#i keep thinking about the queen of atlantis from the time monster. she had the most beautiful dresses ever

[biggest12fan]

classic who's costume department was capable of miracles because they keep pulling off making all of these aliens look good. crawling meat blanket? amazing. green bubble wrap bugs? extraordinary. what's next? trash can bag monsters? i'm convinced that they'd make it work. i love you classic who costume department

[awesomerextyphoon]

A Warrior’s Heart

Prologue 

Main Paring: Stucky x Black!OFC (Ifekerenma ‘Ife’)

Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, War Crimes, Corruption, Smut, Mentions of Anxiety, Depression, and possible Panic Attacks

Rating: 18+/Explicit

Word Count: 1,461

Summary: Ife didn’t mean to have her employers be the subject of a hostile takeover by Stark Industries. She just held up the city of Novi Grad long enough for the Avengers to defeat Ultron. So naturally, Tony finds and blackmails her into joining the team. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

A/N: This is my first long form (12+ chapters) story. I’m including characters and/or aspects from Disney’s Atlantis: the Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Big Hero 6, Gargoyles, Inuyasha, and Toriko. Furthermore, I will be including elements of Netflix MCU and Agent Carter as well. Special thanks goes to @jtargaryen18​ for the title. Reposting on any site without my permission is strictly forbidden. Reblogs are welcomed! 😊

Series Masterlist 

Main Masterlist

Just keep the lie going.

That’s the line many of us have to repeat every day, and by us, I mean Non-Humans. Throughout history, humans have created myths and legends about us; some are true, others complete nonsense, but most are somewhere in between.

Let’s rewind a bit, okay?

Life on Earth lines up with most of what the textbooks say until about 5M BCE. Beings that would later be called gods and goddesses start to form with Mother Earth (the Amazing Gaea) as the focal point with other beings such as dragons, elves, and giants start to show two million years later.

The Celestials (sanctimonious assholes) came to Earth to see what’s happening after hearing about various fantastical anomalies (or that they were just bored). Gaea encouraged some (about 30K) of the human ancestors (Homo Erectus) to ‘the Space Gods’ direction. It took a few months, but they were able to create the species that later be known as Eternals. They also did some other shit but Gaea kicked them out when they wore out their welcome.

Around 200KBCE, the Kree (galactic genocidal nationalistic maniacs) happened upon a group of Eternals living on Uranus and traveled to Earth to ascertain whether other beings had similar potential. They experimented on a good number of early humans (about 150K survived) thus creating the first Inhumans (Inhomo Supremis). Several members of the Kree expedition tried to turn the Inhumans into weapons of the Kree Empire but were kicked off the planet by remaining Eternals and Non-Human factions.

Ten thousand years later (190KBCE), other early humans congregated around ‘magical hotspots’ which led to the births of the Homo Magi, Homo Superius, and Homo Animalis sub-species.

Soon after (okay, 15,000yrs later. Leave me alone.), the Mother Crystal (a semi-sentient comet, or Matag Yob) descended onto the island continent of Atlantis, imbuing the human inhabitants with longevity, knowledge, prosperity, and protection. At its height (around 55KBCE), Atlantis became the technological/cultural center on Earth (besides the Eternals).

It didn’t last long, though.

Five thousand years later (50KBCE), the first (and hopefully only) Pantheon War broke out. What exactly happened is lost to history (none of the people involved will fess up.), but what we do know is that shit went down.

Hard.

All that is known (admitted) is that almost all of the pantheons got into a Pantheon War (probably over some dumbass reason), a failed invasion by the Kree (really?), and the whole continent of Atlantis ‘sank’ into the sea in the span of three years (though some escaped).

Neat.

Fast-forward about 38K years (yeah, we’re making some jumps here) to the beginnings of the three most technologically advanced human nations of Earth: Wakanda, Sypavê, and Fetuilelagi; each with their own extraterrestrial metals/minerals.

Earth was pretty quiet until the ‘Christianity Dilemma’. So around 90CE, several ‘deities’ from the Greco-Roman, Norse, Germanic, and Celtic pantheons called for a Council of the Godheads’ to discuss ‘the ‘threat’ with Archangel Michael. It worked out well enough (no one wanted another Pantheon War).

Most of the world was in a pretty good state with a few ‘hiccups’ until the Bubonic Plague aka ‘The Black Death’ hit in 1346/7. It ravaged Eurasia and North Africa killing at least ½ the population and was seen as the start of non-belief in Europe. Worse, it was the beginning of Non-Human persecution and discrimination. You see, while the Black Death took out humans left and right, the worse a Non-Human got was a two-day flu. Many started to return to their respective realms once the Plague subsided and their once friendly neighbors started to accuse and persecute them.

The feeling of unease did not end but rather subsided. A tip from a Non-Human in Queen Isabella’s court alerted several groups in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Genocidal rapist, sex-trafficker, and all-around monster, Christopher Columbus does make it to the ‘New World’ (people were already there, dumbass) and devastated the indigenous population for centuries to come. By the time Columbus was executed in 1498, it was too late.

As many as 40 – 70% of the indigenous population was wiped out due to ‘virgin soil epidemics’ such as smallpox and influenza. Pantheons from negatively impacted areas called for a Council of the Godheads and demanded the ‘deities’ of the colonizers take action.

It went about as well as you’d think.

Earth was about to be embroiled in another Pantheon War until a few ‘level-headed’ individuals struck a bargain. No one was to interfere with human affairs whether it be good or ill. It was later amended to not have any ‘divine’ intervention (Sure). So by 1593, they had ‘bowed out’ of Earth affairs outside of their respective demi realms.

Outside of the matters of the ‘gods’, the rest of the world was dealing with its own problems. Tensions between humans and non-humans grew since the immediate aftermath of the Black Death. The Age of Enlightenment had started to pop up in intellectual circles across Europe around 1647. It focused on reason and free-thinking (Neat), but it also stoked up fear and anxiety towards Non-Humans (Boo!). Things came to a head in the 1670s. It got so bad that the Inter-Realm Parliament ordered all Non-Humans that weren’t exiled to return. They later founded the Bureau of Non-Human Affairs, BNA, in 1692 to deal with such matters in the future.

Two white-passing Non-Humans, Marcus Ashton and Jakob Schwartz founded Ashton & Schwartz Inc in 1809 along with a private partner. The company made waves in biomedical, chemical, agricultural, and climate science (they had to explain it to the populace) as well as pollution cleanup/prevention. One of their biggest inventions was a truly biodegradable plastic-like substance called biokivó̱tio or biokivo for short. The company made an even bigger impact with Non-Humans by solving issues pertaining to agriculture, large scale portal creation, and maintenance.

When the founders’ private partner decided to shut down the company in 1928, Ashton & Schwartz were a household name (especially since all major fossil fuel investments ended in 1900).

Barely ten years later and the threat of World War II rocked the planet to its core, especially the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war Council went behind current President Henry Wallace’s back and had them done on the same day,  August 7, 1945.

Well, that got everyone’s attention.

The Inter-Realm Parliament issued an edict that every one of ‘age’ (biologically 18+) would have to spend at least five consecutive years amongst the humans. It didn’t take long for BNA to lay the groundwork.

Wakanda, Sypavê, and Fetuilelagi (who will now be known as The Unconquered Alliance or UA.) saw this as a ‘we need to end this’ type of situation. Within three weeks of the bomb dropping, they formulated a plan and got to work kicking the colonizers out of Africa, starting with Belgian-colonized Congo (80% of the uranium used in the bombs were mined from there). They also made a deal with British-colonized India.

Once they were successful in their test run, The U.A. moved forward with similar models until they were to liberate the continent in 1955. Meanwhile, Sypavian forces kicked out most of the Nazis that fled to South America and ended US/European influence in Central and South America.

The United States tried to play it neutral until The UA (mainly Fetuilelagi) freed Hawai’i from US occupation in 1951. The war was sold as “We must fight to preserve our freedom!” (Keep telling yourselves that).

Once both South/Central America and Africa were liberated, other colonized nations asked for their aid. UA agents/dignitaries offered to relocate Black people from the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States. As many as five million African-Americans took the offer, including former Howling Commando, Gabe Jones. By then the US was clamping down domestically through the FBI and local/state police.

Irked by the knowledge that the UA had satellites, the US jumpstarted the Space Race (they had more than a few satellites, but good for you).

As with most wars, both sides partook in some ‘questionable actions’ (i.e. Syria, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Cambodia, and Laos).

The war climaxed in 1977 when a UA (Sypavian) agent discovered plans for a super-weapon in the US. A Special Ops team led by N’Jobu realized that the weapon was a mega bomb that would’ve wiped out the African Continent.

After weighing their options, The UA came to an agreement with BNA: BNA would gather their most powerful Homo Magi and cast a spell to erase the memory and evidence of the war from every human outside of the UA in exchange for letting some Non-Humans live openly in UA borders.

They shook on it, unaware of the chaos that would follow.

Next>>

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Taglist:@opheliadawnwalker3​ @sherrybaby14​ @stargazingfangirl18​ ​ @hevans-angel​ @threeminutesoflife​ ​ @cockslut-padalecki​ @golden-ariess​  @sapphirescrolls​ @holylulusworld 

[shadowfae]

Uhhh since you're dealing with people being jackasses: talk about a thing you've been wanting to talk about; or tell a story you've been dying to tell but haven't had a good time to tell it.

Things I want to talk about, hmmmm.

See, the twins’ birthday is on Friday, and it seems I’m writing More Porn. After that is Minos, next Thursday, and that’ll be fun because I know exactly what to write for his birthday, and that’s the fic of how he becomes a Spectre wayyyy back in the Age of Myth. (This is about Saint Seiya, for those of you who don’t follow me on my main.)

King Minos of Crete’s story is a fascinating thing. And the thing about a lot of retellings of Greek myth is that the running theme is almost always “...and the myth got it all wrong because what makes for a good story isn’t what actually happened” and that really got me to wonder how I could spin this guy into a sympathetic villain. Then, of course, I put on Gang of Youth’s Achilles Come Down and that was it, my dude.

So consider this: a young prince and his brother, being prettied up for the throne of Crete where Zeus was born in the most prosperous, if young, kingdom in the Mediterranean, four thousand years ago where this is where most human development is going on right now. That seat of power will move to India next during their Golden Age (as they don’t get their shit wrecked by Santorini and become the Atlantis myth) but for now, it’s in the sea that breathes and is as warm as a bath to dive on into, in the sea where everyone is right now.

A young prince whose brother is pretty and not much else, who knows he has to rule because while his brother is popular, he doesn’t pay attention to his studies and would drive the kingdom immediately into the ground with his enjoyment of finery at the expense of all else. A young prince who knows if he wants his kingdom to survive, knowing full well how many settlements and lives depend on Crete to run supply, that he’s going to have to do some evil and damn himself to save the kingdom. It doesn’t even matter if he wants to be king: it’s just that Rhadamanthys won’t do a good job, and there’s no way he can get him to abdicate, and good sake he doesn’t want to murder his own brother.

But then they get into a catfight over a pretty farmboy that they both like. Rhadamanthys likes Miletos’ smile and the way he talks to plants. Minos likes his wit and how he knows how to keep a farm running and what every problem’s solution is. Rhadamanthys sees a trophy to win, Minos sees an advisor. They both fall in love. Aphrodite from her throne laughs at the thought of two heroes to make a tragedy out of, and lets them start to rip Crete apart.

Minos realizes what’s going on, of course, why wouldn’t he? He wants his kingdom to survive, and this isn’t that. Good sake he doesn’t want to take Miletos prisoner, he knows how the heroes’ stories end and he doesn’t want to be betrayed. So he chases Rhadamanthys out of Crete and stuffs Miletos onto a supply ship heading into Thessaly and bids him that if he likes being alive, he should lay low and stay far from either brother, but gives him a good bag of drachmae and food anyway, and probably a scrap of parchment with an address to a temple of Demeter. Enough that he can save himself if he uses his wits, and Minos knows Miletos has wit.

He becomes king. He saves the kingdom from his brother’s idiocy, knowing Rhadamanthys will never forgive him, knowing that their warring would have destroyed the Mediterranean. This is the cost of what it is to be king of the powerhouse of the cell world. You sacrifice everything you love, everything you are, and you save everyone but yourself.

Kings and heroes have a lot alike, and Minos is a son of Zeus. It doesn’t stop him from being angry with himself. It doesn’t stop the gods from taking an interest in this plucky young man. It doesn’t stop Hera from being angry at Europa all over again. It doesn’t stop Aphrodite from being angry that he denied her the tragedy. He hasn’t proved himself, not to them. So they set him trials. Conquer this kingdom and liberate it from the evil king. Kill that monster and liberate that city from it. Do this, do that, and just when you think you’re done, someone else goes mad and starts killing their own civilians.

Minos doesn’t realize at first that he’s become a terror. That he’s the ghost king already, the one that queens and princes and servants whisper about when their king has so much of a cold. He’ll go mad one day. He’ll go mad and then King Minos of Crete will come by with his armour and his sword, high on his own heroism, walking the road to hell with the very best of intentions.

Minos will care for those kingdoms. He’ll send his advisors and sell them their necessities at half price, help the fledgling kings that rise in the throne still bloody from his conquest until they’re steady under the crown. He makes alliances and plays the game well, but he’s still killing people who never asked to be killed. Still saving people who never wanted to be saved.

He finds a wife in a nymph-goddess and he loves her, he loves her hard, and he’s still scarred from Miletos, he’s afraid to love Pasiphae even though he does with all his heart. She’s powerful, daughter of Helios who blinds him with her sunlight. He kneels before her and tells her that if anyone including himself but save his kingdom tries to take him away from her glory, he will kill them to make her happy.

He doesn’t know he’s already evil. He wants to make his wife happy, wants to not make the mistakes his father did that resulted in his existence. He wants to apologize to Hera for his birth by valuing what she does, and never doing to Pasiphae what his father did to her. He doesn’t know he’s damning himself with every move. But he swears his life to the girl of sunshine and brings her home to celebrate. Crete rejoices, they’ve always had the best of him, they’ve always loved their king who saved them and risks himself to save everyone else. He’s brought home the sun for them, hasn’t he?

They have children, his pride and joy, and he hires the best of tutors for them. He finds a son of Athena who’s known for his brilliance and pays him to teach his son, finds a son of Ares content with his spoils to teach his daughters and his youngest, loves them all and teaches them how to rule when he has to go out and save another city from a mad, dying king. So that when he gets himself killed being stupid, Crete isn’t damned and the world can run without him, because his wife and his children will continue the throne of power. They’ll run the supply lines and find a place for those who need to run, and they’ll save as many people as they can.

Hera likes him well enough for his love, hates him for what he is, hates him more for that he doesn’t understand why the mad king’s wife wants him dead. Aphrodite stings from that he earned Pasiphae’s love with a pledge he didn’t know the consequences of, that he denied her the messy child’s-love of Miletos. Zeus thinks he has farther to go. Poseidon, who Minos doesn’t love as much as his father but whose sea is the very reason he’s as powerful as he is, whose sea he loves more than most but doesn’t remember to thank, shakes the bottom of the Mediterranean in jealousy.

Poseidon makes his displeasure known. Minos appeases him, as best he can, and like every awkward nephew, asks if he needs further repayment or if he has earned his forgiveness. Poseidon smiles, thinks of how Minos does not know how the gods can suffer, and sends him a while bull that shines like the moon.

Minos presents it to his wife, thinks of the white dove that Zeus was for Hera. It’s a long habit he’s fallen into, appeasing Hera at every turn just in case. Amphitrite too, actually, and Artemis for his daughter Ariadne who loves to weave. Pasiphae loves the bull, and shows their children, and Crete understands that the gods love their king as much as they do.

Daedalus, whose son’s education Minos has paid for but who isn’t allowed his freedom to wander - he’s quite useful, and Minos has figured out that people will stay if you give them a reason to, but not that he needs to ask if Daedalus needs anything he might not ask for in supply requests - listens to Athena whispering of kings who didn’t deserve to die and kingdoms robbed of their ability to stand on their own, indebted to no one.

Aphrodite hates the pretty fantasy Minos and Pasiphae have created, hates that they have always gotten along. Hates that they still trust in the vow they made and haven’t had any reason to question. Love is suffering, love is war, and she wants them to prove that they understand her as well as they understand Hera. She goes to Poseidon, shaking with jealousy, and they hatch a plan together.

If he sacrifices the bull, he honours Poseidon. But the dreams of his sleep say that if he does not keep it to show the wealth of his kingdom, he rejects Zeus. There is no way to win. But maybe dreams are just dreams. He breeds the bull several times, to spread the wealth of the blessing to more than just himself, to honour Zeus by keeping what he can. Minos goes to sacrifice it, and finds it missing. He searches with his three eldest children and does not find it until morning, when Daedalus has put Pasiphae back to bed and has burned the contraption he made in a frenzy for his mother’s appreciation. He does not sacrifice it on time, and though he does the moment he finds it and checks that it has not been injured, it isn’t enough.

Three weeks later, they find Pasiphae is pregnant, and although Minos doesn’t quite think the math lines up, sometimes children are weird. Stranger things have happened, and it is a time to rejoice. The pregnancy is difficult, and he spends many days by her side, asking for the best physicians they can find and hopes that they can save her. They make it all the way to the delivery with her still breathing, and when the time comes, the physicians who have helped her through several births know by now to send him to fetch water from the other side of Crete to keep him out from underfoot.

He returns with water he knows they don’t actually need but is willing to fetch for love of Pasiphae, and finds that his wife is dead, and there is a curse within the kingdom that nobody knew about. He thinks of how Poseidon could have swept them all away with a tsunami, and knows that this is his punishment, not Crete’s, and he vows to keep it that way. He thinks another moment, thoughts too quick for anything but grief and shock. He thinks of how Hera might hate him now that he cannot apologize to her. He thinks of how Aphrodite ripped his family apart, and he hasn’t spoken to or seen Rhadamanthys in thirty years. And Minos realizes the question he’s always asked of why kings go mad has an answer, staring him in the face this entire time, and he’s just now seeing it.

It isn’t too late. It can’t be too late. He takes in a breath and asks to see the child. It’s... kind of cute, actually. Half cow, of course, and most certainly a monster, but it’s a baby monster, and when he reaches to hold it like he would any other child of his, it reaches back for him. He half-expected it to bite, and it doesn’t. Really, it’s acting like any other child he’s ever seen.

He swore to Pasiphae he’d keep her safe from everything, and the only thing that would sunder him from her side was his kingdom. She understood his reasons and loved him anyway. A goddess of a woman, and he’d still choose his kingdom over her.

He loved his father, and he loved Rhadamanthys, and he had chosen his kingdom. He loved the gods, as all men did. But he loved his kingdom more. This child is a monster, and monsters need to be killed. Children need to be loved, and killing a child brings down the wrath of every god he knows the name of. He closes his eyes, and opens them again. He loves his kingdom more.

“His name is to be Asterius,” he says, thinking of his mortal stepfather, who loved him more than he loved the gods. “He is a blessing from Poseidon, and though he comes with the death of our queen, we will love him as the prince he is.”

The physicians stare at him as though he is already mad. The glint in his eye probably doesn’t help. They know his words are a lie, and so does he. But sometimes it’s lies that keep a kingdom together. Crete is confused, but rejoices nonetheless, and when Asterius is put to bed, he weeps where his children can see. When he’s done crying for Pasiphae’s loss, he collects himself, and tells his children what he knows, and admits he knows the gods are trying to kill him.

Ariadne puts her hand, calloused from her weaving, on his shoulder, and twisting a spindle of thread in her other hand, swears they’ll always find a way through the machinations of the gods. Minos nods and thanks her, and is comforted by this. The vow has magic to it, not that they realize it, yet. Androgeus twists his sheathed sword and tells him that he’ll go be a hero where he can’t hurt his family, so when the time comes, he will be king and give his father a better way out. Minos looks up at his son, who looks heartbreakingly like Rhadamanthys but with all of Miletos’ wit, and knows that when there is no other option, his son will kill him as a monster, and only his family will know any different, and he will save the kingdom.

Crete has always come first. But his children love him, for they have always seen the best of intentions and only just now do they begin to see the road to hell, and they understand his determination. Blood of a hero’s blood. And by Asterius, too, blood of a monster’s blood.

The kingdom rejoices. Asterius grows in royalty and plenty, knows nothing but kindness as Minos makes it clear anyone who treats him more different than necessary can find another kingdom to serve. He slides down polished palace floors into his stepfather’s arms and Minos laughs. He dares the gods in the silence of his own mind to shatter a bond so gentle and innocent as this.

He does not forget that the gods thrive on challenge, and on bleeding out the innocent. The first assassination attempt happens when Asterius is three. Minos has the man jailed, but released when he doesn’t remember anything and can’t tell him why he wanted the young prince dead so badly. After two more, Minos orders Daedalus to build Asterius a paradise where nobody can find him when he doesn’t want to be found, where he can’t be hurt by the sight of a knife and the fear of his family. Asterius is visited every day by his tutors, escorted by his siblings, and sees the outside world only when Minos is there to ensure his safety. He loves him, and he does not want to see his youngest son hurt.

When Asterius is seven, Androgeus goes to Athens to compete in a tournament. He does not return, murdered by his own fellows in envy for his skill. Minos taught him everything he knows about fighting, and in his rage, he conquers Athens (again) and demands a sacrifice every seven years of fourteen youths and Crete will do with the sacrifices as they will. He returns home to plan the funeral and weep, and Ariadne bars his way to the throne room and starts yelling at him, tears bleeding through her voice.

He realizes what he’s done, and the implications of his words. Now everyone thinks that he’s going to feed Athenians to Asterius, all except for those who are perfectly aware that Asterius is a vegetarian, and can’t really stomach meat anyway. He can’t exactly go back on his word, it shows weakness. Kings pay for their convictions, and Crete comes first.

When he can think straight, after crying some more, they hatch a plan. Really, Ariadne is the genius here. Minos is going to go mad no matter what they do. He will have to die a villain, though she fears that with Androgeus gone, she will have to kill her father in his stead. So she proposes hiding the sacrifices in the labyrinth, so Asterius can have friends for once, and when it is time for Minos to go, they will ‘resurrect’ the sacrifices, and show that Crete once more has the blessing of the gods. Minos starts to laugh, and he laughs until his laughter turns into sobs, and he holds his daughter while his family cries.

This is what it means to be king. Crete will always come first.

They manage fourteen years of sacrifices, twenty-eight friends for Asterius who are all relieved to not be dying, who are glad to know they do get to go home one day, and are perfectly happy to keep up with the con so long as they can have some fineries they’ve never been able to reach. Minos smiles and gets them what they’d like. He can’t give them freedom, but for now, he can give them a home.

Theseus is in the third group of sacrifices, and Minos doesn’t know he’s danger. Ariadne takes a shine to him, gives him her thread that she swore to her father would always find the way through the machinations of the gods. Like every weapon, it has a double edge. By giving it to her love, by letting Aphrodite in, she sacrifices Hera. She goes to her father and asks if there’s not a way they can put on a secret wedding, so that he can still walk her down the aisle, knowing he will not be able to live to see his son-in-law free. He agrees.

They never get that far. Daedalus is bitter from the loss of his son, a messy affair that could have been rectified if he’d only asked for his freedom for a while and had sworn to keep his king’s secrets that still keeps Minos awake, crying from all the mistakes he’s made and the fact that his wife will never be able to soothe him back to sleep, and he offers Theseus a faster deal. The red shine of Ares glitters in the young hero’s eyes. The king of Crete has gone mad, and he delights in drawing out the suffering of Athens. A hero must liberate them from the evil king.

Asterius enjoys swordplay, wants to honour his big brother, is delighted that Theseus can spar with him for a while. Theseus’ blade is much sharper than Asterius has ever remembered a blade being. He dies, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Theseus grabs Ariadne, all but limp from the shock and the horror and the sudden, raw guilt of believing Theseus could love her and yet let him near her baby brother, and he runs. Daedalus opens their way, and knows exactly what he’s doing.

Minos is woken by his eldest, Catreus, who already knows what it is to be king, and he sends his father after not Theseus but Daedalus. The mastermind of the cruelty this day. Catreus orders Theseus found and brought to Crete for the crime of murdering a prince and kidnapping a princess. Minos takes up his blade and he runs after Daedalus.

He finds him not far from Sicily. It’s been months on the road, and he knows when he returns with the man’s head, he will have one night with his family, and Catreus will kill him with a kiss to the forehead and a sleeping poison to ensure it doesn’t hurt. Is it really so bad, then, that he draws it out? He wants justice for his son, he always has, but he also isn’t quite ready to say goodbye to the world, even though he knew it was coming for years. Even though he has made every preparation he can for the ending that’s inevitable. The gods win, but Crete will survive.

He wishes he could stop in Rhadamanthys’ kingdom, apologize to his brother for everything, see him one last time before he lets the gods win. He can’t. Daedalus ensnares King Cocalus’ three daughters, and when he finds him there, he accepts hospitality as one final thank you to the world. The bathwater is scalding. The princesses look at him like the monster he’s become to save them all.

Minos finds himself in the Underworld and he does not weep. Not yet. He’s still on a quest. It’s not over yet. Charon takes him to the judges’ hall, where Hades and Persephone look upon him, fascinated, tie him to a chair with chains, and ask for this story.

