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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years

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raven-san, can we please have a wedding crashing where jade needs to marry this girl from another crime family to consolidate power and become the next head of the leech mob :)) but floyd's like I'M BORED and annoyed that his brother's being snatched up by a random chick, so he asks basketball bros, and azul, to help save jade?

This one is super long, so I added some extra sections and placed the rest of the wedding crashing below the cut!

***Spoilers for Jamil and Floyd’s Unique Magic!!***

"I object to this wedding...!"

Pre-Wedding Jitters

A call comes for the twins in the dead of night, without warning. It’s their parents with exciting news: they’re naming Jade as the next Don Leech. The catch? The Leech mob’s in the middle of a merger with the Worm mob, and he’ll have to marry Don Worm’s daughter to secure the deal.

Jade, ever the dutiful son, is honored by his future title and calmly agrees to the arrangement. On the other hand, Floyd’s annoyed by the idea, and can’t keep quiet about his irritation. He calls out to his twin in the darkness.

“... Ne, Jade.”

“Ee, Floyd?”

“Are you really okay with going through with this? You’re just gonna do what they said? Even though you don’t know the Worms at all? Even if you’ve never met that girl before?”

“It is a request coming directly from father and mother. How could I refuse them? And, furthermore... If I do not undertake this task, then it would fall to you, the next choice to inherit the title of Don Leech. I cannot allow that to come to pass--fufu. You do so enjoy your freedom, yes?”

“... Jade, you’re so dumb sometimes. What’ll happen to your freedom, then? Will you get so busy with being the big boss and being married... that you won’t have time to play anymore?”

“... Perhaps. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

That thought doesn’t sit well with Floyd--not at all.

“I trust that you will make your own fun of the situation,” Jade reassures him. “You always do.”

As the weeks pass, Floyd sees less and less of Jade around, since he has to prepare for the wedding. Jade reassures him that he’s doing just fine, but Floyd can see right through his lies. He can tell that Jade’s more frazzled than usual--there’s a lingering to his words, and a longing in his eyes, savoring every last bit of autonomy he has before his fate is forever sealed.

Floyd hates it. He hates being lied to by his own brother, and he hates feeling powerless to stop the wedding. Floyd’s so angry that he develops this murderous aura in the weeks leading up to the wedding, which makes everyone around him shy away.

One day, he gets sick of being in the water--it’s a reminder of the wedding to come--so Floyd plays basketball on land to vent. He ends up chomping down so hard that he deflates a ball, then dunks another basketball so hard, he breaks the net.

He sprawls out on the ground and angrily shouts at the sky. His basketball bonks him on the head... and that’s when an idea hits him: maybe he can’t stop the wedding alone, but no one said he couldn’t phone some friends.

Assembling the Dream Team

Floyd first dials up Azul, who agrees to help after some whining and signing a contract agreeing to pay Azul handsomely for his services (... although truthfully, the octopus does want to help Jade, but doesn't immediately agree to do it because of his pride as a businessman).

Floyd also calls his old basketball buddies for help! Jamil and Ace are much more adamant than Azul, but Floyd strongarms them into pitching in. ("Umihebi-kun, Kani-chan, if you don't help me rescue Jade, I'll get suuuper mad, you know? I don't think you'll like me when I get mad. Moray eels are strong hunters, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem for me to track you guys down and give you a good squeeze~" "OKAY, OKAY, WE'LL DO IT!!")

Together, the four boys meet up to scheme of a way to disrupt the wedding without jeopardizing the Leech mob's future. Floyd actively leads the discussion, allowing his hidden genius to come to the surface.

Ace doesn’t contribute much to the strategy (laid out by Azul), but he does keep the spirit up with some jokes. Meanwhile, Jamil provides snacks for them when they work late into the night (though he keeps passing semi-glares to Azul whenever the octopus compliments him or tries to be friendly).

In preparation for the crashing, Azul brews some potions to give Jamil and Ace so they can take on temporary merforms. After all, the wedding will be underwater, in the Coral Sea, and they’ll need tail fins.

The date of destiny draws ever closer... and Floyd's never been so excited to cause chaos in his whole life.

The Crashing - Team Azul & Jamil

They split into two pairs on the day of the wedding—Azul and Jamil, and Floyd and Ace. Floyd uses his position as the future son-in-law to Don Worm to arrange a meeting between himself and the don... except Azul and Jamil will show up instead.

Don Worm shows up to the meeting in his finest clothes (which is very little, given that he’s a merman), sounding a bit annoyed the sudden summoning. “Make this quick, I’ve got to go see my baby girl’s big day... Wait. You fellas aren’t the F. Leech boy.”

“No, we aren’t, sir. We are his representatives... Proxies, if you will,” Azul insists, giving his warmest and most welcoming smile. He uses a tentacle to tug on Jamil’s tail, forcing him to smile too. “You see, there is an important business matter we needed to discuss with you on behalf of Floyd.”

“Hoh? And what would that be?”

“I believe my business associate would be better off explaining the matter than myself.” Azul gestures to Jamil, who has his head down.

“Oi, what’s with you? Don’t you know who I am, boy? It’s rude to not look your elders in the eye when they are speaking to you!! Show me the respect I deserve, from one professional to another!!”

“My apologies, sir.” Jamil looks up, locking eyes with the mob boss. “... Is this better?”

“Yes, that’s...”

“Snake Whisper.”

Don Worm suddenly goes glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. Azul claps at the sight, showering his partner with compliments. “As expected of the talented Jamil-san! Even one look from you can bring a mafia lord to his downfall. Truly, your Unique Magic is most impressive!”

“Save your flattery for later.”

Azul’s lips curl into a smirk as he whips out a golden contract from his briefcase and offers it to the don. “Now then, if you wouldn’t mind, sir... sign on the dotted line.”

The Crashing - Team Floyd & Ace

Ace and Floyd rush to the wedding venue, their tails cutting through the water like knives as they swim at a breakneck pace. Ace can barely keep up with Floyd, who surges far ahead.

“H-Hey, should we really be barging in like this?! Don’t mob families have weapons and other dangerous stuff? Is there a backdoor we can take instead? Hello?! Floyd-senpai, are you listening to me?!” (He isn’t.)

The open, underwater comes into view, and Floyd barrels in without any hesitation, tearing right through some decorations and knocking over the wedding cake with his tail. A loud CRASH! echoes through the waters, drawing eyes to him.

Jade stares at his brother from the altar—wide eyed, but a mirthful smile on his lips. Floyd waves to him, and then to his mom and dad in the crowd of guests. “Hiii, Jade! I’m here to pick you up now.”

The Worm girl starts sobbing, wailing something about how her special day’s been ruined, and where is her papa to put an end to this? At her signal, security guards, and some of the rougher looking guests—Worm family associates—lunge at Floyd, claws and teeth out. A few of them have produced wands, and what seem to be guns—loaded with harpoons.

“Bind the Heart!” Objects and stray magic go flying in all directions, hitting both people and wedding decorations. Cloth tears, columns crumble—but it’s one man against many, and he can only bind so many hearts before the blot starts to stack.

Ace makes it just in time, sending their foes and their weapons hurtling through the water with a blast of wind. “This is why I said to be careful, dammit! Your Unique Magic’s such a crapshoot—don’t just use it whenever, or you’ll be sushi!!!”

“Ahahahah! Kani-chan’s being all heroic today! That’s so cute. Don’t worry, I can play my part, too...!!”

Using his tail, Floyd hooks around a drifting merman and chucks him straight into another. They collide with a CRACK!—but Floyd barely registers it. He’s already bolting off, grabbing heads and smashing them together, slicing through others like a knife through butter.

There’s a crazed, frenzied look to him, gleeful laughter cutting through the waters and mixing with the Worm bride’s screeching. I forgot how scary Floyd-senpai can be, Ace realizes. (Jade and Floyd’s parents are cheering for him from their seats.)

Jade looks quite proud of his brother, even laughing along to the brutal slaughterfest. His bride stares at him incredulously. “Stop that brute! He’s ruining MY special day!!”

“No,” Jade replies calmly. “I don’t think I will. This is far too amusing to let it end so soon.”

She lets out a frustrated scream and launches herself at her groom, hands going for his throat. The Worm girl is slammed back with a strong hit to her gut, courtesy of Jade’s tail.

She flies back, slamming into a column—and feels a tail wrapping around her and squeezing tight. Constricting her to the point where it was difficult to breathe. A livid mermaid glares down at her, teeth bared in a snarl.

“No one lays a hand on my children,” Mama Leech declares. “No one.”

From the corner of her eye, the Worm girl can see that Jade has cast off his bow tie and flitted over to Floyd, embracing happily in a battlefield adorned with red ribbons trailing through the water. Her vision is abruptly blocked off by a broad-shouldered merman wearing a grimace.

“Now then, what shall we do with this one?” Papa Leech wonders aloud—though from his tone of voice, he has nothing good in store.

The Aftermath

“You’re all fish bait when daddy hears about this...!” the Worm girl warns, her words raspy. “Th-The merger won’t go through...! There’ll be war between the Leeches and the Worms...!”

A loud throat clearing comes from behind. “Fortunately, that won’t be happening.”

Azul and Jamil make their appearance, the octopus merman smugly showcasing a contract. “Ashengrotto—Azul Ashengrotto, legal and business extraordinaire at your service, Don Leech and Lady Leech.”

Papa Leech grunts. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

“This?” Azul’s smirk widens. “Why, it’s a prenuptial stating that, in the case that an act of violence is enacted by the bride toward the groom, the marriage is considered null and void... and the bride’s family assets are to be claimed by the groom. Signed by Don Worm himself.”

“Wh-What?! Impossible!! How did you get daddy to sign such a stupid deal?!”

“Oh,” Jamil says nonchalantly, “we have our ways.”

“So... Uh, Jade-senpai’s still gonna be the next Don Leech?! And he’s gonna be in charge of an even bigger and richer family... How is that any better than the situation before?! You’re just giving him more resources for committing crimes!”

At that moment, two hands come down on Ace’s shoulders, causing him to freeze up.

“Kani-chaaaaan! Everyone!! Thanks so much for your help~”

“Yes, you have my sincerest thanks, Ace-san, Jamil-san... Azul.”

“It is my pleasure to assist such VIP clients. Ah, but there remains the matter of my promised payment—” (Jamil and Ace internally groan at Azul’s words.)

“Payment?” Don Leech scoffs. “After the ballsy operation you boys pulled off today... I’m more inclined to give you job offers instead of a one time sum. How do you lads feel about being hired as the Leech family’s personal lawyer, interrogator, and... well, whatever the heart one is good at.”

“My, my! Such a generous and lucrative offer—“

“There is no way I’m accepting that, especially if that means working with Azul.”

“Oi, I’ll have you know I’m good at lots of stuff!! I’m the one that saved Floyd’s tail fins, is no one gonna acknowledge that?!”

“You did amazing, sweetie!!” Mama Leech chirps—her tail grip tightening until the Worm girl passes out. Ace leaps back in fright. “As a reward, why don’t you let me give you a hug?”

“S-STAY BACK!!”

“Ahahahah! Everyone’s getting along so well, Jade. Isn’t this fun? You wouldn’t be able to enjoy this if you had gone to get hitched.”

“Fufufu. You are correct, Floyd. How sad it would have been if I were to miss out on touching moments such as this. From the bottom of my heart... I thank you for thinking of me, and for rushing to my aid. I could not have asked for a better brother.”

... What Floyd doesn’t know is that this was all according to keikaku Jade’s own machinations. He would never take the order to marry lying down—but he couldn’t outright defy it without immediate consequences, either.

Thank the Great Seven Jade has reliable puppets friends to help him out of a pinch. I’ll be certain to put the additional funds we have gained to good use... Perhaps to start a little mushroom farm.

#Floyd Leech #Jade Leech #Azul Ashengrotto #Ace Trappola #Jamil Viper #twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #wedding crashing #spoilers

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twistedmusings · 3 years

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hhhhiii i see requests are open... can i have azul and riddle with a taller+flirty s/o? fem s/o is much preferred but g/n is also OK!! thank youu i love your writing 😭💞

A/N: I am a very short girl. I am shorter than Riddle. So this...was hard to write. But gosh if I did not love every second of it q wq. Honestly, I feel like these two would benefit from having an S/O who is a lot more open about her love. Dammit now I want a tall girlfriend.

All the way from the fluff section in our library, let me get that book for you!

Warnings: None!

--Everyone make way for the short king.

--First, he doesn’t know how he fell in love with her. Her flirtiness was known in Heartslabyul and there was not a time that Riddle hadn’t caught one of the students trying to slide a love letter her way. Which was already highly inappropriate; they were having tea for the Queen’s sake!

--So he scolded her for it, which only made her reply in your usual way. Which made him scold her again and she replied with another flirty comment about how adorable it was that he cared so much about who she flirted with.

“Am I that distracting?”

“Yes!”

“So...should I just flirt with you instead?”

“P--Pardon?”

--The dorm room celebrates as Riddle announces his relationship a week later, according to the rules, and smiles when his girlfriend bends down to place a kiss on his cheek.

--And that is when he starts to get confused about how he feels about the situation as a whole.

--Generally, he liked when people talked to him as if it was normal conversation and no comment was made about his height. Trey spoke to him normally, Cater knew better than to make any sort of comment and Deuce and Ace wouldn’t make a comment to save their lives.

And she also didn’t make a comment either! It’s just that the more time she spent together with him the more he started to take in the height difference between them.

--If he was trying to reach for a book in the library he would feel a hand on his back and his beloved coming up behind him and getting the book down for him. He would try and protest saying that she didn’t need to help he could have gotten a stool--!

--But he almost bites his tongue when she leans in and places a kiss on his forehead, telling him that she just wanted an excuse to kiss him in public. Riddle wants to retort back and says something about PDA not being appropriate but he is met by a pair of lips silencing him.

“We really shouldn’t--! And in public--!”

“You didn’t like it?”

“...I didn’t say that.”

--Riddle might have a lot to say about PDA when it comes to others, but he is clearly getting spoiled on the sidelines by his girlfriend. And he lives for it. He meets her after classes and offers his arm to her so they can walk together, getting a kiss on the cheek for it. He invites her to several Unbirthday parties and has her sit by his side, which earns him a kiss on the hand. She has trouble studying? Cue tutor Riddle coming in to the rescue, which earns him a bunch of kisses that he would rather keep private as to where they were placed.

--The unspoken rule is that, as long as he is doing something to help her or she is doing something to help him, modest kisses (aka: hand, cheek or forehead) can be given out whenever the other party desires it.

--Also forehead kisses are his favourite, prove me wrong.

--As I am writing this I am also picturing them ballroom dancing, like an event in NRC just has dancing involved and Riddle holds out his hand to her and invites her to the dancefloor...only to realize that he kinda reaches up to her neck and he can’t do the usual thing where she would lean into his chest as they slow danced.

--But she kinda beats him to the punch when he tries to pull away, feeling he looks ridiculous. She just presses him close to her and lets him wrap her arms around her waist, smiling as she hugs him close and leans her head against the top of his. People could talk all they wanted but did they have a girlfriend? Riddle thought that probably not.

“Surely this must not be comfortable.”

“Riddle I’m fine. Besides, I think everyone is a tad jealous right now.”

“How so?”

“Well...you are rather close to my chest. Not that I’m complaining, I love it actually~”

--Riddle hates to say it...but that is a perk that he did not expect and it certainly wasn’t unwelcome.

--Like I said, make way for our short king.

--He loves it.

--Azul sees no downside about not only having a flirty s/o, but having a tall s/o was also what made this relationship so wonderful to him. Why? Two words.

--Power. Move.

--He didn’t necessarily ask for it but as he is making a deal one day she just walks in and greets him normally, Azul taking the time to lean back and kiss her hand as he usually did but stopping when the girl walks in front of the couch and makes her way into Azul’s lap sitting in such a way that she is now facing the client with her legs crossed while her lips were placed gently on Azul’s temple.

“Just keep working, I won’t bother you~”

--Azul normally loves your affection but seeing the student sit up straighter and get visibly more nervous as she played with his hair brought Azul a sort of euphoria he didn’t expect.

--Yes he knew not to get revenge on others for bullying him and whatnot, but the feeling of superiority that came with having an S/O who was so open about her affection with him was a power trip in its own way.

--She sits in with him with every deal he makes now, Azul talking normally as his hands rest on her legs while playing with his hair and pressing kisses to his cheek whenever she feels like it.

--Azul at first is a bit embarrassed at the height difference and the almost effortless flirtiness that seemed to come to her so naturally, but he does notice the looks he gets when he walks by which just...makes him hold his head up higher as he walks.

--One thing he is surprised to like is...the cuddling.

--As part octopus, Azul’s tentacles will latch to whatever he likes. His girlfriend had only had the pleasure to see him in his octopus form once and was more than happy when he mentioned that fact to her, but he didn’t expect his human legs to carry out the same sort of treatment. This meant that every time they cuddled together, Azul was always the little spoon wrapping himself around her.

--A fact she never fails to mention when he does it almost without thinking.

“You really want to keep me here, huh?”

“Not necessarily. If you need to leave, I am not stopping you.”

“That’s not what your legs are saying. You have me in a really tight hold, Azul~”

--Oh my god the tentacle comments. Azul thinks that he can take the height difference between them pretty well but she just takes him by surprise when she comes up behind him and gives him a hug, Azul returning it with a side hug as he is doing his work, but stopping when she leans in close and whispers about how she wishes he would hold just a tad bit tighter.

“Your octopus form is a lot more honest...you really held onto me tight last time.”

--What is worse is that the tweels are there for every second of it, their teasing of Azul increasing to a maximum whenever she is around. He sends Jade and Floyd to run and errand with her and just as they are leaving she turns around to wave goodbye.

“Anything else you want from Sam’s place, baby?”

“Yeah Azul! Anything else, baby?”

“Now Floyd, no reason to pester him further. We’ll be going now...baby~”

--All three run out laughing as Azul throws a pen at the door, catching her blowing a kiss his way.

--He is still embarrassed, but he makes a motion to catch it and wave goodbye, smiling as he thinks just how lucky he is to get someone like her.

--And it’s not like he was short, but he certainly looked a lot more intimidating walking with a rather tall drink of water hanging from his arm~ listen I know that is a stupid line even I apologize

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst headcanons #riddle rosehearts #azul ashengrotto #riddle x reader #azul x reader #//honestly I love these two q wq

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jincherie · 4 years

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tentacledipity | six

➛pairing: jimin x reader ➛genre: alien au, space au, soulmate au, wanted au, smut, light angst ➛rating: m ➛words: 9k ➛warnings: cheeky shenanigans on the outskirts of the palace grounds, smut, vaginal fingering, light nipple play, squirting,light dirty talk, light angst ➛notes: I cannot believe this one long scene is fucking 9k, I’m out of control. Anyway! Here’s the relief you’ve all been waiting for!! There aren’t any tentacles yet but it will be worth it when they finally arrive FJBHGHV. p.s. this does have a read more!

This tale starts, as any good fiction does, with a girl crash landing on a foreign planet. And, like any good fiction, it follows a theme of serendipitous happening, and tentacles. Behold, serendipity and tentacles— or dare we call it…. tentacledipity.

— posted; 30.04.2020 // ↞ prev. || six || next ↠

In the entirety of your life, you’d probably been truly nervous approximately… three times.

The first time was when you were a child. On a trip to the store with your guardian at the time, you’d wondered off to the section that had all of the rows of sweets and candies in clear boxes with scoops so that you could make your own mixed bag. Even when young, you were apparently still very self-indulgent at your core, and a little too quick to entertain the urges flitting through your gut. Urges that were also a little too quick for your brain to catch and filter them. You loved candy, or more specifically you loved Purple Planets, something like a gobstopper that changed flavours with each layer of the candy that wore down in your mouth. These little candies were the equivalent of magic in your eyes, and the second you caught sight of them in that row you wanted one. Of course, you’d wondered too far from your guardian and they weren’t nearby for you to ask them. That was when you got the urge, the sinful little whisper in the back of your mind that maybe you could just sneak one—taking a single candy couldn’t hurt anyone, could it? You quickly decided that no, it couldn’t, and reached in and swiped one of the orbs with nimble hands. You threw it in your mouth straight away, and when you looked up you met eyes with a cranky-looking older woman that had evidently been staring at you the whole time. She’d leaned over the boxes and whispered to you, “You’re going to go to jail now. The guards are on their way.”

Understandably, you’d run away to find your guardian after that, too young and trusting of adult authority to realise that woman was just being nasty and old. You’d been so nervous while leaving the store, clinging to your guardian, that you’d nearly passed out. Of course, no one was waiting to arrest you outside the store like you feared, and once you were on your way home you decided you hated old people because they’re mean and liars.

The second time you truly felt nervous was when you were leaving your home planet for the first time. By that point you’d become more than disillusioned with Earth, but still… you worried that leaving would be a decision you’d regret, and that the life in store for you beyond its atmosphere wouldn’t be anything like you hoped and dreamed. You were also, understandably as a first-time flyer, nervous that something would go wrong as you left the planet and the ship would blow up, or something along those lines. That, of course, didn’t happen—and you quickly decided to never be nervous about anything like this again because you really didn’t like the feeling.

Which brought you to the third time you’d ever felt decidedly nervous—which, incidentally, happened to be right now.

You were standing outside Jimin’s room, impressed with yourself that you managed to find it but unable to enjoy the pride for the nerves currently rioting in your stomach. Why you were nervous, you couldn’t quite pinpoint—you were reluctant to even attempt it because you had a feeling that you weren’t going to be too fond of the reason you unearthed.

You had no idea what he’d called you here for – possibly part of the cause for your nerves – and so hadn’t known exactly how to dress. It was a hot, humid night though, something that persisted even despite the breeze that filtered through spacious halls and bare windows. So you’d simply worn one of the singlets you’d brought with you to this planet (a nice change from the usual high neckline of kelkie dress) and some of the loose, satiny pants that have slits up the side of the legs, all the way to just below your hip. You’d assured yourself it was a practical choice and not just one you made because your most base instinct is to seduce a certain alien.

You also had to do some guesswork on what was meant by ‘midmoon’, and went with the assumption that it was like midday but for night time—so midnight. You really hoped you weren’t too wrong with this one because if you were late you had a very strong feeling that Jimin wouldn’t let it go for a long time. Which was something you decidedly didn’t need, considering how pissed he’d seemed earlier this evening.

