my versions of Hyde and Utterson in tasteful fashion (based off of this post)

A Revealing Performance

My rendition for the Shadow Play in @winterpower98's Swap Au.

It was supposed to be a simple thing, then it sort of spiraled into this whole deal. For the effects of the Shadow Lantern, I drew some inspiration from her Cursed Au as I never thought simply using her friends was cruel enough for the Monkey Tyrant.

It serves to show just how far Macaque has grown, but also to highlight just how monstrous he was.

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Mei refrained from downing her bubble tea as she waited for the play to start. It had been a rough couple of weeks with Spider Queen and that creepy girl. And failing to find where Xiaotian had run off to after the misunderstanding. When Macaque sent her tickets to the local theatre, she was ashamed to think it was a trap.

Pigsy and Sandy were right. After everything that happened, she needed some serious me time. She had been too stressed.

Besides, everyone knew Macaque was a total theatre nerd. Few people knew that the star puppeteer was actually the Six-Eared Macaque himself. He would totally send her tickets from his stomping grounds as a way to unwind.

It was a shame that Tang couldn’t join them. Apparently, he finally managed to schedule a meeting with the Celestial Realm and was Taking the demon brothers to figure out a new way of sealing the Monkey Tyrant. It was also his chance to explain their little break-in during New Years. He encouraged her to have fun and if it was good, he’d join them for the next showing.

So here they were waiting for the performance to start. Although she wondered what the fake mayor was doing here. They hadn't seen him since he gave her the skeleton key. Still wasn't sure why he had it or why he gave it to her? Supposedly she was only supposed to have it for a day, but he never stopped by to pick it up.

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Sun Wukong was a monkey of many talents, but even he had to admit Macaque was a far better storyteller and his mastery of shadows was sheer perfection. But that just made this plan all the more perfect. What better way to teach his wayward beloved’s little flower a lesson than through a trusted medium.

Obtaining a spot in the local theatre was child’s play, a little magic and they were all but begging him to take center stage. Apparently, they had been scrambling to find a new performer after their star puppeteer had to leave for a family emergency (three guesses as to who that was). And with a little glamor, a set of tickets was left at the little flower's doorstep. As far as she knew, Macaque was proud of her progress and believed she had deserved a reward for all her hard work. She was so desperate for something to go right she hardly questioned how her mentor, who was in parts unknown, managed to secure tickets for a new performer.

In his personal dressing room, Wukong delicately touched up his human disguise. Even if he was going to be hidden in his hanfu and cloak, it wouldn’t do to spoil the surprise. Applying his eye shadow with artful flair, the Monkey King took time to appreciate just how handsome he truly was no matter what form he took. Honestly, who would have thought such perfection existed?

A pulse of dark magic drew his attention to his latest partner in crime.

The Shadow Lantern gently floated before him. Its dark magic practically purring at the thought of being used. Wukong could almost laugh at his beloved’s foolishness. He was there when his darling created the lantern, when he infused his own shadows into its very foundation. Did he honestly think such a masterpiece would tolerate being left to collect dust in a cave?

Normally a magical artifact would never consider turning on its master, but after centuries of abandonment, all Wukong had to do was whisper his intentions to return Macaque to his former self to secure its loyalty. The second he first made contact, he could sense a twisted hunger writhing within and with each performance granting it the chance to feed on the life essence of the viewers…. hehe, he almost couldn’t contain himself.

Looking up at the clock, he saw it was just about time for his next performance. His clones had reported the girl’s presence along with the pig and the water demon. Strangely the one with glasses and the little matchstick was absent. No matter, he could make do with two hostages just fine.

After all, the show must go on.

_____________________________

The overhead lights dimmed, signaling the start of the play. Smoke slowly poured from beneath the floorboards, generating an air of mystery. In a flash of golden light, a tall man wearing a beautiful cloak manifested on center stage. The crowd silenced themselves at the display.

“Welcome viewers to a performance you shall never forget!” From the folds of his sleeves, an exquisite lantern floated in front of him. A mesmerizing yet familiar purple glow emanating from the center.

“Our tale tonight is one of love, companionship, and how even the strongest of bonds can be severed through the trickery of the wicked.”

In the background, the shadows twisted and grew in the lantern’s light. Carefully they formed a beautiful scene of a mountain covered in flowers and trees. Attention was gradually guided to the top, where a round stone basked in the sun.

“It all began with the birth of a King.”

The round stone broke, revealing a figure that resembled a monkey. But no, this was a monkey demon, a monkie if you would. The King journeyed down the mountain until he found a tribe of normal monkeys. The group frolicked for a while as the King established himself as the undisputed ruler of the tribe.

A large figure with an ax appeared. The monster brought down his ax upon a small collection of monkeys only to be stopped at the last second by the King. The King used his superior strength to steal the demon’s ax and used it to decapitate the intruder in a single stroke. The monkeys jumped around the King and praised his strength, but the King did not appear satisfied.

“The young King was born with great power and strength, but he sought out more to protect his people.”

The King crafted a raft and set out on a dangerous sea. The King was shown to face off against mountain gods, human warriors, and demonic sorcerers always to reign victorious but never satisfied.

“In his travels, he learned much and faced many enemies, in time his efforts were handsomely rewarded.”

The King climbed a fleet of stairs carved into a mountain to reach a humble monastery. At the top, a stern human stood, but behind him was another monkie. This one however possessed six ears.

“His quest for power led him to a Warrior of potential equaling his own. At first, neither was sure how to react to their mirror, but they quickly forged a comradery that took them far.”

The two monkies trained together, mastering new powers as they sparred.

“Their time together increased their power exponentially and as they grew stronger their feelings blossomed into something beautiful.”

The two were on a cliff overlooking the stars, slowly leaning closer to one another. Eventually, the two faced their opposite and leaned in close.

“Their fates had become intertwined. Their power was unmatched. It was then the King realized what he had been searching for all this time.”

The two shadows merged together in a complex dance until they separated into two beings once again, but not as they began. The two monkeys were now garbed in elaborate, yet practical armor and silks. The King wielded a staff and the Warrior took up a spear.

“Slowly their strength grew to where nothing could challenge them, whether in the Celestial Realm or on Earth.”

The King and Warrior were shown battling heavenly armies and powerful demons with confident smirks. Each battle resoundingly won through their combination of speed, strength, and cunning.

“But it was not enough. The King wished to ensure that he and the Warrior would be able to fight together forever and sought the power and respect needed to secure their future.”

The King took to the Heavens, where he stood before an Emperor in the most extravagant outfit, surrounded by massive guards in magical armor. The Emperor was clearly afraid as the King effortlessly toppled one guard after another, slowly approaching the throne at a steady pace.

“The King’s noble actions were viewed negatively by those who feared his ever-growing power. Eventually, a prison was crafted that could restrain the King, one that not even his beloved Warrior could destroy.”

Just before the King’s latest attack could reach the Emperor, chains wrapped around his limbs and dragged him down to Earth. With a quick flex, the chains shattered, but the King was doomed as a mountain landed on him with a seal placed at the top. The Warrior tried to pry off the seal or find some way to weaken the mountain, his acts growing more desperate with time, yet nothing worked.

“Cruelly, the King was forced to wait until he could be freed, forced to watch his precious Warrior defend their Kingdom on his own.”

With a heavy expression, the Warrior abandoned his efforts to return to the original mountain as dozens of terrifying figures surrounded the monkey inhabitants.

“Centuries passed and their love still burned strong. Soon their patience was rewarded, the King was freed but he was soon trapped in a new prison.”

A monk approached the mountain and removed the seal. The King swiftly destroyed the mountain. The monk humbly bowed to the King and offered fresh clothing and a fillet. The King garbed himself in the gifts only to collapse in agony when the monk prayed.

“Enraged the King played along until the time was right. The King and the Warrior reunited in secret and crafted a plan that would allow them to take their revenge on those that dared to separate them.”

The two monkies hugged and nuzzled each other in appreciation. A quick conversation later, the Warrior changed to resemble the King and joined the monk as the King headed into unknown lands.

“Decades later the King was ready to retrieve his love, confident in his regained strength. But when he arrived the Warrior had changed. It was as if the warrior had lost a crucial part of himself. The Warrior tried to dissuade the King from killing the monk and his companions. He even tried to convince him to give up his rage at the Celestial Realm, believing the war that would ensue wasn't worth it.”

The disguised Warrior was traveling with four colorful characters. The King dropped from the sky in front of the group, a massive crater forming around him. The Warrior regained his true form, but instead of returning to his rightful place, he blocked the King’s view of the monk.

“The King could not believe his ears. This could not be his Warrior. His love always understood his goals and knew why heaven had to pay. The King knew this change was the monk’s fault. The King moved to silence the deceiver in one quick strike only to find it blocked by the Warrior.”

The King and Warrior exchanged blows that tore mountains asunder, split the heavens, and burned down forests. The other demons following the monk tried to aid the warrior, but nothing they did seemed to slow down the King, if anything their attacks only served to further enrage him.

“The two clashed until the Warrior fled with the jailers. Time and time again they clashed, but never could the King reach the Warrior he held in his heart.”

The group fled from the battle, but time and time again the King tracked them down. The locations may have changed, but the carnage after each battle remained as world-shattering as the first. In the end, the Group managed to truly escape, and the Warrior vanished into the shadows he wielded, leaving the King alone with nothing but his memories.

“Even now the King yearns for the companionship of his beloved Warrior, knowing that at his core the Warrior craves the same.”

With the final line sending shivers down the spines of the viewers, the puppeteer vanished in a flash of light.

_____________________________

As Mei waited for her family to walk out, she couldn’t help but think about the play. It almost sounded like they were telling the tale of the Monkey King. But that was ridiculous. No one knew the Monkey King’s origins aside from minor details from the Journey to the West. Besides the narrator seemed to view the Monkey Tryant as a hero and victim. Clearly, that guy needed a reality check.

“Hello, young one.” Nearly choking on the remainder of her tea, Mei turned to see the puppeteer standing behind her with a knowing smile.

His cloak shrouding the top of his face in shadow. For a second, Mei envisioned her father Macaque. He would adore that look. Actually, didn’t she see a similar outfit in his closet on Flower Fruit Mountain? Doesn’t he wear that outfit when he’s hosting a shadow play?

Wait. How did he sneak up on her like that? Was she that out of it?

How long has she been quiet? Crap! Say something! “Oh. Ah-hello. C-can I help you with something?”

“I was about to ask the same. You do know the theatre is going to close soon right?”

“What?” Mei grabbed her phone. The digital clock flashed that it was past nine. That couldn’t be right. That meant she had been waiting for nearly an hour. But where were the others? Surely, they wouldn’t have left without telling her. Were they in trouble?

“Is everything alright?”

“Ah- yeah, everything’s fine.” It’s cool. It’s cool. She could handle this. She just needed to stay calm. “No need to worry about me. I just ah-I have a few questions about your play.”

“Yes.”

“How did you could up with the concept? I mean, no offense, but your premise could be taken the wrong way.” Maybe it was the panic over where her family had disappeared to, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being sized up.

“Hm. Have you ever heard the expression ‘History is written by the winners’?”

“Yes. It’s pretty common.” Like one of the most used sayings in the world.

“The tale was designed to show that love is one of the most cherished feelings of all and that in order to protect it, one must be willing to do anything to keep their loved ones safe. The King only wished to keep his beloved by his side, but the Warrior was misled and forced to battle against his love. That story may belong to only two, but similar tales can be experienced in anyone’s life. Tell me, can you think of a time you fought with those you cared about due to a misunderstanding?”

Without even considering it, horrible memories resurfaced. Mei arguing with MK as she tried to stop him from leaving with the newly released Monkey King. Mei forced to battle Red Son as his mind was slowly consumed by the True Fire of Samadhi. Tang lying to them about his true identity. Macaque leaving when they needed him most without saying why.

“I see you can.” The puppeteer gently guided her back into the main hall, where she took a seat on an empty bench.

“It’s nothing. I just-” She honestly didn’t know why she was pouring out her heart to stranger. Maybe she really was that exhausted. “-there’s so much going on and I’m supposed to be strong no matter what. But sometimes it hurts, just thinking about all my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I truly am strong. What if bringing me into this was a mistake?”

“What if it was?” That voice!

Mei turned to see Macaque garbed in a strange outfit, one that honestly reminded her of the Monkey King’s. She was confused. She had never seen him wear anything like that, he looked like the Monkey King’s twisted shadow.

And that expression! Her father Macaque had never made that face before. It looked as though he was reveling in her suffering.

“What’s the matter, little jade? Don’t worry, I won’t leave you alone.” He extended a hand slowly with the intent to cradle her face. A normal gesture he would use to comfort her, but her every instinct was screaming at her to get away.

Mei jumped to her feet and pulled out her spear, aiming it right between the imposter’s eyes. “Enough games!”

Macaque stared at the spear for a second, his fiendish expression only growing more vicious. He threw his head back with a full-bodied laugh, showing how little he thought of her threat. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

In a flash of light, the Monkey Tyrant was standing before her, still wearing his puppeteer disguise. “Wow. About time. For a while, I was wondering if you’d ever figure out it was me.” His red and gold eyes carefully roved over her body, taking in every shake and fearful twitch. “Put down the spear, kid. We both know you’re not nearly good enough to scratch me with such a pitiful copy of the Dragon Blade.”

That may have been true, but she’d sooner make out with DBP in full view of Queen Iron Fan than leave herself completely open before this tyrant. “So the play was from your perspective. I always figured you were delusional, but this is a new low. Where is my family?” She all but growled, unknowingly her canines had slightly elongated in response to her rage.

“They never left. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize this.” The Monkey King took out the lantern, once more bathing the room in that familiar glow.

“What’s the big deal about a lantern?”

The stone monkie found her ignorance all the more entertaining. To think he hadn’t warned her of his own past.

“The big deal is that my dear warrior crafted this lantern long ago. It was his finest work and like everything he made it has multiple uses.” With a simple hand gesture, the silhouettes of Pigsy and Sandy appeared on the walls. “The Shadow Lantern can do more than enhance one’s skills in shadow magic, it can trap the bodies and souls of its targets. So long as the targets are trapped, the lantern can steal the shadows of its victims so its master can use them as a personal army until there is nothing left.”

“You expect me to believe Macaque made something so disgusting?” Even as Mei said it, she couldn’t help but recognize how similar the lantern’s magic was to her teacher’s. It was cool and soothing, but on the edge, there was an unmistakable edge of malice. “Even if he did, I doubt he made it without you whispering in his ears.”

“Oh child, you have no idea how many secrets he keeps from you. Let me share one with you.” The lantern grew brighter, and the silhouettes of her family members gained more substance as they peeled away from the walls.

Mei adjusted herself so all opponents were in her sight, but nothing could stop the sweat collecting on her forehead.

She sensed something powerful appear behind her. Jumping out of the way as a spear nearly severed her arm. She faced her new opponent. Only to almost drop her weapon.

Standing before her was another copy of Macaque only this one was even more disturbing. Its eyes burned with purple light, the shadows loving curled around it, but worst of all was the sneer filled with razor-tipped teeth.

“Did you honestly think my love was always so nice?”

My One And Only - Chapter 14

Previous | Next | Master List

This chapter is the longest one yet with 3000 words so I hope you enjoy reading. Also thank you so much for all the notes and reblogs! I just realised that I’m not far from 100 followers and can’t thank you all enough!

TW: Injuries at the end

The cat-themed hero sat on the floor, Ladybug sat in front of him and after a big breath, he spoke. "Ladybug, I- I don't think I'm the true holder of the Black Cat miraculous"

————————————————————

Ladybug looked at her partner wide-eyed. "Wh-what?"

Chat Noir sighed. "Plagg told me that true holders gain side effects. He said that you already have yours"

The spotted heroine nodded slowly.

"From what he said, true holders get the side effects around the same time, when they acknowledge each other in a way. Plagg also said that if you weren't a true holder, using the Ladybug miraculous or the Black Cat miraculous would be...dangerous and would do more harm than good to the user" The cat-themed hero scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to avoid eye contact with his partner.

"Okay...what does the 'more harm than good to the user' part mean?" She asked, her voice faulty in worry for her friend. Then Chat Noir looked at her in the eye, he seemed saddened and disappointed in himself.

"I... I haven't been myself. I've been treating people who are close to me as if they were...objects. Options. As if they weren't their person. And I feel horrible because of it." Ladybug reached her arm out to hold Chat Noir's shoulder, showing that she didn't judge him for it. "Plagg says it's the destruction from the miraculous, it's not natural for me"

"So you came to tell me" she concluded and the blonde hero nodded.

"I don't want my emotions to spiral out of control, I-I don't want to hurt you because of it so..." his voice trailed off. Ladybug tensed to hear what he had to say next. "I came to renounce the Black Cat miraculous"

Her eyes glinted in realisation "Y-you're sure?"

He nodded solemnly. "I don't want to risk hurting you or anyone else"

She sighed while nodding in understanding, she got up and motioned for Chat Noir to do the same.

"Plagg...claws in" Chat Noir mumbled with a heavy heart, it would be the last time he was ever going to say those words. As soon as he did, his transformation dropped gloomily, almost slower than usual. There stood Adrien Agreste, one of her best friends. He looked dejected and worried, looking at Ladybug for her approval. "Hey....bugaboo"

"Wow...you acted much more...freely as Chat, Adrien" The blonde let out a sigh of relief after seeing Ladybug's approving smile before noticing her face turned solemn in understanding once again. "I'm guessing you two want a moment to say goodbye" she glanced at Adrien and the kwami while stepping back to make space for the two.

"I guess this is goodbye, Kid" Plagg floated in front of Adrien's face, looking sadder than the blonde has seen in his entire time being with him. The kwami floated closer to hug Adrien's cheek.

"Thank you Plagg, for being my friend all this time" The blonde choked out.

