#Its a boat and a dragon and an airship

[theology101]

Sprak needs to become a crewmen on the Goldenrod ASAP! All of his schemes would have gotten an IMMEDIATE seal of approval from Bill Seacaster

[iolypse]

alright! shit went down last night, huh?

I'm gonna run through the events that took place, then break it all down. (this whole thing is 1.4k+— sorry!)

qcellbit, our newest mad theorist, spent some time going around the island asking the members who've been here the longest about their experiences. how they got to the island, if they remember anything from before the island, the dragon, the duck, the messages, the binary code fuckers, cucurucho, the eggs, etc etc.

one particularly interesting bit of info was given to him by qphilza, who explained the existence of the airships and his investigation of a particularly large one. after showing qcellbit some items he looted from said ship, including a netherite pickaxe, enchanted golden apples, and chorus fruit, he talks about how a binary monster chased him all the way back to mainland, trying to kill him the whole time. he mentions that when accidentally right clicking it, a baby certificate popped up just like what happens when you right click the eggs. he then recounts that qfit threw a bomb to kill the entity, which promptly despawned so they couldn't loot its body.

he says that a short amount of time later, the entity appeared again and gave him a book with coordinates on it. said coordinates lead to an odd machine built at qluzu's house.

later on, qcellbit explains all of this to his fellow theory brothers, and with qphil in tow, they go to investigate. it's exactly as qphil said— an odd machine, specifically a few blocks of which are admin placed, and what looks like a screen that could hold code inside? the machine also has an eight on it. maybe tracking the number of eggs?

(the original number, maybe. there are only seven eggs alive right now, ten eggs have existed total. with tallulah and richarlyson as late additions, yeah, that makes eight original eggs.)

qcellbit, qbad, qmaximus, and qfoolish all discuss this. one of them is suddenly given a book with code that translates to say "LEAVE". they debate this for a little while— is it saying to leave the machine, or leave the island? they aren't sure.

I'm not really caught up on qluzu's lore, but apparently there's some alternate version of qluzu called arin, and arin is a machine of some sort. arin may allegedly be part of the machine they look at now?

they then decide that they need to at least see if it would be possible to escape. the portal that the initial trains came through still exists, so they all leave their kids with qphil and go investigate.

qphil, now alone with chayanne, richarlyson, and leonarda, all of which have a single life, sets up a table and decides to ask them about their past. do they remember anything at all from being kidnapped and returned cracked? no. he turns to richarlyson, then— newest egg, the only one left uncracked— and asks about the dragon. was it small like a little lizard, or large, larger than luzu's house? richarlyson specifically says that he thinks— doesn't know, but thinks— that the dragon is very, very large.

it's then that a binary entity with a name translating to "AI" attacks (very briefly, it appears with cucurucho's skin, though I personally believe this to be a simple glitch unrelated to any actual lore, same with the eggs occasionally appearing with normal mc skins), immediately going for chayanne. qphil quickly sends out messages telling the others to come back now, and he and the eggs try their damned best to fight it off. qphil has to pop an enchanted golden apple, and it seems like the eggs' guns aren't really doing anything. the binary entity isn't going down. it flees just before the others return. they never quite reached the portal.

qphil takes chayanne home after this. chayanne tells him that he's missing his gun. did it break? he's not sure. it might've, but it's gone now.

meanwhile, qroier and qbobby are on a boat ride, far from mainland. they make it to shore, and that's when the binary entity— the same one that just attacked qphil and the eggs he was looking after— attacks. it forces them into the water, and bobby drowns while trying to escape it. the entity exclusively attacked bobby the entire time, not once going after qroier. as soon as bobby was confirmed dead, it swam to the surface and flew off.

there's more that happened after this— I haven't watched the full clips, but some include a mob typically only spawned by the binary entities showing up and attacking qbbh while he and tallulah were making a beach house, and cucurucho appearing within the hidden parts of qcellbit's base while he was in the middle of theorizing.

so! onto the actual analysis part of this bullshit.

the binary entities. there's at least six of them, 01101100 "l" (lowercase L) who originally attacked qphil, 101010110101 (has no direct translation, too many numbers) who attacked arin, 1001010 "J" who attacked qcellbit, 100101001 ")" (?????) who attacked leonarda, 01101001 "i" who attacked qmariana, and now 01000001 01001001 "AI" who attacked qphil and qroier separately (not including other binary entities I may have missed).

some of them are very determined to kill the eggs (looking at AI specifically), while others freely attack players (lowercase L), so it's hard to pinpoint if they have a collective motive here.

I've seen some people theorize that they are the interference in the messages players have been receiving— jumbled numbers and letters and morse code hidden within the videos, a voice asking "are you there?". I would have said they're trying to get players to leave the island by making it more dangerous and more unappealing, getting rid of the eggs so they no longer have any reason to stay, but then there's AI, who specifically attacked while the theory brothers were attempting to escape. A distraction, most certainly— I don't buy that this is a mere coincidence.

something I have noticed is that their activity has been more and more frequent the more the theory brothers spread what they've discovered, today revealing to qroier most everything they've been able to decipher, just a few days ago explaining things to qphil and inviting qcellbit to the group.

clearly they don't want people knowing things. they don't want the code deciphered, they don't want the island residents to learn what's happening beneath the surface.

so they're not trying to get them to leave the island, and the code within the video is likely not theirs (it's in a totally different format anyways— morse code and jumbled numbers and letters as opposed to pure binary code). when they received the book telling them to leave, it most likely meant to leave the machine. they're tormenting the eggs to further build emotional attachment and discourage attempts to escape or solve the code.

so whose code is this, if not the binary entities'?

no fucking clue! I do quite doubt it's cucurucho, and it's most certainly not the duck. it may be an outside source knowledgeable to the census bureau's potential crimes, or a possible survivor and escapist from long ago. the island was definitely once inhabited judging by the run down buildings that existed when the first batch of island residents arrived.

one thing I've been thinking about lately is the fact that they had to bring power to the island.

we haven't really seen anything come of that, have we? why would the island need power? there's odd outlets put in the wall, what's their use? why would something need to be linked to the wall?

wasn't the attempt kind of unsuccessful? both groups fucked up the puzzle in the train station, but they were let out anyway?

small little theory of mine is that they somehow drew power from the eggs to bring the brazilians there, cracking them in the process, but I really don't have any proof or anything to back this up. it's just a potential explanation as to why the eggs disappeared and came back cracked on the very same day the brazilians arrived.

I will say that some of the eggs have acted somewhat different since that all happened. while it may just be a response to the trauma they experienced, I feel like chayanne and tallulah have both been wandering a lot more than they used to lately. they always stuck fairly close to their parents, but it seems like they've both been straying a bit.

I'm honestly spitballing at this point, just trying to get a grasp on all this info. at the very least, I'm almost 100% certain the dragon never existed, and something is super fucking wrong with this island!

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 18

Oisin’s Family Reunion 

Welcome back to Fantasy High where it’s election night and there’s a storm a-brewin. Last we left off, pretty much every student at Aguefort (plus Ragh, Jawbone, and a hidden Eugenia Shadow) was at Seacaster Manor which Riz realized was tactically unwise right as Seacaster Manor was suddenly ripped from its foundations into the sky. 

Luckily, Seacaster Manor is still a working pirate ship with a ton of functioning canons, plus a ton of shields and other protective mojo put up by Aelwyn. Unfortunately, there’s a lot to worry about here:

Kristen is a shoe-in to win the election BUT that’s only if they can get everyone to vote and get the votes to school in time. This is complicated by the fact that–

Everyone will freak out if they realize what’s happening and if they freak out, they won’t vote. 

There’s a lot to be freaked out about, the first of which is that those ping pong balls Oisin left were a sort of homing beacon that’s drawing the attention of the NIghtmare King. When Kristen looks outside, she can see the storm has taken on the visage of the Nightmare King and it’s like they’re in his hand, being wound up to be thrown for a fastball. Total party foul. 

Seacaster Manor is a boat, but not an airship and it doesn’t have flight capabilities because Oisin got Adaine’s Mephits to break the Cloud Rider Engine during that first house party months ago. This is a problem both because they need to Not Crash but also ideally they need to be able to steer to get the ballots to the school.

Complicating things even further, they have another nasty present from Oisin to contend with–a whole horde of dragons, including big grandma blue herself!

So, yeah! Tons to contend with in this episode. Some good news though: In the center of town, they can see a shock of red lightning go up into the sky and then fizzle. The Rat Grinders are performing their little Porter promotion ceremony but it’s not working because they don’t have Ankarna’s name. Equally good news, Fig’s steed now had a name courtesy of Murph: Gerard Neigh!

The Bad Kids leap into action, both doing damage control on the party and controlling heaps of damage directed at the dragons gunning for them. Fig (who is actually in Wanda form right now so idk how this is working exactly lol) convinces everyone that this is just a sick music video that’s being filmed at the party while Gorgug and Sprek (aviation Goblin) get the Cloud Rider Engine running. Adaine is predictably SO excited to get to help with the canons (along with helping Fig) and Fabian gets people to vote. He also gets his surprise tattoo from Eugenia. Riz is using his insane action economy (boosted by Haste) to run those cannons like he’s in the navy. And Kristen (with help from K2) is keeping everyone up as they are buffeted by winds, physical attacks, and dragon breath weapons. 

Though this is a wild episode, not much happens plot wise so here are some standout moments:

Gorgug is still living in crit city and putting anyone who doubted his multiclass to shame.

Fig has Adaine strap GoPros on vultures to film this fake music video which she will probably turn into a real music video at some point. Maximum Legend Behavior. 

Adaine, in one of her coolest moments ever, blasts a dragon with a cannon then runs to the deck and one shots a blue dragon by punching its lights out. Defeating enemies by hitting them with her fists and shooting them with guns. The Adaine school of wizardry. 

At one point Kipperlilly, Jace, and Oisin Invisibly jump onto the deck from grandma’s back (which Adaine and Gorgug can see because of various magical effects, though they pretend like they can’t). Gorgug has to make two Wis Saves and he rolls 22 on both. Seemingly nothing happens and they use a Rune of Recall to teleport away. The Bad Kids figure that they were trying to mind read Gorgug to get Ankarna’s actual name. 22 is pretty high but we don’t know if it actually worked or not. 

Riz gets to add yet ANOTHER ancient dragon to his kill list as he cannonballs Oisin’s grandma out of the sky. Yikes my man. You’re probably out of the will now. 

At a certain point of the fight, Baxter the griffon shows up to meet then WITHOUT Sandra Lynn riding him which is *concerning* but we don’t get more info than that in this ep. Best case scenario, Sandra Lynn just sent him solo to help because she was busy with things on the ground but still wanted to send air support. Worst case scenario–we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

The last big thing that happens in this ep is the moment that broke Brennan and, I’m gonna be honest, as silly as it is it feels like business as usual from Ally to me (though I do understand why it would break a man--several years into the careful crafting of his world--who has been filming for 9 straight hours in a warehouse in Los Angeles). Kristen tries to make a Divine Intervention roll and fails. Then K2 tries to make a Divine Intervention roll–which she does by looking into the clouds and saying, “Blimey” in Ally’s atrocious British accent and THAT one succeeds. This is compounded by the fact that Brennan said that if this works, K2 will be vaporized and Ally randomly adding in that K2 is pregnant with Fabian’s child (which Lou both vehemently vetoes and also plays along with to mess with Brennan)

Brennan fully leaves the dome (Zac takes over for a few minutes) and then storms back in and declares that as weird Wizard clones, simulacrum are just made of stem cells and always test positive for pregnancy because of that. Then, he tells everyone to just wipe the past ten minutes from their mind so he can have some semblance of order for the end of the episode. 

The successful Divine Intervention brings Cass back to herself for a moment and Seacaster Manor flies into the maw of cloud Cass. They appear back in Elmville but everything is now an eerie red and lightning strikes fill the sky. Looks like another end of the year apocalypse!  If Riz doesn’t get into college after this the school board is gonna have to fight *me*.

Detention 

Eugenia Shadow for Giving Fabian a Secret Tattoo of a Ghost With Hairy Legs Showing Hole

Obviously I wanna give it to Oisin for siccing his grandma on his entire school and taunting my girl Adaine but she didn’t give him the time of day so neither will I. Instead, I’m giving it to Eugenia for the insane moving tattoo that Fabian will have to corral back into his otherwise lovely clock tattoo every day. Bonkers behavior. 

Honor Roll

Gorgug for Flying a House Full of Students With No Training and No Casualties 

And he wasn’t sure he could do it. Way to step up Gorgug!!!

Rat Grinder Notes

We still don’t have specifics on what actually happened to Lucy and how the Rat Grinders got involved with this mess in the first place. We have some guesses but nothing concrete and some options definitely make them more sympathetic than others. 

Tossing a house with ALL YOUR CLASSMATES INSIDE OF IT is such an unhinged move. I don’t know how nuanced Brennan meant for the Rat Grinders to be but man it’s hard to want anything for them besides a swift ass kicking followed by jail when they’re pulling shit like this AND we’re not getting anything mitigating to make us feel bad for them (ie: Aelwyn’s shitty home life or Ragh being manipulated by Dayne). Fascinated to know if they’re in a state where they can be “snapped out” of it or if they’re basically lucid but with heightened emotions (in the same vein of, “The shitty things you do and say when drunk are still your fault/responsibility). 

My updated list on how much I wanna see these kids get embarrassed in this fight are Oisin and Kipperlilly at the top followed by Ivy. Mary Ann I truly have no opinion on. Ruben I am warmer on than the rest but that’s admittedly because Fig has put time into investigating him and it’s entirely possible the rest of the RG’s would seem more sympathetic if the BK’s dug more into them. And then Buddy dead last because he’s pretty clearly a pawn here. Like he has other stuff to work through but the current apocalypse is not his fault and he doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the rest of them. In fairness, Porter (+Jace) deserves to get smacked down more than any of them as the adult mastermind behind this but that’s not the list I was making. 

