#and by the time the giant castle was attacked I was actively checking my watch

[littler3d]

I refuse to watch Dune part 2 purely because of how fucked up part 1 made me (I have never lost my mind as much as sitting through that movie) but I can appreciate the fact that Zendaya seems to take one look at how fucked up that twink becomes, goes “nope”, and rides off on her giant ass worm. Love that for her

[myonepiece]

yeo! i love your writing, don’t know if you take request, so feel free to ignore but could you do some headcanons of mihawk, luffy, and sabo with a partner who has really bad social anxiety and how they help them after a bad day? thank you so much!!

Hi! I do take requests- I’m sorry if I took awhile to answer, I havent checked my requests cuz I didn’t think anyone would request something ;-;

Here I hope this is what you wanted! <3

Mihawk, Luffy, Sabo headcanon- S/O who has severe social anxiety (+ oneshot)

Warnings: none

Mihawk

•Mihawk is very good with this- he’s generally a very calm man which is needed during an anxiety attack

•He would never force you to come anywhere public with him, and would try to have most meeting over den den mushi calls so he could stay at home with you

•He would stay by your side wherever you went so that you would feel secure knowing he’s right there if you need him for anything

•Would notice right away if you were uncomfortable and he would move to stand in front of you so you’ll hopefully feel like you have some privacy

•Would also let you hide your face in his chest, doesn’t matter who it’s in front of

•If you start to have an anxiety attack, he’ll stop whatever meeting he’s in or whatever conversation he’s having, and immediately take you home

•He would offer to make you anything you want to eat or if you want to talk about it

•Would run a bath for the two of you and let you lay on his chest while he tells you stories of his adventures and battles

•Before bed he would sit with you by the fireplace or the window and simply stroke your hair until you fall asleep

Oneshot~

You had agreed to come with Mihawk to one the seven warlord meetings, only because he had said he had a date planned for the two of you after. But now you were face to face with a giant man who towered over everyone in the room. Your heartbeat spiked and your breathing started to become uneven as you tried to get Mihawks attention, only to be blocked by the evil man covered in a fluffy pink coat. You felt your heart beat even faster, your face lost all color, you felt like your legs had become jelly. You quickly looked around for your boyfriend, who was engaged in a conversation with Bartholomew Kuma. Doflamingo started speaking with that devilish sneer but you couldn’t hear anything going on over your heartbeat. Mihawk, who had finished talking to Kuma, took immediate action as he saw the panic in your eyes. He swiftly made his way to you and pulled you into his side and kissing your forehead. He held your head against his coat as he said goodbye to Doflamingo, then led you out of the building and to his boat. He sat with you in his lap while he stoked your hair and whispered soothing words until you reached his castle. Mihawk carried you inside and set you down in the kitchen while he fetched a bottle of wine and two glasses. He ran a bath for you and after he sat down he helped you in and held you against his chest. You asked him to talk about his training days, something that always helped you after a bad day was Mihawk’s stories. After drying you off, he brought you to the living room and sat with you in his lap as he gently rocked you until you fell asleep.

Luffy

•He was completely oblivious until Chopper explained

•It took awhile for him to know the signs of an anxiety attack

•Once he was familiar with your triggers and signs of an attack, he was more attentive to your actions

•He tried to avoid triggering situation and if he couldn’t he would carry you on his back, hold you very close to him, and/or he would always let you wear his hat

•Doesn’t give one crap about who you guys are in front of, if you’re uncomfortable he will do anything to make you feel safe again

•If he saw that you were uncomfortable, he would wrap his elastic arms around you and hold you on his lap trying to distract you with his df powers

•If it was too late to prevent an attack, he would pull you away from everyone, and hold you as he jumped around telling you stories to bring your thoughts to him

•If you needed a calmer environment, he would just wrap his arms around you a few times and hold your face to his chest while he rested his chin on the crown of your head

•God help anyone who makes fun of your anxiety

Oneshot~

You were in a bar on the island the straw hats were currently docked at. The crew had cleared the bar before you entered so you could relax that night. Luffy dove into the bar’s supply of meet while you sat beside him dodging the flying crumbs. All was well until another groups entered the bar. You were only slightly on edge when you saw them, but when one of them accidentally bumped into you and demanded you apologize, you started to notice how your breathing became uneven. You tried to turn back to focus on your boyfriend making a fool of himself, but you kept glancing back at the other group, each time making eye contact with the one who had bumped into you. You started bouncing your leg as you felt the beginning of your panic attack. Luffy, who now only has one piece of meat left, looked over to check on you and noticed the familiar signs of a panic attack. He put down his meat and pulled your into his lap landed a big messy smooch on your cheek. He grinned at you as he held out the last piece of meat to you. You looked down at the meat then back up at Luffy who just nudged it closer. You took the meat and started to eat it while Luffy pulled you closer and started telling you about his plans for tomorrow. He made sure to hold you against him the rest of the night and he did everything in his power to keep your mind focused on something other than the people around you two. He also deffinetly got Zoro and Sanji to kick the other group of pirates out of the bar.

Sabo

•I think Sabo has had his fair share of anxiety/panic attacks so he would know what to do

•He already knew the common signs of a beginning attack, but he paid very close attention see if you had any unusual triggers

•In public he stays glued to your side or if he can’t, he has Koala watch over you (I think she would be your number two emotional support person)

•He would avoid all triggering situations, but if he couldn’t he would make you stay at home or somewhere safe

•If he noticed you begin to have an anxiety attack, he would go over and hug you against his chest while peppering your face with kisses

•He would pull you away from the situation and bring you an empty room or a corner away from everyone snd try to distract you with talking about plans for a day or activities for the two of you

•If he found you while you were having an attack, he would pull you into his last and run circles on your back

•He would always be open if you wanted to talk, but he wouldn’t ever force you

•After a bad day I can totally see him dimming the lights and putting on some slow music then just swaying with you while until you are too tired

Oneshot~

You were sitting in the corner of a hangout area in the R.A. headquarters, waiting for Sabo to come back. Soon enough he entered the room, with a lot of people following behind him. Way too many people for you. You began to feel overwhelmed and you quickly felt you me heart spike and your legs became wobbly. You inched your way along the wall towards Sabo and gently tugged on his sleeve. He turned around and looked down, immediately noticing the signs of an anxiety attack. He swooped you into his arms and carried you through balls and into his room where he sat you down on the bed while he locked the door. Sabo went back over to you and layed on top of you, encasing you in his arms while he kissed your forehead. He waited until you calmed down and your breathing returned to normal, then he went back and dimmed the lights. Sabo put on some slow music snd bowed as he offered his hand to you. You giggled and took his hand, then curtseyed and wrapped your arms around his neck. He placed his hand on your waist and brought you closer so he could rest his head on your shoulder while you hid your head in the crook of his neck. The two of you stayed like that, just swaying to the music, until your eyelids felt heavy and your movements slowed. Sabo, who noticed your tiredness, pulled you to the bed and layed you down next to him so you were face to face. He brushed aside a few stray hairs from you forehead, and rubbed circles on your cheek with his thumb until you fell asleep.

[themadauthorshatter]

So... I've been watching KH rewrites.

And while I'm not rewriting ALL of Kingdom Hearts, but I have a few ideas to change 358/2 days:

The organization has an agenda: find and kill Sora, Riku, and Kairi so they can stay out of the way, but with Sora sleeping, Kairi safe on Destiny Islands, and Riku running all over the place, their jobs just got harder.

The change the title to 358/3 days, because Axel's in on this too. This is the sea salt TRIO we're dealing with, not sea salt duo.

We see a majority of Roxas's beginner days, like before, but in between them, we see Xion with Axel, mainly because Xemnas trusts him enough to be able to incapacitate Xion, if she gets too fired up.

Oh yeah, Xion doesn't really look up and smile at Roxas when she first sees him. In game, her mouth just opens in a gasp and she clenches a fist. In her first days, she's strictly in 'attack anything that comes near me' mode because she's scared and confused. We see it happen when Demyx waves a hand in front of her face and she literally jiu jitsu throws him to the ground.

Xion stares at Roxas and Axel and follows them individually. Axel finds it creepy and warns her not to get any ideas while Roxas pretends not to notice.

Xemnas is more proactive, checking on and somewhat favoring Roxas and Xion, Roxas more than Xion at first before fully switching over to team Xion. Everyone notices, especially Larxene, and it's not a good thing. Except for Axel, who's okay to stay out of Xemnas's attention.

Larxene is a bitch. As in she not only tells Roxas to not use his keyblade, but also to hold still so she can kick him.

Lexeaus is a little kinder. He does still hit Roxas within an inch of his life, but he lets Roxas hit back, as hard as he can. Roxas does so, hitting him in the side, like by the abs, but not completely, and it only hurts Roxas more than Lexeaus, the big guy fights a pitied smile and tells him to try again. Roxas does so, hitting harder, and Lexeaus grunts and fakes it to look like Roxas really did hit him hard. Roxie boy apologizes, but Lexeaus brushes it off, complimenting that Roxas is a more than qorthy choice for the keyblade.

Zexion is not a fan of Roxas, because he looks too much like Ventus. He eventually has a silent kinshio with him and acts A LITTLE friendly towards him, but nothing serious.

Vexen has to be kept on a leesh so he doesn't lock Roxas in his lab and scientifically check him out. AT LEAST BEFORE HE GOES ON A MISSION WITH HIM. After that, he wants nothing to do with the kid.

Axel is a little weirded out by Roxas, at first, but warms up to him.

Marluxia is a little creepy in that while he trains with Roxas, like practice missions, he gets face caress-y and Roxas later asks Axel if he can not go on missions with Marluxia.

Xemans does not get like that with either of Roxas or Xion; all he does is ruffle/play with their hair and pat their back and shoulder.

AND XEMNAS ISN'T PORTRAYED AS A VILLAIN UP-FRONT. IN A PERFECT WORLD, THIS IS RELEASED BEFORE KH2!!!!!!

Saïx sees Axel's growing connections with Roxas and Xion, and he gets meaner because of it.

Roxas has his own version of anti-form or rage form, in the form of non-form, where he takes on a look very much like a mix of the samurai and dusk nobodies; he's bendy, fast, and hard as shot to lock onto, target-wise, but get hit and there's next to nothing that's going to save you. Roxas can only use non-form when he has no other optiin, and that's because he hates using it with a burning passion. Whenever he uses it, he has a hard time seeing things, so he relies on his hearing and any bright lights that catch his attention. Game wise, this is his limit break. When his health is low, non-form is activated with a cool looking transformation.

Non-form is the reason why Roxas is Xemnas's favorite, at first.

Xion doesn't talk to Roxas at all when they go on missions together, at least not until Roxas goes into non-form to save her, even though she doesn't really need saving.

Demyx was initially chosen to watch Roxas, but he saw the kid, newborn, scared, and confused, go into non-form and damn near attack him until Xemnas kicked him away. Saïx was the runner uo, but he gave the role to Axel, who successfully calmed Roxas down enough for the newbie to return to normal.

Xion warms up to Roxas, but is cold towards Axel, who returns the feeling, but also makes a deal with her; in front of Roxas, they have to play nice together or else Saïx is going to snitch to Xemans, who will have Xion ripped apart piece by piece until there's no putting her back together. Behind Roxas's back, however, they can fight all they want, as much as they want. Hell, they can even try to kill each other. BUT ONLY BEHIND ROXAS'S BACK SO HE DOESN'T SEE IT HAPPEN.

Roxas is given pretty lenient missions and it's not just because of his connection to Sora and Ven. It's also because of how unstable Non-form is.

Oh, yeah. Roxas hallucinates and hears both Sora AND Ventus, but it's only when things get too quiet. Xemnas has Axel keep an eye on him because he made friends with Ventus as Lea and had contact with Sora. If anything, the redhead can keep Roxas stable enough for them to bring him to Castle Oblivion and find Ven, when he's ready.

And he'll be ready when he dual wields keyblades, which Xemnas KNOWS wil happen because he's Xehanort and Xehanort apparently knows all.

He doesn't know enough because there's another person who can dual wield: Xion.

Xion is still a replica, but this time is made with fractures of Kairi's and Sora's hearts, Kairi being able to wield a keyblade because it got passed down from Aqua to her by accident and Sora because he's Sora.

When Axel is sent to Castle Oblivion and is reported as gone, Roxas's reaction is much more severe. First mission with Xigbar goes fine until the end, where Roxas not only gets hallucinations of Sora and all that, but also because he's experiencing a new emotion: GRIEF. He goes into Non-form and goes insane. Xigbar directs him to a dark corridor, where he's released right into the castle in The World That Never Was and starts destroying anything amd everything that moves before going all aroung the castle.

It soon becomes a really darkly comedic game of Catch The Kid Without Killing Him Or Letting Him Leave To Another World.

No one's fully successful, except for Saïx, who also goes berserk to stop and hold him so Xemnas can collect him. Roxas struggles in Saïx's arms and lets out scream after scream until Xemnas comes to get him and snap him out of it.

Roxas leaves Non-form and is led to his room by Xemnas, who compliments his ability to imitate emotions, despite not remembering how to.

Roxas, already trying to keep it together, breaks down again, and Xemnas holds him close, letting him get it all out, and explains that this is why they fight and need to fight warriors of the light, including Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

After that, Roxas is only allowed on recon missions until he's stable again.

It's fine though, because Axel makes it back a week later, saying he got knocked unconscious by Sora. He escaped and made it out a-okay, leavung out the part where he may have merced Vexen and Zexion.

Roxas is still glad.

Axel reports to Xemnas and Saïx and euns into Xion.

The threat still remains, but he's still playing nice for Roxas's sake.

Over time, Axel and Xion learn to get along and even become friendly enough to be sarcastic and jokey with each other.

It also helps that Xion also deals with hallucinations and her way of dealing with them is by running. Axel and Roxas followed her and came face to face with a GIANT heartless, maybe a more threatening version of the Dark Side.

All three fight it, but it knocks Xion and Axel away, the redhead gets up and is almost smashed into the ground before Xion lunges, going into her armored form. Roxas follows as well, in his Non-form.

The two make quick work of the heartless amd Roxas struggles to turn himself back, where Xion does it perfectly.

Axel compliments the work, but hugs onto Roxas before he can lash out at a frightened Xion, telling him to play nice or they're not having any more playdates and he'll be locked in his room 24/7.

Roxas turns back and he and a surprised Xion pass out, leaving Axel to groan at having all the icky jobs; he got the crap beaten out of him amd wants to pass out with the two children, but instead has to carry them back to the castle so neither die on his watch.

They all recuperate and pat themselves on the back for their victory.

Xemnas congratulates them as well, having let himself in the infirmary because he heard what happened.

Axel reports that they're all fine and the heartless is gone, and Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, at least before her turns to Roxas and asks if he was hurt, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He's fine, just a little dizzy, but fine.

Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, pushing back Roxas's bangs and playing with his hair a little before leaving them all to heal, ignoring Xion entirely.

She doesn't take it personally and instead remarks about how nice it was of Xemans to join them, for once.

Axel agrees with the sentiment and makes Roxas and Xion promise that they're won't be anymore surprise runaways like that again.

They agree, though Xion asks if surprise ice cream can be exempt.

Axel smiles and exempts surprise icecream.

They all become real friends after this point, and it includes them poking fun at each other("Er, I don't know my past so I'm gonna go Saïx berserk on anyone who asks, der, der, der"), sarcasm(Xion: "There really is no hiding from Saïx, is there?" Axel: "Well, there's always under Xigbar's bed, but no one's ever returned, so tell me how it goes."), and light name calling, like hot head, burning britches, and smoke and more smoke for Axel, hoodie and emo band for Roxas, and little miss pissed off for Xion, because she's funny to make annoyed and angry.

And they try more than sea salt icecream, like doughnuts, cakes, and eventually healthier foods that are still sweet.

Roxajs and Xion gonon missions together and eventually start more than a friendship.

Axel keeps an eye on them whenever he can and begins lying to Xemnas, saying neither are really progressing with their powers, but are maintaining, so there's that at least. Xemans is not convinced and asks an old question, considering how Axel has possibly the best memory out of everyone here: What happened to Sora? Axel feigns ignorance, because he TOTALLY helped Sora take out Marluxia.

Okay, but what about Naminé? More ignorance because she up and vanished. Maybe Sora stole her away or something, who knows? Teenagers do weird things.

Xemnas, more than a little fed up, notes that Axel's getting close to Rozas and Xion and admits that as much of a shame as it would be to waste resources, it'd be even more tragic to lose their own numbers, maybe even Saïx as well, despite how cold he's turned toward Axel. If it makes him feel better, he doesn't need to do the 'icky job,' Saïx can do it for him and he can simply watch.

Axel steps down and Xemnas twlls hom to tell the truth next time, if he doesn't want to lose anymore friends.

There will be a part 2 of this

[keiths-conspiracy-theories]

may I request soft Keith headcanons

I’m quite sure it’s been half a year since I received this (I’m so sorry) but YES! :) I’m so so sorry it took so long, but here you are, my lovely! Thank you for requesting!

SOFT KEITH HEADCANONS(lowkey Keith x Reader)

When Keith returns from the Blade of Marmora and finds out he’d been dubbed Lone Wolf Keith, it hurts just a little bit

But he thinks that if the others see him that way, maybe he should just stick to playing his part

Like how Shiro is Shiro the Hero, or how Pidge is Science Wiz Pidge

He pretends his heart doesn’t drop to his stomach when he hears from Lance how much Allura hated acting him out

Stupid, annoying, lone wolf Keith… Maybe there was nothing else about him good enough or memorable enough for him to be anything else

You worriedly watch him leave the lounge while the others are still laughing, not knowing that there was something sinister stuck on a loop in his head, playing like a broken record

You’re not good enough, Keith. You never were; not for your foster homes, not for your dad, not for the Garrison.

You’ll never be good enough for the team too.

Instead of growing sad, he gets angry. At the world. At himself. Because that’s all he’s ever known to do

You find him in the training room not long afterwards, panting and grunting as he slashes training bot after training bot, snarling at the system when it doesn’t activate the next level faster than he wants it to

His vision is so red he doesn’t notice when you enter the room, doesn’t notice you wince at the sound of metal on metal every time his blade connects with its target

But you stay anyway, watching him self-destruct

Your hands itch to stop him, but you don’t, because you know it’s the way he’s learned to cope, even if you don’t understand it

When he finally stops an absurd amount of time later, he startles and nearly lashes out when an icy water bottle is shoved into his face

When he realizes it’s you, his walls come up around him faster than you expect

“Are you okay?” You whisper

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He bites back before all your words have the chance to leave your mouth

His words and his face are all scorching fire, hoping that the flames are hot enough to turn you away. And they are; so hot that they burn you

You stay.

Keith doesn’t take the water, too stubborn to admit exhaustion, so he returns to the bots because they don’t ask questions

You, like him, are just as stubborn, so you sit in the corner of the training room, pretending like you’re interested in him beheading training bots one after another like he’s chopping wood for a campfire

Hours later, when Keith has finally had enough, he packs up his things and turns to leave

What he doesn’t expect is to find that you’re still here; that you feel safe enough with him that you’d let yourself fall asleep in the corner like that

If he wanted, he could kill you right now; slash your throat like he’d done to the bots

He slowly comes to a stop before you

Your mouth is open, you’re sleeping in an inhuman position, and there’s saliva pooling at the corner of your lips, but Keith can’t stop staring

There’s a weird feeling in his chest

You… hadn’t left

Keith foregoes his shower to take you to your room, sneaking through the halls as he does so

Instead of carrying you in his arms, he has you thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes

You’d actually woken up when his bony shoulder rammed into your stomach so hard you actually gagged a little, but you kept quiet, knowing Keith was probably banking on the fact that you were still asleep and wouldn’t remember this

The next morning when you see him at breakfast, you pretend you don’t

Allura suggests another team bonding exercise for the afternoon

Keith is the first one to snarl at the idea and leave

It seems like you’re running after him a lot these days

You track him down once more, but this time, in Red’s hangar where he’s cleaning his blade by her paw

“Can’t you leave me alone?” He growls in annoyance when he sees you

You recoil a little at his harsh words but still shake your head stubbornly and sit

You two had never been that close, at least not particularly closer to each other than say him and Lance

But you’d always been more of a lover than a fighter

And in this giant, cold space castle several light years away from Earth, you didn’t want a single person to feel alone

“If Zarkon attacks right now, I might not see you tomorrow” You tell him

“What?”