This, you’d realised, was probably a big factor in the rare appearance of your nerves—apart from the fact that Jimin had never been truly angry at you before, you also had no idea what had pushed him so far earlier that he looked so pissed. He was angry and had called you to be at his room at midnight and you had no idea why. You decided that just this once you couldn’t blame yourself for being nervous, especially when you recalled how many times you’d joked about finally making the kelkie snap. You sincerely hoped that this wasn’t karma, but you weren’t feeling too optimistic about it considering how much she’d been riding your ass lately.

A while ago you’d turned your gaze to the window in the hall that opened onto Jimin’s gardens, wanting a distraction and finding it in the luminescent foliage that glows beneath the moonlight. You didn’t realise just how out of it you were, standing there staring into the untamed beauty of Kilkea’s flora, until a voice sounded beside you and you honest to god almost jumped right out of your skin.

“You’re on time. Good, I won’t have to track you down.”

“Holy FUCK, Jimin!” you whirled around, hand flying to your chest and wide eyes finding him quickly in the almost-dark. Your cheeks heated at the squeak you’d let out in fright before, and then further at the way the alien’s eyes were boring into you, dark and swirling. His gaze raked across your collarbones and then up the length of your neck before it settled and met your own, a trail of prickling heat rising in its wake across your skin. “Please don’t scare me like that, humans can die of fright, you know.”

His brows rose, the intensity of his eyes lightening slightly and allowing you to breath. “I did not know,” he murmured, taking a step closer and sending your nerves haywire once more. “I will keep it in mind, petal.”

You tried not to watch his mouth as he spoke, but his pillowy lips proved too much for you to resist, especially when he was this close. Swallowing, you tore your eyes away and attempted to get some sort of control back in this situation.

“So, uh…” You began, trying to take a step away as discreetly as possible. You weren’t as successful as you might have hoped, his eyes tracking the movement easily. “Why did you call me here? At this time? I’m sorry about the whole, uh… thing, earlier. It wasn’t on purpose, I promise. That bastard Seokjin kicked my stool—”

Up until you mentioned Seokjin, Jimin’s expression remained so neutral that you might have been inclined to believe that he’d forgotten, or at least forgiven, the incident entirely. As soon as the other male’s name fell from your lips, though, something like irritation flitted across Jimin’s features. As soon as you noticed it, you snapped your mouth shut; you decided you probably shouldn’t push your luck too much tonight. You know, for survival reasons.

“There is something I have to do,” he said, cryptically. His brow quirked and in the next second he was turning on his heel and beginning to stride away. “And since you made such a mess of helping out earlier, I figured that you may as well make yourself useful where I can see you. Come, this way. We’re going outside the palace.”

You were confused and also kind of turned on at how bossy he was being; hastily you started after him, attempting to keep up as best as you can. True to his word, he was leading you in the direction of one of the exits that sits in the back of the palace, near the kitchens.

“What do you—uh, I mean we, have to do that we have to leave the palace?” You asked, arms swaying as you walked. He had a quick stride tonight, not as attentive as he usually was to how fast he was going in comparison to you. You feared that by the time you reached your destination, wherever that may be, you’d be a dripping, sweaty mess.

Jimin hummed, as though he was pondering whether to give you the answer or leave you hanging; you liked to think you were getting better at reading him, but you wouldn’t put any money on it. He turned his head slightly, eyes catching your own over his shoulder—if it weren’t for the magnetic draw they currently had to them then you might have been hypnotised by the shimmering mauve colour of his marks instead.

Actually, there was a lot about him tonight that threatened to distract you completely. His arms were out, sleeveless silken shirt hugging each curve and dip of the muscles in his back; the material of his pants did a fantastic job of emphasising his behind, too. The last one was almost your undoing when you were so focused on your observation that you nearly missed the words he threw your way.

“A lot of the plants on this planet present a beautiful front during the daytime hours, but some only truly bloom beneath moonlight.” Jimin turned the next corner that approached the second he finished speaking, almost losing you in the process. You had to hurry to catch up to him, glimpsing an amused quirk of his lips as you did so. Bastard, now he’s just being a pain. “There are some fruit we need to harvest for some of the dishes on the menu for the celebration. They sit on the furthest reaches of the grounds, almost outside of them, and the fruit are only revealed at night.”

“Oh,” you said, thoughts rushing to catch up before getting caught on one thing in particular. You wondered, did this mean there would be pies on the menu? Oh, you hoped so. The chefs in the palace kitchens really knew how to make good desserts, and you didn’t doubt they could take any ingredients they wanted and turn it into a mouthwatering dish. Gods, you were so excited already that you swore you just felt your stomach rumble.

You followed Jimin out of the palace and onto the grounds, the two of you finding one of the stone paths and proceeding down it. To your credit, you didn’t bother him all that much, for once. He seemed to notice, if the curious looks he was shooting over his shoulder every time you were silent for more than a few minutes were anything to go by.

Although, to be fair, it wasn’t just your fantastic self-restraint that you had to thank for your sudden ability to shut up for more than a few minutes at a time; you were, for a majority of the walk, caught up in looking at the scenery around you. Just as you mused earlier, you didn’t think you’d ever get sick of looking at the environment here. The luminescent hues and hypnotic patterns that trail along branches and swirl across leaves and petals; it’s breathtaking, and you’d never get used to it.

Despite the fact that you’d actually listened earlier and therefore knew that you were heading to the edge of the palace grounds, you were still surprised by how far out the two of you were venturing at this time of night. You weren’t scared, had no reason to be, and your surroundings were actually illuminated nicely by moonlight and the glow cast from crystals and stones that line the edge of the path, so you didn’t have to worry about stumbling or anything like that. It added to the magic of the moment, if anything.

You thought it couldn’t get any better, or any more beautiful, than this, but you were quickly proven wrong when you trailed after Jimin around a curve in the path and came upon a dead-end of sorts. You audibly gasped at the sight before you, rooted to the spot in awe—you don’t even notice the weight of a gaze on you. “Oh my gosh… it’s so pretty…”

In front of you was a clearing of sorts that backed onto a looming cliff face, lush shrubbery peaking over the ridge, the descent covered in thick, curling vines that glowed turquoise and emerald beneath the moonlight and danced jubilantly in the breeze. The flowers that bloomed across the cliff were rosy, petals curling back like lilies and speckled with bioluminescent blue, but at the very centre of the flowers was a fruit that you instantly longed to put in your mouth. It appeared like a blackberry, but supersized—it was plump and juicy looking, and if you had to guess you’d say it would probably be about the size of your hand.

Surprisingly enough, the fruits weren’t the first thing to catch your attention. No, that was the waterfall that split the cliff face to the right, shimmering waters flowing into a large, deep lake at the base. Black pebble-like stones lined the shore, and larger obsidian chunks jutted into the water along its girth. The way the water danced beneath the moonlight almost had you well and truly hypnotised, if it weren’t for the sound of Jimin’s voice breaking through your thoughts.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it.” He hummed, and you didn’t realise he’d begun to walk away until you turned and caught him moving to the side. Any questions you might have had as to why were quickly answered when you saw him procure two woven baskets from a weathered table by the cliff. He turned back and halted when he saw you in the same position as before. “Come on, petal, these aren’t going to pluck themselves into our baskets.”

Cheeks flushing for some reason unbeknownst to you, you hurried over to take one of the baskets in his hold, following him when he moved to the part of the cliff closest to the table and furthest from the lake. Well, you decided that you didn’t really have any reason to be so nervous earlier. Yet another reason to banish the emotion from your being.

“These are pippura,” Jimin informed you when you approached him, looking to make sure that you were listening. You offered him a bright, shit-eating grin to reassure him and he rolled his eyes before turning back to the vines. You caught the way his lips had quirked before he did, though, and filed it away in your victory drawer for later gloating. “They only grow on cliff faces near running water—we are lucky enough to have such a place as this on the grounds. If we didn’t, then we would have to venture much further to procure some.”

“Are they special?” you found yourself asking, swinging the basket around your wrist idly and then stopping immediately when he sent you a warning glance. “I mean, are they important for celebrations?”

“They are used in a lot of traditional dishes that feature in celebrations such as this one,” Jimin confirmed, muscles of his back shifting as he reached to grab one of the fruits hanging a little above his head. “You will be happy to know that many of those dishes are desserts.”

He was right—you were happy to hear that. You couldn’t stop the stupid, excited grin from slipping onto your face at the thought of all the delicious possibilities you were going to be able to try for the first time. If these fruits tasted as good as they looked, then you were going to be in for a good time.

Jimin might have been somewhat tense at the beginning of this little venture, but as the two of you went about plucking the vines bare of their fruits and filling your baskets with their bounty, he seemed to ease into himself a little, growing a little more playful and a little more sassy. Which is to say, he returned to the Jimin you knew and loved. Of course, the second you noticed this, you were unable to help yourself from resuming your usual shithead antics. You poked and prodded at him playfully with a few verbal jabs, all of which either got you a small snort and a grin, or a look loaded with tension and restraint. It was exhilarating—you didn’t realise just how much you’d missed this! Granted, it hadn’t been all that long since you’d been a thorn in Jimin’s side, but you were a simple girl who enjoyed the simple things in life.

It was still a humid night, and although the breeze did help some in keeping you from overheating, you still found yourself casting longing looks towards the water behind you. Gods, it had been so long since you last swam—now that the idea was in your head, you couldn’t get it out. Of course, that idea followed the path in your brain that most thoughts take these days, and your gaze flicked from Jimin, to the water, and then back to Jimin. No… you shouldn’t. You only just got back in his good graces, you didn’t fancy another near death experience today. But still…

You couldn’t rid the thought from your head, trying not to let your scheming show on your face. Jimin was a lot sturdier and a lot stronger than you, so the only way you’d even be able to get him in the water by surprise would be to full-body tackle him. You didn’t think you’d come out of that unscathed. Still… the longer you stewed in the humid air, the weaker you found yourself becoming to the idea. By this point, you knew you were going to end up going for a midnight swim in that lake, it was just a matter of whether you were going to be able to convince Jimin. Well, admittedly your definition of ‘convince’ was becoming looser by the minute, so the nature of Jimin’s impending entrance into the lake was, at this point, very subject to change. There were a number of scenarios playing out in your mind’s eye.

It was when your basket was nearing overflowing, and you grabbed one last fruit a little too hard and landed yourself with a hand covered in sticky berry juice, that you had an idea. The juices were an odd, shimmery dark blue and seemed eager to stain, just like the berries you knew from earth. Fantastic. You shuffled closer to Jimin, who had become so enraptured in the task by this point that he didn’t even pay you any mind. You were planning on pretending to trip, but karma had its kiss for you and you ended up actually tripping on a rock on your way to him, like a loser. As regrettable as it was, it did get the job done all the same.

“Oh shoot—sorry!” As would be the natural instinct of any red-blooded woman, you’d reached for Jimin’s bicep when you fell and ended up bursting the fruit against it, spilling its juices all over him. You did feel a little bad, despite the fact this had been your plan all along, but you were more surprised when instead of recoiling like you’d expected, Jimin had whipped around and attempted to catch you from tumbling to the ground instead. You didn’t have time to relish in the resulting flutter of your heart, because he quickly realised what you’d spilt on him and proceeded to send you an exasperated look.

“Are all humans such trouble? You are almost as clumsy as Namjoon,” he remarked, but you caught the twinkle of amusement in the darkness of his eyes as he righted you to your feet.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” you informed him, before pulling out your most innocent smile. “And at least there’s a lake here to wash off in!”

Jimin’s eyes flicked back over his shoulder, taking in the body of water nestled against the cliff. He hummed for a moment, before shrugging and letting you go to place his basket down and make his way over to the pebbled shore. “I wouldn’t need to wash off if you had watched where you were walking, petal.”

You rolled your eyes, watching for a moment as he slipped his boots off, placing them by one of the rocks wedged into the shore and proceeding to roll his pants up before stepping into the water. You snapped yourself out of your staring—now was the time to strike!

“Is it cold?” you asked, trying not to betray your intentions as you slipped your own shoes off and began to creep over. He was bending slightly, trying to scoop some water into his palms, and if you had to hold yourself back from being a bastard a second longer you were going to combust.

“Of course not, it’s lovely,” he muttered, somewhat absentmindedly. His marks shimmered neutral blue as his fingers swirled through the water. Now that you knew you weren’t going to make him freeze to death by pushing him in, you had no qualms acting on the urge that had been bothering you for the better part of the last ten minutes.

“Oh, good,” you remarked, before taking a moment to accept the very real possibility of death after this. As soon as you were at peace with it, you disengaged your rational thought machine and enacted your plan. Quick as you could, you darted across the grass and planted your hands on Jimin’s butt with all your strength (not! For the reason one might be thinking! It was a purely strategic move to make him most unbalanced), miraculously succeeding in pushing him off his feet and, subsequently, into the water.

“Y/N—!”

The way he just barked your name in shock made you as excited as it did scared for you life—although, if you were being honest, the line between those two had been getting more and more blurred lately. Tumbling into the rippling waters of the lake he went, deep enough where he fell that for a moment he was completely submerged. You couldn’t help the laugh that tore from you at the sight, but it quickly tapered into an alarmed scream as he burst back to the surface, absolutely drenched, and sent you a murderous look.

You’d been intending to get in right after him, but perhaps it would be more prudent to run while you still could—

“You little—” Jimin’s sputtered words were all the warning you got before he launched towards you, tearing through the water and up the shore much, much faster than you had ever anticipated. You yelped, spinning on your heel and scrambling across the pebbles, stumbling in your attempts to flee before he reached you. Of course, as you knew from the second he locked eyes on you after exiting the water, you hadn’t stood a chance of getting away; you would never be a match for his sheer speed and strength. You barely got three steps in before two strong hands snapped around the small of your waist, water seeping into your shirt where his fingers pressed into the material.

“You are such a pain,” he chastised, twisting you and throwing you over his shoulder so quickly that it almost made you dizzy.

“Aw, come on, it was an accident! I’m sorry!” you lied through your teeth, scrabbling for a grip on the drenched shirt that was sticking to his every line and curve like a second skin. “Let’s be rational about this—”

Smack!

You yelped, back curving slightly as your hand flew to your ass in shock, the likes of which was now smarting as a result of the firm smack he’d just delivered. Your entire face flushed with heat, brain flatlining as the raven-haired alien carried you back towards the lake; the sight of the grass growing further and further away, along with your chances of survival, was very condemning.

“Be quiet and accept the consequences of your actions like a good girl, petal,” Jimin said, voice so low and raspy it was almost a purr; you couldn’t see his marks from this angle but you were dying to know what colour flushed across them when he said that. You felt your stomach drop and butterflies swarm to replace it, giddy anticipation tingling up your spine. You didn’t know if you were in a place emotionally where you could deal with being this horny right now.

You made one last attempt at pleading for mercy, “I didn’t know that you’d fall in! I thought you had more balance than that! It’s not my fault youAAAH—”

Evidently, Jimin was not in a merciful mood. He didn’t even wait for you to finish talking when he reached mid-shin in the water and promptly threw you from his shoulder and into the depths. It happened so quickly you could do little more than yelp before the water cut you off and you were sinking below the surface, the lake so cool against your overheated skin that you almost let out a blissful sigh before catching yourself just in time. Your feet found the smooth, pebbled bottom and you propelled yourself back up, breaking the surface with an affronted gasp. “Hey! That was rude! Do we even know how dirty the water is?”

At this point you were just being annoying, but he simply rolled his eyes before trapping your own in his gaze, the heat contained in the dark pools making you shudder. He began moving towards you, striding back into the lake like a predator, so smoothly that the most the water did in response to his entrance was ripple around his legs. “It’s not dirty,” he informed you, a sly look crossing his features for the barest second. “There is a certain type of algae in here that means it is self cleaning—actually, the algae is part of the reason why the pippura vines grow here.”

You launched yourself backwards as he grew closer, spouting off little tidbits of information like he wasn’t currently in the process of cornering you in the lake; your arms couldn’t seem to propel you fast enough, because each second you spent splashing about frantically he gained on you. By the time he was about a metre away from you, the water was up to his ribs and he looked like he was preparing to pounce. So, you did the only logical thing you could think of in that moment, and used your legs to kick a massive splash of water in his face.

It smacked him dead on, drenching his hair once more and making him sputter, hands coming up to wipe water out of his eyes. His marks shifted rapidly, from rose to teal to petal pink and then back again. You didn’t know what it meant, but you knew your time was running out.

“y/n,” he said, voice low as he flicked water from his face and levelled you with a heated look, lashes wet and sticking together. “Didn’t I just tell you to be a good girl?”

His words made your stomach flip and a shiver roll down your spine, and yet you were too proud to let it show. Instead, you offered him an innocent expression and a flippant, “Oops?”

That seemed to set him off.

You spent the next few minutes cackling as he attempted to grab you, apparently much less graceful in the water with slippery pebbles beneath his feet than he was on land. Something about games with a chase, like tag, just made your blood sing— and from the glimpse you got of his lively expression as he tailed you through the water, the feeling was mutual. You didn’t know how long you managed to evade him before he caught you, but it was long enough that your pride remained safe by the time his hands landed on your shoulders and you were promptly dunked beneath the surface. When you returned for air, you splashed him for cover and made a break for it once more. Fun, it was so much fun it felt like you were floating in your elation.

Every time you would just barely manage to slip from his grasp with a mad giggle, you’d hear a laugh of his own tumble into the air, the sound downright melodic and so decadent against your ears you immediately did everything you could to hear it again. This was a side of him that you’d hand to wrangle out with your bare hands, but damn if it wasn’t worth it to see the way his eyes shone and disappeared into crescents with his smile.

Of course, though you were incredibly gifted in many areas (not to toot your own magnificent horn) stamina sadly wasn’t one of them. Jimin might have been engineered for speed, agility and athletic grace, but you most definitely weren’t. It was only a matter of time before you grew too tired to continue fleeing as well as you had been up until that point.

“I give up! I surrender!” you announced, proceeding to flop backwards and float, almost panting. The water had cooled you down greatly but it was still a warm night and Jimin was unfairly fast. You’d been kept on your toes the whole time.

“I am surprised that you lasted so long,” he mused, sinking down in the water until it was up to his neck. The mirth had yet to fade from his eyes, his marks still glowing an exuberant teal that fluctuated between bright green and cyan.

“I’m full of surprises,” you informed him, still somewhat breathless. You shifted from your floating position, treading water lazily as you leaned back and sent him a cheeky look. You just needed a moment to recharge, then you’d be giving him a run for his money once more.

Jimin hummed, breaking the hold he had on your gaze for a moment to glance up at the sky; your breath caught in your throat at how beautiful he was in that moment, raven hair an unruly mess and water still dripping down his skin, freckles luminous and the entirety of his form bathed in the kind of moonlight that made him seem ethereal. You snapped out of it a second later, propelling yourself slightly behind him so he wouldn’t catch you slipping if he happened to look down.

You’d only meant to hide your face and the current heated nature of your cheeks from him, but as you floated behind him your goblin brain, of course, came up with another idea that would rile him up. You weren’t sure if you should enact it so soon, when you hadn’t even caught your breath completely yet, but you were also aware that he wasn’t going to be distracted much longer, especially when it was you in his company. By this point he’d learnt the hard way to keep his eye on you.

Twisting your body in the water smoothly so that your feet braced against the bottom once more, you prepared to jump. You needed to get a good grip, or else he would throw you off too easily and that would be nowhere near as fun.

Throughout the whole time you were plotting that move, you forgot completely about what lined the skin of his lower back— you were soon to be reminded, however, when you proceeded to pounce on him from behind and he stiffened immediately in your hold.

Your legs wrapped around his waist and your arms around his neck, but he was more slippery than you accounted for and you had to fight to keep your grip. This, of course, meant that you were pressed that much tighter against his back.

“You—” he seemed at a loss for words for the briefest moment, stuttering slightly as his hands whipped to your thighs.

“Boo!” you announced belatedly with a ruffle of his hair, even as you felt your grip begin to slip. Well, it seemed it was time to cut your losses and jump back into the water— you were completely prepared to do so, until he twisted slightly beneath you and you slipped prematurely.

Having expected to fall back into the water, you were surprised when Jimin managed to turn in your grip and scoop you into his hold, saving you from an abrupt reunion with the surface of the lake. It didn’t do much for the state of your heart, however, when you realised that now you were clinging to his front, legs around his waist and his hands supporting you at your ass and thigh. Uncharacteristically— or rather, quite characteristically since this was Jimin you were dealing with— you were at a loss for words, reduced to simply blinking at him with wide eyes and mouth slightly ajar in shock.

If the position alone hadn’t been enough to send your heart racing, then the way he was looking at you would have definitely finished the job. His marks were flushed deep, dark rose, and his eyes were so intense as they bore into you that you felt goosebumps raise across your skin. You felt oddly… vulnerable, for a moment, but you didn’t have time to ponder that realisation before his lips were quirking slightly in something like triumph.

“You are full of surprises,” he agreed, head tilting slightly; water lapped lightly at your skin and it took you a moment to realise he was moving towards the cliff, near the cluster of large, obsidian rocks that skirt the edge of the waterfall. “But you are also very predictable, petal. You pulled the same move twice.”

Huh, well. Maybe you did! What’s it to him?! You opened your mouth to express just that, but all that came out was a squeak when his hand shifted its place on your thigh and slipped through the slit in your pants, palm cool against your heated skin. For a moment you forgot how to breathe— this was just like what you told Seokjin. Going from nothing to a lot of something, just wasn’t a situation you were equipped to handle!

“Oh,” you managed to say, finally. He seemed amused at your fluster, and you were willing to bet that he was probably enjoying the way the tables had turned since you’d first arrived here. Cocky of him, but hot nonetheless. You just called it as you saw it. “Well, maybe this was my plan all along, and you played right into it. Victory goes to me, peach cheeks.”

His brows rose, apparently thinking it very bold of you to be bringing back that pet name when it was you currently at his mercy, as much as you might have currently been trying to make it seem otherwise.

“Your plan, or mine?” he asked softly, holding your gaze as he halted and you felt cool rock press against your back. You shivered, unable to help it, and he let out a pleased hum. You didn’t know what you were expecting, but it most definitely wasn’t for him to rock his hips forward, grinding against you and pinning you to the rock all at once. The gasping noise that came out of you was kind of embarrassing, but he didn’t seem to think so.

