#i focused too much on the colonial assassins

[teecupangel]

OG anon of the Reborned Desmond in Unity. I'm mighty proud that my ideas spur you fun writing. I'll confess you a secret, I'm also og anons of the ideas I've sent you prior but I don't wanna have you see me aggressive or pushy because I enjoy your content immensely (I had bad experiences of people's harsh words in irl and online on my personality). Anyway, it's similar in Unity idea. What if Desmond is reborned in AC Rogue, like became Shay's childhood friend or Liam's older or younger brother. Or possibly in a time earlier so can Desmond be established in Brotherhood maybe master assassin for Connor's happiness. Haytham's confusion and frustration in some point in the plot that Desmond won't kill him but has a look of a disappointed or pained look of a family member and Lisbon is saved. Desmond and Shay could become platonic soulmates or slow burn childhood friends to lovers (up to you) or better yet Desmond unintentionally became mentor (he was supposed just be an assassin in the background damn it lmao) and Shay is like a bodyguard or right hand which had these intense sexual tension between the two. Sorry for messy and long ask

Ah, well, I don’t see a problem with your personality and I like the ideas you throw at me. To be fair, I do try to limit my time with everyone’s asks to a certain time so I can still write. So if you don’t see an answer, that only means it’s been pushed to next day or something.

Alright, let’s think about how to make this work.

As usual, we’ll keep the same limitation as the Unity AU one

Desmond remembers his life as Desmond Miles

Desmond will have his ancestors’ memories and skills but those memories will be vague

So he either gets reborn as Shay’s childhood friend or Liam’s older/younger brother. Since Liam is Shay’s childhood friend, we can combine the two and make Desmond’s Shay’s childhood friend who is also Liam’s sibling.

Now, according to AC wiki, Liam was Achilles’ first acolyte and it was Liam who also recruited the rest of the Colonial Assassins. He’s pretty much Achilles’ second in command and maybe even being groomed as the next mentor.

In this scenario, Desmond and Liam would both be inducted into the Brotherhood together (whether we keep the whole “Liam’s father got executed to save his son” part of his backstory is up to you, nonny) with Desmond being more of Liam’s shadow. Many will see him as the little bird who whispers in Liam’s ear. Everyone in the Brotherhood knows that if you want Liam on your side, you get Desmond on your side.

We’ll get to Shay later as we need to talk about how Desmond’s inclusion would affect the Colonial Brotherhood as a whole.

Achilles Davenport

Desmond would still remember how Ratonhnhaké:ton thought of him as a father-figure. He also remembers how Achilles sometimes treated Ratonhnhaké:ton like a stubborn child so he has mixed feelings for Achilles. What he does remember is that Achilles’ family would die. Here’s where we get a bit creative with this. Desmond doesn’t have actual medical know-how. What he did had was a Shaun who was more than happy to explain what killed Achilles’ family and how that could have been prevented, which literally boils down to “cleanliness”.

So, in this scenario, Desmond is kind of a clean freak. People assume it’s because he used to live in a dirty place and Liam never tried to correct them that Desmond had always been a clean freak since they were children. The homestead is always clean, especially the kitchen. Achilles learned to live with it because his son loves the ‘wash your hands’ song that Desmond taught him. In this case, Abigail and Connor live and that means that Achilles would be ‘milder’ than his canon characterization. (Maybe Abigail even treats all of Achilles' students like her children as well?)

Hope Jensen

The main difference for Hope in this scenario is how she controls her gangs. Desmond knows it would be impossible to stop crimes from happening but his words and his adherence to the Creed would resonate with Hope. Instead of having something akin to a Proto-Rooks, Hope would be in charge of something similar to how the media portrayed the golden age of the mafia. They’re criminals, yes, and they sell illegal shit but they’re organized and they have a code. They protect the people in their district and take care of crimes not their own. In exchange, the people (and maybe even the police) look the other way when they do illegal stuff. (Hope becomes a mix of Vito Corleone and Red Hood in this scenario… does this mean Desmond accidentally created the mafia in New York during the 18th century?)

Kesegowaase

Not much would change for Kesegowaase although he would consider Desmond as a close friend. They’re also hunting buddies and Kesegowaase would notice how many of Desmond’s movements are very similar to him or to other tribes that he knows of. Desmond would just wave it off as a coincidence or maybe even say “I had a great teacher”. Kesegowaase would seesaw between thinking Desmond had been trained by one of his people (or one of the other tribes) and thinking Desmond may have been blessed by one of their spirits.

Louis-Joseph Gaultier

Oooohhhh bbooyy. This one… okay. So… Gaultier will be the one that keeps butting heads with Desmond. A lot. Desmond would even argue against his inclusion as he sees Gaultier as violent and arrogant but Achilles will argue that his connection with the French army made him invaluable. Even his suggestion of just keeping Gaultier as an ‘ally’ would be denied because Achilles sees how loyal he is. “He is loyal to a master, not to the Creed!” will be Desmond’s main argument. So there are a lot of times that he and Gaultier would argue on what it means to be an Assassin and what the Creed means. Gaultier would emphasize on Desmond’s Irish immigrant heritage to belittle his knowledge about the Creed and Desmond will argue that blood doesn’t matter. On the flip side, Desmond’s constant arguments with Gaultier and critiquing of Gaultier’s actions make all the other Assassins have a better understanding of the Creed and what it means to be an Assassin.

Liam O'Brien

Honestly, I think Desmond should be his younger brother, mainly because that would make Desmond be of a similar age as Shay and because Liam just has big bro-vibes. Just imagine him being a protective older brother who likes to tease Desmond. In this scenario, Liam would feel responsible for Desmond’s safety (especially if we do decide that their father still dies for Liam’s mistakes) and he’s a bit overprotective at times which Desmond finds both tiring and also makes him feel warm inside. Liam would also be torn whenever Desmond and Achilles would butt heads. On one hand, Achilles is like a father to him, on the other hand, Liam also knows his brother long enough to understand that everything Desmond does is for what he believed is right. Achilles may have been the one to choose Liam to be an Assassin but Liam knows that it’s Desmond who embodies what being an Assassin is supposed to be.

And now, we get to Shay Cormac.

Shay met Liam first and Liam was the one to introduce Desmond to him. Desmond has no memories of Shay at all since, even before the memories of his Bleed took a hit, his memories of Haytham stopped before Haytham met Shay. Not only that but Achilles never told Ratonhnhaké:ton anything. All Desmond knew is that the Colonial Brotherhood will be destroyed by the Templars while Ratonhnhaké:ton was young. So he grew up treating Shay as a friend. They separated due to their family situations but Liam later reunites with Shay and invites him to the Brotherhood.

And this is where Shay gets hit.

Growing up, he saw Desmond more as Liam’s little brother. A small kid that Shay needs to keep an eye on because he can be a little strange and has a mischievous streak that no one would believe. Shay has lost count of how many times Desmond had made some asshole’s life hell without anyone realizing it was him.

So when he heard Desmond was one of the high-ranking members of the Brotherhood, he wasn’t surprised. Desmond had always been a sneaky little shit.

Then…

He saw Desmond as a young adult for the first time, maybe while he’s looking over reports Hope was showing him concerning the current situation in New York, and Shay just…

Stared.

Desmond as a child was cute. Maybe a little too thin but that was unfortunately normal for them. He always wore Liam’s old clothes which were too big for him.

But Desmond in his Assassin robes? Wearing clothes that actually fit him? Having grown up into a fit young man?

Shay gets hit hard. And Desmond is simply too happy to see him again to see it.

But Hope notices it.

And Liam freaking notices it too.

And now Shay doesn’t have to just deal with his growing affection for an oblivious Desmond. He has to deal with Hope’s teasing and Liam’s seesawing erratically between teasing him and threatening to eviscerate him. Shay’s crush is going to be the worst kept secret in the homestead that even little Connor Davenport knows about it.

But Desmond doesn’t.

Why?

Because Desmond is too focused dealing with the whole Kenway drama at the moment.

Because no matter who Desmond gets reborn to… He will always prioritize the three men he cared for the most.

And, at this point, Haytham Kenway was already in America (but Desmond has no idea where) and there were even slow ongoing talks of an alliance with Ratonhnhaké:ton’s tribe that Desmond has taken charge of.

And this is where I go back to my try-and-tested idea of Desmond spending lots of time with baby!Ratonhnhaké:ton and being bff with Kaniehtí:io. (*whispers*Ratonhnhaké:ton and Connor Davenport being brothers *whispers*)

But let’s focus on the first part of Rogue for this one.

One way for Desmond to learn that Achilles is messing with Isu bs is thanks to Hope. Hope and Shay were the ones to be ordered to find and analyze the precursor box and either of them could tell Desmond about it but, at this point, Shay is still ‘new’ and may be trying to get some brownie points from Achilles. On the other hand, Hope has long been converted to Desmond’s side and would definitely tell Desmond about all of these because she’s heard of how dangerous these items are from Desmond himself.

Desmond would strongarm his way to being part of the mission and might even sneak into Morrigan as a stowaway and only show himself when they were nearing Lisbon. Thanks to Desmond’s ‘affinity’ with POEs, Lisbon will definitely not happen (hell, we can even use some of the plot points from A Pirate's Son for this part XD) and the second part of Rogue would be changed to Desmond and Shay trying to secure all the other POEs in the manuscript they have.

And… maybe they start getting close during their travels and something develops between them during that time… (nudgenudgenudge)

Sidenote: This is also a bit similar to the idea I was thinking of based on @twitcherpated’s suggestion in AO3 of Desmond being reborn as the actual Connor Davenport. The only difference is that Desmond would be a bit young in that one and won’t be able to stop Lisbon but, even if he’s young, he can still comfort Shay and stop him from doing anything drastic while still in shock.

[ruleofbirds]

𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚕𝚘𝚐_𝟶𝟷.𝟷

Kia Ora, Te Ao!

Hello, World! It's official - Robbie has a tumblr now. Absolutely unfathomable. Honestly, it's mostly because it was this or Wordpress (or a more obscure indie dev forum) and this seemed the most accessible and quirky. I'm sure this won't lead to another awful endless scrolling habit. Any advice for the visual side of things is warmly received! I want this blog to be a fun part of the week, because a lot of fun will be had developing RoB. Just realised that acronym happens to be my name. Could be worse.

Okay! Now that the initial ramble into the void is out of the way, it's time to get into the c o n c e p t.

This tumblr is a devlog for my NZ ecosystem simulator currently titled "rule of birds", which I will be working on for the next 8 weeks as part of Blackbird Foundation's "Protostars" program. This means a weekly check-in with the other creatives in the program, the organizers at Blackbird, and a post for all of you here.

I'm breaking this week's post into 3 sections just to cover the bases;

01.1 -a bit about my creative practice and how it led to this project

01.2 -a discussion of "flocking" in programming (using p5.js)

01.3 -a discussion of NZ natural history

So here's the intro post, where I ramble about myself for a sec.

So! basically, I specialize in spatial design, I love working with anything nature-related, and I want to make a video game.

Lately I've been on a tangent based around art in NZ's cultural context - the design principles behind whakairo (Maori woodcarving) and how their composition conveys meaning, how histories of spirituality, tribal and colonial relations affected design, and my own art interpreting my natural surroundings with photography and charcoal drawing. I can neither confirm nor deny whether there will be an art zine compiling a wee bit of this work on the community table at the Whanganui Zinefest this Saturday.

That tangent branched off into a focus on natural history that's the keystone of rule of birds. My motivation for focusing on an ecosystem simulator is to articulate a basis for the sort of games I want to come out of Aotearoa. The sim will be the proof of concept - and I suppose this blog will be the manifesto.

I feel like there's a massive demand for games exploring NZ history - like, imagine a big-budget maori-led release set in pre-colonial time, with all the unique aspects of survival, resource management and day to day activity that involved - or an assassin's creed type action game based during the time of Te Kooti. It goes unsaid that Kupe is one of the best parts of Sid Meier's Civilization VI - iykyk.

What I think separates a good game from a great one is how alive the virtual world feels - rather than being led through an a-to-b progression of events presented in the same visual style I've seen countless times before, if the world can react in a dynamic way, and the details in the background are crafted to feel organic and immersive, I'm going to want to stop and wander off the beaten track that an objective marker may be pointing me towards.

The last game that caught my attention in this way - and coincidentally the one that made me want to put my coding knowledge to the test with gamedev - was, of course, Rain World. To everyone who knows me, I'm sure you're surprised I've made it three paragraphs without bringing this game up. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, because there is *a lot*, but key points are you are one creature among many scavenging for food in a brutal biomechanical ecosystem, hibernating between cycles of cataclysmic rain, and the game plays like basically nothing else due to how the coded behaviour of every entity in the world follows its own logic that has much more to do with its own survival than the experience of you as a player.

Here's a nice little illustration of the physics behind a movement-sensing tentacle monster, to give a sort of discrete example - but the creatures that act according to behavioural karma systems and the dynamics of how the different lizards scuffle and coordinate with each other is worth looking into too, if this is your thing.

(Source: GDC, Curious Archive)

Now, I really want to jump into some of this behavioural coding stuff, so I'm just going to move on to collecting things for the next post - hope this has been an interesting read! if you somehow found this page in your tumblr algorithm, welcome! I'll also be posting bits on the instagram page @robbiek_devlogs and you can check out my other work on my main insta @robbiek_art

Hei kōnā mai,

Robbie K

Next up: simulation in coding, natural history research post #1

Next week: Adventures in Godot Engine!

[bard-llama]

WiP Wednesday: Early S3 AU

I decided I wanted to figure out how to make Zuko join the Gaang after Ba Sing Se but before the Invasion, so here’s what I came up with lol

After the war meeting in which the Fire Lord had proclaimed that they would burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, Zuko had to get away from the palace. He knew he was too transparent, knew that if he lingered, his doubts would be visible and Father would be disappointed again and Azula would torment him and–

So. He left. He found a minor official duty to carry out far, far away from the capital. Touring the secure prison facilities of Fire Fountain City was one of those duties that everyone always put off, but was technically important, so getting approval for his trip was both easy and did not require speaking to his father face to face, for which he was grateful.

Zuko wore his heavy official robes and was shadowed by two royal guards as he followed the local Fire Fountain City guard through the jail. To be honest, he wasn’t paying that much attention, more focused on the screaming in his brain that had been there ever since Father had seriously decreed that they were going to burn down the Earth Kingdom.

Why!? What was the point of it!? Three and a half million people lived in the Earth Kingdom, including their own citizens! The Fire Nation colonies were in the Earth Kingdom, and Father hadn’t said anything specifically about them, but–

And for what? What good did burning the land they conquered do them!?

Why had everyone in that war room cheered for this plan!? Were they all insane!?

Zuko knew better than to speak out, but holding his tongue in that moment had been the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He was the only one who hadn’t burst into applause after Father’s speech (though he’d forced himself to join in, so as not to attract undue attention).

Not a single other person on that war council had appeared to object to this plan in the slightest. How could that be!? What was wrong with them!?

He swallowed hard, recentering himself before he could lose control in front of the guards. He would – he would figure out something. There had to be a way to do something. There had to be.

“Up ahead, we have a specially-ordered wooden cell, to contain two very valuable prisoners,” the Fire Fountain City guard was saying when Zuko tuned back in. “There’s–”

He was cut off by an explosion and Zuko instinctively bent the flames away from them, moving into a battle stance. Two figures emerged from the cell and it took a moment for Zuko to recognize them through the smoke, but the piercing glare of Katara’s eyes was more than familiar.

“You!” Katara snarled.

“Katara,” the little earthbender girl, Toph, hissed. “We gotta find Aang before Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Man does!”

Zuko blinked as Katara nodded to her companion and then pulled water from somewhere, sending ice spikes at Zuko. He batted them aside with a burst of flame, but when his vision cleared, they were both gone.

“Wait!” He called out without thinking about it, running after them. The legend was that the Avatar was the only one who could stop the Fire Lord. That meant the Avatar needed to know how urgently that was needed.

“Your Highness!” one of his guards shouted after him and Zuko tore off the ornate outer robes, throwing them into the guards’ faces for long enough to elude them. The last thing he needed was them getting in the way.

Now with a freer range of motion, Zuko ran after Katara and Toph. It didn’t take long to catch up, especially not when the two he was following ran into their two missing compatriots. At the sight of him, they all sank into attack positions, but for once, he didn’t want to fight them.

Before he could say as much, the air around the Avatar sparked and exploded and he dove out of the way, running with his friends behind him.

Shit. Zuko knew he’d forgotten something.

The assassin he had hired followed after the Avatar and his friends and Zuko chased him without thought.

“Wait!” he yelled. “Stop! I order you to stop!”

The assassin did actually still, and for a second, Zuko really thought–

Then the assassin turned, eyes fixing on Zuko. It took a moment too long for Zuko to recognize the way the air crackled and he crossed his arms in front of his face, bending as much of the explosion as he could away.

It wasn’t enough and he was sent flying back, slamming into a wall. The last thing he thought before the world went black was fuck, feels like broken ribs.

––

Sokka did not know what was happening. It was not a feeling he enjoyed. All he knew was that Toph and Katara had been gone for too long on their scam, and when he and Aang went searching for them, they found the entire city seemingly abandoned.

Then the explosions had started.

Running into Katara and Toph – almost literally – was a relief, but he had no idea where they came from. That relief quickly soured as he caught sight of who was chasing after them.

“Zuko,” he snarled, holding his boomerang at the ready.

Another explosion went off, far too close to them and Sokka decided that maybe Zuko wasn’t such a significant concern right now. Not dying needed to be the priority.

Then, for some reason, Zuko shouted at Sparky-Sparky-Boom-Man – you know, maybe Combustion Man would be better – ordering him to stop.

Suddenly there was an explosion where Zuko was, and then there was a too-loud thud as Zuko collided with the closest wall.

Sokka had just a few seconds to take that in before the air around them was exploding again. He ran, making sure his friends stayed together and pushing Zuko from his mind.

They dodged around the city, trying to outrun Combustion Man, but they weren’t having much luck. They did get a small lead when Toph threw a boulder in front of an explosion and the shrapnel hit Combustion Man as well, but it wasn’t enough.

Somehow, they ended up near the wall that had a Zuko-shaped imprint. Zuko himself was leaning against the concave wall, one hand over his ribs, the other helping him stand. He definitely looked like he’d had better days and Sokka once again dismissed him from his thoughts. Right now, Combustion Man was the significant threat.

