-

“What’s the plan?” Chan asked as the two packs sat around the dining table in Hongjoong’s pack’s house.

The other alpha ran a hand through his hair as he began to explain, “The hunters already tried to corner Seonghwa, so we know they’ll probably attack again soon. Our options are to either show we have larger numbers now so they can’t mess with us, or we just have to somehow get rid of them.”

“Get rid of them?” Woojin spoke up, surprise clear in his voice and on his face. “Isn’t that pretty ballsy?”

“What else are we supposed to do?” Yeosang shrugged. “Wait around until they get rid of us?”

“How many of them are there?” Chan continued.

“Twelve,’ Hongjoong replied. “That’s why they targeted us, because we have smaller numbers than them.”

“Now we have seventeen,” you pointed out, looking between the alphas. “Five more than them, but considering we’re werewolves, we count as even more.”

“It’s still unsafe,” Mingi grumbled, refusing to even look at you despite he’d just acknowledged you by replying to your statement.

“Yeah, no shit,” you scoffed. “I’m just saying--”

“Well don’t,” he spat, finally looking across the table at you to send you a glare. “Why don’t you leave it to the alphas.”

Mingi was lucky that Jisung and Minho were quick, because as soon as you lunged across the table, the two were up and already blocking you from your mate so you wouldn’t tear him to shreds. Mingi, on the other hand, stood up so quickly that his chair fell backwards, growling and baring his teeth as his golden eyes began to spot red.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Yeosang sighed under his breath, rolling his eyes.

“Come on, you two are mates!” Seonghwa shouted over the commotion the two of you caused.

Both of you paused and looked away from each other to look at the dark-haired wolf, “We are not!”

And then you both looked back at each other, going back to snarling and growling because you didn’t like that you’d said the same thing at the same time. Was it childish? Yes. But this whole feud stemmed from your childhood, anyway.

“_____,” Chan said sharply at the same time Hongjoong barked, “Mingi!”

“Can you cut the shit?” Chan glared at you as he put a hand on your shoulder and pushed you back into your seat.

“Yeah, I’ll put a shock collar on you if I have to,” Hongjoong warned as Mingi’s defensive stance reluctantly relaxed.

Wooyoung stared at the table as he mumbled, “Kinky.”

“You know what,” Chan began as he looked at Hongjoong, “I think the two of you need to be forced to learn how to get along. And if you want to act like children because of some stupid childhood issues you don’t even remember, then I’m going to treat you like children.”

“But Chan--”

“Go to the living room!” he barked. “Sit on the couch.”

You sent a glare toward Mingi as Jisung and Minho let you go, the two of you trudging to the living room as you both mumbled blame to each other.

Chan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “She’s impossible.”

“Yeah well, Mingi hasn’t been such a peach lately, either,” Hongjoong grumbled. “Thank you, by the way.”

As the two alphas walked into the living room, the two packs followed behind -- with San rubbing his hands together because he’d be getting his $25 in no time. They found the two of you sitting on opposite ends of the couch, softly snarling to the other how it was the other’s fault that you were in trouble.

“Cut it out!” Hongjoong shouted, even making the rest of his pack flinch. “All of us are sick of the two of you acting like babies.”

Yunho shrugged, “I don’t know, it’s kinda fun--”

He stopped himself with one glare from his alpha.

“The two of you realize you’ll die right?” Chan asked, looking between the two of you. “I get you say you’re fine with it, but are you really willing to lose your lives because you’re too petty to admit neither of you remember why you’re mad and just love each other like your instincts tell you to?”

“When I say I’d rather die,” Mingi began in a bored tone, “I mean it.”

“And if he dies,” you piggybacked off his statement, “then you won’t have to worry about me dying, will you?”

“_____!” the way Chan shouted your name definitely reminded you of being scolded by a parent.

“Wow, it is as bad as you said,” Minho whispered to Felix, who had reported to the rest of the pack that your arguing was very dark and very immature.

“Until you two can stop being fucking morbid toward each other,” Hongjoong began, “you’re going to sit here and talk your shit through until it’s fixed!”

“So...we’re in time out?” you asked slowly.

“Act like kids, get treated like kids,” Chan shrugged with a fake sweet smile.

“The adults, will be in the kitchen making a plan,” Hongjoong told you. “So if you misbehave, we’ll know. And if I have to come in here again, you will be sorry.”

“Ooh, I’m so scared of a shock coll--”

“He’s not kidding,” Yeosang told you as the wolves began filing out of the living room now that the show was dying down.

With you and Mingi left alone on the couch now, you fell into an uncomfortable silence. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just normal uncomfortable silence where you didn’t want to be near him and you wanted nothing to do with him so you just sat there and listened to the murmurs coming from the kitchen. No, this was uncomfortable because your brain wanted Mingi to be even farther away from you, but your heart wanted you to scoot your ass closer to him. It was uncomfortable because your hand actually twitched to rest on top of his that was resting on the right edge of the middle cushion. Your instincts fought against you, and that what made it uncomfortable.

And Mingi felt the exact same way, but neither of you would admit it.

“You can’t even remember why you hate me?” Mingi scoffed under his breath. “Then why do you still have a stick up your ass after all these years?”

You whipped your head around to glare at him, “Neither do you!”

“Do so,” he frowned.

“Oh yeah? Then why do you hate me?”

Mingi opened his mouth, but no answers came out. You raised your eyebrows with a smirk, causing his frown to deepen before he lowly growled for you to shut up.

“You can’t tease me when you don’t know either,” you told him.

“I didn’t ask,” he snapped.

“But you did open your mouth for no reason,” you pointed out as your fingers mindlessly played with the strings of the rips in your jeans by your knees.

“Yeah well, you--”

You suddenly gasped, eyes widening, “The slide!”

“...Excuse me?”

Your fingers had grazed over the scar on your knee that was shaped like where you had bled when you badly skinned it in first grade. After Mingi had shoved you down the slide when you had sat down to go. You had always remembered how you’d gotten the scar, you could just never quite remember the person who had run up behind you and pushed you. But with that memory quickly flashing through your memory feeling the scar, and Mingi sitting beside you, you remembered it clearly now. Through teary eyes as a little five-year-old, you had looked up at the top of the slide to see Song Mingi scowling down at you, with Choi San watching from beside him.

You slowly turned to look at him once again, looking offended like he’d just insulted your mother, “You shoved me down the slide, you fuckbag!”

“Fuckbag?” he repeated, completely ignoring your statement.

“You pushed me down the slide in first grade, Mingi!”

You could see the gears turning in his head as the memory began to come back to him. But his look of slow realization suddenly halted and turned to one of confusion, “Wait, what? No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did!” you insisted, vividly remembering what happened. “And then you stole my snack and ate it so Mrs. Kim didn’t believe me!”

“I ate your stupid snack because you told Mrs. Kim I shoved you down the slide. She made me serve lunch detention for a week, and she called my parents.”

“Because you pushed me down the slide.”

“No I didn’t.”

You let out an annoyed huff, your head dropping back against the back of the couch. You were getting nowhere, but you didn’t understand why Mingi wouldn’t just admit he started it. He shoved you for literally no reason! And then he had the audacity to steal your snack and eat it!

“Wait...” he mumbled, staring off into space. You rolled your head to the side to look at him as the gears churned in his head again, trying to remember that day.

“Can you just admit you did it?” you groaned. “You were like, glaring at me at the top of the slide.”

“No, I was squinting down at you because the sun was in my eyes,” he corrected, speaking to you like you were stupid. “San pushed you and then hid behind me. But you told Mrs. Kim it was me, and she called my parents and I got in trouble, plus I had to serve lunch detention for a week. That’s why I don’t like you.”

“San was there, but-- ...Wait,” You lifted your head, realizing what Mingi had realized, “So...it really wasn’t you.”

Mingi pressed his lips into a thin line, shaking his head, “Nope. It was San. I didn’t even think that he unintentionally framed me. Wow...”

“Wow indeed,” you nodded slowly as you tried to process the fact that your childhood rivalry from first grade was with the wrong person. Your head whipped around to the doorway to the kitchen, “San!”

-

The next day was Sunday, and hearing the incessant banging of Mingi’s bed against the wall made everyone else cover their ears and groan. Everyone except San, who was smirking to himself as he held his hand out expectantly to Felix.

“Pay up, bud,” he said, curling his fingers a few times.

“Technically, it’s not hate-fucking, though,” Felix pointed out before cringing when he had the displeasure of hearing you whimper out Mingi’s name.

“Technically it is,” San countered. “Mingi and _____ both hate me now and still haven’t gotten over it--”

“Well it’s only been a day,” Seonghwa pointed out.

“So they technically are hate-fucking, and they always will be as long as both of them hate me,” he concluded with a bright smile. “It makes sense if you don’t think about it.”

Knowing San would manage to twist this no matter what, Felix sighed and fished out the 25 dollars. But San wouldn’t hang onto it very long, because later when you and Mingi would venture downstairs to get water and laugh because neither pack could look you in the eye right now, San would get cocky and show off the money he made off of the two of you going at it in Mingi’s room upstairs. To which Mingi would quickly snatch the money that his brother was waiving in your face.

“Hey!” San whined.

“This makes up for the recesses I missed in first grade,” he nodded, shoving the cash in the pocket of his sweatpants. “And all the moaning is going to be payback for the years ______ and I spent hating each other when she really should’ve been hating you.”

“Never too late to start, though,” you grinned, following Mingi out of the kitchen -- but not before whacking San in the back of the head.

[marshmallow-phd]

Midnight Hours

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Sehun x Reader

Summary: For you, being a good witch was easier said than done. Something dark was lurking inside of you and the others knew it. When you’re forced to tag along with Soomi and help a local wolfpack face a coming evil, you’re sent on a path that breaks into a crossroads. While you struggle with your inner demons, could the wolf Sehun be the key to your ultimate fate?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I 17 I Final

**

“She’s my best friend.”

“Your very nosy best friend.”

Dana threw Kyungsoo a glare, but coming from the soft-spoken mate, it didn’t really pack any heat behind it, especially when compared to Kyungsoo’s icy stare downs.

“When is she coming?” Junmyeon asked, his worried expression etching lines into his otherwise youthful face.

“In a couple days,” Dana replied. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She said she’s bored where she’s at and that she misses me. I miss her too, but….”

You were still confused as to what the big deal was. “Is her coming to see her friend a bad thing?”

“(y/n)…,” Soomi scolded. You shrugged innocently at her.

Dana sighed. “Kyungsoo’s right. Mina’s very nosy, especially if she even thinks she senses something’s off. She doesn’t know about werewolves or witches or anything supernatural. Keeping her unaware is going to be a challenge.”

“She can’t come to the farmhouse,” Junmyeon said as he let out an exasperated sigh.

Kyungsoo nodded. “Of course.”

“Quite the time to make a surprise visit, huh?” Jongdae snapped. He definitely wasn’t the only one thinking it given the nodding consensus around the room.

“The timing is weird,” Kris agreed, “but coincidences happen. Dana will keep her away from the farmhouse and the woods and we’ll go about as usual. It’s not like we haven’t been practicing how to be normal our whole lives.”

You couldn’t help but snort at that. Several wolves gave you confused looks. Maybe it was because you’d spent a majority of your life trying to pretend to be the witch equivalent of “normal” that you found amusement in what the alpha had said. You’d learned a while back that “normal” was just a setting on the washing machine.

“I guess you’ll have to stay at your apartment while she’s here,” Kyungsoo muttered disappointedly. Dana gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder, but it did little good. The wolf turned and went back to the food still cooking on the stove top. Apparently, that was the end of the conversation because everyone went back to their business from before Dana had shown up with her news.

You’d come to the conclusion that not much bothered these boys. Whether it was because of what they’d gone through in the past or because they didn’t deem too much to be a threat to them, they didn’t worry easily. Besides the alphas, that is. You had to admit, it was a bid admirable, but it could also be considered stupid. You didn’t think this Mina was anyone to worry about, however, looks could be deceiving. Very deceiving. And assumptions could be dangerous…

**

For the millionth time since you’d come to the farmhouse, you were sitting on the couch, going over all your notes on your visions that you’d taken down. You were desperate to figure out what it all meant, but looking at the half-sentences and vague descriptions made you feel like you were trying to put together a thousand piece puzzle without any sort of hint to what the final picture may be. It didn’t help that your mind wanted to focus on the vision with the wolf. To you, it was irrelevant. There was no immediate danger attached to the scene – accept maybe the wolf itself. However, you didn’t think it would hurt you, at least not on purpose. By now, you were pretty sure it was Sehun, the other supposedly white wolf, Luhan, easily ruled out. Part of you was even hoping that is was Sehun. But why?

You refused to fall into the same trap Soomi did. And yet, how many times did you find yourself replaying the garage in your mind? You wanted to hit the memory out of your head with your notebook, but it was no use. It was stuck there, refusing to budge. Being tortured like this was not what you had signed up for when you reluctantly agreed to come here. Stupid wolf. Stupider witch.

“Hey, witch girl!”

You peaked over the edge of your notebook to see who’d called out to you. Hae In – one of the more outspoken mates – stood behind the arm of the couch where your feet rested, hands on her hips and a smirk on her lips. Behind her was Harper. The ex-hunter was shifting nervously as her eyes darted around the room. She always seemed to be on edge no matter what the situation.

“We’re going to meet up with Dana and her friend,” Hae In informed you. Her usual boldness and straight-to-the-point attitude was still very much present. It didn’t matter that the two of you hadn’t interacted much, she treated you like everyone else around the house. But you liked that about her. It made you feel less ostracized in a way. “Soomi said we could take you with us. Let’s go.”

Harper threw her cousin a tired look, “Innie….”

Hae In wasn’t fazed at all. “What? If I was her, I’d want out of this house, too. I can still remember poor Jinyoung going crazy.”

Harper rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue further. And neither did you. Closing the notebook, you tossed it down on the coffee table and leapt to your feet. “I’m down.”

“Awesome!” Hae In threw Harper a triumphant look before spinning on the balls of her feet and waltzing out of the room. The latter simply shrugged at you and followed her out.

You were hot on their heels until you came to a screeching halt just before the steps on the porch. Baekhyun, it seemed, would be coming with you. So this was not to be a “girls only” thing. With the energy that was brewing in the air at the moment, you were half tempted to go back inside. Currently, Baekhyun had his fingers wrapped around the handle of the front passenger door. He wasn’t glaring at Harper, but you could tell there was an uneasiness behind his eyes. You weren’t aware of the entire situation that occurred between former enemy and the pack, but you figure that if she was going to betray everyone, it would have happened by now so there was no point in not trusting her.

With a short nod, Harper stepped up to the back car door behind the driver’s side and slid in. It seemed she was letting the wolf take the front seat. Hae In honked her horn, bringing your focus back to the present, and you ran to take the remaining seat in her little Honda. It was about an hour into town, a shorter trip than what you had to take back home. As each road sign passed and the buildings on the horizon grew larger, you became antsier, eager to get out and wander around civilization. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Harper slightly smile at you before turning her head to face out her own window.

Hae In parked near the center of town in the business district. Decorating the middle of the prosperous area was the red brick clock tower, like a beacon luring in shoppers with money to spend within its territory. But as intriguing as the timeless structure was, it was the figure leaning up against the base that caught your eye.

The unmistakable orange hair stood out even as dozens of patrons milling about the square, blocking most of him from view. His arms were crossed lazily over his chest with his eyes focused in on the cracking cement by his feet. Just to his left, Dana and Kyungsoo were having a conversation, the wolf looking a bit annoyed, but even from where you stood by the car you tell it wasn’t directed at Dana. When the group you were with approached the others, you found out the reason for his annoyance.

“Mina’s going to meet us at the restaurant,” Dana explained while you tried extremely hard to focus on her and not let your eyes wander over to Sehun. He hadn’t even acknowledged the group’s arrival. “She’s running a bit behind.”

“She overslept and thinks she needs to spend an hour getting ready,” Kyungsoo elaborated with a blank face.

“Let’s just go,” Sehun said in a bored tone as he pushed off the clock tower. It seemed he’d come out of whatever thoughts were keeping his attention previously. “I’m starving. She can just join us when she does.”

Dana looked like she wanted to argue, but Kyungsoo reached out and took her hand, squeezing her fingers reassuringly. That seemed to be the catalyst to give in. “Okay,” Dana agreed. “I’ll send her the name of the restaurant. She’ll find us.” Under her breath, she added, “Hopefully.”

The group made its way across the square towards a small Mexican restaurant squeezed in between a clothing boutique and an eyebrow salon. Keeping to yourself quietly near the back, you learned as you walked that Luhan wouldn’t be joining the group since he was out on perimeter duty at the moment.

“What’s perimeter duty?” you asked out of curiosity. You had a pretty good guess, but….

Sehun was the one who answered. “Kris and Junmyeon have everyone running the surrounding area in case we come across something that might be considered helpful.”

Both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo threw the youngest an odd look, but nothing more was said as the group entered the restaurant. Right away, the hostess should you to a table off to the side of the large room. You were thankful that you and Sehun sat on the same side with Hae In and Baekhyun in between. That way you were less tempted to look at him. That didn’t stop the occasion glance out of the corner of your eye, but you hope it was subtle enough to go unnoticed by the others.

As soon as the chips and salsa were placed on the table, you took that as the perfect distraction to occupy your attention. Baekhyun was keeping most of the table entertained with the random facial expressions and nonsensical sentences leaving his mouth. The waiter came around and took the drink orders, leaving to give everyone a minute longer to pick what sounded good from the menus that had barely been looked at. Another fifteen minutes went by and you were starting to wonder if Dana’s friend was going to show up at all.

