#(and monstrosities were just Chomping on everyone)

[vespertine-legacy]

fucking finally

(screenshot via Frenzy)

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Yule Special: Night Three Pt. 2

“Oh of course your run outside would trigger a hideous flesh construct to appear! How could I have not fucking seen that one coming!” Freddy yelled in annoyance as he started to take aim at the abomination.

 “Face Fur you grew a pair!” Envy shouted out in surprise that Freddy was finally resorting to violence after being such a pushover back in the days. “Fuck off Envy!” Freddy screamed as he launched the rocket right at the Hohenheim flesh monstrosity, hitting its mark and splattering the landscape in viscera. 

 “Damn…that was pretty badass…” Greed was impressed at how good of an aim Freddy had as the flesh and bone fragments splattered onto the snow. “Freddy, you have to get Ernest outside!” Dolly said, looking at the fragments in horror. “Why? I just blew up that mother fucking disgrace.” Freddy raised a wrinkled eyebrow at the panic as the globs of flesh and bones started inch worming towards each other to reform. “Because that bastard cheats in fights and won’t stay dead.” Envy hissed in disgust that Hohenheim had the indecency to keep on living and rudely not staying dead. “That would’ve been a nice thing to know BEFORE HAND!” Freddy felt that same anger Envy had felt that Hohenheim kept on coming back to life to spite everyone involved. “Well now you know, get Ernest’s ass outside.” Envy ordered as Greed and Dolly dragged Thomas inside, trading places with a very hungry Gluttony coming outside. “No need..I’m hungry.” Gluttony eyed the flesh monstrosity with a hunger unknown to all. “Gluttony, no, don’t eat the contaminated jackass! He might give you some freaky ass food born disease!” Said the mobile disease factory called Envy who looked mortified that Gluttony was wanting to eat that thing. “It’s good, I can eat it.” Gluttony insisted as he started to make that march towards the reforming Hohenheim. “Damn it Gluttony! DON’T DO IT!” Freddy cried out as Gluttony took the first chomp at Hohenheim of Light. At first, the flesh mound froze when someone, SOMEONE dared took a huge bite out of its mass before another massive bite was taken out of it. Gluttony wasn’t going to play around as he got the taste for Hohenheim’s amalgamated flesh as he started going to town in gruesome fashion. Freddy and Envy simply watched in pure shock that Gluttony was taking on the flesh monstrosity on his own without little effort. Shifting its horrific mass, the monstrosity known as Hohenheim started retreating back into the forest, Gluttony giving chase as he wasn’t done eating just yet. Envy was about to go retrieve Gluttony when Freddy held an arm out, stopping Envy from going after Gluttony. They both shared a look that shared a knowing of that outcome, Gluttony wasn’t going to come back until he had consumed Hohenheim entirely. All they could do was wait, wait and hope that Gluttony wouldn’t be lost to consuming Hohenheim or what consequences were to be had from it. Dolly had returned, moments later, with Ernest in arm, confused by the lack of a flesh based nightmare outside. “Guys…where did Hohenheim go?” Dolly asked, horrified that the massive horror wasn’t in view anymore. “Gluttony decided it was dinner time.” Freddy simply said as he watched the forest line for any signs of Gluttony returning. “....Lust is going to be pissed off..” Ernest groaned, knowing there will be blood if something happens to Gluttony. “What’s going to happen to Gluttony after eating such a monster like that!?” Dolly looked horrified upon learning that delightful little scenario. “I don’t know, I really don’t know.” Envy admitted, looking fearful for their found brother’s safety. “Guys! I think I see Gluttony coming back!” Freddy shouted as Gluttony came walking out of the woods, looking very disappointed and annoyed. “Shit that was fast! GLUTTONY!” Ernest yelled out, getting Gluttony’s attention.

 “Gluttony! Are you alright buddy?” Envy ran up to Gluttony to check him over for any injuries or signs of becoming diseased from eating something grotesque like that.

 “Dinner got away.” Gluttony pouted, upset that his dinner plan was fully ruined by Hohenheim running away from him. “It’s alright Gluttony, we’ll get you a better meal than that mess.” Envy comforted Gluttony as they directed the upset homunculus indoors with everyone else following. “Guys, what are we going to do? Hohenheim mutated into a massive blob of angry flesh and is still loose.”  Ernest was the only one staying on game with the fact a monster was still very much on the loose and now with adaptive capabilities to boot. “We’ll figure something out, for now, I think we’ve scared him off from coming to the property thanks to Gluttony.” Freddy was resigned that this village will be plagued by an ever adapting abomination from now on until a proper kill could be made. “....Merry Yule to us then, we’re all fucked.” Ernest groaned once more at the fact that everyone was pretty much going to sit on this thing until it gets even worse.

 “We’re not fucked just yet, we just have to tire him out first before making that kill. Simple laws of hunting, let the prey item tire itself out for an easier dispatching.” Dolly shrugged, knowing sooner or later Hohenheim will tire out and only then will he be prime pickings for murdering. 

 The start of Yule began in the household now that Thomas was unfortunately safe and alive. The two papers were requested the moment they were all inside, one for divorce and the other for signing over custody of the little dumpster fire gremlin named Carmilla. The monstrous child was gleefully and violently bashing her rainbow colored pony toys she had received for the first night of Yule. The violent disposition towards her own toy ponies brought a demented smile on Envy’s face as they waited on the custody papers to arrive. It would be a few hours later before Lust had to make the phone call to be picked up from her office due to the weather, forcing Dolly to teleport over to pick up Lust. When Dolly had returned with Lust in hand, Lust gave Envy a death level glare. It was very deathly clear, Dolly had snitched on them about the custody deal.

 “Envy, I heard you were wanting to get custody of Carmilla?” Lust hissed as she walked over to Envy after basically being held hostage in her office thanks to the snow storm. “...Yes?” Envy decided to shapeshift their eyes to appear more innocent, but it was all in vain. “Have you been drinking the contaminated water from the old Capital!? If anyone is getting custody of Carmilla, it’ll be me.” Lust began to scold Envy, earning hideous gremlin laughter out of Carmilla the wretched. “But I called dibs!” Envy complained as Lust was looming over them in justified anger. “Fuck the dibs, this is a human child with serious psychological needs that have to be met in order to become a functioning human adult!” Lust tore right into Envy as it was clear, Lust was fully on board with taking in Carmilla as her own child. “But functional human adults are boring! I want Carmilla to be a feral little anarchist serial killer when she grows up!” Envy said, earning a horrified look from Lust, not too happy with the child raising plan Envy had set up for Carmilla. “You just gave me the most valid reason WHY I should be raising Carmilla.” Lust nearly facepalmed at the plan as Envy pouted that they weren’t going to have a child to raise. “Dolly why did you have to tell Lust about it!?” Envy whined right at Dolly about their foiled child raising scheme. “Because Envy, Lust is the most qualified person here to take care of Carmilla and damn it we’re not raising another serial killer in the family.” Dolly admitted, not too proud with how things had to go with this night along with bringing up the family serial killer.