Random Thoughts

This is a side thing but I love that Aelwyn spent a ton of high level spell slots warding up Seacaster Manor. (She also made Fabian a cursed coin that would summon the gold tornado from Freshman Year if broken but he never used it.) She’s helping!  

Lmao at Murph being called in as the expert on honoring the cock and just being resigned to cock(ed dice) inspection. 

It was casually mentioned that Bucky might believe in Cass a bit which I'm mentioning in case it comes up later.

I love Brennan letting Gorgug use his Great Weapons Fighting feature while using the boat as a weapon. That’s such a shenanigan and Zac wasn’t even asking for it. 

I bet the Rat Grinders targeted Gorgug for the name/mind reading thing because they thought he was the dumbest one in the group. Newsflash! He’s been smart this whole time! Greatest Wizard of our Age! 

Being all, “Other kids at this school have it easier than me and it’s not fair,” and then having your trust fund baby friend send his ancient dragon grandma to attack everyone at your school so you can win an election is such loser behavior.   

Sending dragons to attack the kids who killed a dragon their first year of school and have just gotten cooler and more powerful since then seems like a profoundly shortsighted decision. Why not put their loved ones in danger like in Family in Flames if you want them out of the way? Like, they’re gonna be SO MUCH more mad at you when they inevitably come for you but it might actually slow them down whereas this did not at all. 

I imagine this is going to be a Promocalypse-esque situation where despite this being a school of adventurers, the Bad Kids aren’t gonna get much help from the rest of the student body but I hope they can at least get some cleric heals or pearls of power something before they have to go into this next fight because yeesh. 

I hope Adaine remembers that Oisin has a thing to steal control of summons because she’s been getting into summons heavily this season. 

I’m really curious to know how this fight will play out. Like if it will have a heavy RP element or not. Because if the Bad Kids had bonded with the RG’s in any way (besides the weird obsession w/ Mary Ann and whatever the hell is going on with “Wanda” and Ruben lol) I could see there being a lot of persuasion roles to try and get them to stop what they were doing. But as the story stands, this is coming off of the back of the Rat Grinders sending DRAGONS to THROW THE HOUSE THEY WERE IN. If I were them I would NOT be like, “Let’s talk it out.” I’m like, “OK cool, they can’t be reasoned with,” and casting my most devastating spell at the highest level. Of course, I much prefer combat eps when they have RP but I don’t know that the story so far has been conducive to that. We’ll see! 

[npclibrarydump]

more dragons rising commentary:

-i appreciate seeing lloyd absolutely destroy kai because we got told a lot that he was the strongest (both elemental/as a ninja) but theres not a lot of direct comparisons, they never seriously fight each other even in s4

-when they were looking for kais letter i said out loud: "please be a shitty drawing please be a shitty drawing" and it was!

-im sure some ppl have mixed feelings about arin not having a power, but i also like the angle of someone who taught themselves spinjitzu. tbh it never got half the expansion it deserved, and airjitzu was uhh.. kinda dumb to begin with. so i hope we get to see some worldbuilding about why its a big deal, why it takes a long time to learn, etc etc. also from how spinjitzu has worked previously, i think arins half-spinjitzu thing could be an advantage cuz before, when they got kicked out of their spinny tornadoes they always were prone or hurt, arin could recover better or have more mobility.

-new bounty looks less like a boat more like an airship carrier

-i love seeing evil villain laughs captioned [cackling] instead of "mwa-ha-ha!!" good soup

[lunarifie]

Rewatching Ninjago

(With no context other than the episode)

Skybound 7-8



Okay by why is Dareth out of everyone helping Nya, Cole, and Lloyd save Jay

Are Kevin and Dan self inserts-

Lloyd: who are they? Retrieval experts?

Dareth: better! Screenwriters.

I also saw these two random dudes in the jail and they were given lines and everything istg these are self inserts 💀

Also theyre voices sound abnormally normal

Everyone else in the show has a sort of distinctive or exaggerated voice

Not to mention how normal their outfits are. something I would actually wear in real life.

These are just some guys

The plan to recreate the sky pirates airship to blend in is actually a good idea

Lloyd: Ar! Yee.. matey, we be be, becoming pirates!

Dan and kevin:…

Kevin: okaaay thinking on the fly, the green one wont do dialects.

Dan: the mute pirate!

The dialect teacher: (teaching Cole and Nya)

Lloyd: (following their movement and swaying but not saying anything with a smile on his face)

I bet Lloyd loved pirates when he was little

This must be so fun for him :)

The airjitzu master after nadakhan stole him and his temple: This is me and my pupils home! You cant take it!

Nadakhan: And get rid of those peaky ghosts as well 🙄 theyre so last season

HDNSIFNSNR

The way Nya and Cole are hoping Jays okay 🥺

COLE FOUND JAY!!! WHAT I DONT REMEMBER THIS HAPPENING?!?!?!?

Jay sounds so pained :(

God I really wish Ninjago had like, a cartoon style like she-ra or spiderverse. Coles helping Jay stand and Jays voice actor is doing such a good job in sounding in pain but this would hurt so much more if we could SEE it.

They apologized to each other 🥹

Clancy (looking away): now here are the rules you need to follow new crewmates!-

Lloyd: (trying his fucking best as the mute pirate to mime to Nya that her mustache is falling)

Nya: 🤨

Lloyd: your mustache…

Clancy: hey! I thought you were mute

Lloyd: its a fucking miracle!

Huh, okay. So not only can the ninja not summon their dragons if they’re fearful, but they cant if they’re too drained or exhausted.

That makes a lot of sense actually

I love when powers come hand in hand with like health and stuff

They all got captured 😐

I hate that Nyas alone with Nadakhan

Jay: Thanks for trying to save me but maybe it would’ve been better if you guys never came…

Damn.

God Nadakhans so creepy…

Cole: Nya! Dont do it! Itll make Nadakhan all powerful-

Nadakhan: The black one goes first.

ik Coles the black ninja but the poc Cole headcanon has made me double take and go “🤨” to a few lines

DID NYA JUST FLIP DOGSHANKS HFJNSJF Holy shit

If I had a nickel for everytime an ancient item could collect elemental masters powers, id have two nickels, which isnt a lot but its weird it happened twice right?

STOP. MAKING. WISHES.

Lloyd: We have to be wiser for what we wish for!

Jay: NO. NOT WISER. QUIETER. NO. MORE. WISHES.

Coles getting his wishes twisted

Lloyds trying to think this through

And Nyas just wasting wishes💀

Like girl its not that hard to just NOT say ‘wish’

LLOYDS OLD?!?!?! 😭bfjdjfnfjsnt

Its so funny that the youngest became the oldest

Thats also scary though

Imagine the kid you swore to take care of turned 90 in a second

Lloyd: i see beyond the now..! Youll need your wish when its said from the heart

Love when age and wisdom gives you future vision

Jay: SAID FROM THE HEART?!?!? HEARTS DONT TALK!!!!

FUSION DRAGON!!!

How does that even work though

An electric and water dragon should be killing both Nya AND jay.

Wait so Cole and Lloyd used all their wishes. How is nadakhan gonna trap them in his sword now?

CLANCY NO DONT WISH THEM AWAY

Clancyyy :(

Nya riding the dragon while Jays sitting behind her is giving me movie Nya and her motorcycle vibes

so its just Nya and Jay now

And the whole police force I guess.

But what were they ever good for.

Oooooo a safe house

Wonder where it is.

Zanes dad’s lighthouse!!!

WAIT WAIT WAIT IK WHOS IN THERE

Jay: No no, let me row the boat, you saved me last time, let me do this for you :)

Awww thats sweet

Jay: Either way, a gentlemen NEVER lets a lady row.

Aaaand you ruined it.

Flintlockes getting reaaal suspicious of Nadakhan…

MUTINY! MUTINY! MUTINY!

that was kinda pathetic…

Jay: (venting his heart out about how this is all his fault)

Nya: Jay-

Jay: (continues venting)

Nya: JAY. Shut up. 😀

Jay: I know I know, you dont wanna hear it-

Nya: No- JAY. we’re not alone.

ECHOECHOECHOECHO

Jay: (cowering behind Nya)

Nya: I thought you were supposed to be protecting me?!?

Jay: I thought you were over that!

ECHO!!!!

Does anyone have any fic recs where Jay and Nya take echo with them????? Bc ik they leave with echo but we never see him again.

Clancy deserves better :(

Its actually kinda sweet how Jay wants to protect Nya

Little robot: (steals echos chess piece)

The seagulls: (trying to alert echo of what little robot just did)

Echo (looks back): Wait… How did you..?

Little robot: 🤷

Echos so cute 😭

I love Jay and Nya 🥺 theyre so sweet and it makes me genuinely like their relationship when they aren’t fighting

Nya fixed up Echo!!!

Nya: Its nothing… its just, both of you seem so convinced you have a future with me.

Nya: what voice do I have in all this? All my life , my identities been defined by someone else. First I was Kais sister, then I was your horrible girlfriend!

Nya: Even when I wanted to be Samurai X sensei told me no…

Nya: I just want the choice to be who I wanna be.

I feel so bad for her.

See THIS is why shes my favorite. I literally love her sm.

Her character is just so dynamic and well written

I really hope the ninjago writers dont tear down her characterization and make her bland in newer seasons

Fuck theyre here.

Nya: Lights, camera, ACTION! (flash-bombs nadakhans crew)

Dogshank: OW! You pulled my hair?!??! WHAT KIND OF WARRIOR PULLS HAIR???

Nya: One that is woefully undersized!!!

Jfjdjdbfhsjdnsjrn

Fuck this being about Jay. This is Nyas season.

Jay: Whatever you do! Dont pull that lever!

Doubloon: ? (looks at the lever) 😈 (pulls lever)

Jay (falls through escape trap door): Thanks! :D

GO ECHO GO

Aw echo :(

Nya: (pouring her heart out and confessing she’s always loved him and wants to protect him and for him to go through the travelers portal)

Jay: (goes for a kiss)

Nya: (fucking shoves him in the portal)

Nya. Girl. Ik this was like, an act of love. But if you marry the djinn, hes gonna be all powerful.

Like, its great that you believe Jay can save you later and stop the wedding. But you could have just left. If Jay got captured he’d still be able to make the ‘i wish you were never a djinn’ wish.

Nadakhans so creepy. I hate him and hope he dies.

[miracleweaponhunt]

Miracle Weapon Hunt Chapter 5: Onwards to Saoloro

“Okay, so does anyone know how to steer one of these things?”

The small airship was launched, with three people in tow. Cassandra, Julian, and Roxanne. The axe was safely tucked away in the common room alongside the fixed-up bear corpse.

“I just kind of assumed you knew how to steer.” Julian replied to Cassandra while sipping his green tea, looking over the controls. In the ship were several buttons that they couldn’t tell the use for.

“I was the lookout.” Cassandra replied to Julian at the helm. “I thought it’d be easier than this.”

“Doesn’t it take a year to learn to fly a skyship?”

“That’s besides the point!”

“Okay, one flight shouldn’t be too hard unless we get invaded.” Julian mumbled, taking a sheet of paper and a pen. “So, should we write what the buttons do?”

“Press one and see what happens.” Cassandra replied.

Julian did as obliged, and the ship started falling from the sky. Another press of the button and the ship stopped.

“Okay, that one stalls the engine.” Julian mumbled calmly, writing that on the back of the paper.

“What are you two doing?”

Roxanne came to the cockpit with the smell of green tea emanating off her. “Are we being invaded?”

“Nah, we’re just trying to figure out what everything does.” Cassandra replied casually. “You have any ideas?”

“Is there not an instruction manual? I’m pretty sure you need to have one to be allowed to take off.”

“She’s right.” Julian nodded. “There should probably be one here somewhere.”

“Julian.” Roxanne sighed, taking the paper away from him. “You’re writing on it.”

Julian turned the paper over, and on it was the instruction manual for an 3EL skyship.

“This is why you’re important.” He said with a supportive thumbs-up, flicking through the manual.

“Hey, which button is it to suspend the ship?” Cassandra asked. “We’ve got a life signal from below. Pretty big one, too.”

“Wait, from below?” Roxanne asked. “Is that a new ship type?”

“Nah.” Cassandra smiled as Julian stopped the ship. “Just step outside, you’ll wanna see this.”

The three stepped out onto the deck of the boat, looking out over the sea of clouds, the Saoloro grand just in reach.

It shot out of the sky like a bullet. It’s slender blue serpent body was at least three times as long as the skyship they were sailing on. It spread out its wings to hang in the air for a brief second, clouds hanging off its lizard-like face like an elegant moustache. Another dragon shot out from beneath the clouds. This one was yellow with more slender claws, and a green spot on it’s back. The yellow dragon followed suit and spread it’s wings next to the blue dragon. The green spot on the yellow dragon jumped off the back of the other one and spread its wings to fly in the air, flying between the two dragons. It tried doing an aerial flip but ended up awkwardly tumbling through the air onto the blue dragon. After about a minute, it sleepily went onto the head of the blue dragon, and the dragon family fell back beneath the clouds.

“You never get tired of dragons.” Cassandra whispered, wiping a tear from her eye.

“So was that a family?” Roxanne asked.

“Pretty sure it was.” Cassandra replied. “Can’t say I’ve seen that before.”

“That’ll be me one day.” Roxanne whispered to herself.

“What, a dragon?” Julian asked.

“A family, dumbass.”

But once the clouds shifted like the dragons never existed, Cassandra got a call.

“Hey, is this Cassandra Torres?” The voice asked. It sounded younger than Rory.

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

“Dragon didn't get you, cool. Look, there’s been a change of plans. My name’s Dermot, and I’ll be the one looking after you while you’re here. That okay?”