Once more, he had you at a loss for words as you attempted to process his utterance amongst the pleasant, heady sensations burning through you. It didn’t help your ability to think either, when his hand slipped from your thigh to trail up your side; with bated breath, you felt it as he dragged his fingertips over your ribs, skirting the underside of your chest before dancing up your sternum, where your neckline ended and his fingers met your skin. It wasn’t all that much, but the action alone had been enough to leave a trail of gooseflesh in its wake. When his gaze flicked down momentarily, you were slightly embarrassed to see that his wandering hand had also elicited another unwitting reaction from you, your nipples standing beneath the material of your shirt. Wearing a bra tonight would have been prudent, but you hadn’t exactly accounted for this, had you?

This felt surreal, almost. For however long and loudly and explicitly you had expressed your desire for him, for some reason you hadn’t ever counted on being in this position. It was almost like you had to acclimatise yourself to it, but you didn’t have time to ease yourself into the scalding heat of his touch and the sinful burn of his gaze against your skin. You had been fully immersed and molten desire was devouring you whole.

His fingertips had remained at your sternum, but his gaze flicked along the column of your neck and it wasn’t long before his hand followed suit. Over your collarbones, the dip of your shoulder where it met your neck, and then up the column of your throat. His touch was gentle as his thumb settled under your chin, fingers slipping into the hair at the back of your neck, and ever so slowly he tilted your head backwards so the expanse of your neck was bared to him.

Your gaze now centered on the stars, your breath hitched when a hum drifted through the air and he nosed along your neck, the occasional brush of his lips against your skin eliciting shiver after shiver. Of course he would enjoy toying with you, not that you could blame him.

He didn’t make you wait all that long, though, before his pillowy lips finally pressed to your skin over your pulse, soft and silken as a petal. You didn’t doubt he could feel, if not hear, the way your heart was racing right now.

“Always so bold,” he murmured, pressing his lips directly over your throat, and then to your collarbones. You could barely breathe, feeling dizzy from just his proximity alone. “But you’re awfully quiet now, petal.”

“Can you blame me?” you said, eyes fluttering closed as you felt his tongue brush against your skin. “I’m only— only one woman—”

Your ability to speak ceased completely when his teeth made an appearance, scraping ever so tantalisingly against the junction of your neck and shoulder. He hummed against you, pulling back a moment later.

“Look at me.”

With his grip beneath your chin eased, you tilted your head back somewhat dizzily, head a little hazier than before.

“I want you to answer me seriously when I ask these,” he said, and there was no room in his tone for any of your usual cheeky behaviour. You nodded obediently, holding his gaze and watching as his marks shifted colours hypnotically.

“Do you want to feel me?”

He rolled his hips, a prominent bulge grinding against your core and making your nerves tingle to life as he did so. You nodded, breath catching and your hands coming to grip his arms.

“Do you want me to touch you?”

His hand drifted from your throat to your shoulder, finger slipping beneath the strap of your shirt and waiting. You nodded, more fervour in the movement this time, and slowly, oh so slowly, he dragged the strap of your singlet down over your shoulder. He seemed to be attempting to hold himself together too as he continued the movement and pulled the rest of your shirt with the strap, peeling it from your chest until it slipped beneath the curve of your breast and bared it to his gaze.

Almost with a sense of reverence, the back of his fingers brushed along the swell of your breast, forefinger coming to trace around your areola before his thumb finally shifted and swept across your hardened nipple. You had all the time in the world to prepare for it, and still you were unable to help the sharp mewl you let out in response, heat flushing across your face and chest. Jimin’s dark eyes flicked back up to your own, lips parted ever so slightly as though in awe. Idly, his thumb continued rolling your nipple, the sensations making your thighs clench in their grip around his waist; instinctively, his hips rocked into your own, and you registered in the back of your mind that something smooth was brushing against your feet.

The two of you had drawn closer without even realising, his eyes hooded slightly as they bore into your own from beneath damp lashes.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

For a moment, your heart stopped. This time you didn’t nod, the whisper escaping you of its own accord. “Yes.”

He didn’t need any more confirmation beyond that. Before you could blink he was dipping forward, fingers digging into your ass for a better grip as his lips finally met your own and the heat swallowed you whole.

When his mouth moved against yours, lips just as plush and pillowy as you’d dreamed, it was as though something shifted, snapped into place within you. There had never been an absence or a void inside you, and yet the second his lips caught your own in a kiss, it was like something had returned home. Like your insides before had been messy and muddled, and he had brought clarity and order and everything had fallen into place.

You sank into each other like clockwork, every move of his lips and tongue against your own all but stealing the breath straight from your lungs. So inebriated in the touch, smell, taste of him were you that you hardly batted an eye at the sensation of something thick and firm curling around your ankles and up your legs.

Suddenly emboldened, you nipped his bottom lip with your teeth, before sucking it into your mouth; the groan that escaped him in response was guttural and low, hips rocking into your own roughly. He only let you play for a moment, though, before he was reclaiming control of the kiss and the situation in one go.

“So eager,” he gasped a moan when he broke from your mouth to suckle along your jaw. “The smell of your desire is so strong, petal— intoxicating…”

You should have been embarrassed to discover he could smell your arousal, but at this point you were beyond shame. He nipped and sucked along the column of your throat, each one wringing out a new, special noise from you just for him. You forgot to keep track of the rest of him until you suddenly felt his hand shift, fingers toying along the waistband of your pants.

“I’ll give you what you want…”

In the next moment his grip had shifted and he was lifting you up with ease, placing you onto the surface of a rock just to the side; from this position your hips were at the same height as his shoulders. He wasted no time adjusting his position, moving closer and slipping your pants down in such a fluid movement that you were reeling for moments after. You felt no shame in being almost completely bare before him, not when he was slipping your thigh over his shoulder and easing forward, looking at you as though mesmerised by what he saw. It was a heady look that swirled in his eyes, molten and promising. As he moved closer he rose slightly, almost hovering over you and pushing your leg back to your chest.

His mouth parted, words on the tip of his tongue but unable to pass as he simply drank you in. The fingers of his free hand came to trail up your slit, collecting a generous amount of slick as it did so. The look Jimin then gave you was full of such heat that you almost felt lightheaded; the sensation of being completely at his mercy was absolutely intoxicating.

“So wet,” he murmured, pushing his finger a little deeper between your lower lips and making your hips cant up slightly. It was like he was no longer even aware of the words tumbling from his mouth. “So pretty… I wonder how well you would….”

You weren’t left wondering what he could have meant for long; in the next second he was pushing a thick finger to brush your entrance; the anticipation alone was almost too much for you, more arousal gushing forth to greet his inquisitive touch.

“Jimin,” you gasped as his thumb brushed your clit by accident, the noise making him double back and go again. “P-please…”

He met your eyes, and for a moment you thought he might have made you ask for it, might have made you beg, but to your surprise a small smile slipped onto his lips and, without a word, he pushed his finger completely into you.

Of course you were so absolutely turned on by this point that there wasn’t a stretch, but the sensation alone of being filled, even a little, was so delicious that you didn’t even have the presence of mind to try and squash the abrupt, keening moan that escaped you. You hadn’t realised how much you’d ached to have something inside you before now, clenching around even a single finger like a wanton whore.

Jimin swore in his native tongue, groaning at the tightness you offered. He pumped once, twice, finger a torturous drag against your walls as he did so until he added a second finger and was rewarded with more unwitting noises from you.

“Fuck!” You gasped as his fingers curled, searching for something along your walls that it didn’t take him long to find. He seemed all too pleased to have found your sensitive spot, and that knowledge in combination with the way he began working his thumb over your clit as he pumped his fingers into you was what ultimately spelt your doom.

“Does it feel good, petal?” he asked, breathless. When you nodded, he rewarded you with a third finger— the noise you let out in response was positively sinful. Pleasure thrummed along your limbs, burning beneath your skin and turning your bones to magma. So much pleasure throbbed in your core at his slow, purposeful strokes that you felt like you were going to lose your mind.

And then he decided he wanted to pick up the pace.

Your hands scrambled for purchase as he began to fuck his fingers up into you in earnest, each pump slamming into you and ending with his fingers curling into your g-spot and making colours explode behind your eyelids. You didn’t realise your eyes had closed until you felt something soft brush your chest and they shot open— only to flutter closed once more in the next second as Jimin’s lips wrapped around your pebbled nipple and he sucked it roughly into his mouth.

“Jimin—!” The words caught in your throat, “F-fuck, please d-don’t— don’t stop—”

Jimin’s fingers weren’t long, but they were thick, and the sensation of them dragging against your walls again and again and again was absolutely heavenly— but the way he stimulated your g-spot with each roll of his wrist drove you absolutely mad. You weren’t one to usually reach your end all that quickly, but already at his ministrations there was a ball of tension forming in your stomach, more and more ready to snap with each sharp jolt of pleasure to your core.

Jimin trapped your nipple between his teeth, tugging it lightly before releasing it and moving his mouth to your ear. “Let go for me, petal. I want to feel you unravel around me.”

A low, heady murmur dripping with desire and promise. He returned his mouth to your chest, and you didn’t even have time to tell him you were close before he hit the final nail into your coffin.

While he’d been maintaining long, precise strokes before now, he suddenly shifted tactics. Within the blink of an eye he began fucking his fingers into you that much harder, that much faster— but it was the combination of his fingers pressing into your g-spot and his thumb rolling your clit that sent you well and truly over the edge.

The coil within you snapped and you gasped out his name in a lilting moan as your orgasm burst forth and you came hard, pussy clenching around his fingers like a vice as your back arched off the rock in the woes of your pleasure. Even so, he continued to fuck his fingers into you as you rode out your high, only stopping when you placed a trembling hand against his chest and tried to squirm away from overstimulation.

It took a moment for you to come back to your senses somewhat, gaze centering back on Jimin; you were surprised to see droplets glistening along his arm and across the damp silken material of his shirt, but quickly realised with heated cheeks that he’d actually made you squirt. He didn’t seem to mind; if anything, he seemed to approve, expression strained as he gazed over the mess you’d made of him.

As he gently slipped your thigh from his shoulder and set it down, giving you a quick rinse with the water before slipping your pants back down, your ability to speak finally began to return to you.

“H-holy fuck…” you murmured, slipping from the rock and back into the water as soon as your pants were back on. It might have been a mistake to move so fast, though, because your legs were jelly and you almost dipped beneath the surface were it not for Jimin’s hands coming to brace you. You fixed your top as you looked at him, taking in the tension riddling his firm and the shadows swirling in the water behind him— now, of course, you recalled a certain predicament that affected him. You read the heat and desire still burning in his gaze and moved forward, slipping your hands to his waist. “Now, to return the favour—”

To your surprise, the alien halted your movements, shaking his head. Your confusion was only increased when a light smile slipped onto his lips. He closed his eyes a moment, taking a deep breath, and you caught it from the corner of your eye as the shifting shadows in the water behind him began to still and slip out of sight.

“It’s okay, I will be fine,” he assured you, tone soft and just as airy and mellifluous as ever. “We should really be getting back.”

“Oh… ok.” For the third time that night, you were rendered speechless. Except this time, it was out of sheer confusion. He placed a hand on your back, guiding you from the lace and back up to where you’d left your baskets; thankfully, a part of you reflected as you emerged from the water, the material of your pants was comfortable and unlikely to chafe even while dripping with water.

As you retrieved your baskets, Jimin offered you a somewhat strained smile, before tilting his head in the direction of the castle. “Let’s go, petal.”

And then he turned and simply began on his way back, leaving you to follow and trail behind him distractedly. Something twinged behind the protection of your ribcage, replaced only by a sinking sensation that settled and weighed down your stomach and didn’t leave for the entire duration of your trip back to the palace.

The high you’d felt earlier was quick to fade in the wake of Jimin’s odd behaviour. He’d literally just fingered you to completion, you should be euphoric right now. And yet… for some reason, it felt as though something had been carved out of your gut and left a gaping hole in its wake. He wasn’t even being mean— hell, he’d smiled at you! Twice! So why did you suddenly feel so...down?

You struggled to entertain a plausible reason for Jimin’s odd behaviour, but you were coming up dangerously blank. In the wake of it all, you couldn’t stop the self-destructive thoughts you usually fought off so well from slipping in amongst your thoughts.

Had he done it just to get you off his case? Had he just been… humouring you?

The thought of it made you feel sick.

The trek back to the palace passed in the blink of an eye, and before you knew it Jimin was easing the basket from your grasp and you were in front of your door. The walk had dried you off enough that now the only true reminder of what had happened in the lake was the current damp and unruly state of his hair and the way his marks had been stained dark maroon ever since leaving the clearing.

“Thank you for your help,” he murmured, drawing your gaze to his own at the sound of his voice. “Go and get some rest, petal.”

With that, he leant forward and pressed a soft kiss, the barest brush of his lips, against your temple. Your heart suddenly hung heavy in your chest, stomach wringing in tumult. You watched him pull back and begin to move away, words caught in your throat.

“Goodnight.”

He was gone before you managed to say it back, disappearing into the darkness of the hall like a shadow returning to the night.

Returning to your own room had you vulnerable, the walls a chamber for your sudden loneliness to echo back and hit you in the face. You tried to brush the feelings aside; it was fine. You were tired and overthinking it, reading too much into the little things.

After all, if he didn’t like you then he wouldn’t have kissed you on the forehead.

...Right?

a/n: as always i hope u enjoyed,, tysm for waiting so long and for reading!!! lmk what u think and whether u enjoyed with a like or rb,, it helps keep me going lol. thank u i love u!!! <3

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#jimin smut #bts smut #jimin x reader #bts au #bts series #jimin series #alien au #alien jimin #alien jimin x reader #jimin x reader smut #tentacledipity #my work #wanted au #space au #tentacle smut #fun right #jimin fanfic #bts fanfic

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docholligay · 4 years

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Please rant/rave (well, we already know which one it will be here) about Harry Potter!

GEE I HOPE THIS WAS WORTH WAITING FOR

OH MY GOD. The level of hatred I have for Harry Fucking Goddamn Potter, the culture around Harry Fucking Potter, extending its poisonous tentacles even to the concept of young adult fiction, fantasy, and the United Kingdom as a country and people.

When you being on this, you may think, “Oh, Doc will explain that Harry Potter sucks because JKR hates trans women” and I will say, oh no, dear reader, that is a fantastic reason to hate the author, and I really suggest we all continue to hate her, and perhaps not purchase the QUEEN’S TONNES of officially licensed merchandise and movies and theme parks that give her stupid little fucking hands all that cash, but no, that is not why I hate the work. There are a number of great works done by terrible people, and the further out the lens of history gets the truer this is.

I hate Harry Potter because it fucking sucks, and mentally stifled an entire fucking generation.

“Well, Doc, Harry Potter was really there for me when--” Oh my god I could not fucking care LESS about your personal emotion connection to “orphan wizard boy turns out to be a rich aristocrat yet somehow less woke than Cinderella though” I have personally emotional connections to hot fucking garbage pails of media properties, and if someone came barreling through talking about the myriad ways in which they were horrible, I would be like, “Oh, you aren’t fucking wrong, pal”

Harry Potter gained wild ass popularity in part due to its magnificent sorting system of Smart, Brave, Evil, and Other, because there’s nothing liberals like more than being able to put everyone’s personality into an easily labeled box, which is why astrology is so popular, or for the intellectuals, Myers-Briggs, which is just as fake but with the veneer of science. This allowed people to give into the tribalism they so desperately liked to pretend they did not possess, and also allow them to write thinkpieces about “The misunderstood Hufflepuff” or “Slytherins aren’t all bad!” or really anything that allows them to write a very real piece about their very imagined oppression for being a part of a totally fake house in a children’s book. Excellent use of your sociology degree, Kai, I thought the addition of phrases like, ‘Content of socialization” and “axes of oppression” really spoke to the struggles you face when wearing a green and silver scarf.

The other reason it became popular is that it’s essentially wallpaper paste formed into characters. I have read all of the books, and I could not tell you even remotely what Harry’s defining personality traits are other than “protagonist”. In American, at least, a large part of it was the fascination with all things British, with the idea of boarding school and prefects and uniforms that aren’t inexplicably chinos and polo shirts for nine year olds. It allowed children to project onto something so bland that it could be anything. And for children, THAT’S FINE. There is a great deal of bland media made for children, but what I’m speaking to is the fandom, which is largely well over the age of 18.

Because if we look at the books, are they...actually good? Was it good, or did I experience it as a child? I mean, honestly, on a literary level, are they, or was it just like we all watched Friends, we did it because everyone else was doing it, because I have a distinct memory of a series that involves such greats as “magical geegaws with poorly defined rules that are quickly forgotten despite being able to solve later problems quickly” or “Everyone loves Harry or is a bad guy, or secretly loved Harry all along”

Oh, speaking of, man, if this was an actual well-written book, wouldn’t it have been wild to have Snape’s whole thing be to teach us that sometimes people do good things for the wrong reasons? Instead of naming your fucking child after the guy who ‘protected you’ because he still wanted to bone your mom? “After all this time” “Always.”

While all this could have been explained, we have Quidditch added into the mix instead because 20 pages of the goddamn Puppy Bowl is exactly what I was looking for while I was waiting for JK to move the goddamn ball on literally any of these actual magical concepts.

Harry Potter is a fucking trust fund baby, star quarterback, who grows up to be a cop and marries his high school sweetheart. (Speaking of, why were we shocked that JKR turned out to be a piece of shit when this was and always has been the conclusion of Harry Potter? Why are liberals so fucking into this series that upholds structures like it ain’t no one’s business? It’s a series that opines that those beneath us “Muggles” should be kept in the dark from us) Literally, he finds out he is a wizard and has a dragon-guarded fucking VAULT OF CASH. At 11. It’s such a series for little tyrants, you are special from birth and need do nothing to prove it, here is a letter certifying as such. Oh, not only are you rich and the greatest seeker and have excellent quips, but also your parents were not only rebels, but the best of rebels, and so deeply involved that your parents were killed by the big bad personally, again, because you are so special. His mother’s love literally saves his ass over and over again, because he was SO SPECIAL. He fought Voldemort FROM THE BEGINNING, and WON. It’s literally the most privilege baby fantasy in the world.

“But Doooooooooooc, it’s for chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildren”

A) Yeah, and you’re 32, you’re making my fucking point about Harry Potter setting an entire generation up for intellectual failure to launch.

B) Okay, and? I can think of a bunch of kids’ books off the top of my head that in no way require specialness to be given by birth so as to roll out the red carpet for master protagonist. The Hunger Games. Watership Down. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Chronicles of FUCKING NARNIA, about which I have only a small handful of particularly kind things to say. I’ve never read Percy Jackson, but it’s my understanding that despite his being a literal demigod, the attitudes of the supporting cast are allowed to fall between the extremes of “Appreciates Percy” and “naughty or will learn” Harry does nothing to improve himself even after knowing that he is HUNTED BY THE BIG BAD! “I won’t do this because I don’t like Snape”. So There” which, again, if this series were written with the slightest bit of care or know-how, could be a humbling fucking plot point! BUT NO THAT WOULD BE NAUGHTY.

But the real reason I hate Harry Potter so much has everything to do with the fandom surrounding it, and how it intellectually stunted a generation of adults. The promise of Harry Potter was that it was supposed to make a new generation of readers, and so the popularity of them was pushed, and so there was discussion of teaching them in schools, but I tell you fucking what, I know a whole lot more folks who grew up reading Harry Potter that never advanced beyond reading YA, or even just rereading the entire series every year and that’s pretty much them done and dusted.

In the attempt to recapture whatever it was about Harry Potter that attracted children (A lot of it was your peers doing it. I read them all as they came out, and it was literally the equivalent of watching the game so you could talk at the water cooler. That was never going to be recaptured) people, who by this time were likely in their teens, kept getting recommended stuff at the same and same level. No one ever felt pushed to read things that are challenging, to read things that have some of the concepts or themes of Harry Potter but maybe complicate. I know FAR more adults who read adult books that aren’t into Harry Potter, even if they were as children, than the reverse.

But Doc, why is reading only books meant for 14 year olds a problem??? I mean I suppose I can’t convince you that comfort is not the job of literature or of life, it is the job of an easy chair, because Americans especially are decadent as fuck about being comfy cozy all the time and if anything causes them distress or pain it should be immediately avoided. But Maybe I can convince you that you’re fucking up these books for actual ass children who deserve to have their own writing section without adults bringing their fucking asses into it. They deserve their own spaces. There’s a number of YA editors who have talked about the difficult space YA now occupies because since Potter’s blowup, it’s no longer a niche category, but basically “adult easy reads” and so they have been buying books that are more about the tastes of adult buyers than of literal 14 year olds.

Is that not...sad? To anyone else? Honestly, and this is not part of the essay because it’s a broader reaching problem, but CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDREN’S MEDIA IS FOR FUCKING CHILDREN. The fucking 40-23 set really needs to get their shit together and grow up a little bit and engage in some fucking adult media, and maybe, if we support what we’re actually looking for FOR ADULTS, it will come to us. No one is saying you can’t read Harry Potter or watch some Cartoon Network show, but like, search your heart and come the fuck on. Engage in something more complex. If not for yourselves, for the kids getting shoved into simplified adult stories. It should not be about us.

ANYWAY, my larger point is that it was Harry Potter, a badly written series about a magical boy who was chosen and magic and also rich and also a favorite of the headmaster and also more clever than most adults and also spoke the same magical snake language as the big bad and was also star quarterback, but at least there was a system in which you could buy a scarf in block colors and feel like you belonged to a team.

(But not a sports team! lol handegg! I’m cool I don’t get into sports! Except Quidditch.)

#TO say nothing of the fact that I haven't been able to wear gold and burgundy together without some dumbass comment for years #despite being a favored color combination #Anonymous #Eight Days 2020 #Holligay Rants and Raves #I didn't even GET to every point I had but it's been over an hour #GOD I HATE THIS FUCKING SERIES SO MUCH #Doc do you hate me for liking it?#oh sweet thing allow me to reassure you: Yes. Absolutely.#also the prose is god-awful #I've taught teenagers with better rpose

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missputotyra · 3 years

Text

Monster boy Encyclopedia- MDZS- Gusu Lan 1

“Welcome to Gusu Lan I assure you there is nothing wrong , I just don’t think humans and non-monsters can handle what the Cloud Recesses has become all at one .Please take this Stone and experience our true home at your lesiure . - Lan Xichen , Current leader of Gusu Lan.