 “Wait, you had a serial killer in the family before?” Envy gave a very interested look at the fact there was a serial killer in the Mancer pedigree.

 “We did and we do not talk about him in polite conversation.” Dolly gave a very uncomfortable look at having to bring up that rather unsavory sheep in the family.

 “Plus you’re avoiding the major topic of you trying to take custody of a human child!” Lust reminded Envy rather brutally, it had to be drilled into the elderly homunculus’s skull. “Okay fine! But I still get to babysit her, right?” Envy relented at letting Lust have custody of Carmilla. “Supervised babysitting, but yes.” Lust reluctantly agreed to that term of agreement as she finally sat down on the couch after a long day at work. “Excellent.” Envy muttered gleefully as they sat on the top of the chair like a bird clutched to its post. 

 As Envy accepted that their plans to raise a meatbag larva with Dolly was dashed, outside in the blizzard, we headed towards a cave. What remained of the flesh terror of Hohenheim of light sluggishly heaved its injured form towards the stalagmites, climbing up it to reach the sharp pillars of the stalactites. Once it made contact with the stalactite pillar, a thread-like substance erupted from the mouth of the rotted skull, whistling away as it wrapped around the flesh and bone travesty. Slowly and surely, the monster had cocooned itself thoroughly, liquifying into a mess inside, reforming into something better, something new. The glowing green cocoon dangled inside of the cave, safe and warm from the harsh weather outside. With plenty of time in Hohenheim’s grizzled hands, Hohenheim waited inside of the cocoon for better weather to emerge anew..

[necroarchy]

ARTHAS’ RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET!

Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.

Mun name: Frost

OOC Contact: Ask/IMs. Discord if we’re close.

Who the heck is my muse anyway?

   Arthas Menethil is the Lich King of the Scourge, which means that he is the tyrannical god-emperor of various undead creatures (zombies, ghosts, wights, vampires, and Frankenstein-esque monstrosities just to name a few). He was originally a heroic, benevolent man before falling to evil and deciding he liked it down in the dark.

   In addition to his Scourge, he is worshiped and obeyed by an assortment of organizations of various living beings, and even a certain pack of werewolves. He is the most powerful necromancer in the world, and has aspirations of killing everyone to raise them as subjects for his kingdom of the dead.  

Points of interest:

Fall of the Lich King happened, wherein he died after Frostmourne was shattered. Bolvar was the Lich King for a while. Kel’Thuzad eventually found and stole Arthas’ body before resurrecting his lord, and they gallivanted around Azeroth during the Cataclysm, trying to find the shards of Frostmourne and stay out of public sight. Eventually (in MoP) they make their way back to ICC, kill Bolvar, and Arthas is the Lich King once more.

My portrayal of Arthas borrows heavily from Rise of the Lich King in addition to Warcraft III and Wrath; I more or less ignore what Chronicles says about him, because I prefer the way that Rise explored his struggle between humanity and inhumanity and it gives me a bit of content to work in regards to building up an idea of who Arthas was in life, and how that stays with him in death.

The Lich King is a god(ish) and Arthas has the ego, power, and cult to back up that mentality. He can and has murdered dozens of heroes with little more than a wave of his hand; is capable of resurrecting ancient, powerful entities to serve him in undeath; grants “blessings” upon those who earn his favor; and possesses an empire of slavering monsters chomping at the bit to do absolutely anything he says. ‘Human’ is not the word for what he is anymore.  

And Arthas was once a man; no matter how hard he has ever tried, no matter what he’s done to himself or to anyone else, Arthas is still plagued by the vestiges of his humanity, which often manifests as him taking a special interest in certain individuals: Jai.na, Andu.in, adventurers, and (negatively) Syl.vanas for instance. As a result, his reactions to people are sporadic: he might show surprising lenience or tolerance for acts of defiance and opposition should the perpetrator tug on the right heartstring.

Arthas has a daughter whom is generally his Deathlord in the pertinent verses. Her status as his daughter is relatively common knowledge post-Wrath of the Lich King, and is a contentious spot for him.

What they’ve been up to recently:

WARCRAFT: Arthas has been (quietly, quietly) aiding in the repulsion of the Burning Legion from Azeroth, for he despises his old demonic masters and has no intention of losing his world to them. He is also busy reestablishing the Scourge as a power to be feared, and returning Northrend under his control. With the conclusion of Legion, he is now focused upon rebuilding his kingdom after the Burning Legion trashed it again and also I’m paying zero attention to what’s going on in Battle of Azeroth so idk any way to really integrate him!!! Also we’re gonna just ignore everything that kickstarted Shadowlands because fuck that noise.

SWTOR: Darth Necrolis, once a promising Jedi Knight, now an insidious Lord of the Sith, seeks out the eldritch knowledge of Darth Nihilus and even the Emperor, Vitiate, in his quest to obtain immortality. Although, gifted with the frightening ability to bind Force ghosts to himself, one wonders if his search is redundant at this point.

Where to find them:

WARCRAFT: Northrend in general, and Icecrown in particular, are the Lich King’s usual haunts, along with other Scourge strongholds such as the Plaguelands or Naxxramas. He may also wander through areas of present note because he’s a curious lad. (Aka the current expansion’s region: Broken Isles for Legion, Pandaria for Mists, etc., etc….)

SWTOR: While Necrolis can generally be found nearly anywhere in Imperieal space, Dromund Kaas and Korriban are perhaps the safest locations to catch him. He may also be within his citadel on the wintry planet on Northrend.

Current plans:

WARCRAFT

RESTORE THE SCOURGE: We trashed his kingdom last time we took a gander through Northrend, and he’s hard at work not only repairing what we broke, but reinforcing it. To that end, he seeks to otain new resources and sources of power. Azerite, for example…

CORRUPT THE KNIGHTS OF THE EBON BLADE: Particularly from Legion onward, the Lich King has his eye on Acherus and its denizens, subtly setting in place plans to turn the world against him and leave them no recourse but to return to the Scourge.

KILL EVERYONE: Self-explanatory.

SWTOR:

CRUSH THE REPUBLIC: Jedi are nerds and he WILL stuff you into a frozen space locker.

OBTAIN IMMORTALITY: He’s going to end up devouring a planet a la Vitiate, I feel.

BIND MORE FORCE GHOSTS TO HIMSELF: More ghosts = more power = good.

BECOME THE NEW EMPEROR: You’re not a real Sith Lord if you’re not trying.

Desired interactions:

SCOURGE AND CULTISTS: What’s a king without his kingdom?

ALIVE: I don’t write a lot with or about Arthas prior to his fall, and I really should. It’s a fun exercise in trying to show those hints of the boy who will be king, and the boy who might not have.

DEATH KNIGHT: Back when he was still on Ner’zhul’s payroll and edging the line of being a little too human in his monstrosity.

