#manifest me not getting fired for attacking. i will not get fired for starting a physical fight 😇 i will not get fired at all 😇😇🤞

[gideonisms]

when my boss inevitably gathers us in a group and lectures us about taking lunch at the same time we take it every day despite not being dismissed and then also tries to guilt trip us into working Sunday even after she said it was optional I need you guys to hold me back. and when Michael Fromwork says he likes some aspect of my outfit or appearance (he does this daily regardless of what I am wearing) I also need you guys to hold me back then too

[k0mmari]

SYSTEM! SHEN YUAN AU (Pt.2)

Pt.1

Im not done with this, so to the people that wanted more, here it is! I, fortunately or not, have thought way too much again, so once more this is going to be a very, very, VERY long post. If you guys have any ideas about this btw, please do share them! I really am just letting my mind wander a bit more than usual, so maybe someone else can have more structured thoughts than me lol. (Fair warning, there probably will be plot holes, so sorry in advance!)

Please read Pt.1 if you haven't, or this won't make any sense!

After SY warped away from his impromptu meeting with Binghe, the last place he would like to end up would be even deeper into the Endless Abyss, but according to his System, the next piece of the virus was here. While not happy, since his Personal System was (mostly) working as intended, SY managed to activate Ghost Mode and walk towards the next part without having to deal with any of the creatures down there. (He had to try very hard not to get distracted by the monsters, lest his supervisor thinks he also went missing.)

It takes considerably more time to find the virus this time, so much in fact, SY starts to recognize his surroundings from SQH's ramblings (not that he was interested or anything), and he feels a cold sense of dread running down his spine. There was no way he was that unlucky that the object that got corrupted this time was-

He was that unlocky. Lo and behold, after entering a run down ruin, SY is faced with the legendary Xin Mo, power so overwhelming it manifested as dark fire covering the blade. The only reason why SY wasn't immediately writhing on the ground from the sword's power was Ghost Mode, which he could not rely for too long, as his Personal System was displaying warning after warning about Possibility of Corruption and God Like Plot Point. It all meant that SY was on a timer, and if he took too long, the sword would start corrupting his System, which in turn could corrupt him.

Now, since this was a VERY important Plot Point, Luo Binghe had to find Xin Mo or else the plot would derail to an unfixable degree, SY couldn't just snip at it, which was a problem, since manual debugging took a considerably longer time! Still, he summons his Scissors and positions it so he can start at least trimming off the virus.

His plan immediately backfires however, as an ominous crack sounds through the air and he's suddenly pushed away from the sword by a gust of energy. A bit disoriented, he shakes his head and acesses the sit-

Xin Mo, the horrible sword it was, was apparently so OP that it seemed to detect the Scissors at the last second, and the thing attacked back! The metal of the Scissors was dark and broken where it came close to the sword, almost broken in half! Which, not good! It any other time, a pair of broken Debugging Sheers would be more or less fine, if not a major inconvinience (and pay deduction) for SY, but since he'd been warping all over the time for a while now, his Personal System's energy reserves were carefully rationed, and if he were to use a chunk to send the Scissors back for some emergency repair, he'd only have one chance to go back to HQ. Alone.

He couldn't delay it any longer, he desperately needed to find SQH and pray he still had some energy reserves left.

Setting his Personal System's next warp location to SQH's last known location, SY wouldn't have guessed in a million years that he would go back to Cang Qiong Mountain, but whatever; maybe SQH had wanted to start with fixing the bug on Binghe's pendant? Not that this was the right time since it was after Binghe fell into the Abyss, but SQH had never been good at warping. It takes a bit of wandering and going inside different buildings, but eventually his Personal System managed to get a dirrect ping on SQH's System, which sent a massive wave of relief rushing through SY, since it meant that SQH was still slive.

Though as to why he was at An Ding Peak, SY could only guess.

After a bit more wandering, SY enters on what seems to be a (very messy) office space, SY feels all the pieces coming together in his mind. Half sprawled across the table with piles of paper covering the entire table's surface lay the An Ding Peak Lord, which- was already weird, since wasn't this guy supposed to be an enemy of the Peak now? After the whole betrayal thing or whatever? But that would've been something to look into later, were it not for said Peak Lord casually scrolling through a Personal System screen. A Personal System that could only be used by the System's Maintanence Staff.

SY wastes no time in deactivating Ghost Mode, and when SQH's eyes snap to his, the man jumps so high from his chair he almost falls back. It's not a happy reunion by a longshot, since SY immediately jumped his friend co-worker and demanded an explaination, almost screaming about it was all his fault for doing shitty maintenence, and creating this shitty world if it's shitty OP sword which broke his Sheers? Do you know how expensive these are?? I know you do, cause the supervisor never lets you touch the good ones cause you keep cracking all the other pairs-

It takes a more or less one whole hour to calm down SY, but eventually the younger settled and lets SQH say his bit of the story: Apparently, in his messing around with the System's world creation program when he was trying to find the bug in his world, he'd accidentaly managed to get himself actually transmigrated to PIDW, though still with (limited) acess to his Personal System, which let him still send messages to their supervisor and pretend that everything was ok. He'd gotten so unlucky too! Out of all the people to accidentaly select, did it have to be the An Ding Peak Lord? Couldn't it have been Binghe? Or MBJ- (SQH cuts his lamenting when he notices SY's absolutely viscious death glare being stared right through his soul.)

Long story short, he'd initially did try to fix his blunder, but as more time passed and SQH's access to Maintenance priviledges went out one by one on his System, he eventually just... Started actually living there. In fact, he was living so well there that he dared say his life as Peak Lord was even better then when he was with the System! Of course, since he had been integrated as a 'character' now, he had his limitations, he actually managed to get to know his fellow peak lords! He knew the name of his character's family members and his disciples! He'd managed to build a life he never even thought he could have inside the System.

Sure, did he betray the Peak? Yes, yes he did. Were they all going to die in a few years time when Binghe came back from hell? Yeah, yeah they were, and he was immensely guilty and terrified, but! The plot could be changed! He already assumed someone from the System had popped up in the Conference, as when Binghe had recently made his alliance with MBJ, and had mentioned in passing this weird thing that had happened to him just before he fell into the Abyss.

Anyways, eventually SY begrudgingly accepts SQH's decision to stay in PIDW, but he still had to help SY; and so they form a plan: SY was going to transfer some energy to SQH so he could temporarily get his acess to the full version of his Personal System and use his energy reserves to send SY's Sheers and get them fixed. SQH was also going to properly apologize to their supervisor for suddenly quitting without notice AND order some more energy stacks to be sent to SY's System. SY on the other hand had devises a plan to get closer to XIn Mo without the sword exploding his face off:

Infiltrate Demon Emperor Luo Binghe's palace as a lowly staff member and slowly debug the sword from the inside.

A perfect plan! What could go wrong?

SY selects to warp to a time where Binghe had Xin Mo mostly in control, so it is to no surprise he warps to a place were the Demonic Emperor's Palace is absolutely filled with women. Not the best situation, since a lot of people could and probably would be able to see him, but with that many harem members, it wasn't too much of a stretch to assume there was also a considerable number of staff, which, to SY's luck, there was! In fact, after he managed to activate a disguise for his clothes so they matched the rest of the servants, no one bat an eye on his presence; at most someone would inquire about his short hair, but other than that he was as noteable as a fly.

The first phase of his plan was already a success, so now he had to move on to reconnaissance which was mostly easy and the worst thing in his life. He was mostly looking for Binghe's quarters could be as he probably kept the sword close to him at all times, though with how big the palace was, his objective had gradually shifted to mapping out the labyrinth of halls as much as possible (SY was very glad that the System allowed him to create a map in real time or he might have gotten lost in the first five minutes). He walks so much he even manages to catch a few pieces of gossip, though the most interesting one by far being one about Binghe:

Apparently, a year ago, the Emperor had a qi deviation where, for a day, he seemed to have completely shifted his personality; he refused to touch any of his wives and kept screaming for his long dead Shizun. SY doesn't really remember that plot point, though his wondering is cut short when he hears people walking towards his direction. instinctively he his behind a dark corner, momentarily forgetting that he 'worked' at the palace now.

At list his bad luck was finally turning over as the Golden Protagonist himself walked past him with one of his wives hanging off his arm, looking just as cool as SY had always imagined. He had to snap himself out of his stuppor though, as two things caught his attention: First, Xin Mo was, predictably, strapped to his waist, still glitched but at least the virus seemed more or less contained, which gave SY a bit more time to work, though the other thing he noticed...

Hanging onto an old-looking braid laid SY's missing tassle that Binghe had found for him all the way back at the Conference.

What the hell was Luo Binghe doing wearing that old tassle at this day and age??

A few days passed and the Tassle Incident (as he called it) had to be set aside, as it seemed that passing as a servant also meant that other servants and even some wives expected SY to actually work. Not great, he sucked at cleaning and the other servants spared no words to make it clear to him, but it at least gave him something to do while he waited for his Scissors to arrive. SQH had sent him a few messages saying he'd gotten his part of the deal done, so now all SY could do was monitor Xin Mo's condition (from very far away), and occasionally manually debug some small virus pieces that had fallen from the sword, which luckily were easy enough to deal with that he didn't need to cut them off.

The only thing that was worrying him now is how... odd Luo Binghe seemed. Of course, he was supposed to be the pinnacle of the Cool Guy trope, so some edginess was to be expected, but Binghe didn't look just Edgy, he looked straight up depressed. There were bags under his eyes, and he barely seemed to tolerate the presence of 99% of his wives, and that damned braid with the damned tassle was still there-

Point is, Binghe acting so weird really threw SY through a loop, and he may have gotten a bit careless. At a random day when SY was carrying some dirty laundry another servant had just shoved at him, he had no prior warning before a voice sounded from behind him: "You seem to have dropped something."

He barely managed to shake off the violent sense of deja-vu that had sucker punched him in the face before he realized what was happening; Luo Binghe was talking to him. Directly to him. Shit- shit! Did he notice? Was Binghe doing a clever call back, spider-man style?? Was SY going to die????

SY shakily turns to Binghe, keeping his eyes locked onto the floor, bowing as much as possible that he still seemed respectful but the bag of clothes he had didn't all just fall to the floor. Thankfully Binghe didn't seem to mind, and simply put the fallen piece of clothing on top of the others and walked away. Though, just as SY was regaining his breath, Luo Binghe's voice stops him again. "You... Have we met before?"

SY trembles something about only being hired recently and not having the opportunity to formaly meet Junshang, and it seems to be a decent enough that Binghe just stares at him for a while longer before walking away. He really should grow out his hair if even the Emperor got weirded out like that...

Binghe started eyeing SY way more after that day. The protagonist would rarely speak directly to him, but SY could feel his gaze as if it were burning; though, since Binghe never said anything, SY just assumed that whatever Binghe's problem with him was, it was likely nothing to worry about.

In fact, it probably was because one of Binghe's wives had used SY is an impromptu act to try to get Binghe jealous (he just frowned, separated the two and walked away) and after that she had gotten infatuated with him, so she'd turned SY into her personal servant. Because of that SY saw Binghe at most two times a week instead of the 50% chnace of seeing his shadow once a week. Wow.

Because of this, as much as Binghe noticed SY, SY noticed Binghe as well, the protagonist seeming to get even more down as the days went. The tassle was still braided in his hair (SY worried it was just going to become a lock at this point), his eyebags never seemed to leave his eyes, and he was always muttering about... something. (SY managed to overhear something about 'fairness' and what Binghe actually wanted...?)

It all culminated at a seemingly random night. Most of the wives and servants had gone to sleep, only the more in-human women still hanging around, and SY, of course, but mostly it was because he wanted to see how close he could get to Binghe's quarters (aka Xin Mo) at night. Not that it was necessary, as when he was walking his attention was adruptly caught by the strangest sight: Luo binghe, sitting on one of the stone stair that lead to one of the many courtyards, being absolutely drenched in rain. The weirdest part was that a few servants and wives had also passed this place, and they all seemed like they didn't see Binghe, or didn't care.

Hating to see such an usually proud man (not that he'd seen much of that either) just soaking outside as if he'd just caught the love of his life cheating with another man, SY decided that at least he'd do a good job as a servant and take care of 'his Lord'. He grabs an umbrella from one of the adjacent rooms and slowly walks outside, covering Luo Binghe's form, not really caring if he was also getting soaked.

They stayed silent for who knows how long, but eventually, Binghe's eyes that had been laser focused on the horizon slowly blink once, as if coming out of a trance, and slowly move to SY's face, up to his hand holding the umbrella. "My Lord should get back inside. He'll get sick that way." SY half murmurs.

Binghe doesn't respond, though after a few seconds, his eyes seem to widen a bit and his breath comes out a little shaky. SY doesn't dare comment on it.

