#also completely aware he could brute force it and has political power that makes him essentially infallible

[lorelune]

jing yuan would be such a particular flavor of yandere, he really would stack every card against you. he'd destabilize you from a distance. some horrible circumstantial loss of your home, job, a hemorrhaging of a social circle you relied on. it is easier to pick up a stray when its both friendly and hungry.

jing yuan waits to swoop into your life. he orchestrates a number of interviews that fail, stressful night's out which end with you flinching at every shadow you see. once you're frayed and losing hope? then he will offer a hand. barely. he's the general, only what he could write off as proper. perhaps an afternoon cup of tea? he does like to know about the wellbeing of the denizens of the luofu. he has a garden he keeps, full of fat sparrows, he'd be happy to show you if you have time.

it's comfort he means to provide. he has stripped you of what little you had before. what remains is all fragments, hardly there, but good building blocks for what he'd like you to be. jing yuan knows this is cruel. he knows the game he is playing is at your expense, and he does not lie to himself about this fact.

jing yuan does hope, however, that perhaps you will be more content under his thumb. not as a card in his hand, a piece on a board, but a lover at his side when circumstance has left him alone and old. he thinks you'll like it, maybe. that you could if you only trusted him and never thought to hard about the events that led you to be perched so close to him, ensnared.

#lore loops #thirsts #jing yuan x reader #GENUINELLY scratching my head about this guy as a yandere #he is interesting #he tempers obsession with logic and strategy which makes Him Scary #also completely aware he could brute force it and has political power that makes him essentially infallible #but he'd much rather do this less messily #he'd rather break you down without using his own hands #its easier to teach you to love them if they haven't struck you before ya know #tw yandere

[justice4harwin]

Light’s Corruption-Chapter VII

Summary: With few friends at the Little Palace, Alina must work to win the favour of her fellow grisha and their commander, who makes her feel light headed every time she sees him.

After training in Os Alta for two years, the king grows tired of waiting and demands the Sun Summoner joins a western post near the Fjerdan border along with the rest of The Second Army to test her abilities.

Something happens. Suddenly, Alina wants blood to run down the rivers and those who stand in her and The Darkling’s way will be blinded by her light and swallowed by his shadows.

It won’t be pretty.

Pairing: The DarklingxAlina

Rating: 18+ (better safe than sorry, u know)

Anyone fancy a playlist?

As usual, the tags are in the comments; if you no longer want to be in the list or wanna be added, please don’t hesitate to let me know :)

Click here for chapter VI

Chapter 7: Within the Palace's Walls

 Dear General Kirigan,

Dear General

Dear Kirigan

Dear Darkling

"Ugh!" Alina let her face drop on top of the paper, not caring if the ink got into her face, and groaned, loudly and at length. "Why?!" She asked into the nothingness of her room.

She had no reason to write to him. She knew he must've had frequent reports of the ongoings of the Little Palace, so she had no other excuse except to admit the truth, which was that she craved his attention, even if he was days away.

This was so pathetic of her; letting go of a life-long unrequited love just to fall into the arms of the first man who complimented her, even if she did feel a strange pull towards him.

What she needed was time for herself. Yes. She had finally said goodbye to Mal, falling for someone else so quickly would do her no good.

Oh, but Saints! The way in which he had kissed her, like he'd been waiting for centuries, like she was a treasure, like he truly wanted her. She had kissed people before, but never like that. She had enjoyed it, sure, but always stopped it before the clothes started to disappear. It usually bored people, but Alina didn't mind that much. It wasn't like when Genya was in the room while she bathed, helping her get to whenever she needed to be in time by pulling at the knots in her hair and handing her a towel. Genya was trustworthy, she was her friend and she had never given her one of those looks that had made her uncomfortable during her training at Poliznaya, nor made an unwanted comment or advance on her figure.

But The Darkling… That day, she had felt more than willing to let him have his way with her; nobody had set her body aflame the way The Darkling had done that afternoon a few weeks prior; she dreamt of it at night and woke up sweaty and hot, and it was a real effort to not daydream about it during her day.

General Imbecile Brute,

I write to you on this day to let you know of the first snow at the Little Palace. It makes quite the pretty paint...from the inside.

Also, I cannot stop thinking about you and your kiss, and I've been staring at the rose you gave me for such long amounts of time I fear my eyes will cross and I'll be stuck like that forever.

Please, tell me: do you feel the same? Mark 'yes' or 'no'.

Forever at your service,

Alina Starkov, Sun Summoner, Idiot.

Ps: You're not an imbecile, only a little rude; and you're not a brute, but some of your manners need polishing. Other than that, you're perfect.

Signed again,

Alina Starkov, she who lacks decency.

She looked at the letter, a low, prolonged, pitiful sound parting from her lips that turned into an animalistic groan. She grabbed the piece of paper, scrunched it into a small ball and threw it into her fireplace.

The snow covered the grounds of the Little Palace almost entirely, the lake would soon be completely frozen, and finalize the beautiful picture. Some Grisha were excited over the opportunity to skate. Alina had never done it, but Marie and Nadia promised to teach her.

From her horse, Alina moved uneasily. She still wasn't used to horse-riding, but Nina had invited her along with a few of her friends, who were all of different orders. It was a chance she wouldn't miss.

She tugged her kefta closer and held onto the reigns, advancing slowly along with the group, heading to the edges of the woods that surrounded the place.

A Fabrikator passed her a flask of kvas, and despite her dislike for the strong drink, Alina took it anyways and tried not to grimace as the liquid went down her throat.

If she were honest, she'd rather be inside the warm walls of her room in the Little Palace, chattering the afternoon away with Genya. She hadn't need to ask if the Tailor could join them at the stables; Alina was well aware of how little regard the other Grisha had for her -until they needed something-.

"I heard a few of you have been working on new keftas." she tried to make light conversation with the woman as she handed her her kvas back.

"Yes." she answered politely, "We're making a special fabric that should give us more freedom of movement during battle."

Alina rose her eyebrows. It wouldn't help her much if she didn't improve her fighting skills, but it was an interesting idea.

"How's it coming along?"

The woman tried to hide a grimace.

"It's complicated, but we're making some progress."

Alina smiled.

"Maybe you can tell me more about it during dinner." she suggested. "I, for once, would love a different type of trousers."

The woman smiled starkly, her blond hair getting on her face.

"They are rather stiff, aren't they?"

"I can barely flex my legs as it is."

The woman, whose name was Lada Alina remembered, agreed.

"I know. They're not suitable." she said in a strange tone, to which Alina gave her an odd, sideways look.

"Did you hear Zoya is back?" Fedyor interrupted, marching up to keep up with them.

Alina stared at him, groaned, and rolled her eyes.

"That's great." she said dryly.

Her absence was nice while it lasted.

"Maybe if I get under her skin and she attacks again, The General will send her off for a longer time. Or better yet, I could actually beat her."

Who was she kidding? Zoya was a formidable fighter, and Alina was just starting to win every now and then. Also, she suspected that Nina might have gone easy on her during their first sparring match a few weeks prior. She hadn't won against her ever since.

"Tell me about it." the woman in question said, rolling her eyes. "I don't understand her obsession with being on The General's inner circle."

"Says the one who is in the inner circle." Fedyor pointed out.

"Barely." Nina made a gesture with her hand, as if trying to rest importance to the matter. "Besides, it's not such a big deal. I don't know why everyone makes such a fuss about it."

"Well, the higher we are, the better we can protect other Grisha." Alina said, almost hesitantly. "I mean, if we have The General's ear, more ideas will flow about. I'm sure everyone has something to contribute to the cause."

"You don't need to worry about that, sun bean;" Nina smirked. "You're the Sun Summoner, it's likely he'll listen to you."

Alina's cheeks flushed as everyone in the group turned to stare at her.

"I think it's good to aim high;" Fedyor said, drifting the attention to himself, thanks the Saints. "As long as it's for the better of the Second Army."

Nina looked away and uttered something only Alina heard.

"Oh, yeah, betterment of forced servitude."

The Summoner stiffened on her saddle at the bitter words. Was Nina unhappy at the Little Palace? Why? She was one of the most powerful Grisha there; she lived in the most secured place in all Ravka, and her General held her in high regard.

A part of Alina wished she had never hidden her light. Maybe it would've been for the better to leave Keramzin, to leave Mal behind sooner.

It also made her think of someone who scarcely passed through her mind those days: her own mother.

She shook her head, ridding herself of such thoughts. She was thankful for the commodities and safe life she had at the Little Palace. Even if she was one of a kind, everyone else seemed to be adapting well to her, especially since she began to summon on her own and join in their little games by the lake.

She had been hesitant about it at first, but Genya insisted that going would be a great opportunity to both show her power and make allies.