POST-RESURRECTION: OR Arthas “Matthias Lehner” Menethil wanders around Azeroth trying not to get caught out as Arthas Menethil whilst hunting down the erstwhile remnants of his shattered sword.

THWART HIS PLANS! I don’t think I have any real developed antagonistic relationships on this blog which is a shame.

SWTOR - LITERALLY ANYTHING: Pls, I’m begging you, indulge my SW love.

Offered interactions:

MONSTER DAD: Arthas adores inhuman abominations and eldritch beasts, whether they were Once a Man or were never mortal to begin with, and he’ll adopt (”adopt”) any and all at the drop of a hat.

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL: For the low, low price of your immortal soul, all your dreams can come true if you just make him an offer. Or, better: he makes the offer to you.

ANNOYING BYSTANDER: Arthas loves to just show up and talk shit at everyone around for no apparent reason, it happens in canon and it happens on this blog all the time. Let’s see you try to kill that big evil demon while the fucking Lich King is off to the side reading a magazine and criticizing your talent choices.

“JOIN” THE SCOURGE: Fight the Lich King! Die to the Lich King! Get resurrected as an atrocity against life by the Lich King!

Current open post/s:

   No.

Anything else?:

    I’m very slow and prickly, but in the way that grandfather spider in Spirited Away was, so don’t worry too much about it.

Tagged by:  reposting ‘cause it’s been a while

Tagging: this was. a lot.

[flumph-stories]

The Docks of Newport

    It was a normal day on the docks.  Sailors and dock hands loading cargo.  The resident ogre that helped keep everyone in line and was there to help with the largest crates was lumbering around doing his work.  Sailors argued about the price of the docking fee, seagulls pecked at food that was left out while they argued.  Fishermen brought in their catches from the morning.  Guards stationed around to help keep the peace were chatting among themselves and casting a weary on drunk sailors and newcomers.  It was a normal day on the docks.

    The dwarf threw the final bag onto the ship with a large huff.  As the package hit the deck he wiped his hands together, a smug smile underneath the large braided black beard of his and a twinkle of victory in his grey eyes.  He turned to his orcish compatriot and announced, “Thirteen fer me!  I’m only seein yerself load twelve.”     The orc grunted in response, throwing the bags she was carrying onto the deck in a similar manner to the dwarf.  She sat down on the dock, now about head height with the dwarf.  She jabbed a finger into his gut, “Yeah, I loaded twelve.  As far as I saw, you only loaded thirteen because you tricked the brute into bringing another one up for you.”  She grumbled more to her response after, but instead of voicing her other complaints about his ill-gotten victory she instead took some bread from the bag on her hip, cracking it in half and handing one of the halves to the dwarf.

He took the bread and chomped down on it, the crumbs getting stuck in his beard as he talked, “And that me friend is where I get ya,” he tapped his head with the loaf, “I got a brain up ‘ere you couldna dream of ‘avin.”  He then sat down next to her, “What I’m lackin in orcish brute I make up in good ole fashion brain.”     “Keep talking and that brain’ll be spread all over the dock.” She responded, putting her palm on his shoulder and then shoving him over with ease.  She quietly ate the rest of her food while the dwarf yelled on about her nerve and tried again and again to get her to punch him.  She looked out at the sea in thought before yelling out, “Hey Big, got a dwarf up here causing a problem!” She looked over the dwarf as the color drained from his face, the smug grin he wore earlier now on her face, her tusks sticking out to the sky like arms spread up in cheer.  “Moradin’s beard yer gonna get me killed girl!” The dwarf pleaded as he started looking around desperately for a place to hide.  Not a moment later the dock started to shake with the footfalls of the lumbering creature coming up the dock with the call the orc had yelled out.

The light dimmed around them with the size of his shadow before he even came into view.  The dwarf dove into the pile of bags him and the orc had carried up, and just in time.  Just then the ogre got to where he had been sitting with the orc moments before.  “Where problem?” the ogre asked his simple question, seeing no one other than the orc.     “Looks like he must’ve gotten away, sorry big fella.”  The orc responded with a shrug, then patted the ogre’s leg.      “Okay,” The ogre said, disappointed at the lack of a fight as he lumbered back to the labor he had been taking care of before getting called over.  As he walked off the dwarf came out of his pile of bags in a fury, launching himself into the orc.  She was ready for it though, and simply reached out and held the dwarf at arms length before he could really get close to try and grapple her.     “Little shit thinkin its funny to be callin an ogre to start a fight they ain’t thinkin of havin!” The dwarf spat at the orc as he tried to break from her grip to get at her.  All the while she laughed at the dwarf and started to stand up.  As she got to her feet, she picked the dwarf up by his arms.  In response he swung himself forward and kicked her in the gut, getting her to let go.  From there the two brawled in good fun on the ground, not causing any real harm, and fighting just as a way to spend time more than anything else.

    It was a normal day on the dock.  What wasn’t normal were guards rushing to the docks.  Normally any guards that came down for anything other than stopping a crime in action took their time, taking as long as possible to take as much time as possible away from their shift.  Guards didn’t rush up to the docks, and guards didn’t take away the currently stationed ones without replacing them.  No one paid too much attention though except for the beggars who always had their eyes out.  They knew something was up, and started the opposite way the guards went.  The guards went into the city, the beggars made their way to leave.

The dwarf and orc finished their spat and laid on different sides of the deck, breathing heavy and with a few new bruises each.  “Aye, yer a shit, but ya can still throw a punch.”  The dwarf rasped out.     “No shit,” the orc replied before propping herself up on her elbow to sit up.  She looked over the sea, and the city, and smiled.  Life was good, and a good scrap was another part of a normal day, one of the better parts.  She looked over at the dwarf and called out, “So when do you think you’re gonna be able to stand and get back to work?” She grinned, waiting for his insulting retort, getting her own ready to respond with.     It didn’t come.  Her smile slowly vanishing with concern, “Did I really beat you that bad that you can’t talk now?”  Again, she didn’t get a response.  She could see he was still breathing from where she was at, and took comfort in the fact that at the very least he wasn’t dead.  It had been a normal scrap, she hadn’t put in her full weight into it, and they had fought like this before.  

    Her eyes grew wide in fear as she finally noticed why he wasn’t talking, a hand covered his mouth, coming from seemingly thin air.  She got up and rushed over, calling out to the ogre.  As she stood, charging to the dwarf, what she saw in the corner of her eyes made her stop.  The ogre wasn’t on the ground.  It was a good three feet in the air, its eyes glazed over.  Holding it aloft was a giant worm that ran through its chest.  Thin tentacles rising from its maw, reaching into the sky as it shrieked in victory.

   As she stared in horror at the site, a hand grabbed her tusked mouth, and suddenly she was magically asleep.  Just like the dwarf.  Just like many others on the docks that hadn’t been outright killed

    The dock was not the only place events like this were happening in.  The whole city was falling to monstrosities.  The normal day had been interrupted.  The normal day had been destroyed wholly by these creatures.  It was no longer a normal day on the docks, and the docks would never have a normal day like this one again.

