#just a bunch of orphans fending for themselves

[sugarhog-au]

The Babylon Rogues (as kids, obvs) leaving their old home because... spoiler reasons

[gracemyface]

Daryl: The Professional (Daryl Dixon x Young! Reader)

Chapter Six

Key:

Y/n - Your Name

Y/l/n - Your Last Name

Y/e/c - Your Eye Color

Y/h/c - Your Hair Color

Series Masterlist | Previous Part | Next Part

Summary: Things are unsettled at camp after the fight and Jim's breakdown, and the Reader finds themselves too worried about Daryl to really enjoy any of the festivities. Meanwhile, Daryl finds himself struggling in the city, wanting to return to camp but not wanting to face the wrath that would come from leaving Glenn behind. They're finally reunited when, in a turn for the worse, the camp is attacked by a wandering herd of walkers...

Warnings: Major Character Death, Canon Typical Violence/Gore, Some Angst.

A/n: I will have no real Lori slander. She did some shitty things, yes, but she loved her kids and the other women’s kids. Anyway, how do we like Daryl’s pov? I really, really struggled with it bc he’s such an asshole (I mean that affectionately.)

Shit really goes down this chapter. You guys have a slight breakdown, but it's been a long time coming. Character development ig?

also, do we want more stories from when the Reader, Daryl, and Merle were together?

Word Count: 4.8k

The first time Daryl ever saw you, the blood-soaked orphan with a far-off stare who’d barricaded themself into the corner of his father’s cabin, he felt a prickle of annoyance travel up his spine. 

He didn’t know why you were out in the woods, or what had happened to result in you being covered in the crimson liquid (though, if his father hadn’t just been eaten in front of him, he would’ve assumed it was a pig slaughtering gone awry), or how you got into the cabin. He, especially at that moment, hadn’t even cared. He knew immediately that Jess wouldn’t have left you behind, cursed his father’s half-brother and his bleeding heart, and reduced you to nothing in his mind but another mouth to feed — a weak, sniveling mouth at that. He wasn’t ever keen on being around kids, smart-mouthed teenagers even less, and he didn’t really want to have to handle the collapse of society with anybody who couldn’t fend for themselves. 

You showed him, though. You really did.

In those few days when it was just you and him after Jess took that fall off the truck when you officially became his responsibility, you proved you weren’t weak. You adapted to the end of the world quickly — learned to be quiet when you needed to be, to be useful most of the time, and to just eat whatever he managed to catch. And then you took on Merle in a way that nobody really dared to, most nights ending with you sending his older brother a heated gaze over the fire, the flames reflecting in your y/e/c eyes. Now, he still wouldn’t leave his life in your hands if he had the choice, even after you shot that man clear in the head back in Fontana and walked it off, but he knows for sure that he can trust you to handle your own — and, even if he doesn’t really appreciate being wrong, he can’t help but admire you for it… though, he’d never admit it aloud.

Standing in a long-abandoned lab building in an overrun Atlanta, the redneck stares down at the whimpering kid they picked up with pure disdain. His lips are curled back over his teeth in a sneer and his eyes are slanted as he stares down, internally picking apart every little thing the teenager does. That is what he expected from you.

What a shit show this little expedition-slash-rescue mission has turned out to be.

Not only was Merle not where they left him — currently down one hand and on the run through the sweltering pit of hell that has become of the once lively city — but now they’ve lost Glenn, too. If Daryl’d known that the younger man was going to get taken hostage by a bunch of wannabe gangsters and hold them up like this, he’d have left before these assholes could’ve even thought about getting into the truck with him.

He wanted to be the hell out of dodge three hours ago. “Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won’t protect your family or put food on the table— you’re gonna give that up for that kid?”

Both of them give him a stern look, and he resists the urge to roll his eyes. Sure, the kid is nice and all, and half the camp (including you) would be really pissed off if they came back without him, but they can’t give up half of these guns. It’s either Glenn or a better chance at survival and he picks survival.

“If I knew we’d get Glenn back, I might agree. But, you think that Vato across the way is just gonna hand him over?”

Daryl nods in agreement. There’s that, too. They have no idea for certain if giving up the guns will even get them what they want. It might just be a trap that gets them all killed.

“You calling G a liar?” Their hostage— Miguel, was it?— inserts himself into the equation.

His mind once again drifts to you. If you were kidnapped, you wouldn’t be this stupid. You’d be smart enough to not mouth off to the people who held you captive, smart enough to figure out how to get yourself free, and smart enough not to make promises on his behalf that he might not be able to keep. You’d be mute, sitting there and watching your captors with those dangerous little eyes of yours.

This kid, though? Christ.

“Are you a part of this?” He crosses the room and leans down over the kid, slapping him lightly. “You wanna hold onto your teeth?”

T-Dog continues on, ignoring the violence. “Question is, do you trust that man’s word?”

“No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?” He holds Rick’s gaze.

Truth be told, Daryl doesn’t quite get risking why anybody would risk their life for someone who wasn’t their blood. Glenn wasn’t any of their brother, son, or cousin — he was just some (former) pizza running kid that was on the highway, in the right place and at the right time when Shane spearheaded the group and lead them off the highway. Merle is probably the only person in the world that the redneck would even think to sacrifice anything for.

(Except maybe…)

“What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't.” Rick loads his revolver and sticks it in his pocket. “Neither will I.”

Daryl scoffs in his soul. “So you’re gonna hand the guns over?”

“I didn't say that.”

The sheriff's voice has now taken a quality that has his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

“There's nothing keeping you two here. You should get out, head back to camp.”

T-Dog winces from his injuries, rubbing his head with his hand. “And tell your family what?”

Daryl and Rick stare at each other for a beat, a silent conversation happening between them, before he sighs shortly and reaches for a weapon. You’d probably be really pissed at him if he didn’t try, and he doesn’t want to deal with an emotional teenager right about now.

“Come on, this is nuts.” The boy sits back down when Daryl holds a hand out to him. “Just do like G says.”

The redneck ignores the whining boy and starts loading a shotgun. He needs this to be over as quickly as possible, and he needs the gangster assholes to go down without a fight.

He made a promise to come back alive, after all.

──────────────────

Jim has a heatstroke. Or, at least, that’s what Shane keeps dismissing it as. With the current state of the world, it could’ve very well been post-bite fever or a psychotic break.

He’d been digging for reasons unknown and unintentionally ruined the good news of the incredible amount of food they were going to have tonight in the process. Shane went all cop on him, which didn’t really surprise you after what happened with Ed, and the whole ordeal ended with Jim being tied to a tree after ranting and raving about how he left his family for dead. Everyone seemed to move on after that, the mothers dragged their children off to do schoolwork and a few of the other adults started setting up for the fish fry, but you found yourself a little nauseous.

It looked like he was digging graves, and why did he go into such intense detail?

Hiding away in your tent, you lay down on top of your sleeping bag and throw a ball of socks up just to catch it as it comes down. You hoped the action would be therapeutic — something to take your mind off the image of Jim’s poor family and how it bleeds into the image of your own — but the socks lack the weight of a real ball, and you can’t get out of your head.

Had washing your parents’ blood off your skin absolved you of any responsibility in their deaths? Were you doomed to end up like Jim?

Would you also, someday soon, have a psychotic break?

“Hey, Y/n?” Lori’s soft voice drifts through the thin fabric of your tent as he speaks timidly.

For a beat, you decide if you want to be silent and let her think you’re asleep. “Uh, yeah. What’s up?”

“Shane’s gonna teach Carl and Sophia to clean fish. He wanted to know if you’d join.”

You already know how to gut an animal. Squirrels, rabbits, and even a deer, once — Daryl had always been very big on you learning how to survive in the time you spent together, and that learning involved getting over the grossness of animal entrails very, very quickly. You were living through the end of the world, he’d reasoned, you don’t have time to be weak-stomached.

And you don’t want to spend time with Shane. That’s at the top of the list of things you don’t want.

But you’re not going to tell the woman that you dislike the man she was sleeping with, so you say, “I already know how to.” 

There’s another beat of silence, and you can see the shadow of her willowy figure shift through the wall of the tent.

“Can I come in?”

You, certainly not expecting that, pause. 

“Uh, sure.”

You sit up and push yourself to the back of the tent, watching as Lori unzips the door and ducks down inside. She’s got sincere eyes. So sincere that when she crouches down in front of you and meets your gaze, your skin starts to crawl.

“You feelin’ okay?”

You hate that question. Something burns behind your nose and you snuggle, shrugging pitifully. “Dunno. Pretty shit — what happened to Jim, I mean.”

Lori nods thoughtfully. “Yeah… it is.”

She looks a little pale. Surely, the death of children doesn’t sit well with a mother, even if they aren’t her own.

“I, uh, I understand that you’ve had a rough time.” The brunette doesn’t seem to know what to say to you, and you almost feel bad. “I mean, I don’t. Not really. And you don’t have to tell me anything.” She stresses that point with a sweep of her hand. “But I know something must’ve happened because everyone has something happen.”

You nod along, fiddling with a loose string on your jeans. 

“I— Daryl and Merle don’t exactly seem like the easiest people to talk to, so if you ever need anything, me and Carol are right here, okay?”

“…okay.”

She smiles softly at you, and you spare one back. Lori and Carol are perfectly nice women, but you almost prefer Daryl, who has put a ban on personal questions and mostly ignores the emotional side of everything. You know you aren’t going to go to Lori and tell her things.

You wouldn’t even know where to start. 

“Y’know, Carl likes you? Like, a lot.” 

“Really?”

“Mhm. Sophia, too.”

Deep down, you know this is her trying to coax you out of the tent, but you let it boost your ego anyway. There’s something so incredibly normal (and endearing) about being looked up to — even if, sometimes, it gets a little annoying.

“And I’m guessing they would really, really like it if I went out there and helped Shane gut fish with ‘em?”

“Yeah. They would.”

Pursing your lips, you stare at the woman through slightly narrowed eyes before sighing and giving in.

“Alright…”

She grins widely and it kind of makes up for it.

Shane seems to be getting frustrated with the ordeal when you arrive, correcting Sophia’s stance with a tightness pulling at his smile as Lori gently nudges you along. You take the seat next to him without a word, pretending you don’t notice how he and the woman exchange a look, or how Carl shifts toward you on the log. It’s a hundred degrees out and he’s attached to your hip already, watching with those big blue eyes of his as you silently grab a fish off the pile and get to gutting it. 

You can remember the steps well: descale, cut a slit in the belly, remove the guts and fins and head, and rinse. 

“Look at you.” Shane compliments in a drawl, finally getting Sophia to do what he needed her to. “Like a swan to water.”

With a wrinkled nose, you drop fish innards into a bucket and turn to look at him as you shake the blood off your hands.

“Yeah, well, you spend enough time with the Dixons and you’ll learn how to gut anything.”

Something dark flashes across his face but you don’t care. You turn back to the fish, making a little joke to Carl about fish eyes that makes his entire face scrunch up and draws a long ‘Ewww’ from his lips. The laugh that bursts from you rattles in your bones.

──────────────────

“Hey, Dale, you got a?—“ The question dies on your lips as, upon stepping over the threshold of the RV, you stumble upon Andrea.

Every cabinet in the mobile home’s little kitchenette is open and she appears to be rooting through them desperately. At the sound of your voice, she pauses, looking up at you like she’s an animal and you just caught her looking through your garbage cans.

“Hi.”

“Hi?” You retort, shifting your weight. “Do you know where Dale is?”

“No, but I wish I did.” She heaves a sigh and runs her hand through her hair.

You don’t think you’ve ever seen the woman quite so frantic. Somewhere down the line, Andrea Harrison was a lawyer, and it’s hard to imagine her standing in the front of a courtroom, prim and proper and ready to kick some ass, with her standing in front of you like this.

“Can I help you any?” You ask just as Dale finally responds to his summons, stepping over the threshold with a quiet, “Did I hear my name?“

“Yeah.” Both you and Andrea answer at once, but you step back and gesture to her. “I think she needs help first.”

The blonde spares you a nervous smile.

“Alright. What do you need?”

“Wrapping paper, color tissue, anything?”

(Okay, maybe you regret letting her go first. At this rate, you’ll never get that bandaid.)

You stare at her with furrowed brows and a scrunched-up face. 

“Seriously?” Dale shares in your confusion, glancing warily between the two of you. You offer him a shrug.

“How could you not have any?”

“Had I been informed of the impending apocalypse I'd have stocked up.”

Your snort at the old man’s dry words earns you a particularly derisive look from Andrea. “What? It’s the end of the world and you need wrapping paper. Shoot me for finding that amusing.”

“It’s Amy’s birthday tomorrow.” She says it like you should know that (probably because you should.) “I've been marking days on the calendar just to make sure.”

Your eyes wander over to the calendar on the wall of the RV as she lifts the necklace that she stole for a gift to her sister. Surely enough, Andrea has been crossing out the days on it. 

Despite what you expected, there is no big circle over Amy’s birthday or anything, but you then figure that would probably ruin the surprise. Your older (in age and not maturity) blonde friend had come to you earlier in the week and lamented to you about the situation. While you’d always known that Andrea was the older of the pair, you didn’t know just how much until Amy filled you in on the ghosts of birthday past; she told you all about the older blonde’s broken promises to return to the nest for her little sister’s birthday, about how, more often than not, college and other things got in the way. She must’ve seen the calendar, too, and been disappointed by the apparent lack of acknowledgment that it was growing closer and closer to her favorite holiday.

“You can’t leave a gift unwrapped.” 

“Oh, it’s good that you got something. I think she thinks you forgot.” That was told to you in confidence, but you stretched the truth a bit, so it isn’t that bad, right?

Dale and Andrea both look at you for a moment before he nods his head slowly. “Alright. Deep breath. I’m sure we’ll find something.” He turns back to face you. “What did you need?”

As if a lightbulb turned on over your head, you lift up your hand and the handkerchief that’s been wrapped around your minor flesh wound. “Carl cut me while I was demonstrating. I just need a bandaid.”

The old man shakes his head at you and steps around Andrea to go get the first aid kit, muttering to himself about the youth of today and how you’re going to lose your limb if you aren’t more careful.

──────────────────

As the grating summer sunlight fades into the darkness of dusk, taking the heat with it, the whole group (excluding the men in Atlanta and Ed, who refused to show his face around camp) sits down for the biggest meal most of them have had since the end of the world.

Cold beer and water are handed out as serving trays full of fried fish get passed around between the clusters of people who gather around their fires, the murmur of their happy chatter and soft laughter cutting through the blanketing sounds of the night. After the big fight and Jim’s foreboding breakdown, it’s nice to see everyone smiling and knowing that nobody’s going to ruin it this time — even if you can’t really find yourself joining in on the festivity.

“Pass the fish, please?”

“Here you go.”

“Man, I missed this.”

Sitting down on the end of one of the logs and feeling a little removed from everyone else, you wrap your coat tighter around your frame and let yourself worry about the group of men who went into the city. You don’t know Rick Grimes too well — he didn’t exactly give you the chance to get to know him, did he? — but you do know Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl. You know that they’re very capable men and that, in certain circumstances, most of them have more experience with geeks than you do, but you can’t help but worry. The sun has long since set, meaning that the men, wherever they are, are stranded out in the dark. You don’t really remember the nights from when it was just you and Daryl (a combination of many sleepless nights and too-high adrenaline made the memories blur together), but you know enough to know that things do get worse when the sun goes down; geeks aren’t exactly quiet, but they can really sneak up on you when there’s no light and your body wants to sleep.

Experienced or not, they're going to be tired eventually, and, if Merle doesn’t try to kill them, something else will.

“Hey, Nervous Nellie.” Shane draws your attention to him by nudging your leg with his boot, “Yeah, you— how's the fish?” 

Your eyes flit down to the bottle in his hand. Beer surely makes him a little looser.

“It’s alright.”

The ex-cop cocks a brow and echoes your response. “Alright?”

You really wish he’d just leave you alone. 

Truth be told, you don’t really like the food. It’s bland and it tastes fishy in the worst way, and (even if you’ll admit that you’ve been eating it like a death row inmate getting their last meal as if indigestion isn’t a thing), chasing it down with water isn’t helping. Sure, it’s better than the food you’ve been eating for weeks — better than measly mushrooms, canned rations, and whatever game the Dixon brothers could hunt up — but it’s not great.

“It’s no cheeseburger.” You shrug, stabbing some more of the pale flesh with your fork. “But beggars and choosers, and all that.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Morales interjects lightheartedly, tipping the head of his beer in your direction. You smile a thin-lipped smile.

The arrival of his long-lost best friend has made Shane rather… unsettling. Whether it’s because of how cold Lori has been acting toward him or his superiority complex, you’re not sure. You just know that you want Daryl to come back, even if that means putting up with Merle for the rest of his life.

“I’ll be right back.” You dismiss yourself quietly to Jacqui when the temperature changes and your discomfort proves to be too much. She nods absentmindedly, too engrossed with whatever Dale is saying to really respond, and takes the plate from you when you hand it over. 

You slip away into the darkness pretty easily, retreating to your tent in search of a sweatshirt, a breather, and maybe some reassurance that the redneck you’ve grown to like could survive whatever came at him. 

With a press of your hand, the nylon flap of your tent opens and you step in. Pausing briefly to turn on the little electric lantern on the floor, you then scan the small space with your eyes, looking for anything that might pass as something with long sleeves. There’s already a pile of dirty clothes forming in the corner and most of your stuff is strewn about, but you ignore that and grab for your bag— an old duffel that belonged to Daryl’s deceased father. Curling your fingers around one of the fraying straps, you pull it up and toward you, rooting through the stuff in there until you find it. A red and black flannel.

Somewhere down the line — just like most of your stuff did — the flannel belonged to one of the Dixons. It hangs loose on your frame, the sleeves too long for your arms and the length stopping mid-thigh. 

Buttoning it up, you cuff the sleeves and fiddle with the ends for a few minutes until they sit in a way you like. 

Just as you’re able to breathe a deep breath and feel remotely at peace, a blood-curdling scream, followed by many more, cuts through the quiet dark of the night. Adrenaline is the first thing you feel, your heart beating in your ears and your lungs squeezed of air, and worry is the second, fear for your friends forcing your legs to move and push out of your tent again. Though, before you can do that, you’re greeted by two rotting hands shoving their way through the opening and grabbing at your shoulders in a surprisingly iron grip. The shock of seeing a geek so up-close causes you to stumble back, but your ankle twists harshly — sending you sprawling to the ground with the monster right on top of you. 

“Oh, god!” The cracked scream leaves your lips, the now-shattered glass from the lantern digging into the skin of your leg.

The walker is — or, was — a man. It gnashes its teeth and pushes toward you, the sound of the bones clacking together making you whimper. Is this what your parents felt in their last moments? Jim’s wife and kids? Very quickly, your arms start to tremble under the weight of the much larger body, and you decide to not resign yourself to the same fate. Craning your head, you search for a weapon. 

There’s no way for you to reach your gun right about now, which you can’t really shoot with one hand anyway, but there has to be something else — anything you can use.

As the walker claws desperately at your shirt and groans miserably, you have to make the rash decision to remove one hand from its chest and give yourself less leverage to reach blindly behind you. Panicked breaths puff past your lips and your head starts to feel light as you grab at your stuff. Your fingers tightening around your sleeping bag, you give a harsh tug and hear the faintest sound of objects clattering around. The walker pushes down on your forearm as your fingers touch what feels like the hilt of a knife. Daryl must’ve thrown it in with your belongings a while back.

Letting out a strangled and panicked sound, you take the weapon and stab the walker with all your might.

The steel of the blade pops the walker’s eye upon entry and slides right through to its brain. Closing your eyes and mouth, you whip your head to the side as a mixture of ink-like blood and gel-like eye fluids drip down the hilt of the knife and onto your face. Its body, now eerily still and limp, falls on top of yours, making it hard to fully inhale as stuttered, panicked breaths rack your chest. As the sounds of gunshots and screams continue from outside the tent, you roll the body off you and force yourself up on your knees, gasping breaths through frightened sobs as you try to tug the knife out of the dead head.

As you pull it free, another walker stumbles into your tent and tries to pounce on you. Before it can bite a chunk out of your body, the tent door is being pushed open and a bullet is shattering its skull.

“Y/n!?” Glenn’s voice is just audible over the deadly mixture of your heartbeat and painful ringing in your ears, his eyes wide as he hopes what he just shot was actually dead before he shot it. “Y/n?!”

“Glenn.” You whimper, kicking the other dead body away from you. Your alleviation that the men from Atlanta are alive is short-lived.

“Oh.” He breathes in relief and slings the gun over his shoulder, reaching out to hold your forearms. “Oh. You’re okay. Oh, god. That’s good.”

“Daryl— is— is Daryl?” You can barely form words, your fingernails digging into his skin.

“Daryl’s fine. C’mon. We have to get out of here!”

He ushers you to your feet. The pain in your calf worsens as you stand up on shaky legs, every movement causing the glass to shift in your skin, and you stumble forward into his chest.

“I can’t— I hurt my leg.” You hiccup and Glenn sighs softly, wrapping one of your arms around his shoulders so he can half carry you.

“I have you.”

Glenn leads you out into the chaos. What’s left of camp isn’t very different from what Sedalia was like all those weeks ago — bodies, both rotting and fresh, littering the floor and the once-contained fires roaring loudly against the stones. Howls of anguish and sobs fill the air. 

“Y/n! Y/n!” Daryl’s southern drawl echoes through the remains of the camp, worry, fear, and anger lacing his words. “Where the hell is the kid?!”

The survivors are all gathered around the RV, and you watch as he shoves Shane lightly for getting in his way.

“Where are they? Did you leave them alone?” Rick tacks on as T-Dog tries to get in between them, his son in his arms. “Has anyone seen Y/n?”

As the moonlight casts a blue shadow on your blood and grime covered skin, you let go of Glenn and find it within yourself to shout. “I’m right here!”

The redneck’s head snaps over to you and he abandons his antagonism against the ex-cop in favor of running over to you. Daryl grabs your face in both of his hands and starts scanning over your features.

“You alright? Any of this blood yours?” He whispers gruffly.

“I’m… I mean I hurt my leg but otherwise I’m fine. No bites.” Your hollow voice cracks slightly as you speak, and your gaze flits away from him as he bends down to check your leg. “Is that?…”

Andrea sits, crumpled at the foot of the door into the RV. In her lap is Amy. Sweet Amy. Amy, who missed texting more than most and still had this beautiful ability to wonder in her twenties. Amy, whose birthday is tomorrow.

Amy, Amy, Amy.

Your blood runs cold and your stomach drops so fast you might fall over as the older blonde’s bloody hands brush across your dead friend’s pale skin. 

“Don’t look.” Your guardian orders once he’s followed your gaze, but it’s too late.

Tears, burning hot and long coming, spill out of your eyes and down your cheeks. Daryl sighs and, because the attention isn’t on either of you, lets you curl into his chest, his hand rubbing down your back in an attempt at comforting you.

It’s useless, though. 

Andrea’s sobs filter through the air as a heavy silence overcomes the rest of the group, each and every one of them consumed with the weight of what they’ve lost.

──────────────────

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@stawvberrymilktae / @vilaneiie / @letxhyng / @fnicolpcab / @redneckstrash / @dixonarchives / @howlerwolfmax / @spenciepoo338 / @luvelyxp / @quietly-scrolling-through / @btsiguess-kpop / @littledxve / @mich1551-blog / @anunstablefangirl / @furiousfandomenthusiast / @ineedmorefanfics2 / @justababygaysworld /

[johnnyrobish]

Republican Lawmaker Claims When Severe Child Abuse Victims Die - Govt Saves Money

During a recent committee hearing, Alaska Republican state Representative and longtime Oath Keepers member David Eastman suggested it's actually beneficial to society when victims of severe child abuse die “because there aren’t needs for government services and whatnot over the whole course of that child’s life.”  When asked to explain what he meant, Republican Rep. Eastman said he was “talking dollars” and that its actually a $1.5 million cost savings for society if the child abuse victim dies.  To add a little context, Rep. Eastman is a guy who once suggested that women living in poor, rural Alaskan villages were “getting pregnant on purpose” - just to get to enjoy a "free trip" to the city to get an abortion.

So, the “Pro-Life Party” strikes again.  Sounds like this wonderful guy sure has a very bright future in today’s Republican Party.  Of course, Rep. Eastman is from Wasilla, aka the “Meth Capitol of Alaska,” so next time he makes a crack like this - check his teeth!  And, while you’re at it, better check that crawl space under his house too!  Now, for most politicians, making such a vile remark would end their political career, but in Wasilla - he’ll actually be able to fundraise off of it. 

