#and everyone else is still too stupid to simply destroy one of the ice keys. not even god can help them

[hanayotta]

WHAT ARE YOU DOING. XIANGYI. YOU'RE SPILLING ALL THE WINE. AHHHHH

[dolsfeels]

Take Care - Colby Brock

AN: this isn’t Dolan twins related but enjoy if you want

Warnings: talk of abusive relationship, some cursing

Word count: 1,790

"So what's new?" My friend Colby ask with a large grin. I roll my eyes with a soft smile across my face. "Absolutely nothing. What about you mister LA boy." I tease. This earns a chuckle from him.

He's finally back home in Kansas. He tries to visit fairly often but his line of work keeps him busy I suppose.

"You still with josh?" He ask quickly. All I do is offer a nod as I grab my drink from the barista. My sleeve rides up slightly as I reach for the warm cup.

"What happened to your wrist?" Colby ask quickly. I glance down at my wrist to see the slight bruising. I quickly pull my sleeve down to cover it. 

"I don't know. I think it happened when I was sleeping. You know I toss and turn a lot." I say as convincingly as possible.

Never in a million years would I tell him the truth. He's been my best friend since second grade. He tends to be a little protective of me. So he'd flip his lid if he ever found out josh got a little too heated during one of our recent arguments.

I must've been convincing enough because he drops the subject as we find a seat.

"So what's this I hear about you and sam taking a break?" I ask tentatively. He nods as if he knew I'd ask that question.

"We've recently got into some legal trouble and on top of that we were put into a couple dangerous situations. We thought it'd be best to take a step back before we push our luck a little too much." He answers honestly. I nod. Him and Sam always seemed to do stupid shit.

He watches me closely as I take a sip of my hot coffee. It's a little chilly outside so the warm drink feels nice.

Our silence is interrupted by my phone ringing. "Don't worry about it." Colby says quickly but I ignore him as I take a glance at the text from josh.

Josh: where are you?

Me: I just grabbed some coffee with a friend

Josh: why don't you come over so we can talk

The last text makes my eyebrows furrow. What could there be to possibly talk about.

"Josh?" Colby ask as he looks down at his drink. He swallows hard as I sigh. "Let me guess. You gotta go." He says with pure disappointment.

"I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you I promise. You're still here for a couple of weeks." I ramble as I kiss him on the cheek in a friendly apologetic way.

"Text me later." He says sternly. "Yeah yeah." I say as I swing the door to the coffee shop open.

I shove my hands in my pockets as I make my way to my car. What could he want to talk about? He's so unpredictable these days. He never used to be that way.

I drive way faster than I should but I don't care. The anticipation is eating at me.

As soon as I get to our apartment I get this weird feeling. Something tells me this isn't going to be good and I should just leave but I shake it off.

As soon as I step into the apartment he's in front of me ready to talk.

"What friend were you out with?" He ask sternly.

"Colby." I say honestly. He knows about Colby. We've been best friends since second grade. There should be nothing to worry about.

"Why the fuck were you with him?" He ask raising his voice a little. This threw me off guard.

"He's been my friend for years!" I say, matching his volume.

"You shouldn't be out with other guys. Especially him. He totally has a thing for you." He says getting closer, waving his finger in my face.

"Oh fuck off." I roll my eyes at his stupidity.

My judgement is knocked loose when I feel a sharp sting on my cheek. It brings tears to my eyes instantly.

I grab my cheek as I look at him. There was not an ounce of remorse on his face and that saddened me even worse. This isn't the person I fell for. This past month has been a living hell.

I pick my keys back up from our small table and swing the door open without a second thought. He follows me out into the hallway.

"Where do you think you're going?" He ask as he grabs my wrist. Just like last time he's all too forceful. At this point the tears are falling freely down my face.

"Stop." I say as forcefully as I can but it all just sounds pathetic. His grip hurts so bad.

I do all I can think of and bring my knee straight into his groin. This without a doubt sets me free so I quickly put some distance between us as I make my way to the elevator.

I pull out my phone and call the one person I trust the most, Colby.

The elevators quiet but my breathing is so loud. My sobs catch on my breath every once in a while.

"Hello?" He says with curiosity. "Colby can I come over?" I ask with a wavering voice. He can tell I'm crying because he instantly gets ten times more serious.

"Yes of course. I'll come get you alright. I don't want you driving right now." He says as I hear him rustling around.

"Colby he's still here." I say with a soft voice as I reach the parking garage.

"Get in your car, move to another area in the parking garage,and lock your doors. Don't unlock them until you see me ok?"

"Yeah ok. I can do that." I sniffle.

"I'll be there as soon as possible alright." He says sympathetically. With that he ends the call.

I do exactly what he said to do and I just wait. I cry practically the whole time and I feel stupid for it. It makes me feel weak.

How can one person destroy my confidence like this?

It seems like forever before Colby comes to get me. It was about 45 minutes and he scares me when he taps on my window.

I unlock the door and he helps me out. "Come on. Let's get you to bed yeah?" He says softly as I grab his hand. I just nod.

As we get to his car he swings the passenger door open for me and I glance at his hands to see his knuckles are a little busted up. "Are you okay?" I ask with furrowed eyebrows.

"Don't worry about me right now." He says as he closes the car door behind me. I fasten myself in and he's quick to take off.

"Thank you Colby." I say sincerely as we make our way to his house. He just flashes me a soft smile. I'm sure he'll have me talk as soon as we get to his house.

Once we get to his house I'm almost as quick to get out of the car as he is. "Are you hungry. I can get you something." He gushes.

"No I'm fine. Thank you though." I answer as he leads me to his room I'm all too familiar with.

I sit on the edge of his bed as he squats in front of me so we're eye level. His thumb is soft against my cheek but it's tinder and he can see my discomfort.

"I'll get you some ice okay? Is there anywhere else?" He ask. I don't say anything I just lift my sleeve to show him my purple wrist and lower forearm. "Jesus. I'll be right back. Go ahead and grab something comfortable to change into. Anything's fine. The closet is yours sweetheart." He says with a soft smile. The small name makes me smile too.

As he leaves I jump up to search for one of his shirts. I pick a simple black one and begin to take all of my stuff off. I'm very mindful of my wrist when it comes to my jacket.

Colby comes back just as his shirt sits in middle of my thighs. He smiles at me.

"What?" I chuckle. "Nothing. I like it." He says simply. This makes my cheeks heat up slightly.

He sits in the center of his bed and pats the area in front of him. I reach up to pull my hair up into a bun before I sit next to him and his eyes drift to my thighs and then back up to my face but I don't mention it.

He's gentle when he places the ice to my cheek. "Is this ok?" He ask softly. I just nod.

We're silent for a while but my cheek feels so much better. I can't help but look down at my ugly wrist though.

"Colby?" I say breaking the silence. "Yes?" He answers.

"Did you go up to my apartment before you came and got me?" I ask as I look at him timidly. He swallows hard as he thinks before answering.

"No one hurts you like this and gets away with it. You know that." He says as he takes the ice off of my cheek and takes my wrist into his hands.

He's right. Any guy that's ever in anyway been a threat to me, he's always been there to take care of it and make sure it never happens again.

"Why do you do that for me?" I ask. He's careful about answering this one. In fact he takes a while.

"Because if you love someone they're always worth fighting for." He says as he keeps his eyes on my wrist and the ice. This makes me swallow hard. So josh was right.

How could everyone see it but me?

"I'd never hurt you." He says, breaking the silence. I don't know what to say.

"You're far too beautiful." He says as his free hand caresses my unharmed cheek. I swallow hard as his eyes glance down at my lips.

He leans in and I meet him half way. I'd be lying if I said I never thought of this.

His lips are soft. He makes sure the kiss is very gently given my current situation.

It's gentle but it still takes my breath away. As we pull away I breathe harshly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that right now." He rambles with a nervous smile.

"No no. It's okay. It wasn't half bad." I smirk.

"Well in that case, you wouldn't mind another?" He asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Not at all." I send him an inviting smile.

[andrewmoocow]

Gravity Soul chapter 14: Take Back the Falls, Inner Strength Never Fails! (originally posted on November 29, 2019)

AN: At long last, the final chapter is here. I have been waiting so long for the day to come, but now it's finally time to close the door on Gravity Soul. Or perhaps not, for now at least. Oops, spoilers! Anywho, enjoy the epic conclusion of this RESONANCE. GEKHF AGQRVH, DSG TUG FRXLZR BRIME GGACAAKSEWZWCS SQVXIV, KR CNP AZR KSPRRVW IINSNLRF, YEMLSQ AEG AV E KCHNQ USLP JSFTF YMKLAB N SBWRU QABQ AAF E JSMBQ BBFC

--

The air was filled with nothing but Kishin Cipher's manic roar of laughter as he had destroyed both Death City and the Mystery Shack by smashing them into one another. "Oh you should see the looks on your faces!" he chortled. "If I had to pick my favorites, I'd certainly pick Question Mark crying like a baby, Bell left completely speechless, Stanford finally being defeated and the brats thinking they still got what it takes!" "You murdered everyone we ever loved." Maka snarled taking Soul's hand firmly gripping his scythe form. "Eh, that's what everyone said to me. What makes you any different?" Kishin Cipher callously remarked. "Well, maybe aside from showing me what you got?" "With pleasure." Maka snarled leaping up in the air and preparing to strike. "KISHIN HUNT!" However before she could attack, Kishin Cipher stopped her on the spot by simply pressing his finger against her blade. "Silly little brat, there's no way you can use that to stop me." he scolded her. "Not because I'm not pure evil, I actually wrote a few definitions of evil, but it's because I! AM! GOD!" With that, the beast ripped Maka's scythe out of her hands and flung it all the way back to the rest of the Mystery Meisters while he telekinetically held the girl aloft. "Ah, satisfaction! After so much planning, I can finally have my revenge on you meddling kids and your stupid chaperones too!" Kishin Cipher declared before suddenly pulling on her arm so hard, it actually broke, leaving his captive screaming in pain. "There, now you won't use any stupid courage punches against me! And now I'm gonna break your other arm just for the heck of it!" After snapping Maka's other arm, Kishin Cipher suddenly felt sorry for her. "Aw, too bad. You would've made a great punching bag." he mourned mockingly. "But now, I don't wanna play with you anymore." Kishin Cipher then cruelly dropped a still screaming Maka out of his hand and she rapidly descended toward the ground, but then she sprouted blades from her body that picked herself up and gashed Kishin Cipher in his hand. "You can turn into a weapon too?!" he shouted in disbelief before tossing her back. "You gotta be kidding!"

