Raphael’s character and a lot of references to Ancient Greek mythology/history

Ok, so there’s some really obvious ones like, I think there’s some story in the game about a bard winning over a devil that he likes, which is a clear reference to Orpheus and Eurydice (also Raphael holds the power to free Orpheus in the game, like hades being able to free Eurydice) also hope being a parallel to Persephone 👁️👁️.

Besides the little things like that, I’ve noticed his character kinda resembles Alexander the Great, LEMME EXPLAIN FIRST

Raphael as we all know really wants the crown of Karsus, and knows alot abt the guy (he was even there when he failed, or when the city fell) , and maybe admires what he managed to accomplish to some extent and he kinda even models his house on his work, as they both float in the sky (also gonna make the obvious connections to Icarus here) and Raphael “believes” he should rule the hells and that he could end the blood war ect etc… and he’s so great, anyway.

Now Alexander was similar in that he too believed he should rule the world/Persia or Asia (debatable which) and he also admired someone with a great “folly” which was Achilles, whose weakness was yknow his Achilles, and Alexander basically modelled his life after this guy too, so he’s a bit more extreme than Raphael, like man carried the illiad wherever he went, but it shows he’s a fan of literature and epics, like Raphael.

Also, Alexander is supposedly of “half divinity” or whatever, he believed he was the son of Zeus or at least more than just a human, which Raphael is, but I suppose less Divine in his case.

Another thing is, Alexander also was kinda a dick, in that in his pursuit to conquer he also sieged the city of Thebes which was also a Greek city state, like he says he later regretted it but still. Also during his siege he did let some people live, like some ppl in a temple of Heracles (another idol of his) and a woman who attacked some soldiers after being assaulted and he was impressed by her or something. Ithaca wasn’t the only place he sieged, later in Babylon during a party some girl convinced him to siege a city and burn it, he did lol. Alexander wasn’t a great person, also a conqueror so there’s that.

Raphael, is obviously not a good person but it’s hard to say he isn’t somewhat likeable or has his moments, korilla even says so herself, that’s he a much kinder boss than she’s had before, especially for a devil. Though in the end, Raphael still wants to conquer, and not just the hells, he says that he’ll go further and conquer other “worlds”

(Also the attack on Thebes was one of Alexander’s first key victories, but it was on his own country, unlike everything that he attacks after, which yknow is like Raphael starting his attack in the hells then moving outward)

Also just gonna mention it here, but it’s been said loads, when Raphael dies, it’s a total reference to Kronos eating his children, as Raphael gets nommed on by his father.

There are totally more references and especially to other cultures, like his cat/mouse rhymes kinda remind me of Hickory Dickory Dock and his miss tuffet being miss miss muffet, but my guy is totally Italian/Greek? Coded, like it’s hard to believe otherwise.

Maybe the similarities to Alexander are a bit out there, a lot of “leaders” or “greats” were like that. Anyway, I’m probably missing more references but that’s all I couldn’t remember off the bat.

EDIT: To be fair though, maybe he’s more of a Julius Caesar, since Alexander was quite young when he died and Julius was said to have cried in front of a statue of Alexander since he accomplished so much more than him in his youth, since most of caesars big stuff was later in his life, but like I said you can find similarities with a bunch of other similar dictatory guys,

2. When Icarus Fell

“Eve.” “...” “Eve!” Evelyn groaned in pain, opening her eyes to look at the person who dared trying to wake her up. This felt like one of those bad hangovers, only a thousand times worse. “Eve!” the voice said again. Evelyn turned her head around, not being able to find the source of that voice, letting out a frustrated groan. “Evelyn don’t do that, you were sedated.” Another voice sternly spoke. “What?” she finally replied, her throat feeling sore like she slept a thousand years. 

She finally recognized the voices, they were coming from behind her seat. She turned around, cursing herself for not listening to the voice. “Jaha? Griffin?” She said, not believing that her two old best friends were on the same ship as her. This would be just as awkward as she anticipated. 

“Yeah… long time no see uh?” Wells said with a sad smile. She had missed him while in prison, and even if he came now and then to say hello during the first months, he stopped after a while, probably bored by the girl's monotonous responses. 

Clarke instead was just staring blankly at her with an expression that Evelyn couldn’t quite read, which was strange since she was pretty observant. “What are you doing here?” Clarke finally said, giving her a suspicious look. She never came to see her when Evelyn got locked up. 

Evelyn stayed quiet for a bit. They wouldn’t understand , she thought. They already saw me knocking off a guard, they don’t need any more reason to think I’m a total basket case.“Stealing medicines…” she finally replied, keeping her eyes low. While Wells looked like he believed her and sent her a reassuring smile, Clarke was looking even more suspicious than before, her face still a mask of indifference. 

That girl wasn’t dumb, Evelyn thought with a sigh. “And you? Why are you here?” She asked, trying to change the subject. “Wells got arrested for attacking a guard and… well I think you already know why I am here…” Clarke said and glanced at Wells, who looked embarrassed. Obviously she knew why Clarke got locked up: she knew the Ark’s secret, just like her and Wells, by what she heard. She also heard that Wells turned her father in for the same reason, and judging by the embarrassed look Wells had on his face it must be true. 

But she didn’t have much information since she was locked up three years ago. When she first saw Wells on the ship, she thought that she was going insane. There was more possibility that all the time locked up drove her to madness then the Chancellor's son being part of the delinquents.

Evelyn was so focused on thinking why Wells turned in Clarke’s father to notice that the two were now fighting. When she realized she turned away embarrassed and tried to comprehend what was happening. 

They were really going to the ground. 

Just as she turned back she realized a boy was staring at her. A boy who was definitely too old to be on that ship . She recognized his jacket as a guard one, even if it was too worn to be his. 

Only then she realized that he was talking to her but it was too late.

“Are you deaf by any chance?” He asked as he clicked his tongue in an annoyed way. “What?” “I asked you a question like three times but you didn’t reply” He explained shrugging. What a rude person she thought. “Oh sorry.” Evelyn replied shortly, glad that she was still high. “What was the question?” She asked then. “I asked if you were Marcus Kane’s daughter.” Oh of course, now not only was she known as a raging psychopath but people already started to recognize her as another raging psychopath’s daughter, she contemplated. 

Being Kane’s daughter wasn’t exactly a good thing,especially in a ship full of delinquents who hated him. The people on the Phoenix hated him because he didn’t privilege them like many others seemed to do, the people on the Walden and on the Colony hated him for locking their kids up and floating their friends.

Fantastic .

“You are a guard, aren’t you?” She retorted. He looked worried for a second, then nodded. What a strange group of people she thought. “Then you know who I am.” she concluded.

The boy gave her a strange look before nodding and focussing his attention back to the wall in front of him.

“So, since I think it’s obvious you’re not one of us, how did you get in there?” Evelyn asked. She had a weird feeling about him, even though she tried to brush it off since she didn't like anyone who talked to her. 

He sent her a look full of what could only be described as pure terror before replying under his breath “None of your business.” 

She just shrugged and turned her back at him. She wasn’t really willing to make friends or to talk. She was just going to mind her own business and let the more ambitious ones do all the work. 

Just as she turned around again she heard the little screen in front of her turning on, playing a speech given by the chancellor Jaha. “Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now…” he started saying. She closed her eyes, not really caring about what he was saying. But she didn't miss the worried look on the guard's face when he saw Jaha. 

Weird . 

She was almost falling asleep as she was already exhausted. She needed whatever they shoved in her neck to wear down before hitting the ground if she didn’t want to look completely out of her mind. Which she already did.

But just when she started relaxing she heard a loud crash, followed by someone’s scream. The screen abruptly shut off and she started panicking again. 

At this speed they were going to crash. 

She wanted to be a pilot, when she was still a child and everything was still possible. People found it weird that the daughter of one of the most important beings on the Ark chose such a job. Pilots came from the Walden, sometimes from the Colony. Never from the Phoenix. 

You had to be little to squeeze yourself in those cubicles, and she was one of the few people who weren’t malnourished on the Ark. It was a dangerous job, pilots often blew up in the atmosphere because of some malfunction, or ended up without a limb.

But Evelyn had the habit of not giving a fuck, and signed up for it as soon as she was old enough to. She never finished her studies, but she was going to die on a rocket ship anyway. 

Quite ironic. Quite sad. 

Evelyn gripped her harness so hard that her knuckles turned white, and was glad that whoever put her on that seat was careful enough to buckle her safety belt. At least she wouldn’t be catapulted from what was now becoming a burning oven dropping from the sky.

Small pieces of burning metal rained on her and the rest of the passengers as the ship was quite literally exploding. Evelyn let go of the harness and brought up her arms around her head, covering it from the hits as tears of pain came to her eyes as the little pieces impaled the skin of her neck and arms. 

Sparks started to fly and the lights went off. The propulsor started to roar almost loud enough to cover the screams of terror coming from the delinquents as they fell from the sky. Her metal seat started to burn, and she felt the urge to take off her jacket, but she knew that if she did the skin would end up raw in a few seconds from either the boiling seat of the splinters flying around.

We entered the atmosphere, we were going to die , she thought. 

The only thing she could think about was that old story she had read when she was still on the Phoenix, about a boy falling from the sun. His father had given him a pair of wings to free himself but he flew too close to the sun and they melted.

Icarus.

She indeed felt like Icarus, who came too close to the object of his desire and was now plummering to his death. Evelyn never liked the Greeks too much, but at that moment she wished that she did, so that she could remember what happened to the guy.

She could probably figure out the answer for herself. 

She looked out from the porthole at the green and light blue colors flashing in front of her, roaring flames around the window, before she closed her eyes for what she thought would be the last time, preparing herself for the fatal crash. 

The roaring sound became a piercing screech and a wave of pain ran through Evelyn’s body as her scream joined the others’, the ship shaking so hard that a few delinquents were ripped from their seats and thrown against the walls. 

But the fatal crash didn’t come. Well, there was a crash, but it wasn’t fatal. 

At least not for her. 

A pair of guys were lying on the floor unconsciously, a few delinquents peering over to check on them. 

Were they dead?

The ship was deadly silent and the air smelled like fried metal and blood, a smell that made Evelyn’s stomach turn in disgust. Everyone was glued to their seats, afraid that if they moved they would discover some injuries. 

The girl moved her fingers and her feets, then her arms and leg, trying to find if there was a broken bone. There wasn’t. She checked her arms for any injury and touched the back of her neck to see if there were some splinters stuck in it.

When she realized that she was overall fine, even though her neck hurt like a bitch, she tried to take her harness off as quick as her shaking hand permitted and headed to the lower level with buckling knees. She didn’t spare a glance to the two corpses below her feet.

“Just back it up!” She heard “the guard” yell and weirdly everyone listened to him. Evelyn didn’t understand what the problem was and why didn’t he just open the goddamn door but then she saw Clarke making her way down to the boy. 

“Stop!” She yelled, “The air could be toxic.”

“Just what we needed.” Evelyn mumbled, causing a boy behind her to laugh. She turned around to look at him. He seemed ok, beside the goggles he had on his head. 

“I’m Jasper, Jasper Jordan.” He said “And this is Monty Green.” He continued, looking at the boy beside him. The other guy seemed okay too, maybe a little less crazy than the first one.

“Evelyn, nice to meet you.” She replied, purposefully not saying her last name. 

Then she turned back to look at Clarke and the boy discussing if the door should be opened or not. Evelyn shook her head in disapproval. If the air was toxic they were already dead, so they could just get it over with and open the door.

“Bellamy?” A pretty girl said with wide eyes. 

She looked familiar, Evelyn thought. 

Then it clicked. That was Octavia Blake, the girl who got hidden under the floor for 16 years. That meant that the boy was her brother. Of course now it made sense to Evelyn why he was on that ship. 

“Oh my god, look how big you are.” Bellamy said.

She felt bad for them, maybe even a little jealous since she knew that no one would risk their life for her like Bellamy did for Octavia. Maybe it was better this way she thought, since she was damn sure she wouldn't risk anything for nobody. 

If there was one thing that she learnt from her father was to put herself first, if she wanted to survive. She looked away, wanting to give them their privacy, but clearly not everyone agreed with her.

“Where’s your wristband?” Clarke asked Bellamy. 

“Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year.” Octavia spat, clearly annoyed by Clarke's interruption.

Silence fell on the ship as everyone looked confused.

“No one has a brother!” a boy shouted. 

“That’s Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden under the floor!” another girl replied.

Octavia looked furious, as she was ready to attack all of them, but Bellamy caught her. “Let’s give them something else to remember you by.” he said to her. 

“Like what?”

“Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years.”

A smile formed on the girl’s face as she glanced one last time at her brother before advancing towards the door, Bellamy working on its opening.

That was it. The moment that Evelyn both feared and was waiting for. 

Bellamy opened the door and colors surrounded them. 

The first thing that caught Evelyn’s eyes was the colors, a deep blue and green surrounding them, much different from the gray and black they were used to. 

The sky was blue, the trees and grass bright green. It looked like a painting. The air was full of smells that Evelyn couldn’t comprehend. Some delinquents were holding their breath, afraid that the air could be toxic.

Octavia took a step out the ship, then another.

“WE’RE BACK BITCHES!” The yell filled the air as she jumped out the dropship, everyone running towards the exit, excited to be there. 

Evelyn started to look around once she stepped out of the ship. She shielded her eyes with her arm, not familiar with the sunlight. A smile of pure joy formed on her face. 

At first she could only see the colors, not the shapes. Flashes of green and blue surrounded her as she spun around, taking in as much as she could. The trees were so much taller than she expected, and the sky looked endless. Her head was spinning and she took a big breath like it was the first time she ever breathed.

It looked like they landed on a circle shaped glade with a wood around it. The sky was deep blue, the grass was green and thick. It looked like a dream.

“Wow.” She heard Wells whisper behind her.

“Yeah I know.” The girl replied breathlessly.

It seemed like this time Icarus lived. 

For now at least.

Character Intro: Ariadne (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- Aria or Ari by her friends and family

Lady of the Labyrinth by the people of Crete

Ms. Know-it-all by Phaedra

Smarty by Catreus

Age- 17

Location- Crete, Olympius

Personality- Ari is a very bright, quirky, and intelligent young woman. She can be introverted at times, but she's more outgoing around people she knows & comfortable with. She’s single.

She was born and raised in Crete to her father, Lord Minos and her mother, Lady Pasiphae. She has an older sister named Phaedra, two older brothers named Catreus & Glaucus, and a younger brother named Androgeus (called Andro for short).

The state of Crete is renowned for its gorgeous beaches, natural scenic beauty, exquisite cuisine, and its leading advancements in tech & science. Before Ari was born, it took the number one spot on the list of "Olympius' Top Ten States," receiving glowing praise from the King & Queen. Some of its delicacies include chochlioi boubouristi, gamopilafo, tsigariasto, and various Cretan cheeses. Another popular attraction of the state is bull riding!

For the past few years, Crete has been garnering negative press due to the growing number of protests in response to the large number of unsolved missing person cases- mainly of young adults & the Lord's ambivalent attitude towards it. The state is also home to its most frightening "citizen"- a monstrous beast simply known as The Minotaur, a bloodthirsty mass of muscle that is said to be half man, half bull. It used to be on the loose, threatening and killing innocent civilians before it was subsequently captured and imprisoned in a winding puzzling labyrinth. The origins of the beast is unknown & is widely speculated.

Ari's family is currently a fractured puzzle. Her older brothers moved out and she's not as close to her sister as she once was. Her father Minos buries himself in his job/lordship and has spent many nights out the mansion. He rarely brings up Pasiphae. She's had questions about what happened to her mom after Minos' explanation- telling them a few days after Andro's birth (Ari was seven), she couldn't deal with the stress of being a mom anymore, so one night she packed up most of her things and left, never being seen or heard from since. They also used to have close family friends- an inventor named Daedalus & his son Icarus. Ari hasn't heard from him since Icarus' death.

She remembers her mom being incredibly lively & passionate, much like Phaedra. Ari also remembers her quick shift in moods. Pasiphae would throw outdoor parties- several streets filled with people and the loud sounds of vibrant music in the air. She loved cooking for them- her specialities being etole and chorizo empanadas, finishing them off with drinking micheladas. Even with her mom's absence, Ari still feels a connection to her, especially since she owns a few jewelry pieces that were left behind. Ari also remembers when Pasiphae would massage hers' & Phaedra's scalp, getting a glazed over look in their eyes.

Ari is possibly the youngest graduate of Athenium University at the age of fourteen.

She switches between wearing contacts & glasses.

Her favorite colors are red, purple, and gold.

She's never been in a real relationship, but she did have her first kiss with her nanotechnology project partner when they were both thirteen.

In addition to being fluent in Greek & Latin, Ari can also speak Minoan.

Two of her favorite drinks are agua fresca (watermelon and papaya) & champurrado. At The Roasted Bean, she likes the small cinnamon caramel latte and the large açaí-grape splash.

She loves snacking on grapes and figs.

The last good memory Ari has of her whole family was when they spent the entire day at the beach, where they ultimately watched the sun set.

