#Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon

[ludoka]

So, I don't know if the heat has already made me crazy but... is it possible that Seto Kaiba would have beaten Supreme King Z-ARC?

It is that I was seeing the attacks and effects of Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon and Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon. And well... They kind of have good effects and a great attack. Zarc had like 4000 attack (and an absurd amount of text that could be summarized as "cannot be targeted by opponent's card effects") While Ultimate Dragon has 4500 and MAX Dragon 4000 and both have the effect of not being destroyed or selected by cards from your opponent.

So that... Kaiba could see him put up a fight at least.

[zakurarain]

C0mm-ed by Princess Crystal#7823 with OC Cindy and Blue Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon!

It’s been a challenge but fun to draw ^^

[333creolelady]

Lady Of The Blue Bakunawa Ch.8

Roman Reigns (Pirate) X Black Afab! OC

Warnings: Mentions of su*c*dal ideation, use of the word Su*c*de, Death of animal, Gore, Cursing, Water accidents, Scary creatures, Angst (with fluff). Paranoia. This is a lengthy one guys.

Official Story Playlist link Here

Alternative Playlist link Here

Chapter 7 <-

Next chapter : TBA ->

Official story PL songs this chapter: Igloo, Will you help me, Going in, The sixth station, Too close, The Legend of Ashitaka

Alternative songs this chapter: Slow life, St Jude, Nothing but trouble, Time, Nice Dream, Motion picture soundtrack, Suzanne

Cover by: @joannasteez

Tags for those who asked about new chapter: @2-muchsauce @sortudademais @joannasteez

Roman POV

Roman sat on the Cabin floor watching Jane sleep in his arms while wearing her soaking wet clothes. His fingers brushed the sides of her face as he recalls the day he met her. It was much like this but in somewhat different circumstances. He could only describe this place as the feeling of being in a dream. Disconnected from his body, perhaps floating above it but still present. Tunnel visioned.

He remembers the feel of her heart racing against his flesh as they stared at the Dragon head on. Facing one’s own mortality was a humbling experience. He was as terrified as she was. He found no point in trying to avoid what would happen. All he could do was accept their ending. At least he would meet his end holding the woman he loved. Had he been alone, he wasn’t so sure if he would have accepted his fate so easily.But to have death graze his flesh and beckon him forward? To feel his soul bend, twist,and tear from his flesh. To feel the crash of the boat, the frigid water, the splintered wood. To feel the terror and the despair. It was simply unimaginable.

Through it all, he blanketed himself around her the best way he could. Reality bent around them. Screams of terror echoed in the gut of the beast. Her fingers clung to him and his to hers. They flipped, spinned, whirled, and were ultimately swallowed and submerged. And then…they were spat out into what could only be described as uncharted land.

It would seem as though this place was not of the world. It was foreign, alien, different. From what he could see out of the window, even the sand was a different color from what he was used to.

Some of his comrades woke up laying outside of the ship on the sand bed, others were still inside of the splintered ship. Jane and Himself ended up on the cabin floor, him at the door and her in the back of the room. He crawled towards her, ignoring the calls for him in the distance. He hadn’t moved a muscle and wouldn’t until he saw the light come back into her eyes again.

As she slept peacefully, her key was warm and glowing. He suspected that the dragon spared them because of that key. However, as long as she wore it, her life would be in danger. Her body was littered with bleeding scratches and deep purple bruises. His skin suffered the same fate. It felt like the boat itself had been ripped apart and then miraculously put back together.

An unrecognizable sense of gratitude washed over him when he saw her in their room, banged up but unscathed. To know that she had been spared. To know that he will feel his mouth on hers again, he will hear her voice, see her smile, feel her skin. Gratitude…sheer gratitude to be alive. Grateful to feel the heart beating in his chest, to hear waves crashing, to feel the dampness of his clothes. Grateful to be alive. Grateful to know the story didn’t end here. That they still had time. Yet, he was fearful of something that he could not place.

He could only surmise it as the fear of God. The same fear of God that many people around him possessed that he didn't quite understand before.. He never feared death. He didn’t have a particular God that he believed in or a religion he subscribed to. But some force…be it the Dragon, Universe, or something else entirely…spared him. He was spared and it was riveting and terrifying. Terrifying to be acquainted with the Black, quiet, stillness of Death and to be pulled out of it in an instant — reborn like a child.

Jane woke with a gasp calling his name, “ Roman…Roman ”, she rasped. The salt had burned her throat. His name was the first word she spoke after such a horrific thing. Almost as if her thoughts of him hadn’t stopped in her slumber.

“ You’re alive. We’re alive Jane”, he whispered in the crook of her neck.

“ Are you…are you sure ?”, she sniffled. He hummed against her cheek, pressing soft kisses to it.

Roman shrugs.“ The universe knew I promised you that ice cream ”, he chuckled. A cautious smile spread over her face as she finally opened her eyes. She cracked them open, blinking slowly to adjust to the light of the room. Her brown orbs looked around the cabin and then finally they focused on him, her pupils dilating in size when she saw his face. She smiled sweetly at him and him at her.

He could see that same gratitude on her face as well. “ I’m happy to be alive”, she whispered softly, closing her eyes again. And knowing what he knew now about Jane, that wasn’t always the case. He grateful for it.

“ I’m happy to be alive with you”, he said quietly. He pulls him to her with ease, and places her in his lap. They embrace in a comfortable silence. She pulled away holding his face..“ What will we do? Where are we? How will we get out of here ?”

“ I’m not sure.I don’t know. We still have a map. The compass is spinning on itself constantly. I don’t know if we’re actually anywhere …?”, said Roman. His face mirrored the same confusion as her own.

“ What do you mean ?”

“ I mean…I don’t think we’re in a place that’s to be considered…Worldly. ”

“ Worldy..”, she tried the words on her lips.

“ Yes…do you remember what happened ?”

“ I remember feeling like I was falling and now I'm here.”

“ The Dragon…?”, he hinted. Her eyes widened in terror thinking back to that fateful night on the boat. He adds, “ I don’t think we’re in some distant ocean anymore Jane. I think we’re inside the Dragon.”

A peculiar questioning look danced on her face as if she was not entirely convinced. She went to stand and Roman followed suit. She looked around the drenched cabin, looking at the ruined items.

“ If we get out of here, what I buy for you will pale in comparison to what you own now. Don’t worry, Dove.”

“ It’s not just my things Roman…yours too. All of it. All our belongings. Things that cannot be replaced.”

He looks at his soaked booked collection with pages ripped out. The room resembled the aftermath of a poltergeist “ Were alive…it’s all that matters. We will have more memories to make.”

“Not if we can’t leave this place”, she warned.

A voice calls out in the distance. “ Is she awake ??!”

The two walk out of the cabin to see Caden standing outside with a worried look. He rushes to inspect her. “ Are you alright ?? You were the last to wake up.”

“ I’m okay. No worries”, she urged, squeezing his hand in reassurance. Other voices call to for Roman’s attention.

“ Cap!!!!!’ “

“ Captain! “

“ Cap’n!”

Jane POV

Jane looked at him knowingly, not minding that he was clearly needed by his crew. He looks at her hesitantly.. a look that says “are you sure you’re okay?”. She smiles knowingly and nudges his arm in approval. He kisses her temple and heads back down to the sand to assist his men.

“ How long has it been?”, she asks Caden.

“ We’ve been here since the Sun was the highest. We are a couple hours from sunset I believe.”

“ That’s no good. It will get cold fast”, she warned

“ A couple of the men are in the tree line trying to find some dry wood to burn. We’ve found a few pieces.”

“ Was any food salvaged?”

“ Half of the jarred items. We don’t have enough food to last us on the way back. Maybe 2-3 months if we spread out the meals.”

“ We’ll have to live off the sea if it comes to it. Do we have any fresh water left ?”

“ No, it was lost to the sea. We’ve found a tree bearing fruit with water however”

“ Coconut. It will hold us over here but it won’t last if find a way to journey back. Rainwater will have to do but don’t drink it fresh– lest it turn your stomach. Boil it first”

“ Aye”, Caden leaves her to spread the word to the other members of the ship.

Worry fills her gut. Even if they live off the land and survive here for a few months, they won’t be able to survive the journey back without clean water. Their only hope was Roman—who’s descended from people who lived off the land for centuries. She overheard him explaining which plants were poisonous and which weren’t. He’d already known which fish were the best to eat ..which was helpful. However his memory failed him at times because of how long he’d been removed from his home. Two months without food was difficult but survivable. Without water however? Impending Death. The ship needed repairs that could take months to actually finish. This situation was impossible. Was the treasure really worth it if they wouldn’t live long enough to see use it ?

Instead of mentally spiraling she decides to start collecting personal items and mementos from the shore, sorting them into a large pile. She sees Roman in the distance talking with such conviction and frustration. Everybody looked so tired. Perhaps being reunited with their photos and personal belongings would bring them back some cheer.

She focused on her task until nightfall. Some of the men were able to find some dried wood behind the tree line and made a sizable bonfire. Everybody gathered around it. She walked through the crowd trying to find her love. Roman was on the opposite side, adding more wood to the flame. The heaviness of his eyes subsided when he saw her. She rushed over to his side, gluing herself to it like a second skin. She could feel his muscles relax as he wrapped his free hand around her waist. Things were bad but with him near…it was all manageable. She’d never felt that way about anyone before. “ Hungry?” He asks her. She nods.

One thing about living on the sea, every man had experience with fishing. Tonight they found a plethora of sea creatures to eat. Fish, crabs, muscles, a few lobsters, and even a baby squid. They pushed everything on sticks and broiled it over the fire before tearing it away with their teeth. Everyone was so hungry that barely anyone spoke but a few words during dinner. Too sun drunk and hungry to care about anything.

Roman fed her pieces of raw fish…the safe ones of course. She only really agreed to it because it was an excuse to feel his fingers in her mouth. She bit him playfully during the bigger bites which made him twitch away before his eyes darkened.

“ Oh how lucky you are that we have no room to ourselves”, he warned quietly. She chuckled quietly.Coming so close to death and being stranded had changed her feelings about many things. She smiled knowingly. If they made it out of this…the things she would let him do…

Her mind turned back to their current issue at hand. Food. Water. Fire. Boat. Treasure— in no order.

“ Do we have a plan?”, Caleb asked out loud. The men chewed in deep thought.

“ I’ve heard stories that the pirate who finds the treasure gets three wishes. Maybe if we find that treasure we can find a way to get out of here sooner and put an end to all of this ?”, said Cortez.

“ But there’s no way to know for sure. What if we make it there and there is no wish?”, asked Adhar.

“ What do we have left to lose at this point? We’ve already lost everything?”, Said Rory.

“ We have the coconuts and we’ll collect the rainwater. Everybody here can miss a meal… we’ll be okay but we must have the water. The seafood is plentiful..we can eat that along with our rations that we salvaged. I know a few plants that are edible. We can keep searching the forest for fruit”, Roman suggested.

“ What if it doesn’t rain and we run out of coconuts ? And what about the boat?”, said Jane.

“ We can rebuild a boat using the scraps we find. There is plenty of plank wood here from other ship wrecks. If it comes to it we’ll try to start this from scratch”, Said Roman.

Jane winced. “ I don’t know…that could take months.”

“ The time will pass anyway. Everyone is stable for now. We’ve got food and water. All that’s left to do is find that treasure and figure out how to use it to our advantage”, Roman urged.

“ Captain is right. We don’t have much else to lose”, Caden agreed.

Adhar spoke up. “ So when do we go?”,

“ Dawn. We all need rest first”, said Roman.

“ I volunteer my services Cap’n”, Said Rory.

“ As do I”, said William

“ And me.. Obviously ”, says Adhar.

“ And I”, Jane squeezes Roman’s hand reassuringly. She can already see the protest etching itself across Roman’s face. “ Remember..what you promised me.”

Roman sighs in frustration. “ I know…but this is more dangerous Jane. We don’t know what could come from this. There could be dangerous animals…poisonous insects. We don’t know what we’re up against.”

“ You feel it..I feel it. Remember ? We do this together. Besides, I have the key. The creature said I can’t take it off unless I open the treasure. I was meant to be by your side for this”, Jane pleads.

Roman looks at her in deep thought, “ I just want to protect you…”, he whispers quietly to her.

“ I know you do. You’ve done the best you can. I can’t ask for a better…”, the words fall short of her lips.