He tells them, and it’s not until Pasiphae’s death that he has to stop to take a breath, so the tears can fall. He chokes out the rest of the story, makes it to the end, and it’s beginning to set in that he doesn’t get to see Catreus again. He won’t see Ariadne brought home. He won’t get to tell his children that he loves them, that he’s proud of them.

Persephone fixes him with a stare so much like Pasiphae that he weeps stronger, and then forces himself to stop. When Pasiphae gives him that look, she wants him to listen, and when Persephone does it, it seems habits die long after he does. She asks him what he considers his single greatest mistake.

He’s blindsided by the question, but thinks. Starts to answer treating Athens with cruelty, pauses. He wants to make sure he gets this right. Takes a breath, and with more conviction, says that he didn’t treat Rhadamanthys and Poseidon with the same love he treated Zeus and Hera to. Persephone nods, expression stoic, and asks what his greatest achievement is.

He thinks of his love for his wife, and his kingdom. He admits that he wants to say it’s saving Crete, but it came with so much suffering that he isn’t sure it counts. And then he says that his greatest achievement is Asterius, who had everything stacked against him, but Minos loved him, and by the time of his death had never become a monster because Minos had saved him, and the only suffering there was that he would be missed and mourned by all of Crete.

Persephone smiles, just a little. She asks him one last question. If she could snap her fingers and he woke up just outside of Sicily in an inn with Daedalus dead and himself alive, would he ask her to? Would he go back?

He doesn’t need to think. Of course he would. He wants to see his remaining children. He wants to tell them that he loves them. He wants to give them a better ending to this chapter of their lives, even though he knows they’ll have to kill him for his crimes. It won’t do anything for him, not really. Not even for Crete. But he wants to save them, one last time.

She glances at Hades, who smiles for the first time since the trial began. He says that while he cannot give Minos what he deserves, not with his contemporaries so angry with him, he can offer him a choice so very few humans ever achieve. He can send him to another Underworld, held by different gods, and offer him paradise somewhere else. He will never see his family again, not even in death, but he will have a chance to rest, and celebrate, and be happy. Or, he can stay here. He can serve two gods who will never toy with his heart, so completely under their claim that no other god would dare reach for him again, wait for his family, and help them build a kingdom here.

Minos blinks. He isn’t going to be king, not here, not with Hades right there. But it’s a chance to start over, build a place of pride, and when his family returns to him, he can give them all they deserve.

He agrees enthusiastically. He would love to help. He likes building, loves seeing Crete in full festival and laughing. And it means he gets to see his family again.

A fish-god in a wheelchair and a tail for legs wheels themself forward with a metal griffon at their side, and says that the griffon will train him. This looks already better than anything Daedalus came up with, and he’s intrigued. He reaches out to the griffon to shake their paw, only to find that they are now armour, wrapped around him, wings and tassets and gauntlets and all. The Griffon Surplice laughs a little in his ear, their head his helmet and two minds right beside each other, and he smiles.

Hades welcomes his new Spectre, Griffon Minos, and Minos finds himself immediately slammed into by something twice his size. When he gets over his shock, he realizes he’s looking at Asterius, clad in green armour not all that different from his own, and he shines.

Asterius whoops that he knew Minos would stay, that he loves him, and that he thinks Minos has always been the best to him, and that while Pasiphae isn’t here, Androgeus is, and so is Rhadamanthys. Minos starts to cry again, but these are good tears.

He’s finally home.

[thelostandforgottenangel]

Zootopia Tarzan Moana Atlantis 101 Dalmatians Frozen Beauty and the Beast Hercules Aladdin

Zootopia – Would your muse enjoy living in utopia, or would they feel out of place?

Raven would completely and utterly probably hate it; sure maybe she would like a world where everyone got along and lived in peace and her family was safe from harm… but she lives in the sewers (Currently is up in the woods away from civilization with everyone) – she would feel way out of place

Tarzan – How did the place your muse grew up in affect them?

Strangely enough where as the turtles were eager to get to the surface she loves living underground and might prefer to stay there unless they are out in the open with nobody around for miles like up at the cabin, it gives her a sense of safety and security she only feels around her family if she is up top on patrol

Moana – Does your muse believe in fate or destiny? What is theirs?

Nope not really! Let’s put it this way she didn’t expect to see the late teenage years and truthfully she expects she will probably die so it’s a live by the moment kinda thing and accept there might be no chance of seeing next year much less 25.

If she does have a destiny it will probably be to kill her bastard of a sperm donor who has tried to kill her and her family one to many times

Atlantis – Is your muse adventurous or do they prefer to seclude themselves?

Both, but you gotta catch her on the right day! She loves exploring places she’s never seen wondering off too far from home sometimes getting herself into trouble other times finding somewhere for her and the turtles to hang out, other times she’s like a feral kitten with some violent tendencies meaning she hides either in her room or up in her crevasse within the pipes if there are people she don’t want to be around or trust in the lair *cough*Vern*cough*

101 Dalmatians – Does your muse have a large collection of any particular thing?

If you’re talking collections she has several but we’ll just do the bigger two; one is a box of the most random treasures she finds either in the sewers, through the grates, or up on the surface when she’s patrolling. Most she shares with the guys if they really like something but everything else is in this pretty box hidden under her bed

Pillows!!!

Her bed consists of a ‘nice’ queen size mattress they found on the streets then topped with about 50 *not exaggerating* of the plushiest pillows she could find while on junkyard supply runs crafted under her sheets into a nest, any stuffed animals she decided to keep from when she was a child sits along the back wall, and a giant knitted blanket Raph made her which she curls up in right in the middle of it all. Yes she has stolen all of her brother’s pillows before; Donnie’s not to many times because she wants him to sleep, and yes they had to physically go in her room at 6 a.m. when they had just got home from patrol and gotten cleaned up to drag them out from under her fake sleeping body or offer a new pillow so she will give it back… her bed is the softest so sometimes revenge is taken out on her for not giving them back in a timely manor by one of them climbing into her bed to just sleep there for the night being to tired to really work to get their stuff back

It’s a trap, this was her plan all along because she likes cuddles; Raph and Mikey give the best but good luck when she needs to get up, Leo is just fun to nestle up against cause he churrs softly in his sleep and it is soothing as fuck, if Donnie winds up in there it’s usually cause he missed his door or he couldn’t get comfortable

Or the lair is cold at that point they all nestle in the same room to keep from getting too cold

Frozen – What is your muse’s relationship with their siblings like?

It can be a rocky thing from time to time because they are still siblings and there will always be disagreements or rivalries… but no matter what she loves her brothers and their relationship is pretty good.

She is the baby of the family and no matter how mature she acts her brother’s spoil her rotten same as they did when she was tiny, she literally gets away with murder because of her big bright green eyes and innocent face (This is a lie don’t fall for it)

Leo although strict with her training because he would feel like a failure if she got hurt or died while in the middle of patrol or a battle pushes her harder then his younger brothers even gives her extra lessons if he feels she isn’t getting it but tends to let her goof off just a bit if she is doing great (Denies it to the highest power if called out by anyone)

Raph will act tough and argues with her either cause she’s bugging him or asking him to do shit (Will act like he hates her from time to time, they get into physical altercations, have at least one yelling match a day a real serious one every other week or so) but is the biggest teddy bear if close to the teen and thinks nobody is around, he still lets her ride around on his shell or his shoulder if it doesn’t hurt too bad because he does love her even if he will never admit it

Donnie no matter what always gives her his latest tech to try out since he believes she will tell him the truth if it needs work  and updates her laptop before Mikey’s game system because he can and she never asks him for much

Let’s face it; she is Mikey’s best friend, baby girl, and partner in crime! Both of these babies can always be found in the kitchen cooking almost every day and when they are not they are causing hell by pranking the other three, putting graffiti on the walls, playing their music too loud while having an epic dance party, fucking with Leo while he is attempting to train or meditate until he gets so frustrated they can pull him out of that serious ‘Leader Mode’ he runs on or as Raph calls it ‘Pulling the stick out of his ass’

Beauty and the Beast – How has your muse changed as a person over their life? Have they changed for the better or for the worse?

As a young child she was the same as she is now nothing seemed to bother her only she was a lot more fearful of humans believing they could get her through the TV and the scary metal monster that haunted her dreams until she was almost 13…so we did get a lot of personal growth

It’s could be worse – she could have been raised by Shredder but nobody wants that!

Hercules – Is your must more physically strong, or emotionally strong

She tries to be both but she is 5’4½, 170 pounds soaking wet with all her gear on, and even though Raph tries to put some more muscle on her she’s still tiny … they all remind her of this daily

I think she’s more emotionally strong; it takes a lot to break her unless it’s about the guys being hurt or almost killed then she shuts down, stays by their side, and cries like a baby until they are better

Aladdin – If your muse had 3 wishes, what would they be?

Her family’s safety will always be her first wish no matter what

For her brother’s to be accepted by the world above because seeing them upset by some unappreciative asshat of a person that ran screaming after they saved them from harm when they may have risked their own lives hurts her a lot. She will sit and comfort them if she is allowed and has held a sobbing Mikey a few too many times

Last but not least you would think she would want Shredder dead and his head on a pike but actually all she wants is one whole day of silence, everyone getting along, and for Donnie not to drink all of the damn coffee before 9 a.m.

@betelgeusessonajblog

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 222: Reverberations

Once the fireworks ended, people began to disperse and leave for their homes for the evening. The clean up crew was already deployed and the band was packing up. Leo and Elsa were preparing to depart for a short honeymoon aboard Pegasus. They had accepted Glinda's offer to stay at one of Emerald City's luxurious resorts for a couple days and were going there soon. But not before they sat down as a family to hear about James and Aphrodite's experience in the Underworld.

"Wow...so you were actually Anchises?" Leo asked.

"I was...and before you ask, no, Eros is not related to you by blood. Zeus explained that I'm only related to David in this life as James," James replied. Leo let out a small breath of relief at that.

"And the curse on you both...it's finally broken?" Snow asked. They nodded.

"Once George placed my mother's enchanted charm in my hand, it restored my memories. Or at least my real memories of this life and how we were in love," James replied.

"The man I was...after I lost her wasn't the real me, it turns out. After George stripped me of my memories of Aphrodite, he found a way to warp my mind and mold me into what he wanted me to be," James explained.

"My memories of James were erased too, by Blue and Hera," Aphrodite added.

"It wasn't much longer after that, maybe a year at most that I was killed. But this time, Zeus decided that he was tired of seeing her be hurt and bargained with Hades to deny my revival," he explained.

"But then Athena convinced him to allow James to be revived after he met the two of you in the Underworld. She said that, as my champions, you two could indirectly bring our curse to an end," Aphrodite said. Snow and David exchanged a glance.

"I...I don't think we did that," Snow said.

"Yes you did...Blue was exposed for what she is because of you. It led to all of this," Aphrodite replied. They smiled.

"We're just glad that you've broken the curse and you'll never lose each other again," Snow gushed, as she rested her head against David's arm.

"Yeah...but how did the Horned King know about the curse? Did you ever find out?" David asked. They nodded.

"We did...it was because James is the one that banished him," Aphrodite said.

"It's how we met in this life, but you and Hermes helped me banish him," he reminded her.

"But you saved me from him, just like you saved me as Anchises and Adonis," she gushed.

"Wait...who else did he save you from?" Emma asked curiously.

"Well...as Anchises, he found me near his home after a bad encounter with Clayton's ancestor. He, with the help of Blue and Hera, tried to trick me into thinking he and his consort were true love to get the chalice," Aphrodite revealed. Snow gasped.

"So that's how he knew about the chalice…" she realized. Aphrodite nodded.

"The knowledge of exactly what the chalice is and what it could do was passed through his family. Later on, Adonis rescued me from Clayton's grandfather, who tried to force me to...be with him," she said, with a shudder.

"Yeah...then Clayton tried to do the same. He wanted her to bear his heir and planned to take her to Atlantis so he could have control of the chalice," James added.

"Oh my God…" Snow said in outrage.

"That explains his obsession with you and the Chalice...and us," David replied.

"You have no idea...he told us himself. His plan was to replace you after Snow was forced to crush your heart. His last ditch effort to have a Divine heir was Snow," James explained.

"Of course it didn't happen, nor did he factor in that you wouldn't be able to have children after Bobby," Aphrodite added.

"Bastard...please tell me he's burning in hell," David said.

"Apparently worse than that. Nyx decided that Tartarus was even too good for him. She sent him somewhere called Gehenna, which apparently only the absolute worst scourges are sent," James said.

"Trust me...Tartarus is a picnic compared to Gehenna," Aphrodite confirmed.

"Good...that's the best news I've heard in awhile," Eva agreed.

"Yeah...now if we could just get rid of Creepyl so Nyx could send him there too," Leo said.

"And we will…" David assured, as he squeezed Snow's hip and she smiled at him.

"We will...and the power rests in your family," Aphrodite said.

"How?" Snow asked.

"Now that I have all my memories...I remember how to utilize the chalice and your star gems to their full extent," Aphrodite replied.

"Then let's do it," David said and she winced.

"The problem is...he'll see it coming a mile away," Aphrodite said.

"Then we have to find a way to take him by surprise," Emma said.

"And we will," Aphrodite promised.

"I guess Clayton is about to get his wish though," Natalie mentioned.

"Hey...no, this baby will be a Charming and his son isn't getting anywhere near him or her," David assured her.

"He's right…" James confirmed, as he looked at his father.

"Did you know about her? Did you walk out on her too?" he asked, a bit sternly.

"He didn't know," Natalie confirmed.

"I didn't...and I wouldn't have walked out if I did. I regretted that with David, as much as I regretted having to give you up," Xander answered. James seemed to accept that answer with less resistance than David did and for the moment, any other questions were quelled for the evening, for the hour grew late.

With that, they saw Leo and Elsa off and everyone else dispersed for the evening after a lovely celebration, despite the brief, rude and unwelcome interruption.

~*~

Jekyll stormed into his lab, with his partners in crime trailing behind him.

"I was so close…" he growled, as he angrily tossed one of the lab tables against the wall, shattering the contents and sending debris everywhere.

"Yes...that backfired quickly," Grimm agreed.

"It's those brats, as usual," Drizella said.

"Particularly the young one, it seems. He did have a significant hand in defeating Seth, after all," Grimm replied.

"What is your point!?" Jekyll snapped.

"My point is...those magical children will always block our path to victory," Grimm said.

"They will block my path to gaining the authorship and they will block hers to the Prince, just as they will block yours to Snow White," he continued.

"This device you created to keep him from touching her was ingenious, but the boy will always circumvent it," Grimm said.

"I still fail to see what your obvious statements contribute toward our success," Jekyll growled.

"I thought it was obvious...we have to isolate Snow and Charming from anyone else that can help them. Then you must be able to overcome the power of their chalice," Grimm reiterated.

"Neither of those is an easy task...but perhaps not impossible," Jekyll mused.

"What...what is this on my arm?" Drizella asked, as she noticed there was a large patch of grayed skin.

"I told you there may be side effects from the injection...it's probably wearing off," Jekyll replied.

"But I need magic if I'm to be the new Evil Queen! Can't you improve the serum?!" she demanded to know.

"I will make some adjustments, but none of this does us any good if we cannot thwart our enemies more completely," Jekyll said.

"Then we have work to do," Grimm replied.

~*~

He was trying not to, but he knew he was brooding again. He stood out on the balcony in the cool night air, only in his sleep pants. Snow was getting changed out of her dress and ready for bed, while he attempted to quell his feelings of anger and failure over Jekyll's latest strike and near victory again. He loved their children and was constantly in awe of their power. But he didn't want them fighting these battles for him. He wanted to take on and defeat Jekyll himself, once and for all. But with his demonic powers combined with his scientific ability to invent seemingly anything, he knew the odds were stacked against him. The image of that monster's hands on his beautiful Snow was seared into his brain and he seethed with barely restrained rage. He felt it start to ebb away though, as he felt her presence behind him. It was their mystical connection and irrevocable love that kept him grounded. She could banish his anger in an instant and the heat of her body behind him beckoned. He turned to her, finding her in a slinky white negligee and emerald eyes that pierced through him. Her eyes spoke to him and he cupped her face in his hands. Whatever fear remained in her slowly ebbed away in that moment at his touch. Their lips met in a smoldering kiss and her arms went around his neck. When their lips finally parted, they were breathless and gasping in ragged impassioned breaths. Her knees nearly gave out, as he kissed her throat and she pressed herself flush against him.

"I need you…" she pleaded.

"I need your hands on me," she begged. Jekyll had starved her of his touch for only moments, but it felt like a lifetime. Perhaps because he had meant to make it a lifetime. They needed each other like air and he had found a way to keep them from the simple act of touching one another, not to mention holding or kissing and it nearly broke them. Just the thought of not feeling his hands on her or his lips pressing against hers was enough to drive her mad and him as well. Never one to deny her anything, he swept her into his arms like she weighed nothing and carried her the short distance to their bed with purpose. David kissed her deeply and pinned her beneath his hard body.

"Charming…" she whimpered, as her body writhed beneath him and ached to be touched. She clawed at his waistband and managed to push his pants down his legs.

~*~

Their lips crashed together again and she moaned, as he gripped her thighs and parted them. She raised her arms and arched toward him, as he pushed her negligee over her head. She mewled, as his hands slid up her sides and to her breasts, cupping her firmly and his lips trailed down her neck.

"Charming…" she cried out again, as he raised up and sat back on his haunches. He pulled her up, straddling her in his lap, as he slid her onto his thick, pulsing cock. She hooked her arms around his neck and he began to pump in and out of her at a rapid pace. He rode her hard, taking her to a place of pure ecstasy, as they made love. As he took her, she hummed in pleasure and she slid her hands into his hair, gently running her fingers through it. They stared into each other's eyes and their shared heart pounded in sync. No words were spoken, but their eyes and heart spoke volumes. For them, this went far beyond physical and always had. They had always been so in tune with each other; a love that had always been on another level than most. Being one in heart and mind already made their connection awe-inspiring. So when they became one in body too, it was nothing short of purely magical and almost ethereal.

He shifted their positions and gently lay her on her back, as his pace became slow and languid, as he now glided deeply into her with each thrust. She lay writhing beneath his undulating body, legs splayed around him. With every thrust, he hit her sweet spot and slowly pushed her to the edge. As she neared her climax, her mewls grew in volume and she raked her nails along his naked back, as her entire body trembled beneath him. He had her right at the edge and her cries became whimpers, as her body begged to come. She was beside herself, her mind clouded in the ecstasy that was him taking her. His slow lovemaking was expertly extending her pleasure in a way only he could do for her. If there was one thing Charming was an absolute expert in, it was all things Snow. They could make love and fuck each other for eternity and it would never be enough for either of them. And she was determined to have him for eternity, despite another looming threat from Jekyll and many other adversaries. He watched her come apart and marveled at the sight. Snow...beautiful Snow, emerald eyes dark with love and lust for him, only for him. Red lips parted, as short pants of air were inhaled and exhaled. Her body writhing and glistening with perspiration, her back arching and her aching for his touch. Her round, full breasts bobbing between them and the moan she made when he put his hands or lips on them was one he wanted to hear forever. The feeling of thrusting inside her was pure heaven and he'd never tire of making love to her. When he was inside her like this, he could hardly form coherent thought and he liked it that way. He liked that it was him that made her dripping wet and cry out wantonly. Gliding into her slickness with slow pumps and feeling her tightness clenching around his cock, quivering and begging for release, was a feeling he wanted to feel for forever.

"Baby…" she whimpered, as she writhed and bucked in the wake of a powerful climax; one that only he could give her. He was close to his own and increased his pace, as the whole bed rocked with them.

"Snow…" he cried out, as he finally came inside her and they trembled together in the wake of their purely magical coupling. He collapsed beside her finally and they cuddled together, as their ragged breathing slowly returned to normal.

"We'll beat him, Snow...because he is never taking you from me. I'll find a way," he promised, as he kissed her forehead.

"I know...I have never doubted you, nor will I. You're the hero in my story, my love...my hero," she gushed, as he kissed her tenderly and they finally drifted off to sleep, thoroughly entwined together...

~*~

Three Days Later

"And Good Morning United Realms!" Le Fou announced, as the morning news show began once again.

"Welcome fellow United Realmers on our first day back from hiatus," Goldilocks said.

"As usual, there's no shortage of news. Just days ago, Prince Leo married Queen Elsa of Arendelle in the celebration of the year," Le Fou reported.

"But since this is Storybrooke we're talking about, it didn't quite go off without a hitch. After the happy couple exchanged nuptials, their reception was interrupted by a dastardly trio," Goldilocks said dramatically.

"Yes...Drizella Tremaine declared herself as the new Evil Queen, a mysterious man named Grimm seemed to issue a challenge to our favorite author, and once again the raging psychopath, Dr. Jekyll made another play for the fair and beautiful Snow White," Le Fou said.

"Yes...and this time, the United Realms' embattled pair had to be saved by their youngest son,"

"They are insufferable...seriously how do they still have jobs?" Paul asked, as he finally turned off the television, while Eva poured coffee into their travel mugs.

"Well...they're mildly entertaining I suppose, though I wish they would find things other than my parents to gossip about," Eva replied.

"Yeah, they definitely need to stop calling them news," he countered and she chuckled.

"Yeah...news, they definitely fail at that. But you know that gossip sells far better than news," Eva said, as she handed him his mug and kissed his cheek. He smiled and pecked her on the lips. Today, they were not headed to the hospital right away, but rather to her parents castle for a meeting. In the infamous war room.

It had been a very long time since her parents had called an actual formal council meeting at the table in the war room and never yet in her lifetime. But with the worldwide undertaking they were about to embark on with the Major, they had decided to convene it to discuss the operations they were about to embark on.

"Are you ready?" he asked. She nodded and they joined hands, before leaving their loft for the day.

~*~

Snow giggled, as they cuddled in bed together that morning.

"We really have to get up," she cooed, as he kissed her neck and his hands roamed in the wake of a bout of morning lovemaking.

"Remind me why we scheduled this thing so early?" he asked.

"We didn't baby...we scheduled it for eleven and it's almost ten," she reminded him.

"Really?" he asked. They had been awake for hours, but very busy since.

"Yes," she replied.

"Well, you know what they say...time flies when you're having fun," he said and she giggled, as he kissed her again.

"These last three days have been amazing," Snow said, as he spooned her against him.

"Mmm...yeah, but definitely not long enough," he replied, as he kissed her again.

Since Leo's wedding, they fortunately heard nothing from the wedding crashers and their most nefarious adversary. Instead, they had been allowed three blissful days to spend with each other and their family.

They had family picnics with their kids and grandkids, complete with horseback riding and campfires. They had taken romantic walks on the beach, family dinners at Granny's, and then the last day, they had spent alone together. And they hadn't left their bedroom much on that day.

"We should have pushed this back another day," he murmured against her skin.

"You know we can't...not if we want to take the first two cabal members down," she reminded him.

"Well…Italy is supposed to be romantic so I guess there's that," he agreed, as he slipped out of bed.

"Care to join me in the shower?" he asked, with a sly look.

"Oh, that is an offer I'd never refuse," she replied, as she took his hand and they hurried off to the bathroom.

~*~

Mephisto arrived in Milan and made his way into the luxury hotel where that evening's event was set to take place.

"So...you're here," a man said, as he met him in the lobby with a woman.

"Mr. Landers, I presume?" Mephisto asked.

"Yes Stefan Landers...and this is Ms. Erin Mercer," he replied.

"Perhaps we can go somewhere a little less public," Mephisto suggested. Stefan nodded and led them to the freight elevator, which descended below the hotel.

When they arrived, several levels below ground, the elevator door opened and he observed young women in cages, as well as empty cages ready to snatch unsuspecting young women from the modeling pool.

"So...this is your operation," Mephisto observed.

"Yes...and from what we've been told, you believe that they are coming for us," Erin said. Mephisto smirked.

"Oh, I'm certain of it," Mephisto replied.

"They will come tonight...and we will be ready for them," he added.

"And these two...they will give us the power you said?" they asked. He smirked.

"With these two...we'll have a first class golden ticket to the United Realms and all its power and treasure," he promised...

~*~

It had been a long time since they had held a meeting in the war room and the last time they did, many of the people in this room hadn't been born yet and the one person they used to combat was now one of their best friends and confidantes. How times had changed and evolved, only to come full circle to this moment.

The last time he had led a war room meeting, he had been dressed in his formal royal clothing or battle wear. But today, he wore a simple button down shirt and jeans, common clothing of this realm. But the casual clothing did not mean this was just a casual meeting. They were about to embark on a series of missions outside the comfort of the United Realms borders and taking on some very dangerous people that wouldn't bat an eye at slitting one of their throats. But they would be potentially saving many by taking down this network of corrupted people that purportedly were the people that really ran the world. So, as they always did, Snow and David would begin this new undertaking, despite the looming threat of Jekyll, who they still had to neutralize once and for all.

"Thank you to everyone for coming," David said, as he began the meeting.

"As you know, Snow and I are about to embark on a series of missions with the Major, outside our borders, to dismantle an evil underground network that poses a threat to us and potentially the entire world," David began, as he looked at her. She nodded.

"We've decided that the best way to approach each mission is to assemble a small team to go with us and rotate the team members for each mission," Snow said.

"For this mission, we're going to Italy and attending a high end fashion show. Supposedly, our first two targets are there and they reportedly run a very large global trafficking ring there," David added.

"David is right...and once we take down these two, it will put the others on alert. I will be honest, these missions will be dangerous, each one more so," the Major said.

"And we're supposed to be okay with you putting our parents in the line of fire to fight your battles?" Emma interjected.