Her favorite sweet treat are churros drizzled with honey, white chocolate, & dulce de leche. As a kid, she also used to like fried ice cream!

Her favorite dish (her mom's recipe) that Catreus makes and brings over is pork posole.

She greatly admires Aetna (goddess of volcanoes) & hopes to meet her one day!

In her free time, she loves sewing, knitting, and doing embroidery (the latter she loved doing with her mom). She doesn't mind tutoring Andros (helping with his homework), horseback riding, working on her various tech projects, going on her computer & laptop, solving crossword puzzles and other brain teasing games (especially the challenging one on the Sunday's The Oracle newspaper), listening to music (loves M9), & playing video games (with her brothers).

A lot of her friends are from online chat rooms! She sometimes live streams herself playing video games on her PanopTube channel.

As kids, Ari tagged along with Phaedra and Icarus as they snuck into the labyrinth to sneak a peek at The Minotaur.

"I prefer computers over people sometimes."

The Sun

Pairing: Portgas D. Ace x Reader

Summary: If there’s two things common between you and Icarus, they’re 1) you both tried to get too close to the sun, and 2) you’re both mortal — vulnerable and susceptible to the pain that comes with it.

This is initially intended to be the second part of Burn, but this can also be considered a standalone fic. 😊

[I also tweaked the story of Icarus and Daedalus a little bit so they can fit the One Piece universe. Hope you don’t mind.]

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: So you see I’m trying out this new writing style, but I’m not sure if it turned out how I wanted it to be. But please let me know your thoughts about it~

Icarus.

Back when you still lived in your hometown, as a child, you have grown to like the tales of sailors who docked at your island. There’s this story about one of the first ever heard of uses of devil fruit powers.

It’s about a master craftsman named Daedalus imprisoned in some far away kingdom with his son, Icarus. With their cell up high in the castle and the ground filled with guards, there was no means to escape for an average person. But Daedalus was all sorts of things other than average; he’s a father, a genius, and a devil fruit user of the Doru Doru no Mi. And because of those, he has found a way to get out of the kingdom through something that only he can make: wings made out of candle wax.

“Don’t fly too close to the sun or else the heat will melt the wax and you’ll fall into the sea.” A fair warning from Daedalus to Icarus as he handed a pair of wings to his son, who only nodded in response.

Their escape went on without a hitch with the help of the wings. However, because of the delectable taste of freedom, the further away they had gone from the kingdom that constricted them, the more precarious Icarus got. He flew higher and higher and higher, until his wings started melting. And only when he was falling to the sea did he notice that the wings had melted off completely. Even Daedalus had noticed it too late, and all he could’ve done was lament for his son who didn’t heed his words.

“It was tragic,” the sailor once told you. But all you could ever think about back then was that Icarus was dumb. Foolish. Idiotic. Stupid. Moronic.

Why would he fly higher when he knew the risks? It just didn’t make sense. There was no rational explanation, no sensible justification for it.

But now that you’re older, you might have found a possible reason why he did what he did.

Maybe, just like you, he fell in love with the sun.

The Sun.

Icarus might have fallen in love with the sun. But who are you to judge him? The sun is bright, brilliant, warm, and enticing. You couldn’t blame him for wanting to be guided by its light, to bask in its warmth, to ever so gently be caressed by its flames. You couldn’t blame him for wanting to be nearer, despite the repercussions.

You can’t call him out because you did just the same. Ace was — no — is your sun.

With his charming and boyish smile that’s always capable of cheering you up, you can mistake him as the light. He’s like the sun peeking from the clouds after a stormy day, or the sun rising after the darkest night.

In his embrace, no matter how momentary, anyone would be able to feel his care. Hell, even with his arm slung over your shoulder or his mere presence beside you, you would feel a sense of security. Because Ace is also the warmth and the comfort. Pretty much like the gentle rays of the sun enveloping you with a blanket after a cold breeze.

But you also know that like the sun, he too is dangerous. The least he can do is to burn you. And at the very worst, he could be destructive.

The Fall.

When Icarus got too close to the sun, his wings melted and naturally, he fell into the sea. There were no stories about how he felt or what was in his mind when it happened, but recently you’d like to imagine that he was content.

Falling is scary, that much is true. But falling can also be exhilarating and thrilling — it’s feeling only your weightlessness, the breathlessness, the adrenaline flowing through your blood.

You’d like to think that as Icarus fell, his thoughts were about how he did not regret what he did. In the end, he got his freedom and then he made a brave choice of going after his love. Isn’t it better to have felt the burning light than never at all? Isn’t it better to have a taste of love albeit briefly?

You’re no Icarus. You’re not a child of a genius, and you have no wings that’ll melt once you get close to your sun. But for you, the answer to these questions is yes.

You’re grateful to have experienced being by Ace’s side. You’re happy to have seen his smiles and to have heard his laughs. You’re content to have been the recipient of his sparing touches.

And as you ran with bloodied hands and injured parts after escaping from the Blackbeard Pirates, you’re pleased that it was you in this predicament and not Ace. He’s safe and it’s because of you. And despite standing face to face with death just moments ago, you’re delighted because you accomplished your mission to get information about their plans.

If there’s one thing you and Icarus should regret though, it’s being vulnerable and susceptible to pain.

The Reunion.

Icarus did not live long enough to be reunited with the sun. But you did. Your body might have been littered with scars now, but the important thing is that you survived. You’re alive, you’re healed, and you’re at peace.

And you’re back with the Whitebeard Pirates.

Whitebeard, the Division Commanders, and the former members of the Spade pirates are quick to reprimand you for your rash actions once you board the ship. You listen to their sentiments quietly, understanding the severity of your decision, but you stand by your ground, telling them you didn’t regret doing it, especially since you’ve gotten valuable information about Blackbeard. And once you’ve relayed everything to them, they all quickly let you off the hook.

All except one, of course.

You’re just about to retire to your room when Ace softly asks, “Yo, can we talk?” once you pass him by.

The sun is always so inviting. It’s capable of luring you out of whatever cave you’re hiding in. That’s the aura Ace gives off when you turn to look at him. So you nod your head and follow him to a more private area on the ship.

At this moment, you can’t help but think that the sun and the planets are bound by the laws of science. Science tells us that planets orbit around the sun because of attraction, however, they must never cross the line. This has been your mistake in the past, but now you know better. And so now you try to physically distance yourself from him.

Ace doesn’t comment on the distance. You aren’t sure if he even noticed. Instead he asks, “Why did you do it?”

You raise your brow, “We wanted information, right?”

“I was the one who should’ve been doing that. I’m his Commander. I’m the one who’s supposed to be responsible for that.”

You scoff. “It’s done now, let’s not dwell on it anymore—”

“But you could’ve died!”

“So what? Would you rather it was you? Because I don’t! If you died… if you died…” you choked back a sob. You didn’t want to think about him dying. Just the thought of it is enough to tug your heartstrings.

The sight of you softens him up right away. “Hey, hey, hey,” he tries soothing you. “I’m not gonna die.”

“You say that, but even the sun will die eventually. And I don’t want to witness that tragedy.”

This shuts Ace up. He didn’t really understand how much he matters to you until now. Seeing you crumble with just the thought of him dying makes him realize that your confession to him before the two of you parted was indeed the truth. “You’re right. I’m sorry…”

You could only bite your lip to calm yourself down.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking when you were away…” Ace murmurs. “And my thoughts were always about you.”

You gulp as your heart rate accelerates. Will he be turning you down properly this time? Give you the confirmation and closure that you need?

If you focus on your thoughts, you can hear a chant in your head: The sun will prioritize light over love. The sun will prioritize light over love. The sun will prioritize light over love.

But you reason, that’s okay. The sun is bound by the laws of science and one of its main purposes for its existence is to provide light. And you will not hold Ace back from doing that. If he doesn’t love you, it’s fine, you’ll be fine.

“I thought… you didn’t like me,” Ace says.

This statement catches your attention immediately. You’re about to object but he continues, “Because you always called me ‘Captain’ and then ‘Commander,’ and never by my name. And I thought that that was you drawing the line between us.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’m not good at these things,” he chuckles, trying to lighten the mood.

But you remain tense, trying to comprehend what’s happening.

Ace takes a small step toward you.

And you couldn’t help but think that if Ace gets closer, you’ll burn once again.

Yet you watch with wide eyes, not stopping him as he gets closer and closer and closer.

At this point you can only hear how wildly your heart is beating across your chest.

And when Ace raises his hand to tenderly touch your cheek, you realize: The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Which could only mean one thing: his focus has always been on you.

“I love you, my angel,” Ace whispers as he presses his forehead against yours. “I’m in love with you,” and he seals his admission with a kiss.

I would like to learn more about the Minotaur and Icarus

Some HappyChildhood!au thoughts for u:

- Queen Pasiphae is understandably a bit shaken when her child is born half bull, but as the immortal daughter of the sun god Helios and a fairly proficient witch she recovers quickly and decides that she is going to raise her “monstrous” son to the best of her ability, despite the protests of her unfaithful husband the king, who as far as she is concerned forfeited his say in the matter when he started this whole mess in the first place.

A well placed insinuation of unpleasant potential curses that could come his way should he get involved prompts the king to drop his preposterous talk of labyrinths and ostraziation. The queen names her newborn son Asterion, “The starry one” and moves ahead with her plans to raise him to be as good a prince as any normal looking child.

- Any child raising experience is complicated, but Prince Asterion is of course an especially curious case. His bovine influenced biology affects his development, meaning he is walking unsteadily at three weeks of age to trail after his mother wherever she goes, though tiring easily and needing to be carried while he sleeps most of the day.

At only four months old he begins speaking in clumsy but coherent sentences. The fine motor skills in his hands take much longer to catch up, leaving him unable to reliably grasp things until about eight months of age which leads to much frustration, but the prince shows early on a very bright mind and a stubbornness to solving puzzles even when they exceed his current skill.

- The queen is unsure how long the happily babbling prince will take before becoming interested in solid foods, or even what diet would best suit him, but decides to ban all meat from the entire palace as a proactive measure. This serves to both prevent uncomfortable conversations about what beef is, as well as giving her more time to research what a Minotaur’s reaction to the consumption of meat might be.

She finds out later that this was an excellent guess on her part as the consumption of either cow or human meat or blood while growing up could have triggered monstrous cannibalistic cravings and behavior in the prince. As it is the vegetarian diet ensures he growth up perfectly well adjusted and even levelheaded as his shy personality matures in adulthood.

- When Prince Asterion is two years old he is functioning about as well as a six year old human, and he starts to show signs of loneliness since he has no peers. The queen tries to figure out what kind of child she could trust to treat the prince normally when the royal inventor Daedalus nervously confesses that he also has a “special looking” son who he has never mentioned before but who might be exactly what the queen is looking for.

Icarus as born with a set of bird wings (one crippled and malformed) and is now ten years old, having been kept at home for his own safety to assist his father with his inventions. The boy is brought to the palace at once, and after the queen determines that he indeed has a sweet (though rather boastful) temperament he is introduced to the prince as his new full time playmate who is to live at the palace permanently. Asterion is terribly shy at first but Icarus is so over the moon about finally being out of the house and given full reign across the entire royal palace that they warm up to each other quickly and become lifelong fast friends.

- Daedelous refuses to build Icarus a wing prosthetic until he’s old enough to have finished growing, both for the boy’s physical safety and the inventor’s sanity, hoping that his son will have become more level headed and less risk taking by then.

When he is in his early twenties his wings finally seem to be as big as they’ll ever be and he’s fitted with a wing prosthetic that finally gives him the balance and wing span to finally be able to learn to fly. It’s a messy an exhausting process that takes several months of low flying crashes and terrible landings, but with the help of Asterion’s patient encouragement he does end up getting the hang of it, although at his friend’s concerned pleadings Icarus curbs most of his more reckless impulses, becoming an efficient and safe flier.

icarus fell, and blood stained the ground

i'm back!! (but not really—the new school year literally starts in an hour and it will be back to my pathological dependence on academic validation. at least i can say i've technically published another fic before summer break ends)

anyway, here's the fic in response to part 1 of sumayyah's post. i published a companion poem for this some time ago. as per usual, i gave up on proofreading so hopefully any mistakes don't detract from the story. also, i hope the formatting and jumping back and forth between italics makes sense—let me know if it doesn't, though it might be easier to read on ao3 (it should go up on there by 4pm PST because school)

warnings: murder, major character death (may potentially be classified as suicide-by-proxy, depending on your interpretation), guns, canon typical violence, slight gore at the end, mentioned substances

word count: 1.9k words

The damned man thought of everything, Jessica thought as she scowled at the damned folder that sat innocuously on the large mahogany desk.

The desk that would soon be cleared, all traces of the previous owner gone.

She lifted a shaky hand and brushed it through her hair, shuddering at its greasy and unkempt state that hinted at the state she had been in recently. Weary to the bone, she forced herself to sit back up and grab her phone, dialing the number that was written on the sticky note placed on the inside cover of the folder. It didn’t surprise her to hear an unfamiliar female voice answer the phone with a “Ms. Brooks?”

He had thought of everything, after all.

Really, the only thing she was surprised at was the sheer extent of his connections—but thinking back to her phone calls with Haley back when he was still practicing law, the talks about extravagant offers from top corporations and firms, she really wasn’t surprised. Thus, it made sense that her call to the top law firm in the state would be answered within two dial tones and by someone who already knew who she was.

And within minutes of talking with the woman who introduced herself as Ms. Stevens, Jessica became even more aware of just how prepared her brother-in-law had been before he walked to his dea—

Not an in-law anymore—her brother. He had long since earned that designation, that spot in her broken family, no matter how much self-flagellation he put himself through in regards to her sister’s murder and no matter how much abuse her father hurled at him in the years before the man who once viewed him as a son succumbed to dementia.

Hours later, despite having already reached her limit twenty minutes into the call, she finally hung up the phone with only funeral arrangements as an immediate concern. Slowly, she stood up from the chair and mechanically made her way into the tiny bathroom that had once been a familiar sight, when her nephew was still a child—

She forced her mind away from that minefield; she wasn’t willing to spend another sleepless night thinking about what had gone down in the past month, what had happened a week ago in that apartment, what her nephew was doing and thinking in the cell that only seemed to become colder and crueler the more she thought about it.

How many prisons had he visited? How many interrogation rooms, holding cells, general population cells, max security cells, death row cells? Did he ever get used to it? Could he allow himself to get used to it, to forget that these people are also human no matter the crimes they’ve committed?

A careful hand fell onto Jessica’s shoulder, and she shuddered under the warmth that seeped into her body, a warmth that had been lacking from her life for a long time now. She turned to see Morgan staring back at her, concerned.

“You didn’t pick up your phone,” he explained neutrally, flicking his eyes towards her phone—and sure enough, there were ten missed calls, each from a member of the team. She looked back up but avoided his concerned gaze only to latch onto her reflection in the mirror and internally winced at her haggard appearance.

“Did you—“ she coughed, clearing her throat, “have you figured out what happened?” Morgan’s unspoken question about her well-being went unanswered, and she continued to avoid looking at him.

She watched the man shake his head through the mirror, unsurprised and once again cursing her brother for his incessant habit of playing his cards close to his chest, especially when it came to personal issues.

How else is—was—he one of the best at poker in the bureau, often even beating Reid?

“He hasn’t talked, either,” Morgan informed her quietly, saving her the pain of asking the question herself. “Forensics is still struggling to put together a cohesive picture. To be honest, I doubt we’ll ever find out what actually happened in that apartment.” He shook his head, frustrated at the man he considered his brother.

If either of them bothered to ask, they would have found that both were truthfully unsurprised at this outcome, given what they only recently learned about the factors and circumstances that led to it. The few established facts about this case in addition to speculation based on systematically organized notes left in an even more meticulously organized folder painted a clear enough picture of the events preceding the fall.

But it wasn’t really an accidental, flailing fall.

In all truthfulness, he didn’t fight it.

Icarus let himself fall to his death in an attempt to compensate for his hubris, to suffer the consequences of his mistakes, and it was both a cowardly attempt to escape the hellish burns caused by the boiling, melting wax and a selfless attempt to teach posterity to avoid ending up like him.

Jessica remembered the warmth of Morgan’s embrace when he ignored all protocol and took it upon himself to inform her of what had transpired in the past two months, regardless of the still-ongoing investigation. It didn’t do much to soothe the cold that had threatened to swallow her whole as she listened to the details in silent horror.

He had sat her down in her apartment, the one she had taken care of her ailing father in before he finally died and the one she couldn’t bear to move out of for all of the memories that had been formed inside—with her father on his good days, with her brother, with her nephew

“A week ago, we were invited by MPD to consult on a series of killings that happened over the course of a month. We had an eye on the situation since the second murder, and there were two more victims in the span of a week before we were finally called in,” he began quietly.

He had suspicions as to what was happening by the time the team was invited in on the case at the personal request of the MPD chief. It certainly wasn’t the first time he had come across this profile before, but there were simply too many puzzle pieces with matching edges for the connections to be brushed off as a coincidence.