Speaking of…

Combustion Man had somehow managed to get ahead of them and he jumped down in front of them, his metal feet stomping into the cobblestone.

Fuck. Sokka and his friends backed, but all they had at their back was Zuko and a wall, and this was very, very bad.

“Aim for the eye,” a hoarse voice said and Sokka blinked.

“What?”

“Aim for the eye on his forehead. Disrupt his chi. Hurry!”

With a shrug at his companions, Sokka threw his boomerang because really, he had no better ideas.

He managed to score a hit, but it didn’t seem like it really did much other than stun Combustion Man, because he shook himself and inhaled, ready to explode them. Only it was the air around him that crackled and popped and–

“Duck!” Zuko shouted, and then there was a loud whoosh and fwoom and heat washed over Sokka’s back where he was curled around Toph, instinctively shielding her head. But the pain he was expecting never came and when Sokka glanced up, he saw Zuko with his arms spread, containing the explosion in a way he hadn’t known firebending could do.

Finally, it was over and Zuko slumped back against the wall, hugging his midriff. Sokka stood slowly, helping Toph up – and actually being permitted to do so – and checking on Aang and Katara. Everyone seemed to be okay.

Where Combustion Man had been, the cobblestone and the walls were charred black. There was… something lying in the ash, but if Sokka looked too closely, he was going to end up throwing up.

He made sure Aang didn’t look that way. He didn’t need to see that.

Instead, Sokka turned them to face Zuko, who… wasn’t actually attacking. Although, from the way he was holding his ribs, it was possible he couldn’t attack.

Still, Sokka was ready. They surrounded Zuko, all in defensive positions, but Zuko held out his free hand.

“I’m not here to fight you,” he said.

“Then why are you here?” Katara demanded.

Zuko licked his lips, then blurted out, “you have to stop him.”

“What?”

“You – you have to stop him,” Zuko repeated. “You have to stop my Father. You’re the only one who can.”

Sokka shared a confused glance with Aang and Katara.

“I thought you were on your Father’s side,” Aang said slowly.

“I am,” Zuko said immediately. “But – he’s planning to burn down the Earth Kingdom!”

“What!?”

“He’s – he’s gone crazy. They’ve all gone crazy!” Zuko continued, unscarred eye wide with something like panic. “They want to burn three point five million people to the ground!”

Sokka stared, speechless. The others didn’t seem much better either.

“He’s not lying,” Toph murmured quietly.

“Why are you warning us?” Katara asked suspiciously.

Zuko just shook his head. “Our colonies are in the Earth Kingdom! There’s thousands and thousands of civilians who have nothing to do with the war. You can’t let them burn.”

Before they could say anything, there was a shout of “Prince Zuko!” and pounding footsteps approached them. Shit.

Interestingly, Zuko appeared just as concerned about the approach as they were – and then he hissed quietly, “take me hostage.”

“What!?”

“Hurry!”

Sokka stared at Zuko, baffled, but then the guards were upon them and Toph had never needed telling twice when it came to following a bad idea.

“Back off!” she yelled, creating a sharp spike of stone and moving it to rest against Zuko’s throat.

“Your Highness!” the guards cried out, horrified. Zuko didn’t move.

Belatedly, Sokka shook himself and moved to actually restrain Zuko, holding his boomerang to Zuko’s throat, because maybe Toph had it covered, but he needed to do something.

Zuko did not resist in the slightest.

“If you come after us, we’ll kill your Prince!” Toph threatened, edging backwards. Aang blew the bison whistle frantically and they all edged away around the corner – and then bolted, Zuko easily freeing himself from Sokka’s grasp, but running with them anyway.

Appa landed in front of them and they all scrambled up into the saddle, Zuko seemingly encountering no issue with jumping from the ground, even though even Aang could only do that with airbending.

As soon as they were all on Appa, they took flight, and they could see the guards trying to follow them, but before long, they were out of sight.

Aang brought them to the first abandoned little island they could find and as soon as they landed, they all fell to the ground in relief. Except for Zuko, who landed lightly on his toes and immediately began pacing, swearing under his breath as he pulled his hair, ruffling the fancy topknot.

“Uh.” Sokka shared a confused look with Aang and Katara. This was not how confrontations with Zuko were supposed to go.

“Aren’t your ribs broken?” Toph asked eventually.

Zuko barely paused, just muttering, “had worse. I really need to stop getting blown up.”

“I’m sorry, what!?”

Zuko didn’t answer, going back to his pacing. Mostly he seemed to be repeating “fuck” to himself, so Sokka didn’t feel bad interrupting again.

“What the fuck is going on?” he demanded.

Zuko started rambling. “If the guards heard anything, they think I’m a traitor and I’m dead. If they didn’t… then they think I’m a hostage and will report it to my father. He probably won’t care much, ‘cause if I can’t free myself, what good am I? But if they report that you’re alive, then I’m dead anyway, because Azula told him I killed you. Also they probably think we murdered the assassin, which is not great, but better than being dead, so–”

“Hold up,” Sokka held up a hand. “First off, whose side are you on?”

“I don’t know!” Zuko said, pulling on his own hair. “He’s – he’s crazy! He – how can anyone think that’s a good idea!? But they did! All of them! The entire war council cheered at the idea of fucking genocide and–”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Toph said. “I think we need more context here. What’s going on, Sparky?”

Zuko stopped, blinking. “...Sparky?”

“Would you prefer Princey?”

“Definitely not,” Zuko said immediately. “Um. So, okay, yesterday, there was an important war council meeting. I was invited to attend.” He swallowed hard, breathing shaky. “The – the Generals reported that there were still earthbender rebellions that were causing trouble in the Earth Kingdom. They recommended sending more troops, but – my Father asked me if I thought sending more troops would help. And I – all I said was that the people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong and can endure anything as long as they have hope. But Father took that to mean we need to destroy their hope and then Azula suggested burning everything down and everyone applauded and Sozin’s Comet is coming and millions of people live in the Earth Kingdom! They’ve all gone crazy!”

Zuko’s frantic words fell over themselves as he spewed them out, clearly stressed and panicked. They’d never seen him like this before and frankly, it was weird. Where was the shouty, fire-happy asshole they knew and despised?

This guy in front of them almost seemed human.

“Zuko,” Aang interrupted Zuko’s tirade. “Breathe.”

Zuko sucked in a loud breath and let it out slowly. “What do we do?”

“‘We’!?”

“The Avatar is the only one who can stop the Fire Lord,” Zuko said casually. “And he has to be stopped. They all have to be stopped.”

“Are you… asking to join us?” Toph said slowly.

“No! Yes! I don’t know!” he threw his hands up in the air, then tugged on his hair again. “How can they all have gone crazy!? What is wrong with them!?”

“So… to be clear, you are not in favor of genocide?” Sokka asked.

“Of course not!” Zuko burst out, sounding offended.

“Okay, just gotta check,” Sokka held his hands out placatingly. “‘Cause you know, this isn’t exactly a new thing for the Fire Nation.”

Zuko stared at him. “What?”

Katara scoffed. “If you’re so opposed, why didn’t you say anything? If you really thought it was wrong, you would have spoken out.”

Face twisting with anger, Zuko snarled, “oh, forgive me for wanting to keep the other half of my face!”

Sokka blinked. “Wait, what!?”

Zuko blinked. “What?”

“What the fuck did you mean, about your face?”

“...oh.” Zuko looked like he’d swallowed something that wriggled. “You don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“When – when I was thirteen, I spoke out in a war council meeting,” Zuko said, voice shaking slightly.

[andejoe]

I felt the touch of something smaller hiding under my desk. I didn’t move or react. This was a normal occurrence for me. Once the being got settled, the weird bumpy human skin touched mine and secured our telepathic link.

But the link was, off. Something was wrong.

‘Graham, what’s the matter?’

‘The Great Hunt is on.’

Images flickered through my mind as Graham thought of them.

Bounty Hunters and assassins of all species were gathered in secret rooms. Pictures of beings with numbers listed next to them lined a wall.

I glanced around to make sure no one else could see or hear, although I knew images could only be shared through touch.

‘That is highly illegal. How are you aware of this?’

‘I have a past. It seems that past is finally catching up to me.’

The wall of beings grew larger, focusing on one poster. Graham. It had the largest number next to it.

‘What does the number mean?’

A different but equally dingy room appeared, filled with beings I’d be terrified to see, much less be near. A cloaked being held an envelope in a clawed hand. A rough hand drawn scoreboard was visible behind him.

I shook my head slightly to clear the image.

‘I get it. Each number is a score. Whoever earns the most points wins. But this is a highly illegal activity. What’s in the envelope that makes it worth the risk?’

Graham was eerily silent and still. Finally he shared another vision.

The clawed hand extended the envelope and a dark glove took it. It was opened to reveal Prexa dust. The envelope was closed gently so as to not disturb the dust.

‘That’s enough Prexa to buy you’re own colony.’

‘Or one wasteful month at Disney Planet,’ Graham agreed.

‘But why are you on that list?’

The black gloved figure set the envelope down on the edge of a sink. Grey brown eyes stared back as he removed his mask. A younger, more haggard Graham stared back.

‘Because I’m the last winner. And in that profession, you don’t get to just retire.’

‘Wait, they don’t know you’re on this ship do they? We don’t have the weaponry to defend ourselves from an onslaught of assassins.’

‘Don’t worry my friend. When they come for me, all you have to do is stay calm.’

I glanced around again, as if expecting the attack now.

‘We need to tell the Captain.’

I blinked, several times. Someone screamed. The sudden darkness wasn’t a vision, it was the lights being disengaged.

‘Too late. Stay calm my friend. I will not abandon my retirement so easily.’

Graham vanished from my senses.

[blog-of-hubris]

Bearing it all for the World to Witness - Takako Uro

Character analysis on Uro, the culling game player I am the most interested in thus far. *DISCLAIMER* This is MY personal meta on Uro. You can feel free to agree or disagree, nothing I feel is necessarily FACT. Anywho, enjoy! 

Who is Takako Uro

Takako Uro is one of the newest characters introduced in the Culling Game arc of Jujutsu Kaisen and is probably one of if not my favorite new character introduced. We meet her in the highly volatile Sendai Colony, where she is one of the 4 strongest players there. Unfortunately for her and her peers/rivals Yuta Okkotsu entered the colony with the intention of taking everyone down and obtaining 400 points. What made Uro stand out to me, was not only her appearance (which is obviously there to make you pay attention - more on this later) but just the boldness of her character dialogue and body language. I love a female character who has confidence, skill and isn’t being tomboy written so that she feels relatable to males. Uro is clearly a female character who embodies the realism of powerful women who have resentment toward the world they were born into. 

Uro embodies this in many ways, and I basically highlight these throughout this meta in each section. From her technique to the nuance behind her backstory, Uro (to me) is one of Gege’s best written one-off characters without getting a backstory focused chapter like Higaruma. I also find it very interesting that Gege decided to introduce a character that had connection to the Fujiwara and the Michizane clans. Kinda off topic, but I think this was Gege setting up for deeper dive into the past, and Uro was the first stepping stone to that, hence her final conversation with Yuta. 

So all we know for a fact about Uro is that she was a head assassin for the Fujiwara clan, was betrayed by them and now has a heavy hatred for their kin. She probably was happy to see the future being a time period where those bloodlines aren’t as prominent which is why she was so ticked off to run into Yuta being so boldly powerful in modern times. It is this layer upon layer for her character that I'll delve into which makes her a gem to me. I do hope you understand where I'm coming from as I ramble and rant about this wonderful woman and how perfect her character is so far.

Surface Manipulation

Uro’s technique is one of my favorites in the series due to its versatility and creativity of a technique. What really gets me is how this technique can be seen as a play on Uro only seeing things on the surface, not looking truly deeper into things. Of course this is something that leans more on the head canon side of the analysis, but its worth exploring. The idea is that Uro only saw things for what they seemed, and she was manipulated because of that. This leans into a section later about Uro’s past and how I think her life came to an end, so consider this a planted seed that’ll get watered as you continue reading. 

Otherwise, I think its important to her characterization to highlight her being introduced as a character that could control “the sky”. Instantly I think about the saying “the sky is the limit”, and for the world of jujutsu the sky is NOT the limit; if we were to put a “Ceiling” of some sort I would say the Heavens themselves, and of course Uro’s surface manipulation isn’t effecting the heavens. The Sky is literally her limit, being the maximum application of her technique, letting her fly, use it to block attacks, return blasts back to senders and more. Its a very powerful technique, not as strong as Gojo’s limitless of course but its almost like a subclass version of it. Anyway, I just find her ability to be a way gege is characterizing her without giving away too much of her back story or personality. 

Past as one who hasn't achieved

I think its very bold of Gege to consistently bring up the sexism in the jujutsu world throughout the eras. We got a whole character arc around Maki and Mai’s treatment by the Zenin clan, but that wasn't where Gege decided to end the discussion. Uro was a surprise to see, as she clearly and boldly embodies a woman who gave up her own potential as an individual for what she believed was a “greater good”. This was her own words in fact. The idea of fighting for the sake of others is sick to her because of what she experienced in her first life. Uro doesn’t play a riddle game with Yuta or try to confuse him in their fight. She fight him straight up, wanting to crush him head on, butt naked bearing it all for everyone to witness. Thats because she wants to prove herself to everyone and herself. She took Kenjaku’s offer in order to come back and “become someone”. 

I’m always so impressed how much Gege has picked up from Togashi in terms of writing nuance and giving just enough information to make certain information “obvious assumptions”. Gege doesn’t have to tell us outright every detail of what happened to Uro, just use Uro’s word choices, body language and thoughts to guide the reader to the obvious assumption. For Uro it was her treatment by the Fujiwara clan, but not just that specifically the man who tricked her into getting executed for the sake of his kin. This is layers onto Uro wanting to “become someone” - she was the lead of a masterclass assassin group that was known to be the shadows themselves, not even having a last name! Her anger burns so strong because she was given a name, told to fight for others and then was used as a scapegoat, not to mention that Gege hints that Uro’s anger stems from a lovers quarrel. 

So when you put the pieces together it seems like Uro was involved with this Fujiwara Representative sexually but in secret, of course she actually fell in love with him but his love (seemingly) was not genuine and he used her. With that context in mind, when you look back Uro definitely comes off as a woman full of scorn, but Uro isn’t a fool nor is she mercilessly vindictive. She didn’t go around killing non-sorcerers just to remind herself that she is powerful. She went after other sorcerers, people who could fight back against her - all in order to “become someone” for “her own sake” (more on this later), it just really resonates with me that becoming someone to her is truly just her expressing herself in the spotlight, another play on her floating in the sky naked for everyone to see. 

It is clear that since she was a woman with skill and power as an Assassin it was clear to “That Man” (unnamed, status unknown) of the Fujiwara Clan to keep Uro in the shadows not only physically but mentally as well. Her understanding of her role in life was to be on the sidelines, unnoticed, and living for others. Her group of assassins were not even allowed to bear names, yet we know Uro by name - so does that mean she continued with the name given to her by “That Man” or is this a name she gave herself? These are questions I would like answered.

“Become Someone” for “Your Own Sake”

The core to the conflict between Uro and Yuta was not only the misunderstanding with Yuta’s bloodline, but also Yuta’s ignorance and lack of genuine sympathy for Uro’s situation. Yuta himself points out that Uro had 70 points so her focus was clearly only other players, but he still belittled her choices of coming back and fighting in the Culling Game for her “own sake”. So does that mean Yuta wouldn’t look down on someone who came back for the sake of another? Not only that, Uro’s life was taken from her.. she had regrets due to being manipulated by the world around her, so she chose to return from the underworld and move toward a second life. I honestly sided with her when she got angry with Yuta, because it was clear she had more to her situation than met the eye. 

Thats not to say that Uro was some perfect girl who was just mistreated, she was a killer - a trained assassin for the Fujiwara clan & at the time was seemingly very proud of it. What I am saying is that Uro may have accepted her death had she not felt like she was wrongly done by the ones she worked for, and that experience may have also opened her eyes to how manipulated she was. I don’t think Uro is a bad person at heart, this was proven to me when she gave Yuta those final words of advise, even though he knew the two them couldn’t necessarily come to an understanding. The truth is, Uro is simply still bitter about her life prior, and her fight to become someone for her own sake has lead her on a path filled with unknowns in a new era still coming face to face with her past regrets just in new appearances. 

To become someone for her own sake is Uro coming into the true understanding to transcend in the world of jujutsu. As she said, the sorcerers and cursed spirits that have transcended are those with an unshakable ego, that has no regard for anyone but themselves. Thats the path that Uro is going for, she refuses to go back to fighting for someone else’s sake, because she wants to accomplish something. Once again going back to her being nude in public, this adds to the idea of Uro ignoring the stigmas that come with being a woman, leaving her bare skin out symbolizing her putting her full self out there into the world now, no longer living in shadow and embracing herself to go beyond what she believed she was before. 

The thing about Yuta being the main force in her way that is poetic, is the cycle of karma coming to remind her that she hasn’t truly moved on, and someone challenging that makes her instantly revert to her primal anger toward the Fujiwara. Its realistic, faulty and perfect for a character who we know has come back for a second chance at life. That also exposes that Uro hasn't truly harnessed and understood that anger she has. She hasn’t properly converted that negative emotion into focus to become more powerful, but she had the right idea. It reminds me of when Sukuna told Jogo that he should have burned everything at his desire without worry in order to surpass Gojo. Uro has to truly move on, not necessarily forgive if she’s going to truly reach that next level. 

Now I wonder what will Uro accomplish in this second life? Will she actually achieve a second life after the culling game or is this all just another part of Kenjaku’s plan and lives will be sacrificed? I think no matter what Uro is fighting now her own place in this new modern world. 

What's Next? (Conclusion)

Sorry for ranting on about Uro and probably repeating the same thing over and over lol, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on her! I tried to be concise, and point out the things I found interesting about her character but I am mostly interested in what's next. Gege seems to be setting up these side characters for something important later, and I'm very unsure what they are. I personally hope to see more of Uro, whether it be through flashbacks per Kenjaku or us seeing what she has going on later down the line when all the pieces on the board start to move.

Tell me in the comments below what you think about Uro! (Be nice!!)