“Sounds fine. We’ll only be a couple minutes anyway.” Cassandra nodded.

A couple minutes passed, and Cassandra landed in the top deck for the Saoloro grand. It was a small deck with vines growing over the walls. The three stepped out and past the miniscule fleet of airships.

“Hey, I’m going to need a name?” A man clad in a simple light green uniform asked.

“Cassandra and Julian Torres. As well as Roxanne.”

“Just Roxanne?” He asked.

“Roxanne…Rocks?” Roxanne replied. “Sorry, I don’t have an official surname.”

“Well, we are expecting the two of you.” The man nodded. “And I suppose you can come over if it’s fine with her.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“No problem.” The man replied, taking a flip phone out and making a call.

“Dermot? Yeah, they’re here. Already? Didn’t you call them a couple minutes ago? You can’t be that far away. Okay, I’ll let them know.”

The man sighed and closed his phone. “He’s running some errands. He’ll be a little later than expected. But he told me you can take whatever from the market street up the path and he’ll pay for it.”

With that permission granted, the trio went out to look over Saoloro. The outside of the ship was about as green as everyone said it would be, with animals casually grazing by several small farms dotted throughout the horizon, with a stone wall lining the outside of the grand to prevent anything falling off. The three went up the stone path and crossed a short bridge to the market street. It was several buildings seemingly stacked on top of each other in a chaotic order, to the point a map was needed to figure out where anything was.

“Well, I think the berry beast emporium would be the best start.” Julian said to the others. “Seeing as we’re in the fruit capital of the world.”

They made their way to the berry beast on the second layer. It looked like any other modern store you’d see anywhere else. The interior was simply a place with both a fridge and a slushie machine inside, only the slushie machine took up an entire wall and had twelve different flavours to its name.

“Julian, have you ever seen this?” Cassandra yelled out. “They have Witburn flavour! I don’t even know what that is!”

“It’s a fruit grown in fightston.” The scrawny young man behind the counter explained. “It’s basically used as an ingredient to help fighters bulk up in a healthy way. Taste wise, it’s like a sweet yogurt…but as a fruit.”

“And we can put that in a slushie?” Cassandra yelled out.

“You can put any fruit in a slushie if you try hard enough. Heck, you can get the ultra-berry supreme for 120 luxa.”

“120 luxa?” Julian asked. “That seems expensive for a slushy.”

“Hey, if it’s twelve times the fruit it’s twelve times the price.” The man shrugged.

“Who’s paying 10 luxa for a slushy?” Roxanne asked. “I thought they were like, 3 luxa max.”

“I mean, you are at the source for almost all of it. Super fresh. Besides, you get a bigger cup to fit everything in.”

He pulled a cup out from his counter, around the size of his head. Cassandra looked at it, then towards Julian.

“We can share it.” She whispered.

“Fine.” Julian nodded. “Besides, I wanna know what this thing tastes like.”

“Alright, that’ll be 120 luxa.” The clerk said casually.

“Can I make that 123?” Roxanne asked with a red can in her hand. “And we were told that Dermot would pay for it.”

“Yeah, sure.”

The three of them went back down the street when Cassandra took the first sip of her slushy. The fruits elegantly danced along her tongue and left a heavenly aftertaste as the icy liquid went down her throat.

“This is…pure heaven.” She muttered after a few seconds, her eyes gleaming at the icy concoction in front of her.

“Does it remind you of anything?” Julian asked.

“Nope. This is just the best thing I ever tasted.”

Julian dipped the wooden straw he got from the store into the slushy. His eye lit up the same way as Cassandra’s did.

“Damn, maybe I should get one of these.”

“Please…don’t.”

Julian looked towards the source of the voice, and a distressed looking man was ahead of them. He was wearing a blue flannel shirt with jeans, and under his light brown shaggy middle parted hair were green eyes in pure agony.

“Did you get an ultra-berry supreme?!” He yelled out.

“Yeah. Why, are you Dermot?” Cassandra asked.

“Yes, I’m Dermot!” The man yelled out. “Oh god, I’m gonna be living off smoothies for two weeks!”

“We were told we could get whatever we wanted.” Julian said calmly, taking another sip.

“I was expecting you to get some chocolate or something!” Dermot yelled. “Not the most expensive thing here!”

“I mean…you are connected to Rory, right? We just kind of assumed you had the funds.” Cassandra replied while taking another sip.

“I’m only an intern!” Dermot yelled. “Ah, whatever. But you guys need to help me with something, let’s go to the Torthai.”

The four of them walked up to the Torthai, listening to Dermot mutter to himself about how he was going to afford food for the next two weeks.

“So I’m guessing the Torthai is the big tree in the centre of this place?” Roxanne asked Julian.

“Pretty much.” Julian said. “You ever watch the skyworld games? New legion invaded the track last year, so they held the track events around here. It’s a giant tree that can grow most of the fruit in the world."

“So mister Dermot.” Cassandra asked. “Mind if I ask where Rory went?”

“So, you guys know how the Gurut Hammer was stolen by the legion, and they tried to steal the Sandala Axe before you guys stole it back? Well, the Luxes got super anxious about what could happen next and summoned all the remaining leaders to the centre grand and discuss what comes next. Which is why you’re stuck with me.”

“Remaining leaders?” Roxanne asked.

“Basically, Sandala and Gurut had their weapons taken, so they aren’t on the council anymore. They’ll still get support from the other nations, but they aren’t able to vote on issues affecting the entire skyspace until they get them back.”

“Wait, what?” Cassandra yelled out. “That’s really dumb.”

“Yeah.” Julian added. “If Sandala didn’t agree, couldn’t they just stop electricity output to the rest of the skyspace?”

“Probably, yeah.” Dermot replied with an exasperated sigh. “Which is why we want to discuss having you guys give the axe back to Sandala to stop anything major breaking out.”

“And hopefully the legion won’t break through again?” Cassandra asked.

“Well, there’s the thing.” Dermot said with a head scratch. “Maybe you could hold onto it while they say the axe is back where it belongs while they tighten their defences.”

“I could do that.” Cassandra nodded.

“Great, great. But anyway, we’re here!”

[wycademyhunter]

Field Journal: Yukomo-Kamura Region

Day 1 of Yukomo-Kamura Region Expedition

It's quite a fulfilling sensation to be back on the Soaratorium. When I arrived back in the Old World, the airship laboratory was already out on expedition, so I had quite some time to settle back in at Bherna.

Sparing the details, I'm back where I belong. I can see the Misty Peaks below us as I write this. Hymel was ecstatic to have me back on the crew and he keeps pestering me about my time in the New World, he's not at all satisfied the stuffed notebooks I brought back.

Luce had to come over and remind him we're out on work. He's not changed a bit.

We're due to land soon, at Yukomo Village. We've got cargo to deliver and a research team to deploy here. Won't have time for a foot-bath but it'll be nice seeing the Chief again.

Day 2 of Yukomo-Kamura Region Expedition

Our time in Yukomo is over, didn't get to stay as long as I thought. No trouble, it won't be the last time. Regardless.

Hymel gave me a little device to record visual infomation with. It's very similar to the one the Lynian Researcher provided in his work. I wonder who designed it ...

The first 'photo' I took, finally had something interesting to take one when we next landed- In Kamura Village! I remember hearing mention of this place a few years ago, when I was hunting the Mizutsune in Yukomo. A traveling merchant had come to deliver some special steel to the smithy there ... That steel, came from here.

Kamura steel is of legendary quality. Naturally, it's of high demand for a lot of equipment and Dragonators made from it are the best in their class.

But this place has more to it than its impressive metalwork. Hunters here employ a type of ... Neopteron? Smaller than Kinsects that bond with Insect Glaives. They're called Wirebugs, they create an azure, powerful silk that Hunters here use to traverse hunting grounds and also to perform offensive and defensive maneuvers.

Before we headed out proper, we were given some Wirebugs to use ourselves, after a proper lesson in using them. Very enthusiastic instructor, I must say.

We're heading out tonight on boat to our destination, some hunting grounds often visited by Kamura's Hunters.

Day 3 of Yukomo-Kamura Region Expedition

It took us a while to get to our destination. It's called the Lava Caverns. As the name implies, this locale is known for a complex system of caves underneath an active volcano. This volcano is surrounded by water, which runs some ways into the cave system below the surface.

Because of the unique clash of water and magma, this place has proven to be an interesting place for researchers. Many monsters that would normally never interact clash here.

Royal Ludroth and their harems roam the western coast and shallows into the cave system. Uroktor are also known to swim in the lava in the eastern side of the volcano but there's been little sign of Agnaktor living here. Perhaps the vicinity of water makes it a limited place to roam and hunt, given the major provider for predators here is Slagoth, which naturally stay in the shallow waters far from the running lava. Perhaps this place is simply just a better place for their smaller counterparts to live before growing?

And somehow, it only gets more interesting. In these tunnels are countless fossils. This is our primary objective. Acquire some samples on site, take notes of the environment and keep the search team safe.

I don't often return to my writing until the next day, but an update is required. We found this humongous specimen in the caves. Thank Gog I brought the camera, Hymel is going to want to see this, word of mouth won't cut it.

One of the researchers suggested it might be a Leviathan? I can see it, but the nested jaw bone it has reminds me of ...

(A long scratch of pencil trails off the page suddenly, the bottom is stiff and stained, dried from light water damage.)

[ezra-iolite]

Law of the Valiant Ramblings: Part 1

Story/Campaign Location

So... I have some OCs I really need to put out there, just to prove that I'm not entirely obsessed with Transformers... well, only a little. 😅 I've been benching this project of mine for some time now due to how complex and vast it is, but now I feel like I can finally work on it again.

In short, it's a novel I've been working on for a long time now, called "Law of the Valiant: The Bronzemoon Legacy" and it's going to be a series of books, if it ever does become more than just a personal project and turn into an actual original story to be published somewhere.

Luckily, this is a shared project I've been hammering away at with my boyfriend for the last 3-5 years, out of the 6 we've been together... it really says something about how impactful DND is, doesn't it? ¬w¬ But it all thanks to him, in the end! He helped me create my own character, how to understand the rules of DnD, and because I have no one to really play a session with, we created our own campaign, mainly based on our very own homebrewed world and races. It's gotten so big, we literally created an entire pantheon that has different deities based on the races and cultures of the entire world, alongside how each island/country is run.

So... screw it. I'm gonna infodump about it here and see where it takes me. Enjoy the long read!! Also, @tigracespace , @exileandtrust , or anyone else with a DnD AU or OC, you're more than welcome to take snippets of this lore if it'll help you in any way! 🥰 Just give credit where it's due!

(Also yes, I signed the picture to prevent any eejits from taking it for themselves, since this is actually my BFs casual work. We worked too hard on this together for it to be used without my consent! 🤬)

~*~

For this post, I'll start with the world that "Law of the Valiant" takes place in.....

The campaign/story occurs within a world that mainly consists of islands clustered at the tail of the Valian Empire, with the biggest island being the land of Kernai. For convenient purposes, when referring to everything you see on this map as a collective, the entire world can also be called Kernai, only because most of the action occurs on that island.

Moving in a clockwise manner, we'll start on the bottom left corner of the map to describe each island within the vast world shown here...

Leviathan's Veil: Said to be the birthplace of the world's magic, as well as the original home to the dragons and magical fauna that now inhabit the rest of the world, the floating islands are eternally shrouded in mists that force any who foolishly approach by boat or airship to turn back towards the mainland, no matter the mechanical tools or magical help they use to ensure their path keeps towards the floating archipelago. But even if they do find the means of passing through the protective magical fog, they will soon learn why these floating islands are only accessible by air, and why the entire area, mainly the shielding mists, are called Leviathan's Veil...

Soultorn Isle: At the heart of this craggy island, where it is said that one's lifeforce is drained from you upon setting foot on its cold, granular surface, dwells a tower that serves as a dark omen to any who are foolish enough to approach this island. For deep within its dark, skyward walls are its prisoners... the Mind Flayers, once an advanced civilization that had originally conquered all of Kernai and its inhabitants to become their willing slaves. No one remembers what led to their disappearance into the depths of the prison tower, but what they do know is that any who dare make it across the island and into the tower are never seen again.

Namdia: A land purely made of rock and ice, only those who's bodies and spirits are equal in strength have any chance at surviving on this island... And yet the fur-cladded (Viking-like) humans and Tabaxi who call this place their home have since thrived in their underground kingdom, one that is run by traditions consisting of the use of steam pipes built by their Dwarven founders, trade with their neighbors only ever performed on the icy tundra above their kingdom to ensure its secrecy, and their practiced use of control over the embodying elements of the island, of earth, fire and water.

Thesbia: Thousands of years ago the island was once home to the mountain-sized Giants, that is until the arrival of the first humans, the earliest known instance after "The Great Divide" that would split the world between humans and humanoids. Now, only their human-hybrid descendants, the clan-armored Titans (who now only reach under 10 feet in height), remain as the sole protectors of their ancestral home. Roaming the island with their swords and axes in hand, they live alongside the savannah dwelling Leonin, the forest based Centaurs, the mountain clambering Minotaurs, and many other humans and humanoids in the Greek-Romanesque kingdom. The inhabitants of Thesbia, mainly the once colonial and explorative Leonin, are mostly known for their hand in the creation of the magic barrier that keeps out the northern chill from half the island, caused by a war that destroyed the upper half of the island and turned it into the three sectors split by climate... the warm south, the icy mountain split, and the magically-created desert north.

Torbroch: An island entirely inhabited by Orc and Goblin tribes, it is under the rule of the xenophobic and prideful Order of the Four Fangs, who guide the chieftains and leaders of the tribes and punish any who trespass on the island or form a half-breed offspring with one of the tribe folk with the death penalty.