[commandtower-solring-go]

There is a Party in my Mouth and Everyone is Lazav - Jank Bank

You can ponder the question of development hell as much as you like, but when the biggest thing holding a deck back is your willingness to buy a copy of Mirror Gallery you begin to wonder where the line is drawn between reason and excuse. After legit 3 years in the making It’s Like A Party In My Mouth and Everyone’s Lazav has finally been built. As with anything its a work in progress. The deck began focused on a single goofball combo and now is a semi-reasonable tempo/control deck based around playing your opponent’s cards.

THE COMBO

And by combo I mean mad synergy that’s only ever won me a single game. But its flashy and fun. The story began back when I first started playing Magic. It was the Autumn of 2013 and Gatecrash had just been released. I had bought like 4 of the Dimir pre-con decks, and thrown together a 200 card, unsleeved monstrosity of an RUB deck focused around 4 copies of Consuming Aberration and 2 copies of Master of Cruelties. Was it good? No! Did I open a Chromatic Lantern in the boosters that came with it? Absolutely. And me, having only played for 2 months and without a grasp of competitive play, I promptly traded it to one of my teachers for a myriad of jank 50c rares. Which leads us home. Of the rares, I pick up a copy of the 6 mana Enchantment Aura, Infinite Reflections. Its a garbage card which reads:

“Enchant Creature

When Infinite Relfection enters the battlefield attached to a creature, each other nontoken creature you control becomes a copy of that creatures. Nontoken creatures you control enter the battlefield as a copy of enchanted creature.”

Naturally this card became my white whale. What could I possibly do with such an overcosted, corner case card? Well in 2017 the answer came to me in a fever dream. Attach it to Lazav, Dimir Mastermind with Mirror Gallery in play. Since then life hasn’t known peace. The end goal being a board of hostile, hexproof, hooded figures who are chomping at the bit to become any creature who dare touch my opponent’s graveyard.

Honestly, it felt too flavourful to pass up.

It took actual years for me to confront. What held me back was Mirror Gallery, a 5 mana artifact that lets you ignore the Legend Rule. It was a $10+ corner case card to begin with. Then fucking Ixilan happened, made all planeswalkers legendary permanents and the price topped out even more. Anyway, a month ago I bit the bullet and unleashed this thing onto the world. And its not so much I let go, and more like it wriggled out from between my fingers and I’m too afraid to touch it again.

THE DECK

The biggest problem with the deck was the fact that Infinite Reflections would only make nontoken creatures copies. As a result, much of the deck relied heavily on low cost-high value creatures that offered some marginal value. Since we were only ever going to enchant Lazav, our creatures didn’t matter so much. Beyond that a few clone effects rounded out the theme.

The deck list for that can be found here:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/its-like-a-party-in-my-mouth-but-everyones-lazav1/?cb=1557670821

But the deck sucked dick. 

Like, don’t get me wrong, I love jank but I also like winning. And frankly, the jank factor and the winning factor was teetering at around 5 and 2 respectively. So some tuneups were made a vague refocusing came with it.

And by refocusing, i mean turning the jank up to 13 and watched what happened. This deck offers a number of win conditions and a few garbage synergies focusing on the main theme.

The current decklist is here:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/its-a-party-in-my-mouth-and-im-tired-of-this-joke/?cb=1557671968

(fun fact: when i was inputting this deck into TappedOut, I entered Diabolic Tutor 3 times cause I’m an idiot when input both Diabolic Intent and Demonic Tutor as such).

Now you may ask me “Max. Why is this deck full of bad cards?” To which I have no answer.

The fundamental purpose of this deck is to have fun and enjoying the game in the only way I know how. With powerful nothing. 

HOW DO WIN?

The deck just wants to mill. We gotta. How else will Lazav eat?

Without mill, we are nothing. But that’s a weak strat so if you want it also supports self mill/Dread Return/Laboratory Maniac.

And building off of this idea, the deck also supports other cards to enchant with Infinite Reflections. Notable inclusions are:

Consuming Aberration:- Cause fuck you, pet card Thief of Santiy:- To draw more of your opponent’s deck than they do Nighveil Spectre:- See above Fleet Swollower:- If you attack with 7 of these you win no matter how many cards are left in their deck, since it always rounds up. Perplexing Chimera:- “JUDGE!” Wall of Frost:- Wall of Frost

CONCLUSION

This deck is awful but its so much fun to pilot. To such a degree, writing this gave me whiplash. I managed to lose a game where all of my creatures were copies of Platinum Angel. Another, when they were Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts. The only game I’ve won was when I had 6 Elesh Norns in play. The deck wins spectacularly and loses spectacularly and its the kind of deck you need to play to realise. Its a long time in the making and reflects everything I want out of this game.

Please consider donating to my Ko-Fi. There is an auction going on on a local facebook page for 76 random mythics and my landlord said that if i don’t win this they won’t fix my window. So please consider donating to award me mythics and toasty toes

https://ko-fi.com/thectower

[introvertguide]

Jaws: The Great Movie with the Not so Great Legacy

Although Jaws (1975) was a fantastic film (I just finished it for the 5th time and I still think it is great), the follow up movies it has inspired over the last 40 years have not been that fantastic. I was terrified at the idea of sharks growing up because I have a somewhat irrational fear of dark water that has turned into a fascination with all the creatures that live in these depths. It’s a strange way of sublimating and I should probably get over my fear, I know, but chances are I will never be put into a deep water situation with sharks and I don’t even enjoy swimming or the ocean so I can watch stupid shark movies if I want! Wow. Sorry. I guess I have some deep issues that I am still working out. While I do that, here are some giant shark movies related to Jaws:

Jaws franchise: There were 3 other movies in the Jaws franchise after the original that focused on the fight between humans and a murderous great white shark. The second movie is truly one of the most boring things I have seen because it is like the same movie again minus the two most interesting characters of Hooper and Quint. Pass on that one. The 3rd one, Jaws 3-D, is set in a water park with Lea Thompson and Lou Gossett, Jr. and is hilariously bad. It has Dennis Quaid as the grown son from the first film and he is awful. The number of poor decisions based on nothing is great and the effects are pretty laughable. I personally would sit down and watch this film any time but I would never recommend it. The fourth movie, Jaws: The Revenge, brings back a lot of the actors and characters from the original movie, but none of the leads. Also, the killer shark in this film is somehow related to the sharks from the first two films and now targeting the Brody family for revenge. Pretty sure sharks don’t do that nor could they if they wanted to. Dumbest premise of all the Jaws movies and basically an insult to the first one. Pass for sure. 

Animated ocean movies: These movies are the least similar to Jaws, but the sharks in movies like Finding Nemo and A Shark’s Tale are based on the great white shark attack style featured in Jaws. In fact, the great white in Finding Nemo is named Bruce in honor of the name given to the mechanical shark in Jaws. Finding Nemo has little to do with sharks and is an all around great movie while A Shark’s Tale is a ripoff and boring. Watch Nemo and skip the other. 