“You know I actually enjoy spending time with you,” You urge, because at that moment, you were desperate for him to understand. You needed him to understand. “You know that right? You’re interesting, and– and funny. And smart, even if you don’t think so.”

Keith stares you, bewildered

And you think offhandedly that its probably the first time he’s shown you such an expression.

“I’m not Lance” he retorts, a little bit defensively. It’s off-topic, as if he’s trying to find the punchline of the joke before anyone else can say it. His eyes search yours warily, and for a moment, you’re unsure of what to say.

“I know you’re not.” You say thoughtfully. “You’re… you.”

Keith is quiet for a long time afterwards.

You spend the next few months chipping away slowly at his shell

Some days, his walls come down faster than you’re ready for. Other days, his walls are like an iron fortress built with no doors.

But if there’s anything you learned from spending the last several years floating aimlessly in a dark abyss, it’s patience

“Patience yields focus” you mimic Shiro one day at breakfast while half-asleep in a voice that’s so low your throat closes up.

You hadn’t expected to pull a small laugh out of Keith with that, but you do and you’re so pleasantly surprised, your widened eyes shine when you look at him

“What?” Keith asks defensively not a moment later, smile gone and lips pressed down into a tight line

You open your mouth to reassure him, but Pidge beats you to the punch

“I like your laugh, Keith” She says like it’s no big deal. “Yeah, man,” Hunk agrees thoughtfully through a mouthful of goo.

Both you and Keith turn to look at them with wide eyes.

“Indeed you do have a nice laugh” Allura comments before offering to refill his bowl of food goo.

“Well I think I can make mullet laugh the hardest,” Lance goads loudly and suddenly, like it’s somehow turned into a competition. “Get ready to lose, loser!” He says while looking at you.

You decide to play along, trying to suppress the smile threatening to burst out from your lips. You want to play along.

“Round 1, dad jokes?” You suggest.

Shiro and Coran both stand up suddenly with a gleam in their eyes.

There’s something that shifts within you and Keith after that morning.

You’ve spent so long trying to protect Keith from knowing what it’s like to feel lonely in the castle that in a way, spending time with him made you feel less lonely too

You told yourself for a long time that you were doing it for his sake, for his sake, for his sake, that it was hard for you to admit that perhaps you were a little more selfish than that, seeking Keith out to quell your own loneliness too

It becomes more than just you and Keith vs the world after that

Rather than finding Keith alone in the training room, you find him beheading bots with Lance

There isn’t just the sound of screeching metal anymore. There’s the sound of Keith’s goading and Lance’s snickering in between the sounds of heads colliding with the floor

When you check on Keith in Red’s hangar now, Shiro is there too, keeping Red’s armour clean while Keith cleans his blade. 

There’s light-hearted teasing and sometimes, the glimmer of amusement in Red’s eyes as she watches them from above.

Keith spends less time in his room now, more often than not, having been dragged to the common area to watch Pidge tinker with her computer.

But there’s Hunk and chocolate chips and a space movie and warm blankets and you haven’t seen Keith this relaxed in a long time.

You’re happy for him. So, so happy, and maybe…

Maybe he doesn’t quite need you anymore.

There’s a large viewing deck on the quiet side of the castle that has become your solace.

It’s quiet and lovely and you can see all the stars in the distance as the castle moves quietly along.

but as lovely as the stars are, you find yourself watching them with a heavy feeling in your heart

It feels……………….. lonely

You push down the feeling, but just as you can push it down no longer, a knock startles you out of your thoughts.

Keith’s head pops out from behind the wall, looking nervous and so out of his element.

“You okay?” He asks.

[shesquiinnsane-ar]

UPDATED BIOS;

As a precursor to this I just thought to add that both Arkham Origins and A Matter of Family have also been edited and updated. Whilst writing new bios I'm also working on editing older bios as some are probably a couple years old and full of typos I never checked. So that's happening too. All new bios will have my new icon form. I'll try and posted whenever I so update bios though so people know. And now, onto the new bio!

BATMAN NINJA;

This verse will typically be used for any anime/manga characters that Harley may interact with as well as those who simply just wish to explore it. Please note that Batman Ninja is a mash of ideas from the Japan studios. There are lots of anime tropes and plot points that need to be simply taken for granted. 

Gorilla Grodd used a Quake Engine in Arkham Asylum to send everyone back to Feudal Japan, causing a small distraction that landed Batman in that world two years later.. Two years in the making and Gotham’s villains were taking over as Feudal Lords; Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, and the Joker with Harley alongside, where all the Lord’s of their state. The Joker and Harley were considered to be the closest to uniting the kingdom to be the one true King of Japan, the Joker was known to be labeling himself as the Demon King. 

The pair first bump into Batman, using Harley disguised as the Joker to tease him as they realize he is now in Feudal Japan. This distraction allowed Joker to engage Batman in a fight, asking Batman to call him Lord Joker as he was believed to be the most powerful man in Japan. After changing into her outfit she met up with the Joker and the Batman after he finished throwing razor-edged fans. To keep the Joker occupied, she poured him a drink so they could instead watch Batman against seven of the Joker’s samurai warriors. As Batman and the warriors fought, Harley asked if they should follow, to which the Joker just sighed with his drink, asking her to simply enjoy the moonlight as they had all the time in the world.

Batman subsequently joined forces with Catwoman as he learned that the secret to going home was in Grodd’s time machine, currently owned by the Joker in his temple. He then learned Catwoman was lucky enough to find Alfred, who was in the Batmobile, and had been maintaining it as best he could for the occasion when Batman was to return. The loud motor roared down the street straight to the temple which Harley overheard, rushing to the Joker to inform him. Pushing open the doors of the temple she shouted at the top of her lungs that Batman was coming. She dropped her knees in front of Joker as she told Joker that Batman was coming in the Batmobile. Trying to demonstrate her point, using a puppet show she told Joker that the Batmobile had passed their gunmen and the canons that were in place to try and hold him back. Then Batman was always so clever with his technology, but Joker believed he was nothing without the Batmobile. Joker demanded Harley activated ‘Arkham Castle’. At first, she protested, after all the castle wasn’t even finished yet, but it had been made for Batman so there wasn’t any time like now to use it. She agreed, and after licking her lips, she clapped with a giggle. Behind the doors that had opened to her command was a piece of the Quake Engine that had been lost to Gorilla Grodd. 

With the castle activated, the temple started to rise out of the ground, as Batman was seen approaching the building. It seemed to transform into a mechanically charged robot in the form of the temple. Batman labeled it a form of madness as the left arm of the mech readied a set of giant throwing stars. Each one was thrown at the road in an attempt to stop Batman from reaching them. The three throwing stars narrowly missed the Batmobile as Batman blew up the gate with a rocket launcher extension to the Batmobile. He was storming the gates and the mech tried to squish Batman in the Batmobile as it plucked it from the ground. The Batman escaped, dropping from the wreckage with part of the car that converted into the Batjet. To Joker though, it was a persistent yet predictable move. With Batman locked on the top floor of Arkham Castle, he was trapped by two prongs, the wings severed on the Batjet, leaving Batman in mid-air. That wasn’t the only trick Batman could pull, however, as dropping the wings converted the Batjet into a Batcycle, a motorbike he used to drive along the arm of the fortress straight into the top room. 

Harley had fled from the floor to drop a trap on Batman. As the right hand of the fortress came crashing down to the ground Batman had to choose; save a woman and child down below, or finally get the Joker. Batman used the cycle to try and crash to the ground ahead of the hand and managed to fight off Bane to save the poor woman. The woman, however, was no more than Harley Quinn and her mallet. With Batman narrowly escaping being crushed to death she had time to perfectly line up her shot before her mallet hit in straight in the face and sent him flying across the floor. Using a giant slide to get out from the tower, the Joker joined Harley on the ground as they were both laughing. Harley noted that it was typical Bats, as he always fell for the same tricks. Joker continued to taunt Batman, as Harley and a few of his armed guards surrounded the Batman. Joker could only wonder what Batman had in store for a second act as he’d destroyed all of his toys now and there were no friends here to save him. A short and worried shout from Harley seemed to change the tides, however, as she pointed behind the Joker and tried to get his attention. Behind him, a huge colony of Bats seemed to fly toward them. During the flurry, Harley tried her best to swat them away with her mallet but it didn’t seem to do anything. The bats aided the arrival of what Harley could only describe as Ninja Batmen. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared, taking the Batman with them, and leaving Harley and Joker confused.

On a handmade ship, made in the vision of the Joker, Harley and Joker met with Gorilla Grodd. They stood within the bird’s nest to see as far as they could in case anyone should sneak upon them. Joker told Grodd that he wouldn’t kill him if he handed over the Batman and wanted to see where he was. He quickly made himself known as floatation devices were set up in the water which from the Joker’s viewpoint looked like people. Batman told him he was surrounded but this wasn’t going to over that quickly. With a laugh, Joker admitted that he was surrounded as his samurai warriors appeared firing at sticks of bamboo in the water. Harley came tumbling, laughing as she was firing her gun at whatever she could, hoping to hit a few people on the way down. Then she opted to throw a bomb into the waters, which she knew would cause more damage. Batman seemed to shout out ‘no’ but as Harley hit the deck she laughed, what else was he expecting? They knew he’d have men hiding in the water. As she joined Joker, who opened fire on Batman, Batman told them that maybe he would another time, but right now he had a trick up his sleeve. The tiny boat that Batman and Grodd had arrived on rose up to expose a huge underground deck. Despite looking confused at first, the pair still laughed and Joker claimed they were still doomed, opening firing on them again. 

The boat nudged forward, rocking Harley and Joker off balance as the hull of Batman’s ship opened as the Batman Ninja Clan and members of the Batman Family started to attack. Harley was confused, as they’d already killed them all, but the people in the waters were simple decoys to distract them from this new attack. As Harley put the pieces together Catwoman reached out to attack her and the pair started to fight. When swinging her mallet failed to land a hit, Harley took out her gun trying to aim for the Cat, who seemingly didn’t want to be put down. As she continued to fire, Harley was recklessly splintering the boat’s woodwork. She laughed until her bullets ran out which was when Catwoman proceeded to fight back, backflipping over Harley to kick her across her face. 

Soon enough the fight was over, and Gorilla Grodd siding with Batman in the hopes of gaining an advantage. Harley and Joker were subsequently tied together around the mast of one of their sails. Batman was happy to disappoint Joker by stooping ‘that low’ and siding with Grodd. But if Grodd had turned on the Joker, then Grodd would also turn against Batman. Joker didn’t have a chance to say anymore as he had been gagged alongside Harley. In Feudal Japan, trust meant nothing as Grodd used his mind control in an attempt to control everyone on board the ship. Or at least he tried to as the Bat Clan had mastered their bodies and their minds and could not be under the influence of Grodd’s mind control. Now everyone had to prepare to be annihilated by Two-Face as bombs destroyed the Joker’s ship. With the boat in flames, they had the chance to escape from their chains and climb back up to the bird’s nest with a barrel containing explosives. The pair laughed, as Joker told Batman he’d see him in hell before Harley lit the fuse and sent the explosive to the deck. After all only Joker could kill the Batman, he couldn’t forgive himself if anyone else had done it. The explosion destroyed the boat and bats left the flaming embers. Supposedly ending the battle.

There were no signs of Joker or Harley after the explosion. Some believed them to be dead or simply gone. In the fields away from the villages a couple had been found. The male donned green hair, the female, blonde. They had seemingly spent years on a field that didn’t seem to grow any crops. A male in a red helmet, Red Hood, was taken for a monk who was traveling through the region and he asked the couple for a glass of water. The green-haired man happily agreed as the blonde woman walked past him to sort out this water. She commented that the traveler must be exhausted as it was a rather hot day after all. As she leaned over the pot to fill his bowl with water the traveler grabbed the blonde, causing her to cry out, telling her to ‘break it’. Helpless, her man told him to stop, as he genuinely had no idea what was going on and why someone would go out of their way to attack his wife. He was threatening for the blonde to show her true face, or else he’d break her arm.

This traveling monk knew the Joker was alive when everyone else had said he was dead but there was a confusion to his face no one could fake. He questioned why the man was insistent on calling him Joker. Kicking the blonde to the floor Red Hood grew more irritated. The green-haired man ran over to his darling feeling threatened and scared. He even questioned the male’s sanity, as none of the situations made any sense. Supposedly that insinuated the man in the red helmet was stupid, as he was expected to believe that the Joker had taken up farming. Harley covered her eyes whimpering as the pair received a beating from the visiting male. They didn’t understand, their confusion was genuine. As he was assaulted the male continued to deny the allegations, and he dropped to his knees as a bamboo barrel was pointed at his head. Gunfire went off but just scraped past the male’s head as they were rescued by a man in a Bat costume. Supposedly they were both here for the same reason, as reports of foreign farmers in the area matched the descriptions of Harley and the Joker had been found but the couple genuinely didn’t remember anything of their past. They had come to Japan to live a peaceful life and had spent time plowing the fields. 

As the danger seemed to pass the blonde woman had gotten straight back to work when a miracle appeared before her eyes. It seemed like the pair had waited forever for this moment. She shouted for her honey to come and join her, her voice filled with excitement as there was finally a sprout in their fields. They laughed and embraced as finally, they had gotten somewhere, the blonde calling the green male her puddin’ as they toppled to the floor. Batman had concluded that the couple had at one point been Joker and Harley Quinn but had lost their memories to a point where they were no longer a threat. He promised to keep an eye on them and to take them back when the Quake Engine was fully operational but for now, they were harmless and they just had to let the couple be. Things were not quite so simple, however, as the travelers left the couple laughing their euphoria. The sprout that had finally grown was blowing pollen across the field, and over the couple kneeling next to it. This pollen had been created as a trigger to the couple’s memories. The seemingly harmless duo would now once again become the Joker and Harley Quinn as their memories were restored.

A month later, the Joker and Harley Quinn were ready to make their come back. The Feudal Lords; Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Deathstroke were all manipulated by Gorilla Grodd to develop a mechanical structure each which was far beyond the technologies of Japan at the time. Grodd had been setting up the battlefield to take over and become the one Lord of Japan. As the mechs joined together to become one, the party-crashers made their entrance. No one had known that Joker and Harley had regained their status and now they were ready to make a comeback. Throwing a laughing bomb into the hub of Grodd’s machine, a form of knock out gas was sprayed around the room affecting Grodd and Catwoman who was in the hold at the time. Other identical bombs seemed to explode through the mech as floating above in a hot air balloon donning the Joker’s smile was Harley Quinn and the Joker laughing hysterically and spinning around as they declared themselves back! It was out with the old and in with the new as more bombs were dropped on the battlefield as Harley made sure they knew that there were no exchanges or returns. The color bombs covered the mech as Batgliders identified the couple. Batman couldn’t believe it to be true but Joker greeted him as there was no way you could keep a crazy man down. 

The hot balloon crashed through the roof of Grodd’s castle, the same one that had previously been owned by Joker and Harley themselves. he didn’t want to be too late to the party but it seemed he had come at exactly the right time. As Catwoman glared Joker down, she was pushed to the floor as Harley stood on her, whilst wearing a jester hat that mimicked her modern-day attire. She grinned and waved at the pretty kitty. Grodd had taken them by surprise back at the lake in which their ship sank but now it was time for payback. The flower that had triggered their memories, wasn’t too potent yet but Harley admitted that they were thinking of increasing the dosage. The plant had been one Harley had previously taken from Ivy who had the best plants. As the plant seemingly paralyzed Grodd, Harley kicked Catwoman over to join Grodd on the floor before wielding her mallet and taking her place at the Joker’s side with a giggle. Now it was a turn of events Joker intended to take over Grodd’s plan and ejected Grodd and Catwoman from the castle as they were pushed down the slide and sent falling downwards. They were caught by the Bat Clan and carried carefully to the ground as Joker took the central seat and Grodd’s tools to play a few mind games using the mech he had developed.

Activating the full transition, the mechs assembled again. This time, however, the transition seemed more fluid as each of the villains controlled a part of the mech, with Joker’s hot air balloon forming the structure's head. Now they were all serving Lord Joker to take over, and the contraption was better than anything the Joker himself could have created. Chaos ensued as the Bat Clan struggled to withstand the force of the mech and the power it had. He had attacked Gorilla Grodd, injuring him badly. Despite being saved from death, however, there was no telling of his injuries. In return for the said Grodd gave Batman his commanding flute which summoned many monkeys to help the Bat Clan defeat the fortress the Joker was in control of. The monkeys formed a giant structure, a samurai monkey to take down the mechs. In one punch the mech was sent to his needs, which was unexpected but the structure did pick itself back up. 

As the Joker controlled the head of the structure, Harley was left to control the main body. Joker suggested cutting down on the monkey business by greeting the guests with a warm kiss. Pushing down on one of her levers, activated a huge central flame thrower but the monkeys seemingly withstood the heat as only their armor was damaged. The flurry of bats at the Bat Clan’s disposal doused the flames as the bats now enclosed the monkey samurai to take on the form of a giant Batman. Harley pushed down on the lever again, at the command of the Joker, as he told the Batman figure to feast on the fire of hell. The flames had no effect on Batman and with a single punch pushed straight through into the head, destroying the Joker's hub and freezing the machine. Batman opted to take Joker alone as each hero took on their villain to destroy the mech section by section. For Harley, this meant facing Catwoman who had in her opinion, chosen the wrong side to play with. In Catwoman’s mind, Harley needed a good ass-kicking after their previous encounter. 

As Harley intended to go and help Joker, Catwoman almost whipped her mallet straight out of her hands but Harley bashed it out of the way just in time with a little giggle. Catwoman declared it was time for some girl on girl action as the two began to fight. Harley laughed her way through the hits even jumping with intentions of smashing the cat to the floor. As she looked, Catwoman had disappeared but she smirked, throwing her mallet to her left and striking the feline. Trapping her in her grip, using the mallet to help, Harley told the pretty kitty to take her medicine and say goodnight, before licking the woman’s cheek. 

It all seemed to be going well but the monkey army had split, tackling the structure individually to slowly tear it apart piece by piece. As Harley held her grip on Catwoman a shudder throughout the building had caused her to slip, and Catwoman freed herself taking advantage by kicking the jester squarely in the face as she crashed into the wall. Resting her back against the wall Harley tried to catch her breath as she’d been winded by the motions as Catwoman tightly gripped her costume, pulling Harley up by her collar. Catwoman told Harley to keep her tongue to herself as she threw the Jester into the main system causing it to explode and completely crash which was where the Jester remained. Out cold, and hopefully not burnt.

After the fight, the Quake Engine was restored, presumably returning all of the Gotham residents to the present day. 

[moonlightreal]

Winx Club season 8/26

In which we get one last surprise retcon.

26 Written in the Stars

Recap says the last prime star is the “star of brotherly love.”  Were the other stars “of” things?  I totally missed that.

Valtor’s asteroid!  ...wait, what’s this?  Valtor is having a chat with a bunch of unforeshadowed Shadowy Figures he calls “my brothers of the darkness dimension.”  Valtor gathered the prime stars to free them and they’re getting impatient.

Gee, this series already dropped one big fat surprise motive, I was not expecting another one in the very last episode!

So Valtor wants to be a powerful sorcerer so he can unseal the darkness dimension and free his buddies.  Whaaaaaat even is this?  Valtor’s not from some weird dimension, he was created by the Three Ancestors!  His backstory is what made him cool, and “buddies in the dark dimension’ is so uninspired!

Season 8, whaddaya doing to me?  -_-

Alfea at sunrise! they’re squeezing the best gorgeous Alfea shots out of their software for this last episode and I am here for it.  Upgraded Alfea is just the greatest.