"Besides, they won't believe you're a snob or a fraud if you show them a little." she had said, lazily lounging on a chair as they shared a nice tea one afternoon, while the queen took an especially long nap the very same day the Duke of Balakirev had arrived at court.

Lately, Alina felt more normal, and she was sure that her latest choices had a lot to do with it. From showcasing her powers, to sitting in different sections on different tables during meals and just talking normally about trivial things -even if those did exhaust her mind- and wearing an Etherealki kefta, she was more approachable, and the other Grisha seemed to slowly start to notice it too.

"It's not enough."

"We surely do deserve some more credit." she spoke, even if she didn't fully believe in the sentiment. The First Army was full of otkazat'sya, and they didn't have the advantages of bullet-proof clothing, private tents, furs for the winter and three decent meals per day.

It was all so difficult for Alina. She had once envied the advantages The Second Army possessed over The First, yet she couldn't deny there were other kinds of dangers for the Grisha, that not everything was perfect inside the walls of Os Alta.

Like the distrust of those who weren't like them, their fear, tamed only by their usefulness due only to the Black Heretic's greed.

All around her, her fellow Grisha nodded their agreements.

She wondered, briefly, what would Grisha life be like in Ravka if The Fold hadn't been created in the first place. What would happen if she ever managed to tear it down?

She didn't want to dwindle in those thoughts further.

With the Winter Fete approaching, everyone at the Little and Grand Palace seemed to buzz with all kinds of different energy. The servants were comprehensively nervous and stressed as they ran from one place to the other. Alina's fellow Grisha were either excited or indifferent, but none the less they all put the same amount of effort into practicing their yearly demonstration.

As for Alina herself, she had received the news that she was expected to showcase her power in front of the royal family and the other nobles of Ravka.

"The king wanted to throw a bigger party; invite diplomats from all continents and such, but General Kirigan insisted that it wasn't necessary yet." Genya said one afternoon, as Alina braided her hair.

She was seated very still, her eyes continuously darting from one side to the other as if trying to peek at her friend's work, concern etched on her face.

"He seems impatient." Alina commented, to which Genya huffed, accommodating her friend's new possessions on her vanity with a precision that seemed borderline obsessive.

"You have no idea. He can't wait to see the mighty Sun Summoner." she said, pouting and trying to imitate his deeper voice.

Alina frowned, said nothing, and continued braiding, her movements slowing but almost precise.

The Darkling

 Miss Starkov,

Due to my sudden absence, I had no time to notify you that I shall oversee your training personally from now on.

Being far away, I do not wish for you to stall, so I leave you some instructions on what to practice and how, and a few reading recommendations fo-

He leaned back in his chair and sighed.

He was being a fool, and he hated it.

Writing to her with instructions on how to practice her summoning was a foolish idea. She was barely starting and needed overseeing, and the only one besides himself who could help her was his mother, who remained bitter at the woman. He really wanted to know what Alina had said to Baghra to make her so upset.

He almost smiled, feeling something wickedly, childishly happy in his chest at the possibilities.

Tossing the letter into the fire, he leaned back in his chair.

Teaching her through letters would only lead to disaster, but how else would he know about her? How else could he earn her trust while being so far away?

Pathetic.

"Moi Soverennyi." Ivan presented himself, bowing before further entering his tent. He offered him an envelope. "A letter from the Grand Palace."

The Darkling took it and quickly read it, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Although he had convinced the king that inviting foreign diplomats was not yet a good idea, the stupid man insisted that the Sun Summoner performed alongside the other Grisha. Alina was finally able to summon on her own, but he knew a part of her still feared her gift; putting on a show for an audience was not the best idea.

He…worried? for her?

"We will have to be back in time for the Winter Fete."

Ivan grunted. "I hate that thing."

The Darkling nodded in agreement. After all those centuries, he was more than bored of them. It was always the same waste of time and resources for his army, only to entertain the nobles for a few hours. As if they would not go back to turning their back on them the very next day.

Those fools often seemed to forget that his Grisha could have them for lunch if they so wanted it.

Privileged as The Second Army may seem, people were wary of them, even the nobles who lived in the surrounding areas.

"But they will not attempt anything so long as they need us."

"We have little choice, Ivan."

"We could always host it near The Fold and accidently push the royal family inside it." he said, sardonic as usual.

"Tempting." The Darkling smirked, setting the letter aside with little care.

The Heartrender stepped aside to allow him out, and The Darkling marched towards the river, where a few of his fabrikators were working on a new skiff. It wasn't nearly as grand as the one Alina had boarded that fateful day, but that was due to a different purpose.

There was a strange device being placed underneath it.

"Are you sure this will work?" he asked Petya.

The woman hesitated for the briefest moment, and The Darkling reminded himself internally to summon new graves for his Grisha.

"Such a pity." he thought, sincerely.

"Yes. So long as the Squaller sets a slow pace and nobody exerts themselves too much, they should be able to pass in relative tranquillity."

He had a feeling it would not work. His Grisha had already tried several times to cross through the river, but David Kostyk was sure his new invention would cancel out the soft sounds of the skiff against the water and dwindle the sounds of a heartbeat.

"Do not expect the path to be clear." he said.

"That is exactly why we're going, sir." a Squaller, Igor, approached and bowed. "If this works and we can clear the path, we should be able to make it to the other side eventually."

"Let us hope it does not take too many tries." he said.

Too many Grisha lives, he had wanted to say.

"David is rarely wrong, Moi Soverennyi." Petya said.

That was true. David was one of his best Grisha, which was why The Darkling tried to keep him inside the safety of the Little Palace's walls unless absolutely necessary.

Still, The Darkling though the plan stupid and a waste; but it was either that or forcing Alina into The Fold, and she was far from being ready to make a crossing, even through its thinnest point up north.

As a Squaller, a Heartrender, two Healers and two Inferni boarded the skiff, followed by a few strong otkazat'sya men from the First Army, The Darkling thought of David.

He thought of Alina.

And his thoughts returned to David.

With a sharp nod, he sent off the small team to do their last test and headed back to his tent, where he began to write a letter addressed to Mr. Kostyk.

Click here for chapter 8

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone fanfic #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #darklina #darklina fic #alina x darkling #alina x aleksander #genya safin #nina zenik #fedyor kaminsky #david kostyk

[therealvagabird]

Some D&D characters!

I made this adventuring party a little while ago, inspired by the idea of an “all-monster” play on the traditional D&D party. Mainly just a fun exercise in character design. I even played as one of them solo.

I might write some excerpts of various adventures of this fictional band, but no promises. They do have something of a vague story-arc to them, though.

Name: Brute

Race: Bugbear

Class: Fighter

Appearance: Very large and burly bugbear, with almost ankle-length arms. Medium grey skin, thick black fur coat with prominent beard. Gold eyes. Features strong but weathered. Has many scars.

Usually wears a sturdy breastplate with simple, dark-colored underclothes in a soldiery style – sometimes with barbute helm. Attire is overall simple, crude, and military, favoring convenience over flair.

Specialties: Polearm defence, medium armor, military discipline, mercenary attitude.

Bio: It was after the landed Lord Francis of Aquila slew a tribe of feral bugbears on a hunting trip that he decided to take one orphaned youth as a personal slave, believing it would make for an intimidating warrior. Though given the sanctified name of “Barba Molossus” (or “Hairy Dog”) in accordance with religious rites, the bugbear was most often known as simply “Brute”. Brute was trained to be a loyal soldier and personal guard of the Aquilan noble family, and steadfastly served despite the constant derision directed at him. When Castle Aquila was ultimately overrun by a rival house, Brute fled into the wilds, eking out a living before coming across a large goblinoid tribe. Once again an outcast for his human rearing, Brute learned that ultimately his brutality would earn him the respect of most greenskins regardless.

Brute is a dour and bitter man, having been exposed to the worst aspects of many different environments and cultures. He has a reputation for savagery and ruthlessness that strikes fear into the hearts of many, even if they deride him as a simple dog. Despite this reputation, Brute is actually quite disciplined and reserved, only exposing his wrath when pushed, and being an otherwise very effective mercenary most of the time.

—

Name: Wu Jinn, “White-Eyes”, “The Clever”, “The Spider” (pejorative)

Race: Hobgoblin

Class: Wizard

Appearance: Shorter hobgoblin, long limbed but average build. Very dark, burgundy skin. Almost elven features, with blunted nose. Wavy black hair with white strands, close on sides but gathered up into long, braided nest on head to be wrapped in turban. Facial hair wispy – if left unshaved will grow slight Fu Manchu, goatee, and sideburns. Black irises.