"Have we met before?" Luo Binghe asks again.

"...Yes." Shen Yuan says.

Binghe closes his eyes, and they stay like that for another hour.

Pt.3

[wolfhoundwitch]

Introduction to Shielding

If you haven’t already, check out my lessons on visualisation for the basic knowledge you’ll need to begin practicing shielding.

So what is shielding?

Shielding is a manipulation of energy, used to create a barrier between yourself and unwanted, usually negative or malicious energies. It’s a basic aspect of spellwork that everyone, beginner or experienced, should use to keep themselves safe.

What can I use shielding for?

Some beginner-level uses for shielding are drawing a circle, or casting a spell. A more experienced individual might use shielding in astral travel or spirit work, where there are a lot more malicious energies involved. Personally, I use shielding as often as possible, for instance when I do tarot readings, spells, spirit work, shadow work, and especially cursing. It gives that extra guarantee that you won't flood your personal space with unwanted energies.

Other uses include shielding against real-life dangers, to a certain degree. I often shield when I am walking through town at night for extra protection. But please remember to take other measures too! Call someone, pretend to be on the phone, plan your route, and even carry pepper spray if it's legal where you are.

An easy shielding method:

The easiest way to explain this is to think of your energy as a physical manifestation. Think how power attacks are shown in anime or cartoons - a streak of colour or light, or an element. Make it personable to you: fire signs (Leo/Aries/Sagittarius) might visualise fire, or a red energy or light etc.

Firstly, some people prefer to cleanse before shielding. I don't think its all that necessary but the choice is yours.

Begin by easing yourself into meditation. Get comfortable, and use whichever technique works for you. I have various methods for this in my visualisation lessons if you are struggling.

Attempt to visualise the energies surrounding you in your mind. It might be a swirling colour of light, almost like a cloud of dust. It could be flames, it could be water. Maybe try to see it held within your hand.

Now, attempt to shape this energy around your entire body. You might want to start with a bubble or a cube surrounding you. Feel this shape surrounding and protecting you. Visualise negative and unwanted energies being held back by it.

You can also layer shields, so if you are working with a particularly malicious energy you might want to have multiple shapes surrounding you, all within each other. You can also work with deities or spirits to ask them to shield you too.

Shielding Incantation

When I am shielding, I recite a spell as well as using visualisation techniques.

The shield of protection, I carry it strong, No ill wishes or trouble shall come along, You cannot harm me, or weaken my soul, My light is my weapon, and peace is my goal.

Try it out for yourself and let me know in the comments how it went! Thank you as always for reading. Please message for requests.

[namelessgakusei]

EP. 1.1 IGNITION

Devil May Cry x Reader insert

Warnings: It's DMC. Based on the New Netflix Series. Spoiler warnings for the actual show. Not proofread.

EP. 0 (masterlist)

EP. 1.2 COMBUSTION (cont.)

Synopsis: After a botched demon hunting, you and Dante hoped for some reprieve in Fredy's diner, only to come face to face with Dante's long dead twin brother.

It was the usual busy night. Streets are filled with people going on about their lives, narrowly avoiding each other as the sidewalk remains packed despite the time. A baby coos from her stroller as her mum navigates the crowd, innocently unaware to the stress her mother has on her face after bumping to strangers too many times. One of them even spat that she should excuse herself instead after colliding to her too hard that her bag fell to the ground.

"Asshole." She calls while gathering her things, oblivious to what happened to her daughter in the small moment she let her eyes off of her. Now changed to a husk of a mimic, the "baby" cries for her dropped rattle that rolled off to an alley. "Goddamn it Ellie, what now?" Despite the suspicious and unnatural way the toy moved away, the woman only sighed to herself as she went to pick it up.

Shadows cut her train of thought as they moved past, right behind her. Frozen in place, she could only slowly looked back as gurgling noises started to be heard. Something lunged at her and the woman screamed.

The woman struggled in the chokehold that the demons manifesting from the shadows have on her. With animal skulls for faces, they laughed at her pleas to spare her daughter, but before they can get a bite, the one holding her got shot at the face.

"Hey look! The Three Stooges came out to play!" A white haired young man clad in a red long coat came out of the darkness and shot at the demons who lunged at him, easily dodging their claws with the twist and kept raining his bullets on them. A demon tried to sneak up an attack from behind, only to get a barrel shoved to its throat, exploding from the number of bullets it released; while the other got bombarded with lead on the stomach. The remaining demon tried shooting sharp, skeletal limbs to his direction to impale, but he maneuvered just as easily as he jumped from a wall, getting a clear shot of the demon's head.

Despite the demon using the woman as a shield, the young man grinned, "Jackpot!" and shot, with the bullet breaking through her earring and straight to the center of the demon's skull, killing it.

The woman coughed and heaved for breath, crawling away in fear when she saw the demon disintegrating, and coming face to face with her savior. The man stood smugly as he looked down on her terrified state. But silence ensued.

"Eh, the way this usually goes is, I do that then drop a killer one-liner." He breaks the pause with an awkward groan, scratching his head as he looks away. "But I'm drawing a complete blank, right now."

"This never happened to me, I swear." The woman looked dumbfounded at his actions, and soon her fear turned into mild annoyance, only flinching when he suddenly turned to her direction with a grin, saying that he got one. "Pretend I just shot that guy."

"Man, Skeletor did not hold up since the '80s." The woman sighs wearily, making him backtrack with a nervous assurance.

"Dante. Dante. Stop, that's embarrassing." A voice called out from the fire exit staircase. Clad in a white coat similar to Dante, this individual looked more level headed that their companion, although they're visibly cringing at his expense.

Sighing softly, you jumped down the emergency exit, holding quite a large briefcase, and slowly made your way towards the woman, kneeling to her eye level as to not scare her any further. "Are you alright?" You smiled and offered her a hand.

Reciprocating your smile, she took your help and stood up. "I don't know how to thank you. You saved our lives." But then her eyes trailed towards Dante and her expression fell into confusion. "That is why you're here, right? To save us?"

"More or les— Augh!" Your partner glared and pouted when you jabbed his side and cut him off. "Yes, ma'am."

"There have been other attacks in the area. Our client hired us to look into it." You flashed your signature smile, a sure way to placate any stressed civilians that had unfortunately got tangled in your line of work. Though the implication of your work seem to interest her, making her inquire what really is the two of you are up to. Dante smirks and answers instead.

"Demon hunting."

This information seemed to scare her more, as she visibly backed away, trying to make sense of what's happening. "You're telling me that they were actually—"

The presence of something nonhuman made you spin behind, certain that a demon is close, only to see a baby tucked in a stroller. Dante seemed to notice your apprehension, cutting his conversation short with the mother to examine the source of your frown. "Cute kid." He grins.

Your brows furrowed. "We really should be getting home now." The mother says while picking up her scattered things. That baby doesn't feel human. "Shouldn't we, Ellie? Say goodbye to the nice people." Before you can say something, the said "baby" transformed into a demon and lunged at Dante.

"Dante!" You pushed him out of the way, only to get your arm caught. His instincts kicked in upon the sight as he draws his gun, alerting the mother as she pleads for her daughter's safety. The demon reverted from being a child but before you could explain, the mother threw her bag at your faces, temporarily stunning you as she runs away.

Dante chased after her, but she already disappeared into the crowd. "Damn it."

The opening of Fredy Diner was the reprieve that the two of you have after that botched demon hunting. At the hour it opens, Dante opened the door, with you trailing behind. There weren't many patrons around, just four, including the both of you. At least the waitress seemed particularly happy after hearing your arrival, already serving Dante's usual dessert and your morning coffee.

You grimaced at his sugary confection, commenting on how he can stomach it in the early hours of the day, only for him to jab at your coffee tasting so bad you can't help but wake up. An extra napkin was served alongside his ice cream, making you two look at each other in confusion. But upon seeing that the waitress' number and kiss mark was on it, Dante shrugged and used it to wipe his mouth, much to your dismay. "Poor lass..."

The worn down television buzzed in a faint volume as you two basked in the peaceful ambience. The show suddenly stopped in favor of a breaking news, showcasing the events of last night within Vatican City. "This is the first image released from last night's Vatican City bombings that have shocked and horrified the entire world." You narrowed your eyes as you sip your coffee, immediately recognizing the suspect to be a demon before the newscaster can give any more information. They usually lay low around the dark areas of the world, this is the first you've seen of them actively make an appearance. "—The suspect appears to have two strange protrusions on his back that are shaped almost like wings." Just as you were about to comment on it to Dante, you froze.

You noticed it before him. No, he noticed the way your eyes slightly faltered when you turned your chair around. Without a word, the two of you moved fast, with him grabbing the civilians, and you jumping behind the counter as a truck of gasoline was thrown at your direction, blowing up the diner.

Everything was a mess, but at least you got into shelter before everything blew off. Dante pushed the debris that landed on top of you all with a grunt while you barked at the civilians to flee, opening your suitcase to provide your partner the weapons he need.

"Dante."

Your voice overlapped with another when you handed him a gun, eyes darting to his figure. You never saw Dante tense up, much less look horrified.

"Leaving so soon?" A silhouette emerged from the flames, slowly making their way towards the two of you.

"We have much to catch up on, brother."

Brother? Dante's brother?

"No. You're..." Dante turned around with wide eyes as memories of that night flashed in his mind.

"...dead."

A man who looks exactly like your partner stood in the middle of the carnage.

[sw1ft-sniff]

RGB siblings in realm of Monsters

Prev |

*Kai absolutely destroying a giant beast 100x the size of him*

*Nya and Lloyd actually watching in horror as they watch their brother who is tiny compared to the monster attack like he knows what hes doing*

Lemme get the hcs out, During his time in the Land of Monsters he didn't sleep like at all. So he started getting auditory and visual hallucinations, and if he were ever to go back to the land of Monsters (and in this scenario he did) he wouldn't be able to sleep or really properly keep himself together because he'd be too stressed about Lloyd or Nya experiencing the horrors like him. Or worse, either of them finding out how much being in the Land of Monsters has changed him. Both mentally and physically,

*bug kai bug kai bug kai bugkaibugkaibugkaibugkai*

I fully hc that his bug traits would manifest out of stress or bottling up for too long. So being thrust back into the place that caused you to go through mental anxiety physical agony, along with you barely surviving your last fight and both your siblings are here with you in the danger zone inexperienced with the horrors that are in the Land of Monsters.

Internally Kai would probably be like

Oh shit, oh fuck, keep it together, you've been going this long, kill this thing, keep family safe. Can't die here, or I'll never see them again. They're right here with me of course I'll see them again. Unless they die here then your to blame and you'll never see them again. Can't slip too far gotta keep it maintained fuck my back hurts, and my arms, the whole centipede hybrid shit is not gonna hide well if I keep this up. Can't let the others worry about me, that's what I'm supposed to do.

So Kai immediately is pushing himself three times as hard to keep triple the amount or people alive rather than just one.

Lloyd and Nya notice instantly how Kai is mentally deteriorating from being here, they watch him close himself off and be over protective. Both of them are super concerned but as soon as they try to confront him about it he changes the subject or they get interrupted.

They enter a cave system for the night, rest they need it if they want to survive, Kai he sits down lighting the fire and starts keeping watch. Lloyd watches as he droops in and out of sleep sitting there and offers to take the watch for the hundredth time. Kai about to shake his head get interrupted by Nya who backs up Lloyd saying Kai Needs to rest. A bit of back and forth goes ahead before Kai finally caves. Laying down on a cloak he had set up for Lloyd.

Kai is out pretty quickly the exhaustion of multiple days kicking in. It's during the middle of the night when he wakes up in excruciating pain, Bugkaibugkaibugkaibugkai unfortunately he wasn't able avoid Lloyd noticing. From Lloyds perspective he saw his brother sleeping badly rolling around talking to himself. Then watched him sit up super suddenly and strangle off a scream.

Understandably Lloyd would be concerned. Kai the stubborn dumbass he is would get up and head deeper into the cave where they have no light. He cant let his family see what hes become. He gains his bug traits, mandibles multiple sets of legs from his back rest around his torso.

Kinda just setting him up for failure when he forgets that Lloyd can see in the dark. Lloyd understandably will probably let out some noise of shock cause like *his brother is a fuckin bug for some reason???? And didn't think to mention it before now??????* then Kai all angsty would be like

"you weren't supposed to see me like this.... Im a monster."

And Lloyd would be like

"Kai your not a monster, you may look different but you're still you."

"I'm not the same kai, I've been keeping up the facades for almost a year now. I changed here and I hate it."

"Kai please look at me, You are my brother and I know that because you've always been there even now you've been trying so hard to Keep Nya and I safe. No matter if you were human or not, You're still Kai to me."