"No, thank you, kid. You were one of the best Chat Noirs I've ever met" he hovered back in front of Adrien's face. "You're a good kid, Adrien. Don't forget that"

He took a shaky breath. "I won't...goodbye, Plagg"

"Let's get this over with now, or we'll make it rain" the kwami blurted out, but his voice was heavy with sadness. Slowly, Adrien pulled off the ring on his finger, watching as it turned black when Plagg got sucked in. He then handed the ring to the spotted heroine, surprisingly she took it hesitantly. She brought out her yo-yo, opened it and put the ring inside. She then looked back up to Adrien.

"Thank you" her voice was mournful. "For all, you have done as Chat Noir, all of Paris will grieve over your...retirement" She then took a deep breath trying to lighten the mood. "We need to think of a cover story that will be able to convince the Parisians as well as Hawkmoth"

The blonde put a finger on his chin. "Why don't we say that I got injured in the most recent akuma attack?"

The spotted heroine shook her head. "Hawkmoth would know that's a lie" Ladybug hummed while thinking for a valid reason which even Hawkmoth would fall for. 'Dami has good ideas, but he isn't here right now...what would he suggest?' She snapped her fingers. "I think I got it!"

"Well, what is it?"

"Let's say that as the akuma in the most recent attack had used his power to cause a defect with the Cataclysm, it was Sandboy, so that makes sense. The defect caused some damage with the Black Cat miraculous that wasn't fixable with the Miraculous Cure thus causing Chat Noir's miraculous to malfunction. This malfunction caused some physical damage to you and made you no longer compatible to use the miraculous without causing further damage, henceforth refraining you to be Chat Noir any more and forcing you into early retirement" 'If that isn't a good idea then I don't know what is' she took a deep breath. "What do you think?"

Adrien blinked once, twice before answering. "Sounds perfect M'lady". It wasn't said in a flirtatious manner he would normally use. 'No, Chat Noir used it in that way. Adrien doesn't need to any more, well at least not to me any more. Kagami probably'

"Well" Ladybug breathed in. "I'll drop you at your mansion then? I won't let my former partner walk all that way when I can easily help you get there"

Adrien flashed a friendly smile. "Yeah... I'd like that, thank you Ladybug"

~~~

A few swings later, Ladybug and Adrien arrived in front of Agreste Mansion, she settled the boy down gently on the ground.

"This is where we must depart, can't thank you enough for all that you've done. For all that you've done for Paris and for all that you've done to help me" Ladybug pulled the blonde in for a cordial hug before pulling away and looking at him in the eyes. "Just because you can no longer be Chat Noir, doesn't mean that you'll be excused from this battle permanently. If you want to, tell me now"

Adrien didn't hesitate to answer. "No, I joined the fight wanting to unmask Hawkmoth. I won't stop now just because I'm not paired with the right miraculous"

The spotted heroine smiled at the determination in her friend's voice. "Well, you can help behind the scenes. You can help the citizens out of the way of the akuma, that's all I ask of you for now. But that doesn't mean that I won't give you a miraculous if things get too out of hand. Right now it's best to focus on channelling out the destructive magic in you. Take a break from all of this" She used her arms to gesture fighting akumas and Adrien laughed.

"Don't worry I will just-" he paused. "Don't hesitate to find me if you need help, kay?"

Ladybug smiled and nodded while reaching for her yo-yo that was wrapped around her waist. She launched it at a nearby building and rugged on the rope before turning to Adrien and saying "Goodbye, Chaton"

~~~

Alya briskly walked the streets of Paris, her fingers fiddling with her phone as she was itching to talk to Ladybug. During the most recent akuma attack, while hiding from Sandboy, Alya noticed that Chat Noir seemed...unlike himself. He wasn't goofy or flirty and he wasn't cracking any puns like he usually did. The black cat-themed hero seemed worried and on edge, the aspiring reporter desperately wanted to find the spotted heroine to ask about this. As if by luck, Alya noticed a familiar figure swinging from rooftop to rooftop.

"Ladybug!" Alya called out, reaching to press the record button on her phone. "Can I ask you a question for the Ladyblog?"

Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around a pole near the reporter which helped her gracefully land in front of the girl. "Sure, I've got time"

Alya hit the record button. "Ladybug I couldn't help but notice that Chat Noir wasn't himself during and after the latest akuma attack, is this something to be worried of or am I just overreacting?"

'I knew I had to talk about this eventually, I just didn't expect to talk about this soon. Alya would be able to spread the message clearly though' The spotted heroine took a deep breath. "During the most recent attack, something unforeseen and irreversible happened"

Alya, noticing the extra seriousness in the heroine's voice, straightened and projected the same seriousness in her own eyes.

"When Chat Noir called on his cataclysm, he was hit by one of the akuma's attacks. He and his miraculous were damaged in the process. Though I managed to fix the miraculous, Chat Noir wan't healed, even with my cure. He is currently recovering and he will no longer join me in battle. For how stable he is currently I... cannot say. I hope you understand that Chat Noir did not want to give up fighting Hawkmoth. Please do not be saddened by this as he is still helping me from behind the scenes. I hope this answers your question."

"Yes... it does. Thank you for spending your time with me today. Please send my regards to Chat"

"I will" she smiled solemnly as Alya pressed the stop record button before it morphed into a more cheerful one. "I hope you don't mind if I ever have to call you to help in an akuma attack, with Chat not being able to physically it'll be more... difficult to say the least"

"I'll always be here to help you out Ladybug!" Alya smiled proudly at the trust that Ladybug was showing her, she was one of, if not, the first to join after the original duo.

"Well I'm glad to have you as my personal reporter. Bug out!" The spotted heroine used her yo-yo as a grappling hook, leaving the stunned reporter.

'Oh my god..she called me her personal reporter! Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-'

~~~

Gabriel had a hand on his chin, smiling maliciously as the video ended. Mademoiselle Césaire has been known as Ladybug's go-to reporter, this video just proved it. Though that wasn't what the fashion designer was thinking. 'With Chat Noir out of my way, we can finally begin this experiment' The video had worked too well, Gabriel truly believed it enough to start trying a power up his miraculous had. He managed to translate a page the grimoire, and he was ready to test it out. 'Now would be the best time, Ladybug is at her most vulnerable'.

He saved the project he was working on previously before calling for his assistant. "Nathalie"

"Sir?" She entered the room immediately, expecting something to happen considering she just finished watching Alya's video which was currently the number one video trending in Paris.

"I believe it's time to move onto phase two" he answered with a smirk as he turned towards the painting of his wife.

"I shall make sure Adrien is safe in his room" Nathalie concluded before turning to leave.

Gabriel's hand brushed the portrait, reaching the familiar buttons that would lead him to his lair. 'Today will mark the beginning of your doom, Ladybug'

~~~

Marinette was sitting on the sofa in Jagged's hotel room. She had just been briefly told how Bob Roth was no longer Jagged Stone's manager and how Penny was now assuming the role. He was caught stealing from Kitty Section and was now working with XY, truthfully, Marinette was glad he was gone. Currently, she was discussing titles for all the songs that were in Jagged's up coming album, including the one she would be in.

"Marinette, have you got any ideas for your song yet?" Penny asked while setting down her clipboard. She had actually already had an idea thanks to Damian.

Marinette sang a bit of the song she wrote unknowingly. She asked Damian to skim through the lyrics sometime they went to bed and somehow she was singing the chorus. She only realised what she was doing when she felt arms wrap around her waist from behind and a husky voice whisper in her ear.

"You sing angelically, mon amour" Damian pressed his face in the space of her neck.

"You really think so?" She asked, she wasn't as tired as Damian was at that moment so she made sure to talk in a way that would soothe him to sleep.

He hummed. "I have a suggestion for a title" he murmured into her neck. "Dernière Danse"

Marinette blinked, slightly unfocused considering the fact that she could feel her boyfriend's breath on her neck, she liked the feeling. "Yeah... I like that"

She hummed and turned to face the sheets of lyrics in front of her, all of which still needed names. "Dernière Danse, Damian helped me decide last night"

"That's rock'n'roll Nettie but-" he had a knowing smirk on his face. "Who's Damian?"

'Damn, nothing gets past him' "Is he your boyfriend?" Penny asked, fond of her honorary niece. The two adults looked smugly at each other after being met with silence, practically confirming Penny question. "What's his name?"

"The sooner I find that out the sooner I can threaten that boy with Fang-" A look from Penny shut the rockstar up.

"You're not gonna threaten him anytime soon" the bluenette only continued after hearing a huffed 'fine' from Jagged. "And his name is Damian... Wayne" her voice veered of at the end and she looked to anywhere but the two adults.

"Wait Wayne? As in Brucie's youngest?!" Jagged exclaimed.

"You know his father?" Marinette tilted her head in curiosity, her honorary uncle had never mentioned him before.

"Yeah we were good friends back in the day, been a while since I've seen him actually" he smiled wistfully.

Marinette looked at the time. "Well I better get going. Bye Uncle Jagged! Bye Auntie Penny!" She turned to leave and reached the door but before she turned the handle, she turned to face Jagged and Penny, well, Jagged specifically. "Please don't tell anyone yet, Damian and I only recently got together. And no threatening him"

"I won't tell anyone" he crossed his heart with her fingers but he didn't confirm whether or not he would threaten the boy.

Marinette glared at her honorary uncle until Penny spoke up. "I'll make sure he won't do anything"

The bluenette smiled as she waved goodbye and left the room. She sent a quick text to Damian before she got on the lift and when she did, she pulled the silver ring out of her purse. It laid in the palm of her hand, Marinette glanced at it with a quizzing look on her face.

Tikki then made her presence known. "You have to find someone to use the miraculous soon Marinette" she flew in front of her holders face. "You can go without it for a few battles but then a new user has to be found, you can't fight alone"

She sighed and looked at the kwami. "I know Tikki, I'll ask Plagg if he can sense for any chosen users later"

She soon reached the floor and knocked on her boyfriend's door. He opened up immediately, the bluenette went inside and sat on the sofa. He sat next to her, wrapped his arm around her waist and gave a tender kiss on her temple.

"What happened? With Chat Noir I mean" Tikki then flew out of her owner's purse with the ring in her hands.

"Chat Noir was never destined to use the Black Cat miraculous" Tikki stated matter-of-factly "Luckily he was able to renounce Plagg before the magic corrupted him entirely"

Damian nodded slowly he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud crash in the distance. On instinct, they both rushed to the balcony to see what was going on. Channeling her energy, Marinette recognised the aura of an akuma. She ran back inside and Tikki placed the ring on the coffee table before joining her holder.

"Tikki, Spots On!" The bluenette was then engulfed by a bright light and when it subsided, there stood the spotted heroine. She walked back onto the balcony and before she used her yo-yo, she turned to her lover and spoke in a teasing manner. "Don't lose the ring"

He nodded. "I won't and-" he stared at her in the eyes. "Go show Hawkmoth whose superior"

She smiled and and yo-yo'd away. Damian sighed and went back inside, closing the balcony door behind him. He still hadn't updated the file he was working on, he knew his father and his imbecilic brothers would be on his back so he decided to do just that. He sent a quick text to the group chat he was in to buy him some time. It didn't take long for him to finish and he decided to watch the battle between Ladybug and the Akuma, he had the LadyBlog up on the flatscreen as Alya was streaming the fight. Luckily from a safe distance. Damian didn't doubt Ladybug's ability to fight, in fact, he was impressed. He just wanted to watch his girlfriend take the villain down.