Gee, I wonder what’s next for America’s GOP Social Darwinists?  Exiling widows and orphans into the frozen tundra to fend for themselves?  Now, given his strong feelings on fiscal conservatism, I would assume Rep. Eastman would also be opposed to his family living long enough to collect Social Security and Medicare.  After all, we can’t have a bunch of these lazy old bastards financially burdening society, can we?

Of course, Libtards and Antifa are gonna criticize him for his statement, but in Rep. Eastman’s defense, he’s only trying to stay in step with his fellow Republican colleagues in Idaho.  You know Idaho, a place where parents are now legally allowed to starve their children as an expression of “religious freedom.”  Of course, and in all fairness, Republicans have always been big on “parental choice,” with the notable exception of the "becoming a parent" part.

Now, I have to admit that on a cellular level, I just don’t get Republicans.  Is it just me, or does it seem odd that someone can read a Charles Dickens novel and decide it was actually the villain with whom they identified most?  I mean, Republicans are folks who, when they watched the Wizard of Oz, actually rooted for the fucking witch.  As for me - well, I think I’ll call it a night.  You see, I’m under strict orders from my doctor - not to allow my head to explode more than once a day.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

[supercasey]

TMA Child Avatars AU

Alright, so ever since I listened to the episode about Agnes’s origins, I keep thinking about an AU where a bunch of the other Entities, after realizing that it’s at least possible to create an avatar from birth, perform their own rituals and make a bunch of the future Archives gang. This AU has a lot of potential for angst, but since TMA is sad enough, I’ll probably mostly focus on the world building and fluffy/funny stuff (‘cus god knows I’m a slut for that shit).

To all my followers, I’m sorry I keep making kid AUs; I got told in like 2015 or so that I sucked at writing kids and it’s Never Left My Mind, so now I always wanna make stupid AUs in order to practice writing kids better (I also have an original story I wanna write soon with a ten year old as the main character, so yeah, I need all the practice I can get).

Anyways, here’s all I’ve got on the AU this far (explanation under the cut; a very long post is up ahead):

Character Backstories

Jonathan “Jon” Sims - Apprentice Archivist of the Eye

Jon is a very complicated story, at least from everyone outside of the Eye’s gaze. It was Elias’s idea to create him, and were it not for Gertrude getting lucky, no one but Elias, Peter Lukas, and Simon Fairchild would have ever known that Jon existed until he was ready to become the next archivist. Gertrude found out by pure chance when she accepted a live statement from one very frightened Delores Sims, who told the archivist about how a strange man had been stalking her ever since she found out she was pregnant. Out of completely nowhere, her husband died a month after she conceived, and even though it looked like an accident, Delores swore that she saw an arm surrounded by fog push him down the stairs. Things only grew worse for her over the next few weeks, as in the midst of her grieving her dead husband, Delores began seeing green, glowing irises out of the corners of her eyes, watching her every move as she lived her life, which was followed by the stalker in question appearing constantly in her dreams, always watching her from afar, an unpleasant and frankly unnerving grin on his face the entire time.

Suspicious, and finding the description of the stalker all too familiar by the end of the statement, Gertrude investigated Delores’s claims on her own time, going so far as to break into Elias’s office in order to dig up more information on whatever he was up to. No matter what her theories may have been, none of them were anything like what she found in his letters to his associates. Somehow, Elias had conspired alongside the Lukas and Fairchild families to find their heirs/avatars together, and Elias was the last person to acquire one of his own. Gertrude was unsure of the details at the time (and she still unfortunately is), but from what she could gather, the child growing in Delores Sims’ body was somehow touched by the Eye because of something Elias had done, and they would be born with the perfect framework to have the powers that an archivist learns over several years of training at birth! With no time to lose, Gertrude got back into contact with Delores, and after much discussion between the two women, she convinced Delores to come to her apartment when she eventually went into labor, and to give Gertrude the baby after they were born so that she could keep them safe from Elias.

The birth was meant to be done in secret, but the second the first contraction occurred, there was a knock on Gertrude’s door, Elias waiting for her on the other side with an unhappy grimace on his face. He came armed with a gun, and threatened to murder Gertrude if she didn’t allow him to claim the child as his own. Aware she still had many rituals to stop in the near future, and that none of her assistants were experienced enough to stop them by themselves, Gertrude reluctantly agreed to let him inside, but on one condition; the child had to be shared between them. Elias was abrasive to the idea of course, but he eventually complied with his archivist’s demands, not wanting to replace her so early on in her career. The sight of her stalker coming into the bedroom to watch her give birth unfortunately sent Delores into a panic attack while she was still very much in labor, making the rest of the birth a rather dangerous thing, but the child survived, leaving his mother terrified and shaking. Gertrude had planned on letting her go on her merry way after the baby was born, but Elias wasn’t taking any chances, and he shot her as soon as he deemed it safe to.

Since then, Gertrude and Elias have had dual custody of Jonathan- the name was Gertrude’s idea, on the grounds that it was a nice, proper name for a young man- trading him back and forth every other week. It’s been hard, especially with the adults he calls his parents wanting to kill each other, but Jon’s oblivious to most of the fighting right now, assuming his folks are just going through a messy divorce.

Martin Blackwood-Lukas - Adoptive Son of Peter Lukas

Peter ended up running very behind in the whole child avatar thing (a first for his family, something Simon reminds him of on a daily basis), and he really struggled with creating a baby avatar that would actually be able to “keep up” with the other young messiahs that were coming to be. Eventually he realized that his family’s usual method would take too long, so out of desperation he went to Elias and Simon for help. It was Simon’s idea that worked; he suggested that since the normal methods weren’t working, and kids usually don’t become lonely until they’re older, that Peter should try his own summoning ritual like the Lightless Flame did with Agnes. Peter was hesitant at first, but he gave in quickly, sacrificing a number of lonely souls to his entity in a well-timed manner, until finally, he found a small, swaddled baby in the midst of the fog; a supposed gift from the Lonely for his loyalty.

Peter was delighted by this discovery, and so were his colleagues, the men relieved that their hard work had actually paid off for once. After naming the little boy Martin- it was Elias’s idea, though he didn’t have much of an exact reason for the name, simply claiming that it “suited” the child- and before long, Peter began raising his newfound son much the same as he was; in almost total isolation, save for a variety of rotating nannies and caregivers. Unfortunately for Peter, this went horribly wrong almost as soon as he got started, as by the time that Martin was six months old he had accidentally forced five different nannies into the fog out of fear of them leaving like the ones before them had. With no other options available, and being able to actually leave the fog if Martin threw anymore fits, Peter was forced to raise his son by hand, which again went wrong, but for very different reasons, as to his shock, he became quite attached to his adopted child.

This evolved into Peter having doubt of the Lonely for the first time in his life, but he refused to acknowledge it for as long as he could. But he was finally forced to when, after Martin turned five years old, the rest of the Lukas family insisted on performing a test on the child to see how well Martin could handle the fog without any guidance. He had been inside the fog before of course, with Peter holding his hand or carrying him through the dense chill, but the family wanted to isolate Martin inside for a full month. This secretly scared Peter like nothing else ever had, but out of fear of what his family might think, he didn’t say anything at the time, simply watching from afar as his son was dragged into the fog and left to fend for himself. The ritual went wrong within the first week, Martin having a full-scale breakdown and nearly hyperventilating to death, and yet the family kept him in there for another week before the intervention.

The results of the test of course disappointed the other members of the Lukas family, who suggested that they simply leave Martin to disappear into the fog and look for a new, more sufficient messiah to serve their god. The news hit Peter incredibly hard, and despite his previous inhibitions and fear, he knew he couldn’t let the Lonely consume his one and only son. So, without telling anyone of what he was up to, he ventured into the fog, rescued Martin, and fled to live with his estranged ex-husband the Magnus Institute. Since then he’s been living with Elias at his house and avoiding his family at all costs, all while young Martin has grown up alongside the other entity kids and has struggled to figure out his role in everything, but at least he has his dad on his side through all of this.

Sasha James - Chosen Daughter of the Mother of Puppets

(Note: I headcanon the Mother of Puppets as a giant spider, so that’s how I’m writing her… sorry if this is inaccurate, but I’m only on MAG 152, y’all. Besides, I think this is cool af.)

Sasha was very much planned, even more so than Agnes was so many years beforehand. The Mother of Puppets had her minions gather hundreds upon hundreds of orphaned infants and bring them to her nest. She swaddled each every one in her webbing and kept them like this for several weeks, allowing them time to adjust to the webbing and adapt. Unfortunately, most of these children weren’t cut out for the Web’s influence, and while a few indeed held their adoptive mother’s mark, almost none of them were marked deep enough to become a fully realized avatar. The unsuccessful batches were subsequently sent off to orphanages across the world and replaced with new babies, this process repeating for years and years, until finally, Sasha was born. There was nothing special about her parents, yet she not only bore The Web’s mark, she seemed to have it embedded into her very soul. This, of course, was met with celebration from the Web, and plans were quickly made as to how to raise her moving forward, as no one wanted Sasha to end up like Agnes did.

Annabelle Cane ended up being the one chosen to home Sasha for the first few years of her childhood, and she was dutiful in her new, rather honorable role, as she not only cared for the child well, but she treated Sasha as her own, though she was careful to be seen more as an older sister than a mother to the girl; that role was, of course, reserved for Sasha’s real mother. When Sasha finally turned five, the Mother of Puppets announced further plans for the young avatar, calling on Annabelle to take Sasha to the Magnus Institute and give her to one of their hidden agents there so that she could learn more about how the Web uses it’s influence over other entities. This worried Annabelle, who wanted to keep the child near her and prove that she was the most loyal of the mother’s children, but she would never disobey a direct order from the being that had given her life such meaning. So, rather reluctantly, Annabelle gave Sasha to another member of the Web, watching from the shadows as this unworthy follower took the blessed daughter into the institute for further training.

This went wrong within only a few months. Gertrude ended up finding out who the Web’s spy in the institute was, as she had suspected that another entity was trying to control her from the shadows, and after disposing of the threat and searching their home for anything useful that she could use against the Web, she found Sasha. The archivist was tempted to kill the supernatural child on sight, but while she can murder her assistants and enemies without much remorse, on the grounds that it’s always for the greater good, killing a child is a very different story. So she took Sasha in, raising the Web’s child as her own alongside the Eye’s own prodigy Jon, all while trying to help Sasha control her slowly budding powers. The Mother of Puppets has been trying to get Sasha back ever since, enraged that the child is so close to her yet just out of reach, but with no luck, though there’s no telling how long that will last.

Timothy & Daniel Stoker - Dancer and Future Ringmaster of the Stranger

Both Tim and Danny are chosen ones of the Stranger, created as soon as their god had gained enough spare power to create them. Tim was born first, being the Stranger’s first attempt at birthing an avatar that might be powerful enough to help lead the Unknowing, but Gertrude interrupted midway through the ritual. By some miracle, Tim survived the ordeal, but he was left “incomplete” to some degree, leaving him simply marked and not fully connected to the Stranger. The entity’s followers ended up keeping him around though, both because Nikola Orsinov was too fascinated by the newborn baby to give him up, and because his parents wanted him to survive, but it was agreed that another attempt would be made, this time with more planning involved. Four years later, Danny was born, and with Gertrude too preoccupied to intervene this time around (and because she didn’t realize they’d try again so soon), the ritual went much better and created a far more suitable vessel for the Stranger’s powers.

After that, Tim and Danny’s parents died, fully succumbing to the Stranger’s transformation and leaving them orphaned. Not that their presence was strictly necessary after the kids were born, as Nikola Orsinov was more than happy to take over in most of the child rearing, genuinely growing quite fond of the two boys, particularly Tim, as despite his lack of supernatural abilities, she found him to be rather endearing, which is probably the closest she can get to genuinely caring about someone. Both brothers were raised more or less the same way, save for Danny being showered with more praise and being trained as a future ringmaster while Tim was mostly ignored and trained to be a dancer. Some followers of the Stranger feared that Tim might harbor resentment towards his little brother and try to kill him someday, but to their surprise, Tim only grew more protective of him over the years, swearing to keep Danny safe as he grew up to fulfill his destiny and help their family mold the world in their image.

Eventually though, when Tim was eleven and Danny was seven, Tim realized what was actually happening behind the scenes, and not wanting his brother to risk being sacrificed for the world’s destruction, he told Danny everything, leading to the young messiah to run away with him to London (they were raised primarily in Russia, but moved with the circus a lot, and were in France at the time that they finally ran away). There, Tim found the infamous Gertrude Robinson, who he knew had the power to stop the Unknowing, as she had once saved him from becoming the Stranger’s avatar, and inadvertently led him to having a little brother. Tim and Danny have since moved in with Michael, and they visit the Magnus Institute whenever they get the chance, as both boys have grown to become friends with the other avatar kids. You’d think that the Stranger’s followers would be furious about all of this- don’t worry, many of their acolytes are- but Nikola has laughed it off entirely and keeps insisting that the boys are just having a “sleepover” or are away at “summer camp” (in fucking January, apparently).

Melanie King - Cadet of the Slaughter

Honestly, the Slaughter wasn’t as into the whole “let’s make an avatar from scratch!” thing that the other entities’ followers were doing, but hey, sometimes child avatars just kinda wind up on your doorstep, ya know? Melanie ended up being found at about four years old, sobbing on her hands and knees outside of a burning hospital and calling for her mommy and daddy to come back to her, but no one answered her cries, and she was left to weep for quite some time before someone found her. The hospital, you see, had been overrun by the Corruption and promptly burned to the ground by the Desolation, neither of which bothered to stick around for some worthless child. Melanie’s parents were both inside when the entities clashed, leaving her orphaned and scared, and while Alfred Grifter, who had been on his way to a show with his bandmates at the time that he found her, had intended on just leaving her be, he saw the overwhelming rage and blood-lust in her crying eyes, and realized in that moment that she was touched by the urge to kill, just like he was.

Melanie was promptly taken in by Alfred Grifter and the band, who honestly had no idea what the hell they were doing. On one hand, Alfred knew that keeping a kid around was unbelievably dangerous for all parties involved, but on the other, he really didn’t want to leave Melanie all by herself, for fear of what she might do if left without any guidance from “people” who knew what she was going through, at least to some degree. That isn’t to say Alfred and his bandmates were all that great at raising her- they mostly just brought her to gigs and let her play on her Gameboy backstage while they started massacres- but they did at least try to give her somewhat of a home. It wasn’t until five years into this that some other Slaughter followers found out about Melanie’s existence, to which they told Alfred to give her to them for proper training. Knowing her life would be horrible with them, Alfred gave his ward a backpack full of everything she ever owned, a kid sized guitar, her Gameboy, and sent her on the run.

Melanie was scared out of her mind at first, having grown to see Alfred and his bandmates as her new family; she had already lost her parents, so why did she have to lose the band, too!? But there were no other options, she had to run, so she did just that, attacking any adult who tried to stop her along the way. She didn’t actually know about the Magnus Institute when she made her way to London, and Alfred didn’t tell her to go there or anything, but she ended up being spotted by Adelard Dekker while she was looking for a place to stay in the area. Seeing that Melanie was an avatar of some kind, Adelard managed to convince her that he was safe, and to let him take her to someone that could help her. He brought Melanie straight to Gertrude Robinson, who agreed to house the child since Adelard couldn’t, though she ended up letting one of her unofficial assistants (*cough* Gerry *cough*) take her to live in his flat so she wouldn’t be as easy for Elias to monitor/get ahold of.

Julia Montauk & Alice “Daisy” Tonner - Children of the Hunt

(Watch as I fuck with timelines so badly that the people who keep track of this shit will order a hit on me) The Hunt found both of their avatars in strikingly similar yet different ways; Julia was first, born from the womb of another entity’s follower, but bound for so much more than anything the Dark could give her. Years after her destined birth, Julia’s mother was viciously murdered by the People’s Church when she was just five years old, her father Robert Montauk going down the path of becoming a fully-fledged Hunter, and in the process he unknowingly marked Julia with his newfound entity, which in turn unlocked an unprecedented potential inside of her, not that it was fully realized until another tragedy struck her. This next tragedy, unfortunately, claimed Julia’s father. Mr. Pitch was mistakenly summoned, and in it’s rage, it destroyed Robert while he was in the midst of a sacrifice. The monster would’ve gotten Julia next, had it not been for the intervention of a nearby Hunter.

Trevor Herbert honestly didn’t mean to get involved, but when he witnessed a little girl screaming as she ran out of a house, a giant mass of darkness chasing after her, and no one willing to so much as call the damn cops, he knew he had to rescue the poor kid. In a flash he ran over, picked Julia up, and ran away with her to safety, managing to get her in his car (which he stole, but that’s not important) and drive as far away from her old home as possible. In the aftermath, Trevor had no idea what to do with Julia, since he had never actually wanted any kids of his own, but… well, he ain’t heartless, and that monster was still out there somewhere, just waiting to sink it’s cursed teeth into this young child’s flesh. Trevor ended up keeping her after that, becoming her adoptive father as he traveled with her around the UK, slowly but surely training her to hunt the same monsters that claimed her beloved parents.

You’d think that would be the end of Trevor Herbert adopting little girls marked by the Hunt, but nope, he just can’t catch a fucking break! He found Daisy about a year later, when Julia was eight and becoming more adjusted to her new lifestyle. Again, Trevor wasn’t really planning on going on any hunts at the time that this happened, he was just traveling through the area, but upon finding a bloodied up, terrified little girl being chased by a boy who looked possessed… well, it wasn’t like Julia wasn’t lonely, and again, Trevor isn’t heartless, and he sure as hell can’t let things go. So yeah, he kidnapped another child touched by the Hunt, even though this one actually had a living parent, and once again he took to traveling the UK with his adoptive daughters, secretly reveling in his new role as a father. Daisy, while scared at first, quickly grew fond of her new family, and even fonder of her new nickname after Trevor patched up her wounds, and noticed a flower-shaped scar on her back, prompting him to start affectionately calling her Daisy.

Yep, things were going pretty good for the family of three, but of course, shit eventually caught up with Trevor, not that he thought he could avoid it forever.

The police eventually caught wind of “Trevor the Tramp” traveling with two little girls who looked an awful lot like the missing thirteen and ten year olds Julia Montauk and Alice Tonner, and in his desperation to keep from getting arrested and having his children taken away, Trevor fled to downtown London in order to lie low for awhile and raise his daughters in relative peace, only ever going out for food runs and the occasional hunt. It was through one of these hunts that he ended up meeting Gerard Keay, the two of them chasing after the same book that had been summoning shadow people to wreck havoc on the city, and after a bit of back and forth banter over the campfire that was once a Leitner, Gerry convinced Trevor to move in with him so that the girls and him would be safer and actually have a home. Although he was hesitant to accept an offer he thought was too good to be true (also, he’s not gonna lie, he thought Gerry was a vampire when they met), Trevor agreed and moved into Gerry’s flat with his daughters, and has since helped Gertrude and her assistants with monster hunts.

Oliver Banks & Georgie Barker - Fetchlings of The End

Georgie and Oliver are an odd story, with the latter of the two having gained his powers as a mere toddler, being plagued with horrible, ghastly dreams that would keep him awake through the night, leaving him absolutely haggard by morning. His father tried everything to help Oliver through this torment- counseling, medication, bedtime rituals- but nothing worked, and before long, Oliver’s beloved father was claimed by his nightmares, dying of a heart attack that he couldn’t stop. Alone and misunderstood by everyone who tried to raise him, Oliver ran away countless times, coming across Georgie during his last attempt. He found the little girl to also be on the run for similar reasons, but unlike him, she wasn’t the least bit afraid. She wasn’t exactly happy, but she wasn’t a bawling mess like he was. Together, the two of them struggled to survive, relying on kindhearted drifters for support while they avoided the police until, at long last, something took pity on them, that something being a large, fat tabby cat.

As it were, the tabby cat- dubbed The Admiral by Georgie- wasn’t a normal cat in the slightest, and although it couldn’t speak, it’s intentions were clear; it was there to help these lost, orphaned children. Oliver was skeptical of course, but Georgie wasn’t about to look a gift cat in the mouth, so Oliver reluctantly followed the cat and his little sister to an apartment building, and from there, into an unoccupied flat. Since then, the two children have been living with Admiral in that very same flat, the cat providing them with a fully stocked fridge, warm beds, and running water. It’s still unclear what the Admiral is, but he seems kind enough, and is obviously quite protective of his newfound children, accompanying them on their outings and occasional visits to the institute.

Michael Crew - Prodigy of The Vast

Out of all avatars to be raising children for their entity, Simon Fairchild absolutely has had the most fun with it all, treating it almost like a fun game or pastime. He was the first (save for the Lightless Flame having Agnes, of course) to “create” an avatar child, and from minute one he was overjoyed with the results. A few years after news broke of Agnes’ origins, and the followers of other entities were all arguing over whether or not to follow suit, Simon didn’t bother waiting for anyone’s input or permission, simply throwing himself into the deep end and praying he could make his plan work. Seemingly overnight, Simon somehow acquired a baby later identified as the missing and presumably dead infant Michael Crew, who he referred to as Mike when he finally introduced him to his friends/associates. He still hasn’t told anyone how he even got the kid- not even Peter or Elias know what he did!- but by some means, he illegally adopted Mike and took to raising the kid like a duck takes to water; a bit unsure at first, but growing to love it fast!

When Mike was introduced to the rest of the entity followers community, many were shocked (excuse the pun) to see that the infant had a long, frightening Lichtenberg scar running down his right arm, his back, and his right leg, the scars glowing a bright blue whenever he took to the sky or, as Elias learned the hard way after accidentally annoying Mike by bouncing him on his knee for too long when he was a toddler, used his powers to electrocute people. Even with his child being such an oddity, even among other avatars, Simon took it all in stride, proudly bragging about Mike to anyone who would listen, most of these people being victims of the Vast, who were hardly able to hear Simon’s excited rambling over their own shrieks of terror. He usually also insisted on bringing Mike with him, even when he was a mere infant, though he at least kept the kid in a tight harness on his chest. In all honesty, Simon being such an excited parent was what kick-started a lot of other avatars to start acquiring their own child avatars, as he made it look so easy!

However, things weren’t always perfect, especially on Mike’s end as he grew older. Being the eldest and more or less “firstborn” of this new generation of entity-made avatars put a lot of pressure on him at a very early age, pressure which Simon tried to help him deal with by not acknowledging it, which unfortunately didn’t help in the slightest. Thankfully Mike started to feel less unsure of his place in the world as he reached his teen years, seeing as the younger kids were now getting all the attention and giving him a chance to breathe. Even now that he’s an angsty teenager, Mike loves Simon like a father, referring to him as such without hesitation. This, of course, delights Simon to no end, and makes all his peers low-key high-key jealous of the awesome relationship he has with his son.

Helen Richardson - Droplet of The Spiral

Not much was known about Helen when Michael first found her. After being sent into The Spiral by Gertrude on what he thought to be a suicide mission for the greater good, Michael was half certain he wouldn’t find anything but his end in that place. Instead he found a small, strange toddler where he was meant to find… well, he didn’t actually know what, but certainly not a baby, that’s for sure! With no one watching baby Helen, and therefore making him believe that she had been abandoned by The Spiral’s other creations, Michael had no reservations against scooping her up and taking her back to the physical world with him, where he was met be a very confused Gertrude Robinson. Michael wasn’t exactly keen on killing/abandoning a baby after he got out, so he and Gertrude brought her back to London with them in hopes of finding out more about the odd child. Along the way, it became clear that the baby was gifted with The Spiral’s powers, the giggly toddler continually screwing with reality, though she wasn’t aware she was doing so.

Back home in London, it took another three weeks of research, but Gerry eventually found out more about the child Michael had more or less adopted. Her name was originally Helen Richardson, and her father, a rookie paranormal investigator who had once been marked by The Spiral, was obsessed with the distortion, and was willing to do anything to become more than simply marked by it. He ended up finding a map similar to Gertrude’s, and a few years before she even knew it was possible, the father went into The Spiral and used his own daughter as a vessel for the entity, hoping she would be a good enough sacrifice to earn it’s favor. This of course ended in disaster, with the father “disappearing” while Helen absorbed The Spiral’s power, but seeing as she was so young, it couldn’t manifest properly, even after two and a half years spent trying to “raise her” within the deepest depths of it’s domain.

With research still being done on what to do about the child, and whether or not the team can remove her powers without killing or permanently injuring her in the process, Michael has agreed to take Helen in, secretly delighted to be raising a baby. With the Stoker Brothers already under his roof, Michael has his hands rather full with them and baby Helen, but the boys take her antics in stride, having learned quickly how to deal with the apartment they live in occasionally “growing” some new doors and changing color at random. Luckily for Michael, he has back-up in the forms of Gerry and Gertrude, who occasionally take Helen and the brothers off his hands for him so he can take a break/fix whatever Helen may’ve accidentally broken with her powers.

