[castleofmuses]

(blog is slowly being revamped/updated - sorry for any missing pages. please lmk if you need anything or have any questions)

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muses

[castleofmuses]

meant to be a redraw of an old old drawing of them (from about a decade ago) don't know where the original is for reference tho

[castleofmuses]

oc that listening to linkin park makes me draw

[starsmuserainbow]

After having handed over the magnets, Lightning was ready for them to part ways too - it had actually been really, really cool to work with him, or with them more like, but she wasn't the type to stick around so of course they'd go their own ways now that the situation was settled - except that then, that man walked up to them, and Lightning's gaze too went to the camera.

Oh. News, or something like that.

Lightning had never really stuck around a place long enough to get caught by that before. She wouldn't mind the attention, really, and it could perhaps be fun to talk with fans or something, but, the idea of her face being broadcasted... Though, she had a whole new look since then - her hair so very different from how it once had been styled, the whole superhero do of course, being far from anything she would've worn, and her goggles. There was no way she was easy to recognize. Plus she wasn't going to stick around anyway, so it wasn't like this would help in locating her, even if she'd be recognized. It probably wasn't a big deal. Besides, she couldn't just zip away and leave Fulcrum to deal with this alone - though she did consider it for just a moment - that'd just be rude.

So instead, she put up a confident smile without quite feeling it, brushed some of her bangs away from her face, and hoped she could relax into it by just acting the part to start. "Younger maybe, but clearly up for the job." It didn't quite feel right to boast like that when the building and several cars took damage and it had taken them what had felt like rather long to finish it off, but it felt right to be proud and confident here.

[castleofmuses]

The man smiled widely at Lightning's response. "That's what I like to hear!"

Fulcrum grimaced under his mask, put off by the man's enthusiasm, as the man bobbed around them to stand alongside Fulcrum and Lightning in the camera's frame.

The guy gestured toward the fallen dino as he continued talking, "You know, this robot was designed to be as indestructible as they come. Able to withstand the wear and tear of everyday life with its owner, but also capable of withstanding hits so it can protect its owner and their property-"

"Looks like it destroyed the property to me," Fulcrum said.

"It's still in the testing phase - but the two of you are still standing, and managed to take it down without serious injury and while keeping everyone else safe."

Fulcrum's mind began to wander at that statement. He thought he could recall Lightning doing a check to make sure everyone was out of the building early on, but a quiet anxiety nagged at the back of his mind of 'what if he was remembering that wrong, or what if they missed someone? what if someone did get hurt and was still in there waiting?'. Should he ask Lightning to check again or would that be a bad call on tv? He already had some bad rumors about himself, he didn't want to give her a bad reputation too.

Meanwhile, the man continued talking. "This is a job I'd expect from experienced heroes- Heck! Maybe even a member of the Justice League! This goes to show that the future of our superheroes is looking bright!" He said this with a genuine smile as he looked at the two of them. "May I ask what you two call yourselves?"

[starsmuserainbow]

The point when the buyer got the weapon was always a tricky moment of selling weapons. It has happened before that someone then tried to use that against her before she'd be able to grab another weapon - but Blackfire wasn't worried. One, because she always carried a teleportation device with her for such 'business', and two, because she was confident enough in her own skills. And perhaps three, that she really doubted someone like him would do that; people in positions as high as his didn't tend to use such direct forms of 'betrayal'. "Of course," she said with a professional smile, and placed the axe's grip into his hand.

Now, the curious part would be to see if his light would work with the tamaranean technology just like their own did. She wasn't sure if their technology more reacted to the energy, or the emotions, or perhaps it was best when it was a combination of both, but he was going to try, and that would be useful knowledge for her too. Searching through a bag for a moment - actually turning her attention away from him even though he had the axe now, yes, because she wasn't afraid of anything - Blackfire found the shrinking cubes she had brought. "I've got some portable training dummies, if you'd like?" Most people would want to test weapons before buying them, after all, so she came prepared. Not waiting for a response, she threw three of the cubes into the space around them, and out of those cubes popped dummies of differing sizes and materials. She could suggest more too, like an actual sparring battle - more of a risk to do, really, but something she was willing to take for what could end up a lucrative deal - but testing with dummies was probably the first thing he'd want to do.

