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astaroth1357 · 3 years

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Demigod MC Series: Dionysus

Hey y’all, sorry for going dark! I’m alright, almost completely recovered in fact! I just got so sleepy while my body was fighting stuff off and couldn’t really work up the energy to write... Still going to be spotty for a short time, but I’m glad to have gotten this done. See ya soon!

Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus

Lucifer

Well, this mortal stumbled out of the portal covered in glitter, body paint, and carrying a red solo cup… which they proceeded to stare at like, "'ell sshhit… Thiz iz sum stron s'uff…"

First impressions were not on their side here.

He spent a depressingly long amount of time more or less assuming that the MC was a drunken f-up and spent the first few months trying to make them more… presentable.

But like… How do you stop someone from acting like a drunk fool when they can turn any drink they touch alcoholic???

For months they would show up to meetings buzzed or stumbling, all smiles and all giggles but HORRIBLY unprofessional, and he just couldn't stand it!

But then he found out their little secret…

Assassination threats befall the exchange students all the time. Most of them are dealt with quickly but some (through skill or dumb luck) manage to slip through...

He had been walking with the MC through their new vineyard in the House's courtyard, yet again trying to lecture them about their drunken behavior, when suddenly the two were ambushed!

Ten or so heavily armored demons dropped down from the sky to attack them! Lucifer was so preoccupied that he got cornered by three of them and it took him a hot minute to destroy them.

When he looked back at the mortal (who had been fighting a 1-on-7) he was certain they'd have been kidnapped or worse…

But he saw that they had already cut down two attackers with their weapon with ease. The other five were rolling in the dirt, babbling about inexplicable terrors and imaginary pain as their minds succumbed to madness…

Meanwhile, the MC just stood in the middle of it all with the icy glare of someone who’s just revealed how stone-cold sober they've always been under the surface...

When they turned back to him, they put their usual ditzy smile back on over the tormented wails of the demons around them...

MC: Whoopsie… Gotta little mad there. 🙂

He uh… took a big ol'step off their back after that. Surprisingly, they're more pleasant (and less dangerous) "drunk" than they are sober…

Mammon

Oh HELL yeah!! Lucifer actually gave him a mortal that knows how to party!!

Admittedly, they looked like utter trash when they first met, like, "Hey, I've been at this party since DAWN" trash, but they gave him one good look and pulled together a surprisingly hot smile.

MC: "-ey yer cute… Ya like strip poker?"

Spoken like someone else who also makes shit decisions… They were going to get along just fine!

And they did. The MC to him was that one friend that's always down for anything. Just anything. Whenever. Wherever.

He wants to try sneaking into Lucifer's room to steal stuff? Sure, what time?

He wants to take a mattress and see if he can ride it down the grand staircase of the palace? Alright, we bringin' pillows too?

He needs to set up another scheme that's gotta involve live rats and box of tiny hats and monocles?? That's oddly specific but count them in!!

Sometimes he honestly can't tell if they're laid back or just crave chaos... but it works out fine for him either way so who cares? 🤷‍♀️

And if you think normal Mammon is a pain in the ass for Lucifer? Check out drunk Mammon. All the same urges but literally none of the (marginal) competence!!

At one point, the eldest ended up stringing both Mammon and the MC from the ceiling after they both barged into his office looking for Goldie… while he was still in there… watching them wander around aimlessly calling out for a piece of plastic like it was a missing puppy…

They end up together on the ceiling a lot come to think of it, but hey, at least now he has some company. 😌

Leviathan

Thinks they're the most normal normie to have ever normed on this normie planet!!!

No, seriously. They're a billion times worse than Asmo!! All they want to do is go to parties and drink all the time! What kind of use is he to someone like that??

… That being said they ARE pretty fun to be around… And their sake is WAY better than anything he could get off Akuzon!!

They also like karaoke too! So at least he has someone else to go with (even if they get so drunk they can’t remember any lyrics and just belt barely coherent discount Mariah Carey vocals behind him...)

Of course, the real fun between these two is everybody else getting to watch a couple of the Devildom's sloppiest drunks attempt to communicate with each other…

Levi: MMM-*hic*-MCCC…!!! *throws himself at them from across the bar*

MC: What Leviachan??? 😨 Did the chair kick you off?!

Levi: Nooo! *pokes their cheek* I wanna-I wanna tell you sometin'...! *tries pulling them closer*

MC: Whaa? Secrets?? *leans in eagerly*

Levi: Mammon used all ma money on’a pyramid scheme a thou-zand years ago… AND HE STILL WON'T PAY ME BAAA-!!! 😭😭 *starts shaking them violently*

MC: *getting flung around like a limp noodle* Waaaat?! Nooo!!! I'm so sowwy!! 😢

Mammon: *watching it all go down right next to him* 😑 Ya guys need some water… I'm cuttin' ya off, got it?

MC: 😱 Shut yer whore mouth, criminal!! *starts pelting him with pretzel bites*

Levi: 😤 Yah!! *joins in*

Good thing he's a shut-in, because the hangovers he gets after those escapades are unreal…

Satan

A little concerned for their liver, honestly… How much damage have they already done to the poor thing...?

But at the same time, he'll be damned if they don't make some utterly fantastic wine!

Alcokinesis wasn't a power he would have pegged a demigod to have but apparently the great art of making drinks comes from their godly DNA.

When they first met, he was trying to get the MC to act less slovenly but made the mistake of agreeing to a wager: he'd let them dress however they pleased if they could give him the BEST drink he'd ever tasted.

Now, Satan isn't a huge drinker (thank you terrible alcohol tolerance), but he's still a man of fine tastes. Plus, he's sampled Demonus from Diavolo royal stock before. They should not have won…

But on that day, he had to let them go to RAD in a pink blanket toga... 😑 Their wine is just THAT good.

He hates to admit it, but they've gotten him drunk more times than he could probably count too… He's not a huge fan of clubbing with them and the others, but if they bring over a bottle from their vineyard he just can't resist. They're a master of their craft, truly.

And it's a good thing he likes their drinks so much, because if they called him, "Kitty-boy," when he's sober, he may have just become a sour grape himself…

They also may or may not have copious amounts of blackmail material of him either meowing between sentences, sobbing over some fictional character he likes, pole dancing on dares….

Yeah, he's been trying to destroy their phone for months now. If Lucifer were to see ANY of that, he's done for… 😣

He has also been meaning to ask them about other aspects of their abilities, their father is also the God of Madness after all, but anytime he tries to bring it up they shove another glass in his hand and tell him not to kill the mood...

Eh. What's the harm in having another drink, right? 🤷‍♀️

Asmodeus

Honey. He's MET Dionysus. He's been to a Dio-party or two and they're INSANE. He could not be more thrilled by this!!!

He practically scooped them up on the first night that they were in the House and it’s practically been a nonstop rave between these two ever since. They’re like the party twin he never knew he needed!!

He absolutely abuses their ability to turn pretty much any drink they touch into alcohol at clubs. It makes the nights so much easier on the wallet PLUS it makes an excellent little party trick to impress the succubi! Who doesn’t want a free drink? 😏

And can he just say that their drinks are better? Just flat out amazing! If it weren’t so unhealthy he’d consider drinking nothing but their booze and wine for the rest of his days, Satan’s certainly getting close to it.

But little does Satan know, he’s not even getting the GOOD stuff...

There’s the normal wine: grapes picked from the vineyard, hand squeezed, then magically helped through the fermenting process. But their real good stuff? They were given enchanted oak barrels from their father and anything that comes out of those is worth starting a WAR over. 😩

He knows, because he gifted an extra bottle to Diavolo once and Barbs came to him the very next day demanding to know what vineyard had produced it with the look of man willing to annex a small nation...

Asmo had to beg Lucifer to talk to Diavolo after the butler more or less kidnapped the MC back to the Castle… Devil knows even Barbs wouldn’t ever be able to reproduce their wine, so they could have been locked there for eternity!!

Thankfully, he got his party-buddy back and their debauchery continued! (Just now with Barbatos following them around sometimes like he’s trying to gather state secrets... It’s an impossible task but he hasn’t given up yet, bless his black heart.)

Beelzebub

He isn't much bothered by their carefree nature, at least they seem to be having fun with his family which he appreciates. 🙂

To be honest, though, he nearly ate them when they first met because they smell like freshly peeled grapes… and for good reason.

By their third day at the House they had (somehow) planted and cultivated a full on vineyard in the courtyard. Hell, the wall growing to their bedroom balcony was covered in grapevines!! Always ripe and completely healthy in defiance of the lack of sun... Whatever magic they used was strong.

And, of course, their grapes were also delicious! Easily among the best fruits he's ever tasted! Every cluster is ridiculously plump, juicy, and sweet like little droplets of pure Heaven… 🤤

When their fruit first ripened, the MC came out with a basket to collect some only to find Beel had gouged himself on over half of their crop!!!

… which may have been why he got snared up on one of the courtyard walls by pissed off grapevines... Even with all his strength, he couldn't break through them and had to wait for Lucifer to cut him down… 😔

From then on, Beel was pretty much the pesky rabbit to the MC's harvest. They had to set up traps and magical barriers to keep him from their precious grapes…!! Which inevitably meant one of his brothers had to come rescue him from their furious vines at least once a week... 🙄

SOMETIMES, the MC will bring him along to help harvest with them with the deal that he can have an extra basket for however many he helps them pick. But the second he takes a bite he shouldn't, it’s back on the wall!

Out of the vineyard, they're nice enough. But put some grapes between these two and they're mortal enemies… STOP messing with their plants, Beel!! 😤

Belphegor

So… this drunken fool is supposed to get him out of the attic? Never mind, this is never going to work…

He was SEVERELY underwhelmed when the "human" finally made it up the steps. This was who they decided to bring for their exchange program? They seemed like they could barely stand!

Naturally, he figured all the better for him. They probably wouldn't even last that long!

Some poor, incompetent human falling victim to a demon out there? Diavolo's reputation would in tatters and he wouldn't even have to lift a finger! (His favorite way of doing things really 😌).

But… they just kept coming back? Like. Nothing was killing them….! How guarded were they keeping this moron??

Or… maybe it was something else?

Sure, the MC seemed like a drunken idiot but there were times when he'd swear that they were just… too aware to be sloshed…

MC: *suddenly stops smiling at him mid-conversation and looks him in the eye* You tilt your head when you lie. You know that?

How can someone so cheerful ALSO be so unnerving…?

So really, he should have seen their sudden heel-turn after they opened the door coming. There he was, fully intending to take them by surprise and choke them after a hug…

...and they knocked him down, climbed onto his back like a spider monkey, and rode him around like a bucking bull using his horns like handlebars!!

It wouldn’t have been AS humiliating if they didn’t also keep shouting things like "Giddiyap!" And "Yee-haw!!"

It took him a whole month to be sure that any and all footage of that nightmare was erased and he STILL hates the MC quite a bit for it…. But he's too scared to attack them now, so…

The lesson here? It's not a fair fight when one side’s crazy... 😔😒

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me demigods

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in-tua-deep · 3 years

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Ok I totally want to hear more about this survivors au/Delores is real! How do the siblings handle having this different version of Five? Five may be better adjusted but he still has to heard his family around like a bunch of stray cats. What happens when Hazel and Cha Cha show up? How do they find out that Vanya causes the apocalypse and how does Five handle that revelation?!

here is the thing, i think the survivors au has the potential to be HILARIOUS

no one knows how to handle a well-adjusted five, and this absolutely includes the commission

So you mentioned Hazel and Cha-Cha?? Five in this au was not nearly as absolutely feral as he is in the show bc he knows how to interact with people - he was raised by a competent adult and a weird best friend and they occasionally saw other survivors as well

please picture old Five hanging around the water cooler and chatting with Hazel

the other funny thing is that Five is competent passing - he is well adjusted emotionally but functionally?? Hazel is out there complaining about dental being cut and office parties and budgets and Five is there sipping his drink having never filed taxes in his life. Five doesn't know what the fuck a dental plan is, he was a child soldier and then lived in an apocalypse.

So please picture for me Hazel being like "okay I know corporate wants us to keep what we're being paid to ourselves but fuck that, workers unite, what do you get paid as a legend old timer?"

and five is like "you're getting paid? i get to not get tossed back into the apocalypse, I think"

"but what about expense forms? what about medical care?"

"I'm like 80% sure i'm being experimented on, actually." Five says nonchalantly, "Don't get me wrong, my idea of medical care is fucked by being a child soldier but I'm pretty sure regular people don't have electrodes attached to their heads every time they get a checkup. Could be wrong though! My ex-dad used to monitor my brainwaves while I slept so like, my idea of appropriate shit is fucked, you know?"

This is a Five who was raised by Rick, he is polite to his coworkers. If Dot asked him if he wanted to grab lunch, Five would have gone and grabbed lunch with her or politely said that he couldn't.

Cha Cha only ever talks to Five when she wants to talk shop, so they've had a couple of conversations about weapons but not much else tbh, Hazel just tends to be more personable

So when they're sent after Five, Hazel is much more hesitant to kill who he perceives as a "work friend" and also is definitely thinking about all the times Five casually revealed a way the commission was being highkey shady about him, such as the potential experimentation, no pay, working under duress etc. He's much more easily turned against the commission because he's even more primed to say "fuck the commission" than he is in canon

Hazel out here like "how did Five break his contract when Five wasn't even being paid? I kind of want to read it."

Hazel out here like "I would unionize if I didn't think the commission was anti-union enough to send literal assassins after me if I suggested it :/"

meanwhile with the siblings

Five just. talks over them a lot and makes so much sense that it's actually really hard to argue with him, and he's weirdly considerate of his family's obligations

Like Diego is like "i have to go see Patch" then Five is like "that's great I'm proud of you buddy, it would actually be really handy to have some law enforcement read into the situation if you think she's up to the task. that goes for everyone by the way! If y'all have people you trust, more bodies would be super helpful I think"

the entire family, collectively, who have like zero trusted social links: uhhhhhhhh

Diego, with this weird permission, probably?? Does? Awkwardly attempt to read Patch into the situation? Patch is, obviously, like "what the fuck, Diego" but probably goes with him to the mansion (????????) because she's concerned and then meets his fucking whacko family with their superpowers and suddenly everything is 100% more realistic

Five is just like "yes hello I'm aware I look like a child, i'm actually in my late 50s or early 60s (apocalypse time amiright) because of time travel stuff. Yes I am Five Hargreeves who went missing in like 2002 or whatever. anyway it's lovely to meet you, i'm so glad diego has someone he trusts, and considering my sibling's shifty looks when i told them to invite anyone they trusted this genuinely makes me concerned that Diego is the most socially well-adjusted of them."

"That cannot be possible." Patch says, like someone who has met Diego Hargreeves.

"You haven't met the rest." Five says sympathetically, "In our defense we were raised in isolation as child soldiers."

"That... explains so much." Is all Patch can say to that, "But you seem..."

"I'm adopted." Five waves away.