- So Gusu Lan’s main base The cloud recesses is an Eldricht Demon realm . Which is why Xichen has filter over it for someone who is a good Cultivator like him it’s pretty easy to look at Gusu Lan in its full warped Eldricht Beauty with out going insane .

- They have a lot of Harpys and Were rabbits around the

- this dose Bring Concerns about about Sizhui the only human there who sees the true Cloud Rescesses everyday and is still sane . There are. Many theories that people have which includes Him actaully having a personal Filter , him being adopted at an age were he could adapt to it and the most ridiculous being Sizhui being a higher Eldricht Being hiding using Sizhui’s body as a way To manifest itself.

- Kamen Riders , Lilim and Patron Librarian also seem to be able to by pass the Filters on Cloud Recesses and not go insane.

- the Realm is described as A visual depiction of Music the Fauna is often as Living Lyrics, notes that’s Fly ,walk like normal creatures and the Scales move like snakes across the Sky and thier are constant beautiful mesmerizing voices singing the music of Gusu Lan

- but inside there a grating dissonance takes over the Mind of those unprepare for Gusu Lans True beauty. You’ll want to stay there forever and Turn into one of them an You’ll become a Slug , a Shoggoth , An Eldricht priest Or Very rarely a Mindflayer

- Shoggoth and mindflayer seemingly lose thier natural Pigment and turn white and Blue when joining the Sect. Shoggoth also lost thier Butler like devotion for a more familial devotion

- Though many of these Shoggoth were abandoned by thier masters to dry out on the mountain and thus felt betrayed

” what about these Slugs . Well the Slugs were originally Human members of Gusu Lan.”

Xichen seemed to change hes serene Tone for a more Melancholy one looking at one spefic Slug person with two Juniors one was a Slug like Him and other completely human . The Slug Junior seemed to have done something wrong as he was being pulled the older slug .

“Who was that you asked ? Hes my Younger brother Wangji…. I mean Lan Zhan .Wangji is a courtesy name.”

- Wen wanted to Assert Dominance . Basically in an Archery match the sects have every year in Wen sect no body from Wen sect came in the top 4 Lan Wangji came in 4th despite throwing the competion halfway ,He's brother Xichen came in second ,Jin Zixaun was third and in first was JC's Adopted Brother Wei Wuxian . This made Wen worry

- The first thing that Wen did was attack the cloud recesses of Gusu Lan .However Wen didn't just stop at forcing them to burn the place down not they did something worse after they had burned the Cloud recesses they then release a Large amount of Parasitic Slugs on the poor sect and since thier Home was burned they had no where to go , since Wangji 's Leg was broken and everyone left to run Wangji was infected more severely than most of the sect .

- However Lan sect was Surprisingly resistance. to Changes these Parasitic were making to thier bodies and Lasted a long while until Xichen came back with allies .Where Qiren inform him of the state Gusu Lan was in , If the slugs weren't removed they'd all sex addicted feral frankly ugly eldritch Slug creatures known as Deformers and says some have already transformed and left the sect in search of what ever unfortunate partner they can get thier hands on.

- Luckily, the Order of the Chief god heard the Plight of the sects fighting against Wen's sect and thier healer/doctors could help them . Not really ...the order of the chief god are kinda horrible people when it comes to monsters including the Chief god himself and When Xichen asks for help removing parasitic monsterizating slugs from members of his sect most healers/ Doctors from the order turned him down saying Gusu Lan was a lost cause and Xichen couldn't get help from healer's or doctors from the area even with help of Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue asking around when they weren't fighting no one would take the Job as it would require a skilled surgeon and Gusu Lan's resitiance to the change was dwiddling .

- Xichen started to notice that his own brother would sometimes attack him in a brief feral Lust fuel rages before snapping out it as if Wangji couldn't discern Xichen as his brother .

- Xichen was getting desperate he didn't want anymore of his Sect to become these feral minded sex fuel Monsters that barely any remembered who they were. Even if they did win the Sunshot campaign , Wen would still have the last laugh .Xichen even consider infecting himself with the slugs so that he'd aleast be able suffer with his sect in thier final moments of being human and being capable of having rational thought .Even though Jin Guangyao and Mingjue protested him doing this they both knew thier was no point Xichen was going to go down with his ship . “That was until a strange man who was eating cake at the other table put down his fork he seemed to have be from Zipangu“ Xichen countined his Story ”however Mingjue got more defensive when he saw the strange belt around his waist the man was a Masked Rider one the orders many Hero's several of whom help us out in the fights against Wen. “

- However this rider stated that he meant no harm as he hand over heard Xichen's plight about the parasitic slugs and give the men the hard truth ,The order doesn't operate on people with these Parasitic slugs inside them because Removing doesn't prevent people from becoming monsters.But it dose save thier ability to think rationally though they become an entirely different monster from a deformer .

- The rider then said He'd offer to help as he's known through the order as being a Master surgeon able operate on any organ. Xichen accepted his offer with tears of joy and hope it wasn't to late to save his brother and Uncle .

The Rider called his two female assistances over and told them they were headed to Gusu lan's Section of the battle field and then to the cloud recesses itself

- The Cloud Recesses now regard this rider and his assistances as a hero who selflessly put themselves on a the order's chopping block as they resisted the order commands not to help them .

” The Rider told me to call him Brave as to not give The order any reason to attack Gusu Lan .” Xichen snapped out his Reminescening when you ask a question “ What are the Slug people called now well Beforers .”

Beforers

- Beforers and Deformer are a Type of Eldricht Slug monster That was an Idea that me and a friend came up with during her Recent Star Wars obsession . I expanded upon Cloud Recesses and Beforers After taking a look at Junji Itos Uzamaki you know the story where people turn into snails and spirals .

. - yes Gusu Lan being Eldricht beings is inspired by the Eldritch Lan Au I personally found it on@angstymdzsthoughts

- Anyways beforer just like Other Eldritch monsters are Weird . Beforers and Deformers are classified as Tritionia subspecies as they look like Sea slug though thier body structure mimic The struture of blue Dragon sea slugs( though they often are seen with legs ) they can have the Look of anything kind of sea slug.

- Deformers come from a Parasite . Deformers are basically Feral Eldritch beasts that basically Attack anyone the see as a potenial Vessels For the slug parasites and Taking them out is A basically only one way to become a Beforer as previous Said Gusu Lans Music can also cause humans to become beforer .

- So Beforer don’t manifest Genitals until they take partners. but they do Birth Asexually little slug creatures That eventually turning into Beforers basically cloning themselves

-Yes Beforers are Hermaphrodites like Normal slugs .

- They a look plumper and Gain Long tentacles like appendage that grow from their lower back that seem to have mind of its own after Taking a partner.

-yes The Tentacles are infact Their Partners dont worry they can change back at will . They do the weird Transformation thing all eldritch monster do.

—-

“ What Am I ? ” Xichen looked in confusing “ I’m A Kind of Subspecies of the Dark Priest , I guess you could say I’m an Eldritch Priest.

“ A few month Of living in this Realm I start having dreams I was in the water in the deepest Depths of the ocean and a voice saying that I should Join my people and teach them of the Great old ones. ”

Eldritch priest

- a Subspecies of the Dark Priest Who are more connected to the the Great Old one .

-They are more Cultish in behavior than the Dark priest of the Fallen god.

- usually keep doing thier Jobs of recruting people into the great church of Cthulhu even after obtain partners.

- What Eldritch priest transform thier Partner into is Entirely thier Choice Among the Eldritch Monsters .

You notice the strange almost Mint green colored cloak or was it a pale Yellow it was twice as Large as Xichen and it was really dark inside but , Did you see two scary looking yet familar Faces in that cloak . Your suspicions were confirmed by a hand Coming out and stroking Xichens Face it’s had Yellow sleeves so they had to be from Jin .

——-—

Notable individuals In Gusu Lan

Name: Lan Xichen

Species : Eldritch Priest

Notes: He’s smiles all the time and it’s kind of unsettling . Their are often Golden and/or Green Masses attached to Xichen so hes Most likely Taken .

Favorite color: …White I’ll describe it as white

Favorite Types: Caring and tender people

Status: Taken?

-———-

Name: Lan Qiren

Species : Beforer

Notes: He’s Apparently Lan Xichen and Lan Zhans Uncel

Alot people like the “Moustache”

looks more like Chromodoris willani

Favorite color: Navy Blur

Favorite Type: …he hasn’t really thought about that I guess Mature and Gentel

Status : Singel

————-—

Name: Lan Zhan

Species : Beforer

Notes:

He looks so Sad

he Hates the Leader of Yunmeng Jiang with hidden burning Passion and Lan Zhan wrote down he wished that “ The Leader of Yumeng Jiang be put to sleep like the dirty mutt he is.”

Lan Zhan also wonders why BoJian( MDZS oc) is Even friends with Yunmeng Jiang‘s Leader

Likes rabbits

looks like Glaucus Aka Blue Dragon sea slug

Favorite color: Red

Favorite Type: he Drew a picture that looked similar to current Yiling sect leader if he was human . When we mentioned this he immediately tagged along with us to Yiling .

————-—

Name: Lan Jingyi

Species : Beforer

Notes: He was Born a Beforer it’s believed he split from Lan Zhan

We thought He and Sizhui were twins but they arent

sweet kid ,Huge mouth ,forgetful

Looks like Chromodoris elisabethina

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite Type: I don’t know someone like Jin Ling !?

Stautus : I’m not ready to marry yet !! ;-;

———-—

Name:Lan Sizhui

Species : Hes Human

Notes: The only Human Gusu Lan

Lan Zhan says he came from Wen

As Said before This is Strange because He’s only a Junior and hasnt Gone insane for Gusu Lans Beauty

Favorite color: Periwinkle

Favorite Type: I have no idea I guess I follow Jingyi and Say someone like Jin Ling

status: Not ready

#eldritch #eldritch!lan #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #mo dao zhu shi #lan xichen #gusu lan #lan sizhui #lan zhan #lan wangji #kamen rider #kamen rider ex aid #monster boy #monster girl encyclopedia #alternative universe #crossover au #crossover

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gallavichgeek · 3 years

Text

Author Interview

I was tagged by @yeah-all-of-it! Thank you so much, that was very kind of you.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 18, though I'm working on three more as I answer these questions.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

337,932

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Saving Grace (546)

South Side Forever (437)

Sex Tape (408)

The Ian to Mickey’s Cal (381)

The Truth (346)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, every single one within a day or two. I appreciate comments more than anything, it really gives me a sense of what my readers are feeling and whether I am getting the right emotions across and whether they are finding my story interesting.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I would have to say Saving Grace really leaves readers on the edge until the very last few paragraphs.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I ONLY write happy endings, except for Two Kisses, but you can blame the movie Fatherhood for that, so I don’t think it counts. (If any of you have seen that movie on Netflix then you know exactly how painful that one shot is)

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

The closest crossover I’ve written was The Ian to Mickey’s Cal. My friend Co-wrote it with me where we explored Ian being the model for Jedi Fallen Order and Mickey having a crush on the video game character only to then one day meet Ian in the video game store he works in and he is blown away by the resemblance.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times, and every time I know it’s been a troll because either their comment shows that they didn’t actually read the whole chapter/story and are just poking at sections that they skimmed so they can start an argument over it. Or when I kindly reply to them, stating I understand how they feel however that’s not what the story was intending, they suddenly blow everything way out of proportion and begin pointing things that aren’t even relevant to the story or the original argument. That’s when I stop and let it go, knowing they are just looking for an argument.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Of course. I like to try and dabble in everything but I don’t write my ship sleeping with other people (three ways. Cheating. Break ups and sleeping with randoms to get revenge. etc etc) I’m personally not interested in exploring kinks like tentacles or femboy either, but have nothing against those that are courageous enough to give it a try.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. I’ve had three translated into Russian

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, The Ian to Mickey’s Cal with Camnoelgallavich

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Gallavich. I’ve had many others over the years but none have hit me this hard, stayed with me this long or inspired me the way they do.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don’t have any WIP’s because the way my process works is I write the whole story before I begin to post so that I can update frequently and only have to focus on editing each chapter. I have been burned many times with WIPS and I don’t want to do that to my readers. I want them to know if they start my story they are guaranteed an end and not a huge gap between updates.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Capturing the characters emotions and dialogue. I always make sure to write them as they would speak in canon with the exception of may be getting a little more emotional sometimes.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m not the best at editing. I have to edit my chapters twice before posting and sometimes get help from my beta with lengthy paragraphs where I've jumbled my words with what I’m trying to convey across to the readers. I also have an issue with time jumping. It’s as though I need to write out everything that happened to lead up to each point rather than just skipping forward a day or a week.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I only speak English and I don’t want to put it in a fic in case google translate it wrong. The one time I used Russian in ‘The Truth’ I checked google six times before posting to make sure it was right and I translated from English to Russian and Russian to English just to be sure.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Shameless. I’ve thought of writing for others but ideas never captivated me enough to get me writing.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Maybe sterek. It’s a little harder being that it’s a supernatural world but it would be interesting to explore.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

It’s a tie.

‘Saving Grace’ which is my first huge fic that really explored my characters in a world that was so different to canon. I did a lot of research to get the facts correct while diving into the world of mental health.

The second fic would be ‘Hope’. Once again, I did research, but it’s more due to it being such a wholesome story that warms my heart because it gave the characters the happy ending they never got in canon, fixing all the issues the show forgot to address, so it’s a fic I keep very close to my heart. It’s now part of a series that I don’t think I could ever stop writing for.

I don’t know a lot of writers on Tumblr since I mostly use Twitter and Instagram but I'll try @camnoel @filorux and @doodlevich.

#author interview #fanfiction #gallavich fanfic #really appreciated being tagged in this #Thank you

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zachsgamejournal · 3 years

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COMPLETED: Resident Evil 7

This is the most I've enjoyed a Resident Evil since RE2 on PS1. May actually like it more than Code Veronica...

I kinda hated the freight ship section. By this point, I felt the game was done. But the designers were like: Nope, we're gonna have an environment as large as all previous sections combined, more enemies to face, start your gear at zero, and halfway through, make you replay areas via a flashback that's length to story ratio is 100:1.

The remote bombs were...a weird addition. I could place them on the floor, but not...you know...toss them. For like, when you're being assaulted by slimy monsters with shark teeth...And still, the game gives you a ton of them!

Turns out, I wasn't far from the end of the freight ship. So that was good. Then we end up at the salt mine. Turns out Lucas was just playing along...weird. So he got his arm cut off and everything on purpose? Like, he's a legit psycho?

I'm really confused about where the fetuses with curing abilities are coming from...ah well.

So we get some background info: Eveline was a fetus that was mutated to have super powers. She could infect folks, and cause hallucinations: presenting herself has a young girl. She, having never had a childhood, wants a family--so takes over a family and has them kidnap folks to add to their "family", but she's a psychotic child raised by other psychos, so everyone under her influence ends up violent and cruel.

And she vomits up monsters, or something...

Into the salt mine. I thought this was gonna be another section of exploring and puzzle solving, but it's actually quite linear. Seems they designed it to be the action section since they constantly send you up against molded, and drop healing items and ammo EVERYWHERE! I didn't need that because I had amassed so many healing items and weapons by playing frugally.

It's just like when I replayed Resident Evil 1--early on every zombie is life or death, and every bullet and herb is precious. But by the end, you become Terminator, can't die and tons of ammo.

There's a spiral climb at one point, and I just ran from everything. If you move quick enough, it's pretty clear of enemies. First molded was an easy side step. The second was a crawler and he trapped me on a catwalk. I was getting hit from behind, so had to kill that one. The third guy was just a walker, so I shot him once to get him to stumble, making the walk around easy.

And that was it. Salt Mine done. Which I was thankful, cause that damn tanker section!!

So we end up at the beginning, in the old house, reliving some Mia interactions via hallucinations. Not worried, cause I'm more well armed than an American Police force with more medicine than a...uh, pharmacy...I guess.

The phase one fight with Eveline was...unimpressive. But it was more about the story...I guess? I'm torn between being done with the game, and expecting a boss-fight on par with previous ones. But alas, we simply stab old-lady Eveline (nice twist) in the neck with a cure. She asks, "Why does everyone hate me" -- heart breaking, then talks about how it hurts. Almost as emotionally confusing as the end of Alien Resurrection.

But then...phase 2.

Instead of dying, Eveline turns into a giant tentacle monster. I guess it's inevitable that Resident Evil end on a ridiculous note. As grounded as much of the game is, they had to go big. But it's a pretty lame fight. You just shoot at mega-Eveline until a helicopter drops you special gun (Kind of like Brad dropping a rocket launcher at the end of Resident Evil 1 - wink, wink).

So she dies...for realz this time. And Chris Redfield appears in an Umbrella Helicopter. I'm glad he's not mega-Chris from Resident Evil 5, but he also doesn't look "his age". I don't know, seemed like unnecessary name dropping, but also no harm, no foul. Ethan hops in the chopper, finding Mia alive. Aw, so it is a love story!

But then the game gives this cheesy epilogue, blaming Eveline for being horrible--even calling her an "it". And then talks about how Mia just wants to put everything behind her. Everything being that Mia worked for a shady organization making horrible bio-weapons, and as part of her duties, helped hold a traumatized child captive and then attempted to kill her when the girl inevitably escaped??

Eveline was the real victim in this story. She did horrible things because she was child that wasn't properly loved and raised. No shit she wants to build a family. Her saying, "Why does everyone hate me", heartbreaking. I have kids. They're selfish, violent, impulsive bastards sometimes--but they're really sweet and just need people to love them.

Eveline wasn't given love. She was given orders, and restrictions. No surprise that she lashed out, and she did so in the ways she could: vomiting up molded zombies and possessing people.

So bosses...talk about unbalanced.

Boss 1: I had a single clip of ammo, maybe two healing items, and a pocket knife. All got used really quickly. I think you're not supposed to shoot him, just get the car keys. But it was confusing and intense, because I didn't know what to do. CHALLENGE: 3/5.

Boss 2: Jack again, but now it gets real. Moving around is awkward, and the second half involves a chainsaw duel. I used up at least 10 rounds of shotgun shells, all my healing items, and died at least 10 times trying to beat this boss. I almost switched to easy. CHALLENGE: 5/5.

Boss 3: Marguerite as a crazy bug lady. This was kind of the scariest battle, as she drops in out of nowhere and from behind. And if you don't constantly attack her, she sends bugs after you. This one drove me a bit nuts, but eventually I found the winning strategy. CHALLENGE: 4/5.

Boss 4: Super molded. I basically hid around the corner of the elevator and used all my shotgun shells on it. A few shots from the pistol and the thing was down. Not sure I even took damage. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

Boss 5: Mutant Jack. He was so big that he couldn't move around and hide like previous bosses. I maybe was hit once or twice, but it was nothing. The eyes were obvious weak points. CHALLENGE: 2/5.

Boss 6ish: Two Super-Moldeds. Kind of reminds of the big infected guys from The Last of Us. While they killed me the first time (very quickly), on my second attempt, I kept the elevator between us and used all my grenade launcher ammo against them (which I had been saving). They didn't touch me. CHALLENGE: 2/5.

Eveline Phase 1: Walk towards her, block when she shock waves. Timing was semi awkward. I died once. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

Eveline Phase 2: Shoot at a giant target that doesn't appear to do any actual damage. Could have been a cutscene. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

It's so weird that the hardest bosses were at the beginning. I guess this is where you have consider experience vs challenge. But for survival horror, challenge is part of the experience. You're supposed to be scared of bosses.

I think the final Eveline battle should have the player running through the swamp. Eveline's tentacles swimming after you, and in front of you, giving birth to molded with familiar faces (Like Mia) to freak you out. And that keeps happening until the player is out of ammo and healing supplies. Once you've used your last heal and bullet, Chris Redfield snipes the molded. You watch as the Eveline Mass rises to attack the helicopter. Chris takes aim with the Wesker gun, fires a shot at a tentacle arm--it calcifies and shatters! Eveline freaks out and smacks the chopper, sending the gun flying to the ground. You see it 10 yards away. You run to it, grab it, turn--Mia appears before you. "I'm one with her now. If you kill her, we'll never be together." If you hesitate too long, Mia kills you. If shoot, she shatters--Eveline attacks, final few shots: END.

Ah well. It was a good game and I'll probably play it again. I could see this being a semi-regular replay for me, right there with RE1 and RE2.

#Zach's Game Journal #COMPLETED #Resident Evil 7 #Stadia #Monsters need love too!#Video Games

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vixxenfox · 5 years

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Things I’ve noticed after watching the pilot over and over again

And things I just find amusing

- is it just a coincidence that when Charlie says “I wonder if it could be me” the center angel’s face lights up?

- not important but the “F*ck you heaven!!!” Sign is hilarious

- I hate Valentino with a burning passion, look at him texting Angel

- people drop from the sky to get to hell, more importantly without clothes which means each flippin person has to get specially made clothes for their weird demon bodies like sir pentious needs clothes to fit his snake body and stuff... idk just interesting

- the place beside the “we couldn’t come up with a catchy slogan but we sell hardcore drugs” building is called “begg slut”

- imagine dying, going to hell, and realize that you’re an egg

- egg #23 is the best

-one of the eggs like does a weird walk thing with their hand on sir pentious’ tail

-Cherri Bomb’s clothing is so asymmetrical and I love it like she is literally wearing a high-heel boot on one leg and like a tiny shoe on the other

- really just poor Tom he’s great

- Vaggie says “it’s all highlighted” but none of what we are shown is highlighted

- Also read the parts of the list we can see, it’s adorable

- “I don’t touch the gays” I find Katie great

- Jeffrey Dahmer obviously (Also the sticky note saying “who approved this show?)