Character Roles in this AU

(Feel free to add your own OCs/other characters if you wanna do stuff with this AU, I’m just naming characters I know about/remember!)

Avatar Kids: Jonathan “Jon” Sims, Martin Blackwood, Sasha James, Timothy “Tim” Stoker, Daniel “Danny” Stoker, Melanie King, Julia Montauk, Alice “Daisy” Tonner, Oliver Banks, Georgie Barker, Michael “Mike” Crew, and Helen Richardson.

Avatar Kids Semi-Reluctant PTA Group: Elias Bouchard, Gertrude Robinson, Peter Lukas, Gerard “Gerry” Keay, Trevor Herbert, Michael Shelley, and Simon Fairchild.

PTA Allies: Basira Hussain (Daisy’s best friend and the local Normal Child™), Agnes Montague (Everyone’s emergency number for avatar child advice), Alfred Grifter (Just shows up to hang out with Melanie and cause problems on purpose), The Admiral (Guardian to Georgie and Oliver and occasionally the other kids; best babysitter), Adelard Dekker (Comes around the archives sometimes and always brings presents for the kids + assistants), and Rosie (Elias’s assistant and the only sane and sensible adult in this Chili’s tonight).

PTA Enemies: Nikola Orsinov (Tim and Danny’s “Mom” who keeps kidnapping Jon on accident), Annabelle Cane (Hates the institute and wants Sasha back), Jude Perry (Hates the kids but loves Agnes; worst babysitter),  and Jared Hopworth (Nightmare flesh man that needs to fuck off; mediocre but funny babysitter).

Character Descriptions

(Feel free to tweak the physical designs if you want; I’m just going off my own headcanons, and seeing as my drawing skills are pretty shit, it’s not like I’m gonna be doing much art for this outside of writing. So yeah, go off with your own headcanons if you want to!)

Full Name: Jonathan “Jon” Sims-Bouchard-Robinson Age: 7 Birthday: October 26th (Scorpio) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Eye, Marked by Literally Fucking Everything Guardian(s): Alexander Sims (Biological Father - Deceased), Delores Sims (Biological Mother - Deceased), Gertrude Robinson (Adoptive Mother - Current), Elias Bouchard (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark brown skin, worryingly short for his age, dark brown eyes that glow bright green when he’s using his powers, long black hair with a few green and grey hairbands tied in, constantly “borrows” Martin’s sweaters to wear, occasionally wears skirts but most of the time he wears slacks, constantly looks sleep deprived, has a very intense stare, and occasionally he can be seen carrying his stuffed moth around. Personality: You’d think he’d be a quiet kid, considering his entity, but no, he has Questions and he wants them Answered, goddammit! He wasn’t raised around many kids his age, being home-schooled by Elias and Gertrude all his life, so he struggles to connect with the other avatar kids. Is only close to the S1 gang at first, but he gets closer to everyone else over time. Idolizes Gerry and thinks he’s the coolest guy ever. Appears rather cowardly at a glance, but he’s braver than most people give him credit for. Would die for his friends/family.

Full Name: Martin Blackwood-Lukas Age: 8 Birthday: February 29th (Pisces) ((This one’s for you, Dane)) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Lonely, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): William Blackwood (Biological Father - Uninvolved), Edna Blackwood (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Peter Lukas (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Polish heritage and pale as a fucking ghost, average height for his age but growing fast, pretty chubby, covered head to toe in little red freckles, short and curly red hair, bright brown eyes, wears big round glasses, wears sweaters and comfy trousers almost 24/7, carries a backpack full of “emergency tools” wherever he goes, usually has a cup of tea in-hand, and sometimes wears a small sailor hat that Peter gave him. Personality: Incredibly reserved, much like Mike, but he’s been trying to come out of his shell more. He’s “Best Friends Forever” with Jon, and gets along well with Tim and Sasha as well. Fears Melanie and Daisy. He likes hanging out with the other kids, but he often gets talked over, leading him to withdraw for awhile if it’s bad enough. Adores his dad, and is so much braver than anyone knows. Incredibly snarky when he feels like it.

Full Name: Sasha James Age: 10 Birthday: November 18th (Scorpio) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Web, Marked by The Eye, Marked by The Stranger Guardian(s): Francis James (Biological Father - Deceased), Patrick James (Biological Father - Deceased), Annabelle Cane (Adoptive Mother - Uninvolved), Gertrude Robinson (Adoptive Mother - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of African and Caucasian with dark brown skin, slightly taller than average for her age, long dark brown hair, wears big round glasses, sometimes wears a little make-up if she can get away with it, wears a lot of turtleneck sweaters and long skirts, always has at least one cobweb on her, carries around a stuffed spider that she brings with her to the archives every day, and she wears a headband most of the time. Personality: Easily the most level-headed of the kids, as she’s been raised around paranormal stuff the longest and is rarely bothered by the stranger things that happen. She hates Artifact Storage with a passion, but other than that, she loves exploring the institute and occasionally stealing Gertrude’s laptop to mess with it. Very tech savvy, and even more curious! Incredibly smart, to the point that she can even outclass Gertrude and Gerry with her quick-wittiness.

Full Name: Timothy “Tim” Stoker Age: 12 Birthday: August 3rd (Leo) Entity/Mark(s): Marked by The Stranger, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Markus Stoker (Biological Father - Deceased), Olivia Stoker (Biological Mother - Deceased), Nikola Orsinov (Adoptive Mother - Uninvolved), Gerard “Gerry” Keay (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of Latino and Korean with dark tanned skin, slightly on the taller side for his age, messy/spiky black hair that looks impossible to comb, dark brown eyes, is described as a “handsome young man” by strangers, has a very charming smile, wears a lot of Hawaiian shirts and shorts (even during the winter), needs to wear glasses but he refuses to wear them in the archives out of self-consciousness. Personality: Probably one of the brightest personalities of the avatar kids, Tim comes off as very cool and funny, but underneath all of that he’s rather paranoid, afraid that the circus will come and force his baby brother into becoming a monster. Protective of his little bro and the archive kids, but he still teases them to no end. Smarter than he looks, and isn’t afraid to break his cool guy persona to tell someone off.

Full Name: Daniel “Danny” Stoker Age: 8 Birthday: August 1st (Leo) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Stranger, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Markus Stoker (Biological Father - Deceased), Olivia Stoker (Biological Mother - Deceased), Nikola Orsinov (Adoptive Guardian - Uninvolved), Gerard “Gerry” Keay (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of Latino and Korean with dark tanned skin, about a head shorter than Tim, somewhat neat black hair that sticks up in odd places, eyes are impressively dark and glassy looking, slight gap between his front teeth, is described as being a “handsome young man” by strangers, wears a lot of tank tops and shorts as well as the occasional hoodie if it’s cold, and loves running around barefoot. Personality: A lot of people describe Danny as being a “smaller and cuter Tim”, but that’s just not true. Danny is a lot like his older brother in many ways, but he has a much more refined taste for adventure, constantly getting himself into trouble with Jon on the grounds of “exploring” or what have you. He idolizes his big bro to the moon and back, and loves hanging out with him alongside the other kids. More of a follower than a leader, but he doesn’t mind. Secretly fears the day that the circus will come back to make him into their future ringmaster.

Full Name: Melanie King Age: 9 Birthday: June 7th (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Slaughter, Marked by The Corruption, Marked by The Desolation, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Boris King (Biological Father - Deceased), Carrie King (Biological Mother - Deceased), Alfred Grifter (Guardian - Uninvolved), Gerard Keay (Guardian - Current) Appearance: Irish heritage but not terribly pale, rather short for her age, incredibly thin from malnutrition, short brown hair with the ends dyed bright blue, bright brown eyes, brings her leather jacket and her guitar with her everywhere she goes, wears a lot of pink/blue skirts and band t-shirts, wears black leather boots, has a lot of bandages on her knees and knuckles, and always has a camera ready to record things. Personality: Melanie is probably the most disconnected of the avatar kids (save for Helen), seeing as she only just recently joined the group, but already she’s beginning to befriend Sasha and Basira. She’s very protective of the other girls, and she keeps challenging the boys to fight her (only Danny ever agrees; he always loses). Secretly idolizes Julia and Daisy, but will never admit it. She sees Gerry as her big bro and Alfred Grifter as her adoptive dad; she misses Alfred more than she let’s on. Would stab as a warning.

Full Name: Julia Montauk Age: 13 Birthday: April 19th (Aries) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Hunt, Marked by The Dark, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Robert Montauk (Biological Father - Deceased), Linette Montauk (Biological Mother - Deceased), Trevor Herbert (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Indigenous heritage with dark tan skin, tall for her age, skinny enough to look malnourished, close-cropped red hair that gets her mistaken for a boy a lot, metal grey eyes, a scar runs diagonally across her right eye, often wears medium length skirts and oversized t-shirts, always wears athletic shoes, has a lot of scrapes and bandages on her knees most of the time, and has abnormally sharp canines. Personality: Before the deaths of both of her parents, Julia was considered rather normal for her age, being interested in horses, dolls, and dress-up games. After her mother died, she became more tomboyish, which only became more extreme after her father’s death. Since being taken in by Trevor, Julia’s been trying to act more like an adult in an attempt to seem less vulnerable, to varying degrees of success. She adores Trevor to the moon and back, and sees Daisy as her little sister. A bit standoffish around other children, but she’s got a good heart.

Full Name: Alice “Daisy” Tonner Age: 10 Birthday: March 15th (Pisces) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Hunter, Marked by The Slaughter, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Greyson Tonner (Biological Father - Deceased), Antoinette Tonner (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Trevor Herbert (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Welsh heritage with cream colored skin and a light tan, average height for her age, short and shaggy blond hair, has a number of tiny scars all over her face and hands, has a huge scar on her back that Trevor has told her looks like a daisy, striking green eyes, wears a lot of sleeveless shirts and shorts, refuses to wear dresses or skirts, prefers to be barefoot, and has abnormally sharp canines. Personality: Is already rather hot-headed at her age, especially after her encounter with Calvin while he was being possessed by a spirit of the Slaughter. Even so, she’s protective of her newfound family of Trevor and Julia, and while she misses her mother, she believes it’s best if she stays where she is. She loves playing outside whenever she can, and will spend hours chasing after squirrels and rabbits if left alone for too long. A bit argumentative, but she gets along really well with Julia and Basira.

Full Name: Oliver Banks Age: 10 Birthday: June 14th (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The End, Marked by The Hunt Guardian(s): June Banks (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Isaac Banks (Biological Father - Deceased), The Admiral (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark skin, has an array of pitch black freckles on his face, short and neat black hair that reaches just below his ears, ghastly grey eyes that look almost clear and turn black when he’s using his powers; used to be dark brown, worryingly thin from years of malnutrition, wears a lot of baggy and long-sleeved shirts, wears sweatpants, has boots on everywhere he goes, and he’s almost always shivering. Personality: The more distrustful of the “End Siblings”, the only person Oliver even sort of likes is Jon, and even then he’s still scared of him. Constantly fidgeting and yawning from both his paranoia and fatigue. Is protective of Georgie, but more out of obligation than friendship. Prefers to be alone, and rarely visits the archives. He knows something bad is coming, but he’s too scared to do much about it. In the end, he knows he’ll do the right thing, but for now he’s hiding until the bombs finally fall.

Full Name: Georgie Barker Age: 7 Birthday: December 9th (Sagittarius) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The End, Marked by The Hunt Guardian(s): Georgie Grounding Sr. (Biological Mother - Deceased), Sarah Grounding (Biological Mother - Deceased), Jason Barker (Adoptive Father - Deceased), The Admiral (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of African and Indian with dark brown skin, fairly chubby, has an array of light brown freckles all over her arms, back, and face, has long and curly black hair done up in poofy buns using colorful hair bands, paints her nails all the time with different colors every week, cutest little smile you ever did see, wears a lot of ghost-related clothing (mainly t-shirts and jeans), and she brings her ghost backpack with her everywhere she goes (it has her stuffed leopard inside). Personality: Despite being an avatar of the End, Georgie has a very upbeat personality, having no time for her adoptive brother’s endless worrying and fearfulness. In fact, all her fear has been gone since she was little, so she’s never scared to explore something new and parade into danger! She’s very close friends with Jon (even if he’s distant sometimes) and best friends with Melanie, though she gets along with most everyone else as well. She may be a chipper person, but look out, she’s carrying more baggage than she let’s on. Loves The Admiral more than life.

Full Name: Michael “Mike” Crew Age: 14 Birthday: May 13th (Taurus) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Vast Guardian(s): Ramsey Crew (Biological Father - Uninvolved), Whitney Crew (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Simon Fairchild (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Caucasian and pale as a ghost, shaggy white hair that’s almost always wind-swept, strikingly pale blue eyes, smells of ozone and burnt hair, incredibly short for his age, very bony and thin, tends to wear a lot of oversized hoodies on the grounds that they make flying more fun, clothes are almost always pristine and clean, his back, right arm, and right leg are covered in a Lichtenberg scar that glows bright blue when he’s using his powers, permanent bags under his eyes. Personality: A very, very quiet kid, at least around strangers. He’s much bubblier around Simon, but otherwise he’s viewed as an “old soul” by most adults. He does have a sense of humor though, taking a bit too much pleasure out of sending people soaring into the air against their will, especially if they insulted or annoyed him beforehand. Secretly a bit protective of the other avatar kids, and has been known to take them flying if they promise not to let go of him when they do so. Nice kid, but don’t make fun of his height or he might just electrocute you out of spite.

Full Name: Helen Richardson Age: 3 Birthday: February 23rd (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Spiral Guardian(s): Tiara Richardson (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Dexter Richardson (Biological Father - Deceased), Michael Shelley (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark brown skin (has the beginning patches of vitiligo on her face and hands), fairly chubby but Michael swears it’s just baby fat, has bright purple eyes with swirling yellow irises, has short but frizzy black hair that cannot be tamed, is often dressed in very colorful onesies and footie pajamas alongside the rare dress, and occasionally she’ll have a child leash vest on (though it often disappears because of The Spiral). Personality: She honestly doesn’t have much of a personality yet, being a toddler and all, but she’s a very giggly child, and loves nothing more than making Michael “be silly” with the use of her powers. Speaking of which, she has very little control of her abilities, and although she’s too young to understand their impact on the world, she still feels bad when she accidentally goes too far and gets Michael hurt. She adores Michael and Jon, and loves it when Michael brings her to the institute with him. Very playful and mischievous.

And that’s all I’ve got for now! I wanna write some fics for this at some point (particularly I wanna write a fic that has all of the kids’ origin stories in better/more detail), but for now anyone is free to fuck around with this AU, so long as you’re not doing too much shipping between the kids (hints at ships are fine, but they’re still kids, y’all) and ESPECIALLY not any shipping of the kids with the adults/guardians. Feel free to PM me or scream about this AU in the notes/tags; I’d love to hear people’s thoughts!

[mediaevalmusereads]

A Curious Beginning. By Deanna Raybourn. Avon, 2019.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

Part of a Series? Yes, Veronica Speedwell #1

Summary:  London, 1887. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: blood, violence

Overview: I forget how I learned of this book, but the summary made it seem fun, so I gave it a go. Overall, I don’t think it was a bad book - there were some exciting elements and clever plot developments, but as a whole, it just didn’t do things that got me personally excited. Our protagonist, Veronica Speedwell, is a bit too much of a know-it-all and has an attitude that I personally find off-putting. Also, the “mystery” that kicks off the whole plot is pushed to the side rather quickly in favor of some shenanigans such as joining a traveling circus, and while it can be fun for some readers, it just wasn’t what I was looking for. Thus, based on my own subjective tastes, this book only gets 2.5 stars from me.

Writing: This book is written in first person, and if you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know how I feel about first person generally. Specific to this book, however, was the lack of giving voice to emotions or inner thoughts to flesh out what was going on in the narrative. I often felt like there would be long stretches where Raybourn/Veronica would simply narrate what actions were happening without giving us Veronica’s emotional response or Veronica’s reflection on what was transpiring. As a result, I didn’t feel like I knew Veronica as a character, and the prose kind of felt matter-of-fact.

I do think, however, that Raybourn does a good job writing dialogue. The snappy banter between Veronica and Stoker was fun to read, and it often got a smile out of me.

Plot: This book follows Veronica Speedwell - a lady adventurer who must figure out who is trying to harm her after a mysterious Baron shows up at her door and tells her she’s in danger. The Baron brings Veronica to the abode of Stoker - a taxidermist with a backlog of secrets - for protection, and the two find themselves unwilling partners in a romp across England.

While this book is billed as a mystery, the mystery doesn’t kick off in earnest until about halfway through the book. The beginning doesn’t do much to help; for the first 20 or so pages, we follow Veronica as she has tea with the vicar and his wife following the death of Veronica’s aunt. Raybourn takes this teatime as an opportunity to dump a bunch of info on the reader about Veronica’s past, and personally, I didn’t find it a compelling way to deliver information. From there, Veronica returns to her cottage only to find someone is there, and though it gives her a bit of a surprise, she brushes it off as a thief just trying to take advantage of an empty house. Even when the Baron shows up, Veronica is adamant that there is no mystery to be solved, and it was a little frustrating to be stuck in the head of a main characters who firmly believes nothing out of the ordinary is happening. As a result, for the first half of the book, the mystery is present, but it’s pushed so far to the background that I often forgot it was there. Even big events - like a character death - happen off page, and the main events are  centered around Veronica having adventures with Stoker.

When the mystery starts picking up, things get a little more interesting, but I still didn’t feel like it was a driving force. Characters would investigate something for a couple pages or something would happen (like a kidnapping) and then there’d be longer interludes of conversations and talking out some ideas - all well and good, but too much talking killed the suspense for me. Big secrets are pieced together rather easily and revealed around the 75% mark, so the mystery in itself is rather small and contained. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the main draw of this novel, then, is the characters, so if you like the characters, you’ll probably have a good time. As for me personally, I wanted a little more plot, with breadcrumbs throughout the novel that I could solve with the characters.

Characters: Veronica, our heroine and narrator, was at first a character I thought I would like. She’s independent and doesn’t much care for what people think of her, and she’s determined to take care of herself. As time progressed, I liked her less and less. She seemed to know everything about everything and felt more like a caricature than a complex person - she travels widely (to Europe and South America), sleeps with whoever she likes, wears pants, catches butterflies for a living, was taught to fight by a former lover, has tried drugs like opium and smokes cigarillos on occasion, corrects world-renowned specialists on the identification of species she admittedly knows little about, knows about men’s fashion, devises plans to make her male companion look like a buffoon, she never went to school or had a governess yet knows more about things than most people because she was self-taught, performed an amputation one time despite having no training and determining it needed to be done immediately (no time to call for an actual doctor), can make gourmet meals out of water and some old carrots, etc. It was all too much. I also got the sense that Veronica was vaguely misogynistic, as she mentions multiple times that she “abhors weakness” of any kind, she didn’t learn any “feminine” skills like sewing because she has no interest in them, she fights with almost every other female character she meets save for one (not to mention that these characters are portrayed as competitors in some way). I don’t think Raybourn meant to write her this way; Veronica has a few feminist moments where she talks about gender equality and double standards between the sexes, but other than Lady C, she doesn’t seem to get along with many women (at least, not on-page).

Stoker, Veronica’s “protector” and casual love interest, is one of those gruff, rude, bossy types with a traumatic past. While I didn’t outright hate him (and in fact, some of his banter with Veronica was highly entertaining), I didn’t find him all that spectacular, either. Like Veronica, he seems to have a lot of different skills (though to a lesser degree), which isn’t inherently bad, but again, it made him feel like a caricature.

Supporting characters were hit or miss. The Baron was charming but frustratingly opaque, and he didn’t stick around too long. The characters at the traveling circus were somewhat charming, though Salome’s possessiveness of Stoker and antagonism towards Veronica was irritating. “Lady C” and her brother were surprises; I liked their generosity and their general demeanors, and I liked how Lady C and Veronica got along.

TL;DR: While I can understand why some people might like A Curious Beginning, the protagonist and general lack of a suspenseful, driving plot made this book fall flat for me. The ideas are all well and good; I just personally wanted a bit “more.”

[konohamuses]

The scrape on their arm wasn't in dire need of medical care, nothing the trained eight year old couldn’t patch up themself. A small training blunder. Yet they found their way back to Hiruzen's home for it to be nursed by the man. Any reason to not go home to their lonesome abode, having hated the empty apartment since it was given to them when their parents passed. It is while they are sitting on his couch that the orphan poses their question,“why can’t I just live with you Sensei?" //Hiruzen

It was always a difficult thing, when a young child’s parents passed. Hiruzen hated being the one to have to decide what to do with the child. There was the option to stick the child in the orphanage, where the child would be crowded with a bunch of other lonely children with too many needs to fulfill, where hierarchies and bullies would be created, where Hiruzen would hire surrogate “mothers” or “fathers” to care for the children, a job very few people wanted. But the fact of matter was, the Konoha Orphanage was overcrowded. He couldn’t put every orphan into the orphanage without it getting overrun. So the capable children, generally shinobi children, who Hiruzen thought could fend for themselves, or who Hiruzen thought wouldn’t do well in an orphange, usually were forced, to his regret, to fend for themselves. There was just no other good option.

Such was the case here. Orochimaru, Hiruzen knew, would be able to fend for themself. Orochimaru, Hiruzen knew (or thought he knew), wouldn’t do well in an orphanage. They would either turn into a bully or be bullied. Maybe both. And the chances (and Orochimaru’s desire) for adoption were slim to none. So the only option was to stick Orochimaru in a random apartment.

When Hiruzen talked about the difficult decisions a hokage had to make, this was one of them. Orochimaru, being one of his students, was someone he had more responsibility for. So when the child showed up at his home with an injured arm, Hiruzen let them inside.

It was obvious this was something Orochimaru could fix on their own, which meant Orochimaru was just feeling the naturally childlike need to be cared for. Not being the type to be overly... affectionate, Hiruzen could only nod and lead Orochimaru to the couch, quickly healing the wound.

It was then Orochimaru posed the question. Hiruzen winced slightly. Indeed. “Well,” he began, “that would be unfair to Jiraiya, wouldn’t it?” His first response, and then he realized Orochimaru would possibly just ask why Hiruzen couldn’t just adopt both of them. “Also, that would possibly cross the sensei-student boundary, Orochimaru.” Did he just make that up? Probably.

[ofaheadstronghealer]

Alma Bio

I know we have official bios but until that was posted I thought I’d temporarily post this to help with interactions, please feel free to message me if you have any ideas for plots or connections or what have you! :)

FULL NAME: Alma

AGE: 36

OCCUPATION: Healer/Slave

CHARACTER TRAITS: (+ Clever +Kind Hearted , -Headstrong - Insecure )

LABEL: The Phoenix

GENDER + PRONOUNS: Cis-female, she/her

BIO

(trigger warning: implied sexual assault)

Alma, an unusual name for an unusual girl. There has not been a moment in her life that could be described as ‘typical’ or ‘normal’, perhaps that is why for most of her life being normal had been something she’d craved so desperately until she would come to understand the true power in being different from the rest. Something her mother had always understood.

Alma was born a fatherless child. Not literally, of course, but in the sense that the man who is her father was not her mother's husband nor was his identity ever known to the girl or to the others in the village in which she grew up. Being branded a ‘bastard’ was her first taste of this ‘otherness’ that she would come to experience her whole life, being the daughter of a woman who was suspected by many of being a witch….well that certainly didn’t help matters. When Alma thinks on it now she finds proof that God has a sense of humor, how hard she fought to be unlike her mother and yet how like her she later became. Alma isn’t a witch, not one of the barbarians ‘Volvas’ or one of their ‘seers’, and neither was her mother before her but that mattered little to the townspeople she grew up around. They were pariahs for her whole childhood, ostracized by the community until one of their people needed a healer with skill unmatched by any other and then only under the most dire of circumstances would they accept them with open arms. Alma wouldn’t realize that until she was much older, a naïve thing desperate for acceptance she would bask in it no matter what the price for as long as it lasted. Sometimes at night she would kneel before her bed and pray, pray to god to show the truth of her innocence to the people so that she might live among them as kin and not be regarded with such fear. The first time God answered her prayers she was but the tender age of 14 and she was shown his power...as well as his cruelty. Had she known the price that God would make her pay for her freedom she would have been more specific in her prayers, would have extended the prayer to her mother as well but alas she was selfish as children so often are and did not think of such things. A life for a life, her mother's death for her freedom. She still remembers the way her mother’s hand felt upon her cheek before they brought her to the pyre, remembers the tremble in her voice as, for the last time, her mother told her that she loved her. Alma was forced to bear witness to her mother's death, forced to stand there as she was engulfed in flame and pleading for her life. Suddenly acceptance didn’t matter so much to Alma, all she wanted in that moment was her mother back. 