Roman’s brows furrow playfully. “A …Better ?”, he chuckled, wondering what she would say. She didn’t squirm or shy away from his teasing.

“ A better…. Match”, she muttered softly looking down at her half empty coconut.

“ That most certainly works”, he smiled, pouring the rest of his coconut water into her shell.

The rest of the night was filled with strategizing, the occasional chuckle thanks to Rory, and more eating. Rest followed and it came swiftly.

Roman POV

He was up before the sun, stomping out the weak flames left from the bonfire. He checks his map once, twice, thrice. His stomach was turning with an unexplainable anxiousness. This treasure would determine if everything was worth it.

If he was a better man he would say that finding Jane was the real treasure and to some degree it was. She came into his life and filled it with unimaginable joy. However, now the goal post has moved. It was his duty to make sure that the rest of Jane’s life was spent in comfort. Those riches were no longer his the moment his eyes laid on her and deep down he knew that. She was his greatest weakness and rarest Jewel now. It's said that pirates do not have a weakness for women. The sea was their betrothed, rum was their mistress, a good woman was a small vacation. Jane became an all encompassing paradise even at a time like this.

William awakened next, helping him sharpen blades and swords. Crossbows were prepared, Meat rations organized, Coconut water collected. Extra pairs of shoes and clothes were salvaged. After a brief meeting on the terms and conditions of this journey with his men, he was ready. Roman wakes Jane last and she’s quick to come to her senses, readying herself and her hair for the long journey ahead. He laces her boots for her when she’s done. Her fingers comb through his hair as he takes care of her. He noticed he enjoyed being in servitude to her above all else.

As the sun broke the horizon they headed off into the bushes. Roman was first in line and Jane was immediately behind him. He swatted their path with a machete, sinking deeper into an alien jungle with sounds they’ve never quite heard before.

In all the books he’s read about pirates and treasure, they never seem to emphasize just how much the walk winds you before anything else. 5 miles in heat with patches of sunlight peeking through at just the right moments to singe the skin. Biting gnats, snakes, loud fucking birds screeching every moment of the goddamned day. Breathing feels like being under a blanket. The humidity is dizzying. This part may very well be worse than the boat wreck.

“ Break… please for the love of god”, William groaned.

“ Alright. We’ll stop here until the sun gives some reprieve—Jane”, Roman beckons her to him and hands her some coconut water that he collected in a canister. She takes it gratefully.

“ Not to sound like a wuss but this might as well be soup”, Adhar sighed.

“ Better than nothing”, Jane laughed.

“ I’ll drink to that”, William chuckled

The group set down their bags and supplies to take a much needed rest. Roman checked his compass and it continued spinning just like it had on the boat. He looked at it questionably and put it back into his pocket. Jane caught his expression, sharing the same worried look.

“This was certainly not how I pictured it. Nothing like the rumors I’ve heard”, Rory spoke up.

“And what have you heard ?”, says Jane.

“Myth says that the place that holds the treasure is full of diversions and tricks of the eye”, said Rory.

“Ay… they say that entire crews slaughtered themselves from sheer paranoia”, Cortez warns.

“ Umm, you didn’t think that would have been a helpful piece of information to mention before we’re miles into the jungle”, Jane scoffed.

“ You all forget that many of the rumors that we’ve heard have not been true. Few have held up to their gossip. There is no need to worry yet”, Roman interjects.

“ And if it is?”, says Jane.

Roman’s tone is flippant now. “I’ll cut any tongue that rises against you”.

Jane’s brow raises in suspicion. “Even your own?”

“Especially my own”, Roman smirked.

A mischievous look appears on Jane’s face. “Spare it for me. I’ve grown fond of it.”

Noises of gagging and disgust roll across the group like school children. Jane laughs.

“ Alright you love birds. What we really need to be worried about is what god forsaken creatures lurk in the night “, Adhar warns.

“ Indeed. I’ve heard noises out of nightmares seep from the tree line when we were on the beach. They sound rather large”, says Cortez.

Roman scoffs “ We have enough knives and gunpowder in our inventory to turn whatever that is into beef tartar as far as i'm concerned. Instead of worrying about what’s to come, why don’t you all shut your mouths and preserve your breath. You’re going to need it”, Roman dismissed the crew. Jane playfully saluted him with an “Aye Aye Captain” gesture which he secretly found amusing.

And they indeed needed it. When the sun hid behind the trees they set foot towards the center of the island. The descent was hilly and rocky, requiring core muscles and quick recovery. And then suddenly the terrain changed from a vast jungle to damp, humid, and muddy. Adhar fell on his bottom and the others followed suit eventually. Roman was lucky enough to stay upright, which tickled Jane. She found it peculiar how a man so large seemed to have the balance and agility of a cat.

The night ended cold. They started a fire and put 1 person on guard at a time. Camp was set up and tents were rolled out before everyone had a quick bite to eat. The morning came stiff. Jane pulled herself to her feet, stretching to relieve the ache in her joints. She looked around at the crew. They were all sweaty, dirty, and flushed from the exhaustion and the heat.

Roman holds up a large jar. “I Have pickled eggs if anyone wants breakfast.”

“Yes”, said Jane.

“Thank fuck. I’m starving”, said Adhar.

“Is it your goal to make us shit ourselves in the middle of the damned jungle with so much as a leaf to wipe our asses ?”Rory asked seriously.

“Beggars can’t be choosers”, Cortez shrugged with a smirk.

Roman shook his head. “ Look, It’s either that or beans”, Roman declared.

The entire group groaned at the word beans.

After a painfully humble breakfast, the journey continued for another day. More hot terrins, more mud, more mosquitoes, more sweat. As if the universe finally decided to give the group a break, it started raining again. At first it was welcomed as they all sat in a circle cooling off from such a difficult day of walking. Twenty minutes pass and it’s still pouring hard, so hard that the rain pellets begin to sting. The greenery was sparse in this part of the island which meant there was nowhere to hide. Jane looked to the sky wondering how many more days of this could she endure? Her joints were aching, her hair was dry and brittle, she even had a sun rash. She grew up running barefoot on beaches as a small child, knowing her skin absorbed every bit of the heat that shined down on her. Now her skin was tight and raw like the skin on her lips.

“This was a mistake..” she whispered quietly, head hanging between her crouched knees as she sat on the sparse wet grass.

Maybe life on the boat was treasure enough. Maybe a new found love was the treasure. Maybe a handsome man with generous pockets was the treasure–not this. NOT this.

Roman turned to Jane, just as dried out as her. He didn't look tired like her, strangely enough. He assessed his crew. They were dirty, tired, and sizzling out of the motivation from the reduction of food.

“ Dove.. we are close. Another day or two and we should be there “, He mused.

“ I know, I know. I underestimated this journey is all”, she confessed.

“ We are on the right track… trust. Everything on this map has come to pass”, Roma explains.

Jane turned her defeated eyes to his compass and then back to him warily. She inspected the caked dirt under her nails. Maybe she should have stayed behind but she couldn't rest knowing that he might be in danger. She would be just as miserable back at the beach as she was now. However, she had the key. It would not have mattered anyway.. A deep chuckle tickled her ears and a sneer paused just behind her teeth. She was days shy of her period and incredibly irritable.

“What's so funny?” she snapped at Roman.

He looked at her quizzically. “ I didn't say anything love”, He frowned.

“ I heard you fucking laughing. You think this is funny?”, Jane grew increasingly angry. The laughter played in her head over and over again. Strange inquisitive eyes looked back at her. Did they all think she was a joke for coming on this trip? Better yet, did they find her to be a burden? Someone they always had to look after? Undoubtedly weaker. She could feel her composure cracking. She stood up, gathering her pack and started walking away. Roman was on her heels, calling out to her.

He grabs her forearm and spins her around. Her face is pulled back in a tight annoyance that he’s never seen before. If the circumstances were lighter he would chuckle at the cuteness of it. A slow smile spreads across his face thinking of all the times he would provoke her to annoyance on the boat just to tease her.

“And you have the nerve to do it again?”, she scoffs at that sly smirk. She would melt underneath it had she not been so upset.

“This place is playing tricks on your mind, on your heart and soon your desires I'm sure. Stay focused Jane….there is no time to crack under the pressure”, he reasons.

Her face dropped in confusion and embarrassment. He smiled softly at her, smoothing her hair back under the slick of the rain.

“ It’s not just you.. Adhar believes something is following us. William isn't sleeping. Cortez is talking to himself. Rory is paranoid. As for myself, recurring nightmares that are even worse than when I was on the ship. It’s not just you who’s feeling the pressure. Remember why you’re here. Remember why we did this Jane”, he spoke carefully and firmly in that soft and disarming tone that always unraveled her defenses. She looked behind him at the group. They looked just as defeated. How hasn't she seen it before? How was this place already crumbling their composure? Nothing has happened yet?

“ I- I’m sorry”, She muttered.

“ S’okay. Come. Let’s take a nap. You are over tired and clearly very cranky”, he coaxed.

It pained her to admit to herself that she was indeed tired. She woke up warm and damp from the sun's feeble attempt to dry everything the sky had drenched. Her mood had not lightened. The boys collected rain water and boiled it, bottling it in the leather flasks they brought with them. The hike continued and continued with no breaks in between. Roman was growing increasingly restless and the lack of sleep had not helped. Cortez looked like a zombie and William was silently losing it by the hour. Adhar had gone blank hours ago. Rory was having full conversations with himself. Jane’s paranoia was etched across her face and she wasn't hiding it all that well.

Roman POV

That night they set up camp in a drier terrain and everyone became increasingly withdrawn. Roman sat by the fire with some large insect skewered onto a makeshift shank that he cut from his knife. He twirled it over the fire watching its hairs singe and trickle into the flames. In his peripheral he can see Jane sharpening her knife while looking over her shoulder. She was becoming increasingly hostile and anti-social despite his attempts to settle her. Adhar was rocking back and forth in front of him, staring into the fire. Williams looked anxious, looking over at Jane as if she herself was anywhere near his equal in size and height. Rory was walking in circles angrily, torching large flies that circled the camp. Cortez's eyes darted to him and then Jane's in a worried manner.

Roman began to worry that this journey would end in the bloodshed of one another. In just a few days the crew had become shells of themselves, personifying their worst fears or habits. Was it this island? Was it the hunger? Was it the heat? His thoughts ponder the stories he’d heard in Pubs and Taverns. There were talks trips that ended in bloody murder with crews turning on each other. Other stories said crews went mad and ate each other. It all started to come back to him and soon he realized that he should not have let Jane come.

Suddenly Williams stormed over to Jane and she stood defensively, knife in hand at the ready.

“Give me back my fucking flask”, William sneered at her.

“ I don't have your flask you ignorant Ogre”, Jane snapped.

“ I saw you hide it in your fucking boot. I won't ask again. Give me my flask or so help me I will fucking –”,

Roman shouted, “ Hey ! Cut it out!”

“ Stay away from me. I’ll gut you like a fish if you get any closer!”, Jane warned.

“ That’s it!” William took a step forward pulling Jane's arm which prompted her to slice her blade across his arm drawing blood. Roman sprung into action, tackling William to the ground in a blind rage. He begins to hit him repeatedly. Cortez and Adhar rush to pull him off but his brute strength makes it a task. Jane snaps out of her haze and screams.

“ Roman, stop it!”, she cries. Tears fill her eyes watching William’s bloody face curl in confusion and anger. He wraps his pinned leg around Romans calf and flips him over. Now William is wailing against him but not for long, as Roman pulls William’s face towards his mouth and bites him.

A long, groaning, agonizing, high pitched screech floats through the thick night air. The sound is so distinct that it freezes everybody in place. They all quiet down to inspect– to see if what they just heard was real. Jane’s tearful face is pulled back in fear as she looks at Cortez. Cortez’s eyes are scarily wide, like saucers. He looks past her, staring at something in the distance. She slowly turns her head to look behind her. At first her eyes didn't catch the figure because it was pitched black outside the boundary of light that the fire provided.

However, once her eyes adjusted to the contrast, she could make out the shape of what she assumed was a man. Her eyes started at the feet first. The soles of the black boots were missing, exposing the gray withered feet underneath them. What little clothes were left on the body hung off in shreds which allowed the rotting flesh to peak through underneath them. It was a person, or rather, it once was a person. What once held two healthy eyes were now clouded with blue and gray tones. There was no iris in sight. The skin on the face was pulled tight, exposing the angles of the skull in a harsh light. The nose was half eaten by decay and the top part of its lip was missing, showing rotten upper teeth. The jaw jutted from its skull as it drooled a thick black substance. A gaping hole where its heart should be, mirrored the plants and trees that it stood in front of.

