#anyway i hope the next event has some of the cards i wanna aim for. if not i might just try to focus my ap on actually getting past... ch20? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leggomylino · 5 years

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❧

Just after he died, he sat up.

You stare at your game, completely dumbfounded.

What the heck?! I know I just killed him with that last attack! I totally crushed the sorry little--

“Ding!”

“Ahh!”

You nearly drop your DS in a state of panic.

“What? Who? Where?!”

“Ding! Ding!”

Slowly you look toward the only source of light in your room, other than your game screens and whatever’s managing to peek in through your curtains. With a shaky breath of past anxiety you crawl across the cream-colored carpet of your bedroom to lift your phone off the desk, stopping next to a grape juice stain that was 100% Han Jisung’s fault.

Speaking of Han Jisung...

Crap, you’d completely forgotten about him! You rush to the window, opening it just as a rock comes flying for your face, having to duck to avoid a black eye or a chipped tooth. This guy. You peer down at him from your second story window.

“What the heck are you doing?! You almost killed me!” “Killed you?! I was aiming for the window not you!” You have to stifle a laugh at seeing him soaking wet from the automatic timed sprinklers in the neighbor’s yard, but it doesn’t go so well.

“Ha-ha, yes, laughing at my misery just like the rest of them. Hyunjin and Jeongin totally have corrupted you, liar…” You roll your eyes before throwing him a Sailor Moon blanket that could use a good run through the wash anyway, traces of a smile still evident on your face. “Geez, quit being such a whiny baby. I’m coming down, okay? Meet me out front!” “You expect me to trek back through no-man’s land?! What if my computer gets━”

That’s the last thing you heard, since you’d already rounded the corner on your way down the hall. You make a quick job of retying the messy bun of your I-may-or-may-not-have-been-brushed-in-the-past-twenty-four-hours hair before sliding down the rail of your staircase like a pro and swinging the front door open. Han meets you with a sour look on his face. He and Sailor Moon are both soaking wet, but somehow Luna and his laptop had managed to make it out unscathed. “I’m telling on you.”

“To who?” you laugh, stepping aside to let him in. “Hurry up and wait right here. I’ll go get you some fresh towels.”

He steps inside while his sour face turns quizzical, then slightly amused. “Hurry up and wait right here? The heck does that mean?”

“It means what it says! I mean, what it sounds like! Just…” You lock the door behind him, and he smiles. “How many cups this time?”

“......”

“C’mon, (y/n),” he chides, slinging off his pack at the door and tossing the wet blanket beside it. “How many?” Your brows furrow. “You’re not gonna tell on me, are you?”

His smile is nothing less than mischievous. “I dunno. Am I?” “Mrgrgr…” You march off to get him those fresh towels, your hostile movements warning him not to follow you, which he only laughs at and does anyway. ‘Cause that’s just the kind of jerk Han Jisung is. Smh.

The towels in the dryer are still warm from whence the cycle ended some hour and twenty minutes ago, so you toss him a couple of those and a smaller hand towel for his face or computer, whichever he decides to use it on. The pleasing scent of ginseng and honey-lavender dryer sheets wafts over your face and fills the small laundry room as you pull yourself out of the metallic chamber. “So what’s going on? Did you really come all the way over here just because you’re mad about the group text?”

He opens his mouth to say something, but the doorbell rings before he has a chance to answer.

You blink towards the sound as realization crosses your face. “Wait right here. I’ll be right back!” You have to be careful as you scurry on sock-clad feet across the honey-brown floorboards to the front door again, passively on the lookout for any water Han tracked on his way in. You can’t help but smile with excitement as you fling the door open. You frown. So does Felix when he sees the look on your face. “Wow. Someone’s excited to see me.” “You’re not Jaemin,” you state dumbly. He manages to keep a completely stoic face as he shakes his head.

“No, I’m not. Who’s that?”

“My brother. I’m expecting him to come visit me soon. He does every Sunday.”