“Based on the rate at which bodies were popping up, we anticipated another one within two days of us being called in, but the killer had gone suspiciously silent. We went through crime scenes, forensic reports, and things weren’t adding up.”

"It’s a local case and we’ve coordinated with MPD multiple times, they know the drill. I’d like to take a personal look as well, the brass has been all up in my business about this case given its proximity to the Hill."

That’s what he said to the team regarding him suddenly taking the initiative to go to the crime scenes despite his responsibilities—it had been a while since he last went out to crime scenes, often taking care of the office politics and coordinating the investigation back at whatever precinct or office the team had taken over.

“There were odd inconsistencies, missing pieces of evidence… There was evidence to show that the killer was an amateur, but ultimately the profile we ended up building was nowhere near as detailed as we hoped it could be—but it ultimately went a long way in helping us figure out what was really happening.”

Old case files going missing from his home office, growing interest in his job, sudden mood swings happening long after the worst of puberty, increased isolation, dropping grades…

Absentee fathers of Georgetown students being stabbed and shot to death as if the killer was unsure about what to do, an innocuous Jack-in-the-Box takeout bag sitting near the last three bodies…

Numerous signs, and yet it was the outwardly irrelevant piece of trash, perhaps a sign of the killer’s gluttony—a sick joke that only he could have recognized—that led him to put all of the horrifying pieces together. It’s been over a decade, and yet the memories of that damned day remained as clear as ever, dogging his every footstep. Nightmares in which the worst happens still often visit him in his sleep, sometimes even combined with the effects of Peter Lewis’s drug concoction, effects lingering even after all these years.

“Somehow, we completely missed the fact that he fit the victimology. Maybe it was because of his efforts to distract us… If we had put it together earlier we might have been able to figure it out much earlier, and maybe everything could have turned out differently.”

Only after intensive counseling and careful editing of his case reports was he allowed to continue in the bureau after Lewis and his targeted attacks, and yet he knew he was still being watched. It was with that thought in mind that he made a decision on how to handle the situation. Either way, his life would be irrevocably changed, and there would be casualties alongside him.

All he had to do was figure out how to minimize them.

“He never came in that morning; Reid was the first to notice the lights off in the office. We were headed towards his apartment complex as soon as we saw a cleared-out office with a retirement letter being the only thing left on the desk. All of the pictures, trinkets, law books, messy stacks of paperwork—gone.”

A retirement letter for formality's sake, one copy emailed directly to the director and one printed on his desk, to simplify some things for the bureau and to ensure that Jessica and his son get his pension should the worst happen. All of his decisions, meticulously recorded and justified, except for this last one to protect the team from the consequences of his choice. All of his notes, all of the claimed evidence, carefully stored in the file box he left next to the retirement letter back in the office. Favors accumulated since law school called in, contacts throughout the local justice system ready to step in and deal with the fallout.

All of this, an attempt to compensate for the mistakes he’s made over the years and his hubris, to protect the remnants of his family and the team.

Morgan couldn’t finish telling Jessica what had happened, voice somehow caught in his throat and refusing to cooperate. He simply shook his head, and she folded in on herself, the weight of the last week too much for her to hold up. Slowly, he pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back but not doing much more to soothe her.

This is a wound that wouldn’t ever heal.

The story ends like this:

Icarus burned, and Aaron Hotchner said nothing as the hand that held the gun against his temple shook with uncertainty. Everything he wanted to say was written—one might call him a coward, but writing had always been so much easier for him—and he knew that he would be the final casualty, that the killings would stop after tonight.

Icarus fell, and Aaron Hotchner was flung sideways, the unyielding bullet from his gun fired by his own son shredding the brain that thought had of everything but the emotional and psychological effects his final decision would have on his family and friends.

Daedalus grieved over his son’s crumpled form, and Jack Hotchner would be found with his father’s dead body in his shaking arms as he stared blankly at sights unseen to the team, who had come hours too late.

Blood stained the ground, seeping into the cracks and crevices of grasping fingers, and nothing would ever be the same.

Description: Everyone leaves a letter at the Witch's mailbox at least once. Or: A collection of letters the Fabulous Killjoys have sent to the Zone 4 mailbox. Warnings: Discussions of and implied death Tagging: @tasteofamnesia, @wishiwasthemoon-tonight, @dagger-queen Additional notes: Plain english explanation of Ghoul's letter in the notes at the bottom of the ao3 version (you don't need an account to see it, dw, it was just more convenient)

I hope this letter never finds you. Or if it does, then i hope i'm there with you to tell you just how i've missed sitting with you and dad in the library and watching you take turns reading to me- maybe now i'll be the one who reads to you; isn't it funny how things turn around like that sometimes?

Next week it's going to be 5 years since i last saw you and i still find myself wondering why you never told me where you were going. Maybe you were just trying to keep me safe, or maybe you really thought whatever it was that you had to do wouldn't take that long, or maybe you lied, but if you knew what i know now, would you still do it? Would you still leave?

I think i should be mad at you for just dropping me off at a motel and then never coming back, but i'm not. You're still my family and no amount of Better Living bloodsuckers or ruined buildings is going change that. What i'm trying to get at is that i forgive you, or, at least that i don't blame you for leaving. Not anymore. I don't think i want you finding me anymore either, which...sounds far more terrible on paper than it did in my head, but i doubt you'd be proud of me. Hell, not even i am proud of some things i've done, but i just don't know how to stop. Everything changes so fast and it's terrifying and i don't know what to do, but i'm trying. Witch-knows i'm really trying.

...Wish you were here. -⭐

P.S. Tell dad i love him and that i said happy birthday.

*

Hey loser, miss your face already!

The tropics look so much prettier in person than from the bedroom window, but the light fixture is killing me- black was definitely not a wise choice, but you know that although i'm a buzzkill now, i'll always be an alleycat at heart. Kobra's also sending their season greetings from their middle finger to yours.

Talking of things that crawl in the sandbox, we got roommates! Well, they got us more like it, but Star's a pretty rock 'n' roll guy and i can deal with the side-eye from the cherry bomb, though i don't know whether it's because ey has picked up on my fiction diction or ey's just, well, a cherry bomb. Kobra's still on night shift, which i know it's a smart thing, but i wish they'd take a vacation sometimes, y'know? Especially now.

Anyways, i've got to get running before my shadow catches up with me. See you someday, don't put out the sun without me! - Ghoulie

*

”Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I found this while out exploring with the crew yesterday and i know you're "a simple man" and "don't really get poetry", but i think you'd like this one. I couldn't find the whole thing, but Dr. D told me it was supposed to be a goodbye from a son to his dead father- i don't really see how, though. I think this poem is about living before you die and being contempt with your life like you always used to say.

Sorry for not writing sooner, got caught up in some stuff, i think we're alright now, though. Or at least we're going to be. Please give mum a kiss for me and Lex. Love you. - Icarus

*

Hi, mama!

Jet said that if i write you a letter and leave it at the Witch's mailbox, then you're going to receive it no matter you are! Isn't that cool? :D Ghoul didn't let me come with them at the market, though, which is very rude, but Pony lent me one of air aer super sparkly pens (the one i'm writing this with!!!) so i could make your letter super special!!

Oooo, talking of writing, you totally have to see Kobra's writing!! It's so curvy and cool and stuff!! Kobra, please write something for my mama!

Hello, Mrs. Girl's Mum.

See!!! And best part is that it promised that it was going to teach me write like that as well!! I wonder if it can teach me some sick karate moves to since Poison always seems to get mad when uncle Cherri Cola offers to show me how to shoot a blaster which is double rude!! I like uncle Cherri Cola and they say i'd be a total badass, so!! >:(

I'm going to also send you this card i found in my vest pocket (i think it might be magic like the backroom at the WKIL station :0 ) so you have something to remind you of me!! I'll write to you again soon!! - your daughter

*

Dear We're I don't

Sorry for being a shit son - K

Disney Hercules Headcannons, Theories, and Ideas

This is just a list of the theories, headcannons, and ideas I came up with for Disney's Hercules. I might add more later on, so watch out

-Nyx, the Goddess of Night, is very good friends with Hades and she owns a nightclub down in the Underworld called 'The Void'

-Hades and Eris, the Goddess of Discord and Chaos, used to date, but Hades broke up with her due to Eris being too wild and clingy

-While they were together, Persephone beat, insulted, and abused Hades and forced him to do whatever she wanted him to do until Nyx, Erebus, and Thanatos stood up for Hades and forced Persephone to leave the Underworld and not come back

-Hades had no children with Persephone, mostly because she refused to have children with him

-Persephone cheated on Hades with Prince Adonis, just to get Hades' attention

-Macaria and Melinoe are air nymphs and Zagreus is a demigod

-Helios, the God of the Sun, is the father of Persephone, not Zeus

-Persephone had three demigod children with Adonis. Their names are Plutus, Obelix, and Deianira

-Zagreus is the son of Persephone and an unknown man

-Metis, the Goddess of Good Counsel, is the also the mother Ares, the God of War

-Thanatos, the God of Death, and Hades are very good friends and they even have a personal handshake

-Zeus and Hera had six more children after Hercules. Their names are Amoratta, Parthenia, Wisteria, Averos, Naidon, and Margalo

-Apollo and Athena have a son named Oleus

-Harmonia, the Goddess of Harmony and Peace, is the daughter of Aphrodite and Hephaestus

-Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft and Necromancy, has a crush on Thanatos and she tries to flirt with him every chance she gets… but he turns her down every time

-Circe is the daughter of Hecate and an unknown mortal man

-After living a long life together, Megara and Hercules both ascended to Mt. Olympus and became gods

-When he was younger, Hades used to be very close with his mother Rhea, the Titaness of Motherhood… until the Titanomachy, that was when they drifted apart

-Adonis used to be Megara's first boyfriend, until he ran off with Persephone, who was disguised as a human girl

-After the weaving contest between Athena and Arachne, Hades was the one who cursed Arachne, not Athena. He was a hidden spectator and when he saw the girl’s superior tapestry, he was greatly offended by it. So he cursed the human weaver to weave forever as a hideous spider monster

-Hades used to own a magical artifact called the Ember of Blue, but it was stolen from him by his father, Cronus, the Titan God of Time, and it was hidden away during the War with the Titans

-As a boy whenever Hades felt angry, sad, or scared, Rhea would take him to a secret temple they only know about and they would dance together until Hades was happy again

-When Hades was little, he had a huge argument with Cronus and he was so angry and upset that he ran away and hid in a cave… only to be chased out by the most horrifying creature he had ever seen: a huge black blob-like creature with giant rusty claws, a gaping mouth filled with rows of razor sharp teeth, and one giant, bulging red eye

-Persephone is a spoiled, selfish, and jealous goddess, always putting on a kind and innocent façade to get others (mortal or divine) to do what she wants

-Medusa was born a gorgon, and she is the youngest out of her and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno

-While she was growing up, Persephone was spoiled rotten by her father, Helios

-Apate, the Goddess of Deception and Lying, and Peitho, the Goddess of Persuasion, are good friends with Persephone and they like to gossip and spread false rumors about the other Gods and Goddesses

-Hades inherited his fiery temper from his mother, Rhea

-Minthe is able to turn herself into a mint plant at will

-Cerberus had started out as a regular mortal puppy until Hecate decided to place a curse on the poor thing and turn him into a three headed beast, and a younger Hades felt pity for the cursed dog so he took him in and trained him to be his guard dog

-Macaria, Zagreus, and Melinoe may not be gods, but they work for Hades in the Underworld

-Instead of a goddess, Ker is a sly spirit of violent death that works in the Underworld

-Eons ago, Hecate created an herb that is extremely toxic to mortal beings, but it has an opiate-like effect on the Gods

-Amphitrite can transform her legs into a fish tail whenever she pleases

-Hades was the one who removed Arke's wings and imprisoned her in Tartarus, not Zeus

-From time to time, Hermes likes to flirt with Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow

-Elpis, the Spirit of Hope, is good friends with Zeus and Hera's youngest daughter, Margalo

-Whenever Hades falls asleep after a huge meal, he tends to sleepwalk and he gets a really bad stomachache

-Leuke and Minthe each had a massive crush on Hades and they competed to win his affection… but they both failed miserably

-Orphne works for Hades in the Underworld, but she usually keeps to herself and she doesn't really interact with him very much

-Lamia used to be a well-respected human queen, but Hera transformed the queen into a serpent-like creature when she attempted and failed to seduce Zeus. Hades even tried to recruit Lamia for his uprising, but she turned him down flat

-During the Titanomachy, Hades stole Cronus' magical sundial and Cronus tried to get his youngest son to join him and the other Titans, but Hades refused. He and his older brothers beat their father and locked him away in the deepest part of Tartarus and Hades hid the Sundial in the Underworld where Cronus would never find it

-Hades knows Erebus, the God of Darkness and Shadows, but they rarely hang out as good friends. They're more like casual acquaintances and they only exchange an occasional “hello” sometimes

-Chloris, the Goddess of Flowers, is a total hippie and she likes to throw parties with Bacchus, the God of Wine and Revelry

-Narcissus is the God of Vanity and Pride

-Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck and Fortune, is something of a gambler. She enjoys giving mortals luck, either good or bad, and seeing what happens… and the Fates don't like her for that very reason

-Macaria, Zagreus, and Melinoe usually go around and tell people that they are the children of Hades and Persephone… but they’re NOT. Hades always dispels these rumors very quickly and the three of them are always brutally punished for it

-After Hercules and Megara were married, they had five children together. Their names are Arsenius, Phoebe, Elena, Matthias, and Deicoon

-Tempest, an Amazon Warrior, had a son named Achilles. He never knew his father, but doesn't care since he's a mama's boy. Achilles more drawn to doing theater, dramas, dance, and music over fighting in wars despite being named after a great warrior like his namesake

-Adonis and Helen of Troy were married after graduation and had two daughters named Aurea and Dalia

-Cassandra ended up falling in love with Icarus, they got married, and had two sons named Jenos and Dion

-After graduation, Icarus became a well-known inventor and Cassandra became a wise and famous oracle

-Helen of Troy and Adonis rule a kingdom of their own

-Hebe, the Goddess of Youth, has a pet eagle named Omega

-During the time of Hades’ banishment in the River Styx, Thanatos and Nyx were tasked to rule the Underworld together in Hades’ absence, but they both missed him terribly

-Geras, the God of Old Age, used to flirt with Hebe until Hera stepped in and told him to back off and leave her daughter alone

-In the Underworld, Geras likes to tick Hades off by doing things like leaving his dentures on the throne and pretending to be hard of hearing, which drives Hades up a wall

-Hephaestus is very close with his daughter, Harmonia, but he’s also a little overprotective of her

-The Sirens used to be ordinary naiads and playmates of Persephone, but Demeter cursed them to be monsters when they failed to rescue Persephone when she was abducted to the Underworld

-Nyx has an unusual relationship with Hemera, the Goddess of the Day. They have their differences and they can sometimes butt heads on certain subjects, but they usually get along rather well

-Eos, the Goddess of the Dawn, is a total glamour girl. She enjoys fashion and loves to accessorize, especially with bracelets

-Aether, the God of Light, is a bit of a rock star. He loves to sing and rock out and he has a very sweet relationship with Hemera

-Aura, the Goddess of the Breeze, is something of a hippie and enjoys meditating

-Gelos, the God of Laughter, is the official jester of Mt. Olympus

-Hades rarely interacts with Moros, the God of Doom. Hades considers him the type of guy you wouldn’t want to grab an Ambrosia with

-Amoratta is the Goddess of Family

-Parthenia is the Goddess of Honor

-Wisteria is the Goddess of Cleverness

-Averos is the God of Courage

-Naidon is the God of Loyalty

-Margalo is the Goddess of Hope

-As a child, Hades was always a troublemaking rascal. He had a dark and strange sense of humor growing up and he used to spend his time playing cruel and unusual practical jokes and tricks on the other Gods and Goddesses, especially on his father and older brothers. Oddly enough, Rhea never found her son’s pranks funny… and that’s why Hades usually received timeouts most of the time

-Hedone, the daughter of Cupid and Psyche and the Goddess of Pleasure, is a super sweet and happy-go-lucky goddess and she’s very good friends with Hebe and Margalo

-Eileithyia, the Goddess of Childbirth, is the younger twin sister of Hebe

-Hyperion, the Titan God of the Heavenly Light, is the father of the Muses

-Mnemosyne, the Titaness of Memory, adores her daughters the Muses and she taught them everything they know

-Tyche, the Goddess of Chance, was born blind, but she doesn’t mind it

-Mania, the Goddess of Insanity, is not only a mentally unstable goddess who easily goes berserk at the drop of a hat. She’s also incredibly paranoid and often drives Hades nuts with trivial things that bother her in the slightest

-Nephele, the Goddess of Hospitality, owns a hotel on Mt. Olympus called ‘The Imperial Heights Plaza’

-Elpis is a happy and energetic spirit who always want to help others

-The Charites, the Goddesses of  Charm, Beauty, Nature, Human Creativity, and Goodwill, adore Aphrodite and they all look up to her

-Metis and Zeus used to be married until Metis called things off when she noticed the way Zeus was looking at Hera. So now she can’t stand Hera and whenever she visits, Metis does everything she can to ruin Hera’s day

-Aletheia, the Goddess of Truth, is usually calm and collected, but she’s also a total truth nut and she hates it when people lie. She and Hades don’t get along very well for that very reason

-Ker likes to drink smoothies or slushies made with the blood of her victims, which grosses Hades out so much that he usually wants to throw up

-Before Lamia transformed into the monster she is today, she and Hera had a brutal cat fight over Zeus

-Hades was very annoyed by Leuke and Minthe’s efforts to win his affection. He even threatened to smite Minthe if she didn’t leave him alone

This is all I've got so far, but feel free to tell me what you think and tell me which one is your favorite

RWBY: After Salem (concepts here are free for anyone to use, just give credit)

In the final battle with Salem the heroes combine the power Ruby’s silver eyes with that of all four maidens to purge her of the Grimm essence and manage to get her to admit that she’s moved on from her daughters deaths resulting in her losing her immortality. Aging thousands of years in seconds she was soon dust. However before her defeat Salem managed to unite the four relics. The Brothers had returned. Displeased by the conflict still existing they were about to judge humanity as irredeemable when the heroes convinced them that humanity was not that far gone. Listening to their argument the Brothers agreed that humanity was neither worthy of them returning nor did they deserve extermination. Thus they returned to the stars. Before leaving however the God of Darkness left a gift. One in every five hundred babies born after this day would have the gift of magic. In time the four maidens would create the Seasons Academy to teach these new magic users how to use their gifts. Magic users have weaker semblances so the scales are not too unbalanced. Magic users are given the title of Wizard or Witch and act like Huntsmen, protecting the people of Remnant from the always present danger of the Grimm. The Huntsmen Academies lowered the age requirements after Salem’s final plan involved destroying many of the minor academies. In the following years much has changed. One such change is that Menagerie is now an official kingdom. Technology has advanced at a rapid pace, trains using anti gravity technology connect most cities. As a result trips that would have taken days now take a matter of hours. Due to this more and more cities rise outside the kingdom borders. The heroes of team RWBY and JNOR and their allies have all begun new lives after the fall of Salem.