Then they hug it kai finally gets the comfort he deserves and Lloyd gets to help his brother for once. Then in the morning they're obviously gonna have to explain to Nya why the hell her brother looks like he is cosplaying a centipede cross garmadon cause of the extra arms/legs.

She also concerned hugs her brother, but later she'll smack him over the head for constantly hiding he's in pain/suffering.

Cut scene 1

Kai: I'm not human anymore, I'm a monster.

Lloyd with his glow stick hands and eyes: bitch what does that make me???

Cut scene 2

Kai: I'm a monster how could anyone love me.

*Lloyd recalling the entire team* "dude no one cares if ur human, Zane is a robot, turned into water, Jay turned into a snake, Cole was a ghost, I'm fucking oni dragon and human. It was bound to happen at some point."

Ksi "Yeah ur right"

[philativy]

Snapped

To: My Beloved (gn!reader with a feminine lean)

From: Your Very Apologetic King (x diavolo)

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM THE POSTMASTER, PLEASE READ BEFORE BREAKING SEAL: fluff and angst — a little bit of whump, reader experiences physical harm (from being attacked), poly dynamics (reader is dating or romantically involved with all romanceables), suggestive towards the end and implied sex but it’s a fade to black scene.

URGENT: this is a repost of a fic from my old, abandoned Obey Me! blog. it belongs to me — i’m not stealing from myself!

It started like a taut rope. It strained and trembled, desperately trying to cling to the strings of its stability. Then the separating ends frayed, and it could not be saved any longer. It snaps. Civility is forgotten.

That was Diavolo's patience. Or, rather, his sanity.

It was hard enough to be the one inheriting an entire kingdom whilst his father simply slept the millenia away. But of course, strenuous relations with the other leaders of the Seven Rings began to arise. The three realms came to a dangerous stalement. The exchange program that founded came under constant fire and struggle. It was one thing after another.

Truthfully, everyone could tell he was a ticking timebomb. Everyone besides him, you supposed.

But nobody foresaw the way this pressure would physically manifest. Especially how it unfortunately got manifested towards you.

He had his back turned away from you. You'd just stuck your foot between the door and the frame of the student council room, squeezing in to quickly run a question by him. He was hunched over his station, shoulders rigid.

You paused, wringing your hands. "Sorry to interrupt. I was just wondering about --" when he didn't turn to look at you, or even acknowledge your entry at all, you hesitated. He usually met you with that same dazzling smile. Something must be amiss. "-- Diavolo?"

You heard his nails scrape against the wood of the desk, and the fine hairs on your arm stood upright. Satan, who was busy flipping through an astronomy textbook, looked up and watched from beneath his aureate eyelashes. The other brothers, who were scattered around the room, all seemed to collectively pause what they were doing.

Diavolo slowly rose. From your peripherals, you saw Lucifer straighten.

"Can you… ask me… another time?" His voice is raspy and guttural, as though strangling his emotions into submission.

You opened your mouth to reply, but you had no time to do so. He'd already rounded on you, eyes ablaze. He was unbridled. His inward dam had finally snapped -- and unfortutnately, you were the one subject to the consequential torrent.

Before any of the brothers could intercept, you were sent sprawling on the floor. Hot pain erupted in your head and blossomed through your spine. Diavolo descended upon you, large hands caging your head whilst his sharp teeth snapped just inches away from your nose. Your hands instinctively found purchase on his biceps, attempting to hold him at bay.

You knew you were no match for the Prince of Demons himself. He could kill you in an instant, even with all your magical prowess. So, to even still be alive, you knew that he still subconsciously must be holding himself back. He doesn't want to hurt you.

Diavolo was wrenched off you with a roar, Lucifer and Beelzebub doing their part in restraining him. Both were in their Demonic forms, yet the strain in their physiques was obvious. Beel grunted as Diavolo thrashed, lashing out at nobody in particular.

"Diavolo! Get a hold of yourself!" Lucifer roared, a clear droplet of sweat accumulating on his brow.

Your vision was partially obscured as Asmo and Belphie stepped in front of you, acting as shields for your now prone form. Mammon descended upon you, carefully cradling the back of your head and checking you over for injuries. Your hands trembled, feeling sick in the face of Diavolo's suffering. If you were losing blood, you didn't feel it.

Mammon was fervently whispering something to you, but your mind wasn't decoding any of it. Your eyes were firmly fixed on Diavolo, watching the same face you often cradled become distorted with rage.

There was a sudden crackling, the air becoming thick with tremendous energy. A gaping portal coalesced, and out came Barbatos. His face, to a shallow degree, was calm. Yet upon furthur inspection, his distress was clear. It was evident through the crease between his brows and the firm set of his lips. His hand extended in a simple flourish, and white chains burst forth.

They restricted Diavolo's wrists whilst Beel and Lucifer held his legs. Satan crouched by Diavolo's head, attempting to cast a curse that would seal Diavolo's jaws and prevent any infortunate bites. Levi anxiously paced at your side.

"Take them out." Barbatos said coolly, his tail whisking in your direction. The last thing you saw before Mammon's fingers obscure your vision was Barbatos crouching by Diavolo. His face was grim.

You mumble in protests, but it's futile. Your head's pounding his becoming unbearable, and Mammon keeps you firmly locked against his chest. He stands, hefting you along with him, and abandons the scene.

…

One week.

Two weeks.

Three weeks.

It's been almost a month since you've seen you've seen Diavolo. Following the outburst, Diavolo was confined to the castle -- nobody except Barbatos and the castle staff is permitted to enter. He's being kept under close watch while he makes his way towards recovery.

The student council was forced to conjure a cover story that could explain Diavolo's prolonged absence. The active excuse was that Diavolo was on diplomatic mission with the House of Lords. Mephistopheles was key in ensuring that this cover story was widely accepteed by the student populace. After all, he was the only individual with direct contact with the House of Lords.

Your wounds weren't serious, either. Lucifer placed you on two days of mandatory bedrest before allowing you to resume your position at RAD.

You've only just been permitted to see Diavolo again. It took a tremendous amount of coaxing Barbatos, and several instances of being turned away, before you got the go-ahead. Mammon complained about Barbatos being too much of a stickler, but Lucifer had quickly supported him. He reasoned that he was only acting like a concerned parental figure. If that happened to Mammon, his brothers would do the same for him. Mammon had only huffed.

This is the first time you're seeing him at all since the accident. You slowly walk up the grandiose garden, approaching the heavy metal doors of the castle. Your hands anxiously clench in your pockets.

Before you can knock on the door, Barbatos swings it open. You reflectively step out of the way, but you're not in danger of being hit. Barbatos meets you a pleasant smile.

"Hello. Thank you for taking the time to come see the Young Master. He'll be delighted." Barbatos says, leading you through the familiar foyer of the castle.

"It's no problem." You let out a strained chuckle. "We all miss him, anyways."

"I'm sure. I suppose I should apologize for withholding him from all of you, but… I'm sure you understand that it was done out of concern for both party's safety." He hums, hands neatly folded in front of him. You both halt in front of Diavolo's bedroom door.

You rest a gentle hand on Barbatos' shoulder. "We all understand, Barbatos. Please don't take all of this too hard."

"Thank you, but your leniency is not necessary. It was my fault he came undone. I've been piling too much work on him." There is clear strain in his pristine features.

"You couldn't have known it was going to result in that. Go rest. I'll be keeping him company." You smile tenderly, leaning forward.

Barbatos meets you halfway, your foreheads resting against each other for a moment. Your breaths intermingle, and Barbatos brushes a strand of hair behind your ear. Your fingers ghost over the nape of his neck.

He pulls away first, giving you a forlorn once-over before turning and striding back down the hallway. You watch him go for a long moment. You tear your eyes away, wrapping your fingers around the doorknob to Diavolo's room and slowly pulling it open.

When you enter, you spot Diavolo standing by the large window in his room. He looks worse-for-wear. He's got slight bags beneath his eyes, red markings on his wrists from being restrained, and he might have lost some weight.

As the door creaks, heralding you appearance, Diavolo turns. Seeing you -- whole, present, and in one piece -- his entire face beams. He's across the room in a moment, intending to embrace you. But he stops.

You flinched.

Whenever he came towards you, you flinched. Diavolo felt a small part of him shatter.

It dawns on you what just occurred. Your eyes soften, and you approach first instead. You wrap your arms around the barrel of his chest, pressing your cheek to the warmth of his front.

"Don't look so upset. I'm not going anywhere." You murmur.

You feel him shift, and his arms slowly come up to cradle you against him. He all but curls over you, needing to hunch over to press his cheek to the top of your cranium. He sniffles pitifully.

"I'm so sorry. What I did was inexcusable." He rumbles.

You shake your head. "I'm not going to say it's okay -- because its not -- but I forgive you. I'm not angry. Just worried."

He lets out a hot breath against you. His forearm scoops beneath your knees, and he swings you into his arms. He carries you to his bed, where flops backwards. Your thighs cage his sides, and you reach up to rest your palms on his chest.

"It's been lonely, you know." He sighs, brushing his finger over your nose. "It's just been me and Barbatos for weeks. And I appreciate him, but he's not exactly a golden conversationalist. At least, not when he's feeling guilty."

"I wanted to come visit earlier!" You reassure him, "but I couldn't."

"I understand. It's better to be… safe than sorry, like the humans say." His chest puffs up at his proper utilization of human dictums. "Besides, the time apart just made our reunion all the better." He tries to smile, but it still feels hollow. His hands come down to absentmindedly stroke the plush of your hips.

You practically purr, tugging his auburn hair. "Should I have brought you a gift, too?"

His gilded irises glow in the firelit chamber. "No. This is good enough for me."

He grasps your jaw, tilting it just so. Your eyes narrow, then close. You etch forward to meet him halfway, arms languidly encircling his shoulders.

Your lip catches on his, and he obligingly turns his head. His sharp canines scrape against your skin and you emit a sigh. You push yourself up on your knees, a deep groan rattling your throat. His large hands engulf your back, groping at your shirt.

You both gasp as you part, mouths pink and swollen from fervor.

"Perhaps you could spend the night to make up for the last two weeks?" He hums, eyelids heavy.

You pretend to consider, leaving him to stare at you pleadingly. Then you relent.

"I think I could hack it."

dividers by @/cyberbeat, @/bronzewasp, & @/saradika-graphics

masterlist

[falciesystemessays]

I honestly think that Dizzy's entrance to Guilty Gear Strive should be as much of A Moment for plural systems as Bridget's was for trans women. The character's not out yet, but every bit of promotional material for the character points in a very promising direction. So for people who don't go here, or who have only played Strive, allow me to tell you why a character trailer for a three-year-old game put me on the verge of tears.

For some quick context, plurality in a person is essentially the state of having multiple entities in one's head. The most commonly known form of this comes from having dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personalities. But plenty within the plural community (including me) have a broader umbrella for the term. The main terminology you'll want to know for this is that a "system" is a group of entities within one body (I for example am part of the Fal'cie System), and "aspects" are entities that aren't quite separable from the host, because they're the manifestation of specific parts of them. For the record I am very aware of how buckwild this sounds to an outsider, and I frequently get existential about it. A lot of characters in anime and games are incidentally plural due to their layers of fantasy nonsense. Some examples of this in action are Yami and Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh, Sora gaining Ventus's heart in Kingdom Hearts, and the explicit dissociative identity of the Storyteller System in Ace Attorney.

Now then! To sum up Dizzy's backstory real quick, Dizzy is a Gear, basically a living weapon, and the daughter of original antagonist Justice. Most of her character up until this point has been desperately trying to cover that and live among humans, to... mixed avail. In the series' story mode she manages to start a family with the human deuteragonist Ky Kiske, who loves her a lot despite formerly being one of the best Gear-slayers. Ky is such a wonderful character, because throughout the series we see him go from hating Gears to tolerating a few of them to having a kid with one and actually becoming a little bit Gear himself. But this essay isn't about Ky Kiske.

In actual gameplay, as in the 1v1 fighting game battles, the main thing stopping her from relative normalcy is her two wings, Necro and Undine. The reason I say this character is a plural dub is because these wings are actually aspects of Dizzy, Necro being her rage and Undine her compassion. A lot of Dizzy's attack animations in Guilty Gear XX (the one where I've played Dizzy a lot) actually have Necro doing violent things while Dizzy herself is either distracted or afraid. This continued in Guilty Gear Xrd, where her instant kill move (every character gets one) has Necro unleashing a fuckoff gamma ray while Dizzy begs him to stop. Worth noting also that gamma rays are one of the moves her mother Justice used. Dizzy and Necro have clearly not been getting along, and while it's fun as a fighting game character bit, there is a certain level of sadness to it.

But in Strive? Oh my god, she looks so happy now! So at peace with herself and with her system. Lemme just rattle stuff off right now.