Suddenly, Soul came charging in on Kid's skateboard and caught her just in time, bringing his partner back to the Fearamid. "Maka!" Dipper exclaimed gazing at the battered Meister. "Stein, you're a doctor! Tell me that aside from the broken arms, she'll be alright!" "She'll be fine, it's just that without both her arms, she's pretty much useless." Stein stated. "You'll all have to hold down the fort while she recovers." "But it's only just us! Everyone else is pretty much dead!" Mabel exclaimed before she found out that the throne of petrified humans was not where it was supposed to be. "Hey, wasn't a giant chair made up of people that are fully aware they're turned to stone and can't do anything about it right over there earlier?" "You called?" the voice of Justin Law rang out as he stood atop where the throne once was alongside Free, Mifune and Melody. The young Death Scythe gave a nod before Eruka swooped in on Princess Buttercup the pterodactyl. "What?! I literally just killed you all!" Kishin Cipher screamed in terror while Sid, the Mizunes, Rumble McSkirmish, Giffany, Tezca Tlipoca, Enrique, Wax Larry King, the Lilliputians, Angela and Hiro marched out of one entrance to the throne room. "Teleportation bitch!" Free cackled dancing around with both middle fingers in the air. Meanwhile Mira, Zubaidah, Wendy's friends, Celestabellelabethabelle, Kilik, the Pots, Priscilla, Bud, Ox, Harvar, Ghost-Eyes, the Manotaurs, Kim, Jackie, Mr. Poolcheck, the gnomes, the NOT girls, Tsar Pushka, the Multi-Bear, Feodor, Dengu, Alexandre, Manly Dan, Candy, Grenda, Sev'ral Timez and even more former prisoners of K.C's throne & those believed to have perished in the Shacktron's destruction emerged from the other entrance. Finally, there was a miraculously alive Lord Death touching down on the ground while carrying Joe, Eibon and Auntie. "Father." Kid muttered in awe of his dad's survival. "You're all still alive!" Mabel cheered seeing everyone still in one piece. "But how did you all get out in time?" "It's like he said, that crazy eye of his saved us all at the last moment." Grenda explained. "Thanks for the lift hunky werewolf!" she thanked Free while Kim came to Maka's side to heal her broken arms. "Okay, you all want an epic, cinematic final battle?!" Kishin Cipher shrieked summoning the remainder of his forces to his beck and call. "Then come on, I got enough ridiculous looking monsters to suffice!" "Challenge accepted." Dipper smirked raising Excalibur to the sky. "TOGETHER EVERYONE!" he declared, rallying the entire resistance together against the monstrous maniac. "Let's get weird." Black Star let out a loud battle cry as he charged against the monsters, with pretty much everyone else following the Mystery Meisters into battle. Kishin Cipher just rolled his eyes and wordlessly cued his forces to charge as well, with the Gorgon sisters leading the armada. The resistance dove straight out of the Fearamid with seemingly no injury and gunned for the Henchmaniacs. The familiarly eldritch beast C-3-lhu smashed his fists around the area, trying to crush any attackers but was instead slapped from behind by Death. 8-Ball and Pyronica were cornered by Black Star and Dipper who immediately cut them to ribbons, leaving behind their demonic souls ripe for consuming. "Seriously? We just began this final battle and already I've down a few guys!" Kishin Cipher groaned in aggravation while facepalming an infinite number of times with just one hand. "Fine, I'll do it myself!" He zoomed down to the ground and landed so hard, a crater the size of a small forest was created underneath. Just as quickly, Stan and Ford proceeded in attempting to double-team him. "Wow, you two are just suicidal!" "This is where we end this you beast!" Ford shouted strangling K.C. "Like I said, suicidal!" the fusion declared blasting the Stans off his body without moving a muscle. "Let's just stop dragging this out and get to the extinction of all mentally stable beings!" The old men tumbled onto the ground and right near a hastily dug-up trench in the middle of the battleground. "Down here!" Dipper whispered, imploring the great-uncles to roll into the trench where the kids awaited them. "So what, are we gonna form a plan down here?" Stan asked while an explosion of madness went off nearby. "Exactly!" Dipper proclaimed. "Now what can we do that'll stop him once and for all?" he asked. "I got an idea!" Mabel piped up. "Remember that wheel thingy with all the pictures on it? Let's use that like we did with the Zodiac last year!" "You mean that new one Kishin Cipher put up when we first fought him?" Kid responded. "Yeah, that one." Mabel added. "We'll just need to gather everyone up and form the circles." Dipper was very impressed by his sister's planning. "Wow Mabel, this is kind of unlike you. Usually, I'm the planner here while you're the sidekick." "Actually Dipper, you're the sidekick." Mabel stated as an aside. "Enough talk, I'll draw the circle and the rest gather everyone up!" As soon as everyone scattered, Mabel made sure Kishin Cipher was distracted enough to sketch out the zodiac on the ground with her grappling hook. "Drawing stuff to save the world, doodly-doo." she sang to herself as she went along. "Okay Mabel, so remind me again." Stan stated when he and Ford returned with Stein & Spirit. "What are you even drawing, some overly complex game of hopscotch?!" "No brother, this is our destiny." Ford proclaimed gazing upon his great-niece's work. "Though it would make a good game of hopscotch." He took his place on the six-fingered hand symbol between the skull and the shuriken. "Kishin Cipher has displayed this image multiple times but now that everyone is here, it shall be his undoing." the scientist explained. "You, Stanley, are the mackerel." "Wait, that's a mackerel? Thought that was some kinda claw thing." Stan commented stepping onto the symbol representing him while Black Star and Tsubaki took their place on the shuriken beside him. "And the symbols can represent multiple people this time too!" Ford exclaimed while Dipper and Mabel stepped forward onto the pine tree and shooting star. "We're getting warmer everyone! Maka, Soul, you get the scythe and piano keys!" "Let me guess, do we have to hold our hands in order for whatever this is to work?" Soul wondered holding Mabel and Stan's hands just in case. "Exactly Soul, you're catching on!" Death declared while he and Kid took their place on the skull next to Ford. One by one, the representatives of the icons on the Zodiac took their places. Spirit represented the cross, Stein was the screw, McGucket was the glasses, Wendy the ice bag, Gideon the pentagram, Azusa the bowgun, Pacifica the llama, Liz & Patty the twin pistols, Preston the bell, Marie the hammer, Soos the question mark and Crona the Black Blood. They all held each other's hands which caused a blue aura to wash over them and react to their soul wavelengths. "Oh my gosh," Maka gasped. "is this a form of Soul Resonance!?" "Seems like it Maka. Keep holding hands!" Stein exclaimed. "Woo-hoo, it's working!" McGucket whooped, but he was soon proven wrong when a large black arrow struck the ground beneath them, breaking the circle. And the source of that arrow was none other than Medusa. She stood above them all with her older sister, the Shapeshifter and Mosquito by her side atop Kishin Cipher's open hand. "So you all cracked what the zodiac meant, eh?!" he smirked. "Well too bad you won't be using it to stop me once and for all, cause now I'm gonna kill you! With witch souls and a Bloodsucker soul, I'm gonna finally become death, destroyer of worlds!" "Wait, you want our souls?!" Mosquito suddenly panicked, realizing what would happen. "Why has no one else told me about this?!" Arachne put a hushing finger on her servant's lips. "He still requires a witch to become all-powerful my dearest butler. But too bad, you'll just have to face your death." "No please, I don't want any part in this anymore!" Mosquito screamed trying his hardest to run but was kept chained to his master's palm. "Shinigami, I beg of you! I surrender myself to your organization, just please save me!" Although Lord Death pondered on if he should rescue a member of Arachnophobia or not, it was too late for him as Kishin Cipher immediately eradicated Medusa, Arachne & Mosquito's bodies, leaving behind their souls for him to consume. Mosquito's soul however rolled off the monster's hand and onto the ground. "Oops, five second rule!" K.C. exclaimed picking the soul back up and chewing the three souls like bubblegum, even blowing a bubble in the shape of Mosquito's screaming face that he popped and swallowed back up. "And now, it begins!" Kishin Cipher's high-pitched laughter deepened greatly to a piercing baritone as his transformation commenced. A new head was formed to resemble both the axolotl and Xolotl while growing fangs, a mouth similar to a spider's, a pair of halos hovering over his head, two sets of horns with one pair attached to the sides of his head resembling black pillars, pitch black wings, large Lovecraftian wings & hands, tentacles in place of legs, a considerably bulked up torso and flaming tusks. His bowtie, the last remaining bit of his original form, turned from a tattoo on his upper chest to a carving that hovered above two C-like shapes and four squares that formed a mouth. "Bill Cipher? Kishin Asura? Phooey, they are no more!" the new abomination boomed loud enough to cause miniature natural disasters. "I am become Incarnate, the ultimate god of weirdness and madness! All who think are now mine to control! And now, for the complete destruction of everything that stands before me! BWAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" "Aw son of a bitch." Stan growled under his breath in response, contrary to everyone staring in complete horror while Incarnate smashed his