“I see.” He’s looking down at his phone, then pockets it a moment later whilst giving you a cheesy smile. “Are you gonna let me in? I’d hate to meet the same fate as Han. Especially because I just upgraded my phone for the new game release tomorrow.” You do your best to cast away your disappointment as you let him inside. “Yeah, whatever, come join the party.” You stick your head out the door to check left, then right, ensuring no other thots were left unaccounted for before locking up again. “You got other company or somethin’?” he asks, eyeing Han’s things. “Nah, just Han. He stopped by like five minutes ago. He’s in the laundry room drying off.” You begin making your way back with Felix following a few steps behind you. “So what are you doing here? Also show me your phone, I wanna see! Wait, hold on, why do you need a new phone for Ultrascape? It’s not an app game, they’re only releasing it for Xbox and PS4. Also--” Felix begins to laugh a bit, eyeing you from above his phone screen that’d mysteriously found its way back into his hands. “Someone’s had coffee today. How many cups?” You groan as you break the threshold into the laundry room. “Seriously, you too? Why can’t you guys both just leave me alone…Hyunjin and Innie never give me a hard time about my drinking habits.” They both find amusement in your pouting, Han having just finished drying his laptop and tossing the towel into the hamper. “Wow, so you really do like them better than us. We can’t help it if it’s incredibly entertaining to make fun of your addiction problem.” “I wouldn’t say incredibly entertaining, but...yeah, pretty much.” the Australian boy agrees, giving a little shrug. He begins to mumble and ramble things into his shiny new phone screen. “Also it’s...y’know, kinda cute.” Something exotic washes over your cheeks and paints a picture of a sunny spring day on your insides, but you’re able to thankfully dismiss it as so thirty seconds ago as the doorbell rings yet a third time. This time when you open the door, you’re able to uphold the sheer joy on your face at seeing Jaemin smiling down at you with a drink carrier in one hand and a bouquet of lilies in the other. The ever-so-slight ombre tints in the roots of his light-dyed hair remind you of just how long it’s really been since you last saw him, even if it was only just a week. “I am Li-ly~ Of the va-lley~” he starts to sing, and you laugh, taking the drink carrier and giving him a cheesy wink. You sing back to humor him. “Of the quiet peaceful valley over there~”

You fling your hand out into a random direction off yonder, and you both burst into a fit of giggles like it’s the funniest thing in the world. The moment you open the door to Jaemin’s weekly Sunday visits, every time, no matter what’s going on, the collection of stressful events and uninvited anxiety in your life just seems to melt away into nothing; one of the many things you loved about your brother. But Han Jisung doesn’t seem to get it, given the blank expression on his face as he’s staring the two of you down from ten feet away. He doesn’t say anything either, only making things that much more awkward. “Umm…” You put on another grin as you gesture to your brother like a Nobel prize, since he may as well be anyway. “Han, this is my brother Jaemin. This is Han Jisung, one of my friends I was telling you about.” you explain. Jaemin’s smile is genuine as he gives the young man a polite nod, the other doing the same in return. “A pleasure. Thank you for looking after (y/n) in my absence. I know she can be a handful the way she’s always running into things.” “You mean like trouble? Yeah, she does that a lot. You should have seen her when we introduced her to Minecraft. But yeah, the pleasure’s mine as well.” “Minecraft?” Jae gives you a strange look above his normally sunny disposition, to which you reply with a playful shove and a roll of your eyes. “Yes Jae, Minecraft. Come on, you have to at least know that one.” “It’s not that I’ve never heard of it before. I’m just surprised you’re letting the season pass for League of Legends that I just bought you go to waste.” “I’m not!” you protest, stamping down your foot. “I just played a few rounds with Felix and Jeongin the other day!”

He shakes his head, tsking. “A few rounds...a hundred and eighty dollars down the toilet.” “Not so! We won! And I even...” Your voice trails off again as you look around, suddenly realizing something━ really someone━ is missing. You shoot Han a curious glare. “Where’s the other thot?” He’s engrossed in his phone like Felix was when he showed up at the door a bit ago, raising his eyebrows to show that he heard you. “Hm? Oh, he left about two seconds after you ran out of the other room. He got an emergency call from work.” “Oh…” You don’t mean to sound so disappointed, but it just comes out that way, and you can only hope the others didn’t notice. “Do you know what he came here for?” He mimics the action from before. “...Mmm...yeah, just a sec…” Just a sec quickly becomes a full minute, then two. You know the look on his face all too well. He’s definitely playing Fortnite. That’s what I get for giving him the WiFi password…

You grab Jaemin’s arm, pulling him away into the kitchen. Thankfully he doesn’t ask any questions. “Thanks for the coffee,” you say, pulling out your favorite particular beverage from the carrier after placing it on the island. Jaemin chuckles while searching the cabinets for a vase to put the flowers in. “It’s decaf, just so you know. I don’t need you bouncing off the walls after 3 pm, especially in your condition.” You frown at that last remark, but it doesn’t compare to the dreaded aura you send towards the thick stack of cards you failed to notice he’d been holding in his back pocket with a few smaller ones in the flowers. “What’s all that?” you ask; but you already know the answer. He’s eyeing you with warmth and delight, making it that much worse. “Why, this is your fan mail! I’ve got a tote bag full of them out in the car, but I just picked these up from the post-office on my way over. I thought they were for me because they were addressed in my name, but I think the girls must have gotten confused on who to address it to.” You scoff. No, they were just bold. Here’s the thing about your fan mail: It wasn’t for you. It was never for you.