"Yeah...I have to agree with Emma. Give me one good reason that we shouldn't wall off the United Realms and let your world deal with its own problems," Regina said.

"Ninety-eight percent of the population doesn't even know these people exist or that their lives are controlled by them," Patricia said.

"The same ninety-eight percent that doesn't believe in magic," Leo chimed in.

"True...but that doesn't mean they don't deserve saving," Patricia countered.

"She's right," Snow agreed.

"Mom...we love you and we love that you and Dad always want to help everyone, but this is so risky," Emma said.

"We know honey, but you know we can't turn our backs on this. Clayton is gone, but this network that he helped create is still doing his evil bidding," Snow replied.

"She's right...we need to take them out, because we know that there is no guarantee that even a barrier will keep these people out of the United Realms forever," David added. Emma sighed, but didn't argue that, because she knew he was right.

"Okay...well since you two are a walking target for mayhem, I volunteer for this first mission," Regina offered.

"We're not…" David started to say.

"Yes you are," all five of his children echoed before he could finish. He rolled his eyes and Snow smiled with a wince.

"We kind of are," she said.

"Fine," he relented.

"Elsa and I are going too," Leo announced.

"You two are still on your honeymoon," David protested. He shrugged.

"And Italy sounds like a great place for an extended honeymoon," he said, as they shared a smile.

"Besides...I think we may enjoy the danger and adventure just as much as the two of you," Elsa replied, as she and Snow smiled at each other.

"Okay, with the Major, that's a team of six," David said.

"You and Mom are going to hate it, but I probably should go on every mission with you," Bobby chimed in.

"You're right...I hate that," Snow said.

"Mom...my magic was the only one that defeated Jekyll's stupid crazy bastard sciencey invention," he reminded her.

"Language," she scolded and he sighed.

"The point is...you're probably going to run into Mephisto out there. You need me if you do," he said. David sighed.

"He's not wrong," he muttered and Snow huffed in annoyance.

"Don't worry Mom...he's got a lot of other magic surrounding him. You know Aunt Regina would blast the crap out of anyone that comes near him," Leo said.

"He's not wrong either," Rumple agreed.

"Fine...then I guess we have our team of seven. That's a good number," Snow said. David nodded in agreement.

"Then we should pack and leave soon," David said.

"How are we getting there? Using a bean isn't a great idea. We'll just freak out a bunch of people and Milan isn't exactly a harbor city," Leo mentioned.

"He's right, though I loathe the idea of a commercial airline and all the staring," Regina said.

"Can we even get on a commercial airline?" Bobby asked.

"There is too much red tape for that, not to mention that none of you have passports and the United States government doesn't even consider any of you citizens," Patricia said.

"That sounds like it could be trouble...especially since you've been fired," David replied.

"It may be...but you do have protections on the borders watching for a breach, right?" she asked.

"My men regularly patrol the outside borders," Fandral chimed in.

"Now that I'm back, I'll be reinforcing our magical protections," Aphrodite said.

"Aye...and if any unrecognized ships enter the Harbor, they'll call me immediately," Killan added.

"Then we shouldn't have anything to worry about for now. If they thought they could invade without it being a bloodbath, they would have done it already. But they have seen what magic can do," Patricia replied.

"So no Jolly Roger or plane. It has to be a portal, but how do we do that without freaking people out?" Leo asked.

"There is plenty of countryside just outside the city. You'd be fairly safe portalling there. I can give you coordinates if you can will the chalice to open in a specific location," Natalie replied. Snow nodded.

"We usually have no trouble willing the Chalice to do what we need," she said.

"Then it's settled. The team leaving Milan needs to meet back here in an hour," David replied. They nodded and dispersed, as Aphrodite approached them.

"Is it true that Blue is locked up?" she asked. Snow nodded.

"Fandral was able to capture her," she replied.

"Yes...she was foolish enough to come after Rose to try and keep her from reading your real story," Fandral said. Rose nodded and presented a book to her.

"You mean...it was in your library all along?" Aphrodite asked. Rose nodded.

"Yes...but it was cloaked and only appeared after you left. Aesop informed us that he was commissioned by Zeus to record the real thing and then it was hidden in our library by Hermes," Rose replied.

"When you left to learn the truth, it appeared," Fandral added.

"I'm sure Athena is responsible for that," James deduced, as the blonde leafed through the book.

"It's all here…" she said gratefully, as he put his arm around her waist.

"And Blue is where she belongs. She'll remain there until her Royal Tribunal that will decide her ultimate fate," David replied. James looked at his twin brother with scrutiny.

"You're really going to try her?" he asked. David nodded.

"But Royal Tribunal usually has one outcome. The death penalty," James reminded him.

"We know...and it's not something we will likely ever be comfortable with, but Blue's crimes are too devastating. She is too dangerous and a threat to the safety of everyone, as well as the sovereignty of every Kingdom," Snow said.

"She's right...she's more than earned this fate and if found guilty, then she'll be executed," David replied.

"We will never regret showing mercy, even to our enemies, but we've learned that not all of them deserve it. She's one that doesn't, especially since she has been trying to destroy true love for so long," Snow added.

"Between James and myself, as well as Zorro, I'd say we'll be able to keep an eye on things around here," Fandral said. David nodded.

"Yeah...we'll be on psychopath watch with Dr. Creepyl, but I think we should find out more about this Grimm guy," James said.

"Oh Fandral and I can talk to Aesop. He started to tell us a bit, but seemed reluctant to talk about his past," Rose replied.

"Perhaps in light of these recent events, he'll be more willing to tell us what he knows," Fandral said.

"Then I guess everyone has their assignments. Once this mission is over and we locate the next, we'll rotate a new team in," David replied, as they dispersed. Snow slid her arms around his waist and he kissed her tenderly.

"You were amazing, as usual," she gushed.

"If I am...it's only because of you, my darling. I...I just wish we had a clear, concise plan to take out Jekyll," he said.

"And we will...I'm fine," she assured him.

"I know...it just haunts me at how close he came this time. I couldn't touch you...it was torture. He knew it would be," David said.

"He's sick and evil...he gets off on tormenting me and pursuing you. He's the one evil we can't seem to shake," he added.

"But we will...there is nothing our love cannot overcome. He caught us off guard at the wedding, but there is no doubt in my mind that we would have found a way to defeat his device, even if Bobby hadn't intervened," Snow said, as she caressed his cheek.

"Have faith...our love has never let us down," she added. He smiled and kissed her again.

"You're right...it never has and it never will," he said, with renewed confidence.

"Now...let's pack. We may be going on a mission, but this is Italy and the prospect of going to such a romantic city with my husband is exciting," she replied. He joined hands with her and they returned to their room to pack.

~*~

The black sport utility vehicle drove along the winding roads of Maine and General Mendoza sat in the back, looking over the Nolan files he had seized from Major Donovan's office. He was in complete control of her operation now and had everything, except an item for entrance into the United Realms. But that wasn't going to stop him from exploring the rumored location of this mystical place.

He thumbed through David Nolan's file with great interest. He found it very intriguing how he had been found on a rural Maine road, bleeding from his side, with an infant in his arms. He had then spent ten years in a coma, only to awaken upon his daughter finding her way to him. She had only done so after having run away from a group home and he wondered how she had even obtained his location or even knew about him in the first place.

Even more interesting was Xander Nolan and his shadowy presence in this world for nearly as long as his son's. As an operative to the Collector, Xander had moved around the world in the shadows, doing the Collector's bidding, and evading law enforcement with ease. He had little on him, but that wasn't surprising. Clayton was a part of the Underground cabal that his own family was a part of, even if he ended up screwing them all over in the end.

In 1993, David Nolan awakened and disappeared into thin air with his daughter and only re-emerged more than thirty-years later in Seattle, not having aged a day. With him, his wife and five children came with him. Then after the supernatural events in Seattle, they disappeared again until two years ago when they popped up in Boston again. Major Donovan had a detailed explanation of everything, but he was still having trouble wrapping his head around such fantastical stuff, even after they saw it during the battle only weeks ago. He knew about his ancestor's travels and quests, but he had never put much stock in the more fringe nature of the story. Now he was realizing that it was all true. Traveling to far off realms, lost worlds, mystical warriors like the Dragon King and his betrayal of him...it was all true and thus he had a duty to continue his family's mission.

"Stop the car," he said, as his driver obeyed and he got out. These were the coordinates, but all he could see was woods. But that would not remain for long. He was determined to find a way in and for that, he made a deal with the Devil. He only hoped he came through soon. With that, he got back into the car and instructed his driver to take them to the nearest town. He was a patient man and he would find a way in.

~*~

On the other side of the invisible barrier, Zorro watched the man, as he looked around with scrutiny. He didn't know who this man was, but he clearly was clued in on their location, that was obvious.

"Keep patrolling. I'll be doubling our men," Zorro said, as he mounted his horse.

"I must inform Fandral of this development," he said, as he headed for Andresia.

~*~

Agent Green winced, as she finished getting dressed. Her stay in the hospital was thankfully at an end and she looked at the young doctor, who was writing on her chart

"You've healed nicely, but I have to insist you take it easy for a few days," Eva said, as she watched the agent look at her phone.

"Well, if I stick with Major Donovan, I won't have a job anyway," she replied.

"Then you know about her being fired," Eva said.

"Yeah...agent Harding texted me and gave me the rundown," Tessa replied.

"What do you plan to do?" Eva asked.

"Relax…I'm not going to work against your parents or anything. Agent Harding is going to need help on the inside of this thing," Tessa said.

"I thought you hated us and this whole thing," Eva replied.

"I do...but you did save me and I do not like the idea that I've been working for such corrupted people," she said.

"I'm glad to hear that," Eva replied.

"Did...did you happen to recover Agent Brooks' body?" Tessa asked.

"Yes...he's at the morgue and we were waiting to ask you if he had family," Eva replied.

"No…I'm afraid not. It was just him and he has no wife or kids. His parents are also dead," Tessa said, with a sigh.

"As his partner, I guess it's up to me," she added.

"We'll help you do whatever you need," Eva replied.

"If you can tell them to cremate him...then I can scatter his ashes in the ocean. He...he would have liked that," she replied. Eva nodded.

"I'll tell Doc and he'll take care of everything," she said.

"Doc?" Tessa asked.

"He's our medical examiner and Bashful is our forensic analyst," Eva replied. Tessa shook her head.

"This place is wild," she commented. Eva smiled.

"It can be," she agreed.

"Anyway...thank you for saving me," Tessa said. Eva smiled again.

"Paul and I can take you to Granny's to get a room for the night and then we'll help you find your way back to Boston after Agent Brooks' remains are taken care of," Eva said. Tessa nodded and followed her out.

~*~

The sparkling orange portal opened in the Italian countryside and the seven of them stepped through. Thankfully, there was no one around and Regina poofed a sport utility vehicle into existence for them to use.

"It will be a tight squeeze, but it will get us there," Regina said. Snow looked at her husband and he smirked.

"Or we could follow you in something else," he said, as the chalice glowed between them and materialized a motorcycle.

"Fine, ride the death trap," Regina commented.

"Relax...it's enchanted. We'll be fine," David said, as they willed the chalice into their rings to conceal it. They put helmets on, while David got on the bike and Snow got on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. The others got into the car and they headed for the city.

~*~

James put the car in park and looked over at his wife. After spending the morning with their babies, they had dropped them off with Granny for an hour to come to the prison.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

"Yes...and I can't wait for her tribunal. I want to see her behind bars," Aphrodite replied. He sighed.

"Okay...then we'll go," he said, as they got out and joined hands. They were allowed entrance and they took the elevator to the top level. Sneers and calls from some of the worst, high level criminals were ignored, as they made their way to the end and peered into the cell.

"Well, well...you're back from your little adventure," Blue said. She looked horrible. Her hair was matted and her makeup, what was left of it, was smudged. Apparently, she wasn't using the time allotted to her to clean up or even try to maintain her appearance.

"Yes...we are and your failure is complete, because we have broken the curse you placed on us," James hissed. She began to slow clap dramatically.

"Oh congratulations...now you get to live happily ever after with your bimbo and your brats," she growled. James advanced on her cell and wrapped his hand around her neck.

"And you...you'll face justice in your royal tribunal. The Goddess Nyx will then be waiting for you and has promised you a very unpleasant afterlife," he growled back. Aphrodite put her hand on his arm and he calmed down, releasing her and stepping back.

"And still...my only regret is that I didn't succeed in destroying her," Blue said, looking to Aphrodite with pure hatred in her eyes.

"I never did anything to you...except be born. Was the power of the Chalice so important to you that it warrants this hatred of me?" Aphrodite asked. Blue rolled her eyes.

"It was never really about you. Power is everything and when Rhea created the Chalice she gifted to your mother, I knew that it was the key to ruling all the realms. I also knew how foolish it would be to place it in mortal hands. That's why Hera and I knew we had to rid ourselves of your idiotic mother," Blue replied. Aphrodite glared at her.

"Once Hera married Zeus...it was supposed to be her Chalice. We would have still had to place it in mortal hands, but that's why we chose Clayton's bloodline. We knew their ambitious quest for power and control would serve us well," she continued.

"Imagine...all the realms under his control and thus ours. It would have been an ordered world," she said.

"You mean an enslaved world, void of hope and love," Aphrodite corrected. Blue snorted.

"Love...it causes only pain. Look at his brother and Snow White. They may have a blissful true love, but look at all the problems that come with it," she said.

"Love is worth any of the strife or problems," Aphrodite refuted. James smirked.

"Yeah...because love always wins. That's why you're there and we're here. And that's why anyone that tries to defeat love is either already dead or will meet that same fate as the Clayton family you seem to champion," James said smugly.

"Yeah...you definitely backed the wrong family," Aphrodite agreed, as they joined hands.

"Enjoy hell, you blue flea," she said, as they walked away, satisfied that the woman that had cursed them and caused so much pain was imprisoned. They had all their memories and their family was whole again, because love would always win out in the end.

~*~

Once they arrived at the hotel where the event was taking place, they arrived in their suite and proceeded to get ready for the evening. David wore a tux again and was stunned when his wife emerged dressed in a gorgeous white evening gown. It shimmered in the light and the bodice hugged her curves perfectly. The straps were very thin and the collar dipped in a low v. The dress was long, but had two daring slits up the sides and she sauntered toward him.

"Wow…" he said, as she slipped her arms around his neck.

"Wow yourself, handsome," she purred, as she kissed him passionately.

"Are you ready?" he asked. She nodded.

"I know we have no idea what we might be walking into, but I do know that we're going to face it together and eliminate two really bad people," she replied. He nodded.

"Together," he agreed, as they shared another kiss. He offered his arm to her and she hooked her hand on his elbow, as they stepped out of their room and prepared to embark on the mission ahead...

[therealjambery]

Long fics rec post is long

What better way to while away the time than fanfiction? Long fanfiction! And when I say long, I mean long, like so long it is three novels put together, how on earth did you find time to write this, so long it takes even me more than one day to read long. I'm irrationally jealous of all of these writers, as I am the type of writer who has a hard time dashing off 10,000 words in a timely fashion, let alone writing anything longer.

I'm using the SFWA's definition of a novel here, which is anythiing over 40,000 words.

These are all stories I've loved, and most of them I've actually got saved as PDFs so I can re-read them wherever I want. I'm digging pretty deep into the archives for this one, kids, so hold onto your hats.

Fandoms: Avengers/Marvel, Firefly, Inception, Leverage, Merlin, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek AOS, Supernatural, Torchwood

Fandom: Avengers/MCU/Marvel/Whatever we're calling it these days

in deep with you darling by topaz Author's Summary: Darcy could have, under normal circumstances, resisted the aesthetics (however awesome they are, and holy crap are they awesome), but there's an itch under her skin—apparently, nearly dying by giant, fire-breathing robots from space in the middle of Nowhere, New Mexico will start you questioning your life choices. Who knew? Main Pairing: Clint/Darcy Words: 48024

runaways are running the night by anothercover Author's Summary: Clint did like that the photo stayed private. He’s shit at social media, only on it because, you know, he has to be, but even Clint knew it was the kind of candid that was Instagrammable - #queen, #legend, #rawmemama, etcetera, ad nauseam, he’s pretty sure he could predict the comments before anyone actually typed them. (Bucky once said “raw me, mama?” to her with a goddamn straight face and Natasha’s expression of abject horror while she tried to work out if he meant it had made Clint laugh so fucking hard he was certain he’d ripped an organ in half. He still wants to find a way to work that story into his act, because on the one hand, people love it when he talks about his marriage, but it’s hard to find a way into it that doesn’t sound like he’s making fun of their fans, and that’s a big no-go.) AU: Natasha's in a band, Clint is basically John Mulaney, it's great Main Pairing: Clint/Natasha/Bucky Words: 53873

Ready, Fire, Aim 'Verse by gyzym Author's Summary: There's no "I" in "Avenger." Main Pairing: Steve/Tony Words: 63019

Ain't No Grave (Can Keep My Body Down) by spitandvinegar Author's Summary: It's six in the morning, and Steve is heading out on a run when he nearly trips over a bouquet of sunflowers on the front steps of his brownstone.

For a second paranoia takes over, and he kicks the flowers a little, waiting for them to explode. They don't. They also came with a card, which he picks up. The front of the card has a tasteful picture of the Brooklyn bridge at sunset. It's very nice and sedate, like the kind of card you would buy to give to your boss. On the inside someone has written a short message in big, shaky block letters.

I AM SORRY FOR SHOOTING YOU.

Steve sits down hard on the steps. Main Pairing: Steve/Bucky Words: 107076

Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail series by owlet Author's Summary: The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect Main Pairing: Steve/Bucky Words: 264438

Clint Barton's Super Secret Snipers' Club by sara_holmes Author's Summary: Clint Barton's Super Secret Snipers' Club. (Invitation and pending mental health evaluation required.)

"When Steve brings Bucky back to the tower for the first time, Clint’s first thought is that Tony Stark’s pride and joy is quickly becoming a less of a very tall and expensive ‘fuck you’ in the faces of investors who don’t believe in self-sustaining energy, and more of a superhero rehabilitation center."

Boyfriends, compromises and learning to like oneself. Main Pairing: Clint/Bucky Words: 67059

Nobody Lost, Nobody Found by ClaraxBarton Author's Summary: "Look, dude, I get it. You’re fucked-up. HYDRA fucked you up. I’ve been there. But you’re my fucking Soul Mate!"

“I can kill you. I could kill you without even realizing what I was doing. I’m not fucked-up, I’m a monster. I’m a nightmare. You can’t be here. You can’t- All the people I’ve killed- I will not murder my Soul Mate too. Not after everything else I’ve-”

Clint worked his left hand between their bodies and managed to land a punch to the man’s right side, forcing him to shift his weight, and Clint brought his right hand down on the place where the man’s metal arm met his torso - hidden by the shirt he wore, but on full display in the video Clint had watched.

The man released Clint with a grunt of pain, and Clint pressed his advantage, landing another punch to his abdomen, backing him up against the opposite side of the RV and then pressing the kitchen knife he had pocketed while cleaning up earlier to the man’s throat.

“Like I said, I’m not a Boy Scout. I’m plenty dangerous myself. We clear on that?”

OR:

This looks bad, because it is.

OR:

How Clint Barton met his Soul Mate AU: soulmates! Main Pairing: Clint/Bucky Words: 108331

Ronin!Clint 'verse by shatteredhourglass Author's Summary: “Who the fuck are you and how did you get this line?”

“I have my ways,” the voice says, amused. “Don’t worry, I’m just enjoying the view, Captain America.” Main Pairing: Clint/Bucky Words: 63266

Fandom: Firefly/Supernatural

Weight and Motion by sevenfists [note: the podfic by dodificus is excellent] Author's Summary: The pears were ripe, Kaylee told him, but Mal wouldn't eat any of them. They were a present, nestled all sweet and green in a wooden crate that a grateful passenger gave them right before they left her on Greenleaf. AU: Crossover, Dean ends up on Serenity, just roll with it Main Pairing: Mal/Dean Words: 43117

Fandom: Inception

All the World is Bullet Shaped by pushdragon Author's Summary: If Arthur thinks that, just by waving enough money around, he can get Eames to risk his life and reputation to rescue him from a death sentence, he's got another thing coming. So Eames sets a malicious, undignified price on his services, one he can be certain that a man like Arthur would never condescend to pay. It turns out to be the first of many mistakes. Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames Words: 76656

I Seem to Be a Verb by Aja Author's Summary: Arthur owns a quirky hipster science bookstore. Eames is a world-famous mega-celebrity.

Clearly this calls for a meet-cute. AU: Notting Hill AU Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames Words: 93837

In Medias Res by starlingthefool Author's Summary: What's the most resilient infection? What's more infectious than a cold, deadlier than cholera? What lingers in your blood forever?

Love, of course. Mal has always known that. Her pointman Eames may dismiss her for a romantic, but for better or worse, love has gotten her this far. AU: Mirror-verse Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames, Mal/Dom Words: 52662

The Music Makers by mami_san Author's Summary: A. Graham Cole was twenty-one years old when he was killed in action in Iraq. This is the official story. The truth is, of course, somewhat different. Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames Words: I dunno, because it's not on AO3. But my PDF is 451KB so it's over 50k, most likely.

Presque Vu by rageprufrock Author's Summary: Or, "on the tip of the tongue." Arthur meets Mal first. He inherits Dom, after. Everything else is on him. Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames Words: 69588

Wherever You Will Be (That's Where I'll Call Home) [The DomesticVerse] by gyzym Author's Summary: People you kiss in an airport baggage claim and then don't talk to for thirteen months shouldn't be able to exist, let alone make your chest do the things Arthur's chest is doing. There are rules. Main Pairing: Arthur/Eames Words: 74828

Fandom: Leverage

Psychic AU series by Laughtsalot3412 Author's Summary: He had a sniper rifle scoping the girl’s bright eyes and the guy’s smile. AU: They all have psychic powers Main Pairing: OT3 Eliot/Parker/Alec Words: 89955

Fandom: Merlin

[note: look, I don't even go here. I've never watched the show. But.]

Drastically Redefining Protocol by rageprufrock Author's Summary: In which Prince Arthur meets Merlin and all hell promptly breaks loose. AU: Modern AU Main Pairing: Arthur/Merlin Words: 46,059

The Student Prince by FayJay Author's Summary: A Modern day Merlin AU set at the University of St Andrews, featuring teetotal kickboxers, secret wizards, magnificent bodyguards of various genders, irate fairies, imprisoned dragons, crumbling gothic architecture, arrogant princes, adorable engineering students, stolen gold, magical doorways, attempted assassination, drunken students, shaving foam fights, embarrassing mornings after, The Hammer Dance, duty, responsibility, friendship and true love... AU: Modern AU Main Pairing: Arthur/Merlin Words: 145222

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis

Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves by auburn Author's Summary: Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis. AU: Space pirates! Main Pairing: John/Rodney Words: 180299

The Price That Life Exacts by cathalin Author's Summary:When John disappears without a trace during a routine mission, people in a beleaguered Atlantis eventually have to try to move on. Rodney never completely gives up hope of finding John, and though he soldiers on to help Atlantis, a year later he still lives every day with his grief. Main Pairing: John/Rodney Words: 63369

Written By the Victors by Spreranza Author's Summary: Caroll, Franklin R. Atlantis Revisited. New York and London, Routledge, 2011. Chapman, Denise. Several Kinds of Genius: The Life of Rodney McKay. NY: Harper Perennial, 2015. Croft, Rosalind. City of Spires: A Memoir. Toronto: The Mercury Press, 2009. Dugan, Paul. A Political History of Atlantis. Oxford: OUP, 2012. Main Pairing: John/Rodney Words: 52843

Tongues of Men and Angels by Mad_Maudlin Author's Summary: When SG-4 is ambushed offworld, an injured Major John Sheppard must put his trust in a Tok'ra agent named McKay to survive. But what secrets is McKay keeping about his mission, the planet, and his own motives for helping John? AU: They didn't go to Atlantis Main Pairing: John/Rodney Words: 58523

Fandom: Sherlock (TV)

The Least of All Possible Mistakes by rageprufrock Author's Summary: If ever a people deserved tasering, it’s Holmeses. Main Pairing: Lestrade/Mycroft AU: Genderbent Lestrade Words: 118096

Fandom: Supernatural

Red by Big Pink [note: seriously, this is one of my favorite fics/series ever and I have the ebooks if you want to not read this on LJ or FF.net] Author's Summary: Something evil is killing treeplanters in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, possibly the same predator that Dean narrowly escaped years before. How Grimm will things get before the brothers figure it out? Main Pairing: none Words: 81839

Fandom: Supernatural/Stargate Atlantis

And All the World Beneath by seperis Author's Summary: Dean remembers Texas as blackland stretching in marker-thick strips of vivid brown and black, broken with the sprawling metroplexes of Dallas and San Antonio and Houston; farms spread with the yellow tops of maize waving in pre-autumn winds, threshers moving complacently through the fields with drowsy men in hats waving at the road. He remembers green and gold fields dotted with cows, half-year calves running on the outskirts of the herds. He remembers these were what he saw between jobs, lives being lived that had nothing to do with creeping twilight and sleeping only behind salt circles and ritual wards. AU: Cthulhu mythos Main Pairing: Dean/John, John/Rodney Words: 67279

Fandom: Star Trek AOS

Leave No Soul Behind by whochick Author's Summary: If you're Starfleet, you spend your whole life wishing you never see an EPAS uniform right up until the moment they become your only hope. Whether you're dying a slow, cold death in space, or a long painful one on some godforsaken planet, they're going to come for you. So count your last breaths, son, and hold on tight. They leave no soul behind. AU: Spock did not join Starfleet, he joined the Emergency Personnel Ambulance Service (EPAS) Main Pairing: Kirk/Spock Words: 258951

The Lotus Eaters by aldora89 Author's Summary: Stranded on the planet Sigma Nox while searching for a missing away team, Spock and Kirk find themselves pitted against a disturbing native life form. With the captain out of commission on a regular basis and Spock struggling to preserve his stoicism, staying alive is difficult enough – but when a slim chance for escape surfaces, their resolve is truly put to the test. Together they must fight for survival in the heart of an alien jungle, and in the process, uncover the mystery of the planet’s past. Main Pairing: Kirk/Spock Words: 93594

Only Good for Legends by leupagus Author's Summary: Detective Spock, born on Vulcan and resident of San Francisco, is assigned to the Midwest police bureau. I think everyone can guess what happens next. AU: Spock is a Detective. Otherwise it's pretty much the same, including Kirk's petty criminal tendencies. Main Pairing: Kirk/Spock Words: 149640

So Wise We Grow by Deastar Author's Summary: "Commander Spock, we have located your son," the Vulcan lady on the screen says, which would be great, except Jim can tell by the look on Spock's face that he's never heard of this kid before in his life. "If it is expedient, the child will be sent to join you on the Enterprise within the week." AU: kidfic Main Pairing: Kirk/Spock Words: 81248

Switch by Ceres_Libera Author's Summary: The life and times of Leonard H. McCoy MD/PhD … If Leonard McCoy's life could get any fucking weirder, it would be … Jesus, he didn't even want to think what that could possibly mean, because it's already been too fucking weird to make any kind of rational sense. Main Pairing: Kirk/McCoy Words: 230867

Fandom: Torchwood

The Rose of Jericho by kaydeefalls Author's Summary: Post-CoE. When Martha Jones encounters a dark UNIT cover-up in the wake of the 456, it's up to Gwen's new Torchwood team to bring the truth to light -- and save Ianto. AU: alternate ending post Children of Earth Main Pairing: Jack/Ianto Words: 62606

That should keep you busy for a while, right? If you have other long fic recs, let me know in the comments/with a reblog!