Ruby and Oscar are married with four children. Ruby now runs a weapon repair and modification store with Nora while Oscar writes books about the past Ozes. Maria Pine-18 Lyme Pine-16 Sunny (M) and Luna (F) Pine-12 year old twins. They don’t possess magic or have silver eyes but their parents have made it very clear they love them all the same. Especially after they learned about Maria’s insecurities. Sunny and Luna have reached the phase where they want to be individuals instead of just one half of twins. Recently they unlocked their semblances. Sunny can sense aura and Luna can read body language. Based on Apollo and Artemis. Blake and Yang are married with two adopted children. Blake works to help Faunus equality across Remnant while Yang helps design and test new vehicles for the SDC. Tawny Belladonna-Xiao Long-18 Vivi Belladonna-Xiao Long-17 Weiss and Jaune are married with three children. Weiss took over SDC and is working to undo the damage done by her father while Jaune teaches combat at a local academy. Nichole Schnee-19 Maple Schnee- 13- Named in honor of Pyrrha. She inherited her mother’s singing voice and has a huge love of music. In fact she wants to enter the music industry rather than become a Huntress. To her relief her parents told her they’d support whatever decision she made. William Schnee- 10- A curious young boy with an interest in science. He loves touring the various SDC research labs with his mother. Ren and Nora are married with three children. Ren is the mayor of a rebuilt Kuroyuri while Nora runs a weapon repair and modification store with Ruby. Lie Balder-17 Lie Nezha-16 Lie Sif-15 The headmasters remain a part of Oscar’s inner circle however with the fall of Salem their mission is now to continue to guide all of Remnant into everlasting peace and preventing future disasters. Beacon- Glynda Goodwitch Haven- Ghira Belladonna, took over informally after the battle of Haven and made official around a year later. Shade- Otto Dune, A dog faunus, friend and ally of Professor Theodore, he took over after Theodore retired. Atlas- Robyn Hill, after the fall of Ironwood Robyn was placed in charge of Atlas Academy allowing her to lead a new generation away from the military and teach them how to act like proper Huntsmen. The current Maidens Spring- Raven Branwen- After the battle of Haven Raven lost everything, her tribe lost all respect for her, Taiyang rejected her, she had nowhere to go. Eventually she decided she needed to redeem herself and began spying on Salem’s forces delivering vital intel to the heroes. Summer- July Storms- When the heroes arrived in Vacuo they befriended sisters June and July Storms. They soon discovered that June was the Summer Maiden. During a battle with Cinder June stayed behind to buy the others time to escape. Once they were safe she called down a bolt of lightning to kill her before the powers could be stolen. Her sister was the last one in her thoughts so July gained the powers and has been the Summer Maiden ever since. Autumn- Emerald Sustrai- In a fit of rage Cinder revealed that she never truly cared for Emerald as anything more than a pawn. Broken Emerald fled Salem’s fortress with Mercury. They joined the heroes to save their own lives from Salem and Cinder’s wrath. During a battle Emerald used her semblance to distract Cinder long enough for Ruby and Jaune to kill her. Her last thoughts were of Emerald so the power of Autumn went to her. Winter- Penny Polendina- After the fall of Ironwood many Atlesian soldiers who were loyal to him and the ideal that “Atlas Will Prevail” deserted and formed an underground cell known as the Frozen Soldiers. Lead by Harriet now known as Snow Hare (the only Ace-Op who refused to surrender) they will stop at nothing to bring down the other Kingdoms. Penny has devoted much time and effort into stopping their plans. Beacon Staff Headmistress- Glynda Goodwitch- The first headmistress of Beacon. Once Beacon was rebuilt the decision to name her headmistress was unanimous.  History- Dr Bartholomew Oobleck- Still his energetic self always eager to share knowledge with anyone willing to learn. Grimm Studies- Peter Port- Still bombastic and passing on his wisdom and experience. Head of Security- Gordon Ryder- Gordon’s semblance allows him to create orbs of aura that act as his eyes and ears. He is capable of creating multiple orbs and has them placed around the boundaries of the campus. However while keeping track of them he often loses track of what’s happening around his own body. Origin- The Headless Horseman Combat Instructor- Paulina “Babe” Bunyan- A bull faunus, her semblance allows her to spot the weak point in things or people which allowed her to help her lumberjack father when she was a child. Origin- Paul Bunyan Airship Piloting- Skye Gale- When he was younger his hubris caused an airship crash that nearly killed him. After recovering he set forward to teach others to learn from his mistake. Origin- Icarus. Wilderness Survival - Forest Mann- The son of explorers who perished during a jungle expedition his semblance and basic wilderness training allowed him to survive. His semblance allows him to copy the traits of nearby animals. After making it back to civilization years later he began teaching others how to survive the wilderness. Origin- Mowgli/Tarzan Beacon Teams Fourth Year Team MNTY Maria Pine- Growing up Maria couldn’t help but feel like she was in the shadow of heroes and legends and as a result she grew insecure. Her desire to prove herself “worthy” eventually results in her being injured on a training mission. After that she admits her insecurity to her parents and her team who help her grow past it and see her own self worth. Like her father Maria can use magic. Appearance: 18 years old. 5ft 8in- Brown hair to shoulders Hazel eyes Outfit: Light red top with maroon corset. maroon shorts. Light red tights with green vine design, roses on knees. Maroon fingerless gloves up to elbows. Green vine design on gloves. Maroon boots. Half length version of Ruby’s cloak in maroon. Emblem: Three roses on a single stem, one white, one red and one maroon Emblem Location: Back of cloak Aura Color: Maroon Semblance: Stat Boost- Allows Maria to boost a single stat (speed, strength, stamina, etc) Weapon: Rose’s Thorn- Kusarigama with extending chain. Gun built into the end.  Partner: Nautica Waves Origin: Rose Red Nautica Waves- The daughter of fishermen she grew up on the water most of her life. Resourceful and daring, she won’t give up until all options have been exhausted. Appearance: 19 years old. 5ft 6in. Short dark blue hair. Blue eyes. Shark Faunus- Shark gills allowing her to breathe under water. Outfit: Teal wetsuit with wave pattern, armor plating on shoulders, elbows, knees, torso. Optional flippers. Emblem: A series of waves descending in size Emblem Location: Shoulder armor Aura Color: Teal Semblance: Hydrokinesis- Can control water as long as it’s in liquid form. Can even shape weapons out of it. The more water she controls the more aura it takes. Weapon: Ebb and Flow- Twin pistols modified to shoot water. Using her semblance she can boost the power of the water to the point it can cut through metal. Carries a dagger called Shark’s tooth as a back up. After a few missions begins using a harpoon as her main weapon to conserve on water. Partner: Maria Pine Origin: The Little Mermaid Theo Schwartz- Due to a less than stellar home situation he attempts to defuse tense situations with humor. He believes in being prepared and carries many tools and items in his hat including a set of throwing knives, tents, medical kits, food and water. Not to mention his team’s ammo. Appearance: 18 years old. 5ft 9in. Short black hair. Green eyes. Cat Faunus- Cat whiskers. Outfit: Black pants. White shirt with black dress coat. Red bow tie. Tall hat with red and white stripes. Emblem: A hand reaching into a hat Emblem Location: Back of coat Aura Color: Ebony Semblance: Hat Trick- A pocket dimension inside his hat where he can store and retrieve any inorganic item he wants. Weapon: Cat’s Cane-  A hook style cane with a built in grappling hook and gun. Partner: York Letterson Origin: The Cat in the Hat York Letterson- A firm believer in the phrase “Knowledge is power” York is almost always reading. He is eager to learn and teach as much as he can and often volunteers to tutor other students. When he has free time he can often be found in the library. Appearance: 18 years old. 5ft 5in. Long green hair reaching down his back. Often in twin ponytails. Green eyes. Outfit: Dark green pants. Light green button up top with a pocket on the upper left breast. Dark green armor over the shirt with light green pads on arms and legs. Pair of reading glasses. Emblem: A head of lettuce Emblem Location: Shirt pocket Aura Color: Green Semblance: Prehensile Hair- Can control and use his hair as weapons or extra arms. In a pinch can even shoot strands like darts. If the hair is cut it will regrow to normal length within days due to all the aura inside it. Weapon: Close Shave- A pair of blades with gun barrels in the tips. Blades can be combined into a scissors form. In scissors mode it can be thrown like a boomerang. Partner: Theo Schwartz Origin: Rapunzel Team NGHT Nichole Schnee- From a young age her parents made sure she knew that her name made her no more important and no better than anyone else. She is kind and generous and always looking for ways to help others with the Schnee fortune. She’s very aware there’s still plenty of damage to undo from her grandfather. In battle she will often target powerful or unique Grimm to add to her semblance. Appearance: 19 years old. 5ft 10in. Long light blue hair in double ponytails. Light blue eyes. Outfit: Light blue dress with white fur pattern trim. Dress ends little above knees. Blue and white stripped stockings. Light blue boots. White gloves. Armored breastplate, armor on lower arms and shins. All armor is ice themed. Emblem: Schnee snowflake with a sword resembling the sword part of Crocea Mors Emblem Location: Knee and elbow armor Aura Color: Light blue Semblance: Grimm Aspects- She summons pieces of Grimm to use herself. She can call on the wings of a Teryx or a Nevermore, the claws of a Sabyr, the armor of an Arms Gigas, punching power of a Beringel. Like normal summons if they receive enough damage they’ll dissipate. Weapon: Cyros- Icicle themed javelin that doubles as a rifle. The shield part of Crocea Mors. Partner: Guile Widows Origin: Christmas Elf Guile Widows- A cunning strategist who excels at using his enemies own actions against them. He prefers to lure targets into his webs and let them tire themselves out trying to escape. Appearance: 19 years old. 6ft. Black hair with eight dreadlocks, four on each side. Brown eyes. Outfit: Black cargo pants with a mild webbing pattern. Gray shirt with black straps from backpack forming an “X”. Fingerless gloves. Emblem: Eight eyes, top pair are farthest apart and bottom pair are closest together. Emblem Location: Bandana Aura Color: Black Semblance: Aura Webs- Webs that can catch, contain, or even act as nets. Weapon: Spider’s Bite- Twin curved swords with guns in the hilts. Partner: Nichole Schnee Origin: Anansi Hunter Python- Strict and serious he considers being a huntsman too serious to joke about. To his dismay his partner Tawny has made it his mission to get him to laugh at least once a day. Hunter is very reluctant to use his semblance due to its nature. However if lives are at stake he will do so with frightening effect. Appearance: 18 years old. 5ft 11in. Brown hair. Snake Faunus- Snake eyes, yellow with green pupils. Outfit: Green boots with a snake skin pattern. Yellow-green cargo pants. Yellow shirt under a green hoodie. Yellow-Green armor with scale pattern over hoodie. Emblem: Stylized snake head Emblem Location: Pockets of pants Aura Color: Yellow-Green Semblance: Hypnoeyes- Can command people to do things. Stronger commands require more aura and concentration and a command too far removed from what the subject would normally do will not be followed. When activated his eyes glow green. Requires full eye contact Weapon: Serpent Staff- Staff that can separate into chain linked segments. Can also shoot from the mouth of the serpent. Partner: Tawny Belladonna-Xiao Long Origin: Kaa Tawny Belladonna-Xiao Long- Adopted when he was 6 years old. Hyperactive, full of energy, eager to make new friends. Inherited Yang’s love of puns. Appearance: 18 years old. 6ft 2in Scruffy orange hair, brown eyes. Tiger Faunus- Tiger tail. Outfit: Orange sweatpants and orange top with baggy sleeves. Black patches stripe all along outfit. Armor on knees and elbows. Emblem: A tiger pouncing Emblem Location: Back of shirt Aura Color: Orange Semblance: Rebounce- Allows him to jump, leap, and bounce incredible heights and land from any height without injury. Weapon: Tora Tearors- Clawed gloves with guns built into the hand guards. Partner: Hunter Python Origin: Tigger Third Year Team VLET Vivi Belladonna Xiao-Long- Adopted when she was 5 years old. Very self conscious about her appearance after bullies at the orphanage convinced her that her birth parents abandoned her because she was ugly. Her mothers and brother spent years trying to get her to understand that she is beautiful on the inside and the outside. After being named a team leader she gradually gains self confidence. Appearance: 17 years old. 5ft 11in. Long dark black hair. Purple eyes. Outfit: Long purple robe with a hood she uses to cover herself up. After she gains self confidence she switches to a more streamlined version without a hood. Emblem: A pair of wings overlapping each other. Emblem Location: Back of robe Aura Color: Purple Semblance: Energy Ripple- Sends a burst of energy in a direction. Weapon: Tempura- Staff with fire dust on one end and ice dust on the other. When used with her semblance she can create waves of flame or frost. Partner: Terry Braun Origin: The ugly duckling Lie Balder- Though serious around most people when he’s with family and friends he opens up and loosens up. As a child his parents would call him their little Sunshine. Appearance: 17 years old. 5ft 9in Dark orange hair with a pink ribbon tied in it. Blue eyes. Outfit: Sleeveless green robe with golden sash. Magenta pants. Both have a sun pattern. Emblem: A stylized sun Emblem Location: Back of robe Aura Color: Golden Semblance: Light Burst- Absorbs natural light and discharges it. Depending on the amount of light stored it can stun or temporarily blind. Weaker grimm may even be destroyed by a strong enough burst. As he evolves his semblance he can direct the burst instead of releasing it in all directions. Even storing it in the form of light armor. Weapon: Stormbringer and Stormbreaker- Twin hook swords with guns built in. Partner: Alison Eirian Origin: Balder Alison Eirian- An optimist often lost in a daydream, her mind wanders easily. She enjoys seeing the bright side of even the darkest situation. However she does take her duties as a Huntress seriously. Tries to get Terry to smile more. Appearance: 18 years old. 5ft 10in Blonde hair in a ponytail, blue eyes. Outfit: Long cobalt dress with silver armor plating on the front. White stockings with blue shoes. Silver gloves. Emblem: A mirror Emblem Location: Back of gloves Aura Color: Cobalt Semblance: Reflection- Allows her to enter any reflective surface. Inside the reflection is totally silent. She can travel to other reflections as long as there’s no obstacles in the way. Weapon: Full Deck- sword that appears to be made of a deck of cards, shifts into gun mode. Also carries reflective cards to use as emergency reflections. Partner: Lie Balder Origin: Alice in Wonderland Terry Braun- Growing up on the streets led him to adopt a tough cynical persona. His new friends convince him that there’s more than one kind of strength. Very protective of those younger than him. Tries to get Alison to be more realistic. Appearance: 17 years old. 5ft 11 in.Scruffy brown hair. Brown eyes. Outfit: Brown boots, brown shorts. Brown t-shirt with torn vest. Emblem: A howling wolf Emblem Location: Back of vest Aura Color: Brown Semblance: Howling Wind- Can create powerful wind with his breath. Weapon: Howling Hatchets- Twin axes with guns built into the handles. Can combine to form a shotgun. Partner: Vivi Belladonna-Xiao Long Origin: The Big Bad Wolf Second Year Team JNGL Jim Peaches- Analytical and strategic he is highly skilled at coming up with plans that utilize the strengths of his teams. He has a fondness for insects and is known to talk to them when he thinks he’s alone. Appearance: 16 years old 5ft 5in. Short brown hair, pink eyes. Outfit: Tan pants with peach shirt. Tan shoes. Peach longcoat. Pink tie with insect designs (grasshopper, centipede, ladybug, spider, earthworm, glowworm) Emblem: A peach with a bite taken out of it Emblem Location: Belt buckle Aura Color: Peach Semblance: Peach Protection- Creates forcefields over himself. Can extend to include other people. With practice he learns to create smaller ones to throw as projectiles. Weapon: Peach Pit- Mace with detachable head. Gravity dust built in allows him to launch and recall the head. Partner: Lie Nezha Origin: James and the Giant Peach Lie Nezha- Eager and impatient he’s often the first to race into a battle. He enjoys moving fast and hitting hard. As a child his parents would call him their Moonbeam. Appearance: 16 years old. 5ft 6in. Short black hair. Pink eyes. Outfit: Amber sleeveless vest and dark orange cargo shorts. Armor plated elbow and knee pads. Orange goggles Emblem: A burning wheel Emblem Location: Knee pads Aura Color: Amber Semblance: Speed Rails- He creates rails of aura in the air to run on boosting his speed as he pleases. Only Nezha can interact with the rails, all others will simply pass through them. Weapon: Stormlillies- Twin chakram that turn into shurikens. Partner: Jim Peaches Origin: Nezha J.J Grayson- He is used to people mocking or underestimating him due to his weight and bulk. However he isn’t bothered by it because he knows it’s mostly muscle instead of fat. His teammates all find him awesome. He’s the powerhouse of his team and will put himself between them and danger if it keeps them safe. Likes to call Lyme “Sprout” Appearance: 16 years old. 6ft. Bulky build. Mostly muscle instead of fat. Short gray hair. Elephant Faunus- Elephant Ears. Outfit: Necklace with a black feather on it. Gray boots. Gray baggy shorts. Gray sweatshirt. Emblem: Elephant head Emblem Location: Front of sweatshirt Aura Color: Gray Semblance: Flight- Can fly as high or as fast as he wishes. Weapon: Stampede- Spear that turns into rifle, spear tip splits to reveal barrel. Partner: Lyme Pine Origin: Dumbo Lyme Pine- Calm and caring he enjoys nature in all its forms. A love of plants lead him to study botany, he can even use plants and herbs to create medicine in a pinch. He acts as his team’s medic. Likes to call J.J “Big Guy” Appearance: 16 years old - 5ft 3in. Short blackish hair, silver eyes. Slight tan from extended time outdoors. Outfit: Green overalls over a light green top. Brown gloves with floral pattern. Dark green boots. Emblem: A pinecone wrapped in vines Emblem Location: Front of overalls Aura Color: Lime Green Semblance: Aura Vines- Can create vines made out of his aura. These can be used for extending his reach or in combat. As his semblance grows he can add thorns to the vines. Weapon: Harvester- Pitchfork with guns built into the points. After running out of ammo during a training mission he has Harvester upgraded to a rail gun with two settings, small beam (the two middle prongs charge it) and large beam (all four prongs charge it) Partner: J.J Grayson Origin: Jack and the beanstalk First Year Team SNST Shiro Shishi- When Shiro was a child his uncle a crime boss named Kuro Shishi decided to cut loose ends. After personally stabbing Shiro’s father Kin Shishi in the back he sent a trio of assassins after Shiro, leaving the boy for dead. Fortunately a pair of drifters rescued the boy and helped him recover. The pair were retired huntsmen and they trained him until he was accepted to Beacon. Patterning himself after ancient warriors he read about as a boy Shiro is honorable, courageous, and a great leader in battle. He does however have a bad habit of starting inspirational speeches when they aren’t required. Appearance: 15 years old. 5ft 2in. White hair and golden eyes. Lion Faunus. Lion’s mane. Outfit: White samurai armor with golden accents. Armor has a lion theme. Emblem: A roaring lion head Emblem Location: Center of chest armor Aura Color: White Semblance: Power Roar- Creates an omnidirectional shockwave. Weapon: Lion’s Pride- A katana with a lion’s head on the hilt. Can shoot from the lion’s head. Partner: Lie Sif Origin: Kimba The White Lion/The Lion King Noah Rhythm- Growing up in a family of traveling musicians taught him two things, one was the importance of music, the second was how to ward off the creatures of Grimm. After arriving in a village for a show only to discover the villagers slaughtered by the Grimm he swore on the spot to become a huntsman. Appearance: 15 years old. 5ft 3in. Light purple hair and eyes. Outfit: Dark purple shoes. Light purple tunic. Purple cape. Light purple alpine hat with dark purple feather. Emblem: Flute surrounded by music notes Emblem Location: Back of cape. Aura Color: Light purple Semblance: Animal Melody- Can use music to communicate and command animals. No effect on faunus. His flute isn’t required to use his semblance but it amplifies it. Uses it to ask animals for intel when arriving in new places or to get a bird or squirrel to give Tomi a ride. Weapon: Pay the Piper- His flute shoots blasts of sound like Flynt’s trumpet Partner: Tomi Tumbleweed Origin: The Pied Piper Lie Sif- Curious and always eager to learn new things once she gains an interest in a subject she won’t stop until she knows everything about it. As a child her parents would call her their Shining Star. Appearance: 15 years old 5ft. Long light orange hair in ponytail to her left side. Blue eyes. Outfit: Dark pink dress with dark green accents. Armor on legs and along left arm and shoulder. Green quiver on back. Emblem: A green lily within a pink circle Emblem Location: Shoulder armor Aura Color: Magenta Semblance: Alliance- the more friends and allies fighting by her side the stronger her aura. She channels the extra aura into her arrows Weapon: Stormpiercer- A bow and arrow. The bow splits into twin daggers based on her grandfathers and her arrowheads are infused with dust. Partner: Shiro Shishi Origin: Sif Tomi Tumbleweed- The child of tailors they grew up helping their parents with the sewing. They love to keep up with latest fashions even if they know they could never afford any of them. Despite some initial confusion their team fully accepted the fact they’re non-binary. Appearance: 15 years old. 4ft 11in. Short blonde hair. Yellow eyes. Outfit: Tan shoes with yellow socks. Yellow shorts. Tan shirt with yellow suspenders. Emblem: A needle and thread Emblem Location: Buttons of suspenders Aura Color: Tan Semblance: Shrinking- They can shrink to a minimum of one inch high. Their strength remains the same as when they are full sized. Weapon: Needle point. A rapier that can shoot from the point. Partner: Noah Rhythm Origin: Tom Thumb/Thumbelina