"We're ALL adopted." Diego grits out, very aggrieved by this and also not sure if he likes the fact that Patch seems friendly with Five, or at least is listening to him?

"I'm double adopted."

However! With the recruitment of Patch, herding Diego becomes like 90% easier.

Honestly the worst to herd are probably Luther and Allison? Luther because he's Number One and resents Five taking charge and also resents Five's casual dismissal of Reginald and also suspects that Five (or at least the commission) has something to do with Reginald's death?

Allison because she is torn between following Luther and helping him and helping Five but also calling Patrick and Claire at every possible moment while ALSO trying to repair her relationship with Vanya. She's flighty - she'd bail on a Five-apocalypse-assignment if Vanya mentioned being hungry or if Luther called or anything like that

Vanya likes to be included and, if asked, would probably drop as many current obligations as she can. Like she would probably cancel her teaching if Five genuinely and sincerely asked her for her help, which he does because he's 100% sure Dolores would manifest in front of him and smack him if he dared even imply someone without powers wouldn't be helpful

Vanya is like "I'm not sure if i'll be helpful - I don't have powers ):" and Patch is like "wtf are you talking about - my superpowers are Gun, Backup, and Reading Comprehension and i am like the most useful member of this team right now"

Vanya gets a confidence boost just from hanging out with Patch honestly, I think they should be friends

Klaus is thrilled to be included are you kidding?? He says he does it for money but he's just happy to be there and also as one of the most emotionally intelligent siblings he is mildly concerned about the fact that Five looks like he's about to cry and also emotes

Five also gives Klaus positive reinforcement, hugs, and Five absolutely weaponizes the I'm not mad, but I believe that you can do better and I'm going to give you more chances because I love you and fully believe that next time you'll be amazing way that Rick used on him.

I feel like Five ends up saying something along the lines of "I understand that x is really important, and we're definitely going to look into it. Is it something that needs to be addressed right now, or is it something that can wait until after April 1st? If it can wait, I can write it down here on this list so we don't forget. If it can't wait then we can figure out a time to address it and help you" a lot

Like Grace malfunctioning and potentially killing Reginald?

"We don't have to make this decision right now." Five says patiently, "Because Grace is a robot, we have some options. Living with a robot who is potentially malfunctioning and homicidal is dangerous, but Luther saying that means admitting that Reginald might have made a mistake or error with Grace's programming or upkeep. I haven't been here for a long time, but I remember Reginald being very precise. Regardless, this isn't a choice between permanently shutting her off or not. We can shut her down temporarily until we can fully address the issue. We can ask and see if there is a 'system reboot' option or some sort of system check that Grace can undergo. We can try find and hire an expert to take a look at her programming to find the issue."

Five gives this speech while like, organizing the weaponry in the house on a table very nonchalantly

Five out here making buzzer noises at his siblings arguments like "yeah no that's a false dichotomy and a strawman's argument, want to try again?"

(Look apocalypse nights were long and they had games that were literally about arguing pointless shit like ranking types of chairs or the best way to break out of a prison without powers and things could get heated)

"Who died and made you boss?" Luther demands.

"Uh, the world? Were you not listening?" Five asks, looking very purposefully confused.

It gets even MORE delightful when Five reads Rick into the situation because a) he promised and b) his siblings really have like, no connections jeeze

Rick fully believes that this is his son from the future, like Five introduced himself, but Five skipped out on a few key details. Such as being adopted.

So Rick spends a solid chunk of time just staring at Five, who looks basically nothing like him, trying to think like, who is his mother ???? if we save the world will Five stop existing? why would I name my child 'Five'? Does everyone have powers in the future? was there like... a radioactive apocalypse? would radiation give future humans superpowers? when did my life turn into a comic book? am i even allowed to ask these questions? will knowledge of the future fuck things up?

and then when Five comes back and is like "what is up everyone this is my dad Rick who will be joining us, he doesn't have any memories of me thanks to time travel but if anyone is mean to him i WILL kneecap them"

"Your DAD?"

Five does kidney punch Klaus for saying that Rick is a DILF but otherwise everyone just is like, warily looking at this Normal Dad Man in confusion because?? This is the dude who raised Five, who they watched take out like an entire commission team by himself yesterday? He looks so. Normal.

Rick is very confused and like, wonders if he's supposed to be the team mascot? But Five keeps involving him and asking his opinion and in return Rick enforces snack breaks and makes everyone sandwiches and has gentle talks with everyone

Every time Five notices someone about to blow he just lovingly makes sure that that person is alone in a room with Rick

Luther ends up crying on the sofa with Rick gently patting his back as Rick calmly states that Luther seems like he's put a lot of time and effort into his family and making his father proud and that since Reginald isn't here to say it, Rick will have to be the one to say that he's proud and that they've been dropped into a difficult and stressful situation - so soon after Reginald's death when they're still grieving! - and he's doing so well

Luther, experiencing unconditional positive paternal regard for the first time in his life: i don't know why i'm crying so much

honestly this is just a comedy of juggling the gang, having impromptu therapy sessions and discussions, investigating the apocalypse and the eye, leonard trying to meet vanya continuously and failing because she's constantly surrounding by family or rick/patch, the commission trying their best to bust up the dream team/isolate Vanya/kill or remove Five, while Hazel lives out his romcom dreams with Agnes and also says "fuck the commission"

#HUH?#survivors au #well adjusted five au #long post #far tua long #five recruits rick to be team dad #rick is DEEPLY confused #but he's the kind of person that rolls with it #dolores probably ends up tagging along as well on at least one occasion #dolores and patch bond #five pretends that dolores is a new sibling and not his dolores #five calls rick 'dad' and it messes with everyone else #patch is on team fuck-the-apocalypse(-and-reginald)#vanya is never alone so fuck leonard #five finds out that vanya causes the apocalypse and is like #vanya: HUH?#luther: maybe we should lock vanya up -#rick: are there are any other possible actions that might be more appropriate in this situation?#vanya: i could try get more meds to take and we could address the powers thing after april 1st #vanya immediately gets validated that reginald sucks #even luther who has had multiple conversations with rick is like 'dad... didn't always make the best choices...'#everyone: :0 #hazel doesn't kill patch so he probably joins team anti-apocalypse at some point #hazel: why are you a child #five: oh you know i'm young at heart and all that #OH forgot to mention one of the main differences in this au is that five like properly grew up this time #so while he is inconvenienced by his body he's not so deeply uncomfortable or angry about it #just resigned #'this might as well happen' - five #five probably makes jokes about it as well

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russianredassassin · 4 years

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Dating Huntress and Meeting the Birds of Prey + Cass (Full Fic)

This was requested by Anonymous - can I request reader meeting the BOP and Cass bc reader and Helena are dating? Can you make it a full fic and it just be crazy, cute, fluff and chaos? thank youuuuu - I hope you like this fic and is what you wanted.

Also sorry I haven't written a fic this long in a long time but hope you enjoy it nevertheless :) One final thing, for the person who requested this I didn't put Harley Quinn because you didn't specify if you wanted her included or not. So I just left her out.

Word Count - 1702

Warnings - A few swear words, but that's it

I was in a relationship with Helena Bertinelli and it was amazing, but what most people didn’t know is that she is also the vigilante Huntress. You would think that being with a vigilante would be amazing, and it is apart from the times where she gets called away for hero business. Now, of course, you couldn’t blame her, this was what she wanted to do, but Helena started to feel a little bad, so she decided to treat you with a romantic dinner. The idea of making you dinner sounded great to her, but it turns out making the perfect romantic dinner was harder than it sounds. You arrived at your apartment to the smell of smoke and the sound of an alarm. My mind immediately thought the worst, so I burst through the door, ready to take on whoever foolish enough to try and fight my girlfriend. Except when I got inside, the only person there was Helena. Who was standing in the middle of a smoky kitchen leaning over the oven, then she leaned back upright holding a tray of what looked like food but if I’m being honest, it didn’t much resemble food. “Grrr, FUCKING HELL!” Helena shouted as she smashed the tray down on to the counter, she then looked up and saw me and jumped slightly. “Oh, hello Y/N I…I thought you didn’t finish work until another hour,” Helena said pushing the tray to the side, trying to badly hide the disaster of dinner. “I got off work early, so I thought I’d give you a nice surprise with take-away,” You said, putting the food down and turning the alarm off and opening all the windows “What happened?” “Well, I started feeling a little guilty because of me out every night fighting criminals and therefore not able to spend enough time with…with you” Helena said while grabbing a tea towel and fanning the smoke away “and I wanted to make you a romantic dinner as a way of an apology, but as you can see I have very clearly Fucked. It. Up” Helena said, clearly frustrated so I helped her get rid of the smoke out of the apartment. Afterward, me and Helena relaxed in the living room, with a movie we decided to be Robin Hood and a take-away. It may have not been the perfect romantic night Helena had in mind, but you were together and that was all that mattered. That was until Helena’s phone went off. “Hello?” Helena said standing up to answer the phone “What?!” I glanced at Helena as she raised her voice “No, I’m sorry I can’t not tonight” I tried mothing to her what’s wrong, but she just gave me a smile “Look I’m sorry but I am busy tonight. Goodbye,” Helena ended the call and put her phone away in quite a huff, sat back down and continued as if nothing happened. “Who was that?” I asked, looking up at her. For a few seconds she didn’t reply, just kept staring at the movie on the telly until she finally spoke up “Just a…friend of mine,” Helena said with a pause “Needed my help” “With what?” I asked her, After another long pause and breath, she finally replied “Vigilante business” Helena replied taking a bite of her food. “And you’re not going to help?” I asked, getting more and curious, and Helena simply shook her head “Why?” “Because…Because it's supposed to be our special night” Helena said turning to face me “Yeah, but your friends need your help,” I said looking her in her eyes “Go on, go and be a hero” “Are you sure, I mean…” Helena said but I just leaned over to give her a comforting hug “Go. And. Be. A. Hero” I said, “And I’ll be right here waiting for you to continue our special night” After a few seconds we released each other from the hug and Helena stood up and went to our shared bedroom to get her uniform on. A few minutes later, she came out of the room in her full Huntress get up. Even though I have seen her in her full uniform at over a hundred times it never fails to amaze me. She walks over to me while giving me a look of sorrow and cups my cheeks and kisses me. “I’ll be back as soon as possible” Helena said, stopping at the door I gave her a comforting smile and waved her to go on, “You will leave me some of the food won’t you?” “I can’t promise anything,” I said with a sly smile. She simply smiled back then left to do her work. I just sat back and watched the rest of the movie while eating the take-away. Nearly 2 hours later there was a sound of a knock at the door, I got up and went to the door and opened it, expecting it to be Helena. And it was. But with some friends. “…Erm, hello?” I said to all the Helena, who was with two other women one of them with long dirty blond dreadlocked hair who I didn’t recognize, but another I did as Renee Montoya, the GCPD detective, and oddly were joined by a kid no older than 12. “The hell are you?” the woman with the dirty blonde hair questioned to you. “HEY” Helena shouted at the woman then looked at me “Sorry about this Y/N but can we come in” I quickly stepped aside to let Helena in and everyone else inside. I watched as Helena and the others walked around my apartment. “What’s wrong?” I asked Helena since this wasn’t exactly a common occurrence “Are you ok” “Yeah, we ran into a little trouble,” Helena said “Yeah, that’s a fucking understatement,” the woman with the dreadlocks said who was given side-eyes by Helena “Yeah, all we need to do is to stay here for a few hours until whoever is after us gives up, I hope that’s ok,” Helena said “So…” The dirty blonde-haired woman said turning me and repeating her previous question “who the hell are you?” “For god sake…” Helena said turning to the other woman with wide eyes, filled with rage “I’m Y/N” I said before anyone got hurt. I love Helena but she isn’t exactly the most peaceful person in the world. “I’m Dinah, this is Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain” she said pointing to each of them, then she raised her eyebrows as she glanced between you and Helena “Are you two dating?” I tried to cover a smile, Helena meanwhile just groaned and stormed out. Presumably out of embarrassment. “Does anyone want a drink or…?” I asked trying to break the ice “Got one thanks” Renee said standing at the windows and taking out a flask and taking a swig of whatever was in it. “Anything with alcohol for me,” Dinah said sitting on the arm of my couch “I’ll have a…” the little kid says but Dinah cuts her off “Cassie will have juice,” Dinah said “Hey, I’m not fucking 5,” Cassie said “Juice!” Dinah said staring at Cassie who just huffed and slumped on the couch. Meanwhile, I go to get a glass of champagne and a glass of orange juice and gave them to Dinah and Cassie. Dinah gave me quite thanks whereas Cassie didn’t say a word. About a minute of silence passed before Renee spoke up “So you and Helena?” Renee said from the corner window. “Yeah,” I said with a polite smile “No offense, but how the hell did that happen?” Dinah said trying to conceal a laugh “Did Robin Hood come swooping in to save her Maid Marian” “I heard that!” Helena shouted from the other room and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well it’s a long story,” I said “We’ve got time,” Dinah said with a huge grin on her face “Did swing down from a rooftop and swoop you up in her big strong arms and carry you to safety as your saviour” I was now effectively blushing with that particular idea causing Dinah and Renee to chuckle, but luckily my saviour Helena came out from the room “Heyyy, here’s the saviour,” Renee says quietly to herself causing us all to chuckle and causing Helena to give side eyes once again. “Right, when your all quite fucking finished,” She said raising her voice slightly “Renee, what’s the situation” “Well I can’t see anyone out there,” Renee said moving to the couch “Best to wait here for another hour or so, then it’ll be safe enough to leave” Helena simply nodded. An hour later of talking, moaning, one too many robin hood jokes such as where’s your green tights and Cassie’s stealing attempts which ended up with Dinah having to follow Cassie everywhere. Toilet included. Renee decided that is was safe to leave, so while everyone was getting ready to leave Helena walked over to me “Hey, we’ve just to make sure the ghost is clear and then I’ll be back in about 10 minutes,” Helena said smiling to me while moving a strand of hair from the front of my face then softly placed a kiss on my cheek. “Wa-Hey! Go On Bertinelli!” Dinah said causing me to blush, Renee and Cassie to laugh and Helena to groan out loud. “Right, that’s it!” Helena said as she ushering everyone out of the apartment “Everyone out” 10 minutes later Helena came back to the apartment and immediately fell onto the couch, so it was just her and me. “If you were wondering why I never told you about them, that’s why,” she said pointing to the door “You weren’t embarrassed were you?” I asked her with a big grin across my face “No…,” she said as she looked at me when a grin grew on her face leading to laughter “OK maybe a little, sorry” “Aww, the big bad assassin is blushing,” I said as I saw Helena’s cheeks blush and she gently knocks me before cuddling into each other “You’re lucky I love you,” Helena said as we continued our romantic night in peace. Just the two of us.

