VT App From Above!

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Warning for spoilers for Dominic Deegan as well as angst from Wake...

Also violence and gore and while I will be mostly skipping over the city of sin arc, it will at least have a mention. So yeah, warnings all around.

Comments

[death_from_above]

Player Information

Name: Chicklet
Age: Enough past 16 to not be an issue, lol
Contact details: Plurk - ChickletLARP
Other characters: Xion, Khardeen, Najaran

Character Information

Name: Spark/Garfield Agreste Privateer Pirate
Canon: Dominic Deegan, but he is very CRAU. VERY
Canon Point: May 24th's strip 2013, which was the original last strip of the series before the reboot.
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: CRAU. WAY CRAU.
Age: In cat form... he's an adult cat. Hard to tell beyond that. In Gar form he looks to be a teenaged boy, as PP he... looks like a flesh golem. So you know... age is relative. And he's made of someone'e relatives, at any rate.

World Information:
Okay, so this is a little complicated on the Nautilus side, so starting with canon.
Yeah this series needs a Wiki

The world Spark comes from is somewhere between a WORLD and a KH style jamjar of worlds and planes. How many worlds and planes there are exactly is hard to pin down, but it comes out as a lot. Mostly I will be talking about the primary world the story takes place on here, with references to the others as needed.

The world is eclectic, with different parts being ruled by different races who often tend to isolate from the other races for the most part. The general mood in the human run areas, for example, is excessively xenophobic with most humans being shown to be small minded bullies that attack not only outsiders but anyone who is at all different. Gregory is abused for being crippled, Luna for being deformed. (By a spell, but no one knew or cared for most of her life.)

Now of course there are exceptions. The Deegan family specifically tend to be more open minded, welcoming and friendly. There are also some towns that have either been traditionally more welcoming - like the city that grew up around the university where Miranda works - and some that became more accepting over the course of the comic, like Barthis. Barthis learned to be more accepting when a group including a flesh golem and an Orc stepped up to save them all. The university has employees from multiple species besides human.

There are way too many species to discuss, honestly from the humans to the orcs to the dragons to the mongrels, the elves... But the short version is that Spark, as a cat in the Deegan family, has encountered a great many other races and has ventured outside the human controlled kingdom of Callian. Most notably probably would be that he was there when the Werewolves closed their borders to the humans - for the most part, and that he was there when the Orcs reunified and became more welcoming - for the most part.

Through his years on the world, Spark has been party to a great many odd happenings, though mostly he was the comic relief, rather than the main participant. He is aware of other worlds, other planes, of the other countries in his world, and to a small degree it is implied that he is aware of the fourth wall. At least, based on how often he makes Dominic glare at it.

Dominic being the titular character was often at the center of events, and as he is a Seer and extremely powerful, Spark was often around for some really interesting adventures. For the ones he missed, well, he is canonically the one people vent to and dump their drama on.

At basics, there is an actual ***** and a war there actually impacted the mortals. Necromancy is frowned upon but exists. There are white mages ands seers and sorcerers and illusionists and bigoted knights who are the primary police force for the kingdom. Basic technology is low. Magical tech is fairly high but available only to some. Education and literacy are generally low, though there are some very notable exceptions.

And yeah, compared to Nautilus, that was the simple world.

The game Wake mostly took place on a world called Nautilus. Nautilus is the name of the world as well as the sentient living city where most of the action of the game happened. (I am sure Nita's app has info I missed since she was more involved with metaplot than Spark was, and is also CRAU from there.)

In some ways, Wake is a typical power nerf/gain new powers jamjar. Things were odd in their worlds then they heard a call to WAKE. When they did, they came to in Nautilus, all their powers gone, but they had the ability to learn a new power called Bending. It was more or less short for Bending Reality To Suit Your Needs, and was pretty much exactly what that sounds like. People were able to relearn canon powers over time through Bending, and learn new abilities. And that should be more or less that on Nautilus, nice and simple. It isn't.

Nautilus had a sense of humor. Events in the games were chaos storms, partially directed by the city itself. At least... that's the prevailing theory as far as I know it among characters. (We are still in end game as of writing this, so not all has been revealed yet.) The storms sometimes did odd small things, like turning everyone into talking horses for a week or giving them candy that changed their moods based on which one they ate last. But often the chaos storms were bigger and prompted full on AU events. Characters had memories of a whole other life or lives. And while some of them were amusing but could be shrugged off after the fact, some of them had a profound impact on Spark.

Among these were multiple AUs of Paris (Via Miraculous Ladybug), and the Nautilus Academy school storm. Both will be discussed at length in the personal history section.


Basically where his canon world is one of many but he mostly kept to his and just knew about the others, Nautilus was a much smaller world with effectively hundreds of worlds within it. (And that is without the travel TO other worlds allowable in Wake, but those didn't really change Spark much so are being ignored as this is already too confusing by half as it is.)

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Dominic decided that they were going back with his parents to Quiral, where his mother was headmaster of a prestigious school of magic. On the way there though, Dominic fell into a coma and was out for a week. He had a series of visions about something coming called the Storm Of Souls. Jayden and Milov had arrived in that time so Jayden could be there spiritually for the friends and family of the students the Infernomancer killed. Dominic told them about the Storm of Souls and Miranda was able to add to what he knew. The souls of the Chosen (from the attack on Barthis) were in a huge powerful mass being hedl back by something called Acibek spheres. The Storm itself is a semi-sentient ball of chaos made from souls meant to be a weapon. Spark broke up the tense mood, but it bounced right back with an argument between Dominic and Miranda, getting Dominic sent to his room without supper (note he is actually an adult) Spark got his supper, so it was alright.

After the others ate, Luna and Spark brought some dinner to Dominic and then the two humans bored Spark with a lot of science of magic talk, proving them both nerds. That night Spark threatened to leave Dominic a hairball because he hadn't fed him.

Things for a bit were bad for Dominic and the others as Dominic kept getting pulled into the Storm drama via his second sight. Btu nothing much affected Spark until Milov gave Dominic a treat to help him with the stress given he could no longer smoke - thank you Greg. Mavple candy.Which is apparently pure sugar. Dominic had a new addiction and tore around the house like a madman. Jayden helped calm him down so he could focus on what was important. Making dinner. Oh, yeah, and catching them all up on what he learned, too. The basic jist is that Jacob accidentally summoned the storm by building a flesh golem out of the parts of the Chosen, and with the extra dead souls from the ones that died in Barthis and the summoning, they were breaking out of the Acibek cage. Dominic had a plan to recapture them - which would require the sacrifice of a new Acibek to form the cage - and then throw them into the Elemecca; a city-machine at the edge of the ten planes that destroys things and filters them providing balance for all the worlds.

Dominic had a vision that night about one of Miranda's students, Nimmel. He survived the infernomancer's attack and was the one that told him where Miranda was. Guilt eating him, he tried to kill himself. Dominic sent Luna to save him. Meanwhile Dominic fell into another vision state, during which he unlocked a lot of Greg's powers so his little brother could single handedly save Barthis. Because it needed saving from the Chosen. You know. Again. spark found out about... some of this... when he woke up from a nap, went to check on Dominic as Luna was coming back. Light was coming out of Dominic's eyes and mouth. Spark ran to get Luna, who got there just in time to grab Dominic's robe.... as the Seer vanished. Spark noped out at that point and went back to sleep.

Dominic contacted them as soon as he could to tell them he was alright, but that was all he had strength to do.

Dominic contacted them again to bring them up to speed, about Celesto being the Champion of Chaos and his being the Champion to stand against him, about saving the students' souls from the souls of the Chosen. About how he was staying with an extra-planar being named Klo Tarak. All he had learned in the update.

Miranda couldn't leave her students again, so Luna, Spark, Donovan, Jayden, and Milov had to to the Sylvan Oracle (the adventure with Greg that Spark missed at the start of the summery) to ask her how to make the cage strong enough to throw the Storm Of Souls into the Elemecca.

On their path was a slime mold who greeted them as friends, seemingly Dejah. But Spark rushed forward to greet his friend who was upset at being licked and did not taste like jelly. So the first trap was foiled when Spark told them all that this was an imposter!

The illusion proved to be a demon/Chosen thing... that tried to kill Spark, but Milov jumped in the way taking a chest full of claws. Being a rather large Spellwolf prepared for melee rather than a small talking cat, Milov was fine. He transformed out of his human form and the battle was on.

The Chosen/Demon told them they were too late to stop Helixa from leading their team to kill the Oracle. They left Milov to fight, the rest had to hurry or that would become the truth.

Then they encountered Jacob, his flesh golem, and a horde of undead zombies. Donovan and Jayden stayed to fight, sending Luna and Spark onward.

Helixa was easy enough to track by that point, she'd left a trail of dead bodies. Spark and Luna came upon her as she was facing off against a nature golem called Dirk, in his monster form. Dirk was guarding the Oracle and the Oracle's student whom he was in love with. Helixa outed the Oracle and Dirk as both being Acibeks. Helixa raised her hand threatening death and wound up staring at an impaled Spark who had yelled DEATH FROM ABOVE then got caught on some deadly sharp nails. Thankfully it was just an especially convincing illusion. Having borrowed the trick from Miranda, Luna had wrapped a trap spell in an illusion. (Spark, btw, looked at a convincing double of himself, brutally killed and was impressed by how much it looked like him. So... yeah.)

There was a brief argument where the Oracle made it clear she intended to be the sacrifice, not Dirk. But before they could resolve anything, Helixa broke free of the spell. Helixa and Luna had an epic battle, which made Spark happy because he realized he could summarize it in alteration.

The three battles in the forest raged on while the battle in the other planes was joined. Luna used an illusion of Rilian, the first Necromancer, killing Luna to get close to Helixa then as Rilian bit Helixa's lips off so she couldn't cast spells anymore. Meanwhile the actual Rilian showed up and accepted the Oracle's sacrifice, sending the souls that composed her to the plane where Dominic was fighting Celesto to strengthen the cage around the Storm Of Souls. But then he just left, leaving Helixa to kill Luna, who was, at that point, badly wounded. She would have succeeded too, except Klo Tark, Dominic's extra-planar blue friend showed up and saved Luna's life, leaving Helixa wounded and paralyzed so she would be forced to watch Order triumph over Chaos again.

Klo Tark and Luna sensed Dominic falling into the Elemecca. Klo Tark enraged Luna so she would attack him, he ducked, and the attack hit the demon thing that Milov was fighting. He quickly explained that he needed her to cast that spell, hurry there wasn't much time to save Dominic. He said they all needed to be together to have any chance at all. So they all rushed to help Jayden and Donovan.

Donovan had been fighting the flesh golem and despite Donovan's skill and experience, it was fairly even. Until Donovan called him "Quilt-man" in a taunt and then told him to "show me what you're made of." The flesh golem stopped dead - pun very much intended- blinked several times, then burst out laughing. A few more jokes and the golem was helpless with laughter.

Disgusted, Jacob expressed his disappointment with his creation. Jayden pointed out that creating a life that could laugh and appreciate humor was actually a great success. He declared he was just going to kill her now. Then they all heard Spark's battle cry of "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" Jacob rolled his eyes, unimpressed... but didn't expect Spark to be riding on the shoulder of Dirk who was more than capable of holding his own against a Necromancer. Jacob realized the danger at the last minute an vanished into the ground, abandoning his golem. Klo Tark informed them all that they had to hurry if they wanted to save Dominic.