-Dizzy's attack animations all put her in control. Necro and Undine do a lot of fighting still, but never without Dizzy's control. They are fighting in tandem.

-Dizzy's victory animation has her hold out two hands. Undine naturally puts her whole hand onto one, and Necro finally puts a single finger on the other with a smile.

-Their super move, Gamma Ray, starts out with Necro and Undine firing a beam, and Dizzy getting scared. But after glancing at them and realizing it's okay, she joins in on the beam attack.

-She has a new move now, Michael Sword (Pronounced Mik-hai-ull), a full-screen slash that Justice used to have, indicating that she's come to terms with her origins and wants to use them for good.

-God, her opening animation and taunt where she communes with the animals like a Disney princess. Her new beautiful design. Her new theme song! She has never been this happy in her life!

The thing is, right, I can imagine people saying that this character growth isn't remotely the same kind of moment as Bridget's, because Dizzy's whole thing is based in sci-fantasy that could never be real in the same way that like, dissociative identity is real. Plenty more would deny that plurality exists at all outside some deluded roleplayers. And, I mean, was series director Daisuke Ishiwatari really thinking about people like me when choosing to take the character this way? I don't know, honestly. But I do know that Dizzy's character arc is authentic, to me. If there's one thing Guilty Gear Strive's story is really good at, it's giving long-suffering characters some well-earned peace. And if this is how Strive Season 4 is starting, I can't wait to see what they do next.

[majosullivan]

Nevermore Dashboard Simulator 2

🔄 many-coloured-grass reblogged

🌷 many-coloured-grass Follow

I don’t care what any of you are saying, I just think it is weird that people are joking that Lenore and Annabel are secretly into each other when they have shown constant distant for each other?? Go take a walk through the academy grounds

🔮 sorcery-sorcery-sorcery Follow

the fun police right here is trying to put me in gay detenion but Lenore and Annabel are blocking the way because Lenore has pinned Annabel against the wall

🌷 many-coloured-grass Follow

THE DEVIL HAS A CLAIM ON YOUR SOUL

#WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? #THEY CLEARLY HATE EACH OTHER #WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SAYING STUFF LIKE THIS?

8,689 notes

🎇 labyrinth-of-light Follow

[snapping out of remembering the horrific details about how I slowly suffocated under a black mass of slurry, not knowing if my siblings were alive or not, all because I smelt the scent of coal coming from the fire in the common room] oh I should have been at the club

13,477 notes

⚰️ were-all-dead-here Follow

906 notes

🔄 ghostlygal reblogged

🕯️ phantomwraith Follow

i can’t deal with this academy anymore! i mean i can, and i will, obviously. but i can't fucking do this anymore!

🖤 ghostlygal Follow

Area Man Who Has "Had Enough" Wakes Up Next Morning at 7:00 AM to Get Ready to Go to Class Again

7,347 notes

🌤️ serenest-skies Follow

I don’t know if it’s just the stress from the announcement that there’s only one new life, but I SWEAR I just saw Lenore drag Annabel Lee into a closet just now

#or I have started to lose my mind #with how today ended #that seems like a much more reasonable conclusion

29 notes

🔄 spookyxskeletons reblogged angelic-oddity

☀️ angelic-oddity Follow

God I wish I was that bell

☀️ angelic-oddity Follow

THIS WAS MEANT TO BE SAVED TO DRAFTS

☀️ angelic-oddity Follow

GUYS PLEASE STOP REBLOGING THIS, ISN’T MY SHAME ENOUGH?

☀️ angelic-oddity Follow

NO YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME

15,074 notes

🔄 fable-silence reblogged

🍁 fable-silence Follow

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭I HAVETO GO TO CLASS AGAIN😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰

🍁 fable-silence Follow

my greek chorus ^

4,832 notes

🎊 impishimpulses Follow

My roommate, who just manifested into an six foot tall ochimusha and consistently calls me dearest: All the creatures in this maze seem to desire nothing more than to suck dry any life we have remaining, i just don’t understand this academy

Me [heard “suck dry” and got so hard i got nauseous]: i think i hauve the devil in me

3,496 notes

🔄 ferocious-fiddle reblogged

🧟‍♂️ gutzngore Follow

The Deans are literally Tweedledum & Tweedledee coded because of their sinister symmetry. but whatever

🎻 ferocious-fiddle Follow

OP I know this is a joke, but just remember that if you go knocking on enough doors asking to see the devil, eventually he’ll answer.

6,660 notes

🩸 bloodstained-petals Follow

I’m never going to listen to anyone ever again that tries to give dating advice along the lines of ‘The worst thing that they can say is no :)’, bitch I just witnessed that Ada girl get insulted so throughly in public after she tried to flirt with Prospero that she literally manifested into some screeching rotten hag

#like be real with me right now

706 notes

🔄 spookyxskeletons reblogged

🪸 drenchedkelpie Follow

The whole experience with the rats in yesterday’s lesson felt like having to escape a ficious pack of bloodthirsty hunting dogs, and I was but a simple and unexpecting deer

🪸 drenchedkelpie Follow

WHAT THE SHIT

☠️ spookyxskeletons Follow

3,969 notes

🔄 floatinghoax reblogged

🌺 etherealdances Follow

Kill them with kindness? WRONG. Spectre attack 👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

1,002 notes

🔄 deadgirlwalking reblogged namelessghoul

⚙️ the-greater-the-ass Follow

Call me Wall Street the way I. The way I just crashed onto the floor because of that fucking Hungry Ghost

⚙️ the-greater-the-ass Follow

Have y’all just. Ignored everything that has happened the past few years or are some of you just fucking with me?

🌹 blushedandbloomed Follow

Is this some kind of wide spread prank that people are doing? Me and my roommate were talking about what memories of our family we had recovered and I mentioned how badly my brother was affected by his conscription during the World War II, and my roommate just looked at me like I was speaking another language and asked me what war I was even talking about

⚙️ the-greater-the-ass Follow

I’m sorry, world war number

WHAT?

🃏 demonic-betting Follow

I’M SORRY, WORLD WARS???

🌹 blushedandbloomed Follow

🪲 goldbug1843 Follow

@blushedandbloomed you cannot just react like that without any explanation about what on earth you meant by World War II

🌹 blushedandbloomed Follow

I MEANT WORLD WAR II, AS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR, 1ST SEPTEMBER 1939 - 2ND SEPTEMBER 1945. WHY ARE YOU GUYS REACTING LIKE THIS?

🌻 hyacinth-hair Follow

Unless you are the Oracle of Delphi, why the hell are you stating an end date for a war that’s still going on?

🌹 blushedandbloomed Follow

BECAUSE I’M NOT??? WHAT YEAR DO YOU THINK IT IS?

🌻 hyacinth-hair Follow

1942, WHAT YEAR DO YOU THINK IT IS?

🌹 blushedandbloomed Follow

1950. I WOULD LIKE TO THINK I WOULD KNOW THE YEAR THAT I DIED THANK YOU VERY MUCH

⚙️ the-greater-the-ass Follow

IT’S LITERALLY 1934???

🥀 wilted-rose Follow

🌃 eveningstar Follow

This is getting out of hand

🪵 premature-burial Follow

I DIED IN 1916, HOW ARE YOU GUYS SAYING THAT YOU WERE ALIVE AROUND TWENTY YEARS AFTER THAT WHEN I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THE WAR THAT TOOK MY LIFE IS EVEN OVER?

���� sleepyirene Follow

LOVELY ARE YOU TELLING US THAT YOU DIED DURING WORLD WAR I?

🪵 premature-burial Follow

THAT IS WHAT YOU ALL MEAN BY WORLD WAR I???

🐸 hop-frog Follow

🌟 celestialwhispers Follow

I must be having some kind of vivid dream because there is no way this is right. In the most recent memories I currently have, the coronation of Edward VII recently occurred, and now I’m seeing people claiming that they died 1910-1950?

🌬️ loss-of-breath Follow

HOLD ON, QUEEN VICTORIA IS DEAD?!

⚙️ the-greater-the-ass Follow

🌙 voyage-to-the-moon Follow

I am going to lose my marbles

🪓 namelessghoul Follow

WHAT FECKING YEAR IS IT

🪦 deadgirlwalking Follow

56,395 notes

[writing-mlm]

Can I request a Scott Summers x male reader where reader is his adopted son or something like that and he's struggling to control his powers and he accidentally hurt one of his friends during training as a hurt/comfort fic?

Comfort for the empath

Summary: There’s been an incident and Scott knows exactly how to handle it. Pairing: Scott Summers & Male!reader Word count: 600+ Tags/warnings: familial/platonic ofc, readers not described but is above the age of 9 less than 18, non-descriptive panic attack, this is shorter than I would’ve liked but it’s fineeee side note does anyone have scott comic recs…

Most mutations make themselves known during puberty— so any time between nine and thirteen— others come out during stressful situations. You guess yours had presented during puberty, you were hypersensitive to others' feelings. Sometimes you swore you changed their feelings but your mother said you just have an aura around you that makes everyone relaxed. 

Turns out you were, in fact, changing their emotions. Empathy— your mutation was becoming an empath. Well, initially it was. It later morphed into something more… something dangerous after a trip to the botanical garden where it was attacked. The empathy morphed into something strange. Some weird physical manifestations that you’ve since gotten used to.

Just, not well. You can’t control your power to save your life, let alone anyone else’s. So you don’t know why Charles keeps putting you in groups during training. Especially at times like these. 

You hadn’t meant to hurt him. You swear— you’re still struggling with the whole mutation thing and he was… in the wrong place at the wrong time. You were trying to hit the dummy across the room but he was running too fast, too reckless, and now he was lying across the room, smoke rising from his arm where you hit and you’re hyperventilating in the corner, covering your ears to drown out your friends' pained screams. 

Strong hands find you soon after you curl up, your nails scratching your ears so badly they’re bleeding and the skin and blood gets stuck under your nails. Your head shakes as whoever it is tries to coax you out of the shell you’ve formed yourself into. You can feel the panic around you, the pain, the fear, every single emotion within the room, and even beyond it is blasting in your mind as if you were standing next to a stadium speaker. 

“(Y/n),” Scott whispers, settling onto his legs in front of you. “It’s okay— Javi is okay, he’s being healed now.” You can feel Scott’s calmness. He’s open, forgiving, understanding. You can tell he’s being sincere, he wants to help you. It starts to overpower the other emotions and while you don’t curl from the ball, you hold his hand. Tight and firm, you hold his hand and he notices how you shake like a leaf. 

It’s not much, but it’s something. It’s a sign that he’s doing the right thing and he inhales. He looks behind him where the other students are watching and then at where Javi is being treated. With a nod towards the kids, Jean ushers them out of the room. 

“Can you breathe for me, son?” You nod, you are breathing, you are, right? It’s just that inhaling feels like your chest is on fire and exhaling feels like you’re being crushed under a pile of rubble you can’t escape from. “Breathe slowly, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Again, you nod, trying to do what he tells you, and slowly, the fire dies, and the rubble lifts. 

“You’re doing amazing, can you stand?” This time you shake your head, pushing yourself further into your shell and Scott licks his lips. “We all make mistakes, it’s okay. Why do you think I have these cool red shades?” When you peer up at him, Scott knows he’s close. Your eyes are red and puffy but you’re no longer shaking and instead, he can see a crinkle in your eye as you smile into your arm. 

“Come on, I want to show you something. I think it’ll help you,”

Carefully, as if you’d hurt him or yourself if you moved too fast, you get up and follow him out. He’s still holding your hand, only now he’s slightly blocking you from the other line of sight. 

Eventually, you make it into the kitchen and he has you sitting on the counter. You watch, a little confused for a while until he spins around with a plate in his hands and a warm smile. 

“Grilled cheese, the best comfort food!”

[tanadrin]

The recent talk about what would the democrats need to do the next election cycle to undo whatever damage done by Trump is possible to undo, and the observation that the US political system does already have to tools to do it on paper got me thinking, specifically about why this is happening much more than how

The present situation in the US, in a lot of ways, reads like a crisis of political will more than anything to me. But what I can't for the life of me come up with is, why is this will so lacking?

Even right now, a lot of Trump's actions could be halted if the political will existed to do so - not just among the politicians, but the average American person. Fed workers physically blocking DOGE employees, or just all the IT personnel forgetting all the server passwords and having a convenient server outage, hell just actually heated protests instead of some peaceful marches could make a dent. And politicians could of course also do more, all sorts of high ranking figures from illegally fired officials to House and Senate members could for example respond to the "move fast and break things" approach by, themselves defying dubious-but-technically-maybe-legal exercises of executive authority first and waiting for a lawsuit second, instead of the other way around. But that too, of course, needs to rest on an energised base that would appreciate this sort of thing to make the very real personal risk worth it

All of which sort of comes back around to political will - there exist solutions, but there seems to be an utter absence of actual electoral enthusiasm amongst the average American about actually using them - about asserting that this is a big deal and having a fight about it. Enthusiasm from the centre and left of it, anyways - the US right has sort of manifested that exact energy, and is using it exactly to do what they're doing right now

So like, what happened/is happening there with it? Why is the average American that actually participates in political life so apathetic to all if it, even the ridiculous bullshit they express a dislike for every time a poll or vote actually gets them to express an opinion on?