Big budget ripoff movies: There were a lot of summer blockbuster shark movies in the last 40 years that attempted to capture the audience of Jaws, but none of the movies come even close in quality so they can only be judged by how entertainingly bad they were. The scariest is likely Open Water which is the story of a couple that gets left behind by accident during a group dive. An hour and a half of solitary ocean anxiety is way too much for me. HSPs stay far away from this one. On the funny side, some of the most ridiculous movies have been more recent since CG is always improving. 47 Meters Down and Meg fall in this category, although I can’t speak to them since I haven’t seen either (and I don’t plan to). My favorite in this category is the hilarious Deep Blue Sea which features both Samuel L. Jackson and LL Cool J. I don't want to give away the whole movie, but a character is immediately killed by a shark every single time that the group makes progress in escaping an underwater lab. So beautiful. I made my parents watch it and we laughed the whole time. Must see. 

Sharknado...: I am not sure how this happened, but this series of low budget movies with D-list actors has become quite popular. There are currently five of these monstrosities and apparently a sixth and final one coming next year. All of them are absolutely terrible and meant to be made fun of. The movies are all self aware of how bad they are and the cast and crew are laughing all the way to the bank. Everyone is acting ironically and it is kind of funny for about 15 minutes but not for six movies. I would pass on the series unless you want something bad to watch with drunk friends (which I never do so total pass for me). 

Shark hybrids: A company called The Asylum is known for pushing out horrible rip-offs called “mockbusters.” These films are made in the span of a couple of weeks and given titles similar to big box office movies and released to video/streaming services about a week before the film it is copying. This is an unethical way to trick people into accidentally purchasing or renting the wrong movie. The small amount of money made by accidental viewers pays the microbudget of the movie so the company keeps pumping them out. The public got wise to this scheme and became more careful about their purchases, so The Asylum started creating bad original content in the form of monster movies. This company is behind Sharknado, but there was about a decade when they were trying to cross sharks with other things to make a quick buck. Notables are Dinoshark, Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark, and the great Sharktopus. My favorite by a long shot is Sharktopus because it features a CG shark with octopus legs that walks around beaches and chomps people. Hilarious.  

What I am getting at is that Jaws was truly a great film with great suspense, superb direction, and phenomenal acting. Although some movies that have followed have been cute or funny, nothing has come close to the experience that was Jaws. I am highly introverted and don’t seem to really enjoy groups when screening a movie, especially a movie I want to pay attention to, so these rip-offs offer very little to me. I can see extroverts enjoying some of these bad shark movies as a background for a social gathering and even the basis of a drinking game if that is what you are into. However, if you want to see a shark movie that is legitimately great and worth your full attention, then watch Jaws and except no substitutes.

[alien-bodies]

Oversharing Time!!!

(i just made that title up that’s not the official title I’m just Like That)

Ok so @frogyell​ tagged my main account (I am BLEST) but that’s for Refined Star Trek Content and this one’s for excellent moodboard content and garbage so here’s the garbage!!! I’m putting it under a cut bc it manipulates your brain to want to read through 85 fuckin facts about me more wow I love science

rules: answer these 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people.

1. last drink: Water! off to a great start

2. last phone call: my local Hot Topic. I feel like I should also mention I work there. But if you don’t know that and steal my phone you’ll see I have a contact named Hot Topic

3. last text message: Google sent me a verification code, but the last one I sent was to my brother it says “k”

4. last song you listened to: It’s called The Horror Of Your Love by Ludo, if I had to delete all but one song on my 121-song Best Enemies playlist I’d keep this one it’s Peak and kinda has vore but it’s metaphorical. metavoreical, if you will

5. time you cried: during my latest EMDR sesh! I was in Wales and everything it was a Lot I got ice cream after

6. dated someone twice? Big No

7. kissed someone and regretted it? Not really?

8. been cheated on? my ex had 16 anime dating sims downloaded at one point while we were dating does that count

9. lost someone special? yea

10. been depressed? hella

11. gotten drunk and thrown up? I’ve been drunk 1 time and it was when I was playing English handbells at my dad’s church’s wassail night but I did not throw up no

fave colors

12. Black

13. Lavendar

14. Light blue

in the last year have you…

15. made new friends? Hell Yell!!

16. fallen out of love? k i n d a ? ?

17. laughed until you cried? oh absolutely

18. found out someone was talking about you? OH BOY YUP YUP

19. met someone who changed you? yes! she managed to physically alter my hippocampus without touching it how fuckign whack is that

20. found out who your friends are? It’s always the same miraculous group chat

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list? sure have

general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl? I keep it nice and refined so all of them. My old account is another story

23. do you have any pets? one beautiful and talented cat named Moriarty. A good description is she’s got puppy software on cat hardware.

24. do you want to change your name? listen I’ve been through 4.5 of these fuckers, I like Nate, I’m Quite Finished

25. what did you do for your last birthday? invited 2 pals over, I remember one of them suddenly whipped out I Am The Doctor and the Dr Who theme on the piano out of fuckin nowhere and I was like “Daniel what the hell you’re so talented” and then I hardcore dissociated the rest of the day

26. what time did you wake up today? 10:00

27. what were you doing at midnight last night? chatting w @houseofoakdown​ and also editing my monstrosity of a fanfiction

28. what is something you cant wait for? Going back to school! then I can graduate in my pajamas and eat creamed corn in celebration

30. what are you listening to right now? the same goddamn playlist, this one’s called Battle Cry by The Family Crest, i cri erytiem

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom? probably???

32. something thats getting on your nerves? my brother vaping in the bathroom with the fan on at 12:30am

33. most visited website: tungle dot hell

34. hair color: I started out blonde af now I’m less blonde but still blonde.

35. long or short hair: short

36. do you have a crush on someone: :[] yes

37. what do you like about yourself: i’m hella smart, my moodboards are bangin, my writing is cool af, I’m well-hydrated at all times

38. want any piercings? Big No

39. blood type: A+!!!!! thats me!!!!!

40. nicknames: my brother calls me a goon sometimes

41. relationship status: im married to my laptop

42. zodiac: I was born on the last day of Taurus so I’m a definite Taurus/Gemini power combo

43. pronouns: they/them, tho in some places I use he/him bc The Dysphoria got hog wild enough I decided to pretend to be a trans guy so ppl would take me seriously, but I’m moving more towards they/them everywhere now. 

44. fave tv shows: Dr Fuck, Sherlock (I’m armed with a pitchfork and an arsenal of beefed up tv & film knowledge come on fight me), DOWNTON ABBEY

45. tattoos: in August I will get a bee on my right arm and probably a Secret Word in Gallifreyan on my left it’ll say fuck

46. right or left handed: one time I was bored in grade 10 and tried to make myself ambidextrous but that was a hassle so I’m firmly right handed. Except in archery.