Klo Tark made them all sit around in a circle and focus all their thoughts and energy on Dominic who was minutes or less away from being destroyed by the Elemecca. They all did so. Klo Tark vanished and a very VERY wounded Dominic appeared. Klo had switched their physical places, and went to die in Dominic's place, sacrificing himself. They had just enough time to psychically say goodbye before the Elemecca destroyed the blue skinned hero. Spark summed it all up with alliteration then pointed out that they should all have fish. Wounded and spent - Dominic missing half a leg - headed back home, the flesh golem with them as if he were part of the family all along.

A few other wrap up things happened like Helixa managing to escape with Miranda's staff then getting killed permanently by Miranda, and Klo's ghost pushing Celesto into the Elemecca but Spark didn't see those. (added them here because he does find out later, but I couldn't remember when.)

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Luna got offered a staff position at Miranda's school while Spark tried to convince Dominic that loosing half his leg in an epic battle was fate's way of telling him that he should be a pirate. While Luna and Dominic got all sappy and mushy, Spark headed out to find Donovan who would appreciate his humor. Donovan and Spark went to check up on the Golem and discovered that they adored the guy. Great sense of humor. And even Miranda who was ready to say he had to be destroyed found herself taking to him when rather than defending himself he told a bad physics joke. Then she was "inclined" to agree with them. They found out Jacob had never named him so they did. After he rejected Patches, Donovan suggested Quilt. Which about covered it. As Quilt would later become Spark's best friend other than Dominic, this was important to include. And before you think the bad jokes were excessive, they were far less than what the canon contained for the section.

Spark went back upstairs, but Dominic and Luna were still being sappy. When he called them out on it he found out that Luna has a very good throwing arm and we the readers discovered that he can be slammed into a wall so hard that it cracks without being hurt.

On Luna's first day, Dominic was left home alone with Quilt and Spark who bonded over their love of puns. And pirates! They spent the first half of the day happily playing pirates, including tying Dominic up. Fierla came with Luna to rescue him and put him under a sleep spell so she could fit him for an artificial leg without hurting him. While he was out, Dominic had a vision about Szark, but before he could tell them about it they were interrupted by Captain Quilt's quiche.

After they ate, Dominic wrote a letter to Szark, then remembered about Gregory. Going back to the old running... or rather... falling... gags from when Greg couldn't stand unaided, Dominic forgot he didn't yet have a prosthetic and was missing half a leg and face planted. All the way down the stairs.

Instead of his crystal ball he was given the paper which had an article on Barthis. The town was destroyed, but there were very few deaths. According to the article, the attack had been aimed at Greg and because he failed to save two lives, and the town itself was destroyed, Greg was being blamed for the attack while a stadium was going to be built where the town had been to honor a man who had recently died (who Dominic knew to be a grade A bigot and worse that had previously attacked Greg in an adventure largely skipped in this summary because Spark wasn't there). They then found out that Luna knew a lot about the lawyer behind all this, Serk Brakkis, because another of her sisters was sleeping with him. (We will find out there was history between him and Luna as well, but that isn't crucial to Spark so that's about all the space it gets.)

They wanted to rush off to help Greg, but Dominic needed to wait for his leg to be ready and Luna had just started a new job and Miranda really can't leave her students at this point. So Donovan, Quilt, Spark, and Donovan's best friend (Szark's father) went to Barthis. Szark's father, Lars is an estates expert who went to help for legal reasons. Spark and Quilt went, of course, as pirates, and to no one's shock. Donovan was decked out in his usual eye-bleeding shade of pink. On their way Spark discovered that Quilt lacks a brain. Mostly because he could see through his head, via the ears.

They had a dramatic entrance into Barthis after Donovan carved his initials into the clothing of Serk's bodyguards. Things got boring for a while, till Greg found out that Donovan had brought their axes. By which they, of course meant, guitars. Donovan and Greg began to shred and drew a crowd. From there, the idea of how to raise enough money to get Greg off the hook and rebuild the town was born. A benefit concert. (Not every battle needs weapons.)

Donovan got to work putting together what they would need for the concert, contacting all the right people. They would need the church because it was corrupted ground, an old friend of Miranda's called the Maestro to summon lightning to change their guitars into electric, students to build the stage....

But while they were ramping up a swordsman named Arcangelo Scarlatti showed up, claiming that Donovan's carving his name onto Serk's trousers when the lawyer insulted Szark to peeve off the man's father constituted a challenge and he was Serk's proxy. He placed a wager on the outcome, but Donovan knew what Scarlatti was really the one chosen. He had a special move that guaranteed his victim could never hold a sword - or play a guitar - again. And that he did so with a sword designed to ensure no wounds caused by it could be healed with magic. But Dominic sent them a Deus Et Machina, Szark showed up just then to be Donovan's proxy. Spark was thrilled because he could sum it all up with alliteration.

Bored of the endless talking, after that, Spark went off to hunt for treasure in the ruins. He found a very shiny pretty ring. AR! He went ahead and proceeded to bury it, in true pirate fashion.

The duel was set, and when it was about to start the next day, several knights of Callan showed up to see to it that the duel was fair. So they claimed. They also said that after the duel Quilt, who was to be part of the band, was to be taken to the capitol for a full danger assessment. Which meant taking him apart.

Then in the middle of the duel, one of the knights punched Szark right in his demonic wound. The other knights claimed to have seen nothing and ruled the duel should continue, even as Szark doubled over with pain. Scarlatti became enraged himself that someone had cheated on his behalf and while he was yelling at Serk, Szark stood, once again possessed by his dark side. Or so it seemed. Szark had a trick up his sleeve, and in one move he drew first blood, and struck outside the ring to capture Serk's toupee on his sword. The Knights declared Szark's win nullified because he struck someone who wasn't his opponent and moved to arrest him. Which was when Siggy showed up.

Siggy declared the duel a win for Szark, denounced his fellow knights as corrupt, and demanded to know Serk's part in the plan to kill Luna, since he had been a pawn in it. Dominic, Luna, Miranda, Jayden, and Melina - the orc who would be the drummer in their band.

They got Serk arrested and things seemed to be better, but Dominic was still distracted because of some ring he'd seen in a vision that hadn't turned up. Taking that as a queue, because they'd all learned how to be dramatic from Donovan, he offered to show Dominic his buried treasure. Dominic said the whole pirate thing was getting old and passed, so he missed seeing that Spark had the ring.

Then in a storm of music and wind the Maestro appeared. More talking. Siggy and Jayden made it clear Quilt wasn't to be taken away, or apart. So then it was time to get to work. Miranda was able to be there because her students were. They were given a week off school and extra credit to build the stage and the venue. So the performers could focus on rehearsal, coming up with a band name - they went with Oblivion Folder - and costuming. Well everyone worked and planned and dealt with drama, Spark kept hunting for treasure, and when that failed kept digging up and reburying that ring...

And napping. Don't forget napping. He was just settling into a good snooze when the concert began. Spark tried everything he could to get some sleep but the noise was too loud. When Dominic stepped away to clear his head and escape the crowd Spark begged him to stop the noise. Dominic refused to stop the benefit concert just so Spark could nap. Spark tried to bribe him with berried treasure, and showed off the ring as proof of what he had.

Dominic began kicking himself - impressive with only one real leg and one partially functional prosthetic - over having ignored Spark for days when the cat tried to show him the buried treasure. He took the ring to see what he could SEE from it. Unlike the readers, spark was treated to a curse word that wasn't dramatically subverted by a scene change. Dominic got sulky after that and sent Spark to find Luna and Szark. He went off, into the noise, and did so, bringing them back and warning them about Dominic's mood.

Dominic revealed to them all that the jewel in the ring wasn't a diamond. It was a rare jewel called a starsone and was worth enough to have paid to get Greg out of trouble and rebuild the town. And he was furious at himself for missing it, for all the trouble that could have been saved if he had taken the ring from Spark and sold it to pay off all the debts. Szark ripped into Dominic's self pity pointing out that had he just paid off Serk, the man would still be running his underhanded business and cheating people left and right; that the way things played out Luna got closure and he got to be a hero for once, that Dex's name was cleared, Brett was exposed for the low life he'd been in life, he had reunited a group of orcs, and that the concert was generally bringing out the best in all the people who helped bring it together.

They went back to enjoy the end of the concert after Dominic let slip he knew who the new mayor would be and that he would let her decide what would happen to the ring. They raised enough money in the end, the Battle For Barthis was won by law and music, and nurse Pam - Greg's girlfriend - was named Mayor. Dominic gave her the ring and left her with much to think about. Spark appointed himself her new councilor and went about trying to convince her to spend the money she got from selling the ring to turn Barthis into the kingdom's largest fish market. (Spoiler, she declined.)

All seemed to be well, until one of the orcs - an infernomancer - began puking. Miranda teleported them all to Quirel, and then informed the magistrate that the was an infernomancer undergoing medical care in their city. A demon of hate turned the orcs against each other, and they learned about the war in ****, as well as some NSFW backstory.

Dominic, exhausted from all that had happened and not looking forward to getting dragged into another multi-planar war so soon consulted his "therapist". Spark. He spilled everything to Spark who pointed out that Karnak would be too busy with the war in **** to go after Dominic for a while, and that with that lesser demon now dead the only ones affected by the war would be those connected to demons, so not only was this one not Dominic's responsibility, since he didn't fraternize with infernomancers, but that a lot of his usual foes who WERE infernomancers were going to be very distracted for the foreseeable. Dominic was relieved at the realization he was going to have a break. Spark suggested he spend it cooking fish.

[death_from_above]

Personal History:
Canon:

Spark is a talker. We don't know if he was born that way or a spell was put on him or what, though it is implied he was born that way. We know little of his younger years. It is again implied that he has been with the Deegans for a very long time, and explicitly said that talkers have life spans that exceed those of "normal" cats. While in the few flashbacks we get of Dominics childhood, we do not see Spark outright, the close relationship Spark has with both of Dominic's parents strongly implies that he grew up there along side the Deegan boys. So I will be writing this from that point of view.

Miranda and Donovan Deegan have three sons. Jacob is the eldest, then Dominic, then Gregory. When the boys were young the family was attacked by Helixa, a powerful necromancer. The battle was fierce. Miranda succeeded in defending her family. Mostly. Greg took on wounds that day, including a necromantic blight, that magic could not fix. He would be stuck with a limp into his adult hood and a creeping blight growing over his body, waxing and waning depending on how much white magic he used.

What was important about the attack short term - Helixa would play a part again later - was how the three boys reacted to it, because it shaped their lives, and much of Spark's from then on out. Greg became fixated on White Magic and wanted to learn not just to heal himself, but anyone else harmed by Necromancy. Dominic became obsessed with predictive and protective magic, eventually becoming a Seer, because he wanted to make sure he had the warning needed to protect his loved ones from anything like this ever happening again. Jacob... became fascinated by Necromancy and eventually split from the family to pursue his new passion.

As things happen, naturally, eventually Dominic moved out. Spark went with him. But times are hard for a magic wielding educated man in a backwards and superstitious kingdom. It is never said why he didn't stay in the more accepting town in which he was raised, but he eventually came to a small backwater and wound up working as the Oracle For Hire.

Dominic hated his job, and the idiots he had to have as clients. He and Spark lived alone in a small hut at the edge of the town. He griped to Spark and told him all his complaints, and Spark was pretty close to his sole comfort and companion, save for his penpals over see-mail and getting to shop at the Seer's Catalogue. (I wish I was making these up, I am not.)