- When Charlie scans the crowd another tv head just says ‘words’

-The person Vaggie punches isn’t in the crowd

- I love Razzle and Dazzle TvT

- Those two owl demons in Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow are most definitely references to Timber

- CHARLIE YOU JUST KILLED A PUPPY

- I love that there is a boo section

- Tom watches Angel Dust’s stuff confirmed

- I love the sonic spring noise when Angel launches an egg into the air

- Sir Pentious probably has a son that might be in hell so look out for another snake

- Do you see how happy Cherri Bomb is near Angel Dust, best friends! :D

- Aawww Angel pushes Cherri out of the way

- Angel didn’t just sprout a third set of arms, he also pulled an entire gun out of his body sooo... what’s with that

- I think you would just stop existing if you died in hell Angel

- That creepy fan has a body pillow of Angel

- Charlie takes off her pink... jacket(?) in one scene and the next she has it on again (you see her wearing pink in the closeup)

- Lilith is an absent mother

- There goes everyone’s fanon about how Lucifer acts (why couldn’t we get a nice stupid one T~T)

- I think they changed Alastor’s knock but I’m too lazy to check

- They fixed Alastor’s disappearing monocle

- I like that the mic has an eye sometimes it’s cool (how many “sentient-ish” things does Alastor’s have, first the shadow and now this)

- Alastor can teleport at least short distances and he appears as the shadow for a second

- They really make Alastor a very animated character and I love it

- (we knew this already but) Alastor clearly puts himself on a different level than the other sinners, he thinks of himself as justified and better (he doesn’t say “us sinners” he says “loathsome sinners” w/o him in the picture)

- Valentino, Rosie, Lilith (obviously), the girl from the porn studio, and the tv head dude (Vox, thanks @lavipsi) are all some of hell’s “strongest demons”

- TV head (Vox) is in the middle and top so he must be very powerful and behind him there’s also a green and red demon that reminds me of the wolf/fox demon from the bar scene

- Husk is very blocked out by Vaggie’s face but he’s clearly in the picture with Alastor (it looks like a fight but I don’t want to assume) like we know they know each other and stuff but it’s just weird that Husk is in the art when Vaggie says he’s “a dangerous Blahblah” and has entire speech of how dangerous he is

- I love the symbols that float up when Charlie isn’t looking and then the squeak as he turns to a more “innocent-like” Alastor when Charlie looks back

- Alastor rolls his eyes at Charlie when she says “No trickster, voodoo strings attached.”

- Talked about this before but the way his smile gets wider when Charlie says “for as long as you like”

- Why does Charlie have at least 2 posters about alcohol up if she didn’t want it in her hotel?

- I love how Niffty comes in and her bug-like noise when she appears

- You can see their reflection in Niffty’s eye during the closeup and Charlie is too adorable in it, Angel and Vaggie look ready to kick her out XD

- Everybody’s reactions to Niffty rambling on is beautiful, just watch them go from defensive to confused

- Alastor just following Niffty’s every movement as she zooms around

- Please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t immediately see Husk as a cat? I honestly thought he was a dog for a while because he looks sort of like a Husky and his name is Husk, which got me thinking about the contradictions with Alastor not liking dogs... then I realized Husk was a cat.

- “are you sh!tt!ng me” “no I don’t think so” and “you think I’m just some clown” “..maybe” are some of my favorite lines

- Was I just supposed to know that on the bottom of Alastor’s boots (shoes? Hooves?) there were deer prints?

- So did Alastor really just teleport two sinners and basically copy part of the bar Husk was at and it’s just going to be there forever? Like you can see where the bar’s like territory ends because it’s walls are green while the hotel’s is red

- No like seriously Alastor you can copy a part of a bar but you can’t make the walls match the rest of the hotel’s walls?

- Husk seems slightly taller than Alastor

- Also Husk also has yellow teeth and if we go by Alastor’s teeth are yellow because he’s a cannibal, Husk might have been a cannibal when he was alive

- Husk clearly knows Alastor, he’s not afraid of him (to an extent, he was still a little shaken by the... Sir Pentious thing). Husk obviously voices his complaints without restraint and isn’t afraid of Alastor hurting him (I guess), and even when he was shaken up he was still the second person to follow Alastor back to the hotel.

- The entire relationship between Husk and Alastor is very intriguing to me! Husk doesn’t fear Alastor, Alastor called him a friend (obviously another jab at Husk but still), and they were in the same picture when Vaggie talked about Alastor being dangerous. I’m guessing they were probably friends once, maybe the picture is them both fighting another demon or fighting each other in like a fall-out.

- Vaggie is very exaggerated when she’s complaining about the bar and it’s beautiful

- Husk in the background as a still image just chugging booze is beautiful

-Angel’s angry face as Vaggie complains about the bar just before he leaves to lunge at her is beautiful and my favorite face

- 27:46 Alastor flipping FLUTTERS HIS EYES AT VAGGIE and you can hear a small sound effect of it and I just thought that was beautiful

- At the same moment Charlie is just rubbing her cheeks and it’s cute

- Right before Alastor starts singing, he throws some red... fire in the air and Charlie follows it with her eyes and she just so awed by it

- The fireplace in the background has an eye and a top hat above it and it just reminds me of Sir Pentious

- Alastor’s song has so many Friends on the Other Side vibes and I love it

- There are so many Christian symbols (and Satanic symbols) in the background of this song and I just don’t want to spend that time looking at each one :l

- Alastor’s shadow is also here further nailing the Friend on the Other Side vibe (not to mention the other shadows and voodoo doll things)

- Poor Niffty, she should never get hurt

- When Sir Pentious is talking and it shows the chibi characters, Charlie, Angel, and Niffty are looking at Alastor and when it zooms in for a split second Angel’s face is the most innocent bab ever

- There’s a building in the background with (again) one eye and a top hat, there’s also a cat building right next to it

- You can see heaven as a planet with a halo...

- There’s also a sun(?) or moon(?) or planet(?) with a pentagram on it

- I know that Egg Boi #OUCH is just a joke, but what if after 666, Sir Pentious just started giving them stupid names like that?

- Again, religious symbols float around Alastor that I’m not going to look into because I’ve taken so much time T_T

- Niffty is actually unfazed by Alastor summoning tentacles and destroying Sir Pentious’ ship. Really she has a normal smile and face and she immediately follows Alastor when he walks back to the hotel

- Angel is still flirting with Husk

- Charlie reassuring Vaggie is adorable

- Are we not going to talk about the carousel and gigantic steam boat that’s just protruding from the hotel

- I also love how the windows at the top of skull designs <3

- There’s an eye on the top of the building and the sign of Happy/Hazbin Hotel could also look like a top hate (why are there so many one-eyed top hats like Sir Pentious’...?)

- Stay tuned TM

- Not from me but, Alastor changes the name to Hazbin Hotel and Hazbin means something that was great before but is terrible now or something that is meaningless

- So Alastor liking terrible jokes is now canon? The dad joke thing wasn’t just a stream thing, it’s actually canon?

- Alastor actually has a red ‘X’ on his forehead, you can see it right after he destroys Sir Pentious’ ship

- The art in the credits shows Cherri Bomb having a tattoo

- I would like to talk a little about the design that’s in the background during the credits. So in the middle is an apple that’s being held by two sharp hands, there are three snakes coming out of it with only one snake fully out but still seems to have originated from the apple. The snake that’s completely out is on the top and has some designs around it that emphasize it, making it look more like a king (the devil, duh). The other two snakes are going down (probably referencing Adam and Eve maybe? Even though they also seem evil I just think of Adam and Eve.) Under them is another snake head. There are two sets of eyes around the top snake, one set has a line going down the middle of each eye like a scar while the bottom set has eyelashes. Even though the bottom set looks more “girly”, it reminds me of Lucifer because of the dots under them. If you want to grasp at straws the complete bottom snake’s tongue sort of looks like the bottom part of the symbol of Lucifer. The three snakes that clearly originate from the apple in the middle can also look like “Three snakes and one charm” if you squint. The symbol above the top snake looks like the infinity symbol combined with the cross, but it’s not the leviathan cross, so maybe just eternal... crucifixion?

- The smoke coming from the pit that Alastor made has souls in it

- I think #23 is depressed because he really wants to be shot... and he was just sitting there next to a bunch of dead hims

- Vivziepop said on a stream something about Lucifer being “generally goofy, but it depends on his voice” or something like that, please correct me if I’m completely wrong. This makes me things that Lucifer is going to have multiple voice actors.

-The Loading Crew “Everything We Know About Hazbin Hotel” brings up a point that it seems like the only things that can kill demons and sinners are the Exterminators’ weapons which are sometimes left behind that demons scavenge, Vaggie also appears to have one. I recommend watching his video, it’s very quick but also brings up points I haven’t addressed.

And yeah, that’s all for now! ^_^ comment if you have something else to add or think I should change something

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king-paimon · 5 years

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HNK Opinion: Defending the Earth gems

This has been a post that I’d been meaning to post for a good, long while and because the new chapter is supposedly focusing on the earth gems, I thought now would be a good time to post it, especially since the chapter will be popping up soon. This post was constructed BEFORE the Chapter 83 leak, so there won’t be any information from that chapter here.

Warning: This post contains opinions and critiques that may be very different from most in the HnK fandom, especially regarding the earth gems and their currently destroyed relationship with Phos. I know some will strongly disagree with me and I hope I won’t upset you too much with what I have to say. I promise, I’m not looking for a fight; I just want to give my honest thoughts about these characters as well as how I feel about the fandom’s treatment towards them thus far. I was honestly debating on whether to post this for a long time because I was scared of any backlash...But you know what? I’m going for it.This will be another really long post. If you want to comment or discuss anything in this post, feel free to reblog, comment, or even send an ask. I’d love to have a conversation about this. Again, hopefully I won’t make too many people upset. And sorry for my messy formatting again; I’m not very confident in my writing skills. Anyways, here we GO!

I must first say that these thoughts have been festering in my mind for a while, especially after noticing many posts about the growing hatred towards the earth gems, especially in the most recent chapters. Some people being angry at them for not listening to Phos, fighting him, shattering him, and in the latest chapters, chasing Phos down like an animal. So… yeah, I can see why they’re getting a lot of hate. But, in my opinion, this isn’t fair to them.

I want to make it clear that I don’t think that the earth gems are completely in the right for all of their actions, but I also don’t think they’re in the wrong. Simply based from what happened in the story from the earth gems’ perspective, especially their interactions with Phos ever since he first came back from the moon, most of their actions and shifted attitude towards Phos is justifiable. (With emphasis on most)

Burnt bridges: The destroyed relationship between Phos and the earth gems

Recall what happened the first two times that Phos came back from the moon but see if from the earth gems’ perspective:

The first time: Phos convinces (or to not sugarcoat: manipulates) a good handful of the gems to go with him to the moon, a place where many of their other comrades had been taken and had not come back. Most of the gems already had their own reasons for wanting to go to the moon, save for Padparadscha and Cairgorm, and Phos intentionally feed into their curiosity to get them to go with him. (Chapter 60, page 13; Chapter 65, page 04) Other than his one-sided confrontation with Adamant, I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell the full truth behind his actions to the other gems: he just gave his selected few bait that would influence them to come with him to the moon. And though he did do it for their benefit (or so he wants to believe), the main drive behind this act to get a reaction from Adamant for Aechmea. Some of the earth gems were already wary of Phos because of how he was acting but this main act sealed how most of the earth gems would see Phos from then on: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. (or: a Lunarian in gem clothing, though it’s literally the other way around… I hope you get what I mean)

(Chapter 60, page 13)

(Chapter 65, page 04)

The second time: Phos comes back with clear stated intentions of ‘breaking’ Adamant. Throughout the two chapters, Phos repeatedly tells the gems that Adamant was just ‘a broken machine’ who didn’t truly care about them and that dealing with him and for the other gems to change ‘was for their own good.’

(Chapter 69, page 19)

(Page 70, page 09)

So, at least to me, it made sense that the earth gems would be reacted the way that they did. However, I’ll give credit to Phos for actually speaking some of the truth behind his actions, though Bort refused to listen.

(Chapter 70, page 07)

But honestly, after what he did the first visit he came back, why would Bort believe Phos? This information was coming from Phos after all, and he’s now known by the others for his manipulating skills and is believed to be corrupted by the Lunarians and his own weak will (according to Bort), so why should they trust what he’s saying? Sure, Adamant advocated for Phos and pleaded with the earth gems to go to the moon, but besides seeing Padparadscha move again though was described as also being ‘nuts’ and possibly also ‘corrupted’, they still don’t have reason to believe going to the moon is a good idea. And as far as they’ve seen, Phos’s actions seemed to benefit the Lunarians more than them.

Maybe if Phos told them all of this instead of taking the others to the moon, maybe the gems would’ve been more willing to believe him? But after all that had happened thus far, I think that ship had sailed, for this event just further cemented the distrust the earth gems had with Phos. At least Euclase seems to be one of the very few who’s still interested in salvaging the relationship, whether it’s because he does want the relationship back or use it to figure out what exactly was going on with Phos and the other moon gems.

The third time: I think it was at this point of the story that I started seeing parts of the fandom strongly disliking the earth gems, and while I totally understand where they’re coming from, I strongly don’t agree. Yes, this time Phos came back with intentions to just talk, to possible negotiate with Adamant and the other gems and yes, it would have been nice to have the earth gems listen to what Phos had to say. But really… after what happened the last two times he came back and after seeing how the earth gems were processing everything, why would anyone think that the earth gems welcome Phos back with open arms? Other than Euclase and maybe Cinnabar, the kinship the others once felt for Phos is gone.

The other part of these chapters that generated a lot of anger towards the earth gems was the shattering of Phos. Again, I understand the anger but this action, in my opinion, is also reasonable if you look at what happened from their perspective. We as the readers assume that Phos reaching out towards Adamant at the end of chapter 77 was a desperate, pleading gesture. (Chapter 77, page 18) But from the earth gems perspective, this was another act of aggression. Remember, the gems have already witnessed Phos act aggressively towards Adamant multiple times both before and after he went to the moon, and the gems knew that Phos had ill intentions for Adamant the last time came back, hence why they not only hid Adamant but fought Phos. With that in mind, the earth gems simply acted accordingly by continuing to protect Adamant from Phos. (Also, it’s kind of hard to tell how fast those alloy tentacles were moving. Based on how the page was laid out, it could’ve been a slow movement, but it could’ve been a fast one, too. If it was a fast motion, then it would also make sense why the gems quickly threw their weapons at Phos.) And I’m sure that this engrained perception of Phos has been further strengthened after the gems clearly witness Phos attacking Adamant after the 200-year skip in chapters 79 and 80. Again, from their perspective, they see Phos attacking and they acted accordingly.

So, after all of this, what does Phos’s track record look like in the eyes of the earth gems:

Phos broke the trust of his fellow gems

Phos manipulated most of the susceptible gems with half-truth/empty promises for better things, and he took most of them to the moon, the final resting place of past gems

Phos was willing to attack Adamant or the other gems, almost remorselessly

And though Phos may try to convince them, as well as himself, that he did these things for the greater good of all of them, these were still some very shady things that he did. So much so that if the manga was solely from the perspective of the earth gems, Phos would be painted as the villain of the story.

(Chapter 60, page 15)

Speaking of villains, I can’t help but feel like some of these facts parallel with another certain character…

(I don’t care what chapter/page I got this from. He’s always look like he’s up to something bad)

Ok... I admit. This is a bit of a stretch and I’m looking too much into this, but I can’t help but see some parallels between them, mainly with how they manipulate others for personal gain, though Aechmea is still clearly the worse and Phos is simply a poor victim of his influence who seems to get the worse out of it and currently, it doesn’t look like Phos will get out of his grasp anytime soon.

I sincerely hope someone can snap him out of it before it’s truly too late.

My thoughts of the Fandom’s attitude towards the earth gems:

I am going to be a little heated in this section. I promise I’m not attacking anyone in particular: I’m just… really slight irritated by this certain idea that I’ve seen circulating for a while.

As mentioned before, I noticed some anger or rather frustration from the fandom towards the earth gems through chapters 70-82. So based off these past actions, was it really surprising that most the earth gems weren’t too willing to listen to Phos after he comes back a third time? I know several readers have stated that “The earth gems should have listened to what Phos had to say! They’re being unfair to Phos!” I think it was comments like this that sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Given the limited understanding that the earth gems have of the situation and Phos’s past actions, what sort of reaction were you guys hoping for, exactly? I’m honestly curious. After everything that they have experienced with Phos, would you expect them to just be like this?:

“Oh, hi Phos? Welcome back! I know the last time you were here, not only did you lie to us repeatedly but you also took some of our family to the moon to then come back again to ‘break’ Adamant, while telling us that you did it ‘for our own good’ without a proper explanation... but that’s water under the bridge! I’ll totally listen to what you have to say and not think that it was influenced by the Lunarians, who have taken most of our loved ones away to never be seen again!”

Ok... that was harsh of me to say or mock and I’m truly sorry to anyone that I might’ve offended but this is how I feel about this mentality. I just don’t understand why some readers thought the earth gems would just listen to what Phos had to say after everything that happened or why they would be angry that they didn’t. Maybe I’m missing something...

This is an honest question to anyone who reads this: What was the scenario you were hoping for upon Phos’ return? And if you were in the earth gems shoes, how would you’ve reacted? I personally can’t picture Chapter 79 and 80 go in any other direction given everything else that happened up till that point.

If things had played out differently, maybe the end result would’ve been less... harsh. Maybe if Phos was more honest with all of them when he first came back from the moon, maybe they would’ve believed more. But I know, considering the circumstances before then, specifically Adamant being elusive and not forthcoming himself, I see why Phos made his decisions, even though a lot of them were not morally good. If only they were freakn’ honest with each other, Phos and the others But it’s too late now. Whether he intended to or not, he successfully burned bridges and when he tried to erect them back up, the earth gems tore them back down. You reap what you sow. And now Phos is in the worst mindset and I’m . Again, unlike many in the fandom, whether joking or not, I really don’t want this to lead to Phos truly going berserk and destroying the other gems. That would break my heart more than it already has and I can only imagine how Phos would feel afterwards.

Final words:

I realize that what I’ve said probably won’t sit well with some fans and they will likely disagree with me, but that’s fine. Like I said before, I didn’t intend on picking a fight with anyone and really hope didn’t offend anyone too much. To the critics of the earth gems, even though I may disagree with you, I still respect your opinions. I just felt the need to defend the earth gems because I felt they were getting very little support for a while. Again, I’m not saying that the earth gems were completely in right nor Phos deserved what happened to him. I am saying that I can at least understand why they acted the way that they did, just like Phos, and I just personally felt it’s unfair that they are detested for their actions while Phos doesn’t seem to get a lot of criticism for his actions.

Maybe the new chapter will change the tune of some of the earth gems’ harsher critics, maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll even have me change my stance on them a bit. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.

I’m nervous and excited to see what’ll happen next. But regardless of what happens, I do still hope in the end that the gems, including Phos, will come back together somehow and have a true happy ending. (Not in the morbid way, please? No turning everyone into dust or incorporating them into Phos’s broken body. Please no. Haruko Ichikawa I beg you.)

Until then…someone give that gem a hug! Please?

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mrneighbourlove · 4 years

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Evil’s Bane: Ch 9. Everyone has Something to Lose

The wrath that filled Leere was unfathomable. Separated from her allies, she had no reason to believe that they might still be alive. Everything in Inferos and the Tower of Death had pushed her limits so quickly. Time felt off and she had no grasp of her spacing around her. Was she in the middle of the tower, transported close to the ground, or not even in it anymore? The very least she could process she was in what looked like a massive hall. It held rows and rows of pillars from the ground to the roof, and down each end it appeared the room was endless. About a couple fields of distance away, there was a massive obelisk, illuminated by the moon piercing its light through very large glass windows the size of small fields. Using her staff as a cane, she ventured forward, wondering if she could use the Obelisk as a magical conduit to bring the entire tower down.

"So you finally arrived." A smooth voice called out from the dark. Destroyer was there in the endless hallway, standing in the Obelisk's shadow. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd show up at all. Aren't princesses taught to be on time?"

Leere stopped walking, her staff echoing far as she planted her hilt into the floor. “Perhaps. But a Sage is never late or early. They arrive precisely when needed. And they hate cliches. Such as the Dark Lord waiting at the top of his tower.... step in the light.”

"Now, now, you should know that family sometimes share traits, especially since my brother loves to make an entrance... or more specifically, his host." Destroyer was actually not so terrifying. He was beautiful; an array of scales that reflected the various colors of the ocean. Two navy horns sprouted from his head which was coated in silver hair, and a pair of blue wings adorned his back. He was a long, lost creature of legend... a Drakkan; the fabled half-dragon, half-human. A long tail flicked behind him as his clawed, raptor-like feet gently touched the steps as he descended to Leere. "Though I'm sure that I am not what you expected. There was a slight... well... mix-up with our hosts, you see."

“Is that right?” Leere was alarmed by the appearance at first, but then steeled her will. Appearances after all could be deceiving. “Is it because you deserve the title of a snake who slivers in the dark?”

"Very perceptive of you." Destroyer chuckled, very amused by her expression. "You see, thanks to Tzitzimime, I obtained the host everyone adored; an innocent healer of his kind." He then held up one hand. "Then my dear brother inherited the host who everyone would fear and abhorred; a snake who would devour and use others."

“I’ll ask this once. Why? Why join forces with the Devil? Because you feel so hurt and alone at the loss of your long-lost love? Is that why you want to destroy this world? You can’t mature and grow up like everyone else in the world?”

"Oh, trying to get all psychological on me? Make me feel guilt? Admit my mistakes and repent? Perhaps I should reflect upon these actions... yet, I care not for the opinions of a meager human." Destroyer pretended to be offended, clutching at the center of his chest. "My only goal is to be rid of everything my brother created. When he is gone, when his creations are gone, then it shall be just Kaksa and I. No more interruptions, no more work, nothing but the void and us. Tzitzimime can have this little planet for all I care."

Leere looked at him with contempt and fury. “Then that makes you the most dangerous being I’ve ever encountered. Your insanity dooms all of life. For my family, my country, and all of life, I’ll do what I must.”

Taking a battle stance, Leere activated the blade on her scythe. Her staff she gripped glowed a soft red, and the plasma of her blade shined a mighty blue. Both colours basked her image with a fierce light.

"Oh, why do you look so worried, 'tiny princess'?" Destroyer mocked Leere with the title that Bonegrinder had given to her. "Surely you must know that the Mortuus aren't of my brother's work. Your kind are the result of Tzitzimime trying to sow some of his seeds in one of my creations. Tempting them, warping them... making them better. I quite enjoy the madness and bloodlust." He then snickered when she took an offensive stance. "You think you can defeat me with a gardening tool?"

“I will defeat you. And I’ll take your head too.”

Leere’s eyes filled with bloodlust and she began her first strike. With a swing of her scythe, she charged a sickening red energy, throwing an energy slash at him. The blast missed when Destroyer ducked, but it cleaned right through the obelisk like it was a bullet traveling through butter.