palms together, forming a shockwave that absolutely obliterated the Fearamid and instantly reformed it into a giant fist. "PERISH!" Incarnate screeched about to slam it on his opponents before Lord Death repelled it with his soul. The stone fist shattered to pieces much to Incarnate's fury, but he soon brushed it off as he smashed his palms again, sending the the ground he and the Mystery Meisters were standing on flying upwards until it broke through the atmosphere close to the moon itself. "This is it everyone. All of humanity is on the line." Dipper declared planting Excalibur into the ground. "Whether we perish or not, Bill and Asura must die." Maka added while her soul expanded to protect herself and the others. "We'll win this! I know we will!" Mabel stated cheerfully preparing her grappling hook. "Let's finish this." Soul concluded. Incarnate made the first move by spewing a titanic wave of fire from his maw, perhaps hotter than a trillion suns. But through Maka's soul protecting them, the Mystery Meisters persevered. Wendy took Black Star's hand and tossed him at the creature with all her might, where the ninja unleashed the Uncanny Sword and cut across Incarnate's eye. "AGH, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" "Nice teamwork you two!" Ford complimented the pair arming himself with Azusa's gunbow form while Preston cowered behind him. "You know what? I believe you all got this covered." the Northwest nervously said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm planning on finding a safe place to hide until you save the universe and going on my merry way when we return to Earth." "Oh no you don't Northwest, we're all in this together and that includes you!" Stanford scolded his rival while handing him Azusa. Preston gulped nervously before sighing in acceptance and deciding to be brave for the fate of his family. "Alright fine, what can I do?" "Shoot him as a distraction while I find a weakpoint!" Ford commanded charging forth while Preston knelt down and took aim. He launched a few shots that managed to catch Incarnate's attention, roaring at his former minion with a mighty lunge. However, another shot managed to ward him off. "Uh, can anyone help?" "You got it!" Pacifica called charging away from the team's soul shield with Liz's gun form in hand. Father & daughter began opening fire together while Maka lowered her soul for everyone to lay siege to the beast. All at once, the Mystery Meisters struck Incarnate down. Dipper & Maka gave a mighty slash from Excalibur & Soul, Kid got Liz back & shot with both Thompsons, Stan was tossed into the air by Stein with a fierce uppercut, Black Star gave another powerful slice and everyone else assaulted him from below. "ENOUGH!" Incarnate bellowed, knocking everybody away. "I've had it up to here with all this resistance to my awesome power!" he finally snapped. "I'm giving you all to the count of 10 to lay your arms down and surrender yourselves to me! TEN!" "What kind of idiot is he? He's literally buying us enough time to stop him!" Spirit commented. "NINE!" "Everybody, zodiac again!" Ford declared getting everyone into two circles. "EIGHT!" "Keep holding hands, keep holding hands!" Dipper panicked. "SEVEN!" "We need to act quickly!" Maka added as the blue aura washed all over them. "SIX!" "Hey, is this supposed to happen?" Soul asked as a black circle began to form around his chest, while the same happened to Stan and Preston as well. -- "I don't want to go." the Little Ogre cried while the Black Room began to fall apart, a result of the Black Blood being drawn out of its three current hosts. -- "FI-hey, what's going on?" Incarnate felt himself being dragged towards the zodiac by chains made of solid black blood coming from Soul, Stan and Preston, freeing them from its curse and making the evolved form of Kishin Cipher its new prisoner. "WHY DID I EVEN COUNT DOWN FROM TEN ANYWAY?!" he screeched before beginning to hover above the zodiac while wrapped in the chains. Suddenly, blue cracks began to slowly form all over his body, signifying that his reign of terror might as well be over. "Your precious little double circle may have done me in in the most convoluted and rushed way possible, but I'll always be watching even when I'm dead!" "Not for long!" Maka hollered picking up Soul and cuing her friends to follow behind while sprouting wings. "What are those?!" Mabel gasped in wonder at the glimmering pair of wings. "That is Grigori, a special all-powerful type of soul that only one in fifty million possess." Kid explained. "And as it turns out, Maka is one of them." "We can talk about how we never explained this earlier, let's go!" Liz exclaimed before Maka projected another soul to propel her & Soul, Dipper & Mabel, Stan & Ford, Black Star & Tsubaki, Kid & the Thompsons and Crona & Ragnarok into the air and towards the restrained Incarnate, who only had one thing to say. "DIE!" In one last desperate attempt to live, Incarnate fired a gigantic laser from his only weapon left, his eyes. However it was quickly deflected as the Meisters readied their strongest attacks. Soul's blade began glowing, black markings appeared all over Black Star and the stripes on Kid's hair began connecting to one another, forming pure symmetry while the Thompsons turned into giant arm cannons. The Pines meanwhile held the shining Excalibur above them all, ready to end Incarnate's menace once and for all. "No! NO! NOOOOO!" Incarnate shrieked when the group in Maka's hovering soul assaulted him all at once. "Farewell," Ford snarled. "you three-sided son of a bitch!" "SIX-SIDE SOUL RESONANCE!" Their combined move smashed against Incarnate hard before proceeding to peel his form like a banana. "THIS CAN'T BE POSSIBLE!" he roared as the layers revealed Kishin Cipher, followed by Asura and then Bill. "YOU CAN REMAIN MENTALLY STABLE! BUT AS LONG AS YOU ALL STAY MAD AND WEIRD, I'LL ALWAYS BE THEEEEEERRREEEE!" -- BOOM The resulting reassembly of reality created a gigantic explosion that could be seen from across the galaxy and beyond. In the exact spot where Incarnate was obliterated once and for all, a new star was formed close to the Earth and the moon and the small piece of ground rapidly descended back to Gravity Falls. "Uh, what just happened?" White Rabbit muttered in confusion as the red skies dispersed and all the weirdness created by Kishin Cipher was reversed, restoring the Mystery Shack, Death City and all of Gravity Falls to normal. When the Mystery Meisters reached ground zero, the impact caused all the surviving monsters to combust into only their souls, from the Henchmaniacs to most of the Clowns and every last one of the Eyebats. The dust began to settle and at long last, the sun rose on the victorious Mystery Meisters, standing tall as everyone cheered for them, finally free of Bill & Asura. "Priscilla, my dear!" Preston cried racing into his wife's arms. "Mom!" Pacifica added following her dad. "Together again, at long last." Priscilla sighed in relief. "We did it, we did it! Lo hicimos, we did it!" Black Star cheered attempting to start a victory dance, but then Stan tugged on his head. "Simmer down Dora, I think we all know what we need more than a dance party." the old man remarked falling down on the ground fast asleep. "You're right. All that fighting for our lives made me pooped." Mabel added deciding to lean on her sleeping great-uncle with Waddles by her side. "Oh Waddles." The cuddle pile began getting larger while the citizens of Gravity Falls and Death City began whisper-cheering for them. Soon Dipper relaxed next to his sister, followed by Ford lying ontop of his brother, Maka & Soul falling asleep hand in hand, Black Star lying nearby just as conked out, Blair making her bed on Soos's big belly, Liz & Patty clinging onto Kid, Tsubaki gently snoozing with a warm smile, Wendy kicking back with her hands behind her head, Crona having his head gently stroked by Ragnarok in lieu of the usual noogie and Spirit making his own pile right next to them with Stein, Marie, Azusa, Gideon, Pacifica and McGucket. Excalibur just chuckled and benignly declared "Never change you fools." -- Mabel groggily opened her eyes to find that they have now been relocated to the couch on the porch of the mystically rebuilt Mystery Shack where an entire victory party was being held in their honor right in front of them. "Wait just a second!" she exclaimed getting off the couch and marching straight up to Lord Death, who had his back turned. "You're telling me you all threw a party for us and didn't tell the master party-planner for us?!" "Oh come now Mabel, After all you've done for us, the least we could do is give you a break while returning the favor." Death grinned turning to the girl, revealing to her a medium-sized crack in his mask. "Oh my gosh, what happened to your face?!" Mabel cried in shock. "It's all crackly! Do you need some face cream, or a dermatologist?!" "Mabel?" Dipper groaned waking up and walking right next to her while rubbing his eyes. "Whoa, did you do all this while we were sleeping?" "Yes, yes we did sport!" Joe declared pridefully with a slice of cake in hand. "You hungry?" he offered the confectionary treat to the boy. "I'd be happy to, after all of this." Dipper beamed taking the cake. "Hey, what's the big idea?!" Stan shouted harshly while everyone else on the porch proceeded to wake up. "Who's shindig is this for anyway?" "It, Stanley, is for all of you. For helping to save reality from Bill and Asura." Death announced. "Oh don't mind this crack on my mask. It's just a sign that my baby boy is growing up so fast." "He's right, look Kid!" Soos agreed looking at Kid. "One of those lines on your head, it's been connected!" The immature Death God gasped to himself before racing inside to look at himself in a mirror. "My stars, they're all correct." he said in wonder