As he turned the television on, he observed as Ladybug and the Akuma, who called itself 'Guerrier', fought. He noticed how incredibly aware the spotted heroine was of her surroundings. She was great at multitasking as well whenever a civilian was in danger. And how she would easily switch from offensive to defensive. It appeared that she had the upper hand. Unfortunately for him though, that would soon change.

~~~

Jason felt very tempted to switch Tim's cup of coffee with the cup of decaf that he had. He was about to do just that when his phone dinged, Tim noticed it too. Huffing at the lost opportunity, he picked his phone up. "It's the demon brat" he scoffed.

"What he say?" Dick asked.

"That there's currently an attack and we can watch it if we wanna, Dickhead" he retorted.

"Tim?" Dick ignored Jason's comment and turned to where Tim was a few seconds ago, though there was only an empty seat.

"Done" Tim's voice came from the living room. 'Where the fuck did he get that energy from-'

The two eldest sons went to the living room and found Tim sitting in front of the television with a live feed from Paris displayed on the screen. There were two figures that stood out. One was in a matte black fencing suit with a long black blade. The other was a red and black spotted heroine which all in the room presumed to be the hero. They watched as the heroine, now identified as 'Ladybug', fought the villain. She was graceful, skilled and tactical. As the battle got slightly closer to the camera, Dick noticed something.

"She looks so young!" He exclaimed. "Like fifteen!"

"She got mad skill for a fifteen year old" Jason commented, slightly unnerved at the realisation of how young she was. After those words were said, the spotted heroine back flipped over the villain to avoid the blade. Ladybug gracefully landed behind him and gave a powerful kick from behind, launching the villain forward and onto the ground. Jason whistled.

The spotted heroine seemed to be in control of the whole situation, it also seemed that way to the men until the villain did something completely unexpected. His body twisted in an inhuman way to get out of Ladybug's grip. Taking advantage of the situation, the villain used his sword to impale the young heroine. The sword went deep into her chest, the handle nearly reached her back. It stabbed through her body with a horrifying and repulsive sound. The three men in the room flinches at the image, they've seen more revolting images than this but this seemed much more different. The sound the blade made, the way the heroine's body was twisted, the fact that she was so young and this was happening and all the screams and shouts in French adding to the atmosphere.They notice her face twist in surprise, pain and pure determination.

The situation in Paris was much, much more serious than they assumed.

———

Taglist: @little-bluestar, @miracleofadisaster, @frieddonutsweets, @jjmjjktth, @genderfluidmoma, @starlit-dreaming, @icerosecrystal, @lolieg, @kashlyn, @mochegato, @eggadoodle, @walkingthroughonautopilot, @toodaloo-kangaroo

So with that little change in mind, here are the few Characters in Persona Asphalt I have right now:

Elee Leigh (Later Changed to Elee Esperer), Fool Arcana: Main Character and leader of the Heroes Union (the team in Asphalt). Has an opened personality as a front, but is actually worried all the time about the world crumbling around her. Gains her persona in a battle against a fake version of her Shadow. Her initial/base Persona is Sento, based on the story of Kamen Rider Build, her soul shows what she wishes for in the world most: Love and Peace. She fight her true shadow by the end and releases her Ultimate Persona KiRyuuga, based on Cross-Z Build, her truer self shows that she wishes to learn from herself and others as she strives to a live of love, peace, and hope. Has had a connection to shadows since she was 6, since the place she was abandoned was actually Okinawa. A certain pair of siblings of blue and red/pink and their team were the ones to find her.

Roddy Etchings, Magician Arcana: Second Party Member and best friend of Elee, (also potential love interest). An aspiring fashion designer, he wishes to make stylish clothing for those he cares about, but the people in charge of the tech focused fashion stores in Neotech only wish to use him for his talents, instead of hiring him. He nearly falls into a despair over how no one will truly like his work, which he avoids when he meets Elee and faces his fears, granting him the Persona: Katsumi, based on Ultraman Rosso from R/B showing his love of fashion firsthand. When he unlocks his ultimate, it is through how he finally realizes that fashion is actually okay to mix with subjects, his favorite being science, unlocking his Ultimate: Minato, a full amount of Greube from the R/B movie but Persona-fied.

Bree Survi, The Chariot Arcana: Third Party member (and a love interest of Elee). A girl with a passion for performing magic, she had escaped a toxic relationship before the events of asphalt. When her past comes back to haunt her in Neotech, she begins to lose hope that she’ll ever be able to grow stronger. Through only a little push from Elee, she stands up for herself and fights back, unlocking her Persona: Futari (A persona-fied mix of Cure White). When she finally admits to herself that idea of a relationship with others is somethings she’s been wanting for a while, but she was scared of being hurt again, she unlocks her ultimate: PreCura.

Lia Kingly, Empress Arcana: Fourth party member. Neotech Academy’s resident “Queen”, she secretly wishes for nothing but the love of real friends and the chance to go wherever she wants. Gains a real friend with Elee as a Relation Connection, before joining the party when she faces her shadow in the Net (and becoming another Love Interest for Elee, and is the closest to being canon). Her Persona is Shishi, and it evolves into Orion (based on Shishi red’s forms).

Wilson “Webby” Crimson, Star Arcana: A program originating from the Shadow Net, later revealed to be the once though missing son of Shad0wTech’s CEO. Acts as the groups navigator before he gets his own Persona, to become the fifth member of the team. His is an automatic Relation Connection for until you max it out (he’s also a potential love interest). Unlocks his persona after facing his shadow and learning the big truth of his past. His wants to find the truth grants him the Persona Janperson. When he reaches his max link, his persona grows into Gavan.

Max “Fang” Fangsen, Emperor Arcana: The sixth Party Member and second Navigator. Thought to be nothing but a punk by many of the other students, is actually a very smart person who works hard on his looks so no one will pick on him. Faces his shadow and begins his Relation Connection with Elee (another love interest, though it’s hinted he also has feelings for Roddy). His persona is  2Bat, who later evolves into Kivat (based on Kivat the 2 and 3 from Kiva)

Akira Ryuusou, Tower Arcana: Seventh Party Member, and an aspiring business studies focused student. He had once believed that business had to trample over everyone that could interrupt it, but saved himself when he remembered his morals were not worth compromising for the sake of money. His relation connection is learning to deal with his once terrible tendencies, and growing past them (continues the trend of being a potential love interest). His Persona is Zanget and his ultimate Persona is Kachidoki Zangetsu (it should be clear who that’s based on.)

Elise Knighting, Priestess Arcana: Eighth and final party member. A girl with royal heritage, she feels she trapped in a fate of only having her name tied to a past she wants nothing to do with. She faces her shadow and despair, regainning her hope of being able to change her family name into one of pride. Her Relation Connection is her first steps to becoming a recognized name. (Also a potential love interest, though she also has potential feelings for Webby.) Her Persona is Dull-Ga, and her Ultimate Persona is Bright-Garo (based on the Golden Knight Garo and what little I know of that series.)

Heroes Union, Fortune Arcana Relation Connection: The name of Asphalt’s team. They believe that as long as they stick together and keep their hope, Fortune will shine upon them. Earned their name from how Heroes were made to inspire hope to all. Updates automatically.

Mr. (Roger) Scripten, Strength Arcana Relation Connection: Elee’s Theater Teacher. Starts out as cold and closed to all, but actually cares about the students he teaches. As you become close to him, he slowly opens up to others, and becomes more cheerful. Eventually reveals that the reason he closed himself off is that one of students had an accident when working in the tech shop, and he was scared of getting close to students after. He provides Elee with help on her theatrics skills, in turn helping her dancing in the Shadow Net.

Molly Esperer, Hierophant Arcana Relation Connection: Elee’s adopted mom, she’s the head of the R&D area at Shad0wTech and a caring person. She’s very young to be a parent, at 27, but she wanted a child because she had felt that her home was too empty without a family, one that she wanted, despite not looking for any partners currently. She supports Elee in whatever she does, and provides info about shady tech dealings when she learns about the Union.

Mitsuru Kirijo and Yukari Takeba, Justice Arcana Relation Connection: Elee’s other ‘Moms’. Were the two who visited her the most when she was still in Japan. They still keep in contact with her, but eventually she gets to see them again when they move to Neotech for their work (Yukari getting a new role in a show being filmed there, and Mitsuru wanting to set up new works for the Kirijo Group in Neotech.)

Rise Kujikawa, Sun Arcana Relation Connection: The famous idol herself is living in Neotech for the next year and a half due to her work. Meets Elee when the girl interns at a production studio. She becomes quick friends with her, and is especially interested by the fact that she seems to know both Yukari Takeba AND Mitsuru Kirijo.

Barista From Japan, Ren, Moon Arcana Relation Connection: An aspiring professional cook and barista from Japan, Ren seems to know more than he lets on. Meets Elee when she enters his current workplace and he mentions wanting to see some Labyrinth Movies with a friend again someday. Later reveals himself as THE Ren Amamiya, once leader of the Phantom Thieves (Elee remembers meeting him once upon a time somewhere. Perhaps a Movie Theater? Or was it a Maze? She can’t get the letter Q out of her head.) 

Elizabeth, Death Arcana Relation Connection: A mysterious woman who owns the Blue House book rental. She reminds Elee of those two from ten years ago (due to how she was the attendant for them). The persona Elee can fuse by the end gives her a sad feeling, as if those two are with her again (Messiah and Thanatos).

Eli Simmers, Temperance Arcana Relation Connection: The man who runs the toy shop (and provides the Heroes Union with their weapons). Imports toys from overseas and bonds with Elee over their shared love of Featherman and Kamen Racer (as it’s called in that world). Wants nothing more in life than to share his joy of other cultures with Neotech, and his Connection is all about that.

Manuel Imborglione, Devil Arcana Relation Connection: Neotech Academy’s resident prankster, who also happens to be the star history student. Every prank he pulls is planned out with a historical event in mind and is often in the middle when it comes to win loss ratios for these pranks. His story is his want to make people learn from the past, as he had learned from his own growing up. As another student he is a potential love interest.

Mabel Enforcra, Judgement Arcana Relation Connection: Another Student at Neotech, Mabel is an aspiring comic writer and is Asphalt’s succesor to Mishima, as the moderator of the Heroes Union Site, the place that all of the dances of the HU are uploaded too. Her story involves her want to prove her worth as a writer, and Elee being there as a support. As a student, she is another potential love interest.

 Stella Reclu, Hermit Arcana Relation Connection: Stella is Neotech Academy’s top astrology student, with the habit of pushing everyone away who tries to get close. Elee manages to stay despite her pushing and learns that she was being pushed because Stella didn’t want her parents to try and threaten anyone for interrupting her studies. The Heroes Union saves her grieving heart and she finally stands up to her parents. As a student, she is another potential love interest for Elee.

Wilbur and Charlotte, The Lovers Arcana Relation Connection: The attendants of the Velvet Room, a married couple who live in the city and owe Igor a favor for help from a long time ago. They offer assistance to Elee when they see her, and handle the Persona Compendium.

Igor: The series staple caretaker of the Velvet Room, he offers his assistance with Persona Fusion and fortunetelling services. He loves the current status of the Velvet Room, as a hero group headquarters, stating it fills him with great pride as an over looker of the hopes of humans.

Natza Week - Day 2: Wisdom

“I am starting to regret splitting up our team right about now”

An irritated red-haired knight stated as she was hiding in a dungeon-like tomb while observing her surroundings. Next to her was a man with pink spiky hairs and a scarf around his neck. Contrary to his teammate, however, he didn’t seem to be the slightest bit concerned about the sheer mass of dark mages in their vicinity that were actively searching for them.

“Don’t say that Erza. It’s a rare time for us to spend some quality time clobbering bad guys. Just the two of us.”

Natsu commented seemingly excited about their situation. The desire to just go out there and smack his foes together with Erza was basically written on his forehead.

“You always surprise me with your overly optimistic way of thinking in situations like this.”

Erza sighed but she couldn’t hide a small smile on her face when she got reminded of Natsu’s simpleminded, yet adorable positivity and excitement even in situations like this once again. 

“But still, if you had not ignored our plan and just charged in like that, we wouldn’t be in this situation”

She was obviously troubled by the thought of having to yet again explain why they failed a mission for the most laughable reasons.

“You always worry too much Erza. All we have to do now is beat those dark mages and get the artifact that they stole. Easy peasy.”

Typical Natsu plan right there. If it wasn’t for the fact that they are trying to avoid getting their attention, Erza would have probably chopped his head by now.

Erza just pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed loudly.

“There are too many Natsu. They know this place better than we do. We couldn’t possibly avoid at least some of them running off, alert everyone and run away with the one artifact that we are trying to secure”

The situation seemed dire. Even the experienced S-rank knight could not come up with a quick plan that allowed them to bypass the dark mages without them getting alerted first. Natsu seemed to think for a few seconds and then just smiled over at Erza

“Most of the time you are the one to take action and usually your last minute plans make sure we win the fight. But this one time, just follow my lead okay?”

Natsu confidently suggested. Erza was still skeptical though. What could Natsu come up with that she hadn’t thought of? But they had to do something now, no matter what. They couldn’t hide here much longer. Those mages would find them eventually anyway. To be honest, Natsu wasn’t the most tactical fighters in the team. His general strategy was always to overpower his opponent and grow stronger on the battlefield itself. Perfecting that could, however, be considered a wisdom in itself.

“Alright, fine, but if we end up failing to get the artifact and fail this mission, you will have to explain everything to everyone.”

“Sure will!”

There was still no trace of a plan to be seen though.

“And I will personally punish you for your reckless actions.”

The emotionless, low-pitched voice and cold glare she threw upon Natsu made him instantly shiver in fear and crush his confidence for a second. He knew oh so well how Erza punishes him when he does something stupid. No matter how close the relationship grew in the past few years, that fear has never even faded the tiniest little bit. It was that attitude that kept him in check when he needed it most of the time though. But that also made Natsu trust Erza so much. She would always be honest and punish him when he was acting thoughtless but that also meant that she would openly compliment and reward him when he was doing good. She was wise enough to always see through his actions and judge them accordingly. Natsu could always trust Erza to be honest with him, no matter what. Even with her armor on, the cold iron wall that he felt between her and the rest of the world was nonexistent anymore. Just the pure Erza, no facade or anything like that. Around him at least. From outside it may look like an abusive relationship but it was the bond of true trust and companionship that allowed them to be so free around each other. Erza always showed Natsu how she truly felt about him, whether it be anger, pride, or love. A bond those two could not share with anyone else, even in Fairy Tail. Not to that extent. It had already grown beyond that. 

Natsu took a deep breath to calm his fears and put on a toothy smile again.

“Fine, as long as you kiss the pain away afterward. But don’t worry! This plan if fool-proof. Just follow my lead this time”

“Wha-... Okay fine. Just tell me what you have planned”

A small blush formed on Erza’s cheeks because of Natsu’s unusually bold first sentence. She just cast those thoughts aside for now and got ready to take action.

“This is a dungeon, right? In other words, we are underground”

“Yeah, so?”

Erza could still not understand what Natsu had in mind.

“You will see soon enough. Let’s just finish them quick. I don’t want the Ice-Princess to finish his part faster than we do”

The fact that he still thought about beating Gray should not be a surprise but Erza was truly fascinated by how Natsu just always wanted to beat him at everything. He sure had some silly ambitions. Seeing Natsu as his usual self even when they assumingly about to fail the mission was one of the traits of Natsu Erza loved about him. 

“Ok! Let’s do this!”

With that said, Natsu dashed out of their hiding spot with a tremendous battle cry that was amplified by the echoes in this dungeon. 

“Fire Dragon’s Roar!”

A massive fireball lit up the entire place. However, Natsu didn’t aim it towards the dark mages but shot it on the roof above them instead. Neither the dark mages nor Erza had any idea what was happening but Natsu continued to shoot fireballs at certain places on the ceiling.

Soon after, those places crumbled and began to crash as the damaged ceiling gave in to gravity. Massive rocks and boulders fell down and formed massive walls of rocks.

Now Erza got what Natsu had in mind. She immediately requiped into the Heaven’s Wheel armor and shot a large number of swords into the ceiling. Every place that got hit by swords or fire crashed down and formed a new wall.

“Now those punks can’t run away and take the precious artifact away!”

Natsu exclaimed loudly, followed by a confident laugh, certain of his victory.

Every pathway way now blocked by boulders. There was nowhere for the enemy to run. A confined battle arena with no escape.

“It was unwise of you to make us your enemies. We will kick your butts in now. I’m all fired up!”

Erza simply nodded in agreement. Both of them, standing back to back now, dashed in opposing directions. Natsu and Erza were far beyond the capability of these dark mages. Each of them getting brutally taken out by firefists or steel weapons. Pretty sure that’s the moment they all regretted their life decisions.

A short while later, all the rogue mages were laying on the floor unconscious. If it comes to magical power, those mages were no match for Erza-Natsu-Duo. Those two were far beyond their league.

“Ahaha see, it worked perfectly”

Natsu put his hands, puffed out his chest and celebrated loudly. With each laugh, small sparks mockingly flew out of his mouth.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to come up with a plan like this, Natsu”

“You may be experienced in the art of battle. However, young Scarlet, when it comes to the Wisdom of Recklessness, you have still a lot to learn. Keep this lesson in mind”

The great and wise Natsu placed his fist on his palm and made an exaggerated bow, imitating that of a true master.

“They tell me, oh wise Natsu-dono~”

“?”

There was something off about Erza’s strangely cheerful voice. It made Natsu feel chills down his spine. A knot formed in his throat that forced him to swallow in anxiety. 

“How do you suggest we leave and find the artifact now after you blocked every path?~”

“?!”

... He didn’t think about that.

A dangerous smile indeed. Combined with the shadow cast over Erza’s eyes, Natsu could feel all of his previous pride and wisdom fade in an instant. Right about now, Natsu missed the beautiful and heartwarming smile she usually had when they were together. Her stern but loving attitude or even the possessive yet protective hug she always gave him when other girls tried to approach him was a more preferable choice. 

“Ehh, you know... I didn’t think that far ahead...”

A nervous smile masked the fear of the storm that was headed his way. 

“A dragon once said ‘A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything’ “

A desperate try to avoid the unavoidable. He messed up.

“Shut up!”

She shouted angrily and chopped the top of his head with an armored hand. Natsu was on his knees, holding his head in pain.

Shortly after, however, Erza reached out her hand to Natsu. Her previous angry attitude seemed to have faded.

Erza sure did notice Natsu’s genuine try to come up with a good plan this time. He may not be the wisest, but he doesn’t need to be. Just being that adorable little dragon that would fight any opponent that threatened his family was enough for her. Still, Natsu giving his best not be completely simple-minded and trying to improve himself for her sake didn’t go unnoticed. She was eternally grateful to have such a precious partner by her side. A partner, she couldn’t imagine out of her life anymore. A dragon that she would keep close to herself forever. 

“It wasn’t the smartest plan you came up with, but I guess it did prevent them from getting away with the artifact. Now get up my dragon of wisdom”

A bit taunting but still mostly appreciating her cute little dragon.

“Once we clear this barricade of rubble and get what we came for, I will get a delicious cake. Your treat.”

Natsu’s eyes were sparkling again. His usual enthusiasm and excitement back to where it should be. He took her hand that she offered to help him back up on his feet. It may have been only a few seconds but Natsu did notice that she requipped the cold gauntlets away before she reached out to him. Even as a fire mage, the heat of holding her hand was not comparable to any fire he was able to create. He wanted to hold it forever and never let go. But for now, it was enough to be able to finish this simple mission with her. 