“Hey, sorry I’m late!”

You looked up from the pieces of tortilla chip in your hands and froze.

Dana’s friend Mina was a tall girl with light blonde hair and milky skin to match. Just like the woman in your vision.

Jumping up from her seat, Dana gave her best friend a long hug, completely unaware of your reaction to the new arrivla’s appearance. In fact, no one else seemed bothered or to make the connection they took their seats.

“Hey,” Harper whispered, leaning towards you from her seat in front of you. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded a little too eagerly, leaning back in your seat. The waiter, noticing the newcomer, brought Mina a cup of water and took her order after she barely glanced at the menu.

“You get the same thing every time,” Dana teased.  

Mina shrugged, flipping her blonde curls over her shoulder in the process. Her eyes wandered over everyone at the table before they landed on Sehun who sat across from her. Like lightning, her hand was out, reaching over the chips and salsa. “Hi, I’m Mina.”

Sehun shifted in his seat, uncrossing his arms long enough to shake her hand before assuming the position once again. “Sehun. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You’re one of Kyungsoo’s friends, right?” He nodded. “I’m surprised that Dana is comfortable around so many people,” Mina commented, barely glancing at who she was referring to before going back to the one person she was actually addressing. “Groups like this used to make her uncomfortable.”

“A lot’s changed in the last few years,” Dana defended. Making eye contact with Kyungsoo, she slipped her hand into his. The usually stoic wolf let his lips spread into a wide grin, the kind of look that he reserved only for his mate.

“And I’m so happy for you,” Mina said happily as she pulled her friend into another hug.

The conversation drifted into what Dana had been up to lately. She was careful to avoid anything that might accidentally roam into the area of the wolves that lived in the woods.

“So, Sehun, what do you do most days?” Mina asked out of nowhere. She placed her chin in her folded hands as her elbows rested on the table. A glance was exchanged between Baekhyun and Hae In, but if Mina noticed she wasn’t deterred.

In reply to her obviously flirtatious inquiry, Sehun shrugged. “Depends on the day. Sometimes I’m home, sometimes I’m at Kris’ shop, helping out there.”

A sparkle shine in her eyes. “So, no girlfriend to hang out with?”

You shoved your tongue in your cheek, biting down hard to avoid any sort of sarcastic comment flying out of your mouth. She was being shamefully obvious to the point that by now even the mated couples at the table – who weren’t particularly shy about PDA and innuendoes – were shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Sehun, however, was just as unconcerned as ever. “No. No girlfriend.”

Mina nodded with a Cheshire cat grin. “Interesting. When I asked Dana if she had anyone to introduce me to, she said all of her friends were taken.”

“You’re just visiting,” Dana murmured, a deep frown on her lips. “What’s the point?”

“Well, you know me, I’m always on the move.” She sent her friend a wink and a sly smile.

Your blood was boiling even though you had no reason to be irritated. Part of you kept waiting for Sehun to tell her he wasn’t interested, but he kept his mouth closed, letting the nerve-grating comments keep on coming.

Perhaps what was bothering you was the fact that she looked just the woman in your vision. No, you never saw her face when the premonition hit, but the hair and skin was almost a perfect match. Maybe that was why you were on edge. Yeah, that had to be it… right?

You stared at the glass of water in front of you, fighting with yourself, repeating that what happened in the garage meant nothing – as nothing even happened – and it didn’t give you any right or reason to be jealous. Closing your eyes, you started the deep breath exercises Mother Willow had taught you when you felt your emotions getting out of control.

“You know,” Mina said, “Dana can’t hang out with me all the time. So, would you be interes- ah!”

You jumped at the sound of the glass rattling against the table before it rolled away. Water splashed all over Mina’s pretty sky blue skirt, leaving a spot the size of your palm in the most unflattering of places. Crap. You hadn’t meant to do it. Your guilt must have been written all over your face. When you risked looking up from the fallen cup, your eyes met Sehun’s. He was staring at you with a furrowed brow, head tilted to the side. As quickly as you could, you shrank back in your seat to hide yourself from view. Harper was glancing at you as well, her eyes flickering back and forth from Mina to you. Right in this moment, you were wishing that invisibility was a power you possessed. 

So maybe some damn self-control.

**

After getting home from the restaurant, you immediately rounded the house and bee lined for the woods. You’d let your emotions control your powers. Again. And in front of witnesses, no less. While everyone at the table had assumed it was a strange accident possibly caused by an unstable surface, you could tell that Harper’s mind was going in a different direction – you. Her eyes shifted to you throughout the rest of the meal, noticing that you were barely touching your food and not joining in on any of the conversation.

Despite being doused in water, Mina insisted on continuing her flirtatious pursuit of Sehun. Your nails dug into your upper arms with each new line, surely leaving behind half-moon indentions that were thankfully covered by the long sleeves of your shirt. All you wanted to escape from this internal embarrassment.

The forest created the perfect cover. As soon as you thought you were far enough in to be invisible from the house, you slowed down a leisurely walk. You knew you were going to have to tell Soomi about the incident eventually. From what you’d gathered about Baekhyun’s personality, this was not something that would remain among the group. He’d find it too funny that while Mina was hitting on Sehun her glass suddenly spilt all over her to keep it to himself. While she didn’t exactly know about your conflicting emotions regarding the wolf, she’d still be suspicious enough to confront you about it. You just needed some time alone before you faced that conversation. The last thing you wanted was for her to worry about you losing control.

After half an hour or so of walking, you came across a river that intertwined through the trees. It wasn’t very deep, but the water was clear to allow you to see the small, hand-sized fish that swam through the barely existent current. They were unbothered by your presence as you sat down near the edge. Tiny fins kept them stead as they searched the tiny pebbles for possible food.

With the sun shining down through the tree leaves, you could just barely make out your reflection on the surface of the water. Sometimes you didn’t recognize the person staring back at you. Sure, you knew the features – the nose, the eyes, the hair – but the person behind them had become lost. You toed the line between being the witch you were expected to be and wanting to use the powers that were given to you, see how far you could push them until they reached their limit. It was easily to blame the elders in this. To you, the smart decision would have been to teach you how to control your powers, not force you to suppress them. They wouldn’t magically go away through non-usage. But no one cared about your opinion. To them, you were just a young witch with horrible impulse control and lesser knowledge about these things.

The rustling of leaves pulled you from your thoughts of self-pity. Your eyes grew wide as Sehun sat down beside you on the ground, leaving at least two feet of space between you. Great. Was he cautious of you now? With a roll of your eyes, you turned back to the water. “What are you doing here?”

“Harper said you came out here,” he shrugged. It was lost on you why he would even care whether you were out here or in the house or anywhere in the vicinity. He couldn’t be upset at what had happened at the restaurant. If he was, well then, he could just suck it up.

You threw your hands up. “So, you found me. You can go about your business now.”

“You made the glass spill over, didn’t you?”

Well, wasn’t that just fantastic. He really had made the connection that it was you after all.

Picking up a smooth rock barely the length of your pinky, you flipped it over in your palm a few times as you mulled over his question. For as long as you could remember, keeping your powers a secret beyond the coven had been the number one rule in your life. Scratch that – rule number two. The first one was to not use them in the first place. Soomi had emphasized the importance of that rule before you came here. The pack was already wary of witches and you couldn’t entirely blame them. For the first time in your life, though, you were scared to admit to them, to your powers. In the past, you’d never shied away from admitting to their existence; that yes, the strange incident was all your doing. Hiding who you were had never been something you liked to do. But in this moment, you were afraid. How could you be so worried about what this wolf would think of you? In this moment, you were the most afraid of being considered the freak than you ever had been before.

You pulled in as much air into your lungs as possible before emptying them once again. You flipped the rock over in your palm one more time before tossing it into the river. The ripples blurred your face in the water before slowly disappearing. If only you could fade away like the waves. “Yeah,” you admitted. “That was me.”

Sehun nodded. Apparently, he hadn’t been expecting any other answer. “Can all witches do that?”

“No,” you said bluntly. What was the point of beating around the bush? “Not without a lengthy incantation and even then, some can’t.”

“But you can just… do it?”

“Yup.”

There was nothing but the sound of the river for a moment or two. What you would give right now to be able to read minds. The possibilities could be endless for whatever was going through his mind. Which part was he focusing on? Was it the fact that you could do things like tip over a glass of water? Or was he making an assumption as to why you did it?

“Which did you move?” he suddenly asked, making you jump.

You frowned, staring at him. “What do you mean?”

For the first time since he arrived, he turned to look at you. “The water or glass? Which one were you moving?”

“Oh.” You blinked, trying to figure out the best way to explain this. “It was the water. I’m not telekinetic, although that wouldn’t be a bad gig.”

“Being able to move water doesn’t sound too bad, either,” he said with a small, crooked smile. His reaction to your confession was so understated, as if this was something he’d come across before. It made you comfortable. Perhaps a little too comfortable.

“No, it’s not,” you agreed. “But when you add in the other stuff, it kind of freaks people out.”

Sehun leaned back on the palms of his hands, looking at you with eyes full of curiosity. “The other stuff?”

You picked at your cuticles nervously. It was a bad habit that you thought you’d broken a while back, but the compulsion was rearing its ugly head again. “It’s not just water that I can manipulate. It’s… kind of all the elements. Fire, water, air, earth. All that jazz. It’s kind of a rare thing, for witches. Like, it’s been a few centuries kind of rare.”

“That’s….” He struggled to find a word to put to the news you were telling him. Unable to do so, he went another route. “If you can do this, why has Soomi been teaching you about plant magic?”

This was a question you were subconsciously dreading. “The elders are… concerned about the fact that I can do these things since, according to history, it didn’t end very well last time. A lot of people died because of that witch. They think it’s best if I don’t use them too much. Plant magic sort of defaults to good. There’s never been a witch who trained in it that went dark. A few evil ones have used that kind of magic before, but that was never their specialty. The mothers think it’s safer.”

“But you don’t agree?”

You scoffed. “How could I? You saw what happened at the restaurant. There’s times I can’t control it and things like that occur. They think suppression is the answer, but-” You swallowed back the words that were about to leave your tongue. Never had you been tempted to release those thoughts to anyone – not Mother Willow or Soomi – so why did you almost let them go now? There was something about Sehun that got to you; something that caused holes to appear in your walls. Fearful that you might actually make him run away, you looked down at the eroding rocks that decorated the riverbed.

“But what?” he surged.

“It’s nothing.” The lie felt like acid on your tongue, but it was the kind of lie you were used to telling. Somehow, though, saying it to the orange haired wolf made you feel guiltier than normal. “I’d just prefer to be able to use them, that’s all.”

Everything about Sehun’s demeanor screamed that he didn’t believe you, but he didn’t verbalize his suspicions. He nodded as he sat up, pretending he was taking you at your word. His eyes danced around the surrounding area, careful not to land in your direction. You couldn’t help but think that you made him uncomfortable now, the element controlling witch residing not just in his home, but in his bedroom.

“You must think I’m a freak now, huh?” You hadn’t meant to ask that out loud, but his reaction was… well it was hurting you.

But when Sehun finally looked at you, he seemed confused as to why you could ask such a thing. His brow was scrunched, forming a harsh line above the bridge of his nose. His eyes shined a dark amber for only a second before fading back to their usual brown. Shaking his head, Sehun scoffed. “You’re not a freak. Different, sure, but not a freak.”

“You were acting like I make you uncomfortable,” you pointed out.

The way he sucked in his lips and ran a hand through his hair told you that you were right. “I- I don’t think you’re a freak,” he repeated.

That made you roll your eyes. “You can say that as many times as you’d like, but have you ever heard of the phrase that actions speak louder than words?”

Sehun growled at your argument, but you didn’t flinch at the aggressive sound. Your response was to simply raise an eyebrow and wait. Heavy air escaped through his lips as he looked away. Tension was visible in all his muscles, especially where his neck and hands were exposed. It was like you were watching an internal struggle before your eyes, having seen the signs before within yourself. There was no telling what was going on with him, what he was wrestling with. You weren’t sure if you wanted to know, in case it harmed your ego. Suddenly, he turned to face you, his eyes a brighter amber than before. And they stayed that way. Not once did they flicker or fade back to a normal, human color. The change made you lean back, the tiniest bit of fear lighting up inside you. But that small movement seemed to encourage him.

Your heart was pounded again, exactly like it did back in the garage. Sehun was coming closer. He leaned in as if the space between you didn’t even exist. Why was it that every time he came in close proximity you froze like a deer in the middle of the road? He certainly felt like a speeding car coming at you a hundred miles an hour and whatever damage was done when the two of you finally collided would resonate for the rest of your lives.

In time, however, he swerved away, squeezing his eyes shut as he replaced the space between you. The veins on his hands were visible from how hard he was clenching his fists. “You should go back to the house,” he suggested through gritted teeth. “Soomi’s worried about you.” When you continued to sit there and stare at him, he growled, “Go!”

You huffed. What the hell had you done? He was the one who kept invading your space, saying cryptic things, and flipping back and forth between ignoring you and seeking you out. “Whatever.” You jumped up to your feet and made your way back to the clearing, happy to be putting distance between the two of you.

[brokasteltranslations]

Fate/Requiem: Chapter 4

Several days had passed since I had been relieved of my duties as the Reaper. No more work had come in from my master, Caren Fujimura, since the Kundry case, and I no longer received information on a preferential basis over the municipal network. I had been barred from the critical point where the Akihabara district barrier was located, and my access to Kanda Shrine and Yushima Temple, where multiple ley lines converged, had also been restricted. Stripped of my rank and duties, I was nothing more than another truant – and one dragging a nameless, powerless, useless Servant in tow to boot. A lone wolf not even worth employing as a guard dog.

Fortunately, Akihabara was a prime tourist destination, and as long as I wore my usual swimwear and windbreaker I would more or less blend in with the usual clientele. However, that did nothing to help me feel less out-of-place. Whatever I did, I just felt like running away and hiding in a hole.

I had received no more information on the Command Seal Hunter. It was worrying that the case had not yet been publicly acknowledged. My gut told me that it had not been quietly solved and faded away. It was merely biding its time.

Whispers of the “Woman with the Missing Hand” circulated Shibuya. It had become something of an urban legend among students.

Don't you know better than to cut that out? Keep repeating it and it'll become real, and then who'll have to deal with it? It'll be... actually, I suppose it won't be me. Not any more.

----

As a consequence of my newly-imposed freedom, I had taken to wandering the town aimlessly with Pran on a daily basis. Wherever we went, we found faint traces of Chitose's presence. It crossed my mind more than once to quit Akihabara for one of the other wards.

–

There were many things that seemed to draw Pran's interest, but over time I started to notice a broad pattern. It was live experiences that he seemed to enjoy - street performers, buskers, speed painters and the like were what most often caught his eye.

Thinking back to the episode with Kuchime, I tried taking him along to a shop geared towards those 'otaku'. It was crammed to the rafters with endless figurines of buxom girls, male-oriented toys and all manner of merchandise, to the point where I was almost sick of looking at it. However, none of it particularly seemed to resonate with him.

Maybe it's because they're all manufactured goods. Perhaps it's originality that appeals to him?

He stood by, a little sleepily, gazing into the distance as though squinting into the sun, watching faraway strangers. Only when we passed a shop selling astronomical telescopes did he exhibit a different reaction. He squatted down in front of a poster of the planets – clearly not hand-made – and stayed there for well over a minute.

“Do you know Jupiter?”

“This eye... it follows me.”

“Eye? Oh, you mean the Great Red Spot?”

“This planet's so big. It's so big...”

He shivered, then pulled the goggles resting over his head down over his eyes, and peered at the poster once more.

“A planet, huh? I'm surprised you know that word.” Had he picked it up from when I read The Little Prince to him? He had initially talked about coming from somewhere far away – perhaps he wasn't just making it up? Or maybe... no, was that even possible?

I chose my words carefully. “That's a very old photograph. From before the war. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter isn't there any more. It got smaller and smaller, and then it disappeared.”

He smiled gently at the poster.

“Maybe it went to sleep. I hope someone comes to wake it up.”

–

Before I knew it, the day of the Grail Tournament had arrived. I hadn't exactly been waiting with bated breath, but still I found myself in front of the Colosseum.

The colossal stadium was located on the outskirts of Akihabara, bordering the ocean. Its enormous silhouette threatened to overwhelm the surrounding cityscape. Towering arches, each easily the size of a skyscraper, rose high in three, four levels to form the thick exterior of the cylindrical structure and enclose the arena within.

This was a place of pure competition. The poets once spoke of the ancient Roman emperors giving their people bread and circuses; here was the circus reborn for the modern age, the manifestation of the people's right to entertainment.

–

I had ended up accompanied to the Colosseum by Pran and Karin. Koharu had, to my great chagrin, seen fit to furnish me with not one, not two, but a whole four reserved tickets – two Master-Servant pairs. Technically Servants had no need for tickets – after all, they could just assume their spiritual forms – but no-one willing to come to see the Grail Tournament in person could reasonably be refused a seat, and they were provided in pairs as a matter of course. That being said...

“How long's it been?”

It had been twenty minutes since the stadium had opened, and we were still waiting.

Enormous lines snaked from each and every one of the Colosseum's myriad entrances. At this rate, the tournament would probably have started before we got to our seats. Personally I hardly minded, but it must have bothered Karin, because she suddenly yelled out at the top of her voice.

“All right, fine! Flake out on me, see if I care! We're going in, you hear?”

“You really want to go in? You sure you don't want to wait a bit longer?” I did my best to keep my voice neutral.