[iturbide]

Will admit my dislike towards Shez is mostly based on how everyone seems to now be bashing Byleth for it, because "Oooo it was SO easy to make a protag with personality" or "Ooo Shez is doing the bare minimum and is still better" like?? You don't HAVE to put a character down when you say you like a character? And Byleth did have personality i thought - they're even shown to have a little in the brief glimpse you get before they get snapped out of the demo in my opinion. Or maybe I'm just being too sensitive :P

-- wait people are bashing Byleth because Shez exists?? What's even the point of doing that??? They're two different characters with two different personalities and please excuse me I'm about to devolve into an AC3 rant.

Okay so I have been an Assassin's Creed fan for a long time. I played the first game when it was newly out. That's how I got into the series. I have kept up with it...well enough? I played the first "three" (yes I'm counting the Ezio trilogy as a single unit, and I have played all of them), I eventually managed to get through the next trilogy of Black Flag, Unity which I loathed we do not speak of it, and Syndicate, and I keep trying to play Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla but the major changes to the control scheme have made them impossible for me to succeed at so at some point I need to go in and overhaul the controls so I can actually progress out of what amounts to tutorial land. This isn't about the later games, though: this is about that original trilogy, and you will understand why shortly.

So you might have noticed that the first "three" bit is a bit odd. See, the first game took place during the Third Crusade (1191), focusing primarily on the cities of Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem and followed master assassin Altair as he royally fucked up, got demoted, and then worked his way back up through the ranks and learned some humility (among other things). He was kind of full of himself at first, but while he was an interesting enough guy overall, it was really the wider story and open world game mechanics that proved to be the major draw of the game and got it greenlit for another.

The second game took place during the Italian Renaissance, and followed a young Florentine nobleman Ezio through his teenage years and the trauma of losing his family to a conspiracy, becoming an assassin under the tutelage of his uncle, and hunting down the men responsible for having his family killed. Ezio was...well, very Italian: very expressive, very emotive, very suave, very charming, lots of gestures when he talks, very open and expressive and emotive. And he was popular -- so much so that, rather than going to Assassin's Creed 3, they instead did two spin-offs that continued to follow Ezio through his life: one covering the Borgia papacy and set mostly in and around Rome, and a second covering the rise of the Ottomon Empire in and around Constantinople.

Revelations brought Ezio's story to a close, at which point the series finally moved onto the "third" game, set during the American Revolution. And this was where they did something that to this day I find incredibly clever: they start the game having you play as Haytham Kenway, a British man working to establish an operative network in the colonies and find the use for a key he stole back in England. You spend roughly five hours with him, going through all the usual motions of an Assassin's Creed game, and while he's rather more brutal than Ezio was he still acts and talks just like the assassins we've come to know over the years...

...and then at the end of those five hours he gets together with his operatives and speaks the Templar phrase and pulls the fucking rug out from under you

Look to this day I think fondly of that reveal, that for all their enmity and their millennia of war the Assassins and Templars basically operate the same way such that there's very little to distinguish one from the other when approached from an outside perspective, it's brilliant and it plays so beautifully into the game's overarching themes

So after that, the main game opens up and we start following Ratonhnhaké:ton (who goes by Connor, in interactions with people outside his tribe), the son of Haytham Kenway who was raised by his Kanienʼkehá꞉ka mother among her people, as he sets out to join the Assassins for the sole purpose of stopping the Templars who threaten his people and their way of life. The whole game with him is probably my favorite narratively, and Connor is my favorite assassin to this day.

Fandom hates him.

Or at least it did when I was playing. For all I know opinions have changed. But there were lots and lots and lots of criticisms about Connor being emotionless, uninteresting, etc. despite the fact that he...really wasn't? He had a quieter emotional affect: he was generally more measured, more tempered, but that meant that when he raised his voice you knew he meant business. I loved his generally more stoic handling and how powerful that made his more emotive moments, but the fandom just looked at him and said that he had the emotionality of a brick wall and generally dismissed or derided him...in favor of his dad. Who was an upper class British man, cultured, polished, and emotive in familiar ways.

A lot more similar to Ezio, basically.

They latched onto the character that was more similar to the one they'd just spent three whole games with, and that sent the message to Ubisoft that that's what people wanted -- which is why the next three games featured Ezio clones as their protagonists: Edward Kenway, Arno Dorian, and Jacob Frye are all very Ezio-adjacent, though some more successfully pull it off than others. Connor became a failed experiment because people didn't want to bother learning how to read a new character: they just wanted more Ezio.

And that's what immediately comes to mind with Shez bringing on Byleth bashing. People want an emotive avatar for their Fire Emblem game: they don't want someone with a more nuanced emotional affect, they want Brash Shounen Protag, and when one appears they will bash the more nuanced character for being "emotionless" or "not having a personality" (which, for the record, I do think Byleth does have -- seeing how they become more emotive through their Supports in 3H is great, the way they become more expressive in B and A conversation, says a lot to me about how they're willingly adapting to the norms of people around them in order to better interact) when they're just not seeing what they want to see and therefore not paying attention.

Anyway, Shez is fine enough but I still prefer Byleth from all I've seen so far (though I do love Arval being a sassy little shit).

[meep-morp-s]

Febuwhump 26- "please don't do this", Maul

Maul had been to many planets for assignments from his master and they were all more or less the same. Crowded city or rural Outer Rim colony, the people all had the same tired slump of their shoulders and the same wary look in their eyes when they spotted him.

He didn’t mind; in fact it made his tasks all the more pleasing when he could wipe those looks off of his target’s faces. They were shocked, scared, when he struck. It made him feel strong and powerful. It made him feel like how he imagined his master felt about him.

Sometimes they would put up a fight and give Maul a bit of a challenge, or their companions would try and defend them. He was used to it now after months of being his master’s trusted assassin. No resistance would slow Maul down or make him enjoy this freedom any less. He had never been this far from under his master in his entire memory, been given so much free reign to do as he pleased. As long as he killed his targets swiftly and without too much mess, Sidious left him on a long, long leash.

Which is why when he tracked his next target (a Devaronian banker on the Black Sun’s payroll) to a crowded bar on the outskirts of Ord Mantell City, Maul decided he could have a drink first. It was something the master assassins and bounty hunters did in this situation. He saw them do it on the holos he could pick up on free subspace frequencies on his holo projector, one he’d found in the pocket of a target and repaired to be his own. The hero would swagger into a bar, order something strong, say something cool and take down their enemy with one blaster shot.

Maul was certain using a double-bladed saber would make the situation all the more interesting. Maybe they’d make one of those outlaw holos about him.

The bar didn’t quiet as he sauntered in. Most of the patrons were focused on a boloball game in the third quarter. Nevertheless, Maul continued to the bar where he elbowed himself a space in front of the bartender, an Iktotchi woman with her shirtsleeves rolled up underneath an apron. Behind her a sign read MY BAR, MY RULES!

“Corellian whiskey,” he ordered.

The bartender raised a brow, unimpressed. “Exactly how old are you kid?”

Maul blinked. That might be compromising information, was she a spy? He took too long to answer and the Iktotchi rolled her eyes and reached under the counter. Maul tensed and reached for his ‘saber, hidden beneath the folds of his clothes that made him look a lot larger than he really was. But the bartender only pulled out a glass of clear liquid and placed it in front of him. “You can have water, shrimp. What are you doing here, huh? Looking for your crappy parents or a stupid older brother? We get a lot of those type here.”

“I am not looking for anyone. I’ve found him already.”

“Oh yeah?”

Maul flicked his gaze to the Devaronian. He was laughing obnoxiously and sloshing a beer across the floor. He threw credits with reckless abandon, then growled at another man who tried to swipe some of them for himself. Maul wondered what he had done to get Sidious’ ire. It didn’t matter really, and Maul couldn’t care less, but there must be some story behind it.

The bartender followed his eyes and frowned. “I hope you don’t have any business with that man.”

“He has business with me,” he replied. He took a swig of his water– then another longer gulp. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was, but then again the ship his master had provided him with didn’t have a functioning water filtration unit. After the glass was empty he stood up and ambled toward his target.

The Devaronian and the group around him quickly noticed Maul. They quieted and stood up, reaching for blasters and vibroblades as they did. The banker stood tall and confident, front and center.

“The Hell do you want, runt?”

“You have displeased my master. For this you will die.” Maul recited the charge with a bored voice. This was his favorite part, though. Seeing his target’s reaction. Sensing the feelings of fear and confusion that ran through them and fed into his energy. Waiting with anticipation for the ensuing fight that he would inevitably, always win.

The Devaronian cocked his blaster and Maul smiled. He raised his saber and lit one end. The bar was completely silent. He lit the other end.

The sound of another blaster whining to life sounded from behind Maul. The bartender held a giant bowcaster with steady arms. Its barrel was aimed at Maul.

“I don’t want any trouble in my bar,” she said.

“I’d be happy to take this outside,” the Devaronian purred. He tilted his head toward the backdoor that led to a dark alley. “After you.”

“No.” Maul was not relenting to his enemy. It was beneath him as a Sith to do so. This would be carried out in his terms.

“Kid, I don’t want to shoot you but I will,” the bartender pleaded. “Nobody gets hurt in here, but if there has to be hurting I’ll be the one to dish it out.”

He could kill every single person in this room if he wanted to. Nothing could stop his fury, except for his master who was lightyears away in the center of the galaxy. He would decide how this ended, so he stepped closer to his target. The man was twice his size but still he took a step back. A heavy blaster bolt scorched the floor between Maul and the banker.

He looked back at the bartender, her determined eyes slightly hidden behind the smoke that trailed from the tip of the bowcaster. “I warned you. Now please, don’t do this.”

Anger rose quickly in Maul’s chest. He screamed and slashed through the Devaronian’s defenses in one spinning slash. They fell to the floor as he jumped forward and impaled his target as easily as skewering a womp rat. His scream rose into yelp and he was knocked onto his face with the force of a blast to his back.

People were screaming and pouring out of the bar. The only unmoving people left were Maul, surrounded by the corpses he had piled up, and the bartender. She gave him a sad look as he rolled over slowly.

“I warned you,” she repeated quietly.

It hurt to reach his arm out, and it shook as he used the Force to lift her up by the throat. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes, not opening them until the choking quieted and ended with a thump on the floor. Maul caught his shaking breath before standing up. In a mirror on the wall he could see the burn mark had torn up the back of his tunics. The skin on his back was a darker red than usual and a marred terrain of burnt flesh replaced intricate and symmetrical tattoos.

He grimaced and walked behind the bar, where he found a bottle of something clear but definitely not water. He uncorked it with his teeth and reached over his head to pour it down his back, disinfecting the blaster wound. It stung badly. With nobody around, he allowed a whimper to escape his lips. His arm came back shaking. There were a few drops left in the bottle and he downed it thirstily. It burned the same down his throat.

After shoving some packets of salted nuts into a pocket he shuffled out of the bar and back into the shadows. The feeling of safety that usually enveloped him in the dark did not come. Past the physical pain, he felt empty in a way that could almost be described as guilt.

[yinxinglim]

[Book review] The Unbroken by C. L. Clark - F/F political epic fantasy

Messy infuriating disaster sapphics

destabilising colonialism

in a North African-inspired setting

Also Clark and Tasha Suri are currently doing an AMA, in case you missed it!

My rating: 4/5

I feel like my relationship to this book, like the one between its main characters, is more complicated than my rating can suggest.

The Unbroken by C. L. Clark is the first book of the Magic of the Lost fantasy trilogy. It’s about home, belonging, imperialism, race, and both the terrible and beautiful things human beings can do to each other.

One of its comp titles at some point was A Traitor Baru Cormorant, and y'all know how much I loved Baru. I think I could love this book too, although I'm saving my final verdict for when the trilogy is all out.

Official blurb

EVERY EMPIRE DEMANDS REVOLUTION.

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale.

Tropes

(I’ve forgotten a bunch, I’m sorry):

Military butch lesbian

Noblewoman ward/bodyguard reluctantly pressed into service

The unromanceable superior officer

Implicitly hot for teacher

Unwinnable sword (ish) duel

Mistress buys her servant new clothes (I loved this part sooo much since we rarely see this with a butch)

Nerd confronts mean girls gossiping

Tragic family backstory.

Characters

Touraine

Butch, military, lesbian(?), Black MC and the gal on the cover. Touraine is a conscript who was taken from her home country (Qazāl) as a child and raised in fantasy France (Balladaire). I was fully sympathetic with Touraine even when she makes somewhat iffy decisions. She's just doing her best and sometimes that's not good enough but like she's trying ok and I appreciate that.

Luca

Bi/pan?, white, royal, physically disabled (traumatic injury). Luca is our other viewpoint character in the conflict between Qazāli and the Balladairan colonisers; she's nominally heir but politics means she has a vested interest in ensuring the Qazāli colony succeeds (from the Balladairan point of view).

I'm ambivalent to Luca verging on dislike; I think she will get more woke as the series progresses but right now she is honestly painful to watch. She’s written sympathetically and I get it, she is a product of her circumstances like everyone else, but emotionally I don’t like her right now and I think that’s intentional.

There's a great scene with her that demonstrates the intersectionality of privilege, in that her understanding and lived experience of disability doesn't mean she automatically understands the experience of disability + class disadvantage + racial discrimation. (And in fact that her experience leads her to assume she would understand but she doesn't).

Secondary characters

Let me just say how much I loved Cantic, Touraine’s superior officer. She reminds me of Knight-Commander Meredith (Dragon Age 2): a military leader and woman of conviction, the sort who should be able to break Touraine like a twig. She's sadly, like Meredith, also non-romanceable because of hierarchy and so on.

I also loved the Jackal, for spoilery reasons.

The relationship

There is not a huge amount of romance in book 1, it’s mostly all angsty yearning. I'm honestly unsure if the next book will get me to say yes, I ship Touraine/Luca--because right now that whole mess is toxic af. And I desperately love fictional sapphic toxicity but I feel like Touraine could do better, emotionally speaking. Part of me wants her to find a nice gal who doesn't come with so much baggage, but that is the entire challenge of this series, I think--how can we love the person who was once our oppressor? How do we acknowledge the scars of the past and heal?

How can we love the person who was once our oppressor?

It's a lot. It's a lot that Clark has taken on, and I'm eager to see what they do with it.

At one part of the book it feels like Touraine and Luca have so many chance meetings that I wished it was more acknowledged by the text and called out by other characters; it felt like they had a red string of fate joining them and I kind of expected/wanted that to be more, like, remarked upon.

Other

The absence of heteronormativity

Heteronormativity and homophobia is more-or-less absent, even in the Balladairan elite. There are a number of queer side characters of varying privilege (the only ones I can think of right now are F/F couples but it's been a while since I read this book and I’m probably missing some rep) and no one seems to care either way. I really appreciate the lack of homophobia, especially in a text like this that explores other forms of discrimation.

The space between the text and the reader

I'm a Third Culture Kid (grew up as an immigrant) and also a racial minority in my country of residence. So when Touraine, in the opening chapter, visits her birth country for the first time as an adult, I felt like I grokked her mixed feelings completely. But my first reading of this book gave me the impression that the reader wasn't expected to understand, and for a few pages our hand is held as we walk through Touraine’s complicated feelings.

It was a brief impression and one that only applied for the first chapter, and on a re-read I’m not even sure if it stood out to me that much again. But that first impression is so important and I’m still thinking about it. Like, who is expected to be a reader, how to balance the goals of comprehension without othering. And I wonder if that was a publisher/editor/non-authorial decision, as part of making it more relatable to a wider audience, and the trade-offs involved in those kinds of decisions.

My rating

4/5, and I plan to read the rest of the series.

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[sxveme-2]

blueberry pancakes // bucky barnes

MASTERLIST

Description: A single mother. Juggling being a mom, a full time pediatrician, and a difficult ex who believed now would be the best time to finally be a father. A soldier ripped out of time. Ex-assassin turned superhero. Learning how to balance a new domestic life with handling demons of his past, while facing the trials of the future. a love story began over something as simple as chocolate chip pancakes with hidden blueberries. 

Disclaimer: I do not own any original Marvel characters! All canon plots and canon characters belong to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. This is an original work. You may not publish it anywhere else

Status: Edited

Note: Takes place after endgame. I have elected to ignore Tony's death and Steve's leaving. Did not happen. Quick Reminder! My works are only published here, AO3 and on Wattpad, thank you.

Chapter One: The One Where it Starts

Warnings: N/A

Word Count: 1615

Being an adult in general is a wild roller coaster. Whether it be balancing bills, expenses, keeping a proper career, all together it was a stressful period. Going to the bank or answering phone calls was difficult enough. Seriously, what is with people and constantly calling? It’s so much easier to just text. Not to mention it keeps the incredibly anxiety ridden people at bay, and leaves them in a sane state of mind without worrying about anything. 

     That brings us to the protagonist of our story. Lily Briar Osborne. The 33 year old child of Abel and Alicia Osborne. She was the sister to two younger siblings, Rose and Cedar. Can you sense a theme with the children's names? Even Lily herself seemed to carry on that legacy with her own son. While balancing her busy work and just life in general, Lily mothered a young boy named Hunter. Hunter Osborne-Harvey. The eleven year old boy that was the result of a much too early marriage of two young kids who believed this was it, they had found the one. Well, that was not exactly the ending of their fairy tale. It instead involved a mistress, many trips to Grandma and Grandpa's, and a few too many shots in order to handle one another.

     Lily was more-so a quiet girl. Definitely more of the silent type in comparison to the majority of people in her profession. She was a pediatrician, and the only time you really see her talk or even crack a smile, is when she was with the kids. She was always found making sure they felt comfortable. When the young ones were gone, she seemed to shut down. Giving straight and to the point answers. Not elaborating unless asked, and strictly sticking to just the facts.

     Lily and Hunter had found home in a small colonial home in the suburbs of Manhattan, New York. There, they can be found in the company of a German Shepard named Joey, after the beloved sitcom, Friends. You could always find the small family laying in Lily's bed with the comedy illuminating the room around them. Every other Sunday and Saturday before Hunter's father came to pick him up for the weekend, they'd lay in bed before going out for brunch at Lily's best friends cafe further into the city.

     Which is where the story began. a sunny Saturday morning in September.

-----

     "If he doesn't like you, it's a moo point."

     The two Osborne's laughed softly at the comment made by their favourite sitcom character. Lily's fingers gently ran across the arm of her son, creating a soothing rhythm as they watched the sitcom, his head laid comfortably against the pillows. The large dog laid spread down at the edge of the duvet where his breathing radiated gently through the room.

     "Alright why don't you head in to get dressed and we'll go to Aunt Gen's cafe, hm? Sound like a plan kiddo?'' Lily's feather light voice cooed as her hazel eyes moved to glance over at her son.