The years following her mother's passing were difficult in many ways and brought many changes, on one hand she was welcomed back into the community as a show of the villagers' mercy but on the other she was an orphaned girl with no family and no prospects. Her mother had not raised her as a proper lady, she was not educated in the things a girl should be and though everyone around her agreed she was beautiful she was far too clever and her reputation too marred to make a suitable wife for anyone ‘such a waste of a beautiful girl’ they’d mutter as though that were supposed to make Alma feel appreciated. Perhaps other women if put in her position would have simply bowed to fate but not Alma, she had too much of her mother in her for that. If she had no use as a wife then she would find another way to have use, to make herself indispensable so she could not be so easily cast aside. In what she would later realize was a bold move she became a healer like her mother before her though unlike her mother she was more careful in how she was perceived, cautious to never show up the men around her, to curb her clever tongue, and to never perform acts that could be considered miracles and later used against her. She couldn’t really say in any sincerity that she was truly happy but it was as close as she’d ever gotten, she was valued and though people looked at her sometimes with pity it was better than the terror she had become accustomed to in her youth. If only she’d been able to save her mother than perhaps it would have been perfect. Alma lived this way in the village for many years, alone but accepted as much as she could be. That all changed the day they showed up. 

The day of the raid was like any other, Alma had been making her rounds attending to the villagers when she heard the screams. At first the healer thought it was simply in her head, it wasn’t unusual for the painful memory to surface; it had been haunting her for years, but it grew in its volume and intensity and soon it became clear to her that they were not the screams she remembered hearing as a child. Of course they’d all heard of the Vikings and their ways, how they would often raid and pillage and kill everything in sight, but as every other town did they never thought they would be targeted. She was still in the house of a patient when it happened, the person too weak to realize what was going on and certainly too weak to fend for themselves. Alma is no saint, she will not deny if asked that there was a moment when she simply considered running and trying to save herself but one look at the pathetic state of the woman laying there and her mind was purged of that thought. She could not abandon her. Alma helped the other woman to the back of the house, hid both herself and the woman in a dark pantry not easily seen and for the first time in a very long time Alma prayed ‘Please God protect us, see us through this, save us’. God answered Alma much like he had the time before, granting her her wish but always with a twist. The Vikings that crashed through the house at first appeared as though mindless beasts that had not the capacity to think beyond destruction and for just a moment Alma thought herself and the woman safe. She was made aware of how wrong she was when rough hands tore her from the safety of the pantry, a foreign tongue that she couldn’t understand flooded her ears but she understood the tone well enough. The only thing that got her through the assault that followed was the sight of the other woman, frail but still hidden. Safe. 

Alma doesn’t remember much about the journey that led her to Hedeby, she tries not to think about it. She can recall her captors dragging her back to show the horde their prize, remembers her feeble escape attempt just before they threw her on one of their boats. The rest of the voyage was not memorable, she kept her head down as much as possible on the boat and simply listened. Though she could not understand all of what was being said at some point in the journey she managed to make out that they were going to one of their cities, a place they called ‘Hedeby’. Alma was not certain what to expect, what would become of all those they had taken including herself? Would they be killed? Sold? The thought was frightening but she did not let it overwhelm her, simply continuing to listen and do as the Vikings bid. When Alma was brought to what appeared to be an open market in chains with the others she stood silently as they were inspected by the market goers. As time passed and the other villagers were distributed it became clear to the healer exactly the position she was in, she had always been a slight thing and while that had not been looked at negatively back home it was becoming clear that as a slave she was probably the most unappealing of the bunch. Death, it seemed, would be the escape that God would deliver her. It was not to be so. Much to her own surprise she was bought by what appeared to be a family of little means meaning that they had little to trade and therefore she was the only one they could afford, the man looked brutish, as they all did, but was not unkind in his handling of her. She was in their service for a few years, quietly observing the customs and language of these strange people with whom she now resided, but knew it would not last, she was a healer not a farmer and unsuited for the physical labour demanded of her and every day she grew weaker. It was a miracle of God when one day as she was working the fields a man emerged from the forests and collapsed before her clearly wounded, it was pure instinct when Alma leapt into action. Over the next few days there grew a small gathering of Vikings who watched as she tended to the man, they appeared intrigued by her methods some of which were unknown to them. Unknown to Alma the man she eventually ended up saving was someone that the King of these Vikings held as a very dear friend, King Ragnar demanded Alma be brought to him at once. Alma entered the great halls of the Viking King with the family that had bought her but she did not leave with them, word spread not long after of the healer from a foreign land who was now under the ownership of the King. 

That was many years ago and much about Alma has changed, she still bears the status of slave under King Ragnar and his family but as their personal healer she is treated with a great deal more respect than most slaves. Though sometimes she finds herself longing for the familiarity of her old home Alma has managed to settle somewhat among the Vikings and has found respect for some aspects of the way they live their lives and is, in some ways, more herself here than she ever was back at home.

EXTRAS

- Due to how her mother died and having been forced to watch it Alma has a deep and intense fear of fire. 

- She can fully understand the Vikings language but she still cannot fully speak it

- When first she arrived at Hedeby Alma was incredibly quiet but since being raised to the royals personal healer and over the years becoming more settled she has let more of her true personality come through, she has a clever tongue and a headstrong nature and does not feel she’s in such a precarious position anymore that she must hide those things though she is still cautious with who she shows it to

- Although she acts like she’s over the whole wanting to be accepted and loved thing she is very much not over it and longs for a feeling of home and belonging and love.

- At first she hated the Vikings and saw them as brutes and barbarians but now for the most part she has let go of that view though there are still moments where she considers them beasts

- One of the first things she noticed and loved about the Viking culture was how they treated their women, coming from a place where she was only looked at as a thing of value through marriage and the fact that she had a brain frowned upon she was secretly impressed at the freedoms Viking women were afforded.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 12

Episode 12 - “One is All, All is One” We open with whoawhoawhoa it’s Beardy from the intro. Papa Elric? Do we finally get backstory on Absent Dad this episode?

Beardy doesn’t look happy about something. And Ed wakes up in shock. More points towards it being Papa Elric, and also it not being the healthiest of families. But hey, this is anime, good luck finding any Protagonist families without Drama. Al says they’re almost at Dublith, asks if Ed was having a bad dream. Then stays oddly quiet when Ed says it was about ‘him’. Jeez, what’s with this guy? In town, both boys are very unenthusiastic about seeing Teacher again. And now the screens suddenly shaking, the door creaks open ominously gah bloody knife what the Oh dear. A very very big man has just stepped outside. Seriously, this guy looks like he could give Armstrong himself a run for his money. [Ed]: “Um… hello, Sig.” [Al]: “Long time no see.” Ah, a butcher! Got it. He’s rather chill about seeing the Elrics after so long, just patting them on the head and commenting on how they’ve grown (and can I just say how it’s adorable for the Giant Fanged Suit of Armor to be happy about having his head rubbed? Daw.) Sig pokes his head through a window, tells “Izumi” that the “Elric Shrimps” have come for a visit, she puts down an Alchemy book and says that she’s feeling a little better today. You’re right Al, that doesn’t sound good. What’s wrong with Teacher? Oh. Oh dear. Ed just got done kicked in the face across the street. I believe I have a good read on Teach, now.

To menacing music, McKickyFace steps outside, looking down on Ed with shadowed face and glowing red eyes. [McKickyFace]: “Hello, my stupid pupil! I hear you’ve become one of the military’s dogs!” And then the creaky door betrays Al’s hiding spot, she turns… and Al’s cuteness factor is unstoppable, McKickyFace instantly transforms to Izumi, commenting on how Al has grown. Aw, that’s nope never mind just a ruse to easily throw Al to the dirt. Jeez, for someone “not feeling well” you’re tossing these chumps around like ah that’s blood. No Teach, I don’t think you’re “perfectly fine.” Sig tells her not to exert herself and oh they’re married. One, that’s adorable, and two, ok that explains why they went to Sig. But above all else that’s adorable. Also funny how their love is so overpowering that Ed’s just standing there unnerved, getting bumped in the head by floating hearts. Inside, the four are sitting around a table, the conversation as typical being about the Philosopher’s Stone. Teacher doesn’t know much about it though, says it doesn’t hold much interest for her. Why’s that, do you know the secret or just have that much faith in your own abilities? Sig contributes that there was one guy in Central who knew about it. A guy called Hohenheim? Whoa Ed what’s wrong? And Al, do you recognize it too? Ah, image of Beardy! Teacher asks why the reaction to the name, Al confirms that it is indeed Papa Elric. Who “ran out” on them when they were little? Damnit man, why do you have to perpetuate the trope of Absent Anime Father? Flashback! Mama and Papa Elric are standing at the door, Baby!Ed and Baby!Al happened to be up early in the morning. Mama’s of course all over her children, but Papa Elric… just glares down at Ed, that’s the only description I can use for that look. Then he turns without a word, and walks out the door. ...seriously? Dude, dick move. So Mama Elric did say later that Papa left, but not with any finality. Then we get various scenes of Mama Elric and the Babies being cute, until… Mama Elric collapsed on the floor. Back in the present, with Ed still lost in Flashback-Land, Ed asks if Papa Elric had said anything about the Stone. Teacher says it was something about a life-long dream coming true. Even happy when he said it. Then she gets up, punches Ed out his sulk, and says that they’re going to eat.

At the dinner, Sig offers Al some food… uh oh. Have the Brother’s really not explained about Al’s state? Wow, really subtle attempt to change the subject to the last episode there Ed. I can tell Sig’s not buying it, he just looks to Izumi drinking her tea. Another flashback? A big storm in their hometown, the young Elrics are looking down with the other townsfolk as men try to keep a sandbag barrier holding against a flood. The wall’s breaking, everyone’s pulling back- except for Teacher, who’s striding past them as the epic string music picks up. With a clap of her hands (ooh, so Ed picked up on not using TCs from her!), she earthbends a bunch of walls up to hold back the river. And then Sweetie Sig walks over with an umbrella as she turns to the crowd. Who don’t recognize her? Ah right, a passerby, she lives in Dublith after all. And then she vomits blood again. Oh dear. Ah, so the boys were too short to see the blood this first time, all they saw was someone being Awesome and Saving The Town. So of course they run up and ask her to be their teacher. Buuut maybe don’t call her “Old Lady”. She refuses at first, she doesn’t teach and she’s just passing through, but when she’s told that they two boys clinging to her arm are orphans? [Pretty Lady]: “How am I supposed to say no to that?” And now for the first lesson: apparently, getting dropped off on an island and left to fend for themselves. Without any alchemy, even. Lady, I have to question your teaching methods.

Titledrop! “One is all… and all is one.” They have- one month?! Good Leto woman, you’re leaving them on their own for a freaking month? Yeah, the boy’s aren’t doing too well their first night. Trying (and failing) to sleep on some palm leaves, stomach’s rumbling. A lesson in wilderness survivalism, then? Ad-break picture of Sig and Izumi looking ready for a fight, shows last name of ‘Curtis’. So what’s their story? Sig seems to be working away as a butcher, a proper butcher unlike a certain Pudgy we’ve met before. But what about Izumi? Where did she get her training, and learn how to do non-TC Alchemy? Aaand where the first picture was of them looking tough, the second is of Big Tough Sig fanning his blood-spitting wife. Lady, maybe you should get that looked at. Oh, show’s answering my question already, apparently they work the butcher shop together. Sig’s wondering if they’re doing alright, Izumi stands by her lesson as being the best way to learn the essentials of alchemy. The same way she was taught, even. Casual throw of sharpened knife to Sig who does a two-finger catch (making me wonder if he has any training?), Big Butcher says he’s more concerned about their lives being in danger. Izumi scoffs, saying her training began with fighting bears for a whole month in the mountains. In winter, no less! ...couldn’t help but notice that you look a bit older that the Elrics in that picture, Izumi. On the island itself, the Brothers have just caught a rabbit in a snare! However, it leaves them with a live rabbit, so they’ll have to kill it themse- Oh that is just not fair. Rabbit’s going full Cute Anime Mode to avoid being dinner. The Brothers are playing Hot Potato with the knife to avoid using it. Until a passing fox takes advantage of the easy meal, and runs off with the rabbit. But look! The fox took the rabbit to feed its cubs! Aw, that’s sweet. Then the cubs start eating, and the Brother’s quickly decide to try fish instead. Yep, kinda hard to fish without rods. Maybe you can carve a spear? Or just build a lean-to, and go without food for a few more days. Yeesh, Ed’s not doing too well. Had a moment where he hallucinated Al as food and chomped, and now is alternating between nomming on ants and screaming about how gross they are. Oh, turning point! Ed’s talking about how he’s alive because he ate the ants. Um, no? I seriously doubt those few bugs gave you enough calories to make up for a few days foodless. Or rather it’s a metaphorical thing, how Ed’s alive because he consumed life. And then I guess he resolves that if he’s going to eat life to live, and by Leto he’s going to be at the top of the food chain! Cue montage of the Brothers going all Lord of the Flies, fashioning tools, chasing down a rabbit and killing it before a passing fox this time, starting a fire. They even get to the point that they toss some cooked food to the fox cubs in passing. Finally, it’s the night before Teacher’s to come back. Al asks Ed if he’s figured out what she meant by “One is all, and all is one.” Ed confirms that after he ate the ants, he thought his body feeding the ants, going to earth and becoming grass that the rabbits would eat... ...if I wasn’t doing a Professor Moody theme this episode, this would be a perfect spot for a Lion King gif. So yeah, Ed thought about the food chain. But also the island, how long ago it was under water, and thousands of years from now it could be the top of a mountain. It’s an “all things are connected” lesson, how in the span of the cosmos even our Main Characters are smaller than ants are to them. Test time! Teacher arrives and asks for their answer. [Al]: “All is one!” [Ed]: “And one is me!” Teacher… bursts out laughing? But she accepts the answer, and says the real training starts now. Now in Dublith, Teach is casually reading a cookbook while she lectures about TCs as the basis of Alchemy and absently spars with the Brothers. Sick moves lady, her technique seems to be all about deflecting and redirecting their attacks. That’s Judo, I think? Reviewing the lesson, Al calls her out on not using TCs when she casts, they ask how she does it. Teacher says something cryptic about herself being the matrix, that it might be something they learn if they see the truth. Wait… truth, or ‘Truth’? And yup, Ed wakes up with a realization: Teacher has seen the truth too. The next day, the Brothers are meeting with Teacher in the front yard, presumably to ask her. But she suddenly Alchemizes a spear from the wall, strikes out at Ed who has to TC-less change his arm to a blade in defense. That, on top of Al being armor and Ed missing two limbs confirms it for her: Edward’s seen it too. Which begs the question: how did Izumi see the Truth? Did she try Human Transmutation too? Yep, she did. And the rebound struck her… stomach. And in the center… Ah. That’s who she was trying to bring back. Izumi confirms the sad tale, why she committed the taboo. And when she says that it must have been awful for them, the Elrics adopt their customary bravado about it. ‘Not a big deal’, Al’s got his list of stuff to do, ect ect... [Izumi]: “You darling little idiots. It’s ok to hurt.” ... [Ed]: “Forgive us.” [Al]: “We’re so sorry, Teacher.” [Ed]: “Please forgive us.” [Al]: “We’re so sorry.” [Ed]: “Please forgive us.” [Al]: “We’re so sorry.” Flashback to the island, the young brothers expounding on living being the deconstruction and reconstruction of old life to new life [Ed]: “Alchemy is part of that flow. And the flow is life itself.” End-credits. Oof. Started out as a mostly amusing episode, was mostly looking for details on Absent Papa Elric. But nope, Brotherhood continues to be brutal to my emotions.

[ladylouoflothlorien]

Serendipity - Part 1

Pairing - Augledh (Orc Captain) & Héowyn (Woman of Rohan)

Words - 4611

So yeah, I wrote a human x orc fic. If you’re bothered, blame @luna-xial. Their orc courting post is at fault for inspiring this. 

There were rumours, well they were more like whispers really, that the great dwarf Thorin Oakenshield was currently on a journey to reclaim his homeland. Between those in higher society, these whispers were discussed behind closed doors, but in Héowyn’s village – located somewhere between Helm’s Deep and Fangorn Forest – people hardly cared. A once-rich dwarf going on a quest with a bunch of other dwarves in the hopes of getting rich again was hardly something to interest simple farming folk who had to work hard every day simply to have enough food to make it through winter.

There was a certain aspect of the situation that did interest them, however. Everyone in Middle Earth had heard the rumours… everyone. This included orcs.

In times of relative peace, orc attacks were fewer than in times of true turmoil, but this didn’t mean orc attacks never occurred. Now with the supposedly dead Azog chasing after the wannabe dwarf king and with even more hushed whispers of a dark, ancient power returning to the land, orc attacks were increasing in number, consistency and organisation.

In the countryside news travelled slower than in cities, but it hadn’t been that long after the first wave of attacks that all the villages scattered across Rohan knew what was going on.

The tales varied from village to village and though no one was quite sure how much was true and how much was exaggeration, everyone was equally afraid. In Héowyn’s village, their first actual encounter with orcs was relatively mild. That being said, it was enough to set everyone on edge. The elders had called a meeting the very morning they’d discovered a large number of livestock with little left on their carcasses than their skin. They all agreed almost instantly that they needed to do something to protect themselves from further attacks, but none of them were warriors and no one quite knew what they could realistically do that would make any real difference. 

The attacks on their village grew steadily worse, though no one had been injured yet. It was as if the orcs were toying with them. More livestock turned up slaughtered and some disappeared completely. Whole fields of crops were trampled, and water sources were contaminated. The village suffered the effects of these attacks, of course they did, but they became complacent. After all, they couldn’t do anything to stop the orc attacks and no one had been killed yet. By that logic they were actually lucky compared to a lot of villages that suffered repeat attacks. The only thing that they could potentially do would be to send a messenger to Edoras, but they feared that whoever they sent would simply be murdered before they could reach the capital. Besides, what if this action only provoked the orcs to increase the violence of their attacks?

The people of the village simply began to take precautions to protect themselves as best as they could. No one went outside after dark, families all slept together in the most secure room of their huts, and no one dared make a sound throughout the night as they tried to catch any sounds made by their attackers.

The attacks got worse.

The villagers woke up one day to find one of their outhouses smoking, nothing more than a pile of ash on the ground. That hut had contained a reserve store of grain. The elders pretended like it hadn’t worried them. It was only their reserve after all. No one would starve as a result . . . so long as the winter wasn’t too harsh.

Then dwellings were attacked. Families huddled together in the central room of their huts as the walls of other rooms were torn down. Rooves were destroyed, windows were smashed, and fences were knocked down. They were being terrorised, but still no one had been killed, let alone injured. Up until this point, no one had even properly seen an orc.

Héowyn’s family was pretty small in comparison to the average family in her village. Her mother had passed giving birth to her and ever since then her father had been a broken man. He was meek and easily persuaded but one thing that never changed was the fact that he was a brilliant farmer. His speciality was livestock, particularly sheep.

Héowyn made use of the sheep’s wool to make fabric. This fabric was used to clothe the villagers and any excess was sold at market. As well as taking up a profession that was linked to her father’s, Héowyn also inherited a love of animals in general. It wasn’t a rare sight to see a wounded bird or an orphaned baby animal being cared for by Héowyn in the hut that she shared with her father.

Some little time after their village was initially attacked, Héowyn stumbled across a very unusual animal whilst she was taking a walk through the fields. Her father was uncomfortable with her going out by herself so far from the heart of their village when there were orcs regularly attacking the village, but she’d promised she’d be back long before night fell and he didn’t have it in him to convince her not to go.

On this solitary walk, Héowyn stumbled across an animal she’d never seen before… it was a baby warg. It also had a giant splinter buried in its paw and the skin surrounding the wound was already red and swollen, indicating the start of an infection.

Instinctively, the woman crouched some way away from the small creature and stuck her hand out hesitantly. She watched as its nose twitched slightly as the pup sniffed the air before slowly hopping towards her on 3 legs, holding its injured paw up off the ground.

Héowyn was torn.

Clearly this warg must’ve come from the orc camp – wherever that was – or he’d been left behind from a recent attack. She didn’t feel right leaving an injured, young creature out in the fields to fend for itself, but what could be the consequences of taking this warg pup back to her hut? Would the mother come looking for it? Would the orcs themselves come looking for it? How would the villagers react to her taking care of it?

She’d been thinking so hard that she’d barely been paying attention to the warg. A sudden pressure against her palm drew her thoughts back to the animal and her eyes snapped down to see the little ratty creature nuzzling as close as he could to the warmth of her skin, whimpering. After a brief moment, Héowyn realised that it was shivering. How long had it been out there alone?

That settled it for her, and she carefully brought her other hand to the warg pup before picking it up. It squirmed and struggled harmlessly until Héowyn bundled it up under her cloak and shushed it. The pup seemed to calm down after that – she thought that the cute little monster was probably enjoying her body heat. The days were starting to get colder, after all.

Héowyn carried the warg pup back to her hut quickly, feeling strangely protective over it already. By the time she’d reached the village’s main cluster of buildings she’d already given it a name – Scruff. Granted, it wasn’t very original, but originality wasn’t what she was going for. She just wanted a name that would suit him. Héowyn had almost managed to smuggle the warg pup to her home without being caught when she all but bumped into one of the village elders. She froze up instantly and the warg pup responded to this by growling softly at this new stranger. The elder raised his eyebrows at the sight before him and Héowyn felt herself cringe. The growling certainly wasn’t helping any case she might’ve been able to make.

Luckily it was a village, meaning that everyone knew everyone, and the elder had seen Héowyn grow up.

“It’s injured, isn’t it?”

All she could do was nod.

“At the first sign of trouble, it’s gone, understood?” Héowyn nodded again, finding herself unable to reply verbally.

Once the elder was satisfied that Héowyn had understood, he left. It took her a moment to process what had happened, but when she realised that the elder had basically given her permission to keep the warg pup, she smiled and was finally able to relax enough to get Scruff to stop growling. It was sweet that the creature was trying to protect her already when she’d barely done anything for him yet.

Taking care of Scruff, combined with her work, was enough to distract Héowyn from the increasing threat of the orc attackers. She wasn’t ignorant; she knew they were happening… she just wasn’t focussing her mind on them 24/7.

A few weeks later, around the time that the first attacks on house began, Scruff was finally healed and was a fully accepted animal within the village. Scruff was full of energy and growing rapidly, and it’d only been a matter of time before he’d made his presence known. At first the villagers were – rightfully – terrified, since by this point Scruff had grown to the size of a large goat. Once it’d been made clear, however, that Héowyn had been given an elder’s permission to keep the warg pup from the start, the suspicion around the warg lessened greatly.

It’s friendly, over-grown dog attitude greatly helped win over the villagers, and with how quickly it was growing people soon began to hope that – once it was a little bigger – it might be able to provide them with some level of protection against the recurring attacks that were fast becoming a normal, every-day part of life in their village.

The day before there had been a particularly extensive attack on property. An entire house had been destroyed, and though the house was unoccupied, it deeply concerned the elders. What if this trend continued and the next time there was an attack a fully occupied house was destroyed? The village might actually suffer some casualties, which was a terrifying thought indeed.

The tension in the village was palpable. As animals so often do, Scruff picked up on this tension. Throughout the day, Scruff was agitated. Héowyn was concerned. Though he hadn’t caused any trouble so far, he was still a pup, and she wasn’t quite sure how this mood would affect his behaviour. In order to avoid trouble, Héowyn kept him inside all day. For such a high-energy animal, this confinement did nothing to help his irritation. The only thing Héowyn could do to keep him occupied was to tease him with an old mutton bone.

By dusk, Héowyn had successfully managed to keep Scruff under house arrest all day, and the villagers were all beginning to settle in for the night before the real darkness fell.

Héowyn went around the house making sure all the doors and windows were secure in case of another attack. She went into one of the side rooms of her house and noticed that the door to the outside was ajar.

‘Well that’s odd. Why would it be open?’ She thought. Her dad wasn’t outside, he was already asleep; he’d had a particularly tiring day tending to the remaining livestock. As Héowyn went to pull the door shut and latch it, she didn’t notice that Scruff had crept up behind her. The growing warg had been able to smell the fresh air and he could practically feel his desire to run itching under his pelt. Without warning, and before Héowyn had time to close the door, Scruff barrelled past her and ran out into the oncoming night.

Héowyn was petrified for him. She tried to tell herself that she was being irrational. He was a warg, what did he have to fear? Then again… he was young and small and Héowyn was sure that he was already far too domesticated to take care of himself when there could be fully grown wargs and orcs roaming the land around the village.