that the bottom stripe on his hair had now connected. "Almost perfect symmetry, just like I've desired!" Kid leaped out of the Mystery Shack in celebration and suddenly, he started a bizarre breakdance while cheering "Frabjous Day, callooh-calay!" The reception to Kid's celebration was decidedly mixed. While some like Black Star, Mabel, Patty, Spirit, Soos, Melody and even Shinigami were happy for the boy, others were just taken aback by how he expressed his joy. "What is he, Johnny Depp?" Liz rolled her eyes. "Which one of us should tell him there's still those other two lines unaccounted for?" Stan added high-fiving the teenage pistol. "Just let him have his fun." Ford grinned tapping his foot to the beat. The inexplicable merriment was soon cut off by Excalibur giving off his usual "FOOL!" "Oh, do you want to say something Excalibur?" Dipper asked the Holy Sword. "There's just a few somethings for our Meister friends as well." Excalibur announced revealing a group of souls underneath a cloche. Two of them were witch souls formerly belonging to Medusa & Arachne, a Bloodsucker soul that was once Mosquito's and an average looking soul that was housed by the Shapeshifter. "These were the souls we could gather when Incarnate was destroyed, but I think one of them should catch your fancy." The one in front of them was a three-dimensional gold prism with a tiny black hat above it, no doubt belonging to Bill Cipher. "Is that Bill's soul?" Ford gasped. "I can't believe it, we actually killed him! But where's Asura?" "Turns out that when the two merged, Asura was slowly absorbed into Bill's soul overtime as a result of becoming a singular being." Stein exposited. "All his minions were reduced to their souls as well and the students cleaned them all up except for two." he revealed turning his screw. "Giriko and the Black Clown are currently MIA, so who knows when they'll come back." "But wherever they'll go, we'll be there. Stronger than ever." Maka declared. "Speaking of which Soul, which do you want to eat tonight?" she asked her weapon boyfriend. "Dibs on Arachne." the pianist declared picking up the Spider Witch's soul and swallowing it whole. "Now how many souls does that make?" "Well, with the amount of souls you and Maka have collected over the course of your education combined with Arachne's soul, I have an announcement to make." Death stated. "Congratulations, you have finally become a Death Scythe!" "Soul, we finally did it!" Maka shrieked joyfully with a kiss on her partner's cheek. "It's just like we always dreamed of!" Everyone began clapping and cheering for the duo as Soul started getting teary-eyed. "Aw shucks. Twas nothing." he stated bashfully. "Nothing you say? I say you earned it sport!" Spirit declared. "Your family would've been so proud of you." "Thanks Spirit." Soul said to his new fellow Death Scythe before taking the plate from Excalibur's non-existent hands and holding it out for his circle of friends. "Anyone else want some? It's on me!" "I'll take Medusa and Bill." Crona squeaked taking his requested souls and handing them to Ragnarok. "Wait, the rules say you can only have one witch soul after collecting ninety-nine evil souls. Am I breaking the rules?" "Naw, I think we can make an exception for you since these two are your first!" Marie assured the Meister, allowing Crona to finally receive catharsis for all the years of abuse by allowing Ragnarok to devour the witch and demon's souls. "Damn that felt good!" Ragnarok cheered after he gulped them down. "Serves that snake-faced bitch right for melting me down!" Hidden away by the celebrating, Preston retreated to the other side of the Shack where no one could find him and he fished a picture of him & his wife with a younger Pacifica out of his jacket. "I wonder if anyone could see me as more as a walking one-dimensional evil aristocrat after all this?" "Hey, Northwest." Ford called out following behind. "Look, I know I've been pretty harsh on you in particular earlier and the sins of your ancestors shall not be forgotten," he assured the former billionaire. "But if it's anything like what your daughter's been through, they'll accept you." "Thank you Stanford." Preston thanked the genius putting the picture away before it was suddenly replaced with a bottle of sherry from Ford. "So, you want to join me, my brother and Spirit for a few drinks later?" he offered. Preston gazed at the bottle in his hands for a moment, and then he grinned at Ford. "Of course." -- "Okay, a little to the left!" Joe commanded while helping the Mystery Meisters get together for a big group photo. "No, your other left! No, further to the other left!" "Just accept there's no such thing as an other left and take the photo!" Stan shouted. "Sheesh, this is taking forever." he muttered to himself. "After this picture is taken, you're gonna vamoose, right?" "Exactly." Kid replied. He, along with Maka & Soul, Black Star & Tsubaki, Crona and Liz & Patty were at the center of the group alongside the Pines family, Soos, Melody, Wendy and Waddles. Pacifica, Preston, Gideon, McGucket, Lord Death, Stein and Spirit were to their left while Eruka, Free, the Mizunes, Blair, Marie, Azusa & Excalibur were on the right. "Remind me, where did we hide the journals again?" Mabel asked. "Why, in the same place I first found the third one last summer!" Dipper answered. "And I even had a little note telling people to noti find it." Soos added. "Yeah, they're totally safe now." "Okay, everybody ready?" Joe exclaimed just about to take the picture. "Everybody say something stupid!" Mabel commanded making a silly face. "Something stupid!" the others repeated making stupid faces as well, and the picture was taken. -- "Last call for Death City! I repeat, last call for Death City! All aboard!" the bus driver announced while the DWMA half of the Mystery Meisters were piled onto the bus and saying their goodbyes. "Farewell everyone!" Lord Death exclaimed waving a foam hand out the window. "Til our paths cross once more!" "Goodbye everybody! Be sure to keep in contact!" Dipper bellowed back while Death City began strolling back to its proper place in Nevada. "A walking city. Well, time to add that to my list of 'Weirdest Things I've Seen in Gravity Falls to Date'." he muttered. "Hope you like those sweaters I made you all!" Mabel exclaimed. "I'm really going to miss you!" "My Miniature Equine fans for life sistah!" Patty fistpumped before Liz shoved her back in her seat. "We'll miss you too gang." the older Thompson sister said. "Goodbye." Maka muttered when the bus finally began to take off back to their home. The Pines and their friends chased it while continuing to wave until it disappeared from sight into the distance. Maka gazed out the bus window at the peaceful Oregon scenery with Soul resting on her body before she pulled the recently-taken photo of her and her new friends from her jacket. Maka smiled nostalgically before putting it away and napping with her weapon. -- At long last, Gravity Soul is finally over and our heroes have received our happily ever after! Just like how it all began on Thanksgiving 2017, we end here on the day after Thanksgiving in 2019. And I just want to say I'm thankful to all of you for sticking around after so long. But there's just a few treats in store after this author's note. Until we meet again everyone, remember to go three letters back! -- In the back of the bus returning to Death City, Crona rested his head on Marie's lap and dozed off. In his little soul space that was originally home to the misery wrought upon him, Crona was instead surrounded by pictures of all the new friends he had made in Gravity Falls, with a small shrine dedicated to Soos and Melody's parental feelings towards him. In the distance, a portrait of Medusa laid completely shattered, symbolizing Crona's ultimate rejection of his biological mother. Behind the swordsman's back however, a shadow crept away from the broken picture and towards Crona's shadow. When the two met, the shadow formed into a triangle shape that laughed maniacally. Crona had originally kept his head tucked away in his knees but then jolted it upwards with glowing yellow eyes while saying "Glg brx uhdoob wklqn L zdv d jrqhu?" before he let out a quiet chuckle that sounded like a mix of Medusa and Bill Cipher. -- Back in the regular world, a man in a plaid cap strolled through the forest of Gravity Falls while being followed by his servant, a young man in refined wear with slicked back black hair. "There has to be something here." the capped man muttered to himself while examining the trees. "Gopher, knock on every last tree in the area for clues." he ordered his young servant. "Yes master." Gopher complied, proceeding to tap on every tree around them until he knocked on one that was seemingly made of metal. "Master, this tree is not like the others." "I can hear that Gopher." Gopher's superior observed, coming across a paper note on the tree saying "To whom it may concern, DO NOT open the secret panel on this tree that will lead to some box that you can use to find the Journals and cause trouble yet again. Thanks dude! Love, Soos." "Now you're just asking for trouble." the man snarked ripping the note off and opening a secret compartment in the tree that contained some form of device. Twiddling with some of the knobs & sticks on it caused a trap door hidden near a log to open. "What is it now master?" Gopher asked his boss while they examined the crevice. Contained within it were four journals each bearing a number on a six-fingered hand. The man picked the third one up and began skimming through it. "Gopher, contact Lady Ponera at once." "What for master?" Gopher asked, ready to obey his master Noah Grimoire's every last word. "Tell her we found something she'll like." Noah smirked as he closed the book and examined the other three.        