[angmarwitch]

The third installment to my Orm One-Shots Series. Also my post-Valentines gift to you all. 

Summary: 5+1 kisses with our beloved King Orm. 

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending

I.

You fidgeted, uncomfortable at being under the scrutiny of the King and Queen of Atlantis. You felt small inside the massive foreign court, your young mind filled with fear and apprehension but you tried to put on your bravest face. There is nothing to fear, your Father had said before he sent you here, you are their guest, they will never do anything to harm you. 

“Welcome to Atlantis, princess,” Queen Atlanna greeted, descending from her throne gracefully, her silver hair forming an elegant halo behind her head.

You stared at her unabashedly, fascinated by her effortless poise and beauty. She was a good Queen, kind, strong and sympathetic to her people. You know of her past, the tragic tale of her adventure in the surface, of the shame she has brought to the royal lineage of Atlantis. Yet, you found yourself nonchalant about the history of this Atlantean Queen. If anything, you just idolized her even more, admiring the courage she displayed when she spurned her husband but saddened that she may never see the other family she had in the surface. 

“I thank you, your majesty.” You bowed, remembering your courtesies.

While you arrived in Atlantis to be fostered, you also represent your kingdom and your sister, who was originally the one planned to be sent here, so needed to show that you were from a good upbringing given that you are of royal descent. You can’t disappoint your parents. 

“Now, your highness, let me introduce you to my son, Orm,” Smiling genially, the Queen ushered the preadolescent boy who had followed her down to meet you.

The Crowned Prince of Atlantis was a little male replica of his mother in appearance, silver hair and blue eyes, but he boasted the same air of confidence and austerity as his Father, who had frightened you a bit. So, this boy was to be your sister’s betrothed and your companion in the duration of your stay here. You were curious as to what kind of person he if he was more his Father or his Mother. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, your highness,” you chirped extending your hand to coax a handshake. You were taken aback when he choose to place a quick, courteous kiss on it instead. 

“The pleasure is all mine, my princess." 

  II.

You found him in one of the sunken ships that settled below the city. He sat by the corner, arms hugging his knees, his face hidden by his disheveled blonde locks. You drifted towards him in an instant, wrapping him in an embrace, his head settling on your chest. Your heart broke at the first sobs he made. You wished you could do something to stop the pain and anguish he felt but it was impossible. No child should have been put in the same position as he was. It was one thing to witness his Father and Mother fight every single day but to watch her sacrificed to the Trench was very traumatic and unthinkable that you found yourself loathing his Father even more. What sort of Father would do that? You wondered and thank the gods that King Nereus wasn’t as terrifying and cold as Orvax was.

You worried about his future, about the kind of life he’ll have without Atlanna by his side. His mother had been his shield and rock, his tether to kindness and compassion. With Orvax becoming his only parent, you feared the kind of man Orm will become. But no, you were still here and you won’t allow that. You will do everything in your power to prevent Orm from becoming a monster like his Father. 

"I’m here, Orm,” you cried, pressing kisses on his brow, “I’m here.”

  III. 

“What’s this?” You asked, eyeing the box suspiciously.

You had been busy packing your things when he arrived, preparing for your long journey back to Xebel after all the years you have spent here. Despite the excitement, you felt about going home, you sensed a deep sadness and longing forming deep in your heart. You were going to miss Orm, your best friend in the entire world. The weight of the realization that you are going to be parted with the person you have spent half your life with, hit you, square in the chest, when Orm arrived at your door, a box in hand matched with an indescribable expression written all over his face. In his blue eyes, however, were a plethora of emotions that mirrored the ones you felt inside. 

“Open it,” came his abrupt reply.

Hands shaking a little, you opened the parcel in a sluggish pace and your eyes widened in surprise as you saw what was inside. It was a necklace, a simple pearl necklace. One that you had seen adorned Queen Atlanna's neck so many times. The trinket had been her favorite piece amongst the vast collection of jewelry owned and passed down by generations of Atlantean royals. You stared at Orm in disbelief, clueless and shocked as to why he would present you such a priceless piece. 

 “It’s a gift, something you would remember me by,” he said answering your silent question.

You gasped, he can’t mean that, can he? This necklace was meant to be given to a woman he was supposed to be married. Your sister in this case. You can’t accept it, it’s too much. 

“Orm…I… I don’t think…,” you started, unable to find the right words to say. You don’t want to disappoint him by rejecting it, at the same time, you don’t seem to have the will to accept it either. You weren’t worthy. 

“It’s too much, I know,” he cut you off, as if sensing your hesitation, “but you are very precious to me and I want you to have it.” He continued, his orbs softening into that pretty shade of blue that you have always liked. 

You were important to him. 

You could have sworn that your heart burst with so much warmth and joy at his words. Unable to suppress your emotions and gratitude, you jumped into his arms and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, never noticing the deep blush that formed in his face nor the lop-sided grin that painted on his lips. 

 IV.

“Let me out of here!?!" you screamed, furiously pounding on the door inside the room both he and your Father confined you in. 

Ever since the messy altercation with his half-brother and Mera, Orm had locked you up in one of the guest chambers of the castle, imprisoned like those dirty criminals dwelling in the dungeons below. He even restricted your daily activities and limited your means of communication to the outside world. You know that he was aware that you weren’t a part of the conspiracy to put Arthur on the throne, you were just as clueless to Mera and Vulko’s plans as he and your Father were. There was truly no concrete motive to keep you here. 

Unless, he was keeping you as a hostage, leverage to force your Father to continue fighting with him now that his engagement to Mera was severed. 

You stopped. 

No.

You refused to jump into that conclusion, rejecting any notion that Orm would use you as a pawn to whatever grand scheme he was fabricating.

You were his confidant and friend.

He would never do that to you.

However, the dark, devious part of your mind tells you otherwise and warns you that this man was no longer the same person you have befriended all those years ago. This wasn’t your Orm, this was a stranger, a product of Orvax's machinations. You have grown apart since he was crowned King. He barely even looks at you now. 

You failed him. You weren’t able to sway him from following the path of his Father. You didn’t want to admit it but you were terrified of the person he has become now. 

Your knees gave out, enfeebled by this newfound knowledge. You would have collapsed further down had it not been for the strong arms that caught you out of nowhere. 

You observed your former friend through hazy eyes, tracing the shape of his face with your eyes, as he carried you across the room towards the bed. You can’t see his entire face from your perspective but there was a discernable tightness in his jaw, you desired nothing but to raise your hand and touch the outline of his face and remove all the tension set there. You don’t know why he was here. Was he already tired of hearing you scream? You wanted to ask. 

However, as exhausted as you were by all the efforts you have exerted in trying to break out from this prison, you simply leaned to his warmth, enjoying one of the remnants of the familiarity you once shared. You were already drained and stressed out to start an argument. All you needed was for him to reassure you that everything was otherwise, that there was a silver lining to his plans. Adjusting in his hold, you set your head near his chest, letting the calm beating of his heart lull you to sleep. Everything pales in comparison to the semblance of peace and comfort his present proximity gives you right now. You want to savor it, to bask in it. 

Succumbing to the bone-tiring exhaustion of your predicament and the melody of his heartbeat, your senses neglected to register the lingering kiss he left on your lips when he placed your unconscious form on the bed. 

  V.

The battle had been over by the time you have escaped your confinement. There was no need to ask who the victor was as Arthur’s name resonated throughout the city. Huge crowds, the same crowd that once cheered Orm, had gathered in the streets to celebrate their new King. 

Watching from one of the towers of the palace, you waited for the ships to arrive, your eyes scanning every person that disembarked to see any signs of Orm. The more and more they come without you catching the glint of his blonde hair caused your heart to shatter into tiny little pieces. Arthur would never do anything to harm his brother nor would he decide to kill him, right? You shook your head, you have no knowledge of what kind of person this new King was but he does not depict a picture of a kinslayer. Yes, he may have been a bit uncouth and ignorant of the royal ways but Arthur Curry doesn’t appear to be a cruel or unmerciful man.

A few more ships came but still no Orm, your hope diminishing little by little. The chanting below waned, the crowd now trying their best to enter the palace to get a better glimpse of their new King. The whole city rejoiced, yet you stood there, waiting for what feels like minutes or hours. Your lower lips trembled and your hands tightened on the railings of the balcony when the last ship came, the frontrunner of his fleet, Orm’s own battleship. The thunderous beating of your heart drowned out the noises below and your breathing grew heavier as each of the crew stepped out yet without Orm in sight. You were on the verge of giving up, already prepared to retire to the solitude of your room, defeated and heartbroken, when you finally saw him, restrained by two guards, his trained eyes on the ground as he was escorted to the castle. 

Without having second thoughts, you yelled out his name, all forms of decorum long forgotten, and jumped off of the balcony with a clear destination in mind. Orm. You stopped a few feet away from him, chest heaving from swimming with a lightninglike speed, fearing that they will take him apart from you without a giving you a chance for a proper goodbye. 

"Orm,” you murmured his name meekly, slowly drifting towards him, your body becoming heavier as you inched closer. The former King, stubborn as he was, refused to look at you, his face still focused downwards, you sensed the shame emanating from him. 

“Leave us,” he grunted gruffly to the two guards who hesitated, unsure whether or not to follow the order of their former king-turned-convict. You shot them with a pleading look. The two exchanged glances before reluctantly releasing him.

“You shouldn’t have seen me like this,” he muttered, head still cast downwards. 

“I don’t care,” you answered. Your hands quivered as you reached to grasp his face, compelling him to look at you. You choked back a sob as you saw the shadow of defeat and humiliation projected on red-rimmed eyes. There was naught left of the proud young King, the replica of Orvax, who ruled Atlantis for following his Father’s death. Instead, the man who stood before you was the same boy you have seen and comforted in the sunken ship below the city. 

This was your Orm. 

“I don’t care," you repeated again. He smiled forlornly. 

"Will you wait for me, then?” he asked, resting his forehead against yours. 

“Yes,” you nodded fervently, closing your eyes as the new tears began to fall. “Always." 

The kiss you shared was fuelled by all the emotions you have repressed in all those years you have spent with each other. It was short, sweet, heart-wrenching, but it was definitely not goodbye. 

It was the start of a new future.

A better one. 

 Bonus

He watched you as you sleep, silently observing the steady rise and fall of your chest. He had always thought that you were beautiful but he thinks that nothing can compare to the picture you painted now, dazzling in the afterglow of childbirth. He knows you will contradict him like you normally do when he compliments you, so he opts to keep the thought to himself. 

Two years had already gone since his fateful battle with Arthur, and Orm still can’t believe that he was here right now, experiencing pure happiness and enjoying the marital bliss without a throne and crown, a burden which belonged to his brother now. No matter what their past had been, Orm was thankful that his brother fought him, as if it weren’t for Arthur, Orm wouldn’t get the chance to savor this kind of life. He shuddered, imagining what his life would have been had Arthur failed to dethrone him. He would have destroyed everything in his grasp, submitted to a loveless marriage, and lost the person he cared the most about.

A soft whimper coming from the bundle in his arms caught his attention and Orm looked down to see his newborn son shifting, his blue eyes so alike his fluttering open and his mouth forming into a silent snarl, ready to release a piercing wail anytime. Not wanting to wake his tired wife, the former king hummed a familiar lullaby his Mother had sung to him when he was a child. This immediately quieted the distressed child. 

Smiling proudly and contentedly, he placed a gentle kiss on his sleeping son’s forehead, happy that he was finally home. 

[strongheartmaid]

oh look, my monster of a fic. Let us lead off with this being an entire AU or Canon doesn’t live here anymore (get back here you, Sea Dragon)

Behind a cut because this is huge

Venus made her way to the scrying chamber, the room within Mount Olympus that the Pantheon could go to gaze upon the waters and view the lives of the mortals below. It had been some time since this room had been used - as the doors to the room groaned in protest as she pushed them open and strode inside. She made her way over to the pool and settled besides it, waving her hand over the waters and watched it ripple until an image came through. A frown marred her elegant features and only seemed to deepen as she watched the images flitting across the watery screen. With a wearied sigh, she waved her hand over the water again, dismissing the images. She could feel the start of a headache form as she tried to process what she had just seen. She paused a moment and turned her head, her eyes locking on to see who joined her in the chamber. "You seem... displeased," came a soft melodic voice from the doorway before the voice's owner slipped inside the room. She made her way over to where Venus sat and settled near her. She waved her hand over the waters, intent on searching, watching something, someone. "Displeased seems a tad too diplomatic," Venus muttered darkly. Her gaze drifted back to the waters to see what her companion was viewing, before dismissing it as unimportant and raised her head to look at her companion. "Checking in on that little mortal of yours, Thetis?" she asked, a teasing tone to her voice. "He's hardly a little nor a simple mortal, Venus," Thetis returned, a slight bite to her words as she spoke. She turned her gaze away from the waters and then at Venus. "He's the mortal incarnation of my lord." A silent 'my husband' hung in the air between them. Venus visibly startled and stared at Thetis before her gaze returned to the waters. Her eyes gleamed silver as she read the Cosmos of the youth in question. She raised her head, her expression stunned as she looked at Thetis. "How long?" Thetis was silent for a long moment, a look of pain and sadness crossing her features. "I only just learned from our kin two months past that my lord was reborn," she said, a broken note in her voice. "Then why so sad?" Venus asked. "Rejoice for he lives, little queen of the oceans." "Aye, he lives," she began, tears streaming down her cheeks, "but he remembers naught of who he truly is." Venus sighed softly, reaching over to place a hand on Thetis's arm. Privately, she cursed the Fates for separating the pair. "That may be, little fish," she said, an affectionate nickname for the other woman. "But nothing says you can not go to his side and coax his memories back to him." "Do you think it's possible?" Thetis asked, looking hopeful. "I do," Venus said, smiling at the younger goddess. "Now, go. Be with him." Thetis nodded before taking her leave of the elder goddess. Hopefully, she'd be able to help him regain his memories - it would be nice to be by her lord and husband's side once more. "Causing mischief, wife?" Hephaestus asked as he approached his wife from behind. She slanted her gaze towards her husband, a small tight smile on her features. True, she was married to him but, she let out a soft mental sigh, it wasn't by her choice. It was one of Zeus's many attempts at trying to control her, to control Hephaestus (why he needed to be controlled, she didn't know, but then she wasn't in a position of power like Zeus was). "No," she said finally, turning to look at him. Her expression softened a moment and she rose to make her way over to him. "No mischief, just trying to reunite a pair of lovers." Hephaestus nodded briefly, raising one soot-stained hand to brush a lock of golden hair off her face, accidentally smearing the soot on her face as he did so. "I see," he said softly. Venus raised her hand to touch his, uncaring of the soot for a moment. "Hard at work?" she asked. Hephaestus let out a wearied sigh and leaned against his wife for a moment. "Yes, I am," he said. "Well, not at the moment, obviously. I needed some fresh air - it was starting to get claustrophobic down in the smithery." Venus nodded, before moving his arm so it was draped around her shoulders. "I'll help you walk back to our chambers," she said quietly. "You'll need your rest before you return to that lair of yours." "Is that concern in your voice I hear, Urania?" he asked, curiosity clear in his voice. She rolled her eyes at the name chosen. "Of all my titles, you have to pick that one," she drawled. "And.. maybe." He gave a low chuckle at her snark before his expression warmed at her brief confession. "I promise, I'll rest," he said quietly. "Of course, there was one thing you didn't tell my dear aunt." "Oh, and what's that?" Venus asked. Why was she just now getting an unsettled feeling? "I don't suppose you noticed that the mortal that houses my uncle has a twin brother," he said lightly. "No riddles, Klytotékhnēs," she hissed. "Direct or not at all." "Oh, you take all the fun out of life, my dear," he sighed. "The mortal known as Julian Solo, and yes I did go look that up in Father's statuary, my dear, has a twin brother, Sean Solo. Sean Solo just happens to be my other uncle." Venus froze midstride, turning her gaze on her husband. "WHAT?!" she exploded, a stunned expression on her features. "What do you mean he's your.. Oh no," she groaned. He nodded slowly. "Oh yes, my lady wife. You just sent Thetis to awaken Poseidon, which may trigger Hades to awaken as well." Venus closed her eyes and silently started to count to ten in Greek. 'éna dýo tría...' she began before she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Please tell me Athena's not awake." He let out a soft relieved sigh. "No, no sign of my sister being awake yet." "Thank the Fates for small miracles," she said, looking relieved as well. "I'm not sure the mortal realm could handle a Holy War of those proportions if all three were awake at the same time." "Wife," Hephaestus began, giving her a mildly stern look. "Why in the name of my father's lightning bolts did you have to go and say that? Do you like tempting the Fates?" "As the mortals would say, my dear husband, oh crap," Venus groaned.

-

Thetis stood on the shoreline below the Grecian summer home of the Solo family, her eyes staring out into the distance, listening to the waves as they crashed upon the shore. Somewhere, deep below those waves was Atlantis, was her home - one she hadn't seen since the time of myth or was it later than that, she mused but decided she truly didn't care, either way - it had been far too long since she had seen the glistening white marble buildings, heard the laughter of her people. She let out a wearied sigh, praying that whatever time had done to her (their) home, that it would be easy to repair. That would be the one drawback to being awake in this time - very few mortals would know the ancient crafts needed to repair any damage (for that matter, she wasn't sure *if* there were any stone masons still practicing their art in this modern age). She quietly walked along the shoreline, trying to figure things out. So much to do, so very little time to do it in - especially if this was to be done before Athena awoke and made a mess of things, again. A part of her did truly love her niece - but there was another part that grew vexed by how quick she was to assume the worst of people, especially her male relations (particularly her two uncles). She paused, her head turning to look behind her as she heard the rapid approach of hoofbeats and the raucous sound of male voices and laughter. She let out another sigh - terrific, just what she didn't need as she tried to come up with some sort of plan on what to do.

 "Ikki, no fair," cried a young male voice as they struggled to keep up with their older cousin. It wasn't quite fair that their cousin was doing so much better at riding horses than they were.

 A delicate frown crossed her lips as she tried to recall where she had heard that name before. No matter - wasn't truly important, she thought as she quickly ducked behind a rocky outcropping, not wanting to be seen just yet. The first youth - the one possibly named Ikki - rode by, his deep indigo hair wild. She could feel his Cosmos from where she was, and that left her unsettled - it was far stronger than she had ever imagined a mortal's to be. She shuddered, trying to quell the feel of terror rising in her before she spied the two youths coming behind. The first was fair of face (almost too pretty for a man), with deep jade green eyes and rich green hair. She startled a moment, getting a feel of his Cosmos as he rode past where she was hidden - why hadn't Venus told her about this? How was this even possible? Both..? But then the one she was waiting for appeared in view and a soft sigh escaped her. He hadn't changed much in their time apart - well, maybe his hair was a little lighter and his eyes a little bluer but it was still him, she would know her beloved no matter what form he took. If they just said their names, she'd be able to confirm that she was where she was supposed to be - and then came the fun of trying to come up with a good story to explain who she was and why she was there, she thought a small bubble of despair welling up for a moment.

 "Not my fault that you're slow, Sean," Ikki called over his shoulder before slowing his horse down so his twin cousins could catch up to him. He smiled warmly at Sean, reaching over to ruffle the windswept green locks. He chuckled, a rich warm sound as Sean tried to bat his hand away. "How you holding up back there, Julian?" he asked.

 Julian just gave a thumbs up and a smile. "Although, I'm not sure Aegaeus could handle another run like that," he said, rubbing his horse's neck and whispering soothing nonsense in his ear.

"So, why did you name your horse that anyway?" Ikki asked as the trio quietly rode together, allowing the horses to recover from the race across the beach that they had done.

 Julian gave an absent one-shoulder shrug in response to his cousin's question. "Just felt right," he said, still unsure why he named the horse that other than the feeling of it being *right*, familiar even.

Thetis tilted her head as she tried to remember why Aegaeus sounded familiar - oh, right, his epithet from the town of Aegae since he had that gorgeous temple there. She'd have to go there later, check on the status of the temple (hopefully, still in one piece, if not, she was going to have severe words with that darling niece of hers) and leave an offering to her beloved there.

"Couldn't you have named it something easier to pronounce?" Ikki asked, quirking a brow.

 "We can't all have something as easy to pronounce such as Phoenix," Julian snarked back. "Besides, I don't hear you complaining over the name Sean gave his horse. Moiragetes is more of a mouthful than Aegaeus." He paused when he heard a feminine giggle coming from behind a rock. He quirked a brow before quietly riding his horse over to where he heard the sound coming from, intent on finding out the source of the noise. "By all that's holy..." he breathed to himself as he stared down into ocean blue eyes. He dismounted from his horse and slowly approached the maiden. "I know you.. but how.." he murmured.

 Thetis just stared up into his blue eyes, silent, unsure of how to answer. "It's.. a long story, fantastical even," she offered up after a long moment of silence.

 "Perhaps, then, you could tell it over a cup of coffee?" he asked, offering her his hand.  Ikki watched the scene play out from his spot on the back of his horse. Wonderful, there was his cousin picking up strange girls. "Don't get any ideas, Sean," he muttered to the younger twin.

 Sean just fixed his cousin with a Look. "And what ideas are those, Cousin?" he asked, a faint bite to his words. "Picking up strange women on the beach," he said before guiding the pair over to Julian and his mystery lady. "Perhaps introductions are in order?" he suggested. "Ah, yes," Julian said before gesturing to himself. "Julian Solo. This is my younger," Sean's voice cut in with an annoyed "I'm your twin, you blithering idiot", "brother, Sean. And this bruiser of a teddy bear," which earned a warning growl from the youth in question, "is our cousin Richard Patton, but he prefers the nickname of Ikki for whatever reason." "Thetis," she said, bowing her head slightly, a soft smile on her lips. "As in the goddess?" Sean asked, curiosity welling up. Strange how familiar this woman was - but he could have sworn that he had never met her before.. Thetis just smiled, a soft chuckle escaping her. "Well, that's a rather interesting story. I believe your brother already offered me a drink in exchange for telling it..?" - "So," she said, holding a warm cup of coffee in her hands, as they sat outside on the balcony of the estate. "Where do you want me to begin my tale?" she asked. "I find a tale told from the beginning is oft the best course of things," Julian said. He took a sip of coffee before setting it back down on the table. "Well, in answer to your question before, Sean," she said. "Yes, as in the goddess," she continued. "Or rather, as fantastic as it may sound, I am she of who you speak." Ikki stared at the blond before rising and heading inside. He returned after a moment, setting a bottle of rum on the table with a decided thunk. "I have a feeling we're going to need something stronger than mere coffee if what you're saying is true, Thetis." Thetis smiled as if she had been prepared for this and closed her eyes. A shimmer of light surrounded her before it vanished, revealing her in her Holy Cloth - the Crimson Scales of the Mermaid.  Julian stared, stunned. "Right," he said, before grabbing the bottle of rum and pouring a healthy dose into his cup. He drank it slowly. "So, the Greek gods and goddesses do exist still." She nodded, reaching up to remove the helm and set it on the ground next to her. "A few of my kin do incarnate as mortals and remain unaware of their true nature. However, there comes a time when there's a need for them to awaken, to remember who they truly are." She took a sip of her coffee, a curious expression crossing her features after she swallowed. "Is this drink always this bitter?" "Not always," Sean said as he reached over to drop some sugar into Thetis's cup. "That should help a little." "Thank you," she said, taking a sip and nodding. "Better but I'm afraid I'll never quite like the taste of coffee." She set her cup down and looked at the trio, trying to figure out how to explain the next bit of information she was about to tell them. "So, these mortals that are gods or goddesses unawares, how do you awaken them, if as you say, the need arises? How do you know they are who they are?" Julian asked. Thetis let out a wearied sigh. "That, as you mortals would say, is above my paygrade in understanding. It has something to do with one's Cosmos," she said. "It's basically a recreation of the Big Bang within your soul, at least that's how Zeus explained it once. It mostly went over my head once Apollo started to add on to the explanation." "So, okay, let's go with the Cosmos can tell who's who," Ikki said slowly. "Does that mean you're able to read our Cosmos, if we have any?" "All mortals have it - just not all mortals are aware of it," she said diplomatically. "But to answer your unspoken question, yes, I can sense it in all three of you." "Well, that's a good thing, right?" Sean asked, sipping his coffee. "Well, that depends if you think two god tier cosmos and one that I have no clue where it came from because I've never felt anything like it before is a good thing," she responded.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

THE BISEXUAL WYATT MANIFESTO: PART DEUX

The previous post simply got far too long for me to put it all in one place so here is part the second. Put below a cut and my apologies to mobile users!