“Damn right I'm sure! Never should've invited you anyway, you lousy no-show son of a...”

None of her messages had prompted a response, it seemed.

–

The individual keeping us waiting was the weary-looking guitar player, Kuchime.

Unsure what exactly to do with my four tickets, I had decided to start by offering them to people I knew. Karin herself had snatched the chance with typical zeal, but her partner Kouyou had been reluctant to join us, leaving me with one left over. However, a few days later the two of us had happened to stumble across Kuchime in a side-street in Akihabara, strumming away with his usual gloomy air and being flatly ignored by every passer-by. Karin had called out, probably taking pity on him.

“Hey, Kuchime, was it? Ever thought of checking out the Grail Tournament? Maybe the halftime show'll give you some tips on how not to make your customers run a mile.”

“Ain't got no need for that, little missy. I'm happy as long as I'm getting' through to people with ears to hear.”

“Think you're some kinda auteur, huh? Keep dreaming, idiot. Why don't you just go the whole way and die young while you're at it!”

I had watched blankly as she exploded at him unprovoked. Her tirade had ended with her snatching the ticket from my hands and thrusting it squarely into his unshaven face. Had she done it in a spontaneous surge of pity for this dishevelled musician, or had she been planning it all along? I may have been the Reaper, but even I wasn't so insensitive as to probe any further.

However, in the end, the chance she had taken came to nothing. She stalked towards the arena, fuming. I followed her, leading Pran by the hand.

–

Eventually, we arrived at our designated seats. The interior of the Colosseum was spacious, tall, and delightfully modern.

I now understood why the queues today had been particularly bad: the staff were conducting unusually extensive baggage checks and body searches on all attendees. I had even seen staff members flagging down particular individuals for Command Seal checks, and it was hard not to notice the guns at the hips of a number of security personnel dotted around the stadium.

I'm glad they didn't try to check my Command Seals. Maybe the reservations got us through...

In any case, it was gratifying to see that my warning to Hannibal hadn't gone unheeded. Although there was always the possibility that the organisers had gotten wind of the serial killings themselves, and acted of their own accord.

“Yo! Sorry we took so long.” Karin reappeared with Pran in tow. Both of their arms were piles high with soft drinks, packets of peanuts and other junk food. She tossed me a freshly-grilled hot dog.

“So this is the bread part, huh? Shouldn't be long until the circu- Yeowch! Aah! My tongue!”

“Circus? You mean the halftime show, right? Oh yeah, there was a stall selling some kinda porridge too if you want some. I tapped out though, seemed pretty weird.”

“Porridge, huh? How odd... Hey, who gave you those?!”

I suddenly registered Pran was decked from head to toe in tournament merchandise, complete with a little paper cap and a megaphone. He was ready for the show.

I couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing, and soon both me and Karin were clutching our sides. She was so engrossed in the tournament now that it was hard to imagine she had been furious not twenty minutes ago. I could probably learn a lot from how quickly she rebounded.

Next to our seats on the very front row was a space to be kept open in case of emergencies. Fortunately, it was just large enough for Kouyou to squeeze in. Accommodating larger Servants was probably half of the reason it was there.

–

After a minute or so, the music playing throughout the stadium increased in volume and a rousing melody began to play. It seemed we'd timed our arrival perfectly.

The music faded away, and for a moment, the entire arena fell silent. Then, as if on cue, a voice rang out across the stadium. Below us, eldritch lights began to dance across the very front row where the patricii would have sat in the original Colosseum. A diminutive figure strode down to the aisle, and unfurled a pair of feathered wings. At the same time, the main screen cut to a close-up of a girl - a woman? - dressed in a plain white Grecian tunic.

“Good evening, my lovely little piglets!” Her greeting echoed around the Colosseum at amplified volume. “Welcome, one and all, to the ocean stage of the Grail Tournament! That's right! We're all setting sail for Okeanos, and I, the great witch Circe, will be your guide!”

She stoked the crowd's excitement, and they answered with a deafening roar… although I did pick up some rather crude jeers mixed in with the cheering.

“Thank you, thank you, my little piglets! I love you too! Now, before we meet all our brave warriors, I'd like to introduce our commentary team!”

Two burly men strode down the aisle to join her, waving to the audience.

“First, for the Ottoman Corsairs, we have a scallywag among scallywags! The Gentleman of the Caribbean! The one and only Blackbeard, Edward Teach!”

“That's me!” Blackbeard was greeted by deafening boos. He did not seem to care a jot.

“Sounds like you know him well! Let's move swiftly on!”

“Wait, that's all I get?!”

“Next, for the Carthaginian Alliance, we have the king of admirals! The man who saved the Roman Empire from the Ptolemaic Dynasty! Friend and advisor to Emperor Augustus, I give you Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa!”

Agrippa! The commander who led the Romans to victory at the Battle of Actium!

I expected him to bask in the applause of the crowd, but instead he rounded on the emcee.

“What is this? I never agreed to this! First you invite me to attend nigh on midnight last night, and now you expect me to commentate?! Explain yourself!”

“About that... Honestly, we wanted Eukleides of Alexandria, but he cancelled at the last moment. What are Foreigners like, right?”

“Some nerve on you, girl! You expect a general of Rome to commentate on the Carthaginians? And you! Yes, you, the Servant with the easel! You think capturing my face is funny, do you?!”

The sight of the irate Agrippa slowly being talked down by the witch emcee, and eventually taking a reluctant seat at the commentator's desk, drew no small amount of laughter from the audience.

“All right, everyone, make sure you have your channels all set to your favourite team! If you're feeling peckish, why not try some delicious kykeon?”

–

“Well, that sure was something.”

Karin was grinning next to me. I, for my part, was aghast. This was grotesque, a vulgar display that made a mockery of Servants' pride and nobility. It was difficult to tell how much was real and how much was acted, but the tastelessness of the ambiguity only made me feel more disgusted. The tournament itself hadn't even begun yet, and I had a feeling it was only going to get worse.

I guess the least I can do is watch it through. I probably won't be getting another chance.

My reasons for being here were twofold. Firstly, I wanted to see what I could learn about Koharu's mysterious Possession ability. I had also been deeply impressed by the way that, despite being aware of her naivety, she disapproved wholeheartedly of any wrongdoing, and the evident admiration with which she viewed her companions.

My second reason was that I wanted to see for myself the incredible power that Servants were permitted to wield here. I felt both awe and terror for Noble Phantasms. It was baffling to me that abilities so destructive might be allowed to be used freely.

The citizens of Mosaic City were different to Masters in the true sense. They were no magi, with magic circuits passed down from previous generations or developed through special training, and it went without saying that none of them possessed a Magic Crest. The mana that powered their magecraft originated from the Holy Grail, and was distributed throughout the city via ley-lines. This mana was more than enough to sustain a Servant in everyday life with no discomfort. However Noble Phantasms, which employed magecraft on a much larger scale and consumed vast amounts of mana, were another matter entirely. Activating them was highly challenging, and they could kill a Master unless attempted with extreme care.

Broadly speaking, the most common foes I encountered in my work were Masters who fought with little regard for their own lives, because they had found something they valued more.

Had the combatants in this Colosseum all reined their latent magical abilities to extraordinary levels? Or had the footage I had seen simply been enhanced in some way after the fact? I had come to determine the truth.

“Oh, there you are, Kouyou.”

In the formerly empty space in the midst of the cheering crowd, the enormous bulk of the Ogress had appeared. She sat with her belly pressed to the ground, trying to make herself as small as possible. Occasionally her eyes glanced sideways to meet with Pran's.

–

Feeling a little relieved, I turned back to the arena. The battlefield was enormous: a huge rectangular arena, two hundred metres on the larger side. Above each of the spectator seats floated semi-transparent screens that provided a closer view of the action.

Finally, the battlefield began to change. Cracks ran across the centre, and the stage began to fold in on itself with mechanical precision, forming a deep, wide basin. Water swirled in to fill it, and rocks rose from beneath its surface to form a maze of crags in the open water. Two galleys burst from the canals at either side of the stage, defying the current. They hung in the air for a second, like salmon poised mid-leap above a waterfall, and then crashed down into the water below with a mighty splash. A host of smaller boats and schooners followed them out, and quickly organised themselves into two fleets.

There was no magic in this, only the most cutting-edge stage equipment... although perhaps it was best not to think about the enormous, ominous shadow circling beneath the water's surface.

–

“Now, my little piglets, I think we've kept you waiting long enough! Let's get this naumachia started! We know you're tired of the same-old same-old, so this year we thought we'd change things up a little with a large-scale team-on-team battle! Which of our brave teams in Akihabara today will be crowned the conquerors of the high seas?

“First, we have the Ottoman Corsairs! For these terrors of the Mediterranean Sea, this man once more takes up the rank of Pasha! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the great pirate of Barbary, the Redbeard, Heyreddin Barbarossa!

“And that's not all! Next we have his second-in-command! There's not a man west of Austria who doesn't know his name: the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay!”

The witch introduced each of the competitors one by one, stoking the crowd's excitement. Illustrious admirals and infamous pirates lined up upon the deck.

“And now, last but not least, someone you know very well! The mightiest commander of the navies of the far east - can you say “Hassou-tobi”? Our favourite natural-born Heike-killer, Minamoto Kurou Yoshitsune!

“Could this samurai be the most dangerous competitor on the field today? I'm sure the other side won't be showing much quarter, so look forward to some spectacular acrobatics!”

–

The pretty young warrior looked a little uncomfortable in responding to chants of “Ushiwaka!”, but eventually gave in and began to wave to the crowd. The sight broke me from my trance, and a young girl standing nearby caught my attention; she hadn't been introduced.

Could that be Yoshitsune's Master?

She was dressed in elegant traditional Japanese robes and heavy facial makeup, matching Yoshitsune, but she herself appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary citizen. Behind or beside the other Servants stood similar unassuming figures. More than a couple of them were wearing masks that obscured their faces.

Eventually, the oriental arrangement of Mozart's Turkish March playing throughout the Colosseum drew to a close, and was replaced with an unsettling, savage, African-style drumbeat. The Grail Tournament was as tasteless as ever.

–

“Now swivel your heads the other way, my adorable piglets! Little corkscrew tails to the east,  and snouts to the west! Please give it up for the mighty heroes of the Carthaginian Alliance!

“Cast your eyes upon Rome's worst nightmare! At his back, the souls of three war elephants with whom he crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps! Ladies and gentlemen, the Lightning Commander, Hannibal Barca!”

The sight of Hannibal, cross-armed on the deck in traditional battle garments, was so wildly different from the garrulous old tourist I had met in Cafe Borges that I could hardly believe it was the same man. The mighty cheer from the crowd put not so much as a crack in his stern expression, and he harboured a menacing aura.

“And not to be outdone, his second-in-command: The Firebrand of Castile, El Cid!”

The witch continued with her introductions, each one punctuated with thunderous applause. I tuned them out. My attention was absorbed by a small figure on the deck, with a white coat draped across her shoulders. I followed her with my augmented vision as she stared keenly into the enemy ranks.

He stood a short distance behind her, head askew, hands on his hips. He seemed devoid of tension, as though this were nothing more than a routine warmup.

“And taking up the rearguard is someone I'm sure you all remember! None other than the warrior who took the Newbie Tournament by storm! Our proud Knight of the Round Table, Sir Galahad!”

–

With the introductions concluded, the galleys began to slip forwards, and each team assembled into their respective formations. Karin rapped on my knee with her megaphone, unable to conceal her excitement.

“I told you it was gonna be awesome! Dunno much about the pirates, but even I know Yoshitsune!”

“You expecting me to be impressed or something? You could hardly call yourself Japanese if you didn’t.”

I could not imagine it would be easy for this collection of pirates, outlaws to the bone that they were, to assimilate cleanly into everyday life in Mosaic City - although, of course, there were exceptions. Perhaps it was for the best that there was a place for them here, where they could put their talents to use while also entertaining the populace. However...

“I know it's just a mock battle, but don't you think this seems really one-sided? The Ottomans are obviously better at sea. Hannibal's famous for his war elephants, but he can't even use them on the water.”

“Haven't been reading up, eh Eri? Here's a flyer for you. See? Says right here the field will change halfway through, and turn into a land battle. There's your Carthaginian advantage.”

“Ah. I get it.” This was never supposed to be a fair battle, but a dramatic turnaround against overwhelming odds. The perfect script to drive the audience wild. I myself had to confess, I was looking forward to seeing Yoshitsune and Galahad face off – so much so that a part of me wished this were a real Holy Grail War.

“Yeah. Now I see.” I gazed around at the nearby spectators with dawning realisation. I felt as though I'd grown a little closer to understanding how these competitors could wield such extraordinary power, and the system that supported them in doing so.

----

“Eh?”

The back of my neck prickled. Someone, somewhere, was watching me.

I slid my gaze slowly around myself, careful not to let my reaction be noticed, but my stalker was impossible to discern through the interference of the crowd around me.

I'm being watched. No doubt about it. There's something else, too. A familiar, maybe?

The Borgia siblings' warning came to mind. Someone I'd previously crossed, out for revenge. As I looked around warily, hoping to forestall some impending attack, I noticed something strange: dotted throughout the crowd were spectators standing motionless, seemingly blind to the excitement around them.

Victims of the Command Seal Hunter? No, that doesn't seem right...

I focused, filtering out the auditory noise, following the sense of wrongness back to its source... and happened to catch a snippet of conversation from the row in front.

“You serious? A fire in Shinjuku?”

“Where? Tsunohazu? Kashiwagi?”

“Seems like it's around Hanazono way.”

Hanazono?

My old house was in Hanazono. Which was to say, Chitose's house was in Hanazono. I leaned forward a little, and stared at the woman in front's phone from over her shoulder.

“Eri, the hell are you doing?”

On the screen was a video someone had uploaded to the municipal network.

“What on earth...?”

A video of a building on fire. In real time.

A row of old wooden houses in Shinjuku wreathed in smoke. A human figure appeared from the billowing grey curtain, aflame from head to toe. However, they did not run or drop to the ground, but continued calmly into the next building, and even as their blood boiled and their skin charred with the flames' caress, began to feed the flames.

The video cut short - interrupted by a new upload of a public train brought to a standstill, flames licking at its roof.

-

As I watched, a buzz of concern began to spread throughout the crowd. It was hardly surprising; there were probably no small number of spectators here from Shinjuku. I turned around to see that Karin, too, was transfixed by her phone.

“What's wrong?”

“They say there's been some kinda 'pedestrian accident' in front of Shibuya station. A tram derailed and went across the cross... Oh. Ew. I'm not looking at that. Trains are stopped too. The hell's going on?”

Simultaneous incidents, all across Mosaic City.

“Ugh...”

I gripped my arm as a dull pain blossomed inside it. The stench of death was agitating the spirits. Black blood oozed out from beneath my hand, as their ire turned on my own body.

Just when I thought I'd gotten them under control...

-

This arena was no longer a place I should be. I was the greatest threat here, to the tens of thousands of spectators present and the partners by their sides. Right now, these simultaneous incidents concerned me.

Security here was tight, and more to the point, greater warriors than I could ever hope to be now thronged the main stage. This was perhaps the safest place in all of Mosaic City. My place was not here – as much as I had wanted to see Koharu fight, I no longer had time to worry about that.

“Eri, wait.”

Karin must have guessed my intentions as soon as I stood up.

“You're going? Just like that? Without me, again?”

“Sorry. I know I invited you out here and everything, but... there's something I need you to do.”

“What is it?”

I stared back at Karin for a moment, then looked down to the boy by her side.

“Kouyou, do you think you could take care of Pran?”

The ogress looked to Karin questioningly, then gave a slow nod.

“Consider it done. Just leave it to us, Eri.” Karin flashed her newly-recovered Command Seals, alongside an irrepressible grin. Just as I made to leave, Karin's phone buzzed with a notification, and she pulled it out.

“Who's texting people at this kinda time?”

She checked the screen and sighed.

“It's that Kuchime asshole. He says “Sorry.””

“That's all?”

“That's all.” She smiled, resignedly and a little sadly.

----

I left the seats behind and made my way to the outer hall. While still indoors, this was an airy, open space, with high arches modelled meticulously after Roman architecture. It extended far away in both directions, curving gently to match the shape of the arena. Shops lined the outer wall, still milling with a fair number of late customers. Here and there people clustered around screens outside the storefronts, drinking as they watched the matches unfold.

What's even the point of coming here?, I thought. You could be doing that at home!

–

As I hurried towards the exit, I organised the idea I'd hit upon earlier in my head: to whit, that the competitors in the Holy Grail Tournament were taking their mana from the crowd itself. Tens of thousands of pseudo-magi, all pouring mana into the Servants doing battle below. That was my hypothesis.

This Colosseum was not a post-war addition to Akihabara. It had been a part of this town since long before the world was restructured, and it was far too large an anomaly to be permitted to exist without a reason. And in ancient Rome, the battles that took place in the colosseums had been sacred acts; offerings made to the gods.

Heroic Spirits take on all of our thoughts, hopes and dreams. They draw power from them.

The greater the mark a Servant had left upon history, and the more fame they had earned, the more power they drew. Such was their nature – and as an unintended and tragic consequence, Servants were occasionally summoned with the strange and cruel skill, “Innocent Monster”.

How much of this do the Riedenflaus family realise, I wonder?

I couldn't help but wonder just to what extent thaumaturgical systems might be entwined with the structure of the Colosseum itself.

-

An unexpected voice called me to a halt.

“Erice, we need to talk. It's important.”

It was the first time I had seen Ms. Fujimura in several days. I wheeled around to find her standing in the dimly-lit outer hall, dressed like a librarian as always.