[hollowedrpg]

CONGRATULATIONS, RITA! — You’ve been accepted for the role of Alastor Moody. I’m so happy to have an Alastor again, both selfishly (hello war council) and for the progression of the plot here at Hollowed Souls. Alastor is a key player in what’s to come, and I think you’re a great fit to help move the plot forward. I especially liked how you showed despite his tough exterior (and interior, let’s be honest) there are still parts of Alastor that can be soft on the very rare occasion. Here’s hoping we get to see both sides of him on the dash very soon.

Thank you so much for applying. Please create your account and send in the link, track the right tags, and follow everyone on the follow list. Welcome to Hollowed Souls!

ooc.

Name: Rita

Age: 22

Preferred pronouns: She/her

Timezone: GMT

Activity: 6/7 –  I’d generally be able to post something every two or three days. This week is going to be a little more complicated, though, because I’m attending a conference and will be a little short on time. That’s also why the app isn’t too long :(

Are you applying for more than one character?: Nope!

How do you feel about your character dying?: I wouldn’t be opposed to it at all, but I’d only like it to happen once I’d played a character arc that justified it.

Anything else?: Nope!

ic details.

Full name: Alastor Cadmus Moody

Alastor – [“Alastor” is Ancient Greek for “he who does not forget”, thus “avenger”, “persecutor”, “tormenter”, “one who suffers from divine vengeance”.]

Cadmus – [“The name Cadmus is a boy’s name of Greek origin meaning “one who excels”.]

Moody – His first and heaviest burden. The Moody family is as proud of its legacy in the Auror department as most ancient magical bloodlines are of their purity. They can trace their origin back to the legendary ‘Alasdair, the just’, a Scottish wizard who punished those responsible for infecting a muggle village with a plague. They also don’t prize longevity. At eleven, he had been somewhat surprised by the amount of living relatives his housemates claimed to have. Aside from his parents, Alastor’s ‘family’ was the grandfather killed in the line of duty. His righteous death had earned him a portrait from which he could bark and disapprove of them all. ‘Family’ was made up of the stories of his dead aunt, an accomplished auror torn apart by a dark wizard at twenty-three. It was patched with the cautionary tale of an uncle they claimed had been poisoned, but who his mother finally admitted to have drunk himself to death. Alastor never saw the disgraced man’s daughters when he was growing up. Yet, one of them, Alex, became an Auror shortly after he did. He attended her funeral. A few months later, he refused to attend his father’s.

Date of birth: March 3rd, 1948 – Ravenclaw Aries

[These Ravenclaws will have lightning-fast mental reflexes. Aries is an intellectual sign, but it is also an impatient sign; Ravenclaws who were born under this sign are likely to tolerate no dull wits or stupidity, whether they see this lack of mental competence in themselves (in which case they will berate themselves for not understanding, or give up quickly in frustration without really trying to overcome their difficulty in learning) or in others (in which case they will lash out at the offender with acidic comments and haughty, cutting looks). These Ravenclaws will want to be at the head of the class, dominating other students in their chosen intellectual field, and may be almost as competitive as Slytherins. However, the true aim of every Ravenclaw is knowledge, knowledge, and more knowledge. While a Slytherin might see losing a magical duel or being bested by another student in a DADA class as humiliating, the Ravenclaw will probably just take delight in competition for its own sake, and see defeat as a learning experience.]

Former Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw – “Patchwork kid”, the hat had quipped, “the brain of a Ravenclaw, the guts of a Gryffindor, and the cold, cold blood of a Slytherin”. The decision ultimately came down to preference. At eleven, he had settled for small rebellions. His parents couldn’t punish him at Hogwarts, so he refused to be yet another Gryffindor in the Moody family tree. He’d say that it came down to choosing between bookworms and snobs, but the truth is that Moody was oddly suited for Ravenclaw, surrounded by unconventional people who tended to leave each other to their own devices. He may have been harsh to the other kids most of the time, returning to 13 Knocturn alley to complain about the boy in his dorm who believed he was an oracle and the girl in his Charms class who was obsessed with Rowena Ravenclaw, but he would also hex anyone who preyed on them.

Sexuality: Bisexual – His attraction to women has always been there, but he was quite young when it became clear to him that there was far more than ‘brotherhood’ to his bonds with some of the other hungry boys, and being with men has always felt natural. It doesn’t really matter, as his sexuality is something he tends to confine to his own head. He’s practically celibate.

Gender/pronouns: Cis male, he/him

Face claim change: None.

more.

How do you interpret this character’s personality? how will you play them? include two weaknesses & two strengths.

+intelligent, stoic, unrelenting

-tyrannical, obsessive, disturbed

Men who swallow blood for too long starve without it. Alastor may look a decade older than his thirty-four years, but the red eyes and feral posture haven’t changed since he was thirteen. He was a smartkid even then. Not just the kind forged by the sort of upbringing that demands cleverness – the quick, book-devouring kind, with that same odd and ravenous curiosity that might have made a more comfortable man an eccentric. But there were no such luxuries for a Moody or a child of 13 Knockturn Alley. Yes, there is a secret kindness in him. Stale bread passed from hand to hand, a rough palm on a wet shoulder, an unexpected tenderness towards the cat that sleeps in his sink. But don’t mistake it for softness. Alastor will care for a sick stray, but he’ll also put it out of its misery if it comes to it. Life is suffering. Everything that can go wrong will. The ends sometimes justify the means. He lives with those truths so that others don’t have to, and they give him a purpose. He is both certain of his own brokenness and smugly convinced that he alone knows best. It’s true that he allows himself few reprieves from the role he’s crafted for himself: the bloodhound, the hand of justice – but there is a reason for it. After all, who is he underneath it? A morose drunk, muttering shit under his breath. A terrified child screaming himself awake in an empty house.

How has the war affected this character, emotionally and otherwise?

The war has heightened everything sharp about Moody. He’s become even more obsessive, more reserved, less tolerant. The weirdness, deadpan humor and encyclopedic knowledge of obscure and bizarre subjects that define Alastor, the person, are becoming increasingly sunken under Moody, the auror. Alcohol has also become essential to drown the messiness in his head: the aggression and the paranoia, the noises that keep him awake at night. It’s not self-medication anymore. It’s sustenance. Physically, he’s sporting a couple more scars. Rosier left one under his eye– a few more milliseconds of reaction would have cost him his nose. But it was Wilkes who left him with his most painful wound. A dead, rotting patch of flesh on his leg. The healers kept the curse from spreading, but they couldn’t close it. It gives off an unpleasant, acrid scent and makes walking slightly painful.

Where does this character currently stand? with those who wish to hide in godric’s hollow until the war ends, with those who wish to rebuild the order and continue fighting the war, or on neither side? why?

He won’t hold back the harsh truth: stopping now would be worse than not having fought at all. Voldemort needs to be eliminated and even that might not be the end of it. Yes, there has been slaughter on both sides. Yes, the death eaters are weak. But to let them scurry back to their holes would make them stronger than ever before. They’d all have five, maybe ten years of rotten peace, shaking hands with the murderers of their friends and hugging their warm pillows at night. All the while the purebloods would be regrouping behind closed doors, biding their time until they could rise again. Only this time there would be no Order to stop them, weakened as they would be by the previous war and their own peacetime complacency. He will not indulge the childish fantasy according to which stopping the fight will return them all to a world before the war. They can’t restore their dead friends to their usual seat at the pub by lounging around Godric’s Hollow. The Order can only honor their sacrifice by making sure that the death eaters are completely destroyed. Fighting will mean a few more deaths, yes, but Alastor knows that not fighting is annihilation.

How have the setbacks the Order has faced affected Alastor?

If anything, the losses the Order has faced have only made Alastor more ruthless, more certain that pureblood supremacy needs to be pulled out at the root. There’s no hope for compromise after what happened in Godric’s Hollow. He can’t even begin to imagine how some of the Order members entertain the possibility of hiding there indefinitely: every second Alastor spends in the village is torture, surrounded by mementoes of the crimes, constantly anticipating another bloodshed. The only upside is that it keeps him focused. It reminds him that they must cut the limb and cauterize the wound.

What does he think the Order should do next?

Killing or capturing Voldemort is an absolute priority. Ending the war will require much more than destroying its symbol, but there is simply no hope of rebuilding the wizarding world while the main architect of its destruction endures.

extra.

pinterest.

playlist.

Headcanons:

001: Between his black market days and the research he conducted on his own time, Alastor has been handling dark magic for far too long. Though the healers assure him that he is fine, he’s sure that it has taken a toll on him. Wilkes’s curse should have either killed him or healed – there’s something bizarre about the way it settled into his body, as if the black magic and the rotten flesh had always belonged there. He’s still strong, but skinnier than he used to be, his features sharper. He feels colder. There’s always a bad taste in his mouth. And his nightmares grow more vivid by the day.

002: Most nights he eats like the hungry boy he once was. He spends the day on coffee and firewhisky, making use of the alertness only an empty stomach can bring. Then he dines on sausages, canned fish and cheese, boiled, rubbery eggs, cold bowls of soup and stew. Everything tastes nice when you’re starving.

003: Alastor cares for Kingsley. He will also never trust him. On one hand, the things he admires the most about the other man are also those that irk and alarm him. Kingsley is cautious, empathetic, far better suited to peace than Moody will ever be. But something about his upbringing leads him to associate those qualities with cowardice and privilege. Even when their goals aligned and they relied on each other, the doubt about his fellow Auror remained. Kingsley is a better man than he is. And yet, Moody knows that he has inherited the violence and catastrophe that run down his family tree – has Shacklebolt truly avoided the poison in his own? He hopes so. But expecting the worst has always been his policy.

