, [dualgraced. ]

𝐀𝐈𝐁𝐈, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎 [ dualgraced. ]

    It’s been nearly three months. Sixty some odd days since people began dying on the streets. Thugs and small-timers that her agency had no official record of ever having done anything, but in the aftermath of their brutal deaths the evidence was all laid out beautifully.

    Almost too conveniently. 

    Worse yet, the killer never leaves anything of themselves behind. No hair, not even a boot print despite all the blood, which drowns out any scent they might’ve left behind. Each scene is almost too much for Aibi’s senses, trained to pick it up from further away, but with a room practically bathed in it, she makes the rookie move of emptying her stomach outside of the first one. The police can’t fault her for it, as most of them took one look and needed the rest of the day off.

    After three months of it, they finally catch their target on video. Despite the gruesome scene, her eyes are trained on him. The Commission info dumps what little they have, but a name is all that sticks. Warbringer. Sitting back in her chair, she realizes his name isn’t just to strike fear. He has brought a war to their streets, a war of factions. Though what faction he’s working for isn’t obvious, given none of the ones he’s killed seem to be connected. There had to be more to it.

    Two more months of dead-ends and banging her head against walls to find him before she enlists the help of Hawks and his agency. Perhaps a view from the sky above would find a new angle. With the addition of the number 3 hero, they find a piece of torn cloth from him. Aibi hasn’t let it out of her possession, learning every nuance of it’s scent and coming to know it almost better than her own.

    Warbringer’s kill counter is now 56.

    The wolf hero has chased his scent for a couple weeks now, each instance having slipped away as she tries not to get herself injured in the process. Was he indestructible?! How was he getting away like this?

    This time, however, she isn’t letting him get away. She’s hyperfocused as she bounds after him, large paws gaining ground on him. He takes a small side street, leaving her shifting to run on two feet to desperately follow.

    Her clouded mind doesn’t realize he’s there to kill more, nor is she aware the building they’re closing in on is owned by a small group of would-be villains.

        The name itself means nothing to the man, but it’s aptly fitting for a man who grew up in the streets of war. A child soldier, something his country exploited and used for the sake of pushing their agenda forward. He who named him is a man with nigh snide grin, manipulated, broke, and regenerated his body until he met the cruel man’s wishes. He only gave him what he wanted, in the end, and only found that he may be his downfall.

        And he made a mistake. A piece of his clothing had gotten torn in a scuffle with a perpetrator and he’s contemplated numerous times to steal that piece of evidence or set it on fire. No, it was more efficient to set it aflame, which he did as no one seemed to notice when he infiltrated the agency. However, it’s too late by then and this particular agency has a person with a lupine quirk.

        Unfortunate for him is when this agency even went as far as to collaborate with Hawks’ Agency, the number 3 hero in Japan’s current hero rankings. More hurdles he needed to cross as he worked to clean up the mess in Japan on the Emperor’s orders.

        This next particular mission ought to be simple, he thinks, stowing the helmet in a secure and safe location when it seems to be malfunctioning. What a day that it decides to do so, but he’ll have to make do and makes a mental note to look at it when the mission finishes. This little group of people should be quick, numbering only five men, altogether. And, damn, the hero that’s been chasing him for the last several weeks is bounding down an alleyway in this direction as she follows him.

        For a moment, he weighs his options before his body moves. 

        Today, he isn’t wearing his typical uniform and instead, has opted to wear a black skin-tight t-shirt with black cargo pants. Discovering that he’s been relatively mess-free whenever he takes on missions of groups below five, it’s probable that he wouldn’t have been injured. With boxing gloves to complete the look, he jumps down the side of the building and lands on the ground to continue the fluid motion.

        He ducks into an alleyway to make her smaller than the wolf form, but as he runs past a building, the smell of gunpowder sets him on alert. His blue eye zooms and begins to flicker through the tell-tale signs of explosives, set up all around the building. The people in the building, seemingly to have recognized the lupine hero and their impending doom, blows up the building in an explosive rumble in an attempt to take him down. And he idly wonders if she’s been so focused on chasing him that she doesn’t notice the building that’s collapsing around her. He skids to a stop and turns, immediately running back to her.