#Huntress #huntress imagine #helena bertinelli #helena bertinelli x reader #helena bertinelli imagine #bop #Birds of Prey #Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)#headcanons #helena bertinelli headcanons #huntress headcanons #dc #dc comics

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greensword101 · 4 years

Text

Inquisitor!Kanan AU Pt. 1

Alright, this is going to sound stupid, but I’ve skimmed through a few fics where Kanan is an Inquisitor but is either a reluctant recruit or immediately becomes conflicted when he meets Ezra, his space son.

That didn’t make sense to me. An Inquisitor was a Jedi that fell to the Dark Side. And those who fall typically do so in a sense of “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” at times or because they are disillusioned like Bariss was in the Clone Wars. In the event that Kanan ever turned to the Dark Side, I believe it would be for good intentions or because of his earlier characteristics as a Padawan (i.e. curiosity). It could be justified as Kanan was fourteen when Order 66 happened, but what if his master fell to the Dark Side prior to this right around the time she took him on as a student? Cue him becoming the Anakin to her Palpatine, except Depa genuinely cares about her student (ironic).

In this au, Depa Billiba had begun to lose faith in the Jedi Order right as she meets Caleb and she sees him as a kindred sou, especially after she learns more about the boy. One who is questioning the way of the Jedi in ways that the Council is very uncomfortable dealing with. Naturally, this feeling of isolation leads to Caleb trusting Billiba, especially when she states that the Jedi are afraid of people like him.

“But why?” Caleb asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Because, my Padawan,” Depa smiled, “the most dangerous weapon one can have is a weapon that can think for itself.”

Caleb, having never known his parents, having been considered an outcast by his peers, puts his faith in the first person to openly express faith in him and encourages his curiosity. Thus begins the decent of Master and Padawan to the Dark Side. Depa, who was drawn towards it due to her disillusionment of the Jedi and Caleb, who’s hunger for knowledge of all kinds would become insatiable as his understanding of the Dark Side grew.

When the Jedi Purge occurs, Caleb and Depa are spared from the slaughter, having deserted their Clone comrades and killing those who have attempted to take their lives. They go into hiding, taking work as bounty hunters or stealing whatever they can. Usually, it would be Jedi archives or artifacts that the Council wouldn’t have wanted falling into the wrong hands.

It doesn’t take long for them to be put under the Emperor’s radar and he orders them to be hunted down to join him as his assassins or die. Naturally, Depa and Caleb agree to serve as Inquisitors, out of pragmatism and because they felt flattered that their abilities were acknowledged by the Emperor himself.

Depa and Caleb stand out among the Inquisitors, being the only Former Jedi to be a part of the Master/Apprentice dynamic before the Republic fell. Caleb stands out due to being the youngest, but somehow just as brutal as the rest of their comrades as the First Sister and First Brother. The First Sister and First Brother quickly become a dreaded duo, due to their strong bond to one another and meshing together fighting styles of Light and Dark. After all, the First Brother considers “know thy enemy” to be the greatest teacher (after Depa, of course).

As the Empire looms over the galaxy, the Emperor soon realizes what a great threat the duo would become if they continued without challenge. Never mind the fact that overthrowing the Emperor never crossed either minds of the First Brother and Sister. They are content with knowledge for knowledge’s sake, freedom to act as they please, and with staying as a team. The Seventh Sister made the mistake of suggesting the First Brother was being groomed to be the First Sister’s boy toy. Her screams still echo to this day in the old buildings of Coruscant.

Through Vader, the Emperor sets up an “accident” to occur on one of the duo’s missions together. Caleb survives at the cost of his beloved mentor, who’s last words to him were “Run!” When he learns that the First Brother survived, the Emperor placed blame on Vader (true from a certain point of view) and redirects anger at his apprentice. It is a clever plan that he knew would lead to the First Brother either killing Vader and taking over as the Emperor’s apprentice or Vader dealing with a potential rival a move is made against him. Caleb knows this himself and he goes through a drastic change in personality.

His thirst for knowledge, unbeknownst to the Emperor, would lead to him desperately searching for hidden knowledge of the Force, such as saving the ones he loves most from certain death. At the same time, he becomes ruthless as an Inquisitor, isolating himself from others and seeking comfort in pleasures of the flesh and drink when the memory of his beloved mentor burns too painfully in his mind to function.

Jump to “Spark of Rebellion” time and without meeting Kanan, the chances of Hera meeting the rest of Ghost seem impossible now, right? Wrong! The Force works in mysterious ways, after all, and while she doesn’t find her crew through one person, she still manages to find the like of Ezra by herself on Lothal.

Ezra is still the same kid from canon: trusting no one, hard to think about others, a thief. And he managed to steal Hera’s heart when he tries to run off with her ship. Chopper stops him and a deal is made: work as her employee and Hera would forget about the kid trying to steal her baby. She also promises actual payment which manages to keep Ezra invested and maybe allows him to open up to her.

And through Ezra, they still manage to find Zeb and Sabine. Ezra has a brief crush on Sabine that evolves into a platonic friendship. Sabine still views the Ghost crew as a family. Zeb still smells. Chopper is Chopper. Hera is suddenly like a single mom with the distant uncle that suddenly decides to help her raise the kids.

Without a second actual adult - no, Zeb, you may be the oldest but you are at the same mental age as Ezra sometimes - Hera is probably more stressed than usual. She loves her crew to death, but it can be a bit much sometimes without a second hand to help.

But they are still the same force - no pun intended - to be reckoned with and get under the radars of both the Empire and Rebel alliance.

Ezra doesn’t know about his Force abilities for a while, not even when they are executing a rescue mission to extract an old Jedi Master named Luminara. It’s trickier without Kanan to do the mind trick on Stormtroopers, but Sabine and Zeb manage to distract the two guards in the end while Ezra sneaks in.

The first thing he notices is how weak and frail this “Luminara” lady is. The second is how he seems to feel her presence in his very bones, like an old memory. The third is another presence, a colder one that makes him shiver.

Enter the First Brother. The years since he’s turned have changed him drastically. He wears the Inquisitor uniform, with a black cape. His skin tone is pale as snow, like he hasn’t seen the sun in years. His hair is long and not held down by a ponytail (imagine it a bit like a lion’s mane) and his yellow eyes. piercing and seeming to see through Ezra.

He’s expecting a Jedi risking discovery to rescue the body of Luminara, someone who would hopefully give him a decent challenge. He’s not expecting a teenage boy who is clearly not a Jedi and clearly has never seen what a lightsaber looks like when the First Brother pulls one out.

Ezra in canon was aware of the Force existing and had been pleading with his mentor to actually teach him. Here, he’s thrown into a massive loop and straight up terrified of this new enemy who clearly wasn’t a Stormtrooper. His typical maneuvering doesn’t work when the First Brother is able to pin him down without making physical contact. To Caleb, this is just him barely using Force Stasis. To Ezra, it’s like he’s walked into a nightmare.

Ezra, now frozen both literal and in fear, has a new enemy blocking his only exit and no way to warn his team about the danger they’re in.

“How did you know Luminara?” The First Brother asked.

Ezra doesn’t respond, he isn’t sure his mouth can work and his mind is numb.

“You can still talk if you want to, kid,” the man added in a surprisingly gentle voice.

Somehow, Ezra finds his courage, “I don’t know her. I was trying to rescue her.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s a prisoner of the Empire,” Ezra tries and fails to snarl defiantly at the man, “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”

“You’re partially right,” the First Brother admitted, “She didn’t deserve the fate she got. But the Empire needed a honey pot to draw in the flies.”

“D-didn’t...?”

“Luminara is dead, been that way for a long time.” Out of the corner of Ezra’s eye, he notices the pale Mirialan’s body fading away like dust in the wind. His heart stills.

After a tense moment, Ezra collapses to the ground, having been freed.

“I don’t take pleasure in snuffing younglings,” the First Brother said dismissively. “Take your friends and leave this place.”

Ezra doesn’t even bother asking how the hell he knew Ezra didn’t come alone and simply runs out of the cell. He finds Sabine and Zeb and they all flee in one piece. He doesn’t speak for the rest of the day, too shaken from his experience with the new enemy to do anything.

He has no experience with the Force. He understands he is different, but not why. And he certainly doesn’t expect to see that man again after today.

Meanwhile, the First Brother, for the first time in years, feels something close to excitement. Someone who could use the Force, someone who clearly didn’t know about the Force until just then, someone that was on the side of the rebels.

He sincerely hoped his master was looking down on him in the afterlife, because he was going to become that kid’s new teacher whether the kid wanted him or not.

To be continued...

#star wars rebels #au #inquisitor!kanan #dark side!kanan #caleb dume #depa billaba #ezra bridger #hera syndulla #grand inquisitor #kanan is thinking of getting a space kid on the dark side #ezra doesn't know about the Force #for now #maybe ashoka will help him

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allthebooksandcrannies · 4 years

Text

Bora Bora: Chapter 1

This is the second installment of my fanfic of a fanfic Bora Bora. This will probably be confusing if you haven’t read murkybluematter’s story The Pureblood Pretense or its follow up stories on Fanfic.net

Prologue

Read on AO3

Chapter 1: A Difference of Opinion

It really all started on Halloween, because of course it did. It involved Rigel Black, after all.

“Did you hear anything about the attack on Diagon last weekend?”

Draco looked up from where he was finalizing his Transfiguration essay to make sure whoever had asked such a stupid question understood just how sick and tired he was of talking about the Diagon attack. It was all anyone had been talking about since it happened. Unfortunately, it was Millicent who had asked, and, after seven years of schooling together, she was quite immune to the Malfoy glare by now.

“What I meant,” she corrected with an exasperated eye-roll, “was whether anyone had heard anything new about it. From your parents, I mean.”

Blaise didn’t raise his head from the sheaf of parchment he had been sifting through and taking notes from, but he did that little head tilt he used when he wanted to show he was listening without actually expressing an interest in the subject. Rigel, however, was the one to actually answer.

“Dad says Uncle James thinks they were after someone specific, but he won’t say who the target was, just that I should take care. And when he won’t tell Sirius something, you know it’s bad.”

Millicent gave a knowing nod, as if this were the confirmation she had been waiting for. Lowering her voice as much as she could without it being suspicious, she replied that “My father thinks the rebels were using the attack on the shops as cover for an assassination attempt against Dumbledore.”

Draco scoffed. “Please, they’d have to be mad to go after Dumbledore in the open like that.” And they would. Dumbledore may have been old (and potentially senile, depending on who you asked), but everyone knew he was one of the most powerful wizards alive. “If someone like Dumbledore has time to even draw his wand before you kill him, you’ve already lost!” It was the same reason the 1981 Halloween Accords had been passed in secret. The man was too brilliant to be allowed time to plan, time to fight back.

“And you think the same people who attacked two Ministers of Magic at the World Cup are especially sane?” Draco had to give Millicent that one. Sane was not exactly the first adjective that came to mind.

Blaise hmmd, openly paying attention now. “Not to mention that no one publicly contradicts their message more effectively than Dumbledore. There’s a reason he’s still the Supreme Mugwhump despite Riddle’s best efforts.

“People listen to Dumbledore. As long as he’s alive, he’s a threat. So, if they thought there was even the possibility of taking him out of the equation, while causing some panic in the process…” Blaise let his voice trail off, his meaning clear. Draco knew his own face was as grim as the rest of the group.

“Does anyone want to explain to me what in Merlin’s name would be so bad about that?” Well, almost the whole group.

Theo was, well Theo was Theo. He had always been rather vocal about his beliefs, but lately he had become less and less willing to hide it when his views on a subject were less than polite. It made it easy to know where you stood with him at any point in time, but it was honestly an embarrassing lack of subtlety. Though, Draco thought ruefully, having one less politician in his generation could really only be an advantage to his own pursuits.

There were several eye-rolls around the circle at Theo’s naivete and a rising tension that was literally palpable to Draco’s empathy, but Draco nearly groaned to see Rigel slowly straighten up with a simultaneously shut down on every emotion he had been allowing himself to project.

But, instead of coming back with the scathing retort Draco expected, Rigel raised a single eyebrow, face expressionless and snobbish enough to fit right in among the ancient Black heads of house. “You do realize, Theo, that, at the very least, it might by dangerous to us if people are really trying to kill our headmaster?” Then, clearly leaning in to the snotty pureblood impression with a comically raised voice and nose, he continued, “I for one, would rather not get my robes singed if I’m standing next to the headmaster when some hooligan starts throwing curses around!”

Draco recognized the game his friend was playing and hurriedly shot in with a drawled, “You might mind the destruction of those monstrosities” he said, with a significant glance at the potions robes, “but the rest of us would have to thank the brigands for sparing our eyes the horror.”

And just like that the tension dissolved just as suddenly as it had risen as the group devolved into a round of childlike giggling that they really should have been too old for. Things were good, Draco reminded himself as he fervently ignored the niggling voice in the back of his head that noticed that Rigel still hadn’t relaxed his shields back to their default. Because things were good, and it was normal for Rigel to be weird about sharing.

Draco was saved from anymore introspection as the laughing tapered off by Theo announcing that he was absolutely done trying to study for the night and was going to go start to get ready for the Halloween feast in a few hours.

Blaise said something about how it was probably best that he did stop studying, so that he didn’t end up hurting himself.

Millicent made a quip about Theo needing all the time to get ready as he could get, just as their coarser friend was about to make it out of earshot. And as soon as he was gone…

“Whatever are we going to do about that boy?” Pansy asked, and Draco jumped.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten that Pansy was there of course. After all, it would be completely remiss of a pureblooded gentleman to forget the presence of a lady, particularly when she also happened to be one of his best friends. Draco had just… not been expecting her to speak.

And you could hardly blame him. The past fortnight she had been quieter than she had ever been in her life. No matter how many times Rigel or Draco or even Millicent tried to press her on what was wrong, what had their sharp friend passively gliding along like a ghost, she continued to demur and insist that she was fine, just a had a bit of disappointing news. And that might have been that if the behavior had passed after a few days. Instead, it had continued with Pansy alternating between projecting an eerie sort of blankness, like he was seeing her emotions from behind a pane of glass, to crashing waves of bitterness and grief that were so intense they put his teeth on edge. It hurt him to feel, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it and he had finally resolved to give her some space. But now she was speaking, and he had been too caught up in his own internal monologue to pay attention. He hurried to tune back in without making it obvious that he had missed anything at all.

If the muted pang of amusement he felt Rigel send his way was any indication, he may not have entirely succeeded.

“-not happy with Nott Sr at all. You saw what Nott said to that Prophet reporter, right?” Millicent pressed.

“The one coming out against last season’s round of marriage announcements?” Pansy clarified.

Millicent went to nod, and opened her mouth to elaborate, but Rigel beat her too it.

“Theo’s dad is against the marriage law?”

And Draco’s stomach dropped, because he didn’t need an empathy gift to detect the hopeful tone Rigel had asked that in, and he definitely did not want to start this conversation again.

Millicent, apparently, agreed because she was hesitant to reply. “Yes,” she said carefully, “but not quite the way your hoping… Lord Nott’s point of view on the matter has always been rather similar to his son’s…”

“What, that marrying a halfblood would be disgusting?” And Rigel clearly knew the answer to his own question if the new tightness around his eyes was any indication.