I am hardly an expert on this, but I think a big part of it is 1) the rot in the Republican Party specifically, and 2) the collapse of leadership in Congress generally, and I think these two things are related.

Movement conservatism has been hollowing out the Republican party as a "normal" political force for decades, and it really ramped up during the Bush years, when conservative political leaders and legal figures had to make increasingly contorted arguments for blatantly unconstitutional actions whose real justification was something like might makes right. The victory of Obama in 2008 accelerated the collapse because a certain kind of white American saw a black man get elected president and just kind of went crazy; they had to construct a post-hoc justification that wasn't "I still actually believe in the Jim Crow era racial hierarchy," and they couldn't really.

Movement conservatism also drove polarization in Congress starting in the 90s under Newt Gingrich, and Congress becoming a place for scoring political points rather than enacting policy, plus increasing deadlock (which again, accelerated under Obama, when figures like McConnell decided the play was to be as obstructionist as possible) de facto devolved a lot more responsibility on the executive and judicial branches. But you also saw, for instance, complete dereliction of duty to control and oversee warmaking and surveillance power under Bush--because, you see, that might open you up to some kind of political attack! Congress now is simply terminally afraid of taking a stand on anything, since to do so might endanger individual members' chances of re-election. And now that the Republican party is a Trump personality cult, there's no non-Trump wing of the party to appeal to against Trump's worst excesses; and feckless Democrats, who do not know how to actually demonstrate political leadership anymore, think the only solution to declining popularity is to try to chase the things that Trump does that seem to not be completely unpopular. Of course much of the electorate is zoned out--everything that comes out of any politician's mouths these days (save Trump and AOC and a couple of others) is a stock phrase that's been through a dozen focus-groups. The signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal, most political media does this simpering both-sides thing where they have to somehow act like the dull centrists and the rabid fascists both have valid points, and cynicism/doomerism/conspiracism runs wild on the social media that most people get their political coverage from anyway.

(And it doesn't help that the way American political parties are organized is stupid, and leaves them without any kind of central apparatus that can shape and direct political strategy when they're out of power)

obviously i am flattening out a lot of nuance and detail here for the sake of fitting it all in two paragraphs, but in the most general terms that's what i feel like is going on

[lunar-wandering]

things about the Boboiboy series that drive me NUTS (this list is written solely from memory)

the fact that the first three elements, Wind, Earth, and Lightning, didn't really start out as having different personality's from Boboiboy himself (at least, not by much/it wasn't extremely noticable) but then, Lightning, after being split for too long, losing his memories completely, and achieving tier 2, becoming Thunderstorm, suddenly goes all Edgy(TM). and then Wind eats a mood-changing potion and goes manic, and not only does that unlock his tier 2, making him Cyclone but that becomes his personality. like. hello??? the implications.... and then later on, Fire, Water, Leaf, and Light manifest WITH their personalities pre-set. what??? the vague implication that the elements are sentient and the personalities started becoming more obvious when Boboiboy's mind started slipping/letting them have freer reign haunts me every day.

speaking of Fire's manifestation. he initially manifested from the stress of exams and walked around accidentally burning shit down in the middle of the night. what a mood tbh.

if the elements are sentient, the implications of Retak'ka stealing them from Boboiboy and using them- without having his personality change, is INSANE. like bro. he used them as a weapon instead of letting them be actual people..... and then later on in the comics Thunderstorm gets taken away AGAIN and is trapped in a sword, a literal weapon, and is used. again. HELLO????

both of the first times Thunderstorm gets summoned (both the obvious first time and the first time after they all got reset to tier 1 due to Complications) involving his phobia kills me every time why the FUCK did they do that. they didn't even address it the second time around but they animated Lightning looking like he was in distress anyways. WHY DID THEY DO THAT TO HIM. i know he's the fave but like. was this necessary.

BOBOIBOY JUST DECIDING "Y'KNOW WHAT??? I'M GONNA INVENT FUSIONS NOW HERE WE GO" IN THE SECOND MOVIE AND PROCEEDING TO ABSOLUTELY WIPE THE FLOOR WITH RETAK'KA

i could list so much Thunderstorm stuff tbh he's definitely the fave they give him so many cool bits of animation. he does the "teleports behind you" move SO OFTEN and it's SO GOOD

Leaf's deadpan "Fashion Tragedy" line

that one time Boboiboy split into Fire, Wind, and Leaf, and EVERYONE agreed he shouldn't have done that and should never do it again cause those three have negative braincells when in a group together

the songs??? like. the opening songs. the insert songs used in the movies. the OST. why the hell are they so good. i mean i know i personally like em cause they tend to use rock. but like. its SO GOOD.

Yaya and Ying being arguably the two most powerful/capable members of the friend group as they should

that one time Thunderstorm and Fang fought and they paused right before hitting each other and the objects behind both of them exploded from the force of the other's attack

in the first movie when it hinted that we'd see Boboiboy without his hat for the first time ever throughout the entire movie and then it FINALLY HAPPENED when he caught a giant hammer right before it could hit him and punched the dude away with a blast of energy. he has a white streak in his hair and it's visible in the series from this point onwards.

I KNOW IVE SAID A LOT OF THUNDERSTORM SCENES BUT THAT POINT IN GALAXY WHERE HE WAS USING TIER 2 BEFORE HE SHOULD'VE BEEN USING IT AND HE KEPT SWAPPING IN BETWEEN BOBOIBOY AND THUNDERSTORM THROUGHOUT THE FIGHT??? THAT WAS COOL AS FUCK I LOVED THAT

i could list so many of the really cool shots from this series tbh. that one time Light slow-mo backflipped over a bunch of debris and then activated laser eyes to shoot at the villain is a highlight.

literally everything about the fact the plot of this show went from "aliens come to earth to steal chocolate" to "boboiboy nearly fucking dies on an almost daily basis"

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Glynda: I have an enormous awkward and sticky favor to ask you both.

Weiss: Let's hear it.

Glynda: Ever since Garnet and Nebel fought in Vale the council has been putting pressure on me to spy on your family. Your husband was my friend. You are both my friends. I'm telling you this despite orders to do it secretly out of respect of those facts and the good things your husband did for us.

Ruby: Okay... what now?

Glynda: I think the council would be satisfied with a report on your children's powers and my estimations on their ratings. I do not want to delve into your personal lives.

Weiss: We'll do it.

Ruby: Weiss?!

Weiss: Ruby... Saphron and Jaune's other sisters have us trapped like racoons. Carnel doesn't even remember the way her father looked and I only get to take them into Vale once or twice a month.

Ruby: Mmm....

Glynda: I'd like to start with Nebel. He uses his father's weapons and has his semblance.

Weiss: It's not the full picture. He's also able to set up dimensional barriers which aid his allies and himself and weakens his enemies. He can also read other people's minds.

Glynda: And Garnet?

Ruby: She has something like my power? The speed, the petals, but she also knows things. She can see the past, present, and future. She can select the future she wants.

Glynda: How does that interact with Nebel's mind reading?

Ruby: Garnet doesn't like to talk about it. But Nebel is stronger. He let her win once but she knew he was doing it so he never did it again because that frustrated her worse than losing.

Glynda: The twins?

Weiss: Citrone can reduce incoming attacks and unleash them back on his opponents. Jaune's power worked similar and he told me Saphron and one of his other sisters had this kind of ability. His powers are still manifesting. I asked Garnet how his power worked once and she told me he is manipulating space-time to force retro-causal events to manifest. She told me it works from 'both sides of forever.' He also has a couple of spells. His father's scintilla, his blade beam, and even something between fire and lightning an awful lot alike to an attack I saw Saphron hit Jaune with once.

Ruby: Cherry is less of a fighter. She still uses her 'training wheels' weapon. But she can scatter and reduce attacks like her twin. Garnet told me she is manipulating probability. Its actually similar to the stories I heard about my own mom's abilities. I described it to my dad and he agreed and then when he actually saw it he confirmed that visually it's quite similar. Velocity and momentum just shift around her.

Glynda: How does that interact with your other children's powers?

Weiss: Unclear to me. Ruby?

Ruby: I asked Nebel about it once but he is very reluctant to tell us anything about his siblings' powers. I asked him to tell me if it was like Garnet's foresight and he told me 'no, they taste very different.'

Glynda: Pearle? I know she has your glyphs Weiss.

Weiss: Yes. My children as opposed to Ruby's babies received Jaune and my powers just like the Schnee Family always have. Read into that what you will.

Ruby: Her real power is in her voice. It used to be she had to sing to influence us and control other people but she can just do it now. She isn't interested in fighting and wants to make music and write poetry.

Glynda: And lastly, Carnel.

Weiss: *grimaces* It's ... It's almost too surreal to describe despite the fact I know exactly what it is.

Ruby: We don't know. We don't know anything about it. She doesn't even use a traditional weapon, she never wanted one. She has a deck of tarot cards and a coin. Nebel never trains with her. I thought for the longest time Nebel was the strongest but I think it might actually be her.

Weiss: None of the other children will tell us what it is or how it works. Jaune had some kind of trump rating? She tells me she 'empowers' other people. And she has some kind of healing ability. Jaune was able to amplify himself. To store energy until he could unleash it.

Ruby: We think Carnel's semblance might do something like that. But also when I have nightmares about Jaune or my babies she is there in my dreams to comfort me. She talks to me about them when I'm awake. Salem could do similar things to Jaune, right? But she attacked Jaune with that power.

Glynda: Oh...

Weiss: What?

Glynda: I've seen her too... when I dream about Ozpin dying or Beacon being attacked she's there...

Ruby: I'll talk to her about it. I'll make her stop.

Glynda: Please don't... She... she helps...

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Do you think if Adam's aim was just a bit worse and he took off/vaporised Alastor's arm instead of gouging his torso that Alastor would still return to the hotel (assuming he even can choose not to?) and try to play it off as just a scratch?

Deer man jumps into the musical, it continues for half a second before screeching off key when everyone notices the MISSING ARM?!

Also the pervading sense of guilt because no one looked for him.

On the one hand, yes, he's that fucking dramatic.

I'm basing the assumption of potential cauterisation on the fact that the holy light is, well, light and it vaporised Pentious completely. On the other hand, he did bleed, but that could be superficial because the inner/deeper injury was where the heat sat. I need to know more about these grace weapons. We know archangels have weapons of holy fire, so it wouldn't surprise me if Adam's aped it somehow. They gave him a big compensator to shut the big baby up... So like, on the one hand, (hah) he could turn up and kind of obscure himself halfway in shadows, and its only when someone notices that the arm they reached out to grab wasn't really there that it really flags with them that wait, he's made a shadow arm...

Or he could just be using his tendrils like, too obviously and Husk is like 'Hold up, that's unusual for you...'

Or he can straight up just turn up, like you envision, and wave them all off like, 'give it a week and a hearty meal of sinner, and it should be fine...' even though he knows and they know that angelic steel injuries cannot be fixed like that.

>more importantly, he sends Niffty out to make absolutely sure his arm was vaporised, because he fears what Vox might do with it if he found it. Much less the MOTH. Certainly he wouldn't overtly blame Angel Dust if he was made, by his chains, to film a special... but they could never make eye contact again under the circumstances. And it would likely upset Charlotte.

----------------

Lucifer was panicking.

He'd JUST managed to help Charlie, his baby girl, out of a pit of despair and now she was bordering hyperventilating and hysterical again. What was he supposed to do? How do you fix this when the panickee only had the one physical body you couldn't just detach from to panic on ethereal waves of light until emotion negated in ways humans wouldn't understand for aeons?

"Ey, paperbag. manifest. NOW. C'mon short king." Angel snaps pink fingers in front of the King's face, jerking him back into the moment and making the devil realise all his wings were fluffed up and out in distress.

"What? Oh, okay. Why?" He asks, the bag appearing as barely a flicker or reactive thought, and is snagged from the air by Angel. The starlet whirls about towards Charlie, who is sobbing, rocking and heaving air in like it was made of molasses.

"Okay, it's gonna feel like shit for a minute but I need you to breathe into this bag, in and out until you can slow yourself down... C'mon toots, I know you can do this. It's an old trick, but it helps." He coaxes, getting the Princess to curl her fingers around the entrance and align it correctly.