        It’s too much of a risk for him to kick away the building and it’s too much risk to punch the falling debris that’s falling around her. He reacts quickly and yanks the lupine female to his chest as he takes the brunt of the damage to his back and head. The building falls quickly around them and he takes a knee when the full weight of tons of concrete crash into him with the additional force of gravity. And he takes another as more weight comes bearing down.

        It’s another few terrifying seconds before the building finally settles a bit, random small debris rumbling and falling around them in between the cracks. And after the dust has cleared a little, he flicks his gaze around the area they’re in. There’s no space, only enough for him to sit upright and lean against the building and her in his lap.

        Lovely.

        He finally speaks after more of the debris and dust settles. ❝Are you alright?❞ he asks. He quickly takes a mental catalogue of his body and notes that he should’ve been crushed and that his back and bones ought to be broken. He has a fracture in his skull, but it’s already healing before he even makes a note of it. It seems most of his healing is targeted at his back, spine, and legs.

Artem Wing tag dump. winks @goldenloved​ because something something artem and marius snark? or would you rather be Artem and I can be Marius? :3

( artem // gallery. ) ( artem // drabble. ) ( artem // starter. ) ( artem // meme replies. ) ( artem // thread. ) ( artem // worldbuilding. ) ( artem // headcanon. )

verses. ( artem // v.i ) - default verse, post whatever current chapters / cards flexible. catch all verse tag for those outside of Tears of Themis and for winging it. ( artem // v.ii ) - takes place in his childhood. Selective, requires plotting. ( artem // v.iii ) - takes place anywhere from his young school years to college as he is studying for both his bar exam and advancement exam to becoming a Senior Attorney. ( artem // v.iv ) - takes place between chapters 1 - 5.

Xiao from Genshin Impact tag drop.

( xiao // gallery. ) ( xiao // drabble. ) ( xiao // starter. ) ( xiao // meme replies. ) ( xiao // thread. ) ( xiao // worldbuilding. ) ( xiao // headcanon. ) verses. ( xiao // v.i ) - default verse, post whatever happened recently in canon (according to the mun) ( xiao // v.ii ) - Takes place just prior to his freedom when he was enslaved by another god. ( xiao // v.iii ) - takes place after Morax freed him from enslavement up to the Archon War. ( xiao // v.iv ) - takes place in the aftermath of the Archon War. ( xiao // v.v ) - takes place in the years in between the end to present day Liyue. more will be added as needed.

G’raha Tia Tag drop.

( g’raha // gallery. ) ( g’raha // drabble. ) ( g’raha // starter. ) ( g’raha // meme replies. ) ( g’raha // thread. ) ( g’raha // worldbuilding. ) ( g’raha // headcanon. ) 

 verses. ( g’raha // v.i ) - default verse, post whatever happened recently in canon (according to the mun) ( g’raha // v.ii ) - Takes place during the Crystal Tower Raids. Selective. ( g’raha // v.iii ) - Takes place during the events of Shadowbringers. ( g’raha // v.iv ) - Takes place during Post-Shadowbringers. ( g’raha // v.v ) - Takes place during Endwalker ( g’raha // v.vi ) - Takes place during Post-Endwalker

more will be added as necessary.

ℙ𝔸𝔻𝔽𝕆𝕆𝕋 [ amaeranthos. ]

          𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒.  Sirius is undoubtedly glad to have his son back home, despite knowing—thanks to Remus and Athena’s countless lectures—that the separation was a necessary thing for them as Harry grew.  Blah blah independence, blah blah healthy relationship boundaries, blah blah blah.  Sure, maybe Sirius felt more and more tempted to fall back on Plan A, wrapping Harry up in wool and hiding him away forever, but he didn’t think he was becoming That Sort™ of overprotective.  Yet.

          Absently, Sirius notes Dobby’s arrival and reaches out to pat his head in thanks as the small elf goes about whisking Harry’s belongings away.  He can’t help but smile at the cheerful don’t worry, Dobby be’s looking after Harry Potter’s Paddy his son’s devoted house elf leaves in his wake.  Dobby is a good elf.