Constantly two idiot thieves named Stunt and Bumper tried to rob him. But... you know... Seer.

Also there was an incident where he had to tell a Knight of the realm that if he fought the duel he was asking about he would lose. Badly. That was Sir Sigfried, also known as Siggy. Siggy beat the ever loving snot out of Dominic rather than paying him. Sadly, he was not a one shot appearance in Dominic and Spark's life.

Then one day a woman walked into his hut that changed their lives forever. She was an older woman who clearly had way too much work done. She asked him to look in his crystal ball and proclaim her beauty. Dominic got a bit snippy with her, and she cursed him. Spark loved this curse. While there was a NSFW element we shall not discuss, the main result of the curse was that whenever he puffed on his pipe, a raw fish landed on his head.

This was one of the best times in Spark's life. For once there was actually enough fish to make him a very happy cat, and he took to standing on Dominic's back, mouth open, waiting for fish to fall on him.

Dominic hired Stunt and Bumper to get the antidote from the old woman's castle. But after they left he foresaw that they would fail. Siggy was also present as the woman was trying to use his shallowness to drive her daughter, Luna, to suicide. Dominic, trying to get the cure himself, snuck into the castle where he met Luna and realized that she hadn't been in his visions because if he hadn't interceded, she'd be dead. She found out her mother had been bringing men she thought were handsome to her so that they would reject her because of the deformity in her mouth - she has orc fangs on her lower jaw - so that she would commit suicide while a knight of the realm was present because of an old law that meant the mother would be financially compensated for her death. Dominic arranged for Siggy to hear the woman admit to the plan, Siggy then killed her. Luna cured Dominic and all who didn't live there, went home.

Unbeknownst to Dominic - because he didn't think to look and Luna wasn't close enough to him to trigger the visions automatically, Luna was given nothing in her inheritance, and tried to commit suicide. Dominic took Spark fishing - which involves tying string around Spark, attaching it to a stick, throwing Spark into the water, and pulling him out when he has a fish, and yes this is relevant. Dominic pulled Spark out and found he had no fish. Spark said that he found a big one with fangs, but it was too big so he let it go....

Somehow from that Dominic thought of Luna and rushed into the water where he found her, unconscious. And then was attacked by a sea monster. With fangs. The big one with fangs that Spark had meant. Dominic saved Luna, who woke up part way, thought he was part of the monster he had defeated and she blasted him and the monster with a fire spell. Whoops.

Despite that, Dominic took her home, so she could change into dry clothes at least. They talked and long story short, the beginnings of love and she became his new assistant.

Dominic tried to scry to see what would happen if he asked Luna out to dinner, but instead got a vision of the present that scared him. His brother Gregory, in trouble. Dominic grabbed Luna and took a bookmark spell to where Greg was. They forgot Spark, who quite enjoyed himself for the first hour, knocking down Dominic's fragile things and being an utter pest. When Dominic and Luna got back, they had Gregory with them. Spark played up that he was starving and guilted Dominic into making them all dinner.

Greg and Spark had great fun while Greg was there. Though Spark knew well to hide when Dominic lost his mind finding out that Greg and Greg;'s friend Rachel in town told Luna about Jacob. That topic was taboo as far as Dominic was concerned. After a huge fight, the humans split up as best they could. Greg made a couch fort to hide in, Luna went into the bedroom, and Dominic went out to smoke. Where he was met by an angry mob.

Dominic used a spell to make a prediction sound ominous and scared the snot out of the townsfolk who fled. Dominic took over the bedroom and kicked everyone else out of it, slamming the door, refusing to talk to Luna or Greg. But Spark slipped in and Dominic confided in him and ranted at him. Sparked summed it up, thusly "So Dominic Deegan is Angry At Gabby Greg who nearly got Luna Lynched because he's still sore from the sightless satanist?" Because he is Spark.

Spark got Dominic to calm down, eventually, and nap in his comfy chair, with Spark curled up on his belly, as it should be. Until he eventually got up. Which was sad. But there was dinner, which was better. That night Luna and Dominic shared the only bed in the hut, with Spark. Dominic had bad dreams, which Spark was used to, because... Seer. They were disturbing visions about Jacob. Before Dominic could decide what to do about it, Siggy broke down the door. Siggy said he was there to arrest Dominic for threatening the mob. When Dominic tried to explain, Siggy started beating him senseless. Greg stepped in to help, using a spell to make Siggy's sword too heavy to life before the knight could kill the prone seer. Siggy's response was to steal Greg's walking stick and beat him half to death with it.

So of course then Luna had to step in. She blasted a fire spell right in Siggy's face. One of Siggy's companions transformed, proving himself to be a Spellwolf, who nullified Luna's magic. The other companion, Jayden, stepped in and resolved things peacefully as she was a priestess who knew Luna well and had influence over the Spellwolf, as they were a couple, and Siggy as they were friends. She healed them all, Grewg developed a pretty massive crush and they tried to talk, but Dominic refused to have a conversation with Siggy present. So Siggy tried, again to kill him. Jayden stopped him and the three left Dominic and the others to repair the door and move on.

Spark, who had been doing the smart thing and staying inside where it was safe, watching from the window pointed out the bright spot in all of this. If the villagers called the knights in... that surely means they'd no longer want to be customers. Dominic decided that they should all move now that he was free of Lynsbrook and its idiots. But while getting ready, he had another vision. Things changed, instead of worrying about relocating and finding a new job, Dominic had to go find Jacob. Greg and Luna got to come along. They packed up everything, never intending to return, no mater how the issue with Jacob turned out. As they left, Dominic made it rain books as his final farewell to a town full of idiots.

On the way to see a friend for advice, they came across Siggy's companions, Milov and Jayden without Siggy. They compared visions, and while Dominic tried to keep the pair from going to Barthis, since he saw them among the dead, the insisted that meant that they still had time to stop the impending mass ritual sacrifice.

Dominic and his group rushed to a friend who not only had advice he could offer, but also had a teleport spell to get them to Barthis faster than Jayden and Milov. The friend was a slime mod named Dejah that Spark adores because he tastes yummy and doesn't mind being licked by a cat. After they got Dejah's view on the situation, Dejah teleported them to the town of Barthis to face the Chosen.

Dominic informed Luna, Greg, and Spark that the bartender was one of the Chosen. And another, Vilrath, was missing. So Dominic started making the Chosen paranoid and distrustful of each other, but when he tried to scry Vilrath, his crystal ball shattered. But then Jayden and Milov and Siggy showed up to book a rooms for four, themselves... and Vilrath. Dominic confronted Vilrath while Luna caught Jayden and the rest up. Siggy's response was to go and try to kill Vilrath. Vilrath crucified Siggy against a wall and used a necromantic blight to keep healing magic from fixing his hands, crippling the knight so that he'd never be able to hold a sword again.

Meanwhile, the bartender sent an imp to the rooms to sabotage their stuff and spy. Spark learned a very important lesson that day. If he thwacks an imp hard enough with his paw it splats on the wall and makes a neat design! Spark reported to Dominic who for some reason was upset that he hadn't questioned the imp. Humans. But Dominic used his crystal ball and discovered that the imp had already placed command runes all over Jayden and Milov's belongings. Dominic and Spark raced to get Luna and Greg to help, but they were both under the thrall o a widespread depression spell. As was nurse Pam who had been looking after Siggy, and Milov and Jayden. Spark and Dominic seemed to be the only ones in the town immune. Dominic realized that the Chosen weren't going to hang everyone to kill them, they were going to use the spell to make everyone hang themselves. Being immune, Dominic knew it was up to him to save everyone. Spark cheered him on... and happily stayed inside where it was safe.

When they got back, they told Spark everything. How Vilrath was Jacob wearing Vilrath's skin, how he beat up Siggy and crippled him because no one gets to beat up his brothers but him. About the gory violent way that Jacob killed the Chosen and ripped the blight out of Gregory, through his good side, nearly killing him. Spark found it all cool.

What they didn't know at that point was that Jacob's plans then were part of him creating a flesh golem who would later become Spark's best friend, and after that, his inspiration.

[death_from_above]

History continued

After a rough night for all, they came downstairs to find that Siggy had put together a party for them all to thank them for saving Barthis, and during the party Dominic was invited to stay. As Barthis' new Seer for hire...

He declined. He had a vision of his best friend's name, Strutz, written in blood, directing him to Erossus. They left Greg behind and headed out. Spark got to pick the horse! Dominic said that never again will spark pick the horse. Spark then took a nap in back and missed them getting ambushed by Stunt and Bumper. Dominic only got a little stabbed and Luna took care of the thieves, so what was Dominic so mad at him about anyway?

(This section will be glossed over as it was very NSFW)

Basically they got involved with another seer, Celesto Morgan who also had the same vision, found that Szark Strutz was being controlled by a demon through a demonic wound in his side, Bumper got himself possessed by Luna's sister. She got him to denounce Stunt as a potential assassin so that Szark could legally kill him. Spark got sent in as a spy, and in addition to what he told Dominic, Dominic used him as a scrying focus to find out more about the dueling contracts that legalized all the murder Szark had been committing and also found out that the duelists that weren't criminals had been bespelled by Luna's sister to agree to the duels. Szark, convinced that Dominic was there to kill him, thanks to Luna's sister, attacked them and threw Spark out of a window. Spark fell into a waiting portal, because Szark went ahead and forgot that Dominic isn't the most powerful member of the Deegan family. He landed safely between Donovan and Miranda, where they waited, well outside the city.

Spark filled Miranda and Donovan in, and they entered the city where Miranda confronted Luna's sister. Well. Sort of. Donovan was there. Miranda was an illusion, another illusion making Donovan's sword look like her staff. Spark was watching everything with her through a crystal ball. The infernomancer (From the adventure with Greg that Spark missed) attacked the illusion and held up what he thought was Miranda's heart. It was actually a trap spell that froze him in place. But Luna's sister broke him free and his dispelled Miranda's illusion before she could channel any more spells through it. The infernomancer taunted them, letting them know that he had attacked Miranda's students to find out where she had gone. Bumper killed Luna's sister. (Don't worry, she has more of them) and the infernomancer struck Szark, accidentally providing an opening for the demon that was using them both to take over Szark's body completely.

Bumper came back to help and was able to get Luna out of her drugged sleep so she could join the battle. Miranda and Spark actually showed up then. Miranda banished the infernomancer to another plane and claimed his gauntlet. Spark... DEATH FROM ABOVEd Szark/Karnak the demon. That distracted him enough for Donovan to get him tied up. Dominic entered his mind and banished Karnak, and restored Szark to his kinder self. The cops came in then to clear things up. Dominic got Szark a second chance, but Celesto made it clear he'd never forgive Dominic for not having saved Luna' sister, whom he had fallen for. He was making threats at Dominic as the cops pulled him away. Szark made amends by donating his money and estate and then moving himself into a church so that he could work on his conflicted nature and learn to deal with the sins of his recent past. Hugs and sunshine moments all around.

[death_from_above]

Dominic was happily cooking dinner and looking forward to a weekend with Luna when Szark came in, in bad shape. He said the wound in his side was hurting like ****. Which reminded Dominic that it was demonic - connecting Szark to Karnak. Meaning that Dominic would have to either make sure his old foe survived so that Szark didn't die with him, or he;'d have to find a way to break the connection. He had to get involved after all.

As he came to that realization, Stonewater (an old friend who was one of the orcs) burst in to ask for his help with the war in ****, Szark started puking blood, And Miranda sent a psychic message that there was a war in **** and she needed him to monitor it for her.