Sharp-cut purple underclothes in Eastern style. Black, hooded over-robe. Beige leather lamellar armor offers simple protection with flexibility. Black, stiff mantle on shoulders. Pointed shoes. Tight, beige turban on head. Many pouches and arcane tools carefully sorted about person.

Specialties: Magical manipulation and lore, history and general knowledge. Carries enchanted whip and sword.

Bio: There was a time when the hobgoblin mage covens of the dark East were sought after fiercely by warchiefs looking to secure magical power and sage council. Now, the respect allotted to the goblin mages has severely diminished. Wu Jinn trained in the hidden arcanums, perused the libraries of many great kingdoms, and became a learned scholar at a very young age. Now, he is stuck as the disregarded councilor to an orc chief, usually relegated to distributing medicine and conjuring fireballs when he has the knowledge of the past and future at his disposal.

Wu Jinn is a highly analytical hobgoblin, but was drawn to magic over simple scholarship due to the inherent mystery of the arcane. All knowledge is of interest to him, though this has not come without cost. Wu Jinn is aware of what terrible forces are at work in the universe, and it only heightens his frustration with people. He’s not terribly concerned with issues of power or politics, and regards most beings, even himself, as very insignificant in a cosmic sense. Regardless, he can never understand why so many would-be governors concern themselves with such things if they could just listen to him and organize everything so much more conveniently.

—

Name: Mary, “Nightingale”

Race: Tiefling

Class: Sorcerer

Appearance: Tiefling woman with almost black skin and fiery red eyes. Hair is black, straight, and usually kept around jaw length, though held back by nomad-style bandana. Rather tall, lithe but with powerful stature if not slouching. Horns have been completely filed off and hidden with bandana. Facial features strong and very beautiful, though haggard. Fangs, claw-like nails, barbed tail, and forked tongue kept hidden.

Usually dresses in light leather garb with comfortable underclothes and many bandanas. Loose, dark blue linens with tattered black hooded longcoat. Outfit always arranged to disguise infernal features. Prefers as much jewelry as she can wear without being conspicuous.

Specialties: Shadow magic, deception, psychological attacks, stealth, theft, assassination

Bio: Mary was born as the result of a dark ritual by cultists of the Lower Planes, believing she would be the Agrat bat Mahlat, or “Gift of Desolation”, destined to lead a fiendish conquest of the world. An attack against the cult and secret rescue of Mary by a kindly cleric disrupted that plan, however. Mary was placed in an orphanage when the cleric could no longer guard her, and given her current name. A rough childhood and many caretakers later, Mary took to the streets to become a rogue known as “Nightingale”, an enemy of the cruel and powerful, all while running from the remaining members of the old cult that wished to return her to her destiny.

Mary has the misfortune that evil runs very strongly in her blood. Her magical power can only be used to bring pain, confusion, and destruction even when carefully applied. For this reason, she has made it her mission to only target evil and tyrannical enemies, taking them down either directly or with careful manipulation in the hopes that good might fill the void. Nightingale prefers to remain out of sight and out of mind, disguising her infernal heritage in public and attempting to get in and out without a trace when on a mission. She is naturally attracted to many vices, and may have sudden bouts of rage or bitterness, but most of the time tries to retain a peaceful attitude in the hopes that goodness might one day come naturally to her.

—

Name: Batul Grimhand, “Hacksaw”

Race: Half-Orc

Class: Cleric

Appearance: Tall female half-orc with dark olive-green skin. Older, with sturdy figure and many minor scars. Kinky hair shaved into short tight stripe. Broad features, dark brown eyes, prominent but well-kept tusks.

Outfit includes knee-length white undercoat and clothes tucked into sturdy boots, and long leather gloves. Dark blue pants. Solid breastplate covered in all manner of medical pouches protects torso. More accessories affixed to leather belt and faulds. Keeps white bandana around neck to cover face if needed. Will don long leather cloak for bad weather.

Specialties: Field medicine, general healing, shock stabilization, combat support

Bio: Though it has been many centuries since orcs and goblins were defined as lawless and endlessly cruel raiders, the reality of the greenskin strongholds can still be exceptionally brutal in the modern day. To be born a half-breed, and a rare female at that, lead to a tough upbringing for Batul. Service in the warhost and later as a mercenary soldier abroad gave discipline and protection for Batul when there was none. She trained as a medic, seeing the violent realities of the world and wanting to make a difference. However, her clerical training only did so much, and most of the time she was only allotted the time and resources to get the injured back on their feet so that they could die fighting. Trauma and bitterness soon seeped in, and by the time she was an experienced medic, she was also a surly and iron-hard orc. Now, Batul has the respect she always wanted, at the cost of her enthusiasm and optimism. Though there are still the occasional jeers, most know not to mess with Hacksaw if you know what’s good for you.

Batul carries a genuine desire to help people within her scarred and hardened exterior. She is often the voice of pessimism and caution, always expecting the worst and never much trusting in anyone but herself. Years of belittlement and wartime shock have given her a grim disposition that earned her few friends but also few enemies. Her strength is in getting severely injured people back in fighting shape in short order, though she can’t do much more. Given time and resources, she could perhaps do a great many things, heal people body and mind, but she doesn’t hope for such high ideals anymore. Despite her negativity, she is always ready to suggest that a situation might be more than it seems – that enemies might be misunderstood, that what others call “weakness” might not be so reprehensible, and that killing and death are not so noble. Of course, if it comes down to letting a patient die or taking up her axe, she will swiftly choose the latter.

—

Name: Tash, “Tashi”

Race: Goblin

Class: Monk

Appearance: Very thin goblin, shorter than average, with skinny face, impish features, large ears, and huge yellow-green cat eyes. Pale grey-green skin. Messy mop of warm black hair. Would almost be cute for a goblin if he wasn’t covered in all manner of injuries and other old maladies.

Ragged cream sleeveless gi, and dark blue pants, with dark over-cloak and a faded burgundy belt/sash. Wears dark jika-tabi style footwear. Hands and other parts of body usually wrapped in bandages. Has many satchels for trinkets, as goblins like to have.

Specialties: Sword-and-hand fighting, danger sense, survival, dodging.

Bio: Though the greenskin stronghold Tash was born into was far from the worst around, it is still a hard life to be one of the mine-dregs. Despite being very sickly, scrawny, and cowardly by goblin standards, Tash worked in the mines until he sustained enough injuries to earn him a discharge for menial work. The misfortunes heaped upon him would have crippled or driven other goblins mad, but somehow Tash survived. Eventually his survival rate earned him a place in the Dregs’ Union, the goblin racket that allowed successful menials a chance at higher privilege. Though he earned few friends for his paranoid and self-loathing demeanor, he was taken under the wing of Master Maka, an old goblin warrior. Maka was far past his prime, but recognized Tash as “lucky” and so gifted him with the secrets of his Sword and Fist style. The martial secrets were enough to put Tash on the path from survival to possible success.

Tash is an extremely paranoid and mentally degraded goblin. Oftentimes he feels as though he was born into the wrong species. Weak, sickly, and fearful of many things even goblins would have no problem with, Tash tends to underestimate his hidden fortitude. While often the voice of fear and worry, he has proven to be adept at surviving even when thrust into the middle of battle, his fight and flight instincts somehow giving him incredible speed and clarity when they balance out. He is also very intuitive, and while often derided as stupid he has a keen eye for detail. Tash’s greatest obstacle is overcoming the pain and fear of his life to realize just how noble he could be.

—

Name: Baako, “Bomber”, “Batty”, “Blossom”

Race: Goblin

Class: Ranger

Appearance: Hale and lanky goblin with forest green skin, fiery eyes, a wide grin, large batlike ears and a batlike nose. Wide face with sharp features, and long black dreadlocks usually kept back in a ponytail.

Wears tan, sleeveless tunic and baggy tan pants tucked into tall black boots. Black leather cuirass in the style of apron overalls. Black archer’s gloves. Tattered, dark ranger cloak. Green belt sash. Many leather straps and harnesses all over body holding component pouches.

Specialties: Subterfuge, traps, ranged combat, tracking

Bio: Baako is a highly eccentric goblin whose erratic behavior has earned him equal parts distain, fear, and camaraderie from his peers. Born into the foragers, his energetic nature saw him advance quickly before joining the Union and becoming a ranger. He now runs as a scout, warrior, and hunter, wielding numerous traps and diversions to protect his stronghold’s borders. Baako is also a big fan of pranks and debauchery, however, and his constant petty theft and disruptions to his comrades and superiors has earned him as many enemies as his outgoing and driven nature have earned him allies.

Nobody knows for sure if Baako is just theatrical or suffers from some sort of split personality. He will often slip into different “personas” depending on the task at hand or even just swings of his mood. Common nicknames for himself include “Bomber” when he’s hoping to cause mayhem, “Batty” when acting as a ranger, or “Blossom” when he wants to feel cute. Most just leave him be, as for all his oddities he’s proven to be a highly competent goblin. Focused and indefatigable so long as he’s kept occupied, it’s only when Baako gets bored that trouble starts.