Everyone was already inside… and her father was asleep. There was no one to stop her from going after Scruff. She knew it was a bad idea but Héowyn was very protective of the animals she took care of. For her, there was no question of what she was going to do. She grabbed her father’s shepherd’s crook – though it was more for mental support than anything. What could she, realistically, do with a big, heavy stick against orcs with swords. She’d just have to hope they were having an off night.

Even though it was rapidly getting darker outside, Héowyn couldn’t risk taking a lantern with her. If there was anyone out there, that would just lead them right to her. After taking one last deep breath, Héowyn slipped outside and into the night, running as fast as she could after the naughty warg pup.

Unbeknownst to her, at that moment, there were three orcs waiting at the edge of the very furthest field from the village. The reason why their village hadn’t been completely annihilated yet was simple – it was being used as a training ground for young orcs who had only just reached fighting age. Just as much as the villagers feared retaliation from the orcs if they sent a messenger to Rohan to send for the soldiers, the leader of these young orcs feared the potential retaliation from soldiers if they killed any of the villagers. His name was Augledh, and he was in charge of teaching these young orcs the famed brutality and strength possessed by the warriors of their kind. That being said, until they were a little better at fighting, he didn’t want to risk going against trained soldiers. He figured that as long as they were only attacking the property – and not the people – the Riders of Rohan would have better things to do. After all, there were some villages being attacked where people were being killed.

On that night, Augledh had brought two of the most promising orcs under his command on a night raid alone to see how much havoc they could cause just by themselves. They were waiting at the edge of the field until they had the full cover of darkness. Augledh wasn’t expecting any surprises from that evening. He wasn’t even expecting to see a human. Almost since the very first raid, the humans had been barricading themselves in their huts as best as they could after dark.

(Below here, when the orcs speak in italics, it’s in black speech) 

‘Cowards’. He thought with distain. Still, it was convenient for him. Imagine his surprise when first he saw a young warg that he didn’t recognise running across the fields, followed by… a woman? A woman? Definitely a woman. Augledh was in shock, and he barely managed to process what was happening in time to prevent his two young companions from springing out from their hiding place. Luckily all his years fighting seemed to have counted for something. He gruffly whispered that he had given no order to move, and the two orcs backed down, looking slightly sheepish. Augledh was a fierce orc. His reputation was well known among their kind. To train under him was a great honour, and they didn’t want to anger him. 

It wasn’t that Augledh was protecting the woman, but he was intrigued. Honestly, what on middle-earth did she think she was doing? Was she a simpleton? Didn’t she fear an orc attack?

Besides that, he really hadn’t given an order, and he needed to remind those two younglings who was in charge. 

After watching the situation unfold for a few seconds, Augledh realised that this woman wasn’t chasing the warg away, rather, she was chasing after it. She was calling to it in a desperate, hushed whisper, though Augledh was a creature of darkness and could hear her voice clearly carrying over the silent field. 

“Scruff. Scruff! You get back here right now!” It seemed that something about the urgency in her voice got through to the feral creature. The warg skidded to a halt and turned to face her, its savage head tilted to the side in a question; this animal couldn’t possible understand the reason for her panic. 

With the animal finally standing still, Héowyn finally managed to pause and take a breath. The woman placed her palm over her chest to feel her heart racing. She felt uncomfortable in the open darkness of the fields; she’d been running for several minutes and now she was much further away from the safety of her house than she’d intended to get when she’d first dashed out after Scruff. Calmly and slowly, Héowyn moved towards Scruff, not wanting to spur him into running off again. 

Beside Augledh, one of the two young orcs was getting restless. They’d been harassing this village for some time, and now he was itching to spill blood. Surely this woman would do to satisfy his blood-lust? That warg surely wouldn’t pose much of a threat - it was little more than a pup after all. With little thought to his commander beside him, the young orc suddenly sprang out of his hiding place and brandished his crude sword in front of the woman and her warg. Héowyn was filled with such a mixture of shock and dread that she couldn’t even scream. 

In that moment, Augledh almost completely forgot about the woman entirely. The young orc under his command had directly disobeyed his order to remain hidden. That was not something he could allow; Augledh was enraged. Without thinking, he also jumped out of his hiding place and snarled something in Black Speech. Héowyn felt so weak in the knees at the sight of these two orcs – one small and very disfigured, and the other standing tall and commanding and resembling an elf far more than the first – that she was surprised she didn’t collapse. Her hands instinctively tightened around the staff she held, and Scruff – noticing her distress – whined and pressed closer to her as she watched the terrifying scene unfolding in front of her. 

Augledh was entirely focused on the orc before him. 

“Gilga” His lips curled back as he spoke, his teeth bared angrily. “You went against an order. This is unacceptable.” 

The young orc – Gilga – then made the great mistake of trying to match his massive commander’s aggression. He straightened his back, puffed out his chest, and tightened his grip on his sword. 

“We’re orcs! We live to kill – to spill blood!” 

His commander raised an eyebrow at this – in his view – pathetic display of disobedience. He didn’t need an orc with this attitude under him. He had enough potential soldiers willing to serve him without question. 

Héowyn, of course, didn’t understand any of what was being said, but she could sense a confrontation brewing between the two orcs. She’d finally regained the use of her limbs, and she finally began to slowly back away. She hoped that if she moved slowly enough she could get away without drawing any more attention to herself. 

Augledh himself stood towering over Gilga, silently waiting for him to say something that would be the final nail in his coffin. True to his expectations, Gilga delivered.

“What type of commander are you anyway, that you won’t let us attack those human scum?!” 

Questioning his leadership like that truly was unacceptable. There was only one thing Gilga had been right about, however… orcs really did enjoy the thrill of spilling blood. Augledh stepped forward and in one swift movement he removed Gilga’s head from his worthless body. The look of absolute shock that was etched into Gilga’s features was deeply satisfying. 

The commander turned to face the hiding place as Gilga’s now severed head and body slumped to the tilled earth of the field. 

“Cagar.” He called to the remaining orc, who instantly rushed to his leader’s side. Augledh pointed to Gilga’s fresh corpse with the tip of his sword. 

“Take this scum back to camp and feed his body to the wargs. Let everyone know this is what happens when you disobey my orders and doubt my leadership.”

Cagar did as he was told in an instant, gathering Gilga’s head into a sack and hoisting his body onto his back. He’d seen first-hand the punishments that Augledh was willing to dish out, and though he was in awe of the commander, he didn’t want to be next. 

Cagar scurried away as fast as he could with the extra weight of Gilga’s body to where they’d left their wargs, and Augledh’s mind finally turned its attention back to the problem of the human woman. He didn’t need her going back to the village and spreading the news that the orcs were fighting among themselves. 

Augledh could see that she’d managed to back away some distance and she was almost half a field away from him. Her eyes widened when she realised he was looking at her, and though he couldn’t catch her scent, he could imagine the spike of fear that had shot through her. Augledh took a step towards her and she took one back, almost tripping over a slight dip in the ground. So she wanted a chase. Augledh had no doubt he would be able to catch up to her before she ever reached the village’s huts. 

Héowyn sensed that in that moment she was in genuine danger. She wasn’t sure what else she could do other than turn around and bolt back to the village as fast as she possibly could and she was just gathering the courage to do just that when Scruff stepped in. It seemed that the young warg had finally figured out that the reason Héowyn was distressed was because the creatures who had sprung up out of nowhere posed a threat. Scruff didn’t like this. He barked loudly and began to run towards the orc. Héowyn’s eyes widened. Scruff was going to get himself killed and that was exactly what she’d been trying to prevent in the first place. Without thinking, Héowyn ran after Scruff once again, feeling more and more helpless as the distance between her and Scruff increased. 

Augledh held his ground as the small warg came careening towards him. Such a young creature could hardly instil fear into such a seasoned fighter, particularly one who worked around fully grown wargs daily. 

Augledh slowly raised his sword above his head, ready to bring it down on the energetic animal once it was close enough, when the wind suddenly changed. The warrior orc stumbled backwards in sudden confusion and his grip slackened to the point where his sword quietly fell to the soft earth. He was glad he’d sent Cagar away so there was no one to see him act so weakly. The warg noticed what had happened; Scruff was an animal, but he wasn’t a stupid animal. That pointy silver-coloured thing was nasty and bad, but the stranger had now dropped it. Maybe he didn’t mean to harm his mistress after all. 

Scruff tried to stop moving in time so that he wouldn’t crash straight into the orc but he failed miserably. The warg collided with Augledh head-on and they both went tumbling over the field. Héowyn slower her desperate run down to a jog as she caught up to the two of them, though she was still wary and kept a small distance between herself and the orc. The woman was confused herself, but for a completely different reason than the orc. Héowyn was absolutely baffled that the orc hadn’t hurt the warg. Not only had he not injured him, but he hadn’t even moved out of the way. . . he’d just allowed himself to be knocked over. 

Augledh, as he lay awkwardly on the dirt, was simply trying to process the information he’d just received. Sure, it wasn’t exactly unheard of to find a soulmate of a different race, but he’d never expected that his soulmate wouldn’t be an orc. Not only was she not an orc, she was a human. When the wind had changed direction, Augledh had gotten a nose full of wet warg. However, he hadn’t just gotten a nose full of that unpleasant scent, he’d also finally been able to catch the scent of the woman for the first time and Augledh had just… known. Instantly. He’d heard that catching all that was needed to find your soulmate was their scent, but he hadn’t quite believed it was that simple. He’d even started to believe he would never find his. Now he had, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to proceed from there. 

The warg shook its head as he started to pick himself up from such a hard collision. Scruff got off the orc and tried to stand up but after that fall he was a little shaky. Augledh was still lying down, staring at the sky as if he was in a trance. Héowyn decided to seize the opportunity to try to escape. 

“Scruff. Come here.” She tried to sound strong and authoritarian, though her voice was shaking slightly. Héowyn held out her hand out towards the warg she had adopted and Scruff slowly began to walk towards her. 

Once Scruff was close enough, Héowyn gripped him tightly at the back of his neck. She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d be able to hold him tight enough to stop him from bolting again if he really wanted to, but she hoped the feeling of her hand there would be enough to stop him from wanting to. 

Just as she was starting to lead Scruff away, the orc suddenly sat up straight. Héowyn froze when she felt his gaze on her again. He seemed a little tense, though for the life of her Héowyn couldn’t figure out why. 

“I am Augledh.” He suddenly said out of nowhere and Héowyn could feel her pulse hammering violently in her throat. His voice was rough and he had a thick accent to his words which suggested that he didn’t speak in Rohirric very often. The women had no clue as to why he would want to talk to her, let alone introduce himself, but she was still very much focused on not dying. She’d go along with this conversation for as long as she needed if it kept her head firmly planted on her shoulders. 

“I… am Héowyn.” She replied politely, even throwing out a half-curtsey for good measure. 

Augledh nodded stiffly, taking in this information and committing it to memory. Héowyn shifted on her feet, wondering if it would be okay for her to turn and walk away as the silence dragged on. Suddenly, the orc seemed to snap out of whatever stupor he was stuck in and he stood up, dusting himself off. 

“Do not tell anyone what you have seen.” His voice carried the command well, and Héowyn felt that she would’ve been willing to obey him even if he wasn’t so physically intimidating. 

“O-Of- Of course. Right. No, I won’t.” Honestly, Héowyn was surprised that she was able to get a single word out now that he was standing up and towering over her. 

The orc nodded and turned, walking away. Héowyn blinked. It seemed that their interaction was over. She mimicked his actions, turning around herself and heading back to her hut. During their brief conversation, she’d calmed down enough to be able to think rationally again. She hoped that her father hadn’t woken up whilst she was gone – she knew how worried he’d be. Hopefully she could slip silently back into her hut, unnoticed. Héowyn had truly had enough excitement for the evening. 

Permanent tags:

@sweeticedtea

@cd1242

@strongandfreedc

@pixierox101

@jotink78

[skeletorific]

dragon age au u say? 👀

you asked for this Essy, never forget you asked for this

Some constants here: the Sans is always a mage, while the Papyrus is not. Also, race is deeply important to Dragon Age’s worldbuilding, but given that there’s really no way to insert skeletons into a bunch of different races without it being....weird ig? I’m gonna default to assuming these guys are human. Their differences will largely stem from geography and role.

Undertale: Ferelden

Sans and Papyrus had an odd childhood. Life is never simple when you’re raised by an apostate, constantly on the run. And it sure as shit doesn’t get any easier when self-same apostate becomes an abomination and disappears into the Fade, never to be seen again. 

Sans was raised outside the Circle system, and has no plans to join up, but his experience with Gaster has made him wary. Apostatehood allows him to care for Papyrus, but on the whole he tends to find himself in support of the Circle as an institution. Magic lends itself to abuses. There has to be some kind of accountability, even if he doesn’t personally submit himself to it.

Papyrus, after a chancey encounter with Knight-Commander Undyne, becomes enamored with the idea of becoming a templar, and not only defending people from mages, but defending mages from misunderstanding people. If he does his job right, he’s sure he can help everyone be friends!

He’s working on his recruitment process. However, as the mage templar war drags on....he’s beginning to have serious questions. About whether what they are doing is really best for everyone. 

Maybe there’s a way where no one gets hurt...

Underfell: Kirkwall

Red found his own means of protection once his latent magic had started to show itself. Gaster was long gone by that point, having left him and Edge to fend for themselves. His kid brother needed to eat, and Red was willing to do whatever it took to meet that need. He started working for smuggling and mercenary organizations at a young age, which fortunately abound in the Free Marches. His status as an apostate made him a flight risk, but it also made him a valuable tool. As he got older, he only got stronger and more hireable, passing on some of that fighting ability to Edge when he had time.

Then came the day of a fateful expedition into the Deep Roads. He’d been...careless. Darkspawn weren’t like any other kind of monster he’d fought before. They took you down with them. He nearly died of corruption before they found the Grey Wardens. 

Good news. He wasn’t dying. Bad news. He could never see his brother again....or even explain.

Edge was 14 when Red vanished without a word. The others in the expedition told him what had happened. But it was still hard. He went to the Chantry, like most orphans, and ended up finding comfort in the structure it provided. He wasn’t much for religion, or even Andraste. But they had rules, and they had ways to ensure they were followed. After a lifetime of uncertainty....that was comforting. 

He began working for them. And he rose through the ranks, fast. Ultimately he chose not to join the Templar, finding them a bit on the thuggish side. Instead, he became a Seeker, working on internal justice within the Chantry. And all the while, he never really gave up looking for his Warden brother. Eventually, he found him in a Warden outpost near Val Royeaux. As it turns out, the Chantry may have great need of the Wardens in coming days...

Underswap: Rivain

Blue did his stint in the Circle, but given that Rivain doesn’t really go in for Andrastianism, he was able to keep in contact with his brother, and ultimately ended up leaving to become a hedge mage. 

As he reached adulthood, he became a healer in the port capital of Dainsmouth, providing the impoverished with free and skilled healing. Many Rivaini mages utilize temporary possession, and Blue is no exception, making free contact with a spirit of Compassion when he needs to heal and a spirit of Valor when he needs to fight. He is not technically involved with the mage rebellion, but he provides a safe haven for any apostates who need it.

Stretch works as a sea merchant and DEFINITELY NOT A SMUGGLER HAHA WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT OFFICER. SUCH STORIES. May or may not construct elaborate fantasies about being an Orlesian bard, but ultimately, he’s content with this life. When he’s not at see he lives in Dainsmouth with his brother

Swapfell: Antiva

Rus and Black don’t remember their father. They were sold to the Crows at a very young age, Things weren’t great, but for the moment, they were at least allowed to stay together. Rus was able to take whatever abuse was necessary to keep them both safe and protected, and Black’s developing magic only made them more valuable assets. 

Everything went south, though, on a routine training mission to the Free Marches. The noble had been killed in his bed, they were out the window...and then a guard caught sight of them. In the ensuing chase, Black used magic to try and defend them both. Rus got away. Black was grabbed by the guard and turned over to the templars. He was taken to the Kirkwall Circle, losing all contact with Rus.

Rus endured the following years of training, and at the first opportunity, bailed. He made his way to Kirkwall and broke his brother out. After a few years of seeing the abuse inflicted on mages, though, Black wasn’t content to just turn tail and run to Antiva. The dawn of the mage-templar war was liberating for him, and he and Rus began engaging in as many acts of rebellion as they could get away with, utlizing Black’s arcane mastery with Rus’ dexterity and underworld contacts. 

When not battling templars, they escort groups of apostate refugees as they flee their respective circles. Black has found his purpose in this fight, and Rus as well. Notably, Black also utilizes blood magic, insistent that the dangerous side effects have been overblown by a fearful Chantry. Its to be seen if it’ll ever break bad for him.

[honeyjaez]

Maze of Miroh- Chapter 1: The Day That Starts It All

The piercing sound of an alarm clock woke Minho up once again from his restless sleep. He groaned in annoyance as his brain registered what was happening and he pouted as he pulled the covers up over his head. His muscles felt weak from his adventure yesterday and he did not have the energy to get out of bed and face the day. Maybe if I stay here and hide, then Jiwon and the other factory leaders won’t bother looking for me and I can be a hermit the rest of my life.

But right as he thought it, a familiar loud knock echoed throughout his small studio apartment, and once again Minho found himself groaning in an accustomed annoyance.

“Go away” he huffed.

“Now Minie, I know you most certainly do not have a death wish.” Hyunjae responded as he continued to knock. Minho snorted, pulling the sheets away from his body but still making no move to open the door “Bold of you to assume I don’t.”

Minho could hear the faint click of disapproval come from Hyunjae as he opened the door finally. “Not funny Lee.”

Rolling his eyes, he motioned for Hyunjae to come in as he began pulling clothes over his body “I don’t know…I find myself pretty hilarious.” This earned a chuckle from the older boy as he began to fiddle with the various objects on top of the dresser. “You’re the only one.”

Minho gave him a look of mocked hurt “Rude!”

Hyunjae snorted in response and bumped the younger in the shoulder “So is making me late waiting for your dumbass. Remember what happened last time we were late for the start of the Work Shift?”

Looking down, Minho suddenly lost his appetite for sass. He remembered the last time they were both late to the start of the shift very clearly. It had been Minho’ fault, he had been helping Jeongwoo look for his sister and was so engrossed in helping this boy that he totally forgot about the time, and it was Hyunjae who found him, Hyunjae who brought him to work, and it was Hyunjae who took the blame for it saying it was his fault. The agents of The Order took him and locked him in a room with no food or water for 2 days as punishment. Minho remember the day so clearly because he had never cried so much when they released him, a wide grin plastered on his face as he looked at the bawling boy. That was the day he learned just how much Hyunjae meant to him.

“-nie. Oi Minie!” Hyunjae snapped his fingers in Minho’s face, bringing him back to reality. “I was only joking, but for real let’s not be late day dreamer.”

Minho just stared at him, his eyes slightly wide as if he just woke up. “Y-Yeah.” Rolling his eyes, Hyunjae grabbed for Minho’s hand and the two friends set out to face the day.

 The outside of Spector was always the same. Loud, cramped and stuffy, causing Minho to scrunch his nose up in mild disgust. How he wished he could live out in a clean world, away from The Order. He thought back to Felix’s story yesterday and how nice that seemingly impossible world would be. Green Trees. Carefree. A life without worry. And most importantly;

A life without The Order.

But alas. Such a world would never exist. Not for him or anyone.

“Hyung!” A familiar voice yelled farther down the street. Minho smiled as he saw Jeongwoo’s bright eyes and smile as he looked at the pair. His felt a familiar pang in his heart as he realized that Jeongwoo would also never have the worry free life that a 12 year old boy like him deserves.

Hyunjae affectionately ruffled the boy’s hair as he came up. “What’s up little man?”

Jeongwoo let out a small giggle as he looked at them with a sparkle in his eyes.

“I got another tip hyungs! This person saw my missing posters and said he saw my sister a few weeks ago!”

Minho’s smile faltered slightly as he listened. Jeongwoo at the small age of 8 was orphaned after their parents went missing one night. People assumed they just up and abandoned their kids. But Minho remembers the night their bodies were recovered along the river. Agents blocked off the entire area but Minho has caught a glimpse of one of the bodies and to this day still shivers at the memory of it. Whoever. Whatever killed them had a lot of rage in them. Those bodies were not human anymore. But The Order wrote it off saying that the killer got away and Jeongwoo and his sister Sejeong were left to fend for themselves.

That is. Until 2 years ago when Sejeong herself went missing.

Since then, the neighborhood started to take turns in caring for the orphaned boy. He spends every day looking for his sister while the boys are at work. Then when it gets dark both he and Hyunjae cook him dinner and spend some time with him as boys do. Sometimes he sleeps with them. Sometimes he goes to Auntie Gayoon’s house. But either way. Their small neighborhood is in agreement that they are all collectively Jeongwoo’s family.

 “That’s awesome Little Man!” Hyunjae picked up the little 10 year old who broke into a fit of laughter. “Just be careful ya hear?”

He put Jeongwoo down who nodded once “I will Hyunjae hyung!” He turned to Minho and surprisingly He felt awkward with the young boy.

“What Hyunjae Hyung said. Be careful and don’t forget dinner at my place tonight!”

Jeongwoo jumped up in the air in excitement “Alright! Minho hyung is cooking!”

Minho snickered at Hyunjae who looked somewhat offended “Why do you never act like this when I cook?”

“Because Hyung” Minho snickered “You cook as well as Grandma Yoo”

“But Grandma Yoo is terrible!”

Minho and Jeongwoo both cackled loudly as they held onto each other. Wiping tears from his eyes, Minho smiled at the blonde haired boy “You said it hyung. Not me”

“Tch. Whatever brat. See if I ever cook for you again.” His words were harsh, but his face was anything but. Jeongwoo tore himself from Minho’s grasp and started to move past them both.

“Bye hyungs! Don’t be late to Work!”

Hyunjae waved back as Minho mimicked the action. “See you little man! Don’t forget! 6               pm at Minie’s here!”

“Hyung!” Minho protested at the use of the nickname in public.

 Little did they know that they would never get to meet for Dinner as the day would separate these three souls forever.

 The walk to their factory was dull and uneventful as the two friends walked in comfortable silence. The quietness was never a problem with Minho, he loved it, and it allowed him to be with his thoughts. But at this current time, he found his thoughts unwelcoming as it constantly faded back to a certain red haired boy and his weird words.

“Neh Hyung?” he said suddenly, not looking from the ground as they continued their walk.

“What’s up Minie?” Hyunjae asked casually and Minho groaned out loud, once again annoyed with the use of the nickname.

As if he could read Minho’s thoughts the older boy chuckled, placing an arm around him. “Get over it Minie. I’m going to call you that until we die and then some.”

Minho decided it was no use arguing and accepted his fate. He turned towards his hyung slightly, his brown eyes curious. “What do you know about Felix?”  

Hyunjae’s own eyes widened slightly as he was caught off guard. “As in Lee Felix?” he seemed to ponder the question a bit more as he placed his hand on his chin in thought. “I don’t know Minie….I mean he just started at the factory 3 months ago? He is a little weird, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary I’d say.” He peered at Minho “Why do you ask?”

Minho shrugged “I’m not really sure myself…. I guess I just was curious.”

Hyunjae grabbed Minho’s cheek and cooed at him “Aww! Does my Minie have a crush?” Minho scoffed in response and moved his hand away. “As if! I’m just curious about the guy!” Hyunjae chuckled but the smile seemed to fade from his face as his eyes glassed over like he was thinking back to an old memory.

“I don’t know the guy personally, he wouldn’t give me the chance. But… I remember one of his first days. I asked him how he was adjusting to Spector. He was completely fine. And then I made the mistake of asking him about his hometown. For a split second I could suddenly see unbearable sadness in his eyes. But before I could ask what’s wrong he excused himself and disappeared the rest of the day. My guess is that the guy has had a rough life up until now.”

Humming in response, Minho suddenly felt guilty for asking. Hyunjae for all that he is has only ever wanted to take care of people. Especially those younger than him. He probably wants nothing more than to become friends with Felix and help him through whatever shit he is going through but alas not everyone likes to accept that help. And Hyunjae hates it. That is just who he is. And yet, Minho can’t help but think back to yesterday and how he saw with his own eyes Felix’s personality split. He acted so bubbly at the park, but when talk of The Order came up, Minho for the first time realized that he could never quiet see the smile reach his eyes when they spoke. There was sadness in Felix, just like there was sadness in himself.

“Maybe I’ll invite him to eat with us today”

Hyunjae hummed in approval before flicking Minho in the forehead lightly. “Dumbass there won’t be a lunch break if you don’t pick up the pace.”

“Why are you attacking me like this?” Minho groaned dramatically holding his head in pain. “We are here.”