Milov showed up to help, and came with mavple candy for Dominic and vodka for the rest of the adults. Miranda then told them that she had asked three others to help with the scrying. Fierla who had worked on his prosthetic and was a co-worker of Luna's at the school, Runcible Spoon who was another co-worker, and Dejah. She as going to help as well.

Dejah was the one to make Dominic realize what the war was all about. The souls of the Chosen that had died in the Elemecca. All those powerful souls added to **** all at once.

They discussed and talked about things, most of which bored Spark. But they ate, which was yummy, even if it was just vegetables since orcs are vegetarians. Then Dominic had a sort of vision called a Fated Fatale that meant someone he loved was going to die soon. Donovan rushed to Miranda as soon as he heard that from Luna, and Luna came with him. They challenged a plan Miranda had that until then only she and Donovan knew about, saying it was too dangerous. Miranda refused to back down from her risky plan as it would help Szark, her students, and the plains of Maltak if she succeeded. She was willing to risk her life for that, give her life even if it came to that. She told Luna and Donovan that they weren't allowed to tell Dominic or anyone else her plan to use the purified demonic gauntlet to fix things, even knowing it could kill her. When they protested she gave them the evil eye. It was super effective.

Miranda went to tell Szark that she might have a cure for him when he stiffened and began to bleed from the mouth. They got him settled into bed and Miranda and Donovan had a very sappy quiet argument about trading lives and keeping loved ones safe.

Stonewater gave Dominic the idea to make talismans that he could give to the people he loved to protect them and make it easier for him to See if they were in trouble in time to come to their aid. He gave them each a little pin doll talismans, and then the Seers went to go scry. Spark decided to spend the time where he was of most use, curled up with Szark giving off kitty sleep rays.

And then of course Siggy showed up to arrest Dominic.

Szark then got worse. Miranda decided she could wait no longer and went in to use the gauntlet on Szark. She told the others she needed to be alone with him and closed the door. She screamed when he drew his sword on her. The others opened the door to rush in. Szark said that he knew what she was planning and refused to let her try. That more people needed her than him and that if this was his fate he would face it on his own two feet as a man. He made it very clear that if any of them risked their lives to save him from this, he would make them regret it.

Unable to do anything else, Miranda rounded on Luna and Donovan, furious, demanding to know which if them had told Szark what she had planned after she had expressly forbade them to. Szark informed Miranda that it wasn't either of them who told him. It was Spark. A very ticked off looking Spark.

Miranda demanded to be told how he knew, and Spark pointed out that he had sensitive feline ears and they weren't exactly being quiet when they argued about it. Spark and Miranda faced off, Spark calling them all drama queens. Szark pointed out that even the cat would miss Miranda if she died, at which point Spark pointed out to him that he wasn't dead yet and that he was the biggest drama queen of them all...

Tensions defused they got themselves cleaned up and changed from the last round of Szark's puke.

A but later the infernomancer orc friend of Stonewater's broke out of the hospital and attacked them all to kidnap their mutual friend Grench who Stonewater was dating. A spell of hate turned Stonewater and Milov against each other for a few crucial moments, but a healing spell in Jayden's pendant triggered by her nearly dying in the attack cleared their heads. Stonewater raced off after his friends.

Meanwhile Szark finally got changed, just in time to throw up again all over himself and Luna... and Luna's pin doll.

Szark got sicker and better sicker and better until light erupted from his demonic wound. It blasted everyone back, but the pin dolls saved them. Except.... Luna wasn't wearing hers. Szark was able to get up and get to her in time, but just. Dominic teleported back just as they got Luna bundled up in blankets. Jayden had been able to heal her, but she was sick for some unknown reason. They hustled Dominic and Luna up to bed, but as they were trying to do that, Dominic let Milov and Jayden know that Siggy was dead.

Dominic followed his father's teachings and rather than tell Siggy's friends that Siggy had been the one to beat the **** out of him, he let them think he died a hero. And he hid the fact that Karnak now held Siggy's soul. He told Spark later of course.

When Grench, Stonewater, and Melina came back, Grench was asked to build replacement teeth for Dominic. While she did, Dominic shared the news that Siggy and his father were both dead. The readers were then treated to an Orcish happy dance.

Stonewater had Miranda scry their homeland for him, but Maltak was still in bad shape. He protested that with the demons behind the fall of Maltak dead, life should have won out and returned to the lands. Stonewater wanted to have Dominic scry for the reason but Miranda's evil eye convinced him that maybe Dominic needed a well deserved break...

Many of them, especially the Orcs were conflicted. Siggy's father had tortured and killed many of their people and they were glad he was dead and that their land could heal now that the war was over. But they wanted to respect that their new friends were (some of them at least) mourning for Siggy and to respect their infernomancer friend who was now dead. Donovan suggested the elvish rite of a week long celebration to celebrate good memories and look to a time of rebirth and renewal.

[death_from_above]

(We are now starting chapter 16 of 45. You have been warned.)

Dominic and Luna went back to Barthis for a while to help with the rebuilding. And to look into buying one of the new houses that were being built. Greg was... enthusiastic but not skilled. Quilt was strong but... also not skilled. Thankfully Greg is a healer and Quilt is very hard to kill. Stunt and Bumper were also in Barthis. Stunt kept pulling off petty crimes and getting arrested by Dex, Bumper kept doing street shows to earn change to bail him out. Stunt, wanting revenge, read about the jail break that was all tied up with Siggy's death and decided to contact some old criminal pals and let them know Barthis was ripe for the plucking. Bumper, meanwhile, was still trying to come to terms with having murdered Luna's sister and was not coping well.

Dominic invited Stunt and Bumper to dinner as a peace offering and Pam told Luna that she and Dominic could have any house in the town, free of charge, as a thank you. Stunt and Bumper staged a huge fight so that Bumper could accept the dinner invitation and spy on the Deegans and their plans.

The Deegans learned that Bumper's real name was Ilario and that he was the grandson of a famous composer. And Bumper learned the flaw in Stunt's plan to make him a spy. The Deegans were actually good people. He was starting to like them.

The next day, Dominic and Luna signed the papers and took Spark to see where they were going to be living. Which at that moment was still an empty plot of land. Spark was so very unimpressed. But he watched with them as an Earth Elemental tore itself from the ground. Rocky was there to build their new home, it would take about a month. Spark went back to being unimpressed.

Spark started to take to Rocky though, especially when he found these cool sparkly things in him. Of course those cool sparkly things turned out to be dynamite planted by Stunt's friend Urban Eddie and his gang, planning to murder the elemental for gems. In one of her most awesome - to Spark - spells ever, Luna turned the first set of dynamite into fish! To get rid of the rest Rocky would have to go back under ground, but doing that with Spark on him could kill the cat. So Bumper used the transformed fish to bait him into jumping. Luna caught him with magic.

Bumper was beaten by Eddie's gang to make his being the inside man look more convincing and he was told that if he turned on them, they'd kill Stunt.

Spark got to sum things up as they knew them with alliteration so all was good with him.

Dominic wasn't around so they tried to get Quilt to scry for them. They thought he was seeing the wrong things, so gave up on that idea pretty quickly.

The next day though Stunt snuck up on Spark while he was sleeping and took him hostage, wrapping him in explosives and threatening him with a sword if anyone "tried to be a hero". Of course, Spark got to suffer this indignity just to be the distraction while Eddie and his gang put pressure on a bunch of business owners by beating up their families. Luna, with help from a disguised Bumper, saved the would be victims, thenBumper used slight of hand to slip Spark free of the explosive harness while Stunt continued to prove himself to be the misogynistic idiot they all knew he was.

Dex then arrested Stunt and Bumper and all of Eddie's gang they could find except Eddie and his right hand goon. Luna ans Spark tried to argue with Dex that Bumper had been the one helping them out, but only Spark had seen the face under the disguise. Spark said he was willing to testify in court. Dex said that the testimony of talking animals isn't legally admissible because it was too easy to tamper with, he proved this by offering Spark a fish to change his story. Which of course he did. Because it was a big fish.

Safe and sound, Spark got to curl up with Dominic's crystal ball while Luna filled him in that night. Luna's plan was pulled off when Dominic came to town the next day. He messed up his hair, took out his fake teeth, grabbed the defused bomb and ran into the cell ranting like a mad man. the good squad spilled just to get him to leave.

Quilt got to play detective dress up to help Dex arrest Eddie, but he might have forgotten the help part. There are reasons he's Spark's best friend, okay?

Luna convinced Dex to let bumper help her guard the prison while Greg guarded the healer's house and Dex and Quilt went out to find Eddie. Dex wound up with the righthand man as a decoy while Eddie and Stunt ambushed Luna and Bumper. Stunt's jiob was just to keep Bumper out of things while Urban Eddie killed Luna. Which probably would have worked, But Eddie chose to dig the verbal knife in on Bumper while slowly strangling Luna. Stunt saved Luna for Bumper's sake. Stunt and Bumper were able to take down Urban Eddie and had a very touching moment that they wouldn't have had if Stunt wasn't dying. That they both felt awkward about when Greg showed up and healed them.

Pam showed leniency in the sentencing and Bumper's request. Stunt's punishment for all the laws he broke was to be exile from the town for a year. Under the condition that Bumper remain in the town for that same year. Bumper tried to leave with him anyway, but Stunt actually stood up and did the right thing, told Bumper to stay and make his own life here in Barthis while he went out to grow up.

[death_from_above]

Eventually Dominic also took a job at his mother's school. Unlike Luna he didn't work in a research lab, though, he was a professor. Spark was left on ******** watch, which basically meant focusing on the crystal balls Dominic had set up to track the three current concerns, Jacob, the Infernomancer, and Celesto, all of whom were coming back into play at the same time. Spark, of course, got distracted partway through the day... by his own butt. Spark and Dominic got to chat about the upcoming dangers while Luna made tea and Miranda teleported in. Skipping over Luna's embarrassment when her surprise for Dominic was spoiled, Spark got to be part of the boring blah blah blah about first days and coursework and other "nerd" stuff. Dominic assigned homework day one, lots to study, Miranda planning to retire. Blah blah.

Dominic got saddled with a ton of applications to go through, which made him grumpy. But he had spark help him with the ones they were rejecting right off. Spark had a lot of fun destroying the papers that kept his human from making him dinner.

With Luna and Dominic spending more time being mushy in bed and getting closer to doing more than just hugging there as they slept, Spark claimed a spot on the new sofa as his. So when Melina wound up spending the night after kidnapping Luna to go drinking, and she slept on the sofa, Spark slept on her, informing her that it was his spot and she was a big green bully.

There was a lot of drama for a while with this one kid being a jerk and trying to break up Dominic and Luna and school stuff and that whole headmaster job. Then Dominic found something while scrying a stone from Maltak and he was about to fly out of there when Spark tried to get his attention. He kept telling Spark not now, but after the ring thing Spark became insistent. When he had Dominic's attention he pointed to Jacob's crystal on the ****** watch. Spark and Dominic watched together a vision of the near future, of Jacob killing some woman to get to the jerk that had been messing with Dominic and Luna. Dominic's one idea to stop him was to enlist his help with the crisis of Maltak.

He came back out of the trance he used to contact Jacob and filled Spark in, including the fact that one of the most dangerous of the Orc tribes was on the move towards the boarder. Where Cassafin was bringing the donated supplies from the food drive. Spark pointed out that there were Callanian Knights along the border, and Dominic almost calmed down... till he had another vision. She was planning to take one of his students. This lead to an argument that mostly consisted of Dominic being too angry to remember how to form words.