#dungeons and dragons #homebrew #d&d party #original character #oc

[multiverseforger]

Dragon Ball Lore: Cell

02:07



セル

Seru

DEBUTS

APPEARS IN

MANGA DEBUT

"Kami-sama and the Demon King Become One"

ANIME DEBUT

"The Reunion"

MOVIE DEBUT

Dragon Ball Z: Atsumare! Gokū Wārudo

CHARACTERISTICS

RACE

Bio-Android (contains Saiyan, Namekian, Frieza Race, Earthling and several other life-forms' cells)

HEIGHT

213 cm (7'0"; perfect form)

BIRTH DATE

Age 786 (Alternate Timeline)

DEATH DATE(S)

May 26, Age 767

PROFESSIONAL STATUS

OCCUPATION

Martial Artist

ALLEGIANCE

Red Ribbon Army

PERSONAL STATUS

RELATIVES

Future Dr. Gero (creator)

Dr. Gero's Supercomputer (co-creator)

Cell Juniors (offspring)

COUNTERPARTS

Present Cell

Future Cell

New Cell

Xeno Cell

Cells

MENTORS

Dr. Gero's Supercomputer

MORE 

Directory: Characters → Villains → DBZ villains → Bio-Androids

You see, I'm perfect, my strength is perfect, and with that I shall bring equally perfect destruction through the rest of the universe."COMBINE YOUR STRENGTH! THE FINAL KAMEHAME-HA!"

Cell (セル, Seru) is the ultimate creation of Dr. Gero, designed via cell recombination[1] using the genetics of the greatest fighters that the remote tracking device could find on Earth. The result was a "perfect warrior", possessing numerous favorable genetic traits and special abilities from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza and King Cold.

He was one of the few Red Ribbon Androids not directly completed by Dr. Gero, instead being completed by Dr. Gero's Supercomputer in an alternate timeline. He is the main antagonist of the Imperfect Cell, Perfect Cell, and Cell Games Sagas.

Appearance

Some initial sketches of Cell (Daizenshuu 4)As a being with several transformations, Cell's appearance varies depending on the form he is in.

In his larval form, Cell resembles a large four-legged cicada with long, V-shaped horns on its head and a face similar to that of the remote tracking device.

In his Imperfect form, Cell has transitioned to walking upright and has a humanoid shape, but retains many insectoid features from his previous form, including his horns, beak-like mouth, three-toed feet, and segmented armor. In this form, he has sprouted wings similar to those of a beetle, along with a long tail affixed to the middle of his back that ends with a "stinger" used to absorb other life forms.

In Semi-Perfect form, obtained after absorbing Android 17, Cell's wings disappear, and he becomes more humanoid and muscular in appearance. His horns now point upward and form a crown shape, and his face, though possessing a comically large-lipped mouth and lacking a nose, has taken the general shape of a human face. Cell's feet lose their toes and instead resemble shoes, though his tail remains much the same as it was in his Imperfect form.

Cell becomes fully humanoid in his Perfect form gained from absorbing Android 18, complete with a normal nose and mouth. His tail has been completely retracted, only the stinger remaining. This form is somewhat shorter and lighter than the previous one, being 7 feet in height. His wings have grown back, but he retains the shoe-like feet and upward-pointing horns from Semi-Perfect form. Purple stripes now run down each side of his face, similar to those of Frieza in his first three forms.

While Perfect, Cell can take on a Super Saiyan Third Grade and Power Stressed form, each similar to his base Perfect form but with grossly enlarged muscles and, in the Power Stressed state, greater size.

Cell also possesses a Super Perfect State, identical in appearance to his Perfect form, but with the added electrified aura of a Super Saiyan 2.

Personality

You fool! Don't you realize yet you're up against the perfect weapon?!"SAVE THE WORLD"

Cell has an original personality engineered by Gero's computer to combine the character traits of his genetic constituents which would be most useful for a perfect weapon.[2] Because his genetic composition includes DNA from Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo, he is aware of their weaknesses and is therefore able to exploit them in battle. However, Cell's overall personality changes drastically with each transformation. 

Initially, Cell is completely single-minded in the pursuit of his goals and is very cautious, sneaky, cunning, knowledgeable, and calculating in achieving his main goal of perfection. Upon reaching his first transformation, he becomes far more brash and impulsive in his actions, relying less on strategy and more on brute force, often becoming clouded and losing his ability to think rationally when things don't go his way. However, he does retain at least some degree of a strategic mind, as he got the idea to exploit Vegeta's arrogant desire for a challenge to manipulate him into allowing him to absorb 18. Upon reaching perfection, Cell displays a number of traits shared by those whose cells he possesses; Piccolo's cunning, Vegeta's pride, Goku's laid-back disposition, Frieza's smugness (as well as some of his psychopathy), and the Saiyan lust for battle. In this form, he is also shown to be very calm and genuinely polite, albeit arrogant, until he loses the upper hand in combat. Ironically, the arrogance Vegeta displayed to allow Cell to achieve his perfect form was the same that Cell used to force Gohan to awaken his hidden powers, leading him, as it had led Vegeta, to his own downfall. Another of Cell's most distinguishable traits in this form is his uninhibited vanity, which he shamelessly displays by launching the Cell Games, a tournament organized solely to show off his newfound power. It's also obvious during Cell's confrontation with Gohan when he affirms his true purpose: the annihilation of anything he considers imperfect--everyone and everything but himself. When he is outmatched, however, he quickly becomes desperate and loses his rational approach, making several critical mistakes.

As Imperfect Cell, Cell is completely single-minded in the pursuit of his goals to complete his evolution, as he is extremely eager to discover what attaining perfection would feel like. His desire is to absorb both Android 17 and Android 18. Imperfect Cell is very cautious, sneaky, cunning, and calculating; he does not chase after the Androids directly since he knows he cannot beat them before he absorbs enough human energy. Although obsessed with attaining perfection, Cell was willing to temporarily put aside his plans to absorb 17 and 18 if it meant that he had to deal any possible threat to his plans, as seen how he chose to dispatch Piccolo and attempted to do so with 16 rather than immediately going after 17 and 18.

However, despite his usually cautious and savvy nature, Imperfect Cell could still be seen to be somewhat arrogant and narcissistic, seen by how he openly revealed his plans to Piccolo when under the impression that he had won.

After he achieves his Semi-Perfect form, Cell no longer cares about absorbing other creatures, and becomes obsessed with finding Android 18 to complete his quest for perfection. He also becomes slightly more arrogant and narcissistic because of his power increase, as well as rash and impatient. His arrogance is short-lived though; he is easily outclassed by Vegeta's Super Saiyan Second Grade form. After finding that his Semi-Perfect form is no match for his opponent, Cell convinces Vegeta to allow him to absorb Android 18 to attain the Perfect Form (which he is able to do as he appeals to Vegeta's ego and the natural Saiyan drive to fight stronger opponents, both of which Cell is aware of, as he possesses Vegeta's cells). He is also prone to tantrums when things don't go his way. This is best evidenced when he was unable to find Android 18 and proceeded to blow up several islands in an attempt to force her to come out, not caring if his energy blasts resulted in her destruction if she tried to continue hunker down.

According to his bios in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and Budokai Tenkaichi 3, in his new form, he seems to feel that he is the most powerful living specimen on the planet, and it is suggested that this arrogant attitude may have been influenced by Vegeta's genes (meaning Vegeta's cells may become more prominent while in this form, which seems to be supported by the fact he uses at least two of Vegeta's signature moves in this form, albeit only in the anime: Galick Gun and a modified Big Bang Attack). It may also be due to his absorption of Android 17 and the genes of Frieza, both of whom are very egotistical, arrogant, narcissistic, and intolerant of the idea of anyone being better than themselves. To further support the notion of his superiority, Android 16, who barely survives his brief encounter with this form of Cell, thinks to himself that there should be no one in the universe ready to challenge him at this point (and that it is odd how he is still so obsessed with achieving completion), until this preconception is shattered by Cell's embarrassment against the self-proclaimed "Super Vegeta".

After absorbing No. 18 and becoming perfect, Cell becomes significantly more arrogant and narcissistic in this form, due to the massive increase in power. After attaining the perfect form he had long desired, Cell admitted to Trunks that he had found himself with no other purpose, even killing Goku, which was Dr. Gero's intended purpose for Cell, did not seem to satisfy him. Thus, he saw his Cell Games as the opportunity to discover a new purpose; to test his new-found power. This could also be attributed by his own vanity.