It was for Jaemin. Your supposed “fans” couldn’t give less of a hoot about you or your health. It was your strikingly handsome, fashionable, polished, boyfriend-material brother they were after. The moment your friends...who were never really your friends to begin with...the moment they found out you had a brother, and that that brother was Na Jaemin, well, they all about had a meltdown of lovesick heartache and went batsh*t crazy. It was then you realized they’d never really been your friends at all, that they’d just heard some petty rumor that you and Jae were dating, and when he cleared it up that oh, no, that’s only my sister, they just started using you to get closer to him. Word had spread over the time of your departure from the university, and after moving back home within the first two weeks one of those Mean Girls (probably Regina) thought it’d be a swell idea to send you a get-well card in order to get under your brothers good graces. And because your sweet caring brother also had to be such a gullible dumbass, he had to go and tweet the word out that it’d be so great to see more of these! thinking those girls actually cared.

They cared alright, but not about you. So now you were getting mounds and mounds of these petty fake Get better! We’re always think of you! Hellmark greeting cards. And ironically, they were what fed your anxiety as of late. You open your mouth to finally tell Jaemin what’s really going on, because surely if he wasn’t getting it by now and the girls were getting this desperate it’d gone on long enough, but as you turn your eyes up to him from staring into the onyx marble counter-top something thin and sharp pierces a nerve in your gut. It’s Jaemin. You didn’t notice it before when he was standing so close, but now as you’re seeing him from across the kitchen, beneath the recessed lighting, he’s...thin. So thin. He’d always been slim, but never thin. He turns to the side, and you’re able to see his face now. His skin is a strange, almost translucent color, and there are deep purple blueberries under his eyes, the bags weighed down with hours and hours of lost sleep piled on by stress that shows in the poor coloration of his face. He’s still an attractive guy, of course, but...he looks like he’s auditioning for the role of Death. “Jaemin?” you say instead. Your voice comes out wavered, distorted, unsure. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?” He turns his head all the way towards you, and you feel like an idiot for not noticing as soon as you opened the door. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He smiles. “Why do you ask?”

Bless his heart, he’s putting on that fake smile for your benefit. You can feel your protective mom instincts winding into submission, the ones that usually only kick in when Jeongin’s around or that time Jaemin got the flu. “I dunno, you just look really...tired.” You stand. “Do you wanna lie down? I can take care of the flowers. I’m pretty sure the guest room is still clean if━ or maybe if you wanna crash of the couch for a bit━” His laughter cuts you off, and he shakes his head while waving a hand at you. “I’m fine, really. I’m always tired, you know this. Besides,” He finds a clear blue vase, carefully arranging the flowers inside and filling it with water. “You’re the one that needs to be resting. Go make yourself comfortable in the living room and pick out something for us to watch.” “......” “...What? Did you want to play a game instead?”

❧

[𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 (𝚢/𝚗) 𝚍𝚘? 𝙵𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝙱𝚊𝚐 ➤ 𝚁𝚞𝚗 ]

“......” You shake your head, wandering out into the living room.

❧

[𝚆𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎? ➤ 𝚈𝚎𝚜 𝙽𝚘]

[𝚂𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐… 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛…]

[(𝚢/𝚗) 𝚜𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎.]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝙼𝚢 𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚎 → 𝙽𝚊 𝙹𝚊𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗 | [𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛!𝙹𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚡 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚡 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛!𝙵𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚡]

[ 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙱/𝚈 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚘 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 // ➤ 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝙰/𝚇 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎 ]

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friendlyneighborhoodborg · 5 years

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Rose Appreciation Week 2k19| Day 2: Hero/Villain| “Angel -- Pt. 1/2″

Part 1 of my 2-Part submission to @wearemiraculous‘ Rose Appreciation Week event.

This is an expansion to an AU I’m building. I’ll link a thing [here] later to explain it. Basically, in this AU, everything that happens in canon happens. Parallel to that, however, many of the side characters are secretly superheroes. I hope it’s good, but I don’t expect it to be everyone’s taste.

Many thanks to @magikarpfangirl for helping me figure out what I was doing with Rose.

Feel free to use this concept, but please credit me if you do. And I promise, I will explain later for anyone who’s still confused. Or feel free to ask me.

Warnings for some violence, and an abundance of OCs

And, of course, Ladybug ain’t mine.

[Link to Part 2]

L’Europeen, in Paris’ 17th arrondissement, is one of its more popular theaters. Outside, it’s a building of sharp lettering, colorful neon lights, and a brilliant marquee. The marquee was a little small for this occasion, so it read simply “Marat/Sade, de Peter Weiss.” Posters in front gave the full title of the play that would start performances next week: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. The abridgement can thus be forgiven.