Blaise, however, was electing to appear oblivious to the significant change the subject messages Millicent and Draco were giving off, and he actually responded to the obviously loaded question.

“From what Mother says, its not so much the marriage law itself that Lord Nott has decided he’s opposed to, but rather Riddle’s self-assigned role in determining what those pairings will be. Supposedly, he’s already made up his mind about the entire seventh year already, and Lord Nott is not pleased with whom he has chosen for Theo, though I doubt anyone has mentioned this to Theo, of course.”

Everyone in their little corner of the common room was paying attention now. It was one thing to know that Riddle would probably have a say in whom you married, but to know that he was dictating that decision personally was a completely different animal. Pansy, in particular, seemed especially stiff as she leaned in as if to wordlessly prompt Blaise to continue.

Rigel’s eyes, meanwhile, squinted in suspicion, as if he already had an idea of where this was going and didn’t like it but couldn’t bring himself to look away. “And who, exactly, is it that Lord Nott is so opposed to marrying his heir?”

Blaise’s expression was one of total innocence, though Draco could have sworn he could still see his usual knowing smirk in the other boy’s eyes.

“Well Theo seems to think he’s marrying Miss Greengrass. Though Mother says that Riddle’s choice was someone who instead was far too independent, and more offensively, far too Light for Nott’s tastes. I, of course, have no idea who that might be, though one could imagine that it must be someone Riddle is quite adamant on controlling if he’s insisting strongly enough that Nott felt that The Prophet was his only recourse.”

Now, if there was one thing Draco would usually cite as among Rigel’s best qualities it was that he was no fool, regardless of how he might like to play the role when it suited him. Rigel understood Blaise’s implications, as could be clearly seen by the grim set off his mouth and the creeping, sick feeling Draco could feel seeping through his friend’s shields.

Later, he could talk to his friend, help him understand that this wasn’t the disaster he clearly thought it was. But that time was not now. Because Rigel was not exactly known for being rational where Riddle or his cousin came in. Now, that they were both potentially involved, there was no telling what stupid stunt he might pull in the heat of the moment.

Draco reached out, both with his empathy and his arm, trying to pull Rigel out of where he was retreating behind walls, instead of asking for help. “Rye… whatever you’re thinking I promise its not as big of an issue as you’re worried it is. Let’s just ta-”

“Not as big of a deal, Dray?” Rigel asked, slipping back into that dangerously unaffected tone he was so fond of. That was the moment Draco realized he had chosen his words poorly. “Not as big of a deal? Since when is family not a big deal to a Slytherin, Dray?”

Draco spluttered “That’s not what- I mean, she’s not- I mean-” But Rigel was already shoving books into his bag and rising to go.

“I know exactly what you meant, Draco.” He paused, took a deep breath in. “You guys can head on to the feast without me. I’m going to go brew until I no longer want to set Riddle on fire.” And then he was swooping out of the room in a flurry of black fabric that made it very clear just who his mentor was.

There group was quiet for a while, just staring at the closed common room door, until Draco suddenly remembered what day it was with a mumbled curse.

“I can’t believe I just let him go off on his own, today of all days! I better-” And then, because today was apparently “Interrupt Draco Day,” Pansy stopped him.

“I think you better let me handle this one. I’ll keep him out of trouble.” Draco believed her. If anyone was going to be able to get Rigel to see reason, it would be Pansy, he was sure.

Later, looking back on that night, Draco would wryly remind himself that there had always been a limit to even Pansy’s sensibleness if she had been willing to put up with the two of them for so long.

#murkybluematter #the Pureblood Pretense #fanfiction of a fanfiction #fanfic of a fanfic #Harry Potter #alanna the lioness #song of the lioness #tamora pierce #jk rowling #fem!harry potter #crossover fic #my writing #my fic writing #harry potter/pansy parkinson #original post

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artpharos · 5 years

Note

would you ever write a Royalty-Bodyguard AU for sophiexlambda? :P

with SoDa, the question is never whether I would (because I am SoDa trash and would happily write every and any AU) but whether I have the time to orzTHAT SAID come let me ramble about some ideas for a Royalty-Bodyguard SoDa AU 8D So ok honestly it’s not royalty but tbh it doesn’t really even need to be an AU (just maybe post-canon) but Lhant is technically nobility, so you could always already have a Nobility (Sophie)-Bodyguard (Lambda, because Asbel asked him to) story going on where Sophie has to be a political figure for reasons (or maybe the other nobles just want to marry her to get Lhant) and Lambda has to watch out for her. And maybe they don’t interact much at all originally because it’s not super post-canon, so there’s still a lot of doubt and trust issues between them which they have to work through, and maybe they both think they shouldn’t be together given all their differences. But they ultimately fall in love after a few failed assassination attempts and lots of supporting each other and maybe Sophie stomping out some Giant Ominous Political Plot Against Asbel with Lambda’s help.

ALTERNATIVELY IF WE REALLY WANT TO GO AU ROUTE Lambda could be the Royalty (idk, of Fodra?) and as the eldest daughter of the Lhant family from the neighbouring country of Windor, Sophie ends up being his bodyguard when he’s sent to Windor for political reasons. And since the two kingdoms just stopped a full on war from breaking out (or really, it’s just Fodra vs the Ephinean Alliance of Windor+Strahta+Fendel), there’s lots of hostility between Lambda and Sophie. Maybe there was just a ceasefire instead of an actual peace treaty between the kingdoms and Lambda’s sent as a symbol of goodwill and whatever and plenty of warmongers want him dead to start up the war again, and through protecting him Sophie gets a better understanding of the differences between the Ephineans and Fodrans and realizes that Lambda/Fodra have lots of reasons to hate Ephinea. So as she spends time with Lambda, she tries to get him to see the goodness of humanity and all that jazz. Meanwhile IF YOU WANT TO ADD ADDITIONAL DRAMA Lambda may be the prince but he’s also like. An assassin. To destroy the alliance. Except by spending time with Sophie he ends up realizing humans aren’t so bad and them falling in love ends up saving the treaty and establishing long-lasting peace for both countries or something. look i’m just soda trash i’d drown in it all day

#soda #ask memes #thank you for letting me cry over my otp anon

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silentstep · 6 years

Text

La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart on a libretto by Metastasio revised by Mazzolà

Dramatis Personae:

TITO, Emperor of Rome, in love with the Judean queen BERENICE

SESTO, friend of TITO, in love with VITELLIA

ANNIO, friend of SESTO, in love with SERVILIA

SERVILIA, sister of SESTO, in love with ANNIO

VITELLIA, daughter of the deposed emperor VITELLIUS, in love with TITO willing to settle for a political marriage to TITO if that’s what it’ll take to get her rightful throne back, in love with SESTO very definitely a cold-hearted seductress ruthlessly tricking SESTO into believing she has feelings for him, or, like, at all

PUBLIO, head of the Praetorian Guard, advisor to TITO

ACT I

“Ma chè? sempre l’istesso” – In light of Tito’s ongoing romance with Berenice and attendant failure to marry Vitellia and make her empress by marriage, she and Sesto discuss their plan to assassinate Tito and reinstate Vitellia to the throne in her right as her father’s heir, with Sesto as her own consort. Sesto urges Vitellia to reconsider the whole thing. Vitellia urges Sesto to stop stalling and implement it already. They argue; Vitellia starts to leave.

“Come ti piace imponi” - Sesto calls her back, assuring her that he will obey her. Vitellia again commands Tito’s overthrow and death. Sesto asks for a kind glance first, in reward. They duet about both being full of conflicting emotions and tormented souls.

“Amico, il passo affretta” - Annio enters and tells them that Tito is sending Berenice away. Assuming that this is the first step in Tito asking her to marry him and become empress, Vitellia belays Sesto’s orders. Sesto protests that he doesn’t want her to marry another man and leave him.

“Deh, se piacer mi vuoi” – Vitellia had NO SUCH THOUGHTS IN HER HEAD, how could you possibly think this of her, Sesto.

“Amico, ecco il momento” – Annio reminds Sesto of his promise to give his sister Servilia’s hand to Annio in marriage, and asks Sesto to obtain Tito’s permission for Annio to marry Servilia. Sesto readily agrees.

“Deh prendi un dolce amplesso” – ANNIO AND SESTO ARE FRIENDS AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER VERY MUCH.

“Serbate, oh Dei custodi” – “Huzzah for Rome! Long live Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus!”

“Basta, basta” – Isn’t Tito such a good emperor everyone loves him he’s so humble and selfless omg

“Adesso, oh Sesto, parla per me” – Sesto actually is concerned for Tito’s happiness, poor lamb. Tito, having been prevented from marrying for love due to public opinion being against the foreign barbarian Jewish queen, decides to marry for friendship and make Sesto emperor-consort of Rome by marrying Servilia. Sesto is about to turn him down for Annio’s sake when Annio jumps in and accepts on his behalf.

“Del più sublime soglio” – In a prime example of the dramatic irony that’s going to plague Tito this entire opera, he sings an aria about how his only comfort in life is to make his friends happy. His friends hastily attempt to conceal the profound misery his actions have plunged them into.

“Non ci pentiam” – Annio, entrusted with carrying the news to Servilia because Metastasio likes watching him suffer, tells himself again that he’s standing aside for Servilia’s sake and that to do otherwise would be selfish. Servilia responds to the news with confusion and dismay.

“Ah perdona il primo affetto” – Annio and Servilia tell each other they love each other and I fuckin cry from the sheer beauty

“Che mi rechi in quel foglio?” – “Enlarge the man committed yesterday that rail'd against our person: we consider it was excess of wine that set him on, and on his more advice we pardon him.”

“Di Tito al piè” – Servilia, establishing her character as the only one who enacts positive outcomes in this whole opera, confesses to Tito that she loves Annio. She explains that she will obey if Tito still wants her for a wife, but it will be no more than a political match, and her heart will remain with her lover. Tito immediately withdraws his proposal, consents that Annio should marry Servilia, and thanks her for her honesty.

“Ah, se fosse intorno al trono” – Tito thanks Servilia for her honesty at some length, actually, and complains to everyone listening for a second time that being Emperor of Rome is the worst job and it’s miserable and it sucks and (here’s that dramatic irony again) everyone keeps lying to him and he can’t even tell.

“Felice me!” – Servilia, left alone, exclaims aloud with joy and relief. Vitellia, overhearing this and already aware that Tito has proposed to Servilia (just how good is this woman’s spy network???) pops up out of nowhere like a goddamn ninja and offers passive-aggressively obsequious homage to her new empress whose beauty has ensnared Tito’s heart. Servilia offers an unfortunately cryptic reply that perhaps the imperial hand is, in fact, reserved for Vitellia, and leaves.

“Ancora mi schernisce?” - Vitellia seethes. She might have forgiven having been made to wait for the throne due to Tito’s folly for Berenice, but to be passed over entirely is beyond the pale. When Sesto enters, she orders him to set the assassination plan in motion immediately. Yesterday, preferably.

“Parto, parto” – He’s going he’s going but can he just like… get maybe a glance first? Something? Anything. Give him something, here. Something to take with him into the coming battle. Just one look. Please. Gods, she’s so pretty.

“Vedrai, Tito, vedrai” – Sesto having left, Vitellia is crowing over her imminent victory when Publio and Annio enter, bringing Tito’s proposal of marriage to her. They salute her as their empress and try to bring her to Tito.

“Vengo… aspettate… Sesto!” – Vitellia PANICS. Sesto’s gone and it’s too late to intercept him. She freezes up and screams internally and possibly externally while Annio and Publio exchange glances and go “wow, she’s so happy about this that she forgot to look happy! Funny how that happens sometimes!”

“Oh Dei, che smania e questa” – meanwhile, Sesto is likewise angstpanicking as he tries and tries to make himself go through with the assassination. He has just come to the conclusion that actually, no, he can’t do this, but when he decides to halt the proceedings, he sees that they’re far advanced enough that the Capitol is on fire.

“Deh, conservate, oh Dei” – concluding that it’s too late to stop it now and he’s already committed, Sesto runs off to kill Tito, leaving a just-entered Annio in confusion. Servilia enters to Annio, bringing news of the fire and the mass panic; Publio enters, bringing news that the fire is the result of a conspiracy against Tito. Vitellia enters, pleading with anyone for news of Sesto. Sesto re-enters, bringing the news that Tito has been murdered by a man who’s just the most evil monster imaginable. Vitellia stops him from confessing then and there, and amid the cries of horror from the rest of Rome, everyone sings of their sorrow at Tito’s death and the nefarious treason that led to it.

ACT II

“Sesto, come tu credi” – Annio enters to Sesto, bringing him the news that Tito is alive after all, and that whatever Sesto saw, he must have been mistaken. Sesto confesses that he was the one who set the tumult in motion and stabbed the man he thought was Tito. Annio is horrified, but Sesto refuses to explain and declares his intention to go into exile and wander the wilderness lamenting. Annio stops him from leaving.

“Torna di Tito a lato” – Annio advises Sesto return to Tito’s side and say nothing of this, proving his loyalty and making up for his mistakes with whatever acts of devotion the opportunity affords.

“Partir deggio, o restar?” – “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING”, Sesto muses as Annio leaves. Vitellia enters and urges Sesto to flee Rome, protecting his life and the secret of her involvement. Sesto assures her that he would die before betraying her, but Vitellia answers that Sesto clearly loves Tito too much to stay silent in the face of Tito’s mercy and understanding.

“Sesto! - Che chiedi?” – Publio enters and arrests Sesto for conspiracy to commit treason. Turns out the man Sesto stabbed was actually Sesto’s fellow conspirator Lentulo, and that Lentulo survived the stabbing and, upon his own arrest, revealed Sesto. OK PAUSE I just need to reiterate for everyone that that is some ludicrously egregious failure here on Sesto’s part. Not only would Tito have survived if it had been Tito, but it was actually Tito’s enemy. There is no way this wasn’t Sesto’s subconscious doing this on purpose. There is no way. You can’t fuck up that badly on accident.

“Se al volto mai ti senti” – Sesto tries to bid Vitellia a tender and despairing farewell. Vitellia freezes up again in guilt and panic. Publio keeps trying to drag Sesto off, but each time she rails at Publio with such anguish that he is moved and lets them have a few more moments together. Sesto swears that he loves Vitellia and ever will, asks to be remembered, and finally begs to at least have her pity, to comfort him in his sorrow. Vitellia, almost breaking down in grief and horror, is still bluescreening. Sesto is finally led away to face the Senate.

“Ah grazie si rendano” – The people of Rome give thanks to the gods that Tito lives and the glory of the throne has been preserved. Tito is comforted that they at least don’t want him dead.

“Andremo, Publio” – Publio tries to get Tito to go be visible in public to calm the anxious people, but Tito refuses to go anywhere until he has confirmation that the Senate is convinced of Sesto’s innocence. “What if he’s… uh. Not innocent?” Publio asks. Tito bites his head off.

