#I think maybe I could separate Stratos Joel into his own guy just called Stratos maybe? and he could be JD? while normal Joel is Branch?

[fantasykiri5]

Hey if I made a Jizzie Trolls AU who do y’all think would be in the cast. Lizzie and Joel and Poppy and Branch, simple enough, and I’m thinking Jimmy as a snack pack memeber but I’m not sure which, Oli too honestly, but I’m mostly confused on all the siblings.

I’m THINKING Skizz as JD, Tango as Bruce (and Ms. Tango as Brandi), and maybe Etho as Clay? I was thinking that they all have some kind of vest on their Minecraft skins so they kinda match (or at least a sleeveless thing for Skizz. It counts I think) but I am completely lost on who’d play Floyd and Viva, as well as the Bergens and mt. Rageons. Any ideas?

[siriannatan]

Yokai Ryokan - Chapter 2

My updates might be even more sporadic than usual, I'm quite busy this following month and a half :{

Jimmy woke up to a cold, very cold and damp sensation on his cheeks. And the first thing he saw as he opened his eyes was Scott's cyan and gold eyes, and he could feel his cold breath on his face. As Scot pulled away with a relieved smile, he noticed the small horns he had only ever seen in books about myths and legends. Small, rounded, slightly resembling antlers. And there was that tail with cyan scares and dark cyan fur along the top of it and a fluffy tuft at its end. And as he blinked and looked around he spotted fWhip, and his nervously flicking fox ears and all his tails. Was it seven? Nine? It was hard to say with how much they were moving. Burning away what remains of those monsters. "He's awake," Scott called out to the redhead, still supporting Jimmy so he doesn't fall down again. Be it on his back or his face.

fWhip burned away the last already mangled and charred corpse and quickly joined them. "How are you feeling? Are you good enough to walk? We're really sorry but whatever happened makes it impossible for us to disguise ourselves again," he jumped to explain.

"Slow down, he's got to be confused," Scott sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I know, but more of those things might be coming," fWhip huffed and more howling echoed in the distance. "Dang it. Can you walk?" he asked.

Jimmy just shrugged. A lot has just happened and he was surrounded by handsome - very handsome - men, he'd be overwhelmed even if circumstances were different, tails and horns and monsters or not. "I think so, the weird itching and headache are gone?" he added with a slight shrug.

"Okay, we'll take you to the inn, I'd rather not test how Katherine might react, she tolerates us, strong yokai it is, to a degree, and that wasn't onmyoji energy... I have no idea what that was but we should be careful," Scott nodded and helped Jimmy up.

Jimmy could not, in fact, handle walking the other half of the way to the inn end ended up being carried by fWhip. The kitsune, as the man himself said was much warmer than the water ryu (a/n: my damn brain needs a separation from European dragons). And created a small soul flame - another fWhip explanation - to light up the path and maybe keep some monsters away. "I have no idea what those were but they gave me the creeps," fWhip muttered. "Like... I never saw something like that..."

"Neither have I, but they seemed eerily familiar... Like there was a connection... Something in their energy was familiar but I can't put a finger on it," Scott muttered in an annoyed tone, twirling his umbrella. It was rather cute to Jimmy's frazzled brain. "Hopefully whatever's blocking our ability to disguise ourselves runs out or we're in trouble, Katherine won't like it," he sighed.

"Isn't Gem one of the shrine maidens?" Jimmy asked he was feeling significantly better but fWhip just shook his head when he said he could walk. "Why wouldn't she be okay with..."

"It's too complicated to say now but in short words," fWhip explained as more howling could be heard in the woods. Still distant. Maybe a bit further than before? "A strong yokai who used to live here turned evil," he continued, speeding up, "and it wasn't that long ago so Katherine's not big on trusting us right now," he finished. The inn was almost in sight.

"Stratos has wards, we'll be safe there," Scott's voice was slightly shaking as more howling echoed through the woods. This time closer. He was clearly not in the mood to fight anything. Much less completely unknown to them monsters of even more unknown origin.

When they entered the back side of the ryokan they were met by a shocked Joel. As Scott and fWhip tried to explain their appearance, Jimmy looked to the path. One of the three-headed beast dogs was there snarling. "Guys? There's one..." As he was saying that Joel pulled a bow out of nowhere and shot it dead. The Beast dissolved into dark smoke as the arrow vanished.

"Inside," Joel said sternly and no one argued with that. fWhip carried Jimmy to the staff building followed closely by Scott. "Luckily all the guests are in town, enjoying all the early stalls and pop-up performances," he said and left to find his wife.

They sat in silence. fWhip scrunched his face and suddenly tails and ears were gone. "It passed," he let out a relieved sigh as Scott followed suit. "And do not apologise, you obviously have even less of an idea what happened there than the two of us," he added, patting Jimmy's cheek.

"What the hell are you two doing to Gem's friend?!" Lizzie huffed as soon as she walked in. Hand on hips, hair tied in a messy bun, still in an apron. She was clearly helping in the kitchen before Joel went to get her. Speaking of, he was behind her, hand on her shoulder.

"Protecting him?" fWhip offered. "We were walking him from the shrine so Gem can get her work started. About halfway there, he fell to the ground holding his head. Then those monster dogs, like eight or ten walk out, Joel saw one. And then Jimmy exploded this... good, warm, clearly not human, energy, destroying them and our disguises. They work now," he explained and looked over Jimmy and Scott to see if they wanted to add anything.

"What he said. We've been hearing howling the whole rest of the way," Scott nodded but he didn't look like he was quite there. He was staring out a window at the darkened forest. "There was something familiar in those monsters' energy... I haven't... It was weird," he finished his scattered thought. "How are you feeling? Even the smallest odd feeling."