In this form, Cell gains Frieza's polite mannerisms (though without the snide sarcasm) and ruthlessly sadistic personality, relishing in seeing people terrified, as he admitted to Future Trunks when he revealed his intention for the Cell Games. This was further shown in the anime, while waiting for the Cell Games, he chose to terrorize the people of Earth simply for his own amusement. Akira Toriyama himself surmised that the concept behind the Cell Games may have been influenced by King Piccolo's cells which makes sense as King Piccolo also enjoyed terrorizing the people of Earth in a similar manner and both broadcasted their evil intentions on television just to instill fear into Earth's population. Thus he possesses the villainous traits from King Piccolo, Vegeta, and Frieza.

Much like Goku, Cell seems to take on a carefree and laid-back attitude, not losing any form of his composure until he was faced with the prospect of a being stronger than him. Cell has adopted Goku's, as well as Vegeta's, desire to battle strong opponents, which was another purpose of the Cell Games. The fact that prior to facing Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, Cell still chose to hold back his full power, Cell was willing to handicap himself in order to challenge his own limits. Despite this, however, if Cell finds that his opponents were not adequate challenges, he would not hesitate to finish the battle quickly or discontinue it, reflecting his arrogance. Before fighting Gohan, Cell saw Goku as the only worthy opponent and displayed excitement when fighting him. Cell even expressed discontent and outrage when Goku had decided to forfeit his battle against Cell.

[duhragonball]

Midi-chlorians

I'm planning to write up a more thorough analysis of Super Saiyans, including this "S-Cell" concept Toriyama brought up in a recent interview, but that'll take a while. In the meantime, I thought it might be worth going over the midi-chlorian concept fro Star Wars, since S-Cells seem to bear some resemblence to that idea. So this post is about Star Wars.

Personally, I loved "The Phantom Meance", and the stuff about midi-chlorians never bothered me at all. It bothered *a lot* of Star Wars fans, though, and I always wondered if they might have accepted it more readily if they had enjoyed the overall movie as much as I did.

If you're not familiar with "The Phantom Menace", the movie flashes back to Darth Vader's childhood as Anakin Skywalker. The Jedi discover him and realize he has Force powers, and they test him to see just how much potential he has. This involves screening his blood for "midi-chlorians", and the results are off the charts. Obi-Wan Kenobi remarks that "not even Yoda" has a reading so high, and later we see that Yoda is one of the top leaders on the Jedi Council. The implication is that if Anakin were trained to use his abilities, he could become the strongest Jedi ever.

The blood test is also used to explain why the Jedi Order refuses to recruit Anakin, in spite of his potential. Since Force potential can be detected with a simple blood test, the Jedi screen everyone in the Republic at birth, and any babies who test positive are automatically for training. Anakin missed out on this because he was born outside of Republic space, so he's considered to old to join the Jedi, despite being only nine. By the end of the movie, he's allowed to join anyway, but the issue constantly lingers throughout the next two movies. Were the Jedi right to make an exception for Anakin, or is he doomed to fail them because he doesn't fit into their system?

Other than the story of Darth Plagueis in Episode III, I don't think midi-chlorians were ever mentioned again in the movies. One might suggest that this was a direct response to fan criticism, the same way Jar-Jar Binks' role was scaled back for Episodes II ans III. This may be true, but I also suspect that there was no longer any need for the concept. Once Anakin was old enough to show off his abilities, there was no need to refer to a test score. Everyone could just say he's powerful and leave it there.

The way I understood it, people didn't like the midi-chlrorian concept because it shoehorned a science fiction explanation for the Force. In the original movies, most of what we know about the Force is explained very vaguely by Kenobi and Yoda as they train Luke Skywalker. It's treated like magic, and while Luke has the ability to use it, he needs to open his mind so he can learn to *understand it*. "Phantom Menace" sort of undermined that mystical quality by making the Jedi Order look like an outer space police force instead of a dwindling handful of Tolkeinesque wizards. It took a harder sci-fi angle on the Jedi, at the expense of the fantasy atmosphere of the previous movies.

But I think that was inevitable. "The Phantom Menace" was about the collapse of the Republic and its transformation into the Empire of the Original Trilogy. The prequels told the story of a galaxy-spanning democracy that collapsed, and that's more of a hard sf story than a fantasy tale. The Original Trilogy had the luxury of being set after all that social upheaval had happened, and a lot of details didn't need to be explained. Luke's Force potential was self-evident because he inherited it from his dad. The logistics of the Jedi Order were academic because the Order was gone. The complexities of galactic politics were irrelevant because the Empire was an autocracy ruling through brute force. It's a lot easier to make Obi-Wan Kenobi look like a weird sorcerer when he's all alone. When he's part of a huge organization, now you have to explain who he works for and who pays for his expenses and what rules he has to follow. Science fiction is better equipped to tackle that sort of world-building.

Concerning midi-chlorians specifically, they were used as a plot device to reveal Anakin's potential without having him actually demonstrate any feats of power. He won the podrace and helped defeat the Trade Federation invasion, but those deeds were pretty subtle compared to what the adult Jedi and Sith were up to. Anakin had the *potential *to surpass all of them, but that would have to wait until the next movie. So the only way to communicate that to the audience was to invent some test and give him a really high score. I suppose Qui-Gon could have done something more magical-looking, like place his hands on Anakin and enter a trance, but it would have amounted to the same thing. There had to be a routine test for Force powers, one that could be administered easily and accurately.

Also, I think "The Phantom Menace" was more self-aware than it's given credit for. Fans didn't like the midi-chlorian test, and that might have been the point. The Jedi were supposed to be enlightened mystics, removed from the temporal world, but in the prequels they were obsessed with the protocol and infrastructure of their Order. Qui-Gon only tested Anakin to confirm what he had already sensed through his own connection to the Force. Instead of trusting his instincts, he sought reassurance from technology, representing a subtle corruption of the Jedi philosophy, one that got progressively worse throughout the prequels. By Episode III, the Jedi were trusting clone armies and secular governments almost completely, and so they never saw betrayal until it was too late to avoid it. Anakin was

Anyway, that's sort of my defense of midi-chlorians. They never bugged me much, because I never saw them as anything more than an exposition tool, like when a character holds up a newspaper so you can see the headline. The idea that you can manipulate midi-chlorians to artifically empower someone with the Force has gotten some play in Star Wars Expanded Universe materials, but as far as I've seen it always seems to end in failure. As in "Revenge of the Sith", Anakin was tempted by the idea of manipulating midi-chlorians to save his wife from death, but the midi-chlorians always seem to resist manipulation in these stories. You can detect them with instruments, but they can't be directly controlled or investigated. So there's still a fantasy aspect in play here. Aladdin's lamp in and of itself was a very mundane object, but the power it contained was still wonderous and inexplicable.

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #star wars #midi chlorians #phantom menace was awesome i don't care what anybody says #basically they couldn't have anakin headbutt darth maul like baby gohan did to raditz #if they had gone in that direction then there would have been no need for a blood test #anakin's power would have been obvious

[icharchivist]

what you think of leorio character many people said he annoying but in the manga he was show to be great ally who was strong, reliable and caring individual compare to the remake they made his character less likeable

thebae!!

Jfc Ilove him. I love him a lot, he’s such a great character. But ye, 2011 did himdirty. I personally loved him when i watched the 2011 anime, but when I readthe manga I realized how much the anime seriously shitted on him. He’s evenmore likeable in the Manga and he deserved far better.

Igenerally need more precise question to start rambling, but i’ll try from thispoint. But this will be a little more confusing that general (and i got tired toward the end so i stopped) but here.

  And i’ll put it under cut because it’s Leorio and i’ll ramble.

Thething is that, Leorio has a position in the manga that is mostly the one of thecaretaker - a trope that is much more often attributed to women in Shounen.He’s the doctor guy, he’s the one who doesn’t show off his powers all thatmuch, who’s a little late in comparison to the others, who usually have a brutestrength with his medical knowledge. But he’s also often therefore the one toemotionally react to the plot and what happens around him.

And people hates thiskind of archetype. People call this kind of character useless when they areextremely important and inspirational. 

 Leoriois the everyman. Out of the four main characters, he’s the one the audience canrelate to. How many jokes are there out there of Leorio attempting a deadlyexam with just a knife just to pay his school bills? An icon.

Butlike…. That’s why it’s important? 

Thereforehe’s the one who’s actions are the most grounded in reality, in real life’shardship. The other main three stories are really specific to its genre, butLeorio’s? Anyone could have Leorio’s backstory. 

Whathe makes out of it is inspirational and gives a lot of heart to his actionstoward his friends. He is a support, he is helping. He’s doing everything hecan by his own means.