Jacob actually showed up to help. He knocked before he came in. On the floor. From below. With his head. Spark found Luna in the kitchen after hours of Jacob and Dominic being nerds, eating herself sick on the muffins Dominic baked because she was too freaked out to be in the same room as Jacob. Spark pointed out that if she hid in the kitchen and Dominic got hurt it would be her fault. She ran to Dominic's side while Spark helped himself to the rest of the muffins.

Jacob used a mistform spell and vanished out the open window while Dominic was distracted by Luna. But the Orcs made it clear that they wanted no help from the humans, so for once, Dominic planned to just sit this one out. Kind of like he planned to do with the war in ****. So... you know....


The comic then skipped to four months later.


Walking through Barthis, Quilt ran up to them. Greg had ODed on white magic and gone all hulk, becoming huge and too top heavy to stand. He'd been using his white magic non-stop since the Battle For Barthis to help rebuild the town. It caught up with him. Dominic cut the flow to give him a chance to recharge and he got all small and scrawny and dark haired. It saved his life. And gave him a chance to call Rachel and become his own secret identity. Dominic explained this all to Luna at home, which is how Spark knows about it.

Basically the short version is that one of the few survivors from the Chosen's second attack on Barthis came back to look for Greg and kill him. Dominic made sure Greg was unrecognizable, giving her a chance to realize that Barthis wasn't the den of conformity she expected. But she was in too deep and though conflicted, attacked anyway. Woth some last minute help, Greg changed back to himself just in time, taking on the superhero persona SUPER GREG! That, and the alter ego, Buzz Beardman, he wore when he was unrecognizable were both from an action adventure series Greg made up when he was a kid. Dominic knew his mind would go there and was not dissapointed.

Pam, on the other hand, who was both Greg's girlfriend and the mayor was. Because no one thought to let her in on the plan. In the end, Snowsong was sent to a church in another town to figure things out, Dominic was given community service as a seer, and the only casualty was Greg and Pam's romance.


But more trouble was brewing. Just as Nimmel was getting ready for his semester abroad in the Winter Archipelago where he would attend the Spellwolf university, Coldfire Academy, Dominic received an urgent request from Milov. They were to come at once. Spark insisted on coming. Luna pointed out that he hates the cold. And dogs. Spark's counter point is that an archipelago is a chain if islands. That islands are surrounded by water. Water that is full of fish. He was going.

Since teleporting there is illegal, they had to go by boat. Spark very happily changed into his pirate gear, much to Dominic's ire. Spark sadly discovered that he gets sea sick on ocean voyages, however. Which does cut down on his pirate prospects.

When they got to land, Milov welcomed them all warmly, and there were fish a plenty for Spark. They settled in and Luna went off to talk to Jayden while Spark was in a food coma and Milov and Dominic began to scry. Next thing Spark knew they were all being kicked out to stay at the church because Milov was furious. Dominic went scrying for a while then bounced things off of Spark, about what they had seen, about Siggy being a demon lieutenant, about how worries for Milov and Jayden now that Milov knew Jayden had cheated on him with Siggy... a lot of drama. Then Nimmel came in and dumped more drama on Spark about how he had been attacked by his tour guide but was confused more than hurt, and not knowing if he was going to be safe being the only human in his school. Spark slept through some of it, but he got the general gist.

[death_from_above]

Spark convinced Nimmel that the answer to everything was to go fishing. Nimmel was sure given the ice and everything, that this was a bad idea. Spark convinced him that the ice was thin enough that he'd break right through when thrown. Spark was wrong. Pfft.



Spark insisted he was fine, and filled Nimmel in on some of their history with Siggy. And he mostly sounded fine except he kept saying pfft. When Spark said something about "The both of you" Nimmel was sure he was concussed and wanted to take him back, but he was pointing out that Katya, Nimmel's guide from the tour, had come up behind him. Katya apologized to Nimmel for lashing out and escorted him back to the church, but then she went and attacked Jayden. Luna stopped her, knocking her out, and Jayden pointed out that she could have defended herself, she chose not to. Luna pulled Nimmel and Spark aside, determined that they would fix this whole mess. Nimmel pointed out that he and she were about the most broken people they knew. Luna agreed that this was bad all around and they started splitting up who would talk to whom. Spark noped out, saying this was all too depressing for a cat.

But while Luna and Niimmel were out almost making things worse, Spark got up from the nap he claimed to be about to take and checked in on Dominic, who judging by his risqué joke and huge sandwich, was going to be just fine.

Milov came to appologize to Dominic, but while they were outside talking. Siggy attacked. Rather than run and hide, despite both being spent and weakened, they faced him together, as a team. They triumphed in the short term, but Dominic was in such bad shape that he collapsed. They brought him inside, and Jayden did what she could for him, but he was still unwell.

Dominic, too destroyed to do much, gave Nimmel a whole lot of cryptic instructions and heavy tasks. Dominic then went and defended his choices to Spark, insisting that he did what was right and what he had do. Spark pointed out he had only come in for food, and the rest was clearly Dominic feeling guilty. They were attacked by Siggy despite being on holy ground while Milov and Nimmel were at the sacred ceremony. Thankfully one of the tasks Dominic had given Nimmel was to contact Miranda. She was able to put wards up to keep Siggy away from them, no matter where they were. That done, Milov and his pack came to see them off with small gifts - Jayden got a letter - before he blew up the Lunarian church, wiping all Callanian presence from his lands. Individuals who had done no harm, like Nimmel were still welcome. Organizations like churches were not.

On the boat ride home, Dominic had a vision that the ward didn't work as intended but.... nothing would come of it immediately. In the meantime, the Royal Knights were disbanded due to corruption... and Dominic and Luna had to go back to work. Spark was back on ******* watch. Things... started to get not good. But not in the usual the world is about to end we're all in danger sort of ways. Something was wrong with Luna and Dominic and they started arguing. Constantly. About little stupid things. And Dominic even started to get irritated with Spark and no longer found reminders to feed the cat to be cute and endearing. Of course, on Dominic's side, some of that could be the community service he still had to do as Barthis' seer. But more of it was that he was trying to keep something major from Luna and she could tell and it was wearing on them both. The major thing? Dominic was working on a plan to get an extremely rare and expensive stone... so propose to her with, to be the stone for her ring...

Things seemed better for a bit. A very short bit. They told the family, there were some nice celebratory dinners. Dominic had to deal with having lost his good prosthetic, because he traded it for the stone for the ring. But then there were a series of unscryable murders, targeting oracles. Domini found out about it in the paper and shared with Luna and Spark. Of the five Oracles attacked so far, his friend and one other survived. And Szark was a hero who helped one of the two survive. Dominic agreed not to kill himself trying to solve this. Quilt, on the other hand... (has different fingers.)

Dominic was able to get a small bit of information from his friend, and from Szark's sword and determined they were dealing with someone from a small fanatic religious order called the Blinders that used a spell to keep people from remembering what they look like and a special kind of spelled knife that ensures that even if the target survives, they'll never have certain powers again, this one targets all forms of scrying second sight and visions. But Donovan stopped by and destroyed that theory, he used to date a Blinder girl, and informed Dominic that some years ago the whole cult fulfilled a mutual suicide pact and the group was no more.

There was another knock on the door, and since he was expecting Bumper, Dominic answered the door. It was Bumper but the Oracle Hunter had him and stabbed Dominic in the gut with her special knife. Dominic threw himself into a trance to try and hunt down and destroy the virus spell before it could kill his powers. Dominic puked out the virus, which also killed Szark's crush on him, and Miranda discovered that Donovan's Blinder girlfriend isn't dead and he's known this for years.

The Hunter came back, and sliced and diced Quilt. Who, you know, Flesh Golem, was fine. Dex and Quilt tried to take her down, but she was winning. So Dex sent Quilt on ahead to warn them. Specifically, he threw Quilt's severed head. That barely bought them enough time to get prepared. Thanks to Luna's illusion spell and Dominic's acting they were able to throw the Hunter off enough for Miranda to magically knock her out and bind her. Which was when they discovered despite Donovan's... interesting past and the Hunter calling Dominic brother, she wasn't a Deegan at all. She was a Travoria. Another sister of Luna's. Barnet.

Barnet got her gear from Donovan's old flame and was hired by Serk, as he was getting out of jail. While Dominic was trying to recover from questioning her, Celesto had found out about her and tried to kill her from the inside, as a peace offering to Dominic. They fought, and Celesto left. Dominic then fought Barnet's inner demons and helped her begin to heal. Meanwhile Miranda and Donovan made up and Miranda sent Dominic to bed to get some rest OR ELSE. Which was when Spark woke up and had to be filled in on all of this. Once filled in he marched himself into Dominic's room and flopped out on Dominic's shoulder to go back to sleep.

Celesto killed Serk, and Luna got her only other remaining sister, the one that had been dating Serk to represent Barnet as legal council, pointing out that the three of them are all that is left of their family, and maybe it is time to move on from old hatreds.

Dominic meanwhile was starting to break as comparatively banal stresses about his job and life weighed on him more and more. Luna, trying to help bought him the omnibus of his favorite comic. But the last page was an advert for the reboot and it was a travesty of all he loved about the series. Luna unloaded on Spark hoping for some uplifting words of comfort that yes she had been thoughtful enough and no she didn't mess up. Spark pointed out that he's a cat. He brushed off Luna, but as soon as she was gone, he gathered Dominic's students and filled them in on how close Dominic seemed to breaking, giving a rousing speech about how they were Dominic's best hope, and all but begging them to fix the situation. Then do downplay his own concern, he pointed out that a broken world... has no fish.

Things got worse, not better, as the students tried to help. Nimmel had the best idea, but it would take time. Before it could come to fruition, the last straw fell. Because of the break down of realtions with the Winter Archipelago, the local store stopped selling mavple candy which had replaced Dominic's tobacco addiction after Gregory had healed his lungs. After his very public breakdown, Miranda had no choice but to fire him, a week and a half before graduation.

Prento, one of Dominic's students, was sure that Dominic was dealing with an approaching case of Mindbreak, and that the apparent Stress Contagion was a clue and key symptom. Dominic, after being blown through many walls by Prentios attempt at a cure, found the whole situation so funny it broke some of his foul mood.

(As an aside, though no one would know it for quite some time, Prento was actually very very correct.)

Dominic and Spark watched the graduation ceremony together via crystal ball, and then his students surprised him with Nimmel's plan. They had finally raised the money to buy him and Luna tickets on a trip around the world.

[death_from_above]

For the purpose of this history section I am going to skip a lot to get to the end. Partially for RL time constraints and mostly because while a lot of what came after was huge and life changing for the Deegans, and world changing for the world as a whole, Spark's part in events is scattered and rare. While he was very useful in Maltak, that was mostly as a glorified walkie talkie. The story got too big with too many parts after this point to easily track from the point of view from any one character, even Dominic. So, the summery of each chapter is, in short, as follows:

Around the World: Dominic and Luna take a much needed vacation, Spark stays home. Greg and Pam break up.


Built To Resist: Greg and Dex go to Lynn's Brook to spend some time with Rachel who just spent the night with Celesto. The Infernomancer and Celesto now can't be scryed, which is why Dominic had no warning about their attack. Much of the town was destroyed, Dex was nearly killed, Greg lost his magic. Dominic discovers a Beast.