Cash Knight Profile

IDENTITY

Name: Cassian ‘Cash’ Gabriel Knight

Gender: Male

Age: Variable on content

Birth Date: 13 February 1973

Species: Lycanthrope

Blood Status: Pureblood

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Alignment: Chaotic good

Ethnicity: Romanian, English, Norwegian, Jewish, and Russian

Nationality: English

Residence: Grimm Hall, a few miles outside of London, England

Myer Briggs Personality Type: ENFP-T - “The Campaigner.”

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THE MAGE

1st Wand: Elder wood, unicorn tail hair core, 10 and ¾ inches and fairly bendy

2nd Wand: N/A

Animagus: N/A

Misc Magical Abilities: Legilimens

Boggart Form: His father, with pale eyes as though he has cataracts and clammy skin, appearing as a ghoul, going after his helpless mother

Riddikulus Form: His mother vanishes, and his father reverts into a two-dimensional children’s drawing that Cash made with his older brother Jacob when they were very little

Amortentia (what he smells like): The forest right before a rainstorm, a dog right after it’s been bathed, and salt water-soaked hair

Amortentia (what he smells): Literally just tiramisu

Patronus: Cheetah

Patronus Memory: A simple night at home with his mother before he started Hogwarts, after his father was gone but before his brother vanished from Hogwarts, finally at peace and able to feel safe

Mirror of Erised: A world without the Cursed Vaults, in which his family is still united but his father still gone, and his friend Rowan still alive among his tightly-knit circle of friends

Specialized/Favourite Spells:

Protego

Muffliato

Petrificus Totalus

Stupefy

~~~~~

APPEARANCE

Faceclaim: Tarjei Sandvik Moe

Voiceclaim: Tarjei Sandvik Moe

Game Appearance: HPHM

Height: 6′1″

Weight: 140 lbs

Physique: Athletic

Eye Colour: Light brown

Hair Colour: Blonde

Skin Tone: Fair

Body Modifications: N/A

Scarring: Cash has one wide, jagged scar half-hidden by his hair near his temple, from where he was thrown into the corner of a table by his father in his childhood. Furthermore, he accumulates several during his time as Hogwarts, where he develops a keen interest in magizoology and begins to care for several dangerous (and mildly illegal) magical animals. He has a burn scar on his upper chest and right shoulder from his Chinese Fireball, and a long, jagged claw mark on his left calf from the talons of his griffin.

Inventory:

his wand

jerky of some sort, as most of his permanent-care animals are carnivorous

class textbooks and notes, as well as a usually worn-out quill

an old necklace with some sort of animal tooth on his belonging to his brother (he has no idea what kind of tooth, which has confused him for years considering he can identify a great deal of teeth given his extensive knowledge of magical creatures)

an old ring his mother gave him before he began attending Hogwarts--it has no magical properties, but it helps him feel connected to her, as both have negative memories of Hogwarts claiming someone they love

Fashion: Cash wears a great deal of button-ups--in fact, they’re basically the only kind of shirts he owns. He has one outfit that he reuses every day of the year, which is a button-up shirt and trousers. Essentially, Cash has a button-up in every color and design, for any occasion.

~~~~~

ALLEGIANCES

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Affiliations/Organizations: The Knight family; the Grimm family; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Slytherin House; the Circle of Khanna

Professions: Hogwarts student (11-17), Magizoologist (18-)

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HOGWARTS INFORMATION

Class Proficiencies:

Astronomy: ◆◆◆◆◇◇◇◇◇◇

Charms: ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◇◇◇

DADA: ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

Flying: ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◇◇

Herbology: ◆◆◆◆◆◇◇◇◇◇

History of Magic: ◆◆◆◆◇◇◇◇◇◇

Potions: ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◇◇◇

Transfiguration: ◆◆◆◆◆◆◇◇◇◇

Electives:

Care of Magical Creatures

Divination

Quidditch: Chaser

Extra Curricular: Curse-breaking (allegedly)

~~~~~

RELATIONSHIPS

Jacob Knight: Cash’s brother. He and Cash were never very close, especially considering the sizeable age gap (ten years) between them--Cash was under a year old when Jacob began attending Hogwarts, which meant the two only got the chance to bond and grow as brothers when Jacob was home for the summer or holidays. As Jacob got older and grew more distant from the family, and had greater desire to get away from their father, he stopped visiting even for holidays, and so he and Cash we never really close. Therefore, Cash had very conflicting feelings when he heard about Jacob’s disappearance. He wasn’t sure how to grieve someone he barely knew, but he was still able to understand the grief through how it affected his mother.

Edmund Knight: Cash’s father. He served an antagonistic role the entire time he remained present in Cash’s life. He was often verbally abusive towards both of his sons, as well as, even more often, his wife Alexandra. Cash spent most of his early childhood under his thumb, flinching when he heard raised voices. This persisted until Cash was six, and one night, while Jacob was still away at school, his father snapped and physically attacked him, hitting him and hurling him into hard objects. It was his final act; as he attacked her son, Edmund’s wife, Alexandra, drew her wand and killed him with the Killing Curse. Neither she nor Cash ever revealed how Edmund truly died, and at his funeral, it was said he died of tuberculosis.

Alexandra Knight: Cash’s mother. Her maiden name was Grimm, and he grew up in her family’s manor outside of London. After his father’s death by her hand, she became his lone parent and guardian. To Cash, she is a saint, and taught him more about being a man than any man ever did. After Jacob’s disappearance, his mother became very fragile, and Cash was reluctant to go to Hogwarts and leave her alone. However, he always returned home for holidays, and the two maintained a consistent communication through letters. It was for his mother’s sake that Cash was so invested in the recovery of his missing brother.

Merula Snyde: Cash’s rival, and future love interest, though not for several years. Both their first and second years were spent engaging in juvenile rivalry. In their third year at Hogwarts, Merula was the first to learn of Cash’s changed nature as a werewolf. However, true to his request, she didn’t inform anyone of his affliction, which was the beginning of their relationship taking a gradually more positive turn. They built a tentative friendship over the next few years, becoming something akin to frenemies, but he didn’t muster up the courage to ask her out until their sixth year. However, they didn’t begin venturing into an actual relationship until their seventh year, as a tragic event in their sixth year took priority.

Rowan Khanna: Cash’s best friend. The two met during Cash’s (technically second, but the first time he visited was as an infant) trip to Diagon Alley to prepare for his first year at Hogwarts. They then met again at Hogwarts, and stuck together for the entirety of Rowan’s attendance at the school. Rowan helped Cash hunt down and break the curses on the Cursed Vaults to follow in the steps of Jacob, as well as keep up with his classwork, as Cash was never the best at prioritizing his time. They remained thick as thieves until Rowan’s death in their sixth year at Hogwarts.

Penny Haywood: Aside from Rowan, Cash’s best friend. The two also met in their first year at Hogwarts, becoming fast friends once Penny also began participating in helping Cash track down the Cursed Vaults. She was responsible for him beginning to play Quidditch in his second year, being a huge fan herself, and was his closest friend after Rowan’s tragic passing. Cash always gave Penny complete credit for his high marks in Potions class.

Tulip Karasu: Cash’s friend. Though they never spent as much time together as Cash and Rowan or Penny, they were quite close in the way that they just understood each other in a way others didn’t. It was easy for them to spend hours in each others’ company in silence, and both could discern the emotions of the other with relative ease. Tulip was the second person to learn about Cash’s nature as a werewolf, but unlike Merula, who learned because she was forced to incapacitate him when he attacked her in werewolf form, Tulip learned because Cash confided in her.

Icarus: The Grimm family has quite an infamous reputation, known for being surrounded by death and despair in the Wizarding World. Many spoke tales of seeing a Grim during their lives, and would end up suffering from untimely deaths. Icarus is the Grim that Cash would often see in the corner of the woods around Grimm Hall--a massive black dog the size of a bear, with eerie yellow eyes. Before the age of ten, the only time Cash ever saw the Grim outside of the woods was the day his father died, when he looked out the window and saw the dog on the grounds, watching the family himself. When he was ten, Cash began seeing him more, and named the dog Icarus. He also sees him in the Forbidden Forest or on the grounds at night around Hogwarts.

Rival: Merula Snyde

Enemy: R; Patricia Rakepick

Dormmates: TBA

Pets: Icarus, the infamous Grim, although it’s uncertain whether Cash can truly consider Icarus a ‘pet.’

Closest Canon Friends: Rowan Khanna, Penny Haywood, and Tulip Karasu

Closest MC Friends: TBA

~~~~~

BACKGROUND/HISTORY

Pre-Hogwarts: Cash was born in Grimm Hall outside of London, England, to Edmund Knight and Alexandra Knight, who already had an older child, Jacob. He was never close with his brother, who he barely got to know since he was at Hogwarts for the majority of the time, and he was mentally abused by his father until Edmund’s death by the hand of his mother, who did so to save Cash’s life. His brother disappeared when Cash was seven, which meant he and his mother were reluctant for Cash to begin attending Hogwarts himself, but he did begin school at age 11.

1st Year: Cash began attending Hogwarts, and was sorted into Slytherin House alongside his new friend, Rowan Khanna. He also met and befriended Penny Haywood, one of the most popular girls in his year, and began his rivalry with Merula Snyde. He also located the first of the five Cursed Vaults, but did not manage to get inside.

2nd Year: His first year on the Quidditch team, joining his House team as one of three Chasers. At the end of the year, Cash finally enters the first Cursed Vault, the Vault of Ice, and manages to locate his brother’s wand and notebook, as well as free the school from the Vault’s curse. Furthermore, it is the year Cash begins learning more about his natural Legilimency.

3rd Year: Cash meets and befriends Tulip Karasu in order to try and open the Vault of Fear. His year is further complicated by being attacked and bitten by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, and, thus, being transformed into a werewolf himself. While Cash tried to adjust to his new reality, on a full moon, he came face-to-face with Merula Snyde and tried to attack her. She incapacitated him, but also learned his identity, though she told no one. At the end of the year, Cash managed to open and complete the Vault of Fear, finding a map and an arrow inside.

4th Year: The year Cash confesses his nature as a werewolf to his three friends Rowan, Penny, and Tulip, though to Tulip first. He also manages to find and open the Forest Vault in his fourth year, and end the sleepwalking curse on the school that resulted in the deaths of multiple students, doing so with the aid of the Grim called Icarus. Inside, he learns his brother is trapped in the next Vault, and finds a sweater and a dragon portrait within.