Andwhen he’s trying to catch up with the other ones who are ways too unreal? Hegives his everything, he faces the problem right in the eyes and refuse to runaway.

 Morethan being useless, the worst thing I think i’ve ever read about Leorio isthat “he’s a coward”. In which fucking universe?

Leoriois always ready to fight. He was ready to attack that old lady for askingsomething as absurd and careless as saying you would have to give up on yourdaughter or your son. He’s admirable because he fights for what is right, forwhat is supposed to be. If Gon won just because he didn’t know what to answer,and that Kurapika found the answer, Leorio won because he would refuse it toeven happen in a possible scenario. And even if it’s a grandma, we’re talkingabout an examinator of the Hunter Exam. It could have ruined Leorio’s life, butthere was no way he could let it fly. 

Whenthey met the Kiriko, he stayed behind to help one of them in the house, andreassured him. Where is that a coward to you? He acted like a doctor, he tookcare of him more quickly than anyone, and especially he showed care, and didn’tonce think his friends couldn’t handle it. He has an undying loyauty to thepeople he likes.

He fucking went back to fight Hisokaafter Hisoka murdered a lot of people. Because he couldn’t run while saidinjustice was happening right in front of his eyes. He could have died, but hedidn’t want to just run away for his own safety. Reckless? Yes. Coward?no.

Notto mention on Zevil’s Island, how he wanted to get against Ponzu alone, becausehe didn’t want to hurt anyone else, and he actually asked the other ones to leavehim if any problem came to happen. Because Leorio values others better thanhimself.

Meanwhilepeople forget that the only reason he went to York New was to see his friendsagain. Kurapika was there for the Troupe, Killua and Gon for the game, Leorio? Onlyfor them. And especially, he went unaware Killua and Gon were looking for a game,but aware that if they reunite, they will be running after Serial Killers. He knewthat. And he helped them as much as he could in that situation,t o the point ofhunting down the Troupe while actually Nenless, and fucking challenging themwhen he plays bait in order to save Gon and Killua. He also manages to calmdown Kurapika when Kurapika almost snaps at Chrollo.

Leorio’scourage and bravery had been the heart of his character. He has an undyingloyauty for his friends, and is fighting for what he thinks is right. How isthat a bad thing? How is that a coward?

 When it comes about himbeing “useful/useless” first, I completely hate this term in general.People aren’t things to use. Their worth isn’t found in whenever or not they make themselves useful. Their worth is in their actions and what they decide to do.

Leorioalways decided to do the right thing.

Themost important point of Leorio’s storyline is that, at his heart, it’s a storyof a past-trauma which recovery had been healthy. When you compare to the otherthree who all live very badly their current and past trauma, Leorio is the onewho got traumatized and got something good out of it. He forced himself in apath in which he could help other people again. He recovered as much as hecould, and he dedicated himself to others. He’s doing what is right, what isjust.

Ina story that has such heavy stories of Trauma, someone like him is important inthe group. He’s a representation of how things can get better, how things willget better. He encourages them in a good direction when he can. He’s a caringand wonderful character.

 Butfans, they don’t care about it. They want to see blood, they want to seesomeone be punched. It’s no surprise a lot of people saying they dislike Leoriosay the only thing they like him for is for punching Ging. It’s because thosepeople don’t value anything else than Leorio’s strength and ability to kickass. Which to me is fucked up because it’s not the most important part ofLeorio’s character.

It’sno wonder the most focus we had on Leorio is the Election arc – an arcultimately based on more profound actions to help on the long term.  Leorio’s spotlights is on his words, on howhe wants to help the people he loves, and how he feels like he doesn’t belongthere.

Leoriodidn’t get to first place just because it was funny he punched Ging. In a worldof secrecy and selfishness like the one of the hunters, Leorio distinguishedhimself by not only not caring about showing his powers, but by also beingextremely opened about what he wants. What he calls being selfish, which isjust to take as much care as possible for his friends. It’s because of thatthat the Hunter World ends up believing and cheering for him. Because he’s notjust brawn and no brain – he’s a man who’s driven by his heart, and will alwaysdo the right thing when he has to do it. Someone who will fight for it, even ifhe has to antagonize himself (or so he wishes), in order to help others.

 It’swhy everyone ended up cheering for him, that’s why having him in the Zodiac wasa clever political move from Cheadle. Because Leorio is actively being arepresentative of how much you can care about someone.

 Onlyjudging him on his strength and his powers is doing a major disservice to hischaracter who is much, much more than that.

 Somethingalso a few people seems to forget: at the end of the Heaven Arena Arc, Wingtells Killua and Gon that Leorio won’t be approached by a potential Nen teacheruntil he passed his med school exam, which he passed after the York New arcwhen he left. However, when Killua and Gon meet with Leorio again, Leorio tellsthem he mastered Ten. And he actually thinks he mastered all Nen, which makesme think no one actually told him about his training. Meaning he did that alone.

Inthe year between the York New Arc and the Election Arc, Leorio passed hisexams, and learned Nen, in a very complex way. Remember how in the Greed IslandArc, there was a guy who could also use an Emitter technique on his punch topunch someone?  Except that to do that,he had to be in a limited space that he would have determined with his Nen,otherwise he wouldn’t be able to actually project his punch.

Leoriocan do that whenever he wants. Wherever he wants. Ging explains that histechnique is actually really complex and based on the vibration of the groundand of human being. It takes a lot of science understanding to come to thatwithout setting conditions. Not to mention, his technique was originallysettled in order to find out tumors into people’s body and heal them withouthaving to open the body, therefore reducing the cost of an operation.

Howis that not Badass?? Leorio took a concept we saw in the show assomething limited, that couldn’t be done freely, and showed that he couldand he would and he would do that to punish mean people and save people.  How is that not amazing?

 Thebest in all of that, is that Leorio had always been strong. Stronger thanKurapika and Gon in fact. And there it comes into what the anime deleted andsadly people aren’t aware of. But Leorio is stronger than Gon and Kurapika – interm of strength, he can lift 4 tons, he’s muscular af. He could break the armof a mafia guy during the arm wrestling contests. Leorio is extremely strong,which is already incredible.

He’sjust in an universe where people use other way to be strong. A way he ended upcatching up on.

Andit’s not to mention that he’s extremely streetwise. The guy knows a lot aboutthe underground, about how to get what he wants. The guy is completely rulingthe auctions, and Killua even look up to him for that. Leorio is very good atgetting what he wants, and he always find clever ways to achieve it.

Theanime deleted all of that though. And that’s really pissing me off. Leorioactively works in order to help the kids to get the money to Greed Island – he’sthe one who establish them with a link to the mafia, he’s the one who iswatching over the auction, he’s the one who gets the information to find theTroupe. When Kurapika loses it, he’s the one to fix the situation, he’s the onewho plays bait with the Troupe, he’s the one who stop Kurapika from beingreckless, he’s the one who helps Kurapika feel better after he collapsed fordays. Remove Leorio from the York New arc and everything would have gone wrong.

 Itjust baffles me that people can’t accept just genuinely kind and caringcharacters if they don’t kickass the way they want them to do it. Not everycharacters need to be a war-machine. And honestly, in a story that put so muchefforts into showing that the violence in which Gon, Kurapika and Killua engagethemselves into, is actually extremely hurtful and has consequences, I don’tsee how one can be mad at Leorio for not being like that either?

 Leoriois an extremely interesting character. He holds a lot of himself inside, hefears sometimes of not being enough, but he tries. He always tries andhe always try to manage as much as possible.

Ijust don’t get what is there not to like? He can be harsh at first, but like.He’s still a teen? He evolved a lot in between the first hunter exam and theelection arc – he became more mature, more grounded. He’s achieving his goal,which is hella neat?

He’slikeable and fun. He learns a lot during the course of the manga.

 I’mgetting a little tired and I’m going to repeat myself if I keep going, but I exploredmore of my thoughts there, there, there and there.

 Iramble a lot about him in general and I just really love him and wish peoplewould see that you don’t have to actively kickass to be a good character.

…..expecially when you’re already as kickass as Leorio Paradinight.

 Take care nonny!

#ichafantalks hxh #ichameta hxh #\o/ #wow violent tiredness toward the end sorry o(-( #anyway #Anonymous #ichareply #leorio appreciation

[murderincrp]

PROFILE LOADED... 「BANG YONGGUK」「SYNDICATE」「THIRTY-TWO」

“Thirty-two-year-old INTERNAL AFFAIRS HITMAN and PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR that goes by the alias ‘MORPHEUS’. His allegiance lies with SYNDICATE.”

✘ THREAT LEVEL HIGH. PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION...