"Impressive for a human that earned the title of Shadow Sage." Destroyer glanced at the ruined Obelisk. "Now, it's my turn." The deity only had to touch the ground with his hand and the floor started to disintegrate. His objective was to bring Leere closer, putting her in a difficult position.

Leere ran forward, hopping from tile to tile. He wanted her to get close? Fine. But she’d make him see that only made her more ferocious. As she drew closer, she summoned a wall master from behind him. The flying fist struck Destroyer in the back of the head. As he was off balance, if only for one second, Leere drew in close enough to make a clean cut across his chest. The plasma of the scythe burned incredibly well against her opponents’ skin.

Plink, plink, plink... a few scales scattered across the tile, sounding like falling coins. Following another cut, flesh fell with a wet plump on the floor. Yet, the Destroyer was hardly fazed. While effective, he simply stood upright, his body healing. The God could push through any pain, for he had no fear of feeling it. It seemed he possessed that same ability to heal his host, just like Prama did for Bonegrinder. Both of the brothers refused to let their host die until their work was complete. "Didn't your mother teach you any of her wisdom?" Destroyer sneered at the princess with a sinister grin. "In battle, aiming for the head is the most affective move... yet, here, that wouldn’t help you anyway." With his giant wings, Destroyer gave a mighty 'whoosh' of wind and knocked Leere backwards, before purposely grabbing the burning scythe right on under the blade, spinning her around with it, and slamming her down three times against the tile floor.

Leere felt her head spin and blood spurt from her mouth. He was just like her brother. She doubted that even if she had a bomb, she could kill him. Klinge couldn’t do the same to Bonegrinder. So that left Leere with one option. The one thing she knew that she could affect Bonegrinder with, so maybe it could work against this prick. Blood magic. Grabbing his arm, she immediately started to leech him best she could. “Die you Bastard.”

"Ah... blood magic. One useful thing that I managed to pull from the discarded shadows of my brother." Destroyer's movements were suddenly slowed, fighting against her control. "Unlike you, though, 'tiny princess'... I am not alone."

“You are the one alone. You’re a pathetic pile of death worshiping garbage! What’s the matter? Scared of dying? Like all of the people you want to erase?”

Both hands of hers reached up to squeeze up around his neck. She had to focus. Even if it meant sacrificing her life, she’d snuff the life out of him.

"Heh, the Goddess Zarazu would love it if I did worship her but she has the God Ba'puu to do that." As Leere reached for his throat, he then said, "You can try to kill me, it won't work... though, I'd be more concerned about Tzitzimime.I think he has something of yours."

“...What?”

Suddenly, a tentacle with a blade tip stabbed from behind Leere and through her stomach. It wouldn’t kill her, but it was enough to stop her concentration on the Destroyer. Now that her hands dropped to her side, he could clamp his own around her throat. The Shadow Man whispered behind Leere, planting a finger on the back of her head. He drained her of magic, leaving her powerless. “Take her. The ritual will begin with her suffering and torment.”

Leere’s mind went fuzzy, and her body fell into the arms of the Destroyer as if she was some poor roofied girl. “N-no. Bonegrinder....” The Shadow Man grabbed her scythe, impressed by its build. “Think I’ll keep this. Top of the tower. The little meat bags are waiting for you to put her in place.”

"Now, now, why are you calling for the host of my brother?" Destroyer asked the princess with a snide chuckle. "After all, he tried to warn you and you wouldn't listen. We can sense each other, you see, 'tiny princess'. He desperately wanted to save you, but now... he's as trapped as you are." When the chaotic deity gave his order, Destroyer unfurled those huge wings and started to fly to the top of the tower. "You should have listened to him while you had the chance."

The section of tower Bonegrinder and Black found themselves in was eerie. The hallways were slimy, with hard black walls that were very nest like, as if they were shrunk down to a wasp’s catacomb. This flesh was growing over what used to be a metal hallway. The only light sources were windows still uncovered, moonlight still peaking in.

Black was sure that Bonegrinder would be furious with him for not choosing to go to Leere. Yet, the woman made her choice. She wanted to try to save some of these already damned souls. Personally, Black was beginning to question her sanity as well. True, Bonegrinder had his moments, but at least he admitted he was somewhat insane, mainly due to two souls sharing one body. Leere was... something else. Fortunately, Bonegrinder was still alive and well, but... out of his rational state of thought, mumbling to himself. The Wraith was certain he could hear Prama's whisperings, trying to help the Anagari get a grip but failing to do so. What the Wraith did not know was what Bonegrinder was seeing... the corpses of his family.

In the not too far distance, someone stumbled out of a door. A Mortuus cultist, walked a few steps forward, until finally his top half fell backwards as his legs fell forward. Something had cut him in half on the other side of the door.

"Bonegrinder, you need to come with me." Black had knelt down beside of the Anagari, trying to get his attention. "Leere will require our aid if... she's not already dead, but we need to get out of here. Destroyer is very close and... I believe that Tzitzmime is as well."

Bonegrinder did not even hear Black. All he heard was the words of his deceased family. His daughter with her birdsongs. His son requesting to go hunting. And his beautiful wife... his Brightscales, as he once called her... was asking why.

Voices whispered out to Black, as if the tower itself was taunting him. ”You can’t save her. She’ll make us whole.”

The Tower of Death could feel its purpose about to be realized. The walls had glow of red go up and down its walls. Suddenly, the corpse that was collapsed not too far away quickly mutated into one of the ghouls seen before. Hissing, it sniffed the air, until it saw Black and Bonegrinder. Angrily, it clawed its way back into the way it came, as if wanting to escape them.

THWACK!!!

Black cut off the head of the ghoul quickly, so it would not go and find friends to bring back later. Prama, meanwhile, was fighting like mad to Bonegrinder. Between all the suffocating darkness and using much of his magical excess to heal the Anagari, the deity was struggling.

"You big, fat, lump of flesh, get your scaley ass moving! Modoc!!! Move it!!! Leere needs you!!! Black needs---oh thank me, he's here."

Black tried again, moving the Anagari's head to look at him. "Bonegrinder, come on, you can't let old ghosts haunt you! What happened back then was not your fault!!!"

Behind the door, Black could hear someone hacking apart more ghouls.

"...? Hades? Is that you?"

No answer. Just droplets hitting the ground. Followed by a thick splat.

On the other side, Bi-Hanzo was still trapped within his own personal hell. He learned the “truth”. He could see it with his own eyes. And it was all so, so terrible. Grasping a map off a wall, he was reading it carefully. As one last remaining ghoul grabbed his leg, he lurched back. With a quick kick he knocked its head right out the door.

"... Hanzo?" Black did not expect the man to make it this far alive. While his magical talents were impressive, many others of the 'good' Mortuus had succumbed to these monsters.

Bi-Hanzo didn’t hear him, tearing papers off a wall and rummaging through them. “It’s all connected. They have every location of our villages down to the coordinates. Our bodies. They’ve been kidnapping and harvesting our bodies. For what? For this tower? For their precious gods?!!!” The man sounded unhinged.

"That's an easy answer, it's because these people are demented and Tzitzmime is their deity." Black was not in the mood for a mental breakdown at the moment. Once more, he tried to rouse his master. "Bonegrinder, please, we need to leave. This place is getting fouler by the minute and I am concerned for all of our sakes.”

When Black turned to go back to his master, he paid for his lack of human understanding. A massive block of ice encased his body from behind, and Bi-Hanzo brought his attention to Bonegrinder. “You. This is just as much your fault as Destroyah! You vile god of creation.”

"....!!!" Black was not expecting for Hanzo to turn on him. The ice trapped his movements momentarily, but he was able to slip his physical form into the shadows to break free. Before Hanzo could touch the Anagari with his magic, Black had shot out from behind the man, getting him in a headlock. He held a blade at Hanzo's throat. "Try that again, and it will be your head rolling."

Bi-Hanzo had more then enough time with Black’s threat to turn into mist, and phase through him. Solidifying behind him, he thrust his arm forward, using physical contact to steam Black’s body to a boiling point. As the Wraith swiped at him, Bi-Hanzo broke off. Taking a stance, the guardian was ready to kill. “No. I will take yours.”

Black underestimated exactly how much magical knowledge Hanzo had. He yelled when the steam scorched his skin and leapt backward from the Mortuus. This man was trouble. He should have killed him earlier.

"I've lived lifetimes. You're a child compared to me." Black growled at the Mortuus. "You will not touch my master."

“I’ve killed plenty of undead and mad Echidnans. You’ll be no different.” Cooling the air, Bi-Hanzo fired off large icicles at Black, but in the direction of Bonegrinder.

"I'm not an undead and I'm not an Echidnan. Not fully, at least, of either..." The Wraith managed to deflect the shards of ice and kept a defensive stance. Nothing would harm Bonegrinder, not while he could still roam this earth. He stomped one foot to the ground, causing the shadows to shift underneath Hanzo, latching onto the man. "You won't win."

“I’ll kill you both! You’re a follower of the fallen god Proxamus! He only creates suffering!” Struggling off the shadows, Bi-Hanzo froze the floor underneath them. Slamming his fist on the ground, more bladed icicles shot upwards to stab into both Black and his master.

Black reacted quickly enough to swallow Bonegrinder in the shadows and spit him out, but did not possess the energy to avoid the ice spikes the same way. He managed dodge most of them, but was still sliced by the frost. The Wraith was done with this nonsense. Maneuvering through the ice, he blinded Hanzo with one of his flash bombs before sinking the sword into the man's heart. "I serve no one but Bonegrinder."

Once again, on instinct of being blinded, Bi-Hanzo turned himself in a mist form. If he could see an attack coming, he could avoid the damage. Stepping away from Black, he rubbed his eyes as he solidified. “You serve the God of Creation trapped in flesh. He could save my people, but he only cares for himself! Kenshi. Lang. All the others. I will avenge them!!!”

Ranting, Bi-Hanzo kept put up a solid wall of ice between himself and his targets. Only in his mental struggle, their were a few openings now. Suddenly, as if a spell ended over him, he gripped his head. The image of Black and Bonegrinder was groggy behind the ice. “... Wait. What’s going on? My head....”

Black saw that Hanzo was distracted. He took this as a chance to strike. Throwing his dagger at the man, the Wraith hit Hanzo right between the eyes.

Black gasped, stumbling backwards. The dagger didn’t pierce enough to kill him outright, unable to reach his brain. But none the less he screamed. “W-what are you doing?!?!”

"You attacked my master and myself, I should be asking you, you damn idiot!"

Parts of his body were solidified, others were misty, such as his head. It didn’t look like he’d last long. “I what? Oh god. Oh god not yet.” The ice wall broke apart, starting to turn into vapour, another sign of Bi-Hanzo dying. “Where’s the sage?”

"If I knew that, why the hell would I tell you?" Black stood over Bonegrinder, hoping the snake would be rousing soon from his nightmares.

“She was right.” Bi-Hanzo’s breakdown was starting to come back to the man. Pointing at a map in the room over, he breathed heavily. The knife had fallen out when his head turned to mist, but the blood was still pouring down his face. “There’s a map with our villages. If you gave a damn, you could save them before...” His eyes slowly widen, as if he came across something truly horrible. “Oh no. They have her. Spirits save us. Can you hear them? Taunting us? They have her.”

"You are wrong in assuming that I would care about the people who once hurt the only person who gave a damn to help me." Black watched as Hanzo started to fade into nothing. "It's hard to feel guilt in this state. If you're worried about the Shadow Sage, then pray to your fallen god to save her. Or for a miracle. I'm no god."

“Please. You must.”

Suddenly, from the darkness, a monster as large as Hades stepped out behind Bi-Hanzo. It was a creature with a head of six bulbs for eyes, legs as thick as tree trunks, and six clawed arms protruding from its body. To be blunt, it was the most alien looking thing Black had ever seen. The man turned to it, in an almost suicidal trance. “An Angel...”

It looked like he was about to hug it. That was when the Abomination stabbed into his body, it’s arms sharper than any blade Black held on him. Bi-Hanzo was shredded as if he was simply a pig for the slaughterhouse. This would be a good moment to run.

"...!!!" Black stilled, feeling a sense of absolute dread wash over his being. How could he fight this... this thing? It was not a creature he knew how to kill. Was it a hellspawn? It had to be; he knew of nothing else it could be.

"... Modoc..." The Wraith muttered under his breath, eyes wide and trying not to make any sudden movements to agitate the monster further. "Wake the fuck up or we're both going to get eaten."

Inside of Bonegrinder's head, the Anagari floated in a void. He had withdrawn from his physical surroundings and was trapped inside of his own mind. There, Prama was suspended in front of him, in all of his glory. The Maker, the creator of all light and creatures of it, tried to console, Bonegrinder. "You cannot give up yet, Modoc. There is still much to do and to be done."

"He is so tired, Prama, so tired. Please, please let him sleep the eternal rest and be with his family again. Let him die."

"And what of your precious friends? The ones you call your 'children' and look after?"

"They will all be fine."

"What of Leere?"

"The tiny princess no longer listens to him. She will not listen now."

"She is in danger. Will you not help her?"

"How can he now?" The Anagari looked so defeated. "If he goes, you will be at risk. Without you, the world will descend into madness. If he stays away, Chaos could become whole sooner yet either way, the prophecy will be fulfilled."

"If Chaos forms into a whole from a fragment, then everything could be lost. This world, myself, and Kaksa. I do not want to risk her... would you want to risk your beloved Brightscales?"

The Anagari's eyes narrowed. "Don't call her that. That is his name he gave her, reserved for him to call her alone."

"Would you?"

"... no. He would not. He could not imagine it."

"Then you need to wake up and go."

The Abomination made no hiss, no scream, no roar like any of the ghouls or cultists in the tower. It simply strolled up to Black calmly to tear him piece to piece.

Black stood his ground, ready to fight... yet before he could, Bonegrinder's massive tail thwacked the Hellspawn away from the Wraith. Surprised, the Wraith did not expect the Anagari to recover so soon. "...?! Bonegrinder?! Are you---"

"He will be fine. We must find Leere. We've not the time to deal with this thing."

The Abomination cracked its neck back into place as it picked itself up from the ground. With the pace of a silent killer, it kept walking at a modest speed towards them, all its limbs ready to grab the next tail or person that drew too close.

"Do you have enough reserve to use your shadows to move us to her?"

"That... would be a stretch. But I will try."

"Then do so."

With that... the two disappeared from the shadows.

The Abomination nearly missed grabbing them. No matter. The Tower of Death had a mind of its own. It had to keep Bonegrinder and Black away from Leere. And it would send its Angel in the right direction to catch them once more. Nothing good would escape this hell.

________________________________________________________________

Previous Ch. https://mrneighbourlove.tumblr.com/post/626629526442655744/evils-bane-ch-8-looming-dread

Next Ch. https://mrneighbourlove.tumblr.com/post/626631967066243072/evils-bane-ch-10-evil-anew

#Crossover #Appreciate your thoughts commented!#ridersoftheapocalypse #Leere #Leere Dragmire #Dhakk #Bonegrinder #Black the Wraith #Horror #Malus

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turntechgodheadsgodsentturntable · 4 years

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Okay. So, I binged all of She-Ra Season 5 in a single day. Never done that before. Took me 12 hours to watch just under 5 hours of footage (I calculated it), which isn’t surprising in the least to me. I have some very strong feelings about the show and its ending, which I want to share. Spoilers under the cut, of course. Obviously.

HOLY FUCK

THIS WAS THE BEST SEASON YET.

What, you thought I hated it? Yeah, no. Season 5 was great from start to finish. First impression is that there’s nothing wrong with it, but I’m also kind of a wreck right now.

So, the whole season can be broken into a few parts, which I’m going to comment on individually, as well as certain scenes that stood out to me.

Part 1: The Flagship

Episodes 1-3 are the early parts of Horde Prime’s invasion. This is just the Rebellion trying to figure out how to fight the threat of the True Horde, and Glimmer and Catra being trapped on the flagship (which never gets a name, for whatever reason. I’m going to name it the Empyrean, because why not). Adora tries to cope with not being She-Ra anymore, Glimmer and Catra try to not anger Horde Prime, and the Rebellion is generally not having a good time.

I like how we get to see exactly how Catra wants to change during these episodes. You can really tell she doesn’t want this anymore. Unfortunately this comes out a bit, uh, self destructively. Catra getting Glimmer out of the Empyrean was a really good sequence, especially as we don’t see all of the aftermath from her end. Leaving an entire episode between Catra rescuing Glimmer and the Best Friend Squad rescuing Catra was a really good decision, I think.

Speaking of, episodes 4-8 are Space! The reunited Best Friend Squad have a few adventures in the dark, unfeeling void that is space! Woo! I liked episode 4, with the star siblings, and Adora using the power of She-Ra again for the first time. The way she used it sets up the finale nicely, showing that the power is tied to love, not control.

Episode 5, to put it bluntly, is an emotional sledgehammer. Mind Controlled!Catra was terrifying to watch. The whole fight scene was impossible to look away from and painful to watch, and a good precursor to the later episodes. Adora using the full power of She-Ra to save Catra was really good. Like, there’s no other way to describe it.

Then, the chips start. Episode 6 was unnerving in all the right ways, and felt kind of like a zombie apocalypse episode. 7 and 8 were also fantastic in this way, and also set up some very good fight scenes later on. Also, Scorpia singing! Very good! Double Trouble was an unexpected surprise in 7 too, one of the few twists I didn’t see coming. 8 was unexpected in many ways. Catra’s magic cat was wonderful, as well as the Best Friend Squad warming up to her. Wrong Hordak was a great addition to the crew, and I like how the writers found a way to keep him with the Squad. He feels like a character that was written in for a single episode, then the writers were like “Hey, we like this guy. Can we keep him?” and then they figured out a way to keep him around. 10/10 would befriend again.

We return planetside for good at the end of episode 8, beginning the final section, Heart. Oh boy. Seeing the chipped characters was heartbreaking, but so cool at the same time. Horde Prime always being one step ahead and far more powerful than we thought was scary, regardless of the fact that we figured he’d be more of a threat than the old antagonists.

Speaking of, Scorpia, Mermista and Spinnerella made for very competent foes. Like, we knew how powerful Mermista was, and had a pretty good idea of how powerful Scorpia could be with her powers, but Spinnerella didn’t have much screen time in the previous seasons. Props to the writers for giving the minor characters some love (or whatever happened this season), I don’t know of many shows that would do that. Giving Netossa, Spinnerellla, Micah and Swift Wind some more time in the limelight really helped to tie the whole season together, similarly to what that one episode in season 4 with the Horde Cadets did.

Another thing they did well was how the chipped characters acted. They were so damn creepy and unnerving, especially with the sound effects that accompanied some of their actions. Being completely cold and careless towards the people they cared about, and acting the compete opposite of how they normally were really helped to drive home just how heartless Horde Prime really was, and that law and peace aren’t always the right things to strive for.

The chips also gave an absolutely critical secondary objective which lead to a party split in the final three episodes. The finale wouldn’t have hit as hard as it did if everyone had been together. Or maybe it would have. I don’t know. It’s midnight and I’m still writing this.

Anyways the finale was, of course, amazing. The episodes leading up to it really highlighted two of the major themes of the show, which are abuse and love. Having the main characters say “I love you” to each other just before the final battle may be a bit cliche, but it worked. Even if the relationships weren’t romantic, those words still hit hard. On the other hand, having Shadow Weaver in the final party really laid bare the relationship between Adora and Catra. They were both victims of Shadow Weaver’s abuse, in their own ways. Catra obviously became an angry person who hated herself and took it out on everyone around her due to being the one who was told she was worthless, but Adora? She became so selfless it was damaging to her and everyone else around her. The finale highlighted this really well.

Adora was ready to die for Etheria, but also didn’t feel like she had a choice in the matter. She thought that dying would be what was best for everyone, and didn’t even consider saving herself. Like, fanatical selflessness has been Adora’s primary motivator for the entire series. This girl doesn’t care about herself and what she can do or what she wants, beyond how she can benefit others. And it hurts people! It’s been hurting people since season 1! Adora being so selfless and trying to save everyone was what lead to her abandoning Catra in the Horde. Like, she was 100% right to leave the Horde, but she could have handled it way better! Adora abandoning Glimmer and Bow is 100% in-character for her, probably assisted by Shadow Weaver being in close proximity to her in the preceding episodes.

Speaking of Shadow Weaver, her character was handled pretty well. I don’t like her any more than the rest of you, but her role in the finale was pretty good. Adora and Catra briefly having their old “family” back helped to show how exactly Adora got to be so self-sacrificing. I’m not nearly coherent enough to explain myself well here, so I’ll just go straight to the finale (for the third time).

Adora and Catra going to the Heart of Etheria alone really helped to tie the whole series together. It started with the two of them, it ends with the two of them. Catra coming to save Adora is a direct mirror of Adora going to save everyone and leaving Catra behind, and one I am living for. Shadow Weaver sacrificing herself to defeat the tentacle monster was great, mostly because she died doing so. Redeemed? Hell no. Not as much of a jerk as you could have been? Hell yes.

Then the final bit, at the heart. Oh my god. I’m asexual, so I have no idea what all the lesbians out there are feeling, but my god! That love confession! The holo-memory scene with everyone happy in the future! THE KISS!! ADORA TURING INTO SHE-RA AGAIN AND OVERCOMING THE POISON AND ABSORBING THE MAGIC OF ETHERIA THROUGH THE POWER OF LESBIANS!!!! H O W DID THE WRITERS THINK THE FANS WOULD BE ABLE TO SURVIVE THIS?!?!

I have some strong feelings over this show, to say the least.

I’m going to post this before I pass out now. Good night tumblr.

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sleepyfan-blog · 5 years

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Garden Awakening

chapter four of Confession series. First chapter here. chapter three here. AO3 link

characters and pairing: Nightmare, Dream, Killer!Sans, Dust!Sans, Horror!Sans, Dreammare

warnings: cursing

word count: 5,240

Summary: Killer and Dust drag an unwilling Hatchet into the forbidden garden. There they find a very interesting statue.

also I would like to once again thank @trashydragonartist7 for editing this fic

tagslist: @anxiety-is-married-to-depression @angelofthehalfmoon @trainwreck-of-skeletons @hisame-amadashi @therandomskelekey @capisnotonfire

Hatchet, Dust and Killer have been working for Nightmare for decades. While working for the Lord of Darkness wasn't what any of them thought that they would be doing with their lives, it wasn’t so bad. Dust and Killer were free to maim, terrorize and even kill anyone stupid enough to piss off the Boss - but they couldn't play with the fuckers who lived in this AU unless they did something stupid. But they couldn't instigate anything - and boss knew if they tried. Hatchet had more noble reasons - he was trying to keep his people fed. It was safer for them to keep behind the protective barrier than deal with the humans above ground - who were just as vicious and dust-hungry as the monsters who thirsted for the humans' blood and flesh below.