Part one here.

PART THE SECOND: POURQOUI???

But why, Mads, you shout? Why decide to headcanon a character as bi? Is it just so you can write your dragon porn?

maybe

Ahem.

Listen. I love diversity as much as the next person. Y’all know I do. I mean, I’m a huge fan of Rufus and Jiya, and Denise, queen of my heart. But… I mean we already have a het ship with Jiya and Rufus. And I feel like, y’know, Wyatt being white AND cis AND male AND straight? Feels like a little much, y’know? And there’s no reason for him to be straight, he just IS, and that feels—I mean where’s the whole backstory about it, right? And it feels a little illogical to have… I mean I don’t have any friends who are white and straight and cis male. It just feels unrealistic.

Okay, okay, extreme salt aside and mostly out of my system…

As a character, even in season one when I did like him, Wyatt is boring. He’s the same white straight male soldier/law-and-order character that we’ve seen in literally every single piece of science fiction since the dawn of time. You will find an exact copy of him in Stargate SG-1 (my apologies to Jack O’Neill), Stargate Atlantis (sorry John…), 12 Monkeys, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Terra Nova, Battlestar Galactica, Andromeda, Star Trek Enterprise, Eureka… and that’s not even touching all the mystery/crime shows (CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Law & Order, Blue Bloods, Take Two) and military shows (SEAL Team, 24, etc). He’s got a dead wife, fantastic, so does the Punisher, so does Sam Winchester (also created by Eric Kripke), so does GARCIA FLYNN, another character on the show, and Flynn’s wife’s death actually ties into the bigger mystery of the show. By God, if you’re gonna fridge a wife at least make her fridging the entire reason the show exists.

Yes, you heard me. Think about it. If Lorena and Iris Flynn don’t die, then Flynn never wants to go on a vengeful rampage, so Lucy never chooses to give him the journal, so he never steals the time machine… killing Lorena and Iris was the biggest mistake Rittenhouse ever made. If you’re gonna play the dead wife card then by golly at least do it like this and make avenging her death the entire reason for the show.

So not only is Wyatt the same cookie cutter character we’ve seen in every TV show ever, he’s also a repeat of Flynn. He’s not just boring, he’s redundant.

Wyatt is also the only character on the show that you could replace with someone else without changing any of the main plot. When I originally decided to do a fic where the team comes back to find one of them was erased from existence on the trip, I knew it had to be Wyatt—erasing Lucy would change everything (which I explore in The Void is Open), erasing Flynn would take them to a world where Rittenhouse has won, erasing Rufus would mean potentially no pilot… you see what I mean. But Wyatt is very neatly replaced with Dave Baumgardner in 1.14 and shows us that Wyatt is, literally, replaceable. Of course he isn’t to Lucy and Rufus at that point because they care about him but for writing reasons? For plot? Literally any soldier would do. Any. Denise could hop in there with them if she so chose.

Now, all this makes it sound like I dislike Wyatt. And I didn’t in season one. I quite liked our puppy. I liked him for two reasons: 1. He had a lot of potential and 2. his character mirrored/paralleled Flynn and I saw a copious amount of opportunities with that.

Both Flynn and Wyatt have lost their spouse. Both Flynn and Wyatt are soldiers. Wyatt had an abusive father and given that Flynn goes on a potential suicide mission for his mother but we never once hear him mention his father (he might as well not have one for his importance to Flynn’s life), I’m taking a guess that Flynn’s father wasn’t all that great of a person either. Both Flynn and Wyatt risk everything to save the people they love and both pay heavy prices for it and become people they’re ashamed of (Flynn all of season one, Wyatt in 1x13). Both Flynn and Wyatt care deeply for Lucy and look to her for guidance.

Wyatt and Flynn mirror each other. One is willing to break rules, and to forge his own path, while the other follows rules and is scared to strike out on his own. Both of them struggle with identity–Wyatt has no idea who he is now that Jess is dead, and Flynn believes he’s turned into a monster and who he once was is lost. Taking advantage of that mirror makes for compelling storytelling, and the writers failed in that in season two after setting it up so beautifully in season one.

The fun thing is, these parallels become even more poignant if you make Wyatt bi and have him be attracted to Flynn (and is a convenient shortcut to bring those parallels back to the fore).

We touched in the previous section how it’s easy to see Wyatt as attracted to Flynn and that’s why he lashes out so much, and indeed how that is the only rational explanation for why Wyatt is so goddamn against Flynn the whole time.

Let’s dive into that, shall we?

Of the original trio, Rufus and Lucy have ample reason to dislike Flynn. Wyatt? Has none. Flynn makes things personal with Lucy right out the gate, and Rufus’s family will be hurt if Flynn isn’t stopped. But Wyatt is just supposed to see Flynn as an enemy soldier. No personal vendetta involved. And before you say rivalry over Lucy–most of Lucy’s pivotal moments with Flynn in season one are without Wyatt present, and the ones she does have in front of Wyatt aren’t automatically read as romantic. Wyatt himself doesn’t even admit he’s got feelings for Lucy until season two, and as far as he knows, Lucy’s still dealing with Noah.

But Wyatt hates Flynn. As we’ve seen in our examples, he reacts to Flynn with a violence that is missing from Rufus and Lucy. And there is no reason for that violent dislike to be there.

Unless Wyatt is attracted to Flynn and is scared of that from internalized homophobia.

If Wyatt finds Flynn attractive, and has internalized homophobia from, y’know, growing up in Texas and having an abusive father and going into the army, then his anger towards Flynn, his stubbornness, his refusal to listen to Flynn (because if Flynn is right about things and Flynn is an okay guy that opens the door to other more ‘dangerous’ thoughts), and his tendency to react to Flynn’s time with Lucy with such anger–it all makes sense. The last one is partly about Wyatt’s jealousy and possessiveness over Lucy but if it’s coupled with attraction to Flynn it makes even more sense.

Having Wyatt behave this way simply doesn’t hold up. It relies far too much on the audience making leaps of logic about Flynn and Lucy’s relationship in season one and assuming that Wyatt and Lucy are meant to be together, without enough evidence for the latter and Wyatt not at all present for the former.

If Wyatt’s bi, it all makes sense and is logical and again adds another dimension to his character and to his interactions with Flynn.

Monkey Brain: heh heh Wyatt and Flynn kissing is hot as fuck

Wyatt’s toxic masculinity becomes even more interesting and important (and make more sense) if Wyatt is bi.

In this meta here (my first for the Timeless fandom!) I talk about Wyatt and his toxic masculinity so to avoid repeating myself howzabout you go read that and come back mmkay?

…

You done? Perfect. So. Now that you understand where Wyatt’s toxic masculinity comes from and how he displays it in canon, I can say this:

Wyatt being bi forces him to confront his toxic behavior in a unique and powerful way that he can no longer ignore.

Part of Wyatt’s toxic behavior is that his behavior is specifically based in the masculine and the patriarchal. And so most of his bad behavior is rooted in how he treats his romantic interest–which has been Lucy and Jess.

Wyatt was, by his own admission, jealous and possessive towards Jess. He didn’t know how to relate to Lucy when she was no longer a romantic option, so he keeps trying to be romantic with her instead, and his possessive behavior comes to the fore as he tries to control who she spends time with and tries to get her to be as emotionally intimate with him as she was before, despite his wife being back and that intimacy no longer possible.

Getting Wyatt to realize his toxic behavior is difficult, since so many people have bought into the lie that men are supposed to be territorial and possessive towards the women they’re in relationships with. However, most heteronormative toxicity falls apart and is recognizable as harmful once we put it in a new light.

When a situation is bad, you often need an outside perspective, or to change one of the circumstances, in order to see how bad it is. Wyatt’s been lectured at by Lucy, Rufus, Flynn, and Jess, and he didn’t see his behavior was unhealthy. But if we change one of the circumstances i.e. the gender of the person he’s attracted to romantically/sexually, then suddenly he has to look at his behavior towards that person in a new light.

Let’s take Flynn for example. Wyatt can’t treat Flynn the way he’s treated Jess or Lucy. If he tries to be possessive of Flynn, not only would he be unable to, but he’ll realize that it’s wrong of him to even think of it. Wyatt wouldn’t find it natural to try and be jealous when Flynn talked to another man, because Flynn is a man, and he wouldn’t automatically assume another man was flirting with Flynn, or that Flynn was flirting with that man.

Because the thing is, our society is pretty heteronormative still. It’s genuinely hard to tell when someone is just being friendly or actually flirting, but we tend to really assume that when a man is interacting with a woman, one or both of them are flirting. With people of the same gender (or of non-cis genders such as trans and nonbinary) it becomes harder to tell, and a lot of the time we assume that it’s just platonic. So for Wyatt to become jealous over Flynn talking to a man–that goes against the norm because it means he’s assuming romantic rather than platonic interaction, the opposite of what we assume when we look at two people of the same gender.

It would force him to take a second look at all of his behavior and choices. It would force him to realize that his behavior was wrong towards Flynn, which means it’s wrong towards Lucy and Jess, etc. It changes an element and so it forces him to see everything in a new light.

On top of all this—Wyatt’s character is pretty stagnant. I believe that’s why they brought Jess back, honestly: because without Jess coming back to complicate things, there’s nowhere for Wyatt to grow. Forcing him to confront his behavior towards Jess was, I think, what the writers ultimately intended for him (the smart ones, anyway). I don’t think they intended for him to end up with Jess at the end, at least not originally. There are things said by Shawn Ryan in interviews that suggest to me that they realized Flynn/Lucy and Wyatt/Jess was a more interesting dynamic than the originally planned Wyatt/Lucy, so they switched gears and planned to have Jess end up with Wyatt. BUT, whether a romantic reunion endgame for them was the plan or not, given the alley scene in 2x10 and other scenes in season two, I fully believe that prior to the nuclear bomb of dog shit that was the Christmas finale, the plan was always to give Jess a redemption arc and that Wyatt would become a better person through convincing her to turn double agent (and through becoming a father).

If you don’t bring Jess back, there’s nowhere for Wyatt’s character to go. Nothing for him to do. Rufus, Lucy, Flynn, Mason, Denise, Jiya—they all have hugely powerful arcs and tough situations. I could go into them but that’ll send me off into another tangent that we don’t have time for. Suffice to say, I can off the top of my head think of two internal struggles and places for each character to grow that would last a couple seasons. And that’s just off the top of my head.

But Wyatt? You can’t. He’s got nowhere to go.

Bringing back Jess is one way that you can force growth and give Wyatt a new arc, but you can’t just give a character one single arc. You have to give them multiple. No real life person is struggling with just one thing, we’re struggling with multiple things. Take Lucy in season two. She’s struggling with Rittenhouse, with her relationship with her mother, with her realizations about herself and what she’s willing to do, with losing Wyatt, with getting back Amy, and with her growing relationship with Flynn.

That’s a lot.

Rufus and Jiya have their relationship AND Jiya’s visions that lead to an arc about destiny versus free will, AND both struggling with the “what are we willing to do to win/who am I becoming” arc.

Give Wyatt JUST Jess, and that’s not enough. It’s also something that, to do right, you have to stretch over I’d say two seasons, seasons three and four. So you need something else to fill in more gaps.

Having Wyatt be bisexual and having him struggle with his sexuality gives him dozens of more opportunities for interesting interactions with other characters, it gives him more ways to address his toxic behavior (as we discussed), it gives him more ways to grow. Because we don’t just grow in a straight line. We grow like trees, with limbs stretching up all over the place and roots digging in deep and crisscrossing everywhere.

Wyatt is a stagnant character. Giving him bisexuality gives him a way to continue to grow that isn’t dependent on another character (Jess) and can be shortened or drawn out depending on how his other arc (Jess, potentially Lucy as well) plays out.

Having Wyatt be bi takes away all of his redundancy, and stops him from being boring, and stops him from being so easily replaceable. If a character isn’t intrinsically tied to the plot (Rufus is there because he’s the only pilot, Lucy is a history expert and tied to Rittenhouse, etc) then you need to think of other reasons for the viewers to really care about them and I’m sorry, but having a dead wife and then being stuck in a heterosexual love triangle doesn’t cut it in the year of our lord 2016 (or ’17, or ’18, or any other year that follows).

And no offense to anyone struggling with PTSD because it needs to be addressed, but the whole ‘soldier with PTSD’ has been done before and, despite making it a main feature in 1.05 The Alamo, it hasn’t been touched on since. Not once. So that’s I guess been thrown out the window by the writers as a plot device (although again that could be brought back by having Wyatt bond with Flynn and Flynn talking with him about shared experiences could be a way that Wyatt further develops feelings for him YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN!?!?).

It also, as I outlined in part one, explains all of his behavior. It takes behavior that made no sense and was toxic alpha male bullshit and puts a whole new and interesting and understandable spin on it. Note I said understandable, not justifiable, this does not in any way excuse any of Wyatt’s behavior. But boy howdy does it make it a lot more nuanced and layered. Having Wyatt be bi suddenly opens so many goddamn doors for his character I can’t even keep track. His PTSD, his relationship with his father, his relationship with Jess, his relationship with Flynn and Lucy, his time in the army, all of those things have new and boundless opportunities in them. It gives opportunities and explains and gives depth to one-note, shallow, cliche male behavior.

Not to mention, um, making him a repressed bisexual gives so many more opportunities for angst and hurt/comfort and all that delicious, delicious character conflict that we all love. Mmmm yes the precious. And, BONUS, it gives us character angst that doesn’t necessarily revolve around a romantic pairing! You can give a character a sexuality crisis without giving them a person to be paired off with! Wyatt can have his crisis over Ian Fleming or Wendell Scott or Rittenhouse Agent No. 5, and figure it all out with only platonic assistance from the team. OR he can be pining over Flynn without Flynn having a clue because Flynn needs his love interests to hit him over the head with a baseball bat to get him to notice and even then it doesn’t always work. OR have him worry about confessing to Jess and/or Lucy and fearing they’ll see him differently given their past sexual/romantic entanglements! ALL. THE. CHARACTER. ANGST. BITCHEEEEEES.

Finally, last but not least, why should Wyatt be bi? Because representation matters, that’s why.

Up until now I’ve highlighted why Wyatt, specifically, as an individual, should be bi. But stepping away from him individually… why the fuck not make your character bi?

It’s the 2010s. The world is finally waking up to the fact that LGBT+ people are here, we exist, and also having us as characters makes your ratings soar. People were ecstatic over The Day Reagan Was Shot, which focused on Denise and her coming out. Timeless’s diversity was a huge point in its favor and was a huge part of why critics loved it. Making, of all people, the most rough and tumble masculine man’s man of the cast be bisexual is important because it reminds us that anyone can have any sexuality, that there are no stereotypes, and that not all LGBT+ people are fashion gurus.

I’m sorry, Wyatt, but it’s true, you are no longer allowed to dress yourself, I’ve submitted you to Queer Eye.

What could be a more powerful storyline for today than a man who was abused as a kid, exhibited toxic masculinity, and was clearly unhappy with himself as a person and looking outside of himself to someone else to fix him, come to terms with himself, come to love himself, come to say “hey I love who I love and I am who I am and fuck anyone who says otherwise”? What could be a more wonderful representation of the diversity and family bonding themes of the show then to have Wyatt, the insecure difficult-with-feelings small town poster for typical masculinity come out, scared of rejection, scared of their reactions, only to have everyone show him love and acceptance and unwavering support? To have Denise hug him and tell him she understands how she feels? To have Lucy tell him she doesn’t see him any differently? For Rufus to joke this is why Wyatt can never choose a cereal and then reaffirm their friendship?

Having Wyatt be bi isn’t just good for him as a character, it’s good for the audience, and it continues the themes of the show and continues to break down stereotypes and honestly, there’s no reason for any character to be straight, either. We just ask “but why” because straight is still the default in our heads and all deviancy from the norm must be explained and rationalized. But there’s no need for that. Wyatt has the most typically heterosexual traits out of all of them, and he’s from a small town in Texas, and he went into the army. How powerful for people to see him come out. How wonderful. But Wyatt can be bi just because you damn well feel like it, because there shouldn’t be a big list of reasons (although I do have them, clearly). He can be bi just because, well, there’s no big tragic backstory for why I’m bi. I just am. And so is he.

In conclusion: Bi!Wyatt is ten times more interesting, nuanced, and unique than Straight!Wyatt, it adds depth and opportunities for growth, it gives layers to existing storylines and character relationships involving Wyatt, it explains his behavior and makes it more understandable, and it gives us needed representation.

My monkey brain adds that the opportunity for humor with this is also boundless and honestly I agree, good job monkey brain, you get a treat.

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

[80s-teen-titans]

I just saw Aquaman!

And! I! Loved! It!

I think it was the aquarium bit right at the beginning where I just stopped and went, “oh fuck, I’m afraid of fish.” I had kind of… forgotten? that I have an irrational fear of fish? There weren’t many scenes where just little fish were going around so it was mostly fine. And despite this fact, I still very much loved the movie. It was amazing. So here’s some things I loved.

(long post full of spoilers under the cut)

The absence of death for the drama: Firstly, let me just say how happy I am that they didn’t go the cheap route of killing off characters for drama. Like it would have been so easy for them to kill his dad. So easy. And through that scene (which was gorgeous btw, both the sound design and the cinematography) I was so scared that they would, but like… kind of resigned to the fact. And then they didn’t. And Vulko too! I thought he was gonna for sure get killed for motivation. First during the Ring of Fire (btw, the Johnny Cash song of the same name played in my head every time someone said it) I thought he was gonna jump in the way to prevent Arthur losing and die. Then during the rest of the film there were so many opportunities for him to get killed and he did not! It would have been so easy to kill his dad or his father figure but they didn’t, and you know why? Because then it wouldn’t have been about Arthur regaining his birthright and learning to accept both sides of himself, it would have been a plain and simple revenge story. Like so many other movies we’ve seen before. Good on them for avoiding the cliché that this has to happen for a hero’s journey.

Atlanna: While we’re at it, let’s talk about Queen Atlanna. Because I don’t think most people, who have seen movies like this before, really believed that she was dead. When there’s no hard evidence, you gotta assume they’re fine. And I love that, when characters are so pleasantly shocked and surprised to see their loved one alive. I live for that. And this film did not disappoint. Their reunion was beautiful and touching. And I definitely teared up when she asked about Arthur’s dad. And the person sitting in front of me was just absolutely sobbing. Either that or choking on their popcorn. I couldn’t tell.

Diversity: How about that love story between his parents eh! That was heartbreaking and beautiful. And it was just so, so refreshing to see non-white characters let me just say. Like Arthur’s dad is a gorgeous man and it hurts that we haven’t seen stuff like this before. It was just perfect. And I loved how Arthur was also still very much connected to the culture of his father and his family. That’s an extra layer of depth that you can’t get as easily when everyone is white. 

Comedy: So this movie was hilarious. It was so, so funny. Like… the octopus on the drums? During the Ring of Fire scene? I laughed so hard and so long that I set off the person sitting next to me who also started laughing. My god, I just couldn’t help it. It made me think of The Little Mermaid. But also like, the “bogeys on our six” “what does that mean???” “Bad guys behind us!” “Just say that then!” “Bad guys behind us! Bad guys behind us!” Just getting increasingly higher and higher pitched. Like that was priceless. Also side note, we talk a lot about female characters being allowed to make “unsexy” noises when fighting, but like there are also multiple points in this film where Jason Momoa isn’t just being all gruff grunts in fights either, like he gets thrown off a roof in Italy and his yell turns into a high pitched scream at one point like yes!

Mera: Also Princess Mera! Like damn! It is very clear she is very much an equal, and never lesser than the male lead. She’s the one who knows what she’s doing. And like the thing with controlling water? That’s something that’s uniquely her. It’s not something that she has to teach to Arthur. That’s her own insanely powerful thing and Arthur and everyone else can’t help but respect her and just be in awe. Also, trying to do things from the background to keep the leverage she has in her position, but not hesitating to just go for it either. When she sees no other choice she jumps feet first into her new role as a traitor because she wants to see her nation under better rule.

Arthur: As a character, I loved that he wasn’t like, the smartest guy, but he could still use his head and think through things. He’s not an idiot. He has knowledge about certain things like history. I loved that he was named after Arthurian legend and they kept with that, that his dad is a history lover and taught him stuff.  He differs to Mera, acknowledging that she’s brilliant. And he wins his battles not by brute strength (except for the first one which set up perfectly what he could do) or by outsmarting the other guy, but often by just stopping to talk (that monster that was guarding) or by getting help (the huge battle at the end with the sea creatures). An argument can even be made for it not being sheer strength that wins the final duel, but skill. He even acknowledges this by saying that he’s a blunt weapon and good at it. All he wants to do is help and protect people which we see plainly on both the sub and in Italy. Arthur is a great, well fleshed-out character that felt completely real.

Atlantis’ walls: Ok, the bit where they’re entering the city and Arthur says, “why don’t people just go over the walls?” and Mera says that it’s impossible and there’s hydra canons and whatnot, I just started chanting in my head Chekhov’s gun Chekhov’s gun Chekhov’s gun! (For those that don’t know, it’s a literary device that states “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired”. Meaning, if you gonna mention something like that, do something with it). And by golly did they! I was assuming they were gonna have to break in at some later point, I didn’t think they’d be breaking out! That was great!

The ending: It was absolutely perfect. How everyone stands witness to the battle and their battle itself, including all of the talking they did in it. I adored the relationship between the two brothers. Like how Arthur said earlier that he had wanted to meet him and get to know him. Then at the end he tells him that they can talk when he’s ready and Orm actually hesitantly gives him a nod. And the fact that he spared him at all. He regrets not showing mercy to Manta’s father, and will not fail to show mercy again here. And how Atlanna shows up and talks to Orm and tells him she loves him and doesn’t blame him, she blames how his father raised him. It took my breath away with how genuinely fulfilling this ending felt.

Couple last points: The soundtrack was an absolute bop my dudes! Like wow! The song choices, the original music, it was all just so, so good and so, so perfect. Also enjoyed how the movie didn’t coddle the viewers. It didn’t explain everything straight up. There’s mentions of Vulko before we know who he is, they don’t tell us right when we met her who Mera is, they showed us through her short conversation with her father. The characters felt real, having conversations about things they knew about and not bothering to tell us until we had wondered how they knew, like how Arthur believed his mother to have been executed. They did show don’t tell extremely well throughout the entirety of the movie.

In conclusion, it was an amazing film with a terrific cast, great acting, brilliant and witty writing, breath taking cinematography, believable characters, and beautiful battles. And I loved every second of it.

What did you love?

[coeurdastronaute]

Essays in Existentialism: Atlantis

Removed from the city, but too close for comfort, they heard the dull hum of muffled machinery. The city was just a spot of glowing opulence in the distance behind them as they trekked out to the very edges of the country. Just beyond the western canyon, past the sentinel-like Black Mountains, new machines, heavy and cumbersome monsters, squatted on the virgin soil of their forefathers. The machines blindly groped through the dirt, searching for something, upturning reefs and caves, leaking foul-smelling chemicals and exhaust like a cloud through the area.

For the longest time, the heir watched the large machine, observed the cable moving and the drone that came to adjust the tubes and wires when they get caught somewhere as the machines whirred and thundered along. For two days she stalked them, debating what was to come next.

Much like the thinker, she sat on the edge of the cliff and peered at the device the size of a great white, twirling her spear absently while her mind worked at the problem at hand. Never one for too many words, she did not waste them debating like her accomplices, nor did she listen too much to what they said. Instead, she ran through all of the lessons of her training, all of the things imparted upon her, and she tried to decide as rulers are meant to do.

“Tonight,” he decided as she led her friends back to the city. “We rid ourselves of the surface tonight.”

“The King said to wait.”

“The King is protecting our home from the threat above,” Roan tightened his jaw, still slightly bitter to be left behind yet again. “We will take care of this ourselves. It is our way.”

“You may avoid jail time for disobeying the King,” Anya grinned as they made their way back toward home. “But I think I’m about two exploits and a few years past his forgiveness.”