The walked into the building was as ordinary as any other work day, but Minho felt the hair’s on the back of his neck stand up immediately. There was tension in this building. And a lot of it. He silently cursed his over sensitive empathy for those around him and looked to Hyunjae who mirrored his worry. His brows were furrowed down and he grabbed out for Minho’s arm. “Stay close Minie. Something isn’t right”

Minho gulped and nodded, not daring to speak.

The two of them made their way through the hallways until they came across the open space of the production floor and Minho stomach dropped at the sight before him.  

There, lined up in a single row were all his co-workers and friends. Standing in front of them however, were a bunch of suits who all wore the symbol of The Order’s watch dogs on their forehead. Agents

“Jiwon. What the hell is this?” Hyunjae demanded.

At the sound of his voice, their boss Jiwon, with this pulled back black hair turned and looked at the pair, irritation plain as day on his face. “Doesn’t matter! Just get in Line!” he hissed. They both did as they were told, getting into line next to a guy that Minho couldn’t remember the name to but knew he was a quiet guy with no real qualms. Once they both stood still, Minho squinted his eyes to see an induvial stand out from the Agents, as he was much shorter than the others, but held twice as much power in his gaze. He ran his hand over his bald head like he was annoyed.

“Now that everyone is here we can begin.” His voice was like nails on a chalkboard to Minho and suddenly he wanted the man to shut his mouth. “My name is Kwangsoo, and I bet you are all wondering why you have not started the Shift for the day.” he began to walk down the line, looking at each individual intently. “Well…The Order put me in charge of defectors and other rebels to keep our streets safe. And today” he paused, looking at the mass of people “I am here to tell you that one of your fellow workers here is a member of the extremely violent terrorist group S-K-Z!”

Hushed voices exploded in the line as workers as they whispered quickly to one another.

“S-K-Z?” he heard one voice murmur “You mean THAT radical extremist group that has been fighting against The Order here in Spector?”

“I heard that one of their men killed at least 20 agents last week in an explosion”

“They can’t be that stupid to thing they can fight against The Order.”

Minho jumped slightly as he felt Hyunjae grab his hand, holding tightly, his gaze unreadable.

“It’s true!” the short man continued, holding up two objects too small for Minho to see. “We found this pin, the pin of said terrorist group along with this piece of carbon steel. Last time I checked due to the rules of our great leaders only the factory workers, and military personal get to handle such fine metal.” He sneered at Jiwon who just stared back in anger “and last time I checked you were the only Carbon steel factory in Spector.” He began to spin the small object in their air while whistling. “So I’ll give you one chance to give yourself up and we will take you to headquarters where The Order will punish you accordingly.”

Dead silence filled the room.

“Orrrrrrr” he began, nodding towards the Agents who immediately pulled out guns, pointing them at the scared crowd “I can start executing your friends”

Minho froze, his brain stopping all thought as he tried to grasp the situation he was currently in. Being at the end of the row, no guns were pointed at him yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Suddenly he felt movement beside him and a squeeze of his hand before the feeling was gone. He looked over and his stomach dropped as he saw Hyunjae step forward, holding his hands up in the air.

“All right you got me.” All eyes and guns changed to the boy as he stared back, his gaze hard.

Minho spurted, knowing full well it was a lie. “H-Hyung! What are you doing?” he hissed.

Hyunjae turned his head slightly at Minho, sadness sparkled in his eyes. He opened his mouth and mouthed the form of an apology to him and Miho felt his knees almost give out as he was reminded of his thoughts from earlier.

That is just who Hyunjae is.

“Oh ho. So the rat exposes himself” Kwangsoo chuckled humorlessly. “Honestly I expected more of a fight. We brought a lot of ammo just for the occasion.”

Hyungjae walked forward until he was a few feet away from the shorter man, and raised his arm over the rest of his fellow factory workers.  “Leave them alone.” He seethed “You have me now. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Oh ho!” Kwangsoo “The rat has teeth.” He waved his arm and suddenly all the guns were ready and aimed at Hyunjae’s head. Minho watched as his best friend flinched slightly at the sound. And he found his legs running forward without much thought. “No!”

Minho ran out in front of Hyunjae, placing his body in a way that protected the older boy from the multiple guns aimed in his direction. The shorter agent smiled, like he was expecting this to happen. “Looks like there is someone stupider than you rat.”

He felt Hyunjae’s body tense and immediately Minho was pushed off of him. “Minho what the hell are you doing!?”

“What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing?!” he yelled back, tears threatening to fall down. “We both know you aren’t a member of some terrorist group! Why are you lying?!”

“You don’t know anything Minho!” he hissed back. Hyunjae looked back at Kwangsoo, his momentary break in character over, and his eyes held strength again.  “I am a member of the S-K-Z. Kill me if you have to, but leave the others out of it!”

“Why do I suddenly not believe you boy?”

“Hyunjae!-“

“I mean I can kill you both if it helps the situation” Kwangsoo said simply, looking at Minho’s desperate face. There were now guns aimed at both Hyunjae and Minho, and an arm raised to signal the shooters.  Minho could sense Hyunjae was about to charge the man in blind suicidal rage in hopes to spare him, but before anyone could move, there was a rather loud cough behind them.

All attention was turned towards the noise and Minho’s eyes widened as he saw the red hair of a familiar individual step out from the crowd; Felix.

The bright eyed, freckled boy held two types of smiles on his face. The first was a soft, warm smile, directed at Minho and Hyunjae, almost like he was thanking them. The second smile was when he turned to look at Kwangsoo, in an almost smirking like way.

“Hello Pint Sized Agent man! You aren’t gonna shoot either of these guys understand?”

Kwangsoo momentarily froze at the nickname, but recovered himself as he scoffed. “And why the hell am I going to do that?”

Felix walked forward fearlessly, his smirk never leaving his face. “Because if you kill those two, then in the commotion you’ll let the real rat get away.” And Minho watched as he raised a single wrist up to his face, rolling down the sleeves to reveal a tattoo similar to that of the pin. The mark of the S-K-Z.

Kwangsoo smiled evilly, turning his whole body towards Felix.  “Finally, a rat worth killing.”

But before Minho say something in hopes to help his new acquaintance/friend, a rather loud explosion shook the whole factory as the ceiling began to fall down. There were screams everywhere as people began to run out of the danger. He felt Hyunjae immediately grabbed at Minho, telling him to follow him, and follow him he was going to do before turning back to see Kwangsoo aiming a gun at Felix. The agents had all ran away, as did the other workers, but Felix and Kwangsoo stayed still, almost like they were sizing each other up in the midst of the crumbling building.  He felt a weird sense of protectiveness over the younger boy who just sacrificed himself for them and in a weird act of courage he yanked his arm free of Hyunjae’s grasp.

“Go! Help the others!” Minho yelled at Hyunjae. Hyunjae looked like he was about to refused, but the cry of an older man, the man Minho had stood next to broke Hyunjae down and he nodded once at him.

“Lee Minho I swear to god. You get out alive or I will bring you back just to kill you again.”

And with that the two best friends broke apart. Hyunjae running to help his fellow workers, and Minho running to help someone who up until yesterday was just a stranger. Just then, a rather large piece of the ceiling fell on top of one of the machineries, cause another large explosion. Minho’s eyes stung through the dust but he managed to find his way through the clearing.

All of a sudden fire red hair popped up into his view and he ran straight into the boy he had been looking for.

“Felix!”

“Minho hyung?!” Felix hissed “What are you doing!?”

“Saving your dumb ass. Now come on!” He turned towards what was considered the exit and sighed in relief as he watched Hyunjae disappear though it, an injured man at his side. He pulled Felix towards the door. “Come on bef-NO! “

He was interrupted by a loud bang and an immense pain that now was burning in his side, screaming at him. He turned and saw Felix’s eyes wide with shock and it took him all of 3 seconds to realize that Kwangsoo shot at Felix, and that Minho, without even thinking, stood in front of him taking the bullet himself.  Suddenly the realization that he had been shot made the wound scream even more and he doubled over in pain.

“Shit. Shit!” he hear Felix chant over his head. “Minho? Minho can you hear me?!” but Minho’s body was in too much pain from the bullet wound to respond. He opened his eyes briefly to see Kwangsoo being rushed away by some of his agents as blood poured down from his shirt. “Was he shot? Who shot him?”

But the pain broke Minho back down from his thoughts and he started to feel very dizzy, his vision blurring. There were other voices above him, some he recognized, and some he didn’t. They were screaming and he felt a pair of strong arms hoist his body up and began running. His side screamed at him in protest and he tried to break free of whoever was handling him roughly.

“Yah! Stay still!” a harsh voice yelled at him “We are saving you dumb ass!”

“H-Hyunjae hyung” Minho murmured and he felt a pair of soft hands grab his in response, as they continued to run away. “He is okay Minho, he got out. But you have to trust me. We are going to help you” he had never heard a voice so soothing before and soon he felt his body finally give out from the loss of blood, drifting off into a painful unconsciousness.

Well guys. These were the first two chapters. Tell me what you think! I haven’t written something like this since like 2013 so I’m a little rough. I promise as the story gets on my writing will stop sounding so awkward lmfao.

Mini confession: I’m starting to become really whipped for Hyunjae and I don’t even stan The Boyz. (I’m starting to tho)

Lots of other groups will be making appearances as well so stay tuned!

[msmoonlighter]

All About Piper King! (It’s really long, sorry)

Full Name: Piper  Eurydice King

Ethnicity/Nationality: Mexican-Italian American

Age: 22 Family: Pierce Alastor King ( older half brother), Natalia Romero-Blackwell (Adoptive mother, Banshee ), Lysander Blackwell (Adoptive father, Vampire), Heather Brooks (Adoptive sister, not related to the Blackwells, Human turned werewolf, her family abandoned her after she was turned, they were hunters), Lorena King (Biological mother, Gorgon, an asshole),  Santiago Adder (Biological father, never met his kid, not an asshole, Gorgon, would actually make an okay dad)

Species: Gorgon, descendant of Stheno, one of the original three Gorgon Sisters Gender: Female Height/ Body type: She’s 5’3 and got a kinda slim thick thing going on. She’s a little curvy around the hips and thighs and chest, but not extremely so. Appearance: Dark/medium green snakes, pale green skin, red or gold eyes I can’t decide, red lips, I can’t decide whether I want her fangs to always be visible or if I want them to be like real snake fangs and have them only pop up when she opens her mouth. Guess I’ll alternate?

Job: Works at a bunch of places. She’s an art student, she needs that coin. She works as a barista at a coffee shop during the colder months, during the warmer months occasionally she works at a fast food joint where she gets to roller skate people’s food to their car and she LOVES rollerskating. She also babysits year round when she can because 1) she loves kids. They amuse her, and she has this weird motherly streak, and 2) A lot of monster kids love her snakes. A few are terrified of them, but she has a pretty good chance of getting the kids being enamored with them. And if she needs to get the kids to quit acting up, she pulls out the “you’re making the snakes sad” card. Her snakes play along and act all disappointed until the kid feels bad and complies. Dirty trick, but it works. If the kid is a little shit she has two options. Either she busts out the “I’ll turn you to stone, I won’t hesitate.” card, or  “I’m calling your mom and she’s not going to be happy.” Usually that doesn’t have to happen though because kids either adore her, or are scared shitless by her. Hobbies: Art, sculpting, painting, sketching, graphic design, the works. Also music. She’s a drummer for her brother’s band Sweet Poison Fangs or SPF and sometimes even sings for them. She also loves hiking, exploring nature, taking care of her snakes, reading books and comics, lowkey love of soccer (or futbol), and generally being creative or getting to be outdoors. LOVE SWIMMING. SO MUCH. LIKE WOW. WATER? GOOD SHIT. GIVE HER THAT H2O. She has a high key love of roller skating because when she moved in with her adoptive parents the first thing they did for family bonding time is go rollerskating and it became a tradition to go out roller skating on her birthday each year.

Personality:

- Main  traits: Opinionated, independant, strong willed, kind hearted, laid back usually but she can have a temper, creative, casually (but very) affectionate, and loyal as FUCK, fun, outgoing, easily flustered by flirtatious behavior towards her (when welcomed), hardworking, compassionate

-Don’t mess with people she cares about she will come AFTER you - Cares about the environment and shows it. You littered? You pick it up or you become a new museum piece. She wears lots of “Save the (insert endangered species, or ecosystem here)” shirts and picks up trash whenever she sees it. Like doesn’t matter where she is, if there’s litter, she’s grabbing it and carrying it to the nearest trash can. Consequently, she uses a lot of trash in her art and repurposes a lot of stuff.

- May seem easygoing and fun but please don’t try to fight her, chances are you will get fucked up. She’s been taking MMA classes since she was twelve and lemme tell you, there is nothing hotter than seeing Piper punch, disarm, and take down, a mugger in four seconds flat.

-  I’m not gonna lie she’s a little bit flirty but she usually does it jokingly and makes that clear. The second you turn it around and flirt with her she becomes a mESS. An uncharacteristically flustered MESS.

- A bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her art and music, when she gets worried about school work she basically shuts down and loses the ability to give a shit to avoid stress. It’s a sucky coping mechanism and often her brother has to snap her out of it. Soon as he does though she’s IN IT TO WIN IT and won’t be stopped until she’s blown all her schoolwork out of the water. (Unless it’s done the day before then she’ll get like a C tops.)

-  She’s so loving and welcoming towards other people, like my god if see sees you crying she’s automatically there to ask if you’re okay and comfort you no matter if she knows you or not. But she’s not all kind. If you’re an asshole she’ll take one look at you, push her guilt away and go “Suffer.” But usually that’s reserved for people who have wronged others around her.

- She actually met one of her good friends, a half shadow demon, half vampire named Naomi at a cafe. She took one look at the tiny, shy girl in the corner, sipping her coffee and looking sad, and just casually walked over, slipped into the seat across from her, and said, “Hi. I’m Piper. Could you give me your opinion on a few drawings of mine?” And after they got to talking admitted that she came over because Naomi looked sad. She uses her quick wit and extrovertedness to make people smile and earns a lot of friends because of it.

- She’s kind of a bit self deprecating and has low self esteem, but she’s super supportive and uplifting towards everyone except herself.

- Straddling the line between true and chaotic neutral

Backstory: Her mother was, in short, fucked up. She had Pierce at eighteen, as a senior in high school, and then three years later had Piper, and they were both from different fathers. She lived in an apartment complex, running on money from her parents, and was kind of a shitty mom. Lorena fed them and stuff, but like, she wasn’t very loving or motherly. She was more like a vodka aunt who they just happened to live with. And she was an asshole.

She didn’t have a job, except for when she went and worked at McDonalds and that didn’t last more than a year. And it wasn’t like it was because she couldn’t get a job, it was just because she didn’t care. Whenever she got angry and frustrated she’d scream and curse and hit them, and let her snakes bite them.

Gorgons are immune to snake bites so it didn’t do anything but it still scared them and hurt because Lorena had rattlesnakes for hair. She went partying constantly, leaving Pierce and Piper to fend for themselves until late at night. The landlady cooked for them sometimes, and she was the only real source of motherly care they got.

When Pierce was thirteen and Piper was ten, Pierce came out as gay and Lorena, who had been threatening to get rid of them for years, finally snapped. She shouted about how she’d put a roof over his head, given him food, and he’d repaid her by being ‘disgusting’ and ‘unnatural’. Piper stepped in and defended her brother, trembling as she told her mother that Pierce did nothing wrong and that if she thought that they needed to repay her terrible mothering, neglect, and abuse then she was more demented and delusional than Piper had thought. She told her that she was a terrible person, a terrible mother, and that Pierce was fine the way he was. Lorena hit  Piper so hard Piper stumbled back into the wall and told them both to leave and never come back. Pierce and Piper threw their stuff into two suitcases and two backpacks and left. They wandered around for a while, until they came across Middleverse. They planned to keep moving, but then they got adopted. They were actually trying to steal from a hotdog stand when they met their adoptive father. Pierce was distracting the vendor by stealing his wallet and running, leading the vendor to chase him. Meanwhile Piper swooped in and stealthily swiped some dogs with help from her snakes. Then, all of the sudden, someone clamped a hand down on her shoulder. First reaction? Punch them. Piper wasn’t used to physical contact of any kind except harmful, she’d been living on the streets, and her mother often grabbed her shoulder or arm when angry, so she just whirled around and sucker punched the guy in the face. The man was tall, blonde haired, and very much in pain. He held his nose, eyes watering for a second, before giving her an awkward grin and saying, “Okay, that was my fault. Sorry about that.” Piper grimaced at the blood slipping through his fingers, but she didn’t back down. Her snakes rose up, hissing, and she eyed him warily. “What do you want?” “Look,” The man said, still blinking back tears. Piper handed him a napkin from the stand. He held it to his nose “Thanks. Now, kid, why do you feel you have to steal these hotdogs? Can’t you just buy some? Don’t you have parents who can buy you some? I just don’t want you to get in trouble. I saw you and the boy do the whole diversion thing.” “I don’t have money.” Piper replied automatically. “Or parents.” “You’re orphaned.” The man said, solemnly. “No.” Piper said, taking a bite of her loot. “My mother kicked us out.” The man hesitated for a long second, then, one hand still covering his nose with the napkin, pulled out his wallet. “I’ll buy you some food. How many hotdogs you want?” Piper was obviously wary, wondering if there was a catch. The man assured her there was none, so she let him slap some money on the hotdog stand and let him walk with her to the spot she and Pierce said they’d meet. The man told her his name was Lysander Blackwell, he was a vampire, he worked as a college professor, and he was married to his “gorgeous, talented, and amazing” wife Natalia, a banshee. She was just telling him about her snakes, who up until this point were her closest friends, when Pierce ran up with some cash and some hotdogs, grinning. When he saw Lysander, however, his smile fell. Piper assured him that Lysander was cool, and he trusted Piper’s instincts so he begrudgingly allowed Lysander to take them on a walk through Middleverse. At the end of the day, after buying them ice cream, and taking them to the art museum, where he had been heading to meet his wife, Piper and Pierce felt a little more comfortable with Lysander.

He was a really nice guy, who liked to make bad puns, and dad jokes, but who could be genuinely funny, and was really intelligent. Natalia, who was the prettiest, most genuinely loving woman Piper had ever met, told her that if she wanted a place to stay, she could stay with them. The King siblings were tired and hungry, and these folks had fed them and taken them to a museum, so they reluctantly agreed. Time passed a little by little Piper and Pierce became more and more comfortable with the Blackwells, until one day, they just decided to stay. Lysander and Natalia adopted them, and were great, loving, understanding parents. The first moment Piper really felt like she had a family was when Natalia and Lysander took them to the roller rink to skate. Piper had fallen and gotten tripped over. She started to get up, and hissed as her scraped palms and knees touched the floor. Natalia rushed over and helped her up and asked her if she was okay and Piper was like ???? affection and caring????? This is so nice ???? And she looked over at Pierce and Lysander laughing as they ate pizza and just kind of had a moment. She realized that she finally had parents who loved her and cared for her. She didn’t answer, she just wrapped her arms around Natalia and hugged her real tight. Natalia, though surprised, hugged her back and didn’t question it. As Piper got older, she became more and more aware of the fact that she was not straight. When she was fifteen she finally worked out that she was pan. She was surprised that she wasn’t afraid to tell her parents. They had been supportive of Pierce and had openly voiced their approval every time he brought home a nice guy (there were occasions when Pierce brought home a guy that they told him afterwards was no good) so Piper felt minimal fear to tell them. But when she finally walked into Natalia’s office where Lysander and Natalia were working on a paper about the decline of the sumatran tiger population, she suddenly became very nervous, and her snakes gave that away. Often her snakes reacted to her emotions, and when she becomes nervous they do too because they can sense her fear. Lysander got up to hug her and welcome her home from school, and one of her more skittish snakes, Bowie, struck at him. Lysander, who recognized this as a sign of fear, of course asked if Piper was okay. Natalia offered to get what they called The Comfy Blanket. A soft blanket they threw into the dryer and warmed up to give to Piper when she needed comfort. Being part reptilian, though warm blooded, she felt more content when warm, and sometimes when she was anxious, they’d get out The Comfy Blanket. After a long moment, and lots of blabbering and stalling, Piper finally got it across that she was pansexual. Natalia and Lysander assured her that there was nothing wrong with that and that she was still their daughter and that they loved her. Piper broke down crying she was so happy. Her snakes flocked to her cheeks and wrapped around her shoulders, giving her semblances of hugs and resting their heads against her cheeks in attempts to calm her, and Natalia and Lysander hugged her, telling her over and over that they loved her and that they were happy she told them and trusted them.

Piper discovered her love of art a few months after, when they adopted Heather, the newly turned werewolf girl who made beautiful drawings, much more advanced than Piper’s. Piper told Heather she wished she could draw like her. Heather advised Piper to take some art classes, and when Piper did, she realized two things. 1) Art was hella hard, and 2) she adored it. From then on she threw herself head first into sculpting, painting, graphic design, any form of visual art she could. She has a very tight bond with Pierce, and a bond almost as tight with Heather. She’s supportive of both, and fiercely loyal. She’s very protective of Heather, mostly because when they adopted her she seemed so in need of love and reassurance and comfort. She was a newly turned werewolf who was abandoned by the only family she had on the side of the road, left for dead after being beaten cut with a silver knife. Of COURSE Piper was going to be protective of her. She and Lysander and Pierce formed a sort of Heather Protection Squad, making sure to threaten, beat up, or at least intimidate anyone who even looked at Heather wrong. They will protect and attack for their little gorl. To quote Lysander when a vampire had asked why Lysander was allowing a werewolf to walk with him in the park, “That is my daughter, and you will treat her with respect, or I will stick my foot so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste your racism. And let me tell you, buddy, it tastes bad.” And to quote Piper when one of Heather’s schoolmates called her a dog. “Have you ever felt the feeling of all your limbs stiffening and your body dying as you turn to stone? Would you like to? Because you’re going to if you don’t shut the fuck up, you disgusting piece of racist filth. And who are you to call someone else a dog? I swear to god, you look like a naked mole rat and a deformed chihuahua had a baby. Back off.” And to quote Pierce when a kid in Heather’s class told Heather to fetch and threw a branch at her. “Hold my guitar, Piper, I’m gonna go fuck up a 14 year old. HEY BITCH! YEAH YOU FUCK-TARD. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH MY SISTER? YOU WANT THAT STICK SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT? BECAUSE I’M ABOUT TO SHOVE THAT STICK DOWN YOUR THROAT AND RIGHT THROUGH YOUR INTESTINES.” Basically, they all love Heather and aren’t afraid to throw down for her honor. When Piper was eighteen Pierce got this idea that they should form a band. And they did. And they’re really good. They’re a multi-genre (mostly Alternative, punk and rock) band called Sweet Poison Fangs or The Fangs or simply SPF. Mostly because everyone in the band has fangs, but also because it’s something Natalia called the King kids whenever they got a sassy mouth. “Alright then, Sweet Poison Fangs, if you don’t want to fold your clothes, I guess you don’t want to go to the movies tonight either.” Piper’s best friend, other than Pierce, is a redhead witch named Aspen, who is also an artist, and writing a comic book with her. Aspen loves writing and so she’s doing most of the storyline for the comic. Aspen’s more into theatre than she is, and participates in at least one major local production a year. She’s really fun and has the same sense of humor Piper does, meaning they get along fantastic. She’s a more energetic though, and often her ADHD antics get Piper out of the house, so Mr and Mrs Blackwell love her. She works as a barista with Piper, and sells her art to make money. Piper’s second best friend is Wyatt McCoy, an instrumentally talented, and socially awkward werewolf she met in sophomore year of highschool. He’s kind of a huge nerd, and wants to study to become a wildlife biologist and a chemist, but his mad ADD interfere with school and he’s putting off college. Among her other friends are Alessandro Nightshade, the first guy that Pierce dated, Jade Darksea, a Nixie, and Naomi Nacht, a shadow demon-vampire. Alec is an incubus and therefore hella hot. He’s kinda really flirty, but once he becomes close to you, the flirting dies down to just occasional jokes, and he becomes like an older brother. As in he steals your food and embarrasses you in front of your crush. He was pretty great as first boyfriends go and he and Pierce are now best friends instead of having a messy breakup and never talking again. He plays bass guitar in the band. Jade is quiet and a bit moody, with long black hair that’s constantly in her face and wet and a penchant for asking to eat people when she’s annoyed with them. Don’t go swimming with her. Just don’t. It won’t end well. She’s usually backup vocals in the band. Naomi is a sweet and shy girl, easily flustered and very good with animals. She has a lovely singing voice, but refuses to sing in public, but also really wanted to be in the band, so she plays whatever small instrument they need in the band. She takes over playing percussion if Wyatt has to play a woodwind or brass. She’s super pretty with black hair cut to her neck, big dark blue eyes, and freckles. Her horns are like those of a deer, and her tail is that of a white tailed deer too. She hides them both. All in all, Piper is happy with her life, but she’s still bothered by the fact that she’s never met her biological father, and she’s a little insecure still. She wants to travel the world, but is afraid to leave Middleverse, seeing as it’s the only home she’s ever known, and Aspen’s not strong enough to cast a semi-permanent glamour over her to hide the fact that she’s not human.