Valia/The Valian Empire: The "Cradle of Humanity" and the deathbed of Kernai's magic, Valia is a country ruled by the iron fist of Emperor Solias Valis and the (Victorian) caste based culture of science and steam-powered machinery, all at the cost of free will for the lesser populace and the prejudice against magic and the people outside the empire's rule. Under the city of Valiento dwells a city of criminals, undesirables (aka humanoids and disabled folk alike) and forgotten Warforged, struggling to get by day by day in the eternal twilight of the city, a city only known as the Hive. It is run by the Upper Guards, those sent by the Emperor himself to control the "beastly folk", with the elite amongst them being the Lightning Riders and the Plague Bearers, as well as a few notable gangs who run the underbelly of the Hive, such as the Azumites and the Warforged Time Lords. There's even word of a Warforged who wanders within the Hive, built to embody the Emperor in his younger days and act as his second hand, with a mind containing all his memories but without any of the human need for fear or fatigue. This project is known only as The Emperor's Shadow.

Azuma: Once a prosperous and bountiful oriental kingdom, Azuma was governed by an Emperor named Daijo Ori'ai alongside his Council of Lords, who in turn governed each major city across the island kingdom. Some years ago, Azuma was conquered by the Valian Empire as Emperor Solias enslaved the kingdom to fund his research into understanding Kernai's magic for his use. As insurance against a rebellion, Solias stole the Daijo's youngest heir, Prince Ai'Maketa, and made him a guinea pig for his assistant, the amortal alchemist Doctor Blanca Nyx. The young prince is still trapped in Valia, bound by Blanca's binding runes branded onto him that ensnares his own elemental power and ability to escape, while unbeknownst to him the kingdom of Azuma now lies in ruin, nothing more than a barren wasteland of ash and death after the successful test of Solias's newest weapon.

Hell's Gate: A haven for pirates and fleeing rogues alike, the archipelago consists entirely of sharp rocks between barely habitable islands, making travel by boat near impossible to those who do not frequent its protective harbor. One island, however, lies deep within its craggy clutches, and is home to the Pirate Matron.

Kilvaani's Rest: Home to the Scholar's Academy, the Great Library, and one of the biggest temples to the God of Knowledge, Kindness and the Four Winds, Aeori; this small kingdom is ruled by the last Tiefling of noble blood, Princess Lyria, who survived one of the Empire's many early crusades across Kernai in its attempt to control the land of Kernai. Since then, Kilvaani's Rest has become walled off against any who are not proven scholars in pursuit of humble and peaceful knowledge, earning the kingdom's nickname of the Fortress College.

The Khanaran Desert: Home to the struggling Tieflings of the small, and the only place that's habitable, village of Aesyir (the rest being scattered across the island of Kernai), the slaver Nagas of Cathargo and the pyramid temple to Akri, the prosperous and proud Aarakocra of the northwestern city of Aerkin, and the Dragon Rider clans on their side of the Silverthroat Mountains. It was here that the once white sands were turned red from the multitude of wars fought, between the earliest civilization of Dwarves and Tieflings (who would later establish their first kingdoms at the end of this war, later to be known as the Khanaran War) against their former masters of the Demon Court, Prince Oxarus the Eternal Flame and Thogodius the Fool; between the once prosperous Tiefling and Naga kingdoms, a war that drove both kingdoms to ruin and forced both races into a dwindling memory of their former selves; the more recent war between the Dragon Riders and the forces of the Valian Empire, one that has brought ruin to the desert through the glass forests and graveyards of airship and dragon skeletons.

The Emerald Valley/The Kingdom of Whitecliff: Consisting entirely of lush farmland, homely villages, outposts for stationed guards to help protect the region, some villas and vineyards for the nobility, and the ancestral Mathaerin Forest, the last part of the once towering forest that covered the entirety of the valley before The Great Divide. This region is ruled by two governing bodies rather than just one kingdom; the imperial capital city of Whitecliff, and the Agrarian Council, consisting entirely of farmers and important members of the community per village all across the Valley. While the council does report to the king of Whitecliff, it is a symbiotic relationship of equal trade of labor and fair pay in exchange for peace and safety. This safety comes in the form of Whitecliff's elite knights, known as The Emerald Guard, who follow a strict code and seven years worth of training before being stationed in one of the many outposts across the Emerald Valley. To ensure that the Emerald Guards never bring fear or harm to the people, the royal court mages created a curse on the armour of every guard who graduates from training that would only ever activate the moment the curse's words came true...

"Only the blood of tainted hearts may touch the green you wear. For if your plating should turn black, their weight in blood you shall forever bear."

It is also here where the story begins, in the small farming village of Alentou, built to support travelling farmers and merchants journeying to and from the capital or Hammerdeep and the forest city of . Quiet and dull, the lakeside village has everything one could need to live a humble country life, including the tavern known as the Daisy Djinn Inn, owned and run by a retired Rune Knight-Fighter Mountain Dwarf named Maddie Bronzemoon-Diazerae, and her entire family... consisting of her adoptive Elven mage sister and co-owner, Daisy Bronzemoon, Maddie's Rogue-Ranger Tiefling husband, Calder Bronzemoon-Diazerae, alongside their seven children; Bula Bronzemoon-Diazerae (Calder's half-orc daughter from a past relationship with a Torbroch chieftain's daughter), Garth Silverfang, Layla Bluemoon, Daisy's twins Raevyrn and Allora, Wren and baby Lorelai. More will be explained about those in orange in the next post...

The Silverthroat Mountains: At the foot of the mountains, on the western side, resides the great Mathaerin Forest, home to the High and Wood Elves, Centaurs, canine Leshen, forest spirits, and a plethora of both dangerous and docile magical fauna hidden within the protective tress of old. Deeper still within the forest, you will find trees that nearly reach half the height of the mountains, wider than any standard house, and their trunks containing the ruins of the very first homes of the ancient Erikeans who lived in early Kernai. But at the heart of this forest lies the High Elven capital, Silvervale. None are permitted to enter its stronghold walls unless they are merchants with an invite from the Mathaerkin/Matron Queen, a badly injured person on the brink of death seeking refuge (which by their code they must offer help but with tight security to ensure none are harmed while they are within their walls), or a fellow Elf.

If you travel along a path hidden within the forest, only known by those with experience journeying to this location, you will come across your first obstacle through the mountains... the Dragon Riders. Clans consisting of many mixed races but all bearing the exact same defining features that unite them as their own separate kingdom and community, of scales along their arms, back and cheeks, reptilian eyes, and never without their loyal dragon steeds to help protect their mountain home. The clans are divided into two based on where they live... the western Glacial tribe that help protect the Emerald Valley from large or country-wide threats such as delivering goods to help alleviate a famine or defend the mountain path against any Valian spies, and the eastern Sun tribe who continue to fend off the Valian Emperor's men from the shores of the Eastern Gap and their side of the mountain path through the Khanaran Desert.

However, if you manage to get by the Dragon Rider guards and follow the path to the largest mountain within the Silverthroat range, you will finally come to the grand stone gates of the underground Dwarven kingdom, arriving first to its capital city of Hammerdeep. Rocky structures made with golden details and steam pipes will be the first thing you see, alongside a bustling market as far as the eye can see, for Hammerdeep is the true heart of all crafter based trade within Kernai, mainly jewelers, stonecarvers, and the biggest trade being sword and blacksmithing. The city is run by a family-clan based hierarchy, while the rest of the kingdom is ruled by a council made up of the most powerful and providing clans, much like Whitecliff and its agricultural council. The largest and most influential clan are the Bronzemoons, the surviving descendants of Hammerdeep's heroic founder, Boic "Bravesoul" Bronzemoon, and one of the best family of blacksmiths and swordsmiths due to their use of runework and artistic craftsmanship, with their emblem being a bronze Celtic knot style crescent moon branded on anything they create.

~*~

And that's the world of Kernai for you! Sorry for this being so long, but as you can tell a LOT of work has gone into this over the years. So feel free to tell me your thoughts on how I could improve this, and enjoy the fruits of the labor my boyfriend and I have created together. And eventually I'll get around to posting about the OCs for this world, including my boyfriend's character, Calder~

Thank you so much for reading. ^w^

[kmlaney]

14 Days of Storybible: Day 3

Methods of travel:

How do your characters move across the setting where your story takes place? What preparations do they have to make? Do they have a favorite way of getting around?

Bonus: Sketch out a moment where something went wrong during travel.

@the-wip-project 

In Mistlands, most travel is on foot, on horseback, or in animal-drawn carts and carriages. In the less hospitable places outside of the lake valley, these are pretty much the only means of travel. In the north, animal-drawn may include dogs or large, semi-domesticated deer. In the south, horses, mules, and oxen are typical. 

Most people in rural areas know how to ride horses, though whether they own or have access to one is less universal. Driving a team is a rarer, though not uncommon skill. The larger the team, the fewer people are likely to know how to manage them. A teamster familiar with horses may not know how to drive oxen, and vice versa. 

Southern areas have limited train travel. They connect large towns only. Smaller towns connect via coach services on regular routes, and the roads they travel range in quality from ‘smooth, graded, and well-metalled’ to ‘move the biggest rocks and maybe pull out the brush and call it good.’ Station managers dispatch crews to repair damaged road, but how well they do so and how quickly depends on the whims of the stage company and the personality of the station manager.

The lake valley contains the largest towns and cities. Train travel here is more reliable and common and supplemented with airships. Good roads are common and in good repair. Passengers and freight move by boat on the rivers and around the shore of the lake. All the vessels have trained pilots, usually drawn from the ranks of smaller, similar vessel pilots and taught on the job. The vast majority started out as apprentices, either formal (a contracted arrangement) or informal (it’s the family business). Coaches fill in for the distances between towns not served by rail.

In the largest cities, one will find technological marvels such as personal steam-powered vehicles, mechanical horses, autonomous carts, velocipedes, and the like. For trips within town people employ carriages, rickshaws, or palanquins, all of which are available to hail from the street or engage at stands and carry varying numbers of passengers. Depending on the city the proportions skew toward animal, human, or mechanically powered, though all are present. City-dwellers are unlikely to know how to ride, and unless they operate a for-hire conveyance they won’t know how to drive at all. 

Phil’s seen trains but never ridden one. They know about rowboats, rafts, and canoes from personal experience, but larger boats and ships only from descriptions and drawings in newspapers and novels. Travelers told them about the lake and the sea, but bodies of water that large are inconceivable. They’ve heard of airships and other modern marvels but never seen any of them. 

In life, Phil was quite fond of animals in general and horses and mules in particular. They enjoyed caring for them, riding, and driving, though they didn't routinely drive more than two-in-hand. Death complicated matters. Humans might be easily fooled but animals turn snappish and irritable toward Phil regardless of how well they’re treated. They’ve lost two mounts already. Phil won’t bother wasting any more money than they have to on an animal they’re not likely to have long. Their current mule is deaf and mostly blind, named Lucky, as in “it’ll be Lucky if it don't run off.” He hates everyone but Phil, and he doesn’t like Phil all that much. 

The Dragon and Agnes Gister

Agnes Gister was a ferry pilot on Little Lake, east of Starlight up the Mistborn, near the big Blue Spur river. She learned the trade from her father and inherited the ferry when he passed. It was a pretty thing, bright green with its name, Opalina, painted proudly on its bow in gold. She ran the ferry with her wife Meridith and their passel of children, each assigned tasks according to their age and abilities. They were a well-known fixture on Little Lake.

Everyone knows the stories about the creatures in the lake. Everyone believes them, even if they won't admit to believing the more outlandish ones. The creatures were supposed to stay in the lake, though, the big lake. Starlight Lake. Strange shapes in Little Lake? That’s an eel, or a log, or weed. School of fish, maybe. Definitely not a lost lake creature. Most assuredly not.

It was their last trip of the day, heading back home to their little house on the Blue Spur side of Little Lake. Meridith and most of the children were already there. Agnes had a skeleton crew of the four oldest with her and only a single passenger, a location scout for Walter Green’s Traveling Warehouse. 

The sky was purple and the stars began to poke bright holes in the canopy when they felt the thump. The water was deep and cold with mountain runoff; lantern fishers had yet to put out; nothing had gone down recently. There was nothing to hit. One of the crew--a boy big enough to start out on his own if he wanted--ordered the rest to check for loose line hanging over the side or a buoy gone adrift, while he went to tell Agnes.

The thump came again, from the other side this time. Agnes had the boy dial the engine to minimum and turned the Opalina into the Little Lake’s slow current to hold station. She assigned another to hold the wheel and keep the ferry steady in place while she investigated. 

The children reported there was nothing amiss. All gear was secure and they saw no debris in the water. Agnes peered over the side herself into the indigo depths of Little Lake. She saw a shadow. A shadow that moved. Sinuous but too large for an eel. Too solid to be a school of fish. And dark, so dark it stood out against the background to her experienced eye as wrong, but nothing else. She asked for a lantern to put out over the water in order to see better. 

The light illuminated a pale violet circle beside Opalina’s green side. The water was clearer than it usually was during the melt, when upstream wash brought down all kinds of sediment. As Agnes puzzled over the mystery, the boat rocked with another thump, this time quite clearly from the keel, and the creature swam into the light. 

Its face was a combination of dog and horse, with a long snout and nostrils clamped shut. Weed or hair drifted from its chin and jowls and flowed around its head like a mane. The body stretched out behind, thick and round, legs folded up tight, with a stiff fin along its spine and black irregular stripes on either side. The skin surrounding them shimmered green, blue, and violet, changeable as the water it swam in. It turned that hideous head up toward the light and its eyes, faceted like jewels with neither pupil nor white, shone red and fixed on Agnes. Lips pulled back revealing a maw full of translucent teeth crammed together with no space between them.