          ❛  We absolutely did not get cosy.  ❜      And Merlin, isn’t it a suddenly horrifying thought that his son—his teenaged son who will undoubtedly need it—hasn’t been given The Talk™ before.  He silently curses Petunia even more than usual, realising that this was an aspect of fatherhood he has no idea how to even begin with.  Prongs, he pleads internally, send help!  He very well can’t send Harry back to Hogwarts knowing that his son is not only interested in Hermione  ( thank Merlin he’s got eyes for good, sensible, trustworthy Hermione )  but that he could very well be going into dating completely blind.

          That’s a crisis for later.

          ❛  She’s actually got some family business that’s come up                 the kind that would only get worse if I were to tag along.  ❜      Sirius can’t help but pull a face as he says it, the unspoken truth bitter on his tongue.  Athena clawed her way into the Wizengamot entirely on her own merits, using her family’s trade ties to Britain to justify a foreign noble house holding a coveted seat of the British Wizengamot, but already political opponents are trying to rewrite the House of Liang seat’s history.  If it were anyone else, the notion that Sirius’ relationship with her having allowed her a seat would be preposterous; however, for Athena—as a Chinese woman in a white man’s world—it’s suddenly being construed as completely likely. 

          ( Racism, Harry—racism everywhere. )

          ❛  Basically, our detractors are already spreading rumours to claim that the Black family ensured the House of Liang claimed a seat                    because she’s a single witch and the first of her line, so they can twist perspectives to make it seem suspicious.  Even with public record showing I’d been outcast from the House of Black and in Azkaban when she’d begun her campaign for a seat, it’s still a gross double standard that she’s had to live with even before now.  ❜      There’s no small amount of disdain in his tone as Sirius moves to take a seat on one of the nearby parlour loveseats for an impromptu politics lesson.  Anger burns in his veins not only for Athena, but for his late grandmother as well—Arcturus may have done everything within his power to silence those who spoke ill of his wife’s heritage, but even still Sirius hears whispers implying he’s of tainted blood.  The idea that Athena is enduring it now makes him itch with the desire to hex each and every old coot to open their mouth.      ❛  Prejudice in the wizarding world isn’t restricted to muggles, but also to race in general, so Athena has always experienced even more scrutiny than is fair.  We’ll be building my alliance with her slowly, which means that while she and I are allies through your house, our… personal history puts her in a difficult position.  ❜

          ❛  But, well, you know me                   ❜      Sirius pauses to dip a biscuit into the tea left inconspicuously on the sitting table beside him.  Dobby’s getting rather good at silently providing accommodations—perhaps he should thank old Lucy for being so kind as to free Dobby from employment so he could work for them.      ❛  Politics one-oh-one, Harry: where I can’t go, Moony sure as hell can.  ❜

          Harry waits for the question to be answered, seeing Dobby briefly with a quick nod of acknowledgement before he disappears again. Harry feels whatever discomfort he has at separating from the man disappear. He watches with amusement as Sirius retorts that they hadn’t gotten cosy at all. What a disappointment, but he knows that it’s not the case. With an exaggerated roll of his eyes, Harry lightly shakes his head with mirth tinting the green in his eyes.

          Still, there’s something that flashes in Sirius’ eyes that Harry can’t help but notice. Hm? He wonders what it could be, but it’s a thought quickly cast aside while he makes for a seat, listening to Sirius begin to explain to him where Athena has gone off to. 

          It’s the moment that Harry sits next to Sirius that he frowns, feeling the implication that comes with his words. This immediately makes Harry realize a lesson is coming and that the work Athena has done in the Wizengamot has been of her own merit, her own hard work. Athena has always been exceptional, he always thought, as she’s the only one that kept her faith and belief in Sirius was innocent. As the only Asian woman on one of the coveted seats, Harry wondered how she had gotten there, but trusted that Sirius would eventually explain it to him.

          And it looks like that lesson has finally arrived.

          The disdain is apparent and Harry can’t help but wrinkle his nose. Just like Sirius, he makes a face. He’s never liked how the wizards separated people by their blood as it really makes no difference. One is either exceptional or not, but politics and all that, the teen listens carefully and intently.