“The treaty is clear on this,” the heir’s cousin argued, his words growing more agitated, as he was known to be. “Those primitive air-breathers  are not allowed to mine without explicit permission from the King.”

“We breathe air,” she reminded him.

“You know what I mean. Those vile creatures don’t care about anything. They deserve everything Neptune does to them.”

“The gods are never wrong, but they suffer often for the actions of a few.”

“Not often enough,” he snorted. “Let them all drown after what they try to do to us, dumping trash, oil leaks. And then, to think that the King bows down to their laws is atrocious.”

Quiet as they made their way back, Lexa nodded politely to the guard who opened the door. The argument took a pause as the water drained from the entry chamber. She heard their words rattling around in her ears, and she knew already, deep down, what the proper choice was supposed to be, the one her father would have picked, the one that some of those who still ascribed to the old way of thinking wouldn’t understand. She was not pure enough in their eyes, and this wouldn’t help any.

Like children, they bickered and she pinched her eyes over the bridge of her nose, exhausted by it.

“Enough,” she said as they reached heightened volume levels. She didn’t have to yell. Her voice carried itself. “My father’s word is law. We will make him aware of what has happened when he returns, but for now, nothing is to be done except monitoring. We have bigger enemies right now than those things.”

“And if they pass the territory line?” Roan challenged, standing tall and firm.

“We do what we always do,” Lexa sighed.

“I’m going to sit at that line and wait,” he decided, stalking away, bitter at his own lineage. “Those air sacs are going to ruin us, and you’re going to let them.”

“Well, that went… exactly as I thought it would,” Anya nodded to herself as she watched his form disappear around a corner. They heard a crash a bit later, the inevitable tossing of his helmet fueled by his own disgust.

“I understand his dire need to protect us, but he doesn’t want to cohabitate. He wants war. He wants the old ways.”

“Your father would be proud of how you’re thinking.”

“My father would tell me to keep a better eye on Roan,” Lexa sighed, tugging off her own helmet as they walked down the hall. “I’ll see you later.”

“Don’t let Roan worry you too much.”

“On my list of worries, he is surprisingly low lately,” she assured her friend, gripping her forearm and squeezing with a small smile.

“Let me know if you go out,” Anya offered. “No sneaking again. Your father will have my head. And I know I joke about that, but one day he’s going to be pretty serious.”

“One day,” Lexa teased.

The Castle was her home. She knew every inch of it. Every entrance, every tunnel, every room, like the back of her hand. She knew the streets, the lands, the houses, the buildings of her city because it was her duty and she felt it in her bones. She felt all that it was in her blood.

Too many thoughts rolled around in her head as she made her way down the hall, toward the library. Up above, on the surface, her father was busy with larger threats, all of which many on the council, many in the palace, many in the city did not understand or care to acknowledge.

Lexa made it three minutes in the library before her body was too anxious and she moved to the sparring room, stopping near the entrance to say her words to the statue at the front.

All too soon, her body overpowered her mind, blanking it out as the muscles moved and flexed and stretched. It was easy to sweat, to feel the salt, to return it back to the world, as it was what she was made of, what built her.

“Another trip to the edge of the border?” A soft voice interrupted her movements, though they did not stop them, merely brought her back from the edge of solitude.

Lexa finished her form before she stilled and tried to catch her breath. The practice trident eventually dropped as she grinned and met her mother’s eyes.

“Any word yet?”

“He’ll be back soon, I’m sure,” she promised, twirling a practice trident around in her hand gracefully. “How is the Eastern front?”

“Busy.”

There was always this nagging part of herself that she wanted to be like her mother-- fierce, loved, beautiful, passionate, kind, loving. She was adored by all and feared by just as many. There was something to her soft smile and her quietness that just left her a mystery in the best kind of way. Lexa rarely felt like any of the things her mother was, and yet she always sought to be more like her than her father, which most people would never see. Both her parents were regal, but her mother was perfection. Her father would eagerly agree.

“Don’t worry about it too much. Your cousin hasn’t come to see your father’s way of thinking of the outside world.”

With a little flourish, the queen weighed the trident before giving it a nice heave across the room and into a dummy.

“Father said you were the best with a trident.”

“Taught him everything he knows,” she chuckled, her smirk all mischief. “But he taught me that the hardest thing to do sometimes is nothing.”

“He says patience isn’t a virtue I possess, but one that a good ruler does.”

“No one has patience. You just have to know when to do something and when to do nothing.”

With a huff, Lexa sat down and toweled the sweat on her shoulders and neck. She had studies and she had a cousin she had to watch, but more than that, she was awfully worried about her father.

“There’s so much happening outside of here, and no one cares. And now with this,” Lexa shook her head and met her mother’s eyes. “He’ll never let me experience land.”

“You’re needed here. Your duty is here.”

“I know,” she flexed her jaw.

“I think you know what that means you have to do.”

“I’m not going to get him. There’s a storm heading south.” The queen gave her a look and she knew she’d lose. “If he wants to sit out there, it’s his problem.”

“Lexa.”

“I’m a princess. I shouldn’t have to--”

“Lexa!”

As soon as she started the sentence, Lexa regret it. She wasn’t allowed to say things like that. So she snapped her mouth shut and she nodded again before standing.

“I’ll go,” she finally decided.

“You have to learn to temper your anger.”

“I’m not angry. Just annoyed.”

“Men have a tendency to do that.” The queen picked up another trident and smiled to herself, familiar with her daughter’s tempestuous moods. “You’re next to take over, Lexa. Your father had a hard enough time being from land. He’s protecting you.”

“I know. I wish he wouldn’t.”

“One day he won’t be able to, and you’ll think of this moment,” her mother promised sagely, earning an exhale and smile from her daughter. “You know where you went wrong today?”

“Waking up.”

“Not enforcing your will against Roan when he went back out. You knew he could cause trouble, and still you let him.”

“I know.”

“Try to make it home in time for dinner, love.”

There were certain things that Lexa was raised with that weighed on her heavily. They followed her around as she set out in search of her cousin, as she moved through the familiar walls of her home and past the familiar faces of the fellow Atlanteans she grew up knowing and learning.

Her mother was fiercely supportive of her father’s methods of uniting the land and sea, though his initiatives were slow to gain favor at home. Lexa grew up with that awe of being untrusting of the surface dwellers, while at the same time struggling with her father’s desires. They protected their own, they protected their home, they protected each other, and that was all she knew.

Still, some part of her wanted to know more, though her father wouldn’t allow it. The king would come home and tell her about some of his exploits, but for the most part, he could not risk the world knowing her, not until he deemed it ready. She was to know Atlantis and become its protector and ruler, without the imposition of his birth, and she understood the love he tried to install in her. She was to be distrustful of the world above, but not as much as her cousin.

“Storms coming in from the channel,” Lexa muttered as she finally found him back on their lookout. “Looks bad.”

“You are just as weak as the king,” he shook his head. “You’re here to bring me back.”

“My father is putting his life on the line for them, and for us,” she corrected. “Don’t forget who you are addressing, dear cousin.”

“For them, not for us.”

“Weakness was leaving you out here because I just didn’t want to deal with you, but if now is the time that I finally do, then so be it.”

Lexa didn’t budge as he moved closer, standing up along beside her, glaring and malicious from his crooked nose and small, black eyes to his pointed jaw and angular cheeks. He was every bit a product of the old guard, the very active voice of the city which vied to rid the planet of any outsiders from the land. He was rarely quiet, but he was often louder when her father was not around to keep him in line.

Now it was up to the princess, the rightful heir, the true inheritor of the crown of Atlantis.

“Daddy isn’t here, Lexa,” Roan reminded her, shifting his stance slightly.

“He isn’t,” she grinned and twirled the spear behind her back. “But my mother was the one that trained me.”

“If you want them to love you, you have to protect them.”

“From you.”

Chest to chest, weapons clutched tightly, they stared back at the other, waiting for a movement, for a reason.

“You can go back to the palace now,” Lexa finally managed. “Or I can have you arrested and held for treason.”

“What treason? I haven’t moved past the line your father drew in the sand,” he sneered.

“For disobeying the crown of Atlantis, which I represent.”

Above the waters churned and the currents shifted with the impending storm. The machines stopped their movements and the wires danced in the distance. Lexa felt all of it happening because she was attune to it all, she was more connected she was made of more salt than Roan could even imagine.

She watched him debate for a few seconds before the waves grew violent and a wire snapped and an explosion erupted above them.

“The sea knows its enemies,” he smirked and brushed past her. “And she has her own revenge for outsiders.”

Despite the swirling and mess happening above, despite the machines shifting because of the storm, Lexa hovered and watched Roan dart back toward their home, and for a moment she was almost disappointed she didn’t get the chance to finish it. There was a nagging part of her that new the gentle peace between them wouldn’t remain for much longer.

With Aquaman now a hero to the world, with the world shrinking into itself and getting to know the others that lived in entirely different galaxies, the future was speeding toward them, crashing into them like a barge with no lighthouse.

She should have gone home, but there was the outside world, right above her. Even with a storm, she wanted to see them. Unlike her cousin, Lexa was just curious about what her father kept away.

With an apprehensive, and slightly guilty, look back in the direction of her home, Lexa swam up toward the rocking boats and the choppy waves of the surface. She made it halfway before an explosion pushed her back and nearly blinded her.

In all directions, debris began to sink toward the bottom, wires whipped and fire burned, illuminating the darkness above. Wide-eyed and still infinitely curious, Lexa finally breached the top, to see what it all was about.

Her father was a legend, her grandfather and his and his and his were all myths that were worshipped by those on land. They were worshipped because they helped to calm the sea and save those who respected its well-being, who paid homage and who only wanted to exist. It wasn’t until she saw the bodies floating, did Lexa understand what that all meant.

The final ship that was just starting to smoke and tip was full of people yelling. Lexa hovered and watched them. She caught the large red cross on the side of it and inherently understood it. It hadn’t been there an hour ago, and must have been blown off course because of the storm.

The explosion didn’t take her off guard this time, and she ducked her head and waited. She kept coming upon bodies and watched them sink. The ocean would have its due.

The rain pelted and the waves grew so high and intense that she dove down and surveyed the wrecks, grateful that they were gone, and Roan didn’t have a chance to start any problems. Lexa believed in their gods, and was rewarded for it.

Lexa made a final note of the debris that would need cleaned and the bodies that would need returned, an act of goodwill that she hoped the land would appreciate. She would wait until the anger was washed away, and they would clean the border of their lands.

With a final glance at the churning, Lexa turned back toward home.

But a flash of red shot up into the sky and she tried to follow the point of origin to a pair of kicking legs.

Cautiously, she approached.

Wet and barely holding on, blood tinging the waters, the burned and wounded woman clung to a half inflated life raft. The flare gun still smoked in her hand before she lost consciousness and began to slip into the water.

Unsure of what she was doing, Lexa caught her, tugging her back above a few huge waves. Carefully, she pressed her fingers to the pulse point on her neck and found her alive.

Her grandfather’s grandfather was once revered for helping the land-walkers. He walked among them himself, just as her father walked among them. There was no staying away.

The choices were bleak; she could let her die or she could save her. Either way, she’d be hit with something, but one choice would leave her free of the feeling of murder.

With a sigh, she took off her helmet and placed it over the bleeding girl’s face, making sure it was snug.

“I hope you’re worth it.”

There was no answer, just the crash of thunder and the roar of the sea.

NEXT

[fangzeronos]

SDCC 2018 wrap up

Ok now that SDCC is over, I feel like I should do a little wrap up for the weekend. I got to sit and wait for all the trailers and news to come out since I couldn’t afford to go, so this is gonna be strictly from the “Nerd on the Couch” perspective. I’m putting a read more in case anyone wanna skip this.

 Titans: The trailer was alright. Robin’s in a bad place because of Batman so his “Fuck Batman” line is justified. Starfire and Beast Boy could still use some work, but it was only the first trailer, so we’ll have to reserve judgement until the show comes out. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

 Young Justice Outsiders: It’s actually real. I thought for the last two years we’ve all been thinking it’s not coming and that we’ve all been living in a dream about wanting it back. I was in the middle of the store when I saw the trailer and my heart stopped. Two minutes of Season 2 recap, including Wally’s ‘death’ (HE ISN’T DEAD ALRIGHT!? HE’S JUST IN THE SPEED FORCE AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE DAMMIT!!!) before we get the new footage. The new characters look amazing, Geoforce looks like he’s going to be a good character, hopefully we’ll get Terra since she’s “been missing for two years”. Still waiting to see M’gann, Kaldur, Beast Boy, and the rest of the season 2 cast, but I’m excited for this one more then Titans.

 And since both shows above are going to be on the DC Universe Online service, I can see paying $75 a year for it if we’re going to get more Young Justice. With all the shows coming out on DCUO, like Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and all of the older shows like Batman The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, the older DC movies and the comics, I can justify paying that much for a yearlong subscription.

 Supergirl: Season 4 looks like it’s going to be interesting. Agent Liberty seems like a decent antagonist, but with the way this show has done in the past, hyping a villain for the first half and then swapping it with a generic bad guy for the second, I don’t have much hope. It looks like they’re toning down the relationship drama from season 2 and 3, which is good. I’m honestly thinking they’re going to screw Lena’s character development and have her go evil Luthor judging by how season 3 ended with her “We can begin phase two” line and having the Harun-El made up that she gave to Alura. A few quick shots of Alex as Director of the DEO sporting a new haircut, nothing too revealing except for the Supergirl spacesuit at the end. I saw it and my mind went to the first Injustice 2 game trailer from 2016 with the armored look. I’m looking forward to the new season, not keen on it being on Sundays before the Charmed reboot but have to get the viewers for a remake somehow.

 Arrow: Oliver Queen in prison. That’s a hell of a concept for the season. We know something’s going to change and he’s going to be out by the fourth or fifth episode, possibly earlier. Decent shots of the other characters, Dinah wearing SCPD riot gear was a nice touch, Laurel-2 denouncing vigilantism makes for an interesting idea considering what the hell she’s done in the last seasons. Diaz is fine, not enjoying having him around again but since he didn’t get killed at the end of the last season, it’s fine. Longbow Hunters might make for interesting fodder, but we can’t be sure until the show starts. I’m sick of Felicity, but that arguments been done to death. We all know it was Roy in the Green Arrow suit in the end of the trailer. If it had been Diggle, we’d have seen his face and since we know Roy’s back, it doesn’t really give us many options to choose from. I’m glad it’s on Mondays now so I can watch it and keep up instead of being behind.

 Legends of Tomorrow: It looks great. This one has become one of my favorites on the network and I’m glad to see they’re getting more episodes. Hopefully this season doesn’t get shafted and end up getting thrown to a different night or time or cut in the middle for a different show. Bringing Constantine back for a regular spot is a good move considering what they’re going to be dealing with thanks to the fallout from killing Mallus. Dragons, demons, all sorts of magical and mythical creatures. “Couldn’t we be heroes just a little longer?” made me laugh and it’s that sort of thing that makes Legends stand out to me. It can be dark and gritty but still lighthearted and fun. It’s what Flash started to be and it’s what Arrow needs to be. I’m glad it’s going to be on Mondays along with Arrow.

 Flash: Coming off of the reveal that Mystery Girl is actually Barry and Iris’ daughter (which I’d had a feeling about anyway since she was so giddy at the wedding in the Crisis crossover), Nora seems to be a fun addition to the cast this year. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what she messed up, why she came back, and why didn’t she learn from Barry’s mistakes about screwing with the Timeline. Cicada looks to be interesting, and I hope he’s going to be the main villain for the year. I want to know more about how Caitlin was Frost before the Accelerator and Flashpoint happened, or is it a side effect of Flashpoint two years later? Guess we’ll find out in October.

 Aquaman: The trailer looked amazing. This might just be part of what the DCEU needs to get its shit together and stop being so grimdark. Wonder Woman proved DC movies can do fun and lighthearted and still hit some dark themes and notes, and this looks like it’s going to do the same thing. Jason Mamoa looks as badass as he did in Justice League, Amber Heard is beautiful as Mera. Atlantis looked amazing. I’m thoroughly excited and December can’t come quick enough to see this.

 Shazam!: One of my favorite DC heroes, man. Zachary Levi just killed it in this trailer and I was laughing the whole way through. If the movie keeps that same energy up, I’ll be damn happy. March release for this one and I’m ready to go!

 Godzilla: King of the Monsters: It’s frigging Godzilla, fighting his own list of bad guys. Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, all classics that should have been in the first one instead of the MUTO. I’ve always been a Godzilla nerd, so when I saw this trailer I was geeking the fuck out. I’m definitely excited for this one.

 Now, you’re probably wondering, “Hey, where’s Voltron in all of this?” and you’d be right that I haven’t talked about it yet. I have spent three days milling over the reveals from the Voltron panel and been trying the right ways to word things, so I don’t seem like I’m being an asshole and damning myself with what I’m going to say. Now, with that out of the way.

 The season 7 trailer looked good. We’re going back to Earth, so who knows how much time really has passed since the only indication we’ve had was the week that Kuron was in the Galra fighter before Keith and Black found him back in season 3. I’m sad to see that season 8 is going to be the last of VLD, but I can understand why, since they were only approved for so many episodes. Going back to a 13-episode season is the best thing they could have done. Keith piloting Black still kind of irks me, but with Shiro only having one arm, I guess it makes sense. I would much rather have Allura in Black, put Lance back in Blue, and give Red back to Keith, but that’s a whole other post.

 The big thing people took away from the panel was “You’ll meet Shiro’s significant other, Adam.” When I saw that on Twitter, I was…. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. You’ve had six seasons of moments between Shiro and Allura, the Hand Touch, the way she looked at him when he said “You found me” at the end of the season, how adamant they are about saving each other every time they’re in danger, Shiro’s resolve to get her back in Season 1 after she threw him into the shuttle and got taken by the Galra. And now it’s all thrown out of the airlock?

 No offense to the writers, Josh Keaton who gets mad credit for keeping this close to the chest and not revealing anything, the fans that are a fan of this plot point for the next season, but I’m not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT representation in animation/kids’ media has come a long way in a few short years. Look at Steven Universe. One of the main characters is a literal fusion of two she-pronoun using space rocks. I just feel like this is shoehorned in like a checkmark on an RPG character creation. “PTSD? Check. Missing limb? Check. Male POC? Check. What else can we check to make people happy? OH! Gay! DOUBLE CHECK!!” is what it feels like to me. To me, this feels like the writers have been shadow stalking Tumblr, AO3, FF.net, everywhere else Voltron is big and made their choice but what the popular ships were in the search results.

 Make Shiro gay, fine. Make him bi, that’d be a better option because then we can ship him with whoever we want and not get comments that say that shipping Shiro with Allura or any other female member of this show is gay erasure. By saying “Shiro’s gay”, you’re shooting all of the other Shiro ships in the face. Shieth shippers are over the moon, Shallura shippers are sitting in a corner, Klance shippers are looking between the two going “WTF”, and the rest of the internet’s like “Why is it a big deal?”

 I feel like I should stop there about this. This is already more then a page in my word doc.

 SDCC 2018 was fun to watch from a distance. CW brought some good trailers, DC killed it with 8 trailers, and Voltron is what it is. Now begins the countdown for SDCC 2019.

[thesffcorner]

Aquaman

Aquaman is directed by James Wan and it’s the adaptation of the eponymous DC comics superhero. It follows Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), the son of Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) and a lighthouse keeper (Temuera Morrison), as he is sought out by Princess Mera (Amber Heard) to stop his half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) from plunging Atlantis and the surface world into war.

For this review, I want to switch things up, so instead of my usual rundown of the worldbuilding, plot and characters I want to talk about the different aspects of the filmmaking, because where this film rises and falls are exactly these elements. So let’s start with what the film does really right which is the

Direction:

James Wan as a director is better knows for his horror work, with films such as Dead Silence, Insidious, the Conjuring, and Saw; to date he has only directed one other action film, Furious 7. I was already impressed with his work there, especially in the fight scenes and big action set pieces, but his directorial skill is on a whole other level here, helped greatly by the excellent visual effects and character and environment design. Atlantis as well as its various inhabitants are a perfect mix of ancient and futuristic, and alien and human, making the time we spend underwater visually stunning.

There are so many incredibly creative and clever shots, especially the transitions between establishing shots and the rest of the scene, as well as fluidity of the action scenes. Likewise, Wan’s horror roots come through here and there, in the way he introduces the villains and explosions with jump scares, and a specific, genuinely creepy set piece on the open ocean in the darkness.

As superhero films tend to, there are several gigantic set piece battles, with lots of CGI creatures and monsters, and Wan manages to keep the action legible, dynamic and intense, without it being confusing. Some parts had issues with the compositing being slightly off which made it apparent we are looking at a green screen, but overall the direction and visual design of the film was its strongest part. I can spend hours just talking about all the tricks and clever camerawork Wan and DP Don Burgess use, but I realize you no one wants to read that; suffice it to say, I think this was visually DC’s boldest and best executed DC film to date, and I was very pleased with Wan’s work.

Story and Screenplay:

Strangely enough, this is where the film both excelled and failed for me. Let me explain.

I really enjoyed Arthur’s arc throughout the film, as well as the overall plot of him and Mera trying to prevent a war between Atlantis and the surface world, The film surprisingly manages to fit a lot of history and major storylines from Aquaman’s comic runs, and it manages to pull this off without making it’s story jumbled or the pacing uneven.

However, how the film actually delivers this story is where the problems start. There is a real issue with the dialogue in this film; character tell the audience exactly what they are thinking and feeling, they will often stop the scene to exposit on their emotions and motivations, which is in addition to the already dense scenes of characters delivering the history of Atlantis to each other (even though rightfully there would be no need for Orm, Vulko or Nereus to explain to each other who these historical/mythical people are or why they act the ways they do since you know, they are all Atlantean). Vulko is the guiltiest party here, because his entire character is just there to deliver exposition.

Case in point, the dynamic between Orm and Arthur. Arthur has spent his entire life hating Atlantis and blaming himself for his mother’s death, and feeling like he doesn’t belong on land or in the sea. On the other hand, Orm has spent his entire life also blaming Arthur for their mother’s death while also living in constant paranoia that should Arthur ever come to Atlantis, as firstborn he would take the throne (also clearly has some issues with who Atlanna loved more,  but that’s neither here nor there). That’s some rich characterization and emotion. You know how the film delivers it? By literary having Orm and Arthur say all of this, in more or less these exact words, to each other instead of showing us any of it. 

The dialogue varies between bad and extremely bad, and it’s such a shame because the story and the characters are there. I hate to compare the two, but Black Panther also had a scene where to estranged cousins vying for the throne, one of whom resents the other interact, and it did much better with showing us all the complex emotions these people were going through rather than bluntly telling us exactly what they think.  

Characters (and their actors):

The issues with the screenplay and dialogue unfortunately feed into the characters. While some of the actors do fine with the stiff dialogue, some… not so much.

Let’s start with the supporting cast. I loved Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna. Her role was small, but she does so much with the limited screen time, and gives Atlanna a full range of emotions and character arc. I also appreciated that the film does a reverse ‘women in refrigerators’ with her.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was excellent as Black Manta. His backstory was intense and perfectly understandable, and I really enjoyed that the film makes it pretty clear that the existence of Black Manta is solely Aquaman’s fault. The two don’t get too much time to interact, but Mateen steals every scene he’s in, and I’m interested to see what they do with him next.

As I mentioned Vulko was the designated exposition character. Willem Dafoe dioes fine with the role he’s given, though I have to wonder why he didn’t try harder to dissuade Orm from his conquest, since clearly the two are close. It almost makes me wonder if Vulko blamed Orm for what happened to Atlanna which doesn’t make much sense since he was a teenager at most. 

I was genuinely surprised to see Dolph Lundgren in this and though King Nereus didn’t play a hugely important part in this film, just like with Black Mantha he seems like he’d be a more important player in a future film. I’m just always happy to see him be in films honestly.

From our leading trio, Amber Heard was the biggest surprise. She’s pretty good in the role as Mera, and she’s helped by a really solid characterization. Mera was well written, competent and powerful, she was on equal footing with Arthur the whole film. Not once is she treated like a damsel and at no point does Arthur have to save her, or she needs  to teach him how to be a King or fight or anything similar; she is just that committed to doing the right thing, even if it means sacrificing everything she’d ever known (though I would have preferred the film show us this rather than just having her state it).

 The biggest issue with Mera was the romance. Bless Heard, she’s really trying, but she and Momoa just have no chemistry.  She has more chemistry in her one scene with Patrick Wilson, where she’s supposed to hate him, than in all the scenes she has with Momoa combined. There is also no real transition from “I hate this man but I must help him for the good of my people” to “I will sacrifice everything for him”; she just kind of thinks he’s a loser one moment and then loves him the next.

Patrick Wilson for me was the best part of this film. He is such a good actor that he makes this character so much more sympathetic and interesting than I think the filmmakers ever intended him on being. Orm is a rather blindsided hateful person, but Wilson manages to give him pathos and a sense of paranoia that builds with the amount of people that turn on him. He has a lot of issues to work through and were it not for Wilson’s acting, I’m not sure how much that would show in the film. The scene where he’s reunited with Atlanna was the best scene in the film, and you can clearly tell who the two best actors are in this film, because Kidman and Wilson sell it. 