Agnes jerked back, bringing the light with her but it was too late. The teeth came over the rail first, snout and nostrils following after. Then the eyes, the great faceted eyes, seeking the light and the person who held it. A six-fingered hand with talons like knives seized the wooden rail. The Opalina dipped to the side with the added weight. A second hand appeared beside the first. Its finned neck rose up behind its head. Its mane hung wet and dripping, flooding the deck with cold lake water. It opened its jaws and flicked a forked tongue the color of unripe apples toward Agnes and the lantern. She ordered the crew--her children, all of them--to collect their passenger and make for the stern and fire the rescue flare. Then she tossed the lantern toward the bow to distract the creature while she joined them. 

The horrible head with its unnatural eyes followed the light. The glass broke and phosphor oil flooded out, coating the deck in foxfire. Then a third hand came over the side. Opalina lurched as the creature heaved its bulk over the rail and onto the deck.

As lake creatures go, it was small. Maybe twenty feet long from its now-gaping-wide nostrils to the tip of its tail still hanging off the side. But Opalina itself was only sixty feet long and fifteen in beam. Almost too small to stay afloat if the thing hauled all the way out, which was what it seemed intent on doing. Three pairs of legs and their taloned feet scrabbled and clawed the little ferry’s polished deck. A fourth set shoved against the abused rail, levering the body out of the water. It opened its mouth and its tongue lapped out to sample the glowing phosphor. It hissed in distaste and sought out new prey more to its liking. 

That was the moment the rescue flare went up. Blue-white against the darkening sky, followed by a red one, together the signal for a vessel capsizing. Little Lake had no signal for creature attack. There had never been one. The light was ill-timed. The beast fixated on the glow. It spotted the six people gathered on the stern and slithered toward them.

“Where’s your lake gun?” the passenger asked.

Agnes stared at him. “We don’t have one.” They didn’t. Why would they? No monsters lived in Little Lake. The biggest fish were no longer than her arm.

They heard a sharp splintering sound as the rail gave way beneath the creature’s weight.

The passenger sucked in a breath. “I’ll check in the back,” he said, and darted off through the door into the pilot house. He reappeared a moment later with a massive, double-barreled lake gun. “Here!” he yelled, pushing the weapon into Agnes’s hands.

The awful head with its dripping head and gemstone eyes passed the corner of the pilot house. One forepaw gripped the rail. The other pushed off the corner. Its forked tongue darted out toward the people clustered at the stern.

Agnes had never fired a gun in her life aside from the signal flares. She had seen it done, of course, but she was a ferry pilot, not a hunter. Still, she shouldered the weapon as best she knew how, heaved it to bear on the creature threatening her family, and pulled both triggers.

The gun flashed brighter than the flare and the report was deafening. The stock slammed into her collarbone, shattering it. Smoke clouded her view of anything beyond the end of the barrels. 

There was a wet gurgle and the monstrous head fell to the deck with a loud thump. The creature inched its way toward the group, teeth gnashing. But it didn't make it. It slowed to a stop with only a few feet to spare. The apple-green tongue lolled out and came to rest on Agnes’s shoe.

She stood stock-still for a moment. The passenger plucked the still-smoking gun from her hands. “I’ll just put this away, shall I?” He disappeared into the pilot house, and returned without it.

By the time the harbor patrol aid ship pulled alongside, the children already had Agnes’s arm in a sling. The doctor wrapped it further to prevent movement but it took half a year to heal. She never recovered full use of her arm. 

Opalina did not capsize. Hauled back into port, the community contributed funds for its repair. By fall, about the time Agnes was on the mend, it put back out on its familiar route with their eldest son at the helm. 

The creature attracted curious visitors from miles around until it rotted and the stench forced a hasty disposal. All attempts at preservation--salt, alcohol, alchemical preparations--failed to halt its decay. 

With the attraction gone, the mayor commissioned a sculpture of the beast. It graces the green in the village square with a bronze plaque commemorating Agnes’s heroism. The two lead balls Agnes fired at it serve as its eyes. It is an impressive feature, if not exactly accurate.

The passenger vanished into the crowd, presumably continuing his work for Walter Green’s Traveling Warehouse. The lake gun, which all agreed was of Old Testament Arms manufacture and given the size of the shot recovered from the carcass most likely their 2-bore Moses model (guaranteed to part the seas), was not found anywhere on the Opalina. No one recalled seeing the passenger take it with him. It seemed to have vanished completely. 

The harbor patrol established two red flares as the signal for a lake creature attack. It’s never been used in the years since. 

It’s said that Agnes rose Anathema later, but that’s a different tale.

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

ScottyMcGeester Plays Every Final Fantasy Game*

*Okay, all the main games except 11 and 14 since they are online only, and also no spinoffs or sequels.

THE INTRODUCTION

Years ago, I had a goal to finish every Final Fantasy game. As of December 30, 2020, I finally reached that goal. I originally started posting these reviews way back in 2017 on VGF(VIdeo Game Forums), and posted one review after another as I completed each game. I had already finished a few before I started reviewing the series, such as Final Fantasy I, II, VI, IX, and X.

Final Fantasy X was my very first Final Fantasy game, way back when it first came out on the PS2. It took me years to finish that game, mostly because I was still a novice at RPGs and I didn’t quite know what I was doing. Still, the world and concepts of Final Fantasy gripped me. As a sci-fi/fantasy writer, they inspired tons of elements in my stories. The series spans a multitude of genre-bending stories – sci-fi, fantasy, some steampunk, modern fantasy, space, traditional fantasy with knights in armor – and a whole lot of crystals. I wrote these reviews as if you have no idea what Final Fantasy is – whether you are a gamer or non-gamer. This first post is a general introduction to the series as a whole, but even if you are a die-hard fan already, there are some things that I explore that I hope you'll find interesting. What is Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy is a roleplay video game series that started back in 1987. The first game was reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons, where you could choose one of six roles for a team of four: White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Thief, Monk and Warrior. Square, now known as Square Enix, developed the game. A legendary rumor about the title “Final Fantasy” comes from the story that they were on the verge of bankruptcy. They only had money for one more game, a fantasy game. They dubbed it “Final Fantasy.” This apocryphal story is nowhere near true. Square had made video games before and they didn’t do well, but the company itself wasn’t on the verge of bankruptcy. What happened was that the developer, Hironobu Sakaguchi, had planned to retire. He didn’t see any foreseeable future in video gaming with Square’s mediocre performance. He wanted to make a fantasy game and dubbed it “Final Fantasy”, since it was to be his personal last work. He also wanted the game to be abbreviated as “FF” – they originally had “Fighting Fantasy” in mind but that name was already trademarked by a board game. Final Fantasy initially sold 400,000 copies in Japan and became and instant hit. Nintendo of America approached Square to release a localized version for the states. Final Fantasy became far from Sakaguchi’s last game. What’s Final Fantasy about? Every main Final Fantasy game has a new story with new characters and even new gameplay. Some games have direct sequels and are recognizable with a subtitle, or an additional number following a dash. For example, there is Final Fantasy VII, and the direct sequel to that Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. There's a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X titled Final Fantasy X-2. But even though each Final Fantasy game is different, there are still central elements that make them a Final Fantasy game. You can’t just write up a random fantasy story and slap the Final Fantasy name on it. The following elements are what make a Final Fantasy game. Some are obvious while others not so much. Chocobos:

Chocobos were first introduced in Final Fantasy II, but have been present ever since. They are cute, large birds that the characters often ride across fields or sometimes call into battle. They have practically become the mascot of the series. Moogles, Cactuars and Tonberries – oh my!

Moogles (pictured above) are telepathic creatures that help the players, or sometimes they can be a playable character. They debuted in Final Fantasy III.

Cactuars (right) and Tonberries (left) are cute, unassuming enemies that are actually highly dangerous, killing you in one shot if you are not careful or fast enough. The former debuted in Final Fantasy VI while the latter debuted in Final Fantasy V. Summons:

Sometimes they go by different names, like eidolons or espers. Summons are massive, fantastic beasts that you can call upon to aide you in battle to fight the enemy. Summons became a staple ever since Final Fantasy III. In some games, they are merely there to call into battle, while in other games they are central to the story. Airships:

Airships have been present since the first game. They are massive boat-looking airplanes. In the more recent games, airships look almost like spaceships.

Cid:

With the exception of the original Final Fantasy (except in later remakes), every game has a character named Cid. Cid is typically the character who owns an airship.

Items and Magic Spells:

Each game shares virtually all the same items and magic spells. Antidotes. Eye drops. Maiden's kiss. Holy water. Phoenix Down is well-known for reviving knocked-out characters in battle. The spells follow a hierarchy of levels. For example, Cure is the basic spell to heal somebody. The second level spell for healing is Cura. Then Curaga. Then finally Curaja. Most other spells follow the same format. The same high-level spells also frequently appear throughout the games, such as Holy and Flare.

Crystals:

With a few exceptions, crystals appear in nearly every game. They often serve as plot devices, whether they be the force that protects the planet or powerful objects coveted by the enemy. They also oftentimes have a consciousness of their own, communicating with the characters and calling them to their destiny.

Mythological References:

Final Fantasy is riddled with mythological references. Many summons and creatures take the names of mythological creatures or deities, such as Shiva, Bahamut, Leviathan, Behemoth, Odin, and Ifrit. Certain villains share the names of mythological figures or they are derived from certain mythological concepts, such as Gilgamesh and Sephiroth. Many of the games have legendary weapons you can find near the end of the journey. These are typically named after legendary Japanese figures, such as Masamune and Yoichi, or other world mythologies, such as Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. Saving the World:

Final Fantasy isn’t about saving a particular princess, or person for that matter. The ultimate goal is to save the entire world, or even the very fabric of reality. Evil spreads in many ways, such as a sealed darkness trying to break free, empires with ambitious goals, villainous subordinates who pull the strings of politics, or empires destroying the environment. Typically, the main cast consists of characters from all walks of life. They all have to learn to work together and get through their personal struggles to save the world. Existential Crisis (or Startling Revelation):

By the time you reach the third act of a Final Fantasy game, some startling revelation forces the characters to question their very existence. A villain is revealed to be a hero’s family member, a main character realizes they're a clone, another realizes that they cannot live without magic, etc. Typically, the main character questions the nature of their soul, if they die like regular beings and become part of some greater life force, or blink out into oblivion. Whatever the revelation may be – it serves as a final crisis that the characters have to overcome. The Descent into Hell:

Every third act of a Final Fantasy game ends with what I like to call a “descent into hell”. The final dungeon is always some kind of bizarre world. In Final Fantasy II, you literally descend into hell to fight the Emperor. Throughout the series, hell is more metaphorical. The final dungeons can be a massive, sprawling tower or dreadnought, or a strange dimension that appears to have no rhyme or reason. Sometimes I'm reminded of M.C. Escher’s work, “Relativity”, or sometimes it reminds me of some cosmic horror featured in the Cthulhu Mythos. These final dungeons can be inter-dimensional rifts between space and times, pockets in reality, subterranean depths, insane worlds that the villain created, and worlds of darkness. (Final Fantasy IX's Memoria)

(M.C. Escher's “Relativity”)

These stylistic approaches for the final dungeon represent the oncoming battle with the forces of chaos. Fighting God:

After venturing through the surreal and hellish final dungeon, you face the main villain. The main villain always achieves godlike status or the characters actually have to defeat a god in order to save the world from its oppressive reign. Many stories appear to throw in a last minute ultimate god who was pulling the strings of the plot the entire time. The purpose of dealing with gods and goddesses represents the characters’ desire to control their own fate and alter their destiny. Most of these bosses are strange and grotesque, definitely getting a Cthulhu vibe from them. I looked at them and thought, "Christ, what the hell is THAT supposed to be?"

It always feels like THE final fantasy:

Each game, no matter what happens or how it happens, feels like the be-all-end-all of its story – its fictional universe. Direct sequels were unheard of until Final Fantasy X-2, which while fun, was wildly different in tone from the original game, and critics pointed out that it ruined the finality of Final Fantasy X. This is one reason why I think direct sequels to Final Fantasy games fail – what else could the main characters possibly face that is more dangerous than the one they just encountered? Anything else would feel like child’s play to them. NOTABLE PEOPLE Aside from the characters, stories and games themselves, the people behind the series have achieved legendary status. Nobuo Uematsu:

The original composer of Final Fantasy. Uematsu single-handedly scored the first 9 Final Fantasy games. Uematsu surprisingly never had any formal training in music – a trait that would ostracize any composer, such as Danny Elfman. I find that the those who haven't had any formal training usually break the mold with music. Uematsu started working for Square at around 25 for the first Final Fantasy game, starting out with nothing and never suspecting his job would lead him where he is now. His music is unique for incorporating elements of classic and progressive rock, specifically in the battle themes. Uematsu’s themes for each game have achieved instant recognition in the gaming world, as recognizable as the theme to Star Wars or James Bond. Tetsuya Nomura:

Tetsuya Nomura is a video game designer and director who started at Square in 1990. He rose to prominence when he was given full control of designing the characters for Final Fantasy VII – arguably the most popular Final Fantasy game to date because of its characters: Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Vincent Valentine and Sephiroth. Nomura went on to create more legendary characters for Final Fantasy VIII, X and XIII. Yoshitaka Amano:

Amano is the artist whose work is most known now in Final Fantasy. He has done concept art and design for every game in the series. His style is instantly recognizable. He has also drawn for many anime shows, comics and mangas, such as Vampire Hunter D and Sandman: The Dream Hunters.

And last but certainly not least - THE MUSIC Final Fantasy has left its mark in the musical soundtrack of video games. Each game more or less shares three of the same memorable tracks.

The Prelude:

The Victory Fanfare:

The Final Fantasy Main Theme:

THE REVIEWS

Each review I post will critique major aspects of each Final Fantasy game, such as its gameplay, graphics, story, and music. Today is currently January 3, 2020 (technically the 4th when I post this because it’s past midnight), and I will be posting one review per day so as to not lose my sanity editing and formatting everything at once here. So look forward to the very first review tomorrow starting with the very first Final Fantasy game.