     "But I wanna stay home all day and watch friends." Hunter whined as he nuzzled further into his mom's bed.

     "No love, I'm sure your dad has lots of things planned for the weekend. And we can watch more episodes when you're back tomorrow, okay? I promise." Lily sighed while lifting her pointer finger to her son.

     The pointer finger promise was Lily and Hunter’s signature thing. Instead of making a pinky promise, which was the weakest finger, they used one of the strongest. to make the strongest promises. That is exactly what they would do. And they'd know that if they broke it, trust would be something that had to be earned back. And luckily for Lily, she trusted her son with her whole being. He told her everything, as far as she knew. Seeing as she wasn't in his head, who knew? Though he was very vocal about his distaste for visiting his father, and it did hurt Lily to hear the pain he felt. The separation agreement allowed Scott Harvey, Hunter's father, to have the young boy every other weekend.

     Lily was lucky enough to have primary custody. Mostly because Scott was never a fully invested father before the divorce, so the court had no issue granting Lily the majority of the custody. But of course, Scott could come by whenever to see Hunter, as well as if he had something planned, he could pick up his son. But...Hunter wasn't the biggest fan of his father.

     Neither was Lily.

     Lily and Scott got divorced a few years ago when Hunter was a ripe 7 years old, and now he was 11, and still lacked the father figure he longed for. In those 7 years, Scott never really put an effort in. and hunter was a smart kid, and already harbored a distaste for the distant nature of his father. and it annoyed him, and Lily, that all of the sudden, after the divorce, Scott wished to be the great father he never was before. Despite his many attempts, it never worked out well for him.

     "Promise." Hunter smiled gently and wrapped his pointer finger around Lily's, before sliding out from underneath the white duvet that covered the two of them, startling the dog that laid at the end of the bed.

     As Hunter left the room, a small sigh escaped the blonde doctor's lips. She hated these days, when Hunter had to go visit his father. But she knew it was important for a child's psyche to have at least a relationship with their father. Picking herself up as well, Lily heaved herself into her closet. She picked out a white spring dress with blue baby's breath designs splayed across the entire piece of clothing. It was a tank top strap, and it was the end of summer and a small breeze danced through her window. She slid a blue jean jacket over her arms before stepping into her bathroom to complete her basic routine.

     After she pulled her hair into a pony, lily stepped out of her room after calling Joey out and down the wooden stairs to the main floor, where Hunter sat at the front door with his backpack and Converse on. Lily couldn't help but smile gently at her punctual son and felt proud of how she had raised him. And how he had grown to be a self-sufficient boy who was also able to ask for help when need be.

     "You gonna get the pancakes again today kiddo?" Lily wondered while stepping into her ballet flats and ruffling  the fur on Joey's back before opening the white door for her son.

     "Aunt Gen keeps putting secret blueberries in them and acting as though they're chocolate chips. I don't trust her anymore."

-----

     Lily and Hunter stepped out of the silver 2019 Honda passport, the two Osborne's took a deep breath of the muggy New York air. Hunter stood by Lily's side as she paid for the parking spot they were lucky enough to grab in the busy streets. She slid her arm around the boy's shoulders, before leading the two towards the fairly busy cafe her best friend owned.

     Genevive Fairchild. Lily's best friend for close to 20 years now. The two had met during their highschool orientation back in 2005. Gen was the extroverted hippy with conservative parents who disagreed with their child's decisions and mannerisms. She was always wearing what was to become her signature dreadlocks with golden decals littering her hair. Baggy shirts with fishnet cardigans and ripped jeans, the necessities to embody Gen. She entered the school loud and unbothered by others opinions or thoughts on how she acted or what she wore. But somehow, she was taken with the quiet blonde who kept her opinions to herself, hands tucked behind her back.

     Lily hadn't changed much in these twenty years, much to her parents dismay. Her parents were elated when their timid daughter brought home the boisterous and carefree Genevieve. Lily's parents were the same as Gen, unbothered and one with the Earth, no real care about people's opinions. Her father was a botanist and her mother a conversationalist. Plants and crystals littered the eco friendly home of Lily's childhood in the rural area of Long Island, New York. To see their studious, goody-good, daughter who wore knee length dresses everyday and cardigans, to bring home such a carefree spirit, was a breath of long needed fresh air for them.

     Ever since then, the two were inseparable. Lily even made her the godmother of Hunter. They both had keys to each others places, and nothing ever seemed to get in between the two of them. Other than those many years Scott wreaked havoc on their friendship. He kept Lily under some sort of spell, no matter how many times Gen attempted to convince her of the terrible manner of their relationship. Eventually, Gen gave up on the fight. until the young chocolate skin girl caught her best friend's husband getting it on with some girl at a party Gen was invited to.

     And that was the end of that marriage. Gen stayed with lily almost every night while everything was happening. And when her or Scott couldn't get Hunter up to Lily's parents, Gen would take him. Make sure he wasn't too focused on the broken state of his mother.

     As the two pushed open the door to the cafe, they were greeted with the fresh smell of coffee and pastries. That is, before they were practically being tackled by the woman earlier mentioned.

     "You two will NOT believe who is here right now."

[bluegarners]

So I got an ask the other day about my thoughts on the Court of Owls; I gave my general  opinion, but in this post, I’d like to dive into what I actually know about them

The Court of Owls

"Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time,

Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.

They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed.

Speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send the Talon for your head."

So the Court we know has existed since colonial times and is pretty much a secret society/crime group that resides in the corners of Gotham City. The Court first appeared in Batman V.2 #3, back in 2011. The Court is composed of some of Gotham’s oldest and wealthiest families that use the Talons as assassins (I’ll make another post about them) for political influence and other gains and means. The members are all human (the so called “Owls”) and wear an owl mask to conceal their identities; the mask doesn’t look much like an owl though. It looks more like a smooth, white, porcelain mask with some slits for eyes

However, the rest of the Court is speculated to be mutant human-owl hybrids with long claws, owl-like distorted faces, and owl-like eating habits. I’m not sure what the mutants role is, but I believe they are experiments gone wrong that the Court just hasn’t killed off yet.

The Court’s origin of operations is Gotham City, but they’ve expanded internationally, where they call themselves the Parliament of Owls (this is explored in the Robin Wars storyline) or the Tribe of Judas (the Court is an extension from this religious cult, but that's a whole other can of worms). Not much else is said about the Parliament of Owls, but it can be assumed they do the same things as Gotham’s Court, but on a more worldly scale. For those who do not know, a group of owls is called a parliament, so this suggests that there are more “groups” of Owls stationed across the globe other than the ones just in Gotham, hence the Parliament.

DC Rebirth Nightwing Series

The Court is led by a Judge of Owls, the overarching leader. They wear a bloodstained owl mask, unlike the clean white masks the rest of the court wears, and garb themselves in a dark cloak to cover their head. Not much is known about the Judge, as there doesn’t seem to be specific criteria that needs to be met for one to be the Judge (taking into account that the Judge of Owls was a woman in the Batman vs. Robin the animated movie, but they also called her the “Grandmaster” instead soooo)

Doomsday Clock #6, 2018

So, because everything must always connect back to Batman/Bruce Wayne,  many of the Court's bases are in hidden rooms in every building established by the Alan Wayne Trust (Bruce’s great-grandfather), supposedly all located on the thirteenth floors. Hilariously enough, Bruce didn’t believe in the Court of Owls for a long time, as his investigations initially did not prove their existence in Gotham. Previously, he had investigated them because he believed they had something to do with his parents' murder. That line of thinking came from a young and traumatized Bruce Wayne, as he believed it didn't make sense for his parents' to have been murdered over some pearls and loose change; he thought there had to be a greater conspiracy than a mugger named Joe Chill with a gun. At some point, young Bruce had asked his father about the Court of Owls but had been denied a true answer; just like when Bruce had needed a sign to become Batman (a bat flew by his window), young Bruce had found an owl nest in his attic, which he proceeded to destroy and kill the owls in it, and thus began his investigation into the Court of Owls and his conclusion that they did not exist.

I always laugh at this panel because Bruce is so darn sure that he knows everything that goes on in Gotham and that there is no legend or myth he doesn’t know about, going on to say that his own work is proof enough that the Court of Owls doesn’t exist because he couldn’t find them. But then we get this great and ominous quote from Dick (who actually plays a larger role in all of this)

“Look, Bruce. No one knows Gotham better than you. It's your city. It's Batman's city... But it's also nearly four hundred years old. Which means over the years, maybe it belonged to something else, too. Something big. Something dark.”- Dick Grayson, Batman V.2 #4, The Court of Owls, Part 4: Face the Court

All you really need to know about that series is that Bruce didn’t believe in them, then almost got assassinated by a Talon and thus fought the Court. He didn’t defeat them, as defeating them would mean having to dismantle everything, but he fought them. Bruce, I suppose, is a more “seeing is believing” type of guy; won’t believe in a deadly court until they send someone to kill him lol

The last thing about the Court specifically, which I feel like is the most focused upon thing in fannon/fanfiction, is the labyrinth. There is an underground labyrinth that contains a drugged fountain, and it is where victims are trapped before they are killed. In the maze, the stories of all their victims are told, eventually leading the victim to their own room where they are killed by a Court Talon. This was heavily focused on when Batman was captured by the Court, where he was forced to spend a week in the labyrinth without food or water, his only source for sustenance being the drugged fountain.

The point of sending a victim into the massive underground maze is to degrade their minds to the point of hallucinations, of which Batman suffered from and at one point saw his parents, slowly going insane. This also weakens the body, making an easier kill for the Talon or an easier persuasion by the Court to join their ranks as an Owl or as a Talon to work for them. It is here in the labyrinth that the bodies of Talons, past and current, are stored, residing in these coffin-like structures with their pictures placed on top (most are pictures of children).

Now, unfortunately, in Batman V.2 #5, Bruce is drugged out of his mind and hallucinates frequently, so not everything he sees can be proven true; for instance, there’s a floating boat with an owl as its ships’ figurehead, and he punches the head of it off in anger. Bruce also talks to himself, though it can be assumed the voice in his head is someone specific, so it just lends to the narrative of how manipulative the Court is. Other than the coffin room, there is also a room where pictures of all the Court’s victims are laid out, showing how they broke down over time and became more and more insane until Talon was sent to kill them.

There’s also a room showing all the names of every person who has ever been involved with the Court, be it the victims/Talons, the members, or enemies they’ve killed. Along with these names are models of Gotham, little buildings, roads, and city maps built as smaller structures.

Batman V.2 #5

I'll make a post detailing more about Talons (uber cool but sad assassins), but this is pretty much all I know about the Court

The Court is such as cool concept, and I'm excited they're getting more attention! I feel like what they do is undervalued/underestimated considering that they've existed for centuries and are composed of almost every major elite and wealthy person in Gotham

[atinytokki]

𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 6: Friendly Fire

The sun was high and bright but still the winds whipping around the Indeok were numbingly cold.

It had been a few weeks since leaving Kon and finally they were meeting the Black Crow about halfway to the colonies. When Wooyoung wondered why, it fell once again to his brother to investigate for him.

“The Admiral has someone on board who knows the eastern waters better,” he explained in a hush voice while they stood on the main deck with everyone else, summoned to greet their eminent commander. “All Kim’s orders derive from the strategist’s expertise— Lucky, I think the men called him.”

“A special strategist?” Wooyoung scoffed. “Isn’t plotting courses supposed to be Navigator Kang’s job?”

“Look, I don’t question these things.” Woosung said testily. “Ask your sailing master friend, since he seems to know so much.”

Wooyoung scoffed and went to shove his brother for being jealous of Yeosang, but remembered they were in public and supposedly unacquainted, so refrained.

“I think I will do just that,” he whispered back before shuffling over to the stairs. Yeosang was always posted on the quarterdeck or in his cabin, observing the strict hierarchy that placed him above the common sailor, but he saw Wooyoung coming and moved to where he could speak quietly to him.

“Is there any merit to this?” Wooyoung asked when the captain wasn’t looking. “That someone else is calling the shots?”

“I doubt the Admiral would want it to be known if that was the case,” Yeosang argued, not turning around but keeping his eyes focused on the backs of his superiors. “But men will talk.”

The rest of the fleet was a day or so behind them, so the Indeok’s arrival was extremely fortunate. The northwestern colony of Kibo was on the horizon, and two Haemin ships were already lingering around it.

“Only two of them, true to form,” Lieutenant Yoo sighed from the quarterdeck in Yeosang’s general direction before calling for the anchor to be dropped.

The Indeok came to a halt alongside the Black Crow.

“Do any among you speak their language?” Came a familiar call from the decks of the warship.

Lieutenant Byun.

Yeosang and Wooyoung both tensed and looked away, Wooyoung shrinking back and blending in with the soldiers on the main deck again.

“I do,” Lieutenant Yoo spoke up. It explained why he was first lieutenant of the Indeok, if Yeosang thought about it. That was a skill that could come in handy.

He went to the rail and spoke for a moment with Byun before being lowered in a boat and rowing himself over to the Haemin ships.

He was attempting to reach a settlement before they began fighting.

It was only good manners after all.

Predictably, he came back a few minutes later and resumed his post, reporting to Byun and the other Black Crow officers and allowing them to proceed with readying their cannons.

Wooyoung sighed and got to work.

“Have you been in battle, Mr. Kang?”

The navigator startled and turned to bow to Yoo, who appeared to be addressing him.

“Not... Not quite like this.” He had dealt with his fair share of skirmishes and close calls all over the world in his travels, but this lieutenant didn’t need to know that.

“Fair,” the man sighed, and it pulled at Yeosang’s heart a little bit. From the looks of things, he was just another unwilling soldier. “I never thought we’d see war with Haemin in our time. The assassination was so unexpected. But we’ve got to make them pay, haven’t we?”

The final remark gave Yeosang pause.

There was no rallying cry. If not for Yoo Dojoon’s declaration, Yeosang would have no idea what they were fighting for.

For glory? For revenge? For the defence of lands they claimed as theirs?

“For peace,” he finally said. Because that was what he strived for at the end of the day.

Another gust of wind hit the quarterdeck hard and Yeosang gripped the railing even harder, pulling his coat closer around his shivering form.

“Oh, perfect,” Lieutenant Yoo groaned, pointing at the horizon.

Another ship had joined their enemy’s.

Now they were outnumbered.

...

San fought to reach Jongho, and he fought hard.

They were yelling at him to get back, it was a phrase he’d heard enough times to deduce the meaning, and he struggled against them before finally going slack. There was no point in causing a scene if he and Jongho were going to end up in the same place anyway.

“He’s hurt, let me help him!” He screamed at his translator, whose face was set in a stern frown.

“He’s our enemy,” the officer reminded San calmly, before taking him by the arms and pulling him up. “Get back to the brig.”

San sent a forlorn glance in Jongho’s direction. He lay there, blood dripping from his head completely untended, while the soldiers fiddled with his chains, trying to make them tight enough.

They would have to be secure to hold Jongho.

“Now!” The translator snapped, pushing San back in the direction of the prison hold and smacking him over the head for good measure.

It was a much gentler slap than San had come to expect from these barbarians.

“How did you escape?” The man asked, clearly frustrated, as he chained San to the floor again. His vocabulary was expanding, just like San’s, a mutual benefit. San refused to answer and rather than press the matter, the officer simply sighed and got to his feet. “Ready for battle. We sail west.”

It was disappointing, because San had grown a bit of a soft spot for this translator, the only man on the ship with even the slightest bit of patience toward him, but a soft spot was no alliance.

It was a mistake.

He had his duties, and San had his.

A few minutes later, Jongho was dragged in and chained up right next to him. A small mercy, but an important one.

All San could do was dab at the blood with a ripped off section of fabric from his shirt, but after a couple of touches, Jongho awoke.

His eyes were unfocused and he looked to be in pain, but he tried to glance around and take in his surroundings.

“Oh, Jongho,” San cooed tenderly. The younger boy startled and took in a shaky breath. “You’re alright, you’re alright. I’ll take care of you.”

Jongho’s brow was furrowed, probably confused at how San could possibly be there with him. “What happened?” He croaked out hesitantly.

“You were in an explosion,” San explained. “I think you caught the Haemin soldiers off guard.”

He could tell exactly what had happened from Jongho’s wounds alone.

The tower had been blown, and he must have been facing a ledge on the other side, from the wounds around the crown of his head and the burns on the back of his arms. He seemed out of breath, too, likely from the fall.

“We’re prisoners, but at least we’re together,” he concluded.

Jongho’s eyes blew wide in sudden realisation. “Oh no... Seonghwa, Mingi, Yunho, and Maddox... they’ll be wondering what happened to me.”

San froze and turned back to the porthole. They were too far away from the island now to see if the ATEEZ was there. “You were with them? They’re alright?”

“Yes,” Jongho told him with a gentle smile. “We managed to find each other but you... San, we had no idea what happened to you. I can’t believe you’ve been imprisoned on a Haemin ship this whole time.”

“Well, more or less. Please, Jongho,” San’s eyes brimmed with thankful tears. “Tell me everything.”

...

Yunho sprinted across the beach and gathered Mingi in his arms.

“They took him,” the redhead was crying, groaning even louder as Yunho hoisted him up onto his back and made for the ship. “No... you can’t... they took him, they took Jongho!”

“I know,” Yunho gritted out, seething as he watched a rowboat reach the enemy ship and running the other way nonetheless. “But you’ve been shot in the head, Mingi.”

No answer came from him, and so Yunho pushed harder for the ATEEZ. He was seeing red, whether from the droplets of blood hitting the sand or from the anger that clouded his senses, he didn’t know.

Maddox and Seonghwa halted their progress where they were rowing back to the ship and helped pull the listless Mingi and a worn out Yunho into the longboat.

“Pull for the ATEEZ, as fast as you can,” Yunho ordered the quiet Maddox, watching anxiously as Seonghwa’s shaking hands inspected the bloody mess that was Mingi’s face.

From the curse under his breath, Yunho assumed it was pretty bad.

“It must have been a glancing shot,” Seonghwa explained, pushing back Mingi’s hair to give the others a better view. “The bullet’s not here. I think it hit the edge of his face and ricocheted bone fragments into his eye.”

Yunho swallowed back bile. “Do you think he’ll lose his vision?”

Seonghwa shook his head helplessly and passed Mingi up to the crew members as they hauled the boat up to the deck. “I don’t know. We need someone more knowledgeable to take a look at him.”