“ C…C”, Jane fought to get a word out. She was paralyzed, jaw slack and frozen with fear.

Before any sudden movement could be made the creature made another shrieking ear piercing cry and darted straight for Jane, knocking her flat on her butt with a thump. It began to claw at her as Jane held her hands out protectively. The men were on it in seconds.

There was no question that 5 men on 1 man would be an easy win. Yet, no matter how many times Roman or William sheathed their knives into the creature, it would continue snarling, roaring, and snapping at the group completely unfazed by the injury. Roman looked just as disturbed as Jane who still sat on the damp ground in shock. In utter disbelief, Roman pulled out his pistol and pressed the barrel against the forehead of the creature. Roman experimentally pulls the trigger and it bursts rotten brain fragments everywhere.

In a quiet shaky voice Cortez whispers “ Amalanhig.”

“ On a scale of 1-10 how fucked are we ?”, Rory groans. He studies the headless corpse on the ground. Another snarl in the distance jolts everyone on their feet. A second scream pushes everyone to grab their packs. A third screech sends multiple bodies of the undead barreling towards them, revealing themselves from behind the treeline.

“ Royally… Run!”, Adhar yells.

Roman hauls over his shoulder. There would be no room for mistakes, tripping, or falling behind. Jane didn’t protest at all, and he could tell by the fear in her face that she would completely disappear from this situation if she could.

Jane POV

What she did not expect was for these creatures to be so fast? They were agile on their feet, snarling and convulsing as they ran after the group. Jane counted 10 and then 20….30 or more? She slipped the gun from Romans holster on his waist and began to shoot with the ammunition he left inside. It was difficult to get a good shot because of the bouncing. Head shots were the only thing that got the creatures to stop. Eventually she was able to take out two of the creatures. Williams pulled his musket from its case and briefly stopped every few meters to shoot. Jane tried to help him as best she could but after a few minutes the men were getting winded and the undead started to gain on them.

“ FUCK!”, Roman snarled angrily.

Cortez called out in a worried winded tone as he sprinted alongside the men, “ If anybody has an idea..now would be a good time to say something!”

Before Roman could say anything Jane shouted, “Trees!”

“ And if they don't disperse!?” Rory shouted over the noise.

“ I smell water. I think there may be a clearing up ahead !”, said Roman

The last 2 minutes to the lake felt like ages. William nearly got bit and Jane ran out of gunpowder. Guns were to be used sparingly.

“ I see it! just up ahead guys!”, Adhar yells. Jane turns her neck to look behind her. A paddle boat can be seen in the distance. Jane could feel a scream rising in her throat thinking of all the things that could go wrong in these next pivotal moments. She whimpered, “ The boat isn’t big enough!”

“ I’ll push and you all paddle. You stay in that boat. Do you hear me?!”, Roman scolded. He could see the wheels turning in her head. He needed to ensure her safety.

The group descended into the water like a life raft. Roman harshly shoved Jane into the boat, in fear that she would protest or try to help him. Only 5 people could fit inside the paddle boat. Roman pushed the boat deeper into the water as quickly as he could. The creatures descended into the shallow shore, heavy on his tail. Rory and Adhar picked up the oars and began to row to add to the momentum. Just before Jane could let out a breath of relief, Roman is pulled under the water by the dozens of creatures that had sunken to the bottom. A blood curdling scream spills from Jane’s mouth,“ ROMAN NO!! NOO!!!!”. She lunges for the water but William holds her back.

“ LET GO OF ME! FUCKING LET GO!!”, She screeches as she tries to throw her legs over the side of the boat. She is no match for William’s strength.

William’s face hardens, “Captain's orders, nothing is to happen to you”, he explains.

“ You won’t have a Captain to take orders from if you do nothing!!”, She cries.

“ We swore to Roman to protect you and that’s just what we’ll do”, says Rory. His eyes were filled with tears as he continued to push the oar in sync with Cortez.

Jane looked around in disbelief. It would seem that she was out of the loop on this agreement. She kept checking the water for signs of him. Signs that he would spring back up. Unfortunately there was a heavy fog that persisted across the entirety of the lake and the shore had disappeared behind it.

After five minutes there was no sign of him as the night fell quiet and the groans of the creatures were distant and far away. The group was completely silent, all looking ahead with solemn expressions. All she heard was the oars hitting the water and the sound of her heartbeat in her ears. An unimaginable wail spilled from her mouth so violently that she had to brace her hands on her knees. The panic and grief washed over her in unrelenting waves as she looked around in disbelief. She could not catch her breath. She could not hold in the pain and the betrayal of his sacrifice.

“ He– this cant... I can’t. —”, she hiccuped. She began to feel dizzy. William pressed both of his hands on her shoulders. Adhar looked at her with a worried expression.

“ Breath Jane…. ”

Williams' attempts at calming Jane were useless. It was a second. She was in his arms moments before this and now he was gone? She blinked and he was gone? She was trembling now. There was nothing she could do. There was nothing that would change this. She sobbed despite the kind words that the group tried to pacify her with. What followed was a numbing silence.

She had no interest in finding the treasure now. She never really cared about the treasure. She came along with Roman because she had fallen in love with him. This was Roman’s dream. This was Roman’s story and she was happily a supporting character in it. What could any of this mean? What was the point of her falling for this man all those months ago, just for fate to rip them apart? Why would life give her this sweetness to take it away? She knew this was too good to be true. She knew it was only a matter of time before everything that she had was ripped from underneath her.

For the next hour, she stared at the boots she wore. He bought them for her at a small port where they only spoke Spanish. He dazzled her with his fluency when he purchased them. He laced her shoes for her a few mornings ago before they left. She counted the laces over and over again. One by one. She decided that she must never take the shoes off especially when it was the last thing he had done for her. Within 20 minutes, they reached the other side of the island. She physically had to be removed from the boat. Adhar grabbed onto her protectively, guiding her to sit on a beached log just a few meters from the water.

The men began to set up camp. This is where they would sleep for the night. Rory made a Bonfire. William heated up some of the jarred food items. Cortez loaded the pistols. That night she sat in front of the bonfire thinking. Rory had taken her weapons. He explained that Roman had told him to do it in the event that he passed. The thought earned a bitter chuckle out of her.

She woke up before everyone else. She was all vinegar, nothing but bitterness wafted from her. Another day in this inescapable hell. She thought the rest of the men would be lucky if they got out of this place. The boat rocked against the pebbled shore causing a scraping sound that got her attention. The very least she could do was look for him. She couldn’t let his body stay here, she wouldn’t stand for that.

She took the paddle boat out before anyone could stop her. The fog was thick, too thick to see that far in front of her. It didn’t stop her from calling his name. She didn’t know why she called for him knowing she saw him go under and never come up. Somewhere in her heart she wanted to be wrong. She could not fully accept the truth. There was not a single sign of life in the water, it felt just as dead as the corpses that still snapped and growled along the other side of the shore. She watched them in disdain, wondering how she could torture something that was already long gone.

She eventually turned the boat around, deciding to make a full perimeter of the Lake instead of cutting directly across. There could be no inch unchecked or disregarded. She knew that if she returned to the shore without his body she would not make it through the night.

It began to rain heavily which made it harder to see or hear. She screamed his name into the rain, wondering how much the downpour drowned out her voice.

Nothing…just stillness and rain. She began to cry again as her eyes scanned the water. She gave up the boat to the movement of the current. The tears wracked her as if it had happened all over again. A large thud pulled her out of her hysteria because the force of it knocked her forward onto her knees. She scrambled onto her feet to see a Giant piece of driftwood. She steadied herself and carefully walked to the edge of the boat. She assessed the boat for any damage and just over the edge she saw swirls of raven colored hair. Then she saw light skin, a nose, a mouth, ears, a face. She dove into the water without question.

She felt cold skin, hard muscles, hair, lips. She grabbed his limp body into her arms and positioned her body underneath his.. She mustered up as much strength as she could, a strength that she didn't even know was physically possible for her own body. She pushed him onto the boat gradually, screaming against the boat with each push forward. Eventually, she got his legs over the boat and climbed into it. With trembling hands, she placed her palms on either side of him and really looked at him. His full lips were blue and he practically had no color left to his skin. There weren’t any scratches on him or bites. He succumbed to the current. She bit her lip to hold in another cry. She placed her hands on his neck and she stilled in surprise. A light pulse….just a single flutter every few seconds. She scrambled to open his mouth and slotted hers against his. She blew hard, pushing her air into his lungs before she pressed on his chest. She pushed as hard as she could and gave him another hard gust of her air.

“ Pllleeasseee”, she cried. She continued with chest compressions. Thirty seconds rolled onto a minute. Another 30 seconds passed and then two minutes. At five minutes she began to panic, moving frantically to hold his nose and force more air. Two more hard pumps to his chest and he begins to sputter water from his mouth. A gust of relief floods her and she begins to sob.

“Baby….my baby…”, she whimpered. She could barely recognize the tone of her own voice. His eyes fluttered open as he began to cough up water. She sat him up, patting his back harshly to help him push out the fluid. The coughing went on for a good minute as he weakly slouched into his own lap. She grabbed his face and pressed it to her own. His bloodshot eyes remained closed as he took in big gulps of air, almost as if they were his very first.

“ You were gone ...I lost you”, she wailed against his weak form. A fragile hand pressed itself to her cheek.

“I-I’m here–”, he choked before choking for more air. She rested her forehead on his watching the comforting rise and fall of his chest. A chest she slept on every night.

“ Don’t you ever… EVER do that again. Do you understand me?! ”, she spat. She grabbed his face, forcing him to focus his eyes on hers.

“ Do you hear me!?”, she cried frantically

“ Okay… Okay”, He whispered delicately. He lost his voice and it was barely audible but his nod confirmed it. He was shivering and soon the cold would take him if she couldn’t get him warm. She picked up the oars and began paddling as quickly as she could back to the shore.

“ Adhar !”, she called out as they closed into the pebble bank.

“ Rory! I need your help!”,She yelled.

The men come flying out of the tent followed by Cortez and William.

“What the fuck!?”,Adhar rushed for the pair, dropping his sword on the ground.

“ I came just in time. Please we have to get him warm. Start a fire in front of the tent. He’s very weak”, she stepped out of the boat and three of the men picked him up infirmary style and placed him inside of Jane’s tent. She sprung into action, peeling off his clothes.

“ What happened ?”, said Adhar.

“ I went looking for him. I went to find his body. I wouldn't leave him in this place dead or alive. The boat mashed into driftwood and I found him floating in front of it –sinking to the bottom. I think he overexerted himself and the current pulled him under”, Jane’s tone was rushed as she pulled off his boots, throwing them behind her. Next came his shirt, weapon belt, and pants.

Roman’s teeth began to chatter, “ Jane…” he groaned.

“ I’m here… I’m here honey we just have to get you dry or you’ll get worse”, she assured in a panicked tone.

A tinge of embarrassment crossed Adhars face as he made prolonged eye contact with Roman’s bloodshot eyes, “ I’ll step out, give the man some dignity.”

Jane peeled off Roman’s underwear and placed his wet clothes in a pile at the front of the tent. She found a cotton blanket and began to rub his body with it vigorously, turning him over to dry his back and limbs. She then wrapped him in all the blankets she could possibly find . She reopened the tent to let the heat from the fire waft inside. Roman sits up now, though still very weak, he looks more alert now. William hands Jane a broth made from the animal bones that they cooked the night before. She places the mug under Roman’s lips and periodically feeds him the soup base. He takes it willingly and quietly.

On the other side of the fire Rory, Adhar, Cortez, and William sat patiently until Roman was ready to speak. Roman, still slow reacting and fairly tired, finally cleared his horse throat.

“ I….appreciate you all for taking care of my Jane while I was …gone”, he says quietly.

“ Cap’n’s orders, remember. We wouldn’t have let anything harm Jane. She’s one of us”, Saiid Rory. Jane smiles sadly knowing what she was planning to do.

“ How did you survive ?”, asked Cortez.