Kiko rocks on with headphones.  The Trix walk in behind him.  How did they get iiiiiin?! Into the Winx common room, past the school barrier and all the students and teachers.

Kiko sees the Trix and freaks out.  Icy knows the bunny’s name, which is kinda sweet. Knowing your enemies’ pets!  Kiko pelts the Trix with apples from an apparently infinite fruit bowl.  The Winx wake up and find witches dodging apples.

Badass Bloom: “I don’t know how you got here, but I know how you’re gonna leave!”

The Trix turn out to be Stella, Flora and Aisha transformed.  Not bad, writers. Professor Wizgiz made the spell for them for Bloom’s plan to get into Valtor’s asteroid.  Flora says it’ll be dangerous and Aisha sounds kind of fed up when she says, ‘Ok, Flora, but don’t worry too much.”

Bloom’s phone rings, it’s Sky with a be-careful call.

The star box poofs in.  “The goal of your venture will not slip away, but listen carefully to what I’m going to say...”  I assume she’s telling them where Valtor’s asteroid is.  The Wishing Star would know, and I don’t see how else the Winx would.

We cut to the real Trix walking down a dark blue and purple corridor.  Icy is keen to challenge Valtor, she thinks their prime star will give them enough of an advantage.  Darcy and Stormy are not so confidant.  Stormy sensibly suggests they just take their freedom and clear out.

Icy: ‘because right now we’re standing on the needle of a scale.  A scale that will tip in our favor when we take Valtor’s three stars.  We’ll have the power of the wishing star all to ourselves.”  Icy wants to break the spell on Sapphire.  Stormy wants them to be undisputed queens of the magic universe.  Darcy’s dream is to “overturn the law of nature itself.  A world of illusion, can you imagine?”  Ok, they’ll try attacking Valtor with Icy.

Wow, and Icy says, ‘If things go bad, run, and leave me to my fate.”  so Icy is putting it on the line not just for Sapphire but for Darcy and Stormy, which is remarkably honorable, for Icy.  They hug, and it’s sweet.  Then they enter the throne room!

Valtor’s just done chatting with his shadow buddies I guess.  Icy starts to say something, I think she’s going to bluff that they couldn’t get the star, when the room shakes and rocks fall from the ceiling. Thunder.

Stormy: ‘don’t look at me, I didn’t do it.”  Heh.  Valtor orders the Trix outside to check it out.

Outside, it’s Bloom,  Tec and Musa who’s hitting the building with “sonic shake” I think meant to draw their enemies out.  And it worked!

The Trix are happy to have a fight, even though this would be the perfect time for Icy to do a little “enemy of my enemy” stuff.  But the Trix just like fighting the Winx I guess.  It’s their hobby.

Inside, fake-Trix walk along the corridor and Aisha-as-darcy nearly falls over because her shoes are too tight.  it’s an illusion spell, why are you wearing Trix shoes?  Flora suggests they fly instead.

Fake-trix sneak into the throne room.  Valtor is back to taking to his shadow buddies and he explains his whole plan before turning and seeing the fake-Trix.  Stella is kinda hilarious doing the whole, ‘prime star? Oh, um, didn’t you have it?” thing as Icy.  She says it might be in her pocket and Valtor reminds them they have no pockets.  Pffffft. Seriously, Valtor is dumb as a doorknob not to realize.

The real Trix and Bloom bust in through the roof and Valtor is momentarily confused before the Winx all turn back into themselves.  

Valtor demands the star from Icy.  Stella says, ‘don’t give it to him!” and spills Valtor’s plan to release his shadow buddies.  Valtor tries activating his mark on the Trix but surprise, it’s gone!  

Bloom does a little speech about “if you give it to Valtor it will be the end of everything, the magic universe will cease to exist, is that really whet you want?”  and “On Dyamond I realized there is love in you.”  Bloom doesn’t know about Sapphire, remember, she just knows Icy likes cute baby animals.  

Valtor blasts Bloom and reminds Icy that the Winx are their worst enemies and that they’ll be rich and powerful beyond imagining if they help him out! Then he blasts Bloom again, but she shields herself, lights up, and says, “In your heart you know there’s only one thing to do.”

But Valtor evil-lights up.  

The Winx and Trix know a bad thing when they see it and fly away.

The whole castle busts open and there’s a gargoyle with Valtor’s mark across its chest.  It doesn’t look or sound like Valtor at all, but I guess that’s him.  Giant gargoyle goes after the Winx.  It throws blast after blast of dark magic at them and the girls raise their shields. Rainbow put in a little detail, Tec’s is green and techy, Aisha’s is morphix.  But they can’t hold out for too long.

Here come the Specialists in their ship!  It flies back and forth distracting the gargoyle.

Back on the asteroid, Darcy and Stormy want to skip town, leave the Winx to deal with the giant monster.  But Icy does not want the magic universe destroyed!  Darcy and stormy plead with her, Let’s just save ourselves!”

Flashback to Princess Icy on the overlook, vowing to save her sister.  Young Icy raises glowing hands to her hair, smoothing the yellow frizz into sleek silver, and conjuring the tall thingy Icy uses to hold up her ponytail.  “So, sis… Icy.”  Like she’s embracing the darker possibilities of her name.

Present time Icy: ‘I watched a world crumble before.  I won’t let it happen again. we’ll face this threat!”  The other two go with her.

Valtor at first thinks they’re on his side, but then Icy gives the star to Bloom! She puts it in the star case and the other three fly out of the castle and go into the case as well.  We fade into magc-space and the Wishing Star gets herself back together!

“Yes Winx, you’ve achieved your goal, and I am free.  To make your greatest dream a reality.”

Stella’s stoked. Wishes!  But the others realize they have to ask for something that’s good for everybody.  Bloom knows what they should wish for!

Bloom: “Our wish is to be able to protect the magic universe.  We want to preserve it in harmony, now and forever.”

The star: ‘so be it, Winx.  My brave and generous fairies of light.”

The star sends her light to the Winx and they all glow golden.

Valtor gargoyle tells the Trix this is all their fault.

But before he can bring the violence the glowy Winx all blast him and he is swallowed up in light.  The asteroid disappears, leaving empty space. In the spaceship, Sky cheers.

The Trix realize there’s nothing else for them here, and head off to their next scheme.  Before she does, Icy and Bloom look at each other and share a moment of understanding.

Ok, I think that was a dumb wish.  The Winx protect the magic dimension already!  If you get a wish, you should save it for something you can’t accomplish with the powers you already have!  Maybe they couldn’t have defeated Valtor without lighting up, but they defeated him last time without star power.  I  would’ve liked it better if the Winx had been zapping and then the Trix had to join in to defeat Valtor, or some other use of having three sides in this fight.

I’m also so sure that Bloom would have used the wish to save Dyamond if she’d heard the story about Icy’s sister.  Bloom’s a softie anyway, and she literally suffered the same thing herself.  They could’ve used the wish without powering Icy up further… sigh. it’s such a weird skipping of such an obvious plot.

The Wishing star flies off, and we see her pass the star ship Purripla.  The nautical lumens are happy.  The star visits the cave lumens, unilumens, surf lumens, and then we see Twinkle fly into the throne room on Lumenia. ‘The Winx have won, my queen!  The Wishing Star is back!”  Time for a party on Lumenia, but Twinkle is more interested in the one at Alfea.

Where they’re having a concert, of course.  This song’s a bit livelier than some. The minor fairies, the boys, teachers and Knut, a couple of lumens, and Twinkle and Lumilla are there.  They are my OTP!  I scan the crowd for Orion, but he doesn’t seem to have made it.

In the sky the Wishing Star zooms past, drawing a W between six stars.  It’s the Winx constellation!

And that’s season 8!

But you’re not getting out of here without more ponderings!

It occurs to me that the Winx know—or at least Bloom thinks she knows—that Icy is capable of love, but they know nothing about what the white fox really is.  In the real world where things don’t end after 26 episodes the next thing Bloom would want to do is go back to Dyamond and figure everything out.  Making Icy stop being a threat to the magic dimension would be a huge win.  Although… Icy has spent ten-ish years doing really awful things, she’s not a good person. She’s a terrible person who loves her sister, and if Sapphire regained human form Icy would be… still a terrible person, just one with a human sister.  it’s hard to imagine Icy just returning to being princess of Dyamond and doing a good job.  Or even enjoying it.

I do wonder if we’ll see Sapphire again.  I guessed this is setup for movie 4, it could also be setup for season 9 or it could just disappear like the fairy animals from season 7 just disappeared.

Some thoughts:

The art bugged me less than I thought it would, I honestly stopped noticing after a few episodes.  Even the boys… still looked weird, but my brain didn’t remind me loudly just how weird they look.

Musa/Riven, why must you be so bad as to force me to take a side in a fandom I don’t want to take sides in? -_-  

Liked seeing Knut and the Alfea teachers again, and I’m glad they took the time to bring the minor fairies along to the new art style.  Of course it was all made very confusing since some parts of the world seem to have gone back in time and others don’t.  Mielle looked much younger but was described as being still a teenager.  

All in all, I liked this season!  I will have at least one more post of afterthoughts, and maybe a deep-dive into Icy’s past.  The official Winx youtube channel has a video about it that I haven’t watched since I didn’t want to spoil myself.  We’ll see.  Depending on just how unemployed I turn out to be and how hard I’m working on my fanfics, I may have plenty of time to write about Winx!

[angels17324]

The Violet Paladin (Keith x Reader) Ch. 5

Word Count: 2111 Update Schedule: Every Monday [Masterlist] [Prev]

It was cold, which I thought was kinda strange, I remember covering up before going to bed maybe I kicked the sheets off. I looked around to see that I was inside my lion's cargo bay. I stood up and looked around. Everything seemed normal, but how did I end up in my lion. I started to walk towards the head, just as I was about to enter...

I sat up in my bed, "That was so weird..." I muttered. Figuring I probably wasn't going back to sleep I decided to put on my paladin armor since I knew we were training as soon as everyone else got up. I grabbed my sketching supplies and walked out of my room, It seemed the halls were still dark, so it was really early. I turn on the flashlight on my suit and walked to my lion's hanger. I spent about two hours drawing my lion and these attachments on her. After I joined the others for breakfast before we headed out to train.

"Great job today guys!" Shiro commended us "We're really getting the hang of Voltron!"

"Seriously, how far do you think my lion kicked that broken alien ship?" Lance bragged.

"Yeah, that will totally come in handy when the Galra challenges Voltron to a soccer match," Keith glared at him

"You just can't handle my awesomeness," Lance chuckled.

"You knocked us off balance Lance. We fell," I told him.

"That was Hunks fault!" He blamed.

"Hey!"

"How about the four of you save your energy for fighting Zarkon," Shiro stopped us as he went to sit down.

"Hello everyone! How was the Voltron work out?" Coran walked in with a covered dish.

"We're getting there. Are you and Allura almost done fixing the castle so we can leave? I feel like we're sitting ducks still being on Arus," Shiro said worriedly.

"Just about. But in the meantime to get your minds off of that, I made you guys an authentic ancient paladin lunch," Everyone perked up for a moment but it was short lived as Coran revealed the lunch. Everyone groaned and looked disgusted by the green... could you even call it food?

"Coran, you just got me hooked on that goo and now you're switching it up?" Hunk looked at him.

"This is packed full of nutrients," He defended.

"Oh, it smells disgusting!" Hunk pointed out.

"I know!" He exclaimed happily, "That's how you know it's healthy,"

"I'll pass," I said looking at it, I slowly backed away from Coran.

"Coran, we're on a planet with fresh herbs, spices and whatever this thing is." Hunk held up a small plant. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna head to the kitchen and spice things up." Hunk ran off to cook something.

"Where's Pidge?" Shiro looked around.

"He's probably checking on those prisoners we rescued." Coran ate the paladin lunch he made. "They'll be walking soon in the infirmary." He held the fork out to Shiro, "Open the hatch. Food lion coming in." He tried to feed Shiro like a baby.

"No. Just... No." He slowly edged around Coran, to get away from him before leaving the room.

"You don't know what you're missing!" Coran told him.

Sometime later Hunk came back with his food and at this point, I was starving and willing to eat anything other than the thing Coran made. On top of that, it looked way better than the other option, the boys and I started to eat the new lunch happily.

I somewhat zoned out as I continued to eat before an alarm started blaring. Allura pulled up a screen which showed a small creature running around.

"What is that?" Keith asked.

"I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a local Arusian?" Allura watched the screen "It's approaching the castle"

"It's kinda cute," I smiled.

"Aw," Hunk cooed

"Doesn't look too dangerous," Lance chuckled.

"You never know," Keith warned activating his Bayard.

"No. Alteans believe in peace first. Let us go welcome them," Allura walked out the rest of us following her.

"That's adorable," Hunk cooed.

"Hey, maybe we can knit him a little sweater," Lance said excitedly.

"I'm not taking any chances," Keith followed after the boys, I giggled at that before running after the boys. The large doors opened and watched as the small creature jump into the nearest bushes.

"Greetings! We know you're there," Allura walked over. "No harm will come to you,"

He jumped out of the bush pointing his sword at all of us. "Awe!" Hunk and I fangirled.

"Wait! He could be dangerous!" He stood in front of me. "Drop your weapon," Keith ordered.

"No one takes Klaizap's weapon!" The Arusian shouted.

"Keith put that away!" Keith reluctantly lowered his Bayard. "Please, kind sir, accept my most humble apologies."

"I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazelle Hill. I come seeking answers as to why the lion goddess is angry with her followers,"

"Followers?" Coran asked.

"Lion goddess?" I questioned looking at the others... Does he mean Voltron?

"The one the ancients spoke of," Klaizap explained.

"What makes you think she's angered?" Allura asked.

"Fire and destruction have rained down the past few suns and a giant has danced in the sky,"

"I think he's talking about Voltron," Hunk whispered.

"Yeah, I think we got that Hunk," I sweatdropped.

"You haven't angered the goddess," Allura said smiling.

"How do you know?" Klaizap wondered.

"Because I am Allura and this is my Castle," She announced proudly.

Klaizap gasped and started bowing to Allura. "Lion Goddess!"

"Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village so that we may meet our neighbors,"

"What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?" Keith asked.

"Part of the paladin's mission is to spread peace and diplomacy," Allura turned to him. "Arus has been our host for 10,000 years. These people deserve our thanks,"

Klaizap leads the group to his village. We all hung out with the Arusians, they were so adorable, the only one who didn't seem happy was Keith.

"Come on Keith lighten up, Allura said we're leaving tomorrow," I told him, he was going to respond but the Arusian King started his apology dance for Allura, she told them not to and they were about to sacrifice themselves... okay, maybe there aren't as cute as I thought. Allura quickly stopped them and allowed the dance to continue.

The Arusians bowed to her as she explained about us, "These are the Voltron paladins, and though we come from different planets with very different traditions we'd like to live alongside you as friends.

"But the mighty angelic robot has it not come to destroy us for our immoral ways?" The king asked.

"Voltron? No. in fact that mighty robot is here to protect you. Let it be known that Voltron will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!" She declared.

The Arusians cheered and gathered around us again. I picked up one of the smaller ones that reached up and followed Keith who tried to get out of the big crowd. A small Arusian jumped on him and hugged him.

"Uhm... I don't usually hug strangers... but man you are cuddly,"

"Thank you," The Arusian said in a deep voice.

"See Keith, it's not so bad," I smiled. He glared at me but I ignored it and kept hugging and talking to the different Arusians. Keith was leaning under a tree watching everyone.

"Shiro?" Allura questioned being the only able to hear him.

"What going on?" Keith asked.

"We need to get to our lions," I said as the ground started shaking. Everyone was and running around. We were helping the Arusians get to safety.

"Everyone, get inside and stay down," The Arusians ran to their homes. Hunk tried but was quickly stopped by Keith. We ran to our lions to see Pidge and Shiro in their lions getting attacked.

"Lay down some cover fire so they can get out!" Keith commanded.

"On it!" Keith, Lance and I began firing on the monster.

"Check this out!" Hunk called excitedly "Battle lion headbutt!" He ran into the monster knocking it down for a moment.

"You guys okay?" Keith asked.

"Still alive for now," Shiro responded we regrouped and looked at the monster.

"Are the Galra behind this?" Hunk asked.

"They'd have to be Voltron doesn't have any other enemies," I pointed out.

"I've never seen anything like this," Shiro said.

"So what's the plan? Shoot at it with everything we got? Take out its weapon? Call it names?" Lance asked.

"If we want to take this monster down there's only one way to do it," Shiro said. "Form Voltron!" All of our lions soared up into the air and formed said giant robot. "Remember, we are on unit fighting with one goal,"

The monster formed a spear again and threw it at us as we flew towards it. Keith and Pidge punched it which worked... Until it didn't and it called the energy spear back which knocked us all down. It was about to again but we flew away in time.

"I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe!" Keith said.

"Yeah, so how is this monster kicking our butts!" Hunk complained.

"Hate to point this out but Voltron is over ten thousand years old! It might take some time," I interjected. We watched the orb but were suddenly attacked by the monster.

"Oh no, the village. We have to protect those people," Shiro said. Once again attacked by the orb again. Almost hitting the Arusian village. "That was close."

"We need to lead it away from the Arusians," I said. We flew Voltron towards the desert part of the planet to fight the monster. Lance Attempted to kick the orb but we were knocked down as the monster ran at us.

"Pidge fire the lasers!" Shiro commanded Pidge tried but a shield formed instead. Again we were knocked down but by the monster this time.

"Every time we focus on the orb we're blindsided by the monster, and every time we focus on the monster, the orb hits us!" Hunk panicked.

"Then what do we do?" Lance said.

"Orb!" Hunk warned as we were thrown back into a rock.

"Shiro we gotta move." Keith asked "Shiro?"

"I recognize this monster from my time in Zarkon prison I know how to beat it!" Shiro exclaimed. "Listen there's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon, And every third time the orb needs to charge up that's this monsters weak point. That when we strike."

"So what do we do until it needs to charge again?" I asked.

"Defense."

"Pidge we need that shield." She blocked the first attack with the shield.

"That's one. Two more to go!" The orb came back around and almost knocked us down.

"We can't take much more." Hunk said.

"Last one! Everyone brace for impact!" The shield was destroyed with that last attack. "Now!" Keith fired a laser which didn't work.

"Now what?" Lance asked.

"Last time I had a sword,"

"Orb!" Hunk warned again and we were hit yet again.

"We can't keep taking this hits," I warned.

"Wait a second! I think my lions telling me what to do," Keith called out.

"Whatever it is do it!" Lance said. "He's about to fire his third shot!" We were thrown back again. Suddenly the green and red lion were pulled together and formed a sword. Which we used to slice down and defeat the monster.

"How did you do that?" Hunk asked.

"Thanks, red," I could hear Keith.

Everyone returned to the castle to see off the prisoners from Zarkons ship. I looked around to see both Pidge and Shiro gone. I sighed and watched as the prisoners left on an Altean escape pod.

I walked out of the room hoping for some more time to draw. "Hey," I heard some call and turned to see it was Keith.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked.

"I just wanted to... check on you..." He said unsure of himself.

"I'm fine. I was just going to draw and maybe bond with my lion more."

"Oh... that's cool... don't let me keep you then," He said.

"You could join me sometime if you want, I might actually go sit outside and try to sketch the sunset since it might be the last one we see for a while," I told him.

"Yeah," He nodded. We were about to go when Allura told us that we were going to host a party for the Arusians on our last night.  

[Next]

Tag list~ 

@somebodytouchedmysaeran @ittie-bittie-tittie 

[keldae]

Drastic Measures (Chapter Twenty-Seven)

The Shereshoy whined as it descended through the Alderaanian atmosphere, maneuvering sharply to slip through the narrow opening of a cavern built into the side of one of the many mountains in the snowy region. It hovered briefly, finally settling within a clearing in the caves, neatly parked beside the battle-worn Dancer. The engines were still ramping down as Sorand descended the ramp of the Shereshoy. He tossed a casual salute to his brother. “Good job not getting shot,” he said with a smirk.