They needed San. And this time they hadn’t the slightest clue to his whereabouts.

“Hanbyeol!” Seonghwa called breathlessly to the crew member as he carried Mingi down to the abandoned infirmary. “I need help getting the bone shards out!”

What followed was a long and frightening process Yunho could only sit through, looking on as the two of them painstakingly plucked each bone fragment out of Mingi’s face and did their best to cover the wound before he lost more blood.

Only when their patient awoke would they know if he had retained his vision.

“I’ll find him an eyepatch,” Yunho volunteered, feeling restless and wanting to do something with himself.

Maddox snuck up on him while he rifled through spare fabric in the storerooms and gently tried to pry him away.

“Excuse me, sorry to interrupt but I need to ask for a heading.”

Of course, how could he have forgotten? Without Mingi taking care of it, Yunho supposed it was his responsibility.

“Tell the helmsman to follow the Haemin ship,” he ordered succinctly and continued looking for an acceptable fabric.

Maddox cleared his throat, and before Yunho could ask why he was still there, he went on with some unsolicited advice. “Respectfully, I must advise against.”

Yunho rounded on him angrily. “I don’t care what you think, respectfully, they captured Jongho so we’re hunting them down and taking him back.”

Maddox didn’t back down even a single step.

“Now isn’t the time for rash foolishness, it’s a prisoner of war ship, they’ll likely put him to work. He’s in no immediate danger.”

A breath for Yunho to work through what he was saying before he continued, “Mingi however, is. We need to make a strategic retreat.”

“Then how do you propose we find that ship again?” Seonghwa’s voice broke into their standoff, and both turned to see him standing in the doorway with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“It’s called the Paragon,” Maddox informed them both. “I got a good look at it while we rowed out. It’s turned west, likely for the colonies. When we’ve regrouped, we can look for it there. It’s your decision.”

Seonghwa shifted his gaze to Yunho with the question in his eyes, letting him speak for himself.

“Alright,” Yunho finally sighed. “Give the word, we turn east.” Maddox was on their side, he knew that. But the crushing defeat of gaining someone only to lose someone else weighed heavily on him.

Maddox slipped past Seonghwa to inform whoever was at the helm, and Yunho gave the prince another glance, wondering why he had ventured out of the infirmary.

“It’s Mingi,” he sighed, and Yunho pocketed the fabric he had selected. “He’s awake.”

...

The third time Admiral Kim heard Navigator Kang clear his throat and shuffle his feet nervously, he finally looked up at him to see why.

“May I suggest we return Lucky to his quarters?” He muttered, motioning at their approaching escort ship with a stiff jerk of the head. “My son is on the Indeok.”

Kim glowered momentarily but gave his permission, signalling Byun to take care of it.

The first lieutenant approached Park and Hongjoong where they were still in quiet but intense conversation at the starboard rail.

Before he could direct the prisoner to somewhere less conspicuous, Hongjoong rounded on him.

“Is Prince Seonghwa still aboard this ship?”

Lieutenant Byun cast a scolding glance at Lieutenant Park but addressed the prisoner coolly. “I need to get you below.”

“Is he aboard this ship?”

“He is not,” Byun muttered harshly, taking him by the arm and leading him to the upper gun deck. When they were out of the Admiral’s sights, he pulled Park aside to ask what the prisoner was going on about.

“I couldn’t hide it from him,” the lower lieutenant whined. “He knew the prince was aboard and now we’ve received word that Haemin is after him.”

“Keep it quiet,” Byun hissed before he headed back up to facilitate the Indeok as it joined them. “The last thing we need is the entire fleet thinking we’ve gone soft.”

Never mind the fact that it was true.

Park turned to where Hongjoong was staring at him and rolled his eyes. “You’re on the gun team for now I suppose. We’ve got to keep you away from prying eyes. Don’t try anything.”

Hongjoong immediately suspected the Admiral’s reasons but didn’t remark on it while Park finally removed his chains.

“The tailwind is too strong, you should adjust the sails,” he said dryly instead.

“You can’t even feel the wind,” Park scoffed. “We’re belowdecks.”

But a gust from behind a moment later proved the pirate’s point.

“I’ll go inform the Admiral,” the lieutenant sulked and turned to go.

And so began the wait.

Hongjoong wished the Crow could enter battle the same way the ATEEZ once had; with persistent singing and shrouded in mystery.

There was no real advantage that came with charging headlong into combat when they’d already been seen, except for maybe the exploitation of any underlying fear the Haemin soldiers were harbouring towards the deadliest ship in Jaecho’s navy.

He glanced around the deck and calculated their odds. He was placed on the port side of the upper gun deck with a few dozen silent gunners and their short range cannons, trembling almost imperceptibly except to one who could see right through them.

They looked at “Lucky” with wavering eyes.

“Don’t panic, our chances are good,” he encouraged them firmly. “We’re bigger and better armed, plus we’ve got an escort ship for support. We can take whatever they give us.”

The Black Crow drifted closer to the colony and their odds lowered a bit. Battle so close to the shore was never good, and unless the helmsman knew Kibo like the back of his hand it could become a major problem.

They stopped just close enough to begin firing and Hongjoong waited for Byun’s order to come.

It was deathly quiet, with only the ghostly howl of the wind and the deep creaking of a colossal ship weathering the waves.

Then the order came.

“Fire at will!”

The boom of haphazard cannon blasts shook the deck and the gun teams stumbled back briefly before moving into formation.

They had each step of the process practiced and perfected, they only needed someone to tell them where to fire and when. So that was what Hongjoong did.

In the pause of reloading, the nearest Haemin ship finally shot off a volley. It was grapeshot, and judging from the screams that came from the upper decks, it had found its mark.

Their second round tore a hole in the enemy’s gun deck but wasn’t enough to sink the ship.

“Hit them below the water line!” Hongjoong yelled so that everyone facing the port side could hear over the screams and splashes of bodies falling into the sea. His orders went unquestioned, all the gunners immediately pointing their cannon muzzles down so that their shots did real damage.

“Hold your fire!” He called, raising his hand and keeping it midair while he waited for them to drift just a little further, so the enemy’s broadsides were in their sights. A hit to their bow would only cause them to list for awhile, so to fire at the right time could give them a decisive victory.

“Fire!”

In perfect synchronisation, fifty guns ripped a devastating hole in the side of their opponent and all the men on the deck cheered.

Its port quarter was sinking, but the Black Crow’s helmsman had made a mistake. They’d gotten too close to the enemy and now the second Haemin ship was flanking them on their starboard, leaving only the Indeok to fend off the new arrival, the Paragon.

A chilling screech of splintered wood interrupted the cheering and everyone who wasn’t hanging onto a cannon stumbled back from the collision of the Crow with the ship to their starboard.

Hongjoong picked himself up just as Lieutenant Park came running down to meet him, blood trickling down his face, and informed him he was being reassigned.

They would have to board.

Hongjoong followed the lieutenant topside and most of the gunners followed behind him. They trusted him now, whatever doubts they may have had before.

But instead of doing as he was told and crossing directly to the Haemin ship, where fighting had already broken out, he marched up to the Admiral and demanded a weapon.

“Will you give me nothing to arm myself?”

Kim laughed at him outright but motioned the surgeon to hand the prisoner something.

A single, meagre blade.

Hongjoong knew in that moment exactly what the Admiral desired.

He wanted him to go and die, and take as many Haemin soldiers with him as he could.

If he survived it was on to the next battle, and then the next and the next after that until the world was the Admiral’s and Hongjoong was no longer useful, nothing more than a threat.

Seeing as he couldn’t strike Kim then and there, Hongjoong snatched the flimsy thing and turned to join the battle.

“Nothing too flashy, understand?” Admiral Kim called after him, a hint of teasing in his voice.

They couldn’t risk a realisation that the Pirate King was among them.

Time seemed suspended while he swung across on the rigging and prepared for the plunge.

Hongjoong was not afraid of death. No, he had survived insurmountable odds before and trusted his own skill. If it was him and an enemy in a battlefield somewhere he could be sure of the outcome, but the Admiral’s plans were a different matter.

Barely armed and with bare feet and tattered clothes, he shook off his worries and got to work.

The Paragon and the Indeok were firing back and forth a little ways away and the sinking Haemin ship would be of no help, so it was just the Crow and the enemies they mowed down right and left.

Haemin’s soldiers were nowhere near as trained as Jaecho’s, that was for sure.

Blood spurted and shrapnel flew through the air, but Hongjoong was numb to it, dissociating from himself almost completely and letting his body remember how to fight. All of the lieutenants had joined, unwilling to simply leave the outcome up to the midshipmen and average sailors, and it felt nice to have someone he knew watching his back.

Hongjoong had been on his feet too long already, exhausted and with nothing left to give. The sword was difficult, instead of the nice clean cut he was used to, he had to hack his way through opponents. It was dirtier, bloodier, and even more degrading.

Anyone who came within an arm’s length of him was dispatched quickly after.

“Grenade!”

The sudden yell from Midshipman Moon’s direction came seconds before a hand grenade hit the deck. Instinctively, Hongjoong grabbed it and tossed it into the sea before it could explode, wincing at the blistering burns it left on his hands.

A flash of light signalled more shells raining down on them from the rigging, and the soldiers did their best to kick them away but now they were fighting on two fronts, and the cast iron grenades blew apart into tiny metal shards before they could stop them.

An enemy managed to slice Hongjoong across the face while he was distracted, but retribution was swift and he could only take a single step back before being stabbed.

Hongjoong shut his ears to the crunching of bone as he shoved his blade in between the man’s ribs.

He needed to get aloft to take out those grenadiers.

Struggling with his newly singed hands, Hongjoong scaled the rigging and dodged the musket shots that went whizzing past his face.

“What I wouldn’t give to have a gun right now...” he muttered.

Alerted to his presence, the grenadiers moved even higher, and Hongjoong had to pause to regain his breath before reaching them.

As he looked around, he realised the wind had blown in a snow cloud. Flurries and gunpowder alike drifted through the air and the warning groan that echoed through the ship told him it wasn’t built to handle the cold.

Shivering, he pressed on until he reached the cowards.

They had cornered themselves on the end of the mainmast while they reloaded their guns, and Hongjoong was on them before they even had a chance to fire.

He didn’t revel in ending their lives, but he finished the job and then smeared the blood across his face accidentally when he went to wipe away the powder.

It stung, but not as badly as the cold.

Below, the Haemin forces were surrendering, but Hongjoong didn’t want to go back down, as freezing as it was in the sails.

A snowflake gently floated into his raw, bloody hand and soothed him as it melted.

For a moment he wasn’t anyone, just a barefoot, white-haired mystery painted scarlet and sitting high in the ropes while ships were sinking around him.

...

San had no time to grieve. The tears were still wet on his face when the officers ordered them to the gun decks.

Thoughts of the last time he had seen Hongjoong— in the middle of the night at the inn while bullets burst through the window— cycled in his head while he rushed gunpowder back and forth.

It didn’t matter how loud the gunfire was, his heart was only silence and emptiness. If only he hadn’t left them, if only he had disobeyed Hongjoong’s orders.

Maybe they would all have survived.

A hand was placed on his to steady his load when he was pulled too far into his distracting thoughts.

“Jongho...?” San gasped, looking over at the translator and protesting, “No, he can’t fight, he’s still injured—”

“We can’t spare any hands,” the translator insisted, nudging Jongho over to the cannons. “He can stay with you.”

San had no fire left in him to argue. The news Jongho delivered had sucked it all out of him.

And just in time for a battle, from the looks of it.

If San had to be present, he wished he could go back to performing emergency surgeries, but he supposed his incident on deck earlier had banned him from that.

Jongho hadn’t spoken a word since explaining what had happened in San’s absence, and he remained quiet while he helped load the cannons and peered through the gunport.

He didn’t understand what the officers were yelling, but he could see the ships ahead of them and he recognised at least one.

“San, that’s the Black Crow.”

San’s head shot up and he crowded next to Jongho to see for himself.

Again, Jongho placed a steadying hand on his companion’s arm, just in case he dove off the ship and swam over just to make the Admiral pay.

Jongho had half a mind to do so himself.

“There’s no way we’ll survive this,” San whispered instead. And he was right, three small Haemin ships against the Black Crow, especially with an escort ship alongside her, stood no chance. Already one of the Haemin ships was sinking, and the other was being boarded from the looks of things.

The Paragon moved to cut off the smaller escort ship— the name Indeok was written on her— and abandoned their allies, dooming them to deal with the Crow.

The Indeok was ready, and before San and Jongho could get a shot off, cannon fire blasted through the deck.

It was such a powerful blow, the cannons around them reeled back in their gunports with the listing of the ship, and all the war prisoners had to avoid debris.

To protect Jongho from worsening his wounds, San pulled him into his arms and sheltered underneath the cannon until an officer dragged them back out and screamed something while holding out a bucket.

“He wants us to bail,” San explained, and he took the bucket reluctantly, shuffling forward to scoop out the water that was already bursting in.

The officer grabbed Jongho by the collar when he tried to follow and pointed at the cannons. He was to continue firing.

Angry at being separated, Jongho shoved the man off and quickly loaded the cannon completely by himself, lighting the fuse and firing it at the Indeok. The sooner he finished the job, the sooner he could reunite with San.

To his surprise, it was a palpable hit. Invigorated, he loaded again and fired just as quickly, paying more attention where he aimed it this time.

A second hit, this one better than the first by the image of the hole being ripped in the side of the navy ship.

Jongho began rallying the gunners. He may not care for Haemin’s hit and run tactics but he had no love for the navy, and he’d bring that ship down if it was in his way.

As the final, most devastating shot ripped the gun deck in half and just as a smile returned to Jongho’s face, he spotted a familiar head of lavender hair.

Wooyoung was picking himself up from the wreckage, stumbling to his feet and trying to climb to safety before the deck was submerged.

Someone was yelling on the Indeok’s quarterdeck, rushing down to help the gunners even as bullets rained down and Jongho was shattered to see that it was Yeosang.

There was only one reason they’d be on a navy ship, escorting the Black Crow of all vessels.

They were prisoners too.

Jongho covered his mouth to prevent himself from emptying his stomach. Guilt swirled around inside him, that he could have killed them if they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But at least there was someone on this watery battlefield who didn’t hate him and San.

The Haemin sailors were cheering Jongho on, and robustly loaded and aimed their cannons again. A shot hit the mainmast and Jongho watched it fall, horrified. The next hit the quarterdeck and exploded just below the helm, decimating the entire level.

No one who stood there could have survived that.

Not the captain, not the lieutenants, not his friends.

“Stop! Stop it, please!” He screamed, trying to pull away their gunpowder bags while they celebrated and patted him on the back.

They thought he was encouraging them, and they loaded another cannon.

The Indeok sank before his very eyes.

...

There wasn’t much Yeosang could do to help except to pick off the occasional main deck gunner on the Paragon.

The Crow seemed to be doing fine against the other two Haemin ships, already one was nearly sunk and the sounds of fighting sounded from the second.

Yeosang’s cheeks flamed as he looked over and met eyes with his father.

The man had seen his son’s successful shots and was looking at him with such a genuine smile, his eyes so proud and pure it was sickening.

Yeosang turned away and focused on covering Lieutenant Yoo’s back.

He was lulled into optimism, sure they would take an unquestioned victory, just when several massive explosions rang out in succession.

The gun decks were ripped through with cannon fire, and Yeosang didn’t care if the Admiral himself punished him, he could not stay on the quarterdeck while Wooyoung was in danger.

There was a cloud of powder released by the shot, and the young navigator stumbled through it and down the steep incline where the shells had broken through the deck.

Body parts and weapons were strewn along the collapsing surface but Yeosang averted his eyes.

With their last breaths, some of the wounded screamed for his help but he was only looking for one gunner. He didn’t have time to stop to save anyone else.

He must have yelled his name because Wooyoung stood up and extended a hand through snow and powder, so Yeosang reached for it.

With their fingers inches apart, another blast shook the Indeok and suddenly a mast was falling between them. Yeosang halted just before being crushed and still the momentum knocked him to the ground.

Disoriented and with his ears ringing at the proximity of the explosion, he tried to get up and find Wooyoung, hoping against hope that he wasn’t trapped down in the sinking lower decks.

Before he could even stand, the loudest boom yet came in a brilliant firework display from behind and completely destroyed the quarterdeck.

Yeosang watched the captain himself sail over the railing, wounded almost beyond recognition and scanned the deck anxiously for Lieutenant Yoo... or the remains of him. Whichever he found first.

Someone was groaning intelligibility, a lieutenant with his leg stuck in between the wooden boards of the stairs that led to the quarterdeck. He was hurt but alive, and as Yeosang approached him, he recognised the man.

It was Woosung, Wooyoung’s brother and although he was weeping painfully, he looked like he would recover.

Yeosang helped him get his leg out of the splinters and supported his weight as they moved to see what was left of the officers.

No one had survived.

Even First Lieutenant Yoo Dojoon lay choking on his own blood with shrapnel embedded in his midsection. He raised a hand and when Yeosang took it, it was frozen with the mingled chill of winter and death.

“T-Take them down,” he grunted, not a tear on his face. He was resolute even in his last moments.

Woosung looked to see why their enemy had stopped firing. “The Paragon is retreating,” he told them, voice brittle and confused. “But the Indeok will not survive.”

Yoo closed his eyes in disappointment for a moment. When he opened them, it was like he could see past Yeosang and Woosung, past their entire plane of existence.

“We did our duty.”

The light faded from his eyes and Yeosang closed them with a shaking hand.

It was still for a moment, only the dying cries of men and the wind-blown snow swirling around them as the Indeok gave its final farewell moan and started to disappear below the waves, bow first.

“Where is my brother?” Woosung’s voice trembled and he tried to get to his feet but fell back on the uneven ground. Yeosang could see the white of bone protruding from his leg and grimaced.

“He... he was...” Then letting go of the lieutenant, he stumbled forward to peer into the abyss. “Wooyoung!”

There was no answer.

“Make for Kibo!” He turned and yelled back to Woosung, rushing to lower a longboat and helping him into it. “I’ll find Wooyoung.”

So he peered in every crevice and checked every face, knowing the water was cold and the longer he spent looking, the faster Wooyoung’s minutes ticked away.

Soon there wasn’t much of the Indeok left for him to search and his heart had nearly been crushed with the pressure, but suddenly something in the water caught his eye.