[witchyfictional]

Week 13 pt.1 (SPRING 13/13)

Professional Log of Harper Tobin, Journeyman Witch

Patient #1: My good friend Ariadne Soriah, adventuring scholar from the Cloud Isles

Ailment: Druidic Madness [senses*] [magic*] I assume she was afflicted by something she came across during our expedition into Dreamwater Depths, as she’s never before shown a proclivity toward compulsively arranging items into circles. I’m not sure exactly what the cause might have been; I was unconscious for most of the trip (see last week’s notes).

Recommend: Coffee Cap to return her senses, Coldrust to break the magic

Patient #2: Illinois James, notorious tomb raider and treasure hunter – and an old flame of Nana Dorea’s, if she’s to be believed.

Ailment: Dwarven Lung [cough*] [lungs**] Too much treasure hunting in the tunnels & caverns beneath the deepest dungeons, I presume.

Recommend: Cough Quencher

Field Notes:

I accidentally stepped on Paul the skeleton again on my way out from collecting Coldrust in Hero’s Hollow. This time I am certain he was lying in the way on purpose. I might have made a grave (ha) mistake when I offered him compensation the first time I did so; at this point I think he’s just trying to extort people. I gave him a good scolding and continued on my way to Blastfire Bog for the rest of my foraging.

I’m still not quite used to the terrain of the bog. I found the Coffee Caps I needed without issue, but I got a little too curious around a unique patch of violent purple moss, which promptly began glowing and then exploded all over my leg. The muck below was boiling hot, but the burns are light enough for me to ignore, so I’ll continue on. Although I don’t immediately need more reagents from the bog, I really want to stay and poke around for a while. Neither of my patients are in urgent need, and thanks to my new Treatment Room I’m confident that they will be comfortable for the day.

I revisited the crashed airship I found on my first trip, and the Fairy Dust footprints I’d left on the tree below it were gone, as expected. I don’t know if the rest of the dust remained inside, because before I could climb up I spotted something else that has derailed my entire visit: Amethyst Antlers. At last! And not covered in bog slime this time! They were wedged between some of the roots, and I found hoofprints in the soft patches of solid earth between the stretches of swamp. Some buck has been shedding his horns, apparently, and I have a hunch that I might find more if I follow the trail.

I found another good chunk of shed antler about fifteen minutes away, although reaching for it tipped my boat over and I had to struggle to right it again and climb in. I lost nothing, thankfully, but I gained several leeches. The third piece of antler I picked up was halfway submerged in a dark pool, and much easier to reach. As soon as I tucked it into my bag I heard a loud, gurgling pop and looked back over the pool. Beginning slow but quickly growing in frequency, a number of strange bubbles were rising on the surface of the bog and exploding into rainbow-colored flames, which then shot into the air like a lightshow. It was honestly spectacular. I stayed to watch the fire until it all died down again.

I wish I had a wand. Some of this fire would make for a wonderful reagent if only I could catch some.

The game trail was getting a little harder to follow, but I still managed to stay on track, as evidenced by the fourth piece of Amethyst Antler I snatched from atop some kind of huge bone jutting out of the bog. As I pushed forward I saw more and more of the enormous bones. I assumed it was some kind of titanic creature that fell here – perhaps another giant – but I knew my guess was wrong as soon as I rounded the next bend and saw the skull. It was bigger than the Trippins’ shoe-house; its jaw could have held an amphitheater; its eyes socket alone was like the entrance of a cave.

It had once been a dragon.

As I passed closer to the eye socket, I noticed a pair of buzzards nesting there, and they looked down at me in turn. To my surprise (although I really shouldn’t be surprised at this point) they spoke, just as clear and understandably as that poetic toad from the other week, and they offered to tell me a story if I stayed a while. I moored my coracle and told them I’d love to listen. They took turns speaking in a lovely back-and-forth sort of narration as they spun their tale. I can’t recount the story very well here – I’ve never been much of a storyteller, and I took no notes while I was listening (I thought it might be impolite), but I can do my best to summarize.

This dragon’s name is lost to time, but she apparently ruled over this territory back when it was still an ancient forest and not a swamp. Mostly the story was about how the dragon protected her territory from an incursion of giants from the Cloud Isles, back when they were still an invading society at odds with the kingdoms below. The dragon and the Empress of Giants had once been good friends, but they grew into bittersweet opponents over time. The buzzard-bards described multiple confrontations as the two clashed over the Empress’ attempts to invade the lower earth.

One notable day, the dragon found herself blown by a hurricane into a forest of strangling vines beneath one of the largest Cloud Isles. Her breath had been doused, her strength worn thin by the storm, and the more she struggled the more tangled in merciless vines she became. She became trapped there for days, becoming weaker and weaker, and could not even cry out for aid for fear of bringing her enemies down from the topside of their floating isle to finish her off. A school of Nimbus Fish witnessed the dragon’s struggles and brought the information to the Empress of Giants, for they were her spies and messengers in those days. When the dragon saw the Empress’ skyship descending into view, she thought she was finished. The skyship opened fire – but instead of injuring the dragon it shot at the roots and far tangles of the vines that held her, breaking just enough of them so she could struggle free. The dragon broke from her bonds and, unsure if this release was deliberate or an accident of fate, retreated from the isle instead of attacking the skyship in return.

That was it for the anecdote the buzzards told me. It felt a little incomplete, just enough to make me curious for more, but I also realized that night was falling over the Bog and I should probably try to call it a day. I thanked them for their tale and moved my little coracle onward through the swamp. I lost the trail of the Amethyst Antlers as I paddled through another garden full of half-sunken statues – the ones with the screaming faces – but fortunately I found it again when I picked a piece up from a cluster of giant toadstools. I belatedly realized this was where the colossal Poetry Toad still sat, corpulent and sleepy. I nearly passed it by, as to keep from disturbing its rest, but when I drew close its eyes slid open and it began to speak, granting me another little snag of verse:

“The Dragoness sank into endless sleep, Bound with enchantments the young Wizard spoke; Imprisoned forever within her keep Until by chance the curse be broke. But woe to he Who found the key– And by foolish fate, the dragon awoke.”

After hearing the buzzards’ story, I’m beginning to suspect the toad’s poetry refers to the very same dragon. I wonder if it’s all true? I’ve decided I’m going to write down every rhyme the toad shares with me, to see if I can get a full picture of the tale in time.

As it was nearing twilight, I found my last piece of Amethyst Antlers along what looked to be the outskirts of civilization. I soon realized this was the edge of a village full of those goblins that kept running me off before…but I must have come around a better way this time, because instead of being attacked again I only met with a few wary fishers who watched me pass from a distance. After a while I found a crowd gathering closer to my slow-moving boat, but their faces went unexpectedly from uncertain to friendly, and through a sort of pantomime I managed to gain an invitation ashore. I tied up my boat and followed them straight into some sort of community dinner celebration. The food looked and smelled…nauseating, to be honest, but they seemed so eager to share it with me, and I really didn’t want to offend them or be chased off with rocks again. I smiled and held my breath and resigned myself to eating at least a little bit. To my utter shock, none of it was actually as bad as I feared, and for the most part the taste of everything was much more palatable than the smells – even if the textures were alarming. Although only a few of my dinner partners spoke the same language I do, it was an unexpectedly pleasant social experience. After dinner I was given a cursory tour of the town, which was fascinatingly constructed in a mixture of treetop architecture and something like dams or burrows within the swamp itself, with canals or bridges mostly serving as the paths in-between places. It turns out that there are actually two disparate tribes of goblinkind local to this swamp, and these were entirely different from the ones that were so aggressive with me before.

During my tour, Shadow suddenly began acting very strangely, hissing and growling at – well – shadows. It was alarming my hosts so after a few instances of this I asked what was the matter, and he directed my attention to a creature staring at us from the next bridge over. It has been following us, Shadow told me, and I could feel his irritation sharply. It is watching us. At first glance it was nothing but a rather angry looking little monkey, very small – If it weren’t for Shadow’s eyes I never would have noticed it against the trees. Its fur glistened golden, reflecting back the lurid evening swamp lights. I decided it must have been a pet, because if was far too clean to be a wild animal living in the swamp. It stared back at me for a few seconds, glaring with huge, almost bulbous eyes, and then it bared its sharp teeth and abruptly flew away – yes, flew, on wings feathered in green and gold that reminded me of a parrot. It had a long, silken-furred tail trailing behind.

I have never heard or read about any such creature before in my life, and honestly, this fact annoys me. Not to sound arrogant but I have done a lot of reading, especially when it comes to exotic animals. It’s something of a competition I have going with my elder brother Edhaas. I tried to ask my hosts if such monkeys were native to Blasfire Bog, but none of them had seen it before it flew off, and I was told that they had in fact never seen anything like what I described. Perhaps I can find more resources on such things back in High Rannoc…or, perhaps I’ll get another glimpse whenever the creature shows up again. After all, it was intelligent enough to follow us, and for some reason it had been watching us. Whatever it wants may yet become clear in time.

[continued in PART 2 here]

OOC: Rep – 19 [Intermediate] Silver – 74 Tools – basics / coracle / sickle (+2 foraging points) Familiar skill – Hunter (-3 to find Animal reagents) Golem Helper: learning to read & write

Upgrades: – Garden plot (x1; Surgeon Sap) – Raven Loft (take 2 jobs; if both on time, x2 pay for second draw) – Treatment Room (+3 all Timers, +10 silver /successful potion)

Surplus reagents: ** Surgeon Sap [wound] [burn] [+1s]  — (freely available) *** Amethyst Antlers [magic] [curse] [mood] — (x8) ~Candy Rock [+4s] — (x1) * Coldrust [hot] [magic] — (x1) * Deep Reed [ear] [blood] [stomach] — (x1) ** Dentist Crabs [teeth] [mouth] [lungs] [infection] — (x1) ** Foot Fungus [burn] [boils] [rash] [+2p] — (x2) *** Fossil Fish [time] [magic] — (x3) * Gas Weed [lungs] — (x1) *** Ghost Goo [spirit] [curse] — (x1) ** Glittersnow [curse] [magic] — (x1) * Hermit Snails [wound] [bones] — (x1) *** Innocent’s Suffering [pain] [sleep] [nerves] [wound] — (x2) ! *** Jumpkin [stomach] [cold] — (x1) ** Mermaid’s Gift [hair] [+1p] — (x1) *** Moon Moss [blood] [curse] — (x1) ** Princess Toad [wart] [rash] [mood] — (x1) * Scramble Bramble [mood] [senses] [+1p] — (x1) * Skullcap [poison] [pain] — (x4) **Shadow Shark [pain] [burn] [rash] [-1s] — (x1) ** Shockfish [nerves] [pain] [boils] — (x3) * Silverleaf [infection] [rash] — (x1) *** Wigfish [mood] [sleep] [hair] — (x2)

[huntsman-ash]

Headcanon: Pacifica

(Before Sinday begins for me, I give you where Ash and Team CAMO are currently based out of).

Every continent on Remnant has islands off its coasts. Sheered off by water action, by cataclysmic incidents with the tectonics, or simply having formed seperatly, they dot the coastlines of most of Remnant's landmasses.

Solitas is no different. And because its Solitas, and the majority of it is a frozen hellscape, almost every single one has at least some habitation.

One has...quite a lot.

(Please excuse the WoR map, I couldnt find a proper official one and RT are jerks and wont make one that actually works)

This is the island of Pacifica, the largest island in the south-west of Solitas, directly west of Atlas itself and the closest settlement to the small port of Cross's Landing.

Though here it is one single, large island, it is in fact a psudo-chain; the large island of Pacifica, the smaller northerly island of Wakattu, and the uninhabited, cloud-shrouded isle of Peliu.

Though they are the closest island to Atlas, the people who live there are not actually Atlesian, in bloodline or in government. They come from much older stock, a remnant if you will of a forgotten age.

Originally a mostly bare island, with a minor native population of marine faunus (primarily orcas) originating from nearby Wakattu, Pacifica was first founded during the Great War, when (being the closest island to Sanus, which is almost directly south of it via Vytal) it was utilized as an arms and embarkation base alongside Cross's Landing to load the invasion force that would eventually steamroll through northern Vale. As the decade of the Great War rolled on, a city formed to support the base, and to allow for the production, repair, enhancement and resupply of military goods of every sort. As it became more and more important, and more equipment flowed into it, its military asset grew as well. And as the war ground on, Mantle began to fear a counter attack from Vytal into it, and from there, a stepping stone to Solitas itself.

And so they set about building Pacifica into an unbreakable Iron Cage; delving to the shallow sea floor, they raised great walls, thicker even than the ones that would later defend Mantle itself, bristling with Dust shield projectors and defensive batteries. The island itself was enforced with gun batteries, missile systems, aircraft launch systems, air strips, and dockyards for the entire Mantle Navy. A full Army was stationed there at all times, usually new recruits cutting their teeth in combat against raiding parties from Vale or the Grimm that seemed to constantly be attracted to Peliu. The populous was slowly consumed into this, making the island a military nation-state with the explicet purpose of brunting every and all aggression from Vale to Mantle.

And then the Great War ended in Vacuo. Everything stopped. Peace filled the world and everyone was happy.

Except for Pacifica. They weren't particularly happy about what had happened...and they liked the power they had now. No longer were they merely a small outpost of something greater, they had TEETH now.

No pirate or bandit thought to approach them for they new the agonizingly fast death that would result. Aside from Peliu, the Grimm were no threat. Even the Wakattu, who at first had been hesitant to have so much equipment, so close, were grateful to have Pacifica's guns around when the largest of aquatic Grimm inevitably swam to their islands shores, seeking the creature that the people and the island itself were named for, as they had done for time immortal.

So when Mantle offered to take all their equipment back and restore the island to what it was before, the Pacifican Preatorian Defender (their equivilent of a king, or headmaster, or ruler) promptly told them, in no uncertain terms, to "fuck right off". Then Pacifica raised their sheilds, rolled out their guns, and stood on alert for anyone trying to come and take their power by force.