“ Those things pulled me down. I was able to get away but it was so dark that I could barely see. I was swimming in circles all night. I’d completely lost my sense of direction. I kept hearing things. I suppose I succumbed to my own exhaustion. There was nothing to hold onto so that I could rest. There were times I had to tread water just to catch my breath. Eventually I was able to make out a large piece of wood that was floating a couple feet away. I assume there was a current in that space or at least a light current. HadI not been so exhausted, I would have probably been able to swim through it but it swallowed me. A couple mouthfuls of water and I was …comatose. Dead to the world as far I knew,” Roman looked at Jane. She was still very upset at the whole ordeal but was holding back the tears.

“ You are very fortunate. Amalanhig are vicious creatures and they are relentless. I have never seen one before. If they are here, it means they were murdered here. If they would have dragged you to the bottom they would have likely eaten on your flesh for days”, Cortez warns.

Jane speaks up. “ He had a light pulse…I was doing compressions on him for ages. I can’t believe he even survived ”.

“ Well…what matters now is that we are all together. We’re finishing this journey how it was meant to be finished—as a group. Roman is here to guide us once more –after a few days of rest I suppose?”, says William.

Jane nodded, leaning into his side, “ No question about it. He’s too fragile for travel and now he’s at risk for infection. I’ll have to nurse him for a few days”, She sighed.

Roman snorted with humor, “ I’d protest but you’re fortunate I like you as my nurse.” He wrapped a protective arm around her.

The group said their goodnights individually, all heading off to bed. They grabbed the blankets that Jane borrowed to keep Roman warm. Rory went last, walking around the campfire. He crouched down and placed a firm hand on Roman’s shoulder. Roman looked up at him comically, just waiting for Rory to say something absurd and funny as always. A necessity at a time like this.

“ Glad to have you back. Just wanted to say…You’re lucky I respect you so much, otherwise I’d be royally pissed about you getting your ball sweat on my

Blanket Cap’n. No offense”, Rory smirked. Roman wheezes out a hearty, crackly, raspy laugh and Rory follows with an even crispier one. Jane shakes her headand rolls her eyes at their boyish humor. Rory takes his leave for the night.

Then it was just the two of them sitting in front of the fire. Roman flexed his muscles stiffly, clearly still in pain from moving them for so long. “Are you ready to go to sleep?”

Roman grunts in agreement, scooting himself further into the tent. Jane closes the tent and pulls off her boots. Roman watches her from a lying position, enjoying the view of her after such a horrible night. She turns to him and notices that he’s pulled off his blanket and was stark naked now that they had privacy. She decides to strip down to her undergarments. The fire had made it warm now, maybe too warm. When she was ready he pulled her onto his chest.

“ Are you okay?”, she asks quietly in the dark.

“ I’m okay. Are you okay?”, he says.

“ Not until we’re safe”, she sighs. He doesn’t respond but instead squeezes her hand reassuringly.

Jane nuzzled her face into his neck. “ I wish we were back on the ship…Or at some port where we could get ale and really greasy food. The simple things are what I miss the most. I don’t want to be here anymore”.

“ I know”, he says gently.

A beat of silence passes. Jane becomes distracted at the feel of his strong heart beat. A rhythm that she memorized a while ago. She remembers how weak it felt just a few hours ago.“ Why did you tell them to go on without you?”

“ I just wanted you safe. They can’t do that if they’re worried about rescuing me. I can take care of myself. I have for a very long time”, he sighs. She can hear the exhaustion settling in but she couldn’t help but protest. She didn’t want to argue.

“ Do you understand how close I was to joining you this morning in the lake ? I agreed to be a part of this crew because I fell in love with you. As much as I care for all our friends—the loss of you–I– I ”, she became flustered. He was unflinching.

“ If you follow me in death then I have failed you Jane.”

She inhales sharply. She doesn’t argue now. She let the words marinate and bounce around her head.

“ I would have hoped that if nothing else, I have shown you why life is a gift. Not something you waste behind anybody. Or any man for that matter”, he speaks softly and disarmingly. That tone. That tone he always takes with her in disagreements. Gentle, stern, vulnerable. He even presses his mouth to the top of her hair.

“ You knew what I would do…”, she said.

“ I did. That’s why I asked them to take your weapons just in case. Looking ahead you’re set up to live without me. You’ve got a home, a job waiting for you. You’ve even got an admirer in Adhar if you're willing. He would be more than happy to protect you in my absence. He already has as far as I’m concerned. You are so much more than just me Jane…”, rubs the side of her cheek with his finger lovingly. He can feel the wetness on her face and swipes it away.

Her tone turns wobbly. “ The way you’re speaking right now…as if this was a suicide mission.”

“ It wasn’t…but there is always a backup plan. Yet, fate has decided that we have more to do together. I found you…you found me. Clever how the tables turn. I should be thanking you.”

Jane said nothing. She just sniffles, trying to stop her nose from running. She cried enough today.

“ I’m sorry that I scared you. I’m sorry it even happened Jane. Allow me to make it up—-

“ I don’t want you to make it up. I don’t want anything else. I just need to feel you…I-I need to make sure you’re really here”, she sighs. She presses her face against his and he wraps his arms around her waist firmly.

The two of them fell asleep in an embrace. She woke up in the same position, face pressed into his neck and his arms still holding her. In fact, the next two days were spent mostly inside of the tent. Roman needed sleep and rest. The ambush with the undead called for a new strategy. The day time was reserved for sleeping and the night time would be reserved for traveling.

They packed up camp and rolled up their tents at sunset and restarted their journey. Roman’s accident was a hard reset on just how mind bending the island was. There was no more paranoia or anger. The only thing that mattered now was survival which outweighed the need for the treasure.

That same night of travel they evaluated Roman’s map. They had a full day of travel left which would be broken up in two nights. They would walk until dawn. Jane held onto Roman’s arm, happy with being the last two in the end of the line. She couldn't help but to keep glancing at him periodically to see if he was still himself. He was moving slower than usual and she knew that she was not completely healed from the event. On the fourth glance he caught her and smiled, placing his hand over her own.

“ Listen up you Ingrates”, he called out in a joking manner.

The group paused, giving him their full attention. He held up the map in his hand.

“ This map has an illustration on it suggesting that we are approaching the territory of hostile animals. All weapons should be loaded and ready for fire”, he warned

A slew of curses rolls throughout the group.

“ What Kind of animal ?”, Asks cortez.

“ I am not sure. It’s just an illustration of animal teeth with large canines. My bet is on some kind of large cat with how tropical the area is. It is imperative that all guns are loaded now. Be ready to run if need be. Jane you’re in the middle”, he speaks with an authoritative tone. Jane’s face drops in disappointment.

Jane rolls her eyes. “ You are playing the martyr again?”

“ Jane…. Please”, Roman sighs tiredly.

“ This is bullshit”, she scoffs.

“ Jane, you forget your necklace makes you a hot commodity. These creatures will likely go for you first. Why not make it harder for them?”, says Adhar.

She says nothing as she walks to the middle of the line. She tucks her necklace into her shirt and folds her arms. “ Alright, Let’s get this over with”.

The terrain turned into a dense, wet, thick jungle. Cortez had to cut through it with a machete. The landscape is slanted uphill and much more slippery. The sounds of birds chirping and squawking during the night was alarming, as this was usually an early morning to mid day occurrence. Large snakes slithered up trees in bright colors. Jane was not a fan of this as she was incredibly fearful of them. Spiders and scorpions darted out of the group's path. She frequently jumped from the feeling of plants touching her arms.

After 30 minutes of walking something cries out similar to the sound of a weeping man. The group stops, looking around in pure shock. Was someone stranded here? A Moorner perhaps? Another voice speaks Mandarin Chinese and a third speaks Portuguese. Women call out for help and screams yell out in agony. The panicked voices close in but they cannot be seen. Guns rise in the defense. The group forms a circle around Jane, looking for the threat.

“ HELPPPP MEEEE!!!”, A Woman screams.. The sound is so close it causes Jane to flinch and cover her head. She looks up and she can finally see it. Elongated canines the length of her hands, grey fur, stark yellow eyes, a muscular body measuring around 4 - 5 feet. It was a baboon dangling from a vine, but not just any baboon. This was the largest primate that shes ever seen. She didn’t know that baboons could even become so large. The animals stare at her, puffing thick clouds of foggy air into her face threateningly. A low rumble vibrated deep within its chest.

“ Jane…..do not…..move…. A muscle”, William says quietly.

“ We’re gonna take this niceeeee and slow…”, Roman walks up behind Jane, joining her in the circle. William is stationed behind the beast, pointing his gun for a headshot.

The creature begins to howl and hoot, getting progressively louder and louder directly in her face. Cortez, Rory, and Adhar covered the front, back, and side.

The primate opens it’s mouth. “ SHOOT THEM!!!”, a sound falls from the monkey's mouth like a puppet. It frightened her hearing what seemingly was the last words of someone who died by it’s hands.

The monkey drew closer “, NOOO!!”, it hissed. Jane flinched and the baboon dove for her. William opened fire into the back of its head. Roman pulled Jane backwards. Gunpowder flies as Jane dropped down and covered her head. Groups of Baboons screamed from the trees as sets of them set out to attack the group. Roman is back to back with jane as they shoot for the vital organs. With a swipe and tug of her left leg, Jane is knocked off her feet. She falls on her stomach dropping her weapon along the way.

“ AHHH!!”, Jane claws at the ground trying to gain leverage. Teeth poke the bottom of her ankle and she tenses waiting for the pain. Roman dives for the beast and begins to stomp it with the bottom of his shoe, before kicking it directly in the face. It stumbles back and Roman shoots it dead. Adhar screams in the distance as one of the creatures clamps onto his arm. William takes the back of his gun and slams it into the temple of the beast.

“ We have to make a run for it. We’re running out of ammunition!”, Cortez yelled over the noise. Jane grabs Adhar and rips a piece of his shirt off to wrap around his forearm.

“ Everybody run to higher ground!”,Roman bellowed over the sound of his gun.

The group took off uphill. The creatures were tailing them but the gunshots disrupted them enough to scare some of them off. Jane became worried for Adhar who was bleeding profusely and running made it worse. In the distance they saw the opening to what they assumed held the treasure. It was carved into the side of a rocky black mountain with an opening similar to a giant mouth. The entrance was lit up with torches of fire and that gave the crew an extra push for the last hundred meters. Cortez quickly grabbed two of the torches, throwing one to Roman and waving it towards the screaming primates. The fire was the only thing that pushed them back. After another five minutes of Cortez and Roman on defense, the monkeys finally fall back and return to the trees.

The cave was dark, damp, rocky, and unwelcoming. Droplets of water and the sound of shuffling feet reverberated all around them. Adhar was in pain and his hisses of discomfort popped and echoed against the walls.

“ Break”, Adhar called out. There was a much needed regroup after such a violent encounter. He slid down the wall and sat on his bum. Jane unwrapped his coverings and poured some of her water over the deep puncture wounds.

“ He will need stitches. It could begin to fester well before we reach the shore again ”, Jane stressed.

“ I know some herbs that will help”, Said Roman.

“ A poultice ?”, she confirms.

Roman nods. “ Ay”

“ I’ll be okay ”, Adhar reassured. Jane wasn’t convinced but the sooner they got to the treasure the better.

Everyone drank water and did a recount on their supplies. Cortez stayed behind with Adhar near the cave entrance. Roman, Jane, William, and Rory decided to keep going.

“ I hope this isn’t some trick or some dead end”, Jane sighed.

“ I don’t think so, look “, Rory pointed to the walls lit up by the fire. The walls of the cave were glittering with speckles of something. Jane stepped closer and her eyes widened. Gold ?

From the floor to the ceiling the deeper they walked, the more intense the specks of gold, silver, blue, greens, red, oranges and pinks became. Gemstones and Gold were etched in silver. A vibration on her chest made her clutch her key that was now glowing and warm.

They jogged down the entrance now, winded and anxious. Pretty soon the sounds of their feet touching the ground was interrupted by the crunch of them walking on rubies, diamonds, gold, silver. Minutes later they were knee deep in their riches. Every part of the cave was covered. Gold cups, necklaces, whole diamonds like the size of a clenched fist. And to think she imagined this reveal being more dramatic. Now the silence seemed louder than words. Pure shock. Pure disbelief. And then their shock came to a head. There it sat in all its glory. The treasure room that could put the British empire to shame. In the middle of the room sat a large chest. Jane’s key nearly floated off her neck.

“ This is it….I can’t believe it”, Jane scoffed. She glanced at Roman and he looked beside himself. She holds her hand out to him and he walks up beside her.