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

How the Dai Li are NOT Actually One-Dimensional Traitorous Idiots, They’re Totally Two-Dimensional I Swear

Despite being partially-faceless mooks with cool hats, the Dai Li are honestly ATLA’s most interesting villains. You wouldn’t think we’d be getting any bad guys on the Earth Kingdom side - and yet, here we are! Just as surely as we have good guys from the Fire Nation! Shades of gray for everyone! the concept, not the godawful book.

And wow, the Dai Li sure did turn out to be bad guys! Conspiratory secret police, corrupt law enforcement, political puppeteers, brainwashers, DIRTY ROTTEN BISON THIEVES AND JET-MURDERERS.

But everyone considers themselves the hero in their own story, so...how do the Dai Li think they’re the heroes, exactly? Well, they’ve got Avatar Kyoshi’s blessing, their orders are to protect, and the city is a major mess with all those refugees constantly pouring in and the Fire Nation hammering away outside... Sure, they’ve got a long list of crimes, and even they probably know that they don’t do Good Things...but they probably rationalize their actions as being worth doing if it maintains order and protects their city.

A city which they then go ahead and hand over to the Fire Nation on a silver platter, because Azula is just that impressive, the Dai Li are just that power-hungry, and Long Feng is just that foolish.

Or are they?

(Okay yeah Azula really is that impressive. But that’s the only true part of that statement.)

So here’s the thing - unlike Book 1 villain Zhao and his troops, who were motivated by a desire for conquest and glory, Book 2 villain Long Feng and his agents are motivated by the need to maintain the control they already have.

It goes without saying that they have a lot of control, but let’s just, like, review. Long Feng has files on every citizen in the city. There’s enough agents that they’re apparently able to provide security at a palace banquet AND patrol the Lower Ring AND have special details keeping an eye on persons of interest, like the Avatar. Joo Dee may look like a brainwashed ditz, but there’s apparently a small army of her, and each one is a warning and a reminder and an effective spy, capable of frightening citizens with a brilliant smile and a shake of her head. Long Feng is not only Head of the Dai Li and the Minister of Culture but ALSO the Grand Secretariat and King Kuei’s most trusted advisor.

(btw Grand Secretariat is......not an actual title for a human being in Real World History, I think, but it was a governmental agency in Ming Dynasty China that was meant to keep the Six Ministries coordinated with each other, and the Six Grand Secretaries who made up the Grand Secretariat, while technically lower-ranked than the Ministers, actually wound up being more powerful than them because they controlled everything. Huh, that sounds familiar.)

Oh, and to cement Long Feng’s power even further - King Kuei is 25, and it’s heavily implied he was crowned at a very young age. They’ve been working together for a very long time.

Look, I really doubt that the There Is No War In Ba Sing Se policy is as old as the war. For one thing, Long Feng flat-out says that he thought sky bison were extinct, and Kuei didn’t seem surprised, so I’m guessing Kuei has been told that the Airbenders were wiped out a century ago because vague handwave, not important. But clearly people know there was a conflict at some point, it’s just that, since Long Feng took over, no one’s heard anything about it. Heck, in the Upper Ring’s case, they were probably more than happy to forget about it and go back to partying. I do think Long Feng coming to power was the turning point in the policy on talking about the war, and that before him, it wasn’t a secret.

There was an Earth King before Kuei, and that Earth King would’ve been an adult who wasn’t raised to believe he should only handle cultural matters and leave all the important and powerful parts of his job to someone else so he could be a pretty ceremonial figurehead. “But Caelum, what if all Earth Kings are so busy turning their palace into such a dream world of art that they just don’t give a shit about running the country?” Okay look I’m pretty sure that that actually is true for most of Ba Sing Se’s nobility, but at the same time, have you ever met a Chinese emperor? They aren’t stupid. They know that letting someone else control all the people with swords is a bad idea and liable to get you killed when that person realizes they’re way better than you at your job.

Kuei is young and not exactly world savvy due to his sheltered upbringing that is partially an upper class privilege issue and partially a Long Feng issue, and also probably thinks that leaving Long Feng in charge of the army is fine because he trusts Long Feng not to stab him in the back. And Kuei probably trusts Long Feng that much for a reason.

Because even though Long Feng is a power-hungry schemer, here’s the thing - child monarchs don’t tend to have a long life expectancy, historically speaking. When things go so far south that a baby gets crowned, people are going to take advantage of that kind of chaos. Historically, child monarchs that survive childhood usually have someone in their corner - usually their mother - backing them up, consolidating power, and fending off assassination attempts and political coups.

Long Feng totally saved little Kuei’s life on at least one occasion and kept the government from floundering, is what I’m getting at here.

We don’t know what went down to cause Kuei to get crowned king at around age five, but it was about twenty-years pre-series, and Long Feng would have been in his 30s. Probably already in the Dai Li, probably with an already-impressive political career, probably already a minister and in charge of the Dai Li, probably not considering doing anything too dastardly to gain more power for himself - as insidious as the man is, he’s more opportunistic than offensive, and I don’t think he’d flat-out assassinate his ruler on the off chance it might get him farther in life.

But if someone else assassinated his ruler and probably a good chunk of the royal family as well, leaving a suddenly-orphaned young prince without a familial support system to ascend the throne? Oh, yes, I can see Long Feng taking advantage of that situation pretty easily, and rationalizing it as being for the good of the city to do so. Don’t worry, your majesty, you just focus on growing up and getting an education and taking care of the simpler, ceremonial duties of your station, I’ll handle the hard stuff.

Yeah, Long Feng is a power-hungry jerk, but he’s an intelligent power-hungry jerk, and he knows that keeping Kuei alive and on the throne will keep down the number of people who think someone else should be on the throne. He keeps Kuei in the limelight while he operates in the shadows. He doesn’t need to fight off usurpers, he gets to act the righteous underling dedicated to the rightful monarch, and he gets in good with the new king. It’s a more efficient way to power.

So Long Feng is super powerful - the most powerful person in the entire Earth Kingdom, unofficially. He doesn’t need more power. He just wants to maintain the power he does have, because I guess micromanaging an entire city is just as good as world domination. When that city is as enormous as Ba Sing Se, it probably is.

And because their leader is so powerful, the Dai Li are also super powerful. Sure, most individual agents are probably not living in mansions or making major governmental decisions, but like any corrupt police officers I’m sure they’re pretty pleased with the sway they hold over the general populace, the privilege of being able to do whatever they want, and the ability to pound on their neighbor’s door and say Oma-and-Shu damn it, Lee, if you don’t stop playing your badgermole-forsaken tsungi horn while I’m trying to get my kid to go to sleep I will have you arrested and brainwashed into forgetting what a tsungi horn even is.

And while I believe the Dai Li have only been the super-corrupt secret police we know and love/hate since Long Feng took over, I’m sure that before his administration the Dai Li still held plenty of power. Avatar Kyoshi created them to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se, after all.

“Yeah, okay, but Caelum the phrase ‘cultural heritage’ is really vague so what exactly were they - ”

Look, Kyoshi created the Dai Li in direct response to a peasant revolt, and while the kid-friendly Escape From the Spirit World short makes it sound like the “cultural heritage” that was destroyed in said revolt was a bunch of shattered ancient vases, I am pretty sure it is actually code for “the peasants straight-up murdered a bunch of nobles”. The only way Kyoshi could get the Earth King to listen to the peasants was by promising to protect the nobles who said peasants were revolting against. Because as we all know, the rich and powerful need to be protected from the poor and oppressed, and the best way to do that is to organize a bunch of earthbenders into an elite fighting force that will cater exclusively to the upper class. I’m sure THAT power won’t be abused AT ALL!

So the Dai Li have always been tied to the upper echelons of society and have always been kinda-corrupt, and then Long Feng amped it up to eleven when he realized he could extend the organization’s reach to ALL the rings.

And THAT was a logical thing to do upon taking control, because - well, jeez, this war has been going on for 80 years now, the refugees keep pouring in because the Fire Nation is attacking a new province every other year, that asshole Fire Lord Azulon doesn’t know when to stop and his son Prince Iroh is having a grand old time whittling away at Earth Kingdom territory. The refugees are getting the populace panicked, the poverty and crime rates are skyrocketing, the Royal Family just go assassinated (probably not even by the Fire Nation, probably by angry refugees), there’s a baby on the throne, and the rest of the upper class just want to stop worrying about this crap and go back to their parties. Solution? Well that Long Feng guy says he can take care of it all by just silencing all talk of the war, so let’s go ahead and let him take control of everything and that way we won’t miss that banquet next week.

So the Dai Li is the most powerful organization in Ba Sing Se, founded by an Avatar, made up of highly-trained earthbenders, with a political reach spanning all levels of the city. Its members are powerful beyond belief, politically, socially, and personally.

So with all this power...why would they give it all up for a fourteen-year-old foreign princess? Because that move is definitely a sacrifice of power - under the Earth Kingdom’s rule, they’re the most powerful people in the city, but under the Fire Nation’s? A triumphant army eager to make sure their newly-conquered subjects know who’s boss? A new government that, despite the Dai Li’s allegiance, would likely consider anyone Earth Kingdom as second-class citizens at best?

It makes no logical sense that the Dai Li would just follow Azula because she’s....terrifying and inspiring and powerful. I mean, Azula believes that the Dai Li simply follow whoever the most powerful person in the room is, but A) That is a STUPID assumption to make of anyone, ever, and I’m 99% sure that’s Azula’s Fire Nation Supremacy and Propaganda-driven brain getting the best of her, and B) following Azula won’t actually give the Dai Li any more power than they already have, and might even actually downgrade them. Why would the Dai Li give that up?

So here’s the theory - they didn’t.

I didn’t come up with this by myself, by the way. The original creators of this theory are Dark Puck and Rebecca Hb, who were active Dai Li fans back in the fandom’s heyday. They’ve since moved on along the currents of Fandom Drift, but they left behind a fantastic world of fanfics, OCs, and headcanons. If you want to see this theory in fic form, check out One’s For Sorrow.

The Dai Li are earthbenders, and right at the beginning of Book 2 we learn that earthbenders are known for neutral jing. They wait and listen, patiently, until the right moment to strike. We see it with King Bumi, we see it with Toph...and we see it with Long Feng and the Dai Li.

From the moment we meet him, Long Feng watches and waits - he knows exactly who Katara and Toph are at that party, and instead of making a scene, he escorts them in and watches and waits until he has the entire Gaang in his office and explains, at which point he lays out the situation very plainly. And then he watches and waits until the Lake Laogai episode.

The Gaang spend maybe a month in Ba Sing Se, getting up to shenanigans like crashing royal parties, drenching nobles’ daughters in rivers, spontaneously repurposing farmland for a zoo, harassing Joo Dee, partially demolishing their house, and stirring up talk about the war and the black market while searching for Appa, among probably thousands of other hijinx I haven’t had time to think up for fanfiction fodder yet. They probably generate reams of paperwork and gave many Dai Li agents hand cramps from the number of reports they had to write out. And yet, instead of flat-out banishing a bunch of kids from his city, Long Feng watches and waits until he is certain that the thing to do is send them on a goose chase and get them far, far away from Ba Sing Se.

And sure, everything kinda falls apart after that, and Long Feng is apparently not good at being put on the spot when it comes to covering up a stolen sky bison, but to be fair I doubt anyone could really stand up to a bunch of Main Characters Team Avatar on a mission.

But Long Feng is patient and Long Feng is intelligent, okay? You don’t keep a city in your micromanaging grasp by being stupid. Or by plotting in the short-term. Let’s just establish that as fact.

And there’s one other thing that Long Feng (and the Earth Kingdom in general) have been watching and waiting on - the comet.

Comets are a predictable phenomenon, and the Chinese have always paid attention to the stars, so it’s no stretch to imagine that the Earth Kingdom does too. Somewhere in Ba Sing Se’s court, the Royal Astronomer has been flailing her arms and shouting about how that damn comet is due back in a decade five years one year A FEW MONTHS and Long Feng and the army have been low-key like DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS??? for a while now. Not enough to panic the Earth King and the nobles, of course, but seriously - anyone?

Talk of the war may be forbidden, but people still know their history, especially the Dai Li, who are probably all giant history buffs what with the “cultural heritage” thing. The last time that comet passed by, the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads. An entire nation gone, in less than a day.

Who’s to say they won’t do the same thing to Ba Sing Se?

Because this impossible feat is what the Fire Nation managed to do without the comet:

Imagine what they might do with the comet.

I’m gonna assume that the Earth Army had a bunch of plans and contingency plans and supplies and weapons and evacuation routes and whatever else they could scramble together, because I refuse to consider they were not thinking that far ahead, but honestly - would it even help? Would fighting that much firepower really do anything? The Air Nomads could fly away, and they were still wiped out. For comet-enhanced firebenders, taking out Ba Sing Se would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

These have to be the thoughts that plagued Long Feng and General How - will the city survive the comet, and if so, how many people will die? But earth is the element of substance, it endures, it survives, and they can’t allow themselves to be blocked by fear. I’m going to assume they had plans.

Though, here’s a thought - Long Feng, why the HELL did you not just put the Gaang in touch with General How and wave them off like “have fun planning an invasion, kids.” You wouldn’t even need to explain that you were in charge - just be like “yo, the king’s busy, but here’s the generals, go ahead and knock yourselves out.” Seriously. That would’ve been SMART. The Gaang would be none the wiser, Long Feng could make himself their ally and steer them away from his business, and they could still get their invasion plans going.

But of course that didn’t happen.

So Long Feng gets arrested, and the Dai Li watch and wait to see what happens next. The government is in flux - the guy who runs everything just got locked up, and the Earth King is extremely inexperienced. Long Feng sits in his jail cell, watching and waiting for the opportune moment to take back what’s his.

And then one of his agents whispers that the Kyoshi Warriors who recently came to the palace are actually Fire Nation spies, and Princess Azula is among them.

And suddenly, after just a few days in prison, after a few decades of worry, Long Feng feels a plan falling into place.

The Fire Nation wants Ba Sing Se. Long Feng wants his power back. The comet is coming. Princess Azula is in the city.

Long Feng is an earthbender and an opportunist, and he plots in the long term. Getting his power back...he can watch and wait for that opportunity for a little longer, at this point. But the comet? That’s a more pressing concern. He can’t get his power back if the entire city is in ashes, after all. How to stop the Fire Nation from burning the city to the ground?

By giving it to them.

Because no matter what plans hey had to protect Ba Sing Se, it would be better if they just...didn’t have to protect it at all. The city would be safer if the Fire Nation already held it.

The comet lasts for 24 hours. Not even. After that, the Earth Kingdom has a whole 100 years to fight off the Fire Nation again. And Long Feng, of course, would be able to swoop back in and take charge of recapturing the city himself. Reputation restored.

Earth is patient. They can watch and wait.

So Long Feng has Princess Azula brought to his cell in the dead of night, and they play each other like the skilled politicians they are. Long Feng is impressed by her scheming - fourteen years old and plotting a coup. Amazing. But of course he knows her plans, because ever since they realized there were Fire Nation spies in the palace, the Dai Li have been lurking on the rooftop over the guest room.

Princess Azula is a force to be reckoned with, and her political maneuvering is something to behold - she will be a terrifying rival as an adult - but here’s the thing. She’s so chock-full of Fire Nation nationalism and beliefs in her own nation’s supremacy that she’s just a little blinded to the fact that it’s a little weird that the Dai Li are just.....going along with her orders and betraying their own nation. She assumes it’s her due, because she’s so much more powerful, and she knows they know it.

Azula says it herself - whoever controls the Dai Li controls Ba Sing Se.

So here’s the thing - who controls the Dai Li? Azula? Long Feng? NO! THE DAI LI ARE PEOPLE. I KNOW IT’S HARD TO REMEMBER, BUT VILLAINOUS MOOKS ARE PEOPLE, AND PEOPLE CONTROL THEMSELVES. THE DAI LI CHOSE LONG FENG OVER THE EARTH KING. THE DAI LI (allegedly) CHOSE AZULA OVER LONG FENG. THE DAI LI CONTROL THE DAI LI. WHY would people suddenly HEEL-FACE TURN because they saw someone MORE POWERFUL THAN THEIR CURRENT LEADER? WHAT IS THIS, MINIONS???

They know exactly what Azula is up to, and they are more than willing to play into her hand. It will keep the city safe. They’ve already made their own king a figurehead, brainwashed a significant fraction of the populace, stood against the Avatar, kidnapped a sky bison, and done all sorts of other unspeakable things to protect their city. What’s a little treason on top of all that?

And of course, they have to sell her on their loyalty. They have to sell her on the fact that the city is safely in her grasp, that there will be little to no rebellion, that it will be absolutely unnecessary to crispy-fry Ba Sing Se when the comet comes.

So this happens.

Long Feng is a 50-something-year-old member of an organization of elite earthbenders who we’ve seen take down a sky bison with a cool floor-flipping trip and who has no compunctions about killing teenagers, and he is surrounded by stone. I don’t care how much of a prodigy Azula is - it is very hard to bend lightning when the floor just swallowed you.

So why didn’t it?

Because Long Feng and the Dai Li want Azula to think she’s won.

And it works. Not to diminish Azula here - she’s fantastic, and you were never even a player is an amazing line, and I do think that in that moment Long Feng really was respectfully terrified of her. But I also think she was thoroughly played herself, in a much longer game she didn’t realize they were playing.

The Fire Nation gets the city without a single citizen dying. The Dai Li bring down the wall and welcome their new overlords and travel with Azula to the Fire Nation, possibly to keep an eye on her and take her out when the moment presents itself.

It’s still a major risk. The Fire Nation is going to enter Ba Sing Se. Long Feng is likely taken into custody, and he and the Council of Five and the Earth King are in danger of execution (maybe there were arrangements made for them to “miraculously escape”). The Fire Nation is brutal, and it’s still likely that Ba Sing Se citizens will die over the course of the occupation.

But it’s far more likely that the majority of them will live past the comet.

And at that point, it will be easy for Long Feng to take back control. Especially from Kuei. Because what will people say about this whole turn of events? “Holy cow, King Kuei ousted Long Feng for one day and the city fell to the Fire Nation. Clearly Long Feng should be in charge!”

And even if Long Feng doesn’t survive all of this...

Look, he’s a power-hungry schemer and definitely not a good person, but in all honesty, I think he’s still very dedicated to his city and his country. Not in a good way, but he is. Grabbing power for himself is a goal.......but so is protecting Ba Sing Se. If he doesn’t survive, I think he’d prefer to know he went out ensuring his city’s survival, at least.

Earth is patient, earth is enduring, earth will watch and wait for the opportune moment to strike.

And now that the city is safely in Fire Nation control, Long Feng and the Dai Li just need to wait for the firebenders to tire themselves out with superpowered fireballs that they make for fun, not to actually fight anyone. And once they’re all exhausted from playing with superfireballs and the comet is gone for another century, then they’ll take their city back.

Just.....no one attack during the comet, that will entirely defeat the point of this plan.

spirits-damn it you meddling old men

(okay fine to be fair maybe the Fire Nation was gonna kill everyone in the city anyway because they’re evil and the OWL went and stopped that from happening. maybe that’s why they decided to attack at the Fire Nation’s most powerful moment. there’s probably a reasonable explanation. if I can reasonably explain the Dai Li I can reasonably explain this dumb strategy.)

So there you have it - Long Feng sold out the city not because he and the Dai Li are TOTALLY EVIL, but because it was the most logical way to keep everyone from getting flambeed come the end of summer. And also because they are totally evil. But efficiently evil! Like they aren’t one-dimensional idiots I stg they have two dimensions at least.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

(Credit to Dark Puck and Rebecca Hb for originating this theory, and to piandao.org for being the best ATLA screenshot archive ever)

[knightofbalance-13]

HOLD IT!

https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/162989658394/friendly-reminder-that-selfish-asshole-jaune-arc

Halt!

I, Knight Of Balance, retired RWDE counter lawyer, have re-entered the fray!

Why?

because of the slander against the innocent Jaune Arc, my friend, @mageknight14, against Miles and Kerry!

case... RE-OPEN!

-Despite getting blackmailed into throwing sap at his friends (if he didn’t, he would be forced to give up his dream) by an asshole, still didn’t throw the sap at his friends and stood up to Cardin. A typical bully arc seen a billion times, speaking of blackmail jaune snuck into beacon which forging and sneaking into places your unqualified for is a crime; and we’re never given a reason. If blake a person who went from heist to literally beacon and several orphans can also get in then why didn’t he just join the academy? There’s virtually no point to him forging documents if blake can literally walk in.

HOLD IT!

First off: The bully arc comment has nothing to with the discussion at hand! this si just slander against Miles Luna And Kerry Shawcross!

Second: It is ever said that forging transcripts for Beacon is a crime! And even if it did, there is NOTHING that counters the argument about the blackmail.

Third: Blake was surprised by the fact that Ozpin knew she was in the White Fang despite the fact that her own FATHER was the former leader, meaning she deliberately hid that fact. Meaning she did in fact at least falsify her transcripts so this argument is invalid.

Didn’t put Pyrrha on a pedestal and treated her like a person and a friend instead of a celebrity. OBJECTION! I’d argue nobody but weiss did that and ene then it was only for her own selfish gain, every other character didn’t even seem to aknowledge her status nor did anyone at the tournament despite being from the four corners of remnant Not one pyrrha fan in the bunch? Suspicious don’t you think? Because they writing didn’t convey her status expect among five characters those being weiss, ozpin, qrow, ironwood and gynda. Nice try MK

HOLD IT!

Pyrrha herself outright admits in Volume 2 Episode 7, as seen here (https://youtu.be/0-f-mGvOba8?t=3m17s) that people in the PAST held her up on a pedestal and Jaune didn’t do it the instant he saw her, ergo he treaded her as a normal person out right. This also means that by meeting her through Jaune, a completely normal guy, they wouldn’t treat her that way!

But!

Soku has directly attacked Miles and Kerry twice now! This is proof that he doesn’t care about the facts and simply interrupting everything as a way to attack them , AKA confirmation bias. I submit two more pieces of evidence that support this (https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/162989670704/barbara-dunkelman-i-just-think-its-a-show-that / https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/162989666784/lindsay-jones-theres-a-lot-of-vibrancy-in-the ). And as we shall see that is the case as we continue!

-Offered Ruby a helping hand when they first met and became her first friend at Beacon. Yes after ruby offered him a helping hand; it’s common for most to extend their hands after they do the same to you; this is a good point.  But nobody gets brownie points for doing something they’re suppose to do in a school where teamwork is a priority.

OBJECTION!

That is not the point of the post! The point of the post is to show Jaune arc is not an asshole, not that he should be rewarded for common things. The mere fact that Jaune acts like a decent human being is proof he is not an asshole!

This is yet again another case fo confirmation bias on Soku’s part!

-Saves said asshole from getting mauled by a Ursa. And said ursa targeted him as well, yes he may have helped but again doing the thing you’re suppose to do in said school doesn’t earn you brownie points,  And in the end it was more of a thing about pride to him. Sad cause that could have been a great character moment.

OBJECTION!

That is a direct lie! As shown in Episode 14 (https://youtu.be/PS9huFMmSoc?t=1m34s) the Ursa outright avoid Jaune to go after Cardin: he was never in danger. And considering how hated Cardin is for his bullying and racism, the same cannot be said of everyone that they would save him. I would argue both Nora and Blake would leave him to fend it off then help him if he were to die. And again, this is not the point of the post, this is yet another example of Soku moving the goalposts to suit his own desires.  And there is no indication that this was a pride thing: In fact, if Jaune were prideful, he’d leave cardin to the Ursa as revenge for ruining his pride.

As evidence by Soku’s last statement, this si yet another attack on the writers, showing more confirmation bias as he lies and willfully misinterupts the scene to suit his narrative.

-Realized how selfishly he was acting during Jaundice and owned up to it and apologized to Pyrrha. That’s actually a good point but need again I bring up you don’t get brownie points for doing something you’re suppose to. Like being a decent human isn’t something you should get pat on the back for you should have the common sense not to be an ass. You could learn from this MK

OBJECTION!

That is the point: jaune is not an asshole. He is a decent human being. What Soku is doing is trying to change the subject in order to achieve a victory!

But since he sees this fit, so shall I: Soku has displayed signs of Psychopathic behavior in calling everyone who disagrees with him a racist, a sexist and a homophobe eve if they are victims of these there things, spreads slander about a person, lies to suit his own needs and has even suicide baited before. If this is a case of morality, then I demand that Soku be judged on these accounts as well!