WARNING: DRUGS, OVERDOSE, DEATH, ADDICTION,  SERIAL MURDER, ILLNESS, KNIVES

[ BACKGROUND... ]

To say that Yongguk’s early years were boring would be a gross understatement. His family life was stable, he and his twin brother, Yongnam, and their little sister got along well, they did exceptionally well in school; their parents weren’t rich, but they weren’t hurting for cash. On the surface, and as far as the kids were aware, they were a well-adjusted, typical family.

Then his sister got sick.

Family life became strained, tense. His mother fell into a depressive spiral, working two jobs to try to keep the medical bills paid while his father turned to drugs to just numb himself to the world. Yongguk was quick to lash out, accusing his father of getting them further into debt due to his drug problem, only to later find out that his father was pushing to try and cover the debts he owed to his dealers. Yongguk was sixteen when he found out his dad was a pusher, selling drugs to students at his high school to try and make some quick cash; Yongguk had taken it upon himself to track down the source of the drug flow once several of his friends had ended up in the hospital from overdose and chemically-laced narcotics. 

A deal went bad, a kid ended up dead, and his father ended up in prison.

To this day, Yongguk wished he felt bad about it. His father put himself before his family, before his daughter that was lying sick and possibly dying in the hospital. He couldn’t forgive him.

Yongguk and his brother both continued to go to school, working odd jobs before and after classes, using the money to help pay for food and bills to try and take some of the pressure off of their mother. After a while, their sister started to get better, and she was able to come home. She still needed a lot of in-home care and medication, but she was home. Things got better, and the boys managed to graduate in the top twenty percent in their class, in spite of hardships and part-time jobs in their senior year. The two of them managed to put themselves through college, Yongnam focusing on business-related studies closer to home while Yongguk left Seoul for Yongin to put his focus toward both chemical and computer sciences and psychology, eventually centralizing on criminal psychology and forensics, after enrolling in the Korean National Police University. Four years at the university to graduation and completing his mandatory two years of rotation work, Yongguk was fortunate enough to have everything paid for by the state; any unspent money he was given from his monthly student allowance was sent to his mother and sister.

At age twenty-four, he officially joined the police force in Seoul, quickly finding himself in line to join the homicide investigations team as a trainee detective, his supervisors citing his dedication and intelligence as their reasons for expediting his promotion. Two years in, and he found himself leading his own investigative team. It was stressful, being responsible for fifteen people, each specializing in a different field of investigation, some more seasoned than others, and all of them opinionated and headstrong. They would fight him every step of the way, undermining the authority many of them thought he was still too young and inexperienced to deserve.

He was twenty-seven when he got his first major case; seventeen young women, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-two, had been found dead all in the same morning in different parts of the city, their bodies left posed in public places, impeccably dressed, hair and makeup done, looking every bit as if they were sleeping or, in some cases, simply sitting in the park on a bench in broad daylight wearing sunglasses. No traces of the killer had been left behind, and no one had noticed the girls being posed, each found early in the morning leading Yongguk to believe that they had been left before sun-up, fifteen to twenty minutes of distance between each of them by car. It was a horrible feeling, getting the call for each body that had been found, but…

What had struck him the hardest was that each girl had been reported missing for a month or more, and little to no searching for them was done. Each of their cases had slipped through the cracks, far too quickly for it to have been even remotely “routine”. Everyone told him not to worry about it. He was told to just ignore it, let the higher-ups take care of it. After a week and a half of being brushed off and told to just look the other way, Yongguk started doing some digging through some of the older cold case files; this hadn’t been the first time something like this had happened. Eleven years beforehand, a similar event had taken place. Not as many girls, and not as polished and elaborate, or as careful, but similar enough for it not to have been a coincidence. All it had meant was the killer had been given time to perfect his methods and the “effect” that he desired…and someone was trying to cover it up.

The killer was a cop, and a high-ranking one at that.

Something in Yongguk simply…snapped. The abuse of power, those around him willfully protecting a serial killer within their own ranks…the fact that any of the girls could have easily been his little sister…No one was going to punish this man for his crimes. The girls he had murdered were, for the most part, left unclaimed and would go unavenged.

It didn’t take much to convince the older man to meet him, which was honestly surprising, but what shook Yongguk to his core was how easy it was to just knock the cop to his knees and slice his throat; no ballistic evidence left behind, the blade of the knife nondescript and unremarkable, no fingerprints or DNA evidence left behind. A quick, easy, and ultimately unsatisfying kill. Hardly payment for the twenty-four lives that he had taken.

He felt hollow.

Yongguk resigned months later, so it would seem less suspicious, citing his sister’s frequently unsteady health as a reason for returning home. In truth, the depth of the corruption had simply eaten away at him. He sought a more straightforward, clear-cut way of dealing with the unseemly, working as a bounty hunter for a time before he was approached for a more stable form of employment.

At least with the gangs, one knew ahead of time there was rarely any pretense. No one out playing the faultless hero while secretly murdering the people they were sworn to protect.

[ BEHAVIOR... ]

While he is no pacifist, he does not kill without purpose; he has his own sense of morality that while not considered “lawful”, he might be considered less heinous than others in his line of work. No children, no pregnant women, those are his primary rules; also, don’t ask him to murder your ex because they managed to move on without you, he’s more likely to punch you in the face. When he does kill, he is ruthless, efficient, and leaves no trace. As a former homicide detective, he is aware of the work required to keep his crime scenes as free of evidence as humanly possible.

Generally quiet, his temperament comes across as incredibly mild and it takes quite a bit to honestly rile or rattle him; though should he ever find himself in a situation that just truly chills him to the bone, he often reacts with outright anger, barely kept in check. He tries to remain level-headed and single-minded when on a job, but certain things will ultimately trigger a far less controlled reaction, namely when children are hurt or exploited. Job or not, he’s more likely to snap and break the assailant’s arm than just walk past and ignore it.

He’s incredibly detail oriented and intelligent, in spite of most taking one look at him and seeing a thug, or just intimidating in general. There is more to him than initially meets the eye, but most of the time he prefers it when people think of him as merely a nameless brute. People are more likely to let their guard down if they think someone is an idiot.

At times he finds it difficult to connect to others due to his job; killing for a living doesn’t exactly make for polite social conversation. However, once he finds someone he honestly likes, he will latch on almost obsessively, for good or for ill; should he be betrayed, it won’t end well for anyone involved. When in love, which is a rare enough event in and of itself, Yongguk is devoted and affectionate; he is almost a completely different person when alone with someone he loves. He doesn’t trust easily, and he certainly would not give his heart or his body to just anyone due to his background. Even if he doesn’t immediately say that he loves you, you’ll know. He shows his love via his actions, not his words. Though when he does actually get to where he’s comfortable enough to talk about it, he’s a complete sap.

Even if he doesn’t speak to his family much anymore, he still sends money to his mother and sister to help with the debt and the continuing medical bills to keep his sister alive and as healthy as possible.

#mi:accepted #mi:syndicate #bang yongguk #b.a.p #krp

[ruffsficstuffplace]

Reunions (Part 17): The Shadow Council

Note: WELL, this update took an entire year to get here. With Descendants 2 renewing my interest, and interested comments long after I initially abandoned this project, I'll get back to it, hopefully for good this time with all the new tools and inspiration I've picked up along the way.

Chapters will be shorter from now on, by the way, ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 words each. A big contributor to my original fatigue was that each chapter just got way too long, and I was having unrealistic expectations about my progress.

I'll attempt a once a week update, no set day of the week.

The room was large and circular in shape, two semi-circle tables lined with chairs of various designs, all arranged around a throne on a raised dais. Bright LED bulbs cast everything in a cold, white light, letting nothing hide in darkness or ambiguity, the faces and features of all the occupants cast in sharp relief. They varied greatly in appearance, except for their eyes:

All wizened and aged by time, wisdom, and things no person should ever have to bear witness to.

This was Auradon's Shadow Council, the one government organization that did not appear in the public lists, whose existence was known only to a select few. They were the people that constantly asked themselves the questions:

“What can go wrong now? What will? And what are we going to do about it?”

Preferably, the solutions were discrete and seen to completion long before it becomes a large enough issue to merit the public's attention, but they were amenable to brute force and blatant, often dangerous and questionable measures if necessary.

Their numbers were handpicked from all over Auradon, both before and after the Great Uniting. Spy masters and mistresses; directors of intelligence agencies; beings who had lived for milennia and silently, subtly dictated and guided the destinies of the societies and world around them for their own mysterious reasons; generals and other heads of militaries, both private and state; even former criminal masterminds and heads of powerful organizations who hadn't been too proud to exchange their empires to escape the Isle.

To say that they were a diverse group of many opinions and points of view was an understatement. However, for all their differences, they all managed to reach a consensus or a compromise at some point, delivered by their spokesperson:

Xiao Jing, “The Jade Dragon” and “The Opium Empress” in her past life, living proof that Ruthlessness, Efficiency, and Cunning knew no gender.