He chuckled. “ Well, it’s your key. Open it”, he urged.

Jane bit her lip in anticipation and stepped forward, positioning her key right over the keyhole.

“ Well this was not what I was expecting”, A deep, thunderous, incredibly raspy, feminine voice called out. Jane jumped back from the chest. The men stood with their weapons ready. Was this an ambush? A trap? What would it be this time?

“ And here I thought our introduction would be warmer. After all,you’re standing in my horde. Where are your manners? ”, The voice chuckled.

“ What is this place?!’, said Jane.

“ Your final test of course Don’t tell me you thought I would make it easy for you all? No, no. I had to truly be sure.”

“ This place. This island “, Jane emphasized.

“ This place is where all men go to die. The unworthy ones at least –which happens to be all”.

Fear grew and prickled along Jane’s skin. “ Will you let us have this treasure ?”

“ Not before your final test….”, the beast hissed.

Jane looked around cautiously. “ Okay…..”

“ Open the chest …”, the beast taunted.

Jane bent down slowly to her knees and grabbed her key. Carefully, she pushed the key into the lock and twisted it until she heard a click. Placing her hands on either side of the trunk, she lifted the lid to reveal a large crystal. It was red with an iridescent glow of several other colors that fragmented and twinkled under the light of the torches. It was shiny, glowing, and one of the most beautiful stones she’d ever seen. She cupped her hands and held it In her palms. With a closer view she could see a fleshy material on the inside that was beating like a heart.

“ And now your final test. The treasure from my horde and two wishes or…”, The beast trailed off . A pregnant pause fills the room.

Blackness fills her vision and suddenly she’s in front of two palm trees and sand is pooling between each of her toes. She looks out on the horizon and a woman in a long skirt, cotton shirt, and no shoes runs behind a toddler. Her hair is covered by a scarf that almost sits like a crown around the perimeter of her head. In the distance the child runs to a tall and lanky man who’s dipping his toes in the water. He’s wearing long cotton shorts that he rolled up to his calf and no shirt. His hair is cut short to his head. He picks up the toddler running to him and throws her in the air before catching her again. The woman joins them both and they kiss the toddler on either side of her face before heading towards Jane. They walk past her to the tiny houses that littered the shore. This woman was Jane’s mother and beside her was her Father.

“ M-Mom”, she calls out. The woman looks back curiously but her eyes never meet her daughters.

“ Mom”, she calls out in disbelief. The woman turns around and continues walking with her small family.

Jane follows them inside of their home. To her left sits an older man in his late 40’s smoking a pipe and drinking tea. He’s holding the toddler now, who’s tugging on his chin hair. He smiles fondly at the little girl with a heart aching reverence and adoration. The woman–her mother, begins to cook and her husband sits next to the older man. Jane’s grandfather who taught her how to read.

Then suddenly all four of them disappear and Jane’s mother reappears, gracefully older with her hair longer. Tiny streaks of gray peak through her hairline. It’s coily and long like her own and she can see herself in her mother more than ever before.

“ Mother, I’m heading out now”, A young teenage Jane walks out of her room and kisses her mother on her cheek.

“ Okay, enjoy yourself. Be back here by sunset. Tell your friend he’s welcome to join for dinner”, Her mother calls out. Young Jane looks like every possibility, every hope, every daydream, every unbroken thing. She is better…she’s happier. The young Jane joins a young man out on the porch and they walk to the market to meet friends.

“ Jane Ramlal. I offer you a life apart from the one you’ve come to know. A life without the pain, the loss, the fear, the suffering. I offer you parents and grandparents who never succumb to disease. A family intact. A young love that comes easy. I offer you friends who you grow old with. I offer you an ancestral home that is strong and standing. I offer you comfortability. Not a rich comfortability but just enough to be satisfied. I offer you a life outside of England.”

“ And if I accept?”, she asks carefully.

“ Roman is still a pirate on the Black pearl. You never meet. You never make it to this place. All for the small price of the life you were supposed to live. No harm comes to your friends but it is a life apart”, the dragon speaks in a conniving tone.

She goes back to the house and sees her mother sitting on the porch with her father and grandfather. They talk freely, cursing to the wind without a care. They all look so beautiful. She would be crazy not to accept this offer. She reaches her hand out to her mothers cheek and for a moment she can almost feel the heat of it. Her grandfather blows Tobacco in the air. Now she remembers why she liked the smell of Roman’s smoke. It reminded her of him.

With a long sigh she pulls away “ I…decline”, says Jane.

There is a long pause and for a moment she believes she’s trapped in this reality. Invisible.

“ May I ask…why”, the beats asked in a curious tone.

“ I wouldn't change who I am. I’m proud..of who I am. Without the pain of my life…I could not savor the sweetness that I know now. And I can’t…leave him. No matter how much I want this. I want him…more”, she whispers.

And with those words the facade falls away into Gold. Tears rim her eyes and she looks for Roman in a panic. Almost as if those minutes away from him would cause him to disappear forever. She sighs in relief when their eyes meet.

“ Clever girl. There are many men who would fall victim to their deepest desire. You’ve surprised me and that is difficult to do. I am in a good mood. For this I grant you four wishes and as much gold you all can carry”, The dragon chuckles. The stone turns to coins in her hands.

The room rumbles in laughter and cheer as bodies swarm Jane. Rory lifts onto his shoulders. Cortez and Adhar race further into the cave with shocked faces. They cheer for her. Roman is beside himself. This was it. It was over….it was finally over. They were rich. But most importantly they were alive. They could go home..or find home..

“ Rory put me down”, Jane laughed. He set her down on her feet and placed a fat wet kiss on the back of her hand.

Roman rolls his eyes “Watch it”, he hissed. Rory blows him a kiss and dives into coins like a warm summer lake. Roman pulls Jane into his chest and she wraps her arms around him. His mouth meets hers and she sighs from his touch.

“ What did you see?”, he whispers.

“ I’ll tell you later”, she says with another peck against his lips. He kisses her forehead, cradling her head against his hand.

“ Dragon… errr–miss”, Jane called out.

“ Yes”, the creature sighed with annoyance.

“ Can I cash in my wishes at any time ?”

“ If you must”, the creature said flippantly. Jane smiled at that.

“ My first wish. I wish for an elixir that cures any illness or affliction that refills itself every time it’s empty”, said Jane.

“ At once”, says the dragon. A bottle appears in her hand filled with a brown liquid and a dropper.

“ Adhar”, she calls over to him. He obliged her.

“ You- you didn’t have to waste your wish on me. Really. I would have been fine”, he stutters. There’s a flustered urgency in his tone.

“ We have to look out for each other. No matter what. It would be a shame if you got sick and died before you could go and spend your money “, she smirked. Jane places a few drops of the liquid onto his wound before wrapping it again. “ Better ?”

“ Ay…though it’s a bit itchy”, he says.

“ Means it’s healing”, Said Roman.

“ For my second wish, I wish for a device that will repel any evil creature or entity, land or sea, away from myself and the Entire crew in this cave which includes every member of the ship on the beach to ensure our safe travels”, she commands.

“ ……….Done”, says the Dragon. A talisman appears in her palm, a gray stone that’s tumbled smooth. It has some sort of protective marking on it. She closed it around her fist and put it into her pocket.

“ Why don’t we all collect what we can. We can talk about the last two wishes with the group?”, she says to the men. They all agree and begin dumping handfuls of the treasure into the chest that held the dragon stone.

Not only did they fill the chest, they filled other containers. Flasks. Buckets, their own chests, whatever they could find. By the time they left the cave the sun was shining over the trees.

They were expecting a long journey back to the beach but once they passed the treeline, they stepped out onto the sand. Dazed and confused, Jane looks back to see that they’d only traveled a couple hundred feet in the last 4 days.

“ I won’t even question it. Not the worst shit we’ve been through these past few days”, said Adhar. Everyone agreed.

A celebration that commenced the minute the rest of the pirates took notice of the six of them. That night a bonfire was made as Rory retold the dramatic and mind bending story of their journey. Jane sat in Roman’s lap laughing along with Rory’s impression of the Baboon that tackled him. Tonight there was a comfortable breeze. The perfect weather to sleep under the stars. Jane feels eyes on her and she lets them simmer onto her skin.

Roman leaned forward and kissed the side of her neck to get her attention . “ Are you going to tell me what you saw now ?”, he asks quietly. With everyone so distracted there was no better time.

Jane sighed and pressed her forehead to his. “ I was given the choice to go back to Trinidad and essentially live a fairytale. No one ever dies, I never go to London. Everyone would be happy. The catch was that we would never meet. You’d be a pirate and I’d be..far far away.”

“ Why didn’t you choose it?”, he asks curiously. He knew the answer but Roman felt that there could be more to her reasoning. It was hard to believe it was just himself.

She shrugs. “ Besides not wanting to leave you. Who says my life isn’t a fairytale ? And if it’s not already..why can’t it become one..one day?”, she asks him.

“ If I was a better man I would say that you should have chosen the story that would leave you unscathed. The story where life would have been easier.”

“ I am only looking forward now. There’s no need to look back anymore.”

A group vote determined what the third wish would be. The crew was most agreeable considering that everyone had their own treasure. Therefore, the third wish would be a large comfortable ship that was fully stocked with enough food and water to last them the entire journey back to the West.

The next day they set sail black to Europe. The crew celebrated that night and everyone was in good spirits with the promise of a good future ahead of them all. Pete the parrot was even in his cage as he had been before. Many talked about reuniting with loved ones, settling down, investing, marrying. Adhar had plans to go back to India at the end of the year and win back his lost love and give back to his community. Rory was a pirate through and through and wanted to continue sailing and seeing the world. Cortez wanted to visit his family but his heart belonged to the sea. William planned on figuring out the next steps with his wife and investing in her regardless of her decision to stay or go. Caden wanted to be a pirate and someday ..a Captain.

Jane and Roman sat on the wind deck away from the festivities. They talked for hours about all the exciting things that some of the other members wanted to do with their new freedom.

“ Everybody has this elaborate plan on what they’ll do and who they’ll become now. What will you do next ?”, she asked curiously.

Roman smirks. “ I of course would love to keep traveling and seeing the world. There’s much to be seen, wouldn’t you agree ?”, he asks.

Jane shrugged, “ Much indeed. Will you be keeping the ship?”

“ I’m not sure. I think…I may be ready for a break.”

“ A- A break?”, she stuttered.

“ Yes…this journey allowed room for introspection. Being a pirate is not always pretty. In fact, I only just recently allowed in the beautiful parts of life since I’ve met you.”

“ What are you saying Roman”, Jane grinned.

Roman chuckled. “ I think that you and I deserve a vacation. We also deserve to take that vacation for however long we so choose. Or it can be permanent. I am unmoved with either option.”

“ You wish to be on land for a while ?”, Jane’s brows raise in suspicion.

“ I do…the land of Paris to be exact. There is someone that I would like you to meet.”

“ Who ?”, she asked.

“ Someone a lot like me. I think Paris will be good for the senses.”

“ The senses you say? What aren’t you saying”, Jane squinted.

“ Just trust me”, Roman took another playful swig of ale.

“ Okay…well if you think this will be good. And if you think it is safe then I have no reason to protest. My only worry is my warrant.”

“ I will get that squared away with the courts as soon as we enter Europe.”

“ Fine… there is one other thing however”, Jane perked up. Roman looked back at her with his full attention.

“ What will I do with the last wish? I should let the crew decide, right?”

Roman pulled her back into his chest and rested his head on top of hers, engulfing her in his embrace. He bends down and presses his mouth just above her ear.

“ You spend that wish on whatever your heart desires. It is yours alone..”

End of chapter.

————

Authors note :

What do you think Jane’s final wish should be ?

[serpentsillusion]

⚜Jessica Garyn Burke⚜

Slytherin baddie breaking social standards since 1890

House: Slytherin

Birthday: October 16th 1875 (age 15)

Blood status: Half-Blood

Wand: Hawthorn wood, Dragon core, 12 ¾" and slightly yielding flexibility

Special abilities: Ancient Magic, Hand to hand combat, musically inclined, excellent cook.

Pets: Mackerel Tabby Cat with white paws (Oliver)

Favorite subject: DATDA, Potions, Beast class.

Amortentia: Sandalwood, Lemon Zest, Rosemary and Dragons Blood.