There were some monsters who had moved to Boss's world - Crooks being one of the first, along with most of the non-guard members of Snowdin. They'd settled in one of the previously abandoned little mountain villages, surrounded by seemingly endless snowy forests, filled with animals to hunt and land fertile enough to grow any crop that they so desired. With land to roam and a night sky with stars to look at, Hatchet and those who had moved here - some of the aquatic monsters of Waterfall finding either fresh or saltwater lakes and oceans to live and be where it wasn't cramped and awkward... Not going after the other sentient beings in this world seemed more than fair.

Other minions came and went - some either dusting in battle or thinking that betraying Nightmare would end in anything but their death (after they watched as Nightmare tore apart their AU, the monsters and/or humans alike dying screaming, pleading in mercy, terribly confused as to why the eldritch creature who had been aiding them suddenly turned on them,) laughing with a manic grin as he tore their minds and bodies apart. Not that every monster and human from such AUs were killed, the survivors allowed to live in other worlds, traumatized and telling the stories of what happens if one ever attempted to cross Nightmare.

The three of them were currently trying to find Nightmare. Several Toriels and Asgores had just arrived at the castle, wishing to speak to their ruler. Give him the time of day, and dark and often mysterious benefactor it was probably in the Forbidden Garden. As far as the three of the new, and as Hatchet had been working with him for over a hundred years, no one but nightmare was ever allowed to be in the large and expensive Gardens near the castle. From what they could tell there were beautiful flowers, shrubs, and even trains. There were fruit trees and berry bushes, even nut trees from every Au that nightmare had ever visited. They knew that their boss grabbed any unique plant, particularly if it was flowering or put give food that was edible. They also knew that there were herbs and spices that grew in certain sections of the garden. The only kind of fruit that was noticeably absent the gardens were apple trees. No matter how beautiful or unique The Apple Tree, nightmare seem to purposefully leave even the smallest and easiest sapling in the area that came from. Whether that was because he hated apples for some reason or because he was allergic to them and didn't want something that could make him sick in his home AU... As there were no apple trees anywhere within Nightmare's home timeline.

They reached the edge of the gardens, and if they squinted, the three of them could see a distant dark figure, standing still, touching the Mysterious Statue. Hatchet sighed. "We'll tell them that Boss is busy. None of the visitors said that they needed his attention urgently, and we're not allowed to cross into the gardens."

"But... He's just... Standing there. Hatch, do you know what that statue even is? I've seen him wander over to it like... At least twice a week since I started here thirty years ago. None of the Dark Papyri either know who the statue's supposed to be... Or if they do, not even tickling them with my knives will get them to tell me? He spends like... Hours just standing there two, sometimes even three days a week." Killer asked curiously, glancing at the taller Sans curiously.

"What makes you think I have any more of a clue as to what that statue is or why he spends so much time in this place any more than you do? Maybe he likes gardening. He could be sleeping or taking a nap. I ain't stupid enough to ask those sorts of questions." Hatchet grumbled, rolling his eye lights a little. "He's killed people for trespassing in the garden. Seriously, we should just leave him be."

"Ugh, fine. You're such a killjoy." Dust grumbled, pouting a little as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean... We're his favorites. Do you really think that he'd kill us just for trying to tell him that some of his administrative minions want his attention for something?"

"I don't know and I'm not going to risk it." Hatchet answered back stubbornly. There was no way that he was going to risk his people's food supply. "We can wait right here for Boss to be done. You can go back to the castle and torment one of the prisoners if you're bored."

“Nah, I think that I'll stay.” Killer answered after a moment. He glanced at Dust and the two of them nodded just a little bit, biting back grins. This was going to be the perfect opportunity to explore Boss's garden - Nightmare was going to be busy with whatever the Asgores and Toriels needed from him for hours - a perfect amount of time to meander through Nightmare's forbidden garden and maybe even check out the statue... Hopefully to find out just what was so special about it that he'd go to such lengths to keep others from messing with it.

About an hour later, Boss made his way towards them, stilling as he apparently spotted them before abruptly teleporting in front of the three of them, his words clipped and irritated, his tentacles flicking in agitation behind him. "Why are you here?"

Hatchet answered immediately. "There are several beings here to see you. They need to talk to you about something - what none of them would tell any one of the three of us. But none of them said that they were dealing with emergency situations, so we stayed here at the edge of the garden, since you've told us all repeatedly to never go in your garden. So we stayed right here, waiting to inform you of what they needed but not breaking your rules, boss." Dust and Killer nodded in agreement.

Nightmare sighed and rolled his visible eye light. "Very well, thank you for adhering to the rules that I have laid out for you." With that Nightmare teleported off - likely to the throne room in order to deal with his visitors.

After ten seconds of hesitation, Killer and Dust stepped into the garden simultaneously, wicked grins on their faces as they turned and looked at Hatchet. "You going to join us? Come on... You're just as curious about what's up with this garden, same as us. He's going to be busy for a while, and it's not likely that he'll return to the dead center of the garden after he's been here once today... You know that you wanna...." Dust teased, his eye lights shining with mischief. Killer had already ran off, deeper into the garden, vanishing from sight as Dust had talked, eager to explore this forbidden, beautiful place.

"I... Fine, stars damn it. But I get to decide when we leave, and neither of you get to argue about why. We never talk about what we see inside this thing and we don't take so much as a single berry or leaf from this garden." Hatchet grumbled, rubbing his face with on of his hands. He really didn't think that this was going to end well for them but... He was very curious about this place. He'd seen this garden grow from a few sparsely planted flowers to the huge, lovingly tended garden while he worked for Nightmare.

"Yeah, yeah. I promise - and I'll make sure that Killer won't try to eat or take anything from this place too." Dust answered with a bright grin, glad that Hatchet was coming in with them rather than obediently trotting off to boss to squeal on them for exploring this forbidden area. He ran after where he could sort-of sense Killer's magical presence, glee filling him at being able to misbehave like this.

The three of them eventually made it to the center of the garden. They carefully made their own paths through the field of gold and violet flowers up to the small stone statue. The statue appeared to be made in the likeness of... Someone who looked very similar to an Underswap Sans - with the rounded skull and slim frame. None of the three of them recognized the style of clothing that this statue was wearing - the sensible boots, the star-clasp that would have fastened the cape around his shoulders... The gloves... The expression on the statue's face - shock, horror and betrayal was interesting. One of the statue's hands was raised partially in front of themself - as if trying to reach out to someone.

"Hey... They're wearing some sort of circlet on their head - the style reminds me kind of that golden crown that Nightmare wears occasionally... Not that the bastard ever explained where he'd gotten that in the first place." Dust noted, reaching out and lightly touching one of the swirls. "I wonder who carved this - it's done with a lot of detail."

"Hey, come look at the back of the statue - there's a design on the cape." Killer murmured, frowning a little as he could see a crescent moon within the star that was very much reminiscent of both the crown that Nightmare only ever wore on very formal occasions, and the crescent moon motif that was in the oldest sections of the castle. "I wonder who this is supposed to represent. Or, as I should probably say, was." Killer reached out and lightly patted the top of the strange statue Underswap Sans's (?) head.

"Would you two quit touching the statue? There's a good chance that boss has put some sort of alarm spell on this statue, to prevent anyone stupid enough to try to come in this far into his private guardians from trying to fuck with this thing. I don't know if you two haven't fucking noticed, or just don't care, but it's fucking obvious that this whole place is maintained and created with a great deal of affection and love." Hatchet hissed, grabbing both Killer and Dust by the back of their necks, taking a couple of steps back from the statue, about to teleport off when the three of them heard a deafening crack.

They turned in unison to stare at the statue, horror filling them as the stone statue continued to crack - starting from the point at which Killer had touched it on the statue's head, lines beginning to criss-cross throughout it - the lines filled, strangely enough - with a brilliant golden light... Which started to burn brighter still, until it pulsed outwards, blinding all three Sanses as they threw themselves backwards to avoid flying chunks of stone, covering their faces in a desperate attempt to preserve some of their sight. All three of them can sense something approaching them. Something with power.

A gentle voice calls out from just above their heads from where Nightmare's top lieutenants are curled on the ground, light fingers brushing along the tops of their skulls. "Are you alright? It's okay... I won't hurt you..."

Hatchet is the first to uncurl from his protective ball, and he looks up at the being, his eye lights shrinking to pinpricks in utter confusion at what he sees. The statue turned into a person? There were little chunks of grey... Something. He would call them rocks, but it clearly wasn't if this being was trapped inside of it somehow. "I... Sorry. You startled us. Oi! Dust, Killer you can get up now."

The both of them do so, staring in mute shock at the small skeleton before them, unable to make heads or tails of what had just happened. Killer manages to get his voice working after several uncomfortably awkward seconds of staring. "What... What's your name?"

The skeleton had pale golden eye lights, and tilted his head a little bit in confusion, as if surprised by his question "I... My name is Dream... I've never seen any... Any other skeletons before.. Uhm, are you... K-Killer or Dust?" The other is shivering a little, despite the warmth of the day. "That's uhm... An unusual name..."

Not that he seems to be afraid of them, just as confused as they are. "I'm Killer... It's a nickname. All three of us are named Sans, but we're from different universes, and calling someone else by your own name gets really confusing very quickly. Dust is on my left - and Hatchet's the big man on the right." Killer responded after a moment, briefly tempted to scoop up the smaller skeleton and promise to protect him for the rest of his life. He shook off the strange impulse.

"I... Oh... Uhm..." The strange skeleton looked at the stunning garden around him, visibly confused. "I... Where are we? I've never seen a garden like this... But it's really exciting to meet people from other timelines! I've always wanted to wander to different worlds... But I... I couldn't..."

"Yeah, we can't move between timelines on our own, either. But boss can. It's... Fun. You... Don't recognize this garden? What was the last thing that you do remember, Dream?" Dust questioned curiously.

"I...." Dream frowned a little and wobbled before falling to the ground, his legs seemingly giving out beneath him, as he pressed his face into his hands, taking in a couple of shaky breaths in "I... I don't feel well..."

Hatchet was frowning a little - a golden circlet on his name. Confusion about where he was but with knowledge of other timelines. A thematic name. Oh hell. "You... You wouldn't happen to know someone called Ni-" he began to question carefully when a black and cyan streak knocked the three of them to the ground, scooping up Dream.

It was Nightmare, who was holding on very tightly to Dream, one arm under the other's legs, the other wrapped around his chest. The other's tentacles were flailing wildly behind him, and he hissed at the three of them, "He needs food! He hasn't eaten in centuries and is close to collapsing. Move you idiots-!"

"Yes boss!" The three of them yelped, each scrambling to find the nearest food bearing plant, running as fast as their legs could carry them.

Hatchet came back a couple of seconds before Dust and Killer did, his arms full of peaches. He holds out the best and ripest among them to both Dream and Nightmare, making sure to move loudly enough so that both of them could hear him before he spoke. "Boss, I've got some food."

The peach was unceremoniously snatched from his hand by one of Nightmare's tentacles - and brought up very gently to Dream's mouth, the lord of darkness coaxing gently, "Dream... Please eat. You need to do so, and Hatchet is an excellent judge for what is edible."

"I... Okay..." Dream mumbled, opening his mouth and tiredly nibbling on the fruit. After he ate half of the peach, the smaller skeleton seemed to brighten up a little and grabbed the fruit with his own hands, finishing it quickly. "That's... Really tasty... Uhm, may I please have another? And what is that called? I've never had a fruit like that before." Dream turned to look at him and said with a sweet smile that felt like a physical blow against Hatchet's dark soul, "Thank you."

Hatchet handed Nightmare another peach as the dark king - his voice stunningly warm and gentle - explained, "It's called a peach. It grows on a certain kind of tree I found in another world. I've planted a few here in this garden. For you."

"Really? That's amazing, Moonlight!" Dream answered, the gold in his eye lights gaining strength as he continued to eat. It seemed to take the small skeleton a couple of moment to process everything that Nightmare had just said, and Dream murmured after a moment, voice full of care and surprised delight. "You... You made this place for me? That's... Thank you. It's very beautiful."

"Thank you, Dream. I am glad that you like the look of the garden so far. When you are stronger, I'd be delighted to explain what plants are here and which worlds I gathered them from." Nightmare promised gently, his voice full of a fondness and love that none of them had entirely suspected that their boss would ever show so openly to anyone before.

Just who the fuck was Dream? He had called himself the guardian of positivity... But what did that really mean? Hatchet did his best to keep his curiosity off of his face - though he could see Dust openly scowling at Dream and Killer was restlessly moving from foot to foot. Generally that wasn't a good sign, but Hatchet was also pretty sure that neither of them were stupid enough to do anything to the little golden marshmallow when Boss was holding him.

Dust looked about ready to say something when Dream spoke up again, looking very curiously at the three of them. "So who are these friends of yours, Nightlight? They did say their names... I think you were the one referred to as Dust?" He pointed at the correct lieutenant, smiling sweetly up at him. "I... I would like to try whatever kind of... Are those berries of some kind?"

Dust moved forwards, answering quietly, unsure as to whether or not he was allowed to speak, but being addressed directly by this very strange being who had his hands wrapped around their boss's soul and probably wouldn't ever let go, he supposed he should. "I... Don't know if these are berries? They're called grapes. They come in bunches like this - there are several different kinds of colors and one can also make wine out of certain kinds of grapes."

"Oh, okay! ... What's wine?" Dream asked curiously, tilting his head a little as Nightmare grabbed a bunch of grapes from Dust with a tentacle and pressed it into the positive being's hands - clearly not wanting the other to move more than he absolutely had to.

"Wine is a kind of alcohol - it's fruit based. I don't care for it much, because it's surprisingly bitter- well, most of it can be. Some of it is nice, but it gives me a stomachache. Which is weird, because I don't have a stomach." Dust answered after a moment, tilting his head a little at the other, and wondering just how fucking sheltered Nightmare had kept this monster before he'd somehow turned to stone.

"Oh... So perhaps it's fermented similar to mead, then, which the villagers did enjoy drinking." Dream murmured, frowning a little and making a bit of a face. He yawned (no one should ever be that cute, stars damn it) and stretched a little in Nightmare's grasp, nuzzling one of his shoulders, his eye lights starting to fuzz out.

"Dream... Dream you need to eat more." The Lord of Darkness ordered, his voice sounding more stern than it had since Dream had first woken up. "As for my friends... I found them in other worlds. They were suffering and alone, so I brought them and some people from Hatchet's timeline here... They have issues with getting the right amount of food to feed everyone in his timeline - or they used to. But he helps me make sure that his people get plenty to eat."

That was... Certainly a creatively truthful explanation for how Nightmare had found the three of them, but like hell were they going to be the ones to disagree. Killer smiled at the small skeleton and murmured, "Dust and I don't have anyone left in our timelines... We were awfully lonely and stuck before Nightmare came by and brought us here." He looked like he was going to say more, but Nightmare shot him a warning look over Dream's head that the other did not see or notice.

The smaller skeleton fussed a little, opening his mouth with a pout as several grapes were unceremoniously shoved in by a clearly very worried Nightmare. Why the other was so agitated, none of the three of them could tell. They could sense Dream's magic - not that he seemed to have much. "Mnn... Fine... I'm just... So tired. And my neck hurts from.... From..." His eye lights went out completely and he went entirely still in Nightmare's grasp, before bursting into tears and clinging to the taller skeleton, stuttering out quietly "Please... Ni-Nightmare... N-Nightmare p-please I wasn't... I'm not... I'm not going to f-fight you... I-I wa-wasn't then I... I just... I-I couldn't..."

The calm smile on Nightmare's face vanished and he curled his arms protectively around Dream, pressing a couple of kisses to the top of the other's head, and murmuring soothingly, "I know... I know that you had to eat the last positive apple in order to ensure that there was some semblance of a balance... I deeply regret hurting you, love. I was... I wasn't in control when I lashed out at you, and for that I am deeply sorry. I never wanted to hurt you and the... The fact that I had still haunts me to this day."

What? From how lovey-dovey and gentle Boss had been, the thought that Nightmare would lash out at the golden marshmallow was... surprising, to say the least. But all three of them were very much aware of the other's temper as well - and from what Dream was implying, he'd done something to disobey the other - and if Boss hadn't been in full control of his magic at the time...

Ouch. But perhaps that was why Nightmare had been creating this garden for centuries apparently? As an apology for turning the other to stone? It was one hell of a gesture, especially as Boss himself worked in the garden - few if any of the dark Papyri were allowed to tend to this place - it was something that Nightmare did himself...

Dream spoke up after a moment, his voice shaky, but the other was still clinging to Nightmare with a desperate strength, as if frightened the other would vanish if he let go. "I accept your apology, Nightmare... I..." The other seemed to lose focus and he yawned a little, exhausted still, although from what, neither Hatchet, Dust or Killer could guess. Dream seemed to have almost no magic - then again, that might be due to the fact that he'd been trapped by some sort of stasis spell for centuries. It had probably fed on his magic in part to keep him immobile and unable to see or hear anything.

"You need to continue to eat, to gain strength." Nightmare pressed, carefully feeding Dream a couple of grapes until the smaller skeleton started to eat on his own again.

"I just... wanna sleep... That should help... Right?" The other fussed, pouting unfairly adorably up at Nightmare as he grumpily ate.

"It should - but only after you've eaten a fair amount first. I don't want you to go into a coma because you hadn't eaten enough first." Nightmare murmured, his voice low and filled with concern. "Particularly since there isn't a great deal of positivity in this world for you to draw upon while you rest."

Wait... Did that mean that boss - as the guardian of negativity as he had introduced himself to them long ago gained some sort of power or strength from the misery and suffering of others? That... Explained a lot though. Not that any one of them were going to speak up. This was already weird enough as it was and they should probably just -

"Killer, what sort of food did you get? And... Uhm, I'd like to apologize for kind of ignoring the three of you and just talking to Nightmare. Thank you for getting me food... And you shouldn't call your friends idiots, Nighty. You should apologize for being mean." Dream scolded as he finished the grapes, startling the three of them for having the gall to actually sass Nightmare to his face like that.

"I grabbed a bunch of... Their either called hazelnuts or something that starts with a P." Killer had cracked their shells open already, to reveal their tasty meat inside. He'd also had a couple before he'd come back to boss. He awkwardly handed a good fistful to Dream, shuffling closer and felt... Calmer as he gave the other the food.

Dream smiled sweetly up at him and for the briefest moment, Killer was seized with the desire to seriously swear that he would protect and care for the other as long as he lived. There was something so... warm and almost vulnerable about the other. Something that made him precious and clearly someone to protect. The feeling left when he stepped back to where the other two were, and he shook his head a little "Gah..." The hell was that?

Nightmare smirked and hummed a little as Dream ate, remarking lightly, "Your aura is starting to come back - And they were being idiots - I had asked them not to come into these gardens and they did so anyways. On the other hand, they might have had an unintentional hand in you breaking free of the stasis spell, so I suppose that I shouldn't be too angry... I don't allow anyone else into this place - at least while you were trapped and vulnerable to be taken by those who might think that you'd be safer with them. Or would try to break the magical stone that you were encased in, under the assumption that it would free, rather than harm you." That had been one of his worst fears, alongside Dream waking up and immediately fleeing him before he had a chance to apologize for attacking the other. Possibly even being found by Ink or one of his allies and turned against him.

Dream;s eye lights shrunk to pinpricks and he buried his face into one of the other's shoulders, voice shaking a little "I don't want to be separated from you, Nightmare. I... I remember how awful and violent the... the Villagers’ emotions were and how they... They wouldn't listen or calm down.. How much they... they hated you... Why didn't you tell me that they felt so awfully towards you? I would have insisted that they leave the both of us and The Tree - far enough that they wouldn't be able to hurt or harass you."

"I didn't want to burden you with the knowledge, and they might have tried to convince you to go with them, as they were..." Nightmare began, his voice light and gentle, as if he were trying to hint at something, but not wanting to say it outright.

"... They were addicted to my aura, weren't they? They liked feeling happy all the time... Which they only did when I was in the village with them and you weren't with me to balance things out... 'm sorry I didn't know that I was making things worse." Dream apologized, sounding close to tears.

"Dream, listen to me. It. Was not. Your fault. That they were addicted to your presence. You have no more control over the mortals' reaction to your aura than I do." Nightmare responded sternly, frowning a little and bopping Dream lightly on the forehead with one of his tentacles. The lord of negativity took the food that his top lieutenants had gathered for them and ordered, "Send the visitors in the castle away. Dream is low on energy and their presence will not help him recover faster. He and I will either be out here in the gardens or in my... our personal rooms for the rest of the week. Contact us only if there is an actual emergency, understood?"

"Yes Boss." Hatchet responded, grabbing Dust and Killer before either of them could try to remind Boss that he had planned to invade a particularly obnoxious Underfell world later this week. His newly awakened - currently exhausted and weakened - mate clearly took priority.

He let the both of them go as soon as they were outside of the throne room, and Killer scowled. “Hey! We were going to roll over an Underfell! That was going to be a lot of fun and I’d be able to get some really fucking awesome chocolate! Which we should probably do anyways because of how mouthy their fuckin’ Sans was. I was looking forwards to playing with him. But nooo, his creampuff of a mate had to suddenly wake up, and I’m pretty sure he has an Emotional Aura like boss does. When I gave him food I felt all mushy and shit. He’s probably playing merry hell with Boss, making sure that the other’s wrapped firmly around his delicate little fucking fingers... if he even knows what he’s doing on purpose.”

“Your eye lights are very green right now. I could read that little marshmallow like a book - he’s as sweet as a young Underswap Sans - he doesn’t have a clue about the power that he has over boss, I’m sure of it... which means that one of us is going to be stuck on babysitting duty to make sure that he doesn’t wander into the wrong sort of person.” Dust teased, smirking at the other, knowing about Killer’s little crush on the boss.