“What can I say? It’s a gift.” Korin grinned, then waved as Lana and Torian followed his brother down the ramp. Shara was only a step behind, Koth in tow. “Corey got here same time I did. He’s parked beside the Raven — I’ve been told your baby’s just fine, ‘Rand.”

“She’d better be, or there’ll be hell to pay,” Sorand muttered, sparing a glance downward as Tee-Seven rolled down the ramp with a series of beeps and whistles. “Any contact with the rest of the cell?”

“They know we’re here. A couple of the Organas came out to say hi.” Korin started walking beside his brother through the tunnels. He knew the layout of the base well from his regular supply and intel runs. “From everything I was told, they haven’t heard anything. And still no check-in from Malcom yet.”

“Not even a text message?” Sorand frowned, feeling his worry echoed. When he glanced back, he could see Akaavi and Rusk behind him, Bowdarr bringing up the rear.

“That is concerning,” Lana murmured, a frown creasing her brow. “If Corso hasn’t been able to contact us…”

“Even if Farmboy’s on the lam,” Shara spoke up, “it ain’t good that the kriffing Supreme Commander went quiet and all. If he showed up on-scene and the Zaks caught him…”

“Especially if he really is Shan’s biological father,” Koth spoke up. “With that reputation of Shan being a terrorist, every loyal Zakuulan is going to want to wring any possible bit of intel that they can get, especially from a family member.”

“As if we didn’t have enough to be worried about.” Sorand frowned. “Any word from Dad yet?”

“Nada. But you know how Dad gets when he’s in ops mode. If he hasn’t contacted us by the end of the week, we can be worried then.” Korin shrugged as he rounded a corner, leading into a giant cavern. Once, it had been overrun with killiks; it now housed a resistance operations base. “Where’d you send the rest of the Mando squad to?”

“Mand’alor recalled them -- can’t say where to an aruetii,” Shara interjected, “but she’s giving me, Corey, Torian, and Akaavi a pass since she knows we’re workin’ with the resistance directly.”

“Fair enough.” Korin looked forward and raised his voice as they approached a command platform. “Hey, look what the wild manka dragged in!”

The flurry of activity on the platform ceased for a split second as everyone looked over, before a burst of excited noises filled the cavern. A second later, Talos hurried around the large Hutt on the platform, open relief in his expression. “My lord! It’s a relief to see you well and unharmed.”

“Good to see you too, Talos.” Sorand waved as Kimble came up behind the archaeologist and promptly smiled in relief. “You as well, Kimble.” He looked around, noting a few familiar faces, and more strange ones. Not even Thunder knew the name and face of everyone in the resistance. “This is a very impressive setup here for the resistance. Well done.”

“Thank you, my lord,” Vector spoke up as he offered the Sith a bow. “Did you have any problems leaving Tatooine?”

“Fewer than leaving Dromund Kaas,” Sorand muttered.

“The Fleet came barrellin’ in as the last transports were leaving,” Korin spoke up. “All they’ll be findin’ is empty caves and exhaust fumes. They didn’t catch any of us on the way out.”

“Cuttin’ it a little close at the end,” Koth commented, his brow creasing. “Another hour…”

“Ah, c’mon, Vortena.” Korin grinned. He clapped the former Zakuulan officer on the shoulder. “It’s a Core World tradition to procrastinate to the very last minute on important, life-altering things.”

“Only on your homeworld, perhaps.” Vector shook his head as he stepped back a pace. “Shall we provide an in-brief?”

“Please do.” Sorand fell into step beside the Joiner as his entourage of followers scattered, leaving him with Korin, Lana, Shara, and Koth. He could just hear the sounds of Kimble and Rusk meeting up again, mingled with Tee-Seven’s happy beeping. “First, the Zakuulans. Then we can discuss Malcom.”

“As you wish.” Vector bowed slightly. “If the Zakuulans have heightened their surveillance of Alderaan, we are unaware of it. There have been a few patrols that have come from the Star Fortress, but no more than usual. They still maintain a safe distance from the killik nests, for fear of Joining us.”

I don’t blame them, Sorand thought, but said nothing. “The noble houses?”

“Organa, Rist, Frayus, and Alde are still assisting us with supplies and transportation around the planet. Thul and Ulgo are aware of our presence, but they do not know where we are. We have a connection directly to Organa Castle not far from here, and this portion of the cave leads out to Rist lands. Killiks inhabit most of it, but we can travel through the nests safely, provided we do not cause them a disturbance.”

“Which is a boon,” Lana agreed, even if she cast a wary glance to one of the killiks walking around the cave. “Malcom?”

“Silence -- not even an attempt at contact that we can determine.” Vector frowned. “Duke Charle is concerned, as is the only Zakuulan inside the castle. We actually wished your opinion on the matter of this latest defector, my lord. She is a Zakuulan knight by the name of Senya Tirall—”

“Wait,” Koth finally spoke up. “Senya Tirall is here?” He seemed to be paling behind his goatee. “She was the captain of Valkorion’s personal guard!”

Korin’s eyebrows vanished under his scruffy hair. “That high ranked a defector? Shit, Arcann really ain’t endearing himself to a lot of you folks.”

“That’s new information,” Sorand said, shaking his head. “I think I’d rather like to meet her. If Valkorion’s captain of the guard has abandoned Zakuul, perhaps more Zakuulans will follow her.”

“We suspected you would.” Vector bowed slightly. “We can introduce her to you, Lord Imperius. She has indeed expressed curiosity about you, and not merely because of your sister. Your reputed strength in the Force impresses even the Zakuulans.”

“My reputed strength in the Force? I’m a little insulted.” Sorand offered Vector a small smirk. “Lead on, then.” He fell into step with the Joiner.

Behind him, the redheaded Corellian Jedi, Master Bel Iblis, stared after him, looking not unlike she had seen a ghost. She watched as his brother hesitated, looking around as though he could sense something... off. After a moment, he merely shook his head and followed Sorand.

Master Bel Iblis finally stepped back as the group departed, pale as she clutched a datapad to her chest. “That’s what her sons look like?” she whispered.

It was another day of travel before the Aegis dropped out of hyperspace in Alderaan’s orbital path. Xaja stifled a yawn as she and Theron walked into the bridge of the warship: The constant travel, flitting about the galaxy to obfuscate their trail, left her body with no idea what the date was anymore. She was pretty sure she was still operating on something approaching Dromund Kaas time. Right now it felt like the dim hours before dawn, although Theron had said that it was closer to early afternoon in Organa territory, on the planet surface. Maybe one day we’ll be lucky enough to stay somewhere long enough to get adjusted to one planetary time zone without having to run so quickly.

She snorted inwardly. Right. And maybe Arcann will offer a truce.

Malcom looked over as she and Theron approached him. “We’ve just arrived at Alderaan,” he said without any preamble. “The Star Fortress is orbiting the far side of the planet; if we’re quick enough with the descent, we should be able to vanish before they realize we’re here.”

“How often do the Zakuulans go poking around on the surface?” Theron asked, frowning at the rapidly-approaching planet and resting a hand protectively on Xaja’s lower back.

“Every so often they’ll traipse through the various Houses’ territories or go into the castles. But it’s not as often as they used to do.” Malcom stepped back as Master Satele approached them, Corso and Jorgan a step behind her. “When I left, the only Zakuulan in Organa territory was Knight Tirall, and she’s a defector.”

“I am curious about meeting her,” Xaja murmured. The idea of a Zakuulan defector and rebel against Arcann was one that perplexed her. And from what Master Satele had hinted, Tirall was not a mere grunt in the ranks who had abandoned her post. She was respectably high-ranked. Perhaps Arcann had pissed off more of his people than Xaja had dared to hope. If so, maybe she and Theron had a chance of survival.

“I expect she’ll be one of the first people you’ll meet when we finally get you to the resistance.” Master Satele offered a small smile. “She was interested in you as well — and I don’t believe she’s interested in turning you in.”

“We’ll worry about introductions after we get you two to safety,” Malcom rumbled. “Once you’ve gone underground with the resistance, you’ll get to know everyone.”

Xaja nodded, frowning slightly to herself as she gazed out at the stars beyond Alderaan. “All assuming none of the other cells were compromised.” With no contact to Sorand, or her father, or Doc, she was worried for their safety. And if they had heard of the attack on Dantooine, they had to be frantic.

“If there had been another raid, I’m pretty sure it would have come through to our comms,” Jorgan finally said. “Or it would have hit the broad HoloNet channels. Republic comms have already been blowing up with chatter about Dantooine — apparently we’re down to maybe two or three straggler Jedi in the Republic now, as far as anyone who isn’t on this ship knows.”

“Hmm. The longer they think we were killed, the better our odds of being able to get by without actually dying,” Theron muttered.

And the more likely my family has a collective heart attack, Xaja thought as she turned her focus to Alderaan. The planet thrummed with life in the Force, tangible to Xaja’s senses despite being in orbit. At this distance, she couldn’t focus enough to identify life forms on the surface. But for a moment, she swore she felt a flicker against her senses from a familiar signature, one tinged with both bright light and dark shadows. Sorand? “And the sooner we’re on the surface,” she murmured, “the sooner we can tell the resistance that we’re not dead yet.”

“We’ll be on the surface in under a standard hour.” Malcom nodded once, sharply. “I suggest you make yourselves scarce until we’re ready to get you offloaded. The Star Fortress doesn’t usually order ship searches, but I wouldn’t put it past them.”

In an empty alcove near to the entrance to Organa Castle, Sorand watched as an older woman was escorted through the cave by Vector. Even at a distance, he could sense her considerable strength in the Force, and the tight discipline that she exercised over it, enough to earn the envy of any Jedi. The Sith stepped out of the alcove, inclining his head in greeting. “You must be Senya Tirall,” he said.

“And you must be Darth Imperius.” Tirall offered him a shallow bow, which he answered with a nod. “I’ve heard much about you.”

“I expect there’s a few stories about me circulating around the galaxy,” Sorand acknowledged, a slight smirk twitching across his lips. He looked to the side where Lana and Korin stood behind him. “Allow me to introduce my brother, Captain Korin Taerich, and my advisor, Lana Beniko.”

“Of course. Even Zakuul has heard impressive stories about the Voidhound. And Lord Beniko -- your reputation precedes you.” Tirall nodded to each of the ones Sorand named. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Lana answered. “Though... I trust you’ll forgive our collective curiosity as to how a such highly-ranked Knight of Zakuul came to sympathize with the resistance.”

“I’m sure you have many questions.” Tirall’s small smile softened her pale blue eyes. “I’m willing to answer as much as I can. While I may be one of the only Zakuulans to leave the service of the Eternal Throne, I’m not the only one who believes our home is in the wrong.”

Korin raised an eyebrow, shifting his weight to Sorand’s left. “And here I thought that all Knights were devoted to the Throne an’ whoever’s ass is parked in it.”

“Not all of us blindly support Arcann.” That was a slight bite to Tirall’s voice. “Tyranny is not what our people have stood for. I would hate to see my homeworld become permanently associated with dictators and conquest.”

“Your kind is rare,” Lana acknowledged, eyebrows raising. “Although I suppose if you were a loyalist to Zakuul, you wouldn’t have earned Satele Shan’s respect.”

“No. Even with the Jedi all but defeated, Master Shan is something of a respected legend among Zakuul’s ranks.” Tirall smiled slightly. “It was an honour to meet her in a relatively peaceful circumstance.”

“How did that meeting come about?” Sorand asked, curiosity striking him. “The greater part of the resistance knows nothing about you, and I have not been on-world long enough to meet anyone of the Organas.”

“We met on Jedha. She was trying to find her son who had gone MIA in the war, and I was seeking Jedi teachings on mind healing.” Tirall frowned slightly. “When I found nothing, she suggested I come here. She herself went to Voss to pursue another lead.”

Does she know…? Sorand exchanged a quick glance with Lana, then Korin, before looking back to the Zakuulan. “Did she identify her son’s name?”

“No. I looked through a list of Republic missing and dead with her, but Shan is apparently a common name.” She shook her head ruefully. “Of course, after arriving here I began to hear rumours that her son is the reported terrorist from the Spire, Theron Shan.”

“The reported terrorist? Do you believe the accusations are true?” Lana questioned.

Tirall spread her hands. “I dislike the idea that someone would attempt to cause an act of terrorism to my home. But, unlike the rest of my people, I do not immediately jump to the first thing that Arcann says. He…” She paused, pursing her lips for an instant. “It isn’t unheard of for him to alter the truth to garner public support. Of course, releasing the assassin who killed Valkorion could be considered terrorism…”

“War crime, maybe. Terrorism seems a bit excessive.” Korin shrugged. “D’you think the stories about the assassin are true?”

“Someone killed Valkorion. And the reports say he was alone with Arcann and the assassin at the time of his death. For how strong Arcann is, I doubt he could have killed his father like that.” Tirall frowned. “The assassin, Taerich… she is your sister, is she not?” she asked, looking at Korin and Sorand.

“She is,” Sorand confirmed. “And the idea of her being a cold-blooded murderer is inconsistent both with her personality, and with the rules of the Jedi Code she swore to uphold.”

“She’s got the skill to,” Korin agreed. “I ain’t ever seen her lose a lightsaber duel. But if she killed Valkorion, she had a reason to. She woulda killed if she’d felt threatened, or panicked.”

“Master Shan said the same thing when I asked her about it,” Tirall murmured. “Considering she said she had trained your sister, she would know the most about her prowess, and her personality.”

“Yep. If the charges had been for sucker-punching Valkorion in the gonads, yeah, we’d believe it easier.” Korin grinned as Sorand shook his head. “Half ‘cause that’s all she would prob’ly be able to reach.”

“Classy,” Sorand muttered at his unrepentant brother… even if he knew that Korin was right and Xaja would have gleefully taken any opportunity to harm Vitiate -- Valkorion -- whatever his real name was. “My apologies, Knight Tirall.”

“Please, call me Senya.” The Zakuulan looked between both brothers, and the advisor standing between them. “I’ve heard a rumour that she and Shan have both gone missing again, with Master Shan. What happened?”

“We believe that Zakuulan forces attacked the hideout they sought refuge in.” Lana glanced at Sorand, then continued. “Three days ago, we received a distress signal, but haven’t heard anything since. I’ll be dispatching one of our scouts to their last reported location.”

“If Arcann had captured or killed them -- especially Master Taerich -- it would be all over the HoloNet by now. He does enjoy bragging.” Senya’s blue eyes narrowed in thought. “If they have been captured, I may be able to help you rescue them. I can provide information on Zakuulan protocols for detainment and transport of prisoners of war. ”

“And you would help rescue accused war criminals?” Korin asked, his earlier humour fading into a creased brow and grimly-set jaw.

“I would rather meet your sister and Master Shan’s son before I cast any judgement on them. As I said: it is not unheard of for Arcann to obscure the facts he delivers to suit his own means.” Senya’s eyes flashed. “Like the rest of my people, and likely yours, I want the truth of what happened.”

Sorand slowly nodded, deciding he rather liked the Zakuulan woman. “Then we welcome any information you’re willing to provide. Come; we may as well sit and be comfortable while discussing this.”

“… swear to the stars, Captain, you bring me another kriffing waste of bolts again and I’ll sell your ship to Ugnaughts,” Kothe snarled at Kaliyo as they entered the Shadow-masquerading-as-the-Duchess’s hangar, gifting a scowl over his shoulder to the lurching loader droid behind him.

“You want a better droid? Then start paying for it,” Kaliyo snapped. “I ain’t working for cheap, old man.”

“You’re already getting paid more than you’ve earned,” Kothe growled. “Keep it up and I’ll switch my services to the Wookiee.”

“You won’t. You like checking Lia out too much to do that,” came the snarky retort. Kaliyo looked over her shoulder with a grin at Vette, bringing up the rear of the group with an expression of long suffering. “Ain’t that right?”

“Don’t you go bringing me into this,” Vette snapped, watching out of the corner of her eyes as the Zakuulan Knights guarding the hangar exchanged a look through their helmets.

“Aww, you still mad about me sellin’ off your other cousin to Drooga?” Kaliyo flashed her teeth in a grin as one of the Knights took a step forward.

“You put me down as collateral in a pazaak game!” Vette shouted, lekku twitching dangerously. The Knight promptly seemed to decide he wasn’t getting paid enough to get involved in this and withdrew, his companion taking a couple of steps to the side. “You don’t kriffing own me!”

“So?”

Kothe sighed, subtly waving his hand at the Knights as the trio walked up to the ship. Both Zakuulans shifted, then turned away from the group, apparently deciding they weren’t worth the trouble. “You decide you want a new job, kid, look me up. My vices don’t include gambling.”

“Sure they do. Why else do you keep getting this model of loading droid?” Kaliyo grinned as she gestured at the droid. “Up you go, Rusty.”

Rusty? Reanden grouchily thought to himself as he trudged past Kothe and Vette. Never minding that his legs ached with maintaining the droid’s lurching stride — he swore literal rust on his joints would probably hurt less. But admitting that would be admitting he was growing old… and he was certainly not doing that.

Feeling the weight of a datapad in his jacket pocket with his own connection to the transmitters wired into the Zakuulan bunker, he made it up the ramp and lurched to the bridge of the Shadow. SCORPIO looked over as he came to a halt behind the captain’s seat. “You somehow kept yourself from getting shot,” she commented as she resumed typing into the navicomputer. “I suppose your ideas aren’t quite as stupid as they appear.”

“The threat to turn you to scraps and sell you to Jawas still stands,” Reanden growled as he dropped the disguise with a blink and settled into his seat with a soft groan. His hip wasn’t quite as forgiving of the droid lurch as it had once been, or of crawling around through maintenance tunnels. “Any updates?”

“Lord Imperius and Captain Korin have arrived on Alderaan. Intercepted transmissions from the Republic suggest that the Dantooine Enclave was destroyed.” SCORPIO glanced over as Reanden felt his heart drop to his boots. “Yet I have intercepted no transmissions indicating so from Zakuulan forces. The Eternal Empire’s forces in this system seem to have gone quiet.”

If she were dead, Arcann would be gloating to the entire galaxy. She has to still be alive. Reanden rested his head in his hands for a minute, fighting to keep the fear from overwhelming him. “Any news from the Empire?” he finally asked.

“Very little. Imperius remains at the top of the most wanted bulletin, and you, Agent, aren’t far behind. Your associates, Lieutenant Temple and Agent Emrys, have disappeared completely into the Ascendancy. I received an encrypted message, indicating that they are safe for now. Koli’arr was dispatched to bring Imperius in.”

That, at least, was good news. The bounty hunter known as A’den Koli’arr was, in fact, family friend and associate, Corey Black. Reanden knew well where Black’s true allegiances lay. The news of his protege, Adela Emrys, and the youngest member of his crew, Raina Temple, gaining refuge with the Chiss was also welcome information. Raina had maintained her commission in the Expansionary Defense Force, and Adela had earned the… trust… of Aristocra Saganu. Between their wits and his influence, they would be quite safe.

Finally, he nodded and pulled the datapad out of his pocket, passing it to SCORPIO. “Wire that into the systems,” he directed as the droid took the device. “We’ll be better able to track Zakuulan communications with this.”

“Very well.” SCORPIO started typing as boot steps sounded on the ramp before Reanden heard the distinctive whirr of the ramp retracting into the ship. Kaliyo and Vette must have boarded. “Where is our next destination?”

Reanden frowned in thought, barely looking up to nod approvingly at Vette when she poked her head into the bridge with a grin. “Alderaan,” he finally said. “We’ll rendezvous there with the resistance and figure out our next steps.”

“Very well, Agent.”

The Zakuulan woman certainly seemed nice enough. Senya Tirall was a mystery; Sorand had the suspicion that she was hiding something big. And secrets from a Zakuulan who claimed to not support Arcann’s tyranny was something that made him worry.

But if she had earned the respect and trust of Satele Shan, perhaps she wasn’t a threat. Sorand had only met the Jedi Grand Master briefly during the Revanite crisis, but she struck him as intelligent, and discerning. If Master Shan approved of Senya, then maybe Sorand’s paranoia was just making a nuisance of itself.