Why is she here? What could she possibly want to talk about?

I strode towards her, with the intention of grilling her on the events in Shibuya and Shinjuku.

-

As I opened my mouth, I heard an odd sound from the broadcast. As the camera focused on the Carthaginian flagship, the witch performing the commentary had yelped in shock. I spun around to look. Ms. Fujimura, too, focused on the screen.

What I saw defied comprehension.

Regardless of the fact that the enemy was still distant, Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander, whipped his blade from the sheath at his belt, and without a moment's hesitation thrust it deep into the chest of his second-in-command, El Cid.

“Gah!”

El Cid's face froze in an expression of disbelief. His Master rounded on Hannibal in his confusion. The Carthaginian pulled his bloodstained sword from his ally's chest, and without a care for the man's protests, swung his sword crosswise in a vicious slash.

Both El Cid and his master collapsed. Two heads flew from the boat, to splash down unceremoniously into the artificial sea.

[thedaisycrownwitch]

Genre: Angst

Characters: Sam Winchester, Cathy Scott (OC)

Pairings: Sabriel, Cathy x Gabriel (former relationship)

Warnings: Aftermath of major character death

Words: 2.608

Short summery: Sam calls apon an old ally, to reveal some devistating news.

Inspiried by

"Lost Without You" by Freya Ridings

"Goner" by Twenty One Pilots

DISCLAIMER

I don't want to offend anyone or their ship with this fanfiction.

----------------

Slowly she set down on the chair, staring onto her hands. The skin around the nails was scarred, from biting them. It was red, where she licked away the blood, from biting them. She tried not to bite them, but she did. She noticed a bit of skin sticking out, loose. She should bite it. It would hurt, it would scar her more…she should bite it. Her eyes locked at her fingers; she couldn’t make herself raise her head to look at the man opposite her. It was a weird thing. Knowing you should look up, knowing you look away from staring at a spot, a spot with no importance. But you just sit there, staring at it, fascinated by it for some strange reason, so fascinated, letting it out of your eyes for just a moment was unthinkable.

It took her a lot of effort for her to tear herself away from the spot on her fingers. Slowly she looked up, not sure where to put her eyes, the blue of her iris cloudy. Like the sea during a storm. Turbulent waters, waves clashing with one another. She liked the sea; the sea was nice. In the morning, when nobody was there. It was calm, and smelled good. It smelled nice here too. It was probably Sam who smelled this nice. This hair looked freshly washed, shining just the smallest bit, a pearly shimmer. She always wanted to ask him what he used. But why bother. Her hair wasn’t washed, not since a few days. It looked awful when she looked into the mirror. She wondered what Sam though. Did he regret inviting her here? After all, it was so random. Him asking her to come here. It wasn’t like he didn’t like her; she never got this idea from when they had met. But they never met on purpose. He never called her to hang out of whatever, in fact, they barely knew each other. Last time she saw him…wow, that was a long while ago now. It was back when the British Man of Letters were still there…that was a year ago? Longer? She had lost count of time. On purpose. Why would she keep track? Days and months were just a concept after all. And if she would, it would just make her feel worse about herself, then she already did. Thinking about all the times she wanted to go to the graveyard and didn’t go. It was her who cared, no one else seemed to do. His family never called; she never saw any other flowers on the grave. Maybe he didn’t have family, yes, maybe he didn’t. She preferred to think that, because the other version of their story would clench her heart even more then it already did. That they didn’t care. That his parents, and maybe siblings, would just accept that he was gone, and went on with their lives, like he never was a part of them.

Sam took a deep breath; she saw his chest heave in an effort to let in air. “How are you?” It was a normal question, but it felt weirdly out of place. He could have asked her that on the phone. “I’m good.” She responded automatically, knowing, that, just by simply looking at her, he could tell that she was lying. Not that she was a good liar by any means, but she could lie, when people asked about how she was. It was a rather simple lie to tell people, in hopes they’d bugger off. Lying about this was nothing new to Cathy, she had been lying about this her whole life.

But even if Sam saw that she was not telling the truth, he didn’t seem to care for her answer, as she just nodded, looking down onto his hands, like he didn’t know how to continue this conversation. But if he didn’t wanna talk, why invite her? Was it for a mission? To convince her to joined forces again? Cause he thought she could help them, which was, with all good will in mind, laughable. There were hundreds of hunters, who could help him, most of them even better then she could. “If this is about a thing, I told you, I am done.” Her voice broke the silence, the words just lingering in the air, as she moved a strand of red hair out her face, that didn’t need moving. She sometimes forgot that her hair was short now…like she forgot many things.

As an answer, Sam shook his head, forcing himself to a light smile, which was a weird mixture of genuine, sad and fake, most likely in an effort to acknowledge her words, and not undermine them. “Yes, I know. I know you’re done.” For a moment his glance met hers, and there was a weird kind of appreciation in his eyes. Like she did something he could never do. Then he looked away. “This is…this is about…” He stopped, his fingers clenching against one another, like he was looking for a word, that could only pass his throat through great effort. “This is about Gabriel.” As soon as the name fell, everything around them came to a cold standstill. The man didn’t continue, as if he was waiting for a response from her, in order to have a standpoint on where to take this conversation from this point on. The woman pressed her lips together, taking a breath, which was a gasp, she tried to make look as effortless as a normal air flow, the tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth, killing any kind of noise that might have escaped. Her nose grew tense, her jaw lightly clenched, it hurt, where it was attached to her skull. The pain was a soft string, traveling inwards to her throat, where it nested and grew more prominent. What a never this man had, to bring this up. Both knew this was a tense subject, even with her constant assertion, that talking about this was not a problem. Both knew fell to avoid this subject, for obvious reasons.

“What about him?” Her voice had a neutral sound to it, in an effort to not letting it sound bitter, and a positive attitude was not something she could master right now. Her lack of emotion seemed to catch the Winchester off guard, since the look her gave her, was somewhat surprised. But he went back to his serious face really quick, noticing his misplacement of confusion. He knew more about this whole situation then she did, and that made him obviously uncomfortable to experience such feelings. “He is dead.”

The words hang in the air, as she started to nod, looking at him as she would understand what he said, and she did understand, yet, she didn’t seem to process the full meaning of the sentence. Very slowly, her brain started to draw the connections between the words, giving them meaning, while a gut-wrenching feeling arose inside of her, a mild pain coming from her stomach, her pulse increasing in speed. It was a slow process of coming to terms with something, that she thought she knew how it felt like. And a small part of her wanted to make a sarcastic comment about whether or not Sam actually believed that this was true. Gabriel had died before, and turned out to be still alive after all. She didn’t see him. Why would she; it would have been a stretch of boundaries she knew she couldn’t allow herself to do. She got a text from Cas, a call even, where he had offered her to come. But she refused. Not ready to accept that all the mourning, her sacrifices, were for nothing, despite the dreadful situation he had found himself in. And then there was this small fact, just this tiny detail, Cas might have forgot as he asked for her: They had broken up. For good. She let him go, hoping he would be happy with someone else, knowing she wasn’t fit for him. Not like other people.

Another pause occurred, none of the two parties said anything. They didn’t even look at one another. She looked away from Sam, feeling exposed to him, like an animal to their hunter. He eyes felt swollen, warm, even hot at times, as they filled with tears. Tears she desperately tried to push back down where they belonged. She didn’t want Sam to see her cry, in fact, she didn’t want anyone to see her cry. She didn’t want to feel exposed in her feelings. Feelings she desperately wished, she didn’t have, because they were pity. She wished that she didn’t care about this, she wished that she didn’t care about anything. But she did care. And that was the problem.

Sam continued to speak, desperately trying to tell her what happened, justifying what happened. Trying to find meaning in what happened. Cause he too, felt exposed, but in a different way. He had mourned, he still was. And he had cried, and sometimes still did. He felt exposed, because he felt privileged to be able to do those things with someone on his side. Someone he loved no less. Dean was here for him, Castiel was here for him, and Jack even tried his best to make him feel loved and appreciated, even in his grief. He knew that she didn’t have this privilege. She was alone. She didn’t have a family like he did, and, probably worst of all, she didn’t get love, like he did. He knew, that she had been together with Gabriel for quiet a while, but she had been young. Probably too young to understand, how relationships work. Moving on from Gabriel, at the time, hadn’t been a big deal for her. And he wasn’t judging her for that, he both had been young and inexperienced, just like her, her understood. Or at least, he thought he did. Watching her coming together with Garth, watching them go apart in good faith. He did root for her. Gadreel, the awkward crush they had on each other. He rooted for her. Mick, and their sweet, yet way too short, relationship. He rooted for them both, despite him knowing that Mick was not a friend to him. It took him a long time to realize, that she was never truly happy. That she put her best efforts and heart into other people, and in the end come out as the looser. So did he. But whenever he failed, he had his brother and Cas, and, from one day on, he had Gabriel. The angel, he knew now, she had loved more then anyone else in her life, and who she probably regretted giving away. Cause she made this choice of letting him go on her own, while everyone else from her, was taken. Garth, became a werewolf. Gadreel, killed himself in order to save Castiel. And Mick? He was executed, when he spoke up against his people. Because he fell in love with this life. With her. Sam didn’t want to deny that she didn’t love any of these man, quiet the opposite, but he understood the regret she had. Cause by now, he understood, that she had let Gabriel go, cause she wanted them to be together. She broke Gabriels heart in a way, she never would, she wasn’t that kind of person.

His stumbling words came to a halt, when he saw, how she straightened in her seat, her lip trembling in suppressed emotion. She wanted to be strong, take this like just another thing she endured. She wasn’t a stranger to loose people she held dear. But this somehow…this was different. For a moment her eyes fixed on his, as she slowly pushed herself up, her head turning towards the table again. Sam swallowed hard. “Cathy…” He tried to say something, but stopped, as he noticed how her shoulders tensed as he said her name. “…I’m sorry.” There was no response, no answer, just the sound of a light splash, as tears from her nose dripped down onto the glass table. Her chest contracted, trying to press out sounds she didn’t let through.

“I don’t need your sorry.” Her words cut through the room like a razorblade, small, but sharp. There was no screaming, no anger against him, not what he thought would happen. There was just…disappointment. “You were to protect him. I let him go, cause he wasn’t safe with me. I trusted you to keep him safe.” Finally Sam had an answer for something he had always wondered about. Finally it was out what the true reason was. And suddenly, he understood it all. Every weird bit of her not wanting to see Gabriel, whenever he was near, even after years and months. She had made this choice, because it was logical, because saving him was more important then he wanting to be with him. And in order to save him, she had to give him up. She did love him after all.

“I put all my effort into you, I would have bet on you everything I have. I knew you’d love him enough to do anything for him. And I thought you knew that…but everything I put into you, every bit of trust…it didn’t matter…you failed me. You failed us.” The words took a great force to be pushed from her body as calm and sorted out as they were. “You failed him.” On any other day, she wouldn’t have said anything. She would have just nodded, thanked Sam for his sentiment, grabbed her things and left, crying by herself. She was used to this. But this, this right now, this was different. This was about the only person she had left, after everyone else left her behind. The person that opened her eyes to how much you could truly love someone. And she had loved him. All through the end. She just didn’t want to admit it. Till right now. Cause now, there was no hope, not anymore. There was only regret. Regret for every moment she had been yelling at him, for every fight they had, for every moment she was somewhere else, and she could have spend with him instead. The regret of giving him the freedom, in order to save him, and just losing him even more in the process. “He was everything I had left, he was the only one that was happy. The one who deserved it more then anyone else…and you got him killed.”

On any other day, Sam would have been deeply offended by her words, hurt even. But this, this right now, this was different. There was only one person, Sam knew in all his life, that had loved Gabriel as much as he did. And it was her. And everything she said, suddenly felt justified to him. Cause it was just his own thoughts right back at him. And that told him, that her feelings were just the same. But there was nothing he could say to soften her feelings. Not now at least. So he didn’t say anything, as she grabbed her stuff, storming out the bunker, up the stairs and out the door. Nothing would help, only worsen it all. There was this faint hope, that she would drive home, and then cry with someone by her side, who would give her tissues and cookies and milk. But deep inside himself, Sam knew that there would be no one. Cause no one cared anymore, not like he wished people would. And that’s probably, what hurt him the most.

[ellsey]

Agents of Shield Rewatch 6x12 The Sign

Yay! Flint!

But like this is a fear Flint right? Not a real Flint?

But also Izel can possess him? I’m super confused by this

May is talking to Sarge like he’s Coulson and ehhhh

Look at Deke stepping up to help yay!

Ugghhhh Sarge is not Coulson!!!

:( Be nice to Flint!

Oh look, more batsies

Fun

Omg their realization that they shouldn’t be on the radio hahahaha

Deke wants to impress his grandparents so badly

Oh noooooo Yoyo is maaaaaaaaad

Startup Deke is simultaneously the best and worst Deke

“I use math. Did I steal math??” HAHAHA

Fitz is right to be upset about the Framework code though

Jemma is using both a supportive and strong hand on Fitz’s shoulder

I know because I’ve been her hahahaha

“Whatever Nana and Bobo want, obviously, run it by me first, and then help them” I’M CRYING

I do like the shrike killing bullets

They’re going to burn through those bullets really quickly if they keep shooting these people like 5 times each

“We’ve got bugger lots”

“You said our grandson was a delight” This is so Jemma though

“He’s a work in progress” this is peak Jemma

So just a couple things I want to address here. First, yeah, Deke stole their stuff. And then adapted their ideas. But like...Deke never went to college or the Academy or anything and yet still has done some amazing stuff? He clearly took the year he has had and learned quite a but too. I think we all need to step back and acknowledge just how amazing what he has done has been. He shouldn’t be expected to understand all this stuff because he has no reason to be able to understand any of it quite frankly.

But also, one of the reasons Fitz is so annoyed by Deke is because Deke really is Fitz in a lot of ways. He’s not Fitz if Fitz had zero good influences in his life (because we’ve seen that Fitz), but he’s definitely Fitz if Fitz didn’t have his mom and a Jemma for most his life. Didn’t have loads of opportunity to life up to his potential. Didn’t have resources and people who understood him. This is Fitz if he had been left to the wolves as a child and not given the chance to be where he is now. And I think Fitz doesn’t like that potential Fitz very much. 

TLDR he’s projecting onto Deke

Deke’s whole speech here really gets to me. This is the heart of what they’ve been trying to accomplish with him (kind of clumsily) all season. To show that he’s someone who has very deep pain (and yet everyone on this show refuses to acknowledge it). Everything he had was torn from him. No one liked who he has, so he tried to become who thought they wanted him to be, but nothing worked. Nothing was good enough. He wants so badly to belong and to be loved. 

I know I have a lot of Deke related feels but he seriously gets the mom in me all riled up and I just want to give him a hug and let him know that he has a place here.

And I do think Jemma has been trying her best, but she’s been in a really weird situation. But Deke’s not wrong that he could have shared that with her. I hope that she will share some of everything with him in season 7.

Also major props to Jeff Ward for absolutely killing this scene

“It’s ok I’ve got problems with wearble tech anyway” hahahaha

But it makes sense

“most of the mice did not survive” DEKE

I appreciate that Izel brought her own cult-leaderesque outfit

GET FLINT HIS TACOS 2K20

Izel just wants her own backing choir how relatable

Oopsie poopsie Sarge can’t kill Izel

Mack is not happy and I support him

Nooooo May don’t make me cry

But also he’s not Coulson for real

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MAY

I tried to tell her not to trust him omg

Well that went well

Enoch!

NOOOOOO ISAIAH IS A HUNTER NOWW!!!

I had forgotten how good these episodes are? They were definitely worth a rewatch. This episode rates a 100/10 on the Family scale because everyone of them is family (even if they still have some things to work out). But also it gets a 100/10 on the Bad Ideas scale because EVERYONE IS HAVING BAD IDEAS. Ayayaya.

The song for this episode is “Drumming Song” by Florence + The Machine dedicated mostly to Sarge. He was never going to escape the pull of Izel.