Inside, the chairs are bright scarlet red, and most are arranged in a circular pattern facing the center of the music hall. This center space contains more chairs, these ones in rows facing the large proscenium stage, but these seats can be removed for productions played “in the round.” In fact, this production of Marat/Sade had done just that, leaving a circular space at the center of the room. In terms of props and set, there was of course the wooden bathtub where Marat would sit, many benches and chairs, large boards and buckets and great sheets of cloth, the largest of which was a French tricolor. In the center of this was a tall electric lamp providing the only source of light in the theater, part of an old superstition, and surrounding it all was a giant square structure like a cage, with sturdy iron bars going from floor to ceiling, and a single locked door on the side facing the proscenium. In the context of the play, this was for the audience’s safety, as the “inmates of the asylum” would get rowdy and try attacking them.

In fact, they happened to be really well-made bars, and four people locked inside of the cage were chained to them.

These four had been drugged, a normal occurrence at the type of university-campus party they were attending. Where the custom differed was that these four had been taken to the theater and handcuffed on both wrists, each one of them stuck looped around a bar of the cell on the side facing away from the door. They had regained consciousness recently, each still a bit drunk, and they were being rather loud about it.

This was a conversion.

Vampires, along with some other monsters (and yes, they existed, as the university students were recently made aware), could infect humans, and conversion rituals had the sole aim of performing this task at a large scale. In a factory-like manner, monsters would snatch up groups of normal humans, bring them to a single place, and infect all of them at once. Back in the days when this cruel, impersonal ritual was still practiced, conversions would curse tens of people at a time, creating nearly 200 monsters in a single night, ripping people from their families as they were forcibly indoctrinated into their new lives.

But in those days, there were twenty or thirty creatures of the night to oversee the event. Tonight, there was only three.

“Is there any way to make them shut up?” a burly, bald vampire in black body armor shouted over the whines and screams, silencing the whimpers as he checked each of their cuffs.

“Hit them over the head, they’ll go out light a light,” a scrawny, dark-haired man in a tweed suit answered. “But why would you want to? I read that it’s more fun when they scream. Aria, how’s the cage?”

“Secure,” answered a blonde woman wearing a leather biker’s jacket, clicking a padlock and chain around the cage door and pocketing the key. “Are we getting this started or what, Serge?”

“In just a moment.” The leader of this small gang, Serge, withdrew a pair of reader’s spectacles from his jacket pocket. “Just to set the scene. To make it more authentic.” He withdrew an index card as Aria rounded the side to join Leo.

Clearing his throat, he began to read. “Tonight, brother and sister,” he beckoned to the people directly in front of him. “Tonight, we deal a blow to humanity.” He glanced at their lackluster haul. “Not a large blow, but a blow nonetheless, to the species that has curbed ours to near-extinction. Tonight, we carve ourselves out of the marble that is the disgustingly weak ‘dominant’ race.”

“Quick question,” Aria interjected. “How long does this go?”

“Yeah!” agreed Leo. “I wanna see these bugs bleed. Couldn’t you, you know, speed it up?”

Serge glanced between the two of them before looking back down at his notes. “Tonight, we feast on the blood of their children, turning them away from the harsh, burning sunlight to dance in the embrace of the sweet, refreshing moon.” He glanced anxiously at their prey, who in turn quivered at the hungry faces of the three monsters. “Tonight, we will educate these peons to the sins of their fathers and mothers, who have hunted and shunned us without remorse.” He ran his fingers down the note, cutting through words, and spoke the last sentence quickly, with a fang-toothed grin. “And tonight, we three shall take strides for the glory of our kind!”

Aria and Leo clapped politely.

“Okay, that’s enough guys.” His comrades stopped.

But the clapping didn’t.

Elsewhere in the auditorium, from a seat in the center of the gallery, someone was applauding.

She also wore black. Mostly black, anyway: black leather gloves and black tunic with a light pink bow around the collar, and a short, frilly, black skirt that went to her knees. She had a black, wide-brimmed hat with a deep red ribbon around it, and her padded leggings and combat boots were also black. Her long-sleeved undershirt was pastel pink, and her masquerade-style mask was pink with swirling black and silver. The black cape, split down the middle and clipped to her shoulders, was lined in shiny red satin. And across her torso, from her right shoulder to her left hip, was a black bandolier, holding half a dozen knives shining in gleaming silver. Clipped to her waist was another weapon, a long black baton with a pink stripe spiraling down the length, and a polished chrome ball at the end.

She stood up and whistled, giving a one-person standing ovation. “Bravo! What an incredible performance!” she shouted, resuming her applause standing up. “I almost believed it!”

“Intruder!” Leo bared his fangs. “It’s a monster hunter!”

The figure continued to smile widely. “Worse. It’s a peacekeeper.” She leaned forward with interest, taking hold of the seats in front of her for support. “That is some outdated rhetoric you’re using. In fact, I think you plagiarized it.” She crossed her arms, clearly trying to stare them down. “And you really rushed it, too. You skipped one of the best passages. You really just want to get to the good part, don’t you?” The stranger tilted her head to the cage in the middle of the room. “Biting random strangers in the neck. Not my personal cup of tea, but to each their own.”

“It’s a kid.” Aria realized. “Identify yourself!”