-Despite being jealous of Neptune, encourages him to be himself and to ask Weiss to dance. He lectures him for not asking weiss out, and this is after constantly creepying on her for several scenes even going as far to say he’d stop being weird if she opened the door and then said  “I lied.” stalking and creeping is a real fucking issuse and using it as a point of humor is in bad taste. Sorry but jaune gets no sympathy from me.

OBJECTION!

From Soku’s pharsing, it would imply that Jaune did the same thing to Weiss but worse so this is manipulative wording. “Creeping” is not a word and Jaune is not shown to have obsessive behavior over Weiss aside from your average love struck teen, especially seeing as he would use possessive tones toward Weiss when the lecture he in facts gives Neptune is over using Weiss and not atking her feelings into account like any friend would. (https://youtu.be/0-f-mGvOba8?t=4m31s) Again, this is a lie.

To expand on the stalking subject as it will come up later, Stalking is defined and determined as such by legal dictionary: “Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity composed of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behavior. For example, sending flowers, writing love notes, and waiting for someone outside her place of work are actions that, on their own, are not criminal. When these actions are coupled with an intent to instill fear or injury, however, they may constitute a pattern of behavior that is illegal.“ Since Jaune’s intent was not to instill fear or injury onto Weiss, he was not, in fact, stalking.

Also: Of Soku ahs no sympathy for Jaune. He has psychopathic tendencies: they have no sympathy for anyone aside from themselves.

-Wears a dress (keep in mind that he said he would do so if Pyrrha didn’t get a date to the dance as a JOKE) to cheer up Pyrrha and dances with her. There is no good or bad outcome to this.

OBJECTION!

The post is about Jaune not being an asshole and by going this far to keep a joking promise to Pyrrha to cheer her up shows that he is not an asshole. That is why this is relevant.

-When Pyrrha was feeling down about the Maiden affair, tries his best to understand what is going on and to be encouraging and comforting to her (granted, he didn’t know what was going on and Pyrrha accidentally slams him into a wall, but still). Need I say it again?

What he needs to do is show that jaune is in fact an asshole, which he has yet to do without lying and misinterepting facts.

-Despite Pyrrha slamming him into a wall, still shows up to her and Penny’s tournament round to support her. Well ren and nora ask him too it’s not a matter of akwardness it’s just being a leader; I mean wow jaune showed up what a good person to show up when all the other members of your team also show up?

That’s the point: Jaune is a decent person: that is what the post is arguing. it never said he was exceptional for doing this: just not bad.

After Pyrrha breaks down after accidentally killing Penny and as a result, doesn’t notice a Nevermore about to attack, rushes into the battlefield in order to get her out of the way, with no thought or worry for himself. Again everyone did this as well, doing your job and rescuing a teammate in danger is not something you should get patted on the back for, espeically when several people do the same thing.

Same point here, along with evidence showing he is, in fact, changing the topic at hand to suit his own needs.

-After Cinder’s speech and watching Pyrrha being incredibly torn up over her accidental murder of Penny, he and Ruby immediately assure her that it wasn’t her fault and that Cinder was to blame for this. A obvious thing to do, epsecially after ruby started doing it.

And the right thing to do as well, proving his point and therefore disproving yours.

-Realizing that he won’t be able to make it to Pyrrha in time, he immediately calls Ruby and Weiss to go to her and help. After ozpin tells him to call gynda and him and pyrrha stand there watching, doing nothing until he just disappears. Yes calling for help is great but disobeying a headmaster in disstress? A poor display of leadership, smarts to call both and potentially putting both ruby and weiss in danger? Good call indeed.

HOLD IT!

One: this is a case of morality, not jaune’s leadership skills.

Two: Jaune was obviously emotionally distressed when he called them (https://youtu.be/hq1lk-QWxNg?t=5m31s) thus is not in the right state of mind and thus showing bais against Mr. Arc.

Three: Jaune was never told that. Pyrrha was. (https://youtu.be/pT1XiUbJu_Y?t=15m33s) jaune ahd been knocked by Cnder several seconds before so he was still recovering and didn’t hear Ozpin Even so, Pyrrha never told him to get ahold of anyone. So this is yet another lie.

-Still keeps a recording of Pyrrha helping him train so all the work and effort she put into believing in him doesn’t go to waste. I mean that’s not an example of being nice as it is mourning and sadness.

OBJECTION!

An asshole would be glaring and cursing Pyrrha for leaving him: Since Jaune did not, he is not an asshole.

-Despite not liking Qrow, still helps Ruby carry him around when he was poisoned and brings him to safety out of the Nuckalevee’s way. After literally berating her uncle who showed up to save her after jaune didn’t even make an attempt; jaune literally dislike him because despite Qrow being kind of a dick he’s overall a better person and blames him for something he had no part in.  

HOLD IT!

Qrow pressured Pyrrha into becoming a Maiden which is what Jaune called him out on. And the only things Jaune ahs been accused of is being misgyonistic, which Qrow himself fits by his standards when he talked a bar maid’s skirt. So they are equal at that point and with Qrow’s self admit dickishness, Qrow is lower than Jaue on the morality pole. Thus this statement is both a lie and invalid.

uplifting speech about how despite Ruby witnessing Pyrrha’s death along with losing Penny, Team RWBY, and to a certain extent, Yang, she keeps pressing forward, and that gave them the courage to keep pressing forward, while playing down his own loss. A scene where ruby should have expressed said feelings of pain and loss rather than have them talked to at her, he plays up his loss with the sad training, berating qrow for something ozpin did infront of ruby this is a man she loves and he shits on him for reasons and things he was just for the lack of a better term barely within earshot of.

Ruby did in fact express feelings of pain and loss was expressing self loathing, self doubt and self guilt but instead focused on the condition and safety of team JN_R, balming herself for their misfortunes which at that point jaune stops her, recalls everything she’s lost, shows her that she kept moving them forward and that she should put herself down. (https://youtu.be/QjBtT4uCWpI?t=9m13s) This is yet another direct lie.

Just like the accusation jaune berated Qrow in that segment which, as the links I shall provide here (https://youtu.be/QjBtT4uCWpI?t=3m57s / https://youtu.be/QjBtT4uCWpI?t=8m47s) show he did no such thing.

In the space of one argument, he has lied twice now just to make Mr. Arc look bad.

You see the reason people say jaune is a dick is because how he progresses through the story. He stalks and annoys weiss despite her wanting nothing to do with him. Ignores pyrrha when she introduces herself and once weiss is in his arms completely forgets the fact that pyyrha is in danger with a grimm chasing her and doesn’t even attempt to tell anyone.

Jaune was introduced flying into Ruby and jumped in to try and stop Weiss from falling on the hard ground. This all happened right AFTER Pyrrha and the deathstalker appear. (https://youtu.be/ctiDu69kIho?t=1m57s)

Despite earlier talking about wanting to be a hero and wanting to help people has several opportunities to do so and just watches this happen like the velet scene despite this contridicting his established characterization.

As did the entirety of RWBY and JNPR: However, unlike jaune who si weaker than cardin and due to his bullying is an apologist for him, they are all at least as strong as Cardin (especially Yang, Pyrrha and ironically Velvet herself.) Also, in schools, it is not the bully who gets punished in that situation, it is the one who retaliated and so Jaune would gotten his ass kicked and gotten in trouble.

Sleeps in class and doesn’t bother studying; Need I remind you this is a place people have to work their asses off to get in and he’s neglecting any form of bettering himself

OBJECTION!

Two episodes prior, Ruby herself is sleeping in class and I have yet to see you call her out as well. (https://youtu.be/-E6aeUjfBCM?t=3m5s) and so you only choose toc all out Jaune because he is Jaune. Also: this is not a moral thing so it is irrelevant.

Gets pissed off when a strong talented huntsman offers her help in training despite him literally needing it cause as ruby said “You’re a leader now jaune.” but acts like a spoiled brat and refuses help, studying etc to the point of actually bring his team down because of such.  you know those group projects everyone hates where if one jerk doesn’t attempt anything you all fail cause it’s a group project? Jaune is being that guy.

May I ask if there is proof of such a group project is during Jaune’s time like that? because as of EPisode 14, Jaune no longer displays this tendency. (https://youtu.be/PS9huFMmSoc?t=4m36s) In fact, Jaune himself says exactly what you do and promises to never do this again, which he has not.

Literally continues stalking weiss and gets jealous/petty whe she likes someone else.

HOLD IT!

As I have proven before, jaune’s anger was not out fo pettiness towards Neptune but rather because he hurt Weiss for rejecting her for seeminly no reason.

Just as well, I have proven Jaune was not stalking Weiss as well due to a lakc of malicious intent.

And the statement is also a lie: Pyrrha never outright asked out Jaune, unlike Weiss. And this also implies it was okay for Neptune to do that but not Jaune.

Decides to completely derail a fight because he wants to yell ship names going as far as to snap at a person who literally reminds him of such.

Derailing a fight is not a moral issue and there are no rules against what jaune was doing, just weird. (https://youtu.be/RzEo0F8thL4?t=4m51s)

Pyrrha again is making advances on him during their alone time and jaune never breaks it off when it would be easier to say “I just don’t have these feelings for you.” than lead the poor girl on.

HOLD IT!

Jaune is obviously incapable of seeing that Pyrrha was interested in him going as far back as the dance arc (https://youtu.be/0-f-mGvOba8?t=4m) And thus making the assumption he’s stringing her along purposefully is not only false but is shifting the blame from Pyrrha who should have asked him out if she wa sthat serious!

In the middle of ruby saying it’s not your fault decides to cut her off so he can have a speech.

because he wants to make a point know: Yang, Blake, Pyrrha and Qrow have all done it.

Is told to watch amber if he wants to help pyrrha ignores the order after said headmaster trusted him to guard her and indirectly hands the maiden powers to cinder.

HOLD IT!

Jaune did in fact stand guard (https://youtu.be/pT1XiUbJu_Y?t=12m18s) only breaking when Pyrrha cried out, thus showing concern for his best friend. (https://youtu.be/pT1XiUbJu_Y?t=14m17s) By this logic, it’s Ozpin’s fault because his job was done, he was closer to Amber and he should have faster reflexes: If Ozpin can’t stop the arrow, neither Jaune or anyone short of an experienced Huntsman could.

When the headmaster tells him to call glynda him and pyrrha stare at the battle and don’t even bother reaching into their pockets.

Again, Pyrrha was told that, not jaune. the responsibility goes to him since he was recovering when he said that. Not jaune’s fault Pyrrha didn’t call.

Then jaune calls pyrrha and ruby two inexperienced hunters to help fight off a person with powerful maiden powers???

A Prodegy and her partner in a time he was not in the right state of mind.

Vol. 4 Starts off with him idiotically  claiming one of his strategies as “hitting it harder.” while also running around with no weapons/defenses making him an actual detriment to the team, when he could sit back and still give orders or if he so smart set up traps or something.

1. The team said he should go with no weapons (https://youtu.be/IZKpkzPIRlw?t=9m52s) 2. Limited supplies and no experiences in traps and 3. He detailed his plan and reasoning. (https://youtu.be/IZKpkzPIRlw?t=11m39s)

Also, by this logic, Ruby is an asshole for making the Geist’s arm catch fire and make it more dangerous. So this shows more bias against Jaune.

Despite not knowing who pyrrha is has sent in enough box tops to get a hoodie which makes no sense.

Actually, eh recognized her FROM the box (https://youtu.be/H09KTtyElWQ?t=4m) Just not in person, which happens in real life as well.

Gripes at ruby for not knowing how long the trip would take despite their original plan being taking a airship and not again remembering she’s a child with a power to go fast.

1. The airship was in the first destroyed village (https://youtu.be/IZKpkzPIRlw?t=16m49s) and Ruby’s Semblance can only hold herself and takes Aura to use, thus leaving her vunerable to attack.

Instead of taking pyrrha’s armor to her family people who’d probably want it he melted it down (with no regard for ren/nora) into his own armor. Classy.

Pyrrha had to have armor at her house in Mistral as well as all her mementos from before Jaune.

Drops the map instead of…putting it away like a good strategist would do.

As does Ruby, who holds the same title, because of the shock of seeing the destroyed village. (https://youtu.be/rHjUHnG7WOQ?t=4m28s)

When ren talks about this city being apart of his past and how he lost his family jaune decides to say “it’s creepy let’s get out of here.”

Grimm are attracted to areas of great disasters, as shown in Volume 2 with Mountain Glem.

Despite coming to a town he’s never been to talks about how he hates/is tired of losing everything.  Yet is content to sit there and watch ruby get shanked after saying that; jaune would not sit there (more on this in a bit.)

Tyrian single handedly destroyed Nora, Ren and Ruby, all three of whom are magnitudes stronger than him: he’ fight Tyrian, die, and have Ruby grieve even more while STILL getting caught by Tyrian. It would mean nothing and Jaune’s expression shows so.

After her uncle saves her life and risk his, the family she loves dearly berates him as I said because of a choice ozpin makes….after saving all their lives…berates him for a semblance that makes no sense (If miles says semblance takes aura then how could people have passive one’s without their aura depleting???)

That Qrow supported, pressured Pyrrha in and about a subject that is sensitive to him. Also, this shows bias against Miles as you complain about it now but not in the Ruby example.

Idiotically when ruby states “they’ll be okay.” decides to be pessimistic knowing it will attract grimm.

Ruby acts over naïve and lets her guard down not to mention the fact that you ignore this in the Tyrian example seeing as this would attract MORE Grimm to RNJR.

See the problem is how contidictory his character is, he wants to be a hero yet refuses to better himself even for his team and it’s not until so real coaxing does that set in cause he’d not be only telling himself down but his team.

Argument is about whether or not jaune is an asshole, not his overall character. Not only that, there is justification for hs actions when you aren’t directly lying about it. And that second line shows that he isn’t an asshole by your own words because an asshole would be self absorbed whereas Jaune is being selfless. Also there is no proof Jaune is not trying, a least, no less than Ruby who has the same motivation.

Despite being a “tactician” has only did three things. -yell pyrrha (and these people he never met suddenly do a team attack??) -Say we hit it harder.” Despite again nora about to do that and their being several ways to prove his smarts otherwise. -Telling the people who are already circling the creature to circle it.

1. They both look at the stinger and at each other, understanding each other. (https://youtu.be/ctiDu69kIho?t=8m52s)

2. Already disproved this

3. Only ren was, the others where not.

And when he wants to be a good person or wants to genuinly do something it’s shutdown by an action jaune would never do, you said so yourself he ran out to pyrrha and stated in vol. 4 he was tired of losing everything yet didn’t even attempt to help ruby which just isn’t jaune; he’d try something; anything.

Excpet Pyrrha did that exact same thing and died and grief, y your own admission, attracts Grimm so even if he could help her, he’d just be making her life worse by dying.

It blows when a character wants to be good but is constantly bogged down by by writing making his kind of an asshole, so yes he’s an asshole  with a moodswing by my and many diagnostics.

All of which are based on lying, misinformation and misintereptation.

Because we pay attention to the events that happen; no one is making up him being an asshole espeically not such a large portion of people.

Actually yes, you are. Unlike me who ahs given links to support his debunking, you do not which shows you know you’re full of it and refuse to show proof because it would contradict you.

It’s not rational thinking, jaune is a contrasting character and people and like him but dislike where he’s going and his actions just like any other character; I hope you’ll put some thought into that.

Actually, everytime this comes up, it ahs been lies and misinformation just like here: if you are right, show your proof and don’t lie. I have conclusively proven that the hatred are Mr. Arc is founded only on bias, lies, misinformation and misinterptation . This post is proof.

You have shown to lie, show bias against jaune and the writers, misinform and misinetrupt at every twists and turn to the point that every compliant you have lobbied here has been debunked.

Until next time; Case closed!

Yes, it is. And you have been found guilty of misinformation, bias, misrepresentation, moving goalposts and lying. So I think you should take this into account: If you must lie to sell your narrative, you’re probably wrong.

[alizrak]

Rise of the Runelords - Burnt Offerings, Chapter 1 chronicle [SPOILERS]

I don't have to warn you, there are spoiler for Rise of the Runelords ahead. This is the very first time I ever ran anything official from Pathfinder so I'm really excited for how things turn out for my players.

The current party consist on the following.

Yulious and Yvan - (Sorcerer Celestial Bloodline and Ranger "Switch hitter") Aasimar twin brothers that lived in the outskirts of Magnimar. Orphaned just as they entered their "teens", they had to fend for themselves and refused to be taken in by others. After going through the loss of their parent they each became followers of Gozreh and Nethys, reflecting on their roles in life as Ranger and Sorcerer. They were asked to bring statues of their respective deities to be added to the Cathedral. To avoid unwanted attention, both brothers wear cloaks to conceal their "silver blonde totally aasimar" hair.

Aisha - Double Cursed Oracle Undine (Neried) - Born on Katapesh, was captured by Gnoll slavers and rescued by Andoran operatives trying to disrupt slave trade. She was offered the chance to get into a ship to any point she wanted, and said "As far away from here as possible". She ends up in Maginmar and assists the Swallowtail Festival with interest on the mutli-religious Catedral in Sandpoint. She passes as a human.

Valora - Elf "My mom said I have a condition" (Drow) Cavalier Order of the Dragon - For reasons we will not expand in this campaign, Valora has been raised by Hannah and kept under the watchful eye of Shalelu since before Sandpoint's foundation. Valora has been raised to believe she is an elf with a rare birth defect that makes her sensitive to light. While they never directly interacted with each other, Valora grew to know Naulia as a foil to herself. She craves to find real friends, specially those that last... as most humans in Sandpoint seem to quickly outgrow her and change.

Gunther - Gnome Gunslinger - A mischievous gnome from Whistledown that has come to Sandpoint to bring tons of fireworks for the Swallowtail Festival. He is terrified of the Bleaching and has worked with explosives for quite a while now. He's not a pyromaniac, though. He simply loves to find new uses of the black powder that makes pretty colors.

Jhony (Couldn't make it to the first session) - Half-Orc Rogue - Johny would have loved to be a pirate and have a life of adventure and treasure in Riddleport... sadly, the harsh conditions at sea are not his cup of tea. He's a larger than life Half-orc that doesn't consider himself one. After a horribly bet gone wrong, Johny was forced to flee the city and lay low for a while... he decided to go a nice little town not too far away from Magnimar to try his luck and enjoy the famed local cuisine.

So it begins...

Yulious, Yvan, Gunther and Aisha arrive to Sandpoint first thing in the morning through the Tanner's bridge. Valora sometimes helps as a bouncer at the Pixie's Kitten (they are her neighbors after all) specially now that the town has attracted a lot of tourists there ought to be some troublemakers and she wants to make sure the girls are safe. Yvan and Yulious debate if they should visit the brothel (do they have enough money?) but then remember that maybe, just maybe, it would be best to deliver the sacred statues of their gods to the Cathedral first. Gunther is directed to leave his cart of fireworks at the southern side of the plaza in front of the Cathedral. Aisha is wandering through the streets, turning heads... with a Charisma of 18, she's as useless as she is beautiful. VERY. She's the walking definition of a damsel in distress.

Yulious and Yvan meet Father Zantus to deliver their statues and he was relieved they managed to make it in time. Valora ends her shift and goes to hear the opening speeches with the others. Using the prep sheets from Trik motivates the characters to try and try and try again to win some of the prizes... at the end it nets them one cloak of resistance for Gunther and Yvan, as well as a bunch of Masterwork Arrows. During these contests... Yvan and Yulious notice Valora and Aisha standing by, watching as the others take their turn at the contests, and Yvan rashly approaches to ask their names.

"Hey strange girls, what are your names?"

"Strange!? What's that supposed to mean?" Valora gets triggered. Tells him it's none of his business and finds it incredibly creepy a hooded unknown guy randomly asking for their names.

Yulious apologizes for his brother's lack of tact and presents themselves. Valora gives her name but then grabs Aisha by the arm and says they have to go. Valora leaves and brings Aisha along to find Sherif Hemlock to tell him there are a couple of suspicious hooded fellows that she feels are trouble. Hemlock promises to keep an eye on the guys. Aisha and Valora present each other and decide to stick along... Valora is worried Aisha looks extremely feeble and innocent to she will try to keep her out of trouble with all the people around.

Even though Yulious broke his nose during one of the races, the rest of the Festival goes on smoothly. The party converges again during lunch, attracted by Ameiko's Salmon Curry. Valora saves Hannah a bowl and Hannah realizes Yulious broken nose. Valora reluctantly allows her mom to fix his nose... Hannah notices both of them are Aasimar. She is a little surprised at first as for this campaign, she was one of the midwifes attending Nualia when she miscarried. It's been 5 years since she saw any other divine blooded people. The brothers thank her for the help. Yulious wants to check for maps of the region as he's interested on what kind of treasure or hidden secrets can the Hinterlands offer to his brother and him... Sadly, the Way North is closed for the festivities.

They move to the consecration of the Cathedral. They wait for Father Zantus to start their speech- and hell breaks loose.

They don't even wait for me to call for perception rolls, they are rolling away trying to see what killed the dog. You don't kill a doggie in this table and live to tell the tale. They spot the goblins easily. The encounter takes a while... as most of them are rolling low. Yulious casts magic missile and Aisha uses Inflict Light Wounds... the goblin withers away because she's upset he killed the puppy. Everyone stares at her.

They finally end up dispatching the first 3 goblins, and Valora wants to go for her mount (a Cave Salamander... yeah) that is at The Gobling Squashed stables and to check on her mom. At that point, Gunther's fireworks explode and they are forced to deal with the Goblin Warchanter's group. Yvan and Valora roll natural twenties + confirmations like there is no tomorrow... and the goblins lay dead in a single round. I allow Valora to run to get her mount and check on her mom on the way back while the others are healing and try unsuccesfully to help the slashed doggie. Valora gets to see Daviren having a field day killing goblins. Aisha cries over the dog's body and Gunther swears he will make sure they regret this. As soon as she gets back, they hear Die, Dog! DIE!

Valora, Aisha and Gunther get on the mount, while Yvan and Yulious rush to the gate. There is another dog hurt? With a surprise round, Gunther crits the Goblin commando with max damage x4. The Goblin's head explodes before he even heard them coming. Valora charges with her reach weapon, crits, and makes a goblin kebab. Aisha drops herself from the mount over the dying dog and heals him. Yvan takes his greatsword and crit charges too. In the blink of an eye, everything is done. Aldern immediately praises Aisha as his and his dog saviour.

The rest of the goblins rush to flee and the party wants to give chase. Hemlock arrives and tells them to make sure the streets are safe instead, they are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. That door shouldn't be open.

Valora - "Wait, where are the guards of this door?"

Me - "...mmh?"

Aisha - "surely, there were guards here... right? Even closed, it wouldn't be left unguarded. ((OOC: Other wise it would be quite stupid on their part))"

Me - "... I guess?"

Yvan - "...Soooo?"

Me - "Some of the guards left their post to check on the festival?"

Yulious - "They must be hold accountable for their incompetence!"

The party was still a little unconvinced. They keep wanting to go out to follow the Goblins. They have a Ranger and also Valora's Cave Salamander has scent, after all. Hemlock tells them is going to be night soon... but they don't care because most of them have lowlight vision or darkvision. Hemlock insists there are more dangerous things out there when darkness falls and Valora remembers the tales of the Sandpoint Devil that her "Aunt Shalelu" tells her to keep her from wandering too far away from the town. She ends up disuading the others. Ameiko arrives to inquire with Hemlock what the hell was all that, and offers the others free lodging. They gladly accept and Yvan even tries to flirt with her... horribly. Valora glares at him and motions an "I'm watching you" warning sign. Aldern gifts the dog to Aisha and promises to repay everyone for saving his life after things calm down.

Take away:

I underestimated my group's will to follow through total goblin genocide because the goblins killed a dog. Even if they were somewhat wounded they where completely on board of tracking the goblins back to their lair and reenact John Wick. This is a very proactive group... They are used to follow through any leads right away... so I'm sure they will try to track them back in the morning but I'll have them find a straggler group of Goblins instead... and after the crypt scene I'll make it rain. I fear that if they start asking around (specially when Shalelu explains the tribes), they will push forward to Nettlewood or Mosswood for guerrilla tactics against them.

I'll have Daviren offering the party the bounty on Goblins ears the very next morning.

Other than that, the session extended way longer than I had anticipated because of all the roleplay they did during the festival contests. I was taken by surprise when they asked me who was guarding the north gate and I didn't remember anything related to that particular plot point other that Lonjiku left it open (which they obviously don't know yet). Any ideas I can use?

Submitted March 27, 2017 at 03:46PM via reddit http://ift.tt/2nFPzoI