#especially considering he's a bloody 17-year-old
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Red Hood and The Outlaws rewrite
Co-made by me,@insomniac-jay,@moonage-gaydream,@mayameanderings,@theautisticcentre and @refrigeratedboombursts.It is a BIG ASS FUCKING MONSTER
Starts in 2010 and ends in 2020 with 120 issues
The lineup is,in joining order:Jason Todd(Red Hood and briefly a Star Sapphire),Eddie Bloomberg(Red Devil),Rose Wilson(Ravager),Summer Kent(Ignite and and brierly a Black Lantern),Pepper Jackson(Star Sapphire),Thaddeus Thawne(Inertia),Kahali Roy(Bloody Mary),Duke Thomas(Robin),Imani Javiera(Panthress),Kyle Rayner(Green Lantern),Artemis Grace(Artemis of Bana-Mighdall),Venus Sparks(Star Sapphire),Mathew Wayne(Batboy and briefly a Green Lantern),Lilith Morningstar(Hex)and Daisy Hilliard(Paradisia),Jennifer Williams(Batgal) and Azriel Morningstar(Ghoul)
Jason,Eddie and Rose are the 'Original Outlaws Trinity' and them and Summer are the 'Dark Core Four'.Jason is the founder and leader and Summer his right hand man who takes over when he can't
Almost all trans and autistic with Pepper as the token allistic and Mathew the token cis.Jason is afro-dominican,Rose and Artemis are brownskin and brown eyed,Summer is a half white afrolatina(dominican),Thaddeus is half black too,Kahali is indian(sindhi-bengali),Imani is afro-puerto rican and Venus,Lilith,Azriel,Daisy and Jennifer are monoracial black women.Jason,Summer,Imani and Lilith are also fat and Jaysumm is tank4tank
Sometimes a found family can be 17 crazy ass vigilantes who some of weren't even vigilantes at first
The series is very goofy and silly often and in it's fundemental spirit but equally dark and layered in the same sense and is heavy on gags,jokes,violence and social talk.It also takes place over 3 in-universe years
The canon couples are Jason/Summer,Eddie/Lilith,Rose/Pepper,Thad/Azriel,Kahali/Tim Drake,Duke/Luna Vasquéz,Imani/Vicia López,Kyle/Venus,Artemis/Daisy and Mathew/Jennifer.The other adult Outlaws view eachother with very strong platonic love that can be taken as polyamorous love except Summer and Imani who are sisterly and the kid Outlaws are seen as younger siblings by them with Thad also being considered their adoptive son-By Summer especially and he straight up views him as his mom
Jason is goth punk,Eddie is a metalhead,Rose is goth butch,Summer is pastel punk,Pepper is y2k,Thad is a skater,Kahali is whimsigoth,Duke is a fashionista,Imani is black y2k,Kyle is losercore-i mean distinct,Artemis is a jock,Venus is ghetto fabulous,Mathew is weirdcore,Lilith is scenemo,Daisy is a softgirl,Jennifer is a prep and Azriel is kidcore
Summer is the Team Mom and Jason the Team Dad and they're nicknamed 'Supermom and Dadhood' as a teasing joke that they only embrace post getting together(And yet somehow this dosen't stop Jason from saying Summer is a milf with complete honesty and zero hesitation)
Their base is called The Fortress-named by Summer obviously-and it's an old abandoned huge residence that they started living in after exorsicing it due to investigation leading them there and the moving in decision was made because the beings in it agreed to bless it with eternal running water and electricity as a thank you for helping them move onto the afterlife at last.Everyone has their own room with their own tricked out aesthetic but it's common for them to share their beds and Imani refuses to actually sleep alone,not that any of them mind after a while despite her unconventional sleeping habits
Small note:Kyle is in the same age group as Jason but because i feel he's even more interesting if he starts out being a power ring bearer as a teenager and it adds extra tragedy and opportunities to his plots.And they don't actually meet until adulthood-Their mutual connection is Kyle and Summer having been a thing for a short time when they were both teens and Jason being Summer's childhood best friend since they were 11.This notion also applies to Artemis,she gets introduced as a teen hero too instead of that oversexualization bs and keeps her history but just adjusted so she's still Artemis Grace!!
As stated,Jason,Eddie and Rose were the original trio and Jason got them to become Outlaws pretty easily thanks to Eddie having been sidekick besties with him and Summer too and Rose is always up for moral grayness(and is coincedentally another one of Summer's exes-His first ever girlfriend in fact!)and Summer joined post Ember/Red Hood thanks to him and Jason reuniting in Utrh and the series being about them reconnecting as he unintentionally influenced him to become more sardonic and brutal like they were as a kid so the Metropolis media framed them as 'evil all along' and that hurt them so much combined with smear campaign Lex did against them as a kid he worked so hard to disprove for so long that they finally ran away from home and joined The Outlaws like Jason wanted him to so they'd be a team again.He gifted him a black domino mask as 'giving him a piece of himself' to finish off the new costume Summer made.After a decent while of just The Dark Four Core,Pepper came along as the fifth member because of her crush on Summer she'd gained due to their flirtatiouns back in Metropolis that he still both returned and they accidentally rescued Thad from dying in a chaotic and quick incident and took him in since he had literally nowhere to go
Pepperose was just a natural thing that happened-They flirted on first meeting mutually and Rose was shellshocked Pepper actually hit on her back and then kinda became obsessed with in a non-creepy way her LMFAO She acts like a booktok bf💀Peps is very happy about it though and they're 'gal pals' for about 50 issues before sealing the deal and doing the official girlfriends thing.Rose calls her Pinkie Pie and Pepper calls her 'my favorite rose'.Pepper dosen't really change all that much other than improved self-eestem and getting stronger but she also kills Slade for good out of love for Rose and that's when Rose kisses her,no holding anymore and they're married by the 2nd to last issue and Rose's codename dosen't stay Ravager for the whole series as she eventually uses the 'Willow' mantle and her arc is a heavy but good one that's all about her being human despite what others say
Kahali was gruesomely murdered by The Joker as he filmed the whole thing and sent a physical copy to Summer with a note that said 'history repeats are as sweet you,Dearie Em'.Summer was catatonic but also stuck in his dragon/Kryptofang form and when he snapped back to conciousness,he flew to Gotham before his cremation ceremony to dunk him in the Lazarus Pit,knowing it's exact location thanks to Talia helping out The Outlaws now and then as Jason's adoptive mom.Kahali came back with Pit Powers that were much stronger than Jason's and he rubs it in his face,along with it having turned his hair completely white but he still dyes it red and Summer mother hen's him more than ever for obvious reasons(well those and the additional one is Summer also got killed and ressurected by a Gotham Rogue as a sidekick)and Kahali updated himself to 'Blood Maker'.Tim and him were a very atypical couple on every level but that only made them happier with and better for eachother and Tim entered his villain era as 'Dove' over what happened because he believed Kahali was his soulmate and saviour and even had plans to marry him despite not asking him out yet and ironically enough they reunited on the battlefield without recognizing eachother at first until Tim did first and unmasked himself in shock just like Jason and Summer.Time stood still until they rushed up to kiss in relief and disbelief in Tim's case and they started a secret long distance relathionship after that
Artemis joined for reasons that are a bit complicated to match her origin story but the jist of it is she was living in the normal world and deemed them worthy of her companionhood despite how annoying she found them(especially Jason)and they helped her out with her emotions and better translating her mannerisms and technically turned into a goddess permanently(and willingly)and Kyle had a lot of crazy ass Lanterns shit happen that had him be forced by his mentors to take a breather and he choose a crosscountry roadtrip and he met his teammates by almost running Eddie over because he was trying to eat freshly made ramen and it got in his eyes.He a bit of morals trip with his new friends and old ex boygirlfriend he's still mutually flirty with sometimes to say the least(and ends the run a White Lantern).There's heavy featuring of his parents and past in this because hooooooo boy,he is a character of all time!!
Duke is the 5th Robin because of Summer's involvement and he got a year in pretty good but then him and Bruce nearly broke apart over a fight and he got so scared of being fired as Robin because of being only a 12 year old technical orphan(jokerized parents)he followed Summer's footsteps by ditching Gotham and that was how he meet Jason,who introduced himself as his true identity to him because of Summer's positive talk of him and accepted Duke's ask for shelter and so Duke was now an Outlaw.He wasn't forced to kill but he did become pretty harsh in fights and this caused him angst only for a bit as he was reassured by the older members.Duke says to Jason in issue 110 '.....I was never a real Robin.I've been with you guys way longer than i ever was with Bruce-' and Jason cuts him off with 'Yeah,no shit you were never Batman's Robin.You're The Outlaws' Robin-You're my Robin and you always have been and you always will be' and Duke breaks down so Jason comforts him and that's when Summer walks in with their Dairy Super and Batburger double flight orders and asks what happened but helps before either even get to explain with Duke thanking him for being the reason he got to take the first step to heroism to which he gets platonically bubbly and flattered and tells him he's the perfect Robin and Duke does a toothy happy grin that takes up most of the last panel in that issue
Duke is also a reality warper because of Gnomon so he stopped the N52 from existing in his Robin run🙏🏼Duke is our god,please praise him
Imani gets hired because of her reputation as a leathily effecient spy and she fits right in,crying herself to sleep a few times after they'd been together long enough to call eachother family.She's a gremlin from the start and influences Mathew to be the same and she's close to everybody but Summer and her are interdimensional sisters soulmates a la Percy Jackson and Hazel Levesque and he was the first one to break down her walls and they go out of their way to defend the other nonstop and this helps Summer's eldest daughter syndrome trauma.Catblooded/Vimani starts in a remastered Gotham War which is about them and The Watchers and lest to say they're perfect together and Jason,Kyle,Mathew,Lilith and Jennifer NEVER let them live it down.Lilith's intro is a parody of Batman 357-Instead of stealing his tires,she hacked Jason's computer to leak his old Undertale chats and he begged her to join in humiliating ways only for it to be revealed she only did it for fun and came to join because Summer and him were close friends in their teen years but got seperated due to Hell bussiness.She made sure to take pictures 'to send to Summie of his cringelord ass hubbie'.None of these words are denied by anyone at all
At the same time this was happening,Artemis,Azriel,Thad,Pepper and Duke were on a mission and Artemis was almost fatally wounded but Daisy came in as her angel with healing oitments made with her chlorokinesis and Artemis saw her with a glowing pink halo around her head,too enchanted by her to care about almost dying.Daisy was a duo with Lilith and had the same reasoning as her for being there but they got seperated thanks to a villain attack and they're the team hacker and team medic.They picked Venus up at a party she was DJ'ing and she started as only an ally but joined them officially in a parallel to Teen Titans 2003!Tara Markov after an angst arc and it actually took her and Kyle a hot sec to get officially together due thinking their attraction was purely physical and her and Pepper did a toon girlypop squee sequence after she got the official Outlaw title as Star Sapphire solidarity.Mathew kept getting told by Gotham City-The sentient city itself-he needed to leave for now since Jennifer was missing so he gave in and he was welcomed with open arms,platonic kisses,food and appropriate training
But in a mini arc called 'Batboy's Breakout' the adult Outlaws go on mission without him despite him being the eldest and it makes him feel not good enough after the buildup of not being able to protect the other kids a few times before so when he hears of a breakout at Blackgate at bedtime,he sneaks out,stops it and kills Penguin(his birth parents' murderer)and stops an Arkham breakout too and then goes solo after leaving a note at the Fortress.They're super upset but almost all of them trust him to take care of himself with Summer as the exception thanks to how maternal he is and how he was the only one other than Kahali who was really close to him pre-Rhato.Mathew is a solo hero for roughly half a year and defeats Slade during his run before he comes back to The Outlaws and tackled in the world's biggest group hug and showered in words of love and reminisced sadness and he's misty eyed touched because he missed them too after the resentment wore off.His new hero name is 'Bladebat' for his magic sword he crafted himself while on the run
Jennifer was missing because she'd been given Lian's teleported across time and space multiple times storyline due to an accident that happened while on a quest for Solana Banks to restore her lost home dimension Helioas because she thought she'd found an articifact that would but misenterpreted it's powers.Lucky for her,her journey only lasted 1 year instead of multiple and she found her way back to Mathew's spot-Her safe spot.She wasn't ready to live normally again just yet so she stayed in the Fortress and became an official member as a result under 'Batika'.And to complete our family,Azriel had the easiest and most simplistic one-Lilith asked Jason to let her join them because of how strong she is and not having many friends so he accepted and she's actually the goriest of the Outlaws beating even Thee Red Hood in it and this is part of her demonic nature and carries no secret undertones to it.Like Flowergrace,Thadzriel was love at first newbie sight and they have such a sweet middle school dating dynamic
Luna appears in a significant amount of issues but since she's Aquafam she sticks to her own territory most of the time and her and Duke are purely platonic with love not blooming until Duke becomes The Signal and leads a new team he made called The Lights with Luna joining as 'Moonguide' and they have a slowburn that spans until their adults years as Eris(Duke)and Selene(Luna)
Jaysumm's dynamic is childhood best friends and sidekick partners > Enemies only in the technical sense > Best friends again but Jason flirting with Summer constantly and Summer not buying Jason isn't joking because of their history together > Being insuferably obviously in love and Summer's literally the ONLY one who dosen't know > Fwb who act like a couple already with Jason still only knowing it on his side and angst for him as a result > Sneaking off to take Jon off trick or treating in opposite costumes(fairy and werewolf)and Summer's epiphany finally happens so he confesses when they make it home and Jason confesses back so they make out > Official couple when exactly 11 issues remaining in a 120 part series LMFAO
🎶They don't give a damn about their reputation🎶 < Had to make that joke,mb kings.But yeah they generally don't care about perception from normies and ARE here to unteach propaganda as they fuck around and make people find out the systems are fucked.It's very embarrasing for certain superheroes that the eco-terrorists without the no kill code are better parents to their kids than they are to theirs and their legacy stays even post quasi-dispanment(They keep in contact forever ofc,it's just the plot needed them elsewheres and there's common reunions and video calls)
Culturally fused team,both race and species.Afrolatino and brown latino,kryptonian and amazonian,speedster abonimation and macabita demon,human and meta and so forth.Subculture fused too as they frequently participate in eachother's aesthetics and interests and they're all multilingual.Clashes between them occasionally but never too bad
The genre is like.Superhero comedy but also horror but also fantasy but also sci-fi but also urban fantasy but also surrealism but also romance drama but also psychological thriller????????It's the Homestuck of DC,everything ever happens in Red Hood and The Outlaws 2010-2020.This includes the catgirls and the hyperspecific lore and the weird ass art that's somehow good and the-
The covers always fuck NO exceptions,Summer does meta commentary telling fans to not buy their merch officially and to instead get it secondhand or they'll be dissapointing him but Pepper full on breaks the fourth wall,it has it's own official opening on the official DCAU channel and a few shorts and this includes a pride video like the Bubbline one by Cartoon Network and it stars Jaysumm,Pepper is the most well-known and beloved trans DC character,they're SUPER popular in in Latin America and with latino-americans,it has multiple lego sets and The Outlaws Girls even got their own doll line and they have crossover mini series with Young Justice that's 24 issues and called 'Just Us,No Laws'
#rhato#the outlaws#jason todd#eddie bloomberg#rose wilson#summer kent#pepper jackson#thaddeus thawne#kahali roy#duke thomas#imani javiera#kyle rayner#artemis grace#venus parks#mathew wayne#lilith morningstar#daisy hilliard#jennifer williams#azriel morningstar#tim drake#jaysumm#pepperose#thadzriel#timkahali#thomquez#vimani#kyve#flowergrace#jennibat#summerposting
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Hi! I'm new to Spuffy and I was wondering, are there any "big" fics that you would recommend? Like the fics that most people have read/heard about, if that makes sense lol😅
Hi, anon!
Well, I only started reading Spuffy fanfic a couple of years ago, so maybe I don't consider the same fics as classics as most people do, hope my recommendations will work for you anyway (:
*if you're looking for more Spuffy stories, check out my ficrec tag!
These are my top 5 favourite OLD fics:
Found by CupcakeCute [PG-13]
Begins between TGIQ and Power Play, continues post-NFA. Buffy learns of Spike's resurrection from an unlikely source and immediately sets out to make things right as The Apocalypse breaks out in L.A. Spike/Buffy pairing, some Angel/Cordelia.
My Life Closed Twice by anaross [R]
Post-Not Fade Away. Buffy seeks Spike's remains, but then finds him in the most unusal place.
The Other Side of Midnight by Holly [NC-17]
In the months following the destruction of Sunnydale, Buffy cuts herself off from her friends and resumes life the only way she knows how: fighting evil. It’s only a matter of time before her past catches up with her, and brings about the man she lost and loved too late…only he doesn’t recognize her face.