[foxymuses]

how does your muse feel about not being cis or straight? are they content with it, proud, ashamed? would the situation be the same if the culture or surrounding support systems were different? (Dean)

it was very hard for dean to admit to himself that he may be bisexual. like, impossibly difficult. he was young, think like fourteen, when he first found himself attracted to a guy, and it’s not that he was afraid of john’s response (but he was) because of john being phobic or anything (which, you know, is up for debate). it was more that like... as much as one can within the hunting life, john was very traditional minded? like he often dismissed sam’s more emotional personality, and it’s canon that he fashioned dean essentially into an obedient solider, so dean kind of had this idea that like... being not-straight was Bad. which isn’t to say he thought of other sexual identities as bad in general, because even if he’s a little awkward around it, he accepts it. in fact, the awkwardness stems from his own refusal of his identity. but like, for instance when he’s trying to help charlie flirt with a guy to get into dick’s computer, and she admits that guys aren’t her thing, dean just rolls with it and continues to try to walk her through it. AND CAN WE FUCKING TALK ABOUT THE SIREN EPISODE PLEASE, like i know the siren was trying to give dean the ‘brother he wanted’ but come on. the fact that he chose to be a guy over the usual chick he’d been playing?

i digress. my point is that like, the only time dean was ever caught off guard or strange about someone’s sexual orientation is when it was in some way directed at him, even indirectly. for instance during fan episode where the musical literally included destiel and dean was like ‘what the fuck’, or when there was the spn convention at the hotel with chuck and dean was thrown off by the two guys who were pretending to be hunters being in a relationship. these things were not about dean, but they connected to him in a way, and that felt really weird to him, but otherwise, generally sexual orientation doesn’t matter as long as it’s about other people

so you know, he didn’t tell anyone about these feelings, aside from maybe a passing comment to bobby about his thoughts on the matter, which bobby casually was like ‘it don’t matter’, because you know bobby probably knew immediately what dean was getting at. but then he didn’t bring it up to anyone again, and that’s a large part of why he desperately slept around, had so many hookups, because he thought, you know, if he could sleep with a ton of girls, he could convince himself he was straight. i wouldn’t say he was necessarily ashamed of his feelings towards men, but more that he was scared of what it meant, worried it would ‘ruin’ his tough-guy act, make him seem weaker for some reason, because his whole life was about being strong and “manly” or whatever.

in fact, my personal headcanon is partly in line with the ship that i have with @gavrele but it’s that dean doesn’t even begin to acknowledge that he’s bisexual until like... however old he is in s13. at that point, you know, he’s getting older, he’s tired, he’s been through so much shit, he’s stopped having random hookups and one night stands, and if he weren’t a hunter, this is when he’d be ready to settle down with someone special and take it easy. so he’s got that mindset in that he’s mature enough, surrounded by people he mostly trusts, that maybe he can... start to be okay with it. but like 30+ years of denial don’t just go away over night, and, still referencing his relationship with gabe since that’s really the only solid ship dean has atm, things start off very small and secretive and behind closed doors or in the shadows, evolving slowly into being affectionate in front of other people, letting it be more obvious.

and some of this also explains why dean is bad at being vulnerable, why he doesn’t open up to emotions easily and has a hard time admitting he loves people, too. as he learns to accept his interest in men, he’s also slowly recovering that part of him that craves affection, that wants to be openly in love and happy and emotional. but as ever, it’s a slow process and i don’t know if he’ll ever be completely comfortable with labeling himself bisexual.

now, i do have a verse where dean was not raised to be a hunter, and he spent most of his childhood with bobby and ellen instead of john, and therefore he grows up openly bisexual, having had several boyfriends and girlfriends. i firmly believe that it’s the mindset of having to be a hunter, having to be strong and tough and hardhearted that affected his comfortability with the identity, and so having bobby as a firmer support, having more freedom in what to do with his life and what’s okay, it allows dean to be more open and vulnerable and accepting of his interest in men. so yeah, a different support system would totally change his views on the matter.

that got long sorry, but by god thank you for asking

[lechevaliermalfet]

In the Name of the Moon – A Look at Lunar Legend Tsukihime

There’s a popular joke in the Type-Moon fandom that there is no Tsukihime anime, but boy it sure would be great if there was one.

I had only ever been dimly aware of this attitude toward the Tsukihime anime myself.  Watching it fansubbed for the first time in the early 00s, I wasn’t really plugged into the fandom, and the joke seemed like a minor thing to me.  I had all but forgotten it by the time I was with my wife at Otakon in 2012, and we went to a panel about Type-Moon for fandom newcomers.  

The panel was pretty salty about the Tsukihime anime, taking the joke about there being no such thing so far as to refuse to acknowledge it or discuss it.  If I recall, they insisted on this refusal even when directly asked about it by someone in the audience.  I also don’t recall them being all that complimentary about the Fate/Stay Night anime (the original 2006 series) for that matter.  We had a long drive home after the convention – fourteen hours, give or take – and our discussion about the convention kept circling back to that panel.

She’d gone mostly to accompany me, I think, and because she didn’t have anything she wanted to do that conflicted with it.  She had some minor interest herself, as she’d seen this supposedly nonexistent Tsukihime anime, and like me, she enjoyed it.  So it was pretty irritating for her to go to this panel ostensibly for newcomers and then have them trash the one thing she’d experienced in the fandom.  It was all the more irritating when you stopped to consider that at that point that it was, in all probability, one of the handful of things real newcomers might have experience with.

In its way, though, the panelists’ hostile and disdainful attitude toward the most accessible works in the general Type-Moon oeuvre did make for a suitable introduction.  If not to Type-Moon and their work, then to the fandom, and the high levels of toxicity most of its assholes could and would display given the opportunity.

But I’m not here to talk about the Type-Moon fandom, except as it amuses me, or is relevant to the subject at hand.

The subject being this supposedly non-existent anime: Lunar Legend Tsukihime.

My own relation to the Western Type-Moon fan community is tangential at best.  A couple of guys I know (one a good friend, the other an acquaintance), back in the early to mid-aughts, were moderators for the Beast’s Lair forum, basically the center of the English-language fandom community at the time.  Of course, at the time, the fandom was almost brand-new.  Tsukihime was all the rage then, because Tsukihime was almost all there was. Fate/Stay Night was new enough that there hadn’t really been time for the discourse around it to even form, let alone evolve much.  And in those days, Beast’s Lair was basically the forum owner and a few of his online friends, and I feel like half the reason it existed was because at that point, it was more convenient to just have a forum than it was to get a bunch of guys together on an AIM group chat with that level of frequency.  This was before Mirror Moon created a translation patch for any of these games.  These were guys who bought the game direct from Japan, paid the outrageous import fees, referred constantly to a GameFAQs walkthrough, and died like men.  It was that, or learn Japanese.  Most of them opted for the walkthrough. Thank Whoever you believe in that the game runs windowed, I guess.

Fate, which has been the bread and butter of Type-Moon’s success for well over a decade now, was a commercial game.  But it was one built with on the base of the huge support Tsukihime had garnered following its launch.  Tsukihime itself was a doujin game, made when the guys at Type-Moon were a bunch of nobodies and had no real money to speak of.

Because they were nobodies, and because they needed the game to sell big if they were going to make the kind of money they needed to make, they did what a lot of Japanese doujin developers have done and continue to do, and will probably do until the end of time, and put porn in the game.

This is not unknown in Western development circles either, just for the record. But Japanese culture is in some ways more permissive when it comes to depictions of sex or sex-adjacent topics and material in their mainstream entertainment.  Porn can net you a decent career, or at least a halfway-decent living, and it’s generally easier over there for porn artists in any field of endeavor to “go legit” and make the jump to the non-porn version of their field.

That doesn’t happen in the West, or at any rate not in America.  Or very rarely. We have (for better or worse; there’s a whole separate debate there) a much sharper division between the porn and non-porn sides of the entertainment industry, and that barrier’s much less porous. But porn fans will support you.  If the success ceiling is far lower than in the legitimate side of the industry, it’s also true that the floor is likewise lower.

So here we have Tsukihime.  Not “porn with plot”, or even “plot with porn”, but “plot (…with porn)”.  It’s there because they were worried the game wouldn’t sell without it, and so there’s not much of it in the first place.  What I’m saying is that if you’re wanting to get your rocks off, you’re going to be a while.

Which is not to say that Tsukihime as a game is inherently like… progressive, or woke, or anything like that.  Oh no. Nonononono.  It’s horror (-ish, depending on your route), for starters – a genre that thrives on objectification and exploitation.  And then it’s Japanese, which gives it an extra few layers of seeming weird to American sensibilities.  So this is less like going down the rabbit hole and potentially more like falling into a snake pit.

I say all this to lend some context.  When we think of Type-Moon today, we tend to think of this highly successful production house with a star franchise that’s rapidly hitting the market saturation point.  If it hasn’t already (and I have a friend who maintains that it has). And that is absolutely not Tsukihime.  Not the game, and certainly not the anime.  No ufotable animating, no Yuki Kajiura composing, no Gen Urobuchi directing the critically acclaimed and popularly loved (and irritatingly overpriced) prequel.

This is Tsukihime.  This isn’t the property that launched Type-Moon to stardom.  That would, again, be Fate.  This is the property that let them make Fate the way they did.  Tsukihime is the visual novel world’s equivalent of some garage band you never heard of releasing their demo tape as their debut album, and the demo tape is actually pretty good, even as it suffers from having basically rock-bottom production values.  It’s one of those things where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.  You have to look at what it tries to be and tries to do, and like it for that. In that much at least, even as they differ in many other ways, that much is true of both the anime and the visual novel.

It’s worth it, though.

Phantasmal Fantasy

If we’re being honest (and why wouldn’t we be honest?), Tsukihime, at least going through the main route, is a little bit less straight horror and a little more what I think of as horror-fantasy.  It isn’t horror because it’s rarely if ever actually frightening.  But it uses horror aesthetics in a fantasy setting (urban fantasy, in this case), which may lend things a generally eerie and unsettling sense of ambiance and a particular feeling of threat to the main characters without ever quite getting your pulse up.  It’s a hybrid genre I happen to have a huge soft spot for (I’ve been reliably informed that this is sort of My Thing).  The entire Legacy of Kain series falls under that banner for me, as do most of the Castlevania games.  The Dark Souls games all have it to some extent, and Bloodborne leans into it hard enough that it actually is kind of legitimately scary at various points.  And then there are movies like Vampire Hunter D.

Lunar Legend Tsukihime, the anime based on the visual novel Tsukihime, was released in the early to mid 2000s.  On a technical level, it’s very middle-of-the-road, with a bit of a generic visual style and workmanlike animation.  But we’re talking about an anime based on a doujin hentai game.  More mainstream visual novels’ adaptations tend to get better treatment.  Tsukihime is well-regarded, but probably not really “popular” in the same sense as something like, say, Da Capo or Little Busters or Air, or...  Look, Type-Moon’s getting the star treatment was pretty much going to be impossible at that stage.  It took Tsukihime and the first Fate adaptation before we got to that point.  That the Tsukihime anime happened at all is honestly kind of remarkable, and a testament to how much of an impact the game made.

Tsukihime takes place in the modern day (well, modern for the date of its release, which for the game was 2000, and for the anime would be 2003 or so).  It’s a vampire story, of sorts, though the only creatures we’d recognize as traditional vampires are a minor threat at best.

Our main character, or at any rate, our viewpoint character, is Shiki Tohno.  He’s part of a large, wealthy, and presumably powerful family, though he lives with an aunt and uncle whose ways and means are much more middle-class than his father, the head of the family.  He was banished from the main estate eight years ago, shipped off to live with his aunt and uncle after an accident when he was about eight.

He doesn’t remember much about the accident.  He (and therefore we) are initially told it was a car accident, and that it damaged his heart. He has fainting spells occasionally if he over-exerts himself, and otherwise generally anemic symptoms.  Something to do with damage to his heart after the accident; it’s not really clear.  The weakness makes him an unfit heir to be head of the family, hence his being put aside.

The real change in him is far stranger, and far harder to understand.

While recovering in the hospital, he begins to see odd lines running through everything, making the world look fractured.  He discovers that if he cuts along those lines with a blade or other edged implement, the object will simply fall apart along those lines.  It takes little to no force to do this.  He could cut down a tree simply by dragging the edge of a knife along a particular line on its trunk, a line invisible to anyone but him.  His attempts to convince others that these lines exist fall on deaf ears, and only cause concern for his mental state.

One day during his recovery, while wandering around outside, he runs across a woman named Aoko Aozaki who not only believes him, but understands what’s happening.  She explains to him that he has a rare ability – perhaps the only one in the world with it – known as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.  What he is seeing is the inevitable destruction and dissolution, the “death”, of every person and object around him.  The lines are the only way his brain can make sense of it, as this is something the human mind doesn’t readily grasp.  She gives him a pair of glasses which make the lines go away while he wears them, and which therefore allow him to go on with his life as normal.  She tells him that he mustn’t use this power of his unless absolutely necessary.

Shiki lives his life normally from that point forward, until one day while he’s in high school, he receives notice that his father has passed away, and Shiki is to move back into the main estate.  Said estate is in the same town, so much of his day-to-day should remain the same – same friends, same school, same daily routine.

But a strange thing happens on his way to the manor after school.  While resting in the park, he sees a young woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and a white sweater.  From out of nowhere, he is overcome with a furious, murderous impulse.  His body seems to move on its own, with no input or control from him.  Off come the glasses, out comes the knife he carries with him, and he’s off chasing her.  Bad things happen.

He wakes up in the Tohno mansion, having blacked out and been retrieved by Hisui, one of the two maids of the home.  She dresses as a Western maid, while her twin sister, Kohaku, also a maid, prefers a kimono.  

But his arrival at the manor comes with significant culture shock.  In the wake of his father’s passing, possession of the manor and the position of head of family have both fallen to his younger sister, Akiha, whom he hasn’t seen since his accident some eight years ago.  His memory of her is a little hazy, but he seems taken aback by the polite but stern young lady she’s grown into.  Altogether, the four of them – Akiha, Shiki, Kohaku, and Hisui – are the only inhabitants of the house.  

Shiki finds its size and sense of isolation intimidating, all the more because his daily life in and around the house is in for a massive shake-up.  For starters, there’s a strict curfew, and also no television.  When Shiki objects, Akiha puts her foot down, and seems determined that he will live according to the family’s ways and rules, or…  Well, there is no “or else”.  He just will, end of story.

So he sneaks out to go buy some snacks and magazines.  On his way, he is accosted by one of his classmates, Ciel.  But here, she’s dressed in an odd outfit, carrying a set of deadly-sharp swords, and seems intent on killing him until she satisfies herself that he poses no threat.

The next day, further weirdness ensues.  He encounters the blonde lady, the one he thought he killed, very much alive and well.  His initial relief that he didn’t actually kill her is quickly undone by her assertion that actually, he did, and with rare skill and gusto.  She then goes on to describe the exact cuts he used to slice her into seventeen separate pieces.  

Then it gets stranger.

She is, she tells him, a vampire, albeit not all that much like what you’d think of when the word comes to mind.  And no, she doesn’t sparkle.  Her name is Arcueid Brunestud, and she’s hunting an enemy of hers who’s in the area, and is responsible for a string of murders and mysterious deaths that have been occurring lately.  She was doing well enough until Shiki came along murdered her.  While she was able to recover from this inconvenience, their encounter has left her in a weakened state.  Now she needs help, and who better than the one who put her in this position in the first place?

Twists, Turns, and Dead Ends

I’m a little conflicted about the problem with the Tsukihime anime.  I can’t decide whether its creators overestimated what they could do in twelve episodes, or underestimated the material and the time it needed.  I supposed it really doesn’t make much difference.  Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Bad news first.

There are some technical issues with the show, which are probably the least of its problems.  The art style is kind of lackluster and workmanlike, and the animation is overall pretty by-the-numbers.  There are numerous moments where you can see drawing or animation shortcuts were taken, and there are lots of long shots where the camera lingers on one place or on one person well beyond what’s necessary for drama.  On the other hand, the more important action scenes do see a slight jump in quality, so maybe the producers were keeping something up their sleeve for when it counted.  

The English voice work is serviceable.  The actors’ voices are by and large a good fit for the roles, but the acting is occasionally a little wooden. The writing is somewhat off as well.  Shiki disappears from his normal life for a while in the third and fourth episodes, and his friends’ and family’s discussions of it once he resurfaces don’t seem to agree on the times he was gone – at one point, even within the same conversation.  This may be a translation or dub writing error, though.  There are other weird gaffes (this time in the original script), such as that Shiki doesn’t notice that Kohaku and Hisui are identical twins. This despite the fact that their only notable differences are eye color and wardrobe.

But these are mostly technical troubles, and they’re things I can overlook pretty easily.  The writing errors are never so serious that I get confused about what’s going on, and the artwork issues aren’t too out of line, either.  Certainly I’ve seen other shows from the time that did worse and more often.

The real issues \with Tsukihime, and the problem most of the original game’s fans have, stem from the way it’s adapted from the game.

Like a lot of visual novels, Tsukihime has multiple routes, and many if not all of them are mutually exclusive.  In fact, some don’t even involve Arcueid, who you’ll remember is one of the main characters. This presents some difficulties when making a TV series.  On the one hand, there is a canon route, and you could probably make a decent twelve-episode TV series out of just that.  On the other hand, there are lots of fans who prefer the alternate routes, who would be pissed if their favorite characters showcased in those routes weren’t given some screen time, and so you want to give them something.  And, too, one of the intriguing things about a game like Tsukihime is all the lore and world-building that makes these divergent plotlines possible and interesting.  Even when not pursued, elements of those routes may come up one way or another, and lend a certain richness and depth to the story.  It would be a shame to leave that on the cutting room floor.

Another possibility the show’s creators could take is to craft their own continuity, essentially creating a story hybridized from multiple routes from the game while not adhering strictly to any one of them, and create a single story that way.  This hypothetical hybrid story would then be better able to explore more of the background and lore, and incorporate that richness into its own new canon.  But that would take probably more than twelve episodes, and twelve was all Tsukihime got.  For anyone who’s curious about what this approach might look like, there’s a manga adaptation that incorporates elements of the other routes into the main story.  It’s out of print now, sadly.  Originally published by ComicsOne, it was taken over by DrMaster after ComicsOne went out of business.  Then DrMaster themselves went out...

Anyway, the compromise measure that the show’s creators eventually decided on was to largely tell one story (the Near Side routes, particularly the Arcueid route), while throwing in bits and pieces from other routes… and then never following up on them.  There wind up being a few non sequiturs and narrative dead ends or red herrings, almost as a kind of wink and nod to say that the show’s makers at least know those possibilities exist.  But this results in the show being unfocused.  For instance, a couple of episodes build up the Problem With the Tohno Bloodline, but this ultimately doesn’t figure into the story.  This material comes from what the game refers to as the Far Side routes, and those developments largely go unnoticed during the Near Side routes which the anime’s plot focuses on.  The problem is, again, that these are mutually exclusive as the presented in the original game.  Weaving them together in the “new continuity” approach would be fine – maybe ideal for the anime, even – but it would take an amount of alteration to the continuity that the anime never makes.  It winds up being less of a problem than it sounds like, but it does manage to be frustrating.