Everyone stood up to greet Ben and pay him the proper respects, as he entered the room just after his escort of elite guards. He managed a pitiful smile and a limp wave as he made his way to his second throne.

After he slumped into it, the Council reseated themselves—except for Xiao, who moved from her seat to just before Ben, her beloved tablet in the crook of her arm.

She bowed. “Your highness.”

“Give me the good news,” Ben muttered.

“Islander Rehabilitation success rate remain at 87%, with a 2-3% margin of error. The 7% that have strayed have not done anything serious enough to merit another round of life sentences on the Isle, prolonged imprisonment here exceeding three weeks at the worst, or lawsuits in amounts higher than a few hundred silver dollars, at the absolute worst.

“Economically: losses are down, spending is up, and the surge of new businesses, consumers, and the Islanders' pursuits to raise their standard of living promise to sustain it for decades yet. Waste and inefficiency is down now that demand is so high and visible, and even states like Cinderellasburg are now keenly aware of the environmental effects of their consumption, and are reacting accordingly.

“There are concerns over our agricultural lands and present infrastructures’ capability to sustain this growth, let alone feed our people in the long term, but the loosening of the restrictions on magic, and the innovation the Islanders are spurring should help.”

Ben nodded. “What's the bad news?”

“Of the remaining 6%, we fear they are beginning to organize, biding their time gathering resources and waiting for the opportunity to revive their criminal enterprises, if on a small scale for now.”

Ben shot up in his seat. “What?! How?!”

Xiao scowled. "We VASTLY underestimated just how creative, resourceful, and determined the Islanders can be. Though we have been accounting for their incredible ability to survive and sometimes thrive with literal table scraps and refuse, we did not realize how quickly they could gain access to larger supply chains, and more worryingly, the funding of independent entities.”

Ben frowned. “Can we track them? Can we stop them from supplying them?” He paused. “Do we even know who they are...?”

Xiao nodded her head sadly. “Even if they were corporate entities, it'd be difficult to outright impossible. Our taxation laws and monitoring are not nearly as strict or thorough as those BGU, given the extreme to outright lack of fraudulent spending, misleading records, or outright evasion. What few discrepancies we have found tend to have no records, presumably due to personal favours between the entities involved, one-time offenses, or just negligence.

“It would also be difficult to open up an investigation without any strong proof of criminal involvement—by which time, we fear that the damage may have already been done. And this isn't even getting into the political repercussions of accusing someone of funding subversives...”

“So we're basically forced to sit here and wait as people from within our borders are helping undermine the security and the peace, possibly overthrow the government and take over the world,” Ben said flatly as he slumped down yet again.

Xiao nodded. “Precisely,” she said. “Speaking from personal experience: thriving legitimate businesses are almost as valuable as more lucrative criminal enterprises—cutting out the money laundry saves so much time and manpower, along with reducing interest from the authorities.”

“That's not an encouraging piece of information!” Ben cried.

Xiao hummed. “It's our reality, Your Highness. On an encouraging note: we still have full-coverage of most every business transaction that happens in Auradon, even with the influx of Islander activity; if anything, it's even more reliable than before with how much more chatty and prone to gossip the latter are about their indiscretions and anomalies.

“Should someone be attempting large scale movement of resources, or anything else suspicious, we will hear about it.”

“That's great!” Ben said, brightening up. “Should we start outfitting and mobilizing the Royal Guard, or will that overstretch the budget?”

Xiao raised a finger. “I was just about to get to that, Your Highness...”

Ben's face turned gloomy once more. "Let me guess: Dog?”

"Yes: his ability to effortlessly crush, outsmart, and outmaneuver literal armies of our best has given the Islanders great hope that they, too, can slip through the cracks in our defenses, and has the general populace in serious concern over their safety.

“And this is not going into the effect it's had on the political level…” Xiao muttered as she pressed some buttons on her tablet.

One of the projectors on Ben's throne activated, and beamed a screen right before his eyes.

The scene was that of a political rally, somewhere in Bayou de new Orleans from the mostly white and black residents in the crowd, and the odd swamp creature in the mix, the alligators most prominently. On a stage was one Mayor John Mark Sweeney, from the annotations.

“This rally was held just a day after the terror attack in New Hope, but the dissent and the unease has been brewing since Dog's unexpected arrival,” Xiao explained.

The video began to play, in the middle of his speech.

“… But now, my family, my friends, we have been proven wrong, so very wrong!

“The first and last defense against all Evil has been thwarted, for on an invader was not only able to outwit, outmaneuver, and outfight our brave soldiers, he did it all while vastly outnumbered and with a frozen tuna! Who uses a frozen tuna to fight literally a hundred soldiers at once, and expect to win?

“That invader did, and boy, did he make his point to all of us!”

“My family, my friends, who knows how many more like him lurk among us waiting to strike? Who knows when they will target not our guards, with their swords and their training and their bravery, but innocent, unarmed, helpless civilians?  Who knows if the Guards can even protect us?!

“Who will save us now?! Who will keep our streets safe, our businesses safe, our children and loved ones safe? Who will make sure we can sleep soundly at night, and let us keep our doors unlocked, our windows open, and our arms stretched out in welcome to all visitors?

“My family, my friends… we can save ourselves!

“We can band together, standing for us, for Auradon, for what is Right and Good in this world! And as your mayor: I will happily throw myself on the front-line for you all! Stand as our vanguard! Be the one who will step forward into this scary, unknown future with my head held up high!”

“My family, my friends: Sweeney Will Save You!”

The crowd went into an uproar, crying, whistling, and howling their support for Sweeney. Ben noticed distinctly uncomfortable looking faces from the crowd, folks who were plently scruffy and dressed in similar looking, plainly designed clothes:

Islanders.

He felt a churning in his stomach and shut off the projector himself.

“Psychological profiling, and our digging into his history points that he is most definitely completely honest and well-intentioned in his belief about the impending threat of chaos, crime, and lawlessness. He is even more sure that he is the only person for the job, that his plan won't fail catastrophically, or have far-reaching, unintended consequences.

“In other words, a Messiah Complex.”

Ben sighed, and put his hand to his face. “Nothing's more dangerous than a man on a divine mission...”

“Indeed,” Xiao said gravely. “Let us hope that the rest of Auradon have taken the lessons of Judge Frollo and Paris to heart.”

Ben put his hand down. “Are we really that outmatched in case we have that sort of situation on our hands?”

“No. By our analysis, our guards are doing well enough,” Xiao replied.

“Describe 'Well enough.'”

“Our soliders are mostly incompetent, with only a handful of highly skilled individuals distributed all throughout the states—but the Islanders are more or less in the same situation, which makes us evenly matched.

“Our home advantage in resources, intelligence, and manpower tilt the odds greatly in our favour, so long as the Islanders threatening a relapse into crime remain the minority, and the very worst of them remain imprisoned.

“Retraining and reeducation of our guards to be better prepared for real-life scenarios are well under way, not to mention that the Islanders themselves have been a most unexpected and valuable boon in leads and insider information to potential problems and suspicious activity—no honour among thieves indeed, especially if the minority's actions threaten the all of their ability to stay off the Isle.

“So, your majesty Benjamin, after much research, discussion, and reflection, we of the Shadow Council can confidently say:

“Auradon is fucked.”

Ben smiled, before he realized what she'd said and he scrambled in his seat. “Wait, what?! I thought we had a handle on the crime situation with the guards!”

“Technically speaking, we do! But the seeds of Fear have been sown all throughout our dear nation and all our citizens, Auradonian or Islander, and believe me when I say that Fear never let silly things like facts and statistics influence its decisions.

Xiao pointed to one of her colleauges. “As General Woolhearth so aptly put it in our discussions earlier--”

“Buckle up your seatbelt and put on you crash helmet, boys and girls, we're in for a wild ride and there's no tellin' when it will end,” General Woolhearth repeated, grinning underneath his impressive full beard.

Ben frowned, already feeling his eyebags grow darker, and his hair and eyes lose some of their luster. The meeting continued, going into the specifics of their future plans and countermeasures, discussions on how to solve this impending crisis in the short and long term, and getting a handle on the most urgent ones before they worsened still.

Then, the Shadow Council was dismissed, slinking back into the darkness to wherever they stayed, be they penthouse apartments in the highest skyscrapers, nondescript lodgings in the slums, or even alternate dimensions.

Ben retired to his room that night, but he slept not a wink, unable to relax with the burden pressing down on his shoulders…

… One that would only grow more overwhelming as the days passed, starting with the news about a certain public outburst making waves all over Auradon.

#disney #descendants #fanfic #reunions