Jimmy hummed. "I'm fine now. My head's slightly spinning but I think that's mostly confusion," he shrugged and there was fWhip's hand on his forehead. "I certainly feel better than I was the whole day... Like since the third torii of the stairs from the main road to here," he added and fWhip blushed slightly. The mysterious figure on the gate came back to mind. "It was you I saw on that gate?" he asked, blinking.

"Yeah... I just wanted to see Gem before Katherine puts her in miko robes..." he sighed, sitting back and staring at the tatami floor.

"So... What now?" Lizzie asked. "We can't let Katherine know Jimmy's possibly a yokai of great spiritual power, she'd flip," she sighed and looked at Joel.

"Well, I can't talk for fWhip but if you," he looked at Jimmy, "are okay with it I can stick around you to make sure no more of those dogs attack and maybe try and teach you how to control your energy? Or try to? You looked damn bad since we saw you at the temple," he pushed some errand hairs off of Jimmy's face. "And if you are okay with it," he added, looking at Lizzie and Joel.

"Oh, I don't mind, that thing gave me the creeps even through the barrier. And if Katherine and her shrine maidens are worth anything they already felt that energy and will be looking for whatever caused it," Joel hummed, leaving Lizzie's side and looking out the window looking towards the shrine. "And pretend everything is okay because of the festival... Lizzie?"

"Same as Joel. And I hope you would help if anything attacks this place," she nodded, her attitude softening a bit. "fWhip I know you hate hiding things from Gem but..."

"Don't worry, I'm going to help. Just... I'm trying to think what Jimmy can even be. I... His energy was so different from me or Scott and we're the strongest around here. It was so..." he stopped for a second. Looking right into Jimmy's eyes. "It felt, for the lack of better words, good. Like it's incapable of hurting anything but it destroyed those monsters. I never heard of Yokai with such good energy," he finished with a shrug.

Jimmy just nodded. "I have no idea what's going on but I get that we can't tell the temple because some strong yokai turned evil recently and they have a hard time with trusting more powerful yokai, and I'm guessing here, even smaller yokai aren't too happy with it," he slowly summarised what he gathered from it all. "And I might be a yokai but we have no idea what kind and why I wouldn't know it... Okay... I"m more than willing to learn how to control what I did there, even maybe learn how to utilise it to defend myself," he added, staring up at the ceiling. This was a lot.

All five of them were silent for a moment until Jimmy sighed and flopped to the tatami floor. "Can we leave heavy topics for later and rest now? I was feeling weird the whole day, exploded and learned I might not be human..."

"Of course," Lizzie jumped right back to being a host. "Sausage is making dinner, you two better stay the night, we can't be sure what's in the woods," she chattered and almost dragged the three of them to the staff house's dining area where Hermes was already setting up plates.

"We're having guest, auntie?" he asked, looking between fWhip and Scott with wide eyes. The kid obviously was excited to see them.

Lizzie nodded, and once she had the three of them seated, Joel went to make sure no more monsters were trying to breach Ryokan's protections and went to help with dinner. Taking the kid with her. Leaving them awkwardly sat together.

"Are you really okay?" fWhip asked after a minute. Or two. "You're Gem's friend... I don't... I don't often talk to humans who don't know about yokai, but you don't have to hide what you're really feeling. I... I'll understand..." he was clearly not saying everything he wanted to say. But the way Scott patted his back was more than words. Gem. It must have been hard for him to learn his twin sister was different.

"I... I'm slowly processing what's happened today... I think I'm okay but it's a lot. We'll see how I feel after some sleep," he sighed and stared out the window. It looked darn peaceful considering all the recent revelations. "I'll assume, everyone here and that Oli character is also Yokai."

He was right in assuming that but neither Scott nor fWhip would say what kind of yokai everyone was. "It's their thing to say," Scott said and the kitsune nodded. They did confirm that fWhip indeed had nine tails and he agreed to show them to Jimmy in more detail another day when they had more privacy and time. And Scott was indeed a mythical ryu and usually lived in the lake, during tourist season he moved between smaller lakes in the woods. And with a chuckle, just before the diner was served he said that he was willing to show Jimmy his full form if they ever happened to have enough room.

"Everyone in town, even just humans, knows that there are yokai around," Scott calmed Jimmy's worry that someone might see him. "The valley is locked to tourists outside the season and I'm very careful, no need to worry about me," he finished with a smile and thanked Lizzie for the food.

An hour after the dinner was finished and he got into his bed Jimmy was unable to sleep. He kept tossing and turning in his futon. Overthinking his whole life and all the weird hunches he ever had. All weird shadows he could recall seeing. Was it all being a possibly forcefully disguised yokai or something else? Should he tell fWhip and Scott about all those small dumb things he avoided thanks to these premonitions? All the bigger things he could possibly stop but being a coward didn't? Probably. Next time it's just three of them he told, lied to, himself.

He was at it for maybe another half an hour. An hour? When a shadow appeared in his window. A small fox with three tails and weirdly shining in dark piercing blue eyes. The same shade as fWhip's tail fur. "fWhip?" Jimmy called out and the fox jumped in through the half-open to the summer heat window. And sad on top of /jimmy's chest. Still as a small fox, luckily for Jimmy's poor bone structure.

"Rest," Jimmy heard fWhip's voice from the fox as it settled on top of him. It was calming and reassuring. But also...

"fWhip you jerk..." suddenly Scott slinked into the room. Jimmy clearly remembered closing it but he was not about to question anything these two do. And there was a cool presence of Scott next to him. "We guessed you would be awake, analysing your whole life, hope you don't mind if we try to help."

"I certainly couldn't sleep when I learned I'm a yokai and Gem isn't. There are no yokai hybrids, it's fifty-fifty chance which the child is..." fWhip hummed, almost a whisper, not moving off of Jimmy's chest.