          Sirius is the head of one of the Old Houses, old nobles, a lesson he’s learned back when they were in the time bubble in America just this summer. The House of Black has ancient and old pull, a leverage, and powerful magic that gives them their right to a seat. From what he’s gleaned in his time with Athena, she’s of similar and a powerful lineage, only she’s based in China. And from what he’s seen, she might even be of an even older lineage than that of House of Black, given from what he vaguely remembers of Chinese history. It’s really a pity and frustrating that Sirius can’t help Athena without someone spinning it that she’s leaning on another’s political power, a man specifically, without demoralizing and degrading Athena in the process.

          His furrowed brow expresses his own frustration, thinking how many years it’s been since she’s gained the seat, and how long it’s been since she’s had it that they’re still questioning her standing within the Wizengamot.

          ❝That’s terrible,❞ he says quite lamely, not finding any other way of really and truly wording the near unfathomable frustration and annoyance that this entire thing is.

❛  Prejudice in the wizarding world isn’t restricted to muggles, but also to race in general, so Athena has always experienced even more scrutiny than is fair.  We’ll be building my alliance with her slowly, which means that while she and I are allies through your house, our… personal history puts her in a difficult position.  ❜

          At this, Harry can’t help but feel indignant. Just when he thinks that muggles are already terrible in how they separate people by the color of their skin that they’ve waged wars, it’s also in the wizarding world? He’s always been aware of the unfair treatment because of it, but to see and hear it first hand in a world he calls home, well, it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. But then, this entire thing of pureblood versus anything that’s related to the “purity” of blood has always made him angry. What’s more, just because of her past connections with Sirius has to make it harder for her to keep that connection? To make her last in their alliance together when she ought to be one of the first?

          ❝That’s not fair!❞ Harry finds the passionate words come out without intention, wanting to properly form words before he speaks, but ah, it’s a little late now. It’s easier sometimes when he takes a moment to pause and think about the words to come out, but in this case, he can only see how hard it must’ve been for Athena. Not only is she a woman, but because she’s Chinese, she has to face even more scrutiny and standards than any of the other women in the Wizengamot? Bloody hell. ❝She was the only one in that place that believed you were innocent—before I knew you were innocent! And that’s the reason why she’s not here? Here, with us?❞

          Only a teen and empathetic, Harry takes a minute to realize his outburst, and properly sits back down, having gotten up in his fury. He’s furious on Athena’s behalf, but he has no doubt Sirius is feeling much the same. He slumps back into the loveseat that he shares with Sirius, running a hand down his face before sitting up. ❝Sorry, Padfoot, but that’s just—that’s just so terrible that she has to go and deal with that by herself.❞ For the entirety of almost all of her adult life, in fact, that he wonders how is she even okay.

          Sirius shifts the conversation and Harry just now notices the tea and biscuits set on his side of the couch. Eager for a snack and tea, Harry copies Sirius in partaking as he listens.

          He sighs in relief, glad that Athena has Remus.

          After eating a whole biscuit and drinking some of the tea, careful not to burn his tongue, Harry turns to Sirius with the tea in his hands. ❝But, is there anything we can do to help her without us actually helping her?❞ Though, Harry has an idea, Sirius knows the finer details that involve the issues with Athena. After all, Athena has left the political lessons to Sirius that she hasn’t explained too much of her own situation and standing. He recollects the last meeting and thoughtfully frowns.

          ❝Why would the detractors be trying so hard now to contest her seat when she’s won and had her seat since years ago?❞ It’s not hard to remember the faces of the people there when she showed up, a woman who had the aura and presence that’s only matched by Sirius himself. Hm, is there something else he’s missing with all of this?

𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇, 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆? [ rosafulmen. ]

She  sees  him  looking  at  her,  and  her  eyes  narrow.  “ … ”  Who  will  break  the  silence  first  ?  The  most  stoic  of  standoffs.

          Noctis regards Lightning with the continued and silent question. Honestly, this is stoicism at its finest. Now, he’s just being dumb and won’t break the silence first—this has become a contest of stoic-ness...