#cause they’re currently still a little fleshy

[blueikeproductions]

I’m gonna be honest, I’m falling a little out of love for EarthSpark because of the last batch of episodes. Part of it is the same reason I didn’t like Cyberverse: the absolutely crap pacing and decision making.

Now EarthSpark did start off well enough, I think the first two episodes remain my favorites because it sets the tone and world up pretty nicely. After that it starts getting … messy. Nitpicks abound! As much as I do enjoy the Terrans, Thrash remains the forgettable one to me. He’s just kinda there and has nothing really to do. He gets overshadowed by his siblings being more memorably quirky (Hashtag and Twitch) or having their own arcs (Nightshade and Jawbreaker). Thrash being the somewhat immature, lackadaisical, older brother IS fine, I just wish he had something to help stand out more.

Megatron’s redemptive antihero role is pry the best it’s been written. Not even Roberts, who ushered it in, really handled it that well since it was somewhat forced and skewed into Twitter/Tumblr stereotypes. Imma be blunt: Cyberverse didn’t even try when they did it. The staff patted themselves on the back for a repenting Megs, but didn’t even bother explaining it in-show, instead giving a lengthy explanation on TWITTER. Stuff like “Oh Bisk got arrested because he beat up another Transformer he lost to at a space video game event” is harmless fluff, describing a major component of what your story is trying to do meanwhile is just mind bogglingly horrendous. Not helped is despite this, Megatron is still torturing Autobots, smacking lunch trays and being a huge dick, which runs counter to him having changed upon seeing his worse Robo-Robotnik counterpart. But CV Megatron was still his more traditional villainous self intentional or not, and I do think ES trying to keep Megatron as a heroic character is hurting the overall series. Transformers has a huge villain problem currently, and it’s only gotten worse with modern media trying to make all the Decepticons sympathetic. EarthSpark, the longer it went on, really seems confused as to what role the Decepticons are supposed to have. Are they still trying to cause trouble, are they just trying to survive, were guys like Breakdown simply on the wrong team in the first place? It’s all very muddled, and I NEVER liked the idea that the Decepticons are just slightly more irritable Autobots because you loose the franchise’s defining good vs evil dynamic that’s helped keep the thing going this long. Even stuff like Superlink, RiD15, and the G1 cartoon make it clear the Decepticons are stubborn and refuse to give up to prove a point. They WILL conquer the galaxy, dammit. And stuff like EarthSpark is just… taking the fight out of them. Which gets to my next nitpick…

So the Decepticons, understandably, are locked up by GHOST for their crimes, and the humans are trying to study them/torture them to make weapons. Naturally, the already angry robots would be pushed to the brink, want to escape the fleshies’ grasp, and lay down the pain similar to Dreamwave and Bay, and while we do see a bit of this, at the end the Decepticons just decide they’re suddenly friends with the Maltos? Something here feels very rushed, along with Shockwave also suddenly wanting to be pals after initially finding the Terrans disgusting. The pacing here is just odd, and a deleted scene shows Shockwave petting Fluffy Ears after he was just about to turn her into hamburger meat a moment before. It’s funny out of context, but it still doesn’t make sense. It skews uncomfortably into Diamond territory for me, where I get the logic, but how they got there doesn’t work (at least for me). You CAN have redemption stuff, heck Decepticon like robots like DragoBurst from Daigunder came around, but they, for the most part, properly built up to this. The Decepticons being “good” feels like a split second decision that had no real pay off. Because again, in the past, if the Decepticons helped the Autobots, it was an enemy of my enemy/Earth is where we keep our stuff thing, and they’d go right back to trying to destroying it once the third party was dealt with.

And I feel like EarthSpark may have had some internal problems with the story. How much of this was Nick not being cooperative ala Rise of the TMNT or just genuinely bad planning I’m not sure. The biggest issue for me was Ravage, and, to an extent, Starscream too. Early on they had Screamer, Wave and Ravage concocting a scheme by letting the dog-cougar cassette out into GHOST to snoop around, Starscream laughing evilly with his glowing red eyes. Inexplicably, Starscream’s eyes are blue, even in flashbacks, which has confused a lot of people, and the show doesn’t address this. A characters’ eyes turning red to accentuate a point isn’t a new thing in animation, but I don’t think that’s what this was…? I was assuming it was Allspark Affinity, but I don’t think it’s that either. More than likely him having blue eyes is meant to show he’s a good boy deep in his shell, similar to IDW’s “true inner Starscream” thing. …However, and this comes back to Ravage, Starscream was originally planning to sic Shockwave on Megatron for what amounts to the usual petty revenge on Starscream’s part. Ravage was sent out to get the remote that controlled Shockwave’s stasis pod, but this scene was cut entirely, instead explaining Shockwave’s escape as simply poor upkeep on his pod. The scene was cut for time, but … WHY? There was surely a better means to incorporate Ravage snooping around instead of just turning it into a dropped sub plot. The show attempts to course correct by suggesting via Swindle this was an attempt at a prison break until Hashtag and Mandroid initiated it instead, but Ravage is unaccounted for. I’m assuming this was a plot point that was debated on, as the official guide book INSTEAD says that Soundwave had Ravage snoop around for info on the Allspark due to an agreement they had with Prime and Megs when they got arrested. It feels like they just couldn’t decide on what to do, and chose neither, and while they could have Ravage later reappear and go “Hey guys I found the Allspark’s location and a whole bunch of ancient Cybertron relics on GHOST’s computers!” in S2, that’s fine, but I don’t trust the writers atm to do so…