Promise of Frost by Eurydice [NC-17]
When a snowstorm strands Buffy and Spike, they are forced to turn to each other for strength, especially when a missing Giles, mysterious visitors, and way too much magic threatens to turn it into a not so very merry Christmas. Set mid-S4.
The Writing on the Wall by Holly [NC-17]
There was no body to bury. There was no funeral. There was nothing but the three rules and the knowledge that a thousand years of torment was nothing compared to a world without her in it. Spike embarks on a journey through the Gates of Hell to rescue the one he loves, but in order to save her, he must risk losing himself.
And these are my top 5 favourite LONG fics:
A Different Kind of Hell by OffYourBird [NC-17]
Jumping through Glory's tower portal, Buffy and Spike find themselves in a hell dimension they never expected. One that looks suspiciously like 1880's London. Will they find a way back home? Will the truth behind William the Bloody at last make itself known? Will Buffy ever stop butchering the Queen's English? Join them and find out. Starts off at the end of "The Gift."
The Darkling by OffYourBird [NC-17]
When Buffy’s quest to get Spike returned to her is fulfilled in an unexpected way, she finds herself in a complicated relationship with an intrigued master vampire who isn’t the man she loves, but who might be someday… if she can convince him to step out of the dark.
Hunger by Sunalso [NC-17]
AU. Spike killed his third Slayer, but Dru was already dust. He's been lost, but when his supper turns out to be more than he bargained for, it leaves him hungry for something else instead. And Buffy? She's just hungry.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Sunalso [Adult Only]
Buffy has fallen into darkness and been forced to become a ghost in her own past. Only she didn't come back alone. What will it take to overcome depression, obsession, and death so that she can learn to live, love, and laugh again.
West of the Moon, East of the Sun by KnifeEdge [NC-17]
I keep having the strangest dream. Every night it's the same thing: a dark room, a big bed, and a silent vampire that I can feel, but not see. I'd be wigged, except it's just a dream, right? It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever willingly sleep with a vampire again…
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Azkaban sucked. Majorly.
Not that it came as a surprise to Sirius, or any of the other prisoners in the High Security Wing.
But it really, really fucking sucked.
He had been beyond furious at first, at the whole injustice of it all. Sentenced to Azkaban, without a trial, for a crime he didn’t even commit?
Him, the Heir to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black?
The Ministry had an absolute nerve considering it, never mind actually doing it.
Day one, he sobbed and screamed and prayed to the Gods for this to be a cruel joke. How could James be dead, how could Lily be dead? How could he, of all people, be accused of causing their deaths? How could Peter, mousy weak little Peter, have betrayed them and landed him with the blame?
Day two, he dried his red-rimmed eyes and made sure the guards knew exactly what he would do to them if he wasn’t locked in a cell, patrolled by soul-sucking creatures. He was a Black, through and through, even if he had tried to be better than his relatives. His magical core was dark, as were the spells he cast best, and he was eager to do some practice on the Aurors- former colleagues or not.
Day three, he got some company. Cousin Bella, her husband Rodolphus, his brother Rabastan, and little Barty Crouch. Regulus’ best friend, the Head of the DMLE’s very own son, a terrified nineteen year old boy. He didn’t deserve to be here, especially not without a trial. He had only broken the wards around Longbottom Manor for the other three, hadn’t even been told what they were doing.
The days blurred together after that, even as he carved a tally mark into the stone wall for every day that passed.
Azkaban was so much worse if you were lonely, if no one was able to ground you as the Dementors passed. He got over his animosity towards the four around him, forgave and forgot as best as he could.
He started to understand why Barty was Regulus’ best friend. The boy was a genius, unbelievably talented in all sorts of magic and it accompanying theory.
They would sit against the bars dividing their cells together, hunched over copies of the Daily Prophet, morning and evening. Barty was just as big of a gossip as Sirius was himself.
“Merlin above, Barty! You’ll never believe it! Lucius Bloody Malfoy, on the Hogwarts Board of Governors?”
“Unbelievable,” Barty would scoff, “That bastard would grease palms for anything.”
“Alecto Carrow is betrothed to Cassius Travers, apparently. Could have sworn that she was a lesbian.”
“What? I always thought she was shagging her brother? Was Travers not married to Penelope Borgin, anyway?”
“Keep up, Barty, why, her death was announced 17 editions ago!”
“So Carrow and Travers can actually fucking murder his wife, and yet we are in Azkaban?”
As the days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, Sirius saw how badly Barty was being affected by the Dementors. So much worse than the rest of them. He was too young to suffer like this, though just over a year younger than Sirius himself, his mind couldn’t handle the torture.
Some days, Barty was all but catatonic, rocking backwards and forwards against the bars separating their cells. Sirius would sit with him, those days, his back pressed against Barty’s own, trying desperately to keep him warm and grounded.
337 days in to their life sentence in Hell, Sirius had finally had enough.
He had been training his wandless magic as much as he could. Azkaban didn’t have magic-dampening wards on the cells, the Dementors simply drained so much of their magical core that casting was virtually impossible. But Sirius was an Animagus, sleeping as Padfoot, and he wasn’t as drained as the rest.
On that fateful day, day 337, Sirius picked the perfect time. An hour after the morning Dementor patrol, and 45 minutes after the Auror guards had delivered breakfast- according to his Tempus charm. He had been meditating almost constantly for three days, and he was as ready as he ever would be.
He stood, adopting the perfect posture that had been drilled into him since he learned to so much as crawl, and willed the door to his cell to open.
Somehow, it worked.
The four around him were silent, stunned to disbelief. He strolled out of his cell, and, with a flick of his wrist, unlocked their cells too.
Sirius had suffered for the Order, went to Prison as an innocent man without the Order fighting for him. He was done, he had had enough.
He cared about two things, now.
He would keep his godson safe, for James and Lily, and he would make damn sure Barty Crouch Jr lived the rest of his life outside of a cold, dark cell, for the little brother he never got the chance to say goodbye to.
The Ministry would regret the day they threw Sirius in Azkaban, and Albus Dumbledore would not live to rue the day he left him there.
#sirius black#dark sirius black#hp fandom#harry potter drabble#hp drabble#harry potter fandom#barty crouch junior#barty crouch jr#sirius in azkaban#azkaban#harry potter
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Relationships: Aoba Yamamura
Aoi Yamamura ✝️-Aoba's father,former army bomber who retired when Aoba born He had a hobby making toys and he opened a toystore when he left the army but his store was more centric on pyrotechnics,he was a loving father for Aoba and Kururi teach them how write and reading and things like made pyrotechnics and he even used his experience as bomber and teach them how use chemicals products for make explosions it could be said that Aoba and his sister inherited they pyromania from him, he was very affect and loving with Aoba and Kururi and when his wife started to hurt them he quickly divorced from her and reclamed Aoba's and Kururi custody,he was murdered for some rich citizens of Aoyama when he refused to sell them his toystore,his death was something hard for his children who planted bombs on their houses in payback
Ukina Yamamura✝️-Aoba's mother and the person who him most hate in the worl,She hates Aoba for on her words "being beautiful since his born" she wanted childrens less pretty than her and she hated Aoba for it and for be intersex,the memories that Aoba have with Ukina are when she burned all his leg and made him a burn on the eye when she was drunk other thing that Aoba remember is that when she made his burns drunk or sober Ukina always said something how "make him less beautiful" but for her consternation the scars only seemed to make Aoba prettier, other Aoba's memories with her including she being drunk with beer or wine and when she made tried stabe Kururi Ukina died for etilic intoxication whe Aoba and Kururi had 10 and 6 years old respectively but they don't mind her dead and even today Aoba and Kururi still hate her and both refers to her just as "Ukina" or "shit drunkard"
Kururi Yamamura (17 years old)-Aoba's younger sister She's almost his femenine copy with a opposite personality being more smiling and extroverty than her brother,she a DJ aspirant she is very know on her school because she is unscare of menazing someone like when she used her brother's ice bombs in the locker of a bullie and by her radio program where she show his music tracks or give her opinion of different songs and other media, she's smart like Aoba and have a great ability analyzing and manipulating people,is conscious about not only Aoba's identity in the underground and his terrorist acts she also is conscious about Kunio's and Natsume identities as Hollow and Semiramis but she's not upset because herself have her own crimes as a serial killer (and sometimes terrorist)with the a.k.a "Saika" with the knowledge of his brother and teammates,she and Aoba are protective with each other and Kururi don't have problem with "silence" anyone who could be a danger for Bluefire/Aoba and Aoba consider her one pillar of his sanity,currently lives with her older brother and help him and his teammates with their (and her own) crimes as they planning a bloody revolution
Eden Yamamura (15 years old) Aoba's younger half brother, although initially Aoba felt discomfort with him because he looks Ukina Aoba accepted him quickly, both of them have a good relationship and Aoba is more affectionate with Eden a bit more than Kururi and tbe three often hang out together (especially to commit crimes) although sometimes Aoba can feel exasperate of Eden's protection towards him he's is not upset in the deep he's glad of be protect by someone and think is a bit fun despite he needs to stop Eden before he do something extreme
Hiko Yamamura ✝️: Aoba's and Rintaro daughter,when Aoba get pregnant he was very happy and planned tell to Rintaro when he found if is boy or girl, when Aoba discovered that his baby was a girl named her "Hiko" who means "fire girl" but after Rintaro was arrested Aoba fell in a depression who provoke him a miscarriage,lose her let Aoba more depressed and he tried to commit suicide jumping off a bridge but Kunio saved him,the miscarriage provoke Aoba a mental breakdown that was the detonant that made Aoba become a terrorist
#hypmic#hypnosis mic#hypnosis mic oc#hypmic oc#hypnosis microphone#kumamoto division#strange magic#aoba yamamura#relationships
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finished my first manga of the year, one that I started last year called Bloody+Mary by Akaza Samamiya. I guess this'll be a mostly spoiler-free review??
It's about a red-haired vampire named Mary who wants to die but can't because he's immortal and tracks down the human main character Maria, a feared exorcist—except Maria can't actually exorcise vampires, instead faking his powers to ward off attackers. Mary vows to keep Maria safe until Maria can regain his powers and exorcise him.
Bloody+Mary is a bit of a mess with its main saving grace being that it's a bunch of pretty boys and very pretty art. At its heart it's a vampire shoujo with some comedy elements but mainly a drama with quite a few twists—I heard it was light BL but after reading it it's definitely not, it's just a shoujo with a primarily male cast. Regardless of how intimate the cover arts are, there's shounen much gayer than this, so if that's what you were interested in then look elsewhere.
The pacing is odd. Not the worst I've seen, but it definitely felt like the author was winging it in quite a few parts, especially in one part where they travel to England, get basically nothing accomplished, and head home. I've heard some mangakas don't plan the endings before they start publication but this series feels like the mangaka only had a loose concept and winged the rest. Plot lines come up, get forgotten about, come back sometimes, and ultimately don't lead to much if they're resolved at all.
The characters are alright, I found most of them okay and even pretty funny at times. However, there's not much character growth which leaves most of them the same as when they started and you're just told they've grown so much because their goals have suddenly changed. The character I liked the least was probably the red-haired vampire Mary, as he acts 12 for a majority of the series. Considering I went into this thinking it was going to be a BL between him and the MC Maria (who's 17? he's still in school), I was offput by how young Mary acted despite being a 400~ year old vampire. It's not that he acts childish at times, its that he acts like a child most of the time. The scenes where Maria looks at him fondly feel more like an older brother looking at their younger brother rather than two people who are supposed to be around the same age (Mary is supposed to look around 16).
The world building is lackluster at best and sloppy at worst. The church both exists in this world as the main defense against vampires but also feels more like a historical relic, something that isn't a main thing that exists in current day. Vampires are creatures of folklore to most humans, except if you go out at night you'll be attacked by them?? They try to say this is because Maria's blood smells so good that he's always attacked at night, but then they show other characters being attacked at night—how are vampires staying in the shadows when so many people get attacked and are almost always killed by vampire attacks? Furthermore, we never really see anyone capable of exorcism except for a priest in England who they only bring up to give a lore dump on vampires. How have vampires not taken over the world by now if basically no one can kill them and some of them have been alive for half a millennia?
It's parts like that that make the world feel very, very small, which would've been fine if they kept it an insular story, but they didn't. It has a decent sized cast, though half of the characters become irrelevant when the plot doesn't need them and come running back as soon as it does.
Again, the art is the main saving grace of the series—it really is very pretty to look at, and I love their color work for the cover arts.
I wanted to like this series as it's very pretty and has twins and other things I won't spoil that I love, but ultimately it left me more baffled than anything. I don't hate it, I don't love it, I'm just kinda bewildered.
I wouldn't recommend this unless you just really love vampire shoujo. Don't be fooled by the cover arts, it's not really gay exorcists, but there are a couple of explicitly gay female vampires so...still not worth your time considering they're very much side characters. Go find a gay vampire visual novel to read instead, there's tons.
#manga review#my reviews#bloody mary#there's a ton of other things tagged as this so I don't feel as bad tagging a negative review for a fandom#I really wanted to like this but it really felt like they had no clue what to do with the plot otl#I've also been meaning to do manga reviews here but never started#so I guess this is my first one LOL#anyway just read something else#there's plenty of actually gay vampire visual novels you could read for instance
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ooh I think #7 and #17 from the blurb list would fit very well together! if you want!
THANK YOU LINDS <3<3
prompt list here, send a number!!
#7 If we both want to fit, we’ll have to cuddle
#17 Sleeping in the same bed for the first time
THIS IS 3K IM SORRY I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF SO PLEASE REBLOG LMAOOOOOO!!!!!
"This is my room," comes a gruff voice behind you as you keep looking out the window, taking in the greenery and the beautiful ocean.
See, you knew he would be here.
You knew, because Harry and Mitch were attached at the hip, and you didn't mind. You didn't mind seeing your ex every time you were invited to hang out with MitchandSarah & co, except when said ex decided to be an evil arsehole.
Perhaps, calling him an "ex" was weird, seeing how your time alone only consisted of you both getting high, mostly naked as he whispered the filthiest things in your ear and promised to make you feel good, be the best you've ever had. Other than that, though, he was an insufferable bastard. Since you never hung out with the man without your friends around–getting rat-arsed and high... and the activities that followed aside–, you didn't know if he was always this annoying.
He seemed to be getting along just fine with the others, especially Sarah and the other girls, so you had no problems scratching off the "women hater" off your list. And you can't ever recall him being this insufferable while you both were fucking which was, in his case, miserable. So, it was definitely annoying. You weren't that interested in him to think that he was being mean because he was secretly in love with you. That was a myth, a pathetic myth, wasn't it? No, you wouldn't steep that low. He was just an arse, full stop.
You turn around with an eye-roll, and within seeing his face, you nearly clench your fists like a ten-year-old. "Do you live here?" You ask, hoping the boring expression on your face is also detectable in your tone.
It's certainly not a surprise when Harry scoffs.
"I don't, but I picked this room first. Since, you know," he looks around, and walks further into the room, finally stopping at the feet of the bed. "You were late. As per."
"Oh fuck off. This isn't summer camp. Besides, I don't see any of your shit around. The room was empty when I arrived."
"If you bothered to look inside the wardrobe..."
Seriously, you find yourself thinking, how the fuck did you ever end up with this man. Naked.
There's a commotion downstairs, so you both turn to the door, but much to your dismay, there's no one coming to check up on you and hopefully, save you from Harry Styles' pathetic gob.
You turn towards the window again, eyes squinting briefly at the last bits of sunshine that's glinting from between the branches.
"Well. You shouldn't have left then. You weren't here when I arrived."
Harry shakes his head, and you swear you can see his nostrils flaring if you look carefully. Though, you just watch him with a smug smile on your face as he walks to the wardrobe and pulls open the white doors. True to his word, his clothes are there, perfectly folded, and for a moment you feel a pang of guilt before you look back up at his face and see the furrowed eyebrows.
"See. My clothes. I'm sure Sarah will sort it out for you, find you another room or summat."
"There's only three bedrooms. Can't sleep with a pregnant woman and her boyfriend, can I?"
"What about Rachel and David? Aren't you best friend's with her?"
"Harry, you're ridiculous. Just–" you wipe the sweat off of your forehead, feeling yourself grow hotter and hotter each passing minute. "–just sleep on the sofa. This is my first vacation this year. You go on holidays every week or so. Let us commoners have this."
"Oh, please. Didn't you have a girls weekend getaway or whatever the fuck in Soho Farmhouse two weeks ago?"
You can't help the scoff that leaves your mouth, and a raised eyebrow follows. "How do you know about that?"
"Because," he rolls his eyes, and slams the wardrobe shut. "You post seven hundred stories every day."
"You're a stalker."