The main story, meanwhile, hints at interesting elements from the broader cosmological background that the game establishes (and which later Type-Moon games borrow and build upon), but many of those elements never quite leave the background.  This leaves a frustrating sense of massive, powerful forces and entities moving in the background, that there is something far larger happening that we are not even quite glimpsing, but only being given hints of.  

But if it sometimes seems that Tsukihime only scratches the surface of the greater and deeper lore of its setting, that lore and setting are still compelling.  There’s an almost Lovecraftian sense of cosmic scale to the supernatural as it’s presented in Tsukihime.  Arcueid, Nvrnqsr Chaos (no, that’s not a typo; it’s the real name of an adversary in the game, though the anime presents it as Nero Chaos instead), and her ultimate enemy, Roa – all of them are connected to higher forces and entities.  The murders occurring in Shiki’s city are the most minor of problems in the grand scheme of things.  This is what makes the anime both fascinating and frustrating.  It shows us this conflict, but refuses to give the full context for it.  So much seems to be held back; the full natures of these characters goes unexplored.

I like a little mystery.  I like it when some things are unexplained, or when the answers are there to be found rather than to be given.  It’s one of the things I love about Dark Souls and Bloodborne.  But the story of Tsukihime fails to explore these mysteries in a way I find really satisfying.

I feel like this is the root of why a certain overly vocal segment of the fandom chooses not to acknowledge the anime.  Coming to it from the game, I can see where it might seem a little disappointing.  Many of these hooks can seem like teases to those who understand their significance enough to be upset that they ultimately don’t deliver.

But that’s not the experience that either I or my wife had watching the anime.  We both came to it before we ever knew anything of the game.  For us, those odd hooks were just moments where we went, “Huh.  Weird,” and carried on watching the show.  Sure, there was clear and unaddressed significance, but it wasn’t a problem.  If anything, it made me more curious about the game.

The show may seem meandering to some, but to me, I just tend to think of its pace as sedate.  It doesn’t really dig into the characters’ backstories, but it does help to develop them and give them room to breathe.  

In particular, the anime spends a lot of time developing Arcueid.  We see that despite her power, and her potential for wrath and violence, she’s surprisingly cute and innocent-seeming at times, and actually innocent when it comes to some things.  You can see her interest in Shiki grow, but she seems unable to express it.  Her attempts at being normal can come across as almost mocking, when they are instead sincere and well-meant, but hopelessly clueless.

What we learn of her story is somewhat sparse, but we know that she spends most of her time asleep, awakening only to deal with threats like Roa.  The reasons for this are complicated, at least enough so as to be beyond the scope of this writing.  Suffice it to say that there’s a wiki if you’re after more information.  Just be warned: The writing there is pretty iffy.  Anyway, Arcueid is capable of getting by just fine on her own (when some inconsiderate dick doesn’t just up and murder her, anyway), but it’s also clear that, thanks to spending most of her time asleep, she doesn’t really understand a lot of what’s going on around her.  There’s a kind of obliviousness to her that might be frustrating in another character in a different show, but is somehow just endearing here.  Like my wife said at one point: You just want to hug her.  Which is not, you know, the normal reaction you have with vampires.  “Aloof”, “compelling”, “seductive”…  These are the words we tend to think of when it comes to vampiric “affection” in fiction.  “Huggable” doesn’t really show up on the list.  And yet, here we are.

There’s a certain cat-like quality to her.  Elegant, graceful, mysterious, sometimes selfish, frequently endearing, and occasionally ridiculous.  There’s comedy in her situation.  Shiki, despite his powers, is otherwise kind of a dork who could not be more clearly in over his head, at least at the start.  He spends most of the series bewildered, confused, scared, and very occasionally snapping and completely losing his shit against some eldritch horror.  And yet he’s the one who has to keep Arcueid grounded (to the extent that this is really even possible) and basically explain to her how the world works.  In some ways, it’s really Arcueid’s story.

The pace of the series helps it build a sense of brooding mystery as it explores the twin dilemmas of finding a way to stop Roa and figuring out Shiki’s uncertain place in and relation to the rest of the Tohno family.  And as you might suspect, these two problems aren’t as separate as they first seem.

If nothing else, the opening theme is just about perfect.  Subdued, mysterious, haunting; it sets the mood of the show almost perfectly, in a way that comes close to over-promising on what the anime actually delivers.  It definitely sets a mood.

That mood is one I tend to get into around this time of year.  I’m normally a night person in the first place.  No amount of working mostly first-shift jobs over the last two decades has changed the fact that there’s some part of me that wakes up when the sun goes down, and wants to stay up until the sunrise.  I like to be out and about in the dark.  I can remember back when I was in college, I would be out with friends trying to find any reason at all to stay out as late as possible.  Later in life, I’d duck out long after everyone else was asleep and go for roaming walks at night (at least, back when I lived in a reasonable neighborhood).  With fall here, the urge just gets stronger.  

There’s something of that feeling I get from Tsukihime, large portions of which involve that same nocturnal roaming, and take place in the nighttime times of life.  And I enjoy stories about monsters and the supernatural – I went through something of a vampire fascination phase when I was younger, and still maintain a certain amount of interest – and so those things alone might have gotten my attention.

Fuck the haters; the Tsukihime anime exists, and it’s good.  Not great, and not as good as it might have been, but it’s fine.  If it’s not exactly gripping, edge-of-your-seat suspense, it’s still an entertaining way to spend the better part of five or six hours.  Certainly worth a watch if you can track it down.  

Tsukihime tells an odd, interesting story – moody, dark, weird, mysterious, fantastical – all things I like.  A story of supernatural threats, monsters, mystery, and marauders in the night.  It’s hard to think of anything more appropriate for fall – for October – for Halloween.

Availability

The DVD release for Lunar Legend Tsukihime was originally handled by Geneon in both Japan and the U.S., since they were part of the original production committee.  After they folded, it was picked up by Sentai Filmworks, one of the several splinter companies that rose from the ashes of ADV’s implosion in the late aughts.  

Geneon’s release was evidently a multi-volume affair.  Which seems ludicrous today, when you typically buy an entire season of twelve episodes or so all at once these days, in a single set.  But Geneon (which had previously been Pioneer) had been around since the VHS days, and a lot of those companies in some sense inherited the mindset that had governed the VHS release schedule, which was to release a volume every couple of months or so, with three or four episodes on each one, and that was that.

Sentai Filmworks’ version is a two-disc, single-volume set, so that would probably be the way to go.  Especially if shelf space is a concern.  

There is no Blu-ray release, and honestly, it’s hard to imagine what Blu-ray would really do for the show.  At any rate, it seems to be out of print currently.  Geneon, of course, folded about a decade or so ago. And although Sentai Filmworks lists it in their catalog, there’s no option to buy.  And it doesn’t appear to be available for legal streaming anywhere.  Like a lot of older (and I hate to think of this as “older” – I remember being an adult when it was new) – maybe I should say somewhat older anime – Amazon and eBay are your best bet if you’re interested.  

Postscript the First – The Anime versus the Game

Tsukihime, as a visual novel with multiple routes, contains far more material than the TV series.  HOWEVER, please consider this paragraph your giant, flashing, neon-lit trigger warning for content potentially involving sex, assault, sexual assault (of various kinds), incest, violation of consent, and more violence than the anime producers could show even with the series airing at otaku o’clock.

Just to be up-front for a moment, I haven’t played much of the game.  Much of my information comes secondhand, or else is the result of reading the Type-Moon wiki and talking with friends who’ve played through it. I’ve yet to finish a single route.  I’d like to, and I occasionally chip away at it here and there, but the problems are twofold.

The first problem – probably the main problem – is the low level of engagement.  I get curious about visual novels from time to time, but they’re always a little too easy to put down, and a little too hard to pick up.  And that may seem strange, since there’s so little to do in one.  The amount of effort involved is nil.  But that’s just the thing.  I often wrestle with whether or not I even consider them to be games at all.  And, look: It’s not like I think visual novels are unworthy of anyone’s time.  They’re fine.  Largely not my cup of tea, but fine.  But what you do in a visual novel could hardly be called playing, any more than you “play” a Choose Your Own Adventure book.  There are no mechanics, no maneuvering through the world, no use of skills.  Just decisions to make, and those not very often.  The thing about an actual game is that I’m mentally engaged, fully occupied and firing on all (or most) cylinders.  When I want to play a game, that’s what I’m after.  And visual novels just don’t offer that.

Of course, I do love to read, and so it would seem like they should be right up my alley for that reason at least.  But no.  The writing is actually my second problem.

So far as I’ve observed, which admittedly isn’t much, most Japanese visual novels translated into English are pretty awkward, and this is probably a combination of factors.  One is that what constitutes good writing (in terms of how the language is deployed) in Japanese differs considerably from what constitutes good writing in English.  It’s not just visual novels, mind you.  The couple Haruki Murakami books I’ve read have both also seemed off to some degree as well.  I think it’s just something in the translation, some difference between English and Japanese in the matters of word choice, rhythm, and flow, and the sense for how these things work in each.  I sincerely think that making a Japanese work really sing in English would involve a level of change that most translators (and visual novel fans in particular, given their greater likelihood of being total Japanophiles) are deeply uncomfortable with.

But beyond the general problem of Japanese-to-English writing, there’s the problem of Kinoko Nasu in particular, who is Type-Moon’s writer.

Nasu is, I think, something of a Lovecraft disciple, with his cosmic-scale sense for horror.  But he’s also like Lovecraft in another very important and distinct way, which is that despite having really interesting ideas that set my imagination on fire, he actually can not fucking write.

I’m sorry, Lovecraft fans, I really am, but it’s true.  Deep down, you all know it.  Lovecraft, for his part, was a man who at some point earlier in his life swallowed a thesaurus, and was then hell-bent on vomiting it out over every page he wrote ever afterward.  He never used one word if he could find a way to use five or six to say the same thing, never used a simple, elegant, and concise word when he knew a more complex one, and his style has so little flow you’d need an electron microscope to find it.  You could make a workout of running back and forth to the dictionary while reading his work.  Or you could make it a drinking game.  And then die, of alcohol poisoning.

He had some great ideas, once you got past the writing, and the multiple onion-like layers of intense racism.  And he was intensely racist; let’s not forget that.  Not just “racist because it’s the 1920s or ‘30s and basically everyone white is racist right now,” I mean racist even for those times.  People back then were a little weirded out by how much he hated the Jews, and black people, and anyone else who wasn’t the right shade of paper-white.  But even just focusing on his writing, the feeling remains that he was not the best vehicle for his stories, and that’s just how it is.  The most aching, taxing, fucking grueling reading I have ever done on stories I still actually liked is mostly found between the covers of the various Lovecraft compendia I have lying around the house.  I like his stories; I just don’t like reading them much.

Nasu may well be his reincarnation (and oh, would it ever have horrified Lovecraft to be reincarnated as a Japanese person).  A common complaint I’ve heard about Nasu’s writing (from people who’ve read it in Japanese) is that he has good ideas, but just isn’t a skilled writer.  Now, I’m not qualified to really dissect how he comes across in his own culture, but when translated into English, he’s a painful read.  Maybe it’s the fault of the group responsible for the translation (Mirror Moon), but at the very least, I can confidently state that he should stay out of porn.  His sex scenes have some of the least sexy and most unintentionally hilarious writing I’ve seen in my life.  It’s why I think that even Fate didn’t really take off to become the absolute phenomenon it is until after we started to get anime adaptations of it.  Those adaptations would all have been written by other people, or at least had some amount of editing or collaboration to dilute the worst of his influence, letting the good ideas shine through without Nasu’s own writing griming everything up.

I don’t have a lot of basis for comparison, but I feel like on a technical level, Tsukihime is pretty basic.  The character artwork is nice enough, with a distinct style.  The backgrounds, though, are in most cases very clearly photographs that have been filtered or otherwise manipulated so as not to clash too badly with the character art.  This was probably a shortcut to save time or money, or both.  

On the balance, I’d say it’s worth looking into, with the major caveat that there’s a lot of stuff in it that didn’t (and couldn’t) make it into the anime, that makes the story overall much darker and more sinister than the anime could manage.  Unfortunately, it’s going to be hard to find.  There’s only the original version released in 2000.  There’s talk of a sequel and a remake, but the amount of time that’s passed for no more attention or work than the project has received, to the extent that these things have become running gags in the fandom.  They probably are things that the higher-ups at Type-Moon really do mean to create at some point, but which aren’t a huge priority for them, and so are very, very back-burner projects.

As I mentioned above, the anime and the game are both similar in that their quality persists despite somewhat lacking production values.  But the anime’s middle-of-the-road budget and somewhat generic style was never the problem.  The game, meanwhile, was pretty clearly made on a close-to-shoestring budget, but this actually doesn’t matter nearly as much.  Visuals novels live and die on their writing, ideas, and artwork, I think.  Rarely if ever do they rely on really cutting-edge graphics for their impact.  And in truth, Tsukihime the game was always going to be marred far more by Nasu’s writing than anything technical.  

A nice upside is that, since we’re privy to Shiki’s internal monologue, he comes across as a more interesting character.  He seems to sometimes just float through the story in the anime, with bouts of intensity here and there when things go wrong or he’s totally lost it.  But the game gives us his thoughts, and we get a better handle on why he does the things he does.

For English-speaking fans, there are walkthroughs, of course.  But if that understandably sounds like too much of a pain in the ass, there’s also a fan translation (unauthorized) by Mirror Moon.  In addition to rendering the game into English, I believe it also introduces an option for removing the sex scenes.  So for those who are uncomfortable with those, this will answer that concern, at least.  

Postscript the Second – Alternate Takes: Kara no Kyoukai

Frequently referred to in English-speaking circles by its subtitle, The Garden of Sinners, Kara no Kyoukai (which Wikipedia tells us means something like “Boundary of Emptiness”) is an interesting story from Kinoko Nasu’s early days.  It began publication (independently) in August of 1998, and is set in that timeframe.  Originally a series of novels, it’s primarily known in the U.S. as a boxed set of seven movies (plus a stand-alone eighth) priced exorbitantly by Aniplex USA (the Blu-ray boxed set for the first seven will set you back a cool $400).  These movies tell the story of a different Shiki, this time a young woman who wears a kimono, boots, and red leather jacket, named Shiki Ryogi.  

There are pretty clear linkages between it and Tsukihime, though these are thematic rather than narrative, and the result of ideas being reused.  Nasu began writing Kara no Kyoukai first, and seems to have cannibalized some of its concepts for Tsukihime. The two stories take place in alternate universes.  As with Tsukihime, this version of Shiki also has the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, although Kara no Kyoukai’s Shiki does actually come by them after an automobile accident.  There’s also a redheaded sorceress with the last name Aozaki (Touko instead of Aoko), and I want to say that I’ve read somewhere that they’re sisters, and that Touko traveled to this alternate reality from the “main” one where Tsukihime and Fate take place. She was initially envisioned with sort of pixie-cut blue hair, but was converted for the movies into a redhead like her sister Aoko, and Nasu decided he liked the change so much that it became canon.

But although it features a Shiki with the Mystic Eyes, she shares the spotlight with Mikiya Kokuto, who’s a dead ringer for the Shiki of Tsukihime. His personality’s different – he lacks Shiki Tohno’s deeply buried killer instinct, for a start.  Mikiya has no special abilities beyond a knack for information-gathering and a better-than-average capacity for deductive reasoning.  Moreover, even without any special powers of his own, he seems to move with relative comfort in a world full of sorcerers and mystical murderers, in part by keeping an open mind, taking nothing for granted, keeping his assumptions in check, and taking everything as it comes.  He works as an investigator for Touko’s paranormal detective agency, Garan-no-Dou. Shiki is mostly the muscle.

Mikiya has a younger sister, Azaka, who in her turn looks an awful lot like Shiki Tohno’s sister Akiha.  Except for in flashbacks, where she looks like a young Rin Tohsaka from Fate instead.  As with Tsukihime, she is attracted to her brother.  Unlike Tsukihime, the two of them are actually blood siblings, so... At least with Kara no Kyoukai, this profound failure of the Westermarck Effect is entirely one-sided; Mikiya has eyes only for Shiki.  TV Tropes would undoubtedly describe it as Single-Target Sexuality.  

There are any number of other parallels between the two, but these are the most obvious.  Much of the background lore seems to be similar between the two series, although Kara no Kyoukai doesn’t use the same parts of it, and doesn’t dig into the parts it does use quite as much.  It’s much less concerned with cosmic entities like Arcueid or Roa or Nvrnqsr Chaos, and more concerned with its characters as individuals, and how they relate to each other.  That isn’t to say that it doesn’t dive into the sort of metaphysical strangeness on display in Tsukihime and Fate – Kara no Kyoukai is aggressively weird – but its metaphysical struggles are more self-contained, connected more directly to the characters and less tied to the cosmological backdrop.

The movies were released in Japan beginning in 2007, almost a decade after the novels began publication, and well after the successes of Tsukihime and the first Fate series. They’re animated by ufotable, and feature Yuki Kajiura as the composer.  I’d encourage anyone interested to track them down, though I know the price tag can be offputting.  Aside from high-quality video and sound, the set is pretty bare-bones.  There’s no English audio track; in fact, the impression I get is that this is basically just the Japanese Blu-ray release, re-encoded for Region 1. This includes the movies’ proper titles not being displayed in English anywhere on the discs or cases, so you have to do a little sleuthing to figure out which movies are which.  This is doubly aggravating considering that the intended viewing order isn’t chronological, so it’s not immediately apparent if you’ve started with the wrong movie.  If you feel totally lost and like you’ve just come into the middle of things, then it’s highly likely you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.  Thankfully, the menus are in English, and the subtitles are serviceable.