Sooooooo I was thinking what would Shiro do if his s/o showed up to party in a sexy black dress just to get him back for spending so much time with Voltron P.s I love your Blog!

I like the way you think! I do love me some petty revenge.

“Hey Shiro! What are you up to today? Cause I was thinking–”

“I’m sorry, Y/N, I need to go over Voltron’s last battle and come up with some sort of game plan,” Shiro sighs and glowers at the screen in his hand, “We should have taken that Robeast out before it had that chance to knock us down. Maybe if I had had Lance and Hunk move us–” He’s talking more to himself now so you just cluck your tongue and walk away. Maybe next time.

You paced back and forth on the observation deck, growing increasingly agitated with every slowly passing minute. Seriously? He’s thirty minutes late! Where the hell was your boyfriend?!

You stop and loudly vent your frustration before storming storming towards the training deck. God help Shiro if he’s still training during date night because oh…he’s not here. None of the paladins are. So, clearly they finished? 

You sigh and head towards the rooms. You can hear various showers running and the thought of scaring the crap out of Shiro while he’s showering brings a skip to your step. But when Shiro’s door opens, you can see him laying face first in bed with his armor still on. You deflate and let his door shut on its own. If he’s tired enough to sleep in his armor then there’s no point in waking him. 

And so it keeps happening. Every time you think you finally get Shiro on his own he either has Voltron related business, extra training, or is passed out in places he shouldn’t be. It’s frustrating. It’s vexing. It’s starting to piss you off. 

Of course, you don’t think you’re more important than defending the universe from evil purple aliens but dammit, it hurts to be pushed aside so easily! 

But tonight…oh-hoho, tonight you were going to get back at the Black Paladin. 

You see, Allura, Coran, and Shiro have been in negotiations for the last week or so with the twin High Priestesses of Il’rea, who have long been fighting the Galra in their own quadrant of space. They’ve been highly successful; due to the combined power of Lady Arcadia’s tactics and Lady Selena’s bloodlust and frankly, Team Voltron needed help from people like them if there was any hope to defeat Prince Lotor. 

Tonight, the whole planet was celebrating the new alliance in Voltron’s honor with a huge party. Food, music, pretty girls, pretty guys (just pretty people in general), and displays of power and magic promised to be a fun night.

But there was a small problem. The problem was, as Lance put it: “Those Priestesses are total babes! They could literally crack my skull between their thighs and I would die happy.” Whether he was on duty or not, Shiro was spending a lot of time with beautiful women that were not you and tonight was the night you were going to drag his attention back, Voltron and the Alliance be damned. Especially since it’s been a good two weeks since you two had some true alone time. 

You smiled triumphantly at the sexy little black number hanging on the back of your door, ‘Watch Shiro ignore this.’

Shiro missed you. God, he missed you so much it started to hurt and the guilt he was carrying about temporarily pushing you aside to focus on Voltron was starting to haunt his nightmares. He was determined to fix it tonight. He was going to apologize for being a shit boyfriend, apologize for overworking himself, and apologize for making the love of his life feel like she no longer mattered to him. 

Keith had made it a point to find Shiro tell him that last little tidbit last night. It hurt. It hurt so bad Shiro actually spent most of the night crying and beating himself up mentally for that one. He royally fucked up, and he knew it.

So when the shuttle carrying you and the Paladins arrived, his heart began racing and Shiro felt the telltale fluttering in his stomach that told him he was nervous. But there were only four bodies on that shuttle and none of them yours. Concerned, Shiro pulled Keith aside to speak to him in a low whisper, “Hey, Keith. Wh-where’s Y/N? Isn’t she coming?”

Keith pursed his lips and glared. Shiro dropped his hand from Keith’s arm and took a step back, caught off guard by the uncharacteristic hostility in his friend’s eyes. He waits and Keith looks away before clearing his throat, “She’s not coming. She said she has a migraine so she’s going to take advantage of a silent castle and sleep it off. She doesn’t want you there.” He walks away with a final glare, making sure to clip his shoulder against Shiro’s. 

Shiro rubs his shoulder and glances towards the other paladins. He blanches as they quickly turn away to hide their glares. Crestfallen, Shiro swallows the lump in his throat and blinks back the tears that threaten to spill. He has a job to do tonight so he steels himself and turns around, stepping out of Takashi Shirogane - the failing boyfriend, and into Shiro - the Black Paladin and Leader of Voltron. 

He doesn’t see Lance and Hunk sharing concerned glances as they wonder if they took their glares too far or Pidge and Keith giving each other a thumbs up. He also misses you slipping out of your hiding place in the pod and moving to the next hiding place, shoes in hand. Allura, who has been your silent partner in tonight’s shenanigans, gives you a wink as she steps in front of your new spot, further hiding you. Bless her. She’s just as petty as you are.

Parties.

There was a time in his life that Shiro once enjoyed a good party and the chance to get shit-faced drunk without a care in the world. Now his anxiety was acting up, telling him there were too many people, too many points of entry, too many chances for an assassin to sneak in, this is was just another chance to get Lance blow–no. No. He needs to stop. There’s no point in thinking like that.

God, he needed a drink.

Luckily, Il’rea has alcohol, or something like it, and Shiro grabs a glass from a passing waiter and downs it in one gulp. Much better.

He grabbed another drink with every intention of downing that one too but he was stopped when he saw you flitting through the crowd. But it couldn’t be you, you were in the castle. Right?

He drops the glass from his mouth and moves to follow what he swears was you. His searching is fruitless and Shiro gives it up as a bad job only a few minutes later. He was looking for a black dress in a sea of black and white with little variation. Why couldn’t the woman have been wearing a red dress? That would be so much easier!

Like Allura! Shiro could make her out easily since her dress started as a bright yellow and faded to a soft orange. She looked like an Earth sunset was easily the brightest person in the room. Shiro smiled as she laughed at some aristocrat’s joke, happy to finally see her so carefree after the stressful week they had. He wished he could be like that.

He watched for a few more moments and was about to turn away when Allura hooked her arm through the arms of another woman and they turned as one to move together. His heart stopped for a split second because he knows that face. He knows that face.

Where Allura was as radiant as the sun, there you were, looking like the human embodiment of the night. Your hair was pulled up and artfully messy, lips painted a deep purple to match purple eye shadow, the front of your black gown draped over you to deeply expose your breasts and Shiro swallowed when he saw the long beautiful silver necklace he found for you sitting innocently on your chest. The last time he saw it he was watching it shimmer and shine as it moved with every thrust of his hips against yours.

You looked like Sin. And when your eyes locked Shiro swore then and there to have you underneath him before the night was over. He continued watching with hungry eyes as Allura twirled you two around and revealed the (pretty much non-existent) back of your dress and he changed it to within the hour. The wink you gave him over the shoulder as you disappeared into the crowd gave him the fuel he needed.

But it wasn’t that easy. Every time he got close to you, Hunk or Lance would whisk you away for a dance and pass you off to someone high ranking enough in the Il’rean hierarchy that Shiro knew it would cause tension if he just cut in, so he was forced to wait. 

And wait.

 And wait. Prowling like a panther at the edge of the dancing crowd, waiting for his chance to snatch you up.

Eventually there was a lull in the music and Shiro used it to beeline towards you, determined to have you in his arms and screaming his name in one of the smaller rooms next door. But he was stopped by Keith shoving a plate of food in his hands with a cheeky grin. “You haven’t eaten all night. Here. It’s delicious.”

“I-Uh…What? Oh,” he looked down at the plate just long enough to loose you in the crowd again and he cursed his luck. And his crew, the shits. He could spy Pidge up on the balcony, no doubt keeping an eye on the situation and instructing each of the Paladins to intercept him every time he got too close. He should have known they’d be in on this. They do like to stir up trouble. 

Well. There would be no getting to you this way. Not with Pidge directing them. And he couldn’t just run up there like a psychopath and stop her. She’d see him. He popped some of the food Keith brought him into his mouth and saluted Pidge. If this was his punishment, it was his punishment. But he could spoil their fun by giving in. His own private revenge on his crew for their mutiny.

“Surprise, surprise. You didn’t come for me,” you sigh as you lean against the balcony entryway. Shiro turns towards you with a bittersweet smile, “Would you have let me?” He leans against the balcony, doing his best to appear nonchalant even though his heart was hammering in his chest because there you are! His beautiful girlfriend! The light of his life! The woman he would willingly risk life and limb for! Dear god, he could see how pissed you were.

You fake thinking for a moment, making sure to bring a finger to your lips, just to enjoy the way Shiro’s eyes darken at such an innocent gesture. “No, not really. I was enjoying myself soooo much. I didn’t want to distract myself with my significant other.” Your pointed glare hits home and Shiro drops his gaze to the floor. You do nothing but wait, letting his shame settle in.

You soften as his shoulders drop and he slowly walks towards you, frightened that with each step closer he moves, you will bolt. You both release the breaths you didn’t know you were holding as Shiro slowly brings his forehead to yours. His large hands feel so right as snakes them around your waist and just holds you, taking a moment just to savor you in his arms before he can gather the courage to speak. 

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I didn’t mean to push you away. I didn’t intend to make you feel like you don’t matter to me, because you do. You are–I love you,” you gasp at his confession and the urge to scream ‘I love you too!’ is almost to much to bear but Shiro isn’t done talking, so you bite your tongue. Literally. “I made a mistake. I need to try harder. I will try harder. For you and Voltron.” 

The kiss he gives you is so tender and so sweet it nearly brings tears to your eyes. You pull him down for another harder kiss as he pulls away, wrapping your arms around his neck for leverage before pulling away enough to mumble against his lips, “You beautiful idiot. I love you so much but you’re too hard on yourself. I just…I missed you.”

You buried yourself into Shiro’s chest and squeezed him tight, enjoying the way his arms tightened against you and the gentle way he nuzzles into your hair. He was so warm and comforting and you couldn’t believe that you had gone nearly two weeks without this. These were the moments you lived for: domesticity in a universe at war.

“I’m going to fuck you in that dress the moment we get back to the castle,” his voice is low and gravely in your ear and you shivered. Moment ruined. 

“I’ve had to watch you prance around in that sorry excuse for a dress all night. Did you even see how much people wanted you?” A moan escapes as Shiro mouths directly against your ear and he moves his cool metal hand up your exposed back. You can feel his half-hard erection against your hip and he grins wickedly against your ear as he lightly rocks against you, “You naughty thing, I’m going to–”

“Sorry to interrupt,” you and Shiro jerk apart as Lady Arcadia glides by, her sister in tow, “but might I trouble you to use one of the rooms down the hall? As lovely as public displays of affection are, surely you two would enjoy privacy?” They quirk twin eyebrows and smirk, gliding away the way they came. 

You adjust your dress and hair, thankful that you were interrupted before anything else started. You share a bashful look with Shiro and clasp hands before re-joining the party; putting a pause on your libidos to play ambassadors. There would be time to play later tonight.

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City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

’Amid the chaos of war, the Shadowhunters must decide to fight with the vampires, werewolves and other Downworlders - or against them. Meanwhile, Jace and Clary have their own decision to make: should they pursue the love they know is forbidden?’

 Book Review: no spoilers

This part of my review will be spoiler-free. I’m glad that I decided to re-read The Mortal Instruments, because I remember liking this book. Now I love it, and I know why I love it, and that will stay with me. I do feel as if the first time I read this series, I didn’t fully take it in, because right now, I am really relating to this series, and lovin’ it. Half way through, and this series is on my favourites of all time! I really hope that City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls, is good, because I have heard that the series meanders a bit. But I will read, and finish the series no matter what... I just hope that I love them. I am keeping my expectations low, so I have a greater chance of liking it.

Now... this book. So much shit happens in this book, which I won’t spoil until later, and I loved it. This book made me become sleep deprived (because I ended up reading until 5 am, and had to stop myself otherwise I would have been so tired. But I still wanted to read it!). Every time I put it down, I wanted to continuing reading. My life was solely City of Glass. It is crazy to think that the time-span between City of Bones, and City of Glass is a month and a bit. If it was reality, it would be insta-love, but in the series it doesn’t feel like it. And I am so glad. In terms of the plot, it is the best so far. Things fell into place, set up was executed nicely, things you wanted to happen, happened. There are some let downs in execution, but not enough for me to feel disappointed. I am so satisfied with the ending, that if I had to finish the series here, I would be happy to. But I am not going too, because I need more Malec. Though, it does give me hope that when I finish City of Heavenly Fire, and Clockwork Princess, I will be satisfied too.

In terms of the characters, by the end of this book I liked all the main ones. Which is rare, because I normally dislike at least one. But, the character that I connected to the least (Isabelle), kind of redeemed herself in my eyes by the end, so I had no problems. My favourite character is still Magnus Bane, but I did realise that in his relationship with Alec, Alec is definitely the dramatic one (which I kinda like, because you would expect Magnus to be the dramatic one). I am looking forward to seeing more of Magnus, and Malec.

Overall, I give this book 5/5 or 10/10. It is my favourite book in the series so far, and the pages flew by when I read it. I would definitely recommend this book if you want a classic YA fantasy read, or are a fan of the TV show. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, but I am reading it in publication order, so my next read will be book one of The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Prince. Apparently, it’s better to read in publication order, because there is foreshadowing/referencing to The Mortal Instruments, so if you read it in publication order, you won’t be spoiled. After this book, City of Fallen Angels, I’ve only partially read it, as I DNF it the first time I read it. My review should therefore be very interesting to see if I do remember anything about that book / remember why I disliked it, so keep an eye out!

 SPOILERS:

From here on out, I’ll be talking more in depth on the specifics of the books. If you haven’t read this series, or this book, I would recommend not reading any further.

Plot/writing - I like how this book flows nice from City of Bones, and City of Ashes. It makes it seem as if the world stop existing as soon as you stopped reading it, and I like it. Chapter 1 ended on an action packed high, that it made me want to fast read the entire book. But I am glad that I was able to slow myself down. I do really like the way that the battle scenes were written. It gives you enough detail to tell you what’s happening, but it isn’t full of specifics so you’re bored, or confused. I also like how it focuses only on the characters which it can see.

Clary - Whilst this is the book that Clary, and Jace figure out that they’re not related, in the beginning of the book, they acted a lot like siblings when they disagreed about Clary going to Idris. Clary did annoy me the most in this book. It was because when she disregarded Luke, and Magnus’s warnings about Idris, and went ahead, and created a portal to follow Jace/Lightwood’s/Ragnor Fell. She was just such an teenager. So I was happy when she learnt the consequences of her actions, and being thrown into Lake Lyn, and having to deal with angry Luke. I did love her when she went to the Penhallow’s house though, and she didn’t take any of Isabelle’s shit, and fought her way to see Jace. I missed this strong, and sassy part of Clary. Even though Clary did annoy me in this book, there was this one quote that I related to sooo much. ’what was the point in crying when there was no one there to comfort you? And what was worse, when you couldn’t even comfort yourself.’ I related to this so much because I have been not feeling that good recently, so when I read this... I wanted to cry. For myself, as well as Clary, and I wanted to reach into the book, and hug her. I’ve never related to something so much before. The Clace kisses before they realise that they aren’t related, still gross me out. When Sebastian took Clary to the side, and asked about the book of the white, and why she gave it to Magnus a dirty downworlder, and Clary responded being like, it’s for my mom, and I know him better than you. I was like, “You go girl! Tell it to him!” I am annoyed that it takes Clary to show her power over the new runes, for the Clave to decide to fight against Valentine. Overall, I still love her.

Jace - I disliked Jace a bit in this book. I feel like the revelation that he had demon blood in him, gave him the excuse to act like a dick. But even before he found out, he still acted like a dick. I only liked him in the epilogue. I didn’t like how he treated Clary, when he found out that she was in Alicante. He basically shouted at her, in front of both of their friends. But, I did like her comeback to him of, I never thought you were Valentine’s son... until now. Even though Jace is a jackass, he is a funny one. I was suspicious of Jace, when he did come and see Clary at night, because it didn’t seem like it was Jace. But then you do have to take in consideration, that for the shadowhunters, it could have been the last night on earth for them. So I suspended my disbelief. I am glad that in the epilogue, Jace was partially happy, and no longer conflicted.

Simon - Still love Simon. But I do think that he has changed the most out of all the main characters. I did like it when he was giving Alec relationship advice when he was on his way to the Gard. I want more Alec, and Simon scenes! In both the TV show, and the books. I did feel as if Simon was in danger, as soon as he entered Idris though, so it wasn’t a surprised when he was imprisoned by Inquisitor Aldertree. I’m not sure if I approve of either Izzy, and Maia, with Simon. I guess I’ll just have to wait, and see which one I approve of. I do approve of his best friend duties with Clary. I loved it when Simon stopped Isabelle from hurting Clary with her words. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Simon as well regarding the Mark of Cain.

Alec - THERE WAS FINALLY A DISCUSSION ON ALEC’S FEELINGS FOR JACE! I am happy there was a conversation like this, and I am really happy on how it went. Because Jace told Alec, that he only liked Jace because he was safe. I was like yas, when this conversation happened, because it allowed Alec to truly move on. I was sad to find out that Malec had broken up (because Magnus didn’t want to be with someone who was pining after someone else), but spoiler alert... they get back together. The battle of Alicante did make me realise that Alec was the dramatic one in their relationship. Alec sees blue magic, and investigates to see Magnus. Magnus is fighting good, but then a demon sneaks up on him, but before anything happens, Alec jumps down and saves Magnus. The first thing that he ends up saying is, “You didn’t answer my calls.” But I did like the end of that chapter (10), when Alec is like, “If we survive this, I’ll introduce you to my parents.” The first Malec kiss that we see is so dramatic, and I love it. I wish we could have heard the conversation before the kiss. It was such a sweet moment, and it was made better with Clary/Simon/Isabelle talking about the Alliance rune, and Maia being worried that you would have to kiss the person that you were partnered with. I am looking forward to seeing a more liberated Alec.

Isabelle - Isabelle was the most annoying in this book, but by the end of it I liked her. I just disliked how rude she was to Clary when she saw her in Alicante. But I did like how they eventually became sisters in the epilogue. I do think that it was a bit catty for Isabelle not to like Clary because she knew that Jace loved Clary. It’ll be interesting to see where the character of Isabelle goes.

Magnus - I’ve been waiting for Magnus to call Clary “biscuit” and he finally fucking did. He needs to keep on calling her that because it’s so cute, and such a Magnus thing. And he admitted that he liked her! I’m glad that he just wasn’t hanging around just for the pay check. Not that I thought that... I still love his humour, and he is still my favourite character. I loved him acting as Ragnor Fell, and I do wished that this scene was in the TV show. It would have been very entertaining to watch. I was surprised to find out that Magnus was 800 years-old. It is a bit creepy if you think about how old Alec is. But I can get past that. I love how consistently sassy Magnus is, especially to Malachai. I love him, and I need more of him.