He frowned. That heightened sense of paranoid suspicion that he had inherited from his father, and refined over the years spent among the Sith, hadn’t failed him yet. Senya, he felt, wasn’t a danger, per se. But she was hiding something, something significant that—

If his paranoia hadn’t failed him, his sensory awareness certainly did. Sorand grunted as he collided mid-step with a human woman. “Sorr—” he started to say, before he got a look at the woman’s face and felt the blood drain from his own. For a second, he swore he was looking at a face he hadn’t seen in the world of the living since he had been ten years old. “Mum?” he breathed out.

As the woman’s brows drew together, Sorand belatedly caught up to the differences between the stranger in green Jedi robes and his memories of his mother. This woman’s eyes were hazel, not deep green… she lacked the same freckles across her nose that Airna Taerich had… the nose was wrong, and the chin was just a bit off, and the lightsaber that hung at her hip was a different build. But if Sorand’s mother had had a sister, he would have sworn this was her, if not his mother returned from an untimely death herself.

He cleared his throat and stepped back, feeling his throat tighten with old grief as his mother’s lookalike opened her mouth. “My apologies, Master Jedi,” he quietly said, sounding less like a Dark Lord of the Sith and more like a spooked young adult. “Excuse me.” Neatly stepping out of the reach of the Jedi’s outstretched arm, he hurried off down the cave tunnel. For someone who had had far too much experience in encountering ghosts, malevolent or otherwise, he felt like he had walked right into his mother’s apparition. And that was not a pain he was willing to face today.

Behind him, Master Bel Iblis stared after his back, mouth falling slightly open. She had planned to encounter Darth Imperius and Captain Korin, determined to see if they had turned out like their mother, her late cousin… or the Imperial bastard who had stolen Airna away from Corellia. But whatever she had expected from Imperius, she hadn’t expected that.

Now that she had been close enough to get a read on him, she was startled at how much his mother’s son he was. It wasn’t just his strength with the Force; Airna’s youngest son had inherited his mother’s slim build, the bone structure in her face, the same way her hair had parted. She had few memories of Reanden Taerich, but she could already see that the Sith had inherited his father’s dark hair and eyes, and the same set to his jaw — not to mention the height. And then there was the too-noticeable Imperial accent. Rumour had it he inherited a similarly vicious streak when provoked as well, and the same cunning intelligence.

But the soft tone to his voice, his polite manners even when startled— no, spooked, his caution; those, Mairen thought, were all his own. For a second, she could forget that Airna’s son was Darth Imperius, Dark Lord of the Sith and renegade member of the Dark Council. Sith weren’t supposed to be that quiet or polite.

She nodded slowly, still looking in the direction that the Sith had vanished down. She was going to have to attempt meeting her cousin’s youngest son again, and this time see if she could talk to him without him paling like he had seen a ghost.

[goldstonegolem64]

Book 1 Hope retunes Chapter11 the calm before the storm By goldstonegolem64

A few minute before the blast in the main hall were everyone else had gathered to talk pidge out of leaving.

"I know looking for the holt family members is you main mission but your but cant just leave you have a duty to Voltron" Allura said.

"out of all the people here I thought you would understand the pain of losing family and if you had the chance to see them alive and well again would you take it no mater the cost" pidge said.

Everyone looked  taken a back at what pidge just said 

And I'm not the only one who want to leave so dose hunk and lance 

"Is that true" Allura asked? 

"Yes but that because I don't want to fight the galra for the rest of my life but I'm not going to leave you guy" .Hunk replied

Keith had a enough of this and said to pidge. "How can you be so selfish as to abandon the team and leave us unable to form Voltron to fight zarkon. the holt family are not the only family out in the universe who were hurt because of the galra".

Keith would have continued but was stop when Adam pull him back and Shiro saying no one can before to do something they don't want to do. After that he walk away from the conversion thinking he had no place to talk about the loss of family at this moment because he had just got both of his adoptive family member back it was just so absurd that someone would leave the team just to look for some one. He felt like an asshole because that's exactly what he did. He kept walking looking for Ether jay lance or Coran.

Back with the group.

"look pidge I know you anger but that was a low blow and if the captain were here he would have knocked you out for using someone else lose to get your  way",Beau said with  anger in his metallic voice.

But before he could continued lecturing her for what she said when the  power went out followed by a earth shacking explosion. Everyone stud there frozen for a few seconds before running to the bridge of the castle ship  except for beau who was taking a defensive stance in front of the door way to make shore no one got in to the castle while the power was out .

In the control room everything was white jay’s head spun his ears rang and his back hurt like hell. Has his sight returned to him he saw the red hue again he blinked a few time to get rid of it and started to look a round the room to fined Coran hovering over lance who was lying on the floor.

Is he ok?Jay asked seeing a look of fear on Coran’s

He’s not walking up Coran said 

With no hesitation jay stud up ran over to lance and scooped him up and ran out of the room head to the Prometheus because its med bay might not be as good as the castles healing pods but it would at lest it would keep lance stable until a new crystal was found. Has he turned the corner he ran in to the others who just started to ask him so many stop him from  

"what happened to lance?" Pidge asked fear in her eyes 

"what's going on", Adam asked? 

"What happened to the power",Allura asked?

"where Coran", Hunk asked ?

Where are you taking lance? Keith asked

The hue started to come back as the questioning put lance closer to deaths door. he knew that they were just as worried as he was but right now they were just in his way.Move out off my way now he yelled

They all stared at jay as his face marks started to glow his skin turned a dark red his teeth sharpen and his eyes became more like a dragon. The made a path for him as he ran pass them with lance being held bride style down to the hanger bay. Following after him was Coran saying something about a bomb destroying the crystal and needing to go to a balmera to get a new one, the grouped followed behind Coran. 

in the hanger bay pidge lead coran and hunk  to the flight pod she was working when she was leaving but with lance in a coma and the power being out she had to help in an way she could pointing out the modification she had made to coran

So this button we overclock the engines for a added boost of speed if you need it.

"alright pidge but who’s coming with me on this mission I need someone help to me get the crystal",? Coran asked

"I will" hunk said.

"Alright lets go I found a balmera close by so it wont take us to long to get there and back"

"so what is a Belmera anyway",? Hunk asked 

"it a living planet that was once a giant space dragon like creature that has fossilized and creates power crystal that power small fighter to the largest of space station. if I missed anything coran can fill you in on the flight there.stay safe out there and come back to us alive"  jay said speaking  over a speaker on the Prometheus while he was in the med bay watching over lance to make shore he was ok.

"Did he miss anything"? hunk asked has the flight pod

Some small thing but I will fill you in on the way there.

pidge watched as the flight pod left the ship on there way to get a new crystal. She walked into the Prometheus’s med bay to see jay sitting there being tend to by a small med bot scanning him to see what was wrong and lance just lying there on that bed just made her heart sink in to her stomach. To get her mind off of that she would ask jay some questions.

"hey jay how dose this room work",? she asked 

"Nano machines son" he replied

"really"? she said 

no  is just some complex combination of altean magic and human sciences because there wasn't a enough of the proper supplies make  healing pod on every ship. they used magic infused humidifier to make a healing mist that can heal multiple people a once.it take a lot longer the a healing pod dose but it gets the job done.

ok that doesn't sound so complex. 

no it is I just gave you the short explanation if I when with the long one we would be here for hours

pidge stared at him and though she would ask beau for more info later but for now she left the med bay and out of the hanger to clear her head.Adam Allura Keith and Shiro were outside of the med bay talking to each of about jay weird change as pidge walk out of the room Keith then went in to the med bay to  check on lance condition.

"So Adam you have know jay the longest out of anyone so what was that whole change in color back there", Shiro asked ?

"its called being a Berserker and it a problem I should be telling you about not Adam", jay said in the door way of the med bay.

"A berserks like the one from the stories my father used to read to me of great beast with terrifying strength that put even the strongest of solider to run in fear but also could do great good if treat like person in stead a mindless monster", allure said?

"yes half of that info is true but I think that last part was made up by your father to make us less terrifying but I don't know for shore because I just found out myself what I am a few day ago"jay replied.

ok that answers Allura said now thinking of doing some research on berserks later when the power was back

"So quick question to Keith’s dads. dose he have a crush on lance or a I missing reading signal",? Jay asked after he had let the med bay close behind him so Keith couldn't him

Adam and Shiro look at each thinking about that question for a few second 

He did have a crush on some boy back in garrison but they were in the cargo pilot classes Shiro said

yay but lance went in to the fighter pilot classes after Keith dropped out Adam said 

he dropped out?

Yes after you when missing  

I will have a word with him later about that but I though the boy he like wore glasses?

"maybe he is wearing contacts now" jay said

Allure watch three boy have this conversion and though about a few days ago when pidge had asking her if she like lance which at the time made scents but with the information she had found out about Keith it put that question into a new light but before she could tell the other a call came from her communicator from the arusin king

"help were under attack by the galra", he yelled 

"were on are way" Allura said 

Keith had just left the room when he heard the call"I'm going too", he said 

 "I'm going as well", Adam said grabbing his plasma rifle and slip into the armor jay had given him

"Jay beau pidge and I will hold done the fort" Shiro said.

"alright then lets get going", jay said

At the bridge Shiro was there to see the recuse team off

"Be safe out there you guy", Shiro said then kissed Adam for good luck

we will be Keith said 

"Don't worry we have an eye in the sky", Allura said when she saw the Valkyrie fly out of the castle.

"Godd to know at least she don't need her pilot to fly on her own",Shiro said

Jay had stayed in the hanger to keep lance guarded in case some one got pass the ten security drone Shiro and Beauregard grabbing his Bayard off the nightstand and after he had told Val to make a sweep around the village to make shore there were no galra hiding in while for the group to get there to ambush. a few minutes pass after the small group had left  Shiro and Beauregard heard the drones firing on something in the dark and seeing the mussel flashes then a purple hue smashing throw them. Then they saw Sendak walking toward them  with a Small group of sentries with some missing parts after the gun fight and his massive metal arm crushing the last  Drone  

"stand down and I will give you mercy", sendak said

"No way are you getting in this castle", Shiro said Activating his prostatic.

while beau started to run at Sendak in his original body thrusting a massive claw straight at sendak only to be smash a side by the massive metal arm. Shiro charged Sendak ready to fight back. in the hanger jay though he had hear a Nosie by the robeast's arm walking to the area with his Bayard in his prostatic in a new form that looked more like his revolver and his actual revolver in the other he turned the corner to see no one there and feeling stupid about what he just did he turned back to the ship only to get hit in the gut with a hammer knocking the wind out of hit and hearing a very familiar set of voices 

"So this is where you and Adam ran off to",.Fairin said 

"Looks like the blue one is in here" ,Ringal said from the Prometheus.

How are you to alive and here? Jay asked through shallow breaths 

"were harder to kill then you think", Fairin said show his face with a metal skull under his skin 

Ringal walks over to show him she could make a small particle barrier to kept herself safe from most attacks 

Now lets start this fight off right shall we? Ringal take the blue one to hexus and to commander sendak. Fairin said letting jay get up om his feet 

"Yes lets" Jay said holstering his gun and grabbing the altean steel ax off his back readying himself to finish this fight they started on phobos.  

[khrow-shinku]

The Great War S19

D&D 5e Campaign

The Great War

Session 19

We return to our “heroes'' with Ara noticing several children dead in soldiers' uniforms. Ara’s anger and power had already started to escalate beyond Thefa’s ability to calm her and as such Ara was actively changing the weather with her heat at this point unbeknownst to Ara. When Ara realized just how many children were dead on the field, it was obvious by the size of the foot print on their flattened corpses it was Rooklus’s handywork. This drove her rage beyond her mental capacity to withstand it causing her to lose her sanity. Upon losing her sanity, her power went out of control. The power both of her parents knew was unawakened within her suddenly awakened violently against her will and judgement because without her sanity there was nothing to keep the massive well of power in check. It began to transform and morph her body in new and unusual ways. Her eyes began to glow crimson, her tail swelled up and became more muscular as the heat inside her burned her skin black as charcoal and turned her clothing to ash before the charred skin began to peel off revealing the glowing form underneath that looked like magma. Thefa at this point was unable to stand and was forced to kneel and bow to Ara as the aura being emitted by Ara pushed her down. At this point the dragon was burned alive and tinkerman was melted into the ground. Rooklus grabbed the rest of the party and ran as fast as he could away from Ara except Rin and Baruch. Baruch turned ethereal hoping to avoid the damage and be there to heal anyone alive when it was over. Rin stayed behind, intentionally putting herself directly in harm's way, she then fell to her knees and screamed at the top of her lungs, “Grandpa I know you’re watching I need to talk to you now! Face to face and I do mean hurry!” With that Rin blinked out of the realm.Rooklus ran for several hundreds of yards hoping it was enough, he collapsed to the ground tired and turned to look to see if he made it far enough away only to see he had not. It was at the moment Rooklus looked back to see a giant ball of fiery plasma that was shrinking and turning darker. A few moments later it implodes and sucks everything in this and 2 other solar systems into it, destroying all life within them except Baruch who is now floating in space, still ethereal. Baruch’s inner monologue “Oh shit, when this spell ends how am I going to breath? Welp this sucks.”

Meanwhile in a realm outside of time and space a very panicked and frightened Rin tries to compose herself. “Ummm Grandpa, if I’m allowed to call you that? I mean I’ve been told not to use your real name, hell I don’t even know your real name… anyway… you here?” Rin questioned hesitantly.  “Yes little one I am here, and yes you may call me that. Why did you ask me to bring you here?” He asked. “Well I know you were watching and… I know it's more than likely a taboo but can you please rewind time just a little? Just right before that battle. I know I can fix it so please, If you do I swear to come stay with you once my journey is done so please just please do this just this once. Please!” Rin begged. “Heh my dear child how many times have we made these deals before? You wish to add to it now in a different way? Sigh…” he said exasperated. Rin looked at him with a puzzled look, “What do you mean before? I’ve never come to you asking for anything before. What are you talking about?” He chuckles to himself, “Oh that’s right this is the first time, this time. How easily I forget that. Anyway pay no mind to that, yes, yes I’ll do it. I have nothing but faith in you deary.” With that Rin blinked back to the battlefield at the beginning before anyone had done anything.

Rin appears on the battlefield, turns to the party and looks at them. “Ok everyone stop, no one do anything. We’ve done this before.. It did not go entirely as planned. To prove it, JJJ you were just going to ask Rooklus to throw you at the main enemy, over the soldiers.” JJJ’s eyes got wide and he nods looking at everyone before Rin continues. “Ok Rooklus I want you to still do that however do the same to me right after you throw him but aim me at a 45 degree angle so that I go a bit higher. JJJ. you do exactly everything you are thinking of doing. Rooklus shrugs and throws JJJ then throws Rin at a 45 degree angle towards the enemies. (HAH Mammoth 1 Fox 1 Fire, Fox 2 Fire! Hahaha, right DM!) JJJ does the exact same attack as before breaking the leader’s shield. Rin while in the air transforms, sprouting her incorporeal wings as she draws her katana flipping her the speed switch on her katana. With a swift blur she ascends skyward til only the twinkle from light reflecting off  her sword is seen and she dives down and slams her katana through the leader's neck. The blow results in a complete beheading and his entire body is sliced into tiny perfectly congruent cubes.(Hey DM you should give her that as a permanent move, call it “Sky Gullotine” you know that sounds fucking awesome right? Everyone has to name their moves, it's just a part of the hero thing isn’t it?) Seeing the tyrant fall the soldiers ran away screaming “..don’t kill us.. ..we never wanted to fight.. ..thank you for killing him.. ..aahhhh!”

Rin then took this time to walk back over  to the party and fill the party in on everything that happened the first time and explained why she took over the party for a moment and had them completely scrap all of the plans they had made before. However before doing so she looks at the dragon and tells him to sit and asks him to put down tinkerman. To the party’s amazement he listened. Rin also notices as she rejoins the party and Ara arrives on the scene that Ara’s mood circlet has changed. Where it was previously, there is now the top part of a dragon skull embedded into her skin going into her hair. Only it is no longer her hair it seems as though the illusionary flame has fully merged with her hair and the flames now are her on the top of her head however the back still looked the same. During all of this a blue haired female appears standing on Biska's tail however Biska feels no weight on her tail as if the girl is weightless. Biska then asks her politely to get off her tail and she does. The soldier’s come back to get their weapons cautiously. One of the elders among the soldiers thanks the party for getting rid of the tyrant and asks who they are.

Rin and Thefa nudge Ara forward gently yet forcefully and Rin whispers to her using the tongue rings, “Now is your time, talk to your people and tell them who you are. You can do this queenie!” Thefa just nods to Ara and motions her to do it as well. Ara clears her throat and then begins speaking in a very royal manner, “ Hello citizens of Aeldari. My name is Aravari Domarien..” Thefa chimes in through the tongue ring, “Use your mothers maiden name!” Ara then bounces back quickly and charismatically, “Or as some of you may better know me, Aravari Nishimoto, daughter of Bekari Nishimoto and rightful heir to rule of this country.” As soon as they hear the name Nishimoto all of them take a knee and kneel recognising her as their queen. “I came here with my friends to free you from this hellish nightmare and take back the throne. I will put an end to all of this and you will never live in such dire straits like this again. I will bring this country back to its former glory and beyond. You may now stand.” Ara commands. As they all stand upon her command Ara whispers through the tongue ring, “I could get used to this queen business.” After standing an elder chimes in “So does that mean you’ve taken care of the council?” “What council?” Ara asks. The elder further explains that there is a council of business owners, known as the council of nine hands, who are running things and that those two idiots were nothing more than puppets that acted as the figure heads. Ara quickly responds, assuring them she will take them out too, she promises, and she sends them on their way to go home to their loved ones.

The party then goes back to the castle to do some planning on how to approach this council situation. Once the castle comes into view the party notices it is almost completely repaired, the specter butlers had been very busy while the party was away. The dragon, Biska, and mysterious blue haired female, also come back to the castle playing a round of Tinkermanball, that is to say they were throwing him around like a giant ball. Baruch talked to his deity to find out if he had any offspring in the area. Turns out he had a lot so he left to go talk to them about what they knew if anything. Thefa, Rin, and Ara started going through the books in her castle library. However before they could hit the books the head knight of the guy Ara one shot, shows up. (Yeah DM not your best moment, still salty about how anti-climatic that one was.) She asks who killed him. Ara speaks up and announces herself as future queen, daughter of the queen that shirked her responsibilities as queen that lead to all this. She then adds saying, “I am the one who killed him. I intend to retake what was intended for me and fix this mess.”  The knight responds, “Ok well I should warn you I work for the council you are going to have to go against to achieve your goals.” Ara then asks, “Is there is some way I can convince you to work for me instead as a double agent. Keep me informed of the council’s movements etc.” The knight thinks for a moment. “Perhaps as long as you can do something for me once you’ve taken over. Pardon my brother of his crimes and free him from prison.” Ara asks, “Depends, what did he do to get in there?” The knight answers, “He tried to impersonate a member of the Nishimoto clan in order to get rid of the council.” Ara chuckles, “Is that all? Yes yes, once I have control he will be fully pardoned and rewarded for being an outstanding citizen who attempted to help his people. Given the way things are I do not blame him and I understand his reasons.” With this the two struck a deal and the knight left to continue her duties.

Baruch on the way to meet up with his family was able to talk to his offspring in the city through his deity and ask them all to meet up at a tavern in town. He then arrived at the tavern one of his offspring owned and he had a secured room that Baruch could do research in and he had lots of books on sensitive topics. It was odd to say the least to find such a room in a tavern.  Baruch then talks with all of his offspring and sends them out to collect info for him. Baruch then chimes in using the rings and informs the party that he has found some more books and lets the party know his location if anyone wishes to join and assist. Rooklus and JJJ feeling there was too much estrogen here decided to go help Baruch. Baruch notices that the door and only exit to the room he is in looks strong enough to withstand a mammoth with no issues, curious to say the least. Rooklus and JJJ finally caught up to Baruch and joined him in the back room and helped him with the research.