A portion of the mainmast, with a familiar head of hair propped up on it. Wooyoung was there, fighting his wounds and floating towards land.

“Wait!” Yeosang yelled, and he ran to what was left of the rail, scaling it and diving in a perfect arc into the uneasy waves.

“Wooyoung!” He gasped between strokes until his hands made contact with the wooden plank. “It’s me!”

Bleary eyes opened and latched on to him.  “Yeosang, I was worried,” he shivered and scooted off to the side, leaving space for Yeosang to share. “Is Woosung—?”

“He’ll be alright, he’s on his way to land,” Yeosang explained through coughs, motioning in the direction of Kibo. It wasn’t far, they could make it if he started propelling them in the right direction.

Wooyoung allowed his head to lower and took in a wheezing inhale. He was injured somewhere and Yeosang didn’t have time to figure it out yet. “I’ll get you to safety,” he promised.

And he promised too soon, because moments later, the Black Crow blocked their path.

...

“You’re doing so well, Mingi, just hang in there,” Seonghwa soothed his protesting patient, wiping away as much blood as he could from his wounded eye.

“M-My head,” he whined in a breaking voice. “It hurts... please, it h-hurts...”

Seonghwa bit his lip and tried to ignore his cries until the eyepatch was secured and he could blow out the candle, casting the room in darkness.

“Is that better?”

“Mhm,” Mingi hummed tiredly, before taking in a hitched breath and letting his other eye drift shut. “Better.”

Seonghwa sat back to give him space, but wouldn’t let go of his hand.

Had the bullet been just centimetres to the right, Mingi would already be gone. Even with him lying there now, sloppily bandaged up and practically drunk on pain relief tonic, Seonghwa had no contingency plan.

They needed to get him to a real doctor.

Seonghwa glanced over to where Yunho sat, long legs pulled up into the chair making him look smaller and more vulnerable.

He rested his cheek on his knees to dab away tears and stared at Mingi like looking away would kill him.

Seonghwa hated how familiar this was. Waiting around uselessly in the infirmary, waiting to see if death would take someone they loved.

Hesitantly releasing Mingi’s hand and pressing the blanket into it, he crossed to Yunho and wiped away a tear with the cuff of his sleeve.

“Sorry,” Yunho sniffled, turning away, but Seonghwa caught his face before he could and cradled it until he met his eyes.

“It’s alright. We’re only human.”

Yunho’s eyes watered more and he dropped his head in surrender, letting Seonghwa hold him for awhile.

“Maddox recommends we retreat for awhile and go after Jongho later. I’m still not happy about it,” Yunho admitted when Seonghwa pulled away to let him talk. Seonghwa knew this, but if Yunho wanted to say something about it again, that was fine. Clearly it was weighing on his mind.

“Let him take care of things for awhile,” Seonghwa sighed, reaching over to grab an extra blanket and then throwing it over the pair of them. “I think we deserve a little break.”

It was indeed a break, but it didn’t turn out to be very restful.

Mingi adjusted well to the eyepatch and his headaches wore off gradually, but the officers spent the week it took them to reach Freeport worrying about his vision. They had done their best to clean the wound daily but still Mingi couldn’t see out of his left eye.

Seonghwa remembered this port from the last time they’d been. They were a group of eight then, spending their well earned salaries in the pub and restocking in the market. Of course, the contemptible mutineer Seunghyun had joined them then as well, but Seonghwa didn’t see any more of his type loitering around.

He did notice some significant changes however, in the general liveliness of the townspeople and the shiny new artillery in the garrisons. Seonghwa didn’t even remember there being garrisons last time.

“Who do the batteries belong to?” He asked Maddox as they sailed past.

“You,” Maddox shrugged before taking a sip of his tea and continuing. “Me. Anyone on this ship. Anyone who wants to keep the free islands free.”

“That sounds like... an alliance,” Seonghwa scoffed in disbelief. “An alliance between pirates?”

“I take it you haven’t been to Geobugi in awhile. It’s not unheard of, especially in wartime,” the older pirate went on to explain as the island faded from view and they reclaimed their seats at the breakfast table on the quarterdeck. “Do you know the history of these lands?”

Mingi accidentally smacked himself in the face with his spoon before adjusting his trajectory and getting it into his mouth. Half-vision had its challenges. “No, not really,” he admitted.

“Well, pirates were once unified, a long time ago. It was pirates who first discovered the East, at least to our knowledge,” Maddox began. “There are ancient ruins on some of the islands, but we’ve never found any inhabitants, assuming they either died out or moved on. Places like Freeport and Geobugi became pirate refuges, especially after the defeat of Captain Seongho of the Hammerhead, when his secret caves on Dalhae were discovered. Eden repurposed those tunnels and dug even deeper, but only as a last resort. We wanted to be free. The Navy’s quest to eliminate us only intensified from then on, and they claimed the island they later imprisoned me on, founded the colonies, and even attacked Geobugi. We drove them away but I was injured in the battle and wished to return to the mainland to be reunited with my family. That was the last time I’ve been there.”

His eyes became cloudy and distant and he poked at his food while he went on.

“That year was the same that Eden met Hongjoong. And so, of course, I’m sure you know what followed. You’ll find that since your treasure hunt, you’ve been included in the pirate legacy.”

The three officers sat in silence.

“This has all been going on since we left?” Yunho finally asked, pushing back his plate. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this supposed truce.

Maddox nodded. “And you’ll be quite surprised to discover that not only is the ATEEZ well known there, but each of you  in particular.”

Mingi blushed and glanced around. “Well, I can’t say it wouldn’t be nice to be appreciated but... can we really trust them to help us? Will they honestly want to save Jongho if it means attacking Haemin?”

“If you have a chance anywhere, it’s here,” Maddox insisted. “Now, get some rest. I’ll call you when we arrive.”

So the vessel moved against the movement of the sun, until a familiar harbour was on the horizon.

Maddox took them through the Bem canal which led directly into the heart of the island, and then summoned the officers so they could see for themselves.

Large wooden platforms had been built all along the waterway, with bright lanterns tinted in amber and cyan decorating them and lines strewn back and forth to deliver messages. Flags that indicated residents’ crew affiliations hung near the door posts, and the streams that branched away eventually became roads. There was space at the mouth for ships to be anchored, and the ATEEZ became the next of many while the four of them disembarked.

Crossing a network of bridges clearly made from spare planks and netting to reach what appeared to be the central building, Seonghwa couldn’t help but laugh at all the people flinging open their windows and waving at them, some even cheering.

It was like they were heroes.

“This way,” Maddox’s voice grounded them in reality and they followed into the main building, hands on their swords just in case.

Seonghwa couldn’t help but notice that it almost seemed to be an imitation of the palace, from the material of the tiles to the shape of the trees. There was a vague resemblance that struck him as ironic, and when he entered, he half expected to see a throne.

Someone was there, sitting at a table. Someone very familiar, but whose face he couldn’t quite put his finger on...

Yunho dropped everything and ran towards him.

“Gunho!”

...

Taglist: @serendipityunho @celestial-yunho @atzjjongbby @89staytinyzen21

A/N:  So yeah this one was a lot more intense than usual, and I'm sure you've got a lot to say soooo go ahead and say it, leave me a comment :,) Tbh I'm not 100% confident with this chapter but I don't hate it and it was due for an update so I tried lol. If you have any questions about the more technical aspects or are struggling to picture what's going on, let me know and I'll try to clear it up for you! ttfn, hope you enjoyed~

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[yet-another-fan-girl9]

Different Worlds (1)

Summary: You’re the youngest Winchester, a girl who needs to show her big brothers that she doesn’t need help. Then one day, on a totally normal vampire hunt that you had all under control, three meddling Avengers come barging in.

Warnings: language, violence, complete canon divergence, slow burn

Word Count: 2227

A/N: Opps, I started another Bucky x reader series... This one isn’t going to have an update schedule, just whenever I finish a chapter.

~*~

Chapter 1: Vamps & Avengers & and Hunters, Oh My!

“I don’t know, Steve.” Bucky shook his head and looked at the file. “Just seems like a serial killer. Some guy that’s fucked in the head. Not really our stuff, especially when we’ve got Hydra on the run.”

“This is the third decapitation in a few days,” Steve protested, ignoring his friend’s swear. “It’s just over in Poughkeepsie. We can always drop it if we hear anything on Hydra.”

“Fine,” the brunet grumbled. “But only because I’m tired of sittin’ round on my ass.”

The pair, mostly Steve, was able to recruit Sam to go on their little escapade to Poughkeepsie. Bucky wasn’t thrilled to be joined by the Falcon, but could he ever really say no to Steve? The trio packed their bags for a quick investigation and made their way down to the hanger.

“So.” Steve pulled up images on a screen once they were in the air. “All three victims have one thing in common. They all hang around this bar, whether they’re a patron or an employee.” The images showed the three victims entering or exiting the bar. Then the pictures changed to display a multitude of young women. “All of these women went missing and their last known location was this bar.”

“Maybe this isn’t a serial killer,” Sam suggested. “Maybe they’re a vigilante.”

“Yeah,” Bucky reluctantly agreed. “Serial killers usually leave their victims worse than just missing their heads. This shit’s too calm.”

“What could be worse than missing your goddamn head?” Sam raised his eyebrow as Steve sighed, ready to intervene.

“For one there’s tor—”

“The bar’s closed until three-thirty,” Steve talked over his friend, “so we have just under two hours to search the place.”

The other two men nodded and they checked their weapons before they left the quinjet. Bucky took the lead and led them to the employee’s entrance in the back. Uh oh. This wasn’t a promising beginning. There was already one decapitated body by the dumpster and another one propping the door open. They pulled open the door and stepped over the corpse. All three men had their guards up as they followed the trail of headless bodies.

Everything was quiet, but if the two supersoldiers strained their ears, they could hear faint grunts in the direction the bodies were leading them. They walked through a corridor that seemed to lead into the building next to the bar. Eventually, Sam was able to hear the sounds of struggle. The team came to the end of the corridor and into a large, open room.

The source of the sounds was a woman lying on the ground while a large man with his back to the trio wrapped his hands around her neck. The woman was reaching for a bloodied machete that was just out of reach. No doubt that it was the machete that did the decapitating.

“Hey,” Sam shouted, but the man was too focused on the woman below him.

Bucky fired two bullets into the man’s back. The man did not collapse like the soldier was expecting, but it did grab his attention.

~*~

The vamps had just kept coming.

Okay, so maybe you didn’t expect such a big colony. And maybe you should have called someone for backup. And maybe one vamp got their jaws around your upper, dominant arm as you were swinging your machete around. But in your defense, he was really tall and strong. Other than that, your solo mission was going great.

Right now you were reaching for your machete that was knocked out of your injured hand by tall and strong’s taller and stronger brother. Said vamp had his beefy hands around your neck and was baring his fangs at you. Every time you saw the mess of pointed teeth, you wondered how the media had gotten vampires so fucking wrong that it was laughable.

“Hey!”

Someone else was in the room. Or multiple people. You could see three figures around the arm of your assailant. Then you heard the sound of a gun going off. Twice. Like that would do anything. Fortunately, the vampire released his hold on your neck and retracted his fangs to face the newcomers.

Your hand wrapped around the machete’s handle and with a swift swing of your uninjured, non-dominant hand, off with the fucker’s head. As the vamp collapsed due to the lack of his head, you cradled your injured arm and inspected the three new people.

They were all men, two with guns and one with a red, white, and blue shield. Just as you were wondering why they looked familiar, the shield registered in your mind.

“You’re the Avengers,” you stated obviously. You weren’t overly educated in the so-called ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes,’ but their names had appeared often enough that you were able to tell who was who.

“Ma’am,” Captain America stepped forward and lowered his shield slightly. Slightly but not all the way. Their guards were still up. “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” Oh, your arm. It was starting to sting and throb. “Oh, this? Psh, it’s nothing.”

“Steve, we should take her in,” the man with shoulder-length brown hair said to the Captain. The Winter Soldier. “She killed all those people.” He didn’t take his eyes off you.

You narrowed your eyes back at him. Take you in? Honestly, hunters didn’t like the Avengers. Sure they saved the world from alien invasions (the fact that aliens existed was like a big ‘fuck you’ in the supernatural world) and from homicidal robots, but hunters faced worse odds every day. All without glory, as every hunter would point out.

“Yeah, that’s a no.” You took a step back. There was another door behind you and your car was parked just down around the corner.

“Yeah, but you fucking killed like ten people,” the Falcon gestured around vaguely. Another step back.

“No, I didn’t.” Step.

“Uh, I think the eviden— wait!” The Soldier was cut off by your sudden movement.

You had turned and ran out the door, which was thankfully a push. Yes, you knew that Captain America and the Winter Soldier were enhanced to be stronger and faster or whatever, but you had lots of practice running away from things that were faster than regular people. You were also smaller and therefore more agile. You’ve taken a physics class once; you knew how aerodynamics work.

As you rounded the corner, you could hear three sets of footsteps behind you. Your dark blue ‘79 Chevy Camaro was within reach. Keys at the ready, you skillfully unlocked your car before hastily starting it. With a sigh of relief, the three members of the Avengers were very close to catching you, you pulled out onto the street while ignoring the incessant honking of a taxi you had just cut off. You chuckled as you watched them in the rearview mirror as they gave up the chase.

~*~

“How did she get away?” Bucky shook his head. The local police were loading up the bodies, fourteen in total, and he heard that the FBI would be involved.

“We didn’t expect her to run,” Sam tried to save his pride. “She was also so much faster than I was expecting.”

“Are you ready to head back?” Steve walked over. They all had to give their statements to the police. They nodded and made to enter the quinjet but an officer running up to them stopped them in their tracks.

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” the officer started before pausing for a breath, “that there was a woman there.”

“Eavesdropping isn’t nice,” Bucky growled at the young man who shrunk back slightly.

“It’s alright,” Sam put the back of his hand on the ex-assassin’s chest as if he was holding him back. “Go ahead.”

“Uh, well, you see,” the officer stuttered and then took a deep breath. “There was this woman, not from ‘round here, poking around. She was asking about the bar and some of the girls who went missing from there. Even heard she made a trip to the morgue. I just think it might be the same lady.”

“What was she looking for?” Steve was intrigued.

“My friend from the morgue said that she was checkin’ out the body of the only missing girl we found. Everyone was talkin’ ‘bout it down at the station. Notta drop ‘o blood left in her body.” The officer was excited now his words becoming less and less pronounced. Then he leaned in with his eyes wide like he was going to share some radical conspiracy. “And just ‘tween you ‘n me,” he paused for dramatic effect and Bucky rolled his eyes. Steve humored him and leaned in as well. “Somma those people look like a few ‘o the missing girls.”

“If you get any confirmation, please have your superiors send it our way,” Steve commanded and Bucky could tell that his friend was just as curious as he was. The officer scurried away and the three heroes entered the plane.

“Man, something really weird’s going on.” Sam shook his head.

~*~

After driving for almost two hours, you sped into a mostly empty rest area just outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania. You wrapped your still bloody machete in a towel and made sure it was well hidden before draping your leather jacket over your shoulders to hide your wound. God, you hoped your jacket wouldn’t get too bloody. Blood was a bitch to get out and it was a new jacket, your old one having been ripped by a werewolf. 

 The bathroom was empty when you entered and you locked the door behind you. The bleeding had stopped quickly thanks to a magic pendant around your neck. A nice witch, as nice as they could get, gifted it to you in exchange for her own life and for ridding her town of the much more sinister competition. Healing magic was hard so all the pendant did was make you die slower.

You washed out the bite and flushed the used paper towels down the toilet. Leaving bloody towels in the trash for everyone to see wasn’t the best way to keep a low profile, you knew from experience. Then you took the knife that you kept hidden in your boot and cut away three inches of your large flannel shirt to wrap your arm.

Well, it was your brother Sam’s shirt, but he wouldn’t mind. Too much. Well, Sam and Dean were actually your half brothers. John Winchester was your father and his blood in your veins was enough to cause some shit faced demons to target you and your mother… 

Woah, there. No need to wander down memory lane in some dingy rest stop bathroom in Pennsylvania.

You gently eased your arm through your leather jacket. Maybe Cas will be helpful and heal you up when you get back to the bunker. Vampire bites can leave some fucking ugly scars. Satisfied with your work you fixed your hair in the mirror before heading back to your Camaro.

While you were pumping gas for your drive back to the bunker, your mind went back to the three Avengers who had rudely interrupted your hunting trip. Okay, maybe they actually kinda sorta saved you but not really. Honestly, you thought you had it all under control. Dean would get a kick out of the story, you thought as you re-entered your car, drove onto I-81, and pulled up your brother’s contact on your phone. Probably leave out the part about your arm, though. Both of your brothers would flip their shit and ignore the rest of the story.

“Hey, (Y/N),” Dean’s gruff voice came through your phone. “How’re you doing?”

“Great! I’m doing great. Just eradicated a vamp nest in Poughkeepsie.”

“What’s going on?” You heard from the other side after a sharp intake of breath.

“Oh, no,” you quickly corrected. Damn, you’d momentarily forgotten your code. “I was actually working a job in ol’ ‘Keepsie, New York. Swear it.”

“Alright,” Dean responded slowly.

“But you’ll never fucking guess who showed up.”

“Who?”

“Ya don’t wanna take a guess first? No? Alrighty. It was… the fucking Avengers, boom!”

“Really? Like the superhero group?” Dean always liked superheroes even if they were clueless to the supernatural.

“Yeah. It was only three of ‘em, and they tried to shoot a damned vamp, but fuck if it wasn’t cool.”

You held no malice towards them unlike the majority of hunters, but sometimes you wished you would get recognition for your work. All you ever got was wanted posters thanks to some bitch ass leviathan and shifter. The three Avengers probably thought you killed everyone in the bar. Well, you did but they didn’t know the reason. In their eyes, you were a mass murderer. You pointed this fact out to Dean.

“I don’t think they deal with little cases like mass murder or strange deaths. That’s why we’ve never run into ‘em before.”

“What a world we live in where mass murderers are ‘little cases.’”

“Yeah, yeah. If they do start looking, all you gotta do is lay low for a while. Sit out on a couple of hunts.”

“Ight.” Damn those words you say as a joke but then actually become a part of your vocabulary. “You won’t be able to keep me benched, but I doubt it’ll ever come to that.”

~*~

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Tag List (strike though means tag didn’t work):

@grav3dollie-666

[ninja-muse]

i’m trying to branch out and read outside my genre (fantasy) do you have any book recs for someone whose heart is in fantasy but needs to see what else is out there?