[castleofmuses]

Peregrine returned Blackfire's professional smile as he accepted the axe and gave a polite, "Thank you." As the weapon left her hand her power left with it leaving it dull and lifeless in his own. This was no matter - he hadn't activated his own power yet, after all. He let himself feel the natural weight and form of it for a second first.

He was about ready to test if he could activate it when Blackfire turned away for a moment - and action that stung him with both irritation and disappointment. One of the things that Tamaranean's were known for was their harsh, battle focused society. Yet here she was letting her guard down and turning her back on him: a foolish mistake he would have hit his son for if he'd done this in front of him. A foolish mistake that had gotten Peregrine's own older brother killed.

Granted that had been many many years ago, in another universe even. When Peregrine had lured his brother into that trap, and then, upon seeing him arrive, Kolby assumed that Peregrine had shown up to save him. He'd turned his back thinking that they would be fighting together. He was wrong.

But he'd been banished out of that universe, and escaped into this one where no one knew the truth of what he had done. Things had played out differently here. He supposed Blackfire had no way of knowing either, and she was neither his child nor his enemy. She was entirely unrelated, and, in this moment, a business partner. He had no need to strike her down, and doing so now, while she had more to potentially offer, would be disadvantageous to him.

So, Peregrine waited, watching her through narrowed eyes, as Blackfire pulled the shrinking cubes out of her bag and released the dummies into the room around them. An unimpressive display in his opinion compared to the advancements that Light Keepers had made to similar, storage related, technology.

He nodded in agreement as he looked around at the dummies, not noticing the wisp of purple fade from the weapon as he brushed his irritation aside. "This should do." He did want to spar - that was the only appropriate way to test a weapon in his opinion - but the dummies would be useful in familiarizing himself with how the weapon wielded at least.

With that, he turned to step some steps away from Blackfire. Peregrine never fully took his attention off of her, he wasn't naive, but he did not intend on striking her with this axe. Not at this moment, at least. He held the axe and moved it through the air in a few practice swings to judge its weight and balance. After that had been judged, he held the weapon in front of himself and breathed.

Like some sort of meditation, internally he reached into his stellar core and his energy rushed through him without breaking his form. His eyes came alive, glowing a brilliant, royal purple. His heart fluttered hungrily as he felt the energy surging through his veins. Yet, the weapon didn't come alive with him. The blade remained dull.

He tried again: this time gripping the handle tighter, taking his already stoked fire, and trying to direct its energy into the weapon. To force it through. The weapon rejected him like a rock might have: inanimately.

[starsmuserainbow]

"Right, that'd make sense." Once she was at the robot's side, she did try to tap the magnets first - nothing. Turning the dial the other way was the next attempt, and when that actually worked, Lightning quickly had collected all seven of them. She even went around the robot another time to make sure that was all of them, because even if she was rather sure that it had been seven magnets, she would rather check one time too many than to deliver back less magnets than she got.

Once she had the magnets, she walked over to Fulcrum again. "I suppose I'll just give them to you to take with you? Or should I still bring them somewhere?"

[castleofmuses]

Fulcrum slung his vest over one arm, opting to not even try putting it back on at the moment - there wasn't a real need for it now since the fight was over, and he wasn't sure if he even could put it back on while wearing his mask.

He looked at Lightning when she spoke to him. "I can take them," he said, extending a hand to ask for the canister the magnets had come in. He would end up clipping the thing onto his belt opposite of the side his staff was clipped onto.

By now, cops were starting to venture onto the scene the fight had taken place. Which meant it was a good time to leave.