“I don’t use my eye lights, you asshole. So how the fuck would you know if they’re green or not” Killer hissed, glowering at Dust and tempted to lash out at the other. So what if he had a bit of a thing for Boss - it wasn’t as if Dust and Hatchet didn’t. Nightmare was powerful, charming and dangerous being. He gave Killer access to idiots to murder and torment as he pleased… And to have this strange interloper suddenly appear out of nowhere and get so much of Nightmare’s attention without the other raging and furious at him was… Distressing.

“... I think that the both of you might be underestimating and overestimating Dream in the wrong ways. Boss wouldn’t fall for someone who manipulated him - he’s able to spot shit like that in ways that none of us ever will.” Hatchet countered with a shake of his head “It’s just that sunshine has next to no magic and has no idea what’s going on… I suspect that he’s much more than we’ve seen. We shouldn’t discuss this in a public place, though. We need to deal with the visitors.” The other two grumbled and rolled their eyes. Killer smirked widely for a moment as he swaggered into the throne room, delighted to terrorize the local rulers into fleeing home.

#my writing #dreammare #dream sans #nightmare sans #killer sans #dust sans #horrortale sans #tw cursing #confession series

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sirro85-blog · 6 years

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Dark Horses 2

Captain Becca stood in the main square of the Dark Horses compound staring at an office door, she shook her head and turned away, moving to sit with a group of other off duty soldiers.

"I don't want to go in, she fuckin' scares me," Becca said pouting.

"You need to return the petty cash you checked out, you need to go in," said Panther unsympathetically, "I mean if you'd taken me I'd return it but as you left me behind..."

"But I didn't spend it, Kovac did, I just collected it," she pouted again, "Wolf, you need to request some new kit for your troop don't you, can you return the petty cash at the same time?" There was a wheedling tone to her voice.

"Not a bloody chance, she already calls me Rat and half the time she refuses my request before I make it, I'm not pissing her off more than I need to."

"Rat!? Ha ha, that's amazing, I sort of see why though," Becca laughed.

"What does she call you then?" Panther asked, eyeing Becca suspiciously.

"Captain, sometimes Becca...alright fine she calls me Stilts and she always glares at my legs like I'm tall on purpose."

"She calls me brat," sighed Panther.

"She has a nickname for everyone, I'm amazed she remembers them all, the only people she is ever nice to are Knickers and Kovac," Dorman said matter of factly.

Three heads turned to look at Dorman, "and what does she call you Mark?" Asked Becca.

"Uhhh, Hero," answered Dorman with a slight mumble.

"Really!? That's not so bad," said Wolf.

"It is the way she says it," Dorman said dully.

Becca stood, squared her shoulders and walked toward the door marked 'RQ' with a deep breath she pushed the door open.

"Stilts," came the grunt, "What do you need this time? Another set of uniformsmade to order?" A glare at her lower limbs, "impossibly long legs!"

"Uhh no, I, uhh see I just have this 36" inside leg and none of the standard uniforms fit my leg and my waist...but no, not today Quartermaster, today I just wanted to return your petty cash." She fumbled the roll as she passed it over, dropping it and stooping to pick it up, as she straightened the Quartermaster looked over her shoulder.

"Hello Sweet, how are you? What do you need?" The Qm asked in a warm voice.

"Just in to see you Leese, been missing you," Knickers replied warmly leaning over the counter to kiss the enormous woman on the cheek.

Becca backed away hoping she might escape with Knickers distracting the Qm, one glare from the woman who was as wide as she was tall froze Becca where she stood.

"Take a seat in the office and make a brew, I'll deal with Stilts here and be through."

"Oh be nice to Bex, she ruined her best shoes by stabbing a guy with them when we were away," Knickers waved at the Qm as she disappeared into the back office.

Becca almost called out for Knickers not to leave her as Lisa the Quartermaster's sharp eyes snapped from Becca's face to the roll of petty cash, instantly spotting it was smaller. Her dirty red ponytail seemed to bristle and grow as the Qm advanced on the Captain.

"Another bar fight Stilts and let me guess you paid for the damages?"

Why was this woman so intimidating? Becca felt sweat drip down her back, of all the terrifying beings in existence; Lisa the Quartermaster of the mercenary unit known as the Dark Horses was the only one she had ever known to freeze the very marrow in her bones.

"Yes," she squeaked.

The Qm glared and then pulled out her ledger and looking at Becca -who was hoping against hope that she hadn't started to sway where she stood- traced her finger down the paperwork. Paper who in this century used paper!?

Just as Becca thought the silence and the sighs punctuating it were going to make her start weeping the door flew open and in walked Major Kovac.

"Hello mother," he said beaming at her, "need to order some ordinance, got the numbers here."

"Troop, POUR ANOTHER ONE SWEET, TROOP IS HERE," Lisa bellowed through to Knickers.

"Is Knix here aswell? I'll stop for a cup then, gonna need a quarter's worth RQ,"

"I'm not a Regimental Quartermaster anymore," Lisa said wagging a finger.

"And I'm not commander of a single troop anymore and Knix hasn't been sweet for longer than I hate to think, but you call me troop and I call you mother and you'll always be my RQ, now, let's get that cup and order a shipment."

"A shipment now?" Her eyes narrowed, "how much are we talking?"

"Ordinance, weapons...all in...a million?"

"A million!? I quit."

"No you don't, you'll never leave me, Captain what are you doing here, haven't you got men to oversee?" Kovac suddenly addressed Becca.

"Yes sir," she replied immediately.

"Well hop to," Becca forced her numb legs to work and as the door swung shut she heard Kovac saying, "relax mother, we have a contract."

Becca walked while warmth returned to her body. She had always thought she knew Kovac as long as anyone but she forgot that while she had met him at the academy his first deployment had been without her and that seemed to be the point where Lisa had "adopted" him and Knickers had come back from that campaign with her new nickname, one that stuck to this day.

Becca stopped her walking infront of 1 troop who were formed up and being inspected by Sergeant Glover, the Sergeant snapped to attention and snapped off a salute. "Leave to carry on ma'am, please"

"Carry on sergeant," Becca didn't salute as she wasn't in uniform.

She stood watching as Fluke studied the ranks, moving up and down scowling as he found minor faults, of all the soldiers in the Dark Horses, Fluke seemed to miss the military settings most of all.

"Fluke got the guard posting?" Said a voice behind her.

Becca turned to her Sergeant and shrugged, "yes, Wolf wanted it, he wants to see who is running the raids and scope them out."

"Thought you'd want it, considering, or Dorman he's more suited to defence than either of you," Panther continue.

Becca shrugged again, "Major wanted us here, we've got another rep coming, wants us there."

"Another rep? We're looking for more work?"

"That business with the Flet really ate into our reserves," Becca explained, this time it was Panther's turn to shrug as the two walked off.

It was the early hours of evening when Major Kovac was sitting with his remaining officers and sergeants, the Towoli representative walked in. He gave an approximation of a human bow, his hide gleaming dark red and green the Towoli colours of accord.

"May the two rivers always flow to you," the representative said, "I am Gethrev, of the Towoli settlers on Rivers-enough-to-support-life-but-not-enough-to-flourish-fully-it-has-tactical-benefits,"

Kovac blinked at the garbled name and adjusted his translator, "Welcome Gethrev of Fol-ro-shall, may the two rivers never run dry," he completed the traditional Towoli greeting.

"Major Kovac, I come to request your assistance, the settlements on Fol-ro-shall are subject to raids from Bartuq and, I regret our forces are not enough to both resist them and seek them out. When we saw the magnitude of the task, there was only one name on our list. The Dark Horses of Major Kovac."

"No there wasn't," Kovac fired back, "If there was only one name then you're fools and I don't work for fools, if you had more than one name then you've been to at least three of them already as you've already had to pass them to reach Pelcar-3." He leaned forward in his seat, "I know the human playbook says we are susceptible to flattery but it should also say we can see through it."

He stood and gestured to an adapted seat, one suited to the tentacle like lower limbs of the Towoli.

"Crossing off the Rhul as the Towoli won't work with them and the Flet are self aware enough to know this task is ill suited to them you approached Ovette who won't risk her men against, well anything anymore, Bayrun the Karnac lacks the resources but I bet it took him a long time to admit it.

That means you went to Daniels, and Danny boy, he has the man power but he took one look at the defences and realised he was out of their league. Which means you looked at the bottom of your list, the expensive end and you saw the humans only one system away and you took a look at our prices and decided to see why we charge so much. Am I close?"

Gethrev had taken the offered seat and looked at the Major, "the Karnac was most frustrating," as he muttered his hide blurred to purple, a sign of irritation, before returning to red and green, "yes, you are correct, you are the fourth to be approached but reputation says you will probably be our solution."

"You know our price?" Kovac asked and received an affirmative gesture and colour change, "we're expensive because we aren't just soldiers, we're combat engineers, artisan soldiers was the phrase, we can take the Bartuq but we expect the payment in two halves, one before and one after completion."

The Towoli gave a flash of bright colours as it stood to grip Kovac's hand, there were details to iron out but it sounded as though the Dark Horses had a second contract.

An hour later Kovac returned to his meeting looking tired but pleased. Sergeant Webb left with the contract to pass it to the Quartermaster.

"We need a clerk to sort these things," he said fatigued.

"We can find one, are you ready?" Becca responded.

"Yes, we can start now," Kovac turned to Panther.

"Sergeant, I'm promoting you, as of right now you are a sergeant-major, my right hand. Congratulations Panther,"

"Sir? What?" Said Panther in a startled voice.

"Sergeant-Major Panther, congratulations."

"But 2 Troop, Becca." The sergeant-major said confused.

"Knickers is my best section commander, she's going to be my 2IC now," Becca explained.

"Sergeant Knickers?" Panther said a little startled. "...she'll be great."

"Right then sergeant-major, I'll see you first thing," Kovac stood and shook her hand, Becca followed suit.

"Well done Pants, you'll be great!"

"Wolf knows already, he wanted to be here but...you know, congratulations sergeant-major, god knows you've earned it," said Captain Dorman shaking her hand.

Panther was left alone in the room, a smile on her face, "sergeant-major," she said in a voice mixed with pride and disbelief.

#humans are space australians #humans are insane #humans are space orcs #humans are weird #humans are space oddities #space faerie #earth is a deathworld #earth is weird #earth is awesome #dark horses #kovac #this is why i call kovac daddy

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minas-writing · 5 years

Text

Blinking and Screaming

World: misc original superhero world

Length: 2,500 words

Summary: Blink is the villain and Scream is the hero. Unfortunately, the city has it backwards. A major villain decided to visit, and the two were forced to team up, but Scream got hurt in the process. Now Blink is struggling with Emotions. (It gets better as it goes, I promise!)

TW: hospitals, pain

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Blink murmured. The bleeps and blips of monitors were fading into the background as she focused on the person in front of her.

He was just a touch older than she was. Without the mask that barely hid anything, without the brightly-colored jumpsuit and flowing cape, the notorious Scream was a skinny kid with curly brown hair. It was his innocuous appearance that let Blink carry him to the hospital without problems. She had claimed he was a casualty of the fight, which was just a tiny bit misleading. Well, it wasn't exactly Blink's fault that people would assume he was an innocent bystander.

Blink shut her eyes tightly, refusing to let the tears fall. How she could be mistaken for the city's hero escaped her understanding, much less how Scream had been vilified as its villain. She thought she was the perfect picture of evil - bat wings, powers of darkness, lilac-tinted skin - while Scream was practically the good guy superhero. Then she'd botched a bank robbery, marching in on her hired hitmen and telling them to let their hostages go. Every time Blink remembered that incident, she cringed a little inside. Those guys had known what they were doing. She could have gotten over her reluctance to keep hostages and risk people's safety. It wasn't Scream's fault that he judged the situation accurately. It wasn't fair that his power was particularly destructive, if effective.

That same power had been invaluable to their combined efforts against The Wranglian, who had been legitimately attacking their city. Blink didn't really want to feed the populace's adoring opinions of her, but more than that, she didn't want them to get hurt. Her and Scream's goals had aligned there, so they worked together. "Just this once," they said, but Blink had actually been surprised to see how well they worked together.

The room's door opened with a loud clunk, admitting a young woman in scrubs who checked on Scream's monitors. She seemed startled to see Blink there, but did an admirable job of ignoring her, just like she would any other visitor. Or so Blink assumed. She didn't exactly want to look up and watch the nurse. Having eyes on you constantly was unnerving, as Blink well knew. She couldn't go anywhere without being stared at.

"Do you know when he'll wake up?" Blink asked suddenly. At least her voice didn't sound too hoarse.

To the nurse's credit, she did try to meet Blink's eyes. "His injuries aren't too major, so we're taking him off the sedatives. He'll be awake in half an hour, though groggy and incoherent, but that should fade given another half hour. We'll likely keep him at least overnight."

"Thanks."

"My pleasure, Miss Blink." The nurse left. Her news took a load off Blink's conscience. She slumped forward to put her elbows on her knees and ran her fingers through her unraveling ponytail. The wayward strands reminded her that she hadn't had a chance to clean up since the fight. Would Scream feel guilty that she had gotten roughed up, too? Probably. Even if Blink cleaned up, he would feel bad that he had been out for so long. Nothing she did would tell him that it was fine that he had been injured.

So Blink stood and made her way to the tiny bathroom inside the room. She was a mess, she thought when she saw the mirror. There wasn't much she could do right now, but she did manage to clean up her ponytail and wash the dirt from her face. Blink peeled her long gloves off and hung them on the towel rod so they could dry, then washed her hands. A surprising amount of dirt came from her arms.

She knew she was stalling, but Blink went back to her chair and took her boots off anyway. No harm in stalling. Finally, when Blink had stared at the floor for at least ten minutes, she couldn't put it off any longer. She unzipped a hidden pocket and took out a tiny bundle of folded metal pieces. When it lay flat, the screen had a single thin border and was as large as many television sets, but it didn't have to be that big. Blink unfolded the screen to a comfortable size, then powered it up. The link to the Blink Away website was saved right on her homepage. Why had she done that, she wondered, annoyed.

When the website had begun gaining traction, Blink had reserved a username on the forum section, though she very rarely used it. Somehow, word had gotten out that @officialblink was actually the real Blink, and so people had begun tagging the name in things. It had really discouraged her at first, realizing that most people considered her some sort of anti-hero, one who would occasionally run rampant but do the right thing in the end. But eventually, Blink grew to tolerate the website, though she refused to contribute. She had a feeling that anything she said would be twisted by the adoring public.

Currently, people were frantically discussing the fight Blink had just gotten Scream out of. It looked like they thought that Scream had recruited The Wranglian. Amateur videos, shot directly with screens, confirmed that The Wranglian went down with a wall of darkness while he was distracted by Scream. As The Wranglian fell, however, he lashed out with one of his extra, noodley limbs and caught Scream in the back. Both of them dive-bombed toward the earth, Blink in hot pursuit. That's when the videos ended, content that the fight was over and their "hero" had won.

The villain had been defeated, but the people of the city still didn't know the actual dynamics of the two powerful people they were used to. They just rolled on their assumptions. Blink sneered at one particularly obnoxious comment: "blink rrulez guys lol"

A new notification popped up on the screen - a news station was currently showing something about the fight. Blink hesitated to connect. She made sure the sound was off and turned on the subtitles so she didn't bother Scream.

A pretty reporter stood outside the demolished stadium where it had all gone down. Blink watched with a growing scowl as the reporter rattled off damages. Luckily, from what Blink could tell, the only people hurt were The Wranglian and Scream, but they had cost the stadium, and city, millions. And she couldn't do anything to help.

That thought made Blink pause. Did she want to help? A deep, cold horror began to swell somewhere in her chest. Yes, she did kind of want to help. Blink cursed her luck. She couldn’t be a very effective bad guy if she cared too much about property damage! She could justify caring about hurting people, but property damage? Blink rolled her eyes and shut the news off.

She didn’t care about property damage. It created construction jobs, which stimulated the economy and definitely helped out a few people. And the fight had likely scared off any other real villains who had been eyeing the city. So. This was all a good thing, especially because the only injury was skinny little Scream.

Blink abruptly shut off her screen and folded it back up. Sure, it was a good thing that there had really only been the one big injury, but Blink really wished that nobody had been hurt at all. She and Scream had tried so hard to keep that from happening. Unfortunately... The memory of that moment ran through Blink’s head again. She’d seen The Wranglian’s tentacle whip out as if in slow motion, and saw the trajectory. Her wings weren’t well suited to abrupt maneuvers, though, and it had taken a split second too long to change direction. Blink had been grazed by the tentacles before, but neither of them had actually been hit by one. She could only imagine how that would feel.

In the hospital bed, Scream groaned. Blink froze, wondering if perhaps she should hide, but it was already too late for that. He’d seen her. He inhaled deeply through his nose, as if he was going to try to use his power.

After a split-second to decide, Blink leaned over and slapped her hand over Scream’s mouth.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said firmly and quietly. “As far as the hospital knows, you’re just a civilian, ‘kay? No point in changing that - you know they hate Scream for some stupid reason.”

Scream narrowed his dazed eyes. He was still under the influence of drugs, though hopefully he was coherent enough to understand her. After a protracted moment, he nodded, and Blink retracted her hand.

“What happened?” he asked reluctantly, his voice breathless.

“The Wranglian hit you with a tentacle,” Blink replied softly, scowling when Scream winced and put a hand to his torso. “According to the doctors, you don’t have any major injuries, not really. Some torn-up skin on your back, mostly. They want to keep you here until tomorrow, just to be sure. We don’t know what kind of damage The Wranglian could do.”

Slowly, Scream nodded. “I can’t believe we did that. What do people think about it?”

“Ugh.” Blink sighed and put her head down in exasperation. “Most people seem to think that Scream and The Wranglian were working together. They saw Scream go down a moment before The Wranglian did, so they’re not expecting to see him anymore.”

Scream’s face showed complete and utter resignation. “I’m never getting through to them, am I?”

“I’ve been trying, believe me,” Blink replied wryly. She almost smiled.

Scream grinned at that, then coughed, which turned into more than one and lasted far too long for Blink’s taste. When it had subsided, Scream laid there for a moment, then stuck out a hand.

“It seems an introduction is in order, oh mighty hero,” he said, a touch of sarcasm coloring his voice. “I’m Gavin.”

With a touch of suspicion, Blink returned the gesture. “Lucille,” she replied, using her real name for reasons she couldn’t quite articulate. “Is there anybody we should contact?”

Scream - well, Gavin - did his best to shrug. He winced at the action. “Not really. I live with a roommate but he rarely notices I’m gone. We have separate lives. We’ve got to, for me to have any chance at saving people.”

“I’ve got all the time in the world for doing that,” Blink said. “Well, doing the opposite of that, I guess.”

“Just one more reason that heroes get the short end of the stick.”

At that, Blink did laugh, though it wasn’t long. “Short end of the stick, huh? Come on, Gavin. You can go shopping without people staring at you. You can have a normal conversation with normal strangers. There’s a reason I pay other people to do things for me!”

Gavin was quiet for a moment, his eyes deep and calculating. “You know, I never thought about it that way. Maybe you’ve got enough short-endedness to be a hero, too.”

“Me? A hero?” Blink scoffed. She gestured to her wings, to her horns, to her lilac-colored skin. “Forget about it. I was created to be a villain. Look at me - wouldn’t a hero look a little more like a unicorn or something? A little less frightening?”

“I think you’re pretty,” Gavin said, then quickly blushed. “I - I mean - um, drugs.”

Blink blushed, too, though she shrugged it off the best she could. “Uh huh. Sure. Drugs. One thing’s for sure - I am not a hero, nor do I have any desire to become one.”

“Really?” Gavin sounded doubtful, though the smirk on his face indicated that he was teasing her. “You teamed up with me, the real hero, to fight The Wranglian, a real, big bad villain. I’d say there’s some hero in you yet.”

“Never!” Blink protested. “Look, The Wranglian was a one-time thing. This is my city, other villains don’t have a right to come in. It’s in the official Villain’s Code of Conduct. The Wranglian broke it, meaning that if there were villains in the cities around us, they’d have come in to put him down, too. It’s my right and responsibility as the villain of the city!”

Gavin coughed again through a laugh. It sounded painful, but he didn’t draw attention to it. Blink stood anyway to get him one of those large hospital bottles of water. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” he managed to get out after a few desperate gulps of water.

Blink didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer. She just took the water back when he was done and put it on a table that he could reach if he wanted it again.

Surprisingly, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. It was almost downright companionable, although Gavin still had a far-off look in his eyes that indicated that the drugs weren’t completely gone. Blink just tried not to think about anything at all. Gavin’s earlier words had just a touch too much of a truth to them. He broke the silence a moment later with a guilty voice.

“Sorry to make you deal with this,” he said dully. He wouldn’t meet Blink’s surprised gaze.

“Sc - Gavin - no.” Blink was about to veer into sappy territory about how he didn’t need to worry about it, how she would have done that for anyone, especially her only sort-of friend - but she realized soon enough that it wouldn’t help her cause. She was not a nice hero, dang it!

Blink tried again. “Look, you’re the hero. You lose, but you have to be there to make the fight mean something. And you do stand for good, and that’s not a bad thing - ” She was still losing this fight. Gavin was giving her a weird, knowing look. “Hey! Don’t look at me like that! You did good fighting, that’s all. I was confused.”

“Would you have left me there if you’d had a chance to think about it? Instead of bringing me here?”

It took Blink a moment to compose herself. Her instinct was to say no, definitely not, I couldn’t have left you in the rubble, but of course she couldn’t tell him that. He was trying to coerce her to do good things. So Blink looked away from his eyes, and his face, and his too-pale, skinny body that had been hurt partly because of her, and lowered her voice into something predatory. “Yes. Yes, I would have.”

Now the silence was awkward. It stretched. Blink wanted to apologize and take back her words, but knew she couldn’t say anything, couldn’t glance at him. He’d look at her, upset, and she didn’t want to see betrayal on his face. Even if he probably knew she was lying.

So Blink collected her things and walked to the door, not once looking back at Scream.

“I’m your first contact here. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” She opened the door, and just before it closed, she heard his weak little voice reply.

“Bye, Lucille.”

Blink shut her eyes and walked down the hallway, avoiding the carefully not-staring stares of everybody in the hospital.

#writeblr #story snippet #superhero #story #short story #actually this one is finished #i started it a long time ago #so thats why the beginning is terrible #fiction #i like the ending #whump #kinda #hospital #angst #yep #using lots of tags

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