"You sleep on the sofa."
You smirk, noticing how he avoided your previous statement.
To be fair, you hated posting on your story. Though, knowing Harry followed you on Instagram made posting on there fun, and seeing his username on the list of who watched your stories pop up at the very top every single time whenever you posted a story almost made you let out a mingy little laugh and rub your hands together, and scream "gotcha!".
"I won't."
"You're getting on my nerves."
"What a coincidence," you ignore the stare he's sending your way and walk towards your carry on, and start taking the contents out one by one, laying everything on the bed.
He watches with a scowl on his face, arms crossed across his chest, and a satisfied smile paints your features as you take out the toiletries bag next.
"Are you seriously unpacking right now?" Harry cranes his neck so he can see better. He looks ridiculous, standing in the middle of the room with arms crossed, but you refrain from saying anything.
In fact, you don't even answer him. Perhaps, you find yourself thinking, it was silly to unpack your underwear first. It wasn't as if you brought super "sexy" shit or lace everything. You can definitely feel his gaze watching your every movement as you take everything out carefully and place them on top of each other. With most of your underwear in hand, you get on one knee in front of the bedside table and open the drawer, placing everything inside and it's surprising how he hasn't claimed the bedside table yet.
"Look," he sighs. "I'll talk to Sarah, maybe you can sleep with her and Mitch–"
"–don't be stupid we're not making them sleep with other people because you can't be a gentleman and sleep on the sofa."
"Oh for fuck's sake," he growls, and you finally look at him, eyebrows raised in hopes of making him feel as stupid as he sounds right now. Unfortunately, though, he continues, "Okay, damn it, I'll sleep on the floor."
Fool.
"Common sense, Harry. Always pick sofa. No matter what."
"Were you born to make my life a living hell?"
"Look," you sit on the bed, and look around. "This is boring me to death. I'm sleeping on the bed. If you shut your gob, you can sleep with me on the bed."
Harry lets out an obnoxious laugh. "Just admit I was here first and you didn't bother checking the–"
"Yes, I didn't and what about it? I'm here now, aren't I? I'm on the bed, babes. Anyway," you get on your feet, and with one last look at him, you start walking towards the door. "I'll see you in a bit. I guess."
You both manage to avoid each other as much as you can throughout the day, and really, it wasn't that hard considering the good company of your friends, good food and good alcohol. You mainly helped Sarah and Rachel in the kitchen as the men lounged on the sun loungers, Mitch handling the grill and David helping you guys with the drinks that came in and out of the house pretty quickly with the way you lot consumed them like water.
You spend the night eating, laughing and drinking, sometimes singing along to whatever song played on David's fancy Bluetooth speaker, and everyone begins ushering inside with full bellies and most of them–except the very pregnant Sarah–with a tipsy smile on their faces.
You leave before Harry though, leaving him smoking his last cigarette by the pool while you run up the stairs and into the room, closing the door behind you. You quickly get rid of the romper and get your favourite pyjamas on, eyes searching for the orange makeup bag so you can take off the remaining makeup before bed. You knew it was silly not to do your night routine, but you still zip the bag closed with a sad expression on your face, not wanting to see your toner and night cream any more than you needed to as you throw it on the floor next to your bags. It's pathetic really, how determined you are to get in the bed before Harry can that you forego your whole routine and stick to some cotton pads. Though, plugging your charger and getting between the cool sheets make you forget all about it as you let out a sigh, and unlock your phone to do your nightly scroll before falling asleep.
As you double tap on a selfie, the door opens, and you hear him scoff, again. You keep scrolling though, and try to sneak a few glances at him as he makes a beeline for the wardrobe, and to your surprise, begins to undress. You try to stay calm, and not to think about how domestic this whole thing seems; being in the same room as him as he gets ready for bed.
Right, getting ready for bed.
You keep your eyes on your phone as his clothes hit the floor one by one, and when you look up briefly, he's got a pair of joggers on, and he's throwing the clothes he had on in the wardrobe.
He turns around, and find your gaze, and he rolls his eyes.
"I knew you'd be in bed, here, as soon as I heard someone running. Forgot you were a literal five-year-old," he mutters under his breath, loud enough so you can still hear him. "I'm not sleeping on the sofa."
"I love how you're basically arguing with yourself."
"Like I said, I'm not sleeping on the sofa. I didn't come all the way to sleep on a bloody sofa."
"Suit yourself. I guess we're sharing. Unless," you lock your phone, and place it on the bedside table. "You want to share," you shrug, adjusting your pillow and sigh at the cool fabric against your hot cheeks.
You can feel him thinking, the wheels turning in his head, and you finally hear the floorboards creek underneath his feet as he walks closer to the bed, and pushes the sheets off of you. The whole thing.
You blink in surprise. "Stop it, dude! What the fuck."
"I'm getting in! Fuck's sake, be quiet."
"You did that just to annoy me."
You're both quiet for a minute, Harry taking his rings off and then comes his socks, and he finally copies you, laying on his back on the bed. He covers the both of you, though you know it's not intentional since he couldn't do it without covering his own body with the duvet, and then he lets out a strangled sigh.
"The bed's too small."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"What?" He turns his face to you, and perhaps it's the first time he's looking at you– really looking.
His brows are furrowed, and lips turned downwards in a pout.
"I'm taking the piss, Harry. I know you're not calling me fat."
"Good," he says, though his voice isn't exactly soft. "I wouldn't."
"Good."
Silence.
It's unbearable.
Despite the hot weather, you feel yourself shiver, and you wish you were the only one in bed so you could do the whole burrito technique with the duvet. Alas... you stay where you are. You both do.
A dog barks in the distance, the high-pitched bark coming through the open window, and you can feel Harry breathing too fast beside you. You want to shout at him, tell him to fuck off and... not breathe too fast, though it sounds a bit too rude even for you, so you stay silent and wait for the dog to pipe the fuck down.
You try to turn on your side, because you could never see yourself fall asleep laying on your back like a vampire, but you almost fall, not anticipating the tiny space you've got going on. It's bad, and you know you're not going to get a good sleep. So, you find yourself contemplating about getting up and sleeping on the sofa because honestly, fuck him.
Harry shuffles next to you, presumably trying to find a good position to sleep in himself, but he lets out a groan and it startles you.
"What's wrong with you!"
"The bed's too fucking small."
"We've established that."
He sniffs, hands clenching the sheets around his body. "I don't sleep on my back. My back hurts."
You don't say anything, hoping for him to just get up and leave, go sleep on the sofa. He doesn't, though. It's another fifteen minutes before you let out another sigh, trying to get comfortable on the bed, and Harry copies you. You both turn on your sides, facing each other and Harry groans when your knee makes contact with his thigh, making you cringe in embarrassment. A quiet sorry leaves your mouth and he shakes his head, then turns the other way, facing the door.
"Fuck," he spits after a minute. "If we both want to fit, we'll have to cuddle."
"Cuddle? Fuck no."
"Just," he turns to you again, but the bed is too small for you both so his knees touch yours. "Just come closer. Either that, or go sleep on the sofa."
"Why don't you–"
"You're so stubborn! Come closer, I won't eat you or fall in love with you. Fuck."
You groan, but oblige for some reason, feeling your heart beginning to beat faster for some ridiculous reason.
It's been a long time, you find yourself trying to convince your heart. It's been a long, long time since you've been this close to a human being. Too long since you've cuddled with someone, so obviously you were going to feel a little excited, and weird. Yes, definitely weird.
You get closer and he lifts up his arm, you both sharing a look before you roll your eyes and place your hand on his wrist, placing it on your hip. He's quiet, eyes searching yours, and the crease between his brows are gone, and you want to laugh, because who knew it only took your skin against his to wipe that stupid grimace off of his face.
"I still think you're annoying," Harry mumbles, clearly sleepy. His hold on your hip becomes tighter as his thumb strokes your skin over the fabric.
"I know. Just shut up and sleep."
#harry styles imagine#harry styles x reader#harry styles#harry styles blurb#harry styles smut#harry styles writing#harry styles concept#concepts#harry styles x y/n#harry styles fanfiction#babyurthendofjune#ask
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The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn
This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.
1. Okay first what is khr?
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).
2. What’s it about?
Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.
He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.
Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.
Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.
Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.
Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.
Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.
3. What happened?
The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.
According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.
This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.
Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.
In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.
After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.
Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.
Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.
4. Art style
The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.
Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:
A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.
(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)
5. Criticism
The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.
Daily Life Arc:
A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.
Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.
Censoring:
The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.
Filler episodes:
Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.
Sexism:
Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.
Genereal things:
Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.
6. Hope?
Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.
Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.
- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america
- The khr stage play reached yet another new season
- A mobile game was released last year
- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"
- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.
- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)
There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.
7. Conclusion
Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)
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Hiro is here!! We've all been waiting for him!!
You know the drill by now, all the yummy details about his background are under the cut ;) Also be warned it is VERY long I went a little feral writing his backstory lmao
Hiro
Age: 17
Hair color: Orange
Eye color: Pink
Element: Psychic & Forest
Okay so a lot of this is gonna be stuff I'm pulling from posts I've already written to make it easier on myself and so I don't have to repeat anything.
Before he was born, the Novune Forces approached Hiro's parents because they knew that he would be born as a dual elemental. Part of their goal was to raise several dual type children to become human weapons--they targeted dual type babies specifically because they're said to be more powerful since they can use more than one elemental type.
It was the perfect opportunity for Hiro's parents because at the time they were not ready for a child despite agreeing that they were going to have it. Ofc the Forces did not reveal their plans so to them it turned into a nice surrogate parent situation where Hiro's mother would give birth to him and he'd immediately be given up for adoption afterwards. It was definitely hard for them to part with him but they trusted he'd be in good care. Well. That turned out great, as you can probably tell :')
Hiro, along with Kaz and Mallary, became the Forces' iconic trio, with Hiro considered to be the golden child and the most dangerous between the three of them because of his high intellect and skill in combat. He grew up under a very strict regimen and would spend hours each day dedicated to training both his mind and his elemental powers. He's an extremely gifted psychic elemental and took to his abilities almost immediately--he’s able to read his opponents movements and set up traps before they can even get to him. He’s usually airborne for most battles he’s in; he finds it easier to strategize from a higher vantage point, and he also just likes to float around and dodge enemy attacks and act like an ass lmao. He’s a pro at immobilizing his enemies so they can no longer move, ending his battles swiftly and cleanly. Physically he’s not very powerful so he uses a magic staff to fight. His intelligence more than makes up for his lack of super strength!
He has a special power like Kaz’s extra dragon typing (and, like Kaz, he has a streak in his hair from the experimentation)—Hiro gets visions of death, basically predictions of the future, and his visions are never wrong. He’s able to see who dies in battle and the Forces use this to their advantage so that they can prepare around any casualties. Hiro hates getting these visions because he doesn’t like seeing people die, he witnesses their last moments and it’s certainly traumatizing for him;; and like Kaz, this power was something he only unlocked through lots of experimentation on him, so he usually passes out for hours after getting a vision since it’s not a “natural” ability he was born with.
As for his second typing, it was something he never really clicked with. Forest elementals have to be very attuned to nature and are generally more kindhearted and gentle people, but since Hiro grew up in a base with only limited access to the outside (and because he’s forced into acting as an antagonist), his forest elemental powers were repressed over the years. He’s already powerful enough as a psychic elemental so he doesn’t feel the need to resort to a second power, especially since his superiors viewed his second typing as useless and he never received proper training on how to use it. He's already a huge threat as he is so they said good enough. The Forces believe that if something is useless, throw it away, so they eventually abandoned any hope of him succeeding in bettering his forest powers, and focused solely on enhancing his psychic abilities and making his death visions clearer.
Before Hiro became the cold-hearted and snarky colonel that the Forces know him as, he was actually a very kind child with an aversion to violence, and cried often. That got forced out of him pretty quickly though--he learned right away that disobedience means punishment and the only way to pay for his mistakes is by verbal and physical abuse. Poor baby :'( He and Kaz and Mallary go through a LOT of unfair shit as kids. The event that really drove home his intense determination and flawless record was the first mission he was ever sent out on.
This happened when he was around 13. Usually members of the Forces don't get to go out on solo missions unless they have a high position or are old enough to, but he was the exception because of his talent and because it was an experiment to see if he could handle it. His mission was to infiltrate a small, family run guild and basically gather intel and find out what their agenda was, as there were rumors they knew of some of the Forces’ plans. Upon Hiro’s arrival to the town where the guild was situated, he ends up rescuing the Guildmaster’s daughter, Lorelai, who is around his age. Unknowingly, he triggered his forest elemental powers, which caused them to land in a field of flowers he’d bloomed. Because of this, Lorelai starts to call him Flower, since he couldn’t come up with a codename in time and he doesn’t have a real name anyway lol
A couple weeks pass and Hiro spends more and more time with the guild, growing closer to Lorelai and being lulled into a false sense of security. He becomes extremely jealous of how the guild lives, and is very emotional at how much of a family they are, and how sweetly they treat him. Hiro starts to ponder over whether or not he should be sneaking around behind their back, when one day the guild is attacked while he’s out. When he returns, the village is set ablaze, and when Hiro demands what’s going on, his superior informs him that he was merely a decoy to get their defenses down, since apparently the Forces had definitive proof that they knew of their plans. His superior orders Hiro to search the village and kill anybody who was left.
Hiro, panicked, searches for Lorelai, and finds her hiding in the forest nearby. He apologizes to her and has a mental breakdown, blaming himself for all of her misfortune. Lorelai realizes that he’s being kept in the Forces against his will and begs him to run away with her. Hiro knows that he’ll be hunted down if he does, and Lorelai could get hurt, so he tells her he has to stay with them. In the midst of this, they are confronted with the current colonel of the Forces, who encourages Hiro to kill Lorelai. Hiro refuses, and the colonel calls him out for insubordination. The colonel then decides to kill both of them in order to get a promotion. Hiro leaps to defend both Lorelai and himself, and in the scuffle, receives the scar on his head, and accidentally kills the colonel. Traumatized, bloodied, and terrified, Lorelai is the one to apologize to him as he cries his eyes out. Hiro numbly reassures her and tells her to run while she can. Lorelai admits that she loves him and bids him farewell, hoping that they can meet again, and that she’s sorry she can’t do more for him.
This is when Hiro decides to become the perfect agent—dangerous, cruel, and flawless, so that something like this never happens again, and so that he can have enough power to make the decisions rather than just following orders to mindlessly kill people. From then on out he does what he’s told without any complaints and has a record for never failing a single mission the Forces have given to him. Any enemy considers him to be absolutely ruthless because he does not hesitate in battles and will neutralize with no questions asked. He’s a cocky little bastard around enemies lmao he loves to snark them and tease them. He’s strictly against killing after what happened to the colonel, so instead, if it’s a high risk operation, he erases the memories of his targets to reduce the threat. Because he’s so uncomfortable with the thought of death in general he reasons that losing your memories is better than dying, and that makes it easier on the Forces as well since they’ll leave less of a trail rather than just killing people left and right.
Growing up, Hiro didn’t interact with Kaz very much, and they usually just saw each other in passing. However they both respect each other a great amount, and they sympathize with each other, being in the same sort of situation. Both the Hiro and Kaz hate their upbringing and hold a grudge against their superiors for their treatment and experimentation on them;; As for Mallary, Hiro became enamored with her because she reminds him a lot of Lorelai (who he later admits to being his first love). He finds her strength captivating and the way she doesn’t give a shit about other people’s opinions admirable. Hiro eventually falls prey to her manipulation and falls over himself to please her, which bothers Kaz because he knows Mallary’s just toying with him.
After the Forces’ plan to kidnap Ginni and use her as a hostage blows up in their face, Hiro finds out that Kaz had escaped with her, and commends him on the extremely smart decision to do so lol. He wonders if he should start considering leaving the Forces as well, seeing as he’s mature and responsible (and smart) enough to make it on his own. He’s ordered to retrieve Kaz which was a HUGE mistake on the Forces’ part because they didn’t realize Hiro’s loyalties lied more with people on the outside. Hiro meets up with Kaz and Kaz eventually convinces him to desert the Forces and work with him to stop their plans. Hiro agrees to work as a double agent for a while, leaking all of the Forces’ information to Kaz, Ginni, and the guild. In the midst of all this, Hiro meets Olivia, who pretty much calls dibs on him and she’s like “Listen Ginni got to give Kaz his name so can I give the colonel a name?? Please???” So she starts calling him Hiro! And finally baby boy smarts up and starts crushing on a girl that actually gives a damn about him and god dammit it’s the cutest fucking case of puppy love since Dusk/Nozomi. Hiro absolutely adores her, but he’s too nervous to actually do anything about it because he’s got huge abandonment issues (thanks again bad parenting! And Mallary!) and doesn’t want to ruin one of the only genuine friendships he’s ever had. But he is head over HEELS for Olivia and it’s so……softe.