Fulcrum's wings formed out from two perfectly measured slits in the back of his shirt. "Well, it's been-"

"And here are our two heroes!" A man boomed cheerfully as he stepped up to them, a camera person following him. The man was maybe in his mid 20's-30's, wearing a suit and a smile, and kept a consistent, intentional open body language toward the camera as he moved. It was evident that they were airing. Fulcrum froze as he looked at the camera.

The man paused for a second as he registered what he was looking at when he saw them. "Oh! Wow, you two are younger than I thought!"

[starsmuserainbow]

To the question of her personal favourite, Blackfire glanced over the weapons for a moment. While there was much that she preferred not coming from her home planet - maybe partly just to spite where she came from - the armor and weapons were incredibly useful because they were made for the tamaranean powers.

"The most obvious choices would be something to also shoot with, like these," she finally answered, gesturing to some that were either downright for shooting or had the option included, "but since my powers alone already allow for flight and shooting, I personally prefer to have other uses." She took up a small thing, that upon taking into her hands and letting her energy glow briefly, extended into a large axe, and when she then again let her energy glow, the blade glowed with the energy too. "It's already really useful how small this is before our powers cause it to expand into its proper shape, and in a weapon like this, our emotions increase the damage the blade itself can do." Tamaraneans were plenty strong without such enhancement, but that would make every single attack even worse and without needing to put in quite as much effort to land a devastating blow. She wouldn't really go for an axe herself, too clunky and big to allow for graceful, swift movements - a fine sword or dagger, or maybe a whip or something, would be more her thing, but the axe was nice for show.

[castleofmuses]

Peregrine watched as Blackfire spoke, as she activated the axe, and he grinned a small, dangerous grin. How strategic she was.

He, of course, also had the ability to fly (when his wings were out) and long range attack with his star flame or energy blasts. What would serve him well would be armor and something - something lethal - for close range fighting. Maybe a blade of some sort. Maybe something big and heavy that would emphasize his strength.

Peregrine had intended to ask her to choose something for herself - after all, it was hard to test a weapon without a sparing partner - but seeing the axe respond to her energy caught his attention. The grin washed off of his face as his eyes widened at the blade in curiosity, in hunger. Not necessarily at the axe itself, but how it responded to her. If even one piece of Tamaranean technology responded to him in the same way, that would open a plethora of possibilities.

He propped his walking stick against a wall before approaching her. "May I?" he held out a hand for the axe.

[starsmuserainbow]

Glancing back to what was left of the robot-dino, Lightning tilted her head slightly. "I don't think so." Or she forgot through the chaos of the fight, that was possible too. "Maybe they were active only for a few moments?" And would be easy to take off now? To try that, Lightning moved closer to the remnants of the robot and reached for one of the magnets. If the thing wouldn't be so heavy, she'd have offered to just bring the whole robot back - to that station where she got the magnets, or like, to wherever Fulcrum would tell her to - if they won't be able to remove the magnets, but, well... she may be fast, but she was no weight lifter.

[castleofmuses]

Fulcrum glanced at the hunk of junk the magnets were attached to. Simon's creations were usually pretty intuitive. "Try giving them a tap," he said, thinking of how his staff functioned. "If that doesn't work, try doing the opposite of whatever you did to turn them on."

He stepped away to retrieve his vest off of the ground.

[starsmuserainbow]

Glad for the hand, Lightning took the help in getting up, and once she stood, she stretched a little to test her body. "Thanks... all only thanks to those magnets though. We'd have been screwed without those." Speaking of, she glanced around, but she had dropped her earpiece to the ground when the noise went through it earlier, and she couldn't even see it right now. It was probably bound to have been destroyed by the rest of the battle. "I... think I might owe you a new earpiece, though." With 'you' she meant both of them, here, of course. And since she couldn't speak directly to him without an earpiece, well, "Thank Simon from me, for the magnets and everything."

[castleofmuses]

Although it was hidden behind his mask, Fulcrum frowned at the first thing she said. They would have been a lot less screwed if he had a grip on his plasma powers. Now wasn't the time to dwell on that, though. "Ah, well... something something teamwork," he said, exhausted, as he gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

He looked out at the battlefield as journalists got their cue and began moving onto the scene for what was probably the big scoop of the week. "Don't worry about the earpiece," he said to Lightning, "wireless earbuds aren't exactly hard to come by. He will want the magnets back, though. Did he say how to take them off?"