47. ever had surgery: got all 4 wisom teeth out not long ago! I still need to squirt water in my gum holes so I get all the mushy food out :{

48. piercings: I used to have my ears pierced but they’re grown tf over now!

49. sport: first of all what the hell is this question looking for second of all I have a red belt (which is 2 below black belt) in Taekwondo. I really need to do that again hhhhhh

50. vacation: i went to England and France in the summer with my family as a “””grad trip”””, it was lots of fun but my collection of sensory issues extended to chomping and I dissociated so intensely in The Louvre my mom told me to go back outside so I wrote fanfiction while listening to 21 Pilots and chatting w my imaginary friends and it took me like 18 hours to process I’d seen The Mona Lisa with mine own 2 eyes. Also the plane was delayed twice bc we used Air Canada for some godforsaken reason and I had 0 hours of sleep when I went to the Sherlock Holmes museum and I started talkin to this bust of Sherlock Holmes and then I hadn’t eaten enough and we were walking to this bookstore and I said “I need food!” and my dad said “We’ll get it AFTER” then I shouted “I’M GONNA DIE” so I got a BLT from Tesco. 

51. trainers: h

more general

52. eating: the last thing I ate was chocolate chips straight out of the bag

53. drinking: I got another cup of water

54. im about to watch: my entire fanfiction to take 3000 notes on consistency. and by watch I mean read

55. waiting for: my brother (not vaping) to get out of the bathroom so I can PEE

56. want: Orphan Black to be on Netflix so I can actually binge watch it then call my grandma about it

57. get married: idk I didn’t think I was a get married person but since realizing I’m a lesbian it seems like a good idea!

58. career: nurse and a writer. I might just move to London and work double time to write enough scripts I have some street cred then pitch a TV adaptation of Faction Paradox to the BBC and win

which is better

59. hugs or kisses: hugs bc it means my friends are in my vicinity not Toronto

60. lips or eyes: uh. eyes???????????

61. shorter or taller: i’m 5′3″ and I would love a tol partner

62. older or younger: i don’t think I care

63. nice arms or stomach: what fresh hell does this mean. I’d like a nice stomach free of gastrointestinal issues and acid reflux. not that I have either of those but just in case

64. hookup or relationship: I have 300 many self-esteem issues so imma say relationship

65. troublemaker or hesitant: AU where I don’t have anxiety and I’m a trouble maker

have you ever

66. kissed a stranger: noop

67. drank hard liquor: I PUT RUM IN THE WASSAIL HELL YEAH also once someone bought me a shot at a queer dance thing bc it was payday and my friend told me to gulp the WHOLE SHOT and then the lemonade so I don’t barf and I was like “brah this is too high-stakes” so I poured the vodka in the lemonade and took sips and everyone stared at me

68. lost glasses: in grade 6 and then my mom threatened to make me wear one of those granny glasses chains so I never lost them again

69. turned someone down: ya this kid Cyrus used to chase me around in grade 5 and I’d run away always he was weird af one time he made out with a folder right in front of me in the middle of class

70. sex on first date: probs not at this point but I’m not opposed to the general idea when I’m less w h a c k e d  u p

71. broken someones heart: Not that I know of?

72. had your heart broken: c o n s i s t e n t l y in the most fricked up ways god

73. been arrested: no but once I booed at the police bc the local nazis (yeah) were gonna have a rally so we had a counter-rally and I dropped in but there were no nazis except one old dude in a MAGA hat showed up 2 hours late lmao

74. cried when someone died: oui

75. fallen for a friend: Big Lesbian Mood

do you believe in

76. yourself: YA BB

77. miracles: not as such

78. love at first sight: nah

79. santa claus: I wasn’t allowed to believe in Santa as a child bc he was “too much like God” sad

80. kiss on a first date: ye!

81. angels: big no

other

82. best friend’s name: I don’t exactly have a proper best friend but I’m goin with Liam

83. eye colour: blue/grey

84. fave movie: either The Force Awakens (bc I love bb8 and I’m gay 4 Rey) or Interstellar shut up

85. fave actor: uh idk let’s go with my brother

WOW THAT WAS LONG JEE🅱️US. I’m tagging @houseofoakdown @spoonietimelordy @gemvictorfromtheponyverse @spockswhales @raesand and that exhausts the ppl I know but you’re all worth quadruple in my heart 💖

[ladyhawk-s]

“Chocolate”

Relationships: Katsuki Bakugou/Ochako Uraraka; Katsuki Bakugou & Ochako Uraraka 

Characters: Katsuki Bakugou, Ochako Uraraka 

Rating: G

Word Count: 1545

Inktober Prompt 3 - Warmth

Summary: Katsuki, with a cold heart, doesn't allow anything or anyone to make him smile or feel warm except the troubles of the battlefield. Well, except for a certain girl and her batch of cookies.

A/N: So here comes Chika again with her not so great writing and horrible horrible summaries again. Sorry for not posting this earlier! I started actually working in a job so it’s made it difficult to be on my computer to upload things or even write new content so I can upload other things than just inktobers and such. I’m hoping I’m able to find the time soon enough to be able to write more and post more since it’s sad I’m relying on my queue right now. But I hope you guys like this mini fic in the meantime! I have a really long Kacchako fic coming up soon, I just need to edit it before I post it so hopefully that’ll be uploaded soon too! 

Read at AO3 ; Read at FF.net

------

Contrary to popular belief, even though Katsuki was a man infused in flames, constantly in a spasm of heat and fire, if you peeled out his outer skin and touched the organs that made him function, one would come to realize that he was actually cold instead.

Alright, possibly not literally since nitroglycerin does run through his body and create miniature explosions at the tips of his fingers, however, his heart was the coldest out of everyone in Class 1-A. Even Shouto’s tragic backstory of abuse and entrapment went nowhere near the encasing of Katsuki’s heart in ice, trapping it into an eternal prison of ice that saw all the seasons. The ice traveled to all his nerves and his heart could only pulsate bitterness and picks of coldness.

No one knew where this crusted permafrost came from; everything in Katsuki’s childhood was perfect. He was born with the best combination of quirks that allowed him to see #1 hero in his visual field, he had a posse of friends that he manipulated on the tips of explosions, he even was swimming in riches from the designing companies his parents affiliated in. Whatever his hands desired, they received, and a huge smile would bore on his face every time the figure of All Might would appear in front of him, burning up his heating heart in ecstasy as he could feel the words of his idol singing within his ear drums.

However, time moved on and that smile that could to be summoned on his face turned into a permanent scowl that only upturned when the idea of violence came to his playing field. No one knew what occurred in this change but only pride and competitiveness could give hints to the crystallizing blades that incarcerated his beating heart in glimmers of ice. No matter what occurred, its form would still be rotten on there, unwavering under no circumstances.

Well, except for one. And that one circumstance just so happened to have a round face that could turn on you the minute it was called for.