The girls found books with updated laws on how the caste system actually is in the country at the current time. The boys found an older book of that same caste system dated around 100 years prior to the book the girls found. At this point the boys contacted the girls through the rings and they began comparing notes on the books. During the conversation Rin and Baruch both suddenly are able to see both copies side by side through some magical means that neither of them had activated to their knowledge and their tongues were itching for some reason right around the tongue rings. (Really divine intervention? All because they are connected to celestials? Ugh, what is this hallmark?) They noticed the writer of both was different. The newer copy was written by Alfonse Le Darc about 31 years before his death. Rin gasps, “Oh shit guys, that’s the scumbag whose ass we kicked who was doing shady shit behind the queen or Urildyr’s back? He was on that list of assholes trying to start the war.” To be continued...

[arkus-rhapsode]

My Stella arc

So this is a bit of a rewrite of the Dragon Cry movie, but seeing if it can actually be tied into the world of FT and the fact that I actually do want to explore the world of Stella. (This takes place in between Pergrande and Tenrou Island)

It opens Natsu and Wendy after getting chewed out by the magic council for the shit they did in Pergrande. While that happens, Lahar asks one of his men to go on a special mission involving Fairy Tail.

Once back FT everyone is discussing up coming S-Class Trials and Natsu meets all his other teammates and says Wendy should be on team Natsu.

Gray kinda thinks Wendy could be better off with a simpler team or mage who doesn’t take very intense jobs like Reedus or Laki, but Natsu says he wants Wendy on their team after seeing what happened in Pergrande.

Erza says they should all take a mission to show Wendy the type of work they do, and Gray has a job form, Catch the dark mage Velveno. Lucy remembers the request form because Gray showed it to her before she went to Acalypha.

They also notice that the bounty went up from 2,000,000 jewels to 4,000,000 jewels. Mainly because Velveno took on a few mages since his prison escape and defeated them. Gray eyeing Jet and Droy who accepted the mission while team Natsu went to Acalypha the find Lucy, and both of them were beaten

It cuts to Velveno meeting with a guy in a cloak named Chase, in this shantytown. Velveno asks if Chase has the goods and Chase says its out back.

Then team Natsu arrive and a lot of the criminals panic then go to attack them. Velveno is freaked out, and demands to see the “goods”, which turns out to be a magic cannon.

Eventually Velveno is defeated and Gray grabs Chase after he tried to flee.

Chase begins to beg to be let go, saying that he’s only a middle man, and not a dark mage. Gray questions what he’s talking about, but Erza continues to interrogate.

He says that the weapon came from Stella from an underground ring there, and begs to be let go or get a few years off his prison sentence. Before he can say more a group of knights from the Fiore military show up led by vice captain of the Fiore military, Riana

When Riana says that the Team will be paid like normal, Erza stops Riana and shows her the begging Chase and his confession and Riana orders the Team to wait while she brings this news to the king

It then cuts to Mercurius where magic knight Kama, is approached by Kamika and Casmos who know that today is the day that Kama became the captain of the Fiore Garou knights. He merely sulks away.

He enters the throne room where Toma Fiore is on a communication lacrima with Dalton

The king says that this is quite a pickle and says that he will contact Stella’s queen right away.

It cuts to the team entering the building with Natsu saying to Erza to remember that time he broke into save her.

They approach a room with Dalton in it and behind him a massive screen made of magic, projecting the king on it.

The FT mages are curious why they are even here and Dalton reveals that he man they caught was a middle man for a high-grade magic weapons manufacturer, that is located in Stella.

Dalton then makes another projector with the minister of magic in Stella on it. The minister is named Swan and she says that she, the king of Fiore and the queen of Stella have discussed the situation, Erza asking what this has to do with them.

Their job was to catch Velveno who was nothing more than a dark mage, but in doing so they discovered a lead that is potentially life saving.

Stella recognizes that this information would never have came to light without their help and that their monetary reward does not seem appropriate for their contribution, so the queen of Stella has arranged for them to have a vacation in the capital of Stella, Altair

The team all think it sounds fun, Erza and Gray happy for a break before S-Class trial, Lucy because Stella is a country with tons of knowledge on celestial spirits (Stella means star after all), and Natsu and Wendy gets a new area to look for their dragons

They make it to Stella’s capital and on their ride they are shocked by this giant crystal growing out of the ground. Their driver explains that it is Stellanium and type of crystal similar to lacrima only instead of holding magic it holds starlight

The team is dressed up all nice to meet the queen and are led there by Stella’s chief of staff, Doll. The queen of Stella is a woman named Sonya Stella. She is very happy to meet mages from the renowed Fairy Tail. Lucy is shocked that their popularity reaches other countries though the destruction caused in their recent years also reaches everyone.

Then enters two members from the number one guild in Stella, Master Zash Caine and Guild Ace Gapri

Gapri says hi to Doll, but addresses him as “Master Marcel”, but Doll glares saying that he doesn’t go by that name anymore and Gapri says “Captain Doll”

Gapri is gloating a bit saying that as the best guild in Stella they can ensure this will get done quick. Sonya says that she did want the FT team to meet the Zash and Gapri because they were the first to accept the job to find the weapon manufacturer

Natsu gets a little aggressive towards Gapri with Gapri saying that they’ll handle this easily and Zash’s eyebrow raising his eyebrow a bit. But Zash stops Gapri

Sonya says for the FT team to go at and enjoy Altair.

The group splits off with Erza, Wendy, and Carla going out to eat, with Wendy bonding with Erza and Erza telling her that regardless of her magic, Wendy could become a great mage and Wendy blushes.

Gray and Happy checking into their hotel, Happy loving how big the room is and Gray likes the fact that they get a great view of the castle

Lucy visits a key shop and is shocked by all the silver keys. The shop keeper is wowed by Lucy having gold keys and Lucy is bummed that they don’t have any gold keys. But the shop owner shows Lucy that keys aren’t the only thing they have and shows that they have weapons for Celestial mages and shows her a whip called the Fleuve d'étoiles

Natsu goes up to the Stella castle’s balcony and see they beautiful starry sky.

Zash meets Natsu up there and begins to talk. Zash asks if Natsu has any goals. Natsu tells Zash about his dream to find his father and that he’s a dragon. Zash then says that from what hes heard is that Natsu has magic related to dragons and Natsu explains that it’s Dragon SLayer Magic

Zash begins to look at Natsu and starts calling him a wild, untamed beast, who will just destroy this country like he’s known for

Natsu’s eyes glow and attack Zash and starts destroying the castle. Everyone tries to reel in Natsu when he moves the fight outside, but he seems to ignore their attempts

People are a little surprised to see that Zash’s normal strength is actually keeping up with Natsu

Gapri joins the fight explaining its Zash’s blood magic. He can circulate his blood in his body and charge it to increase his muscle activity

Doll tries to attack Natsu with his fire magic, but is shocked by Natsu being able to eat the flames and Doll has a small flash back to a shadowy figure and says that Natsu eating his flames and it reminds him of “that day”

Doll reveals his weapons under his clothing, two dolls named François and Catherine. Lucy realizing it’s similar to Bickslow’s magic. (Though the beams fired are red and not green)

Natsu actually uses brilliant flare and there is intense flames surging. Zash says he’ll get rid of the flames

He uses a blue jar-looking thing that absorbs all the flames. Zash says this container is special as it absorbs a magic and negates anything affected by the magic

Eventually Natsu suddenly calms down and curious what the hell happen, but he’s knocked out by Doll

The queen is disgusted, but Erza states Natsu would only do this if someone was acting antagonistic towards him or FT. Wendy remembering Pergrande saying that he would only do something like that if there was someone being miss treated.

Zash steps up to Doll and saying he did insult Natsu, but he didn’t say he wanted to fight he said he was surprised that he had such a destructive magic and it fits him. Natsu then threw the first blow.

Doll says regardless if Zash did goad Natsu, Natsu still caused all this damage. The queen agrees to have Natsu put on trial, but for now he will be detained and the rest of the team placed under close watch

While people adjust, Zash says he must make a stop, but Gapri wants to follow Zash. Zash then looks Gapri in the eye and mind controls him to leave.

Cut to Zash entering a mine shaft where many people are constructing weapons, and a massive dragon skeleton. Zash then asks how is the Quartum project coming and someone complain that picking off the remains of the dragon is taking forever.

Zash asks one of his minions, Coordinator, how their progress actually is and she says that they still have to deal with powering of these things. 

We find out that the Quartum are the “ultimate magic weapon” made of an alloy combining steel and Stellanium. The issue is that the energy source they wanted it to work on comes from Dragon slayer magic as it can power many things. Problem is no dragon slayer’s are in Stella so they’ve been picking off fossilized remains of a former dragon and siphoning off what magic they have left

Zash shows off all the magic he stole from Natsu and says that they can now make their army ahead of schedule and they already have a buyer set up

Cut to Natsu in prison who is still pretty baffled by what’s going on. While there he meets another inmate by the name of Mash, who originally had one of the biggest stellanium distribution stations until a few months ago. but he then found that after blanking out for a little bit he was under arrest as he had currently made several deals in transitions to noted dark guilds inside Stella. 

Natsu asks why that’s weird and Mash explains that it was not something he had done in his entire life only that he had suddenly made tons of distribution orders in only a few minutes

He then states that Zash then investigated and concluded that these were in fact dirty deals. Natsu hears about Zash and realizes that something happened when he met Zash and because he remembers fighting him but doesn’t really remember why. And thinking about it a lot of the fight was hazy.

Mash asks if maybe they’re is something in common, but Natsu just hopes his friends are okay

It cuts to the FT members in their hotel room with a few guards around it

Gray and Erza both agree that this is bullshit, Lucy saying Natsu may be destructive, but he always did it with good intention. Happy says that Natsu still has some issues being insulted, but even so, this deliberate destruction seems way too odd

Then a guard comes in with a communication lacrima with the King on the line.

The king, surrounded by Arcadios and Kama, is outraged at what happened, but Erza begins explain that Natsu was fighting against a man named Zash who apparently talked to him.

Kama goes wide-eyed and asks if his name is Zash Caine. And when they confirm it all of the men in the throne room sweat.

Kama states that Zash is a traitor against Fiore. Suddenly we get a flashback showing Zash as the magic knight head and how Kama was his vice captain. The flashback explaining that Zash has the power of mind control by making direct eye contact, but the issue with this is the mind control will only last for about five minutes, then the person who was mind controlled will forget most of his actions during those five minutes and completely forget a minute before getting controlled, essentially erasing Zash’s moment of eye contact

Toma says he’ll call Sonya. With the team thinking this is bad, but given they’re still being watched they gotta be careful on how they act.

Lucy says they could sneak into the prison where Natsu is being held, but Happy notes that might be hard while under lock and key.

By saying that, Lucy whispers in Happy’s ear that she has a plan and explains it. We see that her plan is to distract the guards with her gold key. As Stella is known for all of its silver key shops she’ll blow the guards away with actual zodiac

While the guards are completely awestruck, Happy then sneaks out in ninja mode

Cutting to Doll who’s brushing his dolls hair remembering some of the fire that Natsu made. Sonya then is called by Toma and she feels like this is a personal attack because in the last 10 years, Zash has been a hero.

Doll even vouching for him as the master of his former guild, and that it’s the best guild in the country.

The king however points out that no stories of Zash ever reached this country or any others. Doll takes that as an insult saying that just because Fiore’s mages are known internationally for their exploit doesn’t mean that Stella is any lesser than them.

But Arcadios interjects saying that he literally has never been published in either the news or weekly sorcerer. She might deliberately be hiding his whereabouts. Doll and Sonya are a little shook especially when they’ve had interviewers come down and did see Zash in action. Kama says Zash has mind control, probably used it to help cover his tracks.. Doll say they’ll bring in Zash for questioning.

Cutting to Zash who’s talking to the buyer, Bluenote, and he asks why that artificial army that they ordered hasn’t shown up, especially after all the money they’ve poured in. Zash says that the Quartum army will be finished ahead of schedule, thanks to recently aquiring a sum of dragon slayer magic.

Bluenote says that’s good because his Master has a fondness for lost magic. Zash doesn’t care about their interest just that it keeps up revenue

Coordinator, the developer of armor, and Cannon, developer of firearms, are shocked how well Natsu’s magic is working. Zash ends the call, saying that he has his inside a man looking over Natsu

It cuts to a man in the Stella prison who is smiling making sure to edit the reports of Natsu’s detainment so that they all avoid mentioning Zash. We learn the guard is named Cream and he goes to check on the screaming Natsu who claims this is wrong.

Cream checks on them but while doing so, Happy sneaks into the prison

Natsu and Mash are yelling, about this. Cream walks up to their cell and tells them to shut up. Natsu says that whatever is going on they want to talk to that Zash guy. Cream laughs saying that Zash is the most trusted man in all of Stella next to Doll and Sonya.

Cream uses a little bit of fire magic to shoot Mash in the nose. Natsu tries smashing against Tthe cage yelling at Cream.

Happy arrives, finding the floor that Natsu is on and sees Cream threatening Natsu. Saying that with Zash on their side and the stuff that Natsu did, he’ll most likely get sent to Black Vox mage prison if this is considered an international crime but as a national crime here in Stella he might get executed.

Happy yells out that this is wrong and Cream shoots at Happy. Happy throws a key at Natsu’s cage which Mash grabs and passes it to Natsu to get his bindings off. Cream shoots Mash through the shoulder, and Natsu busts out of prison yelling that he’ll make Cream pay for abusing the people around him

Then it cuts between team FT feeling down and hoping Happy is okay, then cutting to Doll arriving at the guild of Gapri and Zash, demanding to see Zash. Gapri questions why is he even bothering Zash is a hero.

Doll says he wants to talk to Zash because of information coming from Fiore. Gapri is angered by this saying that Fiore’s words are just slandering Zash’s name because they are jealous that Zash is as strong as he is.

Gapri and Doll see that Zash is on the top floor. Zash says he knows why Doll is here, and he’s already taken action. Gapri is shook by this yelling for Zash to explain this, but Zash shows he’s just a thought projection.

Gapri begins to tear up as he gets flashes of Zash becoming the new guild master and filling him with the idea that Gapri needs to care about himself if he wants to be a great me and needs to understand that everybody else is also out for themselves and that you need to know how to survive in a world like that if you wanna ab strong

Gapri cries, gets on his board and super speed’s to the prison saying all this bad stuff happen the second that Natsu showed up.

Natsu beats up Cream, but then sees that Gapri has entered the area. Mash tries to tell Gapri that Natsu isn’t A bad guy but Gapri thanks it’s only natural that to criminals brought in by Zash have bonded.

Natsu and Gapri fight until they are interrupted by Doll. Doll hugs Gapri telling him its over and that the evidence is overwhelming and Zash must be found. All of the FT mages are released, Doll saying that they should stay here, but Erza says they’ll come too.

Doll says it’s a violation, but Erza says that if Zash is a former Fiore mage, then he is their responsibility and regardless of what country they’re all part of the same system so they should work together to clean up this mess.

It cuts to Fiore where the King has Kama go out to Stella with some troops because they used to work with Zash in the magic knight division

The group is using Natsu and Wendy’s noses to locate the mineshaft that the manufacturers are using. Zash is alerted to this and tells Coordinator to shut off the elevator and handle it while he finishes up the Quartum Army

The group of mages are surprised when they enter the first floor of the minds and see that there’s tons of holes in the walls, Coordinator getting on a loud speaker, saying that if they want to make it to the next level will have to get past one of their new items on their manufacturing list.

Out of The holes comes tons of people on boards similar to Gapri’s and everyone tries to push back. Gray notices that there are Lacrima on the bottom of the boards and that they should aim for them.

Lucy uses Sagittarius, Erza flight armor, and Wendy even gives them the vernier to increase speed

They make it to the next floor where they need to deal with a rabid dog that is being controlled. And Lucy test out her new whip on it.

Eventually getting past that Gapri gets anxious and bolts ahead of everybody else. It then shows a smoking Zash who begins to think about how he’ll have to start up all over again after this. Cutting to Kama heading for Stella.

A flashback shows that Zash found The Eclipse Gate inside the Royal Palace. Kama confronted him and Zash revealed his believe in the world that everybody is focused on themselves and he’s just doing the same.

Kama questions how he’ll do that, Zash explaining that in history three things shape everything: intelligence, money, and weaponry. With his knowledge he’ll obtain all that and he’ll be able to survive in this world

Kama and Zash fight, Kama yelling that surviving by condemning everyone else is bull crap, but when it looks like Zash will win, Kama cut Zash underneath his eye blinding his mind control ability. After the fight Kama awoke and learned Zash escaped and Kama was prompted to The captain of the magic knights the flashback ends as Kama sayys he’ll finish everything with Zash.

Coming back to the floors, Gapri is on the third floor, and he doesn’t see anybody but then starts getting hit by something screaming about how his ear hurt.

The rest of the mages find Gapri’s body, and then find out what this floor is there is a super powered sound system releases high blasts of sound magic on this floor. The game is to shut it off before they all die.

Gray makes a set of headphones out of the ice to fight against the sound waves and cuts off the system, giving them to the final floor. Coordinator saying she’ll have to stall them. While Zash boots up the Quatron army

Erza fights Coordinator, while Gapri zooms past them all, with Natsu and the others following behind, but on the way through the tunnel to where the dragon skeleton is being keeped, several guards led by Cannon burst out of the wall and ambush all of the mages.

Doll says he’ll deal with him and Gray takes the smaller guards

Doll’s fight is brutal with Cannon trying destroy his François and Catherine, but Doll always steps in front of each shot at the dolls. He refuses to let his daughters die as he gets shot showing in a flashback a dark mage did battle with him and his guild when he was the master of it and called Marcel, then watched his daughter die from burns. Trying to save them with human possession magic

He admits that he will always protect them as that is the job of the father. Cannon calls him an idiot, but notices the ground cracking above him, Cannon realizes every time Doll shielded his daughters, the dolls fired a beam of magic at the top of the cave that already had holes in it and weakened it to the point it collapsed

Erza eventually defeats Coordinator by revealing the flaw in her “ultimate armor” and that’s the scythe it’s throwing leaves her completely open. Natsu, Wendy, and Lucy run after Gapri.

Gapri sees Zash and demand answers. Gapri feels betrayed after what Zash had done, but Zash mind controls Gapri to kill Natsu and the others.

Lucy and Wendy with the help of Happy and Carla shatter Gapri’s board

Zash also tries to get Erza, but that is stopped by Erza’s artificial eye. When he sees that there are mages of her caliber here and that Gapri’s mind control is wearing off, he activates the Quartums.

Zash escapes while everyone else deals with the Quartums and Natsu goes to take out Zash, who is escaping with a few Quartum samples so that he can sell them to Bluenote and for compensation he’ll use their clout in the underworld to help him jump start his next buisness. He also is seen planting something inside the roof of the shaft.

Natsu confronts Zash and Natsu wants to fight. They fight eventually bring them to the face of the rotted dragon. Natsu is curious about this and Zash says that the Quartrums were made form this. That this land was once covered by invading dragons who sought to the flower humans and now that wrath will be turned into weapons.

Natsu and Zash fight, with Zash’s full blood doped up form activating. Natsu tries to avoid the mind controlled by wrapping and scarf around his eyes. With Zash’s power and Natsu’s handicap it’s going to be tough and eventually the scarf is knocked off.

Before he can mind control Natsu, Gray jumps up behind him and freezes over his eyes. Thus, changing the fight.

Finally, Zash is on the ground but declares his drive to save himself and activates the bomb he was planting to the roof intending to cave in everybody but himself.

Cutting to the Fiore magic knights and Stella knights, they get a report. The mission has gone south with Zash escaping, but Kama says that he may know where Zash is going, remembering the only sample of Zash’s DNA they found was from the cut Kama gave him near a private dockyard.

In the mineshaft everyone escapes with the help of Gray and Lucy

Zash is limping away, as result of using all of his blood doped up form his body is somewhat burnt out. He remembers his first start into becoming an arms dealer after defecting.

Kama finds Zash with The army and before Zash can take control of anybody. He is defeated by Kama.