There's a disturbing moment where they were all collectively certain that the bag might just explode from the frantic nature of its use. Then, Charlotte started to calm down.

Lucifer felt his internal core start to settle. He's pretty sure its the archangel equivalent of a heart, but then humans had a lot of weird goopey stuff in there that didn't translate, so who knows?

His baby was okay, she was safe. This was just a little panic attack, all thanks to that Fucking Deer and his bullshit. His horns flare to life, tail lashing against the floor as red eyes turned to face the other clump of bodies in the room.

how dare he upset Char Char like this?

why hadn't the bastard just slunk away and died? Let her be sad for a day or two and then, finally, he could find her a more stable or less annoying Overlord of some kind. Carmilla? She was motherly ish. She had those... three? Two? Ish? girls?

Maybe Zestial if it was the old timey thing Charlotte was delighted by?

What about those media ones? This whole hotel nonsense was ridiculous and would break her heart, but it wouldn't hurt for her to be attached to a group of media-connected overlords. She's about the right age to start her own spy network... that's what Paimon said, and his children tended to have a pretty good grounding by their late 200s. If only Char Char didn't have his heart... she was too good for this place and these... sinners.

Desolate, disgusting and self-devouring things that just killed and broke and tore down and hurt for no other reason than it was better to hurt than be hurt instead. His expression fell into a scowl of furious distaste for the whole mess of them.

This was an abuse of the gift he suffered for...

They tore his wings off, they broke his halo and for THIS? These things that were once human?

And yet, Angel Dust was helping Charlotte settle with gentle actions and the authority of one who had self-soothed through worse.

And yet, Vaggie was holding Charlotte and whispering calming things with no thought but to calm her love.

And yet, the snake fellow had decided to risk everything for a chance to save everyone, today.

And yet, the winged cat bartender was herding the red fucker to a soft surface to deal with his injuries, whether the deer protested or not. Knowing he could be punished, and yet... no rebuke came.

And yet, the little maid was hovering quietly, holding tightly to the deer's coat and making sure he stayed... as much as she was ensuring she knew he was here... and the creature who seemed to revile touch did not brush her aside.

Was this what Charlie was seeing? These little acts of kindness and compassion and vulnerability amidst the muck and mire and murder and mayhem? Was this why she cared when he couldn't feel anything anymore?

She was so like him, that it almost burned to see her... to know that eventually, her heart would fracture, like his had. Like hr mother's had. That no good work remained. That eventually, despite their best attempts, even those they cared for and cherished would be torn from them, killed or fall to their own machinations.

One day all these sinners would be ash, and Charlotte may never rise above that loss. The ache never really faded, more akin to a bruise that when remembered one couldn't help but press on to check if it still hurt. To confirm the echoes of past pain.

"Dad please, calm down..." Charlie hiccuped, leaning heavily into the comfort offered by Vaggie and Angel, sniffling and scrubbing at her eyes. "I overreacted, it's not his fault... I just didn't realise... what I was asking. I mean, I did, but I thought..."

"That it would all be okay and that if we lost anyone it wouldn't be those close to you? Yeah... I think we all hoped for that. But, ain't the way things rolled out, was it?" Angel soothed, an edge there, like he was trying to be kind but felt frustrated by her continued naivety even after the battle. "People always die when the angels come, heh... I mean, this was just the first time you saw it up close'n'personal. First time their spears were aimed at you, right?"

"Back off, she's had enough!" Vaggie snapped, her eye glaring at the arachnid.

"But she needs to hear it. You know that. And if you don't wanna be the bad guy, I gotta do it. Besides... you've been on both sides of the angelic steel, thought you'd understand better than most the cruelty of it all." Angel shrugs, and with that many sets of arms, it's quite a wave-like motion. "I've been a hair's breadth from being skewered more than once since I fell here, its a fact of... well, death. Afterlife? Whatever. Feels different when that cold delighted fury's aimed at you, huh?"

"I... get it. I get what you're saying... I didn't see it before, because I saw what I wanted. But that's your reality, isn't it? Angels or Valentino, or the faceless people he forces you to sleep with for the cameras? The naked cruelty you can't avoid, just hope you can survive until the next moment?"

Angel hunches in on himself, arms curling in in an attempt at self-comfort. "Yeah... you get it now, dontcha? S'why I needed you not to piss off Val, I needed you not to get hurt... I can't stop him with me, same as we can't stop them angels forever... but I can keep you safe from him. I can keep Niffty outta his hands. I can stop him from putting his hands on you guys..."

"...I've been looking at redemption wrong this whole time... it's the actions you're already doing to help others, not some mystical future you who turns down drugs and sex..."

"Yeah, the roleplay was pretty fuckin' bad, toots... it was insulting as hell, honestly. And then you lavished all that attention on Pentious... I got jealous back then, real jealous. All that time I fought to keep you guys from Val and the Vees, and you're just handing your attention and everything to their pet spy..."

"I didn't mean to make you feel that way, Angel."

Angel sucked a breath through his teeth. "Then you need to understand that what you just said wasn't a real apology, right?"

Charlie looked shocked, eyes brimming again. Lucifer was getting worried this was going to make her spiral back into a second attack before there was a chance to calm her down.

"...you're right. You're right, I've been so wrong about this... I'm sorry that my actions and words and the way I went about redemption not only made you feel bad, but like you didn't matter. That I didn't care. You're my friend, and you sacrifice so much every day and I don't do what I should to keep you safe, to keep you feeling wanted. You're important to me, Angel, and I'm- I'm sorry about the whole time you felt you weren't... and it was my fault..."

The tears start again, but this time, she's not quite as out of control as previously, she's sobbing but not hysterical.

"Aw c'mere you silly bitch, it's okay... you think me'n'Cherri never fought? We just got better at apologising... right?" Angel enfolds her in so many arms that the hug seems half cathartic half straight jacket. Vaggie is confused to be caught in the middle as well.

"I-I-I just wanted you all to be okay... and then Pentious... and D-Dazzle... and then I thought Al was okay... because you and Husk and Vaggie and Niffty were o-o-okaaaaaaay..." The sinners were a few more tears away from being powerwashed at this point, but they held his sobbing princess tighter. "And, and then I re-realised I was a bad friend... b-b-b..."

"Deep breath, hun... it's okay, deep breath then speak." Vaggie soothes.

"Because I didn't LOOK but I kn-knew I asked him to fight Adam... and then something was wrong because he came for me... and- and- and-... now he's really hurt... but you all were okay. I should have looked... what if he never forgives me? What if he can never trust me again? What if this breaks all the progress we made?"

"He's literally a people eating not-deer that's here to watch you fail, why should you care?" Lucifer interjects, trying to bring logic back into this fraught moment. He realises that it hurts to hear, but... its the truth. "And let's be real, its not like he's much use now... why don't you let me find you a better overlord to help? The television seems to have a lot of sway, might get more redemptionists? Hmmm?"

Oh, oh no... that was a severely disappointed daughter look.

"That's kind of fucked up to say, Short King... especially the idea of replacing him with his weird stalker. You think Charlie would be safe with a guy who can hypnotise people into doing whatever he wants, and I mean anything?" Angel deadpans, the words rolling off his tongue with a distinctly disgusted air. "Like... he's my boss's boss, and he lets Val fuck some of us into reforming, you know? What do you think he'd do with full access to Charlie? To Vaggie? To everyone here...? Not that you fuckin' care, I know ya here for Charlie only."

"No, no, I care about some of you... because Charlie does. But the tv can't be worse than the deer... at least he doesn't eat people... but that's not the point, I'm just saying that even if you like it, it's broken now. And broken Sovereign Overlords, hah they think themselves so important... 'Sovereign'... ah... I mean, they get killed pretty quick, honey. He's not going to last, I'm just planning for the future."

There's a pause. "Remember when your hellacorn got sick and we had to have one of Bel's doctor's come to put them to sleep...? You didn't want Lady Midnight to suffer, did you? If we'd let her out in the wild the others would have eaten her, this is like that..."

"It's not the same, dad!"

"But it IS! I'm trying to protect you, Char Char! All these sinners will be killed or mangled or broken so badly they'll fade... eventually. I've been there. Your mother has been there. This, it's lovely, it's a sweet idea... but it's not forever. You have eternity to find and cherish more sinners and hellborn than you can imagine... but you will lose all of them, in time. We wanted to keep you from that for as long as possible, but you've always been stubborn, my little light."

Charlotte looks furious and devastated, but she can't quite form words around the lump in her throat at the statement. "You-... You-..."

A large, thick black tendril whacks the King across the back of his ridiculously behatted head, sending the thing flying.

"Shut. the Fuck. Up."

Niffty's eye went wide, as she giggled. 'Sir swore... you really made him mad, ultimate bad boy...'

"Have you considered, that your incessant coddling and blindfolding of Charlotte has contributed to this distress in any way, or are you used to just throwing power around until things turn out the way you want?" Alastor asked, looming over the Short King, seething with barely contained anger. "I understand Angels have never been human, but your daughter is at least partly one somewhere in there, and she is struggling. Not in a fun way that one can observe with schadenfreud, either. And you, all-powerful overfluffed fool of a creature, make it worse with every word... simply because the aeons you've lived have hardened you to even your child's tears."

"And what the fuck would you know, bellhop? At least I did my part against Adam, like you were supposed to. Where were you when she needed you, huh? Big words from a soon to be dead overlord... and she'll be rid of your slick influence... what are you really after? Go on, it's just us father figures, what are you seeking from my girl?"

"Oh you self-important porcelain doll of a thing... look at you, even now you are dripping poison into the broken heart of your daughter, and you're too absorbed in your own beliefs of righteousness to notice. I have never lied to her, watching sinners try and fail is amusing... and let's be real, if you'd done your job properly as King, none of this would be necessary. Why did you consign centuries of sinners to exterminations, hmmm?"

"Don't try to spin this on me, radio boy. I signed them to protect the hellborn, the only actually innocent thing in Hell... you lot got here because you fucked up your own lives and chose cruelty, murder, assault, drugs, theft, and so many disgusting other crimes in between. And for what? Power? Instilling fear? Revenge? Comfort and riches? Well, they didn't come with you, so what's the point in it all?"

"You are a pathetic little thing with a narrow view of the world, aren't you, my king?" comes the sarcastic drawl. "Was it apathy that moved your hand to sign the declaration... or were you coerced by your disdain for sinners? Did you perhaps want to punish your wife and remove the temptation of starting another revolution with your actions? Oh, she did mention that... how you became this odd little shell that sat motionless for weeks at a time, and how she would yell or throw things, just to see if you animated. A little broken doll in his palace playset. How... cute."

Lucifer flinched back. How the fuck...?

"That's why she took Charlotte... why she asked sinners she trusted to keep an eye on her darling child, when she was forced away. And why she was certain to mention you should be kept absent from Charlotte's life... she couldn't risk you infecting her with..." The gaze swept over the king derisively. "...whatever this sad display is. She wanted her to be a bastion of hope for Hell, and you wanted a forever baby that would coo and comfort you. There's a psychosis for that on earth, you know. Psychology textbooks are ilarious reads if you get bored enough to peruse them..."

Lucifer shrank back a little. his body was nigh invulnerable, his power near limitless like all his kind... but his mind? It was a thing created to span the universe and beyond, crammed into a shell for millennia, and filled with self loathing, trauma, fear and self hatred. It was a weak point.

Lilly knew that. And apparently, this fucker did too.

"Look at your daughter, your lowness... look at her face, and tell me if the queen was right to ask you be kept from her life? You, who thinks himself right no matter what conversation he steps into and has such a strong opinion on topics he hasn't deigned to hear the nature of. You who walked into the hotel and sneered at everyone, before talking down to your own child and deciding for her what she needed."

"Al, please... he's had enough... I think he understands what you meant. And I don't like that you broke into his insecurities like that... but Dad did start it by calling you a thing. So I... I really need... you two to apologise to each other." Charlie steps between them, and it's like a strike of lightning dissipating the humidity before the downpour starts.

"Dad, I love you... but you can't treat my friends like they're disposable, like they're already gone and some nameless thing. Maybe I will lose them, maybe I die and they lose me... but we're here now, together, and working on something important. Al, I didn't realise my mother sent you to keep me safe... and I'm sorry that it got you hurt, my dad was wrong, You aren't disposable... but you also can't send him into a depression spiral, I need him. hell needs him. So I need you both to work with me here."

"I'm sorry you are so estranged from your child, and the status of Hell, Your Lowness."

"AL!" Charlie warns, she raises her hand to give him a whack, and falters as it neared the missing limb's location. "Should you even be standing? That's... I mean, I know Husk was doing first aid but..."