Enjoys: Slayin' Gobs, Punching Rookwood, hanging out with Sebastian and Ominis, practicing hand to hand combat with her father when she's home, dancing like a moron for her friends, making people laugh, teaching Sebastian secrets about cooking, throwing parties at her house with the crew, Making music with Ominis.

Dislikes: Imelda Reyes (doesn't like bullies) Sometimes Leander, unsolicited advances, Ranrok, getting rocks stuck in her boots, giant spiders.

Traits: Incredibly intelligent; but insanely goofy. Very outspoken, blunt, cheeky and opinionated. Hot-headed but sensitive around Sebastian. Actually is very friendly and kind hearted. Is really good with foreign languages, History and Science. She loves animals and healing.

Appearance: 5'2" and sassy. She has fair skin with a small amount of freckles speckled about her face. Chestnut/Ash brown hair, usually in a messy/twisted bun. Bright ocean blue eyes. Naturally wavy hair when she has it down. When she's not wearing her proper Hogwarts uniform, she likes to dress down and comfy, usually in edgy and alternative outfits.

Favorite colors: Green, Blue, Purple

Patronus: Husky

Family: Father (David Burke *brother of Caractacus Burke*) is a Pure blood Gryffindor but definitely also probably should have been sorted into Slytherin because his daughter is JUST like him. Her mother (Ramona) is muggle born. She has two slibings; An older estranged brother (Roderick) that served in Azkaban but was released later on, an Older sister (Seraphina) who works directly under the Minister of Magic at the Ministry. Jessica and her family are American but Moved to London after her Father was transferred because he worked in the Wizarding Military Force under the Ministry. She grew up in Georgia and has a slight southern accent. They were in London long enough for both of her older siblings to attend Hogwarts and also be sorted into Slytherin but Jess didn't have magic yet. Her brother is 9 years older than she is and her sister is 7 years older than her. They eventually were transferred BACK to the USA where Jessica continued to grow up and attend Ilvermorny for only a couple of months before they were ultimately transferred BACK AGAIN to London where she started 5th year at Hogwarts, which was her very first year of having magic (she's a late bloomer) *Hints* opening game where she doesn't have a wand of her own, and is incredibly surprised by the amount of magic she sees at Hogwarts where she obviously meets Sebastian and Ominis who become her (truely real) best friends.

Usually found: in the undercroft learning how to play gobstones with the 2 Slytherin boys, sneaking into the kitchens after hours cuz she internal chonk, sneaking into the restricted section with Sebastian, in the front garden at the summoners court or in the clock tower participating in crossed wands. Sometimes in Feldcroft with Ominis taking care of Sebastian after his uncle dies suddenly and mysteriously 👀 (Sebastian technically owns the property after that)

Future career: Ancient Artifact Collector, (claims ownership of Borgin and Burkes later on) and Healer of sorts.

Spouses: Sebastian Sallow (Married at 18 years, almost immediately after graduating Hogwarts)

Children: Samuel Johnathan Sallow and Abigail MaryAnne Sallow (Twins) *of course* 😉

Inspiration for post by: @quinnsallow 💝✨

Photo creds: Lensa AI, NightCafe, Google images, image creator.

[setokaibasblimp]

seto kaiba nsfw hcs for anon!

as i said before, i don't think about this often because during canon he's too young and i'm not always in post canon mode, but i got an ask about it so i made an effort! also just as a heads up i'll be going with my trans hc for this, because... it's my blog :)

warning for nsfw under the cut!

• he's a power bottom, i know it. i can feel it. will ride dick like he'd ride a horse, and i mean that regardless of who he's sleeping with and what they have between their legs, through the power of the strap on all things are possible

• has a dragon dildo for every dragon in his deck except for the bewd. he knows there must be a blue eyes white dildo somewhere in the world, but he simply respects the bewd too much for that. the other dragons are fair game though

• alternatively, he tops using a futuristic techno dick he created himself, the ultimate bottom surgery. he's the guy that made a simulation that allows you to feel stuff like in the real world, a fully functional dick hologram would be easy

• is into the weirdest shit, bonus points if he genuinely can't understand normal sex and/or finds it repulsive. the type that would respectfully ask if his partner would consent to pissing themself or getting fucked in their sleep, but draws the line at idk, giving handjobs

• this is partially why i can see him having a string of relationships that didn't work out, it's simply hard to find someone he'd be sexually compatible with. other reasons include him being the most avoidant socially inept guy in the planet, and most of the people that show interest in him doing so as either part of a ploy to steal kaibacorp or a creepy plan to detransition him. keeping the celebrity gossip at bay would be a nightmare

• oscilates between being The mean dom, and being surprisingly sweet and caring, depending on how bad of a day he had. he already has to spend a lot of time asserting himself in his day to day life, i imagine he wouldn't allways have the energy to do the same in the bedroom

• pet play enthusiast looking for a dog sub. ironically enough, the loser dog thing with jounouchi wasn't sexual for him at the time, he was just coping with trauma by being an asshole. literal years later he connects the dots and goes

at the realization that he may have sounded like a perv, and that he can't even defend himself because he is, in fact, a perv

[zerounitrgb]

Now that Dennis is in Duel Links, I can finally reveal my collection of Yugioh cards which is every ace card that has an animation (or deserves one imo) for each character in the game currently.

The only cards not included are Embodiment of Apophis, Blue Eyes Alternative Dragon, Number C39: Utopia Ray, and Ultimate Leo Utopia Ray.

[chronicangel]

Through Temper and Tranquility

Link to this fic on AO3. Words: 2430 Date posted: April 21, 2019

Summary: Neither of them has ever been the sort for a fancy sort of date. Date nights for the two of them are dropping Bec off at John's so they have the apartment to themselves and ordering pizza, then sitting on the couch and taking turns choosing stuff to watch on Netflix (which often leads to their weeks alternating between BoJack Horseman and Blue Planet and leaves Netflix wildly confused about what to recommend them) until nine o'clock.

When Dave proposes to her, it's like something out of a movie or a cheesy book. Something she'd watch on the couch with Karkat when he was out grocery shopping because she knows he hates this exact sort of overdramatic, cheesy nonsense.

She feels like an idiot for not seeing it coming. Neither of them has ever been the sort for a fancy sort of date. Date nights for the two of them are dropping Bec off at John's so they have the apartment to themselves and ordering pizza, then sitting on the couch and taking turns choosing stuff to watch on Netflix (which often leads to their weeks alternating between BoJack Horseman and Blue Planet and leaves Netflix wildly confused about what to recommend them) until nine o'clock.

So when it's date night and Dave surprises her on the way back to the apartment from dropping Bec off by telling her that they should go to that new sushi place that just opened up downtown (not that she's complaining, Jade is literally always up for sushi), she is more than a little startled. It's a nice place, so they ultimately still have to go back to the apartment and they end up making out dawdling for twenty minutes before they change into their nice clothes. She's almost able to talk him into just staying at the apartment and ordering pizza like usual before he urges that she loves sushi and they are so rarely able to go out and do something nice, which is only technically true. They totally could go out more often if they wanted to, they just rarely do. (This probably should have been her first clue, but Jade is notoriously clueless.)

It is Dave's turn to pick the music in the car (they take turns in most things just to keep things civil and it has worked well for them so far) and so they are on their way to a particularly fancy date night at an only pretty fancy restaurant being serenaded by the sounds of Childish Gambino's "Because the Internet" album. Jade, unlike basically all of their other friends (at least, those who are not related to Dave, and even that category is not to be entirely excluded because Rose certainly cannot be), does not hate rap. They are in the middle of "Death By Numbers" when he starts searching for parking and they're at the beginning of "urn" by the time he finds it.

In contrast, the restaurant is playing piano music when they walk in and there's actually a woman standing with a microphone by the wall. It's not quite a stage, which makes her think that this is probably an independent artist who approached the restaurant about performing there to gain awareness for their music. It's always nice to see places supporting local artists, Jade thinks, looking at her boyfriend with a soft smile. She is singing a soft song by the time they are seated (which surprisingly doesn't take very long, although that might have to do with the fact that it is eight on a Thursday evening).

"Ooh, they've got Texas rolls here," he says, and she can see the vaguest outline of his eyes widening behind his sunglasses. The light in the room is dim, but of course, her eyes are not particularly photosensitive.

"Do you wanna get that and... hmm, maybe a Las Vegas roll, a Fire Dragon roll, and a Mango Tango roll?" She looks up from the menu to his face and catches him staring at her, everything she can see of his face gone completely soft. She doesn't know how long he's been just looking at her like that, but she feels her cheeks heating up in embarrassment anyway.

His smile widens just slightly when he notices that she's blushing and he looks back down at his own menu to double-check what each of the ones she's just suggested are. "Yeah, those all sound good to me. Little bit of spicy, little bit of sweet, and a little bit of savory. Plus enough that you'll be full and I'll get extra." She sticks her tongue out at him and closes her menu with a snap.

When the waiter comes to their table to ask for their drinks, they say that actually, they're ready to order their food too, and the guy seems pleasantly surprised. She just gets water (with lemon) and orders a Coke for him, and then tells him the rolls that they want and tries not to let her face heat up as she feels Dave staring at her again. When the waiter leaves, she shoots him a look and reaches over to hold his hand on the table. He happily tangles their fingers. "You're being awfully sappy for a guy who hates romcoms today, Strider," she teases.

"Uh, yeah, except this isn't a romcom, this is my real life, Harley," he teases right back, and she rolls her eyes.

Their food takes an inordinately long amount of time to reach the table, but she's happy to just watch Dave's face even as he seems to be growing more and more antsy. She goes through two entire glasses of water before their food finally gets to the table, and she feels a self-satisfied smile grow on her face because it would have taken less time to just order the pizza. She chooses not to say anything about it.

"Your birthday is coming up," he says casually, and she pauses for a moment, glancing down at her fingers where they are twined with his and the colorful reminder rings that she's been using to remember things like that since she was five. Sure enough, there's a bright green little ring in the middle of her first and second knuckle on her pointer finger. It means her birthday is sometime in the next few days. "It's tomorrow, actually," he adds.

"So it is," she responds, cheery. "Which means yours is in three days. So what do you want to do for it?" Dave is much better at remembering his own birthday than she is, but he's also basically the worst at coming up with plans for it. John and Rose usually have to drag the two of them out for it (well, really, it's the three of them dragging Dave out for it, as Jade always forms the planning committee, but he's very persuasive when it comes to getting her to stay in the apartment with him).

He shrugs with one shoulder and shoots her a lop-sided smile before saying, "I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure you and John and Rose'll all come up with something fun to do like usual. Or maybe this'll finally be the year I convince you to let me stay in. I think I'll have a pretty good argument this time." She raises a brow at him curiously, squeezing more lemon juice into her water and then taking a sip. "It's a surprise. You'll see."

"You hate surprises," she points out.

"I do, but you love them."

Guilty. They go quiet for a few minutes as they eat sushi. He makes a big show out of dramatically gulping down his Coca-Cola to drown out the heat of the Fire Dragon roll, she almost snorts Tango Mango laughing at his antics, and by the time they've both chewed and swallowed they're back to just staring contentedly at each other. She hadn't noticed how long it had been since the last time she just looked at his face-- really looked at it.

Eventually he says, "I'm serious. You never do anything fun for your birthday because you're so busy planning mine. We should do something this year." He punctuates the sentence by tossing the last piece of Texas roll in his mouth.

"I'm beginning to suspect that this is the celebration for my birthday," she shoots back, biting a piece of Fire Dragon in half because her mouth is too small for a whole one. He raises a brow high enough that she can see it over the frame of his aviators (a pair of aviators she got him for their anniversary last year because the ones John got him for his thirteenth birthday finally fell apart in an irreparable way after Bec got ahold of them). When she swallows, she adds, "I don't care what we do. I just wanna spend my birthday with you."

His face softens once more and he squeezes her hand on the table. The rest of dinner goes rather similarly, with their stupid inside jokes and light flirting and exchanging stories from the week that the other missed and they'd forgotten about until that moment (Jade occupies this part of the conversation much more than he does as the more forgetful one of the pair, but Dave does talk about how John is considering adopting a dog and she wonders why he didn't talk to her about it).

They're out of the restaurant at almost 9:45, which is only fifteen minutes before the place closes, and she finds herself apologizing to the waiter at least four times before Dave manages to usher her out to the car. The radio starts up right at "urn" where they left it off when he starts the car, and she turns it down to talk to him. "We should probably go pick up Bec soon. You know how annoying John gets about watching him late."