Mallary finds out that Hiro’s acting as a spy, and retaliates. Hiro realizes just how awfully she’s treated him and defeats her, allowing him to escape and officially join up with the guild.
After that it’s a whole bunch of crazy action stuff as plans come together and they get to take down the Forces. Hiro falls harder and deeper for Olivia while she remains oblivious (at least, for a little while, until she finally starts noticing). He grows closer to Kaz and Ginni as well, and begins connecting with Kaz on a deep level because of their shared history. (They’re kind of like brothers, and Hiro considers him to be his best friend :’) )
Once the Forces are defeated, Hiro and Kaz both decide to go on a journey of self discovery in order to better themselves and learn more about the world they haven’t seen due to being locked up for so many years. Kaz and Ginni are already on the verge of forming a relationship, but with Olivia and Hiro it’s still tentative since she’s unsure and he still feels inadequate as a romantic partner. Olivia admits that she likes him and Hiro is so happy he’s ready to burst, but then he realizes it’s not the right time for them to be together so he gently rejects her. (Olivia takes this as an actual rejection tho not a “I’m not ready to be in a relationship with you yet tho I WANT to” and Ginni’s like YA’LL ARE SO DUMB I S2G).
Hiro and Kaz go their separate ways, and Hiro travels around for a while! He eventually settles in a lovely little village where he learns about his forest elemental powers and how to use them better. He’s finally able to connect with other people and essentially becomes way softer around the edges, revealing the true personality he had when he was a kid. A year or so passes and suddenly Kaz, Ginni and Olivia show up to reunite with him, and not long after that Hiro and Olivia FINALLY get together and start dating 😔👌 (Ginni: TOOK you look enough, god)
At some point the four of them go on a journey together and Hiro runs into his biological parents again…!! And he finds out he has a younger sister and they all reconnect and it’s SO EMOTIONAL
Other than that I think that’s all I have 🤔 Thanks for reading though this epic rollercoaster ride of a story plot lol!
Extra personality traits
-Hiro’s sarcasm and snarkiness is a defense mechanism to prevent anybody from seeing his vulnerable side, and also a way to trick the fear inside of him. Kaz is the one to point this out actually lol
-Despite that he does enjoy teasing people lightheartedly and being sassy, once he gets comfortable enough with them! There is a difference between his snarkiness towards enemies compared to that towards friends
-Is EXTREMELY loyal to the people he cares about. At first he tends to act prickly and kind of standoffish towards people he doesn’t know well. Over time he becomes more open to trusting others. Once you earn his trust and he deems you worthy of his friendship he instantly becomes softer and kinder haha, it’s like a switch
-Often dismisses people that he thinks aren’t worth his time or aren’t smart enough to hold an intelligent conversation with him
-Spends a lot of time reading and gathering knowledge. He is very book smart—but not very people smart :’D He and Kaz will spend hours in the guild’s library, since they’re both very thirsty for information outside of what they studied during their time in the Forces
-Touch starved as FUCK. He flips his shit every time somebody touches him in a friendly way, and will melt into a puddle if he gets hugged
-He can be very nosy and insensitive sometimes, prying into other people’s personal affairs if he thinks he can solve the issue
-Absolutely a tactics expert. He calculates all of his moves very carefully, and uses prediction tactics to leave no room for error. He enjoys coming up with mock battle situations to challenge himself.
-Very self-sacrificial;; he views the lives of those he cares about to be far more important than his own. He’ll lay his life on the line for his friends in an instant
-Is the person in the group who is the least fond of violence. If he can find a way around injuring someone, he’ll do it. He prefers to restrict his enemy’s movements or slow them down so they can’t fight back. He is VERY good at neutralizing opponents before they can even register it
-SUPER speedy. Due to his small size he’s very quick, most people don’t see him coming
-He’s really sensitive about his height fjmaksldmas he snaps at people who make fun of him for it
-Tends to levitate when he’s in deep thought. Olivia finds this very cute
-Blooms flowers when he’s happy/embarrassed
-He’s actually. A very talented dancer :0 During his year away from the guild he learned a lot of folk dances at the village he was living in, and when the others witness it they get really starstruck because it’s super mesmerizing!! He blooms flowers as he dances
-At his core he’s a very compassionate character!!
-After escaping from the Forces, he’s able to express his emotions more openly, and goes back to the way he was as a child. He’s a crybaby :’) He cries whenever someone he cares about gets hurt
-The only person in the group with the fucking brain cell, and the most rational one. Unless Olivia gets involved, then he gets stupid and flustered lmao
#This got SO long oh my god. I am so sorry. Except I'm not#My character bios keep getting longer and longer!! WHICH IS GOOD BC THEY ALL NEED GOOD DEVELOPMENT#OC#Original character#Character art#Character design#Character sheet#Character ref#Character reference#Art#Digital art#Long post#Shima arts#Shima's OCs#Among the Stars#ATS#Hiro#shima-draws
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-HSA OC Information-
Character Bio
Name: Jovanni Santiago
(Japanese: ジョバンニサンティアゴ)
Romaji: Joban'ni Santiago
Quote: "Alright, what will it be? Something flashy or just plain basic? Pick your style."
V/A: Hiroshi Okamoto (Japanese)
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Birthday: November 25
Star Sign: Sagittarius
Eye Color: Pearl Grey (His Normal Eye Color)
Hippie Pink (Second Eye Color and Half-Myth power activation)
Hair Color: Granny Smith Green
Height: 182 cm
Race: Half Human, Half Myth/Hybrid
Species: Roc
Homeland: Summerville (The second country in the Island of Enchantment)
Family: Roan Dela Cruz (Father)
Quiara Santiago (Mother)
Mai Dela Cruz (Older Sister)
Macro Santiago (Older Brother)
Rei Dela Cruz (Aunt)
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School Status and Fun Facts
Dorm: Relinookton (@hourglassstationacademy)
School Year: Second
Class: 2-D (Same Class with Yuzuki)
Student no. 11 (A transfer student)
Occupation: Student
Tailor-in-training
Weapon Blueprint Maker Trainee of SIDC (Meaning: Supernaturals Investigation Department Center)
Club: Art and Photography Club
Best Subject: Dark Artes, Mathematics, and Literature
Dominant Hand: Right
Favorite Color: Dark Green and Light Grey
Favorite Food: Spicy Spaghetti, Fried Tuna, and Drum-sticks
Least Favorite Food: Bittersweet, Lime, and Jaw-breakers
Likes: Music (Mostly on Rock/Mental or etc), Fashion and Trends, Video Games, Sewing, Making Self-made Fabric, Making Sketches (Mostly on Designs or Art), Anime and Manga,
Dislikes: Loud Noises, Haru's Pranks, Freya and Saburou's Arguments, Mocked, Anything Distasteful, Manase's Mood Swings, Breaking a Needle, Usual Chaos, Interruption,
Hobbies: Sewing (Mostly), Playing Video Games, Sketching (Mostly, especially on making manga or clothes), Making hand-made fabrics, Pencil Spinning (Mostly), Weaponry Assistance,
Talents: Transforming into his half-myth form, Flight Abilities, Archery Skills, Gun Skills, Claw Attacks, Third-eye, Aura/Presence Sensing, Wind Abilities,
Nicknames: Jovi, and Joe (From his family and friends)
Jojo or Joey (From his two older siblings, kinda embarrassed, mostly for a joke)
Jovanni-senpai or Santiago-senpai (From the freshmen students and mostly for Lynn and her friends)
Mr. Santiago (From the SIDC workers and trainers)
Vanni (From Irelyn)
Other Nicknames:
N/A
______________________________________
Appearance and Personality
Appearance: Jovanni has a tall and average but muscular male body build. He has short and messy granny smith green colored hair, which it was easy to get bed hairs everyday. He has pearl grey colored eyes which they can turn into hippie pink when using his myth abilities. Jovanni is a young individual who is considered to be half-nerd and half-cool person.
Personality: Jovanni is the youngest and second son in the family, he lives in the most decent and normal parts of the city in Summerville, but near at the seaside by the shore with a view for him to see at sunset.
His family runs a normal clothing shops for tourists to visit, mostly on summer-styled or different kinds of clothes. As the youngest child, he often helps out his family. Aside from that he's often teased by his olde brother, which he was the one who called him 'Jojo' nickname, much to his embarrassment.
Jovanni is a young teenager who has a gentle yet somehow energetic attitude. He's known for his wise words that sounds pretty soothing to hear on the daily life. Though he can be a little bit of a tease with his group of friends around at school.
Though he isn't seems to be a fond of chaos that his friends will might cause and also will get in trouble. Which that would involved Freya and Saburou's bickerments, he definitely criticize them for being chaotic like fashionable bloody.
He's good for his creative type of style, especially towards fashion and anime manga drawings. It looked decent but also simple to wear, though it depends on what he makes through his sketch book.
Jovanni is pretty supportive and is a battery recharger of you get close to him, plus a good listener. But he can be an honest flirt at heart sometimes. Smart and quite smooth from him as well.
Like a few of his friends, he too is a SIDC trainee at the SIDC company, though he is quite serious when it comes to work and daily missions if he ever gets the chance to get in.
He doesn't like when it comes to being messed with or anyone getting into serious problems. Jovanni is clever at silence treatments at finest. He had similar aura alongside with Hibiki, a smile but somewhat dark. Do try not to flip the switch hidden in him.
Another sweet boy indeed, though he is hooked unto a few things that he likes do to the most. Do try not to interrupt him.
______________________________________
Trivia
-The name 'Jovanni' is name with Latin origins. A beautiful variation of Giovanni, the name Jovanni means “God is gracious”. While his surname 'Santiago' means Saint James.
-He is based on Chelsea the Dear (From Animal Crossings), Sean Everett (From Music Freaks), Piko (From FNF Mods), and Io Otonashi (From Acchi Kocci)
-He can make his own designed fabric instead of buying, which they look well creatively and basic by hand.
-Can understand Freya through sign language. He too can translate fast like Hibiki.
-He and Irelyn has met during the SIDC entrance exam, became close fashion friends till now.
-Since he and Hibiki are in the same rank, he often teases Hibiki in a friendly manner. Holds his respects for Manase as his rank captain but he doesn't like her moods swings whenever Quinn is around.
-He secretly worries about his dorm leader but does respect him. Can relate with Hibiki when it comes to their dorm leaders, but that's secretly hidden between the two.
-Is fully well aware of Rachel, though he seems to know about her being a yokai thanks to Haru and a few ghost myths he met. But didn't say anything about it.
-He and his older sister were victims in a large shark incident at the beach. He has a large bite mark on his right leg when it attempted to end him underwater. Has stayed in the hospital for about 3 weeks.
-His voice is rather calm and soothing but the tone darken whenever he is in a bad mood. Which is why I chose Hiroshi Okamoto to be his voice actor.
-He alongside with Arianna, Irelyn and Sylvie are the expert group when it comes to disguises during missions. Marleigh has often assists them.
-Is in friendly terms with Kiara and Valencia.
-Gets embarrassed a little if you call him Jojo(from an anime) or Joey, blame his older brother for it of course.
-Is a cat lover alongside with Saburou.
#mc#oc#twisted wonderland#disney twisted wonderland#gacha club#gacha games#hourglass station academy#hsa#character information#bio#jovanni santiago#jovan
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Heather Cox Richardson:
March 7, 2021 (Sunday)
Black Americans outnumbered white Americans among the 29,500 people who lived in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s, but the city’s voting rolls were 99% white. So, in 1963, Black organizers in the Dallas County Voters League launched a drive to get Black voters in Selma registered. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent civil rights organization, joined them.
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, but it did not adequately address the problem of voter suppression. In Selma, a judge had stopped the voter registration protests by issuing an injunction prohibiting public gatherings of more than two people.
To call attention to the crisis in her city, Amelia Boynton, who was a part of the Dallas County Voters League but who, in this case, was acting with a group of local activists, traveled to Birmingham to invite Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., to the city. King had become a household name after the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech, and his presence would bring national attention to Selma’s struggle.
King and other prominent members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference arrived in January to press the voter registration drive. For seven weeks, Black residents tried to register to vote. County Sheriff James Clark arrested almost 2000 of them for a variety of charges, including contempt of court and parading without a permit. A federal court ordered Clark not to interfere with orderly registration, so he forced Black applicants to stand in line for hours before taking a “literacy” test. Not a single person passed.
Then, on February 18, white police officers, including local police, sheriff’s deputies, and Alabama state troopers, beat and shot an unarmed 26-year-old, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was marching for voting rights at a demonstration in his hometown of Marion, Alabama, about 25 miles northwest of Selma. Jackson had run into a restaurant for shelter along with his mother when the police started rioting, but they chased him and shot him in the restaurant’s kitchen.
Jackson died eight days later, on February 26. The leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Selma decided to defuse the community’s anger by planning a long march—54 miles-- from Selma to the state capitol at Montgomery to draw attention to the murder and voter suppression. Expecting violence, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee voted not to participate, but its chair, John Lewis, asked their permission to go along on his own. They agreed.
On March 7, 1965, the marchers set out. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a Confederate brigadier general, Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and U.S. senator who stood against Black rights, state troopers and other law enforcement officers met the unarmed marchers with billy clubs, bull whips, and tear gas. They fractured John Lewis’s skull, and beat Amelia Boynton unconscious. A newspaper photograph of the 54-year-old Boynton, seemingly dead in the arms of another marcher, illustrated the depravity of those determined to stop Black voting.
Images of “Bloody Sunday” on the national news mesmerized the nation, and supporters began to converge on Selma. King, who had been in Atlanta when the marchers first set off, returned to the fray.
Two days later, the marchers set out again. Once again, the troopers and police met them at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but this time, King led the marchers in prayer and then took them back to Selma. That night, a white mob beat to death a Unitarian Universalist minister, James Reeb, who had come from Massachusetts to join the marchers.
On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a nationally televised joint session of Congress to ask for the passage of a national voting rights act. “Their cause must be our cause too,” he said. “[A]ll of us… must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.” Two days later, he submitted to Congress proposed voting rights legislation.
The marchers remained determined to complete their trip to Montgomery, and when Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, refused to protect them, President Johnson stepped in. When the marchers set off for a third time on March 21, 1,900 members of the nationalized Alabama National Guard, FBI agents, and federal marshals protected them. Covering about ten miles a day, they camped in the yards of well-wishers until they arrived at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25. Their ranks had grown as they walked until they numbered about 25,000 people.
On the steps of the capitol, speaking under a Confederate flag, Dr. King said: “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”
That night, Viola Liuzzo, a 39-year-old mother of five who had arrived from Michigan to help after Bloody Sunday, was murdered by four Ku Klux Klan members tailing her as she ferried demonstrators out of the city.
On August 6, Dr. King and Mrs. Boynton were guests of honor as President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Johnson recalled “the outrage of Selma” when he said "This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies."
The Voting Rights Act authorized federal supervision of voter registration in districts where African Americans were historically underrepresented. Johnson promised that the government would strike down “regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote.” He called the right to vote “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men,” and pledged that “we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy.”
But less than 50 years later, in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. The Shelby County v. Holder decision opened the door, once again, for voter suppression. Since then, states have made it harder to vote. And now, in the wake of the 2020 election, in which voters handed control of the government to Democrats, legislatures in 43 states are considering sweeping legislation to restrict voting, especially voting by people of color. Among the things Georgia wants to outlaw is giving water to voters as they wait for hours in line to get to the polls.
Today, 56 years after Bloody Sunday, President Biden signed an executive order “to promote voting access and allow all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.” He called on Congress to pass the For the People Act, making it easier to vote, and to restore the Voting Rights Act, now named the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act after the man who went on from his days in the Civil Rights Movement to serve 17 terms as a representative from Georgia, bearing the scars of March 7, 1965, until he died on July 17, 2020.
The fact sheet from the White House announcing the executive order explained: “democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to defend, strengthen, and renew it.” Or, as Representative Lewis put it: “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
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Queen Esther and the Orange Shirt
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 (Contemporary English Version)
The king and Haman were dining with Esther 2 and drinking wine during the second dinner, when the king again said, “Esther, what can I do for you? Just ask, and I will give you as much as half of my kingdom!”
3 Esther answered, “Your Majesty, if you really care for me and are willing to help, you can save me and my people. That’s what I really want, 4 because a reward has been promised to anyone who kills my people. Your Majesty, if we were merely going to be sold as slaves, I would not have bothered you.”
5 “Who would dare to do such a thing?” the king asked.
6 Esther replied, “That evil Haman is the one out to get us!”
Haman was terrified, as he looked at the king and the queen.