“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t know who I am.” She glanced at their expectant, murderous glsres. “Oh, you really don’t. You’re new, aren’t you?” She walked slowly to the aisle on her left. “Well, your pack leaders must have mentioned me.”

When she reached the aisle, she faced the vampires and curtsy-bowed. “I,” she introduced, “am L’Ange de Sang.”

The vampires surveyed her, sizing her up from a distance, before Serge started laughing. His compatriots joined in, and de Sang deflated a little.

“You?” Serge hooted. “You? The Angel of Blood? You’re just a child!”

De Sang crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Well, it takes one to know one. From the way this whole thing is set up, I’d say none of you actually know what you’re doing. So, coupled with the fact you don’t know me, and the blatant disregard for the laws of your kind, I’m gonna say… A few weeks?” The vampires stopped laughing. “You were turned a few weeks back? And already, you’ve got a keen sense of kinship with vampirekind.” She nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. So many vampires these days would rather burn in the sun than exist for another night as a monster. It’s good to have self-pride.”

“What’s your game, kid?” the tweed-clad leader spat, turning back to the hostages. “If you’re just going to stand there and dissect us with your words, you’d best leave now.” He ran his finger along the bars of the cage, stopping to caress one student’s cheek. “What happens next isn’t for the faint of heart to witness.”

“It’s not for anyone to witness. Conversion rituals are outlawed. Your leaders promised.” The vampire snapped his head back to face the approaching vigilante. “Stop this, right now, before you make a big mistake. This isn’t going to solve anything, and it’s just going to hurt you in the end. These people have nothing to do with you. They didn’t even know vampires existed before tonight, you don’t want to hurt them.”

“And what makes you think we would?”

De Sang stopped walking, standing a few short meters away. “Well, here’s the thing.” She pointed at the group. “You have heard of me. So, you could all go home if you want and save us all some trouble. I don’t like the alternative. Because the alternative involves violence.” She grit her teeth. “And violence is the one thing I don’t like, in any context.”

“Threatening us is cheap, coming from someone your age.”

De Sang spoke her next words very quietly. “I was trying to help you. This is threatening.” Without breaking eye contact, she unclipped the baton from her waist and held it out to the side. It was just longer than her forearm, and the silver weight at the end was about the size of a grapefruit. “I said I don’t like hurting people, but sadly I’m really, really good at it. Kindly release the hostages and go back to your pack.”

The boss seemed to consider this alternative. He ignored it. “Aria, kill her.” The blonde vampire cracked her neck and bared her fangs.

De Sang clapped. “Oh! Perfect! Introductions! Aria, was it?” She stepped back as the monster approached. “Have you ever killed someone before?”

“Stop talking,” she spat.

“Please answer me first.” The masked girl pointed at the cage with her baton. “You were about to convert these innocents, have you ever killed before? Think about that, would you be able to kill?”

“Are you calling me weak?”

“What? No!” She raised her hands defensively. “I’m, I’m definitely not saying that!”

“Liar!” Aria hunched over, flexing her claws.

“I mean I really try not to—” De Sang glanced nervously at the approaching creature. “Strength has nothing to do with it! I mean, I’ve never killed anyone—”

Aria pounced.

Time almost seemed to slow down, and vampire and vigilante stared each other in the eyes. Aria had fangs bared and claws out, ready to rip into flesh, and Sang just stood there, like a statue.

At the last possible second, de Sang’s baton went up and swatted her attacker out of the air like a baseball, landing her into the seats behind and to the left of her.

The air went still.

“I don’t kill,” the Angel said to the silence. “I’m just really good at not dying.” She turned to the vampires still at the cage. “I told you who I am, right?”

Serge snapped. “Leo, crush her!”

“Uh, can I advise against that?”

The giant charged at her, which the mercy huntress sidestepped, hopping onto the arms of the seats and using them as stepping stones to cut through the audience. Serge tried to cut her off by going up the other aisle, and Leo followed her example. But it was soon apparent from the brute’s clumsiness that he had never done this before.

De Sang noticed this. “You chose the theater,” she defended. “Watch your step, it’s difficult terrain!” She snatched a throwing knife from her bandolier and sent it at Leo’s hand. The brute dodged it, and the one that followed, but the distraction was enough. Sang had bounced around the seats behind him and delivered a heavy blow to the head with the baton.

“I’m so sorry,” she muttered as he went down. “That wound will take a few days to heal, for a newly-turned. You don’t recover at the speeds an older vampire would.”

While the large vampire was recovering, Sang quickly swooped down and took the shackle keys from his pocket, and, using the chairs as a boost, jumped over them and landed in front of one of the hostages.

“Undo yourself,” she commanded, thrusting the keys through the bars at the bewildered (and still slightly high) hostage. “Get the others free, too.”

He took them, dazed, and squinted at her. “Who… who are you?”