March Across Maltak: Orc politics, ying yang magic. The party gets split up. spark does get a chance to shine here as a hero at parts, and spends most of the rest of the time as a focus for a speaking spell. They discover Donovan can speak Orcish all the time, Luna gives up her ability to ever have children to give a rebirth to the land. Jacob learns a lot and maybe starts to make peace with his family a little. Maybe. The Orc lands begin to heal, the Orcs begin to unify.

Interlude the Beast part 1: Celesto is physically in jail whole his mind confronts the beast. He vanishes from jail.

A Nimmel House: This is about Nimmel in his new school and has little if anything to do with Spark or the wider story other than the fact that he is building alliances that will later become useful. A lot of fun character development, though, but sadly borderline NSFW.

Interlude the Beast Part 2: Miranda contacts her extra-planar teacher and ally and they discuss the Beast.

B.Y.O.B.: On Quilt's advice, Greg starts a band. This chapter is actually fairly banal and a much needed break from the heavy plot, much like a Nimmel house.

Interlude the Beast Part 3: (I presume you can see why I switched to this format at this point?) Miranda gets extra-planar information that the Beast came from scraps in the Elemecca.

Walk On The Wild Edge: We check in with Stunt, who is currently working as a tour guide in Mongrel lands. Some stuff that will make good backstory for the comic reboot, but mostly the big point here is that Stunt realized his place is on the road, not settled in, well, a place.

Interlude The Beast Part 4: Celesto reviews how the Beast came to our plane.

Court Of Karnak: Focusing on the current lord of **** with a lot of flashbacks to how major demons he killed during the War in ***** became what they were, checking in with Infernomancers and former infernomncers, lots of time jumps and back story. Siggy breaks free of Karnak's control and attacks him, denouncing him as not a demon at all but a former mortal. A lot of war and fighting for power among demons and former Infernomancers. KArnak reappears in astra form to say his final goodbyes ot Miranda and vanishes.

Interlude of the Beast part 5: Miranda has more Extra-Planar discussions about the Beast, then Luna, Dominic, Donovan, and Spark finally make it home. (Hence why they've been absent from the story for the most part since the Matak Arc, this was all more or less concurrent.)

Altered States: This starts out with a reunion and everyone catching up, then seeking out magi-medical experts looking to see if there is a way for Dominic and Luna to ever have children. What they found out was medical, and TMI, and not all about her, but also not terribly relevant to the story in any way other than that we know at the very end they do have children, but the author very intentionally (he has said as much) left it to the reader to decide for themselves if they found a magical fix, or adopted, or what have you. The kid or kids are never seen on panel, only in word bubbles coming from out of frame. But that's much later on) They settled into planning their wedding, and when Dominic got too depressed, Spark reminded him that one of the two of them was fixed. So.

Symphony Of Destruction: Dominic scryed on the Plane of Destruction, alerted a resident to the issues with the Beast, as it was a threat to all Planes. As a side effect it temporarily deafened him. Spark slept through his filling Luna in at the top of their lungs, but was awake when she filled him in and he called them in to see his depiction of the creature he spoke with. Any similarity to a Dalek or a crab monster is clearly all in your imagination. Mostly this adventure served to alert the Plane of Destruction about the threat and to inspire Greg's new band, Facebath.

Face-To-Facebath: The chapter is just about Greg's new band and them fanboying Dominic and/or Luna. And embarrassing themselves. A lot.

Revelation: Dominic fought the Beast and bluffed it, proving it is not all knowing and that it is getting weaker. He discovered that King David Johann, king of the human kingdom, of Callan, where most of the story takes place, is aiding the Beast, possibly controlling it. They brought Dominic back to heal from his confrontations and Luna started to research while Spark shared a nap with the spent Seer. Dominic decided that they needed Celesto's help. Luna said she;'d get in contact with him, and started by approaching Quilt.

The Search For Celesto: Quilt might actually be their best bet, as he was made of parts of The Chosen, so he has to scry himself, which apparently makes him uncomfortable. They also learn other things about Quilt that make him uncomfortable with himself. Quilt's odd way of scrying did what the battle caster's couldn't, found Celesto's mind, but he had to be cryptic about telling them how to find him on the physical Plane. They got it narrowed to two events he'd be present at, they're on the same day. Quilt thought it very clever that he'd be at both....

Dominic went to see Szark since he was going to be at one of the two events. This led Dominic to a bully boy named Chance Masters who he saw would be killed by the Beast if he showed to the event. Trying to warn the family got Szark fired and Dominic thrown out of their house. In the end he wound up dueling Celesto to save the boy's life, and used a SEE THE TRUTH spell to make Celesto face a lot about himself, and to show a lot of influential people the truth behind the king. Celesto vanished once more.

Greg and Luna meanwhile went to Erossus, the city of sin, to look for Celesto there, as that was the other possible event, a museum showing. Quilt was actually tight. Celesto did manage to be in both places in one night. Just less physically than expected. Luna got trapped in a painting, confronted, him, and discovered that the reason all the Battle Casters that replaced the Knights when they were disbanded wear masks. Think body horror and you're pretty close to there. They got the Beast out of the Battle Casters that were present and they were taken to sanctuary at a Lunarian church, since that was holy ground. The healers made sure that none of the tainted aura that had affected the Battle Casters were on Luna or Greg. The discovered more about Luna's sister (the dead one) and disguised as the Beast, Celesto attacked them. But weakened as he was, Dominic and Greg were up to the challenge. Miranda trapped him in stasis in a Demiplane to keep him out of the fight against the Beast.

I Do: Flashbacks about Donovan and Miranda's engagements followed Dominic and Luna considering just eloping there and then. Most salient points are that Donovan was raised by an Elf and had no last name, so Deegan is actually Miranda's family name and that her parents were... not the nicest people. Dominic tried to use his second sight to see what would happen at their wedding, and it would be a massacre. They had to choose to elope there and then at the Lunarian church in Erossus or wait till after the issue with the beast was resolved, if they survived it. So with Greg as the only witness, and a priestess they just met, they got married. No fish feast for Spark. (That was the important part, right?) They sent out a spell to inform everyone. Spark slept through it.

Just Deserts: The Infernomancer is back, the king is calling him the harbinger. Then we follow Jayden on a religious pilgrimage. She runs into Stunt along the way and lures him to be her guide and protector with a casual comment about treasure. After a lot of introspection and backstory and angst, the pair came across Rilian. He entrusted Stunt with the Lost Treasure because no one would expect a failed thief to have something so powerful and valuable, then helped them get away as they came under attack from an Archmagi.

Attack Of The Archmagi: Jayden went back to the Winter Archipelago while Stunt went to deal with family issues. Milov welcomed her back, though things remained unsettled between them. But the crisis with the Beast was more important than their issues. They got Nimmel's help as he became closer with Katya. Nimmel and Katya almost died when they were attacked by an Archmagi (the group Miranda goes to for extra-planar help). Stunt made his way to where Dominic was, and asked to speak to Miranda. Stunt showed Dominic the Lost Treasure which gave him a religious vision that had bearing on the current situation. Stunt and Dominic were attacked, Stunt threw his blade, killing their attacker, shocking him more than anyone. Except the attacker was an Archmagi, and he wasn't fully dead. Whatever had him enthralled fled to save itself so he was able to give Dominic a warning, the Archmagi are being controlled. (Miranda is Archmagi of the 5th circle, the King was the first Archmagi of the fifth circle and her predecesor.)

Spark was with Bumper and Luna when they went to go see if that really was Stunt they had seen. They got there just as Dominic and Stunt were escaping the exploding house they had just been in, when the Archmagi became enthralled again and attacked once more. The Archmagi was after the treasure and was about to kill stunt for it. Bumper swiped it from him and played keep away. Luna bolstered him with some illusions to hide him, but he wasn't the only one after the treasure. The Infernomancer cut through the illusions while Luna was distracted attacking the Archmagi. Bumper used slight of hand to hide the treasure, so the Infernomancer cut off his hands. Bumper shoved hius bleeding stumps in the Infernomancer's face and ran, but the Infernomancer ripped through his chest, killing him and taking the treasure.

Quilt sucker punched the distracted Infernomancer and he dropped the treasure. Spark raced to go get it, determined to do his part. Quilt fought the Infernomancer while Spark ran for the dropped treasure, but using the power of the Beast, the Infernomancer ripped through Quilt to grab the treasure out from under Spark's nose, pulling it through the flesh golem. Then the Infernomancer vanished with the treasure, leaving them to deal with their wounded. And dead. Bumper did not survive.

Meanwhile Miranda dueled the king via proxies on an external plane. The king was holding Nimmel in a demiplane for ransom, trying distract Miranda so he could kill her. Another Archmagi broke free of her corruption long enough to vow to give herself and the young man a clean death. She got Nimmel away from the king and both vanished. Miranda was distracted enough by that for the King to get a fix on her physical location. She fought back and he had to choose to lose the mystical sanctum or lose track of her. He protected the sanctum and she got away.

Ara hadn't killed Nmmel though, she took him to her Plane of Air and left him her cloak as she died and faded into nothing.

Dominic and Luna had to deal with the dead. They cremated Bumper as Semashi customs dictate, but Dominic needed to scry the Archmagi, but given the thrall he had been under, he needed strong necromantic wards. He called Jacob to help. (A lot of CR happened between the brothers in Maltak, okay?) Surprising everyone Quilt offered himself to Jacob as a focus so they could find out who was behind Bumper's death, since Bumper was a good friend to him.

During the scry, Dominic confronted the Beast who let him see just how well the loose ends - aka Dominic's carefully wrought plans - were being eliminated. Dominic and the others rushed to the only site where they could help, the cathedral. They all worked pulling survivors from the wreckage. Even Jacob. Chase's parents and their supporters were dead, the Battlecasters that had been saved were dead.

[death_from_above]

The following chapters, Spark split the focus on everyone but the Beast and Dominic even more. And they get very chaotic with lots of simultaneous action. So Chapters 39-45 will share one summary. Also this is comment 11 already and I feel badly making you read this much. Also it is getting harder and harder to explain without going back to things I skipped over for brevity.

The war against the Beast became worse and worse. There were heavy casualties on all sides. Many were injured, some so badly that even magic cannot offer much hope. Some were killed. Some were bereft of all their magic. Dominic was one of those last. Like Gregory, he had to learn to do without his powers after the Beast was vanquished. Celesto was instrumental in the end, though no one was fully sure what side he had ultimately been on.

Dominic had one final vision at the end of everything. He saw what the king's influence had been doing throughout his long reign. Dominic saw what the world would be now that the king was dead, his power broken. Callan's magic would be on the decline, but an industrial revolution would rise to let technology take its place. All the other peoples and lands that were bereft of magic because of the King would thrive once more. A whole subrace of Orcs nearly extinct, the magic wielding Chandraks would arise once more and see to Maltak's health. Their world would once more resume its proper place in the multiverse and the universe. Klo Tark's people got Dominic and the Mongrel he was with home, but they were injured. Badly. Dominic was healed, but his visions gone. Katya on the other hand gained new powers, and was able to help save Nimmel and the others, but it cost her her sight.

Perhaps the hardest blow, for Spark, was Quilt. He, Stunt, and Donovan had been part of a strike force on the physical plane. He was instrumental in the downfall of the Infernomancer, but the Necromantic blight claimed him, and destroyed the magic that kept him together.