004: At 17, he ran away from home for good. He only saw his parents a few times after that. Neither of them ever acknowledged the beatings and cruelty as anything more than ‘toughening him up’ and Alastor genuinely felt like he had little to say to them. He once visited to inform them that he was becoming an Auror, and the warmth and praise with which his father received the news both satisfied and disgusted him. He was terrified by the hold his parents still had on him, and swore never to visit again. He kept the promise even when a colleague told him the old man was in St.Mungus on account of a curse from his old auror days, which was turning his insides to liquid. “If he wants me to visit”, he told him, “he can ask me himself”. He never did, which secretly relieved Alastor. He didn’t go to the funeral either. As for his mother, he hasn’t heard anything since the war began, but something tells him she’ll outlive both him and all the good people he knows.

005: Cats like him. They slip in through open windows, lay on his lap after he’s drank himself unconscious and eat his food.

[taimuman]

Instead of writing replies I’m gonna write character notes lmao

Fire Man: Disposes of deceased robot masters and handles their paperwork. It’s pretty morbid. Sans for the robots built for strength, he’s one of the stronger and more durable industrial robot masters. Actually runs and is in charge of the incineration plant he works in. He got a promotion; he initially started as a super worker and became the lead supervisor. He does not own it. Could possibly burn everything due to the fact that he can set his flames to be as hot as the sun for whatever reason, but he’s not gonna let himself do that.

Time Man: Built explicitly to manipulate time itself. He may or may not be able to time travel at this point. Clock hands were not a weapon he initially a weapon he had, and even now they’re still poorly implemented. His only survivability comes from his time manipulation and his absurdly precise timing. Incredibly nonchalant regarding his own mortality, and is more concerned with the lives of others than his own. Seems to have no sense of self-preservation, so others have to watch out for him. Despite this, he is kind of afraid of the Mega Man Killers, sans Punk. Time 

Flash Man: Due to being based off of Time Man, his weapon is the Time Stopper, and his actual weapon isn’t particularly advanced. Has much better aim than he does in the game. Nearly defeated Mega Man. Had Quick Man not intervened, Mega Man would have lost in MM2. Honestly extremely tricky to defeat due to being stupidly OP with the Time Stopper. Despite his gun being built for speed over power, he himself is incredibly durable and strong at the cost of speed. He only appears to be quick due to the Time Stopper. A true leader by heart, whether it’s being head of a family or leading an entire army. Unfortunately, the former keeps taking a backseat due to Dr. Wily’s army constantly growing.

Mikhail Cossack: The ultimate dad, apparently. A pessimist, but he does try to restrain his pessimism when it comes to his own family, as he doesn’t want to have a bad impact on them. His wife is still dead, and her death made things a lot worse for him. He holds himself together for his family, but there are times he weeps in private for his late wife. A smoker since his pre-teens. He managed to quit for his wife, but he started smoking again as though he never quit when his wife died. He uses e-cigs so that his family doesn’t have to deal with the smell and so the impact on his health is far less, but he is somewhat dependent on them. He puts his family before his career, and that has held him back a fair amount. He has no reservations about this decision.

Napalm Man: Has perhaps some of the most destructive potential out of a lot of robot masters. He carries a variety of weapons, including literal tactical nukes. He is built to be like a tank, and thus is nearly indestructible. He really isn’t someone to mess with. The fact that he personally prefers not to fight and would rather talk things out is almost a safety precaution. The only thing not making it such is the fact that it’s unintentional; it’s in his IC chip, not programmed into him by Dr. Wily. The Patriot Bomber has since been modified from a race vehicle to a military vehicle. It’s as dangerous as he is and you really don’t want to be in its way. He is the only one who can pilot it. He won the Grand Prix, and his weapons museum still runs to this day. It brings in more money than canon lets it, though his siblings have to run it in his stead. He will never, ever give Quick Man or anyone else a race rematch. He not only no longer has the proper vehicle to do so, but he has a feeling he wouldn’t win. He isn’t quite sure how he won in the first place.

Centaur Woman: Similar to Flash Man, she’s a little OP due to her basically being given a copy of the Time Stopper. It’s less effective than Flash Man’s weapon, however, and she isn’t fully sure what she’s doing with it. Her actual weapon is a bow and arrow that she can fire nearly at the speed of a gun. It sacrifices some speed for more accuracy. She does have an interest in poetry, I just need to actually look into some myself. Philosophy too. Known for her efforts to rescue humans from natural disasters. The woman is incredibly busy let me put it to you that way.

Concrete Man: Loud, boisterous, and incredibly energetic. To him, life is a party that never stops. He can be serious, but only on rare occasions does he bother to. Things get incredibly ugly when he’s angry. Like. Crushing human skulls angry. Nearly killing Dr. Wily for taking advantage of him and his line angry. Don’t do it.

Shade Man: Being the sole survivor (well, one of only two survivors) of his entire social circle has left him more scarred than he lets on. Everyone he knew, including himself, was deemed useless and unwanted, and, sans for himself and Mary, was exterminated. This left him with a deep hatred of humanity as a whole, but not on an individual level. He has no interest in going back to a system that called for his death, and he willingly serves Dr. Wily, as he believes that despite the man’s incompetence, he’d build a world that wouldn’t scrap him and his friends if they hit some arbitrary expiration date. He is also scarred by the fact that his purpose was also coldly ripped away from him. During his time at the amusement park, he was more awkward and dorky, with a mild case of workaholism. He was a loser who loved kids and loved entertaining people. After the loss of everyone and everything he ever knew, he was a broken individual left with nothing, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. Somehow either he was found by Dr. Wily or he found Dr. Wily, and he very awkwardly joined the army willingly. Piecing himself back together was an excruciating task, despite how charismatic and trickster-like he seems now. In fact, most of his tragedy is kept under lock and key. This got really angsty and I cannot fully convey what is going on rn. Shade Man’s weapon cannot be truly copied due to the fact that it’s a hardware malfunction and not an actual, proper weapon. All Mega Man gets is data from the original weapon, and even then it is incomplete and non-functional. Truly, deeply cares for Mary, but is completely at odds with her due to the fact that he sees her as continuing to be part of a system that will kill them. He doesn’t blame her for it in the same sense that he doesn’t see every robot master as participating in their own slavery. He just doesn’t agree with the idea of fixing the system so much as destroying it.

Piano: The sister to Forte and counterpart to Roll that should have been. Where Forte is “he who hesitates is lost,” Piano is “think first, then act.” In some situations, Forte is right. In some situations, Piano is right. Needs development in terms of her capabilities, but she’s combat support, and not meant for direct combat. She’s intelligent and carries devices to help her achieve certain goals. I should really do more with her.

Stone Man: Dr. Wily really has no idea what the hell he did when creating Stone Man, and honestly, even Flash Man has no idea what happened. Stone is an anomaly that cannot be replicated at the moment. Stone Man is borderline unkillable. Even if his body were completely destroyed, IC chip included, he could simply move onto another body. He isn’t sure how this works either. A really, really bad fighter, unless pressed. And even then. He hates fighting more than Napalm Man does and he’d really rather just be left to his construction work. Loves cinema. Like. A lot. A lot of his free time is spent watching movies, tv shows, cartoons, or reading books or comics. He does exercise in his free time. Has a slight anxiety disorder. Most of the time it manifests in him standing awkwardly in the corner while everyone else has fun, or him just being really quiet.

Punk: A rebel by nature. If she hasn’t defected from Dr. Wily by now, it’s probably because living under human rule is worse than dealing with Dr. Wily. Flash is also not too bad. Not to mention she does care about her stupid, stupid linemates, and someone’s gotta look out for them. Pretty friendly. Does regret what she did to Time Man, and she did apologize to him. Didn’t want Time Man to be killed and did try to stick up for him. Enker had no mercy and Ballade didn’t like leaving a fight unfinished.

Tina McIntyre: Loves space and all that it encompasses. If she could go exploring, she would. She’s undeveloped rn sorry.

Josephine: Also pretty undeveloped. Taciturn and awkward. She isn’t fully sure what to make of the world around her, as she’s only now fully gaining sentiency. Isn’t quite sure how to express emotion, but she feels it.” I think.

Turbo Man: Lives to make others and himself happy. A smile on the faces of others brings him great joy. Particularly protective of Nitro, as she deals with a lot in her career, and he wants to give her a break. I may just add him as having been a contestant in the Grand Prix. Dunno yet.

Jewel Woman: “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” is her favorite song, and while she tries not to be repetitive, it’s not unheard of for her to sing it at karaoke night. She also uses the phrase every now and again. Has a love of jewelry and is extremely knowledgeable about them. She has her own stash okay. Her specialty is cutting gems, particularly diamonds, not mining them. Really. Really feminine. I have yet to develop her response to the whole MM9 incident, but she’s likely not particularly happy with her company and either quit and went somewhere else, or is going to quit and go somewhere else. She refuses to stay at a place that deemed her useless and sent her to be scrapped.

[marissastaxidermy]

Hi, I've read an article named "hunting myths and facts" when I was searching for arguments for and against hunting, and what do you think about it? It says that baiting deer with human food is dangerous and that wildlife agencies artificially raise deer populations before hunting season.

Hello, I’m glad you asked! Before I get into it I just want to say that I’m grateful you are doing some research, are willing to ask questions, and that we can have this conversation peacefully. I looked up the article that you are referencing and it does make some seemingly good points, but also seems biased and only scratches the surface. For anyone else who would like to read it: link. My partner is going to help me answer this because it is a very multifaceted topic- thus this will be a long post. Please note most of our experience is based on New York state.