9 Then Harbona, one of the king’s personal servants, said, “Your Majesty, Haman built a tower seventy-five feet high beside his house, so he could hang Mordecai on it. And Mordecai is the very one who spoke up and saved your life.”
“Hang Haman from his own tower!” the king commanded. 10 Right away, Haman was hanged on the tower he had built to hang Mordecai, and the king calmed down.
20 Mordecai wrote down everything that had happened. Then he sent letters to the Jews everywhere in the provinces 21 and told them:
Each year you must celebrate on both the fourteenth and the fifteenth of Adar, 22 the days when we Jews defeated our enemies. Remember this month as a time when our sorrow was turned to joy, and celebration took the place of crying. Celebrate by having parties and by giving to the poor and by sharing gifts of food with each other.
The book of Esther does not mention God, prayer, or covenant,(1) and there is not even much theology in Esther.(2) The lack of religious behavior might have reduced the book’s popularity.(3) J.G. McConville, who wrote The Daily Study Bible commentary on Esther, notes that just because God is not mentioned that does not mean that Esther does not teach about God.(4)
There are times when the Bible is political. Esther is political, making the power people in the Persian Empire look bad. Subplots in Esther mock the Persian court and king.(5) The thinly disguised insults were probably enjoyed a lot by the ancient Israelites who listened to the story of Queen Esther.
McConville says Esther “is by any standards a brilliantly written story.”(6) Commentator William Neil gives us the sense that Esther might not be historical but contains enough history to feel realistic. There is enough drama and nationalism in Esther to appeal to the children of Israel.(7) Contributors to the New American Bible state one purpose of the book of Esther is the “glorification of Jewish people.”(8) One theologian considers the book of Esther to be a short novel, a novella, about Jewish people living away from their homeland.(9) While I am very uncomfortable with high levels of nationalism, members of oppressed minority groups need high levels of self-worth to thrive in the face of oppression.
The Bible is a book for the oppressed, for all the oppressed. As we remember Orange Shirt Day, I am going to say that again. The Bible is a book for all oppressed people. I am not going to tell Indigenous people what the story of Esther means to them. I will share some of what the narrative means to me.
The Israelites, who were carried off into slavery in other nations, faced oppression. The passage in the book of Esther is about an extreme act of oppression, the attempt to kill all Jewish people. We study this story on a day when we remember the oppression of Indigenous children who attended boarding schools. The Canadian Encyclopedia says an estimated 6 thousand children died at residential schools.(10)
The school day for Indigenous children started at 5:30 am when the children were expected to get up. Students were malnourished and vulnerable to tuberculosis and influenza. The teachers were generally poorly qualified, and students did not develop the skills needed to be successful when they returned to their communities or went into the larger workforce.(11) Students and parents protested the schools. A few students stole food, ran away, or set fires. Parents and political leaders protested the “harsh conditions.”(12) The students, parents, and political leaders who acted out and who protested strike me as the heroes of the Indigenous residential school era.
The impact of policies that oppressed Indigenous students in Canada continue to this day. While a few Canadians of European heritage see residential schools as an old problem and might not want to talk about it, many Indigenous people daily see the impact in the current lives of their extended families. One way that non-Indigenous people can recognize the inherent, God-given dignity of Indigenous people is to listen, with a sensitive heart, to the stories. I see that as a spiritual call, not as a political statement.
Jewish people around the world remember the story of Queen Esther, her courageous coming out, and the salvation of Jewish people. The holiday is Purim, a word that means lots.(13) The name of the Jewish holiday means lots because Haman cast lots to decide the day Jewish people should be executed. If we were naming the holiday now, we might call it lottery.
Wong Wai Ching Angela is a theologian. She was teaching at The Christian University of Hong Kong when she wrote a short commentary on the book of Esther. Angela makes the point that people in Hong Kong live between two competing sets of values, western values, and Chinese values. Those living in Hong Kong are like the Jewish people living in Persia – living with a tension between being under a colonial power and being Chinese.(14)
Indigenous people live with the tension of living as Canadians and having an Indigenous identity. While Canada is not a traditional imperial, colonial power, some of Canada’s institutions and approaches to First Nations people were developed when Canada was a colony. A few of the policies implemented regarding Indigenous people reflect Canada’s colonial history. Some members of minority groups living in Canada can relate to Esther and to the injustice Esther’s people faced.
The timing of Purim, a day when Jewish people celebrate the story of Esther, remains meaningful. Joseph Stalin was a “ruthless” dictator, who was responsible for the deaths of “millions of innocent people.”(15) He was believed to have had “bloody plans” to solve what he saw as a ‘Jewish problem’ in the Soviet Union.(16) In 1953, when the situation was seen to be a crisis, Joseph Stalin died. He died on Purim.(17)
Some of you might remember the 1990s Gulf War that took place after Iraq invaded Kuwait. For months, Sadam Hussein, Iraq's president, threatened to use SCUD missiles containing “deadly chemical gas" to ‘burn half of Israel.’(18) I suspect many Israelis braced themselves for the worst. As I recall, Israel did not suffer an enormous loss of life. According to a Wikipedia article, three Israelis were killed by missiles, and 71 additional Israelis died as an indirect result of the missiles.(19) The conflict ended on Purim.(20)
The book of Ester is a story of fear, threats, courage, coming out, salvation, and celebration. After a competition, Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman, becomes the new queen of Persia. Esther’s Jewish identity was not well known.
Jewish people fell out of favor with powerful people in Persia. Haman was an important official in Persia, so important that people were supposed to bow to him. Mordecai, a well-known Jewish man, refused to kneel or bow to Haman. Mordecai explained that he did not kneel because he was Jewish. When Haman learned this, he wanted all Jewish people killed.
Mordecai learned of the plan to kill all Jewish people. He put on sackcloth and mourned. Queen Esther, who was a closeted Jewish woman, is notified of the plot. She is asked to appeal to the king to save her people, and she does that. Her first step is to go to the king and to invite the king and Haman to dinner. At the dinner, she invites the king and Haman to a second dinner. This is where we pick up the story in today’s lectionary reading. And you might be able to understand the sense of the poetic justice or the karma of the narrative. Haman had gallows built to kill Mordecai. Haman is hanged on the gallows that he built for Mordecai.
The poetic justice surpasses a modern case of poetic justice. Robert Watson-Watt is generally considered to be the ‘father of radar.’ In the 1930s, he worked with a team that invented radar, a technology that helped detect the presence of aircraft “at any time of the day and in any weather conditions.”(21) When in Canada, Robert was reported to have been caught speeding by a constable with a radar gun. Robert told the constable, “Had I known what you were going to do with it, I would never have invented it.”(22) And if you ever received a speeding ticket, you might be secretly enjoying the irony that the one who helped invent radar got a speeding ticket because of radar.
While a quick read of Esther may give us the sense that there is nothing particularly spiritual or religious about the book, Esther speaks volumes about God’s love and priorities. The fact that the book of Esther builds up the morale and self-esteem of oppressed people says a lot about God. It tells us that God is present and active whenever oppressed people are being encouraged and built up. As people of faith, it is a holy and sacred duty to encourage and build up people, especially people who face systemic oppression. That is not a political statement; it is a spiritual statement, and it is a statement about our God.
The story of Esther takes place after a disaster. Because they were displaced and enslaved by war, there were children of Israel living in Persia. Orange Shirt Day is a reality only because of a disaster of a policy of having boarding schools to teach Indigenous children. We are in the disaster known as the COVID pandemic. During times of personal pain that may blot out the word God and prayer in the narratives of our hearts and lives, Purim speaks to us.
I am going to conclude with a quote from Rabbi Manis Friedman, as he reflects on the meaning of Purim. “God became real enough that we don’t have to refer to Him to know that He is there . . . That is a real achievement. God has become real to us. Our relationship has gotten stronger after the destruction, not weaker.”(23)
Notes
1 Wong Wai Ching Angela. “Esther.” Global Bible Commentary. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 2004), 139, mentions lack of references to God, covenant, and prayer. McConville mentions a lack of references to God. J.G. McConville. The Daily Study Bible: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. (Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 1985), 153.
2 McConville (1985), 153.
3 Angela (2004), 139.
4 McConville (1985), 153.
5 Angela (2004), 137.
6 McConville (1985), 154.
7 William Neil. William Neil's One Volume Bible Commentary. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973), 219.
8 New American Bible. St. Joseph Edition. (New York: Catholic Book Pub., 1992), 500.
9 Angela (2004), 135.
10 “Residential Schools in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. n.d., 22 September 2021. <https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools>.
11 “Residential Schools in Canada.” (2021) <https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools>.
12 “Residential Schools in Canada.” (2021) <https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools>.
13 “What is Purim?” Tori Avey. n.d., 09 September 2021. <https://toriavey.com/what-is-purim/>.
14 Angela (2004), 135.
15 “Purim: What is Purim?” Chabad.org. n.d., 05 September 2021.
<https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645309/jewish/What-Is-Purim.htm>.
16 “Purim: What is Purim?” (2021)
<https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645309/jewish/What-Is-Purim.htm>.
17 “Purim: What is Purim?” (2021)
<https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645309/jewish/What-Is-Purim.htm>.
18 Tzvi Jacobs. “Purim Saddam.” Chabad.org. n.d., 19 September 2021.
<https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/39446/jewish/Purim-Saddam.htm>.
19 “1991 Iraqi Rocket Attacks on Israel.” Wikipedia. July 2021, 19 September 2021. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Iraqi_rocket_attacks_on_Israel>.
20 “Purim: What is Purim?” (2021)
<https://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645309/jewish/What-Is-Purim.htm>.
21 “Watson-Watt, Sir Robert.” English Heritage. n.d., 18 September 2021. <https://www.english-history.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/robert-watson-watt/>.
22 “Watson-Watt, Sir Robert.” (2021) <https://www.english-history.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/robert-watson-watt/>.
23 Manis Friedman. “The Meaning of Purim in 2 Minutes.” Rabbi Manis Friedman. 08 March 2020, 25 September 2021. <https://youtu.be/kiMCYYEznfE>.
#christian#church#progressive christian#sermon#religion#oppression#Purim#antisemitism#residential school#indigenous#Canada#orange shirt day#orange shirt
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[📰] P1Harmony May Be New to K-Pop, But They're Beauty Experts
By Devon Abelman
"Pots-and-pans music" is what Keeho, the leader of P1Harmony, lovingly calls the K-pop group's songs. They're loud, explosive, and essentially caffeine mainlined through your eardrums — all in the best way possible, of course.
"Because our music is so strong, we try to portray that in our hair and makeup as well," Keeho continues. "For me, my hair is all slicked back for our new song, 'Scared,' and our makeup is a lot darker than [for our debut single,] 'Siren.'"
In fact, Jongseob, P1Harmony's youngest member, adds their strikingly different hair colors, like Theo's whimsical light pink, Intak's sleek jet black, and Keeho's enigmatic navy blue, balance each other out and express the range of emotions portrayed in their lyrics and melodies.
But this is just a basic overview of P1Harmony and the intense aesthetic they've been building for the past six months since debuting in October 2020. In advance of the release of their new EP, Disharmony: Break Out, today, April 20, I sat down with the rookie K-pop group via Zoom to get a deeper look at each member, their individual relationships to beauty, and how they are choosing to present themselves now that they are on the world's stage.
Keeho
When I ask Keeho which P1Harmony song fits his personality best, he replies, "You can't really fit me in a box like that. There are various characters I can be." The 19-year-old from Canada even wears many hats throughout our interview. Not only is Keeho the group's official leader, but he's also their unofficial translator, color commentator, and storyteller — he truly has an aside or anecdote to share about everything.
The first tale Keeho tells dates back to second grade, when he begged his mom to let him get blonde streaks in his hair. "I was that kid in class," he remarks.
Then, Keeho delves into how his family introduced him to the wonders of beauty growing up. His mom, in particular, made him "do a five-, six-step skin-care routine," he recalls. Every morning before school, he'd splash his face with warm water ("must be warm water, so you open up the pores") and wash up with cleansing foam. Then, he'd rinse it off with cold water ("so you close them"). Although this isn't scientifically true, I'm glad this worked for him.
When layering on his serums and creams, "the first one you need to do is the most liquidy one and the last one you need to do is the one that is not liquidy at all," Keeho recalls his mom instructing him — a fact I confirm for him. Also, she'd tell him to never rub his skin-care products on, only pat.
Last but not least, Keeho would (and still does) reach for sunscreen — "always sunscreen," he emphasizes. "My mom said, 'If you don't put it on, you're going to age like a raisin.'"
Keeho's older sister, on the other hand, brought him into the world of makeup by employing him as her guinea pig for testing out new looks. "I would let my sister put makeup on me all the time," Keeho says, mentioning Halloween as a common occasion for her artistry. They even playfully filmed YouTube beauty tutorials and challenges together.
One aspect of beauty Keeho has yet to try is a manicure, but he's ready to dive into that realm. "I think it would be fun," he says. A$AP Rocky's eye nail art that he showed off front row at Prada back in October 2019 is Keeho's major inspiration.
Intak
Another unofficial title Keeho has taken on within P1Harmony is hairstylist. Intak, the group's 17-year-old charismatic rapper and star dancer, credits him for his hair-care routine. "I learned how to use hair serum to volumize my hair when I go out," Intak says. Keeho goes on to explain that they both have incredibly dry hair, so he recommended his favorite moisturizing products to Intak and told him to rake them through his hair while it's still wet and only slightly towel-dried. Intak was so pleased with the result that he went out and bought the same products that day.
Although he has kept his hair black throughout his career so far, Intak is quick to share he's very experimental with beauty. For performances in the past, he's adorned his eyes with bloody scratch-like liner and ultra-sooty smoky eyes. Plus, you're about to see some cheek art on him and dramatically flushed cheeks.
Unlike Keeho, Intak didn't get into skin care until after debuting. "I've started visiting the dermatologist frequently," he says. "They gave me a set [of products] that includes [everything I need]." His favorite is a mask infused with avocado and peppermint, like the Tonymoly I'm Real Avocado Mask Sheet or Skinfood's Pear Mint Food Mask, which quenches his dehydrated skin.
Jiung
Spoken like a true Libra, Jiung is the first to mention he enjoys expressing himself through beauty and fashion. "[They are] really important things," the 19-year-old explains in English. "I always try to learn how to express myself that way. So the more I know, the more I can do."
However, when I ask Jiung what kinds of looks he feels the most confident in, he laughs before taking time to think about it. (In the meantime, Keeho shares he knows what he, personally, is least confident in: T-shirts, due to his long arms.) "This is hard," Jiung groans. I must say his short honey-blonde hair — a look he's always been curious about trying — is definitely bringing out a particularly magnetic side of him, as seen in the P-side track video for "If You Call Me."
When he was younger, Jiung dabbled in all different kinds of haircuts, colors, and perms, he lists off. The latter of which he looks forward to trying out again now as a K-pop star.
When the members were just trainees, Keeho helps Jiung recount a time when he wanted to fill in his eyebrows. "He did not how to do it at all," Keeho says. "He got a Sharpie and started coloring in his eyebrows. It was devastating, to say the least, for the people who had to see it."
"It was art," Jiung interjects. Now, he proudly declares he has a proper brow powder.
Theo
Theo, P1Harmony's straightforward vocalist, is admittedly a sneakerhead. He strictly wears Jordans, according to Keeho's translation. Air Jordan 1s are Theo's favorite style, but he can't pick a color that he's the biggest fan of. He can tell you what he feels least confident in, though: shorts and short-sleeved shirts. So if you barely see Theo in summery clothes, now you know why. (However, he doesn't offer up an exact explanation.)
Since elementary school, the now-19-year-old has permed and colored his hair every shade of ROYGBIV, including red, gray, and even blue for one summer break — all thanks to his mom, who is a hairstylist. This is a revelation even many of the other members weren't privy to, much to the chagrin of Keeho. "It's annoying me right now because his hair is healthy," he remarks. "My hair looks like a broom."
Knowing his hair is healthy comes as a shock to me, though, as Theo has gone from white-blonde to rosy-pink over the past six months. (Let's be real, that's a transformation few people's hair can handle.) He's also been able to grow out hair; it falls past his eyebrows and is starting to graze his shoulders in the back.
Honestly, Theo is ready for it to be short again, he shares. "I like my long hair, but I don't like it being in my face," he asserts. "I can't really maintain it. I bleached it so much that it flips in all different directions."
Soul
Before our interview officially started, the members and I exchanged weird facts about ourselves to get to know each other better beyond our beauty routines. Keeho revealed his left eyebrow has been twitching lately, and he needs to cuddle a body pillow to fall asleep. Intak has a freckle on his finger that his grandma often mistakes for dirt and tries to wipe off. Jiung had pet geckos, scorpions, and tarantulas growing up. Jongseob loves mint chocolate. Theo can't burp, and Soul enjoys petting insects.