“Tardi s’avvede” – Publio warns Tito not to assume all men have hearts as loyal as Tito’s own.

“No, cosi scellerato” – Tito refuses to consider that Sesto could have betrayed him. Annio enters, followed by the news of Sesto’s guilt and his condemnation by the Senate to death by lions, which Tito must now sign.

“Tu fosti tradito” – Annio begs Tito for Sesto’s life.

“Che orror! che tradimento!” – Left alone, Tito alternately rages and hesitates over whether to sign the death warrant. He resolves to at least hear out Sesto in private before deciding, and summons him for an audience.

“Quello di Tito e il volto?” – Tito and Sesto see each other and both freeze. Tito recovers first, and commands Sesto to approach; Sesto stays frozen for a while longer and then struggles to obey. Publio, having observed their pain at this encounter, is sent out of the room, leaving them alone.

“E pur mi fa pietà” – Tito confronts Sesto. Sesto begs for death. Tito begs Sesto to tell him his reasons, to give Tito some excuse— any excuse— to pardon him. Sesto refuses and continues to beg for death. Tito finally furiously agrees.

“Deh per questo istante solo” – Sesto begs for one last kind look from Tito before he dies, just one, for the sake of their former love. He declares that though he goes despairing to his death, the thought of death does not frighten him; it is the thought that he betrayed Tito that is torture. He cries out in wonder that his heart can be in so much pain and yet not die. IT HELLA.

“Ove s’intese mai più contumace infedeltà?” – Tito, alone again, fiercely debates with himself over whether to let Sesto live or die. He signs the warrant— but finally tears it up, resolving to pardon Sesto despite his treason. Publio returns, and Tito, pretending that he still intends to execute Sesto, orders the preparations to go forward.

“Se all’impero” – Tito announces to the gods that if a hard heart is necessary to rule, they must either take away his empire or give him a different heart.

“Ah, Vitellia! - Ah, principessa!” – Annio and Servilia enter to Vitellia and beg for her help: if she, Tito’s new empress, asks Tito to pardon Sesto, he may grant it. Vitellia, certain that she’s about to be arrested any minute, grimly answers that she’s not Empress yet. Annio assures her that Tito has given instructions for the wedding— after having talked to Sesto. Stunned that Sesto did not reveal her, Vitellia starts to go but then stops and asks that the other two go on ahead, promising to follow. Annio and Servilia continue to plead with her to come immediately. Vitellia, now openly weeping, again begs them to leave and not torment her.

“S’altro che lacrime” – Servilia calls Vitellia’s tears useless cruelty, as only action can possibly help Sesto. She and Annio give up and leave.

“Ecco il punto, o Vitellia” – Vitellia, left alone, takes stock. She can have everything she has wanted this entire time— marriage to Tito and the throne of Empress— and the only thing she has to do to get it is watch Sesto die. Folding like a house of cards at the very thought, she resolves to confess everything to Tito in the the hopes that, while she will certainly be condemned to death, Sesto’s guilt may be lessened enough for his sentence to be commuted.

“Non più di fiori” – Vitellia takes a moment to mourn the death of her hopes and dreams and also of her life. Knowing that she is soon to be despised by the world, she asks the audience, at least, seeing her pain and knowing the whole story, to take pity on her grief.

“Che del ciel, che degli Dei” – Gathered to watch the executions, the people of Rome once more praise Tito and thank the gods for saving him.

“Sesto, de’ tuoi delitti” – Tito, facing down Sesto, starts off the speech that’s going to end with the surprise pardon, but doesn’t get that far before he’s interrupted by Vitellia, confessing everything and taking all the blame for herself.

“Ma che giorno e mai questo?” – Tito’s turn to bluescreen momentarily, as it must certainly feel that people he trusts are just coming out of the woodwork to betray him, but he gets ahold of himself and pardons everyone involved.

“Tu, è ver, m’assolvi” – Sesto and Tito reconcile. Vitellia, Annio, and Servilia sing Tito’s praises. Tito asks the gods to kill him the day his thoughts are no longer turned to the good of Rome, and everyone joins the chorus for one final “Huzzah for Rome! Long live Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus!”

FINE

#silentstep who even is the audience for this post #I don't know #I really don't #(senza guardarlo)#la clemenza di tito

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wazafam · 3 years

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Despite a build-up of promise, the finale episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier failed overall. The finale found Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) squaring off in a final battle against the anarchist terrorist group the Flag-Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman), who were intent on assassinating the Global Repatriation Council on the eve of an important vote. As is usual with Marvel movies and TV shows, some plot lines were resolved, other stories were set up, and hints at brand-new superheroes from the comics entering the MCU were dropped.

The six-episode miniseries (or season, if it gets an order for season 2) tackled a number of complex topics along the way, some poignantly and others seemingly just check a box off on a list. Along with the central problem of the Flag-Smashers, Sam's individual struggle was learning to come to terms with being the first Black man to be Captain America while Bucky was dealing with laying the ghosts of his past as the Winter Soldier to rest. Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) also featured in the series as Bucky and Sam's temporary ally – at least before Ayo and some of the Dora Milaje showed up for a subplot involving tracking him down and returning him to prison. Meanwhile, the Flag-Smashers and their cause were also given screen time, if not exactly clear focus.

Related: Captain America 4: Sam's MCU Future After Falcon & Winter Soldier Explained

It's a lot of plot to wrap up in a single finale episode, and while some of the lesser storylines were resolved earlier (or largely forgotten entirely), the finale had quite a few major stories and loose ends to juggle. Unfortunately, it failed in that aim. It's telling that overall, the first season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is at a solid 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the finale is currently sitting at a dismal 59%. The general consensus is that the final episode was a letdown for a few reasons.

It's hard to overstate how little happened for an episode of 52 minutes. The attempted GRC takeover and battle is a whopping 25 minutes of the episode. Sam's speech is another four. And the credits, minus the brief mid-credits scene, eat up nine minutes of those 51 minutes. In essence, one single battle and follow-up speech takes up two-thirds of the entire episode. That's just poor pacing. For a series that dealt with a number of weighty issues, the finale being reduced to one big punch-'em-up fight was an enormous letdown and a regression in terms of storytelling.

In fairness, it's worth noting that Covid-19 forced delays in production, but more, it also forced a number of considerable changes to the story itself. There was reportedly a virus storyline that had to be cut in light of the current pandemic and it's been confirmed that Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was supposed to make her first appearance in Black Widow but it ended up being introduced in Falcon & Winter Soldier after release date delays forced the Marvel film to be bumped back by more than a year and release after the Disney+ show. The Covid seams were clear throughout the series: some plotlines were dropped completely and characters disappeared for episodes at a time, other storylines were rushed or lacked clarity, and the editing was at times jumpy. There was enough great chemistry between the two lead stars, gravitas provided by Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, and thought-provoking moments to mostly carry the series through the first five episodes. But in the finale, the wheels finally fell completely off. With so many stories that needed to be given time to bring them to a close in a satisfying manner, the finale felt like an episode centered on one fight and then cobbled together with the scraps of whatever footage was left.

One of the most surprising and disappointing elements of the finale was how painfully hamfisted and on the nose much of the dialogue was. Sam Wilson's speech at the end sounded less like an organic moment and more as if Anthony Mackie would turn to the camera at any minute and say, "In case you didn't notice, I'm laying out my manifesto as the Black Captain America" before winking and turning back to the other characters. Likewise, the callback dialogue between two Black male characters of, "Hey, it's Black Falcon!" "No. That's Captain America." was so absurdly unnecessary and cheesy that more than a few people on social media commented on how it made them laugh aloud – not the reaction one would want from the audience during what's supposed to be an inspiring and serious moment.

Related: How Did Marvel Get The Falcon & The Winter Soldier So Wrong?

Before the finale, Falcon and the Winter Soldier tackled complex issues like being Black in America and what it means to be a hero or a villain with a morally gray touch and often an ambiguous stance. That approach allowed audiences to debate scenes, think about the messages they sent, and draw their own conclusions. The entire point of the series through the first five episodes was to underscore that in a post-Blip MCU, the line between good guys and bad guys is thin, and the world is no longer so black and white. Thus, the finale delivering Sam's big moment as nothing more than a heavy-handed morality play was jarring. It felt like an episode written for the audience Marvel was worried hadn't quite gotten the first five episodes and the issues they explored. Unfortunately, in doing so, it undermined what the series had done to that point. One good thing did come out of Sam's pointed speech, however: It finally explained what exactly the Flag-Smashers were trying to stop the GRC from doing, a point that hadn't exactly been made clear in the series.

Both Karli and Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) got the short end of the stick in the finale. Karli Morgenthau's arc felt like a regression to Phase 1 of the MCU, when villains were little more than 2D constructs serving as walking plot catalysts and then killed off as soon as their function was served. Karli's character being underwritten and her motivations unclear were major issues throughout the series, but her being casually killed at the hands of Sharon Carter and dying quickly only served to underscore how little audiences ever truly learned about her character. Viewers were given a surface explanation of what she and the Flag-Smashers wanted, but not exactly why, what Karli's own personal motivations were, or what happened in her past to turn her into such a zealot. What could and should have been a poignant moment with her death turned into merely a plot point resolution to tick off the list.

As for Sharon Carter, her character has suffered in a similar way over a longer period of time. The MCU has never quite known what to do with Sharon, giving her moments of showing her bravery and heroism only to waste her potential or turn her into a will-they/won't-they potential love interest of Steve Rogers. In theory, she went on the run for a few years, disappeared in the Blip, then returned with everyone else a few months ago. In the interim, it was established she'd made a nice life for herself as an art thief and forger in Madripoor. However, it was later revealed Sharon Carter was the Power Broker and, in the mid-credits scene, that she'd gone full-on villain. While it's exciting to know that her character may finally get the interesting writing and screentime she's deserved, Sharon's heel-turn never felt fully earned, especially for a woman who well knew that she'd be a rogue agent and exiled for doing what she did during the events of Captain America: Civil War. In the unseen interim, there was an enormous change in Sharon's personality, evidenced by her unceremoniously killing Karli, who was still just a kid, a line Sharon never would have crossed before. If there was a story that justified Sharon's new ruthless coldness, it's not one the audience was privy to and so her turn to villainy doesn't sit right. Not yet, anyway.

Throughout the series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier tackled fraught topics from dealing with PTSD and trauma to racism. Some of those topics it did great justice to, others, not as much. The series should be commended for swinging for the fences with some of the issues it explored; the show was timely, with many of the conversations it evoked necessary and long-overdue. It's well past time for Marvel to start exploring difficult issues with thoughtfulness and depth.

Related: Falcon And The Winter Soldier: Why Bucky Said He Failed Twice

However, the speed and ease with which a number of these issues were resolved in the finale did them a disservice. After a single, unseen conversation with Yori (Ken Takemoto) in which Bucky finally came clean about having killed Yori's son when he was the Winter Soldier, Bucky decides he no longer needs therapy, apparently magically cured. In just a few days, 90 years of trauma were seemingly resolved and put to bed, which isn't how it works. Likewise, after brutally murdering a man in an uncontrolled rage and then trying to also kill Bucky and Sam, John Walker, too, is suddenly restored to being of sound mind after one moment in which he sacrificed vengeance for heroism. While Walker making the decision not to punish the bad guys but to save the innocent (or as innocent as the GRC can be), is a big step toward redemption, the fact of his sometimes considerably unstable mental state remains. Neither that nor his very recent transgressions were so much as once mentioned in the finale, however.

But the finale failed Isaiah Bradley perhaps most of all. His story was tragic, horrific, and heartbreaking; the decades of torture and suffering and neglect he'd endured at the hands of the U.S. government shaping him into understandable bitterness and fear. Isaiah's life for decades had been a matter of trying to lay low and not attract any attention in order to protect himself and his grandson. Sam putting Isaiah's story out there for the world to see in the form of a statue and an exhibit without his permission was shockingly insensitive and disrespectful considering the last time they'd talked, the old Super Soldier reiterated that he'd be killed if his story were told. Regardless of whether or not that's any longer true now that Sam carries weight as the new Captain America, blindsiding Isaiah with the reveal did not come across as the heartwarming moment it was meant to be, but a complete lack of consent and out-of-character for both men.

It, like a number of choices in the last episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, might have made sense given more time to develop. The entire season could have used about two more episodes to flesh out some of the stories and characters instead of cutting contextual corners. While the series was a lot of fun overall and should be commended for its ambition, it was wildly uneven, no episode more than the finale. Hopefully, if there is a season 2 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it will sort out the issues of the first season and its finale with more time and no Covid to work around.

Next: 7 Biggest Questions After The Falcon & The Winter Soldier Finale

Why Falcon & The Winter Soldier’s Finale Failed | Screen Rant from https://ift.tt/3tUFLqg

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spyroid101 · 7 years

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“EXALT” / ”DOCTOR”-

The details on this Wildclaw, and how he became who he is today are... hazy...

He came from a nice, medium sized clan, where the only real significant thing about them was how they punished criminals: By forcefully exalting them to the Earthshaker's service.

However, this shouldn't have had any sort of significant impact on this Wildclaw's life. His family and neighbors were all peaceful, law abiding citizens. And, overall, his childhood was peaceful.

Though his father may have hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps as a familiar caretaker, his son's interests drifted towards a much different vocation. That of a doctor.

Or, more specifically, a surgeon.

A difficult job that helps save many lives, dragons and beats alike. Truly a noble goal!

And so, the Wildclaw poured all his time and energy into this goal, constantly studying and learning.

And, as it turned out, he was really good at it! A dexterous master with the scalpel, needle and thread.

...And that's when the problems started...

One thing the Wildclaw loved about his job, was seeing and learning how things moved and operated underneath the flesh.

Unfortunately for him, thorough operations were few and far between...

...But, so long as the Wildclaw could patch dragons back up... Why would they care about him cutting them open to take a look...?

And, while he was at it, why shouldn't he try a few little 'tests', to see what could be done to a dragon's body to 'improve' it? After all, they should be happy to be helping out dragon kind with their bodies!

The concept of bodily integrity was completely lost on the Wildclaw. He just wanted to continue to learn and experiment, regardless of the consent of his clanmates.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for the others to discover his atrocious operations, and he was quickly captured and marked for criminal exaltation.

However, despite all precautions the clan took with their criminals, the Wildclaw escaped his bonds, and ran off into the night, ready to carry out his unethical experiments elsewhere.

Throughout the years, this Wildclaw became a highly sought after fugitive within Sornieth, made even worse by the fact that his actual name had been long lost to obscurity. By now, he was just simply known as "Exalt", the sentence etched onto the collar locked on his neck, or simply "The Doctor", his profession.

No matter how many specialized law enforcement were sent after this Doctor, none of them could catch the slippery Wildclaw, and the ones who came close...

...One thing about the Doctor, he never killed anyone. Ever. He was a doctor, after all, not a murderer.