The arc wraps up with all of the FT mages being thanked and the fact that in this world and they need to stand united. With Natsu saying he was glad this vacation helped him train for the S-Class trials

It cuts to Bluenote who tlls Ultear that a lot of money they just wasted on the Quartum progect, but Ultear says that for their upcoming plan they’ll just have to bring in ll their sub guilds. Bluenote gets a call from Zancrow who says that he finally got his hands on the last “Key”

When the FT mages return home, they are surprised by a new face, Mest Gryder, but people seem to act like they’ve meet him before. Except for Mystogan and Makarov

So yeah this was my other attempt at world building and story writing, hope you like it, any criticism welcomed

[whovian223]

It’s December! The last month of the year, the Christmas (or whatever end-of-year holiday you celebrate) season is upon us, but before we look forward to all of those presents sitting under the tree (or sitting under whatever your end-of-year holiday object is), it’s time to reflect back to a time long ago.

Two days is long, right?

Yes, that’s right. It’s the new to me games played in November! Even with Christmas coming soon, the leader of the Cult of the New to Me has responsibilities to the time before.

There is always an undercurrent of unrest in the cult, especially when I play a lot of brand new games in a month. They think I’m a sellout to the Cult of the New or something like that.

I don’t know where they would get that idea.

But it’s not true!

Hell, I even played a game from 1997 in November.

It was a nice bunch of games, seven in total which is amazing since I actually skipped a week. They were all fun in their own way, but some definitely better than others.

Amazingly enough, for somebody who’s not a big fan of word games, two of the new games are word games! One incredibly fun and one…not so much.

I’m looking forward to a December that’s also chock full of new to me games.

So without further adieu (all of my adieu was eaten by a giant worm anyway), let’s get this thing started!

Terror Below (2019 – Renegade Game Studios) – 1 play

Designer: Mike Elliott

Artist: Eric Hibbeler

Players: 1-5

I have never seen the movie Tremors, but everything I’ve heard about it (and everything I’ve heard about this game) makes it sound like Terror Below is basically a game of the movie but they didn’t get the rights to the movie so they couldn’t use any of the names or anything.

Since I’ve never seen it, I can’t comment on that similarity, but I can comment on the game itself.

Government experiments (because it’s always the government, am I right?) have created a huge pack of giant worms worming (ha! see what I did there?) their way through the Nevada desert, periodically coming to the surface to attack and lay eggs (because nothing gets a worm hotter than attacking a bunch of humans, I guess?).

(Is that enough parentheses for you?) (Is this?)

We’re playing on an egg. That’s so meta!!!

The players are trying to collect the eggs and deliver them to various locations on the map for points. Perhaps that location is looking for that type of egg? In that case, you get a bunch of points.

I love good old George…

Each player is dealt three character cards and chooses one to be the leader. That character’s special ability is active as long as they’re alive. If they die in a worm attack, choose one of the other characters and that becomes your leader.

If you lose all three leaders, you’re out of the game, but that’s not a total tragedy. You won’t be sitting there watching other people play the game for three hours like some games.

No, if a player loses all three characters, then all other players get one more turn and then you count up the victory points. Whoever has the most wins.

Otherwise, as soon as somebody reaches 20 victory points, the game ends immediately and they win!

There are a bunch of cards in the games: items, weapons, worms, bounties, and vehicles.

This isn’t the official start setup, but a cheap facsimile.

The four initial worms attack, leaving eggs and rubble in their wake. Then, depending on player count, draw 1-3 more worms and resolve their attacks as well.

Then three more worms are drawn and these are the ones that will attack later. A target marker is placed in each of their starting coordinates (the red and blue number in the top right corner).

At this point, there should be a lot of eggs and rubble around.

Once players choose their starting locations, players can start taking their turns. A player places a vehicle card underneath one of the worms.

Big wheels rollin’, big wheels rollin’, movin’ on…

The arrows at the bottom of the card are “distractions.” You move the target on the board following the arrows. You then take your actions, using the number in the top left as the number of action points you can use that turn.

Actions can be moving a space, collecting rubble from an adjacent space (collect 3 rubble and get an item or weapon card immediately), “ramping” over another player that’s in your way (basically moving 2 spaces for 1 point), delivering an egg if you’re at a location, or picking up an egg from your current space.

If you pick up an egg, that ends your action phase. No picking up multiple eggs!

Finally, you resolve any special abilities on the card itself.

Each worm has a card capacity on it. Once the number of cards played beneath it equals its capacity, it attacks! Spray rubble and lay eggs according to the pattern on the card.

If any player(s) is in the attack zone, they have to defeat the worm or die. Players can use multiple weapons and item cards as necessary from their hand. If multiple players are in the zone, they can combine forces to try and kill it.

If they don’t kill it, then the leader dies. Time to choose one of your other characters!

There will always be four bounties available to satisfy. These can vary between delivering a certain type of egg to a certain location or perhaps killing a certain kind of worm. If you don’t have a bounty when you kill a worm or deliver an egg (So this is basically a pickup or kill and deliver game?), then you get a VP (and a bonus for delivering the egg depending on what location you deliver it to).

If you satisfy one of the bounties, though, you get that number of points instead.

As mentioned above, first player to 20 VP wins! Or if somebody is totally eliminated, then do one more round and count up who has the most. It could be the dead one!

Terror Below looks like it could be a raucous good time, but I wouldn’t know quite yet. My only play of it so far, and it was not by choice (some people didn’t show up to game day), was at 2 players and I have to say that the 2-player variant is really not fun at all.

In between each player’s turn in the variant, you draw a vehicle card from the deck and roll a die to see which worm it goes to.

If it just happens to reach that worm’s capacity, it attacks! If you happen to be in harm’s way, too bad. You can’t do anything to mitigate it like you could if it was your turn (and if it was your opponent’s turn, then that just means they took their opportunity to beat on you).

There’s a bunch of randomness in the game anyway, depending on what weapons you have in your hand. Adding even more randomness to the game just makes it worse.

The board is a fun egg shape which adds to the theme. The special abilities of the characters are pretty cool too.

I like the art style of the game, and I would really love to play it at 3-5 players, but at 2 players, I have no interest in trying it again.

Res Arcana (2019 – Sand Castle Games) – 1 play

Designer: Tom Lehmann

Artist: Julian Delval

Players: 2-4

Res Arcana is an interesting engine-building card game along similar lines to Lehmann’s famous Race for the Galaxy, but with some very cool twists.

Essentially, the mages (players) are vying for control of Places of Power, for it’s pretty hard to win without gaining at least one if not more of them.

How do you get these? By playing cards on your turn that will give you the proper resources for them.

The game begins with the players drafting their deck (or you can just start with 8 of them dealt to you, but where’s the fun in that?)

Your deck will consist of 8 cards, and you will start with 3 in your hand.

These artifacts can be creatures (like these illustrious dragons) or various other magical artifacts that will let you do things, produce resources, or tap turn (sorry, Wizards of the Coast!) to convert resources into other resources.

I’m scared but yet weirdly attracted…

Each player is a Mage who has a specific power that will let you do various things. The Necromancer above produces one “Death” at the beginning of the game, and lets you spend two “Life” to put 3 “Death” on the card for next round. Thus, if you do it right, you can gain 4 “Death” each round.

On your turn, you can do an action from among a few different options: Place an artifact from your hand (if you have the resources available), claim a monument of Place of Power, discard a card to get 1 Gold or any 2 other essences (both Gold and essences I’m just calling “resources”), use a power from one of your monuments/artifacts/mage, or pass.

Passing ends your round. You collect a new Magic Item and draw 1 card to your hand.

The other player(s) can keep doing their actions until they have to pass as well.

At the end of the round when everybody’s passed, check to see if anybody has 10 VP. If not, continue. If so, see who has the most points and declare the winner!

Some of the more expensive artifacts have a victory point or two on them. The Places of Power have victory points and then they get you more if you have certain other things (the Cursed Forge gives you a victory point for each Gold placed on the card).

Damned sun!!!!

Monuments also have their own victory points. Some have great victory point totals and no abilities, some have great abilities but low points, etc.

I only played this 2-player, but I can see how it would be even better with more players involved.

I really enjoyed the combinations of the cards (this is why drafting is so important, I think) and how everything can work together if you do it right.

It can also be unpredictable, which I love!

Remember how I said above that you check whether the game ends at the end of the round? So you could reach 10 points but then before the round ends, one of your opponents could move ahead of you if they’ve built their engine well. They’d end up winning.

I had claimed the Sorcerer’s Bestiary (pictured above) and had a couple of creatures and a dragon in front of me. That got me 4 more points, putting me at 11. My opponent had a healthy engine going and would easily get 12+ points by the end of the turn.

But the ability of the Sorcerer’s Bestiary is to check victory immediately.

Guess what? I had 11 points to his 5, I win!

Totally stunned my opponent. “I was not expecting that,” he said.

I really would like to try this again with more players, but this is definitely a game I will enjoy every time it comes to the table.

Letter Jam (2019 – Czech Games Edition) – 1 play

Designer: Ondra Skoupý

Artists: Dávid Jablonovský, František Sedláček, Lukáš Vodička, Michaela Zaoralová

Players: 2-6

Letter Jam is a cooperative word game where you are trying to guess the word that you have face-down in front of you, one letter at a time.

The letter cards are dealt out to everybody (divide the deck roughly evenly), and then each person chooses a 5 letter word made up from those letters, discarding the rest face down.

They then shuffle the letters up and pass them to the player on their right.

Now its the other player’s word to figure out.

You have the 5 letter cards face-down in front of you, and you then stand the first letter up so that everybody but you can see it.

This is obviously after the player figured out the first two letter cards

Then everybody tries to come up with a word using the letters they can see as well as perhaps a “wild” letter.

So somebody might say “I can make a 6-letter word using player letters and the wild” or something like that.

The wild can be any letter, but it must be the same letter if it’s used twice.

Once everybody agrees to let somebody give their word as a clue, the person lays out tokens in front of each person in the order that letter is in the word. So if it was “eschew” with the “h” being the wild letter because nobody actually had that letter in front of them, they would put the #1 token and #5 token in front of the person who has an “e”, the #2 in front of the person with the “s”, #3 token in front of the person with the “c”, etc.

Players then use those tokens to try to figure out what word that person was trying to convey. This will potentially give the players an idea of what their letter is.

If your letter was “C”, then you would essentially have the following information regarding the clue given: es?#ew. (The “?” is your letter while the “#” is the wild)

Would you guess that your letter is C?

If so, then you can put your displayed letter down and then bring up your next one.

There are a certain number of clues available before the game ends.

There are different patterns for each number of players

When you give a clue, you take a red clue token. Or, if you have already given a clue during the game, you take a green token. Nobody can take the green center token until all of the red ones around it are taken.

Once all the clues are gone, it’s time to try and guess your word. You look at your guessing sheet, where you should have been writing down what you think each of your letters is, and try to spell a word from what you have.

Keeping the cards facedown, rearrange the cards in front of you to spell that word (remember, you should know what order the letters are in if you deduced correctly).

If you’re not sure of a letter, you can use the wildcard instead (or some bonus letters that might have come out). But only one person can use each card, so that’s not an option for everybody.

If you end up spelling an English word that everybody knows, and everybody else does too, then you all win! If not, you all lose.

Kind of.

I guess.

I really don’t get this game, at least the ending of it.

Here’s the quote from the rulebook for the game end:

“You don’t have to spell the word you were given. If you were given HORSE, you can spell SHORE. You can use a bonus E to spell SHEER or even HEROES. Your goal is just a correctly spelled English word whose meaning you know without looking it up. And it counts even if you thought you were spelling something else.

If more or less everyone has spelled a word, then you have all more or less won.”

What does that even mean?

I get it. It’s a party game, so the goal is to have fun, not necessarily win.

I don’t even know if we won our game. I think I might have spelled a word after revealing my letters?

I’m not really sure.

All of my friends are raving about this game and I just don’t understand it.

It’s not bad, and I’m sure it makes sense to some people.

But for me, I think I’d rather be doing something else.

DOG (1997) – 1 play

Designer: Uncredited

Artists: Dennis Lohausen, Renate Matthews, Markus Zuber

Players: 2-6

Dog is a weird little game, almost like Sorry but for gamers to enjoy.

Not that Dog isn’t full of luck either, but it’s a mitigated a bit because movement is based on the play of cards rather than a Pop-o-Matic die.

Green hasn’t put all of their pieces down yet. They’re cheating!

The game is also played in teams, ideally with six players. There could be two teams of three (which is usually a bit shorter) or three teams of two.

Each player is trying to get all of their pieces from their at start areas (shown above) to the home base. They have to travel all around the board, unless you happen to have a card that lets you move backwards right after you leave the starting area.

How do you do that without a die?

That’s where the cards come in.

That switch card looks so happy!!!!!

Cards are numbered 1-13 along with a “switch” card that lets you switch with another player’s pawn and a “?” card that lets you mimic any card in the deck.

Cards 1/11 and 13 also allow you to move one of your pawns in the starting area to the first space outside (FREEDOM!!!!!).

The 4 & 7 cards are also special. The 4 card lets you move backwards 4 spaces if you wish. The 7 card consists of 7 individual moves. This means you can split the moves between different pieces if you wish. Or you can use it to knock somebody else’s piece back to the start.

How do you do that?

When you land exactly on another player’s piece and it’s not currently sitting in a space of its own colour (like the entry to the starting area), you send them back to start. You also can’t move past them (even your own piece) if they are in a space of their own colour, so that can be an effective blocking technique.

You can’t move anybody else’s pieces except your own, unless you manage to get all of your pieces to the finish. When you do that, then you can play cards for your teammates instead.

Once an entire team’s pieces are at home, they win!

Dog can be a fun diversion, but it goes on a little too long for how light it feels and it’s still way too luck-driven. It’s not as bad as a die, but you are still being dealt cards that you then have to play.

Each round consists of a diminishing amount of cards (start at 6 cards, play them all, then 5 cards, play them all, etc until you get down to 2 when you then start over at 6). If you literally cannot play a card, you are out of the round.

One player in our game had that happen the first two rounds. He received no starting cards. At the beginning of each round, you pass one card to the teammate on your left and even then he didn’t get any.

His team still won, so I guess that means it doesn’t really matter?

All of that is fine if it’s a quick game, but our game took almost an hour.

It’s not a horrible game, and it is from 1997 so maybe that mitigates it some.

Still, not something I would choose to play that often.

Watergate (2019 – Capstone Games, Frosted Games) – 2 plays

Designer: Matthias Cramer

Artists: Klemens Franz, Alfred Viktor Schulz

Players: 2

The Watergate scandal was a huge political upheaval in the United States in the early 1973-74 and it’s only fitting that a game is made about it. From a German designer, too!

Watergate is a 2-player card-driven game where Richard Nixon faces off against the Washington Post editors in a cat and mouse game. The Post Editors are trying to connect evidence from two informers to Nixon at the center of the web.

I love this board. It is amazing.

Nixon is just trying to outlast the Editors and save his political life.

I’m not going to do a huge blow-by-blow account of how to play the game since I’ll be doing the same thing in my upcoming review sometime in December, but here are the basics.

Each player has their own deck of cards that they will be playing throughout the game. The Editors’ deck has the informants that will allow them to be put on the board face-up. The Nixon deck has the informants that will allow them to be put on the board face-down and useless to the Editors.

Other cards in the decks are conspirators (Nixon) and journalists (Editors) that let them do things, and also events that can happen and greatly affect the board.

Each card, in addition to having an event or an effect, has the ability to move evidence, momentum, or initiative tokens on the research track along the side of the board.

During the round, the player with initiative will have 5 cards in their hand while the other player has 4. The initiative player will go first (and last) in the round, giving them a big advantage.

What are the players fighting for? Each round will have the initiative token, a momentum token, and three evidence tokens will be pulled back and forth in a vicious tug-of-war until one side wins each one (or maybe not, as they could end up in the middle).

Nixon wins the game as soon as he has won 5 momentum tokens.

How do the Editors win?

Each piece of evidence that is won by the Editors can be placed out on the board in a space with the same colour (multi-colour pieces can be put on either colour). If Nixon wins the piece of evidence, he can put that evidence face-down using the same rules. This will block access.

Once two informers have been linked by a chain of evidence to Nixon in the middle of the board, the Editors win!

I’ve played this twice now and it is simply a phenomenal game. I love the push and pull aspect of the game. You can’t concentrate on one thing or the other player may run away with their own goal.

And anybody can win! You can see the board above, the Nixon player won a lot of evidence! But there was just one path remaining for me and I managed to make the connection anyway.

It’s a tense game that I will gladly play a lot.

(Keep an eye out for the review coming in a week or two)

The City (2011 – Eagle-Gryphon Games) – 1 play

Designer: Tom Lehmann

Artists: Klemens Franz, João Tereso

Players: 2-5

The City is a 2011 game from Tom Lehmann that just came out in English this year in a Kickstarter edition that a friend of mine had bought (I completely missed it or I might have gone after it too).

This is a quick little engine-building card game with some similarities to Lehmann’s Race for the Galaxy except that in this game you’re going to have “income” and there are no phases that you or other players are choosing.

Apologies for the glare. I took them quickly as we were playing and it’s not my game so I can’t get new ones!

Instead, you are dealt a hand of 7 building cards. Each card has a cost in the top left corner that says how many cards you have to discard in order to place the card in your city.

In the bottom left is the number of points it will give you each turn and how much “income” (card draw) you get from that card.

Each card in your city will (hopefully, if you do it right) combo together into huge points at some point (but first it’s good to build card income).

Argh! That’s a shopping cart obscured by glare on the Mall

A lot of them will give you points per something else in your city. Thus, the Mall will give you 2 cards in your income phase because there are 2 cart symbols.

You really have to start generating card draw so you can play some of the more expensive cards that will rack up big points.

Ack! The Emporium gets you 2 cards per something (not sure what), but gets you 1 point per shopping cart. And it has 3 carts by itself!

It’s imperative that you switch from drawing to points at some point though. I switched a turn too late and ended up losing (though I had a pretty good score).

That’s all this game is. Play a card to your city, add up your score, then draw your cards.

As soon as somebody hits 50 VP, then whoever has the most points wins!

This was a really satisfying filler game. It’s quick, it’s easy to teach, it’s a bit tactical in that you have to deal with the cards that you draw. The more cards you have, the easier it is to plan, so get that income up!

That’s a 45-point city! Sadly, that was not enough.

You’ll finally have a city like this, and it’s beautiful.

It seems like it starts really slowly, maybe getting a point on your first turn, maybe three points on your second. But it ramps up so quickly that it will only last 7-8 rounds.

We played it while we were waiting for others to show up to our game day, and it is a fabulous way to do that. Or something to play as the game day is winding down.

I highly recommend The City and I would love to play it again.

Werewords Deluxe (2018 – Bezier Games) – 4 plays

Designer: Ted Alspach

Artists: Jason Boles, Roland MacDonald

Players: 2-20

Wow. 2-20 players? Yep, Werewords Deluxe is the ultimate party game. We counted a good party if it had 10 people there.

This is another word game, but I like it so much better than Letter Jam because the goal is clear cut from the beginning.

One player (or two if you have a huge number of people) is a werewolf who doesn’t want people to guess the word.

Let’s start at the beginning, though.

Much like the various Werewolf incarnations, players are going to be one of several different characters (the base game only has Werewolves, Mayor, Seer and plain Villagers while the deluxe version has a bunch more).

One or two are going to be a secret werewolf while the rest are villagers of various types who want to kill the werewolf.

In Werewords Deluxe, you play out these roles while trying to figure out the Mayor’s secret word. Once the Mayor has chosen the word, the Seer gets to see it and then the Werewolf gets to see it. (Some of the other deluxe characters may get to see it too).

Then a game of 20+ questions is played, with each player other than the Mayor asking a Yes/No question.

“Is it a place?” “Is it a mammal?” “Is it Justin Bieber?” (Editor- I see you there, going for blog hits)

The Mayor can’t talk, but gives “Correct/Incorrect” chips out to players as they guess.

Even the Werewolf and Seer are asking questions.

If the villagers guess the word (it can be words, like “trailer park” above), then they win!

Maybe.