"We already talked about it. He's chill. Don't worry about it." (This should be her second clue, but again, Jade is notoriously bad at noticing what's going on around her.) "Hey, do you wanna catch a movie? It's a little late, but the last couple showings should be good. We can even watch a stupid romcom or something if you want." They do not end up watching a stupid romcom. Instead, Jade picks a horror movie largely so she has an excuse to cuddle up to Dave in the back row (not that she really needs an excuse since she'll do it almost every time anyway). Neither of them is easily scared, so when they're walking out to the car an hour and fifty minutes later they just talk about the bad ending.

"But at least they didn't make me watch that toddler die," she says after pouting for a full ten minutes about the differences from the book while Dave just huffs about the cat dying (and she has to bite her tongue to keep from telling him that actually, the cat dies in every version, although it is different in the book in that the cat isn't evil in the original novel so much as just... dumb). Once they're in the car, she gets so lost in wondering if they have a copy of the book in their apartment currently so she can reread it that she doesn't even notice that they're going in the exact opposite direction from their apartment until he's parking on the street and she doesn't see their building.

She doesn't ask him about it aloud. She'll never complain about time spent with him. Plus, it's almost midnight and she's just a little bit too sleepy to interrogate him right now.

To be precise, it's 11:58. She notices this when her phone starts ringing and she has to fish it out of her purse. (She almost didn't bring the thing but Dave insisted that she should in case someone tried to call her and she supposes that was a good call.) She only glances at the caller ID before she answers. "Karkat? Are you okay? It's almost midnight, you don't usually call this late."

"Yeah, I know, but usually it's not your birthday," he says. She rolls her eyes at him. "Plus, it's not like I'm up late or anything. It's only 9:00 over here." Right, she thinks. He's in San Fransisco to visit his family. In the whirlwind of this date night she had forgotten.

"Then technically for you it's not my birthday. Plus, it's not my birthday over here for another..." She pulls the phone away from her ear to glance at the time and sees 23:59 (and she'll take her phone off of military time when she dies, thanks). "I dunno, like twenty seconds probably." She thinks she can actually hear Karkat nodding.

When there's only what must be about eight seconds left, he says, "Hey, uh, Harley. Weird favor to ask. Can you turn around?"

She raises a brow but does as she's asked and she feels her heart stutter in her chest.

"Happy birthday, Jade," Dave says from where he is on the ground on one knee, holding out a box with a ring in it that she can't properly make out because tears are already springing to her eyes just at the sight of him on the ground like that. "I don't know if you remember, but this is the park we went to on our first date as proper girlfriend and boyfriend. I was too excited and showed up like an hour early and you needed to take Bec on a walk so we just went out and grabbed coffee and came here. And about... ten feet away, there's the bench we sat on while Bec rolled around in the grass. Anyway, I was hoping... you'd let this be where our last date as boyfriend and girlfriend was?"

She's freezing (if she'd known they were going to be out walking through a park at midnight she wouldn't have worn a strapless dress) and when she sucks in a shaky breath and then exhales it in a joyful sob she can see it in the air from how chilly it is (which, duh, it's officially December 1st and really it's amazing there's not snow on the ground). "How long have you planned this?" She sobs, bringing her hand that isn't holding the phone (and oh, God, Karkat is still on the phone) to wipe at her tears. He just grins at her, face practically glowing in the moonlight (and yeah, that's sort of always happened with light and his skin which is probably thanks to the complete lack of pigment). "You're such an idiot!" She cries, holding out her arms, and he stands and throws his arms around her.

TG: yo TG: egbert TG: guess whos marrying your sister EB: is it me? TG: i sure as fuck hope not EB: wait. EB: OH MY GOD DUDE I DIDN'T READ THE WHOLE MESSAGE. EB: CONGRATULATIONS.

[june-way]

Silver The Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic hedgehog hailing from two hundred years into the future where his role is to protect his time by changing the catastrophes of the past, thus preventing the ruining of his era. For his mission, Silver makes use of his psychokinesis, an ability from his time that is considered the norm which allows him to move objects with the power of his mind.

Silver is a kindhearted and well-meaning individual, driven by a strong sense of justice to right the wrongs of the past to uphold peace, though he is somewhat naive and immature. Despite the monumental tasks he may have on hand, he is an optimist and will do whatever is required to protect the world.

Silver's creation was inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) early development stages, where the development team was making huge levels with multiple paths through them. With a new physics engine giving a lot of depth to the game experience, they decided they wanted to include a new character with unique abilities for an alternate way to play through the levels. This lead to Silver being given his psychokinetic powers. Early drafts describe Silver as having "special powers" of unknown origin drawn from the Chaos Emeralds, but this was rejected in the final game. Shiro Maekawa based Silver's character on Future Trunks from the Dragon Ball series.

According to the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection interview with Sega developer Shun Nakamura, Silver's abilities were originally designed for a different action game with the character not meant to make an appearance. During the development of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) in 2005, another action game Sonic Team developed, yet later canceled, named Fifth Phantom Saga featured core gameplay mechanics that focuses on the use of abilities similar to Silver's. Wanting to incorporate features emphasizing Silver's abilities, the team sought to give the character new attributes that no other Sonic characters had. The design team developed over fifty different concepts for the character before reaching his final look, where early sketches included a hedgehog-like animal wearing a futuristic headset and markings on its hair. When the team first started and had no idea what direction to follow, someone came up with the idea of a character with Sonic's scarf-like hair, but in more volume. From this idea, the team pursued the idea for a mink named "Venice" named after Venice in Italy, the place Soleanna is based on. However, the developers ultimately decided against this, fearing a mink would not blend in with the rest of the characters. After much discussion, the team finalized Silver as a hedgehog.

The next thing to do was choosing the color of the character. Orange was originally used for his fur for exploration, but they soon moved away from that in favor of a white-gray fur. While developing the character models and textures, they focused on using the hardware to develop the textures rather than just using simple white-gray, which led to Silver's color and name.

Silver is a very light gray (almost white) anthropomorphic hedgehog with white fur on his chest surrounding his neck with gold eyes and tan skin. He has two large spines at the back of his head, while at the front of his forehead there are five distinct spines flared up and back, the two final ones covering up most of his ears.

For attire, he wears white gloves with cyan circles with lines sticking out of the bottom leading to his golden bracelets accented in cyan. The tops of his boots are of a similar fashion with a red gem set in gold. The rest of his boots are navy blue, white and cyan.

Silver is best described as having "a strong sense of justice" and it is this personality trait that motivates him to head back into the past to correct the future. He believes in standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves. This led him to accept Blaze when everybody else was teasing her for her pyrokinetic abilities. When he pursues an enemy, he does so with a relentless determination. He makes alliances and rivalries very easily and takes people's word without question; this makes him easily tricked by others. According to his character profile in Sonic Generations, he is an optimist (though as stated by himself in Sonic Forces, while an optimist, he is also a realist).

Although seemingly serious on the outside, an interview states that Silver is young and somewhat immature. Blaze comments on this several times and describes him as naïve and insecure when he is alone. Owing to his naivety, Silver also has no idea of how to engage in more informal conversations with others; when Sonic tried trash talking with Silver during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, the latter took many of Sonic's statements so literally that Sonic noted that he took all the fun out of such banter. Silver is also a regular sweetheart, always ready to protect those in need and lend a helping hand. He generally keeps a positive attitude and never gives up hope, no matter how objectively hopeless the situation.

Silver wears his heart on his sleeve. He feels anger and joy intensely and loudly, but his sadness is silent and hardly, if ever, marked by tears. He lets his rage control him and cheerfully remarks on the things that make him happy, but hardly says a word in his sadness, though it is visible to everyone. However, though he may feel sad, he never gives in to despair, always looking for a solution the right way. His determination and little regard for pain can make him a very frightening opponent.

Silver is very courageous and brave, willing to fearlessly sacrifice himself for another in a heartbeat. Utterly unflinching in the face of danger, he is courageous almost to the point of foolishness and is the focus on snuffing out evil with little regard for his own safety.

Despite Silver's naivete and general lack of critical thinking, he is not outright slow-witted. Even Eggman Nega called him perceptive, and Silver was the first to see through his otherwise perfect disguise. With little information to draw upon, he lets his intuition guide him, but as a relatively isolated person, he has little understanding of interpersonal relations or the subtle tools of manipulators.

He apparently has a competitive streak and gets a little snotty and a prickly attitude in the heat of the moment, as seen in Sonic Rivals 2; when you play as him and pass your rival, he'll say, "I'm better." or if you win a race or battle, he says, "Who's the best?" In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, when you win a race he says, "I am not to be trifled with!" and in Sonic Free Riders he sneers "'LATER!'" upon cruising past a fellow competitor. In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), he generally refers to the Iblis monsters and Eggman's robots as "trash," and typically congratulates himself with a smug tone upon dispatching a roomful of them.

When meeting anyone that gets in his way, particularly in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver can be very short-tempered and bossy towards anyone that's not explicitly helping him in his mission, sometimes even becoming directly hostile and start a fight on a bad choice of words.

When Silver is not focused on his current mission or does not have a task at hand, however, he is very friendly, helpful, and a good companion to have around.

Silver's main power is his psychokinesis, the ability to manipulate the environment around him with the power of his mind. Silver is a definite master of this skill, being able to telekinetically grab and move up to several objects many times his own size and weight as both a single- or collective mass, his most impressive feat being his Meteor Smash attack where he forms a compressed ball of objects over twenty times his own size and could potentially weigh a net total of several tons. However, it is unknown how much he can grab at once. Silver can also use his psychokinesis on himself to enable him to not only hover but also fly at speeds rivaling Sonic's. Also, his psychokinesis doubles as a force field, as seen in Sonic Forces when he used this ability to fight a powerful being like Infinite to a brief standstill. Granted, Silver did get overpowered by Infinite, but he still hit him with enough force to make him drop a Phantom Ruby prototype.

Silver's psychokinesis is a powerful force of its own. With it, he can exert enough pressure to bend half a meter thick steel bars, crush robots with a single grab, and immobilize others' movements completely. When repelling objects with his psychokinesis, Silver can throw them with enough force and speed to crush metal, fly tremendous distances, and even stun enormous monsters such as Iblis. Additionally, Silver can also use his psychokinesis to grab onto certain non-solid objects, such as fireballs and certain types of energy blasts.

Silver can also use his psychokinesis to project pure psychic energies that he can manipulate into energy-based attacks, such as sharp blades, pulses to strike his targets at all ranges, and an even burst of energy that can paralyze his targets.

Besides the offense, Silver can apply his psychokinesis for his other abilities. He can use it for the ability of ESP, giving him extra-sensory perception that allows him limited telepathy, but so far only enough to induce limited vertigo in others. He can also use it to teleport himself over short distances instantaneously by warping space.

While not shown during his introduction, Silver is capable of moving at super speeds which are an innate talent that members of the hedgehog species possess. As seen in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver is capable running at speeds comparable to Sonic and Shadow's, without wearing down. Also, as another example, he is also seen on the loops within Crisis City from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), able to maintain his running speed without falling, like Shadow was seen if done in a similar manner when finishing the first stage of Crisis City.

Silver has incredible physical durability and endurance as seen in the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, where he withstood several hits from Sonic's Homing Attack, slid along the ground for long distances without harm, and even managed to survive being buried under what could be worth several tons of debris.

Silver has proven himself to be very acrobatic and agile, being able to jump and move gracefully through midair, both with and without the aid of his psychokinesis, and can grind on rails at high speed to match up to various character's, such as Sonic and Shadow while wearing combat boots, of an exception to stay in a single pose, which his skills are nigh-incomplete, as a testament to his balance and agility. He also has lightning-fast reflexes and senses, being able to mimic and cope with approximately even Sonic and Shadow's movements. Additionally, he can do amazing feats as well, such as picking up objects while moving through midair at high velocity, catch bullets with his psychokinesis, or causing any monster he comes into, to be suspended, in anyway combining his impressive accuracy with his psychokinesis, he is able to throw enemies and heavy objects at the same speed as the projectiles, without his arms getting tired. Silver also possesses above average physical strength, capable of pushing things several times bigger and heavier than himself.