Luke - Luke was the best almost-stepfather to Clary. I loved how Clary said that Luke bought her everything that she needed (clothes, art materials etc), after her apartment got burnt down. I think in my eyes he is finally forgiven for abandoning Clary. I do still think that she should have been angry for longer at him for that, because if it wasn’t for Jace, she’d have died or been captured by Valentine. I did wish that Luke’s confession of love, had more details of his love, but I did like that whole scene. I am looking forward to his wedding!

Jocelyn - I did like the family reunion with Clary. It felt real. They obviously were happy to see each other, but Clary is angry at Jocelyn from hiding the shadow world from her. And Jocelyn, would have been apprehensive about Clary actually being a shadowhunter with no training. I am glad that Jocelyn was able to confide in Clary that Valentine most definitely intentionally allowed Luke to get ambushed by the pack of werewolves, so there would be no one around in her life to remind her that she was afraid of Valentine. I did think that the revelation that Jace was a Herondale would have been better if Valentine were to reveal it, because the execution did fall flat. I mean, I know it was good for Clary to know, but I think it would have been better revealed by the bad guy. I am happy that Jocelyn chose Luke to use the Alliance rune, and that she ran after him to tell him, that she loved him. I can’t wait to see their wedding.

Amatis - I do like Amatis. I feel like she deserves the award of the most developed character within one book. I like how she basically became Clary’s aunt. I also like how she gave Jace all her valuable things about Stephen, so he can learn more about his biological father. I also like how she rekindled her relationship with her brother in this book. I wish that we saw her in the TV show, and I hope that we see her again.

Valentine - I wish we saw more development from Valentine, before his death. But, it’ll be interesting to see how his death will impact Jace/Sebastian in later books.

Sebastian Verlac/Jonathan Morgenstern - Jonathan as Sebastian was funny. He certainly had some charm, but you could tell that there was something wrong with him. Like when Ragnor Fell mysteriously died after Clary told him that she was looking for Fell. There was too many coincidences. I really didn’t like his kiss with Clary. One because I know that they were actually related, but two, the kiss was just wrong in general. They basically kissed in the rubble of the Fairchild Manor... very sexy. I wasn’t expecting him to turn on the good guys when he did. It was unexpected, and I did like the surprise. But, I did think that he would keep up his cover after the battle too, and not reveal himself too early. Though, I did like his reveal as the bad guy to the group. The execution did fall a bit short, but it was still good, because you wasn’t expecting him to kill Hodge.

Max - I hated how everybody disregarded Max, simply because he was a child. I almost wanted to warn them, and tell them to pay more attention to him... because you never know what is going to happen... Plus, if you listened to him, he could have saved Alicante! I did wish that there was a deleted scene or au scene where we got to see Clary take Max to Forbidden Planet, and buy what manga’s he wants. I did feel sad with his death, but I feel as if his death could have been done better, and be more moving. Especially if the book took the viewpoint of Alec/Isabelle/Jace.

Aldertree - I hated Aldertree, and I am not surprised that I did. I didn’t like him in the TV Show, so I am not surprised that I didn’t like him in the books. I disliked him in the TV show more though, because he was more present, and had a more developed storyline. I did like his death, and I do hope his TV show counterpart will die. But I don’t think Aldertree will die in the TV show, because he just disappeared.

Raziel - I liked Raziel. I liked book Raziel more than TV show Raziel. I love the fact that he talked back to Valentine, and told him off, and Valentine had to deal with it. I wish the TV show was more like the book when it comes to Raziel. I wish Raziel was the one to kill Valentine in the TV show as payback for what he did to Ithuriel. I also wish that you could have seen Clary outplay Valentine.

I can’t wait to continue with The Shadowhunter Chronicles!

Love Lou xx

Angel || Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Name: Wesley Wyndam Pryce

Age: 33

Relationship: Single [Verse depending]

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Job: Teacher

Faceclaims: Alexis Denisof

Wesley’s childhood was a largely unhappy one. At the age of six or seven, Wesley attempted to resurrect a dead bird using a mystical scroll stolen from his father’s library.[6] As a teenager, he attended an all-boys preparatory school run by the Watchers Council, where he was named Head Boy.

Wesley was sent to Sunnydale by the Watchers’ Council to serve as a replacement Watcher for both Faith Lehane and Buffy Summers after Rupert Giles was fired. Clean cut, pompous and bossy, Wesley was immediately disliked by the girls under his observation. Prior to his assignment, his only other encounters with vampires had been “under controlled circumstances.” As such, he proved rather inexperienced and handled himself poorly in combat. Giles, his predecessor and a fellow Englishman, did not take him seriously, and tended to support Buffy’s predilection in Wesley’s place despite the Council’s wishes.

While in Sunnydale, Wesley developed a crush on Cordelia Chase, a high school student and reluctant member of the Scooby Gang. Their flirtation culminated when they danced together at the prom; a few days later, they shared an awkward kiss. They both quickly came to realize that they lacked any sort of chemistry. When Faith began to go rogue and killed the Deputy Mayor, the Scoobies neglected to inform Wesley, leaving him to discover the information by eavesdropping on Buffy and Giles as they conversed. Calling in a squadron of the Watchers Council Special Operations Team, Wesley ignorantly ruined Angel’s plan to reach Faith emotionally and ended up driving her into the arms of the villainous Mayor Wilkins instead, a mistake that only earned him further disdain from Buffy and her companions.[7]

After Wesley failed to convince the Council to aid Angel after he was poisoned by Faith, an enraged and disgusted Buffy decided to stop following the Council’s orders altogether and promptly severed all ties with them. Still, Wesley chose to help them fight the Mayor after his Ascension to the demon Olvikan, though he was knocked out almost immediately. Due to his utter failure to control either of the Slayers that he had been assigned to watch, the Watchers Council dismissed and severed all ties with Wesley, even refusing to fly him back to England.

After his dismissal from the Watchers’ Council, Wesley styled himself as a ‘rogue demon hunter’ and took to wearing leather and riding around on a motorcycle, eventually making his way to Los Angeles, where he was timely reunited with Angel and Cordelia. Despite his supposed new look, Wesley was still very much the man he had been in Sunnydale, but with a little more humility as a result of his firing. He began assisting Angel and Cordelia’s recently opened supernatural detective agency, Angel Investigations. He filled the deceased Doyle’s place in the business, and was finally able to put his knowledge of the paranormal to good use by providing Angel and Cordelia with a rich slew of facts in regards to the occult. He kept his firing by the Council a secret from both of them, and merely stated that after Buffy’s refusal to work with the Council, he’d had no opportunity to function as a Watcher, and had thus turned to demon hunting instead. He came to admit his truth of his arrival in L.A. to Angel when Cordelia was kidnapped. Upon rescuing her, he chose to continue working with Angel Investigations, which led him to deal with Penn, a vampire to whom Angelus had acted as a sire and a mentor in the past, and Cordelia’s mystical pregnancy.

Wesley’s path soon became wrought with tragedy. Just as he was beginning to have romantic feelings for teammate Fred Burkle, he was supernaturally influenced to attempt to kill her.[8] He still harbored feelings for her and eventually decided to try again, however Gunn had similar feelings which were reciprocated. As a result, Wesley was forced to watch as the two started a happy relationship. After the birth of Angel’s son, Connor, Wesley became convinced by a prophecy that Angel would eventually kill his own baby. With the intention of keeping Connor safe, Wesley betrayed his friends by conspiring with Angel’s old enemy, Daniel Holtz, and kidnapped the infant. Wesley’s plan went terribly wrong, and resulted in his throat being cut and Connor being swept away to the hell dimension Quor'toth by Holtz. As it turned out, the prophecy had been created by Sahjhan, a time-warping demon who had learned that Connor was destined to kill him.

When Angel was sealed in a metal coffin and sunk to the bottom of the ocean by Connor and Justine, Wesley kidnapped Justine and forced her to help him find and retrieve Angel; when they did so, Wesley went so far as to feed Angel his own blood to help him regain his strength before dropping him back off at the Hyperion. After offering Angel advice in finding what had happened to Cordelia, and participating in a spell to restore Cordelia’s lost memory, Wesley eventually returned to the team full-time during the gang’s first confrontation with The Beast and Jasmine’s manifestation.

Now deeply serious, humorless, and pessimistic, he took command and made the difficult decision to force Angelus to resurface in Angel’s body when information about Angelus’ history with The Beast was uncovered. Wesley also had to face the trauma of Lilah’s death, particularly when he was forced to decapitate her corpse in order to esure she wouldn’t rise again as a vampire.[10] In an attempt to save Connor, Angel performed a powerful mind-wipe that removed certain events from the collective memories of the world at large, causing Wesley to forget all of his memories involving Connor, and along with it, his betrayal of Angel and the group (Although precisely what he remembered of this new history was never clarified).

After Angel and his team chose to take over the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, Wesley began working with them once more. Just as he had adjusted to his new surroundings, his father arrived and tried to convince him to rejoin the Watchers’ Council. Roger Wyndam-Pryce was soon revealed to have sinister intentions when he attempted to steal Angel’s free will. When his father threatened to kill Fred, Wesley shot and killed him without a moment’s hesitation, and continued to fire his gun until the magazine was empty. Although it turned out that the being he had killed wasn’t his real father, but rather a cyborg imitation, Wesley was still understandably traumatized.

Afterward, Wesley and Fred finally admitted their longtime feelings for one another and began a romantic relationship. It was short lived, however; Fred became infected with some sort of mystical illness that turned out to be the Old One known as Illyria shelling her out to occupy her body. Wesley was forced to feel the woman he loved die in his arms as Illyria is resurrected. In turn, Wesley stabbed Gunn who inadvertently was responsible for Fred coming into contact with the virus, and then shot Knox, the man responsible for choosing Fred as Illyria’s vessel.

This tragedy left Wesley a broken man who turned to alcohol to ease his pain. Descending into alcoholism, Wesley began to hold onto Illyria as the only thing he had left of Fred, helping her understand the human world and emotions she was blighted with. He inadvertently restored his and his friends’ memories of Connor when he smashed the Orlon Window that held said memories, upon learning that Angel had magically altered history when he accepted Wolfram & Hart’s offer, thinking that Fred was the price for doing so. Expecting Fred to return, he instead was gifted with the painful memories of stealing Connor and betraying Angel. Upon discussing the returned memories with Illyria who regained Fred’s lost memories, Wesley, obviously downtrodden, told her to forget reality and focus on the fake memories as they were made for a reason.

Following his death, Wesley returned due to the standard perpetuity clause in his Wolfram & Hart contract keeping him working for the company even after death.[11] He was made the liaison between the Senior Partners and the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, which was sent to hell by the Senior Partners along with the rest of Los Angeles, being permanently trapped in the form of the pompous and cowardly Watcher he once was; however, knowing that they would not be able to control him as they had Lilah or Holland Manners, the Senior Partners revived Wesley as a ghost and rendered him unable to make contact with anything. For the first few weeks in Hell, Wesley cared for Angel who had been rendered human by the Senior Partners and was badly injured. Upon recovering, Wesley helped him mystically keep up the guise that he was still a vampire and assisted in healing his wounds. Wesley tried to contact Cordelia, who had become a higher power, for assistance; but she and the other Powers That Be were unable to exert any influence in Wolfram & Hart’s domain.

He was apparently destroyed when Gunn, who had become a vampire, destroyed the Wolfram & Hart building. He then convinced the bodiless voices in the White Room to let him return with Angel. As he returns during the battle against the Demon Lords of Los Angeles, he is seen by Illyria who, as a result, transforms into Fred. Spike subsequently tries to keep Illyria from Wesley, because as Fred she is vulnerable. Illyria however, was protective both over Wesley and his deceased body, which remained in her possession.

After Connor dies, Angel, in a fit of rage, begins slaughtering Wolfram & Hart’s army. After questioning the army, Wesley realizes that the Senior Partners cannot allow Angel to die, thus giving them an opportunity to undo the death and chaos caused by the Partners sending Los Angeles to Hell, as they reversed time to before the Fall. However, because Wesley died before the Fall, he would remain dead. Nonetheless, Wesley is resigned to his fate, believing that he had nothing more to live for with Fred gone (he reminds Angel that “she” is dead as well), and walks away, but not before asking Spike to take care of Illyria in his stead.

In the new timeline, Angel uses his new status as a public hero to rename a wing of the public library in honor of Fred and Wesley. Although Angel was told that Fred’s soul has been destroyed, he occasionally imagines that Wesley and Fred have been reunited after death, interpreting a wind blowing whenever he reflects on this as Cordelia’s attempt to remind him not to be so pessimistic. However, this belief became academic after the End of magic and its subsequent restoration resulted in Fred being brought back to life, Fred now sharing her body with Illyria.

Wesley’s most notable personality trait was his ruthlessness; he was “one to make the hard decisions even if he has to make them alone.”[6] He would rather have allowed Willow to die than to give the Mayor back an object which would allow him to complete his Ascension. He is immediately dismissed by the Scoobies as lacking in compassion, though his logic is sound.[12] Later examples include his plans to storm the Pylean Royal Palace, sending numbers of rebels to certain death to allow the rest to infiltrate the palace; taking baby Connor away from Angel; and shooting what he thought was his own father to protect Angel and Fred. Despite this, Wesley has allowed his emotions to get the better of him, such as stabbing Gunn and killing Knox after Fred died.

Wesley began as a “by-the-book” Watcher, characterized as an “annoying version of Giles,” demonstrating an arrogance in his knowledge and an over-confidence in his lackluster combat skills, but gradually matures to show a more caring, compassionate side through his friendship with Angel and his temporary position as team leader, as well as becoming a skilled independent combatant capable of standing up to such powerful foes as Angelus, The Beast, and magician Cyvus Vail. An example of his early arrogance is when he proudly tells an annoyed Giles that he killed two vampires under controlled circumstances and in a later battle is completely useless, forcing Giles to save him. While initially by the book, he ends up deferring to Giles a lot and eventually comes to aid Buffy on his own when she’s quit the Council and thus no longer needs his help.

While initially Wesley and Giles were polar opposites, they began to mirror each other through their willingness to commit “lesser evils” for the greater good. Both either attempted or succeeded in murdering people with the aims of saving the world. For instance, just as Giles killed Ben Wilkinson to prevent the eventual resurgence of Glory, Wesley tried to kill the newly arisen Illyria, without hesitation or attempting to find a way to separate her from her shell, Fred. Both were also willing to let innocents die (such as Dawn, Willow, and arguably Spike) for the same cause.

Wesley has a strained relationship with his father Roger Wyndam-Pryce. His father had always been disappointed in him as a child, an attitude that was worsened when Wesley was fired from the Watchers Council.

Wesley was an adult man of taller yet average build, with formally styled dark brown hair and gold-rimmed glasses. When he first appeared in Sunnydale, he most often dressed in prim suits, vests and overshirts, and had a manner of dress and attitude somewhat reminiscent of fellow Watcher Rupert Giles. Upon joining Angel Investigations, he maintained his style and mannerisms; however, as his character progressed Wesley took on a more casual appearance, mostly wearing black or white t-shirts under a short sleeve button shirt, light coloured pullovers, khaki pants and a wool pea coat. As he slowly regressed into darkness and depression his attire came to match (black t-shirts, darker ill fitting button shirts, jeans, work/cargo pants, sweaters and a stained brown leather coat), which were oftentimes stained or unwashed in appearance. He also left his hair unstyled, no longer wore glasses (despite his heavy use of firearms around that time) and even allowed himself to light stubble, which added to his air of melancholy. Even after he rejoined Angel and his friends at Wolfram & Hart, he retained his more casual clothing style, even if he assumed a more groomed appearance rather than his previously disheveled look and slightly more work place friendly clothing. He returned to his suit and tie when he became Angel’s Liaison to the Senior Partners, but this was explicitly identified as part of their torment of him, forcing Wesley to regress back to an appearance and time that he had grown apart from.

Wesley had average strength for a man his height and weight, although he was somewhat athletic due to the lifestyle he led. Although trained in the skills of a Watcher, his overwhelming fear initially prevented him from gaining experience in real-life combat, and rendered him useless in fights. In one example, Giles was forced to save him during a vampire fight soon after he became Buffy’s Watcher, and in another, he was knocked out nearly immediately in the final battle with the evil Mayor although he does save Cordelia from VampWillow, suggesting a potential for heroism. In yet another instance, he proved extremely bumbling at rescuing Cordelia while a “rogue demon hunter” and is easily bested by the sadistic empath demon Barney and is only saved when Cordelia kills Barney herself. However, Wesley gained experience during his time with Angel, as his personality hardened, and he became an incredibly skilled martial artist, as well as being proficient with weapons. He was able to take on vampires with success and subdued Justine Cooper single-handedly on two occasions. A powerful and efficient marksman, he was able to hit a tiny target while performing acrobatics (e.g., when he killed the demon Skip by shooting a bullet into the small hole in his armor created when Angel broke a horn off in a previous confrontation). Contrary to Buffy and Angel’s methods to fight demons, Wesley made extensive use of firearms in the fight against evil and habitually packs a pair of 13-shot version Colt 45 pistols and a compact pump-action shotgun.[13] Even before he began using firearms regularly, he was able to help Angel take out a Haxil Beast with a vat of liquid nitrogen by shooting the canister just as Angel had thrown it at the Haxil Beast, and was later able to take out a member of the Council’s black ops team by keeping track, while under direct fire, of how many bullets had been fired, coming out from under cover only when the other man had run out of bullets.

In his state as liaison to the Senior Partners, Wesley possessed a link to the Partners that allowed him to communicate with them, but was trapped in an intangible state that prevented him from making contact with anything, while having the bonus of rendering him completely immune to physical attacks. It was never revealed whether he, like Spike, would have been able to make contact with the world around him if he wanted to badly enough (although given Spike’s example, it is possible that he would not have been of that much use even if this had been the case).

VERSES

Tales From RP - Chapter I: The Gundam Regret