But that's not the weirdest thing about him or any of the members. The strangest thing about the boys is that "Soul doesn't do anything at all [for his skin-care routine], and his skin is actually pretty good," Keeho says. (You can scroll through Soul's selfies on P1Harmony's Twitter to confirm this, but spoiler: His complexion is immaculate.)
Soul, 16, goes on to explain that his skin is incredibly dry and sensitive, so much so that even cleansing makes his face turn red and any bit of friction causes bumps to form. Needless to say, he's scared to put anything on his face. "I just do cleansing foam and leave it at that," Soul admits. Makeup isn't off the table, though. Soul is no stranger to subtle washes of pink shadow on his lids and fake eyebrow piercings made out of silver studs.
Although Soul is seemingly one of the shyest members and keeps to himself for most of the interview, he's an intense rockstar at heart. He favors P1Harmony's more aggressive, hard-hitting songs, like their new title song, "Scared."
Raise your hand if you'd like to see Soul with thick, black kohl or graphic blue liner and long, raven hair, perhaps paired with a studded leather jacket over a ripped-up T-shirt. OK, great; I'm not the only one. For now, we'll have to appreciate his bob-length ashy-blonde hair.
Jongseob
Other than his nuggets of knowledge about the way P1Harmony reflects their music in their hair and makeup, Jongseob mostly listens throughout the interview. Luckily, the 15-year-old rapper/songwriter did pipe up to share his skin-care routine.
First, Jongseob double-cleanses to remove his makeup, starting with cleansing oil and following up with a foam cleanser. Serum is slathered on next, then moisturizer. When his skin is feeling especially dry, Jongseob layers a gel cream on top as a sleeping mask — a tactic I'd never considered before. Typically, I reach for them in reverse order.
Jongseob's hair has also been through the wringer since P1Harmony's debut. Last October, he colored his hair lilac and gradually went darker shades of purple until it was an electric violet hue. Most recently, though, his dye job has been a fiery orange. Next, Jongseob says he wants to try gray with an ash tone.
And this is just the beginning of P1Harmony's journey through the mystical world of K-pop beauty. This time next year, they're sure to have experimented with even bolder, brighter, and more eccentric looks. For now, you can check out a teaser for their brand-new music video for "Scared" of their latest EP, Disharmony: Break Out, below.
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Fractured (part 1)
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Word Count: 2.8k
Pairing: OT7 x Reader (platonic); future Yoongi x Reader
Genre: Mafia AU, angst, fluff, (future) smut
Chapter Warnings: Mentions of violence including murder (non-explicit). Mentions of sex (non-explicit). Mentions of drugs, guns, neglect, physical abuse, parental death. Toxic household, implicit mentions of mental illness (depression).
Rating: 18+
Summary: You’d always known something was strange and different about your “family,” but it wasn’t as though your environment encouraged curiosity from you. You thought you wanted to know all the answers, but nobody ever told you that the more you learned the more pieces of yourself you would leave behind.
A/N: This is my first story in this fandom, and I haven’t written anything for any fandom in years. This plot came to me all of a sudden last night and I decided I needed to write it. Please let me know what you think!
Masterlist
--
You used to be naive.
You were 11 when you first held a gun.
12 when you first made every shot through the centre of the target.
13 when you first noticed the fathers’ proud eyes rather than empty ones.
14 when you first defeated one of the boys in a spar.
15 when you first learned the details of why this was all necessary.
16 when the boys last saw you smile for real.
17 when you first participated in a mission, knuckles bloody for the first time.
18 when you first gave yourself to a man, only to later drug him and strangle him in his sleep.
They say ignorance is bliss, and you can’t help but to agree. Knowledge is not always power – you understand that better than anyone. Because the day you sought more knowledge was the last day you might have considered yourself truly happy.
--
“I said no. You’re not going anywhere.” The man looked at you, stone-faced in the doorway to his office. You had sought him out for permission to attend a classmate’s birthday party, but already regretted trying. It wasn’t as if you were ever allowed to go anywhere but school and back, escorted by the man’s driver.
Your neck had to crane upward to give him the pleading looks that often worked on his wife, but to no avail. With your head barely reaching the man’s waist, his cold stare had your six-year-old heart pounding, tears filling your eyes.
“But-“ you started, however it appeared there was no room for negotiation. The door was slammed in your face, door rattling in the frame. The noise was enough to make you jump, hands rising to wipe away the wetness that you could no longer hold back after being denied again.
Wanting to hide under your covers for the rest of the night lest you run into the man again, you turned around but instantly collided with another body. Gasping, your eyes immediately fell to the floor, hands falling to your sides.
“I’m sorry,” you uttered with as clear of a voice as you could manage, unwilling to invite the anger of another in the household, especially not the other adults. But the response was not one you expected.
“Y/N?” a soft voice questioned, reaching for your trembling hands. Your eyes rose to meet those of Namjoon’s, who only looked at you with more concern once he properly saw your state. His eyes swept over you quickly, assuring himself you weren’t hurt. He was only a few years older than you, but he worried for you greatly. “What happened?”
Hearing a kind voice after such an icy rejection only caused you to cry harder, stepping forward to wrap your arms around Namjoon’s waist, head buried in his chest. He accepted you without hesitation – it isn’t as though this is the first time this has happened. His hand rose to rub at your back, his warm touch calming you down some. But still, you did not offer an explanation. You knew the rules in this house, and it was your own fault for wanting more, after all. As you begun to pull away, still seeking the safety of your bed to avoid the rest of the world, Namjoon’s hands remained on your shoulders.
“Did my father say something to you again?” he questioned, sympathy in his gaze. You breaking eye contact was answer enough for him. And while he wished he could do something more for you, approaching his father about this would only invite him to unleash his anger on both of you.
Instead, he grabbed your hand, lacing his fingers with your own. When you peered at him inquisitively, he was glad to see that while your eyes were shiny and nose runny, you were no longer crying. Unwilling to let you mope for the rest of the day, he begun leading you away.
“I’ll make you some pasta, okay? I’m sure you haven’t eaten dinner yet,” he said, continuing the long trek from the upstairs rooms down to the kitchen.
While no, you hadn’t eaten, the last time you ate Namjoon’s pasta you ended up throwing up into the toilet hours later. But unwilling to reject his kindness, you allowed him to seat you at the dining table as he looked for ingredients in the fridge. You had planned to sit and watch him quietly, until you felt somebody collide with you from behind, arms wrapping around your neck.
“Y/N! We need one more person for Mario Party!” an excited voice yelled right by your ear, making you wince. After giving you the appropriate 0.3 seconds to formulate a proper response, hands begun shaking you at the shoulders hard enough to whip your head forward and back.
“Taehyungie…” you started, ready to deny him, unsure if you could handle the raucous of three young boys yelling at each other for stealing stars.
“Pleeeeeease! Please please please pleaseplease,” he begged, rocking your smaller body back and forth in the chair. His enthusiasm had you cracking your first smile since returning home from school.
“Y/N! We’re waiting for you!” a softer voice called from the living room. While you had been thinking about denying Taehyung, you never would’ve been able to deny Jimin. While mischievous, he had never been anything but kind to you growing up, leaving a huge soft spot in your heart for him.
Namjoon let out a small laugh from the stove, where he was stirring a pot that seemed to be letting out a suspicious amount of smoke for what he claimed to be pasta.
“You’d better join them or you’ll never hear the end of it,” he chuckled, giving you a wide grin when he saw you looking significantly happier than before. He was thankful that even if each of their parents might give you a hard time, at least you had seven brothers who only wanted to make you happy.
--
By the time you were ten years old, you had grown to accept that your life would not be like the lives of your classmates. You would not bake cookies at other girls’ houses, you would not join the after-school volleyball team, and you would not walk with friends to the ice cream shop down the street from school. That isn’t to say you hadn’t been invited. You had, years ago, but a child can only be told no so many times before they stop trying. After all, who wants to ask a question knowing the answer will always be rejection?
You were friendly with your classmates, but they knew you were some type of untouchable. You heard the whispers. She says she likes us, but why won’t she hang out? Why does the same car with tinted windows pick you up everyday? Why were you always alone on Parents’ Day?
While others had always wondered about your life, nobody dared to ask you. Whenever anyone mentioned family, the friendliness stopped. “It’s none of your business,” you would always answer, ending the conversation then and there. If your teachers ever tried to get information out of you, you would tell them not to worry. You always had an excuse for your parents not being there.
“They’re away on a trip.”
“My mother is ill.”
“They need to work during the day.”
The staff at school thought your parents were government officials, and you had likely been instructed not to talk about it. They were half right – your entire living memory you have been instructed not to talk about your family or your living situation no matter what.
It was easy to lie about why your parents weren’t there when your parents were dead. After all, who was there to refute your claims when the only family you had to speak of wasn’t even related to you by blood? The seven young boys – teenagers now, you supposed – had always been close to you, but you weren’t family.
No, you had been told that your parents were business associates of the seven families, but they had unfortunately died in an accident shortly after your birth. Unwilling to send their friends’ newborn to an orphanage, they instead took you in and allowed you to live with their families, where they raised you.
If raising you was the right term. In fact, many of the boys’ fathers ignored your existence. Namjoon’s father seemed to loathe you, though you didn’t think you did anything to cause such hate. However, you supposed that since he was not a kind man to his own son either, you could not complain. He was the head of the household, after all. You didn’t dare anger him, preferring to keep out of his way than to risk his booming voice and hard gaze.
It was not an ideal life. This much you understood, after seeing your classmates boast of their grades to their parents, happily shoving their report cards in their faces. When you see fathers raise their sons above their head, making obnoxious noises and pretending they’re an airplane, something deep inside you mourns something you’ve never had. You’ve never laughed at your father’s jokes, nor picked out an outfit with your mother.
It was not an ideal life, but at the very least you had the boys. They were perhaps the only people you could ever call a friend. They were loud and annoying, but also the only people who made you feel that you had a home.
--
By the time you were eleven, you had become curious. After all, every television show you’ve seen only had one family in one house, sometimes two. Seven was unheard of as far as you knew, and your adolescent brain with a newfound passion for science and mystery novels needed to know why this was. Of course, nobody could know about his goal of yours. This was top secret.
It started with casual eavesdropping. Before, you had tried to avoid the men in the house at all costs. Their serious looks scared you, and though the majority never specifically targeted you with their anger, you dared not risk it. However, you knew the men of the house frequently gathered behind closed doors, sometimes their wives too. It almost seemed like a business meeting, based on the dramas you’ve seen Seokjin watching in his spare time.
It was surprisingly easy to sneak around in the house, considering your presence was ignored by most. Even the maids didn’t look twice at your antics, knowing how teenagers always seemed to play weird games.
It was difficult to listen well, and you didn’t want to risk getting caught. You’ve only heard snippets of conversation, but it was enough to raise suspicion. The words you’ve been able to catch recently – “mission,” “warehouse,” “armed,” had you furrowing your brows, but what confused you most was “Bangtan,” or what you thought was Bangtan. You didn’t know what that meant. But what surprised you most was how often the others boys’ names seemed to come up, particularly Seokjin and Yoongi, the two eldest.
Your sleuthing continued through the weeks, but the words were hard to hear and you didn’t gain much from it. In fact, you considered giving up and trying to figure things out based on what you already had, but you figured one more try couldn’t hurt.
Perhaps you should have stayed in your room. Not that you knew now whether that could have helped you or not.
On one Wednesday after school, you returned home quicker than normal, traffic having been light for some reason. You figured you may as well use the opportunity to listen to any conversations that might be going on. After all, you made it home earlier than expected, so perhaps nobody would think you to be there to hear anything at all. Not that anyone paid attention to your schedule at all.
So there you sat – squatted, more accurately – outside Namjoon’s father’s office. You heard two muffled voices inside, but could not place who the other belonged to. What you did not expect, however, was to hear your own name coming from their lips.
“We’ve waited long enough. Y/N is useless right now, a liability more than anything,” a gruff voice said. The domineering tone itself told you it was Namjoon’s father, even if you couldn’t see anything at all.
“She’s still young-”
“And your son was years younger than her when he learned of everything. Stop babying her.”
Hearing a conversation centered around you was definitely not the norm. You leaned closer, hoping to hear better, but that was your downfall. Your shoulder brushed against the door – barely a touch at all, but enough to shake the door, and clearly noticeable to the men inside. Before you could even think to stand up, the door swung open, your eyes meeting those of Taehyung’s father like a deer in the headlights.
You felt as though your chest was going to explode, bracing yourself for the worst berating of your life. Would they kick you out? Would they hit you?
“I-I’m sorry,” your voice trembled along with the rest of you, “I thought I heard my name and I was curious, I promise I didn’t mean to,” you let out all in one breath, flinching and preparing yourself for the yelling, the fists, for anything.
What you didn’t expect was laughter. Namjoon’s father’s laughter, to be exact.
“The choice has been made for us,” he declared, directed toward Taehyung’s father.
“Sit.” he instructed you harshly, gesturing toward a chair across from his desk. There was just enough distance between you and him to feel that you were miles away. It made the man seem even more powerful than before.
“Do you remember what we told you about your parents?” he said as he fixed his stare on your wide eyes, more a demand than a question. You nodded, afraid a verbal answer would only get caught in your throat.
“Then you know we were in the same business,” he continued. You nodded again. This is the nicest he’s ever been speaking to you, and that had you relaxing some.
“You see, the boys here are all involved in this business as well. That is their responsibility to their family. Their duty. And it is time for you to fulfill your duty as well. This is what your parents would have wanted, and it is what we need from you in return for sheltering you all these years,” he went on, taking in your expression. The confusion and wariness must have been apparent on your face, because he kept on without waiting for a reply.
“You will train. After school for four hours everyday. You will become part of this business. The boys will help you,” he stated firmly, and you clearly knew these were not requests. These were commands, and you had no place to deny them, despite the questions you wanted to ask. You turned your head to look at Taehyung’s father, who had been one of the only people in the house who treated you as human. He nodded at you reassuringly, hiding his own hesitation well.
“Yes, sir,” you managed to get out, the first words you’d spoken since you entered the room. Even those were a struggle considering your shock.
“Good. You start tomorrow. Now leave.”
And train you did.
--
You were 11 when you first held a gun.
12 when you first made every shot through the centre of the target.
13 when you first noticed the fathers’ proud eyes rather than empty ones.
14 when you first defeated one of the boys in a spar.
15 when you first learned the details of why this was all necessary.
16 when the boys last saw you smile for real.
17 when you first participated in a mission, knuckles bloody for the first time.
18 when you first gave yourself to a man, only to later drug him and strangle him in his sleep. That was the first night you’d made yourself vulnerable in years, sobbing into Hoseok’s arms lamenting what you had done.
19 when you finally seemed to earn the respect of Namjoon’s father.
19 when you finally seemed to realize you would never be happy, never hold a real job, never get a real education.
You were no longer just part of the house, invisible to the powerful men and their wives who lived there. You had skill, talent.
No, you were no longer just a thing. You were a weapon, an asset. A tool to be used.
But a tool can only be used for so long before its shine fades.
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#bts fanfic#bts series#bts x reader#bts mafia au#ot7 x reader#yoongi x reader#bts angst#bts fluff#bts fic
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November Author of the Month...
Drumroll please.... our November Author of the Month is none other than the incredibly talented...
@all-things-fic !
Congratulations to a wonderful author, Liz! You can check out our interview with her below!
1.Did you start writing fanfiction for One Direction, or was there another fandom that you wrote fanfiction for before this?
I have one fic that I wrote for One Direction Fanfic Archive, that will never see the light of day. It was really awful, but everyone starts somewhere. I’ve shared it with two people on Tumblr and we just laughed about it.
I’ve also written a Niall Horan fic which has been flagged for how explicit it is, which is quite laughable as it’s tame in comparison to the Harry stuff (eek!)
2. How old were you when you started writing fanfiction?
I was a teenager when I first started writing fics. I don’t know if I would consider it “proper” fanfic though as it was riddled with cliches.
3. What’s been your favorite fic that you’ve written to work on so far?
For the longest time I was proud of the second part of Divorce Harry and specifically the second part. It just felt real to write. I can’t even explain what it is about that piece.
I think at the time it stemmed from an ask I received where I was asked if I was a parent - I’m not - but this someone said I portrayed aspects of a marriage and how children can tip the balance really well.
The sheer bitterness of two people in love and the juxtaposed feeling it brings was an interesting dynamic. Being bitter and in love? How? It happens. You love someone, but bloody hell don’t you hate at the same time.
And I think on the hand Quarantine Harry is the opposite side of the same coin. I love it because it’s so happy. When you’re smitten and basking. Your baby waking you up at 3am and meeting your husband on the landing with the freshly made bottle is a time to enjoy because you’re doing it together.