None of his attempted pursuers died.

They just wished they did.

With the Doctor's eminence knowledge and skill, he knew just how to operate on a dragon to incapacitate them... and make them feel constant, agonizing pain.

And how to force them to live though it.

It got so bad, that one group decided to hire the services of a known Assassin, a Skydancer by the name of Nightflower, to eliminate the Doctor, in exchange for his own freedom.

Nightflower was known to be a highly skilled Assassin, never once failing a job he was given.

...This plan should have worked...

...But, whatever happened when Nightflower found this mysterious Doctor, it caused him to turn right around, assassinate his employers, and join up with the Doctor instead.

However it may have happened, this mad doctor now had a highly skilled and deadly Assassin as a personal bodyguard.

It seemed like capturing one, or both of these illusive criminals would be nearly impossible...

...Some dragons, however, would not remain discouraged.

Within the Shrieking Wilds, a group of Fire dragons were so determined to get rid of these criminals, that they started a wildfire within the Wilds.

It was devastating, destroying more homes and wildlife then one could even imagine.

But the group of Fire dragons didn't care. Soon, they'd have these criminals cornered, and it would be their end. Surely, that was more important then some stupid trees and wildlife.

However, what they didn't expect, was for the two to continue fleeing across the sea, and into the Godless Lands...

The smart ones decided to stop, turn tail, and retreat.

But a few decided to continue to pursue them.

The two criminals didn't seem bothered at all by the Shade beings that resided in this land, never slowing their stride... until they happened to run right into Cerise's group.

...The group of aggressive Fire dragons were no match for the Godless Elementals, and those who had wisely stayed within the God's lands, had simply assumed they were overwhelmed by the Shade that resided in the Godless Lands...

Meanwhile, Cerise now found himself at a dilemma: What to do with the two criminals that just showed up on his doorstep.

He found himself surprised when the Doctor instantly offered his services to him. In all truth, they group needed a healer, especially with the recent addition of Pallex, and Cerise needed someone to become his Avatar of Life...

But still, he was somewhat apprehensive of just... adding known, wanted criminals into his group... Unlike most of the dragons there, the Doctor, nor Nightflower, seemed to hold any sort of resentment towards the Gods, so the only reasonable explanation for their cooperation would be to have a safe hideout, and that would be a rather flimsy foundation for an alliance...

But Vanta could confirm, the Doctor was sincere with his offer...

And so, even with all his uncertainties, Cerise decided to make Exalt, the Doctor, his Avatar of the Life element.

With his previous knowledge and skill of the doctor, now combined with the ability to force beings to retain their life, even with horrible, horrible injuries, the Doctor's curiosity and drive to experiment grew.

Now, he could run all the tests he wanted, without limits, and observe the results without having to take caution to keep his subject from expiring. He could just force them to life through almost anything.

Still the Doctor follows Cerise's rules: No strange experiments and tests on his allies or other Avatars.

...Cerise's enemies, on the other hand...

Oh, the Doctor is ever so gleeful that he seems to have many of those.

There are so many gaps to fill in medical knowledge, after all~

#flight rising #FR #flight rising art #flight rising lore #spyroid's art stuffs #Spyroid plays flight rising

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antialiasis · 7 years

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Assassin’s Creed (the movie)

So we saw the Assassin’s Creed movie. (Disclaimer: I have not played any of the games; I’m discussing the movie simply as a movie, and rest assured I’m not judging the games based on it.)

I actually really enjoyed the first twenty minutes or so. That would be because after a brief prologue, the movie begins with the main character, Cal, on death row and about to be executed, and they show him starting off being coolly sarcastic at the priest, then being strapped to the table and starting to lose his nerve, and his terrified, trembling breathing as the lethal injection travels up the tube, and needless to say this entire scene pressed my buttons very hard, A++++ delicious pandering to me specifically, may rewatch later. This is then followed by him waking up confused in a strange medical facility, desperately stumbling to escape, considering suicide, and being dragged kicking and screaming into a machine to make him relive the memories of his assassin ancestor. Yes please, I will gladly watch a couple of hours of this movie.

Unfortunately, the actual movie is all kind of a slow slide downwards as the plot, character progression and thematic development become increasingly incoherent and arbitrary. It’s pretty and well made and everything, but that doesn’t save the script.

Basically, the facility is run by the Templar, who want to find a McGuffin called the Apple of Eden, which can supposedly revoke the free will of humans, whatever that’s supposed to mean. The main character in charge of Cal is a woman, Sophia, who sincerely wants to use it to eradicate the human impulse for violence, and she believes that the Apple of Eden somehow contains the genetic code for aggression, which I guess is supposed to let her destroy it... somehow. This is all apparently deeply scientific, because she is a scientist. The Apple of Eden has historically been protected by a secret order of assassins, and Cal is the one lone direct descendant of the assassin who last had the apple, Aguilar, therefore he has genetic memory of it, therefore they use this device to make him relive the memories so they can watch the memories as he relives them and find out where the apple is.

Meanwhile, they’re also holding several other descendants of assassins at the facility, for some reason, even though it is explicitly established that Cal is the only one with the actual relevant memories that they need. One of them is Cal’s father, who in Cal’s tragic backstory inexplicably killed his mother and then told him to run when he was a kid. Cal has always wanted to murder his dad because of this, and the Templar decide to give him the opportunity to murder his dad, because they think that will mean he will willingly relive the right memory.

Predictably, instead his dad uses this opportunity to explain to him that the only reason he killed his mom was that his mom was also an assassin descended from Aguilar and she wanted to die so that the Templar couldn’t use her to retrieve the memories and find the apple. For some reason, although Cal doesn’t kill his dad, this still motivates him to willingly relive the memory for the Templar, which reveals that Aguilar gave the apple to Christopher Columbus and made him swear to literally take it to his grave. This is before Christopher Columbus crosses the Atlantic, by the way. Drop it in the ocean where nobody will ever find it? Nahhh, let’s bring it back and keep it in a place that is in no way anonymous. Otherwise the assassins wouldn’t have anything to do!

Naturally, everyone knows where Christopher Columbus is buried, so the Templar head off to retrieve the apple, while the other assassin-descendants at the facility rebel and kill everyone. Cal sees a vision of his mother as an assassin, and she recites the assassin’s creed (roll credits) which goes something like, “To those who search obsessively for the truth, know that there is no truth. To those who worry about law or morality, know that everything is permitted.” This is 1) utter nonsense (of course there is such a thing as truth, nobody actually believes that, come the fuck on) and 2) a complete non-sequitur, yet this instantly convinces Cal that actually the Templar must be destroyed and he must become an assassin and retrieve the Apple of Eden. Because.

So the Templar go to present the apple at this big Templar conference in London, and Sophia’s father both takes all the credit and reveals that he never cared about eradicating violence and just wants to eliminate free will so that no one can oppose the Templar, which might be a plot twist if the movie hadn’t already explicitly told us several times that the apple's real function is to destroy free will. Sophia has a big moment of realizing that she’s been manipulated and that she’s complicit in this, then Cal appears in an assassin’s hood and Sophia chooses to stand by and let him go in to kill her father and take the apple. Except the moment he’s done so, she comes into the room, sees her father dead, and suddenly swears that she will retrieve the apple for the elders and personally murder Cal, setting herself up as the main villain of an eventual sequel. What? You just personally chose, after an entire film’s worth of buildup and a few minutes to think about it, to let him be killed! This sudden about-face is bizarre; I guess it’s a plot twist, technically, but it’s baffling and out of nowhere, and the film makes no real attempt to make it remotely convincing.

Anyway, then we see Cal standing on a rooftop with a couple of the other extraneous assassin characters, holding the apple. Film over.

Nobody in the movie tells people things when it makes sense for them to. The Templar take ages to explain to Cal what they’re doing; Cal’s father doesn’t even try to explain murdering his mother and instead just cryptically talks about how “they” are coming for them before telling him to run away and never seeing him again; the other assassins act completely bizarre towards Cal instead of actually making a sensible attempt to convince him why he should resist the Templar’s attempts to retrieve the memory. The semblance of actual coherent characterization present early on just kind of evaporates as the film goes on, and from that point there seems to be no real, proper reason the characters do anything. The actual relived memories are empty spectacle; they look nice, but there is no real attempt made to give characterization to the assassin Aguilar or make us care about him or what’s going on. The other assassins barely get names, Sophia’s character takes an inexplicable shocking swerve, her father is just generic evil. Everything I enjoyed about the beginning, how traumatic the whole experience was for Cal and why he’s hostile towards the Templar as a result, gives way to Cal the Cool Assassin Because Assassins Are Cool.

More than that, though, it’s morally incoherent. The assassins’ bizarre insistence that there is no truth and no morality is deeply alienating; they don’t come off as noble protectors of an artifact that would threaten humanity if it got into the wrong hands, but simply as a petty group of unrepentant murderers, who kill relentlessly not because it’s actually necessary but simply because they’re assassins and that’s what assassins do. (Again, if they really wanted to protect the apple, they’d have dropped it into the sea where it’d never be found instead of maintaining a secret order of assassins ready to continue to shed blood for it.) The idea of the Apple of Eden being used to eliminate the impulse for violence plays a huge part in the first half of the movie, but it just sort of gets dropped with a handwavy, “Oh, well, that wasn’t really what we were going to use it for,” which frustratingly skirts around all the potentially interesting questions you could raise around the concept to replace it with a generic “bad guys are evil, want to do obviously evil thing, good guys must stop them” plot.

And Cal’s character arc... what even is Cal’s character arc? It’s established that Cal is a violent man and a murderer, but he says the person he murdered was a pimp, perhaps suggesting he actually did it to defend women who were being abused by the pimp or something in that direction, and a significant portion of the movie involves Sophia saying she wants to cure his aggression, and we know it’s all based in him witnessing his father having murdered his mother and hating him as a result, which turns out to have been wrong. All in all, it felt like setup for him to get over his hatred and aggression and become a better, healthier, less violent person, without needing to be forcibly ‘cured’ by the apple’s vague powers. But ultimately, he just... becomes an assassin and kills a bunch more people and embraces a creed of how everything is permitted, and none of this is presented in any way critically. It’s baffling and uncomfortable and I don’t understand what they were even going for.

But hey, at least there’s that opening. That opening, man.

#assassin's creed #review #my buttons #negative #violence in fiction #ramble

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exampleofabadexample · 7 years

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Comics: Terror Inc. #1

Terror Inc. was created by Marvel and the character himself started out as a run in their Epic Comics imprint, but was later brought over to Marvel as part of their main comics roster, albeit only for a short time, as they only released 13 issues that was originally supposed to be 15. Terror was created by D.G. Chichester, Margret Clark, and Klaus Johnson. However in this run of the series, only Chichester returned to write for it, with the help of Jorge Iaffino. Steven Buccellato is credited as being the artist.

Terror is an anti-hero whose has the power to attach other people's limbs to himself and in the process gain muscle memory, feelings, and the ability to use the skills associated with whatever body parts he has attached. Honestly, I think this pushes the line of suspending disbelief, especially for a comic that is wanting to be dark and gritty, but I will let it slide. I make this comment now just to get it out of the way. That being said, let's get into the review of Terror Inc. #1.

Starting with the cover, we see an image of Terror seeming to either jump or run towards a group of cops shooting at his leg. There is also a man's face in the lower right-hand side screaming. He also seems to be choking, or maybe punching a guy that is in his way. Honestly this cover is pretty terrible, it's crowded,the art is just barely passable, and it's impossible to figure out what exactly is happening. The only decent part of this cover is Terror himself, who is centered in the middle and you can clearly see him, and honestly he isn't drawn terribly, especially considering some of the crap coming out of the 90's (thanks Liefeld). The same can honestly be said for the artwork throughout the comic.

We start the comic with a shot of a large man in the shadows behind a desk, with Terror stating that he didn't have a problem morally killing the man, whose name is Roger Barbatos. We then go through a few decently drawn panels with Barbatos mockingly saying that he was insulted that Terror had chosen such a boring way to try to kill him after a failed attempt to slit his throat. You see, Barbatos can't be killed, as illustrated by Terror when he says that, "My difficulty rested in keeping the corpulent toad of a weapons merchant dead." It turns out that Barbatos is, although not immortal, impossible to kill by conventional means. We will find out why a bit later.

One bad pun about Terror being a "cutting-edge assassin" later, and Barbatos' thugs rush in, showing off some really bad artwork as Terror fights them off. I mean one panel is really bad here, making one of the goons look like a mud monster. He continues to fight them off before Barbatos grabs a rocket launcher and shoots directly at him, forcing Terror to jump out of the window of the skyscraper and hit the ground hard. Honestly, this wouldn't have been terrible if they had given us some clue beforehand that they were in a skyscraper, but they just kind of gloss over that fact and send Terror right out the window. All they would have had to do to make the scene a little better would be to show a skyscraper, or hint at them being in a skyscraper, or even just flat out say that they are in a skyscraper. Anything would have been better than just leaving that fact out until Terror actually jumps out.

Terror falls and lands on top of a parked car, destroying his body in the process. Meanwhile, Barbatos is commanding them to make sure that nothing is left of the body, and to burn it until it's nothing but ashes. One of his henchman tells Barbatos that maybe he should wait as he had heard stories about Terror, but he cuts him off and says "that fountain a' red when he hit weren't no Jello, Sammy." I have two problems with this; for one, what fountain of red? I looked at the panel of him hitting the car and see nothing that says he was even bleeding, much less gushing a "fountain of red." The second problem is that what his henchman said was stupid. Assuming the stories he heard were the ones about how Terror could put on new body parts and was especially hard to kill due to that; why the hell would you say to not burn him? If his ability is to use other people's body parts to keep himself alive, and he can just pull any person off the street and steal their parts, then the best way to deal with him would be to burn him until there was nothing left to put parts on.

We now see Terror waxing poetically about the sinister game of..."Got your nose." I'm not even kidding, he compares his ability to the game most adults have played with children, using big words to make it sound like its first degree murder. I know it's hyperbole, but it's just stupid. Hiding poor writing using a thesaurus does not negate the poor writing. He then goes on to steal one of Barbatos' thug's arms as the man checks his body, then steals another guards legs in order to be able to get away. The entire time commenting on how he knew that Sammy was a jogger based on how quick and agile his legs felt. Terror then rides away on a motorcycle he hot-wired using the muscle memory of the arm he stole from the first guard he killed after landing on top of the car. He laments throughout this sequence of events about how he is losing profit and how Barbatos' "indifference to the tenets of morality" is taking him too long to fix. He hasn't actually done anything evil, but Terror's idea of morality still seems a little hypocritical.