“Nobody special. Now do it, I believe in you!”

“Stop them!” the scrawny Serge shouted, racing down the aisle towards her, but the hero was too quick. He ducked what he thought was a swing of her baton, but it turned out to be a feint; he was struck in the back, and that coupled with his incredible speed sent him face-first into the cage. De Sang pulled him away before he could recover and delivered a swift blow to his windpipe, weakening him.

Leo had followed her example and jumped from the chairs, but by then the first two hostages were free—with one shackle undone each, they could pull their arm back through easily, and what had become their prison was now their only sanctuary as de Sang dodged every swing, throwing the vampires against the cage walls.

As the last prisoners were undoing their cuffs, Aria was trying to undo the lock on the cell door. Seeing her, de Sang abandoned her fight with the other two, slipping away from their grasps with a fluid ease. Bounding up against a front-row seat, she launched herself off the arm of a chair and flew through the air. At her apex, she grabbed the bar at the corner of the cage, to the left of where the door was, and used her momentum to swing around and propel herself straight at the vampire. A throwing knife disarmed her, sending the key flying into the cage, where a hostage snatched it up as Sang knocked the wind out of her with a heavy kick.

The hostages cheered her on, and she quickly dashed to the door. “You have the key?” Someone held it up. “Leave it in the lock. Run when it’s clear, use the backstage exit.”

“Thank you so much!” they all blubbered in various, drunken ways.

“Don’t thank me yet.” She spun and ran. “Aria? Remember me? I clobbered you a while back? Come on, get up! Show me who’s boss!”

Aria clawed at the ground, scrambling towards her on all fours, but de Sang used the cage as a ladder to avoid her, as well as the other vamps who had raced to join their fallen comrade. Moving with alacrity, she brought Aria and the others to the front of the cage, where their fight resumed.

“Up-up!” she chastised. “All eyes on me. That’s a bad idea, tactically speaking, although I appreciate your concern.” No one paid her words any attention—they were too busy trying to keep up with the animal dodging every swipe and blow they made for. De Sang returned glancing blows on all of them, just enough to keep the three of them busy as they tripped over each other trying to peg her.

About a minute into this, she started giving notes on their fighting. “Serge, fix your posture. Put your weight into the swing! Leo, you’re golden. Everyone, do what Leo’s doing.” Leo grabbed the baton in Sang’s grip, and was promptly flipped. “I don’t think that belongs to you. Please ask nicely if you want to borrow things.”

By this point, of course, the cage was completely empty and the hostages long gone. Enraged, Aria broke away from the fight and fled to the audience. She copied the vigilante’s stepping-stone trick to get behind her, finding one of the discarded knives in the process. Wielding it, she approached the seemingly-oblivious huntress and made to attack.

“Woah!” De Sang spun and deflected the imminent danger upwards with her baton. “I was looking for that, thank you! I’ve only got six of these.” She caught the knife as it came down and replaced it in the bandolier. She kicked Aria into the seats, and Leo and Serge immediately joined her.

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” the vigilante said to her fallen foes. “I don’t like to be mean, but if I was an actual hunter, you guys would be dead.”

The vampires, heedless of her warnings, scrambled to recover.

“Look,” she said, trying to get their attention. “You’re not bad people. You almost made some very bad decisions.” The vampires had stood back up, having climbed out of the audience, and were about to face her again, so she stamped her foot. “Your leaders know you were here tonight!”

That stopped them.

“They called me,” she explained, “to keep you guys out of trouble. They wanted me to stop you breaking the law, and to protect you in case an actual hunter showed up. Because those hunters, the Iron Cross, they are on patrol in this city.”

“Iron Cross,” Aria spat. “We can take them. And we sure as hell don’t need some human kid to babysit us.”

“But can you actually fight? I’m asking you, do you think you could stand up to an actual hunter? You couldn’t beat me, the human kid.” The Angel stood back as the vampires considered this bleak assessment. “That’s okay, though,” she assured them. “You’re all young. None of you can even shapeshift yet. You still get to learn all that.”

None of them would look at her.

De Sang took a deep sigh. “Okay… That’s how it is…” She surged forward, grabbed a startled Serge by the arm, and dragged him in front of the cage. “If you come across an actual hunter, you want to take note of your environment. I know that sounds a little cliché, but it cannot be understressed.” She hopped up onto the bars to demonstrate, quickly climbing up and down. “What sort of hazards are on the terrain? What can you do to keep yourself from falling down? And how can you get your opponent to trip?” She hopped off the bars and stuck the landing. “If your opponent’s on the ground, you’ve got to make sure they stay there. Don’t ever let up, you can’t ever let them get their bearings. Fight dirty if you have to. That’s the difference between life and death.” She stood back up and addressed the whole group. “Your main goal in the fight is to keep yourself at the advantage, and to keep your opponent discombobulated while you keep the hits coming. Don’t let them get a turn. Hunters will try to kill you. They will use any dirty method they can to kill you. You have to stop them from killing you at all costs. Understand?”