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask! Fantasy’s such a wide genre, and this is such an open ask, that I’m mostly going to be recommending books with similar feels or themes from other genres, to push you a little outside the fantasy bubble and introducing you to different genres and types of storytelling. If you have a favourite subgenre or trope or author, I can maybe get a little more specific or offer read-alikes.

Also, I don’t know if you knew this before asking, but fantasy is my favourite genre too, so some of these recs are books that pushed me out of the genre as well, or that I found familiar-but-different.

And this is getting long, so I’m going to throw it under a cut to save everyone scrolling.

Science fiction

the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold - This is space opera, which means it’ll have fairly familiar plots except with science-y things instead of magic. There’s an heir with something to prove, heists, cons, and mysteries, attempted coups and assassinations, long-suffering sidekicks, and a homeworld that’s basically turn-of-the-century Russia but with fewer serfs. It was one of the first adult sci-fi books I read and genuinely liked.

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey - I finished this recently, and the second book of the trilogy just came out. This is post-apocalyptic sci-fi, but not grim or particularly complex. (Some SF gets really into the nuts and bolts of the science elements; this isn’t that.) Basically, Koli’s a teenager who wants more than his quasi-medieval life’s given him, and finds himself in conflict with his village (and then exile) because of it. I could see where the story was going pretty much from the start, but I loved the journey anyway.

The Martian by Andy Weir - This doesn’t have much in common with fantasy, but it’s my go-to rec for anyone who’s never read science fiction before, because it’s funny, explains the science well, and has a hero and a plot you get behind right away. In case you haven’t heard of it (or the film), it’s about an astronaut stranded on Mars, trying to survive long enough to be rescued.

Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh - This is an alien first contact story, about a colony of humans in permanent quarantine on an alien planet. The MC is the sole social liaison and translator, explaining his culture to the aliens and the aliens to the human, and working to keep the peace—until politics and assassins get involved. It’s been over a decade since I read this, so my memory’s blurred, but I remember the same sort of political intrigue vibes as the Daevabad trilogy, just with fewer POVs.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - One from my TBR. It looks like dark fiction about women, outcasts, and revenge, which sounds very fantastic and the MC can apparently do magic—but it’s post-apocalyptic Africa.

Speaking of political intrigue and sweeping epic plots, the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey has both in spades. Rebellions, alien technology, corrupt businesses, heroes doing good things and getting bad consequences, all that good stuff. It takes the science fairly seriously, without getting very dense with it, and will probably register as “more sci-fi” than my recs in the genre so far.

Oh, and Dune by Frank Herbert is such a classic chosen-one epic that it barely registers as science fiction at all.

Graphic novels

It’s technically fantasy, but assuming you’ve never picked up a graphic novel before, you should read Monstress by Marjorie Liu. Asian-inspired, with steampunk aesthetics, and rebellions and quests and so many female characters. It’s an absolutely fantastic graphic novel, if you want a taste of what those can do.

I’d highly recommend Saga by Brian K. Vaughan. It’s an epic science fiction story about a family caught between sides of a centuries-long war. (Dad’s from one side, Mom’s from the other, everyone wants to capture them, their kid is narrating.) It’s a blast to read, exciting and tense, with hard questions and gorgeous tender moments, and the world-building somehow manages to include weaponized magic, spaceship trees, ghosts, half-spider assassins, and all-important pulp romance novels without anything feeling out of place.

Historical fiction

Hild by Nicola Griffith - Very rich and detailed novel following a girl growing up in an early medieval English court. It’s very fantasy-esque, with battles and politics and changes of religion, and Hild gets positioned early on to be the king’s seer, so there’s “magic” of a sort as well.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - A widow goes to the Victorian seaside to heal and reawaken her interest in biology. Slow, gentle, lovely writing and atmosphere, interesting characters and turns of plot. Doesn’t actually deliver on the sea monster, but still has a lot to recommend it to fantasy readers, I think.

Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin - The late-medieval Jewish pirate adventure you didn’t know you wanted. It’s funny and literary, full of tropes and set pieces like “small-town kid in the big city” and “jail break”, and features the Spanish Inquisition, Columbus, the Fountain of Youth, and talking parrots, among other things.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - A thousand pages about the building of a cathedral in England, mostly focusing on the master builder, the monk who spearheads the project, and a noblewoman who’s been kicked off her family’s land, but has several other plots going on, including a deacon with political ambitions, a war, and a boy who’s trying so hard to fit in and do right.

Sharon Kay Penman - This is an author on my TBR, who comes highly recommended for her novels about the War of the Roses and the Plantagenets. Should appeal to you if you liked Game of Thrones. I’m planning to start with The Sunne in Splendour.

Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson - Either a Robin Hood retelling that’s also a romance, or a romance that’s also a Robin Hood retelling.

Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’Farrell - A novel of the Shakespeare family, mostly focused on his wife and son. Lovely writing and a very gentle feel though it heads into dark and complex subjects fairly often. A good portrait of Early Modern family life.

Mystery

There’s not a lot of mystery that reads like high, epic, or even contemporary fantasy, but if you’re a fan of urban fantasy, which is basically mystery with magic in, then I’d rec:

Cozy mysteries as a general subgenre, especially if you like the Sookie Stackhouse end of urban fantasy, which has romance and quirky plots; there are plenty of series where the detective’s a witch or the sidekick’s a ghost but they’re solving non-magical mysteries, and the genre in general full of heroines who are good at solving crimes without formal training, and the plots feel very similar but with slightly lower stakes. Cozies have become one of my comfort-reading genres (along with UF) the last few years. My intros were the Royal Spyness novels by Rhys Bowen and the Fairy Tale Fatale books by Maia Chance.

If you like your urban fantasy darker and more serious, and your heroines more complicated, try Kathy Reichs and her Temperance Brennan novels. Brennan’s a forensic anthropologist, strong and complicated in the same ways of my fave UF heroines, and the mysteries are already interesting, with a good dash of thriller and a smidge of romance.

Two other recs:

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart - The first of four books about a forensic anthropologist in Ireland, who’s called in when the Garda find bodies in the peat bogs and need to know how long they’ve been there. They’re very atmospheric—I can almost smell the bog—and give great portraits of rural Ireland and small-town secrets, and since not all the bodies found in each book are recent, they also bring interesting slices of the past to life as well.

A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger - This is essentially a medieval thriller about a seditious book that’s turned up in London. I liked the mystery in it and that it’s much more focused on the lives of average people than the rich and famous (for all that recognizable people also show up).

Classics

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift - I swear this is actually one of the first fantasy novels but few people ever really class it as such. Basically, Gulliver’s a ship’s doctor who keeps getting shipwrecked—in a country of tiny people, a country of giants, a country of mad scientists, a country of talking horses, etc. It’s social satire and a spoof of travelogues from Swift’s time, but it’s easily enough read without that context.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - Another, slightly later, fantasy and satire! Even more amusing situations than in Gulliver’s Travels and, while it’s been a while* since I read it, I think it’ll be a decent read-alike for authors like Jasper Fforde, Genevieve Cogman, and that brand of light British comic fantasy.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare - Also technically a fantasy! I mean, there are fairies and enchantments, for all it’s a romantic comedy written entirely in old-fashioned poetry. It’s a pretty good play to start you off on Shakespeare, if you’re interested in going that direction.

On the subject of Shakespeare, I would also recommend Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and King Lear, the first because it’s my favourite comedy, the others because they’re fantasy read-alikes imo as well (witches! coups! drama!).

the Arthurian mythos. Le Morte D’arthur, Crétien de Troyes, The Once and Future King by T.H. White, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, etc. - I’ve read bits and pieces of the first two, am about 80% sure I read the third as a kid (or at least The Sword in the Stone), and have the last on my TBR. Basically, these stories are going to give you an exaggeratedly medieval setting, knights, quests, wizards, fairies, high drama, romantic entanglements, and monsters, and the medieval ones especially have different kinds of plots than you’ll be used to (and maybe open the door to more medieval lit?) **

Beowulf and/or The Odyssey - Two epics that inspired a lot of fiction that came later. (There’s an especial connection between Beowulf and Tolkien.) They’re not the easiest of reads because they’re in poetry and non-linear narratives, but both have a hero facing off against a series of monsters and/or magical creatures as their core story.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - The first real science fiction novel. It’s about the ethics of science and the consequences of one’s actions, and I loved seeing the Creature find himself and Frankenstein descend into … that. It’s also full of sweeping, gothic scenes and tension and doom and drama.

* 25 years, give or take

** There are plenty of more recent people using King Arthur and associated characters too, if this "subgenre” interests you.

Other fiction

Vicious by V.E. Schwab - I don’t know if you classify superheroes as science fiction or fantasy or its own genre (for me it depends on the day) but this is an excellent take on the subject, full of moral greyness and revenge.

David Mitchell - A literary fiction writer who has both a sense of humour and an interest in the fantastic and science fictional. He writes ordinary people and average lives marvelously well, keeps me turning pages, plays with form and timelines, and reliably throws in either recurring, possibly-immortal characters, good-vs-evil psychic battles, or other SF/F-y elements. I’d start with either Slade House, a ghost story, or Utopia Avenue, about a ‘60s rock band. Or possible The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I fully admit to not having read yet.

Devolution by Max Brooks - A horror movie in book form, full of tension and desperation and jump scares and the problems with relying on modern technology. The monsters are Bigfeet. Reccing this one in the same way I’m reccing The Martian—it’s an accessible intro to its genre.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson - Contemporary fiction with a slight literary bent, that doesn’t pull its punches about Indigenous life but also has a sense of humour about the same. Follows a teen dealing with poverty and a bad home life and drugs and hormones—and the fact that his bio-dad might actually be the trickster Raven. Also features witches, magic, and other spirit-beings, so I generally pitch this as magic realism.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - Another Indigenous rec, this time a horror novel about ghosts and racism and trying to do the right thing. This’ll give you a taste of the more psychological end of the horror spectrum.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia - A good example of contemporary YA and how it handles the complexities of life, love, and growing up. Follows the writer of a fantasy webcomic who makes a friend who turns out to write fic of her story and who suddenly has to really balance online and offline life, among other pressures. Realistic portrait of mental health problems.

Non-fiction

The Book of Margery Kempe - The first English-language autobiography. Margery was very devout but also very badass, in a medieval sort of way. She went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, was possibly epileptic, frequently “saw” Christ and Mary and demons, basically became a nun in middle age while staying married to her husband, and wound up on trial for heresy, before talking a monk into writing down her life story. It’s a fascinating window into the time period.

The Hammer and the Cross by Robert Ferguson - A history of medieval Norse people and how their explorations and trade shaped both their culture and the world.

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor - Travel writing that was recommended to me by someone who raved about the prose and was totally right. Fermor’s looking back, with the aid of journals, on a walking trip he took across Europe in the 1930s. It’s a fascinating look at the era and an old way of life, and pretty much every “entry” has something of interest in it. He met all sorts of people.

Tim Severin and/or Thor Heyerdahl - More travel writing, this time by people recreating historical voyages (or what they believe to be historical voyages, ymmv) in period ships. Severin focuses on mythology (I’ve read The Ulysses Voyage and The Jason Voyage) and Heyerdahl’s known for Kon-Tiki, which is him “proving” that Polynesians made contact with South America. They both go into the history of the sailing and areas they’re travelling through, while also describing their surroundings and daily life, and, yes, running into storms and things.

Hope this helps you!

[gloves94]

Kingdom of the Sun [Fire Lord Zuko] 5

Chapter Warnings: None Story Rating: M Pairings: Zuko/OC

Kingdom of the Sun MASTERLIST Last Airbender MASTERLIST My MASTERLIST

2 Years Ago… Tsai paced around the room anxiously. Her head flinched at every little movement or sound that she could hear. Her concerned eyes always coming back to the struggling expression of Zuko who had gone into a moral decision comma and was currently unconscious and laying on his bed where he sweat profusely once again at an internal conflict with himself. She had sent for his mother, the palace staff and the family physician. She sat on the edge of his bed keeping a cool rag pressed against his forehead. It took a couple of moments before Nezu, his assistant, and some other servants walked rushed into the room. Her eyes once again darted back to the Fire Lord's face. How had this happened? How had somebody managed to sabotage the candles in the Dragon Catacombs and manage to sneak into her room to leave a threatening message? Tsai looked at the staff uneasily. She didn't trust any of them. Whoever was doing this had both internal and personal information about their lives. She knew that  Fire Nation guards were practically useless having gotten past them several times before herself. "How.…Did this happen?" She growled out in a menacing tone demanding an answer. Her clothes stained with soothe and ash from the impact of the blast. She saw them all exchange a nervous glance between each other. There wasn't an answer. Uncertainty filled them. "How did this happen!" She shouted. Somebody could've died. Hell, Zuko could've died. "Uh-" Nezu, Zuko's assistant stepped forward stammering. "The two of you were left alone. The guards stayed at the entrance of the Fire Temple?" That was beside the point. Whomever had done this had prepared for this. They had obviously set up the bomb before time when the two had been at the play. "Dismiss the Fire Lord's guards from their duties," she ordered. "Send note for the Kyoshi Warriors. They'll be the Fire Lord's new guards." Again the staff exchanged a nervous look. "I'm sorry, but you can't do that," Nezu said looking down at a scroll he seemed to be carrying around all day. "You have no authority." She stood up to the bed and rounded about it not removing her angry eyes from the assistant. "Do you have vision problems?" She probed her tone unfriendly, warning. "I-I'm sorry?" he stammered. "Do you not see what just happened? Are you unaware of all the assassination attempts? Who's going to respond for him when he's unconscious? You will send for the Kyoshi Warriors and you will do it. Now. I don't care if it's not authorized. His guards are useless and as for me, good luck getting me out of this room." The assistant licked his lips and nodded his head before turning away and exiting the room before uttering another word. She let out a sharp breath feeling some guilt at her uncharacteristic angry burst.

Just then Ursa and the family physician rushed in. Zuko was in a comma for two nights. She never once left his side. The little sleep she got, she got while bundling up next to him waking up every couple of hours to change the cold rag on his forehead. The only person she trust enough to enter the room or bring food to them was Ursa who would come every couple of hours worried out of her mind. Tsai was tired. She wondered if this was what her grandfather had referred to the last and final time that they spoke... “People might change but their natures don’t. Don’t be a fool Tsai. He is troubled and I sensed he will always be. Especially when reasoning right from wrong...” There wasn't much she could do for him. She spent the days watching him painfully struggle with his demons. She sat next to him and kept busy by either reading or writing. Sometimes he'd wake up to quench his thirst and then go back to his sleeping torment. Sometimes he'd mumble out names, phrases, incoherent thoughts. Presently, she sat on the bed next to him reading a book on the Tradition, Culture and Society of the Fire Nation. She felt him moving, shifting his body and felt him reach for her. He held her as tight as he could in a weak embrace. Arms wrapped around her hips, head buried in her lap. She looked at him with worry and mindlessly ran her fingers through his hair in a soothing motion. She didn’t know how long she sat in that position when he suddenly let go of her, slowly turning around, his head still resting on her legs. He blinked his tired eyes open and looked at her. “Hey,” she said softly brushing the lost strands of hair from his forehead. “Hey,” he managed to croak out weakly. She said nothing in return, simply starred at his golden eyes, her painful expression said it all. “I love you,” he said in a sorely strained voice. A deep sadness lingering in his eyes. Neither of them had said what would come next, but he knew. He could feel it, he could see the distance in the windows to her soul. She leaned down hovering above him for a. second, strands of her red hair falling, tickling his face as she did. “I know,” she responded before kissing his forehead. “I love you too.” Her lips lingered there for a moment. A stray tear escaping the window of her eye. A sigh escaped his lips and he closed his eyes taking in the moment. She pulled back draping an arm around him, one which he held lightly stroking every other moment. Xxx