"I have literally had to fight whilst half burned and partially disembowelled before, my dear, this is a nuisance at best." He tried to shrug it off theatrically, and then paused as it slightly unbalanced him. With a sigh, he turned to the king. "While the contents of my words were undeniably true, you deserved to hear them in a more... structured way, that... promoted... personal... growth?"

Charlie suspected if she turned around she'd see either someone's phone screen with prompt words on it or the world's strangest game of charades.

"For that, I apologise. It has beena long day , and I suspect everyone's tempers are fraught... you did come in to save the day, after all. And I will admit, the footage of Adam being pounded into the-... Angel, do stop giggling... ground, was delightful."

"Wait, what footage?"

"Why, from the numerous voxtech drones spying on the battle to voyeuristically watch the princess die, I imagine. Vox is rather like that... he has a thing about watching people turned into gorey debris."

"Some overlord was watching Charlotte fight to the death with Heaven and they were..."

"Getting aroused, most likely, yes. Do calm down, it is hell and therefore full of degenerate sinners, after all." Alastor gave another little lopsided shrug. "You should pay more attention to the Overlords, some have amassed more power and influence than you think, and they control swathes of the population without chains... especailly the vile picture box and his little hypnosis trick. If he should catch you unawares, it would be the end of us all."

"Why?"

"Apart from turning you into a puppet figurehead to sell his products to every ring, and possibly also Heaven if he can strike the right bargain? And he would absolutely think himself capable, no matter tha cost of life and limb... he'd barter Charlie's life for a chance to gain money and power from above. I rather believe your wife might have ripped him limb from mechanical limb by now were she here..."

"And he's stalking you...?"

"Frustratingly, yes. He's never really understood the word No. But intriguingly, you two share that malady, don't you little majesty?"

"What? No! I have always been a huge proponent of consent..."

"In some areas, yes, that wasn't in doubt. But where was Charlie's right to refuse when you talked over her and took over her hotel in an effort to self-aggrandise? Hmmm?"

"I don't-... I didn't... did I?"

"...yeah, you kind of did, Dad. But it's okay! We can work on it! You thought you were helping!" Charlie jumped to reassure. "And... and it starts with sorry-..."

"Please, no more singing today... there's been quite enough." Alastor's expression pinches.

"Oops, sorry... are you-... do you have a headache? I can get you something for it?"

"It's fine, I will ask Husker for something from the bar in a moment. I'm rather eager to hear the King try out an apology for the first tme since he begged your mother not to-..." His teeth audibly click shut. "Hmmm, the temptation to start the fight again was winning."

"And it's sooooooo great that you recognise a destructive conversational cycle, Alastor! I'm so proud of y-..."

"Please, refrain from your... rainbows and sunshine routine, my dear."

"Oh... sorry."

"Hey, she's trying to be kind, you asshat..." Vaggie interjects, trying to look stern, but she's slowly blinking like someone on the verge of naptime. It had been a long day INDEED. Angel seemed to be keeping her upright by using her to keep himself upright.

"And I acknowledge that there's been enough sparkles and glitter for at least two afterlifetimes today. Now, on with your apology, little majesty... I would like to get a drink."

"Oh fuck you, you pompous-..." Lucifer takes a deep breath. "I mean, you valued member of my daughter's staff and person who I am not mad at because you did fight for her and are injured, and I'm being nice. I wasn't kind and spoke about you as a disposable object rather than a person, so I apologise that my words upset you."

"That's... not an apology." Angel interjects, again.

"What? Why not?"

"It had the sound and cadance of an apology, but you put the blame on being upset back on Smiles... not on your own words and actions. That was apology 101 round here, maybe you need to stick about for classes, huh?"

"Oh. Okay, let me try again... Bellh-... Alastair... Alastor? Alastor... I'm sorry that I spoke to and about you so rudely. You have apparently been keeping my daughter safe on behalf of my wife, and even to the point you started a fight with me to point out how I fucked up. I maintain that dropping a piano on me was overkill, but in retrospect... I did try to cook you, so... I think we can probably compromise on co-parenting from here on out. What do you say?"

At the last second, Lucifer pulls back on the impulse to shake hands because right now... the left is all Al here has left.

"Well, he didn't start melting from sincerity, so that was a little disappointing... but I'm willing to be the bigger man about it." Alastor grinned at Charlie, whose startled snort of amusement turned into a cough. "Now, I strongly suspect there's a good point to pause and try out whatever new refreshments there are in this gaudy bar of yours, little majesty..."

Before he can turn, Charlie grabs his wrist. "Al, I really am sorry that you got hurt... it's my fault. I should have checked you were okay before we started rebuilding. If I'd known..."

"But you didn't, and the past can't be revisited, so why bother with would haves and should haves?" He replied, airily. Ignoring how Husker seemed to be watching him with the intensity of a cat with a red dot. "Husker, my good feline, do find something in the bartop to fortify us all. Possibly something with a lot of water for the princess, I believe there's little left in her body after all that weeping."

"Yeah, you're not getting a drink... I have no idea how much blood is left in you, but I'm guessing alcohol won't help..." Lucifer says, really looking at the other now. "I mean, it'd be funny... but you'll upset Charlie, so I'm thinking no."

There's a record scratch as Alastor's tendrils pick the now amused King off the floor by his lapels. "And you propose to stop me, little majesty?"

"Uh, yeah, King? And you're, heh, already disarmed..."

There's a pause as Charlie prepares for the Dad Off part 2 to begin... but Alastor simply laughs in that mildly unhunged way and puts the King down. Niffty joins in the laughter. She's not sure what the joke is, but she likes to be included.

"Oh I quite like that one... what else does his royal buffoonery have up his sleeve?"

"Well, unlike you, I have an arm..."

A studio audience laughed.

Husk groaned at the horrendous turn of phrase.

Charlie felt her sense of dismay rising, eyes flickering between the two of them. The dad jokes were escalating, and she wasn't sure if this was a normal turn for camaraderie after a battle, or some sort of mass hysteria onset. She started to text Aunty Bel for guidance.

Vaggie shifted into her managerial mode, getting between the pair of all powerful comedians and the bar. "No drinking. Worst thing you can do when missing a limb... or an eye, trust me... and having the King of hell tipsy would be a bad look after all the respect you gained today. Charlie hinted at something called the Beezelbub incident and wouldn't tell me more..."

The King's mouth dropped open. "It wouldn't get that bad, there's no beezlejuice here..."

"The King's royal staff was on full display, according to Zestial..." Alastor conspiratorially told Angel Dust, whose expression went... odd. "He believes he has a photo hidden somewhere of the event, I'm sure he'd come to a reasonable arrangement to show it to you for an interview about your time at the hotel, and being in the battle, hmmm?"

"Do it and I burn every building in Pride down, sinners." Lucifer teased, manifesting a glass of something. "Besides, I managed to remove that last picture last century, it's long gone."

He snaps and a series of plush red couches cram into the slightly too small space, looking more like a maze than a sitting area. With a gust of his wings, he manages to drop most onto their backsides on the furniture. They were useful for more than just looking handsome after all...

"Right, now... anyone injured and needing angelic first aid, say something. I can't return anything lost, not to angelic steel, but I can usually add enough power to kick-start your natural healing. Also, I can can do this..." He prods at Vaggie, and she sighs, tension leaving her creased brow. "Whabam, headache gone! Wing ache managed! You need to rest those things, Ma- Vaggie, you just remanifested them and haven't stopped using them since. The cramps will be a nightmare if you push too much harder..."

"Thank you Sir."

"Char Char?" he offers his hand, and she takes it.

"This doesn't hurt you, right?"

"No, not like this... absorbing grace sometimes feels awful for a minute but nothing short of psychological agony or one of your uncle's holy blades can do much to hurt me."

"And how does one procure...?"

"Oh shut it, bambi." He smacks the deer in the face with an errant wing. "I think you've done enough talking today... now have a drink and let me deal with that mess. I mean, the stitches are well done and all..." he added, seeing Niffty start to panic at the 'm' word about her obvious handicraft. "but the rest is just yikes in there. you can't vaporise a limb and part of a shoulder without some internal chaos."

"It's fine, hands to yourself."

"Why, you seem to need at least one more to balance things out..."

"If we're making hand-based offers..." Angel grinned, lounging back as Husk handed him a funny pink and green drink that seemed designed for a cocktail glass, not a beer stein. And yet...

Alastor sighed so hard it faded into static, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You are a terrible handful, aren't you, Angel?"

"I'd say 'two, if ya gottem' but er..." laughed the starlet, poking out his tongue.

"Husker, deal with your man..."

"Nope, you started it with the dumb hand jokes, I'm not dealing with any of this..." Husk protests, tail twitching.

"Ooh, let's roleplay, Deer Daddy... I can be a naughty criminal caught red Handed, and you can be the long, hard..." the pause was just too long for comfort, "Arm of the law..."

"...the puns were immaculate, but I can't fathom why you're playing this angle tonight, Angel. Surely even you are exhausted from the battlefront, bereavement and building of the earlier hours?" Alastor queries, at ease despite the lewdness, because really he knows the spider is playing.

And unlike his bosses... Angel is rather good at accepting a boundary, accepting a no without it being overt. They had been getting along quite well recently, actually.

"Oh, that's easy... not unlike me, Smiles, just saying..." the starlet flops back on the couch and drops his ridiculously long legs over the lap of an annoyed Vaggie, laughing Charlie and ultimately the arm of the couch. "I'm the distraction, right?"

"Wha-..." Something touched the back of his neck, and everything faded out rather startlingly. Radios shrieked in alarm before falling silent, a rather furious shadow snapped at the King.

"Wha-bam! Got him... okay, can someone get him off me, why does he feel twice as tall when he's flopped over me? It's like he's managed another height joke without words, the fucker."

Angel sighed and allowed Charlie and Vaggie free to untangle the deer from the King, and settle him on the couch. The King hovered a hand over the area, "Ooh, yeah... stitching's neat but it is a m-... er it's a problem inside. Let's try and put things back where they need to be."

"Can't you like... fix his arm?"

"...'fraid not, Sweetie. Or I would have fixed Vaggie's eye, already, I mean... as long as she wanted that. Once angelic light or steel removes something, it's gone forever. It's why I can't put my halo back together, they shattered it with holy fire..."

He looked so indescribably ancient and sad in that moment it was heart wrenching. "That was aeons ago, though, it's okay now... if they hadn't broken it, I wouldn't have you. And if this bony nightmare of a not-deer didn't fight Adam and stall him long enough... I guess I wouldn't have you, now, either. So... I'm going to set what I can to rights. Might be able to regrow some of the missing shoulder joint and collar bone, to give it the right shape... and unsinged the lung on that side... but not the arm."

"What do we do about the other overlords? I can't-..." her voice breaks. "I can't go through all this, all this healing and everything, and then lose him to someone like Vox or Carmilla or... Rosie wouldn't would she?"

"...you wouldn't like the answer, Princess." husker replied, not making eye contact.

"Alastor wouldn't, if she was hurt... would he?" Charlie asked in a small voice, watching her father work.

"...no, but he's an outlier like that. Once he has a fondness for someone, they go into some circle in his head that means they don't get touched... and he'll fuck up anyone who looks at 'em funny. Rosie's in there. Niffty. That bitch Mimzy, but I think its more obligation because they was alive together and he didn't bail her out that one last time. Me, for some reason... never really understood why, think he decided we were friends one day and that was it. You. Maybe Angel... and sorta Vaggs. I think Pentious was in there too, but on the outer edge, cause he could have pulversised the guy more than once but... he never did."

"Okay, that's the best we can hope for, his own regneration has been directed in the right areas. Should be stable enough to leave it for now... but there's always the chance of infection, or festering grace, and such. I'll stay around and keep an eye out just in case. You sinners are so durable and yet so fragile when it comes to things like germs, its insane." Lucifer muttered the last bit before turning to the rest. "Right, who else needs healing hands?"

"Oooh, Short, King, you can put them healing hands on my hot, aching-..." he's cut off by a wing to the face, that flips him back onto a couch. With a flare of golden light, Angel finds himself sinking into a nightmareless abyss.

"Nope. No thank you. Nap time for the overly aroused arachnid. Who else? Come here kitty cat, let's fix that tweaked wing..."

"Me next?" asked the terrifying little maid.

"Er, sure, you give that knife of yours to Vaggie for safekeeping okay?"

The pupil shrank in thought... and then bounced back. "Okay!" trilled the little sinner.

"How do I keep him safe?" Charlie asked, again, into the companionable silence.

Husk laughed. "Oh he'll fight you every step of the way, kicking and screaming... but you can get him to play along if you speak his language. Rosie worked it out ages ago. I have at least a basic idea on it... and Lillith was pretty fucking good at it. Not like manipulation or anything, just turning things around just enough that they come at him in a way he's willing to accept."

"Can you tell me how?"