Welcome back to the tales of a really bored RPer who wrote a lengthy post about some commonly found RP terms and some basic pieces of advice. I’m still extremely bored out of mind with nothing to reply to, so I decided to take a trip down memory lane. And for the sheer hell of it, I’m going to drag you all along under the pretense of teaching you lessons that’ll help your RP experience.  Today’s lesson? Appreciate what you have. My roleplaying career started on Battle.net after my paternal aunt casually gave me my cousin’s Diablo disc. At first I played only by myself and avoided the online. But after my vacation was over and I was back home, my dad allowed me on the internet with the game. I called myself Cursed_Angel, and didn’t do much at first. Eventually, I found my way to the Town Square channel, which was a stomping ground for people bored out of their mind, and was often where multiverse RP happened.  (Definition time! Multiverse, at least back in those days, meant an RP that combined several different universes at once. So instead of roleplaying exclusively, say, Marvel, you also tossed in Card Captor Sakura, Gundam, Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. A Multiverse character is either: a; a character that exists in a multiverse RP, or b; a character who exists in several different universes at once. Example of the latter definition: My character Rin Anderson is a multiverse character. She’s a dimension hopper that is constantly trying to find her way home, and winds up in different universes, where she abides by the rules of that universe and explores it before gaining enough energy to leave again.  Multiverse RPs can be insanely complicated. Each universe has their own core rules, such as different rules on vampires and werewolves, magic vs science, telepathy allowed or not allowed, technology advanced vs Bronze Age equivalent, etc. Generally, if it is a Multiverse RP, it is assumed that the rules exist simultaneously and overlapping, and not at all. Confusing? Yeah, it’s basically a free-for-all. The definition of all of these could have changed by now, but that was, at the time, the definitoins of Multiverse and Multiverse Characters.) For whatever reason, my Battle.net server had a huge following of Gundam fans. We had clans as well, consisting of Gundam characters, mostly from Gundam Wing, and G Gundam. My little Cursed (Yes, her first name was Cursed) was an amnesiac little flower who flitted around with the Wolves, the Gundam Wing crew, the Shuffle Alliance, and even the Zoids pals. Eventually, she gained a Liger Zoid, and a Gundam that used a traditional cockpit as well as the G Gundam cockpit, based on whatever her needs were for fighting, and eventually even the Zero programming in the traditional cockpit. Looking back, I’m actually fairly proud of that achievement. Cursed never claimed to have those off the bat. Those were all gifts given to her by the other RPers. She gained the Zoid after repairing it with the tiny Zoid gang, and her Gundam was constructed for her by Duo Maxwell and Sai Sai Ci. She even ended up as a sixth member of the Shuffle Alliance, though I can’t for the life of me remember what she had. I want to say she was another Joker alongside Argo, and again, this was something the group decided on altogether. I was one of the few OCs to attain items like those without actually Mary Sueing/Godmoding and claiming I had them initially. They were items granted to her by the canon characters that she earned. If I could find a way to revive Cursed, I would. She is without a doubt one of my all time favorite characters, even though I cringe at how preteen Kayla RP’d, and what caused me to retire her.  I mostly interacted with.. I think it was Kyoji_Kashu_, Duo_Maxwell, HeeroYuy SaiSaiChi_, and Domon_Kashu- or something like that. All the hyphens and underscores that RPers could love. We had pretty much a full set of characters and even duplicates, but we were the core players. Domon and Cursed were stalwart allies who fought in several battles together. Duo and Cursed were inseparable and terrifying troublemakers that should have never been left to their own devices, ever. Sai and Cursed bonded as two youngsters, a sibling bond between the two, and it was Sai who installed the additional cockpit into the Cursed Gundam- yes, that’s what we called it- to allow her to use the latex-loving piloting style of G Gundam. Heero eventually grew to treat Cursed like a little sister, and was the one that installed Zero on Cursed during some epic RP plot that I wish I could recall, but I think it came after Cursed ended up piloting Wing Zero when him and Quatre couldn’t.  The character that I enjoyed RPing with the most, however, was Kyoji.  Cursed and Kyoji clashed several times, enemies to the bitter end, as she sought to protect Domon and Rain from him. The fights between the two were pretty epic and Cursed, being the novice, hardly ever won. As we progressed through the plot and we did all that crazy ‘Oh he’s not REALLY evil, it’s just the Gundam!’ bizniz, the two grew romantic. The two had a bond that was incredibly deep, considering how novice of RPers we were at the time. As I grew better at RPing and Cursed’s skills grew from combat- like a proper character, she learned, adapted, and trained hard to become better- I grew cocky.  I ended up betraying my character’s personality. Cursed was a soft-spoken girl, not unlike me myself. I was severely bullied growing up, and had little-to-no confidence. Cursed, meanwhile, was accepted in ways I could never be, and someone that I think in the end, I wanted to be like. I began to project my own insecurities onto her, and twisted the personality of my beloved character into something grotesque. She became arrogant, cocky, full of bravado, when before she was the girl that ran after Domon asking to train, or listened in rapt attention when Heero repaired his gundam.  It wasn’t until I made the biggest mistake of my time RPing on Battle.net that I realized the path I had gone down. Cursed was interacting with Kyoji, and while I never can remember how it got to this point, I clearly remember Cursed boldly saying that she was far too strong to need Kyoji, and he was holding her back, that she was beyond his skill level. She destroyed him, and took off without a care, an act completely out of character for her, driven by my own need to be the best. Even worse, was my cockiness went OOC. I basically told him I no longer needed him, that I could RP with whoever I wanted, and that he was beneath me. That was the first time that I realized that my words could have an impact on the person behind the screen. Kyoji and Domon were played by real-life brothers, and Kyoji stopped logging in on that account. We had multiple accounts that we logged in and out of. I had Rikku from FFX2, a custom named Katsume, and Cursed. (I think at one point I had a Sai Sai Ci as well, and even tried my hand at a Heero. I have files somewhere with my old usernames but I found the e-mails I used to send to my boyfriend asking him to log on when I wasn’t able to, so I didn’t lose them.)  I begged Domon to let him know that I didn’t mean it, that I was sorry. Kyoji logged in once and while we talked, it was clear that he wasn’t going to be coming back, that he was gone.  My favorite RP partner was gone, and I stopped logging in for some time. When I came back, our Wing clan, our Shuffle Alliance, was gone. Sometimes Duo or Sai would log back in, but they had all made new accounts and moved on.  It was never confirmed that I was the cause of it, but to this day, I still believe that my cockiness, my desire to be the best, my ego, broke up the group. When members started leaving, others left with them. We lost some of our most active members because I couldn’t control myself. I wasn’t happy with Cursed as a character, she had to be the absolute best. She had to be more, everything I could never be.  I had an amazing Multiverse RP where my character had achieved what very few OCs could. I had fun, I had friends, and I always had someone to RP with, or play a round of Diablo with. Hell, when I got Starcraft later, I always had someone to play games with.  If there is anything I want those who read this to understand, it’s to be happy with what you have. Be grateful for the partners you have, and remember that they’re people behind a screen. Remember that your words can have an impact, and that someone could become hurt by what you do or say. Don’t try to project your own insecurities, your personality, your ego onto your character. It never works out, and always makes a mess of things.  If you reach the point where you have a community that is full, a community of friends that respect and care for you, treasure that shit always, and don’t let it go. Be apart of it, be respectful, and remember that whatever you do or don’t do has consequences.  And Kyoji, if by some miracle you ever read this and remember Cursed_Angel from Battle.net, I don’t think I could ever apologize enough. I miss RPing with you, and someday, I hope I can find you again so that way, I can tell you how wrong I was to say such things. I was lucky to have you as a friend, and not a day goes by that I don’t regret what I did, or what I lost. Someday, I hope to bring back Cursed, maybe even in a Gundam setting, but I know it will never be as amazing as our crazy, zany plots in Town Square.  As always, feel free to ask if you have any questions regarding RP, or are just bored out of your mind. Next time we’ll be checking out one of the following stories. Got one you want to hear first? Send me an ask and tell me which one you want to hear, or Twit at me on the Tweeter. Otherwise, I’ll pick one at random.  -”Kuroda, Tsunade, and the Best Boyfriend Ever (Not.)” -”When Your Demon from Dragon Age is Ivy from Soul Calibur (Wiki Edition!)” -”All My Characters are Besties and Text All The Time!” -”*Giggle* *Laughs* *Snorts* *Giggles* *Chuckles* *Laughs softly* (…What am I Replying to?!)” -”I Got Out of Hell and Turned Super Saiyajin! (All By Myself!)” -"King Douchebag and the Pink Vanilla Sky” - Starring Fuma Kotaro!  -And many more!

Fall 2016 - Final Impressions

It’s a little after New Year’s, but here’s what I thought of the animes that I finished this past anime season! There’s 12 reviews here, which you can find under the cut! All of them are listed in alphabetical order for your convenience~

Ajin Season 2 - 8.5 / 10 (B+) YMMV on whether this season was weaker than S1, but this is still a very good continuation (& conclusion???) to this series~

animation: Yup, this show is still CGI animated (by Polygon Pictures), which is the thing that tends to drive people away from this show the most. I still don’t mind it, because it’s actually really good for anime CGI! Character expressions and models are still good, and the action (despite the low frame rate) also isn’t bad either! There’s good use of dark lighting and muted colors as well.

characters: The cast (on both sides of the conflict) are good this season as well. Kei and Tosaki team up this season, which allowed for interesting character interactions and situations. Satou is still crazy as ever and doing crazy shit (even when his goonies start defecting from him), making him one of the best (if not *the* best) anime villain in 2016. His attitude of treating countless killing like a game makes him very fun to watch. Poor Kaito got ignored for most of the season again, but at least he swoops in to save Kei in ep. 11(?). Izumi and Tosaki got some development this season (mostly for their relationship + Izumi’s backstory), including a mini-arc in the middle of the season. Even though said arc was debatably filler-ish story-wise, it did jumpstart a change in their relationship, which was good to see.

story: This season picked up where the last season left off, and quickly leads into Tosaki and Kei’s teams working together to put a stop to Satou’s schemes. The initial episodes had a lot of training segments for the new team, but outside of that, the plot progressed like a good thriller should. There were several tense moments (even when the hero team would watch things unfold on their TV) that were entertaining to watch unfold (especially when the hero team finally put their plan into action and *still* weren’t a match for Satou). By the end, though, it was good to see them finally take him down (along w/ Satou being unfazed even when his own men leave him). The finale has a good sense of conclusion to it, but is a bit more open-ended than I was expecting (which probably wasn’t a good idea, since this ending is anime original to begin with) :/  

This season was a good conclusion to a really good series, that’s one of 2016’s many highlights. If you like a good thriller (and can accept the CGI animation), you shouldn’t miss this one!

Bungou Stray Dogs S2 - 8.5 / 10 (B+)

I enjoyed this season more than season one! It’s a really fun & well-animated action spectacle!

animation: BONES did a great job with the visuals again this season (which is par for the course for them)! The realism-leaning art-style works well here again (along with its muted / darker color palette), and it still makes good use of comedic animation and deformed expressions (which utilizes thicker outlines as well). The animation itself is also very good, as action scenes have (for the most part) very good fluidity and special effects! The action and fights deliver quite well, and is one of this show’s strongest aspects.

characters: The main cast is still fun to watch, and all show off their badass qualities in one way or another! While not every character got much development this season, there were some notables that did, including Dazai, Atsushi, and even Akutagawa (to an extent)! The first four episodes gave a spotlight on Dazai’s past with the Port Mafia, plus had its own cool lead (Oda) that had a complete arc of his own. The other episodes gave the supporting cast some time to shine and show off their badassery too (from all three factions). Seeing all the different superpowers that come into play (including the new ones from the Western author-inspired Guild) was cool to see as well!

story: The first four episodes feature a prequel arc involving Dazai and two new characters (Oda and Ango), then the last eight episodes pick up where season one left off. The prequel had a notably darker feel to it, and also had a lot of dramatic weight to it. It definitely has a case towards being the best segment of the entire series! The remainder of the season is no slouch either; it may not be as heavy or dramatic (even though it does have its darker moments), but it has great action and shows off its large cast well. The final two episodes had a great climax too, as Atsushi and Akutagawa teamed up to beat the Guild’s leader (Fitzgerald) in an explosive fight, and even saw Kyouka FINALLY get her happiness in the end!

I had a really good time with this season, which was a notable improvement over its first! If you like action anime or are interested in its literature-inspired themes / characters, you should check this one out!

Flip Flappers - 8.5 / 10 (B+)

this is a really fun and crazy action magical-girl-esque show! Think magical girls meets FLCL :D

animation: Studio 3Hz is a relatively new studio, but they did a great job with the visuals! Everything looks bright and colorful, and they brought a lot of crazy worlds to life within Pure Illusion (snow world, horror film-esque boarding school, Mad Max-esque world, you name it!). The character’s large eyes and jagged-looking hair takes a little getting used to, but it comes out looking great anyway thanks to the awesome animation! Which, yeah, the animation is pretty great! Not every episode is a fluid masterpiece, but the action scenes overall have very fluid movements and smears! However, there were some fanservice-y moments that got kinda uncomfortable at times (I’m looking at you, robot episode…). Other than that, this show definitely had the most flashy and crazy visuals and animation out of any show this season~

characters: The main cast was very quirky, to put it simply! Cocona was the “straight-face” during all the chaotic adventures, and Papika was full of optimism and enjoyed the whole ride! I liked their relationship and how it grew over time, even though it was queerbait-y at times. I also liked Yayaka, and how she stayed by Cocona, even when she was working for the enemy. The other members of both factions didn’t really get much screen time (outside of the two twins Yayaka worked with), and the later-revealed Nyunyu, despite being touted as the Third Child, didn’t do much either. Dr. Salt (and Mimi later on) get some good backstory though, and play big roles in the climax. The final arc in general gives more depth to several characters (including the main duo), turning what we knew about them on its head!

story: The main premise starts out as the main duo going from world to world within the mysterious Pure Illusion dimension, in order to collect amorphous fragments. The first half of the show is mostly episodic, as each episode features a different creative setting that they must travel to (and most likely fight against Yayaka & the enemy faction). These episodes range from action spectacles to more grounded & atmospheric (it’s kinda like Alice in Wonderland!) The show’s second half takes a notably different approach (at least partially explained by a change in lead writer), as it becomes more story-driven with a big focus on exploring several main character’s backstories (& them coming to a head in the climax). Cocona’s mother reappears and acts as the villain in this final act, so the conflict feels more personal to them. I really liked seeing all the secrets being revealed, and watching the final battle play out! The final episode had some callbacks to the first episode, and helped brings things full circle, which was nice!

This was definitely one’s of the season’s best action and visually-impressive shows! If you like magical girl shows, or like “trippy” anime like FLCL or Space Dandy, you should check this out!

Fune wo Amu - 8.5 - 9.0 / 10 (A-)

A really good laid-back slice-of-life drama about making a dictionary! The premise *sounds* boring, but it made for one of the season’s best shows~

animation: ZEXCS hasn’t been around much lately, but they did a nice job here with the visuals! The art-style leans more towards realism, but leaves out enough details to keep that “anime” look. The backgrounds look nice as well, and the color palette as a whole makes good use of muted colors (it definitely gets the show’s overall feeling of realism across!). The animation is fine as well, though it’ll break out a nice & fluid walking sequence at times too (even if it’s a little clunky). The mid-episode sections involving the dictionary mascots were bright and colorful, and used thick lines (making it very distinct from the main show). The visual style overall is a nice complement to what’s happening in the story (and helps it be beautiful at times too).

characters: The main cast is not that large, but they’re all fun and laid-back; not to mention they’re ADULTS, which is great to see in anime. Majime is a good lead, as he starts out kinda socially-awkward but his passion for words breaks through (& he becomes more confldent over time too!). My favorite character was definitely Nishioka; I really liked his outgoing & suave personality who helped get things done in his own way (+ didn’t take shit from third party contributors either!). His VA performance by Hiroshi Kamiya also was a big contributing factor. The other co-workers were enjoyable as well (to the point where Matsumoto’s eventual death was an emotional moment ;~; ), and had a good group dynamic. Even though the main two significant others (Kaguya and Miyoshi) didn’t have tons of screentime, their personalities & how well they bounced off of their partners made up for it. Even the later addition of Midori to the team was good, as she learned to appreciate dictionary-making as well.  

story: The premise of following a group of people making a dictionary sounds kinda boring on paper (heh heh), but the execution more than makes up for it. The atmosphere and story-progression are very down-to-earth, and it does a good job showing how interesting words and definitions can be. The character arcs also add intrigue to the show, including Majime falling in love with Kaguya and Nishioka being transferred out of the dictionary department (that particular arc added a lot of depth to Nishioka’s character & was a great watch!). The mid-episode chibi-dictionary segments have little trivia bits about dictionaries, but they’re not that memorable otherwise. There’s a big time skip slightly later than halfway through the series; it takes a little time for the viewer to adjust, but it goes back to business as usual in no time. The final episodes show the last steps of finishing the titular dictionary, ending w/ a finale episode that wraps up everything really well in a poetic (& even kinda emotional) way.

This show is definitely underrated, and is one of the season’s best shows for sure! If you like laid-back slice-of-life shows (even if it’s about an unusual subject matter), then check this one out for sure!

Haikyuu: Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa - 9 / 10 (A)

(Note: this review is written in a different style from the others; I was initially gonna use this style for all my reviews like in past seasons, but I lost my notes for three reviews I wrote afterwards due to computer issues. I ended up switching to a different style when rewriting them, and it just kinda stuck for the others...)

Really good third season! it focused on just one match, but it was a big one!

animation:

Production I.G. hits it out of the park, as always

INCREDIBLY FLUID & DYNAMIC movements (spikes, quick movements, jumps, etc.)

gotta love those action lines & varying thicknesses of the outlines :D

not to mention the 3D camera in the final spike of the match!

just… an incredible action spectacle! a feast for the eyes~

characters:

this whole season is just seeing the team come together & show off their skills!

each character had their own moment of badassery along the way :’)

the star of the season (or… MVP, if you will :P) was *definitely* Tsukishima!

he finally got emotionally involved in his volleyball! (that fist pump ;~; )

plus he was a great strategist & was a huge asset to helping Karasuno win!

we also got introduced to Shiratorizawa’s players in detail!

each guy got a decent amount of backstory… just not a lot

the one who got the most focus (besides Ushijima) was definitely Tendou!

he was very much a “joker” character; always wanting to mess w/ his opponents

shout-out to coach Ukai, whose seiyuu passed away before the show started airing ;~;7

his old seiyuu’s final line was a great line to go off on ;A;

story:

the entire season was dedicated to just one final match!

it created good suspense too, just like a real sporting match!

especially since it came down to a deuce in the final set (out of FIVE)!

there was a lot of back-and-forth action too (i.e. quick changes in momentum)

while the story was simple, it had great execution and attention to detail!

the final moment when Karasuno won the match was great as well!

it has an open ending as well (since they still gotta go to nationals! plus Kageyama got a training camp invite!)

overall, this was a great continuation that kept up what this show is so good at delivering~

Hibike Euphonium 2 - 9 / 10 (A) a great conclusion to a really good show about a high school band!

animation: Kyoto Animation does a stellar job yet again! Muted color palette, shiny highlights & lighting (like they’re glowing!), great fluidity in the animation (like w/ walking, running, concert scenes), effective character animation (i.e. small movements). Character art-style is a good mix of moe and realistic characteristics. Just a great looking show all around!

characters: The group dynamic of the cast (i.e. the band itself) remains strong, but there were some characters that got good development this season! The first half had an arc involving Mizore and Nozomi, whom we didn’t really know previously! The second half was more centered around Asuka, who had a great character arc! Even Kumiko had good development in this half of the show (since she was dealing w/ the situation involving her sister Mamiko as well)! It was great seeing her take action after seeing her in an observer role for most of the show prior. We also got some insight into Taki-sensei’s past, which led to a small character arc for Reina as well (even though it still involves a relationship w/ a massive age difference :T).