We now switch, confusingly, to an a man named Mikal Drakonmega (It makes sense later, but I still think it's a dumb name). Mikal is a paranormal researcher who is working on writing a book. To promote this book, however, his agent wants to make a big spectacle. This leads Mikal to say that he is not going to write it because he doesn't want his work to become a sideshow spectacle and he doesn't want to be associated with scam artists who steal people's money off of the paranormal hype. Mikal says he wants to show up the con men while his agent insists that he needs to stop acting holier-than-thou. Mikal says he wants to help right the wrongs he created, as it is implied that he went from a serious occult researcher to a more lucrative job working in the media, contradicting some of his own point in order to get people to buy what he was selling. His agent says he needs to come to his senses, which sets Mikal off, who insists that this decision IS him coming to his senses. The agent then leaves, bitter and frustrated, saying that he has some ideas of his own. His wife is clearly unhappy with his decision. Honestly this is probably the most well-written and drawn part of the story.

Cutting back to Terror, we see him talking to a woman named Alexis, who works for the people that hired Terror to kill Barbatos. He puts on someone's ear, saying that he hears echos of marital problems of whoever it belonged to. Alexis tells him that a bunch of third-world countries are tired of Barbatos supplying their enemies with weapons. Terror replies to this, "So that their neighbor's ability to kill them does not exceed their ability to kill their neighbor--how community minded." I don't disagree, but that still seems like a stupid thing to say, especially coming from an assassin. He then puts in an eye that apparently belonged to one of Barbatos' men. He uses the ears to listen to echos of what the henchman he stole them from picks up, and this is where we find out that Barbatos has sold his soul to a demon called Beelzeboul. We get a few panels of him sacrificing his soul for near-immortality, with Beelzeboul stating that the pact only protects the body. We then cut back to Terror using a female hand he got from somewhere, though it's never quite explained where. Alexis makes a quip about him having nice nails. He is using the arm because it has the skill to draw well, which Terror needed in order to draw a specific mark he thinks may help him. Terror decided that in order to kill Barbatos he needs to find a way to break the contract he made with Beelzeboul.

Terror then goes to see a man named Rekrab about the sigil he had found, showing him the copy he drew earlier. Basically, Rekrab informs him that the only way he was going to get Beelzeboul to appear before him was to summon him himself, as he doesn't come up from Hell of his own accord. This is where Mikal comes in, as Rekrab mentions him to Terror, who comments that Rekrab hit a new low due to Mikal's reputation as a "pop necromancer." Rekrab says that Beelzeboul calls himself Satan for ego's sake and that he fathered a half-breed demon named Hellstrom. Hellstrom, however, blew off his father and purged his birthright. This is where we find out that Mikal is the illegitimate son of Beelzeboul and that with no one to take the inheritance, maybe Terror could use Mikal as a sort of "key" to get down to Hell.

We then cut to a televison showing an interview with Mikal, which is hosted by a man named Ray Marlin Rothermel. I haven't had much more to say about the artwork to this point, but Rothermel's face is drawn like he is constantly doing the "derp" face (I'm only 22 and I feel old just writing that). Rothermel introduces Mikal, who goes on to tell people that they are not at fault for being lured into fraud by false occultists and that it's actually the con men that are to blame. The man next to him, who is introduced as "Anthony Mang, main man of the wacky and wicked Temple of the Risen King," agrees with him and goes on to say that "training to recognize the fraudulent must begin early." Mang then brings out a group of children dressed in stereotypical devil garb, complete with horns and pitchforks, and says that his youth group use pitchforks to "divine the true night spirit from the poor imitation." Mikal immediately gets angry and rips off his microphone, walking off the set and confronting his agent, shoving his face away and berating him for not letting him take the high road. My question is; how the hell did he not notice the guy sitting next to him before they even started. Also, how the hell did he not know Mang's reputation? Surely someone who takes it seriously knows the big name frauds well enough to know when they are sitting right next to them.

Anyway, his wife breaks up the fight, telling them both to calm down. She then sees that his face has gone half bluish-grey and asks what's happening to him. He responds that he is being forced into a part he doesn't want to play and that no one is out there working for who he really is. My biggest complaint here is, once again, the artwork. If they were trying to make it look like his demon side was coming through, they could have done a lot better than simply turning half his face bluish-grey. Give him small horns, or a different eye color, hell just change his facial features in any way that has something to typically do with the demonic. That was just out and out lazy. (Yes, I know this is coming from the guy who can't get anything out consistently.)

Left on that bit of irony, we switch back to Terror, who has entered the home of some unholy monks who worship the serpent once known as Hellstorm. The serpent is kept there and the "High Father" of the monks is the only one who can touch the serpent without being bitten. So in usual Terror fashion, he rips off the monks arm and after a bad pun (he said he was "taking part" in the ritual. That just barely counts as a pun to me), it cuts to him using the "High Father's" arm to kill the serpent. The comic ends with Terror holding up part of the serpent, saying that he was going to be (sighs) executor of the will now that Hellstrom is dead.

This comic is...okay. I mean, it could have been a lot better, especially the artwork, which goes from barely passable to bad. The writing, for the most part, was decent, though the sheer amount of puns (which I refused to subject you to) made it seem less like an edgy comic for young adults, and more like a Silver Age comic that somehow managed to sneak some adult themes past the editors. I know it's a cult classic, and I can see why, but personally, I could take it or leave it.

#Marvel #Comics #Terror Inc.#Detective

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prettycanarybird · 4 years

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Chapter 3, Part 2

Thea found me still awake and sitting in the window seat the next morning. After the arrests, I had promptly left the meeting, retreating to my own chambers. What more was I to say to them? I needed to think and formulate some semblance of a plan. From there, I had circled up in the window seat, my armor a trail through the room, and stared at the horizon until the sun had started to come up. I might have dozed off here or there, but I certainly had not slept.

Had I punished disobedient soldiers before? Yes. I had delivered a treasonous sentence to more than a few. Their faces still haunted my nightmares from time to time. ‘War made executioners of us all,’ General Lorr had said once. He had not been wrong. In coming to the Capital, I had foolishly hoped it would be different. Perhaps, I thought I could avoid such a gruesome deed. Instead, I found a room full of people who had hired trained assassins to murder my troops, my innocent people, to what? Prove a point to me? Revenge on me? The blood of those men and women were on their hands, but they were also on mine. A stain I would never be able to wash away. The price I paid fighting a civil war to restore my family’s seat. No amount of scrubbing would ever be able to make my soul clean.

“Sir Jade?” Thea padded through the chambers, dancing around the debris of armor, and to the window sill. She set a silver tray with a bit of bread, fruit, and steaming liquid on the opposite side of the seat. “I thought you might like some coffee. A lot of ladies prefer tea, but the House Mistress suggested you might like coffee like the soldiers.”

“She does indeed prefer coffee.” My mother swept into the room, eyeing the discarded pieces on the floor but saying nothing. “Amalthea, my dear, would you give us the room?”

Thea, to her credit, looked to me first. If that bothered my mother, she didn’t show it. I simply nodded. The small girl nudged the tray with food and drink a bit, just to make her point, then gave us our space, shutting the door behind her with a click.

I looked down at the food, my stomach rumbling, but picked up the mug of brown liquid instead. It smelled strong, with just a hint of honey. Gingerly, so as not to burn my tongue, I sipped at the coffee, humming my satisfaction. It was dark, and rich, nothing at all like the bitter, almost burnt stuff I drank on the frontlines. This coffee was almost sinful.

Her sharp eyes watched me, noting the dark circles that were forming under my eyes, maybe even the way my hair was too tidy to have been slept upon. “I heard.” My mother came over, moving the tray a bit into the center to give herself space to sit with me. I dropped my feet to the floor, giving way to more if she wanted it. “I’m sorry I missed your tirade on the Lords of the Capital.”

I chewed on my lip for a moment. “It wasn’t a tirade.” Or was it? Had I been childish? I had wanted to appear strong, like a general and not some foolish girl.

She gave me a look, picking at a wined grape. “You arrested fifteen men of the court.”

Peering behind my mug, I winced so she wouldn’t see. “I arrested fifteen traitors.”

My mother let out a long breath through her nose. Disapproval. I knew my way had not been the way she would have handled it, or even my father. “That may be, Wildflower, but you’re playing a dangerous game.” She raised a hand to stop me from interrupting. “I know. I know what happened. Merien came to me before he left. Don’t look at me like that, you know how he worries. He only wanted to let me know, and to make sure you don’t do anything rash without him. Turns out he was right.”

I swirled the coffee in the mug watching it form a small whirlpool. “Those men had a hand in hiring assassins from the Wastelands.”

She nodded. “I’m aware. But is this how you wish to begin?”

“Of course not,” I set the cup down, getting up from the seat, gently kicking a bracer out of the way. It rolled under my bed. I would need to dig that out later. “The law will decide their fate. Before the people. Meanwhile, I have hired hands from the Wastelands to contend with…”

My mother was silent. We both knew that going up against the hired hands so famed for their skill, and horrible success rate was like signing my death warrant. We both also knew that General Merien had already marched toward his own. I had survived countless sword fights, just as many injuries, only to be just over the threshold of peace and victory, to watch it come crumbling down on my head. I could feel the weight beginning to crush my shoulders.

I picked up my breastplate, dusting it off and lovingly setting it atop my trunk. “How do I even go up against people like that?”

“First,” she got up, picking up the bread bun and holding it out to me. “You let me take care of Lord Marley and his like. I’m still an empress-consort, and mother to the reining empress. I know their kind quite well.”

“Mother…” I warned, taking the bun from her hand.

“Did you think you got all of your fire from your father?” She smiled, lighting up her beautiful face. I would be the first to admit that all of my fire came from my mother. On more than one occasion, General Merien and I had been more than happy to step back and let my mother blaze. We knew we were both blunt instruments, but my mother was cunning, swift, and always did it with a polite smile. It was terrifying.

“As long as he sees justice.”

“He will,” she promised, “as long as you swear that you will not go head to head against these assassins.”

I stuffed a piece of bread into my mouth to buy myself some time. All night, I had spent trying to find some way to safely remove the assassins, and even as the sun came up, I had no idea how I would do just that. Instead, I told her, “I’m more than capable.”

“Oh, my wildflower, my Silver Winged warrior. You are a brilliant knight, one of the best in our empire. No one can say less, but assassins are different. They won’t come at you with a sword in daylight.” She watched me carefully, judging my every move, just as she always did before a battle, checking for weaknesses so she could do what she could heal them.

I waved her worry aside, a front I hope she bought. “I’ve had attempts on my life before.”

“Not like this.”

“I know.” I conceded. No one survived a price on their head if a hired hand from the Wastelands was on the job. “I don’t even know if that’s what they were hired to do.”

“No, we do not.” She sighed and made her way back to the window seat, picking at the grapes again, her favorite. As she peered down at the garden I had yet to order to be remodeled, she looked almost like a marble garden statue. Refined, elegant, and powerful. In so many ways, it should have been her sitting on the throne and not me. I had argued the point up until the final battle, even right up to the moment the enemy sword had been placed in my hands in surrender. Still, she would not accept. She never confessed why.

I let her stand by the window, choosing to drop down onto my unused bed, picking at the edge of my bread bun, ignoring the rumbling in my stomach. “If I invited one of them into the Capital…”

My mother whirled around, her skirts swirling with her. “Bring one of them here?”

“Yes,” I held her gaze. “If General Merien… If he… There has to be a way to speak with them. Or perhaps the North or…” Anything. Anything would do.

She saw my frustration but did not come to coddle me. Without moving, a grape in her fingers, she waited. ‘It always has to be your decision,’ she would say. But what if I didn’t know what that decision was? What if I just wanted someone to tell me what that decision should be?

With a frustrated growl, I tossed myself back, letting the roll fly away behind me. It bounced off the floor, and I could imagine my mother’s wrinkle just between her eyes on the bridge of her nose. I could scoop it up later, along with the bracer I kicked.

A knock at the door was a heavenly welcome. Stepping in Thea glanced between the two, my mother backlit against the window, and my prone form draped over the bed, the roll just a few feet from her skirt hem. Whatever she thought of the scene, her face was cleverly hidden. “Lord Icarius would like to speak with you.”

I resisted the urge to make some rude gesture and instead looked at my room. Aside from my mother and Thea, maybe Gil, I could not entertain a guest. Even my battlefield tents were kept in better order than my room’s present condition. And I would need a change of clothing.

“Amalthea, please show Lord Icarius to the sitting room just down the hall.” My mother dismissed the small girl gently. Without a word, she went to my trunk, pulling out a new tunic and a pair of my finer trousers that matched a doublet, a gift she had given me for my last birthday. No doubt it was made from one of her old gowns since at the time, our prospects had been grim.

She laid them out for me, running her fingers down the silver buttons of the tunic. “Nothing needs to be done right away, Jade. I know I was not the greatest battlefield consultant, but treat this like one of her military strategies. Don’t act out of fear. Not for Merien. Nor yourself. Nor the empire. Right now we need General Jade, not the headstrong knight, or the newly crowned empress. Gather your allies. Which very well might include this Lord Icarius.”

I sat up, pulling the clean trousers to me, snorting. “Lord Icarius is a man who thinks too much of himself.”

My mother smirked. “What man doesn’t? I never told you, but I disliked your father immensely when I first met him. I practically begged my father not to send me away to be his bride.”

“Really?” I made quick work of changing my trousers, and quickly tossed my tunic aside.

My mother playfully tossed the new tunic at me. “Oh yes. He was a brute, all show, parading about for the other ladies. Made a great fool of himself trying to prove how strong he was, and never sat to talk about anything but hunting. At least in public. Behind closed doors, once we were married, he was very different. He was thoughtful, and even almost shy. I hadn’t known what to do with him.

“When your grandfather passed away and he assumed the crown, he was beside himself. You were so young then, we couldn’t even bring you into the throne room. You would wail for hours on end. But he put on that show again, and he did it.”

“Cost us everything,” I muttered, holding my hand out for the doublet.

“It did,” she fingered the buttons one last time before handing it over for me to finish. “But remember those days, before all the fighting began, and it was just the three of us on your great uncle’s farm? That was your real father. Not the over-confident Emperor, or the worn down soldier.”

I made quick work of the buttons, knowing we were already making Lord Icarius wait. “Why are you telling me this?”

She sighed. “Because, my wildflower, we all have a front. You put yours on with a suit of armor. Perhaps Lord Icarius puts his on with his fancy silks. We need allies right now. Don’t dismiss this one so quickly because you don’t like him.”

I pursed my lips, finishing the buttons just as Thea slipped back into the room. My mother was right. Lord Icarius had rubbed me the wrong way. But so had a lot of men, including General Lorr, and now General Lorr was a trusted friend. Or something of the kind. He often liked to lecture me just as often as I liked to rile him up.

My mother caught my hand as I slipped by her on my way out, squeezing it gently. We didn’t say anything more to one another, but that was the way of it. Silent, small gestures, never too much, but always something. I squeezed it back.

Lord Icarius wasn’t sitting in any of the half dozen ornate and stiff looking chairs as I had expected. I certainly wouldn’t be the first to blame him, but judging by the formality of the decor in the room, I doubt they were meant to be anything but decorative. At least it had a row of tall windows overlooking the same garden as my own chambers, and the curtains were pulled back to let in the soft rays of the cloudy day.