"If you got time to hear some of the most goddamn insane shit of your life, then sure. He's not likely to wake up and eat me for it, right?"

Lucifer blinked, "What? Oh, yeah, angelic sedation is pretty strong... can knock sinners or winners out for weeks if we need to, depends on the injury. Don't want anyone waking up with all broken bones, you know?"

"Good, because he bit me once in reprimand and those teeth fuckin' hurt. Now, what do you wanna know, Princess?"

"Everything. Teach me to speak repressed allpowerful overlord... so I can keep his stubborn self alive when the others come to challenge him because... because I got him injured."

"No you didn't. He chose to stand up to Adam, you can't make this man do things like that even with these techniques, I promise you. Even without the deal, he would have stood between you and Adam..."

"Wait, what deal?"

"...you want me to be eaten? Forget I said it."

"Your mother didn't do half measures, duckling, she kept all her agreements on indestructable parchment or on a leash. I think... we know how she ensured he'd keep his end of the bargain, no matter how much trust they shared between them beforehand. She's... she was kind of paranoid when it came to your safety."

There's a very solemn moment.

"Of course, she could have also harassed him into submission by showing him the relentless barrage of your baby photos and craft projects. We love you char char, but you were a baby for decades, there's entire vaults full of your photos, portraits and finger paintings. After even half of one, maybe two thirds if he's particularly stubborn, he would have been compelled to make a deal to protect you."

Charlie's expression fell into a thousand yard stare. "Oh no... no no no NO he can't have seen the baby photos!"

"Can... I see the baby photos?" Vaggie grins at Lucifer, and he snaps his wrist to manifest a pile of dusty albums on the floor. Charlie hurls herself on top of them.

"Noooo, don't look at these, Vaggie please... I was such a weird baby and, oh no, is that my emo phase? Dad, why?! Husk, start talking Alastor-ese, now. Anything. Now please!"

"Alright... sure, for a glance in that album you have jammed in your shirt right now."

Charlie's shoulders slumped, defeated. "Fine... deal..."

When they woke up, Alastor and Angel would be devastated to realise they missed the delightful awkwardness of the King going through the baby albums (Vols 1 to 9) and giving a truly sweet story about each picture. No matter how Charlie melted into the couch, begging for death.

-------------

End of some kind

Imagine the overlords trying something and the hotel Responding

Imagine Charlie and Vaggie using Alastorese to trick himse into his own best interests.

Imagine the CHAOS of Lucifer and Alastor bonding. Reluctantly. but enough that the dad jokes, which they both enjoy, become damn near lethal. And Charlie has left her mother a voicemail asking to be picked up because 'please, there's two of them now'.

Somehow Angel is empowered to turn Valentino inside out and becomes the new Overlord of the industry. He learns the sound of one hand clapping as Alastor watches the vindicating slaughter, and only intervenes when Val loyal trhalls try to get in the way.

Imagine the dangers of an overlord who can compensate for loss with his shadows and tendrils. Whose power is underestimated for his lack of arm, and the people who die because of their arrogance.

[breannasfluff]

When he phases through the wall, Ember is waiting, kicking her boots. “Thought you weren’t gonna show up.”

He shrugs one shoulder and floats over. “Had to wait for my parents to be deep asleep. It’s harder to sneak out now.”

Ember frowns, but holds up a jar and waves it. “Look what I got, babypop. Burn cream–the good stuff.” 

It glows faintly green and Danny squints at it. “Will that work on human skin?”

“Sure, my source said it would help humans or ghosts.” She unscrews the top and waves at his shirt. “Phase it off so we can get you gelled up.”

Danny hovers a few feet away, before manifesting his legs and settling on the floor. “You have a source?”

Rolling her eyes, Ember gives an exaggerated sigh. “Are you gonna let me help or not, dipstick?”

There’s a faint current of worry in her worse, though, and her shoulders are knotted tight. Her ponytail fire snaps like flames in the wind. As much as she’s trying to play it off, she’s worried. 

Danny phases out of his shirt and steps closer. She hasn't attacked today, but he’s skittish at the thought of someone helping.

Ember dabs some goop on her fingers and nods at the back of his hand. “Let me do a little there first and you can decide if you want more.”

The offer settles him slightly, as does the fact that she waits for him to reach out to her. Her fingers are light as they dab the goop over his burn. Almost instantly, it chills the burning and starts leeching the pain out.

Danny nearly crumples at the relief and Ember grabs him, flailing as she tries to find a safe spot to touch. 

“Does it hurt?”

“The opposite. It feels amazing. Please, keep going.”

Loosening at the assurance, Ember works her way up his arm. He shudders as she gets to the worst burns on his shoulder and chest, but the cool gel eases the pain.

“What is that stuff?”

“Special burn goop, I guess.” She tsks at a blister. “I called in a favor to get it made. One-of-a-kind Phantom special, how about that?”

“But…why? Not that I don’t appreciate it,” he rushes. “But you never seemed to care about me before this. What changed?”

Read the rest here!

[silvernyxchariot]

Helloo :)

I was wondering if you could do Childe x Reader oneshot/ scenario where the reader gets injured and Childe helps or protects them. (Also if you don't do Childe, Kaveh would be good instead. And if you are more comfortable with doing headcanons instead then idm either)

Childe x GN!Reader

Synopsis: Reader is injured in combat, and Childe takes care of them

⚠️Warnings: sickeningly sweet/fluffy at the end, 2nd person pov⚠️

Word Count: 845

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~

What did he do this time? Wait, no. How did a Geo Vishap get into a Fatui base!?

For you and Childe, this was at best a mop up job, killing an elemental beast that threatened many of the other agents’ safety. Childe had been instructing his subordinates to exit the facilities and to get outside. However, his bow was ready, at his side and in hand. He trusted you to hold back the ferocious beast until he got there. “Don’t hog all of the fun for yourself now,” he said before unlocking the base. The doors to the outside world popped open.

Metal dropped down, shaking the base and resounding echoes, and scalding steam spewed from each broken pipe. The blocked your vision somewhat, but the massive beast flailing around made it all the easier to strike. But its armor and hide prevented you from causing any major damage. The Geo vishap swatted your attacks away like they were fruit flies, small and annoying.

A spray of cool mist crept up behind you, “Duck down,” Childe commanded. He leapt over you with a jet of water and fired Hydro arrows into the Geo vishaps eyes, blinding it. The beast roared and slammed the ground with its armored fists. Stalagmites thrusted out of the ground. They distracted you long enough. “Watch out!” Childe turned to you at the last second.

It struck you from the back. The Geo vishap controlled a chain of rocks and whipped it around like a tail. Bones crackled and snapped causing internal damage. You coughed up blood and got slammed into the wall. The impact on your head knocked you out and the last thing you could see were Childe’s boots, bow at his feet, and blades of Hydro energy manifesting into his hands before losing consciousness.

In the darkness of your consciousness, it felt like floating in the depths of the ocean. The weight of all the water around you kept you from moving or lifting a finger. But it wasn’t cold as one would expect.

The creaking of a wooden chair and the crackling of a fire nearby woke you from your slumber. You were buried under a thick mink blanket. Your torso was wrapped in bandages and dried blood. Someone was changing your wrappings while you were unconscious. When you opened your eyes, the décor indicated you were still in Liyue. Childe was sitting in a simple wooden chair, his hands behind his head, one leg over the other, and his eyes were closed.

“I knew you couldn’t be kept down by a little push.”

‘A little push’ was an understatement. Your body felt like it was dropped from the very top of Qingyun Peak. You groaned as you tried to move, but Childe placed a hand over your chest to restrict your movements. A little smile on his face teased you in your weakened state.

“Hey now. You’re tough, but I’m tougher. You’re not ready to start moving around.” Childe shifted your blankets and helped you sit up in the bed by stuffing pillows behind your back. “Three broken ribs,” Ajax raised his fingers as he counted your injuries, “a little crack above your orbital, and some ripped muscles. But we can always retrain them.” Ajax seemingly lifeless eyes softened, and a little shine appeared. He scooted into the bed with you, facing you with intimacy.

Ajax kissed the bandage that covered the healing wound above your eye and caressed your cheek delicately with his gloved hand. “Don’t worry me like that again,” he said with less authority or teasing. His soldier-like seriousness dissipated, and he gently placed a arm over your stomach area, avoiding your recovering ribcage.

“If you ever need to retreat, just know that I’ll be there to finish the job.” Another kiss but to your temple, “But you did well to hold off a Geo vishap until I arrived. It was unexpectedly larger and all the moodier than any normal vishap.”

“Ajax,” your sore throat let you croak out. Childe offered you a small cup of water from the nightstand by your bed, gingerly placing it against your lips.

“I’ll bring the world to its knees for you,” he said simply, like it was an everyday mantra, “you know that. And besides, not everyone can be a strong as I am.” A little hint of his usual over-confidence shined through. Ajax rested his head on his arm and sighed contently while he snuggled into your resting form. “Now rest,” he said sternly, “I’ll be here when you wake again. It’ll be easier to change your bandages when you can hold yourself up.”

Ajax pressed his nose to the top of your head and gave you a long, sweet kiss and trailed down to your cheek. A gloved hand cupped your cheek, a gentle finger dragged down until it was under your chin, and he tilted your head until you looked into his sapphire blue eyes. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to yours before tucking the both of you in.

A/N: Teeheehee, 👉👈 I suppose this is repentance for my angst earlier.

On a side note, I really like how the CHN and JPN voiceovers are supposed to have a more "dutiful soldier" vibe for Tartaglia. The playboy mischaracterizations are just... disappointing but not at all surprising coming from the Genshin fandom.

[tgrailwar-zero]

RICHARD: "Now-- let's see about this monster hunt!"

He started walking off.

GIL: "Hey, do you even know where you're going?!"

Figuring there wasn't much stopping him, you followed behind.

You went around, passing the central terminal, and taking the leftmost path this time. You found yourself in a large, industrial-seeming room. As soon as you passed the threshold of the doorway, there was a beep as the door slammed shut behind you with a heavy, mechanical thud.

[ This is your first test. ]

There was that voice again.

[ You recall the Countess, yes? Perhaps you do not. If you do not, then this may be good for jogging your memory. ]

You figured this was prerecorded. With how stilted her voice sounded, you couldn't tell one way or the other.

[ She and that warrior woman brought you back in the worst shape. At least the warrior was attempting to train you, the Countess seemed to just enjoy breaking things and handing them back to me to fix. ]

[ 'My stuffed piggy broke, can you fix it? Oh, and lower its pain tolerance, it's starting to get a bit too tough,' she would say-- as if that was not the point. Your precious body splintered, but not bloodied. No. She took good care of your blood. ]

[ … ]

[ I digress. ]

[ This is a prototype design. Taking it down should be a simple task. ]

You looked around the room. It was empty-- before you heard the sound of rumbling metal.

You heard a sound. A call, distant- mechanical, yet ephemeral.

A massive mechanical form dropped from the high ceiling, crashing to the ground and kicking up smoke, billowing pillars swirling around it.

You heard the sound of mechanisms whirring, pistons and gears firing, as a large automata rose from the smoke. It was at least 25 feet tall, with massive wings and a large, trashing tail.

A dragon?

RICHARD: "A dragon?!"

The smoke cleared, revealing something more… humanoid.

RICHARD: "Oh-ho! A giantess, then? A fitting first foe!"

GIL: "Stand on guard! That thing looks stupid, but I can tell it's packing a lot of firepower!"

The giant mechanical woman turned, looking down at the Servants.

RICHARD: "Now then... shall we begin?"

ENDURANCE GAUGE: [X/X/X/X/X/X]

MANA CHARGES: [ X / X / X / X / - ]

COMMAND SPELLS: [ X | X | X ]

HEAT: { - | - | - | - | - }

HEAT is required for RICHARD's 'FURY SHIFT':

A unique trigger possessed by Richard due to belonging to a multifaceted Master-- some of which that may have been more attuned to Richard's aspects as a 'warlord'. Richard can take 'Brave Actions', which have a higher chance of causing Richard harm, but increase his 'Heat'. When his 'Heat' is fully maxxed out, the Masters can temporarily shift him into a destructive state surrounded by raging flames-- a true manifestation of 'Lionheart'. Richard's Endurance Gauge will continuously decrease each action, however his destructive power increases immensely.

COMBO ATTACKS:

SWORD OF GILDED VICTORY

{REQUIRES: YOUNG GIL + RICHARD I, -3 MP EACH} --

Gil passes Richard a blade from the Age of Gods from his treasury, allowing him to use 'Excalibur' in a massively powered up fashion, unleashing a barrage of super-powered beams. The blade is destroyed once the technique is completed.

REGARDING COMBO ATTACKS:

All involved parties have to agree to do the Combo Attack, or else it falls through! Pay close attention to poll results!