The capital of Callan was taken by an alliance of other nations, including the few human nations like Semashi that were not Callanian, and non-humans, like the Orcs. Ultimately it was decided that while so much evil was brought upon the worlds by the Callnian king, it was mostly the Callnian people who had risen up to stop him. They would be allowed to rebuild their natuon with help and advice from the other nations, rather than be absorbed by another kingdom or people.

Klo Tark's people, the Eld, returned to this world, where they had their roots, reestablishing their own nation as well. The Eld had been close with Archmagi Ara, and bespoke the only remaining Archmagi, Miranda Deegan to help them rebuild the Sanctum and the Archmagi. She agreed to do so, helped choose those who would serve as the new Archmagi and stepped down once that was all done, naming Luna as her successor.

Dominic was falling into a depression without his powers, and sought Greg for advice, since he had dealt with the same. Somehow this turned into Dominic and Luna finally having a wedding party. It was a mix of celebration of their marriage, the Elven tradition of celebrating the lives of those no longer with them, and mourning for those who were lost.

Milov agreed to be one of the Archmagi, and he and Jayden were talking again. Trying to rebuild their relationship. Stunt threatened them all their their friends ghosts were going to come back and kick their butts if they kept being so sad. Dominic got a job as the head librarian in Barthis, Spark made friends with the Mongrel that had helped save Dominic's life. Jacob attended the wedding without incident and then vanished.

And time passed. But while that time was passing, Spark heard a call to Wake... whatever that meant....

[death_from_above]

And with that we are now leaving Canon behind and heading to CRAU. Please keep your hands, legs, feet, and arms inside the app vehicle at all times. This is going to be a bumpy ride. (Mostly because I don't have a CR tracker, so this is going to be harder to review as I post, and thus will be faster, but perhaps skip more.)


So. Spark heard a call to Wake, and being so used to psychic calls from Dominic answered it before he realized that Dominic couldn't do that anymore.... He found himself in the City of Nautilus. A very odd place where EVERYONE could learn magic. Odder still, he had Dominic's old crystal ball with him, for some reason. It turned out to be his network device, because the City has an odd sense of humor and making a cat haul around a crystal ball was apparently hilarious.

Spark made a lot of friends in the early days in the City of Change. I don't recall the order, so I appologize for that. Some became friends, like Nita and Sanji and some became more.

For a while, like many of the strays (usually human, but not always), he was taken in by the Tenth Doctor and allowed to live in the replica Tardis. He got to know Ten and Rose and Lady Me (who I played, so mostly he just observed her), and some of the other Doctors. He got along quite well with Three and Four, less well with Nine who could turn into a cat but never really played along. He ADORED Rose. Rose gave him fish and made puns and played alliteration word games with him. He knew what the other Doctors looked like because of Lady Me and Ten who at one point when they were almost getting along (long story not relevant to this app) they painted a mural after one of the Storms that had all of the Doctor's faces on it.

The person he met though that made the most impact on him was Adrien Agreste (Miraculous Ladybug). At first Adrien was just another friend. More, he was a lonely person who needed someone to dump angst on and was happy to feed Spark fish. He was also one of the few people that didn't keep insisting that Spark could learn this... Bending... the magic that anyone in that world could learn.

Adrien was in an odd position. His father was there in the City, unlike most of the Wakened who had no family present, but... Gabriel Agreste is many things. Present is hardly one of them, even when he is. So instead of being free like most people were, to grow and learn and change, Adrien was kept under his father's somewhat absentee thumb. So Adrien wound up coping in a few ways, some healthy, some... not. He also wound up getting pulled between his father and the Doctor who had all but adopted him. One of Adrien's healthier ways of coping was to adopt just about every pet ever. This included two mutant rabbit things, a ghost cat that used to belong to Death, some Pokemon.... and Spark. Spark became Adrien's cat "until one of the Deegans shows up, okay?".

But as they got closer, Spark started feeling more like the Doctor. Adrien needed help, he needed an adult parental figure that wasn't Gabriel Agreste. So his hope went from one of the Deegans showing up so he could be with his family again to Dominic, Luna, Miranda, or Donovan showing up so they could sort things and make sure Adrien has a healthier home life. They never did show, however.

Spark made some other key friends that if you know Miraculous might not be surprising. Chat Noir and Spark got on WONDERFULLY. Part of this was a mutual love of puns. Part was that Chat Noir is Adrien's superhero alter ego. Also he got along with Marientte, Ladybug, and when they showed up, Alya and Nino.

Spark actually wound up the adult chaperone once form Ladybug and Chat Noir, when they started getting a little too... ah... physical after combat one time. He reminded them both all the reasons this was a BAD IDEA and was basically the cold bucket of water the hormonal teens needed.

Spark started living more with Adrien in the Agreste manor than in the Tardis after a while, and he and Adrien got super close. Gabriel, true to form (At least I hope I did a good job with him, because yeah he was mine too. It wasn't a huge game, and I had eight characters, down to seven as we head into endgame.) hired people to look after his son. Ten was Adrien's teacher for a while, which was a beautiful disaster. It was also when Spark got to nap the most, because he knew Adrien was safe with Ten so he wasn't needed. Another employee was Kirika, Adrien's bodyguard. When she vanished, Spark was devastated. He probably missed her more than anyone except maybe Ten and Rose who had adopted her too.

After a battle with an Akuma though, Chat Noir was shot. Kirika was involved, she felt guilty for ages, it was a whole mess up on the rooftops. Because their magic isn't EXACTLY what it is at home, the suit was not strong enough to protect him, and he needed medical care. They were able to stabilize him, but it was bad. Spark had been there and wanted to take care of Chat, but he insisted he needed to go transform back, he'd be fine, really.

Spark, usually the one to listen when Adrien was worried or upset, needed someone to talk to about his worries for Chat Noir, because he couldn't stand losing another friend the way he lost Quilt and Bumper. He needed advice, and he trusted Adrien. But when he came into Adrien's room, he smelled blood. Lots of it. This was how he learned that Adrien was Chat Noir. He was sworn to keep it secret, and he did, and the pair grew closer.

On one other notable occasion, Spark needed cheering up. He loved pirates still, but something had reminded him of Quilt and he got beyond sad and depressed. Adrien, being the kind boy he is, went behind Spark's back and arranged a special pirate themed party in honor of his lost friend. He got an actual pirate (Sanji from One Piece) to craft a fish feast. It was a wonderful day for all. And when the City gifted them all candy from home, Spark made sure to share the mavple candy with everyone who helped with the party. Adrien got most of it, though Spark held some aside, just in case Dominic ever did show up.

Things were almost good for Spark for a while. He adored Adrien, he had lots of other friends as well, he managed to keep Gabriel from realizing he could talk (no he didn't, but that's more a Gabriel is sneaky thing than a Spark thing. He thought Gabriel didn't know, though, and that was what mattered.)

And then things changed.

Events in Wake were called Reality Storms, or Storms for short. Some were just odd, like the alignment swap storm that made Adrien evil for a week, which was actually kind of hilarious in hindsight, and Spark applauded Evil Adrien standing up to Gabriel the way he did. Well, as much as someone without hands can applaud. Some Storms were small and only affected some people. But some were huge. And some of the largest Storms had a profound and lasting effect on Spark.

The first of the big ones that changed him was the Nautilus Academy Storm, also known as the School Storm though there were other school related ones. This was just the BIG one. The City was divided in half. Roughly half the Wakened were themselves, in a mostly empty City that suddenly had this huge walled off area they couldn't access and a very malicious practical joker pulling pranks. (Okay some of those were too cruel to be pranks, but Endos was... a piece of work.)

The other half of them were inside the wall, and they had no memories of Nautilus or their canon lives. They had memories of a shared AU where they were all students and faculty of a prestigious boarding school called Nautilus Academy. Any humanoids, like Spark, Missile, and the Sonic cast were rendered human as if they had always been. And a lot of us collaborated OOC to make joined backstories. (This was what led to the mural in the Tardis.) Spark became Garfield Agreste, Adrien's twin brother. Older by a few minutes. Gabriel was faculty, and Emille was on a business trip. Gar was the problem child, always acting up, embarrassing their father. in the AU, Gabriel and Adrien had a much healthier relationship, because all the things that strain it in canon were absent, and they had Gar to deal with, Gabriel appreciated how well Adrien could handle his older brother and was proud of Adrien, especially having a mess up like Gar to compare him to.

Gar... that first time... had the face of the PV Felix, which because of AU, Gabriel did not remember Chat Noir had used to bluff Papillon a few months prior. Gar and Adrien were super close as brothers. And Adrien was about the only one to bring out Gar's more serious side. Everything else was animal fads and jokes based on whatever animal he "was" that month. During the storm he was in a cat phase, wearing Nekomimis to every class. (Except that partway through Professor Leia Organa confiscated them). Gar would protect Adrien from bullying, but otherwise he was this giant goofball who went to great lengths to hide the fact that he actually cared. Only his brother knew that he could be serious, that he could love so easily and so deeply. Only Adrien ever got to see when he was hurting.

That School Storm changed a LOT for Spark. When he came to as himself again, it gave him a lot of atypically deep thoughts. It had been his first time having parents. His first time having a brother. And he didn't know how to cope with how lonely he felt being a cat and being alone again. So he ran away, avoided everyone. To this day one of his biggest regrets is that when Kirika and Connie came to try and cheer him up, he ignored them. He never got to appologize to either of them for that. Kirika because she went back to her world, and Connie because things got... complicated.

Adrien was the one who brought him out of his deep funk. Adrien had to help others who were traumatized by the violent end of the storm (Gar was actually badly wounded and might have died if not for the Storm ending, tossing them back in their own bodies) before he could go hunt for Spark. When he did, he transformed into a cat and joined Spark in his hiding tree. They talked for a while, and napped for a while. And Adrien said that it didn't matter if one of them was a cat and the other a human, they could still be brothers. And if it did matter... well then Adrien could use Bending to be a cat whenever Spark wanted. Spark was doing a lot better after that.

But... this led to some other issues. Specifically to do with Adrien's best friend, Nino, who showed up. Spark started getting actually VERY jealous of Nino. He was part of Adrien's real life, a whole other life Spark could never be part of. He wasn't used to feeling like that and he hated it, but he couldn't stop it, and he didn't know who he could talk to.

More storms made things worse... and better.

One specific storm was almost as impactful as the School storm. Again Adrien and Gar were twins, but this time they were orphans. They had a Miraculous, that they shared between them, swapping off which of them was Renard the Fox when, so as to preserve secret identities. They were bad guys with good motives that tried very hard not to do anything TOO evil. They wanted what Paps wanted. They wanted the wish power. To bring back their parents. But they would help out the good guys against that AU's Paps (which wasn't Gabriel, for REASONS), because they agreed he was EVIL, and that Paps was.

But things got bad at the end of the Storm. Adrien had the Miraculous and was fighting male Chat Noir - Nino. They both nearly died and got unmasked at the end. It was bad and Nino wound up with such bad PTSD over it that they all agreed not to Bend back Renard's powers.

The timeline on Miraculous happenings is a little odd, and I appologize if I mess up the order. But at one point Paps tried to have two Akumas at once, so Nino and Alya became Chat Duex and Bandana Bug, so there were two sets of heroes. When Ladybug vanished, Nino and Alya split her job, when Alya vanished, Nino picked up whatever slack he could. At different points, I think Nino had posed as Chat Noir, Chat Duex, Male Ladybug, and Carapace. There might have been more.