Ever since his match with Ochako, something about her infatuated him, making him observe her more closely and study the way her curves moved under her own gravitation. In the classroom, she seemed like a dolt, always crying about her unstudied grades and how she would always tug on his sleeve to help her out just this one time when that one time became several times. She had a laugh that should have annoyed Katsuki and sent him in a bitter mood but instead, it felt like a song to him, a melody he once heard as a child as it dwindled in his ear and created a symphony that slightly made him feel warm in his cheeks. Ochako was the definition of cute as her curved features danced with the bounce of her frontal tuffs yet Katsuki knew deep down that people underestimated that figure of hers. Her legs could mask quickly under any ruble she shot into the air and if it wasn’t for his own fast reflexes, she could knock him down with the same arm technique Izuku used on him before. Her muscles were strong and sturdy, capable of even beating the strongest villain and her gravitation wasn’t one to be messed as she controlled the earth in the paws of her hands. She was cute yet vicious and it made Katsuki’s iced heart burn in agony as he didn’t how to wrap his mind around her complexity.

Even now, sitting down in the couches of the dormitory, a blanket snuggling his body as he had his phone in front of him, a diversion for his eyes as they actually stared at Ochako. Hums escaped her throat as she pranced around the kitchen, using all kinds of concoctions to create something that had a distinct smell of sugar wafting from it. Katsuki’s eyes narrowed, cautious of her movements as she would speak whispers to herself, making herself look clumsier in her casual zone. Horribly to admit, seeing her smiling with bubbles appearing around her demeanor and the way her clothes creased against her body made a special kind of heat appear on his cheeks and he pulled the blanket over them to veil his covert affections.

Mesmerized by her actions and the way she conversed with the others that slide in and out of the kitchen with their varying snacks, he felt himself taken by a slight surprise when her disappearance was soon emerged with a plate of aromatic treats that made the saliva in his mouth thicken in joy. With neon cheeks that squished her face and a smile that create small sparkles in her eyes, she handed the plate over to Katsuki, a gesturing of offers being given to him. “Bakugou, would you like a cookie? I made them for everyone and it would really make me happy if you ate them!” she chirped at him, her singing voice causing another melody to occur that made his thickened heart slightly feel more softened than before.

Yet, the reddening mess that plagued his face soon only began to splotch more and acid was the only thing he could return back to her to get her off his back. “Fuck off, you’re a shit cook. Go get others to eat your poison.” He spat back, bitterly regretting his word choice but still recoiling from the closeness and smell she emitted.

“Oh c’mon Bakugou! I know I’m not the best cook but I tried a new recipe with these cookies!” she said with a continued grin on her face, a single facial structure not moving once even after his words. With a small little bounce, she grabbed one off the plate and offered it to him, making sure her smile was even deeper than before. “Just try one! They’re just made so they’re really warm and gooey still!”

Analyzing the cookie in her hand, Katsuki went through a debate on whether to grab it or not, mixtures of thoughts zooming in his mind as everything combined itself together to create a cluster of emotions that his mind couldn’t handle after all those years. It was as if his previous child form was bursting from the seams and cracking through the icicle that formed within him. Feeling his face begin to contort in front of Ochako, he quickly swiped it from her and placed the treat into his mouth, his canines ripping into the soft dough that melted in his mouth. As warned, it was hotter than the normal ones they had out there but something about them was different than the other monstrosities she’s created in the past. This time, the cookie was gooey and moist, the chocolate chips digging into his taste buds as a hint of cinnamon burst from the inner core and leaving his mouth to be a version of candy land that he had never explored before. Sugariness filled all the corners of his mouth and swallowing the chewed up pieces traveled down his throat and entered the pit of his stomach, making it feel a different sense of warmth than he had in the past. It made him feel fuzzy and gooey and soft, just like the cookie he was about to take another bite in. As soon as his teeth chomped into it again, his crimson eyes looked up at Ochako bouncing on the balls of her feet as teeth began to combine with the smile she was radiating. “What?” he asked in mid bite, not caring about his hostility in that moment.

In mid giggle, Ochako smiled even wider and held onto the plate with firmer fingers, making sure the gems wouldn’t crumble and meet their fate on the floor. “Well, I can tell you’re enjoying it, which makes me happy because that means I did a good job this time! You don’t know this Bakugou, but it’s always my goal to impress you because if I can impress you, that means I’m doing pretty darn good since you have high expectations!” she brashly said, her eyes slightly adverting as her blush marks increased with color ever so slightly. Picking up another cookie from the plate, she placed it in Katsuki’s free hand, really making sure their fingers touched as she performed the action. “Here, take another one! I’m going to go find the rest of the class and give it to them! I’ll even tell them they have your stamp of approval!” Ochako cheered off as she quickly left Bakugou’s frontal side, not allowing him to get another word in there.

Which, her demeanor made his words get caught with the rest of the cookie as he couldn’t speak them out loud given the shock value her words presented to him. A pulsating feeling began to occur in his heart as the ice began to crack further and further, a feeling of melting from this new found warmth succumbing to his soul.

Everything about Ochako made him feel warm and the cookies she made with him in mind only warmed his soul even more, creating a foggy feeling within his organs as he took another bite of the cursed cookie, allowing his body to continue to have that.

[eah-exchange]

Two Things Darling and Duchess Notice About Each Other, and One Thing They Both Realize.

To: @baenareff​

From: @claws-of-fame​

Summary:  Duchess and Darling are students of ever after's academy for young girls, and they realize varying things about each other. // can be read as somewhat modern au but it's intended to be a 50's au! set in the winter.

Rating: G

Word Count: 1528 Characters: Duchess Swan, Darling Charming, Sparrow Hood, C.A. Cupid, Maddie Hatter, Apple White, Raven Queen, Justine Dancer (mentioned)

Ships: Duchess x Darling, platonic Sparrow + Duchess, Apple x Raven Author’s notes: ho ho ho happy holidays gaia!! you mentioned loving seasonal things and 50s things and rarepair so i am here to deliver!! i rlly enjoyed writing darling and duchess together and i love it so i am on the bandwagon as well heehee,, happy holidays!! hope u enjoy <33

Darling first notices the grace in how Duchess moves.

Darling’s in the expansive studio that the school has, and winter light streams through the big windows as a teacher tapped her baton on the barre, giving instructions and time counts.

“Un, deux, trois, un, deux, trois, un, deux, trois…”

She watches as a handful of girls go and execute a routine that she feels like would be very painful if she tried it, but her eyes are drawn to one of them.

A tall, olive-skinned girl, with the prettiest and most determined eyes she’s ever seen this side of Ever After’s Academy for Young Ladies (of course, second only to Apple’s) does a big jump, a grand jete if she heard right, and lands with impressive finesse. She goes back into the routine with ease, and Darling is enchanted by it.

Darling’s eyes seem to spin around in tune as the girl did a triple pirouette, in awe at the precision she did it with.

Soon enough, the routine ends and the ballet dancers are breathing in and out, in an end pose.

“Perfect, girls. Especially you, Duchess.”

The tall girl (who had the prettiest name, Darling thought) smiled even more and breathed in.