But soon enough the third child is sprawled out in your kingsize bed and their foot is pressed against your ribs and you're tired. This isn’t me saying the two stories are linked (I do get those theories quite a lot haha)
4. Do you prefer AU or OU?
Definitely more of an OU gal. I’m massively into writing things “realistically” because I think it’s so relatable and helps draw readers in more so. Especially if the writing uses and references visuals that readers are aware of.
5. What’s your favorite trope to write?
Would we call a long-term relationship / established relationship a trope? If so then this is my favourite. Writing characters who know how to push each other’s buttons, knowing what they can and can’t say to get the other going. Being able to write two people who can share as little as a glance and know what the other is feeling.
Sprinkle a bit of angst on the top for good measure.
That’s my kryptonite.
6. What’s your ideal space to write in?
I tend to write when I’m in bed quite a bit, usually really late at night and on my phone rather than my laptop. Often lying in the dark. Sometimes first thing in a morning.
7. How do you get motivation to write?
This one made me laugh considering I’m unable to finish a single piece of writing at the minute.
Pictures are quite inspiring. New images of Harry can usually start something in me. The images of him in the whacky joggers for example from set have inspired a scene in Quarantine Harry (who knows for which part just yet!).
8. Do you typically like to listen to music when you write? If so, what do you listen to?
Very rarely listen to anything when I write, I tend to like silence really. Sometimes this is so I can dictate into my phone.
9. Your dialogue is some of the best I’ve ever read on tumblr, how do you plan conversations in your fics?
Thank you for the compliment, it’s really nice to read that you think so highly of my dialogue. I don’t really plan them - conversations or my fics. I’m quite visual in how I write, so anything that you’ve read I’ve most likely had it play out in my mind and typed it as it’s moved. For dialogue I tend to speak out loud as I’m typing to try and get the pacing right for the conversation.
No, I don’t try to do a Manc accent… Just in case anyone is wondering haha!
10. What is your writing process like?
I write what I see and then hope it fits. Honestly it’s pretty chaotic. The only time I tend to plan is when I’ve got a lot of different scenes written and I need to know if they’re suitable for an update or what order to place them.
Then I read through them and think about the characters and how they would be a certain time and move the documents into another document. Then I close all the tabs and cry cause my motivation is nonexistent.
11. What’s been your favorite scene to write from Quarantine Harry?
One that hasn’t been shared haha! I’m joking (maybe).
From part one my favourite bit has to be the part where she makes up with him by taking him a cuppa and he gets a dig in about how she hasn’t brought any biscuits with her. Also the bit where he says “come an’ love me” meaning he wants to cuddle. I’m quite conscious I don’t really ever write soppy fics, so when I’m writing “fluffy” aspects they’re more so everyday affections. Like, you know someone is properly in love with you when they’re doing the washing up cause you’re busy, or they’re taking out the bins on bin day. That kinda thing.
From part two absolutely the entirety of the morning where she takes the pregnancy test. That was the part I had as clear as day and I worked backwards to the opening scene. I really loved the idea of Harry knowing his partner is pregnant before said partner knows. Him knowing his lovers body like the back of his hand so much so that he’s able to pick up on the smallest of things. I knew I had to write it.
And how he casually suggested she took the test, by pressing a kiss into her back. His face finding that test and then being an insufferable sod and pleased with himself cause he’s in the know about the outcome before the MC.
12. Is there a schedule you follow in terms of when you write? Or are you more impulsive and just write where and when you can?
So impulsive it’s actually embarrassing. I cringe at myself. I know I’ve mentioned this loads but I really write what I see. So if I’m not seeing anything, I’m not writing. It’s quite frustrating.
13. What is one thing you wish you would’ve known before you started writing?
To not talk about your writing before you’ve finished it. I feel like I massively let people down when I post sneak peeks and then I can’t deliver because life gets on top of me!
14. What do you prefer writing, multi-chaptered fics or one shots?
One shots and then if they develop into something more that can be exciting!
15. What's your secret to portraying such a complex and interesting relationship between your main characters??
Personal trauma…… *tumbleweed at another one of my poorly thought out jokes*
I’m a bit stumped on how to answer this one. I think being well read(ish) helps you create complex characters and relationships, not saying that I am but I’ve read a fair few books. Life in general helps too, sometimes personal relationships. Just growing up. My fic when I was younger was nowhere near the type of things I’m writing now but I’ve got a couple (okay, more than a couple!) of years on myself since then.
I think just apply your own lived experiences and call upon emotions you may have felt through certain times that you’re writing should you have experience it.
Partly I also think so many of us are a little bit nosy. Sometimes we all kinda want to be the fly on the wall in the home of couples to see if everything is a rosy as it seems or as intimate. Or whether it is just raw passion with a couple of arguments thrown in for good measure.
16. What Harry era/mood/look/vibe/song/etc. do you get most inspired by?
What’s weird is my favourite era of Harry is 2014, but I wouldn’t want to write him like that. The current Harry is quite marvellous. I’ve never known anyone like him, he really is fine wine (the real album title…. ‘we’ll be a fine wine’)
If you’re asking what mood I like to see him in, it’s either when he's pensive and looks a touch pissed off with a crease to his brow or when you watch his joke his eyes before he’s even said it and he’s amused/pleased with himself.
His current look, mainly late 2019/2020 is quite something (hence the quarantine fics)
I tend not to get inspired by his songs but my two faves if I had to pick would be Woman and TBSL. I think they’re massive Scorpio energy and would make great premises for a one shot sometime!
I’m not sure if I even answered this how you wanted it answer but hopefully it was something haha!
17. Who or what inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always loved writing, I think it’s because I do a lot of it with my line of work. The person that gave me the push on this site was actually an account called @meetyourmouths. The lovely Iz is no longer on tumblr but she wrote a Harry piece that just made me think ‘fuck it’ and I posted Practicing. If you go to that piece the authors note makes mention to Iz.
I would also say @stylishmuser was one of the first people to reach out to me and be encouraging which has always stuck with me. Massive love for, P and still talk to her all these years on.
I’m now sat here thinking about listing all the lovely lovely people who have been so nice to me both in regards to writing and outside of it and I’m conscious I’m not mentioning them. The troubles of being a bit of a people pleaser. Hopefully those people know I love ‘em… You know?
18. Some readers are wary of leaving feedback because they're unsure how the writer will take it, how do you personally like to receive feedback? Do you want to be critiqued, or would you like to just know if they did or didn't enjoy what they've read?
First thing I’d say is please don’t ever think as readers you can’t be negative. Sure there is a way to present the feedback to the author cause writing can be quite personal, but everyone has room for growth.
Just come chat to me. Can be about anything and everything. A simple ‘loved the update’ to ‘this bit was rubbish’. I’m open to all feedback.
One thing to remember is there are a lot of writers out there so there is something for everybody. If a fic isn’t for you there are tons out there waiting for you to go and grab ‘em!
19. Is writing a hobby or do you have aspirations of writing professionally outside of fanfiction?
I used to think it was mainly more so a hobby, and I do still lean towards this. However, now I’m not so sure. My problem is I tend to have long spells of not being able to find balance in my ‘real life’ job and the extra-curricular stuff.
I’m dragging myself here but I don’t think my fics have much plot to them. I’m more so about writing the everyday life and I don’t think there is a market for that really (unless you have something explosive happen somewhere).
20. And finally, What's your purpose for writing? What do you hope to accomplish?
For a while I wanted to write Harry being insufferably British. I found it quite hard to find writings that I thought wrote him using Britsh-isms (is this even a thing?) and types of phrases that are common over this side of the pond. I wanted to put that out there for someone who may have once felt like me.
Mostly, I just want to put pieces out that take people elsewhere, even if only for a couple of minutes. A lot of the world is a bleak place, if you find my little corner on tumblr and it makes you smile, that’s achieved something, hasn't it?
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I’ll tell you who SOPHIE was - she provided me with the soundtrack to my existence.
SOPHIE - a futuristic goddess, an ingenious music producer, ethereal visionary, a trans icon.... just an icon generally speaking - tragically passed away at the age of 34 in Athens, Greece after falling off a rooftop whilst attempting to capture a picture of the full moon. Her gut wrenching death brought me to tears. This is the first time a famous person’s death has affected me so deeply. Her bold, hyperkinetic approach to producing musical art was so impeccable and refreshing considering so much of modern day’s music tends to sound incredibly predictable. Whilst alive, visionary SOPHIE generated a following of intensely adoring, dedicated fans. Honestly, don’t EVER mess with a SOPHIE fan. Trust me!
She worked with the biggest popstars, rappers, K Pop groups, rappers and upcoming artists but still remained so humble despite her enormous talent. However, she hadn’t reached household name status during her life. Sadly, many people only had heard of SOPHIE after her tragic and unexpected death. This motivated me to write a piece dedicated to this beautiful and timeless mastermind. I do acknowledge that its been exceptionally challenging to summarise how SOPHIE impacted my life onto only a few pieces of paper. However, its the least I can do. Therefore, I present to all of you my written tribute which shall focus on how her extraordinary music has featured during key moments of my lifetime and expanded my initially narrow knowledge of beauty, gender and identity like never before.
Let’s commence this written tribute by travelling back in time to when I had just turned 15. During that time period, my disposition was extremely introverted. In all honesty, like almost all teenagers suffering the displeasing side effects of bloody puberty, I was barely approachable. I adopted the entire persona of a full time punk kid wearing a thick leather jacket whilst applying extremely heavy kohl eyeliner and dying my hair jet black - which looked devastating. I would also scribble quotes associated with the punk ideology and act like some pretentious snob towards anything that was unrelated to punk, industrial or rap music. That was the most rebellion I exuded at the time (trying not to feel complete despair as much as possible for my former teenage self)
That captious mentality caused by teenage angst was erased the minute I listened to a snippet of the musical force of nature named ‘BIPP’ by SOPHIE on a Swiss MTV sponsored advert. The high pitched vocals singing ‘However you’re feeling, I can make you feel better’ provided by Marcella and overall catchy, hyperkinetic production mesmerised me like there’s no tomorrow. Nothing had captivated my imagination like the timeless ‘BIPP’ did so I typed aggressively and rapidly into the Google search engine straight away. I had to know who the mastermind lurking behind this masterpiece was. I had to know of the mastermind who provided me with this pivotal musical epiphany. Then the capitalised name ‘SOPHIE’ popped up right in front of my eyes.
After listening to ‘BIPP’ in its entirety on repeat, I instantly began to read up on SOPHIE and stumbled upon her 2013 interview on BBC Radio 1 with SOPHIE where she concealed her identity by having her 5 year old niece respond to the host’s questions instead of herself. At the time, I assumed Sophie had implemented a voice changer to project the voice of an infant. SOPHIE’s dry humoured response, namely ,,I’ve got a cough!’’ to the host’s bewilderment over the child sounding voice stood out for me. Earlier in her career, SOPHIE’s anonymity prompted much speculation in the music industry and press. I always perceived this bizarre, hysterical act of Sophie’s as a ‘two middle fingers up’ to our environment fuelled by mainstream culture, especially how so many people obsess over notable figure’s personal business and public image instead of their artistic accomplishments far too often. This has to be the ultimate moment my own curiosity for Sophie’s ingenious musical productivity became insatiable. Later on, I would await the 2015 McDonalds commercial anxiously to have my ears blessed with her gratifying track ,Lemonade’ over and over. The synthesised sounds that fizz like pop rocks. Nabihah’s crisp vocals which repeat ‘Candy boys, c - c - candy boys’. The overall ear worm appeal of the track. Flawless!
In the meantime, I discovered that Sophie happened to be a very well known affiliate of the divisive,unique PC Music label based in London, England. During the time period, I was - to be quite frank - not an avid bubblegum bass or hyper-pop listener in the slightest. I worshipped bands such as The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Rammstein,Tool, The KLF and additionally adored rap music ranging from N.W.A to Eminem. They totally divert from the hyperkinetic, exaggerated take on the pop genre embraced by the PC Music label. However, my teenage idols and SOPHIE objectively share something fundamental in common - Through their trailblazing musical output, they push every single barrier possible and deconstruct what constitutes as ,normal’ in modern day society. Even just after releasing her first full length album ‘Product’, SOPHIE embodied a bold form of rebellion against society’s conventionality and unforgiving temperament by incorporating lyrics alluding to a mostly genderless nature and sexual fetishes eg BDSM. As an extremely naive, self conscious teenager, all of this completely perplexed but intrigued me. Any glimpse of art connected with an attitude of non conformity resonated with me in practically seconds and continues to even at 22.
This longing for anything unorthodox traces back to my own childhood. To explain some details about my background, I grew up in a rather small, very conservative village in Switzerland from the age of 9. Even uttering anything LGBT related would illicit responses ranging from loud gasps to shocked faces at my high school. As a non Swiss resident, the educational setting demonstrated to be more than challenging at times. One incident that stands out to me especially is when a classmate ranted about his disapproval of non Swiss inhabitants receiving Swiss pass and then continued with yelling ‘All my family voted for the SVP kick all of (you fucking foreign scum) out!’.Just to clarify, the SVP is the largest party in Switzerland and leans very far right politically. As you can presume, I was utterly distraught by this disconcerting interaction and confess to losing any fragment of self confidence remaining in that moment. Luckily the Swiss MTV channel existed, which was far more on trend with the times and embraced marginalised communities. I will forever cherish Swiss MTV introducing me to SOPHIE’s impeccable, lawless music and being a form of escapism in my bedroom from the racist, homophobic climate prevailing in my village.
At the age of 17, Graduation finally arrived at the door which was an absolute relief. A few hours later, the celebration party took place in a secluded barn and my boyfriend immersed himself into the role as DJ for the night. Towards the end, he sneakily included Product era classics including ‘Vyzee’ and ‘Hard’. I could barely contain my excitement. We all almost choked on the horrendous party smoke, spilt our cheap beer on each other’s outfits and chanted ‘Shake it up and make it fizz!’ and ‘I get so hard.’ Ironically, I believe my Swiss colleagues didn’t exactly recognise the discernible sexual connotations exhibited throughout the song which causes me to giggle ever so slightly looking back. However, it felt liberating hearing SOPHIE’s fiercely electronic, transparent music and seeing my classmates enjoying it - especially as all you would hear on most music outlets there was either dreary Indie or Luka Haenni - the Swiss equivalent to Justin Bieber. That’s the most I’m able to recollect from that peculiar night - aside from a trampoline burning to the ground due to someone placing a candle on it. After all that jazz, a thrillingly new chapter for myself - and even for SOPHIE - would unfold.
At 17, I returned to my place of birth, England, and enrolled at Sixth Form in the South to complete my A Levels. I initially felt extremely elated to move back to England and finally entering the era of adulthood in my life. However, the atmosphere at Sixth Form and in the South of England seemed ... so unfamiliar to me which was heartbreaking. My mind had totally adjusted to a Swiss and my mind endured unsettling feelings of anxiety during the entire first year at British college. However, SOPHIE’s music once again presented itself as a form of therapy for me. She released the ethereal, stunning ballad ‘It’s Okay To Cry’ during this time period. After watching its music video and deciphering the lyrics I realised... Oh my goodness, SOPHIE just came out as a transgender woman! I recall being touched by the exquisite, idiosyncratic song featuring 80s style synthesised arrangements. SOPHIE’S bravery mesmerised me. I knew in that moment, Sophie would revolutionise the music industry, especially the habitat of music production dominated by cisgender, heterosexual men. She proved my initial predictions right - and on many occasions.
The day after SOPHIE released ‘Its Okay To Cry’, I overheard an energetic conversation carried out by a few of fellow openly gay and trans classmates who I’m still acquainted with to this day. They couldn’t contain their excitement about SOPHIE.
Despite the crippling anxiety having affected me so severely at that point, I intervened and expressed my admiration for everything SOPHIE. I felt blessed attending a sixth form alongside gay, non binary, trans classmates who took pride in their identity and sexuality. It put my mind at ease being surrounded in a more progressive environment compared to the intolerant ambience pervading my village in Switzerland. SOPHIE’s music had connected me with such a progressive, solicitous and just simply amazing group of friends. They agreed with me that SOPHIE’s courageous move will impact the music world in such a striking manner and encourage more LGBT people to pursue their goals no matter how extravagant, especially an acclaimed music producer igniting the music industry like SOPHIE. Then all of a sudden they mentioned the track ‘Yeah Right’ and how it blew their mind away due to SOPHIE’s ‘badass as hell instrumentals.’ With all the shame in the world, I confessed I hadn’t heard it yet. Their facial expressions conveyed so much disappointment. One of my classmates quickly plugged their Bluetooth speaker into his laptop and then pressed the play button. From a personal perspective, ‘Yeah Right’ featuring Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar perfectly stands out to me despite SOPHIE’s extensive and majestic discography to her name.