But in all this... Spark did try to make his peace with Nino, for Adrien's sake, aware that the animosity was all one sided. One thing that helped was one day the local fast food joint, Gothdonalds - which every month gave out plushies of in game characters or ones to represent events - gave out Spark plushies. Spark thought about the pin dolls of Dominic meant to keep everyone safe and decided to give everyone he loved a Spark doll. But, well, he's a cat that refused to learn magic. So he had some trouble. Nino found the trail of dolls he was leaving when the bag he was using ripped, and caught up to him. Nino helped Spark give out the dolls which helped a lot.

Spark and Adrien talked a lot, and Adrien convinced Spark to try to make himself human. If so many of the Wakened human could learn to become animals, he could be Gar whenever he wanted. He also convinced Spark to let Nino help. So the three of them worked on getting Spark a human form. With... hilarious mistakes along the way. They agreed he shouldn't look like Gar from the storms, because of Papillon. So he made a form based on Gregory when Greg was Adrien's age, but with the hair and eyes shifted to match Adrien's. They weren't identical, but they looked close from behind or in profile. It was great for a while.

But then he started to become dissatisfied with his usual role of backup support in combat. He wanted to help Adrien and Nino fight, especially with the girls gone. So they helped him create Privateer Pirate. A fake Miraculous holder with a pirate theme that used his power by punning. He chose Quilt's form, in his memory, for Privateer Pirate.

But secret identities are hard for a cat, okay? And while only he, Adrien, and Nino knew who PP was, Rose and Ten discovered Gar. But he begged them to keep it secret as best he knew they did.

PP got a trial by fire when Gar and Adrien were walking home after a tough day, helping him exercise his human form, when an akuma (butterfly not monster) was heading for Gar who had been sharing some deep thoughts with Adrien. Adrien freaked out and without thinking... caught it. In his hand. And became Akumatized.

No Ladybug, no Rena Rouge. Nino took over as Chat so no one would make the connection to Adrien being akumatized and no base Chat, and PP jumped in to help. This was when he discovered that it is harder than he thought to be a hero. And that Link really hates when people make stupid jokes in battle. Whoops.

After that, he spent a lot more time practicing his two "human" forms. and he and Nino actually became good friends. Which made it a little disturbing for Gar when Nino started crushing HARD on Adrien. And weirder still when ANOTHER AU storm made Nino and Adrien a fairytale couple, and ANOTHER later made Gar and Nino brothers. Adopted, but still.....

[death_from_above]

And we are FINALLY more or less done with History. I mean, Ten and Rose left which was sad, other people came and went, there was training... but those were I think the most notable and important story beats.



Personality:

In canon, Spark was the comic relief. The fish obsessed lazy cat who loved his family, but mostly loved to break up intense emotional scenes with alteration, bad jokes, or demands for fish. As the series went on, he got more series-ish. Err... serious. But he seemed to hate being serious. He wanted to just be the comic relief. All this heavy stuff, he would claim would bring him down, but then he's sneak around to try and help. And then hide that help with a lame comment about fish at the end. Because he cared. And caring was difficult. It was painful. And it made him less and less a cat and more and more a person. He was losing his identity in a lot of ways, as the series progressed. And he kept trying to get it back.

He started out as near as I can tell, as a cat with this insane and wonderful family. He watched the kids grow and learn. And when Dominic left, he went with him. Then he was cut off from most of the family, except when they come to visit. Look how delighted he was when Miranda and Donovan saved him in Erossus. It wasn't about being saved, he was free falling out a window. He's a cat who uses "DEATH FROM ABOVE" as a battle cry. It was not about the rescue. It was about who rescued him. Clearly he didn't get to see Dominic's parents all that often anymore. And he loves them. You can see the close bond between them when they are together. Especially Spark and Miranda. He was the only one willing to risk her ire to save her life when she planned to risk it to heal Szark. She was the one who told her how much she would be missed if she died. And on Miranda's side, her punishment when she was mad at Dominic... was to give his dinner to the cat. And the way she and Spark acted, this had history. This was common when the Deegan kids were growing up.

At the beginning of the series, Spark didn't really have to examine how much he loved his humans or what he'd do for them. Thee was the fight with Helixa that he may or may not have been there for, and then after that, most of the danger to the family either Miranda and Donovan could easily handle, or was from Jacob when he still lived with them, experimenting on Greg.

Then when it was just him and Dominic, Greg came over to visit sometimes, but the parents didn't, and honestly.... There was very little danger for YEARS it seemed. I mean, the biggest threat to Dominic's life were two screw up thieves he could always see coming, and the occasional rowdy customer. Like Siggy. And besides how strong Dominic was, Greg's best friend Rachel was close to the Deegans and could more than pull her weight helping out when things got rough. Rachel was known for breaking things. With her face. So really... Spark wasn't NEEDED to help. And he fell into that hard. So much so that he was asleep when Dominic went to castle Travoia, he was asleep when Dominic and Luna went to go rescue Greg. And when he woke up and they were gone? He busied himself breaking Dominic's things, cause he didn't recognize his own concern, and he was bored. Also he used to be a brat. This was early days when he used to trade Dominic's crystal ball away fro fish and toys.

But he grew up as the dangers grew. He watched Luna's fight with depression and self hatred and it changed him. Slowly, but surely. He heard all the things Dominic said to help Luna, and some of them took root in Spark.

As things got worse for the family, Spark started taking more and more of an active role. He fought against this change, but it did happen. Spark says in the series epilogue that Talkers live longer than other cats, and that Dominic knew this when he was adopted. My theory watching him change throughout the series is that he actually hit maturity far later than anyone realized. That in a lot of the ways he was still a kitten/juvenile when Greg and Dominic were already adults and living on their own - well, with Spark in Dominic's case. If not for the clear relationship with Miranda and Donovan, I probably would have guessed Dominic adopted him as a kitten AFTER he moved out, but since that can't be the case... I think his lifespan changed the time it took him to mature, and since as a cat he was more pampered than a human would be at that age, he had the leisure to drag out his childhood, and didn't grow up, really, until he needed to. (Or the writer could have just fleshed him out more as a character as the series went on, but that hardly helps here.)

Near the end of the series, all the seriousness and loss and everything was an actual weight on Spark. The jokes got fewer and fewer and he always looked depressed. The part of the epilogue after his canon point shows him turning into basically what Dominic was at the start of the series. A grump. I pulled him from before that, when he went to Wake.


CRAU developments:

Tons. Building off of where I left off in the section above, when he found himself in a new world, Spark immediately decided to use this to reinvent himself. He hated being sad all the time, being a downer. So he tried to become how he saw his younger self, around the time of the first Barthis trip. He kept his sadness and negativity locked up as best he could. When he helped, he hid it. He focused on being cheerful and fish focused and just being an emotional support animal, basically, by breaking up intense moments with jokes. He tried to pretend he didn't have a serious side.

Very few people got to see through that for a long time. Adrien. Ten. Rose. Much later Nino. Connie and Kirika both saw Spark sad, but he refused to discuss it with either of them. Mostly he tried to be cheerful and happy. Or at least pretend like he was.

Gar, when Spark started becoming him intentionally, actually served as part of this divide. A cat can;'t cry, or give hugs, or be clingy. A human can. So when he needed to be serious or emotional, he tried to do it as Gar, to keep Spark as "pure" as possible. Since at first only Adrien and Nino knew Gar, they were the only ones he cried on. The only ones he clung to. Mostly Adrien.

As time went on though, he spent more and more time as either Gar or Privateer Pirate, letting himself experience a far broader range of emotions, and far more intensely, than he ever acknowledged as a cat. While at first he didn't really get the whole secret identity thing, despite Dominic and Greg both being superhero nerds growing up (and as adults, let's be honest), being Gar helped him understand. At first it wasn't any life threatening danger that made him want to keep Gar a secret. It was Gabriel. The man never spoke about the Storms in which he had a second son, never mentioned Garfield at all. The fear of rejection from the closest thing he ever had to a father kept him quiet.

He had kept Adrien's secret identity a secret because Adrien insisted, not because he agreed. At least not at first. Like most of the Wakened not from the Miraculous holders' world, he thought that if the heroes publicly unmasked, they could get much more help from the regular Wakened and it would be easier to unmask Paps. Once he became Privateer Pirate he worked hard to keep his identity secret, not because he suddenly agreed with them, but because both as Spark and as Gar he was so closely tied in with Adrien and Nino by that point that he would give them away if he was discovered. So he became as obsessed with protecting his secret identity as they were. But not for himself. For them.

Now, as it stands, he is going to be miserable being apart from his found family, but he will of course hide it when he is Spark. He will probably cling to Nita for a while, because she is from Nautilus and will remember him. I am looking forward to his first encounter with Rose and the Doctor, since they won't know him, but he'll presume they do. And of course if we ever get an Adrien or a Gabriel..... >.>

Key themes:
Hiding his serious emotions.

Bad puns.

Pirates.

Alleteration.

FISH. Or rather. FEEEEEEEEEEEESH.

Random moments of sad that he tries to hide.

Longing for family without ever admitting to it.


Main Motivation:
Once upon a time, it was fish. Pure and simple. So much of what he did was driven by a need for fish.

These days? Protecting those he loves. Emotionally by remaining comic relief and a good listener, and physically as PP.


Skills:
Bending. Probably the most relevant. While he rarely if ever does it as Spark other than to transform, he has the ability. And while he spent ages intentionally NOT practicing it until he became Gar, once he was Gar he practiced intensely, and Adrien and Nino helped a lot. Also as PP he went on training missions off world, and worked really really hard. So while he will never be as good as say, Nita or Clef. He's actually really good at it now. Especially as Gar or PP. So he can create things from nothing, replicate magic, change his form, and as PP, he can will his puns into reality. Basically Bending needs willpower, imagination, and practice. Those are the main limits. Though he can't create things that are truly alive, he can create things that haver the SEEMING of life.

Pokemon trainer. His Pokémon aren't coming with him, but since there are Pokémon on board, mentioning it here. There was a Pokémon storm, and each of them came away with two Pokémon and all their memories after. He might spend points to build himself a team where he can.

Puns and alliteration and other word play. He is... very good at this. Which does make playing him... tricky... at times.

Not sure if it counts as a skill, but Spark seems to have the ability to eat way more than his bodyweight in fish, and to sleep though very nearly anything. So, you know, worth mentioning, at least.

It is never stated outright in the comic that Spark is a Seer, no one ever even considers it. But we SEE him watching the Crystal ball with Dominic, Dominic leaves him watching multiple crystal balls when he goes to work, as the ***** watch, and at least once in the comic (it was a gag, but it is canon so it counts) he activates the ball and sees himself being fixed, when Dominic clearly had no intention of showing him that. So I'm gonna say that if he has a crystal ball, he can actually scry. (but of course game rules over, well, rule, that. Spark rarely bothers checking the crystal ball in canon, unless told to, but because it was his network device in Nautilus, i has become habit. So if you wanna put him on the list of people who have visions, it will freak him out, and could be fun. Mind, he'd only have them when actually looking at the thing....)

Item:
Dominic's Crystal ball. It won't work as a network device unless shenanigans happen, but.... (see comment above.)


Sample:
Train test drive 11
Train test drive 12
With Nino in Nautilus
With Ten, the whole hiding emotions as Spark/Becoming Gar cause human form for sad things thing.
And the thread right after he was Renard, talking to Adrien about possibly becoming Gar, and the thing he regrets with Connie


Notes:I decided, going over canon and his CRAU that I;'d like his name on the door to please be Spark Agreste-Deegan to represent both families he was adopted into. Also, once again, sorry for the huge freaking app.