The Werewolf now has 1 minute to decide and/or guess who the Seer is. If they guess right, then they win!

If the villagers don’t guess the word, they get to vote on who the Werewolf is. If the majority votes for the true Werewolf, then the Villagers win. Otherwise, the Werewolf wins.

Thus, it’s on the Werewolf and Seer not to act too obvious when they are asking questions. If the question “Is it usually in the kitchen?” has already been asked and deemed correct, the Werewolf better not ask “Is it a sofa?”

However, if the Seer’s first question is “Is it Toy Story?” and of course it is Toy Story, then I think the Werewolf has a pretty easy path to victory.

The app leads you through the game brilliantly, letting you choose how many players are in the game, which roles you’ve decided to use, a number of different libraries of words to choose from. You can set the timer for how long everything is (how long should the word be showing before moving on to the next role? How long should the players have to ask questions? etc)

It’s wonderfully designed. I just wish Eric Summerer was still doing the app, but I guess you can’t have everything.

The narrator’s voice is very dynamic and fun regardless, so it’s not too much of a minus.

We got 4 games of this in during a lunch hour, and that was even with teaching. There was a lot of laughter and everybody had tons of fun.

We even had one game where the Werewolf was also the Mayor. He chose the secret word “stool” and then proceeded to treat it like it was “stool sample,” not “stool.” Totally led us down the wrong path.

Of course, we guessed he was the Werewolf right away once the word was revealed, but hey. It was a blast!

This will be a go-to lunch game whenever we have a full complement of 6 people. It’s a lot of fun.

So there you have it! Seven new games in November, and that was even with me missing a game day. Not sure how that happened.

What new games did you play in November? What do you think of these?

Let me know in the comments.

New to Me #boardgames - November 2019 @czechgames @PlayRenegade @capstonegames @FrostedGames @EagleGryphon @BezierGames It's December! The last month of the year, the Christmas (or whatever end-of-year holiday you celebrate) season is upon us, but before we look forward to all of those presents sitting under the tree (or sitting under whatever your end-of-year holiday object is), it's time to reflect back to a time long ago.

[myvmk]

Halloween Month

Updated October 31st, 2017

When the crypt doors creek and the little bats fly. The witches are brewing and the spiders pass you by. A chill on the neck and ghosts all around. The air stands still and there is no sound. Grim Grinning GHOSTs come out to trick or treat. It's Halloween month on MyVMK! We have lots of creepy things to come your way. So relax and sit back, there's not a moment to delay. Keep checking the newsletter to hear what we have to say! Please note that all releases will happen Saturday at 12am EST. This will be the schedule until further notice.

MyVMK is now playable on for our Mac users! A work around for Mac users has been made into a downloadable client. We have also made MyVMK Pal the official downloadable client of MyVMK. This is not the new client for MyVMK but is a temporary addition. Find out how to download the Mac client by clicking here!

This week in the Golden Horseshoe Mercantile we have some amazing happy haunting treats in store for you! This week we have Halloween Ghost Bag, Halloween Witch Bag, Halloween Cat Bag, Gravity Falls - Candy Bowl Skull, Black Flame Candle, Black Fence, Winifred Top, Winifred Skirt, Sarah Top, Sarah Skirt, Mary Top, and Mary Skirt! Available all month!

Available all month in the Golden Horseshoe Mercantile some things that have been dying to return!

  Come try your luck for this week's Host prize, a Hocus Pocus Gate and the Consolation prize, a Broomstick Chair. Stay in line after the event for a special queue prize, a Evil Candy Chair Red.

  Join the MyVMK Staff for an impromptu game of Hide and Seek! Today the staff will be hosting two Hide and Seek games and hiding in public rooms only. Games will be announced as an in-game announcement and on our Twitter (@MyVMK) 15 minutes before the game begins. To win, you must walk up to a staff member that is hidden and say the following statement exactly: "Trick or treat (StaffMemberName)!". Make sure to use the correct prefix (BOO_/GHOST_/EEK_). If you win, you will have the chance to choose one of the three exclusive pins seen above. You are allowed to win only two times per hide and seek event. The staff will not hide in rooms where players are already sitting. Do not "camp out"! This will ensure everyone has a fair chance at finding the staff members. Good luck out there, seekers!

The Evil Queen has cooked up her best batch of apples yet. Creep on over to Trick-or-Trades for a chance to get some of the sweetest treats that she has to offer in our Halloween Candy Shop! We do not accept Free, NPC, or 1 Credit Pins!

Pull this month's exclusive pins from the Sword in the Stone! For a chance to win, ride the rides in the Fantasyland Courtyard and you will have a chance at getting a Sword in the Stone pin! You can use this pin to have a chance at pulling the sword from the stone, and if you succeed, you will win one of these pins as a prize or some credits!

Avast there mateys! Sail on over to the Pirates Treasure room for a chance to plunder some great loot! Collect them all or ye will be sent to Davey Jones Locker! Available all month!

The votes are in and we are really proud to anounce our 2017 Haunted House Compeition Winners!!

Best Overall Winner! Thorn

As dusk approaches, Master Gracy has invited all 999 Happy Haunts to materialize for your arrival! We'd like to open our doors to all of you as we welcome you to your own, personal Swinging Wake.

Best Overall Runner-Up! harleyquinn

Welcome to Red Queen's castle, where she keeps the remains of her victims once they lose their heads. Don't upset the queen or you'll end up here like the rest of them!

McLovin

Once the sun sets down the kids all run to the streets in hope of getting buckets full of candy. Will they get treats or tricked?

Bernardo_S_Rocks

Dare to enter? A cool shudder trickles down your spine. The grounds have been inhabited by the spirits of the deceased. Would you make it out alive or become one of them?

Angelo

Many people choose to not set foot upon 29 Neibolt Street. It may look abandoned, but Pennywise the Clown is watching you from inside. Missing children float within the sewers of the house. Turn away now, or you'll float too.

Dean

Ghostly Lane only appears for 1 night each year in this small town. No one knows how it gets there or who lives in these spooky estates. Do you dare knock on 1 of these doors for a treat?? Don't get tricked!

Best Theme Winner! Joela

In this town lies a mansion no human has ever seen. The ghosts that haunt it scare the trick-or-treaters away, in hope that they will be able to stay. "Everybody make a scene!" they chant. "This is our town of halloween!"

Best Theme Runner-Up! Ern

Spooky.

Confidential

Cut off from the outside world, you wander along a path that leads you to a seemingly abandoned mansion. Along side this giant is an old cemetary. You see a fresh grave... WAIT! Is that your name carved into it?!

scrubu

It was all fun and games until your ball rolled into the yard of the mansion across the street. Your parents had warned you about this place. You and your friends venture in but what could lurk beyond the steel gates?

Angie

Mansion of Lost and Found: Dare enter the mansion if you choose to seek ghosts and other creatures that creep. If you do, best be aware that you are in for a scare. Entering would put your life at risk, but it's nothing next Halloween can't fix.

Fotogirl

Climb up on the hay wagon and get ready for a heart pounding ride thru the spookiest property in MyVMK. Your journey will take you through the old cemetary and past the scary entrance to the most haunted house around these parts.

Most Creative Winner! MagicAvinash

You unfortunate soul! You have entered the ruins of what used to be the manor of a very powerful wizard. What remains is a magic orb that wields infinite power. All who have tried to capture it have been unsuccessful. Do you have what it takes?

Most Creative Runner-Up! Ken

Step into the Creature's haunted lagoon lair and feel the power of radiation take hold. Be careful where you step... you wouldn't want to end up as the Creature's lunch!

Cowboy_Pirate

N/A

kcoop

Welcome to Grimsly Manor. You are just in time for our Spooktacular Ball. All of our ghosts have been dying to meet you. Costumes are required.

GypsyRose

Hansel and Gretel trek across the haunted forest in search of the infamous candy cottage. As they finally approach they realize all is not what it appears to be. Evil lurks behind these sweet walls. They proceed with caution! >:)

Lily

Welcome to the Vampire Manor. You are one of our guests of honor. Or should I say meal of honor. The hedge maze is the only way of escape... But no one has ever seem to make it through. Some are still trying while others died inside those walls...

These are the Prizes for the 2017 Haunted House Competition

Winner Prize: Haunted House Comp Winner Pin Two Magic - Dancing Inferno Soulless Mickey Witch Hat Purple Room Pin - Halloween Refreshment Corner

Runner-Up Prize: Haunted House Comp Runner-Up Pin One Magic - Dancing Inferno Soulless Mickey Witch Hat Orange Room Pin - Halloween Refreshment Corner

Participation Prize: Haunted House Comp Participation Pin Mickey Witch Hat Green Room Pin - Halloween Refreshment Corner

Go and check out the Design a Pumpkin Contest 2017 on our official forums and enter for a chance to win an awesome forums exclusive medal and an forums exclusive in-game prize! You can find out more be clicking here! Good luck everyone!

  Create a Great Guest Room! Get Recognized!

Player created Guest or Game Rooms demonstrate originality in concept and design. Our judges are looking for creativity, so try using traditional items in different and unique ways. Rooms are judged randomly by MyVMK Staff every month and selected from player rooms.

October Best Guest Room

Join Enchanted in “Fantasyland Hangout With Rides”! Where ppl can talk 2 friends or take a ride on 1 of the 3 rides in Fantasyland. Mad Hatter Tea Cup Ride / If you want More of a ride try The Pan Ride/ Or try the Alice Ride, But Watchout for the Sneaky Rabbit Pink Hugs VMK<3<3<3 Congratulations!</p>

The Best Guest Room Winner receives: - 10,000 credits - A Castle Suite Guest Room Pin - plus furniture! - Best Guest Room Award Pin - Plus! A party in Club 33!

    Create a Great Game Room! Get Recognized!

Create a game room and play with friends and others, and a MyVMK staff member may notice your idea! Game rooms that get the nod offer a new game idea or a new twist on an old favorite. In all rooms we look for room owners who welcome everyone with a smile and show a willingness to answer questions about their room.

October Best Game Room

Check out “Shadows in the Mansion” by Ebenezer. The La Bouff mansion is under attack from the evil spirits of the shadow man! When I say Go two players will spin the gens in the middle. The number spun will activate traps for the spirits. Left player needs a 1, 2 & 3 to win, Right player needs 4, 5 & 6! Congratulations!

The Best Game Room Winner receives: - 10,000 credits - A Castle Suite Guest Room Pin - plus furniture! - Best Game Room Award Pin - Plus! A party in Club 33!

This could be you! Find out the details on entering for Best Guest Room and Best Game Room by clicking here!

Ever wanted to know more about your favorite staff member? Now you can! Every month we will be interviewing a different member of the MyVMK Staff. Here is the most recent interview!

She's not a glitch.. She just has pixlexia okay? Start your engines for this month's Staff member of the Month VMK_Schweetz!

What is your favorite thing to do around the Kingdom?

My favorite thing to do is walk down the middle of Main Street both during the holidays to see the beautiful decorations and just normally. It makes me feel like I am actually there!

What is the best item for building your rooms?

This is tricky. Am I allowed to say glitched pixels? I use those a lot. I keep like, one-hundred of them in my inventory at all times so I don't run out, and I do run out of them rather quickly.

What has been your favorite game to host thus far?

Oh gosh. I think my favorite would have to be Dreams Month. It was so much fun when all the HOSTs and Moderators went around spreading joy to the MyVMK Community while somehow in the process bringing us all together.

What is your favorite mini-game in MyVMK?

Haunted Mansion. Who doesn't like catching some ghosts while pretending to be a ghost buster?

What is your favorite type of Guest Room?

The Beauty and the Beast Ballroom! It's so pretty and the music that plays when you enter it is just so perfect! <3</p>

Favorite MyVMK memory?

The first time I met Amy! It was during dreams month. She literally trolled me in front of some people in the Esplanade. It was absolutely hilarious and I will never forget it. I still laugh at it now!

What is your favorite Public Room in the Kingdom?

This is a tough question because I have so many. Sci-Fi Dine-In, Castle Forecourt, Fantasyland In The Sky; it's just so hard to choose!

What is your favorite theme on VMK?

Anything Christmas related. I just love Christmas so much. It's the time of the year that brings family and friends together and I think that's a magical thing.

What is your favorite Disney park?

The Magic Kingdom! It's so magical just walking around the park and seeing all of Walt Disney's creations.

Who is your favorite Disney Character?

I have like, three. That would be Lucky from 101 Dalmatians, Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and Vanellope Von Schweetz for obvious reasons! Lucky was my first ever favorite Disney character and will always have a special place in my heart.

Is there any advice you would give to players?

Be respectful to others and treat people the way you would want to be treated. You never know what could be happening in another person's life behind that screen.

[khrow-shinku]

The Great War S6

D&D 5e Campaign

The Great War

Session 6

The party wakes up and heads down to eat breakfast. Ara notices a hot redhead in the tavern and walks over to flirt with her, the redhead responds saying that her name is Ursala and winks back at her. Tinkerman and JJJ are at a table discussing a diagram for a new weapon while eating. Ursala then walks over to the rest of the party and tells them that Lord Alfonse Le Darc has requested their presence at the castle and informs them that the queen is away at a summit meeting between the leaders of the different nations and empires and then takes her leave. The party just looks at each other knowing exactly what this means. Somehow he already knows that they know. They quickly shove down the last bits of their food and run to the castle.

Once at the castle they are greeted by Alfonse and his army of trolls and other nasty creatures. As some of the party begins to ready their weapons and take aim at the army of monsters, Ara is quick to rise before everyone else and asks Alfonse, “What’s the meaning of this?” Like every idiot villain who thinks they have already won he arrogantly begins giving his speech about their evil plans. “Well it’s quite simple really. We want to destroy the world. We want to destroy all existence. We want there to be nothingness.” It was at this time one of his goons walked over and smacked him and the head and told him to shut up.He then turned and killed him for smacking him. (Holy crap DM a bit cliche much? What with the whole arrogant villain just divulging his whole plan for the entire party. I mean sure the hugest set of tits he has even seen asked him to but..  Come on! Pfft, Who am I kidding I would have too for a chick that damn hot so long as she was down to cuddle afterwards.) The rest of the party starts taking shots at the army trying to whittle down their numbers then Ara asks another question, one she will later wish she hadn’t. Ara bluntly asks “Who are you working for?” He looks straight at Ara and says, “Your brother.” and one of his goons walks  up to him and smacks him in the back of the head again and says; “Seriously stop telling them everything,” only to also get killed by him. Ara in disbelief yells “Bullshit!” then racks her brain for a moment, “I was an only child… my parents… my parents would have told me if I had a brother. They wouldn’t lie to me or hide something like that from me!” Enraged by his implications that her parents had been hiding something from her, her whole life, scared that he could be telling the truth, scared the two people she had trusted the most in her whole life had been lying to her, that fear turned into even more anger, heat pours off of her entire body as she spews fire from her mouth killing the first row of enemies. Everything within five feet of her starts bending, warping, and melting. (Holy shit DM what a dick move to do to the character. The only people she thought she could count on as being pure, she now has doubts about them and now everything in her life is being brought into question. Great writing and plot twist though so I totally approve.) During this the party keeps attacking the army slowly chipping away at their numbers. Rin and Ara both keep asking Alfonse to name the person he is working for, they want a name. Sadly though he refuses and before they can convince him to give in and surrender a name, he dies from their attacks.

After the battle is over a hooded figure shows up and throws a dagger at the party, only he wasn’t aiming for them instead it hits the wall and pinned to it is a note that says “We are watching.” Before the party can ask the hooded figure any questions he is gone in a puff of smoke. After this the group begins discussing the fastest way to get to the summit meeting, Tinkerman then chimes in and says he knows of a faster way to get there but he isn’t sure if it is still working. The party agrees it's worth a shot if it can get them there in time. Tinkerman leads them to a train beneath the capital and luckily it still works and the party boards it and is on their way. After everyone is seated on the train, Tinkerman hands out maps to the town they are heading and hands Ara the music box she requested and eleven total cylinders to record music on and play the songs back. He then mentions that that flying thing she tried earlier, he noticed it didn’t go exactly as she had planned and asks her about an idea for a glider suit or cloak to assist her so that it goes a little better. He then asks her to stand up so that he can take her measurements. As Tinkerman begins to touch Ara all over and fondle her to get measurements Ara just continues on with her discussion with Rin paying no mind to Tinkerman spreading, moving, and shifting things to get measurements. Ara looks at Rin and says “I know you have questions and I wish I had answers.” Rin replied “Yeah this whole brother business, what's up with that? Have you been hiding more from me?” Ara answered, “I don’t really have any answers. As far as I know I am an only child. My parents never mentioned a brother Or any child rather it be before or after I was born. My parents were good honest people. I can’t begin to believe that they would ever actually lie about that or hide it from me. However it is true that it is always possible they did even if I don’t want to believe it.” Rin could tell that Ara was being sincere  and suggested that she look into her family records, maybe there is something there. Ara remembered looking before because she was curious about her father’s family but it's always possible she had missed something. Tinkerman then chimes in and asks, “Is it possible you maybe have a half brother that you don’t know about? Perhaps some event that one of your parents wanted to forget?” Ara agrees it is possible, then informs the two, “My mother was always very secretive of the past before my father. I know her family was very religious and evil and worshiped a demon for making them fiend touched. My mother wanting nothing to do with any of it and wanting to be a good normal person ran away and never looked back. The only way I can see my mother having a child from back then is if it is some sort of really dark event that happened and created a child.” Rin and Tinkerman both agree that more research into her past needs to be done, perhaps checking the records where she was born and then checking the records where her mother came from.

Once in town a warforged escorted them to the Inn, from there a female escorted them to the summit meeting. Once there Tinkerman informs the leaders of what the party has learned however a few members of the party notice that one of the leaders doesn’t seem at all surprised by any of the news. Rin though with her keen eyes of a half goddess, saw through the illusion spell that the leader was using and it was really an archnae. Tinkerman gets ready to mention that something seemed off about the person and Rin does everything she can to convey through body language for him to shush and not say anything. Tinkerman notices and doesn’t say anything.  Rin then stands up and takes the floor and makes an announcement, “I myself am also a Queen and would like to join this council. I am the Queen of the empire Lunaria located on the moon of Gaia by the same name. The capital city of my empire is Lunarias. My empire has been cloaked by a spell for years. I was sent down here by my goddess to find out who or what was trying to instigate this war and stop it.” Paul chimes in,”You mean her brother?” and points to Ara. Rin just shoots him a dirty look and then continues, “At first I wasn’t sure why. It seemed odd that my goddess would ask me to meddle into Gaia’s affairs when it has traditionally been our policy to keep to ourselves. However with this new knowledge that I have found out, It has become clear that this is not just a threat of war but a threat of extinction of all life on both Gaia and Lunaria. I can not stand idly by and wait for my people to get destroyed by the actions of someone on Gaia. The time for my empire to remain hidden and apart from Gaia has passed. Now is the time that Lunaria became an active participant in the things to come.” The speaker then hands Rin a list of rules to be a part of the alliance and asks if she agrees to them. Rin reads over them quickly and then responds,” As the queen of Lunaria, I , Aerin Eterna, hereby agree to these rules to become a part of this council.”  Ara’s jaw drops and she says in astonishment, “You’re a queen!? And there are people living on the moon!?” The speaker then closes Ara’s mouth and has the party escorted back to the tavern. It is there that Rin explains to them the reason she had told Tinkerman not to mention anything about the one leader seeming odd with her lack of reaction to the news. She informs the party she was using an illusion spell to disguise herself. She was really a spider demon known as an archnae. JJJ having arachnophobia runs outside real quick puking because he was sitting next to a giant spider and staring at and getting turned on by her spider boobs. After he comes back in and the party discusses their options for a few minutes, the party begins hearing noises outside. Rin and JJJ walk outside to see what the noise is when they are ambushed by a herd of archnae, it would seem as though the queen knew that they knew. They called for the others to come out and help. Battle ensued, with webbing and acid being flung everywhere. After a long battle, the party had beaten back the ambush. Tinkerman searched the bodies to find another cursed gem and then the body went back inside and went to sleep for the night.