There’s a DVD version of the boxed set that costs less – I want to say the whole boxed set went for something like $200 – which is still a decent chunk of change, but more reasonable for a set of seven movies. Unfortunately, a quick browse of Amazon makes it seem even harder to find than the Blu-ray set.  And, sadly, there are no legal streaming options for this series.

[fairydust-stuff]

The Queen of the Feast of Feasts:  a Prudence Character Study

The Queen of the Feast of Feasts  a Prudence Character Study 

Prudence Blackwood is first introduced to us along with her fellow witch sisters Dorcus and Agatha confronting Sabrina in the woods and warning her a half breed like her is not welcomed at the Academy of unseeing arts, since Sabrina is half mortal. Then all three of them put a curse on her.  Later we learn all three sisters were adopted by Father Blackwood. They are known as the Weird Sisters and seem like their going to operate much like every other bully clique who hates the protagonist for being different. 

This gets subverted when Sabrina herself summons them to help get revenge for her friend Susie by messing with moral boys who hit her. They strike a bargain that Sabrina won’t join the Academy if they help her get revenge. Sabrina agrees to this but crosses her fingers behind her back (our heroine ladies and gentlemen). 

The three of them execute a plan that involves tricking the guys into hooking up with each other and blackmailing them. Then Prudence and her sisters scare them off and are also revealed to have done a spell to control the boys um anatomy. (Honestly the whole thing makes me uncomfortable especially when certain facts about the football players come to light later on, but that’s not what this essay is about) 

Prudence tells Sabrina “ You may be more suited to the academy then we first thought” showing she’s changed her mind. Prudence also reveals she knows Sabrina had no intention of keeping her promise but agreed to help anyway, because she enjoys tormenting moral boys. This reveals a lot about Prudence’s character she is crafty, cruel and bigoted but she can bend a bit when faced with what she sees as potential. 

We also learn that Prudence is very wise, since she points out that signing the book of the beast and making a contract with the devil is about giving up your freedom in exchange for power. Prudence  laughs in Sabrina’s face when the half witch suggests they shouldn’t have to give up anything for power and should have it all. This highlights her self awareness and hints that Prudence is far older than her appearance suggests. Which actress Tati Gabriella has confirmed stating that Prudence is really 75 years old.     

For the first season Prudence kind of fades into the background other than viciously hazing Sabrina with her sisters which links back to her cruelty.  Until episode seven titled the  Feast of Feasts. The Witches of the coven have a tradition where a witch is selected as a sacrifice to be killed and have her flesh consumed by the other members of the coven after they fast. Prudence is chosen and sees it as a great honor “ Prepare me a bath of buttermilk and bring me a plate of macaroons” she orders. 

Prudence goes about sweetening herself to be the best feast she possibly can. 

Sabrina who is chosen by the coven as her handmaiden tries to persuade her it's all nonsense as she baths her. “ You don’t really believe all that” Sabrina insists.  Prudence reveals she does, she wants to die to be honored by the Coven and to “reside in the Dark Lord's heart until the trumpets of the apocalypse sound” This shows us Prudence is a true believer who is truly devoted to the Church of Night. 

Sabrina bring Prudence to her school and she finds out Harvey is descended from witch Hunters then someone kills a familiar and Prudence thinking its Harvey has to be persuaded out of full retribution mode by Sabrina who informs her “ Harvey didn’t kill that  farmiar” to which Prudence gives the best line of the season  “ How is your faith in the mortal boy any different than my faith in the Dark Lord? Why is your faith more valid than mine?” this line once again highlights the fact that Prudence is an old soul who challenges Sabrina to actually think. 

Its revealed near the end of the episode Prudence is Blackwood’s biological daughter and was only chosen as feast queen so Blackwood’s wife could get her out of the way to protect the inheritance of her own children. This sets up Prudence’s character arch but for now it just spares her from being eaten though she still sits on the throne because she is Prudence and wants to feel special for one night. 

She has a slight role in the mines episode where she lets Sabrina kill and resurrect one of her sisters because both Agatha and Dorcus went behind her back and collapsed the mine to kill the Kinkle family. This suggests that Prudence does have a bit of a code despite her anti human stance, she feels there at least has to be justification for killing a mortal.  

In Season 2 Prudence  is openly acknowledged by Father Blackwood as his daughter. She’s also assigned as her baby brothers wet nurse and in chided in the first episode for letting him cry. However despite  her newfound responsibilities Prudence’s Father and her do not see eye to eye. When Prudence offers to run against Sabrina as head boy, Father Blackwood won’t allow it because he cannot conceive of a witch with a position of authority. Furthermore he will not allow Prudence to have his last name.  

This results in Prudence and the other weird sisters telepathically wireing the answers to Sabrina. While i’d rather have Prudence obtain the position for herself because Sabrina shouldn’t get everything she wants. It is at least the first act of defiance toward her Father from Prudence. 

During the play Prudence gives Sabrina advice “ lust is not a sin Sabrina” she informs her. Though the moment is more about Sabrina it does highlight Prudence’s views on sex which does make up her character. Prudence being raised within the Church of Night has always been very comfortable with her sexuality in Feasts of Feasts as queen she requested an orgy and teasingly invites Sabrina to join in. Prudence does not view lust as something to have hang ups about physical desire is something to be acted upon. Within the same episode she pursues Ambrose Sabrina’s cousin flirting with him. Her advances are returned and two of them enter a poly relationship. 

The valentines episode isn’t really a highlight except it reveals the fact Prudence and her sisters have the same dream and share a vision about how the Spellman’s will be the undoing of the Blackwood’s which Father Blackwood dismisses. I’m guessing this a macbeth reference but it does show that Father Blackwood dismisses Prudence’s concern for his safety. 

Later Prudence goes to Zelda blackmailing her into getting the anti pope to declare Prudence a Blackwood. Now whether or not Prudence wants the power that comes with the name or desires to be part of a family is unclear and i honestly think there’s evidence for both. On one hand Prudence does attempt to murder Father Blackwell later in the same episode and only relents when he declares her “ Prudence Blackwood” but on the other hand she does save her fathers life from Ambrose and when Father Black wood changes Prudence with protecting the acdemy and their family name while their off on his honey moon. 

Prudence takes this vow very seriously replying he can rely on her. 

The next episode we see Prudence honoring this promise she sets about breaking Ambrose who she see’s as a tradior to get him to confess to the murder of the anti pope, refuses to let Sabrina into the acedmy while calling her out for useing her and her sisters all year and saveing her life only for selfish reasons during the Feast of feasts. 

These acts reveals a repressed bitterness from Prudence and hint she sees both Sabrina and Ambrose of using her just to destroy her father which is why she’s so vindictive towards them. Much like trying to kill her Father, Prudences acts of violence seem to come from a place of great betrayal and a sense of her not being important to those she cares for.  Prudence is also high on the fact she appears to have finally gained the approval and affection of the only parent she’s ever known and intends to keep it that way. It's a response for some children who grow up in emotionally abusive household and Prudence has done so for at least 75 years. 

Then a life changing event happens to Prudence making her question evaluate her values. Witch hunters show up at the academy and despite the best efforts of her and her sisters fail to protect the other students. The Witch hunters due to their angel powers (just go with it) overpower the sisters and start killing other witch students as Prudence and her sisters watch in horror while awaiting their fiery pire. Then Sabrina the half breed swoops in last minute and demolishes the angel witch hunters (Gosh it is hard to say that with a straight face) and brings the dead students back to life after respecting herself displaying power beyond that of a regular witch and as aggravating as it is, it does further Prudence’s arch as she starts to question whether half witches and by extent morals are inferior.  

Prudence goes as far as to question Ambrose about Sabrina’s miracles. She also admits seeing Sabrina come back from the dead made her happy. When Ambrose admits he’s scared to die Prudence in a rare moment of tenderness resources Ambrose  there’s no need to be frightened since he’s an honorable man. “ Satan keep you” she tells him sincerely showing us Ambrose has been forgiven and that Prudence is finally being honest about the fact she likes Sabrina (For some reason). Here Prudence is clearly starting to question what she’s been taught.  

In the last two episodes of season two Prudence’s dynamic with her Father reaches its conclusion. When Father Blackwood decides to form his own denomination the Church of Judas. He creates a new set of rules and restrictions Prudence after looking them over states “ These new rules only apply to the witches and not the warlocks” Father Blackwood replies that “Witches should focus on more femmine magics of herbalism and fertility” Prudence asks if the rules also apply to her. Blackwood says as long as she gets the other witches to cooperate she’ll be exempt from the same rules. Offering Prudence special privileges along with the unspoken promise of his affections with a chaste kiss. 

While Prudence does take the bait she also helps Zelda convince Father Blackwood to spare a witch for trying to leave the Church of Judas persuading him i’ll only create a martyr and cause more rebellions in the future. This is usual  for Prudence who was previously fine with the torture and exacution of Ambrose showing a shift in her thinkng. Prudence watching her classmates killed in front of her while refusing to denounce their Dark Lord seems to  have caused her to develop more of an appreciation for the lives of the other coven members beyond those who she considered family. 

  Later  Prudence catches Zelda admitting she does not support the Church of Judas and the other witch warns Prudence her blood won’t protect her from Father Blackwood. Prudence not only dismisses this but retrieves her half baby sister and tells her Father about Zelda’s deception. Zelda takes Prudence hostage and demands that baby Letica be given back to her. Blackwood dismisses her claiming that since he has his full blooded daughter he doesn’t care if Zelda kills Prudence. Which supports Zelda’s claim that Prudences blood won’t protect her. After Zelda is locked up Prudence asks Blackwood “ Father, what are your plans for baby Letica?” as she now feels doubt about his intentions. Blackwood replies he intends to marry her daughter to her own brother Judas. 

Prudence is horrified and frees Zelda from her cell telling her to take her half sister and run. Zelda offers her the chance to join them but Prudence declares she can't leave her sisters or abandon the rest of the coven. Further conveying her found loyalty that of just the family unit.  

Prudence finds Agatha and Dorcus and convinces them to do a spell to end Father Blackwood. They are interrupted by Blackwood who demands Prudence attend him during an audience with the Dark lord. She silently observes as Blackwood expresses disgust at having to bow to Sabrina as queen of hell. Later he tells Prudence to pack. She inquires as to why they should run from the Dark Lord. Blackwood angrily snaps he “ Will never bow down to a spelman whore!”  When Prudence asks him what about the rest of the Coven. Blackwood reveals he poisoned them a communion. Prudence runs out ignoring Blackwoods warning she’ll never see the baby twins again. 

After a vow to kill Father Blackwood she runs to the church teleporting Dorcus and Agatha to the spellman house and telling the Spellman family “ Blackwood poisoned the entire coven!” Pudences sisters and some of the coven members are saved. The last shot of her shows Prudence beheading Father Blackwood which is not only a  literary representation of what she wants to do to him but also a symbolic rejection of him as a leader and Father. 

So what can we take from this? 

 Prudence’s core character trait is her Faith. It's shown that Prudence has faith in Blackwood despite how many times, he’s let her down, she has faith in her adopted sisters shown by how many times she relies on them, she even starts to have faith in Sabrina. 

My reading of Prudences arch is not one of rejecting Faith. Prudences questions are still rooted in religious doctrine even in her last scene with Blackwell “ why are you running from the Dark Lord?” to Prudence, there is no reason to run from the very figure she devoted her life to even if it means bowing to Sabrina this is the ultimate act of religious piety that makes sense for the girl who bathed in buttermilk to make herself a feast. For Prudence no sacrifice is too great.  

Prudence’s arch seems to one of learning to question the leaders of one’s Faith community and whether they have the best interests of those they claim to want to lead. 

The irony is Prudence is heavily implied to be taught the values of faith, family and community by Blackwood, values which he does not share. As show cased by how he uses both his family members and the coven witches and warlocks for his own personal gain and discarding them when it's convenient.  

It's not his rejection and endangerment of her that causes Prudence to move against him but the reveal of his plans of an incestus union between his own children. Even then there are hints she may of gone with him had he not poisoned the coven. Acting in the same vein as the witch hunters Prudence was told to protect the other students from. 

 It's worth noting Prudence is done with him after he proves a danger to the very coven he’s leading because she does value everything, Blackwood doesn’t and as a person of faith Prudence realizes everything about him is a shame.  So she rejects him. That is why Prudence with her morally ambiguous cunning, faith, self sacrifice, intelligence and value of family  is the true Queen of the Feast of  Feasts. 

[larena]

SWTOR Parties Ranked

Wanted to see which SWTOR parties I liked best as a whole, so decided to do a little ranking of them. This is considering the entire party as a unit, and how many individual characters I feel strongly about.

Imperial Agent - Probably my favourite crew overall. I love every character in it, even if Kaliyo and SCORPIO scare the shit put of me and Lokin creeps me out, they're all fun characters to spend time with and talk to with interesting storylines. Probably gets bonus points for 3/5ths of them going on to be involved in the main plot for everyone. And I really like how they like... Acknowledge each other? There are multiple scenes of the Imperial Agent Crew talking to other members of the crew which is really cool

Trooper - This one I like because everyone has a reason to be there (which is even more than I can say for Agent - SCORPIO, Kaliyo, and possibly even Lokin and Vector can potentially have VERY little reason to stick around), they're all Havoc Squad, and Yuun and Vik are specifically recruited to be so. I also like all of the characters even if Vik, again, is kind of a piece of shit, and Yuun is kinda underdeveloped.

Bounty Hunter - With the major exception of Skadge, I love everyone on this crew. Mako is maybe my favourite starter companion overall, possibly tied with T7, and Blizz is... The best character. My jawa son. 20/10. I really love the BH crew as just this Morley crew of scum and villainy, and DEFINITELY appreciate it for being an Imperial crew with... No actual Imperials. The only points against the Bounty Hunter crew are, again, Skadge, and the fact that Gault, Blizz, and Skadge have very flimsy reasons for joining you (and Gault and Skadge have flimsy reasons for not being dead, depending on how you play your character)

Smuggler - This crew only ranks lower than Bounty Hunter because it doesn't have Blizz. But I like it for a lot of the same reasons I like the BH crew, it's just a gang of criminals trying to get by, again with no official representation from the faction they're ostensibly aligned with. Though Smuggler does again have points against it for having one character I absolutely hate in Corso (sorry Corso fans) who is probably my least favourite starter companion and one of my least favourite characters in the entire game. But it vastly makes up for Corso's dead weight with Risha, Bowdaar, Akaavi, and Guss all being characters I absolutely adore.

Jedi Consular - I like the Consular crew a lot for a lot of the reasons I like the Trooper crew, everyone has a reason to be there. With the exception of Tharan and *maybe* Zenith, it doesn't feel like the game has to strain to justify why any of the characters join your crew, they all have good reasons. The only thing I really have against it is we don't get much of the crew interacting with each other at all. There's a couple missions where they're all involved that are really cool but there isn't necessarily a sense they know each other. Also Tharan isn't as bad as Corso or Doc in terms of gross dude companions but I still... Really don't like him

Sith Inquisitor - Honestly this only goes here because I like the final two less. The Sith Inquisitor crew is... Really directionless? Aside from Khem, who is basically bound to you whether you want him to be or not, and Xalek who is your apprentice, no one really has a good reason to join the Inquisitor? Andronikos goes with you because... You helped him kill a guy I guess. Talos sticks with you because uh... I honestly entirely forget everything about Talos I don't like him very much. And Ashara... Makes sense if you actively corrupt her, I guess, but if you don't I don't really understand why she decides to stay with you forever. And if you do corrupt her the rest of her storyline makes very little sense. Besides Talos who isn't offensive, just kinda boring, and Xalek who I also don't dislike but really suffers from joining on *Corellia* which is later than literally every other character in the game and is literally the last planet, I love all of the Inquisitor companions as individuals I just don't think they really cohere.

Sith Warrior - I really like a lot of the ideas behind the Sith Warrior crew. Vette and (light side) Jaessa are absolutely fantastic characters that I love to death. Quinn is interesting as an extension of how the Warrior kinda has to deal with everyone they trust betraying them even if I hate how you're forced to forgive him, Broonmark is really interesting as a person who is so dogmatically committed to this philosophy of violence and destruction that he feels any member of his race that doesn't must be purged, and... Pierce just sucks, honestly. The Warrior crew isn't incoherent or bad, it's just full of *so* many characters I wish weren't forced to be on it. I understand why the Quinncident happens, and think Quinn's reasons for going through it are at the very least, understandable. But the fact that he HAS to walk out of it alive fucking sucks. I know the technical reasons for it, but I still dislike it. Broonmark is a character that none but the darkest dark side character would *ever* consider letting on their crew, to the point where in his Alliance Alerts it is literally *harder* to recruit him than not, and yet he joins no matter what and is also... Really underdeveloped. Pierce... Is just a fucking grunt. There's really no reason for him to continue to work with you after Taris. He did his job. And he's also... Super boring. Even Vette, who I love, doesn't... Really have a place with the Sith Warrior? Like I guess if you're a piece of shit and keep her a slave, she probably cleans the ship or whatever, but why would you take her into battle? She's a grave robber. I also don't really see how she thematically relates to the Warrior. I do love her though. She's great.