Tsai left the Fire Nation three days later. It was the same day the Kyoshi Warriors arrived. She hadn’t eaten anything since arriving back home to the colonies. She hadn’t slept either, her heart felt heavy. She had suggested that they take a break for their own safety. Zuko agreed and said it would be best, but when he asked for how long she had no answers for him. “Until this is all over.” And who knows how long that would be. He had promised to wait for her. She found herself unable to make such promises to him. Sure, she could be with him, she could be only his, but he came with a burdening title that she found she could not fill. How would an individual from the Fire Nation’s colonies, half Earth Kingdom and half Fire take the seat of Fire Lady. It was unheard off, untraditional. She would never be accepted; it was something that did not belong to her. It hadn’t been her intention to leave the Fire Nation so suddenly, but an important meeting arose on the other side of the ocean. Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom diplomats were called to it. As were all the heads and leaders of the Fire Nation colonies. The security at the meeting was top notch since an attack was certain to occur. Amongst the colonial leaders were the Governors of the Hu Xin Provinces, the Governor of Bahamut, the Governors of the Taiga River Valley amongst others. She stood there alongside her brother representing Yu Dao, one of the Fire Nation’s colonies. The point of the meeting was to decide the future of the Hu Xin Provinces. Civil unrest and the discriminatory discrepancies between Earth Kingdomers and Fire Nationers threatened to spark a civil revolution which would just ignite the same chaos in the other colonies. Earth Kingdom diplomats claimed for their lost territory. The Fire Nation argued back that they wouldn’t surrender their colonized territory. Older colonies such as Yu Dao claimed neither was the answer, both cultures were deeply rooted in the land and the people, independence was necessary. This idea was greatly opposed by all parties. All governing heads of states had their seats on a long desk at the front of the room. A mediator at the side holding a hammering which came down after every sentence or so to approve or disapprove motions and silence the audience. “You have to understand,” Mecha pleaded standing his ground in the massive meeting room where rows and rows of governing officials sat with their staffs and teams all eyes focused on him. Scattered murmuring filled the room as all governing officials exchanged looked with each other. The scarred young man looked at his sister who sat in the audience. If anybody could convince them, it would be her. Afterall, she had been planning this for most of her adult life. She stood up confidently looking at the room filled with mostly middle-aged Fire Nation men. How typical. They all seemed to look down at the her with contempt. “It’s impossible to go back to either sovereignty,” she stood up. Tall, back straight, shoulders square like always. “Mark my words, war will lash out again as both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation will dispute for their territories and neither will succeed.” She warned. “The best option is to come together and become a unified and independent republic.” Nobody said a word and she continued. “I –“ She began and looked at her brother from across the room. He nodded. “We believe that our colony, the Vice Royal colony of Yu Dao, is proof that our differences should make us stronger, not divide us. We live in a time when we should be building bridges not walls. Together uniting not only Earth and Fire, but Water as well. I believe we can build a thriving metropolis which would welcome all. Bringing talents, ideas and cultures from all over the world together as one.” The murmurs in the audience grew louder and soon they turned into a spread of cold, cruel laughs amongst the crowd. The laughter was mocking and echoed the large room. Regardless she did not stand down. “Excuse me,” An Earth Kingdom official who was lightly laughing rose to his feet. “Vice Royal Governor,” he addressed her brother instead of her. “Why would you allow this young lady to speak on your behalf?” “What are her qualifications?” Another governor asked also addressing her brother and not her. “I am well read, traveled and educated in the history, cultures and political climates of our world.” She answered. “My brother and I both strongly stand by the notion that our ways have to change. The war is over and the world cannot continue to go on as it has for the past one-hundred years.” “My sister can speak for herself, thank you,” Her brother added after a moment crossing his arms behind his back smiling proudly at his younger sister. He wasn’t going to have none of this nonsense. “If Yu Dao wants to stand alone, let them, be but we will not stand with you. We will not lose our customs, our traditions and our national identity and pride to the ideas of some anarchist!” The Governor or the Taiga River Valley slammed a hard fist down on the wooden desk. Arguing and talking got louder. “We are not anarchist!” Mecha backed up. “The Colony’s terrain rightfully belongs to the Earth Kingdom!” “Preposterous, more Fire Nationers live there than in any other place in the continent!” “We have a history there!” “When other nations send people here, they will not send their best!” The arguing got louder, bickering and disagreement being shot back and forth between all government and policy officials. None of them coming to an agreement when suddenly the main doors of the meeting room were parted open with a loud slam. Under the arch of the door stood three Fire Sages wearing their regal crimson robes. The three looked aged and walked in with solemn expressions. Reaching the front of the room where the heads of state sat. “Silence!” The mediator slammed his hammer down repeatedly. The room once again grew silent. All arguing parties remained standing. “A message of impertinence importance from Fire Lord Zuko.” One of the Fire Sages stood in the center of the room. The other two tagging along behind. He pulled out a golden scroll from the inside of his sleeve one which was still sealed with the royal wax stamp. He unraveled it, breaking it open and read a couple of minutes of political jargon. “-As of now, it is with great honor and pride that the Fire Nation succeeds half of its entire territory. All Fire Nation lands ranging from below the Northern Artic Sea and above the Gao Ling provinces. Hereby in this statement referred to as The Fire Nation’s colonies including Vice Royal territories of the nation such as: Bahamut, Taiga River Valley, Hu Xin, Yu Dao…” The Fire Sage continued naming numerous more if not all colonial lands that stood property of the Fire Nation. Officials stood up slowly hands pressed against their desks in support as they awaited the news of what would come of their lands. “All formerly mentioned territories, bodies of land and water, will be endowed… to Lord-“ The Fire Sage lost his voice; his eyes were raised with a ghastly look. The room remained silent not a single noise could be heard. You could hear a pin drop. Everybody on the edge of their seats. Mecha an Tsai’s eyes rapidly darted from the Fire Sage that was speaking to each other in disbelief. Her palms felt cold at what the man was reading all blood draining from her face. The man that was reading the Royal message in took a sharp breath. He placed a hand on a nearby desk to steady himself. “All formerly mentioned territories, bodies of land and water, will be endowed to Lord Tsai of Yu Dao as an absolute and independent monarch-“ The words of the Fire Sage became inaudible as chaos ensured in the room. Shouting the throwing of items across the meeting room. The mediator hammer incessantly to a deaf crowd. Tsai had not move had not had a reaction other than shocked at the words that rocked her. Mecha could see greedy hands reaching for her, screaming at her, about to pull and tug at her in anger. He cursed loudly and ran across the room grabbing his sisters’ arm and running out of the room kicking and knocking out everyone and everything that came in their way. “I can’t believe it…” He said catching his breath once the two were outside hiding in some nearby alleyway.  “He gave you the colonies!” He gaped eyes wide in disbelief. “Tsai! You’re a Lord! You’re the Lord of the Colonies!” He let out a shaky laugh. She was distraught, eyes lowered to the floor, her mind racing. Still struck and in disbelief at what had happened. He had followed through with his word. She thought about his moral comma… That made more sense now. “What are you going to do?” He asked. “I… I don’t know…” She admitted completely at a loss.

All of her life she had dreamed about this moment, planned for it prepared for it, but as it came to her like a wild raging bull, she wasn’t sure how to grab it by the horns. xxx As predicted war came to the colonies once again. The Battle of Yu Dao, as it would later be called consisted on King Kuei, the Earth Kingdom’s monarch, coming to claim his lost territories and Fire Lord Zuko from the Fire Nation sending troops to defend the territory known as the colonies from an invasion. Revolutionaries from the colonies rose in arms to defend their independence. Even Aang and the rest of the group returned to stand by the independence of the colonial territories. In the end all parties gathered outside the gates of Yu Dao ready to attack. All wearing military uniforms, helmets, weapons and on guard ready to strike. As if one hundred years of war had not been enough… It was only through the Avatar’s mediation that an agreement between Fire Lord Zuko, Lord Tsai and King Kuei was reached. The colonies would remain independent, the most recently acquired ones would return to the governing body of the Earth Kingdom. Lord Tsai renounced her title after declaring that the older colonies, particularly the ones with a blended identity and strong roots of both Fire Nationers and Earth Kingdomers would become part of a new independently governing body which was baptized as the Republic of Nations in which every nation would send an elected representative to delegate on their behalf. That’s how the colonies were liberated and Republic of Nations came to be…

xxxx AN: Short chapter, not my favorite but it had to be done.  Next chapter we’re going back to Present time Fire Nation. On to better things. Leggggooooo!! prev: https://gloves94.tumblr.com/post/625513136018112512/kingdom-of-the-sun-fire-lord-zuko-4 next:

[harddrivetrash]

Methods for Creating Robust RPG Characters From an Actor’s Perspective

I know I don’t post a lot at all, but I’m trying to be better about that. So instead of empty promises and some Assassin’s Creed screenshots, here’s some Real Content! This one’s for all you RPG’ers who might want some advice on character writing. Hope you enjoy it.

For context, I am an actor in Northern California with professional training and seven years of theatre experience. I’m in college currently pursuing a theatre degree. I have been running rpgs for about a year now, and I am the forever game master (GM) for my gaming group.  With that in mind, know that the suggestions in this article come from a place of strong knowledge and love for the art of theatre, and from personal experiences, both onstage and at the gaming table. I have a lot of particular thoughts regarding aesthetic philosophy, specifically as it relates to acting and theatre art, but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum.

1. Start With Your Gameplay Vision

This method focuses on the player’s gameplay preferences first and builds the personality to accommodate that. What do you want this character to be like in a social situation? Do you want a suave talker who can charm his way into trouble and then bluff his way right out of it? Or do you want to be the quiet, brooding type who lets her allies talk things out whilst backing them up by looking intimidating? Similarly, consider how you want to approach combat. Whether you’re a guns-a-blazin’ type player or a stealthy assassin doesn’t matter; the most important part is making that concrete decision and then creating a reason for it.

For example, if you want your character to be a gunslinging, animal-taming bard, decide why they fight that way. Why do they like guns, and how did they learn to shoot? When did they discover their love of animals, and when did they practice the skills which enabled them to tame creatures? With each additional answer, keep adding to the backstory and make sure that everything you add to it stays consistent with its ability to facilitate your gameplay preferences.Keep asking and answering these kinds of introspective questions about your character until you feel comfortable with that creation.

I recommend this method for beginning players and game masters because it allows one to write up a character based on something you’re already excited about. I’ve found that this method works especially well for Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s a perfectly effective method for other, more role-play focused games like Call of Cthulhu or Vampire: the Masquerade. 

The beauty of creating a character this way is the simplicity; the player only needs to consider whether or not every added detail to the character’s personality and backstory is consistent with their desired playstyle. There is no need to worry (too much) about the lore of the game world. The biggest drawback, however, is that this method encourages players to think about actual play in a much more meta-minded manner, as opposed to focusing primarily on immersion and role-play, especially for new players. You might find that you or your players will only play this character so far as to create an opportunity to roll dice. This is totally okay, by the way; there is nothing wrong with hungering for a good dice roll. It’s just something to keep in mind.

2. Find an Environmental Anchor

You may find the previous method to be too basic or meta or for whatever reason not your desired method for character creation; that’s fine! Sometimes when you start a new character, you don’t have the slightest idea about what you want to do in combat or maybe you don’t want to build a character based on class or combat role. No matter what, this method is totally focused on immersion into the game world and nothing else. 

First, speak to your GM about the setting and theme of the game. Try to get as much information as you can about the world and its lore, and then pick something you like as an anchor. For example, if there is a rugged mountain range in a high fantasy setting that you like the concept of, consider making a connection to it with the information you have; is your character from there? Do they want to go there? Did something happen to them whilst travelling through the mountains? Whatever it is, define a clear connection to that place (assuming it works with your game master’s world and lore, of course) and then work from there, asking “why” and “how” along the way to smooth out those rougher details.

Environmental anchors don’t even need to be related to the geography, either! For example, if you’re playing a sci-fi setting where your character lives on a colonial planet, find out what that culture is like. Why is there a colony? What government funded the development of this colony? How do people feel about their leaders and what do they do about those feelings? Acquire any and all information about the people and their culture as you can (assuming your GM shares that with you) and then consider how you want your character to exist in that context. If it’s a religious society, define whether or not your character is religious and how they feel about religion. Do they follow the same religion as everyone else? How has religion affected them in the past? These kinds of questions help you to define how your character acts and feels in the context of the game world without focusing on the different aspects of gameplay or game balance. You’ll definitely find your fighting style along the way, don’t worry.

The biggest downside to using this method as a player is that you need to bug your GM a lot. Chances are they’ll be more than happy to help, especially if they’ve built the entire game world from scratch. But remember, depending on the person, you might not get a lot of information because it’s all an elaborate secret, or they might just not have that information available for you. However, the silver lining is that in asking your game master specific questions about the world, their creative wheels start to turn as they ponder these questions. I’ve found that this usually leads to the GM creating a far more robust and detailed land than they would have done otherwise. In any case, be kind and patient with your questions.

3. Define Personality Traits

Maybe you’re an experienced player and want to try a different method of character creation, or maybe you’re a new player who wants to focus on role-playing a particular archetype, but you have yet to define their more nuanced personality traits. This method is perfect for building a personality, and then writing your backstory to accommodate that. 

Like the other two methods listed here, the most important thing is to decide on a concrete center for your character concept, regardless of what it is. If you want to play a character who is a brave and honorable warrior, start with that. Why do they value bravery and honor? Was it ingrained in them during childhood or did they learn those values later in life? Just those two questions can give you a lot of creative room with which to work. Keep asking questions about the reasons for your character’s attitudes and the way they react in different situations. 

I personally use this method a lot in conjunction with finding an environmental anchor. You don’t have to, but if you choose not to create a character who is tightly tied to the game world in some way, you run the risk of creating a character in a contextual vacuum. I’ll expand more on this idea at a later date, but the key thing to remember is that people, and by extension characters, do not exist in a vacuum. There is always a social and an environmental context which affects how your character develops. Once you’ve used this method to come up with a good personality for your character, be sure to work with your GM to implement them into their game world as smoothly as possible before play begins.

4. Assist Your Players

This one is for all the game masters out there. I find that it is incredibly helpful and important to assist players in character creation, especially if they are struggling. Asking your players questions and providing suggestions which they themselves may not have thought of goes a long way in helping them develop a character with some real depth. In my experience, this collaboration also helps immensely with prompting players to create more intriguing backstories.

Communication is incredibly important (again, I plan to elaborate on this subject in a future post) and as a GM, character creation goes a lot smoother when you inform your players about the setting as soon as possible. Keep them updated as things change in your planning so they can change their ideas in time, if need be. 

The biggest pitfall with this method for both players and game masters is the risk of allowing the player's creation to become the GM's creation. Too many suggestions for backstory plot points or personality traits can smother the player's creativity and lead them to play a character which actually isn't their own creation, and they might not be happy about that. 

Personally, I like giving my players as much agency as possible, so i tend to keep my suggestions to a minimum and focus on asking my players questions about their character. However, if your players enjoy taking your suggestions and everyone's having fun, you don't need to worry. 

One Last Thing…

Remember that your character, especially if you’re a player, is your vessel through whom you may freely express yourself. Stay true to whatever your vision is and create something that you actually enjoy, even if it takes a little bit more time than you’d expect. Playing tabletop games is about having fun and sharing a narrative experience. Don’t worry too much about if your character is “right” or “interesting enough” or “different enough” from your own real personality; that stuff doesn’t matter. As long as you’re all having fun, you’re doing it right. 

Be kind to each other and stay healthy.

[r0sequarks]

Hiatus Classic Who Watchlist

so, you’ve got a 10 month hiatus and need more doctor who...why not give the original series a try?

Classic who is a bit hard to get in to - the pacing of the episodes is much slower - but it’s still well worth it. This list is seperated by doctor, with ‘must watch’ and ‘reccommended’ if you don’t want to watch every episode ever. 

First Doctor 

Must Watch:

An Unearthly Child: the very first episode. Even if you skip the entirety of the first doctor, you should at least watch the episode where Doctor who began. 

The Daleks: the second episode - that’s right, the daleks are the first villains of doctor who, ever! I think this is probably the best episode of the first doctor, and one of the best to show people. 

The Gunfighters: All I’m going to say is that I watched this, and so y’all better watch it too. 

Recommended:

The Edge of Destruction, The Aztecs, The Sensorites, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Rescue, The Chase, The Time Meddler, The Tenth Planet*

*The Tenth Planet would be on the Must Watch, because it’s the introduction of the Cybermen and the First Doctor’s regeneration, but the final episode is missing, so ymmv. 

Second Doctor 

Must Watch:

The War Games: The only ‘must watch’. Very long - the longest serial ever, but if you’re only watching one episode with 2, it may as well be this one. Features the first appearance of Gallifrey.

Recommended:

The Tomb of the Cybermen, Ice Warriors*, The Enemy of the World, The Invasion*, The Seeds of Death

*Partially animated due to missing episodes

(lowkey i recommend basically every episode from here on out, but ...)

Third Doctor

Must Watch:

Spearhead from Space: Introduction of post-regeneration Hijinks, UNIT as major characters, and autons. 

Terror of the Autons: First appearance of the Master

The Three Doctors: First ever multi-doctor episode.

Recommended:

Doctor Who and the Silurians, Colony in Space, The Daemons, The Curse of Peladon, the Sea Devils, Frontier in Space, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders

The Fourth Doctor

Must Watch

Genesis of the Daleks: This is maybe one of the important episodes of Doctor Who of all time. 

The Deadly Assassin: Gallifreyan politics! What more can you want.

The Invasion of Time: Gallifreyan politics, part 2. 

The Key to Time Arc: all of season 16 is a single arc, introducing new companion Romana. While still individual episodes, they’re best watched all together. 

The Keeper of Traken/Logopolis: Final episodes of the 4th Doctor.

Recommended:

Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, Pyramids of Mars, The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death, Destiny of the Daleks, City of Death, Full Circle, State of Decay, Warrior’s Gate

The Fifth Doctor

Must Watch:

The Five Doctors: Crossover episode but this time there’s 5 of them.

Planet of Fire/Caves of Androzani: the finale episodes, with one of the best regarded final episodes of classic who. 

Recommended:

Castrovalva, Kinda, Earthshock, Timeflight, Snakedance, Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment, The King’s Daemons, Resurrection of the Daleks

The Sixth Doctor

Must Watch:

The Mark of the Rani: First appearance of the Rani. 

The Two Doctors: It’s not my fault, the crossover episodes are really good.

Recommended:

The Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen, Timelash, Revelation of the Daleks

Trial of a Timelord: season 23 is also a season long arc and introduces a companion, but it’s not all that great or important, so it’s going in Reccomended instead.

The Seventh Doctor

Must Watch:

Time and the Rani: Regeneration episode + the Rani. 

Dragonfire: introduces Ace.

Remembrance of the Daleks: introduces Dalek Politics.

Survival: the final episode of Classic Who. 

Recommended:

Paradise Towers, The Happiness Patrol, Battlefield, The Curse of the Fenric

The Eighth Doctor:

Doctor Who: The Movie. The only 

Bonus! The ... ninth doctor?

Scream of the Shalka was a 6 episode animated web series produced by the BBC in 2003 in the hopes of getting a new Doctor Who series on the air. They were planning to have Doctor Who continue in this format, but instead we got nuwho. 

Still need more Doctor Who? Don’t worry, the extended universe has got you covered, in both book and audio format:

The Novels! 

The Past Doctor Adventures + the Virgin Missing Adventures are the main series for the 1st through 6th doctors. 

The Virgin New Adventures are a continuation after the show ended, focused mostly on 7 and Ace. There’s also the Bernice Summerfield spinoff series for a well regarded companion.

The Eighth Doctor Adventures are where most of the Eighth Doctor’s personality comes from, so if you’d like to meet him check out those books. 

You also have the New Series Adventures for nuwho doctors, as well as Torchwood novels, and a bunch of other series you can find a full list of here!

the Audios!

Big Finish Audios are mostly in one series, the BF main range - Doctors 1-8 with various companions, no real order. there’s tons of lists, I’d recommend picking out serials based on doctors + and companions you’re interested in.

They’ve been doing more and more nuwho stuff recently, so you can find quite a bit for 9-12, including a series focused on the tenth doctor. A fairly comprehensive list of all the big finish series is here and a few of them are on spotify so you don’t even have to buy them!

There’s also the spin offs, most notably Gallifrey, a series that focuses on 4th Doctor companions Romana & Leela doing Gallifrey politics on Gallifrey in the direct lead up to the Time War, and which I highly recommend (it’s what got me into the eu stuff)

Oh, and Torchwood. There’s quite a few Jack and/or Torchwood audio series, including some with Ianto, so. you know. go check those out.

and if you’ve watched all 17 days, 4 hours, and 55 minutes of Classic who, and listened to all 7 weeks worth of Big Finish Audios, and read all 450+ books, and still need more Doctor Who,

...try ao3? sorry, dude, i’ve done my best.