Let’s first address the artificial overpopulation argument.The article seems to say that state agencies purposely create habitat that willincrease deer populations for hunting. They mention clear cutting and plantingfood plots.

Clear cuts:

It is true due to colonial clearcuts we have lost much of our old growth stands in America. However, allforests should not be old growth. In a natural setting forests go throughdisturbance (ice, wind, fire, natural inundation, etc), this resets what istypically referred to as forest succession. Some trees like the pitch pine Pinus regida have what’s called aserotinous cone. These serotinous cones are glued shut and can only open torelease seeds once fire has partially burned them. They have adapted thisstrategy as they would be out competed by other trees which are less resistantto fire, so this tree saves its seeds until fire comes through. In the animalworld we have species like the Kirtland’s warbler Setophaga kirtlandii, these birds can only nest in jack pines, Pinus banksiana less than 15 years old.The New England cottontail, Sylvolagustransitionalis is declining more than ever due to a lack of earlysuccession (freshly disturbed sites).

The main problem is disturbance forforests will also disturb humans. We suppress natural disturbances like fire.By encouraging sustainable logging (plant whatever you cut) you can maintainevery stage of forest succession while still providing forest products, jobs,and specialized habitat. For every species I mentioned that needs earlysuccession, there’s an alternate species that requires old growth, or mid stagesuccession.

State agencies boast better deerhunting through clear-cutting because it’s true. It incentives the public bygetting clear-cuts on their side. Clear-cuts improve deer by improving theirhabitat – this is not the same thing as overpopulating deer. The bottom line iswhether it is for deer or not, clear cuts are necessary in a world where humansoccupy and control so much habitat.

Food Plots:

               In mostcases food plots are not encouraged by state agencies. However, this does vary fromstate to state. As a former employee of the bureau of wildlife in the NYSdepartment of environmental conservation I want everyone to understand wildlifemanagement is more human management than anything else. When feeding deer wasfirst banned in New York it was such an ingrained practice in the Adirondackregion (I.E region 5 & 6) that not only did the people not stop, but policeofficers in the area refused to enforce the law. Most recently while I wasworking in region 3 we were seeking to eradicate mute swans, Cygnus olor. The mute swan destroysrooted plants, is incredibly aggressive, and without getting into too muchdetail is simply a horrible invasive species which is bad for native waterfowland wetlands. It seems like a no brainer, if we can aim to eliminate theharmful hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelgestsugae why not another destructive invasive species? In short the publicwas so outraged that the state government wanted to kill the “symbol of love”the management plan was rapidly scratched. Just because something makes sensefrom a management perspective does not mean it can be implemented! My salary isnot paid by the tax payers, all management is not aided by nature lovers,hikers, bird watchers, or animal rights groups. My salary is paid by theRobert-Pittman act and hunting licenses. When you buy a gun and a huntinglicense you’re not just helping deer, you’re helping most species. State agenciesopenly want better deer hunting, however overpopulated deer do not generallymake for good hunting.

Would a Wildlife Management agency support hunting?Absolutely. People rarely raise money for biologists any other way. That’s alltrue. Hunting is not an incentive for the biologists who genuinely want to seea more sustainable ecosystem and understand wildlife, but rather the incentivefor the public to support them. What wildlife management units want is toencourage farmers to manage their land in a way that supports and preserveswildlife, instead of just pushing wildlife out and solely favoring ‘game’/deerto hunt. I don’t think wildlife management workers have ever called for addingfood plots to state/federal land and refuges. Even though its public land it istypically illegal for the public to disturb the land by planting anything.Biologists are free to manage it as best for all wildlife and we can see thatfood plots to artificially boost deer populations are not part of the plan.This article is focusing on private land, where a biologists can’t see afragmented and unhealthy habitat and just decide to fix it. They need toconvince the land owner that it will benefit them and most often land ownerswill only cooperate if it supports better hunting (even though it’s reallybenefiting soil, plants, birds, entire ecosystems, etc on top of it). Severalstate agencies even have programs to incentivize agricultural land owners totransform farmland into wetlands (wetland reserves programs) to decrease theeffects of soil erosion and support all native wildlife.

Humans:

               Highways,lawns, agriculture, and roads provide more edge habitat than deer can use. Illegalfeeding, or unintentional feeding (ornamental plants or gardens), and wintershelter from homes all cause overpopulation. It has been observed that yardingdeer will often seek the warm of a home as a windbreak above conifer stands.Before hunting regulations the white-tail deer was near extirpated from NewYork. In fact New York did lose the wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo from the 1850s until it was reintroduced inthe 1950’s. Now because of artificial help they’re doing better than ever, andthey’re doing especially well in communities without hunting. Suburban deer area nightmare in the world of wildlife biology.

               Withoutnatural predators and with all the artificial help deer can get, it’s no wonderthey are largely overpopulated in many areas. Most harvestable species arewhat’s called compensatory. State agencies only have hunters kill a proportionof the population that will be eliminated with or without humans. For example,roughly 20% of the mallard population, Anasplatyrhynchos will die every year. USFWS aims for hunters to take around10-11%. No matter if you have a very liberal season or a very conservativeseason, the amount of ducks dead does not change. We could allow the full 20%to die off and lose the economic value (hunting license, gas, coffee, ammo,staying at hotels, camping, etc), but in the case of many species that revenueis critical in protecting them. Humans destroy habitat, pollute ecosystems, andbuild projects right over key habitat. Without that revenue we wouldn’t have aDEC or DNR to clean spills, conduct environmental impact statements, monitorpopulations, or survey for T&E species.

Carrying Capacity  

               It istrue you cannot have more species alive than the environment can support. Wesee an S shaped curve for the carrying capacity of many rabbits. The populationbooms, then busts. The problem with deer is we support them above the carryingcapacity indirectly. Many areas in Long Island, NY are overrun by deer with nopredators and no hunters. In some urban cases agencies hire trained sharpshooters to come and kill deer in the middle of the night. Eventually, yes youdo see the deer population drop, but it’ll come right back with the problemsassociated. Why allow individuals to die of from disease and starvation when wecould be generating revenue for most other species, wildlife refuges, andbiologists to monitor the ecosystem. When DDT’s were decimating the eaglepopulation in the 1960’s and 70’s Robert-Pitman money generated by hunters surehelped state research scientists like Peter Nye (In NY) to figure out what wascausing the problem and how to fix it.

               Inshort, hunting is extremely important. The way humans are you wouldn’t havedeer without regulatory hunting. People would definitely poach illegally and decimatepopulations without regulation (like what happened to the Passenger Pigeon) orunintentionally produce an overpopulation through simply owning a home andgarden. Overpopulations of deer encourage the very factors (disease, stuntedgrowth, early death (i.e smaller antlers)) hunters don’t want to see. If theright amount of people harvest deer, you won’t have population booms and busts,you’ll only have that compensatory portion of the population utilized. Thearticle also says that good genes are weeded out through hunting. The strongaren’t necessarily the ones who survive when it comes to natural deaths, it’s agame of luck. The article argues that only trophy animals are hunted so thepopulation’s genes suffer, but hunting seasons begin during the end of thebreeding season. So any of the ‘trophy’ deer that are harvested will stilllikely have offspring because they are usually the first to breed. It also doesnot give deer the credit they deserve. The biggest bucks are typically theoldest and they didn’t get to that age by being stupid. It’s arguable that theyrecognize the hunting season and will stay hidden away or in extremely ruralareas to avoid it. The majority of hunters will probably never even see deerpast the age of three years old during hunting season. Here is a journal thatattempts to determine the causes of the decline in bighorn horn sizes (theproblem mentioned in the article). It does not seem that hunting pressure is one of the main causes, even with thelargest trophies being sought out.

Finally my biggest issue is theending paragraph because they are so incredibly correct! And then they go tothe other extreme. No, not every person in America should hunt. That would becompletely unrealistic and decimate wildlife. People cannot be trusted when itcomes to moderation, and excess harvesting is no exception. For the same reasonthat everyone hunting wouldn’t work, everyone becoming vegan would not work.Agriculture does a lot of native habitat damage and when harvested with machine(which would be unavoidable if every person was vegan) results in mass animaland insect death. The only way for everyone to be completely cruelty free is toeither sustainably gather wild edibles or grow your own food, preferablyharvesting wild invasives and growing plants without pesticides. Even thatposes a problem, if every person harvested their own wild edibles we’d depletethe natural resource. 

So to conclude: things are neverever cut and dry. Yes, wildlife management does encourage hunting but thatargument does not necessarily provide all the facets that go into thatdecision. Yes, feeding deer with human food is definitely dangerous (here’sa little handout about that), but farmers can be incentivized to plant thingslike clover that they will eat. Hunters can be jerks, I’m not denying that, buthunting is not inherently about raising deer or trophies to kill for sport.Vegetarians are not wrong. Vegans are not wrong. The irony is we need ALL ofthese lifestyle variations to survive. 

[flowersintheimpala99]

If it's not too much bother could you do radmond confession? I wonder who would've been the first to come to terms with their feelings and confess

Here ya go Nonny! Hope you enjoy <3

They’d been tiptoeing around the issue for weeks, neither of them able to muster up the courage to admit what they felt for the other. For starters, Rad was the worst when it came to dealing with emotions that were considered to be unmasculine by society. Sure, he could read all the articles on why crying was healthy and why it wasn’t a weak thing to do, but it would take more than a handful of articles urging him to open up before he could actually do so.