story: This season covers the rest of the school year right from where S1 left off. Most of the plot is related to the previously mentioned character arcs, which were all executed wonderfully. Even though the drama isn’t focused as much on the band’s competition progression / preparation this time around, we do still get to see them compete on the big stage and even reach their goal of the Nationals! The finale also brings the show to a fitting conclusion, as the third-years graduate and the band starts anew. It’s nice to see a definitive ending in an anime~

I probably enjoyed this season even more than the last one, and it’s definitely one of the best shows of this season. If you like character dramas (and/or shows about orchestral bands), you should definitely check this out!

Magical Girl Raising Project - 7.0 / 10 ( C ) unfortunately, this was one of this season’s lowlights… it’s basically a bad madoka derivative :/

animation: This is one aspect of the show that I liked (done by Studio Lerche). The art-style is very rounded and cutesy (which is fitting for a magical girl show). What is *not* fitting is how much they try to pull off “sexy” character design elements, like skimpy outfits and big boobs / clevage; it just really clashes w/ the “moe” art-style. The character designs themselves have a mix of different tropes (witch / cowgirl / dog / goth lolita / etc.) too. Animation-wise, it was a mostly standard effort (not bad, but not good either). The fight scenes could’ve used more fluidity as well. Shout-out to the ending theme by Nano, whose one of my fav anisong artists!

characters: Just like the character designs, the group of personalities here is also a mix of different tropes that are played mostly straight. There were characters I really liked personality-wise (like Top Speed, La Pucelle, and Hardgore Alice), but there were also characters I really hated (I DISLIKED THE ANGELS FROM THE MOMENT THEY FIRST SHOWED UP; THEY’RE SO MEAN-SPIRITED!!!). Mostly though, I felt indifferent about a lot of them, which made their death scenes have little to no impact on me. Their backstories mostly tend to be shown in the same episode that they kicked the bucket, which also didn’t help matters. Said backstories in question also seemed to use every tragic backstory trope in the book, which just kinda made things ridiculous. Also, both Calamity Mary and Cranberry were built up as legitimate threats over the show’s run, but were defeated rather anti-climatically (especially the latter), which was kinda lame.

story: The premise is basically Battle Royale meets magical girls, as the cast is forced to kill each other to survive. At least, that’s how it starts, but then certain characters (like Swim Swim and Calamity Mary) start killing others just for kicks. I actually didn’t mind the first four episodes too much (outside of the mean-spirited antics of Ruler’s gang): the setup wasn’t bad and the death scenes of Ruler and Nemurin were executed (*ba dum tsh*) in a somewhat-interesting way. However, after that point the gore and EDGE goes into full force, as fight scenes and deaths are shown in such a dark (& even quick) manner that they don’t have the impact that they should have. (The lone exception to this is Hardgore Alice’s death scene, and not by much. Heck, I even fist-pumped when the two angels died...) They even tack on some purely-for-shock-value stuff at the end of some of these deaths (like Sister Nana’s piss trail after her hanging, or the reveal that Top Speed was pregnant after her death.) Lastly, the final episode makes the whole ordeal feel not worth it in the end, since Fav gets what he wants out of the killing game in the end (even though he himself gets killed), and it feels like the survivors are just worse off in the end.

This show joins Daybreak Illusion in the dubious “bad madoka ripoff club.” It’s hard to say which one of the two I dislike more, since they both are bad in different ways. Either way, this show is one that I would probably advise that you skip.

Occultic;Nine - 7.5 / 10 (C+)

An interesting story that is ultimately weighed down by its ridiculously fast pacing…

animation: A-1 Pictures made this show look quite good (and interesting)! The art-style makes good used of painted background, muted colors, dynamic lighting + shadows, and fuzzy / jagged outlines on characters! Certain characters (like the murdering minor) are drawn more realistically at times too. The visual direction had some interesting angles from time to time (but also made some scenes rotated for no real reason). Also, WHY ARE RYO-TAS’s BOOBS SO BIG??? THEY’RE IMPOSSIBLE BOOBS

characters: The main cast has a good mix of personalities; I liked seeing the characters bounce off each other. Shun in particular had a fun personality (which owes a lot to his VA’s performance), and I liked Asuna’s later introduction (since she was an alive detective who could talk with the dead to an extent). Gamon (and a couple others, like Sarai) could get kinda annoying at times, since he tends to say a lot without much pause. However, they don’t get a ton of development. Gamon at least gets some backstory involving his dad, and Aria has backstory involving his dead brother (said story is kinda messed up too). I also liked how Ryo-tas was revealed to have Aveline possessing her from time to time (which made her suspicious leading up to it).

story: There’s a lot going on in this supernatural sci-fi mystery; a bunch of mysterious events (including murders and a mass drowning) lead a group of teens to uncover a big conspiracy and put a stop to it. The story is definitely hard to follow at times, since they throw lots of info at you (not to mention a lot of technobabble). It gets more interesting once the twist at the end of episode 6 occurs (as most of the main cast is revealed to be dead / ghosts), along with more reveals. There’s a lot of interesting ideas here (not to mention the story has a definitive ending), but it’s really held back by how *fast* the pacing is. Episode 1 is infamous in how fast it goes (seemingly sped-up dialogue, little pauses in-between dialogue & other scenes, etc.), but even though it gets better after that, it’s still a big issue. I actually started adjusting the playback speed to 0.9x after seeing someone else suggest that on r/anime. The final episode is kinda bittersweet, as the organization is defeated and Gamon gets to see his dad again, but Gamon seems to still be stuck in the spirit realm (and the epilogue I felt was too short).

As a fan of the Sci;Adv series, I had a good time with this one, even though it’s far from the best show this season. If you’re a fan of other shows in that series (like Steins;Gate or Robotics;Notes), you’ll find something to like here. Just remember to adjust the playback to 0.9x speed for a better time :P

Show By Rock!! # - 7.5 / 10 (C+)

Not *as* good as season 1, but I still had a good time with it!

animation: BONES did good visuals this season too, as it has the same quality and style as season one. It’s very bright and colorful (and shiny!). Animation fluidity was mostly fine, with better fluidity during most performance sequences. The CGI returns (and is of the same quality as in season one, which is a good thing), but doesn’t show up as much.

characters: The main cast is fun to watch, just like in season one (and honestly, the cast is the biggest draw to this show)! Plasmagica got a few focus episodes that helped develop them slightly more (Retoree & Cyan). ShinganCrimsonZ definitely got more focus this season, as they played a role in the Arcareafact and Bud Virgin Logic arcs, along with learning more about Rom + Shuzo’s past, along with Aion’s past! The new villain Victorious was a simple evil villain, but I didn’t think she needed a dark backstory to justify her being evil (what’s wrong with her just simply being an deity of darkness?)

story: Plot progression was very simple this season, as most episodes revolved around character arcs (or focus episodes). There was an overarching plot introduced in episode one, but it didn’t have much relevance again until the last third of the season. I enjoyed the character-based episodes, as they either showed us more fun hijinks with the crazy fun cast, or helped flesh them out a bit more. The final episode particularly saw a decline in visual quality (ex: the big collab performance that was built up over the past two episodes was shown in sub-par 2D animation) and just had weird execution overall.

If you enjoyed season one, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well! Check this series out if you like fun characters and music performances~

Shuumatsu no Izetta (aka Izetta the Last Witch) - 8.0 / 10 (B)

This was a fun & enjoyable historical fantasy fiction show! Nothing mind-blowing, but I had a good time with it~

animation: This show had good visuals overall! The art-style for the characters is very similar to what I call the “A-1 Pictures” art style (as seen in shows like SAO). I liked the painterly backgrounds and muted color palette, which presented the historical WWII setting well. Animation-wise, the fluidity is really good, especially in the early episodes. The action looks great to start, but diminishes in quality over time (even though it’s still fine by the end). However, I did like how creative the action could be at times (like using trains and spears as aerial weapons!). Bonus mention to the great opening theme song by AKINO with bless4!

characters: The cast was fine overall, but the stars of the show were definitely Finé and Izetta. Finé is a strong leading lady who doesn’t flinch in the face of terror (which is fitting for royalty like her!), and Izetta is a good fighter in her own right w/ her magic! I also liked seeing their relationship play out, even though it has some queerbait-y moments. The side characters had fun personalities, but none of them were super-standout either (though some on both Elystadt and Germania sides got a little bit of focus / screentime. A good example of this was Muller, who at least had his character arc come full circle).  

story: The premise is based in an AU World War II, where a small country gains the help of a young witch to help fight off the looming superpower threat. The first few episodes started out relatively strong, with several good action scenes showcasing the two female leads and Elystadt’s main cast. The overall quality kind of dipped after that, but there were still some good moments there. I wish Sophie being a major player was foreshadowed a bit better, and the quick love(?) arc involving Ricelt could’ve been done better (or tied into the main story more). The finale didn’t quite go back to the early-episodes quality, but it still had fun story & action beats, and wrapped things up in a conclusive way.

Even though the rest of the show didn’t *quite* live up to those first few episodes, it’s still an enjoyable, action filled time. If you enjoy fantastical historical fiction shows, you’ll find something to like here.

Udon no Kuni no Kimiro Kemari (aka Poco’s Udon World) - 8.5 / 10 (B+)

This was a really sweet show about the themes of family! It’s easy to compare it with shows like Barakamon and Sweetness & Lightning, but it forges its own identity by the end~

animation: LIDENFILMS doesn’t have a *ton* of prior work, but they did a nice job with the visuals! The art-style is quite distinct; it has pretty watercolor backgrounds and a bright color palette (it looks kinda like a storybook in a way!). The characters have rounder-than-usual eyes (especially with the kid characters) and all have long, white highlights on their hair and bodies! The animation itself isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done for a cute slice-of-life show like this one.

characters: The main cast was very down-to-earth and enjoyable to watch! The main lead Souta got some great character development over the course of the show; I enjoyed seeing him re-discover his love for his hometown and for his family (including his deceased dad). Poco was also a really cute kid; him being a tanuki allowed for some good supernatural stuff towards the end of the show. The side characters were also really good! They all had fun personalities and had good interactions with Souta and Poco (Hiroshi falling in love with Rinko comes to mind); Rinko in particular got some good development towards the end (as she had uncertainties about being a mom, and Poco helped give her confidence!). I don’t have any comments about the Gaogao-chan segments & its characters, because I skipped them every episode ^^;

story: This show follows the daily life of Souta, who just returned to his hometown after time away, and Poco, a tanuki who meets South and starts spending time with him. A lot of the story progression involves small events with the main duo, like hanging out with Mai and her kids, or spending time with Nakajima or Rinko. The story’s main core though is learning about Souta’s situation (his falling out w/ his parents + hometown, him moving to Tokyo, his leg injury, etc.) and seeing how Poco changes his perception of all of these aspects over time (with the power of cuteness, family bonding, and even some supernatural flashbacks!). The show as a whole is really adorable to watch; not to mention quite heartfelt and emotional at times! It really gets the feeling of “family” down, especially with an atypical family like this one. The final episode definitely tugs on the heartstrings, as Poco shows Souta how much his father truly loved him, and the two have to go their separate ways ;~;  

This show was definitely the most pleasant surprise of the season for me, along with being one of the season’s most underrated shows (alongside Fune wo Amu)! If you like slice-of-life shows, or enjoyed Barakamon and/or Sweetness & Lightning, you should check this one out!

Yuri!! On Ice - 8.5 / 10 (B+)

A very enjoyable sports anime about ice skating, that also features one of the best examples of an LGBT couple in all of anime!

animation: MAPPA did a really nice job with the visuals! The art-style leans a bit more towards realism, but also makes good use of cartoon-y expressions + comedic animation. (I also get a kick out of how similar Yuri K. looks to Parasyte’s Shinichi, since both shows have the same character designer :P). Animation-wise, the fluidity is definitely above-average and the figure skating routines look great as well, especially considering it’s done in all 2D animation! (There are some routines later in the show by supporting characters that sacrifice staying on-model for consistent fluidity, though).

characters: The cast as a whole is fun to watch, and has a good mix of personalities. The standout characters for me were definitely Yuri K. and Victor; I liked how both had goofy and serious sides to their personalities. Seeing their relationship develop over time (and how it helped both characters learn and grow) was one of my favorite aspects of the show, as it never failed to put a smile on my face! (It also helps that it’s one of the best-portrayed LGBT couples in anime, period!) Yurio was also a good rival, who really showed growth in his character (and his respect for Yuri and his grandpa) over time! The other supporting characters (mainly the other skaters) were also enjoyable, even though they didn’t get much focus development-wise (besides JJ, kinda). They still had fun interactions with each other and the main cast (especially in episode 10), so I still definitely liked having them around.

story: The story follows Yuri who, after reaching a low point in his career, gets his idol Victor to coach him through the next ice skating season, in order to win gold! The main story progression takes Yuri through each of the competitions leading up to the Grand Prix Finals, just like most sports anime. While the drama and suspense coming from the competitions themselves isn’t as strong (in comparison to other sports anime like Haikyuu, anyway), the routines are still really good and the feeling of competition still gets across. (Besides, the most effective serious and triumphant moments for me came from the ups and downs of Yuri and Victor’s relationship, anyways :P). The episodes also kinda felt fast-paced at times (not nearly as bad as Occultic;Nine, though); perhaps a nitpick, but it was noticable. The final episode ended things on an open-ended but good note, as Yuri falls just short of Gold (and Yurio wins!) but is determined to win next time (plus Victor decides to un-retire and the two of them do a pair skate at the end!!! Yay!!!)

This was definitely one of the season’s best shows that will surely put a smile on your face! If you like sports anime or romance shows, you should go watch this for sure!

Campaign Log: 1

This isn’t neccessarily for my tumblr followers, but I don’t mind if anyone reads it. It’s an overview of my D&D world and a recap of the first few sessions of the game I run, mostly for my players’ benefits to help them keep track of all the places they’ve seen and people they’ve met. (Note: Yes, it’s obviously a modified version of a fairly well known old module, placed within the context of my world :P)

Players: Gnice, Talia, Ai’styl, Vyedra DMPC: Lydia NPC: Everybody else

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Prelude

           The world had been spoiled upon by its 7 Gods: Wealth, Lore, Magi, Pride, Sylin, Chaos, and War. Even when the Gods had fights, as the halfling lands were decimated and the Gods punished the dragons for their hubris; still life was relaxed for most races at the table. That is, until the Gods disappeared about 100 years ago.

          The continent upon which the Acades Empire took its first steps has seen the rise and conglomeration of many peoples: the humans to the east, the elves to the west, and the river elves to the south. The God of War’s civilizations – the burly minotaurs and the ruthless orcs -- had always surrounded Acades to both the north and south, creating a string of tension throughout Acades history.

          When the four great wizard families of nobility – Cathadious, Datthius, Myrlin, and Ilvendorr – had united, there came a unified power able to drive back the orcs, minotaurs, and competing forces. The River Elves to the south suffered a large defeat in this time, leaving southern Acades barren and the human-elf alliance to the north the last remaining power of Acades.

          The cultures of the elves and humans might be different, but Acades was able to maintain harmony for quite some time. The great city of Halven was created as a symbolic gesture that rose to international fame as a blended multicultural endeavor. The humans brought order, infrastructure to their city planning; while the elves reminded them how to venerate nature, with beautiful architecture that was furled in greenery and rich artistry. It was a lasting symbol of harmony until about 15 years ago, when the city mysteriously collapsed with almost no survivors and no recollection of what had happened.

          And with that, Acades feels the aches of division and mistrust once again. Through Pai’vall and the elven Hold of Datthius, demands for more troops from the capital are met with silence as its forces are stretched thin; and whispers that the human-heavy capital has abandoned them. In the capital Halstaad, the House and Hold of Myrlin is stretching their own soldiers thin from Orc assaults to the North. In the Hold of Ilvendorr, their capital Halven is gone and the people ache for true leadership in the face of a silent noble family. Meanwhile, the hold of Cathadious and their bishop both struggle to cling to power as their largely religious influence is waning as the church’s power crumbles.  

          As all of this unfolds, even weirder forces are about to emerge from the earth to steer fate astray…

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 Session 1

          The scene starts with Gnice Ta’meetcha the gnome and Talia the halfling in a travelling caravan. Gnice, yearning to see the gnomeish homelands he never knew, had travelled all the way from his birthplace, the Dwarven Kingdom Faldheim, to find himself here in Acades. Talia, who had shuffled around Acades her whole life, was on the way to Welmarsh to rendezvous with the Ruby Dragon, the new thieves’ guild in town who had begun to drive out the local thieves’ band the Jackdaws.

          The caravan is ambushed by Troglodytes, leery lizard people of the marsh, who had attempted to take the cart driver old man Jacoby. After this, Gnice and Talia realize that something is amidst around these parts. The only clue they have at this point is a pendant from the trog, a silver twin-leaf symbol.

          The first inn they find in the small nestled village of Welmarsh is the Golden Grain Inn, which seems quiet and as if every eye is watching the fledgling adventurers buy a room. The church priestess Misha takes notice of the adventurers as they enter the church of Sylin and asks them what they need. Upon being asked about her necklace, which is an exact match to the troglodyte’s pendant, she explains that it’s an old symbol of Sylin.

          Talia receives a message from the old thieves’ guild the Jackdaws, holding knowledge of [character backstory points here] that they’ll never tell her after her betrayal. Talia attempts to feel out the Jackdaw’s work for hire partner, a dwarf chandler known as the Manufacturer, but she fails to find common ground with him to gain his favor.

           Attempts to talk with the general store keep and to meet the Baron lead to dead ends. The Slithering Serpent Inn owner Ollwin Crawloon and his wife Belba are markedly friendlier – and their inn livelier – than the GGI. At the Golden Grain Inn Talia gets a work referral that leads her to a farmer’s widow and her three sons, all with glazed eyes who invite Talia in for tea before attempting to take her down. Talia uses the fallen old woman as cover to hold her own against three, before slipping and gashing her head against their coffee table (this left a small permanent scar). As she falls out of consciousness, local folk hero and Goliath Paladin Shevarr Stoneshield bursts in, and saves Talia’s life. Using a zone of truth, Shevarr gains trust in Talia.

           Meanwhile at the GGI, Gnice stumbles upon a screaming girl attacked by two large men. She bashes one over the head with a lute, and Gnice knocks down the other. Introducing herself as Lydia the travelling bard, the two sneak out the window, now suspicious of the inn’s intentions.

           Talia, Shevarr, Gnice, and Lydia meet up. Talia (eventually) realizes that Lydia is the travelling bard he heard about from cart-driver Jacoby.  Shevarr hears of the Golden Grain Inn’s attacks and runs off, ready to draw her sword first and ask questions later. The remaining trio move their inn stays to the Sleeping Serpent Inn, where they hear of a wizard who has made camp in the forest. On their way to meet this wizard, they stumble across a minotaur in the middle of the forest, and ready themselves for battle.

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Session 2

           As the battle with the minotaur ensues, the elven ranger Ai’styl (a man raised by the treants and fairies of the forest) wanders into the fray. Upon realizing the minotaur is brandishing the ripped off arm of a fellow treant, Ai’styl enters a silent rage and joins the party’s fight. He heard of the disturbances happening around the forest, but now it becomes personal.