Jason Momoa was perfectly fine, but rarely rose above that. He has the physique and charm for the role, and when he’s playing Justice League Aquaman he is a joy to watch. Part of it is an issue with the writing, because the film can’t really decide if we are following a seasoned, experienced, jaded Aquaman who is willing to let people die just because they annoyed him, or someone who is still learning how to deal with the responsibilities of his powers. This version of Arthur is lost, afraid and insecure, who is forced into acting against his better nature, and Momoa just can’t pull that off. He’s too cool, too confident for the role; he’s a Han Solo, not a Luke Skywalker, and this film needs him to be the latter.

Overall, Aquaman was an entertaining, visually stunning and faithful adaptation to the comics. I had a ton of fun watching it and I highly recommend it, in spite of some dialogue and script issues. It really is what a superhero film should be; fun, action packed and very genuine.

[abstracthappiness]

microfiction, May 29 - June 4

I followed you into the forest, lured by tangerine-sweet kisses. I got lost—but not as lost as you. In my dreams, you call from the place where they found your bones. They want to burn the woods down, just to be safe—they’re lighting the torches now.

-

A flicker, out the corner of my eye. Pixies, dancing in the garden again. They tap on the window, featherlight, easy to ignore. I’ve kept myself isolated for months, denying the invitations from beyond the veil—if I go one more time, I won’t be coming back—

-

The creature is horse-shaped, dripping as it walks from the water. Black as night, slick coat reflecting starlight. You don’t miss the sharp hooves and sharper teeth, ready to rend if you turn your back. It dares you to ride, predator eyes burning like hellfire.

-

She’s always in a hurry, leaving bright calendula (possibly stolen, slightly trampled) at the altar of her chosen saint. Muttering prayers, onyx rosary beads (possibly stolen, much beloved) rattling as she goes—late again. The saint smiles, blessing her.

-

The gods of this world are cruel. Every few years, one unlucky wunderkind is set up as an unforeseen Chosen One, then set against ancient villains. The children return, grey and decrepit, or less a limb, or out of their minds—that’s if they come back at all…

-

The epilogue of her story is nothing exceptional: she solved the riddle of the sparrow, and freed her brother from the underground kingdom. Things went back to normal, but she still glowed with an eerie blue aura whenever she walked beneath the yawning night sky…

-

As the hallway fills with an eerie mist and moaning, the spectre appears—its rotting skull stretched in a terrible grin. The babysitter swoons and the little girl sighs. “Stop it, Grandad, you’re scaring Mary.” The old man cackles, sinking through the floor.

-

It finds me at eventide, human-shaped, its eyes all wrong. It’s been watching for weeks. It says it can help me, with a voice like shattered glass. Above us, the aspen shiver and whisper warnings; the sky grows stormy. I can’t go home. I hold out my hand.

-

—What is your modus operandi for this kind of situation, Van Helsing? —For the last time, just because I hunt vampires, that’s not my name. And why would I know what to do? I’ve never hunted aliens before—you think holy water will work? Silver bullets? 

-

There’s not much to do at 3AM. When I can’t sleep, I go on long walks around town. Sometimes I meet up with Adele, fellow insomniac. We talk our way through the witching hour. I think she might be a ghost. Or I might be one. I try not to think about it too much.

-

In theory, she should be out of the forest by now, but the trees twist and darken the path. She tries to keep her faith, following the red string tied to her finger through the labyrinth. But her wildly beating heart calls out to the monster who won’t let her go…

-

The earth beneath the temple quaked, until the pillars caved in—a nearby tree did not even tremble. From the ruins, a child emerged, her wounds dripping gold. Barefoot and hungry, she climbed the tree, devouring all the fruit she could reach.

-

The Queen Mage did not think herself evil, but some disagreed. To defend herself, she broke her soul into nine pieces; three went to the kingdom in the clouds, three to the sea. The last pieces were hidden within three children, their lives tied to hers.

-

The tremors started deep; the sea began to boil and great waves took out the coastline. When the waters settled, a new island had emerged. It was inhabited by a nation of giants; once, we might have called them gods, or said it was Atlantis, re-emerged.

-

The Crow Man met me on the trail by the orchard, his presence making the apples rot. “Do you want to know what I have seen? Oh yes, murder most heinous,” he giggled. He whispered a name in my ear. “Better run, quick now, you might be able to save her yet—”

-

The forest speaks to her: in stones and streams, roots and wings, twirling leaves and shivering shadows. Usually the chatter is of happy little things: baby birds or mushrooms or sweet flowering meadows. Today, the forest tells her to run.

-

Rita knew from her parents’ work that technology had progressed to the point where robots were almost indistinguishable from humans—but it was still a shock to see the serial number branded at the base of Dev’s neck. He didn’t even realize he was an android.

//

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[fyeahfantasticfour]

Do you have any favorite moments between Sue and her kids, especially her and Val? While I love the moments Reed shares with them I think that writers often overlook moments between the kids and Sue, usually giving her the usual things you see from Moms in media. I think they are usually not as good or focused on as Reed's are unfortunately. I would love to be proven wrong!

I genuinely don’t think that giving too little attention to Sue as a mom is a problem in canon at all. The exact opposite, really. Until very recently, most if not all of her solo storylines revolved either around her relationship with Reed or with Franklin – i.e., her roles as wife and mother. In the 1960s, there were far too many moments where Reed, Ben, and Johnny would ride off into danger and get to be heroes while Sue was left home minding the baby. That definitely started shifting in the 1970s, but I’d say that even in more recent runs there tends to be more of a focus on Sue as a wife and mom and less on her as explorer, adventurer, and CEO. There needs to be a balance between the two, and not many writers have managed to strike it. Reed receives the opposite treatment – there’s more of a focus on-panel on him as a scientist and less on him interacting with his kids, even though we know he regularly puts them to bed, reads them bedtime stories, goes to all of Franklin’s Little League games, homeschools his kids, takes them on fun family trips, took turns feeding Val when she was a baby, etc. Personally, I would like it if they switched that around in future FF books and Sue’s life outside her family got more focus — she runs Fantastic Four, Inc, and numerous charities and is the Queen of Old Atlantis, after all — and Reed as family man got more focus. He homeschools all of his kids — he spends A LOT of time with them. Arguably more than Sue does, since she’s busy running a company and financially supporting everyone. 

But there really are so many storylines, going all the way back to the 1960s, that focus on Sue as a mom.

Fantastic Four v1 #94, where Reed and Sue name Franklin after Sue’s recently deceased father:

This is really just here because I think it’s hilarious that it took Reed and Sue maybe like ten issues to come up with a name for Franklin…AFTER he was born. I mean. Guys. You had nine months to come up with a name. You couldn’t have done it BEFORE he was born? It’s not like he popped out of Sue with no warning.

And then there are forty issues or so featuring a lot of cute moments between Sue and Franklin when he was an infant and also Sue’s growing suspicion that he was not exactly unsuperpowered. 

Sue notices that Franklin might have powers before anyone else does – although Agatha repeatedly tries to throw her off the scent. Why Agatha did that, I could not tell you. Sue and Reed deserved to know the truth about their own baby, Agatha. Definitely they deserved better than finding out from Annihilus when he trigged Franklin’s powers prematurely and turned him into a living battery/solar-system-destroying bomb. Those were not fun times.

Cut for length.

Fantastic Four v1 #107, where Sue walks up to baby Franklin while invisible, planning on surprising him, and he somehow knows she’s there:

Fantastic Four v1 #111, where Franklin mysteriously knows his dad’s in trouble:

Fantastic Four v1 #134, where Sue and Franklin are abducted by Dragon Man and she gets very overprotective – this is the first time, I think, that we see Mama Bear Sue make an appearance, although later on Sue as fiercely overprotective of her kids becomes a thing:

Then there’s Fantastic Four v1 #181-187, where Franklin is kidnapped by Agatha and later Agatha’s son, Nicholas Scratch, and Sue is the one who moves heaven and earth to get him back.

It starts in Fantastic Four v1 #181 when Agatha kidnaps Franklin, and Sue unsuccessfully tries to stop her:

In Fantastic Four v1 #186, Reed and Sue track down Franklin, but Scratch takes him again, and Sue goes berserk:

Then there’s a sweet moment in Fantastic Four v1 #203, where Sue makes Franklin chocolate chip cookies, and Johnny complains that Franklin will never find a woman to equal her:

Marvel Team-Up v1 #88, where Franklin is kidnapped and Sue teams up with Spider-Man to get him back, and let’s just say she isn’t particularly happy with the kidnappers when she finds them:

Fantastic Four Annual v1 #14, where Franklin helps Agatha save his parents and uncles from Scratch and the Salem Seven:

Fantastic Four v1 #222 has some very adorable moments between Franklin and Sue where they’re playing horsey and hide-and-seek, although it all goes wrong when Franklin is possessed by Nicholas Scratch:

I’m not the only one who thinks Franklin is WAY too enthusiastic about watching his parents kiss, am I?

And Sue goes berserk when Scratch possesses Franklin, and she even threatens to kill him if he doesn’t give her baby back:

Fantastic Four v1 #245, where Franklin’s powers go haywire and he turns himself into an adult – with no memory of who he is – and Sue is the only one who recognizes him:

In Fantastic Four v1 #268, Sue miscarries Valeria, and she’s devastated – there’s actually quite a lot of focus given to Sue’s grief over the loss of her child:

Again in Fantastic Four v1 #269, working through her grief and the devastating news that she can never have another child:

Fantastic Four v1 #270, where Franklin comforts her after she destroys Reed’s lab in a burst of anger and frustration:

Again in Fantastic Four v1 #274, where she walks into the nursery that was meant for baby Valeria and collapses in grief:

Mephisto Vs… #1, where Sue takes on Mephisto after he abducts Franklin and leaves Reed a mindless vegetable:

Fantastic Four v3 #22 revolves around Sue’s relationship with a teen version of Valeria who mysteriously appeared out of the blue and is seemingly the child of Sue and Doom (she’s actually Reed’s – it’s complicated). Sue doesn’t want to accept that Valeria is her daughter, and Valeria is hurt at the rejection:

Until Val is attacked by Crusher Creel, Titania, and a mind-controlled Ben and Jen, and Sue rushes to rescue her daughter:

And then Sue finally accepts Val as her daughter:

There’s a cute moment between Sue and Val in Fantastic Four v3 #24 where they talk about Aunt Marygay, which is maybe the only time anyone has ever talked about her:

Fantastic Four v3 #54, where Sue finally successfully gives birth to Valeria, which is very difficult and extremely painful for Sue. I mean, she almost dies and Doom delivers Val…and Sue does not like Doom very much. And after reading Secret Wars I, can I just say that I’m very sad that Reed missed Val’s birth, because he wanted very desperately to be there for it (he was abducted by rogue Inhumans and JUST missed it):

Fantastic Four v1 #501-502 is GREAT – Sue tries to help Franklin work through his trauma after being thrown into Hell by Doom and tortured by demons. He refuses to talk and keeps drawing the horrible things he saw while he was in Hell, over and over:

On my list of truly awful, unforgivable things Doom has done, tossing an innocent, 6yo boy into Hell just to hurt his parents is definitely pretty far up there…although it isn’t like this is the first time he tried that. 

Fantastic Four v1 #527-532 focuses on Sue trying desperately to keep Child Protective Services from taking her kids away:

The Pulse #11, where Carol arranges a lunch between Sue and Jessica Jones, who’s about to give birth to her own superpowered child, so that Sue can give her advice and talk about what being a superhero mom is like:

In Fantastic Four v1 #558-562, we see an elderly Sue from hundreds of years in the future interacting with Val, who is the only one who realizes who she is. This is also the moment when we discover that Val inherited her father’s genius:

In Fantastic Four v1 #565, where Sue’s just the tiniest bit upset with a tentacle monster who tried to eat Val:

Dark Reign #4, Sue defending Franklin and Val from Norman Osborn:

Fantastic Four v1 #581-582, where an adult, future version of Val visits her mother to warn her and give her advice about the dark days that are fast approaching – this is right before Johnny’s death:

Fantastic Four v4 #1 – this is a cute moment, where Sue checks in on all of her sleeping kids and comforts Franklin, who’s been having prophetic nightmares:

Fantastic Four v4 #4, where Franklin has another nightmare, and Sue ends up comforting both her kids:

Fantastic Four v5 #1, where Val’s in Latveria because she’s angry at her parents, and Sue misses her:

And then she has to deal with her supergenius kids who have made a ray that turns things into chocolate:

Fantastic Four v5 #5, where all of her children are taken away by court order, which she doesn’t handle well:

Fantastic Four v5 #6 and #8, where she takes out her anger over the loss of her kids on the Avengers:

Then there’s Fantastic Four Annual v5 #1, where Sue travels to Latveria to get her little girl back and ends up fighting Doom and all of his armies for her:

But Val refuses in the end:

Until she decides to go back home in Fantastic Four v1 #642:

And there’s a very sweet story at the end of Fantastic Four v1 #645 that shows Sue comforting Franklin:

As you can see, I was not exaggerating. There are A LOT of stories about Sue being a mom. 

[rockscanfly]

i fear no fate (for you are my fate)

Chapter 2 of and this is the wonder thats keeping the stars apart (i carry your heart) is up!

Story Summary: Like all Atlanteans, Kaldur was born with his heart outside of his chest. (Monster AU where Kaldur's immortal as long as his heart stays frozen. Which is fine--all he has to do is never fall in love. But then he meets Roy, an escaped simulacron trying to find a way to become A Real Boy (TM), and things go downhill from there)

Chapter 2 Summary: Roy meets Kaldur, Kaldur meets Roy. They become friends, assemble a family, and fight crime.

Read here or below the cut!

A coward would have thought twice about interrupting two sorceress’s midnight mid-term study session to seek a personal favor. Especially if one of said sorceresses was from one of the most powerful magical lines to walk the Surface Realms, and the other was a kinetimancer who could cut off your oxygen supply and send you through a wall with a flick of her wrist.

Kaldur’ahm of Shayeris was no coward.

But Sha’lain’a of Shayeris had not raised a fool, so he made sure to bring two bottles of wine when he knocked on the door to their suite.

(‘It’s super good, I promise’ Dick had assured him earlier that day while Wally perused the snack selection. They were shopping at the liquor store down the block from the Conservatory, and Kaldur was still baffled by the sheer variety of ways that the surface dwelling races had come up with to poison themselves. Richard patted Kaldur’s arm companionably. ‘Everyone loves Moscato, trust me.’)

Raquel opened the door, eyes wide and slightly crazed. She had a half-eaten stalk of celery in her hand, which Kaldur thought she was holding rather like a large knife. She glanced at Kaldur, then down at wine bottles peeking out of the bag he held. “Zee,” she shouted over her shoulder. “I’m breaking up with you and eloping with Kaldur!”

“What? Why?” Zatanna called back from their living room. “I mean, yeah, who wouldn’t, but why now specifically?”

Raquel tugged Kaldur into the door, lifting his arm up by the wrist to display the bag to her girlfriend. “He brought wine.”

Zatanna hopped up from her spot on the floor. Judging by the array of papers surrounding her Kaldur couldn’t quite guess if she was in the middle of a midterm or a spell. Then again, it was probably both. “Let me see that,” Zatanna muttered, reaching into the bag. “Moscato? Oh, honey, you’re not eloping with Kaldur. I’m eloping with Kaldur.”

Raquel pecked her on the cheek, snatching the other bottle and padding to the kitchen for some glasses. “We’ll do it in Utah. Make it a three-way affair.”

Kaldur cleared his throat. “While I am flattered,” he said, standing stiff and formal, “I am afraid you ladies are too late.”

Zatanna gasped, collapsing back on the couch. “Oh, Kaldur’ahm,” she exclaimed. “Say it isn’t so!”

“Yes,” Kaldur said, voice grave. “I am afraid my heart belongs to...another.”

Wine poured, Raquel set both glasses on the coffee table before draping herself dramatically over the couch arm. The position also, conveniently, allowed her to rest her head against Zatanna’s chest. “And who has stolen our noble knight’s heart?”

Kaldur kept his eyes glued to the wall. “The most beautiful of all beings,” he said grimly. “The sea.”

Zatanna cackled, and Kaldur ducked, laughing, as Raquel launched several couch pillows at his head with a wave of her hand. “You cheeseball!” She yelled, giggling helplessly.

The three of them settled down, the two women scootching aside on the couch to make room for their guest. Kaldur instead chose to sit a wooden stool from the kitchen. Zatanna rolled her eyes at him, but didn’t comment. Getting Kaldur to share the couch with them was a battle she and Raquel had stopped trying to fight months ago.

“Thanks for the break,” Zatanna said instead. “I think if I had to memorize one more Sumerian symbol I was going to blow up half the building out of frustration.”

Kaldur shrugged. “I heard from Wally that you two were in need of respite.” He fidgeted, crossing and uncrossing his legs at Raquel’s ‘Really?’ look. “And I am in need of your assistance,” he admitted.

Zatanna shifted, settling so Raquel’s head was in her lap. “I don't really have the time to make a charm right now,” she said slowly. “Once Monday is over, I can, but you're going to have to wait until then.”

“It's not time sensitive,” Kaldur assured.

“What is it?” Raquel questioned, smiling contently as Zatanna ran her fingertips through her hair.

Kaldur resisted the urge to touch his neck. He held up a hand, spreading his fingers to emphasize the webbing that joined his fingers. “I would like a charm that allows me to appear human,” he said simply. “I have been at the Conservatory for half a year now, and while it's been fascinating…” Kaldur trailed off, suddenly self-conscious.

“It wasn't what you had in mind when you came to the surface,” Raquel finished for him. “You want to see what it's actually like up here, huh?”

Kaldur flushed. Raquel had always been disturbingly good at reading him. “Yes.”

Zatanna hmm’d, heels tapping lightly against the couch as the wheels turned over in her head. “This is pretty rude, Kal,” she complained. “Here I am trying to pass my Sumerian Constructs class and you're tossing something this interesting my way.”

Raquel pinched her. “You've got an A, Zee. Trying to play humble when we all know you're a genius. Besides,” Raquel turned to grin wickedly at Kaldur. “Be nice to Kaldur—he’s cute.”

Kaldur flushed. Raquel had enjoyed teasing him since they first met, exclaiming that there was finally someone worth looking at in ‘Grayson’s little posse’. It was harmless, he knew. Raquel and Zatanna had been together since their first year at the American Conservatory for the Sorcerous Arts. Three years later both women were moving into their Master’s studies and were each known in their own right as two of the most powerful sorcerers of their generation.

Zatanna, who was descended from two powerful bloodlines—Turkish on her mother’s side and Italian on her father’s—was an advanced scholar in Ancient Rites and anthropology. Her current work centered around reviving and modernizing rituals from Mesopotamia and Egypt. She was also skilled in the art of enchantment, and supplemented her income as a researcher by selling useful charms.

Raquel’s work was equally brilliant but opposite in direction to her partner’s. She was a leader amongst a growing group of sorcerers who married science and magic in their work. Her area of research was the use of magic to convert kinetic energy into static structures. She had grown up in Dakota City, a major center of industry and home to one of their country’s best known applied physics laboratories, and the influence continued with her when she moved to Gotham to study at the Conservatory.

They had met Kaldur at a seminar on ancient Mesopotamian sorcery. Zatanna had been there for her studies, Raquel for some precious qualtiy time with her girlfriend, and Kaldur in his role as the Atlantean envoy to the Conservatory. They had hit it off at the reception, especially when Zatanna realized that Kaldur was the ‘reserved fish guy’ currently sharing a suite with her close childhood friend Richard Grayson.

Richard Grayson, who was apprenticed to Bruce Wayne. Wayne was a powerful Warlock and one of the few surface dwellers with connections to the Atlantean Royal Family. When Kaldur’ahm had expressed his desire to serve as an envoy to the Surface Realms for Atlantis, Queen Mera had arranged for Kaldur to stay and learn at the American Conservatory for the Sorcerous Arts for his first three years, so that he could gain a understanding of their magic and culture. Wayne had been contacted to serve as Kaldur’s sponsor, a role he could fill as a sitting member of the Council on Magic that governed sorcerous affairs on the Surface.

Kaldur’ahm had lived with Richard at the Conservatory for half a year at this point, and it was no accident that his and the apprentice’s social circles overlapped almost completely. Wayne was a powerful man with an understandable caution towards the mysterious and secretive Atlanteans, of whom only rumor and conjecture were really well known. He had made sure that his apprentice kept an eye on their visitor.

Kaldur’ahm understood the man’s caution, and was not offended. Atlanteans were secretive,         yes, and for good reason. The secret of their hearts and immortality was not something the Atlantean Crown wished to be widely known to those who dwelled on the surface. Atlanteans were powerful, yes. But if enough surface dwellers got it into their mind to search the world’s oceans for the hearts of unbound Atlanteans, it could spell catastrophe for their species.

A sharp rapping on the window interrupted the girls’ teasing and banished the cloud of Kaldur’s thoughts. Kaldur blinked, surprised to see a blonde woman hanging from a rope outside of the living room window.

“I think you have a visitor,” he said, pointing over Zatanna’s shoulder, unsure if this sort of thing even counted as unusual behavior.  Six months on the Surface and Kaldur still found himself constantly awed by the things the people above the sea found ‘normal’.

Zatanna turned, jumping in surprise when she saw the woman making an impatient face at her from outside her window. “Artemis?”

Raquel bolted upright, vaulting the couch to open the window. “Crazy, how many times to I have to tell you to stop appearing outside out of windows?”

The woman slipped nimbly from the rope into the room, flipping her long ponytail over her shoulder and embracing Raquel warmly. “First off? I’m still banned from your campus. Second? I brought a friend. And he’s not exactly fond of authority figures right now. There was no way we were signing in at the front desk.”

Raquel hugged the woman back. “And where’s this friend?”

The woman looked pointedly at Kaldur. “I’ll show you mine when you show me yours. Who’s this?”

Kaldur stood, bowing formally. “My name is Kaldur’ahm of Shayeris. I am of friend of Zatanna and Raquel’s.” He looked up, raising a brow. “And I must assume, so are you.”

Zatanna groaned, sitting up and leaning over the back of the couch. She beckoned the woman over for a hug. “He’s cool, Artemis. Kaldur trusts ‘the man’ here about as much as you do. He’s Atlantean.”

The woman—Artemis—relaxed, giving Zatanna the hug as commanded. “I thought you guys were supposed to be fish people,” she said to Kaldur. “You look pretty normal to me.”

Kaldur sighed, pulling down his high collar with one hand and presenting his spread fingers with the other. It wasn’t the first time a mannerless Surface dweller had inquired about his looks, and he doubted it would be the last. “Some of us look more aquatic than others,” he said, tone level. “Though I do find the assumption odd, considering Atlanteans are not under the impression that Surface dwellers share the traits of land dwelling animals.”

Artemis turned to look at Raquel, who was at this point leaning out the window to try and catch a glimpse of Artemis’ friend. “He’s sassy. I like him.”

“Us too,” Raquel answered, then called up the rope. “Hey! You can come down now—we don’t bite.”

Artemis sighed, pulling back from Zatanna. She leaned out next to Raquel, yanking sharply on the rope. “It’s good, Red!” She called up. “These guys can help.”

Moments later a man slid down the rope, rolling into the room and crouching to stay below the sightlines of the window. “Shut the blinds,” he hissed to Artemis.

She did so, nudging him with her foot once the view to the nighttime cityscape was fully blocked. “Up, you paranoid drama queen.”

The man stood, crossing impressively muscled arms. “It’s not paranoia if they’re after you, Blondie.”

Artemis sighed, grasping the man by the shoulder and tugging him over center of the room. “Ladies, fishsticks, meet Roy Harper. Well, a Roy Harper.”

Zatanna got up from the couch, circling the man who stood tensely. “Weren’t you kidnapped a few years ago?”

“No,” Roy growled out. “The first guy was. I’m just a copy.”

Zatanna flinched back, shooting Artemis a look. “He’s a golem?”

Artemis shook her head. “Not quite. The guy who made him? About as far from a holy man as you can get.”

Roy’s eye twitched. “Right here, lady,” he bit out. “Do I look like a walking piece of pottery to you?”

“Well excuse me!” Zatanna snapped, whirling to face him. “But if you’re not a golem and you’re not the real Roy Harper, anything else you might be is something extremely illegal and not something I want in my apartment!”

“You said they could help me,” Roy growled at Artemis. His eyes darted to the window.

Artemis rolled her eyes. “Well if you’d stop being a rude asshole for like, five seconds, they might actually want to!”

Kaldur decided to step in. The tension in the room was threatening to snap. “My apologies,” he began, standing and stepping over to Roy. “My friend is tired from a long week, and it is late. Let us begin again.” Kaldur extended his hand to the other man, a gesture of welcome and respect he’d picked up from Richard. “My name is Kaldur’ahm of Shayeris. Zatanna and Raquel are good friends of mine, and good people. You will come to no harm here.”

The redhead eyed Kaldur’s hand suspiciously, then cautiously uncrossed his arms to shake it. “You’re a freak too, huh?” he said. “Alright, sure.” He turned to Zatanna and Raquel, begrudgingly chastised. “Sorry. I’ve had a long night, too.” He deflated, releasing Kaldur’s hand to cross his arms again, though now he looked more self-conscious than agitated. “A long week, honestly.”

Zatanna softened. “Okay, yeah, me too,” she admitted. She gestured for Roy to sit on the couch. She moved to join Raquel on the loveseat, where the other woman handled her her still full wineglass. “Thanks, babe.” Zatanna knocked back the full glass, fixing Roy with a patient look when she finished. “Alright. Let’s try this again. Wha—” she caught herself, flinching when Raquel pinched her for being ‘rude, Zee’. “Sorry. Who, are you?”