Jedi Knight - It sucks that I dislike the Jedi Knight crew so much because it is one of my favourite class storylines. But it's... Really incoherent to me? Like okay, T7 is there because R2-D2, and also he's my son and I love him. Kira is a fellow Jedi Knight (I refuse to consider her my Padawan, it makes no sense), sure. Doc... Though? Putting aside that I really hate Doc and think he sucks in every way possible, why is he here? I guess every ship needs a doctor except literally only the Trooper gets one. He doesn't really mesh with the themes of the Knight storyline? He doesn't seem like a guy who would even WANT to be on board a Jedis ship. I just don't get why he's there. Rusk, I guess, makes sense cause the Jedi have a connection to the Republic military but it still feels weird for him to be *personally* assigned to your ship and his storyline doesn't really go anywhere after he joins you. Scourge, I get, is the connection to the Revan plotline that has to be there because this is the main story of SWTOR, basically, and he's also directly connected to the emperor, so that all makes sense, I just... Don't like him (sorry Scourge fans). He's not the worst by any means but he's not a super interesting character to me? He's just a super generic Sith who decided the Emperor had to die. He also has absolutely no reason to stick around after the end of the story. Also I'm Petty and he killed the Jedi Exile for some bullshit ass destiny garbage so I really fucking hate him. And the crew as a whole feels maybe the least like a found family. Kira and Scourge have their stuff *after* the class storyline I guess, but it never feels like anyone has any connection to anyone else. They're all just... On the ship, I guess, not interacting.

If you read this far thanks, I have realized now that I'm here that this is a ridiculous endeavor and probably not a great post but I'm gonna post it anyway and I hope at least someone likes this post or agrees with some of it. Sorry again to anyone who is a fan of the characters I trashed (which, I know for Scourge at least is: Most people)

[jbuffyangel]

Weekly Rundown 10/21/18-10/26/18

Time to rundown what I’m watching, loving, hating and everything in between! Spoilers ahead! Full episode reviews and reactions are linked in the titles.

Daredevil Season 3

Just so y’all know - most nuns do not wear their habits in public anymore. It’s been that way since Vatican II, but TV refuses to catch up.

The action is amaaaaazing again. I love how Matt actually gets tired when he’s fighting.

I don’t want Matt to put that ugly Daredevil suit on again he looks ridiculous. Keep the black mask and call it a day.

I want Foggy to propose very badly. I need a Foggy wedding in Season 4.

Is there any particular reason why Karen didn’t haul ass to Frank’s Punisher lair when her life was in danger and Matty Mcbrown eyes was off Daredeviling an existential crisis? That’s where I’d go.

Matt refusing to ask the other Defenders help because “it’s not their fight” is the stupidest reason ever.

Arrow (“The Longbow Hunters”)

It is a bit creepy when Stan says, “I bet a guy like that would do anything to keep his family safe.” Maybe Stan is a nuthouse, but leave me to my dream for now.

Is it me or did Yorke look older than 40? 1978????

Deputy Director Bell is evil. Calling it now.

The Longbow Hunters don’t actually use bows. This is a twist I did not see coming.

Bl*ck S*ren can’t lawyer worth a damn, but she can wear a suit.

“Stay behind me.” That was oddly hot Rene. I’m wildly uncomfortable that I find you attractive right now, but it is what it is.

Rene: Been back in town a week and you’re already sneaking out of A.R.G.U.S. behind Papa Dig’s back? I’m so proud.

Felicity: Thanks man.

This whole exchange was delightful and not remotely derogatory like “Blondie.” THY NAME IS CHARACTER GROWTH.

“Grab your balls Curtis, we’re going in.” If the Rene character only exists to say this one line of dialogue then it was worth it.

Why didn’t BS and Dinah go after the Longbow Hunter? What is up with allowing all these criminals to run away at a moderately brisk pace and our people acting like they can’t catch them? They are called legs! Move your ass!  

BITCH YOU BETTER NOT STEP ON THAT PHOTO!!!!!!!

Legends of Tomorrow  (“The Virgin Gary”)

Legends Season 4 premiere is fantastic and full of all the hi-jinks I’ve missed over hiatus.

“Speaking of the same old crap isn’t that what he did last year?”Legends gets points for acknowledging that Wally gets the storyline shaft a lot.

When you are officially a hero the time bureau gives you a medal, but I was more excited about the balloons.

It would be super weird if the Legends spent more than a day in 2018.

Remember when Oliver asked Sara to move in with him and she went running screaming in the other direction? It all worked out because Sara knew he was really in love with Felicity. I’m just saying she’s come a looooong way.

I want to be clear about one thing and it’s not up for debate. Ready? The best thing about Legends is Mick. It’s always Mick. That is all.

OMG NATE’S FATHER IS BIFF FROM BACK TO THE FUTURE?????!!!!!!!! THIS IS SPECTACULAR CASTING!!!

Manifest “Connecting Flights”

It was nice to fill in the back story of the characters left behind after the plane went missing, however the show is starting to lose my attention. I need more movement on these character relationships. Manifest is hitting a lot of the same notes week after week.

This Is Us (“Toby”)

Randall is going ahead with the city council job? Are they independently wealthy Does no one have to work?

Baby Toby is the cutest.

Holy crap is this how in vitro really works? It’s so friggin expensive and no guarantees. Wow, my sympathies to all those who have gone through this excruciating process.

Randall unbuttoning his shirt is all the reason I need to vote for him. Done deal. 

Toby used his wonderful sense of humor to cheer up his depressed Mom. Ugh my heart.

But for real though sometimes you need just “one damn day.” #MomLife

Three hours to get ready Kate? Just as an FYI - that’s all over when you have a baby. You’ll be lucky to get a shower.

Miguel carried a piano up stairs to cheer Rebecca up. That’s love.

“There’s so much of her in you it scares me.” THAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU SAY TO YOUR CHILD ASSHOLE.

A+ on the prom dresses. Absolutely what I wore in high school. We were fashionista slaves in the late nineties.

Kate’s impression of Adele is dead on.

Miguel tries so hard. He’s just trying to keep his promise to Jack.

Rebecca is such an amazing mom. Kate doesn’t give her nearly enough credit.

KATE IS PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rookie (Pilot” and “Crash Course”)

I really loved The Rookie. I typically don’t hate procedurals, but this one has surprised me thus far. It’s fast paced, so it held my attention more. I hope it stays that way. 

I love how it is the rookies versus the training officers. It fills my Rookie Blue void.

I am not invested in any ships yet. I am not buying the romance between Nolan and Lucy so far. I actually think Lucy has more chemistry with Bradford and Nolan with the Captain.

A Million Little Things (“Friday Night Dinner” and “The Game of Your Life”)

I want to love this show, but they are making it next to impossible. I hate cheating storylines in any show. It’s one of the main reasons I quit watching Shonda Rhimes’ shows because she is unable to write one without including adultery. Arrow’s original love story revolved around cheating and was an absolute mess. It feels like a lazy way to inject drama. This cheating storyline between Eddie and Delilah is making two characters who are otherwise very likable extremely unlikable. 

Instead of jettisoning this plot into the atmosphere where it belongs and never speaking of it again, A Million Little Things is double down on it.  Delilah is pregnant! Oh wonderful, now we get to play “Who’s the Daddy?” for several weeks.

Apparently, the writers come from The Fl*sh school of writing. Characters can only be mad at other characters for one episode. All the friends found out about Eddie and Delilah’s affair and the very next week they are sitting down to pizza. It’s at Delilah’s house and Eddie’s wife Katherine comes too because FRIENDS. No. Just no.

Instead of being angry at Eddie and Delilah, the friends make excuses for them. Regina’s conversation with Delilah turned into a huge “I didn’t see your pain” apology, which is flat out ridiculous. What Delilah did was so off the charts wrong there is no excuse for it. If you are in pain see a therapist. It’s not an excuse to cheat on your husband. Also, Regina you are not to blame for Delilah lying to everyone for over two years. 

Gary, who has been the angriest, decides he’s being too hard on Eddie (ya know by actually holding him accountable for his actions) and lets Eddie move in with him after his wife finally kicked him out. Are you freaking kidding me with this? I was already mildly irked at Gary for giving Delilah a free pass, but I understood his reasoning because her husband just jumped off a building. She has been punished quite a lot. But Eddie? I think we could muster a couple episodes of anger towards Eddie.

The writers attempted drum up sympathy for Delilah by shining a little light on her seemingly perfect marriage with Jon. It’s not really perfect, but what marriage is? Jon was short with Delilah during a family dinner. He took a phone call from work and snapped, “Everything I do is for this family.” What a bastard. Of course, that is reason enough for Delilah to jump into bed with Eddie, her husband’s best friend. GIVE. ME. A. FRIGGIN. BREAK. If my husband slept with someone else every time I was cranky with him, he’d have a harem.

So, on top of being suicide apologists, the writers are adding cheating apologists. There is no reason to cheat. It’s just mean. Nobody has put a gun to your head. If you want out of your marriage you march to an attorney’s office and file for divorce. Not sure if you want a divorce? Then go to counseling. But cheating, under any circumstances, is wrong. It’s cruel and selfish. It’s trying to have your cake and eat it too. A Million Little Things trying to excuse away Eddie and Delilah’s heinous behavior is almost as bad as the cheating itself. Trying to make suicide and cheating okay with excuses is dangerous behavior. I AM NOT A FAN.

Stray Thought - on what planet is a school program presented in the middle of the freaking day? What kind of ridiculous school do Eddie and Katherine send their son to?

Blindspot (“The Quantico Affair”) 

Zapata has a very interesting running stride. Sorry I was in cross country. That stuff interests me

Roman saying "He knows. This is it. Kill him" underscores the dramatic tension.

I’m gonna need someone on Team Blindspot to pick up on Remi's side eye. Y'all are FBI agents for goodness sake.

I don't actually know what Patterson's name is, but I feel confident it is not Lisa.

I think Martin Gero saw me write "Where is Patterson's storyline?" in my last review. I could have opted for patience, but complaining loudly via written word felt like a better plan. 

Hey watch the condemnation Remi aka Jane aka double secret agent who told so many lies I can't keep it straight anymore.

OMG Rich not explaining how the tattoo was solved is the best thing ever. PLEASE DO THIS EVERY WEEK

I wanna talk about the Book of Secrets mostly because Rich calls it the Book of Secrets.

Hahaha. Her one night stand showed up at work. This is how Meredith and McDreamy began. I highly recommend elevator scenes too.

One night stand boy is Weitz's nephew. IT. JUST. GOT. BETTER

Sure Madeline come on in and check out our super secret tattoo murder board.

"Thundercats ho!" OMG was that an ad lib?

Totally ship Patterson and this dude. I should probably learn his name.

Somebody tell Rich about the one night stand. Pleeeeeeeease.

I'm not calling him Lincoln. He shall be known as "Slab of Man-Ham" forevermore.

Patterson and Rich are the perfect work wife/husband team. Remember Rich is the work wife

How does Weitz maintain employment? This may be the greatest of all Blindspot's mysteries.

Of course "Jane" and Weller are on the train Weitz. IT'S THEIR JOB. Seriously someone get this dude a DVD of #Blindspot S1-S3

Patterson girl, Jane is never that cranky with you when she's diffusing bombs. SOMEBODY NOTICE PERSONALITY CHANGES PLEASE!!!

"You're new here." ALL KNEEL TO PATTERSON.

[mittensmorgul]

Rewatching 4.03, and feeling the sense of horrifying futility combined with the horrifying urgency of fighting against destiny. The entire premise for Dean being sent back to 1973 proved a false assumption by the end of the episode:

DEAN is dreaming. We see flashes of his terrified face, in red, and the sound of screams. He wakes to find CASTIEL sitting on his bed. CASTIEL: Hello, Dean. What were you dreaming about? DEAN: What, do you get your freak on by watching other people sleep? What do you want? CASTIEL: Listen to me. You have to stop it. DEAN: Stop what? CASTIEL puts two fingers to DEAN's forehead.

There’s the first “STOP IT” Dean’s charged with. He’s given no further information, thrown into a baffling situation, and left to his own devices at the mercy of the entire situation:

CASTIEL: Time is fluid, Dean. It's not easy, but we can bend it on occasion. DEAN: Well bend it back or tell me what the hell I'm doing here! CASTIEL: I told you, you have to stop it. DEAN: Stop what? Huh? What, is there something nasty after my Dad? [DEAN turns as a car horn sounds. When he turns back, CASTIEL is gone.] Oh, come on! What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch?!

And Cas again gives him that instruction, to “STOP IT.” We feel Dean’s frustration, but his own curiosity about his parents drives him to insert himself into the events of their lives, from following John to the car dealership and convincing him to buy the Impala all the way to discovering Mary and her family’s lives as hunters. But he still has no idea what he’s been ordered to “stop.” He’s been shoved into a situation he has no reference for and the demand is made for him to intervene and prevent some unknown event. Frustration intensifies. :P

Strangely enough, our next “STOP IT” comes not from Cas, but from John Winchester. While Dean’s questioning him at the car dealership, Dean’s floundering while trying to understand this entire bizarre situation he’s found himself in, so he defaults to what he knows in an attempt to find his feet here:

DEAN: I've been hung over before but, hey, I was, I was getting chills in that diner. You didn't feel any of those cold spots, did you? JOHN: Nope. DEAN: I swore I smelled something weird too, you know? Like... like rotten eggs. You didn't happen to smell any sulfur by chance? JOHN: No. DEAN: No... There been any cattle mutilations in town recently? JOHN: Okay, mister! Stop it. DEAN: Yeah, if only I knew what to stop. Listen, uh – watch out for yourself okay?

Poor Dean, he leaves this confrontation feeling no less confused and frustrated than he’d been before. He even acknowledges that this is becoming a theme for his day, “if only I knew what to stop.”

After discovering the Campbell family, that they’re hunters, and that clues from John’s journal about the history of Azazel’s involvement in what happened in Sam’s nursery in 1983, linking it back to events that happened in Lawrence in 1973 (conveniently within DAYS of when Dean had been sent back in time), he thinks he may have hit upon his reason for having been sent there. Maybe this is the thing he’s been sent back to stop...

Dean knows from his own experience where the Colt is (Daniel Elkins had it in Colorado, and Dean had visited the man’s house after he was killed in 1.20), so he puts his Major Play into action, thinking he has a real chance to stop Azazel before he has a chance to destroy his family.

DEAN: I know you guys think I'm crazy. SAMUEL: You seem like a really nice kid, Dean, but yeah, you're crazy. DEAN: Yeah, maybe, but I know where this bastard's gonna be, and I'm gonna stop it, once and for all.

But wow, wouldn’t that be something. Dean’s entire life would’ve been different if he’d managed to stop THAT, you know? 

DEAN: Alright, if I do this, then the family curse breaks, right? Mom and Dad live happily ever after, and – and, Sam and I grow up playing little league and chasing tail? CASTIEL: You realize, if you do alter the future, your father, you, Sam – you'll never become hunters. And all those people you saved, they'll die. DEAN: I realize. CASTIEL: And you don't care? DEAN: Oh, I care. I care a lot, but these are my parents. I'm not gonna let them die again. I can't. No, not if I can stop it.

Before we move on to the conclusion, there were two other events in this episode that involved this concept, but as they related to the story as opposed to how they related to Dean’s involvement specifically, and are worth mentioning:

The boy, Charlie, who Dean and Mary interviewed in the guise of a priest after his father had been killed. Charlie had made a deal (unbeknownst to him) with a yellow-eyed demon, because that demon had promised that his father’s drunken beatings would end:

CHARLIE: Did I want the beatings to stop? I just thought he was crazy, I didn't think – and the next thing I know, Dad's dead. Am I going to jail?

He just wanted the Bad Thing to stop (which ended up leading him into something far worse, the consequences of which he couldn’t even BEGIN to imagine...).

Next we have Dean’s confrontation with Daniel Elkins over his “borrowing” the Colt. It led Dean to make this ultimatum:

DEAN: Look, I have a chance to save my family’s lives. My family. But I need this gun to do it. So if you want to stop me? Kill me.

That’s pretty dramatic there, Deano. So the only way to “stop it” in this instance was really an untenable threat.

After all of these events, after Cas boops him back to the present, Dean feels like a failure, that the whole mission was futile. No matter what he did, he couldn’t stop anything, but Cas also finally reveals the truth:

DEAN: I couldn't stop any of it. She still made the deal. She still died in the nursery, didn't she? CASTIEL: Don't be too hard on yourself. You couldn't have stopped it. DEAN: What? CASTIEL: Destiny can't be changed, Dean. All roads lead to the same destination. DEAN: Then why'd you send me back? CASTIEL: For the truth. Now you know everything we do.

The whole point wasn’t about stopping anything, it was about understanding and knowledge. Which makes the last command Castiel issues to Dean at the end of the episode feel particularly weighty and inevitable:

CASTIEL: We know what Azazel did to your brother. What we don't know is why – what his endgame is. He went to great lengths to cover that up. DEAN: Where's Sam? CASTIEL: 425 Waterman. You brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean, and we're not sure where it leads. So stop it. Or we will. 

And right there we have the inevitability of the apocalypse laid out for us in this one tiny order. STOP IT.

Of course Dean couldn’t stop it alone. It took Castiel finally rejecting the “destiny” set forth in Heaven, it took Sam eventually choosing to say yes to Lucifer and finding it within himself to overpower that destiny through sheer force of will, and it took Dean refusing to say yes to Michael who was the ultimate symbol of Heaven’s inflexible rejection of free will. It took all of them in order to eventually overcome destiny, and to finally stop it.

Way back in 4.03, though, they didn’t even have a complete understanding of everything they’d need to stop in the first place. This right here was stone number one in building that understanding that would eventually give them firm enough footing to wrangle that destiny around to their will.