5th Year: Cash, Merula, and Bill Weasley all three are apprenticed to Professor Rakepick as her trio of curse-breakers, and learn a great deal of magic from her. It was also the year they opened the Buried Vault and learned about Rakepick’s true nature, and finally located Cash’s missing brother Jacob within the Vault.

6th Year: Despite beginning the year in Rakepick’s absence, her return to Hogwarts grounds resulted in the death of Cash’s closest friend, Rowan Khanna. His death changed Cash--for once in his life, he finally understood grief and losing someone so important the world stops turning. He, however, still had to persist and open the fifth and final Vault--the Sunken Vault, which he did not manage to open. However, he did lock Rakepick within it.

7th Year: TBA

After Hogwarts: TBA

~~~~~

PERSONALITY

Compassionate: Cash cares enormously about people, and his level of empathy is quite high. This is even further elevated by his adept skills in Legilimency, a natural power of his that lets him subconsciously attune to the emotions of others. He tries to show compassion for everyone, to his best ability.

Kind: Cash is, generally, a nice person, rarely resorting to insults or mean actions to get his point across or retaliate if someone is being cruel to him. He likes to make other people happy, and it comes across often in his everyday behavior.

Cunning: Despite his empathetic nature, Cash is still capable of extreme manipulation, and he is not always forthcoming. He has no issue with deceit or acting behind the backs of others if it doesn’t hurt anyone and furthers his goals. He doesn’t do so if he believes it would hurt anyone’s feelings, though, things he cares greatly about, but he is doubtlessly clever. It isn’t a quality that comes through particularly often.

Calm: One of Cash’s most notable features is that he is remarkably unshakeable. It’s almost impossible to ruffle his feathers, something many of his enemies find particularly irksome. He is able to maintain relaxation and composure in almost any situation, which also has a practical use. In times of extreme danger, Cash isn’t one to lose his cool. It’s almost something of a game among his friends to see if they can actually irritate him, but it’s impossible, as far as they know. The only time anyone has ever heard him lose it was upon Rowan’s death.

Curious: Cash observes the world with the wide, curious eyes of a child experiencing it all for the first time. He finds most things fascinating and always wants to know more. He’s one to ask a lot of questions, simply because he likes to know. If he wasn’t a Slytherin, he would have been a Ravenclaw, given his desire just to know more. This is the trait that plays heavily into his love for magizoology.

~~~~~

MISC

Cash has a side fascination with Greek mythology, so he’s familiar with a great number of Greek myths and tragedies

he also names all of his permanent-care creatures after figures from Greek mythology

Cash’s relationship with Icarus improves over time, as Icarus appears to him more and more and even lets Cash touch him; eventually, Cash can call for him and he will appear

once Cash reveals the existence of Icarus to a few of his friends in confidence, they form the theory that the Grim acts as an omen of death to all but Cash, acting as some sort of protective spirit

the actual reason for the closeness of Icarus’s and Cash’s relationship is unknown, though, as so little is known about Grims

Cash learns the Patronus charm in his fourth year, and he was always shocked that his Patronus wasn’t a Grim

Jacob calls Cash ‘Cass’ as short for Cassian, which Cash doesn’t enjoy in the slightest--his father was the only person in his life who exclusively referred to him as Cassian, and Cash dislikes the reminder

it takes Cash several years before he really comes to terms with being a werewolf--however, his mother accepts it remarkably quickly, which helps Cash to accept himself post-attack

once more of his friends know he is a werewolf, they begin the trend of scratching his head, which he actually enjoys a lot, but pretends not to because his friends find it hilarious when he reacts in a laughably canine way

he LOVES Quidditch but it isn’t always something he is able to make a priority, to his chagrin

January 10: ST VI The Undiscovered Country

Did not write today and I’m still feeling a lot of anxiety about this, like a lot, but time moves on I guess. I have new things to worry about now.

Anyway, I did watch ST VI: The Undiscovered Country.

I was pretty prepared to hate this movie, I’m not even entirely sure why--out of defensiveness/protectiveness for ST V, I guess? Also just a general uneasiness about Klingon-centric plots.

Objectively it’s not a bad film. It has an interesting idea, and it provides a fitting ending for the TOS cast: on a character level (getting ready for retirement, K and S wondering if their biases make them unfit to continue working), a universe-level (ending the TOS era with the end of hostilities with the Klingons seems appropriate, like a new era is dawning etc. etc.), and a meta-level (having a show that was initially created in the shadow of Vietnam ending its extended story with the end of the Cold War). The mystery was a weird genre to include but pretty fun. And it followed along at a pretty good clip.

I also like the K/S moments, especially Spock putting a tracking device on Kirk (and Kirk just somehow knowing this even though they could not have discussed it), their quiet little confab at the end of the hall, and especially the scene in Spock’s quarters, where Kirk just shows up and Spock just lets him, even though he’s meditating in the dark and you know he’d never let anyone but his husband in while he’s being all emo like that.

I also thought their little unexplained tiff was interesting--a mini-TMP. Imo, it looks like Spock is planning his post-Starfleet career, but while Kirk will probably just retire, Spock is going to go on to diplomacy, and since he and Kirk have never been fans of diplomacy, perhaps he was a little uncertain about telling him? Especially pro-Klingon diplomacy?

Nevertheless, I didn’t really like the movie much as a whole. Even more than ST V, it felt like it was not really Star Trek anymore. I don’t like all this Klingon stuff, this idea that they’re SO important, both as a Federation enemy and as Kirk’s personal nemeses (the second part can be explained by The Search for Spock but the first is just a straight up retcon--if you watch TOS, the Klingons just weren’t that big of a deal). I find them very boring, plus I’m bitter about the sidelining of the Romulans.

I also don’t really care about Federation politics. As I said before, I like the discovery part of ST more than the world-building part necessarily. I realize this is sort of hypocritical of me given some of my complaints about AOS, but it’s not so much that I wanted all of ST XII and ST XIII to be about the political, economic, and social ramifications of Vulcan’s destruction so much as I wanted those things to be mentioned, or woven into the larger stories, and they really weren’t. But anyway.

I did not recognize Kim Cattrall as what’s-her-face but I DID recognize Christian Slater and then I laughed for a long time. I did recognize Iman and I was super attracted to her.

Uhura was delightful in this film. But I felt really deprived of Scotty/Uhura content tbh.

I loved Captain Sulu on the Excelsior. It fit in well with him liking that ship in the previous films and it was great to see him in command. I also liked how clear it was that once you’re Enterprise-family, you’re ALWAYS Enterprise-family.

The retconning of David as some kind of, I don’t know, good person, was understandable but hilarious. The Klingon representative saying Kirk validated her father’s hope or whatever made sense. But Kirk saying she validated his son’s was like???? Your son the unethical scientist who accidentally made the most powerful weapon known to the universe while attempting some Icarus-level hubristic terraforming shit?? Yes he represented hope I guess.

I don’t really think any more films were necessary after The Voyage Home. I think The Search for Spock basically finishes up the story nicely and then The Voyage Home is a fun little epilogue, which also answers some outstanding questions about how Spock recovered from being reborn, and how the crew got off Vulcan, etc. I don’t hate ST V or ST VI but they’re superfluous to me. They’re more... universe expanding stories than necessary stories. In other words, you can ALWAYS add, as long as your characters are still alive you can find more stuff for them to do, but constructed narratives should have end points, and I don’t see what ST V or ST VI really bring to the story. They both have good moments, especially all the Triumvirate stuff in ST V, but they seem a little tacked on to me personally, at least given my interpretation of the narrative, and thus also less Trek as I define it.

The only move left to potentially rewatch is Beyond... I’m still not sure I can do it. I’m just not sure!

Icarus: The Fall of Hawks

The system also tells him to ignore people he can save if he thinks it will be more beneficial in the long run. But Ultimately, Hawks continues to put his trust in the people that are using him, because he sees no escape and no alternative.

The icarus symbolism surrounding Hawks character is already a common fandom theory, but I decided to give a comprehensive take. The closest thing I could find to an original post on this theory was: this one. 

The winged hero Hawks draws many mythological allusions to the boy Icarus most famous for flying too close to the son causing his wax wings to fall apart. 

Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.

The story is inextricably linked to Hawks’ character, foreshadowing that his two flaws, his admiration of Endeavor (the sun) and his habit of flying too fast will cause him to fall into villainry.

1. Hawks: Set Up by the Hero Commission to take the Fall

Foreshadowing occurs in a literary text when the author gives clues and hints about what is to come in the story. That in itself is pretty well known, but there’s more to it than just giving hints. It has a lot to do with the way stories are structured. Basically, stories are all composed of set up and pay off. 

Foreshadowing is not just for cheeky hints or setting up which characters might die, it’s a sign that the author as a whole has the story planned out. The reason that scenes in stories get an emotional reaction out of us as readers, is because authors set up these characters as somethnig for us to get invested in, build up those emotions, and then eventually pay them off on the expectations we have built up. 

Which is why when reading stories a general good strategy is analyzing What does the author want me to think? What are they trying to lead me to? Ideas are introduced, developed and get paid off more and more as the story progresses. A good story will continue building up these ideas with the intention of leading them somewhere, which makes them purposeful. This goes hand in hand with the concept of chekhov’s gun, that is every idea that the story spends time on will eventually become meaningful in some way.

'Chekhov's Gun' is a concept that describes how every element of a story should contribute to the whole. It comes from Anton Chekhov's famous book writing advice: 'If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.

To wit: The reason why all this icarus symbolism is surrounding Hawks is not just because he’s a cool flashy character that’s popular, he’s actually one of the most important characters in the story right now tied to the flaws and exploitations of the hero system that Horikoshi has been setting up since chapter one in the manga with this line. People are not born equal, that’s the hard truth I learned at age four. 

Here’s a quick example of developing ideas in the story especially tied to Hawks. The first time we here Destro is when Gentle explains about him as one of the legendary villains he aspires to be like, the arc before Hawks is introduced as a character.

The next arc after the school festvial arc, Destro’s book is shown as inspiring one person the same way it did Gentle while hawks is talking with Endeavor. 

After the class A vs B arc, in the My Villain Academia arc not only do we learn that Destro has a son and followers that are still alive, but at the end of the arc Hawks is shown interacting with the liberation followers. Ideas are introduced, developed to give them more depth, and most importantly they always show up linked to Hawks. 

Why does Hawks always up in association with Destro? Esepcially when hawks is not a quirk supremacist like the rest of the MLA. It’s because as a character, Hawks’ deepest desire is liberation, and yet it’s also the thing that he’s furthest from. The character with wings who can freely fly in the sky, is chained down with the most responsibility. 

There are two important pieces of foreshadowing in Hawks’ introduction chapter. First that he shows a dissatisfaction with the current hero system around him, and a tendency to see through others especially when they are putting on airs.

The second is this shot in particular, the spotlight in the background like a sun in the center of the sky with Hawks ascending towards it and losing feathers the same way Icarus would.

The other most important detail from this chapter is how Hawks is described. Not only did he make the top ten in his teens which makes him a young man like Icarus in the story, there’s also the oft repeated phrase with hawks - He goes too fast. Going too fast, flying too high, too quickly, these are all things that come come before Icarus’ fall. Special attention is drawn to how young he became a hero which we will get to later.

In chapter 186 there is a piece of foreshadowing used mainly as a joke, that also ties in with the idea of liberation with Hawks character mentioned earlier. This is a point taken from the meta linked at earlier, but considering what we now know about Hawks’ character that he is a kid raised by the hero system who has to kowtow to the higher ups this internal dialogue could easily resemble Hawks.

They key difference being Hawks never lets himself admit to having these feelings, or acts on them. He is much more concerned with keeping up his carefree facade. 

From as far back as I can remember, I’ve lived my life as a bootlicker. It’s been suffocating.

While the scene itself is a joke, the connection to Destro’s book and the idea of liberation are both themes that connect strongly to Hawks. Another connection is a similiar scene that took place in Vigilantes which directly references Icarus in the same context, a man getting naked as a part of his quirk. Vigilantes is the canon prequel of My Hero Academia and has several plotlines important to the main story, even Aizawa’s canon backstory so this is highly relevant.

Once again this is set up as a gag but my flight is a forbidden one is an idea that could easily relate to Hawks. After all, Hawks has wings and yet cannot use them for himself, and cannot take flight on his own because he is under the thumb of the Hero Commission.

The way Hawks’ powers work is also important. He has feathers that give him wings that can fly, and yet because he is able to autonomously move his individual feathers we see him often giving up his feathers for other people and multitasking for several people at once. Quirks are often a metaphor for their users, Hawks has wings to fly, but his feathers don’t belong to him, the more he gives up for other people the more he loses his wings.

When Hawks uses all of his feathers he is unable to fly anymore and starts to fall, the same way the wax melted and the feathers flew apart the only thing Icarus could do was plummet.

Hawks feathers also become useless to his when they burn up. This, and the cover page featuring Endeavor burning his wings up not only sets up an eventual conflict with Endeavor, but one that Hawks’ quirk will most likely be weak to the flames.

The scene with Dabi.  Hawks is introduced to us with the light backlighting him as he ascends towards it. Now, in the conclusion of this arc, the light in the background of the scene is where Dabi moves towards while Hawks himself covered in shadow walks away from light and descends into the dark foreground.

There are also two more joking points of foreshadowing in this chapter, both setting up an eventual confrontation with Hawks and Endeavor. The first is Endeavor noticing the suspicious timing, and the second is Endeavor threatening to roast him which he has threatened at several times already. Even if it’s a joke it’s a serious threat, Endeavor has been characterized as someone incapable of handling his emotions and lashing out in violence several times in the past.

Not only is Hawks set up to fall however, the hero commission sets him up to fall as well. A one man investigation into the League of Villains as a double agent. The hero commission outlines it for him, he will receive no back up, and nothing in return for his service. There is already a team set up by the commission to fight the league of vision, but they came to Hawks specifically for this reason. He works alone. He cannot say no to them. They knew before asking him he was already going to say yes.

It’s a situation where the Hero’s commission has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hawks will either fall or fly completely on his own. If the villains kill him, they lose a hero but that’s it. If Hawks messes up his mission and gets caught, the commission can pretend that he really did turn traitor and abandon him. Hawks is completely expendable to them, and yet any information he can grasp is valuable. At the same time, Hawks has everything to lose and nothing to gain. Being a hero is Hawks entire life. He literally has no name outside of his hero name. As stated above he could easily be abandoned by the hero commission if the mission fails, and yet at the same time the only thing Hawks gets out of this is the idea that some people will be saved by his actions. Even though he is specifically instructed not to do anything to save people in front of him if it would jeapordize the mission.

While yes, Heroes working to save people and sacrificing themselves for the sake of others is a good thing, hawks always sacrifices himself all the time. Being a hero not only consumed his whole childhood, but also his life. This is not Hawks volunteering to do it on his own, this is him being given a mission he cannot refuse and going along with it.

The hero commission sets Hawks up to fall in their place. Hawks gives up his wings for them, and because of that he falls instead of flying. 

2. Flaw: His Trust in Endeavor and the System as a Whole

Hawks is a child that was taken in by the hero commission and abused by them. Hence the reason why he was such a young rising star is because he had no childhood to speak of. The only way his family could be uplifted out of poverty was if he followed the track they provided for him. He is treated like a prodigy, but really he spent all of his time as a hero, and was given no other option but to become a hero.

Which is why Hawks admiration of Endeavor is ironic, considering that Endeavor attempted to do the same thing to his own son. Not raise his son with love and care, but rather breed him, train him since he was a child, and raise him not as his own person but as a hero to be used for his father’s ambitions. Hawks,  Shouto, both of them were reduced to the powerful quirks they had and not treated as people. Which reflects the point that the Meta Liberation Army could have had if they were not quirk supremacists, that quirk society being dominated by strong, flashy quirks, and judging people by those quirks ends up limiting the path ways people can take in life.

This contradiction makes sense when you take into account Hawks’ upbringing. Hawks has a complex reaction to his abuse. He genuinely does want to save other people as he works himself to the bone doing it, and yet he’s also aware the hero system is using him. Part of Hawks resents the hero system, and yet Hawks is also a product of that system who still reflects the ideas he was raised on whether he wanted to or not.

This is why Hawks comes off as being such a two-faced person. He’s in a lot of major ways, in denial about his own place in life. He acts casual and friendly, and yet he’s more burdened and more isolated than anyone else. He deflects almost everything other people throw his way with humor, isolating himself even further. He also contradicts himself quite a lot, he calls out Endeavor onstage and then in the next scene he says he was doing that for Endeavor’s sake. Both are probably true, Hawks resents the hero system, but he also has to have the appearance of a friendly, willing to help others hero, because that’s the only way he’s survived so far. He likes to keep himself aloof and unattached to others because that is literally the only freedom he can grasp yet.