No one did of course. The time after the Great War was one of rebuilding. Mantle simply left Pacifica to do its own thing and 80 years of peace did the rest. Pacifica eventually became a productive member of the King of Vale's imagined peaceful Remnant.

Currently the nation is considered an island-state, with no official affiliation to any kingdom, but heavy trade ties to Atlas specifically (for obvious reasons). Their main imports are technology and Dust, unsurprisingly, with their main exports being aquatic food of all kinds, certain medicines Atlas can't make themselves, and enhancements to existing tech using some of the machinery that Mantle left behind. They also mildly trade with Vale for produce.

At least, that was the situation till the Fall of Vale...and, more recently, the Fall of Atlas.

During the Second Fall, Pacifica went into full military mode again; members of the Pacifica Guard swear up and down the Leviathan Grimm was approaching Pacifica itself, saw how many guns it had pointed at it and the swarm of interceptor fighters and the men and women in armor standing ready to face it...and it turned for Atlas because it would be a softer target.

When the CCTS went down fully, the island effectively went dark, relying on its internal equipment to maintain coms between units and citizens, unable to contact the outside world.

Needless to say, it was a rather nasty shock when, about a day into the siege of Atlas, an airship arrived.

Formerly an SDC Dust carrier, retrofitted into a heavily militarized "pleasure boat", this was the Final Solution, the personal vessel of Tahoma Vulcan of Vulcan Arms. On board was almost every Vulcan Arms employee, several dozen Mantle civilians who'd been swept up, every surviving Atlas "Helljumper" lead by their leader Hood Vulcan, the majority of the ladies of Madam Pappillion's Crystal Unicorn hotel (formerly the Glass Unicorn) alongside the Madam herself...

And Hunter-Killer Fireteam CAMO.

The uproar was quite something, but quickly settled down to military precision, as those that could fight were quickly and seamlessly folded into Pacifica's existing defensive measures.

The Madam and her ladies bid their leave here to settle on Wakattu, reuniting the Madam with her former bodyguard and head of security, Matriarch (head of the Wakattu tribe and its various pods) and the civilians were dispersed into the overall population to rest and recover.

And then literally half a day later, the shattered, battered remains of Atlas's Second Fleet arrived, First having headed south for Argus.

They told a horror story of what happened, of the destruction of the Whale by the Ace Ops, of Ironwoods sudden madness, and how, based on what they'd last seen, the kingdom was GONE, crashed into the tundra, burying Mantle with it.

With precision their forces were folded in as well, forming the First United Solitasian Protectorate Fleet.

And at some point during this, the 2500 meter long monstrosity known as the Spirit of Ice arrived...

And THEN, as if that wasn't enough, a couple dozen scrap-built ships came rolling in from the west, from the seemingly uninhabited dragon continent, all bearing the Grimm Eye of Salem.

Cultists, apparently, humans twisted to her worship or something similar. Madmen and savages to an individual...but in no way, shape, or form even near combat ready.

The USPF SLAUGHTERED them. The vindictive feeling soothed the rage of the Atlesians, and united them all in a common goal. A pact formed in blood of the unworthy, as the Lord Preatorian said.

As of now, Pacifica is the most defended settlement in the north of Remnant. And as of recently, they've finally begun opening the shield again to let teams out, to begin probing the tundra, the Atlas Wastes, and the new lake that covers both kingdoms...

And to let the Hunter-Killer team that shelters among them do their job once more.

[talesfromgringolandia]

Underwing Challenge Day 2 - Introduce the WIP you’d like to highlight this month. What’s it about? What are some themes/vibes it covers?

The WIP I’m working on currently is called Bo and Shen, as a working title. The main characters are a brother and a sister named, shockingly, Bo and Shen. I came up with these two characters in a very interesting way. Usually, I have a character idea, then construct the world around that. With Bo and Shen, it was the opposite. The world of this WIP is probably about 5 years in the making, although it only started looking the way it does now around two years ago. I had everything well constructed and I thought I had a story - a young tinkerer named Aaron who becomes friends with a paladin whose name wasn’t yet decided.

But then I found a writing prompt on Reddit (this was before I switched to Tumblr). It interested me and I wrote a quick on-off. Two siblings, Bo and Shen, bickering in a boat on a river. I didn’t expect it to extend beyond that. But as time passed, my mind kept coming back to these two siblings, who just kind of… made a place for themselves in my world. It was almost accidental, but they fit so well I was stunned. Then I wrote a second part, which expanded the world in a way I hadn’t predicted… and I kept going. I’ve got seven parts now. I haven’t actually finished a part for around 6 months probably. Senior year in high school is super busy.

So what is the world of Bo and Shen? So firstly, it takes place on Venus. The inhabitants of the world have no memory of Earth, though - the floating isles of Venus are all they know. These islands are high above the surface of Venus, which is called the Abyss. Dragons live there. The magic system is called Aether, and it's more of a science than magic. Its origin isn’t understood though.

There are two major nations and three smaller ones, each with its own unique use of aether, although there is some intermingling. Our story takes place on the isle of Endora. Here, aether is alchemy, which is the use of aether to control organic material. Alchemists make great doctors, but also great mad scientists, and have a bad reputation around many people. They created the chimeras, which are half-man, half-animal people living in the woods. Endora is completely covered by swamp and forest. Only on the easternmost coast has the isle been conquered, and a city built(with the same name as the isle.) The city was built as a rest-port for airships hundreds of years ago, and it has been slowly expanding in waves ever since.

Bo and Shen live deep in the swamp with their parents. Their mother, Jolna, is a talented alchemist, and their father, Ambrose, a powerful paladin of Felenor, titan of honor and justice. Bo fully expects to become responsible for the family once his father passes away, and so is uptight and looks after his younger sister. Shen is very carefree, and she loves looking at the animals in the forest.

The themes are very much sibling relationships, and learning to step outside your comfort zone(especially for Bo).

There are descriptions of the other four isles under the cut. I should really try cutting these posts shorter, shouldn’t I?

The Isle of Galras has tinkering, which uses the aether to power clockwork machines, including robots. They’re currently at war with a rogue sentient. Destra has the paladins, who follow Titans which are essentially gods. There are two good Titans, two bad, and two neutral, and I’ve developed most of them. The isle is currently conquered by the followers of Eldra, titan of suffering and despair.

On the mountainous isle of Minvir is always snowing, and sparsely populated by tribes at constant war with each other and with the massive beasts that also live there. The dwarven isles, as of yet unnamed, are numerous - the dwarves live inside them, building labrynths for their homes. Dwarves can survive for short periods of time in the Abyss, letting them gather invaluable resources which they sell to the other nations for exorbitant prices.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Ten Sides (Part 33)

I don’t exactly know how to tag this but a warning on this chapter as I feel like some of the language can be unsettling for mental abuse survivors and, though the chapter doesn’t contain sexual harassment, some of the language might be similar? Maybe the best way to but it would be to say that there’s a CW for objectification. 

Normally tears don’t come easily to her, not when she has to induce them herself. It only takes thinking back to the not so distant past to coax them forward. She hates the feeling of his hand on hers as he leads her down the hall. She worries that she is appearing too lucid so she lets herself stumble. The man sighs deeply as though she is an inconvenience. As though that isn’t exactly what he wants. “This way he mumbles.”

She knows the way, he has forced her to walk it so many times now. She knows the way though she hasn’t been down this hall in ages. She didn’t expect to have such a visceral reaction to trekking it once again. It comes like nausea. Her stomach drops and her throat runs dry. This time when she shakes it isn’t drug induced.

He chuckles, “keep walking, it isn’t that hard, we’re almost there.”

Which is all the more reason to come to a standstill but she lets him drag her into the room regardless. He leads her to the surgical table, she can smell the vines, their musky, freshwater odor. It leaves her stomach heaving. Agni, she hates the smell of sea plants...

“Get yourself comfortable.”

He knows well that the chill of the table’s metals offer no comfort at all.

“Since you’ve been a good girl, we won’t use the straps today.”

She waits for him to turn before letting out her sigh of relief. She lays herself back upon the table, staring at the ceiling. The same ceiling she’d been forced to stare at before. She shudders, feeling entirely queasy. For a moment she wonders why she is doing this to herself. For a moment she forgets that this is the only thing that will drive the nightmares from her mind once and for all.

Control. She will let old scenarios play themselves out. They will end the way that she wants them too.

They will if she can stave off the panic that comes with such familiar discomforts. A tear slips from her eye. She hadn’t meant for it to do so.

“You’re pretty when you cry.” He purrs as he fixes the first vine to her forehead. “Do you know that?”

And he will be pretty when he is a smear of blood on the floor.

“You’re better off this way. Trust me, you are. You’re more likable when you’re mindless.” He drums his fingers upon the side of her head. “When I’m done with you I’ll let you go back to your friends. I’m sure that they’ll appreciate my work; they’ll find you much more agreeable.”

It shouldn’t, but somehow it still stings. She realizes then, that she has made a mistake. She has made progress, sure. She has begun to rebuild old friendships and make new ones. But, Agni, she is still riddled with her own innate insecurities and the man has seen enough of her mind to exploit those.

If only she could reassure herself that he is wrong beyond a simple awareness that, even if he isn’t, that she’d rather be resented for her stubborn and unlovable personality than to have it wiped clean to make room for an uncannily sugary one. At least if she is unlikable, she knows that she is still Azula through and through.

“Don’t look so forlorn.” Sangyul chuckles. “You aren’t complete yet. But don’t worry, you will be. I’ll fix you.”  

Her breath hitches in her throat. She needs someone to fix her but, spirits, not him. She needs to fix herself. She will fix herself.

“Now I’ve watched the Avatar do this many times and I think that I’ve found a way to use electricity to activate the vines without the Avatar’s help.” He declares. “We’re going to test that on you. I anticipate this hurting.”

She goes tense.

“If you don’t squirm too much, we won’t need the restraints.” He pushes her back onto the table.

She wonders if she should put a stop to this now. But no. No, that wouldn’t be good enough to drive off the nightmares… She can’t keep her breathing level not when lightning sizzles on his fingertips. She hadn’t realized that he was a lightning bender. She hadn’t realized that he could bend at all. Thank Agni, he doesn’t know that she can also bend again.

The lightning surges through the vines, it tickles her head in the most bitingly unpleasant way. She gives an involuntary whimper and his lips curl into a wicked grin. She closes her eyes and works the current away from her head. She hasn’t exactly mastered redirection yet--it still stings terribly. And the vines on her head glow. He sends a few more bolts before withdrawing a long thin metal stick with a clay handle.

“See, this is going to help me guide the electricity. In theory, the lightning will do for me what the Avatar could do with spirit energy…” He mumbles.  He presses the stick to her forehead and drags the current along. The sensation is tingling, agonizingly so. She can feel tiny fingers of lightning touching the strings of her mind.

She closes her eyes. Eyes that water reflexively. The charge dancing in her mind is much more chaotic than Aang’s touch. When he had entered her mind he had entered with clarity, purpose, the ability to gauge how the colors of her aura were reacting to him. The electrical charge has no such ability. It is erratic, touching the fearful muted blue strands of her aura and dying them an even duller grey a sad grey--the result is anxiety inducing. It bounces back and strikes a different strand green. Guilt and self loathing trickles in.

She squeezes her eyes tighter. Her breathing becoming increasingly erratic. She needs control. She needs to take it back. The electricity has none of the guilt and compassion that Aang had, had. Aang...he no longer needs to touch the threads to dye them shades of red and pink. She takes several deep breaths. It is hard to relax with currents running through her mind, harder still with an enemy in such close proximity and damn near impossible with her mind left so vulnerable. But her mind is still hers. She lets herself burrow back in her mind, retreat into a familiar place. She can hear the rush of water as it slaps against the side of the boat, can feel the wind tugging at her hair. Mostly she can feel the flame of her chakra lapping at her belly, hear it crackling in her ears… It is hers, her chakra, her fire, her mind...

The lightning dances around in her head, but it doesn’t reach any further. It no longer corrupts. It can’t corrupt. Sangyul withdraws the metal rod and steps back. Her body jerks and convulses. Only twice--maybe it has been jerking this whole time. She isn’t sure.

“Now sit up.” He demands.

Dizzy, pained, she obeys. She tries to shake the daze from her head. Spirits, it hurts so terribly. Sangyul brushes a curtain of her hair out of her face. “Good girl.” He comments again. Her ears are ringing. “Now stand.”

She isn’t ready to stand, she thinks that her legs will buckle if she tries.

“Stand.” He growls.

She forces herself to her feet. It takes everything she has to remain upright. “Now,” Sangyul smiles. “Your hair has gotten quite long again…”

She swallows, her stomach lurches. Her tears are very real now and it only seems to delight him more. She knows what he is going to ask of her next. He presses a blade into her palm, it nips her skin and several dots of blood blossom upon it. But this time when she raises the blade, it won’t be to her own face where her scar is tingling with more fury than ever.

.oOo.

He finds her in the corner of the room, legs drawn up to her chest, cheeks stained with tears. Aang stoops down and touches her cheek, she doesn’t move an inch. Her eyes are hollow, dim. He takes her hand, her bloody hand and squeezes it. He runs his free hand over her locks. Locks that are clumped together with drying blood. It is smeared upon her face, her chest. It soaked through her shirt.

“Azula?”

She looks up, wordlessly. Her lips part.

He knew that this whole thing was a bad idea.

She souches forward and he expects her to begin crying into his shoulder. But she doesn’t, despite the soft tremors of her body, she remains quiet. He rubs her back as he takes the blade from her hand.

“Aang, what’s going on?”  Zuko asks.

“It’s over.” Aang replies as he hoists Azula upright. She holds her own weight but still leans very heavily into him. “Sangyul is…” He gestures to the body. Its throat is carved into a smirk as wide as the one that never had a chance to leave his arrogant face.