No one made any motion, wondering instead what the hell was going on.

She turned and addressed Serge directly. “Understand?” she repeated, with intensity this time.

He nodded, startled.

“Good.” She spread out her arms. “Punch me.”

“What?”

“Go ahead. Try.”

He glanced back at his friends, wondering if this was some sort of trap. When he got no confirmation, he took a deep breath, wound up, and swung.

De Sang ducked easily. “You projected,” she explained. “In the split second it took for you to wind up, I could see exactly where that punch would go.” She stood back and got into a fighting stance. “Now me. Watch me, figure out my trajectory. You’re vampires, you’re fast enough. That’s one of the perks. You have incredible reflexes, use them. Just trust that. If I were going to punch you, you’d be able to see it coming so you could—dodge!” With no warning, she swung at Serge.

Blinking, Serge realized that her fist wasn’t coming at him anymore. In fact, he had somehow… caught it. He’d stopped the punch.

De Sang smiled warmly. “Or you can do that.” She pulled the hand out of his grip, and stepped briskly over to Leo, pulling him aside. “Don’t let me realize it, though, and don’t kill my momentum. I just threw a bunch of my weight into that direction, and you can use that. Leo, do that catch thing Serge did, but keep pushing me in the direction I’m going.”

She swung, and Leo caught it. He attempted to move her with it, but she wouldn’t move. “Again,” she said. “Don’t catch me, then move me. Catch me and push me at the same time.” This time, the burly man threw her down, into the seats.

“You see what that did?” she praised, standing back up. “Now I’ve got to recover from that, and in that time you and your incredible speed have caught up and delivered another hit.” She patted the man on the back. “You’re a natural, Leo.” She addressed the whole group again. “It’s even worse if, say, I jump at you, because I’m not stabilized by anything. Plus, if you know where I’m going to land, then you’re prepared to get me to lose my balance while I stand back up. Aria, look alive!”

The woman in question barely stepped out of the way in time, because the Angel had taken a jump off of one of the seats and was headed straight for her. As de Sang landed, Aria took the opportunity to kick her in the ribs, causing her to slip and land on her side instead of her hands and feet.

“Excellent!” she wheezed, jumping back to her feet. “Alright, that’s enough for tonight. I’d love to do this again some other time, though. You’re all fast learners!” And she skipped away, humming as she went to collect her knives.

The three vampires looked at each other, immensely confused. “What the hell just happened?” asked Leo, disturbed.

Serge shook his head numbly. “I have no idea. I feel… happy? I guess?” He blinked, staring after the girl who had floored him several times tonight as she cheerfully refilled her bandolier. “What the hell is with that girl?”

“Someone hurt her,” Aria said. “Only explanation. She must be crazy.”

“I can hear you, you know,” the Angel chirped, not looking up. “I’m not crazy. I just wish people would be better to each other.” She wrung her hands, downcast. “But some people just don’t listen. And Aria, those ones are the weak ones. A weak person doesn’t have the strength to challenge themselves, physically, mentally, or ethically.” Snapping herself out of the dreary tone, she beamed widely at the vampires and tipped her hat. “I look forward to challenging you.”

There was a short, sharp whistle.

Leo suddenly cried out in pain.

De Sang’s face fell, and she rushed forward and saw the crossbow bolt, lodged into his arm and smoking.

“Hunters,” she whispered, mortified. “They’re here.”

(3900 words, and I’ve still got part 2 to do.)

(Edit: Whoop, forgot the cut).

#Day 2: Hero/Villain #Rose Appreciation Week #Rose Lavillant #L'Ange de Sang #miraculous ladybug #Superhero AU

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squeemcsquee · 6 years

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HPLD Nerd Con 2018

So, this past weekend, on Sat 6/16/18, @lechevaliermalfet attended the HPLD Nerd Con in Havana, IL. It’s a free, small-scale con hosted by the Havana Public Library District. We heard about it through Facebook, thanks to La Vie Cosplay’s facebook posts and decided, “why not?” Havana isn’t too far from home, really. We had fun, got some free stuff, and @lechevaliermalfet won a door prize, too! It’s a great event for first-timers, younger con-goers, or those who want a relaxed atmosphere. Click that “Keep Reading” link if you are curious and wanna know more.

Since I found myself getting scattered as I wrote this, I’m putting little headlines over each relevant portion of this review.

Size

I want to be up front and clear that when I say this is small-scale, I do mean it. Everything happened in one room in a Havana Park District facility. I stood on one wall and took the following three photos, which show the size of the room pretty well (I hope).

As you can see, they had a decent number of vendors for the size, some gaming, a panel area, and crafting / reading to kill time. Board games were also available for check-out from the registration table. Honestly, I thought the space was really used pretty well. I think I only noticed one issue from it. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, but it definitely was something that I think could be improved for next year.