I contemplate the masterpiece as a pivotal moment in rap music history. Even during 2017, Sophie began exhibiting red lipstick, latex gloves, tight clothing corresponding to a more feminine image which totally distances from the aggressively macho image attached to the rap industry. From the moment Vince Staples commences with his lyrically cutting verses to Kendrick Lamar proceeding with his gripping and more than memorable cameo - I realised that a 3 minute long but significant moment music history in general simply named ‘Yeah Right’, had occurred. Her production on the track astonishes me due to its avant grade and timeless edge. To me, it is a masterpiece that echoes the the extremely distant future of music. I reckon we’ll be dancing to ‘Yeah Right’ at the club in 2137. For 4 consecutive years, ‘Yeah Right’ has been reigning champion of most listened to song on my Spotify account and can express with all certainty... it’s my all time favourite song. In all honesty, it cured me of my severe feelings of apprehension and anxiety at Sixth Form.
After regaining my confidence and FINALLY passing the dreaded driving test - after failing three times in a row - the first song I blasted on my speakers in my cheap, run down car was ‘Yeah Right’ and rather fittingly, Sophie’s live version of the officially unreleased ‘Burn Rubber’ whilst driving to university I was about to attend. I genuinely cried all the lyrics to the song whilst driving on the mundane roads of Southern England and FINALLY felt like a free, independent adult. Even during brief chapters of my life such as passing my driving test, SOPHIE made a crucial and ravishing appearance.
The last three years of my life have played out in a rather turbulent style. Towards the middle of 2018, the year unravelled in a fashion that I certainly hadn’t anticipated. I’ll summarise it to the best of my ability even thought it is extremely difficult to. My longtime best friend, the closest person to me, sadly died to long term chronic illness. I couldn’t articulate my utter grief into words and sadly still struggle to this day. It was a sudden blow to the heart which couldn’t be paralleled to anything else I’ve felt in my short lifetime. A month prior to her untimely passing, SOPHIE had released her acclaimed, gallant debut album ‘Oil Of Every Person’s Un Insides.’ Although OOEPUI is a extravagant, historic work of art, I shall describe how the tracks ‘Is it Cold In the Water’ and ‘Faceshopping’ impacted me.
I perceive ‘Is It Cold In The Water? as a hauntingly riveting piece of music, with vocals sung Cecile Believe that send shivers down my spine. The lyrics ‘Earth shaking, I feel alone’ encapsulated on a personal level how I couldn’t envision an existence without my best friend by my side mocking my naturally deep, monotone voice, her showing me a piece of clothing she had just designed herself as she was an aspiring designer and hurting with laughter whilst impersonating certain celebrities. My raging anger against the world intensified. I placed my formerly devoted belief in a higher existence under the microscope - a belief system that I unfortunately haven’t revisited ever since. ,Is It cold in the water’ epitomises the dilemma and hardship of entering unknown depths without any inkling of what overcoming the ‘cold water’ and how its aftermath would materialise, metaphorically speaking. I realised I had to place my feet in the cold water in order to heal and adjust to coping with my best friend’s death despite how petrifying the concept as such seemed at the time.
And then there’s the outstanding ‘Faceshopping.’ I’ll confess... when I originally listened to this track, I was rather, dare I say, baffled afterwards. The experimentally electronic provided by Sophie galvanised me as usual. However, as a cisgender woman who has dated men right up to the present moment, I was initially under the very ill informed assumption that I couldn’t identify with a lot of the album’s content produced by an trans woman. That display of shambolic ignorance was quickly put to rest when I analysed the lyrics of ‘Faceshopping’ with an open eye. It clicked that the song could symbolise more than one meaning. It examines the age of the internet and the lengths modern day go to in order to pass as beautiful, especially in the name of personal branding. Furthermore, the powerful track demonstrates SOPHIE’s mesmerisingly fervent opposition against what traditional values regard as beauty which is unquestionably ingenious. I feel the lyric ‘My shop is the face I front’ denotes a person’s individual freedom of complementing their psychical appearance - whether through simply makeup or plastic surgery - and evolving their true gender identity shouldn’t be shunned. As someone who has been extremely self conscious about my appearance since the tender age of 12 caused by several factors eg bullying at school, ‘Faceshopping’ uplifted my spirits and enlightened me that no influence other than my personal self shall control how I beautify my own body.
Skipping to 2020, the world has been transformed to a severe extent due to the Coronavirus infecting and heartbreakingly taking millions of people’s lives. With this almost dystopian nightmare occurring, I felt extremely poorly - physically speaking - which had been affecting me since October of the same year. Ultimately I was rushed into hospital in December. After countless physical evaluations and days passing by whilst lying in a lonesome hospital bed, my doctor informed me that due to the severity of my current condition, the likelihood of permanent infertility is extremely high. The news put me into a state of shock. After my doctor left the room, the tears couldn’t stop streaming down my face. I had always envisioned raising my own children. Forgive me for the hyperbolic language but in that moment I felt defeated.
With the prospect of my womanhood being affected forever, I put my headphones to shut out the continuous ambulance sirens blaring outside. I pressed Shuffle Play on my SoundCloud and the first song that appeared was SOPHIE’s ‘Heav3n Suspended Livestream’ version of ‘My Forever’. Cecile Believe reiterating ‘Everbody’s got to own their body’ so ethereally, and the song as a whole proved to be therapeutic in the moment. After pressing the repeat button 20 times - at the very least - I had ANOTHER epiphany: no establishment should dictate what constitutes as femininity or womanhood. Even in the modern day society, childless people continue to be stigmatised, often branded as ‘selfish’ or ‘undesirable’ in many communities. I applaud the progress we’ve made in terms of tackling stereotypes associated with infertility. However, more work still needs to be carried out on this matter. Although it’s only my individual interpretation of the song given the circumstances of my poorly health at the time, the lyrics reassured me that everybody’s - without a doubt - GOT to own their body. Gosh that sounds so rhetorical!
After this pivotal awakening, I was rushed into surgery which lasted about two hours. The next day - feeling extremely lethargic - I woke up to the fantastic news that the doctors saved my physical health from infertility. I will always be so grateful for their treatment of me and my painful condition. Two weeks into recuperation post surgery, I had no choice but to exercise to boost my mental state caused by inactivity and to get my blood circulation going. As a lifelong, passionate dancer I conceptualised and performed a dance routine to SOPHIE’s club inspired, sublime ‘Take Me To Dubai’. - in front of my cracked bedroom mirror, ironically. Still, dancing again and no physical illness bringing me down felt like a individual rebirth. I was anticipating how 2021 would spell out for me - despite Covid 19 still permeating globally. 2021 finally arrived and not even a full month into the ‘glorious new year’, SOPHIE died.
I recall waking up to numerous messages and notifications capitalising the words: SOPHIE HAS DIED!’. In all honesty ... I froze. It didn’t register for about an hour. Afterwards, I couldn’t disguise the heartbreak and shock that SOPHIE was no longer with us - especially given the cause of her death. It’s been two weeks and I’ll acknowledge that I haven’t overcome the sentiment of anger and upset yet because of her untimely passing .The soundtrack to my existence is gone.
Whether SOPHIE’s musical stylings resonate with you or not, you can’t underestimate her fearless disposition and overwhelming talent. She inspired so many fans to embrace their true identity even when their environment was striving to silence them. She challenged our establishment’s shallow interpretation of beauty, gender and identity. Despite coming out as an trans woman and transphobia still being prevalent globally, SOPHIE didn’t let this form of prejudice stand in her way of achieving her dreams. Her revolutionary mark she left on the industry shall never be underemphasised by so many of us.
SOPHIE,
Thank you for everything. I will never ever forget you,
ROBS.
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Every Boros Commander, Part 2
Where we last left off, I was shitting on Adriana, Captain of the Guard, who gives ACAB a pretty different meaning. Fortunately, most of the pickings this time aren’t quite as dire.
Depala, Pilot Exemplar (3rd most played as of writing)
Holy shit, a Boros commander with card advantage? It’s niche, but it was a first. Being limited to Dwarves and Vehicles does leave her with a problem a lot of commanders and tribes tend to have, which is being just a smidge under critical mass- but with the upcoming Kaldheim appearing to support Dwarves, and vehicles appearing to be a deciduous mechanic, I feel like it won’t be long before Depala is as powerful as her placement suggests. She is niche and mana-hungry, but basically the only Vehicle commander (and definitely the only Dwarf commander at the moment), so I suspect she’s here to stay for a while.
Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker (15th most played as of writing)
Tiana is possibly my favourite character lorewise in all of magic, frankly. She’s cool and cute and a massive dork and also someone who found her purpose in life, and frankly I love that for her.
She’s also a really interesting commander to build around, seeing as she has a unique brand of card advantage that leads to the addition of old and weird cards, which I’m always a fan of. I should really get around to building a Tiana deck, to be honest, though I already have 10 commander decks with an 11th in progress, sooooo…
Firesong and Sunspeaker (4th most played as of writing)
I’m surprised to see F&S this high, but the first unique Buy-a-Box card did expand into an archetype previously unseen in the combination in the form of Boros Spellslinger (Dalakos would later return the favour as an Izzet Equipment commander). Previously, you had to go into Pauper EDH and play fellow Minotaur Blaze Commando for this kinda deck. Like Depala, F&S are heavily played despite being niche, though the also have the benefit of being a RW minotaur commander, if you want to play White instead of Black in that deck for…some reason? The siren moo of Boros Reckoner speaks to us all, I suppose.
Sylvia Brightspear and Khorvath Brightflame (17th most played as of writing)
The only partner pair I’m discussing today on account of their monogamy. Knights and Dragons make a weird combination, seeing as there are basically no other cards that help them work together rather than apart. You could almost run them as a goodstuff deck if you wanted, seeing as many of Boros’s best creatures are Knights or Dragons, but largely I think sticking to one or the other is probably for the best. With that in mind, the pair are actually the only real commanders for either tribe within Boros- the only other Dragon is something we’ll get to, and the only knight is…Adriana…so…. The buffs given by either pair are excellent, and not something that either tribe gets easy access to typically, so I can see the appeal of them in that slot. At that point, the extra commander is just a bonus.
Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice (21st most played as of writing)
Oh, another Aurelia, and she’s worse this time. In seriousness, her ability looks like its likely to be targeting herself most of the time, and Mentor just doesn’t do enough in this format. She has enough keywords and power to Voltron, but I’m not expecting much interesting from her outside of that.
Tajic, Legion’s Edge (18th most played as of writing)
Tajic has 4 separate lines of text for some reason, and only one (ok fine two haste is nice) actually matters. Having a damage prevention effect is nice in the zone, but it doesn’t apply to himself, so if you’re planning on turning mass damage one-sided you’re going to need to protect him still. And like, what else does he do? He’s not a good aggro commander at all, his last ability is a joke, why are people playing this card? If I was in a mass damage deck I’d just play Gisela, at least she does something on the off chance she survives. Probably no-one is gonna go out of the way to kill Tajic, at least. Beats out Aurelia for biggest downgrade, imo, even if Aurelia fell from higher.
Feather, the Redeemed (Number 1 most played at time of writing)
Feather is the most popular Boros commander, by over triple the next most popular. It’s not hard to see why: she’s a cheap commander that turns any targeted cantrip into a draw engine, she synergises with so many random powerful cards that you can build her a fair few different ways, and she’s a cool story character getting a card 12ish years after her appearance in the Ravnica novels. She does so much and is so interesting that it’s completely understandable that she’s as huge as she is. I’m still never going to build her though, even with my funky Japanese copies, if only because I’m too much of a hipster.
Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero (13th most played as of writing)
Kinda funny that Gerrard’s little text that made him work in the command zone until recent rules changes is now a strict downside. Gerrard has his niche, with a Second Sunrise in the zone unsurprisingly supporting Eggs decks rather nicely, and synergising with a lot of just random bullshit. I’d probably never build him, and it seems pretty easy to make it degenerate, but I’m glad he’s here and he’s certainly better than the first iteration of the character.
Haktos, the Unscarred (12th most played as of writing)
I’m kinda surprised to see Achilles this high, considering how recent he is. He reminds me a lot of Progenitus, oddly enough, as a commander that would be good at Voltron but can’t get buffed easily by traditional means. I think adding equipment on the off-chance that it fits his heel is a complete mistake, but things like Silverblade Paladin and Exalted cards do exist, so fair play. He’s pretty hard to kill unless you’re boardwiping, and even then damage-based ones probably miss, so I can see the value in that. But that mana cost hurts to look at- hitting 2 mana of 2 different colours on turn 4 was a pain back when I played Trostani, and that was a green deck.
Stet, Draconic Proofreader (No data available)
Okay look, I tried so hard to find a way to abuse this dork’s ability but there’s just no good way to do it. Stet sucks hard enough that even if you are playing with Silver-Bordered cards legal I just don’t know why you’d ever run it. His art is pretty funny, I’ll give it that. We got Alexander bloody Clamilton and Surgeon Commander in the same cycle, keep in mind.
Winota, Joiner of Forces (2nd most played as of writing)
Having menaced standard, Winota is still pretty decent as a commander, even without access to her 7-mana blue payload. There actually aren’t that many beefy humans to cheat out in general, but considering how easy it is to enable her ability and the fact that she digs *6 cards deep* on trigger, I think you just kinda end up swarming the board distressingly easy with her deck. It’s shocking to see a card from 2020 in the top 5 like this, considering how the year has gone for the format in general, but like. 6 cards.
Zirda, the Dawnwaker (8th most played as of writing)
Look it combos with Basalt/Grim monolith in the command zone isn’t that neat. Zirda is pretty open-ended, but not especially powerful outside of the aforementioned combo. I find them much more appealing in the Companion slot, frankly. With that said, I do like that Boros is the colour pair getting access to Training Grounds in the zone, seeing as it works well with its other themes (Equipment mostly) and opens new archetypes (Cycling, etc.) up as possibilities.
Akiri, Fearless Voyager (7th most played as of writing)
Haha, Brion has more decks than Akiri. That’s probably since it only released a few months ago. Of course, I’m not including the other Akiri, so this is the first time we’ve seen her on the list. But apart from that, Akiri was somehow the first of these commanders to actually say “draw” on it. Her synergies with Living Weapon (and the recent equipment cards that do the same) are pretty sick, though her second ability will end up costing a lot of mana over time if you have to use it. I think its hilarious how much more value this gives you than Adriana for doing the thing Adriana wants you to do, at 2 less mana.
Also, she’s probably the best general for Kor tribal? I guess you could go Akiri/Black partner so you can play Orah in the deck. Someone build this! Kor like equipment, Akiri likes equipment, lets go.
It’s only just occurred to me that Akiri gives you more for attacking other players than Adriana does. Fuckin hell, man.
Bell Borca, Spectral Sergeant (25th most played as of writing)
Bell finally getting a card 15 years after his fictional death was a welcome treat, but the exile-related ability is frankly awkward and abusing it to 1 or 2 hit commander damage is pretty difficult. Still, having impulse draw in the zone makes him probably just the best generic #goodstuff commander. I’m surprised he’s as low as he is, but he only released a month ago (at time of writing) and we got an absolute stack of legends (including 2 other Boros ones and the partners) in the same set.
Reyav, Master Smith (28th most played as of writing)
Reyav is neat since he combines 2 of Boros’s more traditional archetypes, being Aggro and Voltron, into one damage doubling dwarf. I suspect his lack of play is again due to the other legends in the same set and that it only dropped a month ago, because there’s no way he deserves to be below Munda. Also, he’s 2 mana! The only other 2CMC Boros Legend is partner Akiri! How did that happen? I think he deserves better. You can suit him up and get dunking real quick.
Wyleth, Soul of Steel (16th most played as of writing)
Our final general is Boros’s second ever Precon commander, and the only one with flavour text. He’s got the space for it, considering how much work that second line is doing. I appreciate that Wyleth, despite being superficially similar to Akiri, plays pretty differently, as he prefers Voltron while she prefers spreading equipment out. I assume Wyleth would be a lot higher if the precon itself was included, but there’s no way of knowing how many people are playing just the base deck, so who knows.
A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!!!
Koll, the Forgemaster (no data available)
This bloke got spoiled between me writing most of this and going to publish it. I can see a few easy combos with his first ability, especially seeing as Grafted Wargear is a card. Playing fairly though, his first ability feels kinda slow, and not being able to protect himself is a huge drag. The second ability feels kinda stapled on, as its a way of giving you a bonus since the first one doesn’t do shit for tokens. But like, just don’t equip them, lmao. Awkward, but has potential.
And that’s the lot of them! Uhhhh yeah that’s all I’ve got, stan Tiana kthnxbai
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