The bullish lord was dressed simply in a fine pair of trousers, an expensive, finely woven tunic, and a brocade doublet just shy of being obnoxious by many of the men of court’s standards. It was not to my taste, but I could tell there was an effort to tone down his own inclinations. Whether that was for my benefit or not, I couldn’t say. He turned when I entered and Thea shut the door behind me, and I could see how many women and men would find him attractive. A soldier’s figure, but a poet’s face.

“You requested an audience with me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, mentally chiding myself for not wearing my sword belt if for no other reason than to have some place to rest my hands.

“I did.” He paused, assessing how I was standing. “You don’t like me much, do you, General.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “Whether I like you or do not like is of no consequence. What did you wish to say?”

The corners of his lips pulled up into a half smile, which was irksome. “I wanted to offer my services. What Lord Marley and the others did… I should have seen it coming.”

Striding into the room, I took a long moment to select my choice of seat. None of them would be comfortable, but that wasn’t the point of my pause. When I finally did pick one, a ridiculous red brocade with prancing deer and trees all over it, I waved a hand for the bullish lord to join me. “Your services? Pray tell, what can that do for us now?”

Icarius came over to join me, or rather sauntered over, dropping himself into the seat like a dancer. I must come off so brutish to his theatrical ways. “You may not be aware, but I was not always titled. I was given my title, my place here, for my services on the waters of our trade lines. I’m quite familiar with the escalation of the North. I just hadn’t suspected it had extended to our own court. Now I have a network of-”

“A network of spies, do you mean to tell me?” I narrowed my eyes. Birds and mice.

“Of opportunists, General. Very different. Spies will cross you, but opportunists? They’re predictable. Cowards in many ways, but useful. Especially when trying to get in touch with assassins.” Icarius wasn’t a man to look away, holding my gaze, challenging me.

“And why would I want to do that?” I stared back.

“We both know why.”

“Fine. Say we speculate that I want to be in touch with the Wasteland assassins. How would your opportunists be of help to me?” I picked at a few threads on the seat arm, unraveling a bit of a tree.

He watched my fingers as I pulled at the gold threads, perhaps with disgust, I wasn’t sure, but he didn’t seem to like it much. I pulled the threads more. I imagined if I was any other than the empress, he would have reached out and stilled my fingers. Secretly, I wished he would, then I would have the opportunity to put him in his place. “My opportunists have connections. They can easily spread the word for a few coins that the Capital is looking to speak with them. The assassins will do the rest.”

Turning my gaze back over to him, I stopped picking at the tree. Setting this plan in motion was no trivial thing. If I said yes, and Icarius was good on his word, then I would be inviting the world’s deadliest into my home, where innocent people worked and lived. I would be putting not only myself in danger, but Gil and my mother, Thea, and even Icarius. There would be no such thing as withdrawing the veiled request. The consequences would be as they were, and the blood would cover my hands, no one else’s.

“My offer always stands, General.” Icarius had taken measure of my pause. “The hired hands are no small thing, but if you do not, someone else will summon them.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Like yourself?”

He chuckled quietly. “No. I won’t bring that darkness upon myself. I’m still a tradesman, General. Death is bad for business. Even yours. Even the old emperor. But there will be others.” He paused, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. I refused to join him. “Let me give you a piece of advice, from a former illegal Commodore to an Empress: when you’re new, you have to establish the strength of your will. I’m not talking power displays or sword play. We already know you can achieve that, reputation preceding you and all. No, you need to show them that your will is stronger than them. That’s what keeps them from mutiny.”

“Speaking from experience?” A sly smirk pulled at the corner of my lips.

Icarius didn’t lean back. “Experience is something you are sorely lacking. I’d take the advice, my Empress.”

I slapped my hands on the arms of the chair and got to my feet. “We’ll see, Lord Icarius. I’ll take it all under advisement.” Not waiting for him to stand, I made my way back toward the door. As my hand reached for the handle, I stopped, looking over my shoulder at him. “Oh, and Lord Icarius?” I waited for his attention. “Call me ‘my Empress’ again, and you’ll find out how strong my will actually is.”

The arrogant man had the gaul to smile back at me. I yanked open the door and stormed out, slamming it closed behind me. Thea, who was standing in the hall, jumped. Mentally, I scolded myself for losing my temper and scaring her. She didn’t deserve it.

As I strode down the halls at a brisk pace, I waved at her to join me. Her short legs worked hard to keep up, but she made no outward sign that it bothered her, so I didn’t slow. I had a feeling if it did bother her, she would pipe up about it and that would be that. Until then, I kept my pace, winding through the Capital halls and stairways until the merciful, cloudy sky hit my face. It would rain later; I could feel it in all my old injuries aching for release.

Once out of the prying eyes, I slowed, heading toward the barracks on instinct. “I’ll need to assemble my war council. General Lorr, the guard commander, Colonel Joesef, Colonel Poi, my mother and yourself. Where is Gil? I need him too. He should be out here helping my men get settled in.”

From my side, Thea looked at me, then at the barracks, a nervous gesture. “He’s probably down in the cells, Sir Jade.”

I stopped, the gravel slipping a little under my feet. “In the cells? Doing what, pray tell?”

She didn’t look like she wanted to tell me, but I waited until finally she did: “I assume to interrogate the imprisoned members of court from last night.”

My hands balled into fists at my side. “Find Gil, Thea. Tell him to meet me in the barracks now.” She took one look at the tension running through my body, and the way my jaw worked, before nodding and rushing off. Show them my will indeed.

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learnislam-li · 7 years

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"TERM 1" 'Weekly Test for 'WEEK 7'

All Praise is for Allah. We r nearly done May Allah help us finish the TERM and take it beyond InshaAllah.

Rules: -

First & foremost Remember we are doing this for The Sake of Allah so keeping Him as the Witness answer the Qs without going back to the Notes.

Please send your answers to [email protected]

For sisters who do not want to send in emails please send me your answers in the Inbox of my id 'Learn Islam', following is the link…http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1156976901 but PLEASE don’t just inbox because its easier, who ever doesn’t have an issue for the privacy of the email try to send it on email i.e. [email protected] it will be easier for me InshaAllah. Inbox only for the sisters who don’t want to share their ids pls.

You have 24 hours to submit your answers. If in case you are busy and are not able thn please just send in a one liner informing us so that we atleast know that next time InshaAllah U will be around. Also for genuine cases extensions might be given on time to submit the answers.

Please write the full name on top of the answer sheet.

For Brothers & Sisters who are weak in English please still try there will be no marks deducted for Sentences framed incorrectly, spellings etc etc

We will InshaAllah send in the results to the personal emails. And only display the top 10 Students of the week on the page. So there will be nothing to be shy of to try InshaAllah.

ALL THE BEST INSHAALLAH :)

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'WEEKLY TEST for WEEK 7'

Marks 50

40 + 10 (Test paper + attendance)

8 Questions & 1 Bonus Question.

Time limit: 24hrs

Time needed to write: 1 hr

1. Define the following (2+2+2+2+2= 10 Marks)

a) Al-Malik

b) Al-Aalamin

c) Yawm Ad Din

d) Tawhîd Al-Uluhiah

e) Tawhîd Al- Asma’ Was-Sifat

2. Fill in the Blanks: - (1/2 x 6 = 3 Marks)

a) Tawhîd Al-Uluhiah is also called _______________.

b) Start by ______________ upon wearing clothes. and start with the______________________ while taking them off.

c) Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: «when a man mention Allah while entering his house and when he eat, the devil say to his mates ________________________________.

d) The General Boycott Continued for _______ years. (from the Passage on Seerah below)

e) ____________ was mainly responsible for in abrogating the Pact of aggression (General Boycott) (from the Passage on Seerah below)

3. What are the 5 Rules for Tawhid Al-Asma’ Was-Sifat? Details not needed. (5 Marks)

4. What are the 8 Necessary Duties of Salaat (Wajibatu-Salaat) (4 Marks)

5. Write any 4 Preferred Acts of the Salaat (Sunna- nu-Salaat) (2 marks)

6. Write any 3 Duas that you have memorized during the week after reading the notes (6 Marks)

7. Write any 4 Sunnahs to be done after waking up. (Apart from the Dua) (2 Marks)

8. Write any 2 sunan each to be done whilst and after eating (Apart from the Dua). (2 Marks)

9. Enlist what should be recited before going to sleep. (Just the titles would be enough) (3 Marks)

10. What should a Muslim do if he/she sees a bad dream? (3 Marks)

11. Read the Passage on the Seerah of Prophet (S.A.W.) and answer the Questions given below.

GENERAL SOCIAL BOYCOTT

Four events of special significance occurred within less than four weeks — the conversion of Hamzah, the conversion of ‘Umar, Muhammad’s (Peace be upon him) refusal to negotiate any sort of compromise and then the pact drawn up between Banu Muttalib and Banu Hashim to immunize Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and shield him against any treacherous attempt to kill him. The polytheists were baffled and at a loss as to what course they would follow to rid themselves of this obstinate and relentless obstacle that had appeared to shatter to pieces their whole tradition of life. They had already been aware that if they killed Muhammad (Peace be upon him) theblood would surely flow profusely in the valleys of Makkah and they would certainly be exterminated. Taking this dreadful prospect into consideration, they grudgingly resorted to a different iniquitous course that would not imply murder.

A PACT OF INJUSTICE AND AGGRESSION:

The pagans of Makkah held a meeting in a place called Wadi Al-Muhassab, and formed a confederation hostile to both Bani Hashim and Bani Al-Muttalib. They decided not to have any business dealings with them nor any sort of inter-marriage. Social relations, visits and even verbal contacts with Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his supporters would discontinue until the Prophet (Peace be upon him) was given up to them to be killed. The articles of their proclamation, which had provided for merciless measures against Bani Hashim, were committed to writing by an idolater, Bagheed bin ‘Amir bin Hashim and then suspended in Al-Ka‘bah. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) invoked Allâh’s imprecations upon Bagheed, whose hand was later paralysed.

Abu Talib wisely and quietly took stock of the situation and decided to withdraw to a valley on the eastern outskirts of Makkah. Banu Hashim and Banu Al-Muttalib, who followed suit, were thus confined within a narrow pass (Shi‘b of Abu Talib), from the beginning of Muharram, the seventh year of Muhammad’s mission till the tenth year, viz., a period of three years. It was a stifling siege. The supply of food was almost stopped and the people in confinement faced great hardships. The idolaters used to buy whatever food commodities entered Makkah lest they should leak to the people in Ash-Shi‘b, who were so overstrained that they had to eat leaves of trees and skins of animals. Cries of little children suffering from hunger used to be heard clearly. Nothing to eat reached them except, on few occasions, some meagre quantities of food were smuggled by some compassionate Makkans. During ‘the prohibited months’ — when hostilities traditionally ceased, they would leave their confinement and buy food coming from outside Makkah. Even then, the food stuff was unjustly overpriced so that their financial situation would fall short of finding access to it.

Hakeem bin Hizam was once on his way to smuggle some wheat to his aunt Khadijah (May Allah be pleased with her) when Abu Jahl intercepted and wanted to debar him. Only when Al-Bukhtari intervened, did Hakeem manage to reach his destination. Abu Talib was so much concerned about the personal safety of his nephew. Whenever people retired to sleep, he would ask the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to lie in his place, but when all the others fell asleep, he would order him to change his place and take another, all of which in an attempt to trick a potential assassin.

Despite all odds, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) persisted in his line and his determination and courage never weakened. He continued to go to Al-Ka‘bah and to pray publicly. He used every opportunity to preach to outsiders who visited Makkah for business or on pilgrimage during the sacred months and special seasons of assemblies.

This situation ultimately created dissension amongst the various Makkan factions, who were tied with the besieged people by blood relations. After three years of blockade and in Muharram, the tenth year of Muhammad’s mission, the pact was broken. Hisham bin ‘Amr, who used to smuggle some food to Bani Hashim secretly at night, went to see Zuhair bin Abi Omaiyah Al-Makhzoumy and reproached him for resigning to that intolerable treatment meted out to his uncles in exile. The latter pleaded impotence, but agreed to work with Hisham and form a pressure group that would secure the extrication of the exiles. On the ground of motivation by uterine relations, there emerged a group of five people who set out to abrogate the pact and declare all relevant clauses null and void. They were Hisham bin ‘Amr, Zuhair bin Abi Omaiya, Al-Mut‘im bin ‘Adi, Abu Al-Bukhtari and Zam‘a bin Al-Aswad. They decided to meet in their assembly place and start their self-charged mission from the very precinct of the Sacred House. Zuhair, after circumambulating seven times, along with his colleagues approached the hosts of people there and rebuked them for indulging in the amenities of life whereas their kith and kin of Bani Hashim were perishing on account of starvation and economic boycott. They swore they would never relent until the parchment of boycott was torn to piece and the pact broken at once. Abu Jahl, standing nearby, retorted that it would never be torn. Zam‘a was infuriated and accused Abu Jahl of telling lies, adding that the pact was established and the parchment was written without seeking their approval. Al-Bukhtari intervened and backed Zam‘a. Al-Mut‘im bin ‘Adi and Hisham bin ‘Amr attested to the truthfulness of their two companions. Abu Jahl, with a cunning attempt to liquidate the hot argument that was running counter to his malicious goals, answered that the issue had already been resolved sometime and somewhere before.

Abu Talib meanwhile was sitting in a corner of the Mosque. He came to communicate to them that a Revelation had been sent to his nephew, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to the effect that ants had eaten away all their proclamation that smacked of injustice and aggression except those parts that bore the Name of Allâh. He contended that he would be ready to give Muhammad (Peace be upon him) up to them if his words proved untrue, otherwise, they would have to recant and repeal their boycott. The Makkans agreed to the soundness of his proposition. Al-Mut‘im went to see the parchment and there he did discover that it was eaten away by ants and nothing was left save the part bearing (in the Name of Allâh).

The proclamation was thus abrogated, and Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the other people were permitted to leave Ash-Sh‘ib and return home. In the context of this trial to which the Muslims were subjected, the polytheists had a golden opportunity to experience a striking sign of Muhammad’s Prophethood (the white ants eating away the parchment) but to their miserable lot they desisted and augmented in disbelief:

“But if they see a Sign, they turn away, and say ‘This is continuous magic.” [54:2]

Bonus Q (This can be used as a replacement if any answer of 3 marks or less is not known or answered incorrectly): -

Enlist the etiquette of going to Sleep.

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ATTENDANCE: -

For the 10 marks of past week’s attendance, please answer the following,

Have you downloaded the Adhkaar? Have you started listening to it?

a) Downloaded and listening to it. (10 Marks)

b) Downloaded but only got to listen to it once. (5 Marks)

c) Downloaded but never got to listen to it. (3 Mark)

d) None (no marks)

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ALL THE BEST...JazakAllah Khair...As Salam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullaahi Wa Barkaatuh :)

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