The panel/Q&A area should be partitioned off from the rest of the room.

That’s it. See, the panel area are those chairs off to the right in that final photo. It isn’t a big area, and panelists did have microphones. BUT, sometimes the wall of sound from the rest of the room would overwhelm the sound of one voice coming through a mic. @lechevaliermalfet and I theorized that maybe some temporary partitions would help with the noise. Panels Speaking of panels, I admittedly only took one photo (I know, shame on me!).

There were 3 panels on that schedule, but I would argue that the General Cosplay Q & A that La Vie Cosplay held was actually a 4th panel. As such, I think it would have been nicer to have it running in its own time slot, instead of concurrent with the Robotics panel. I think it would have created a nice line-up too, with 2 cosplay panels and 2 non-cosplay panels alternating through the day. But that’s my opinion and I’m also selfish, because I love learning more about both cosplay and robots.

We attended two of the three panels: the Robots panel, which was interesting but ran very short, and a panel on wigs for cosplay that La Vie Cosplay presented. Both were definitely interesting.

Merch

Besides panels, there were obviously talented dealers to look at and potentially buy from. We did walk away with some stuff, too:

Honestly, I hadn’t even expected to see much I wanted to buy, let alone walk away with what we did (along with a small thing each for @someoldmemory and @el-draco-bizarro)

Giveaways (Scavenger Hunt, Swag Bag, Raffles)

If you still had time to kill (and we did), the con was running a nerdy scavenger hunt. I’ve got a photo of my card below. Please excuse the crappy quality - I took some of these photos after the con, once I was at home, when I realized I wanted to document some of this.

The scavenger hunt didn’t take @lechevaliermalfet and I long: I think for each of us, it was under 10 minutes. But it wasn’t really aimed at us, you know? I think younger con goers probably got more of a kick out of it. What entertained me was seeing where the images were placed - I saw a few of them before I even actually made the connection with the scavenger hunt.

Once you completed it, you could draw a prize from the giveaway table (that’s why there are 2 little aliens in that photo - we got them as prizes).

They were well stocked! And if you take note of that Slytherin printout, you’ll see the ‘L’ was bolded - that was one of the clue cards for the scavenger hunt!

I loved that giveaway table. You see, you could choose one free item whether you won a thing or not. Just because you were attending the con!

For a first con, especially to a kid who may not have money to spend on dealers, the idea of getting a free item from the table (and more, if you won the scavenger hunt or an hourly raffle) is pretty cool. I mean, I’m 32 and my inner 8-year-old was going nuts.

Actually when we registered, we got a little swag bag with our badge:

Again, I had expected to walk away from this con empty-handed or maybe with a print, at best. So getting a swag bag when i walked in the door was a win for me!

The con also ran raffles every hour. @lechevaliermalfet won one of the first drawings and got to choose from the small handful of 18+ prizes.

I also walked away with a comic, though I don’t think mine was quite as epic. Still, it turned out to be an interesting read anyway.

Cosplay

I did show up as Twilight Sparkle. And yes, my Spike was with me, though he was in my bag (which wasn’t with me) when I took this photo.

There were other cosplayers - the event page on Facebook has a nice group photo. But since many were (or at least appeared) to be under 18, and because of the relaxed atmosphere, I wasn’t running around snapping photos like I might have at a larger con.

There was a cosplay contest scheduled at the end of the day, but we opted to skip it.

Badges

The badge was a little big, but I like it. Assuming I ever get around to putting badges in an album, I’m not sure this one will fit. I also noticed they didn’t date the badge, which means they can probably re-use any leftovers for next year.

The lanyard is some cut-up Spiderman-patterned cloth. I love the simplicity of it, and it’s still so much cooler than a generic cord lanyard.

Pokemon Go

This was the same day as the Tyranitar Community Day. But given where I was, I only managed to get one Tyranitar, since I only lured in a handful of Larvitars with incense. Tbh, if I hadn’t had a crapton of candy, I wouldn’t have even gotten my one. Also, Central IL was under a Heat Advisory, so I really wasn’t inclined to leave the building to go walk around - or at least lounge on the nearby playground while waiting for Pokemon to show.

The experience as a whole

It was fun. It was relaxed. It’s definitely not aimed at me, and that’s perfectly okay, because it was still done well enough to be enjoyed by all. This is perfect for kids dipping their toes into the convention waters or for parents who want to know what the fuss is about. It’s a great introduction to the con atmosphere and community.

Would I do it again? Maybe. For me, driving just under an hour to kill three to four hours is definitely something I’d consider. I don’t know that I would recommend it to anyone who’s got farther to go, unless they’re stopping by while en route somewhere.

#hpld nerd con #hpld nerd con 2018 #con review #prose and cons

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