Her eyes keep on darting towards Duchess, but she couldn’t help it. She exudes passion and poise, even when she’s slightly sweaty and breathing heavily.

And if these feelings reveal themselves again at the recital, she pretends to be nonchalant about it.

--

Duchess notices how Darling seems to be quite swift, especially when she saved Duchess from (what Duchess would say is) a horrific accident.

The accident occured in practice for a winter presentation at the theater.

Somehow, no one seemed to notice that the floor was slippery (and why? Nobody knows, they were probably too busy with the presentations, Duchess thought) and it was the ballet class’ turn to run through.

She did her usual routine, feeling the music and enjoying the little audience that watched her, entranced by her movements, and her confidence (she knew she was picked as a lead dancer for a reason) was giving her the drive to do everything right.

But, oh, there’s a sudden wrench in the works.

As Duchess did the triple pirouette, she felt her foot connect with the slippery floor and soon enough she started to waver, almost tumbling to the ground.

She vaguely hears Justine gasp and the other students murmur.

Duchess thinks of her ankle spraining or something getting bent or broken and she wants to scream at the thought of that, and how it might spell out the end of her ballet dancing dreams and future prima ballerina career, but it was over in a second.

Darling seemed to have came out of nowhere and caught Duchess before she fell, hearing the skidding of shoes on the stage floor. The teachers and other ballet students breathed sighs of relief, as Duchess’ hears Darling’s heavy breaths.

Duchess looks at Darling, who gives her a breathy smile.

“Are you alright, Duchess?”

“I’m fine and dandy now, thanks to you. How did you get here?”

Darling giggles.

“A girl never spills her secrets.”

The two laugh before Darling helps Duchess stand up.

They vaguely hear the teacher say that practice was postponed for a while and Duchess sighs in exhaustion.

She’s very thankful for that Darling.

--

Darling notices how Duchess seems to be rather isolated from the other students.

She’s heard several girls moan and cry about how Duchess was “off-putting” in the lunch hall, but she disregarded that, rolling her eyes and set her tray of food down next to Maddelyn and Chariclo, who seem more interested in the snow outside rather than the ongoing discussion Apple and her girlfriend, Raven are having.

Chariclo smiles as she sits down, and Maddelyn waves excitedly at Darling.

“So, what are the two gals discussing right now?”

Chariclo sighs.

“Something about the winter ball. They’re arguing over how the acts are going to be.”

Darling frowned a bit.

“But shouldn’t Apple take it up with Maddelyn?”

Maddelyn piped up, raising her cup of tea.

“Hey now, I’m not the party planner. Raven was put to be in charge of the entertainment.”

Darling blinked slowly, then shook her head as she tuned out the little discussion (which seemed more to be a lover’s spat) and started to eat her lunch.

She notices Duchess sitting in a table, eyebrows furrowed as she read a book and angrily ate an apple.

Darling feels a bit of a pang of hurt at how Duchess sits alone.

“Hey girls, I’ll just sit with Duchess, she seems lonely.”

Maddelyn and Chariclo hum in agreement, while some of the other girls at the table murmur uneasily. Chariclo glares at them and the murmuring dies down.

Raven and Apple are too involved in their little argument and are now pouting at each other, so Darling definitely takes this as her cue to bring her things over to Duchess’ table.

Darling taps the table with her fingers, getting Duchess’ attention.

She seems to glower angrily for a moment before realizing it’s Darling, and she gives her a small smile.

“Hello there, Darling.”

“Hi, Duchess. I noticed you seemed awfully alone and I just wondered if you wanted some company?”

“Oh. Um. Sure. That would be lovely, I guess.”

Darling smiled widely and sat down across Duchess, chatting her up and asking her about the book she was reading.

After that lunch break, they start to hang out more; Darling always shows up at the practices for the ballet class.

--

Duchess notices that Darling absolutely loves sweet things.

They’re at the nearby ice cream parlor after Darling asked Duchess out on a date. Snow be damned, ice cream was a great idea as per Darling’s insistence.

Duchess looks in awe at the various toppings that Darling put on her monstrosity of an ice cream sundae.

“Darling, dear, are you going to finish that all?”

Darling hums to say yes, and begins to dig in.

Duchess’ eyes widen and she starts to giggle, finding Darling absolutely adorable as she chomps down the sundae.

Darling looks up from the sundae and mumbles a “what?”

Duchess grabs a napkin and wipes away the mess on her mouth.

“Nothing, you just look so enthusiastic and adorable when you’re digging in.”

The door dings and Duchess immediately waves hi to the person who walked in.

“Sparrow! What’s up?”

Sparrow waves back, and walks nearer to them.

“Nothing much, Dutch. Say, who’s the pretty girl with you?”

Duchess blushes a bit.

“Oh, her name’s Darling. We’re on a date.”

“Wow, a cute name. And nice moves, Duchess! I don’t want to keep y’all waiting though, gotta beat feet, my boyfriend is waiting for me as well.”

“Alright, Sparrow. It was nice seeing you. Say hi to Dex as well for me, alright?”

“Sure! Gotta get this ice cream and go. See ya!”

Sparrow waved and walked towards the counter, leaving Duchess and Darling alone.

Duchess had to hold in a laugh, because Darling just finished the sundae and is smiling with fudge in her teeth.

“Can we get more?”

Duchess laughed.

“Of course, dear.”

--

They both realize that they are absolutely in love with each other.

It was the day of the winter presentation, and Duchess just finished performing. The crowd’s applause made her feel incredible, and she bows with her head held high. She goes for a group bow, and she smiles at her fellow ballet class members. The curtain falls and they go off towards the backstage area.

Darling was waiting for her and she smiled widely, proud of her girlfriend.

Duchess immediately hugged Darling, and smiled against her hair.

“You did so great out there.”

“I was inspired by you.”

They hugged for a while before the teacher called Duchess over.

“Duchess! They want to see the potential prima ballerina.”

Duchess gasped and started to tear up, but Darling put her hand on Duchess’ shoulder.

“See? They liked you.”

The teacher leads out Duchess and Darling follows behind.

It’s a blur of emotions and people congratulating Duchess, and Darling is there for every single moment, holding Duchess’ hand or holding her shoulder.

They’re in the dressing room backstage, and everyone else is outside, milling around or talking with others. Duchess has changed from her ballerina outfit into a simple dress and her makeup has been wiped away; her hair is now down and held by a headband, and Darling still thinks she’s as pretty as she was in the ballerina costume.

Duchess is sat next to Darling on a couch seat, holding each others’ hands. It’s a comfortable silence, and it’s only broken when Darling speaks.

“Can I kiss you, Duchess?”

Duchess flushes but can’t contain her smile as she nods, and they share a chaste peck that lasts for a few seconds, but feels like eternity for the two.

“I love you, Duchess.”

“I love you too, Darling.”

They sit in silence, holding each others’ hands again, but they sit closer to each other this time.

It’s comfortable, they both think.

They wouldn’t have it any other way.