Roy’s explanation of who he was took half an hour, the time during which Kaldur studied him, fascinated to meet an inhuman Surface dweller. .

Roy explained that he was a magical construct, created by a Warlock named Lex Luthor—by their dark looks at the name Kaldur guessed that the man was well known to Raquel and Zatanna, and ill liked—for purposes Roy himself didn’t know.

Zatanna and Raquel listened intently, interrupting occasionally with questions that Roy was reluctant to answer. When they asked how he’d managed to escape Luthor he shrugged, saying only that it wasn’t something he was sure he’d be able to do again if Luthor found him. Kaldur noticed that his eyes seemed to glow brighter when he was uncomfortable or repressing a strong emotion.

Roy was very unwilling to go into the details how Luthor had managed to maintain control of him for the first few months Roy had been cognizant of his own existence. It was an instinct Kaldur could understand—he knew well that it was a dangerous thing to share such information with others. It was hard to trust, when the wrong person learning too much about you could result in your enslavement.

“Alright,” Zatanna finally said, sitting back. “Well, if nothing else you’ve convinced me to help you. No one deserves to be under the thumb of someone like Luthor.”

Roy’s shoulders dropped, tension leaving them. “Thanks,” he said, only a little begrudgingly.

Artemis put a hand on Roy’s shoulder from where she stood behind the couch. “Thanks, Zee. I honestly wasn’t sure who to go to.”

Kaldur interrupted, voicing a question that had been on his mind throughout Roy’s narrative of his escape. “My apologies, but why are you unable to go to the authorities? From Zatanna and Raquel’s reaction, it appears to me that it is this Lex Luthor who has committed a crime, not yourself.”

Roy laughed bitterly. “You really aren’t from around here, are you? Luthor committed a crime, yeah. But I am the crime.”

Raquel snapped her fingers, jostling Zatanna as she sat up straighter in the loveseat. “That’s it! You’re a simulacrum, aren’t you?”

Roy shrugged, uncomfortable. “Fair’s fair. Yeah, got it in one.”

Zatanna looked at Raquel, then back at Roy, confused. “But simulacrums aren’t sentient,” she said. “And, no offense, but you’re way too rude to be anything but. And you’re too...solid.”

Roy froze up, looking up to Artemis with a pleading look in his eyes. She squeeze his shoulder, reassuring. “You can trust them, Red,” she assured.

Roy looked back to Zatanna. “You weren’t...entirely wrong when you asked if I was a golem,” he said begrudgingly. “I’m...kinda both. Luthor made my body from clay, and he put words in my head. But he used necromancy to animate me, not holy magic.”

Zatanna paled. “So the real Roy Harper…”

Roy hung his head, shamed. “Dead, as far as I know.”

A moment of strained silence passed. “You do not appear to be made of clay,” Kaldur ventured.

Roy smiled at him, bitter. “Yeah, two perks to being a necromantic abomination. I got the first guy’s memories,” he said, knocking with his knuckles against the side of his head. “And I at least look human.���

Zatanna looked quizzical, her curious nature getting the better of her. “Can you be injured?”

And like that Roy was back to looking suspicious. “Kind of a personal question, don’t you think?”

Zatanna threw her hands up, placating. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just.” She breathed, trying to find the words.

Artemis found them for her. “Look, Red,” she said to Roy. “Zatanna can help you, but if she doesn’t know what will and won’t hurt you it's going to be hard for her to figure out how. We don’t really know how your body or your spirit work. If we’re going to hide you from Luthor we need to figure out how to hide at least one of them.”

“Excuse me if I don’t exactly have a lot of trust for sorcerers right now,” Roy grumbled, curling in on himself. “But...fair point.”

Kaldur sighed, standing from where he had taken his earlier seat. “My apologies,” he said to the group when their eyes turned to him. “But I think all of you are too tired to work through this problem reasonably,” he said, eyeing Roy in particular. The redhead was obviously exhausted, and it was keeping him from thinking clearly. “The quarters I share with an absent roommate are closed to the larger Conservatory populace and have been well warded in deference to my King’s wishes that I not be observed or spied upon during my stay here. I would like to extend the offer for the two of you,” he gestured to Artemis and Roy, “To rest there until Monday evening. By then Zatanna and Raquel should be recovered, and you can productively seek a solution to your troubles.”

Kaldur himself was suprised at his readiness to help this almost total stranger. But on a certain level it made sense to help this Roy Harper. He too had been in positions where he felt to be an outsider, unknowing of who to trust. The first few weeks in the Corps he had been cautious of his squadmates and instructor—he was the only member of the group with any noticeable aquatic traits, and he had heard horrible tales hazing and violence against other Shayerin recruits. It had only been Tula’s—and later, Garth’s—kindness that had allowed him to emerge from his metaphorical shell and feel his somewhat belonged amongst his peers. 

That it would also give Kaldur a chance to finally interact with Surface dwellers outside of the Conservatory or magical community was merely an added bonus. He was not restricted to     campus, of course. But he was the first to admit that his own reserved nature made meeting new people difficult. Especially outside of formalized structures like those he had spent his entire young adult life in. And, despite their brief acquaintance and rather incomplete introduction, Artemis and Roy already seemed fascinating.

Artemis looked at Kaldur, approving. “I was thinking that I should take Red here back to my place for some rest. But your campus is definitely safer from Luthor or his goons. We accept.”

Roy turned, glaring at her. “Like hell we do!”

She glared right back. “You’re not spending another night sitting at my kitchen table and waiting for Luthor to come for you, Roy,” she bit out. “I know you don’t actually sleep but you haven’t had any rest at all and it’s making you irrational. If Kaldur has a safe place for you to stay it’d be stupid not to take him up on it!”

Roy stood up, fully facing her. “And how do we know we can trust him?”

Artemis threw her hands in the air. “Because Zee and Raquel do, okay? Look, you took a chance when you chose to trust me. And I trust them.”

Kaldur stepped forward, laying his hand gently on Roy’s shoulder. The man whirled on him, eyes wide and glowing. Kaldur stood firm. “I will allow no harm to come to you,” he promised solemnly, holding Roy’s eyes steadily with his own. “You have my word.”

Roy inhaled shakily, fists gripped tightly as his side. “I don’t know you,” he said, blunt. “For all I know your word could be worthless.” He glanced over he shoulder, back at Artemis’s pleading expression. “But, okay. We accept.”

Kaldur smiled, soft. He squeezed Roy’s shoulder. “It will be two days before Raquel and Zatanna will be in a position to help you,” he assured. “In that time, I would be glad to get to know you.”

Two days passed, but on the promised Monday evening the group found that their options for keeping Roy safe from Luthor were far from optimal. Roy’s body was animated by Luthor’s magic, and erasing the Words inscribed on the roof of Roy’s mouth would risk dispelling that magic entirely.

Leaving the Words meant that Luthor would still have control over Roy if he found him again. Artemis, who Kaldur had learned was a Mundane by nature and a Hunter by trade, offered up the practical solution of creating earplugs Roy could use to block the sound of Luthor’s voice. It seemed like a decent solution, at least until Zatanna performed a closer examination of Roy’s body.

“You’re not like a normal human,” she said, diplomatically ignoring Roy’s whispered ‘yeah, no shit’. She was examining Roy’s arm where the simulacrum had allowed her to peel back a layer of his skin to examine his flesh. It was the same light brown material all the way through, no blood vessels or bones.

“You look like you have ears, but you don’t actually hear through them. Your hearing is from magic.” She sealed up his arm, pressing the seam closed and smoothing over the incision with water until his skin was as whole as it had been before he’d allowed her to partially dissect him. “Earplugs aren’t gonna cut it. Frankly, I’m surprised you need rest.”

Roy rubbed his skin, self conscious but more relaxed than he’d been mere days ago. He’d had time to get to know Kaldur, and had come to the conclusion the Atlantean would have little to gain from turning him in to Luthor or the Council.

While the famous Bruce Wayne’s apprentice was supposedly Kaldur’s roommate—it should be noted that in two days Roy saw not hide nor hair of Richard Grayson, a figure he distantly recalled from stolen memories—Kaldur himself seemed to have little but cautious respect for the Council’s power. He didn’t seem overly concerned with their rules or what they’d think of a simulacrum like Roy. Roy supposed that it was a result of the moderate distrust that existed between the Surface realms and Atlantis.

Either way, he’d spent two days in the Atlantean’s apartment and come to no harm. Zatanna and Raquel had so far declined to turn him in either. He was by no means certain of anything like loyalty from the three, but the sanctuary they had so far extended was enough to earn begrudging trust. “Don’t look at me,” he shrugged. “I didn’t exactly have much of a say in the process.”

Zatanna sat back, eyeing Roy appraisingly. “No. And since we can’t figure out a way to give you more of say without killing you, we need to find a way to hide you. The charm Artemis gave you will only hide your magical signature for a couple of weeks at a time, and the materials she used aren’t exactly easy to get ahold of.”

Raquel looked up from the text she and Kaldur had been poring through. “We just need to hide his signature, right? Wayne isn’t exactly fond of Luthor, so as long as Red here sticks to Gotham he should be easy enough to keep out of physical sight.”

Artemis, who knew very little about magic or magical constructs aside from ways to disrupt and destroy them, looked up from re-stringing her bow. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” she said slowly. “Luthor has a lot of influence, even in Gotham. If one of his goons spotted Roy it’d be as bad as Luthor tracking him down through his signature.”

Kaldur hmm’d, an idea coming to mind. “The night you arrived I had asked Zatanna to create a charm for me that would hide my appearance,” he admitted to Roy. “I have already gathered the necessary materials for one that would last several years. They’re hard to get on the Surface, but they are common enough in Atlantis.” Kaldur turned to Zatanna. “Could they be used for Roy, instead?”

Zatanna looked dubious. “I’ve never made anything with Atlantean materials before,” she said. “Are you even sure my enchantments would work?”

Kaldur reconsidered. “No,” he admitted. “I am not.” He was quiet, turning the problem over in his mind. Ah, of course. “But I might know who could tell us,” he continued, flushing with guilt. It had been... months since he had last contacted Garth and Tula. To contact them only now, when he required a favor, felt inexcusably rude.

Then again, he thought, self-deprecating, I have been inexcusably rude.

“How would you feel about a teleconference with an Atlantean sorcerer?”

Tula had been able to, again, come to Kaldur’s rescue. Only after taking a few minutes to chew him out through the two way mirror she had gifted him when he had left, of course.

With Tula’s help Zatanna was able to construct a charm from the kraken bone and seasilk that Kaldur had collected. It would hide Roy’s signature from anyone more than a few feet from him, and would alter his appearance to anyone besides Artemis, Raquel, Zatanna, and Kaldur himself.

After that Roy and Artemis were able to return to Artemis’s apartment, though Kaldur extended the invitation for them to stay with him whenever they liked. He shared a full suite of rooms at the Conservatory with Richard Grayson, but the younger man was often absent, flitting in and out only occasionally. After years living in Corps barracks and the Academy dorms it had been comforting to have roommates again.

The pair accepted, though often enough it was Roy alone who ended up staying the night. Artemis’s apartment was respectable but small, and the simulacrum admitted with some embarrassment that it felt claustrophobic to share the space when Artemis was asleep.

“It's like if I turn the page of a book too quickly I’ll wake her up,” he admitted to Kaldur one day, watching idly from the couch as Kaldur stepped through a kata in the Atlantean’s spacious living room. The smooth series of kicks, punches, and ducks that Richard had taught him helped Kaldur center himself. It was different than the training he was used to—Atlanteans rarely fought unarmed. But it was similar enough to swordplay in motion that it served the same mental function. “At least with you I don’t have to worry about sound travelling.”

Kaldur paused mid-strike, eyeing the man with amusement. “Are you referring to the soundproof walls or the ill conceived notion you people have that I sleep in a bathtub?”

Roy snorted, throwing a pillow at Kaldur’s face. The Atlantean knocked it from the air, stepping back into the flow of his exercise. “Sound proof walls, huh?” He leered. “And what do you mean, ‘you people?’”

Roy became a fixture in Kaldur’s life, even more so than any of the other friends Kaldur had made on the Surface. He spent more nights in Kaldur’s quarter’s than Kaldur’s actual roommate. Richard mentioned the man he saw frequently in the apartment only in passing, and really only to tease Kaldur.

“Morning, Kal,” Richard  greeted one day through a mouthful of toast while making a rare appearance in their shared kitchen. Richard—or Dick, as he liked to be called for reasons beyond Kaldur’s imagination to Zatanna’s endless amusement—waited until Kaldur had begun sipping his morning tea to continue. “Hey, is that guy you have over all the time even human?”

Kaldur didn’t sputter into his tea, though it was a close thing. “Quite certain,” he lied, looking at Dick directly. “Why? His manners are terrible, but surely he hasn’t managed to offend you enough to warrant such insinuations.”

Dick shrugged, swallowing the last bite of his toast and washing it down with milk. The man avoided caffeine on the regular, calling it an ‘emergency measure’. “Not really. I just keep finding him chugging boiling coffee at three a.m. Kinda weird.”

Kaldur peered at Dick over his tea, easing a gently amused eyebrow. “You room with a literal sea monster,” he reminded Dick.

Dick shrugged. “Yeah, but that's like. Gotham weird.”

“And chugging gallons of hot caffeinated water in the late night is what kind of weird, exactly?”

Dick sat back, contemplating the ceiling and, Kaldur assumed, the state of his existence. “Point,” he admitted. It wasn't the end of his occasional questions about Roy, but it was the last one regarding Roy’s ‘what’ instead of his ‘who’.

It didn't keep the sex jokes at bay, for instance. The boy was, after all, still a teenager and was inordinately curious about Atlantean sexuality.

Their little group grew close over the semester, with Roy and Artemis occasionally (and then not-so-occasionally) enlisting Kaldur’s help in their hunts for dangerous magical creatures around Gotham. Artemis was contracted by the city to keep the streets safe from monsters and escaped constructs. Kaldur had been hesitant at first, considering he hardly counted as ‘human’ and Roy was technically an escaped construct himself. But the majority of the monsters they ended up hunting were non-sentient, and none of the constructs demonstrated intelligence like Roy’s. Sometimes Zatanna and Raquel would accompany them, delighting in the chance to put their skills to practical use after weeks of grueling theory and research.

Roy and Kaldur grew closer especially, bonding over their shared status as outsiders to Surface affairs and their preferences for privacy. They each had their own reasons for preferring to remain anonymous from most people, so when the girls would ‘go out’ Kaldur and Roy usually ended up on Kaldur’s large couch, taking advantage of the entertainment center the Conservatory had provided for Kaldur’s ‘cultural’ education. They watched bad movies, catching Kaldur up on Surface culture and Roy up on what he had missed since his original had been kidnapped three years ago.

Roy was the first person Kaldur had met on the surface who never mistook his reserved manner for being shy. He had a way of drawing out Kaldur’s more judgemental observations about the Surface. He delighted in them, calling Kaldur ‘sassy’ and deliberately provoking sarcasm from the Atlantean as often as possible.

Kaldur, for his part, understood Roy’s gruff manner better than anyone in their close circle. The redhead reminded him at times of some of the older, professional warriors in the Corps. He didn’t expect Roy to be overtly demonstrative of affection and respected the simulacrum’s long silences, not trying to force conversation or attempting to use humor to shock him out of them. It led to Roy gradually opening up to him, sharing memories of his ‘life’ before and his anxieties, both things he normally kept closely guarded.

Affairs continued in this manner, with Kaldur growing closer to his newfound family and learning more of the Surface than he’d ever really imagined.

And then a patrol in Gotham’s harbor went terribly right, and all hell broke loose.

The night had begun fairly normally. Zatanna had declined to join them on their patrol. She had a friend-date with Richard that night. The two had been close since childhood, and Richard had complained recently that he never seemed to see her anymore, despite them going to the same school.

So it was just the four of them - Artemis, Roy, Raquel, and Kaldur. Artemis hadn’t been issued any specific mission from the Gotham police that night, so instead they decided to patrol along the docks. Kaldur knew from experience that feral, sea dwelling creatures had a bad habit of seeking out human prey in high-magical signature cities like Gotham, and there had been whispers of recent disappearances in the area.

What they found was much more troubling than a rogue siren or grindylow, however.

“Well that’s not suspicious,” Roy said, pointing to an armored vehicle parked outside an abandoned warehouse.

Artemis shrugged. “It’s Gotham,” she dismissed. “But we can check it out. If it's not the kind of thing we’re supposed to handle, we can call the PD.”

It turned out to be something no one was equipped to handle, except maybe the Council. From their view atop an adjacent building, the group could see inside the warehouse. It was mostly empty, save for a strange pod, which was being wheeled out the doors and towards the armored van by armed guards.

Roy grasped Kaldur’s arm, blunt nails biting the Atlantean’s thick skin. “I recognize those fuckers,” he whispered. “Those are Luthor’s goons.”

Artemis nocked an arrow, aiming for the feet of the guard wheeling the pod towards the van. “That thing looks human sized,” she said quietly. “Red, you get the guys on the door. Rocket,” she addressed Raquel, using the nickname the woman had earned after one of her spells had sent a particularly nasty wendigo crashing through three solid concrete walls. “Shield the windows, keep them from firing on us. Kal, get ready to rush. We need to free whoever’s in that pod.”

The plan worked well. Artemis’s arrow expelled a short burst of gas that knocked out the first guard and obscured the vision of the rest. Kaldur—immune to most toxins—was able to vault to the ground and get to the pod. Inside was a boy of about sixteen years, seemingly asleep.

The trouble came when Kaldur opened the pod, intending to carry the boy to safety.

His eyes snapped open the moment the pod did. He leaped, roaring, and began attacking the guards.

Roy leapt down from the building, disarming the guards as they tried to shoot at the boy. While a good idea in theory, it was then that things began to go horrible wrong.

Kaldur watched in horror as the boy put his fist through one of their armored torsos, screaming in rage before tossing the body aside.

“Holy shit,” Roy yelled, running towards the boy. “Calm down! Hey, cal—”

The boy grabbed Roy by the shoulder, twisting until there was a sickening crack, then tossing the simulacrum through the wall of the warehouse. Roy went straight through, landing in a heap on the ground outside. Raquel leapt to the ground, rushing to his side.

Kaldur, briefly distracted by his concern for Roy, almost didn’t notice when the boy turned on him.

The first missed blow shattered the support structure Kaldur had been standing next to, raining debris on their heads as Kaldur rolled out of the way.

“Kaldur!” Artemis shouted, “Get out of there!”

Kaldur dodged past the boy, sprinting out the door as the boy slammed into the concrete where Kaldur had been mere moments ago, leaving a sizeable dent.

As Kaldur cleared the door an arrow sailed by him. Seconds later the building collapsed, glass and debris blowing outwards as the magical charges inside of them detonated in the dilapidated structure.

Kaldur had just managed to duck into Raquel’s force shield, a bubble that shielded her and her surroundings from sight and sound. It also used light to refract the world around them, essentially rendering anything inside the bubble invisible.

Raquel, it should be stated again, was a very, very talented kinetimancer.

Artemis joined them a moment later, abandoning her position on the roof to check on Roy. “What the fuck was that thing?” She demanded, handing him one of the tubes she kept tucked into her quiver—a vial of magic infused clay.

“Looked like the same thing as me,” Roy grunted, accepting the tube. “That should be enough to slow him down, but probably not kill him. Hopefully his head wasn’t crushed.” Roy turned to Raquel, who was maintaining the force field. “You got that charm Zee made? The one for subduing sentients?”

“In my pocket,” Raquel murmured. “Now hush, I’m keeping this thing up for a bit in case any more of Luthor’s goons show up and it takes a lot of focu—”

She was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a large iron girder, which flew overhead as the ruins of the warehouse shifted violently.

“Holy shit,” Artemis whispered, eyes wide as they watched the boy emerge from the wreckage of the warehouse. Her fingernails bit into Kaldur's forearm, her terror leaving dents in his thick skin. “We just dropped a building on him and there isn't even a scratch.”

Kaldur darted a glance at Roy. The simulacrum shrugged back at him, smearing wet clay into the missing chunk of his shoulder where the boy had thrown him. “Must be a newer model,” Roy replied. The wet clay appeared to boil in his wound, bubbling and changing color until it melded in with his skin. A few seconds, and it looked like the shoulder had never been injured at all. Roy continued. “I repair easy but I still break.”

Kaldur watched as the boy shook off the last of the dust, eyes casting out to find them. As long as they stayed in the radius of Raquel’s spell he shouldn't be able to hear or see them. “You are certain he is of your same maker?”

Roy snorted. “Unless someone else is experimenting with necromancy and alchemy to create indestructible, human looking simulacrums? Yeah, I’m sure.”

Kaldur sheathed his swords, gently brushing Artemis’s hand from his arm. He stepped around her to Raquel, taking Zatanna’s rosary from her pocket while she continued to focus on maintaining their cover, eyes alight with the violet of her magic.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Artemis hissed, still eyeing the boy warily. He had begun to leap around the rubble, tossing chunks of buildings out of his way as he searched for their hiding place.

Kaldur looked at Roy, then back at Artemis. “When you first met Roy you said he was angry and terrified—”

“—Artemis you shit—” Roy interrupted, trying and failing to clap his partner on the side of the head.

Kaldur held up a hand, firmly demanding that he be allowed to finish. “You said he needed your help,” Kaldur continued to Artemis, reaching out and squeezing her hand reassuringly. “If this boy is of the same maker, perhaps he too is in need of help.”

Both archers looked at him like he was wearing a squid on his head. “Roy was at least verbal,” Artemis said slowly, as if to a child. “He never outright attacked anyone. That thing is feral.”

“He'll kill you,” Roy said bluntly. “We can’t get close enough to get Zee’s draining charm on him without risking him killing one of us. I’m tough, but even I'll die if he smashes my head in.”

Kaldur shook his head. “I won't,” he said simply, then ran out of the circle before either of them could attempt to stop them. He was certain that if it wasn't for Raquel’s ward he would hear them screaming at him to get back to the circle. As it was all he heard was the roar of the boy as he spotted Kaldur sprinting toward him.

The boy leaped, launching himself high in the air before smashing into the ground immediately in front of Kaldur. Kaldur dodged to the left, barely avoiding being crushed.

“Peace, friend,” Kaldur shouted, twisting to avoid another blow as the the snarling boy began to chase him around the parking lot. “I mean you no harm.”

Either the boy couldn't hear him, didn't understand him, or simply didn't care. His eyes were crazed, alight with the same blue glow of the enchantment that animated Roy.

Kaldur continued to duck and roll, dodging blows that shattered the asphalt. He thanked the gods that he’d allowed Dick to spend the first three months of his tenure on land running him through the apprentice’s ridiculous acrobatics regimen.

They continued in this manner for what felt like hours—in addition to being stronger than Roy, this simulacrum was faster, and seemingly inexhaustible. Finally, Kaldur felt he had learned enough of the boy’s movements to go in for his next move. He drew Zatanna’s rosary from his pocket, ducking quickly under the boy’s arm to slip the beads over his head.

He miscalculated, however. A fact that came home to him with a sickening, wet crunch as the boy’s fist punched through his ribs and out his back, narrowly missing his spine.

Kaldur crumpled immediately, white hot agony blinding him. The boy fell beside him on his hands and knees, panting harshly as Zatanna’s charm sucked the energy out of him.

Shocked blue eyes stared down into Kaldur’s, awareness dawning as the frantic sparks of magic that danced around tan skin dissipated. “Who are you,” the boy demanded. His voice sounded like someone had gone at his throat with shards of glass, shredding it until there was nothing but scar tissue. It was like he’d never spoken before.

For all Kaldur knew, he never had.

Kaldur grit his teeth, willing his gills to stop flapping uselessly in the open air, trying to bypass the wreck of his shredded lung. He managed to shift his hand, reaching across the ground to weakly grasp the boy’s hand in his own. It was sticky with Kaldur’s own gore and viscera. The boy didn’t flinch.

“A friend,” Kaldur choked out, before darkness took him.

Half a day later Kaldur woke up in Artemis’s apartment, fully healed from his injuries. Artemis, ashen faced and sick from relief, had been the only one there. She explained that Raquel and Roy had taken the boy to Zatanna’s father’s house out in the city limits once they'd ascertained that Kaldur was in no real danger. The pain had been enough to knock him out, but by the time Roy had rushed over to him when he fell his wound had already sealed over.

She also explained that immortality is the kind of thing ‘you tell your fucking friends about before you charge into a death match, you self sacrificial fuck’. She explained this rather sternly, while furiously hitting him repeatedly with a throw pillow.

When Roy and Raquel returned sans simulacrum, Raquel hugged Kaldur and smacked him upside the head. Which was a fair reaction, in Kaldur’s estimation.

Roy, however, avoided Kaldur’s gaze and flat out refused to speak to him. Which was, frankly, a lot more upsetting than having a lung punched out.

But they had bigger problems to deal with, as Raquel would go on to explain. Like the fact that the simulacrum they had found was a copy of Clark Kent, a sitting Warlock on the Council of Magic. And that Bruce Wayne knew about him, and about Roy, and was not happy about being kept in the dark.

A/N: Shoutout as usual to the amazing @shadesninde for being a boss ass beta. Trust me when I say this thing would have been a lot less coherent without her help. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! If you have any questions about the magical system or other random ass details of this AU, feel free to drop into my inbox!