           After the fight, the minotaur’s familiar, a snarling weasel, is thrown at Lydia who to her own surprise calms the snarling thing into submission.  They find a note left on the minotaur that says “due west, ~4.5 miles. Dark magic infiltrating town, more intel needed” but the party is unsure what to make of this.

           Finding their way to the forest, they meet a slightly unkempt mage by the name of Ramnus Thackeray (Ramne for short), and his crow familiar Crux. They find out he’s been studying alchemic using local components, and he divulges some clues to troglodyte culture and their old snake goddess Dishna. From there the group heads north to the marshes where the troglodytes were said to live.

           Upon making their way to the marsh, the party finds themselves witness to a battle, as kobolds and goblins fight over the abandoned troglodyte settlement and the food and goodies left behind. The party decides to take full advantage of this and finishes off the weakened forces and raid the rest of the huts for all their trinkets. Amongst this, Gnice finds the identification documents to a Delgarr Kragfinger, an old friend of his who was one of the dwarves that accompanied him down to Acades, on their way to the bishop of Cathadious. They also find the identification documents to a halfling named Garret, the surname torn.

           With few leads, the party regroups in town. They meet the stable hand who worries that Welmarsh’s autumn festivals -- which revolve around horse related sports and Welmarsh’s renown horse market -- won’t be as busy with the mysterious disappearances that have been plaguing the village. A member of the guard by the name of Henry had gone missing the prior night, but Brida, the sharp-tongued elf guard, assumes Henry acted stupidly, “as he usually does, the dumb-shit.”

           Out of ideas, the group heads towards the limestone quarry to the southeast of town. Along their way, they collectively get lost and end up in a wolves’ den. After finishing off the snarling foes, Gnice overhears the cries of wolf pups further in the den; and the guilt already weighing on the greenhorn adventurer, Gnice and Ai’styl take the two pups and continue towards their destination.

           The party finds the entrance to a dungeon along the side of the limestone deposits, obscured by the overgrowth of the forest. The door has a riddle on it that leaves the group scratching their heads, but they decide to camp out to wait for any signs of activity. Sure enough, night falls and they spot Troglodytes enter and leave -- not through the trick door in front but a secret door above it. The group creates a diversion to the ones guarding the door and stealthily climb inside.

           As the party sneaks through the dungeon, they strike down more troglodytes and sift through every room they come across, finding keys in various places – hidden under a bed, guarded by a chained harpy, etc – until they have four; at which point they use the four keys to open the door to the rest of the dungeon, revealing an expansive underground lake beyond the doorway.

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Session 3        

             Suddenly, the ceiling above breaks and from the hilltop above falls Vyedra, a darkly flushed druid river elf from the collapsed elven realm to the south. Curious and always free spirited, she shrugs and decides to join the party in solving this mystery.                     The party finds a common room and some bedrooms where some humans and elves have been staying, all these men bearing the same glazed peculiar eyes that they have been seeing over and over. After a small conversation a struggle ensues. The party strikes down a man in vagrant clothes, a man whose jacket bears the emblem to the Ruby Dragons, and a man donned in guard’s armor.  

          Moving on, the group finds a magical token which summons a boat they use to traverse the gator-infested waters. Along their way, Gnice starts to feel woozy, and the group witnesses a glow erupt from his body temporarily. If things were confusing before they’re definitely weird now. Talia finds an old and torn cryptic note which mentions gems scattered beneath the ocean.

           They continue room to room until they hear quiet sobbing and dragged feet in the muddy dungeon floors, which leads them to a prisoner and unexpected reunion – Shevarr. The goliath paladin is chained and shrugged over, defeatedly; her body is stained with blood, and most noticeably her left arm has been completely hacked off.  She struggles to retell the group that she was defeated in the Golden Grain Inn, knocked out and brought down here, where she resisted the snake monster’s charming gaze. Ai’styl and Vyedra realize this snake monster that everyone has been talking about must be a Naga, which matches the details of Shevarr’s story.

           The group bandages up Shevarr’s arms and picks the lock to her shackles.  Shaken and unsure of her own ability, Shevarr slowly grabs her broadsword from muddy floor and walks with the group to the final room, an open cavern with a shrine to Disha the Spirit Naga, as the Naga meditates from within a glowing ethereal swirl of light.

           With a distraction and a giant spider corpse for cover, a battle begins. The troglodyte followers engage in combat, and their chained harpy uses her own gaze to lure Ai’styl into danger. As things look worse off for Dishna, she hisses and with a spark of light pushes the ground below her up and away from the party. Vyedra’s wolf companion is knocked off the top of this plateau and is bloodied up. Gnice and Shevarr flank a troglodyte, Talia keeps her cover and fires a ranged assault; and Vyedra and Ai’styl front the attack. Lydia is ensnared by the Naga’s gaze and uncontrollably throws herself in front of Dishna.

           Dishna’s power almost reaching its apex, she walls herself off from the party. Ai’styl, Gnice, and Vyedra struggle to climb over the wall as an entranced Lydia and Gnice’s summoned hippogriff fight on the other side. When they finally reach the top, Ai’styl takes aim and fires an arrow of incredulous precision and power through the Naga’s gaping mouth and down her throat, killing her in one staggering blow.

           The group searches the fallen foes and takes various prizes from the dungeon: a mysterious staff, a glowing white ethereal orb from the Naga’s chest, and a blue potion from one of the slain humans.

           With that mystery presumably solved, the party considers what to do next. Shevarr trudges off, mumbling about ‘fixing things’ and ‘atoning for her failure.’ Ramne helps Talia identify the properties of the potion and informs the party that he will be staying in Hilloft and travelling to the fallen city of Halven to help identify some recovered arcane texts; unable to describe the magic within the white orb, Ramne suggests they travel to the west towards Pai’vall, where he apprenticed under his old master, a wizard who may know more than he does. Ollwin shrugs and laughs when the party returns to his inn, since their party seemingly grows every time they do.

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 Epilogue

           The party has about four days left on the rooms they bought in the inn, so they wait out the remainder of that time to gather themselves and garner supplies, among other things. In this time, they hear a few points of interest from the gossiping drunkards visiting the inn:             The missing guard Henry was found dead. A farmer’s widow was found dead and the city is looking for someone to buy the old farmhouse to try to move past any negative attention to Welmarsh quickly. The Golden Grain Inn has closed for renovations. The priestess of the local church has left to go on a short pilgrimage to Cathadious, where a child of the church has been supposedly performing miracles. The capital Halstaad is apparently looking for adventurers and mercenaries to start a monster hunting battalion. Minotaurs have been spotted near Pai’vall, transforming their discontent into an uproarious ultimatum to the capital for more aid. Ramne stops by the inn to bid goodbye to Ollwin and the group before he leaves for Hilloft.

           Lydia looks around the tavern before meekly saying “so, what is everyone doing now?”

The Crucial Friendships of Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura, created by the acclaimed CLAMP, is a story about a girl named Sakura and her quest to become the Master of the Clow Cards, magical cards whose power she can call on to do amazing feats of magic. If you aren't familiar with the series, read this article about the story up until the Clear Card Arc before you go any further! The series is famous for its relationships, focusing especially on friendships and how they can support you through various trials in life. Honestly, it's not a theme that's unique to anime in general, but Cardcaptor Sakura really takes it to the next level, creating complex relationships between characters that are crucial to Sakura's ability to catch the Clow Cards and, later on, transform them into Sakura Cards.

  Without her friends, Sakura wouldn't ever be dressed to the nines, she would probably be lost AND confused more than she already is, and wouldn't have any healthy competition to fuel her drive to become a great magician. Ultimately, though, her friends push her through emotional growth as a person, and support her physical growth as she becomes a stronger user of magic. Without them, we wouldn't have the series we know and love and Sakura would never have been able to accomplish all that she did in the first two arcs that follow her journey to become the Master of the Clow Cards.

    SPOILER WARNING: All that follows contains spoilers for the Cardcaptor Sakura manga and anime. If you don't want to spoil yourself this way, go read the manga or watch the anime (which you can see right here on Crunchyroll)! 

  The following information will primarily cover the events of the manga, with small asides to remark on differences in the anime. The two are different, though not overwhelmingly so. If you're interested in reading or seeing the source material before the new series begins, the manga is light, easy reading, and the anime has more of everything – more filler, more cards, and some off-script additions.

    Tomoyo Daidouji

Tomoyo Daidouji is Sakura's best friend and also second cousin on Sakura's mother's side. They met for the first time in third grade, when Sakura gave her an eraser to use in class. Since then, the two became fast friends. Tomoyo is sweet, kind, caring, and mature for her age (remember, this story begins when they are both in fourth grade). Her mother is the head of a toy company and Tomoyo is frequently accompanied by a team of female bodyguards to protect her wellbeing. Her hobbies include music and fashion- she is a talented musician and singer (which sometimes puts her in peril), as well as a great seamstress. The latter skill comes in great use, as she singlehandedly provides Sakura with her battle costumes (all of which tend to be absolutely adorable AND sometimes themed to the battle at hand. I mean, come on, Tomoyo developed a rubber outfit for Sakura when Sakura was battling the Thunder card so that she wouldn't get electrocuted).

  Because her mom has access to new technologies, Tomoyo has lots of opportunity to try out new and developing tech, which comes in handy when she helps Sakura out with her adventures to capture the Clow Cards. She often acts in the supporting role during Sakura's battles with the Cards, providing her with communication technology, like headsets, so that they can talk to one another during the fights, as well as recording Sakura's battles on a camcorder. A few times this has put her in peril- she was targeted by rogue Clow Cards, which inspired Sakura to work even harder to protect her.

  But her role is often more than just sidekick. Despite her own and very real love for Sakura, she encourages Sakura's own crush on Yukito, and later Syaoran. She is remarkably selfless and seems to genuinely care about Sakura's health and happiness, often putting Sakura's feelings before her own. However, she is never depicted as being upset about the fact that Sakura doesn't show any regard for her in a way that isn't just as a friend. As long as Sakura is happy, Tomoyo is happy, and that's enough for Tomoyo. 

  In a lot of ways, Tomoyo is the perfect sidekick, but also the very best friend- selflessly loving Sakura without feelings of resentment. Sakura depends on her for emotional as well as physical support. Tomoyo helps her to stay safe during battles, but also lends a non-judgemental ear to Sakura when Sakura needs to talk about her feelings. It is unquestionable that without Tomoyo, Sakura would not have been able to accomplish all she was able to do. 

  Syaoran Li

  Syaoran Li is Sakura's Cardcaptor rival-turned-romantic interest. He comes from the Li Clan in China, and is a distant descendent of Clow Reed, the originator of the Clow Cards and the greatest magician of his time. As such, when he and Sakura first meet, they are fierce rivals. He is portrayed as being very independent (I mean, he moved to Japan to live BY HIMSELF in the FOURTH GRADE) and aloof, looking down on Sakura and her attempts to catch the Clow Cards. When he first meets Sakura, he is socially awkward, cold, and mean. At this point in their relationship, he serves as the antagonist, causing Sakura to doubt herself and, by extension, dig more deeply into her own powers, leading to her eventual success in capturing the Cards.

  It isn't until she is declared the Master of the Clow Cards that Syaoran lightens up and begins to befriend her. He is a talented magician himself and was trained to be a comptenent user of magic in China. So, when Sakura is tasked with changing the Clow Cards to the Sakura Cards, he serves to help her in battle by using his own magic to help her overcome challenges and tests of her power. As he works more closely with her and Tomoyo, he begins to develop feelings for her, which only serve to develop his devotion to helping Sakura further her own magical abilities and grow as a character. Several times, especially in the second arc, Syaoran puts his life at risk for Sakura, and gets hurt in some of the battles while trying to help her. His willingness to help, even at the risk to himself, motivated Sakura a great deal and pushed her into seeking victory so that his sacrifice for her wouldn't be for nothing.

  Towards the end of the second arc, he has completely warmed up to Sakura to the point that he confesses his feelings to Tomoyo and seeks her advice in sharing his feelings with Sakura. He tries multiple times to confess his feelings for her and doesn't succeed until after she has completed her task of transforming the Clow Cards to the Sakura Cards, again, with his help in the final battle. His confession and admission that he will be moving back to China confuses and frustrates Sakura, as she can't understand why she's so upset about his leaving. After a short period, his own confession forces her to realize her own feelings for him, in many ways paralleling her final battle against Eriol. Just as she as able to come into her own as a magician, Syaoran's confession pushes her into realizing her real feelings, and she is able to grow as a character and confess her own feelings for him right before he departs.

  Their relationship, first as rivals, then as friends, then finally as romantic partners was one of the longer developing relationships, but all the much more important for the time it took. These two fought together, worked together, and won together, uniting them in many ways and teaching them both the values of loving and caring for another.

  The Guardians of the Clow - Cerberus and Yue

  Clow Reed, creator of the Book of Clow and the Clow Cards, also created two magical beings whose duty it is to protect and look after the Book of Clow and the Master who controls them. Cerberus, or Kero-chan, is aligned with the Sun, and is tasked with choosing the new Clow Master. Yue, aligned with the Moon, is tasked with judging Kero-chan's candidate to determine if they're worthy to take on the position. Kero-chan, whose full form is a massive winged lion, is funny, outgoing, and adores sweets and video games. During most of the series, he looks like a little lion stuffed animal with wings. Yue is much more reserved in character, and much more loyal to his previous master- he is overall very unwilling to accept a new Master of the Clow Cards. Similar to Kero-chan, Yue has two forms- his full magic form, in which he looks like an angelic man, complete with wings and long flowing silver hair. His temporary, or secondary form, is that of a boy named Yukito, who also happens to be Sakura's brother's best friend (more on that later).

  Kero-chan is very eager to elect a new Clow Card Master, and therefore is very accepting of Sakura. After all, he is the one who chooses her to recapture the Cards and starts her off on this journey. To Sakura, he takes on the role of mentor and friend. He teaches her how to use the magic of the Cards and gives her advice on capturing them, but at the same time supports her in her decisions and lets her take the lead on sealing the cards. He, Tomoyo, and Sakura all work together to get the cards back under control, and his support really helps Sakura to use her best judgement and try new ideas when it comes to capturing the cards and later unravelling the mysteries of the town's troubles in the second arc. 

  Yue, on the other hand, is not accepting of Sakura, even after she becomes the Master of the Clow. It is his job to judge the candidate of their worthiness to essentially become his and Kero-chan's new master and he takes the job seriously. He doesn't reveal himself to Sakura until the end of the first arc and it becomes clear very quickly that he holds Clow Reed in very high esteem. He both doesn't want a new master and doesn't think Sakura is capable of taking on the responsibility. Winning him over becomes Sakura's first big emotional challenge as a character. Up until meeting Yue, she worked on her magical ability and developed her skill, but to win him over she had to demonstrate all she'd learned emotionally from her friends and the other Cards to convince him she'd be a good Master. She is eventually able to placate him by confessing she'd rather be his friend than his master, allowing him to accept her as someone similar to, but not a replacement for, Clow Reed.

  Without these two as Sakura's guiding points, she would not have been able to capture the Clow Cards or, later, transform them to Sakura Cards. They bring essential wisdom about the nature of Clow Reed's magic and his magical creations, and help her understand her own powers. In them she finds friends, mentors, and teachers. Through them she also learns how to get along with others, and how to learn from mistakes and try again.

   Tōya and Yukito

Tōya, Sakura's brother, and Yukito, Tōya's best friend, play minor roles in Sakura's many friendships, but important ones. Tōya, of course, is a bit self-explanatory. He's in high school at the start of the story, works many different jobs, and picks on his little sister mercilessly. His main relationship with his sister is a supportive one- he looks out for her, and is initially suspicious of Syaoran and Syaoran's developing feelings for Sakura. He has some idea she's involved in events a bit out of the norm for an elementry school kid and has some very slight magical ability as well, which allows him to see ghosts (or so he says). 

Yukito, Tōya's best friend, is also the temporary form of Yue, Sakura's guardian. Weird, huh? Though Yukito is Yue's alternate form, Yukito is very much his own person (funny, charming, outgoing) with his own feelings. He is also Sakura's biggest crush throughout the series. At the start of the story, she is head-over-heels for him and spends a lot of her time trying to bump into him and chat with him. Syaoran also incidentally develops a crush on Yukito, but his crush is explained as his subconscious attraction to Yue's magic.

Some of Sakura's crush starts to wane when she realizes Yukito is Yue's alternate form, but due to her lingering feelings, she initially misses a lot of clues about Syaoran's own feelings for her as they begin to change throughout the Sakura Card arc. Thus, without Yukito around, we can feasibly say that Syaoran and Sakura would have confessed a lot earlier and we could have avoided the drama altogether. But, hey, that's the fun stuff, right?

Her crush on Yukito was important in Sakura's later realization of her own love for Syaoran. Her crush on Yukito taught her what it was to have feelings for another and this, coupled with time spent with Syaoran, was what ultimately brought them together. Furthermore, her crush on Yukito is what allowed her to win Yue over with love and companionship instead of with force. Initially, when Yue challened her to the Final Judgement, she refused to fight because she didn't want to hurt Yue and, by extension Yukito, with her magic. This forced her to find a non-violent resolution to the Judgement, which ultimately worked in winning Yue over and in reinforcing her own sweet and pure-hearted morals.

Relationships in the Clear Card Arc...

  While we can't say for sure what exactly will happen in this arc, what will be really interesting to pay attention to are the new characters and relationships that have been introduced, as well as how old ones continue to develop. Many fans are eagerly awaiting canon Sakura and Syaoran relationship development, for obvious reasons, so it will be intereting to see how they are able to balance their love for one another with Sakura's developing magical ability. Will Syaoran still be able to support her without jealousy as she further transform's Clow's magic to something totally unique to Sakura? 

  Tomoyo will be another character to watch as well. She has selflessly loved Sakura and pushed Sakura towards her own love interests rather than trying to force her feelings on her best friend. Given Sakura's past reliance on Tomoyo's unflagging support, her relationship with Tomoyo will be crucial in the face of whatever new challenges await!

  Finally, the new relationships will be pivotal. Relationships with other characters, and how Sakura chooses to treat those people have defined the plot of each arc in many very influential ways. The new characters we meet in this new arc will undoubtadly be important, and the conflicts they bring with them will no doubt define the character development Sakura will go through. 

  Look forward to the new seaon of Cardcaptor Sakura to watch for these relationships, and please comment below with your own interpretation of how you think each relationship might change as the characters go through new experiences in middle school!

    I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My Tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! :D

  In case you missed it, check out our last dish: Wing Gyoza from "Food Wars!" What other famous anime dishes would you like to see Emily make on COOKING WITH ANIME?

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