When Hawks says he never was a big fan of All Might, it’s most likely because Hawks sees himself in All Might. The idea of someone who as a hero is forced to save absolutely everyone and have the entire peace of the country resting on only their shoulders, only to be used until they break down is a nightmare to Hawks.

Not only does Hawks not want to be shouldered with the responsibility, not because he’s lazy, but because he knows how exploitative it is but he also does not see himself of ever being able to carry that much. The hero system that Hawks was raised on made him believe that a brute firepower quirk like Endeavor’s that is good for defeating villains is what will put people most at ease, not the constant saving of others, or interactions with people, or the creative use of his quirk that Hawks employed.

Not only is Hawks whole life defined by his quirk, but he is also taught that his quirk is not good enough. The only person who will put other people at ease, is a quirk like All Might’s. Only an extremely powerful quirk that’s suited best for fighting villains. 

Hawks even says he does not want to take up the role of All Might, and it’s in part due to his feelings of ineriority, but also his want to escape his life and find some small freedom. Which is when Endeavor, the embodiment of the toxicity of hero society says that he hates guys like Hawks the most. Even though Hawks’ intentions here are pretty clear, instead of trying to step down and let Endeavor take the spotlight and support him from the shadows. Endeavor represents the individualism of hero society, but Hawks is trying to play support. He was raised by hero society, but also Hero Society actively condemns the kind of person that Hawks is.

Once again we see the contradictions in Hawks behavior. He is one of the most selfless heroes in the series as he continually lets himself be used, and yet Hawks pretends that he’s a coward who does not put himself on the line, or fight directly risking his own life.

It’s not just putting on an act, Hawks is also taught to believe that if he stays back adn plays support, if he does not defeat the villain head on with a violent quirk that he is weaker.

Which is why despite representing the exact kind of opposite hero that Endeavor is, he turns out to be a fan of Endeavor. This is because Endeavor is everything Hawks was taught that he was should be, but not. Endeavor fights for number one, he has a powerful quirk, he has the highest villain defeat record. All the things which Endeavor values are the things the hero system values, whereas Hawks believes he’s selfish for wanting a little personal autonomy for himself.

Endeavor is able to be strong in a way that Hawks never will be, because Hawks is not nearly as selfish as Endeavor is. Of course he does not see the victims of Endeavor’s actions quite yet, so he would mistake that for Endeavor able to make his willpower a reality in a way that Hawks cannot and gave up trying to do. 

It’s not just putting on an act, Hawks is also taught to believe that if he stays back adn plays support, if he does not defeat the villain head on with a violent quirk that he is weaker.

Which is why despite representing the exact kind of opposite hero that Endeavor is, he turns out to be a fan of Endeavor. This is because Endeavor is everything Hawks was taught that he was should be, but not. Endeavor fights for number one, he has a powerful quirk, he has the highest villain defeat record. All the things which Endeavor values are the things the hero system values, whereas Hawks believes he’s selfish for wanting a little personal autonomy for himself.

It’s not just putting on an act, Hawks is also taught to believe that if he stays back adn plays support, if he does not defeat the villain head on with a violent quirk that he is weaker.

Which is why despite representing the exact kind of opposite hero that Endeavor is, he turns out to be a fan of Endeavor. This is because Endeavor is everything Hawks was taught that he was should be, but not. Endeavor fights for number one, he has a powerful quirk, he has the highest villain defeat record. All the things which Endeavor values are the things the hero system values, whereas Hawks believes he’s selfish for wanting a little personal autonomy for himself.

Hawks is a victim of the hero system, and even is able to see its flaws, but due to his own taught inferiority, and how much he lets himself be used for the sake of helping others he cannot see himself as a victim or change it from the inside in any meaningful way.

Not only that but he fails to see the important flaws in someone like Endeavor, and isntead chooses to still believe that the hero system is ultimately in the right because they are on the side of saving people. Icarus is a tale of self destruction. Hawks is selfless to a self destructive extent. He keeps letting himself be used by people who see him as nothing more than an asset to them, because he believes it to be for the greater good. However, the current system always utilizes people like Hawks, vulnerable, expendable, Hawks is always the one who has to sacrifice his own personal freedom even though he has given his entire life to the system.

The system also is not as interested in saving people as it is in numbers, look how it talks about giving their all to rescue a kidnapped boy as some kind of failure of priorities. As if it was wrong to immediately try to help a child.

The system also tells him to ignore people he can save if he thinks it will be more beneficial in the long run. But Ultimately, Hawks continues to put his trust in the people that are using him, because he sees no escape and no alternative. 

3. Flaw: The Man Who Flies too Fast Alone

Hawks always contradicts himself, despite the fact that he’s obviously much better as a support and rescue type hero, Hawks always fights alone. His biggest flaw is how much he always takes on himself, the fact that he flies too fast.

Hawks is aware of the fact that he is used by the system. There are several signs that Hawks is actually a manipulative person. Not in the sense that he is a bad person who tries to use others, but rather he developed the ability to manuever and manipulate other people as a way to cope and find what little freedom an security he could. His personality is a big indicator because Hawks almost never shows his true face and is almost always deflecting. He makes it hard for others to get a read on him by being such a two-faced person, which grants them less control over him and him a little bit more freedom.

At the same time Hawks is shown repeatedly to have information then others expect him to have. Endeavor gets surprised when he mentions Shoto, and the Hero’s commisison gets surprised when he is already aware of the team investigating Kurogiri and yet he never reveals his source on either occasion.

Instead once again he falls back on his common strategy of deflection to stop them from pressing on the issue. Hawks is someone who wants to rely on others more because he feels powerless on his own. Yet, at the same time Hawks has been taken advantage of so many times it’s impossible for him to trust others. Not only that, but Hawks has also been taught that he should be strong enough to do everything on his own, that is the individualism hero society promotes.

This is also how Hawks had to be in his early life. The only reason his family got money was because he was of use to the hero commission. He always had to be at the top of his class, always had to be useful, always had to finish on his own. Hawks always does things on its own because it’s a learned habit, he’s never had anybody else to rely on. Not only that but his way of living has always been unstable he might have been dropped back into poverty if he did not continually rise to meet the expectations of others.

Which is where we are presented with yet another contradiction of Hawks character, he is always working all by himself, but he only ever works for the sake of others. His only selfish desire is some time off for goodness sake. He is blessed with tremendous talent but has never been able to use it for himself, because since childhood he has been put to work for the sake of other people.

Hawks also says that he took Tokoyami on as an intern because he wanted information, which once again Hawks is constantly shown to be privvy to information he does not know and trying to collect more. This is because Hawks does not trust, because he cannot trust. He will be used by the other people around him. That is why he tries to seize as much information for himself as possible. Hawks being manipulative is just him trying to control what little he can, because if he does not do that then he ends up being the one who is controlled. The more knowledge he has, the more power he has.

People who feel helpless as a child due to circumstances entirely out of control will try to grasp for control in any way they can. That is why easygoing Hawks always does things on his own, because not having to rely on other people gives him more control. He can control himself, but not others. Easygoing Hawks is a bit of a control freak.

This scene becomes interesting if analyzed from that level. Hawks says he has no interest in training the next generation, it makes sense somebody who was raised from childhood as a hero and nothing else would probably have no interest in raising other children as heroes. His last line becomes much darker as well.

Those who can fly, should! Why keep yourself grounded?

Hawks is someone who keeps himself grounded all the time, always giving up his own freedom for others, and yet we see freedom is the thing he yearns for the most. He is intoxicated with the idea of freedom, the same way Icarus became intoxicated once he gained his wings and looked at the sun.

In his phonecall with Dabi we get a lot on Hawks’ internal monologue. First he admits to the fact that he plays happy-go-lucky idiot and lets people assume that they can use him, in order to control their perceptions of him. His way of manipulating others has always been to try to let them use him, instead of trying to make use of them because that is what Hawks has been taught. His value is that he is useful. He tries to navigate the system from the inside rather than breaking out. He keeps letting himself be used.

However, once again Hawks words to Dabi do not sound entirely like lies, or they could even be lies to himself. Being on this side of the equation helped me realize that we’d be better off without heroes and heroics. How much of that is a lie when Hawks was exploited into becoming a hero, when his deepest wish is to be allowed to be something else other than a hero for a little while?

It’s easy to see how Hawks got to the point where he seriously could consider Killing Best Jeanist. The people who are injured or taking time off are not useful to the system, they need to be sarcificed for the greater good. He was told by the same system to let people die if it would save more people in the long run, that he cannot be the hero he wants to be. That he has to dirty his own hands for the sake of everyone else. Hawks is constantly going against his own wishes to do what is right for other people. 

Hawks says not to let a person’s resolve go to waste, because he believes that all of his determination, that all of his flying too fast is going to lead him somewhere. His determination is indeed a heroic quality, but it’s something that makes him keep sticking with the system rather than giving up on it. It’s something that makes him believe that he can overcome all of this on his own. However, no matter how hard Hawks works for the hero system, the only ones who have something to gain from it in the end is the hero system and not him. His hard work and determinations only guarantees he becomes more useful to them and will be used more.

In this light, Hawks’ belief that he can handle everything on his own is hubris, his determination to become such a good hero that he will get time off is a flaw. The only ersult is that Hawks is used more and more as a cog, and he grinds himself down further and further.

However, just like All Might could not save the entire country of japan all on his own shoulders forever, Hawks’ good boy act is also something that will not last him forever. The more he’s exploited the more he will break down. The ones to catch him when he falls is most likely not going to be the heroes system, because they are exploiting him and forcing him to work on his own because he is expendable that way. If he falls only he falls alone. Hopefully, when Hawks does fall, Dabi and the league will be there to catch him and sympathize with him in a way none of the heroes ever could.

Hellenic Polytheism 101 Transcripts: Pillar of Hellenic Polytheism Sophrosyne

Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Hellenic Polytheism 101, where we will be moving onto to the next pillar of Hellenic Polytheism: Sophrosyne, which is, essentially, moderation, prudence, self-control, self-discipline, or temperance based upon thorough self-examination. Since we are coming up on a holiday season in the US, this seems like the perfect time to focus on Sophrosyne, and to remember it’s opposite, hubris, and how to avoid it. It is also important to remember that even in Ancient Greece, it was well understood that Sophrosyne could be taken too far, something we also understand still today.

“Earth shaker, you would not consider me sophrosyne if I were to fight with you for the sake of wretched mortals” Apollo says this to Poseidon in the Illiad, as Homer brings us a look at what Sophrosyne would mean to the same deity who brings us the Delphic Maxims, such as know know thyself, know by learning, exercise prudence, praise virtue, nothing in excess, know who is the judge, keep secret what should be kept secret, take sensible risks, be well behaved, be self disciplined, be sensible. This is not the only example in Homer’s work of Sophrosyne. In fact, there are a really a lot of them. I would definitely suggest you read both of them and look closely for examples of sophrosyne. Homer was very sensitive to the need for Sophrosyne in society and in an individual. On an individual level, sophrosyne prevented people form getting into serious trouble, both with themselves and on a religious level. After all, someone exercising sophrosyne would be very unlikely to become a spider after being cursed by Athena, right? On a modern level, someone exercising sophrosyne is less likely to face personal problems as well. You won’t wind up drinking to excess and getting into a car accident. You won’t find yourself challenging someone better than you to a fight. You won’t find yourself taking on more tasks than you can manage. You won’t find yourself spending more money than you can spare on things you don’t need. By exercising sophrosyne you can avoid a lot of trouble. On a societal level, we should try to exercise that same self control and temperance. After all, there is no reason for any country to spend more than 56 countries combined on defense spending. There is no reason for a city to cut taxes and not invest in repairing roads or assisting those who need it the most. There is no reason for a group of friends to go out in the middle of a pandemic to a bar just to have a good time. We can bring the ideals of sophrosyne to our own lives and encourage others to do the same, through voting and talking to others and being an example.

When we do not practice sophrosyne, we tend to fall victim to hubris. For someone who has spent any sort of time practicing Hellenic polytheism, we should all know exactly how bad hubris is. We’ve all probably seen it or heard it online. Recently, there was a lot of talk of witches online cursing the moon, specifically aimed at making Artemis or Apollo angry. Now, in the end, it was revealed to be some big hoax, a lie they told to make other witches start saying things about how they could tell someone had hexed the moon because their own spells weren’t as effective. Then the original hexers could say “Ha! We told you witch craft and the gods weren’t real, see? These guys said they noticed a change but we didn’t do anything, so clearly they must be faking!” The whole ordeal was a perfect example of what could happen if people fell victim to hubris, and many more sensible folks online pointed out that it was hubris, believing anyone could have an affect on a deity by cursing the moon. We’ve all seen other examples of hubris. Hellenic polytheists who say that Artemis would never let a man worship her, or a straight woman, or a woman who has had sex with a man. People who gatekeep, projecting their personal bigotry onto the Theoi. We’ve all come across. Hopefully, most have us have rolled our eyes and ignored it.

Even in mythology, hubris is painted to be among the worst things a person can be. Niobe lost her sons and daughters to Artemis and Apollo after she bragged to Leto that she was better than Leto for having more children. Arachne, turned into a spider for daring to compare herself to Athena. Antigone’s father, who lost his son and his wife for believing that his life was higher than the law of the gods. Oedipus refuses to accept his own fate and wound up falling victim to it because of his hubris. Ajax, believing he was entitled to the armor of Achilles and being driven mad and eventually killing himself. Icarus, flying to close to the sun, too prideful to listen to his father’s warnings. Orestes taking it upon himself to avenge his father by killing his mother and being driven mad.  Greek stories are teeming with examples of people who have fallen victim to hubris. In many of these stories, sophrosyne is pointed to as a virtue to aspire to strictly to avoid it’s opposite, hubris.

And yet, we can also take sophrosyne too far. For example, in the Bacchae, Pentheus holds himself as a champion of sophrosyne, as fails to understand that by being overly self-controlled and self-discplined and holding himself up as the model of sophrosyne, he ignores the moderation and temperance part. He tried to force everyone listen to him, to oppose the Bacchic rites, and, in the end, his obsession with only a part of sophrosyne causes his own death. The Ancient Greeks understood that there was such a thing as being too controlled. There was such a thing as a fatal exaggeration of one side of the many-sided virtue of sophrosyne. Thus one of the biggest keys to sophrosyne is moderation. Nothing in excess says one of the Delphic Maxims, not even self-control and self-discipline.

As we go through this holiday there a lot of ways you can apply sophrosyne to your life. One of the dangers of the holidays is becoming over-extended. For example, I have a large family. Like…..over 100 people kind of large. So large that we could probably fill a high school basketball stadium kind of large. It’s also got a lot of different branches. Mom’s side, which has dad and mom in separate houses. My ex-stepdad, whose family we still see. My dad and his family. My dad’s ex wife and her daughter and her kids, who I’m also close to. My girlfriend. My kids’ dad and his family. I always joke that we’ve got our own little 12 days of Christmas skit between grandpa jones, grandpa long, Uncle Cody, Uncle Andrew, my dad, his ex wife’s house, my girlfriend, the kids’ dad, his family, and we’ve still got to squeeze out time for our own holiday celebration too. Factor in the fact that, like most customer service based companies in the US, my job doesn’t allow us to take more than half of Christmas Eve and all of Christmas day off. Sure, we’ve got the Sunday before and after when I’m off as well, but that’s barely 3 days for 4 states and 10 places to visit. Factor in the budget for all those places and all those gifts, not to mention the drama that comes around when we decide where we’re having Thanksgiving at and you can understand why I bring up being overextended as a danger of the holiday season. Now, maybe that isn’t a problem for you. Maybe you become over extended by volunteering to work too many hours to help your more Christian friends have time off. Maybe you offer to do too much during Thanksgiving and wind up having to wake up at 5 am to get started on a meal that you can’t believe you promised to cook. Maybe during Halloween, you spend too much time focused on parties or trick-or-treating and realize that you would have had a much better time sitting at home, watching Halloweentown with a bowl of candy and some friends. Either way, we all tend to push ourselves too hard, especially once the holidays roll around and we start wanting to do everything so we can get every experience. We need to remember sophrosyne during this time. Exercise self-control and stay home when it’s something you want to do. Exercise self-discipline and avoid getting gifts when you can’t afford it, there is no shame in saying “Look, finances are strapped and I can’t manage more than X”. Exercise moderation and remember that you can’t actually do everything. Be prudent and accept the reality of whatever situation you are facing. Practice sophrosyne.

Thank you for listening to today’s episode of Hellenic Polytheism 101 where we discussed another one of the Pillars of Hellenic polytheism, Sophrosyne. Today, I relied on the Odyssey, The Illiad, Sophrosyne: Self Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature by Helen North, A Period of Opposition to Sophrosyne In Greek Thought also by Helen North, Mythology of the Greeks by George Grote, and the Wikipedia entry for Sophrosyne. Remember, all links to the resources I used can be found on my tumblr at goddessdoeswitchery.tumblr.com, along with a transcript of today’s episode under the tag “Transcripts”. I look forward to speaking with you all again on October 18th, where we will be discussing Eusebia.