Fulcrum guessed that his own comms were busted from whatever that sound attack was, judging by the faint static crackling noises in his helmet. He doubted he'd be able to contact Simon right now anyways, though. Simon's hearing was much more sensitive than his; he'd probably been hit by that sound attack the worst.

Fulcrum felt bad for him, but he had to finish up here before he could head back and check on Simon himself.

[an-angel-0f-death]

i love a character who can't stop dying. bitch you JUST got better what do you MEAN you died again. that's the fifth time this week

[castleofmuses]

had a dream that was justice league slice of life type shenanigans, and nearing the end of it Batman was framed for some crime while vigilante-ing, and at that point Caed walked into the middle of the standoff of them about to try to capture/arrest him and was like 'Hey, I know he would never do this so y'all've gotta let him go. In fact, maybe I did it- I'm a shapeshifter so it could've been me.'

they ignored Caed, rip, & Batman had to go into hiding to investigate. The justice league was also investigating (Superman knew something was up / wasn't convinced that Batman has done the crime. also Superman could read minds in my dream? I don't think that's a normal Superman power) and Caed tried to sneakily followed Batman to wait for the perfect moment to jump in and help him

lowkey makes me want to write a little fic of Caed and Batman interacting for funsies

[spidcrswcb]

“Yeah it’s always better to look out for the little guy.” Peter agree his phone beeping he glance at the message from his aunt may and shake his head making a mental note to message her back later on.

He look at Adrien “aren’t you on the billboard across the street?”

[castleofmuses]

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and gave a sheepish smile at the question. "Ah, yeah. I used to be a model. I'm not anymore, but I guess those signs are contracted to be up for a certain amount of time..."

That situation put a pit of dread in his heart. He opted to change the subject.

"Have you seen any of the famous landmarks around here yet? The Eiffel Tower? The Louvre?"

"The catacombs?" he heard Plagg whisper from his hiding spot, wavering his voice to sound spooky. Adrien ignored that.

[decrepify-deactivated20250528]

Yup returning to necromancy, I’m so back. And you’re so back, and you’re so back, and you’re so back, and you’re

[spidcrswcb]

Peter laugh as he gingerly close the metal suitcase practically hearing Mr.stark lecture him on the importance of ‘a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’ not to mention the field day that would happen back home. He wasn’t the only superhero in New York but he was starting to notice three months in that the ‘big’ heroes tended to focus on the big issues not the little guy.

He look at Adrien as he reply “a friend made it for me, told me not to let anything happen to it since there were so many hours spent sewing it together.” Another lie to add onto his jenga tower, he wasn’t fond of it but with the mask came a need for fail safes.

“Don’t you guys have your own super heroes here? I know it’s not avenger level but that’s still cool.” He move the suitcase under his bed.

[castleofmuses]

Adrien couldn't help but smile at the mention of a friend having made it, and how much work they must have put into it. It made him think of Marinette - how she loved to design and make clothes, and how much effort and care she put into everything. Peter must have some really amazing people in his life, too.

Before he could comment on that, however, Peter shifted the topic.

"Oh, yeah, we have Ladybug and Chat Noir here who take on akumatized villains, and other miraculous holders who help out on all sorts of things all over the city. It's not usually 'save the entire world' type stuff, but, um, if you save one person you save that person's entire world, right?"

[castleofmuses]

might only list canon characters (or maybe fandom characters in general) on muse page for a bit

[castleofmuses]

think i'll put up indie ocs on their own page later ? & then muse page won't be so lengthy

also want to rework my tagging system

[castleofmuses]

conceptualising a few outfits for adrien with character maker app on my phone for funsies

[castleofmuses]

might only list canon characters (or maybe fandom characters in general) on muse page for a bit