Silver has demonstrated the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to empower himself or even perform Chaos Powers. So far, the only Chaos Power he has been able to perform is Chaos Control, which lets him warp time and space, sealing anybody along with him into another dimension that he can choose. However, this was mentioned by Blaze the Cat, at the end of Silver's Story from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and he can empower himself by enhancing his own abilities, or to an additional extent, give him unlimited Psychic Energies for his psychic attacks.

Silver is one of the most powerful and profound fighters in the series, as he can fight on par with the most battle-experiences individuals in the series. He has been hinted to hold about the same power as Shadow the Hedgehog, and in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) he was able to fight Shadow to a stalemate and almost brought Sonic to the brink of death, though Sonic was being careless during their fight in the latter case.

In combat, Silver relies heavily on his psychokinesis and using the environment to his advantage. Unlike most other characters who utilize close combat, Silver focuses on long-range attacks. When fighting, Silver constantly keeps his distance from the enemy, as he needs a moment to concentrate for an attack, which will leave him vulnerable. If an opponent does get too close, however, he can grab them with his psychokinesis and throw them away.

Silver's main method of attack is picking up objects around him with his psychokinesis and hurtle them at his opponents. Occasionally, he can also rearrange these objects into colossal conglomerated shapes as more effective means of attacking, such as giant balls to bowl over opponents and train-sized battering rams. If projectiles are shot at him, Silver can grab them in his psychokinesis and throw them back at the opponent, effectively allowing him to turn his opponents' power against them.

When times call for it, Silver is capable of going on the offensive with hand-to-hand combat, as seen in his battle with Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2 where he would attack enemies with physical strikes. However, his proficiency with this type of combat is unclear, as he has only demonstrated a limited range of punches and Spin Attack maneuvers. He seems unskilled, given his reckless, telegraphed, and easily blocked charges at Shadow during their fight, and it may be that Silver will only use physical combat as a desperate last resort.

Most of Silver's signature techniques and moves revolve around the use of his psychokinesis, which has a broad range of applications. His most of his offensive attacks involving using the objects around him as projectiles and discharging psychokinetic energies.

Silver's most used technique is his Psychokinesis, which lets him pick up objects around him for him to manipulate, and bend and move objects. His Levitate technique, which he uses to make himself airborne, increases his speed and movement abilities to levels matching those of the fastest and most agile characters in the series. Also, his Teleport Dash allows him to dash small distances at light speed.

With his Grab All technique, Silver can grab and manipulate everything around him or objects that come too close to him, and send them flying at his enemies. To throw objects with greater force while they are in his psychokinetic grab, Silver can use his Hold Smash and Psycho Smash to charge up his psychic energies and use them to throw objects at high velocities. Also, in Sonic Generations, Silver can perform a powerful attack called Meteor Smash,where he gathers a large ball of surrounding objects and launches it, after which it rolls along the ground, crushing anything in its path.

By channeling and manipulating his psychic energies, Silver can perform unique energy-based attacks, like his Psycho Shock and Psycho Smash that let him charge pulses of energy that can paralyze opponents and machinery, and with his Psychic Knife,Silver can form and throw a sharp and deadly blade of energy at the enemy. He can also perform his ESP move, which sends out a wave that attacks the minds of others, leaving them disorientated and confused.

In Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2, Silver is shown to utilize the Spin Attack where he curls tightly into a concussive ball while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes. With the Spin Jump he attacks foes by landing on them, with the Spin Dash he curls up and shoots forward at high speed to break barriers or mow down enemies, and with the Homing Attack he homes in on an enemy to attack.

As seen during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Silver has excellent skills when it comes to driving and racing in racecars like the Lightron.

By using all seven Chaos Emeralds, Silver can enter a Super State, transforming him into Super Silver. In this state, all of Silver's abilities far surpasses his normal ones, including his psychokinesis which has been greatly amplified. He is as well able to fly without his psychokinesis and is nearly invulnerable. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy and requires Rings to be maintained.

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Silver can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Silver has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

Silver will lose his focus when using psychokinesis if he is caught off guard or hit by a surprise attack.

If he overuses his psychokinesis, Silver can become extremely fatigued, and will need Rings to regain his energy.

Silver's relationships are Blaze the Cat, Sonic the Hedgehog, Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, Vector the Crocodile, Knuckles the Echidna, Marine the Raccoon, Cream the Rabbit, Shadow the Hedgehog, E-123 Omega, Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose and Miles "Tails" Prower.

Silver's Enemies are Eggman, Iblis, Solaris, Mephiles the Dark, Eggman Nega, Ifrit, Zavok, Chaos,Metal Sonic and Infinite the Jackal.

[the-grove]

Digimon Partner: Princess

HIii So I thought I would do a follow up to Abayomis Digimon partner thing for me. Mine will be a bit simpler though, but to explain why lets start with our Rookie: ROOKIE/CHILD: V-mon

So I did consider two digimon, V-mon and Dracomon. And it was a really close call. But I ultimately went with V-mon because it seems a bit more kobold like, plus I could make use of some of its canonical digivolution lines for potential alternates. Soo thats that. I'll just be using this custom line. Which does include one canonical diguvolution...

CHAMPION/ADULT: Honeybeemon

Honeybeemon is a canonical Armor digivolution option for V-mon, it's cute and bug themed and I love bugs. It also carries some of visual elements with the little teeth and blue skin. Each stage in this digivolution at least borrows something from the previous stage. ULTIMATE/PERFECT: Piccolomon

Picollomon carries over the winged elements, and Honeybeemons eyes. Picollomon is the stage I am the least sure of, but I think it overs a nice bridge between the previous stages and the mega/ultimate evolution. It's also just a striaght up cutie still -3- MEGA/ULTIMATE: Holydramon

Holydramon bring the pink fluffiness of Picollomon with the draconic qualities of V-mon. There is not much for Honeybeemon to be represented here, but thats ok. IMO a Digivolution line doesn't need to be 100% cohesive to be satisfying as long as there is some or visual connection from each stage to the next. Also going from a blue scalie dragon to a pink fluffy one is fun and cute!! Some other connection is that every stage here is a part of the Wind Guardians group of digimon.

[zolganif]

The Blue Eyes bundle on master duel, I fucking love it, same for the structure deck and Chaos mate! The field itself, and accessories are neat. I love these dragons, always will be the best, and most symbolic Yu-Gi-Oh cards ever.

Oh, and Konami. Please get Blue Eyes Alternative Ultimate on Master Duel! You bastards! Its the anniversary and clowns can't surprise us?!

Fuckers.

But really, the structure deck was missing bingo go machine, and really I could use a few extra copies, and could've dismantled my old ones.

Satisfied though with everything else.

[magpiejay1234]

Stream has not yet ended, but we got the important information.

We have new Ancient Golem support.

I apparently miscounted the card slots, these should be the last animé legacy theme for Legacy of Destruction, though there will be previously unprinted cards.

Final new card for Quarter Century Duelist Box is the Fusion of Magician of Black Chaos with Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

Next week should be the remaining reprints.

Gandora-X is getting its Master Duel errata to OCG.

(Master Duel errata makes its effect like the TCG version, so it will be still banned in TCG.)

Other news:

OCG Stories manga will continue with Magistus cards.

Reinforcement of the Army is getting a Sky Striker alternate artwork as a promo.

[voidfragments]

extended bio - han sooyoung

general information

basic info

name: han sooyoung (한수영, alt spelling: han suyeong) age: 26-31 (verse-dependent; defaults to 31) gender: bigender pronouns: she/he, no preference orientation: bisexual species: human / constellation nationality: south korean ethnicity: korean birth date: april 1st zodiac: aries occuptation: webnovel author; university lecturer

appearance

height: 158cm / 5'2" build: petite hair: black and straight, cut into a bob eyes: gray other notable physical traits: mole below left eye; sharp, fang-like canines

background

born the illegitimate child of an actress and a politician, han sooyoung had a lavish, but lonely, upbringing, with a huge house entirely to herself save for a guard, a housekeeper, and visits from her parents on weekends. as a teenager, she struggled with sleep issues; not too long after those developed, her inherent talent as a writer emerged. at age 16 she began taking writing seriously with the publication of her webnovel, ssssss-grade infinite regressor, inspired by a dream she had, which quickly gained wild popularity. by the time she was in her early 20s she was making millions monthly from her writing career. one day, she received a private message from one kim dokja, concerned about the similarities between her novel and some novel called three ways to survive in a ruined world--more accurately, he accused her of plagiarism, but she had never even heard of the novel before. upon checking it out, she found it to be, indeed, oddly similar to her own book--but absolutely terrible, a slog of exposition and bad writing. she found herself more captivated by kim dokja’s comments on every chapter than by the novel itself, and concluded that he must be the author, tls123, on an alternate account, hyping himself up. han sooyoung was 26 when the world ended, in exactly the manner laid out in ways of survival. initially, she used her knowledge of the chapters she read to position herself as the “king of prophets” and clashed with kim dokja, but ultimately joined his party, establishing herself as the brains of the operation when he wasn’t around (which, due to his tendency towards self-sacrifice, was often). by the time she reached age 31, kim dokja's company successfully cleared the scenarios, and life began to return to normal... well, as normal as they can, at this point.

personality

selfish and clever, han sooyoung prioritizes herself and her companions first and foremost. however, she’s not the most openly affectionate, used to keeping her distance from others; “i care about you” comes out as “stop sacrificing yourself, you bastard”. she’s highly confident, shamelessly proclaiming herself a genius--a claim that is not without merit, if her analytical skills and the wild popularity of her novel ssssss-grade infinite regressor are any indication. despite the rough exterior, though, she’s an idealist stubbornly pursuing the ending she wants, just like the rest of kim dokja’s company.

scenario information

basic info

modifiers/titles: black flames empress; director of the false last act stat distribution: high magic power; low stamina personal attribute: author sponsor: abyssal black flame dragon nebula: kim dokja's company

personal skills

avatar: an ability to split off clones of himself (they need not actually share his appearance). avatars must be given at least one of his memories upon creation--the more memories given, the more autonomous the avatar is. eye of truth: allows him to read others’ attributes. use causes one eye to glow bright blue. poker face: blocks the use of skills like lie detection. lie detection: exactly what it says on the tin.

stigma & sponsor abilities

black flame: an ability to summon and control black fire. advent of half-god: after a rather lengthy and overdramatic incantation is recited, part of abyssal black flame dragon's consciousness manifests within han sooyoung, allowing them to act as a single unit with access to all of the dragon's abilities. this comes with temporary changes to her personality and outward appearance to reflect the dragon's chuuni persona.

stories

predictive plagiarism (rating unknown): represents an internal application of avatar to have discussions with himself analyzing the current story to predict future events. torch that swallowed the myth (giant story): a story shared by the members of kim dokja's company after their defeat of poseidon and clear of gigantomachia. disciple of the legendary swordmaster (rating unknown): origin and scope unknown.

ooc information

shipping

as far as ships go, i'm really only interested in writing yoohankim. you're welcome to have your muse be attracted to her--she is, canonically, considered quite beautiful (foul attitude aside), after all--but know that most likely, nothing will come of it. sorry, yhk are soulmates and i cannot be convinced otherwise!

orv spoiler policy

heavy heavy spoilers have been redacted for this bio. if we write together, i would like to know how far you are in the series so i know how much i can include in threads! if we're not threading and you have even a tiny bit of interest in reading orv one day, i strongly recommend blacklisting "orv spoilers". i will be thoroughly tagging spoilers and possibly even putting replies under readmores depending on the nature of the spoilers!!! trust me, you'll thank me when you get to the reveals i'm keeping wrapped up so tightly.

orv side stories & webtoon

i have not read any of the side stories on account of being a broke bitch. i do not have access to them. please do not expect me to take any content in them into account for my characterization of han sooyoung, because as far as i'm concerned they basically don't exist. i also don't read the webtoon, so if there's any major differences that happen over there, yeahhhh. my portrayal of sooyoung--as well as any other orv muses i may pick up--is based pretty much 100% on the novel.

[gioser3n]

by  りょう

[fyeahygocardart]

Blue-Eyes Alternative Ultimate Dragon

[ientina1234]

[MMD]- Happy Birthday Seto Kaiba!

How can it be?

 - So Done by Dark Dust

Let the guy have his dragons thank you :3 All models by 66/muresame. I love Seto a lot honestly. We have this in common and the color blue ha X3 

[skylar-lei1634]

GET READY TO BE CLOBBERED AHKU!!!

You and I both know Jack's going to kick our asses when he get this care to go in his other other deck.