“Is Azula okay?”

“Azula is fine.” She grumbles.

Zuko clears his throat, “I guess I should have asked you directly, huh?”

Aang squeezes her tighter. “Are you sure that you’re okay you just...you know…”

“Killed a man.” She elaborates. “He needed to die, Avatar. I just…” She pulls back and seems to study his face.

He is fairly certain that he knows what she is looking for and he won’t let her find it; he is afraid but he fights to keep it out of his eyes. He knows what else she is looking for, “I love you, Azula.” His lips brush against her ear.

She swallows and finally she returns his hug. Holding her feels like holding a dragon; dangerous, unpredictable. Unstable. He wishes that he wasn’t afraid.

She won’t hurt him. He knows that she won’t and so he scoops her into his arms. “Are you ready to go home?”

“I can walk on my own, Avatar.”

He wants to remind her that she just went through some sort of hell. Wants to tell her that it isn’t a good idea. But he can’t, not here. Not in this room. “Is that what you want to do?”

She nods.

It is instinctual to ask her if she is sure. But he remembers what she had requested quite a while ago and he resists. Instead he offers, “if you get tired of walking, let me know.”

She nods again. He has a pretty decent feeling that she will end up letting him carry her at least part of the way to the airships.

“I’ll send the imperial firebenders to make the rest of the arrests and I’ll meet you on the airships.” He glances at Azula. “Take care of her, please.”

“She can take care of herself.” Aang replies. He just hopes that she’ll let him help for a change. Her hand tightening around his is it’s own reassurance.

[pyrouge-fr]

The Second Omen II.

Amhara was not happy to see a distant plume of black smoke on the horizon.

This in of itself was not entirely unusual. Now that the coldest weeks were finally over, hearthfires dotted the horizon as the dragons of the clan left the Rivensong and returned to their homes. This was not one of those fires. It was distant, just on the edge of the horizon of the land.

“...This is going to interrupt tea, isn’t it.” Spiritdawn said wryly. Amhara sighed, gently setting down the small teacup she cradled in her massive hands on the table with a clink.

“That’s near the ice shrine. If it weren’t for that damned gaoler I’d leave it be and let one of the hired guards.” She unfurled her wings, shivering as they caught a draft of cold air. “With any luck, I’ll return soon.”

Spiritdawn set a gentle hand on top of Amhara’s, smiling fondly at her. “Stay safe, dear.” “Of course.” Amhara gave her a brief smile back, then launched herself into the air.

They had been sharing early morning tea on a quiet ledge, surrounded by bamboo and recently cleared of snow, enjoying the silence of a winter that was finally breaking. Stretching her wings and catching an updraft, the heartland of the clan’s territory came into view.

The ledge they had been having tea on was a quiet area on the side of the Zephyr Ascent, the Windsinger’s shrine quiet for the season. At its base rested the wreck of the Rivensong, the large airship that fatefully crashed on the island years ago, transformed into the centerpiece of the town and the seat of the clan leaders. Narrow streets squeezed their ways between the permanent homes of the clan, and more ramshackle residences rented out by visitors and travelers in the warmer months. Open market squares sat silent. The docks were frozen solid. The clan’s raiding boats sat on the beach, safely out of the way of the ice until the thaw came.

Amhara followed the main street, the only one properly wide enough to bring loaded carts to and from the docks. Most dragons preferred to take to the skies rather than navigate the labyrinthian paths in between the buildings. In the vast, open, winter sky she spotted the silhouette of Fausto- albeit heading in the opposite direction of her.

When she reached the shore and sea ice spread out below her, Amhara swept across on the wind towards the other side of the bay. The ice shrine where the gaoler was imprisoned sat south of the city, on a small island just off the coast. On the wing, with a strong wind behind her, it didn’t take her long to reach it. The smoke was a faint plume on the horizon at first, but quickly billowed into a large cloud of smoke. Amhara quickly landed and plunged through the haze.

The scene before her was like something out of a legend.

The massive, enchanted ice culture of the warden was half melted, water pooling on the floor. Offerings were scattered across the large room, burning or smoldering in puddles. Huge walls of fire thrived where they could find the fuel on the stone floors. Smoke choked the room, but through the stinging haze she caught a glimpse of the battle.

The gaoler was tangled in his chains, which glowed from the heat in the room. He roared mindlessly, ice melting around him as quickly as it formed. He cowered away from the ceiling, where his attacker was clinging.

Dug into the rock of the ceiling of the shrine, a dragon wound its way around the rock. It was a dark red, with purple markings that shone so dark they were nearly black in the harsh light. Its golden wings, marked with dark stripes, were spread threateningly and glimmered in the fire. Smoke billowed from its mouth, pierced only by a glinting orange eye. It hissed back at the goaler, rattling its spines and dousing the statue of the warden in white hot flames.

Nivenor had, once, told Amhara a childhood story about the war between the banescales and gaolers after they had found Frostkeeper out on the ice. She remembered very little of it, or about what the banescales were supposed to look like. She supposed this dragon fit the description fairly well- although, admittedly, she thought they’d be bigger.

Regardless, she couldn’t let them burn the entire shrine down. Or kill Frostkeeper.

She waited for the banescale to stop spewing fire then surged forward, throwing herself in front of Frostkeeper and spreading her wings. She hissed as she felt the heat buffet her from the front and what remained of Frostkeeper’s ice magic at her back. “Stand down!” She snapped. “You are attacking a prisoner of Clan Rivensong, protected by clan law.”

The banescale hissed again, staring at her with those glowing eyes. When they opened their mouth, more smoke came billowing out. When they spoke, it was with an ominously harmonious voice, like a choir was held within their chest.

“By bone or by bane, I shall avenge my name.”

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer III: Divergence

Chisei let go of me and ran. I got up and followed him. Together we ended up on the rooftop with a clear view of a Tokyo amidst its greatest disaster. Water filled every street up to the car roofs and it was still flowing in a steady torrent, carrying people and trees and many other things inland. Buildings closer to the water where visibly tilted. I was shocked that our building was still standing. In a moment, I was soaked through.

“Chisei... I thought the dragon was dead.” I whimpered.

The man looked at me and then his eyes widened and he looked away. I suddenly realized that my white dress was completely see-through. I wrapped my arms around my chest in embarrassment.

“A helicopter will come and pick me up.” He gave me a cautious glimpse, focusing on my face. “Can you bring Chime here?”

“Yes...” Just as he said, a helicopter was coming straight for us. A bright light blinded me, shining on me in the dark. 

Chisei made a hissing noise and hurried to my side. He raised his wrist to his mouth. “Don’t shoot! She’s with me!”

Before anything else could happen, an explosion ripped through the side of the chopper.  The machine reeled into a building next to us, and cut through it until it hit the water.

In the water were boats and in the boats were people in wetsuits and masks. They shot grappling hooks into the Takamagahara facade and began to scale the building.

Downstairs, gunfire erupted from within. 

“Who is shooting?!” I screamed. 

Like a recurring nightmare, the answer came in the form of a rigid airship descending out of the clouds right above us, just like it did on Tokyo Tower.

The King had returned.

“NO!” I pushed myself away from Chisei and launched a bright javelin into the body of the aircraft. In response, it dropped something on top of us. Chisei and I scrambled out of the way of a heavy metal box that crushed the roof tiles underneath it.

I’d fallen on the ground. The box cracked and revealed to large yellow eyes and long slick claws that widened the hole. I moaned from deep within myself. This again!

The Death Servitors peeled back the metal and reared themselves to their full height.

“CARLI!~” 

I scrambled to my feet. 

“Get Chime! I’ll handle this!” Chisei had unsheathed his sword to face the threat.

I took a moment to memorize the layout of the roof in my mind, then I ran down the stairs. Where that thing was, more were coming.

As soon as I got into the corridor, I was confronted by a group of armed gunmen. I ducked back up the stairs just before a rain of bullets tore into the concrete steps where I had just been standing.

“Ielia!” I snarled.

My ghost twin swooped inside the corridor, immune to the gunfire. In a few seconds, everything was silent. My dragon blood was up again and I stalked through the blood splashed halls, stepping over bodies with a violent motivation, prepared to kill anyone I encountered.

I didn’t know where all my friends were. I could only hope they could take care of each other. I managed to make it to the lower floor. It was filled with water and dark from lack of power save a few emergency lights and the sound system that was playing the Takamaghara ambient music.

“Mingfei!” I called out to him and felt his soul leap with happiness and recognition.

“Carli!” He was somewhere in the room. “Carli! Chime’s hurt!”

I grimaced. “Okay! It’s okay! Can you come to my voice! Can you see me!” I waved. 

“I c... I can see you!” 

More gunshots were coming from inside the building. Loud and incessant. I filled with fear and worry for my friends. I stayed up where it was dry. “Bring him here! Hurry! Chisei’s going to evacuate with him!”

Lu seemed to be struggling to drag the other man through the water, but he was still coming. 

“Senpai! Senpai you can do it!” I cheered him on. “Come on, Senpai!”

He stumbled and fell, briefly submerging. I crept closer to the water, wondering if I could possibly help but still I held back. If there was something deadly or dangerous, it would make no sense for both of us to encounter it.

The gunfire hadn’t let up. “There are death servitors here! Once I get him, I’ll teleport to the roof!”

The music suddenly cut off. I heard something like a clicking... a tapping. Something was happening in my head. No... not in my head. In Mingfei’s head!

“Mingfei!” My voice rose to a high pitched piercing shriek! “Cover your ears! Mingfei!”

I could see it. The dream. The fire. I shook myself. “Fight it! Fight it! Fight it!” I couldn’t stop screaming so loud it hurt my throat. Whatever the King was doing, it was traveling through our soulbond and effecting me too. 

Mingfei had stopped moving forward. His head was bowed and he stood frozen among the wreckage. I felt something building inside him, like the bending out of a wall. I reached out my hand to him. 

He suddenly opened his eyes. They were not the usual gold, but a shocking mix of red and yellow!

“KING! YOU MONSTER!” Mingfei grabbed his shirt and ripped strips off it with his own hands and stuffed it into the ears of Chime and then his own. Then he picked up Chime fully from the ground and began staggering to me.

The sight of it made my dragonblood rush to my face. Yes, this was one of the ones... One of the only ones for me. My Senpai, Lu Mingfei. This person, carrying Chime Gen, cursing like a sailor against the force of The King’s Aura.

I loved him.

He’d nearly reached me when I felt a shadow behind me. When I staggered away, turning to face what was there, the sweep of a clawed hand tore the front of my dress.

Servitor. A muscular hulk of one with a long tail. It stood like a grinning glowing dinosaur in the hall way.  Its eyes scanned me then looked to Mingfei. That’s when I saw it. Chime was bleeding. It had come for his blood!

“Over my dead body.” I stood in front of the monster. Mingfei was mine. Mine alone. This pathetic idiot creature was driven by its nose and instinct. I opened my dragon eyes and commanded it to yield in the voice of a dragon.

Lu was also yelling. “Go away! Go way!”

But the tactic only delayed. The scent of the blood was too intoxicating. The beast was moving forward, looking for an opening. 

I was suddenly aware of another presence before Chime shoved me aside into the wall, charging recklessly right at the beast looking to eat him. He leaped and pressed a gun to the creatures forehead and fired.

It wasn’t ordinary shot. This one burst a blue fire with such power that the servitor and Chime were pushed away from each other.

I smelled mercury. It was an alchemy pistol! 

He returned to the monster, this time aiming a blast that severed its wings. Another blast and its arm was gone. He stood on the beasts back and raised a blade that had been hidden in his sleeve. He plunged it into its spine and twisted it until it cracked.

He still wasn’t finished.

He pointed the pistol down at its eyes and fired again and again. Spattering blood and brain onto the carpet and walls. It fell to the floor, smoking.

Chime stood, turned and smiled at me.  I realized that he wasn’t Chime any more. 

The sound of the tapping noise continued and Lu was staggering under its influence despite his efforts to deafen himself. I was getting a headache too.

“Only Lu Mingfei can kill the King. I believed in him the moment I saw his eyes.” Ruri said, striding toward me. “You two should leave. Once I lose control, this place will be destroyed.”

I glared at him. “Chisei doesn’t want to see you.”

Ruri’s smile disappeared. “Tell my brother that I wanted to go back to our home town... but its destroyed.”

“He already knows that! Asshole!” I opened my mouth. “RELEASE! Augh!”

In a flash, Ruri’s dagger had pinned me to the wall through my stomach. Lu Mingfei wailed despair. “Why! Why did you do that?!”

Just like in the hall at Comemnus Corp, the full force of his dragonblood was heavy. But I had become stronger since then, trained by the rushing of Chu Zihang’s near infinite Blood Rage. The power of my father’s words were like a wildfire in Ruri’s veins, burning the dragonblood away, peeling it back like the waters of the Red Sea. My golden eyes stared into his as they flickered. My power competed against the woodblock sound for supremacy. His legs began to falter.

He fell, dislodging me from where I hung. We hit the floor together.

I couldn’t breathe against the dagger. My hand had subconsciously curled around the hilt, feeling the blood running freely. I focused my mind on the roof, gathering his kimono in my hand.

Together we disappeared into the dark.

1...2...3....

We reappeared on the roof. The helicopter was already here. I was sitting up, legs folded under me, with an unconscious Chime in my embrace.

Chisei tried to help me up to my feet and gasped when his hand came away red.  Without a word, Chisei picked me up carried me to the helicopter. “Get a medical team ready for our arrival!" I heard him say.

The front of my dress was still open. My hand slipped around the wound. It was warm and wet like someone had poured warm tea all over it. My breathing came quick and shallow. But oddly, I didn’t feel any pain.

I looked into the face of an old man, serious and calm. He didn’t say anything to me. The world vanished into a haze of red.