Weekend Top Ten #450

Top Ten Characters with the Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

As I’m writing this, it’s officially Star Trek: Discovery day; the first episode of the new season is up on Netflix and ready to watch. Given how little time I manage to find for watching anything that I want to watch, I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get to see it this weekend, but we’ll see; my lovely wife might want to finally catch up with Star Trek: Picard first, which for some reason she never finished. Regardless, I’m excited, and I wanted to write about Star Trek again.

The new Star Trek series have been a bit of a roller coaster, because whilst they’ve both generally been very good, they’ve certainly had their odder and more controversial moments, and neither of them has consistently felt like classic Trek. If I had to be critical, I’d argue that there are plenty of darker adult-tinged sci-fi shows at the moment, including ones set in space, but not that many that follow the day-to-day travails of a starship crew, which as always been Trek’s raison d'être. However, both shows have succeeded in giving us some compelling stories and – especially in the case of Discovery – a fantastic cast of new characters to celebrate. Great characterisation has been the cornerstone of Trek since the beginning, and no doubt one of the reasons why it still resonates to this day, from the “Holy Trinity” of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock, through to the wonderful and insanely empathetic Saru in Discovery and Captain Sexpot Rios in Picard. The fact that we’re now in a new time period, with no established history to try to tie the narrative to, means Discovery 3 is in a great place to give us some great new stories.

Anyway, to celebrate all of this – the new season of Discovery and my overall love of Star Trek characters – I’ve decided to go back to the Next Generation well and talk about just that: characters. TNG famously hit its stride when it started focusing each story through the lens of the different characters on the show, so that we tended to get a “Worf episode” or a “Riker episode”; even the best eps, the biggest and most epic, really had a tendency to hone in on one or two characters specifically, such as the all-time classic “The Best of Both Worlds” really being about Picard and Riker, or “Yesterday’s Enterprise” being a much-belated Tasha Yar episode.

But which characters have the best episodes? That is, if you know an episode is focused on a particular character, how likely is it that it’s going to be a belter? Can you reasonably say one character was better served than another in terms of the quality of “their” episodes? Well, yes. Yes you can. That’s this list. That’s the whole thing.

So this list is basically which characters have the best episodes, or are more likely to. It’s not a list of my favourite characters, or even really a list of the best episodes overall; it’s just, well, who got to chew scenery the most on the bridge, basically. Now, I really feel like I should end this blurb with an appropriate Star Trek quote, but I must have used “Make it so” and “Engage” before, so I’m not sure what else to say.

May the Force be with you, I guess.

Picard: Yes, of course; he’s the star, he’s the stand-out actor of the bunch, he gets the best episodes. If it focuses on the captain, you can rest assured you’re in for a treat. Whether it’s an epic mythology-enhancing saga or – even better – a slower, sadder meditation on life, Picard’s episodes are engaging. Chortle. Also if there’s room for a classic Picard Monologue, all the better; I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about Patrick Stewart, but the guy can chew scenery. Key episodes: The Best of Both Worlds, The Drumhead, The Hidden Light

Worf: Worf’s complex backstory offers a lot of opportunities for great stories, with the caveat that pretty much all of them focus on Klingon history or the contrast between his heritage and his place in Starfleet. Issues of familial loyalty rub up against quasi-Shakespearean dynastic dramas, often with high adventure. You can assume a Worf ep is a good one, despite the fact that quite a few of them are also about Alexander. Key episodes: Sins of the Fathers, Redemption, Birthright

Data: everyone’s second-favourite emotionless nerd on Star Trek, Data’s eps are almost uniformly great, and often poke at what it means to be alive. There may be a bit of ground retrod as we examine the notion of humanity, or sentience, or emotion, but his episodes are always interesting, and often very funny, and Brent Spiner is a continuing delight. Key episodes: The Measure of a Man, The Offspring, Brothers

Q: is it cheating to include a recurring guest star? Maybe, but I don’t care. John de Lancy is just phenomenal as Q, one of the best Trek characters, and so good he became a My Little Pony. He’s arch, he’s hilarious, he can take the show into new directions; he raises questions of fate, or of the concept of divinity; and underneath it all there’s a malevolent streak, a genuine sense of danger exemplified in his first appearance. Pairs very well with Picard, naturally. I didn’t like the Robin Hood episode, though. Key episodes: Deja Q, Encounter at Farpoint, Q Who

Riker: he’s a Kirk-esque horn-dog ragamuffin with a heart of gold and a fist of steel, so there’s always a lot to love when William T. takes the helm (see what I did there?). Often issues of loyalty, or duty versus personal wishes, arise; he’s frequently putting his life on the Enterprise above his career. But he’s also a very moralistic character, so quite often he’ll be trying to do the right thing in tough circumstances. Key episodes: The Pegasus, Future Imperfect, Frame of Mind

Crusher: always a stand-out supporting character, Crusher has some great episodes focused on her too; usually quite a self-righteous sort who puts the immediate moral obligation above her own safety or duty to Starfleet, which raises lots of interesting, thorny questions. She’s a smart cookie, exemplified in the astounding Remember Me; her relationships with her son and with Picard are good to explore too. She also shagged a ghost, but let’s try to forget about that. Key episodes: Remember Me, Attached, Suspicions

Wesley: pigeonholed somewhat unfairly due to a few ropey first-season episodes, Wesley Crusher is actually an interesting character whose stand-out storylines offer a good deal of nuance and intrigue, as well as exciting hi-jinks, insights into the Federation, and – should you go that far – weird magic Jedi stuff. He gets a nice romance with Ashley Judd, we unpeel his relationship with Picard over multiple episodes, and the bloom comes off the rose in spectacular fashion when he gets to Starfleet Academy. Wil Wheaton was a good young actor and was sadly underserved by the show, but at least we get these eps. Key episodes: The Game, Final Mission, The First Duty

Pulaski: say whaaat? Yes, she’s only in the show for five minutes, but Doctor Pulaski gets a few crackers under her belt in that time. A bit like Crusher would later, she often excels when standing up to authority and presenting herself as a moral arbiter. Interestingly, she’s not always right, and it’s a fun dance to watch. She’s also been round the block a bit, adding facets to her relationships with other characters, particularly Riker. And, of course, she flirts with a bunch of polygons when Geordi and Data cock up the Holodeck. Key episodes: Elementary, Dear Data, Unnatural Selection, The Icarus Factor

Troi: sadly suffering in the face of a bunch of soppy romances and storylines involving her mother that are, shall we say, an acquired taste, Troi still gets some good stuff, mostly later in the series’ run. Taking her out of her comfort zone, making her a spy or an investigator, or giving her some proper dramatic meat, works wonders. Also once she was a cake. Key episodes: Face of the Enemy, Eye of the Beholder, Dark Page

LaForge: oh, Geordi. I love Georgi, but he kinda got done dirty a little bit. Always an interesting and dependable secondary character, unfortunately the bulk of his episodes as a primary character tend to revolve around him being a bit of a jerk or a bit of a creep. Obviously the most heinous sin is making a computer program based on a real person and then, well, trying to shag it, but he also has a tendency to be a dick to anyone new in Engineering. He’s even a bit of a dick to Scotty! I sometimes think the writers never quite had a handle on Geordi’s character; is he a young tech genius with poor social skills? Is he supposed to be arrogant? A wannabe lothario who’s just really unlucky? Anyway, like I say, I still love the guy to bits, and LeVar Burton is fantastic, but of all the main ensemble, his are the flakiest solo episodes. That said, the three listed here are all belters. Key episodes: The Next Phase, The Enemy, Relics

Anyway. There we are. I’ve still, as of going “to press”, not watched Discovery season 3, and my wife’s still not watched the end of season 1 of Picard. Any day now…!

Achilles Idris → Max Irons  → Rat Shifter

→ Basic Information

Age: 37

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: August 30th

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Religion: Deism

→ His Personality Achilles, liked much of the Jacksonville clan, has a way of showing only what he’d like to show. He is a skilled chameleon who has spent his entire career schmoozing and charming information out of marks, rather than through espionage. He can default to the “character” he sometimes plays when first meeting others, posturing a young and sometimes boyish energy. However this is quite far from his real personality. Achilles’s true personality is much more quiet, reserved, and laid back. At his core, Achilles is a very insightful and mature person. He spent much of his life in the closet, which honed his ability to read and understand the players in a room. Achilles was exposed from a young age, as the first born child to a leader, to the realities of running a profitable and successful clan. He knows the blood that has been spilt and recognizes the way the games must run in order to be the best.

That being said, he is one who tends to stray from instruction or direction. Achilles was raised knowing he would take over the clan one day. Cadmus enjoyed seeing his sons push the envelopes and discover whatever way would get the best information. Now that there are stricter rules and guidelines in the GOLD and the Chicago Clans in general, Achilles is finding them to be frustrating and pointless roadblocks. He hasn’t voiced these feelings out loud, and may only say them to Jax in the end. He plays all things close to the chest and lugs around decades of secrets everywhere he goes. The constant, vicious in-fighting between Achilles and his brothers that almost lead to deaths numerous times, his sexuality and the shame and hatred spewed at him by Cadmus, the haunting death of his mother. No one has had the key to all of his secrets, and he doubts anyone ever will.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: BOND team member and Part time GOLD Member

Scars: Various from training and BOND

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: Sniping and Stolen Art

Two Dislikes: Taking Hostages and Running Recon

Two Fears: Being kicked out of Chicago and Being outed

Two Hobbies: Shooting and Overtime

Three Positive Traits: Down to Earth, Insightful, Mature

Three Negative Traits: Secretive, Manipulative, Wayward

→ His Connections Parent Names:

Cadmus Idris (Father): Achilles is positive that Cadmus is the worst father in the world. There was never a moment he wasn’t on guard in Jacksonville. He viciously pitted his children against one another to fight for power and his affection. When Achilles was outed by Patrick, Cadmus disowned him and publicly humiliated him. He wasn’t removed from the pack, but treated like the lowest

Illiana Idris (Mother): Illiana was killed when Achilles was 5. It was never really looked into, and Achilles believes Cadmus had something to do with her death. Achilles has vague and somewhat obstructed memories of her death and is unsure if he was in the room when she died or not.

Sibling Names:

Perseus ‘Jaxson’ Idris (Half-Brother): Achilles spent much of his life, even after Jaxson disappeared hating his brother. He blamed him for being the reason Cadmus killed his mother and causing him to have a line of heirs to compete with. He knew being sent to find Jax was another punishment by Cadmus meant to shame him; find and inform his replacement of what he was entitled to. They initially clashed, but once Jax saw through Cadmus’s act they became friends. Achilles got a second chance because of him, and wants to form a true brotherly bond.

Jason Idris (Half-Brother): Jason and Achilles were often the most vicious with one another. He was born when Achilles was 11 and was the son of Cadmus’s second wife. The greatest violence often occurred between the two of them, and Jason gloated when Achilles was disowned.

Theseus Idris (Half-Brother): Theseus is Jason’s full brother. He was never as competitive with Theseus, primarily due to the age difference and his constant struggles with Jason. Icarus and Theseus were born in the same year and are the most competitive with one another. Achilles has had to restrain them from killing one another before.

Icarus Idris (Half-Brother): Icarus is 15 years younger than Achilles. He was never as competitive with Icarus, primarily due to the age difference and his constant struggles with Jason. Icarus and Theseus were born in the same year and are the most competitive with one another. Achilles has had to restrain them from killing one another before..

Unknown (Half-Siblings): Cadmus is a constant philanderer, and Achilles knows he is still adding children to this day. Jason, Theseus, and Icarus were the main legitimate children during Achilles’ childhood.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Patrick Bouras (Ex Boyfriend): Patrick and Achilles had been inseparable since they were young. They were best friends, which over the course of time grew into something much more. About 6 years ago, before Achilles was sent away he was outed by Patrick. Patrick has chosen to get married and threw him under the bus to save face. It devastated Achilles and, with the addition of Cadmus disowning him, made him unable to truly trust anyone. No one knows his secret in Chicago except for Jax, Nick, and Ray and he hopes to keep it like that.

Platonic Connections:

Maxine Vanes (Good Friend): Max was one of the first friends that Achilles made in Chicago which was a surprise to both Jax and Max when they found out. They have an easy friendship, and Achilles feels comfortable around her. She has been making some obvious hints towards being able to talk to her about anything, and he is worried that she’s found something out or that something is being spread around the pack.  

Nick Hamelin (Grateful): Nick gave him a second chance that he never expected. He came in as a spy in an effort to win back his spot in Cadmus’s eyes. That was doomed to fail, and when Cadmus dragged him in front of Nick he was waiting for his death sentence. But he got an offer instead. Achilles is not going to waste the opportunity that Nick gave him and wants to prove that keeping him was the best choice.

Helo Adama (Friend): Achilles and Helo became fast friends, much to Jax’s annoyance. Helo is in charge of a few things for both GOLD and BOND, so they see a lot of each other. Helo has been attempting to bring him up to date with his technology, especially with video games.

Hanna Moore (Friend): Hanna was the first person to train Achilles in the LARPing training activities. He had some experience with sword combat, but Hanna taught him the basics of what they were doing and why. They quickly became friends as well, and he was surprised when Helo introduced her as his girlfriend.

Conrad Kale (Acquaintances): Max introduced Achilles to Conrad. Who, like most others, seemed surprised that he is related to Jax. They haven’t interacted much and Achilles thinks he’s keeping him at arm's length.

Piper Taylor (Coworker): Piper works in both GOLD and BOND, so the two have had quite a few assignments together.They haven’t talked much outside of missions, but she seems to share a lot of the same hyper-focused tendencies of GOLD members.

Garrett Cleirigh (Target): Achilles doesn’t quite understand Clan Chicago’s rules about interaction with witches and warlocks, and frequently ignores them. Achilles began chatting up Garrett Cleirigh while he was working at Anonymous. Though he hasn’t made significant headway, he thinks creating friendlier options may yield more results in the long term.

Jia Cleirigh (Target): Achilles doesn’t quite understand Clan Chicago’s rules about interaction with witches and warlocks, and frequently ignores them. Achilles has heard about Jia’s parties from quite a few of the other rats, including Louis, and would like to go to one.

Hostile Connections:

Dakota English (Tense): He saw Dakota, in human form, hovering outside of Wondering Worlds of Magic. When she looked at him fear then anger flashed through her eyes. She turned and left afterwards. Since then she’s been icy towards him whenever they interact.

Louis Martin-Rovet (Boss): Louis and Achilles frequently butt heads. Achilles is well versed in dealing with Warlocks and Witches and finds it frustrating to be constantly pulled back by an overly cautious head. He was second in SAGE in Jacksonville and truly wonders how the rats poisoned themselves against the witches and warlocks to the extreme that GOLD is a dangerous team.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

So, like, it’s kind of nitpicky to complain about this but like:

Icarus is one of my favorite Greek mythology stories/characters and everyone tells it wrong?

Like, they know the story beats, but usually they either put emphasis on the wrong parts or leave out important context.

Icarus was the son of Daedalus. Daedalus was hired and later imprisoned with his son by King Minos of Crete in order to build the Labyrinth which imprisoned the Minotaur. Icarus was a child or a teenager at most during his story and was beloved by his father. That’s why Daedalus built the wings, so that he and Icarus could escape slavery. They’d been trapped there for years. Daedalus gave TWO warnings to Icarus: the one everyone knows, if he flies too high the sun will melt his mostly-wax wings (which is scientifically inaccurate but the Greeks had no way of knowing that), BUT, if he flies too low, he’ll get caught by the waves of the sea and drown. And it wasn’t that Icarus didn’t listen, but Icarus had been trapped in one building as a slave/hostage for Years, and he was so giddy at being free that he didn’t notice how high he was rising. His wings did melt and burn, but what actually killed him was hitting the water and drowning.

There was no love story with Apollo. Apollo wasn’t even involved. Icarus was a kid/teen anyway.

And it’s not supposed to be a cautionary tale about flying too high, which is thinly veiled for being too ambitious. One, he wasn’t supposed to fly too low either, so if there are any thinly veiled morals, it should be more along the lines of “have realistic expectations”. Secondly, Escaping Slavery And Imprisonment Is NOT Too Ambitious. No one should have to go through that, ever. Icarus and Daedalus were completely justified in trying to escape. If you’re in a shit situation where you’re treated terribly, it is absolutely acceptable to try to get out of it. It is NO ONE’S PLACE to accept abuse. 

The story of Icarus isn’t like most Greek tragedies. In most Greek tragedies, the main character(s) (and usually everyone they care about) go through shit and lose everything because somewhere along the line, they fucked up. Icarus deserved none of the terrible things that happened to him, but they happened anyway. It could be argued that maybe the real main tragic character here is Daedalus, and Icarus just suffers because Daedalus loves his son, making him like Antigone (who also never deserved literally anything that happened to her). But this is a blip in Daedalus’ story, if Icarus’ story belongs to anyone, it’s Icarus - especially since Daedalus is a footnote or doesn't even make an appearance in like half the retellings/art that I’ve seen for Icarus.

The real tragedy of Icarus is that he didn’t deserve anything that happened to him, yet his death is twisted in such a way to shame him and others who want a better life.