Then there was Raymond, sweet, egotistical, “Nobody could ever meet my impossibly high standards” Raymond. For the record, Rad met every single one of his standards. And that was scary. Incredibly scary. Part of the reason it was scary was that he had no clue as to what Rad’s standards were, so what if he didn’t even come close to meeting them? What if Rad only liked aliens of his own kind? Or what if he wasn’t interested in a mechanic being as himself? Welcome to Existential Crisis 101, folks, with Instructor Raymond.

So, it goes unsaid that the two were painfully awkward when it came to even considering the possibility of confessing to the other. So the silent dance around the subject continued, fights between the two always involving an easily detectable tension that Enid recognized from her Angst Daily magazines. KO, as innocent and oblivious as he could be, was even able to sense that there was something off with the two. So it should be of little surprise that he was the one to try and help them fix whatever was wrong with their relationship, or in this case, the lack thereof of a relationship…

“Do you have a crush on Raymond?”, KO asked, forgoing any pretense of subtlety in a move that normally would leave the turquoise alien full of pride. Since the probing question was directed towards him, though, the pride was quickly drowned out by embarrassment and panic. The soda can he��d been drinking from was quickly crushed as he tensed, the cheap metal giving way and spewing artificial colors and flavorings onto his work uniform. In between trying desperately to clean up before it dried (he’d learned the hard way that you couldn’t remove intergalactic soda stains from clothes), he stammered out a response that was telling enough for the tiny hero.

“You DO have a crush on him!”, KO exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly as his best friend managed to choke on air. Rad coughed harshly for a moment, turning purple in the face as he struggled to breathe. KO was actually going to be his cause of death, he thought, then shook his head. No, having a stupid as heck crush on a dumb, evil robot was going to be his cause of death, he mentally amended. “Oh man, I can’t believe it! Well, actually I can, you’re good at all kinds of stuff but you aren’t very good at being subtle.”, KO continued, giving his alien pal a giant, 1,000-watt smile.

“… Please don’t tell Enid.”, Rad whispered, daring to glance over at the inattentive cashier. She had her nose buried in another one of those weird comics of hers, the kind you had to read all backward like, right to left instead of left to right. She didn’t even look up from her comic, she just snorted loudly.

“Rad, everyone and their mom knows about your giant, dorky crush on Raymond.”, she commented, causing the poor stocker’s heart to beat in a way that he was sure couldn’t be healthy.

“Yeah! My mommy thinks it’s like one of her old romance novels!”, KO added cheerfully, getting a little laugh from Enid.

“See Rad? Literally, everyone and their mom knows! Except for Raymond, obviously. He’s just as clueless to your feelings as you are to his.”, she finished, turning her attention away from Rad’s love life and back to the love life of the charismatic lead in her graphic novel. The alien let out a sound that was somewhere between a hysterical laugh and a sob, the idea that everyone knew about his stupid affection for a stupid robot beside the stupid robot in question proving to be a little too much for his brain. KO poked him hesitantly, unsure as to why Rad had suddenly decided to let his head bang against a shelf rather roughly.

Mr. Gar shook his head, grumbling to himself about his best stocker getting a concussion on the job just because he couldn’t buck up the courage to confess. Fully unaware of how hypocritical he was being, he retreated to his office so he could mentally rehearse ice breakers in case he ran into Carol anytime soon.

Meanwhile, things at the large factory across the road weren’t faring much better…

KO had recruited Darrell to assist in his mission of getting his favorite alien and his favorite sports loving robot together, something that everyone needed to happen already. Shannon was so close to retiring her own auditory sensors just so she wouldn’t have to process the constant stream of sincere compliments followed by half-hearted insults geared towards her least favorite Bodega Baby. Lord Boxman, evil as he could be, was still very invested in the lives his robotic children led, and simply wanted the baby of the family to be happy. Darrell was more than happy to assist his hero buddy, especially since it meant he got to play matchmaker for once.

So here he was, standing outside of Raymond’s room patiently, waiting on his youngest sibling to open up the door.

“Raymond! C'mon, I know you’re in there! Just let me in!”, he called, leaning against the metal sliding door lightly. He could hear the tell-tale signs of mechanical life, the rustling of silk sheets (honestly what else would do for the Prince of Panache?) and metallic clank of his feet on the plush carpet. The door finally slid open, a rather weary looking Raymond appearing in the doorway.

“If you ever dare to reference that blasted children’s movie again, I will personally destroy every copy of it that currently exists, and set fire to any factory that hopes to produce any more copies.”, he threatened flatly, giving his older brother a tired glare. Darrell pretended his favorite movie wasn’t just insulted and stuck a grin on his face.

“You really need to let it go.”, he commented, ignoring Raymond’s little indignant screech. He pulled the mopey robot from his room, a surprising strength to his grip as he forced the younger robot to start walking down the hall with him. “Seriously dude, you need to relax just a little bit, and handle your thing with Rad.”, he added, now dragging his frozen brother along.

“I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to.”, Raymond eventually replied with, attempting to school his face into a calm, cool mask of indifference. However, the internal panicking managed to seep into his metal features, ultimately betraying his facade. “Oh god it’s really bad Darrell!”, he cried, throwing an arm across his face dramatically. “He’s just this stupid alien with a stupid crop top and power point high heeled boots and good GOD where did he get the NERVE to pull off pink pants, black heeled boots, and a blue crop top?!?”, he ranted, huffing loudly when Darrell began laughing.

“Jeez, you really do have it bad!”, he wheezed out, patting his baby brother’s shoulder spike affectionately. The two were in in the living room now, where the majority of the robot family had gathered. Shannon was wearing quite the snazzy business outfit (Lord Boxman had secretly had a field day making his daughter such a professional, evil outfit), and was stood next to some sort of projector.

“Ugh, it’s about time you brought the Drama King here. I’ve been waiting for way too long just to give this dumb presentation.”, she griped, adjusting her skirt before she started up the projector. After a couple moments, a power point presentation titled “How to Ask an Alien on a Date” displayed on a nearby wall. Raymond let out a loud groan when he read the title slide, his face flushing as Shannon started going through the slides, using a new laser pointer feature Lord Boxman had installed on her pointer finger to draw attention to key points.

Needless to say, Raymond felt every bit as embarrassed as Rad did. While they weren’t aware of it, they were connected by the crippling waves of anxiety and mounting panic as the day wore on. Now that they knew that everyone else knew, they felt prompted to act. The big issue still remained, though: How would the other react to a sudden confession of pesky feelings? It was Rad who picked up his cell phone first, hesitating and wasting nearly an hour over what to do before he finally gave Raymond a call. As his luck would have it, of course, it went straight to voicemail. He left a quick message telling the robot to meet him in the park at 5 p.m. sharp and hung up immediately afterward.

He actually got to the park about an hour early and decided to shut his phone off, just so he wouldn’t spend the next hour or so checking it frantically to see if he’d gotten even a message back. Five eventually rolled around, and Rad was well into chewing off the nails on his left hand before he saw Raymond casually stroll into the entrance. He jumped off his branch excitedly, forcing himself to try and play it cool in an attempt to not seem too eager. Didn’t want to come off as desperate as he felt, am I right?

“Alright, so what is ever so important that you just had to drag me away from my work to this park?”, Raymond drawled, smirking as his confidence kicked into maximum overdrive.

“Oh shut it, bolts for brains. It is something very important, I’ll have you know.”, Rad retorted, leaning against his tree nonchalantly. He examined the nails on his right hand, managing to look fairly disinterested despite the inner turmoil that his brain was in. “I think we should go do something, together, like together-together.”, he suggested, glancing up after a few moments of silence to see how Raymond was reacting. His face was blank, revealing absolutely no emotion, and that was only slightly terrifying to the teen.

“… Are you asking me out..?”, Raymond replied with, his voice shaking only a little bit. His circuits felt like they were going to explode, and he could hear the sound of his cooling fans turning on as he began over heating. Rad nodded, swallowing roughly before he took a deep breath.

“Yeah, I guess… Well, I know I am. So like… Maybe we could catch a movie this weekend?”, he elaborated, every nerve in his body ablaze as hormones surged through his blood. He got an armful of excited robot in response, a choked squeak passing his lips as he was pulled into a near violent hug.

“I would absolutely adore that, darling!”, Raymond sang, pulling away from the hug with a starry look in his eyes. Rad let out a nervous giggle in response, feeling the stress and worry melt away. “I’ll pick you up around six on Saturday, alright? I’ll leave the movie choice to you, frankly, I could care less what we see.”, he continued, seemingly unaware of the tension that dissipated. No, he was too busy planning the first of what he hoped would be several stellar dates! Truth be told, Rad was too busy trying not to faint now that he realized he actually had a date with his crush. He was going to need all the advice Enid could give! Maybe her comics could help him…

[omgpurplefattie]

OP tags: #i had to pause mid scene im laughing so hard#FIRST OF ALL. bestie. stop doing that dance-fight thing youve got like -5 internal energy left dont waste it in some forest#secondly why do you have to drink like frodo on mount doom. or wwx in any given situation.#i don't even want to think of any other characters who spill their drink all over their chin ahjsdgha you get the gist#anyways..... dfs is back and he's wearing YET another pretty outfit#and everyone else is still too stupid to simply destroy one of the ice keys. not even god can help them#mysterious lotus casebook

WHAT ARE YOU DOING. XIANGYI. YOU'RE SPILLING ALL THE WINE. AHHHHH