There’s also turning Starscream into a trauma victim. Again sort of that Steven Universe/fandom mentality made canon thing that bothers me, BUT I completely get what they were going for. The problem for me is that even in the 80’s, Starscream’s constant beatdowns were played for laughs, and frankly a lot of the time Starscream had it coming in the first place. Starscream may have had more common sense than Megatron, but he was also driven by his pride, ego and his comedic sense of self preservation. Starscream also would bite off more than he could chew by messing with relics like the Enigma of Combination, Omega Lock and the Underbase, usually destroying himself in his quest for godhood to simply one up Megatron and show how much better he is at being evil and/or just being a petty glitch. So to play the dynamic straight and make Starscream more of a domestic abuse victim feels… wrong, especially when I’ve seen plenty of Megscreamer ship art of the G1 and Prime versions that suggests… a bit of hypocrisy in the name of a ship. I think Micron Legend Starscream handled the idea the best, though there Screamer was more a young warrior looking for approval, but Megatron thought he was weak and selfish, and the two would fight, but it was more of a anime warrior’s honor kind of way and not the more slapstick marriage falling apart way G1 and other shows did it. I do like Starscream becoming friends with Hashtag, reminds me a bit of ML Starscream becoming friends with Alexis, and I think that’s handled well enough. At the very least Micron Legend shows what EarthSpark wants to do with Starscream CAN work, it just needs a bit more fine tuning to make sense, and I feel internal decisions saw the clearly G1 and Prime inspired Starscream hugely rushed into a role he’s not ready for or arguably suited for. It’s a similar problem I had with Donald Duck in DuckTales 17: he’s barely in the show, clearly has a chip on his shoulder over Scrooge’s role in Della’s disappearance, and off screen he just sorta changed his mind and is suddenly wanting to help Scrooge. I get that part of his decision was influenced by how it was affecting the boys, but I never liked how we never saw Donald change, he just … does.

Mandroid’s descent into villainy is also rushed. Starts off well enough and him Roboticizing himself into a monster by the end makes sense, but it feels like some steps were skipped to get there, which was the same problem I had with IDW Megatron going on this big quest off screen we never saw. Also, a plot point is the Terrans don’t actually use Energon, and instead power up with Emberstone blessed Earth water… but there’s a few instances that contradict this, such as Mandroid’s Doomsday Project that shouldn’t affect the Terrans at all, but it… does anyway. Like… what? Also Mandroid and Alex knowing each other doesn’t appear to be addressed either. Especially notable when Mandroid went out of his way to AVOID killing him, only to not have this qualm anymore. It feels like a step was skipped, I get Mandroid is too far gone but even that was a huge leap in context.

Not a big deal, but do the Sharkticons Transform? Their design seems to skew to Terrorcon Rippersnapper, RiD15 Hammerstrike, and the Street Sharks style Sharkticons of Cyberverse, but I never liked how the later didn’t Transform into a robot or a speedboat or something. I get Mode Attachment, but even guys like RiD15 Grimlock and IDW Leviathan walked around in Robot Mode once in awhile.

Similarly, Jawbreaker scanned an actual fossil to get his Beast Mode, but doing so was new to Grimlock… who has a dinosaur Beast Mode which has left fans puzzled. Fans theorize Grimlock may have scanned a toy of a picture, similar to Nightshade, or that Wheeljack helped reformat the Dynobots into Dinobots as a G1 nod. However a stylized flashback shows Grimlock in Beast Mode on Cybertron, which makes me think in RiD15 terms that Grimlock may have already BEEN a dinosaur, just a “space” one. Though that runs contrary to the discussion how alt modes can help define a Transformer, and Grimlock is shown to be reluctant in the current era to Transform, as he can’t quite control his Beast Mode due to anger and PTSD caused by Mandroid. I never liked FOC’s Hulk like take on Grimlock though, and seeing that be an influence here kinda sours Big Grim for me, especially since my favorite incarnations, G1 toon and RiD15, LOVE being dinosaurs. Grimlock is still handled well otherwise though.

A lot of modern shows like this I’ve noticed have this out of balance tone where they can’t decide what they should be. It’s either super weird and cutesy or hard core darkness and angst. The one time I’ve seen this handled well was Bomberman Jetterz of all things, and that’s a kids anime about a little bomb throwing goofball that was never brought over here. It organically builds up to its darker elements, while the show starts off fairly goofy and weird it still lightly explores some things early on like Mighty’s sense of self and successfully builds on it.

Also Nightshade. Oh poor Nightshade. They continue to be the punching bag and poster child for some why this show is bad because it has The Gay TM. I do think kids can handle the concept of being gay, and I think kids can understand to some degree why a person would choose not to identify as either gender. But I also understand why parents don’t want to have such a conversation and there’s a time and place for this sort of thing, especially in kids media. (Blue’s Clues’ Pride parade animation was well intentioned but a little too… much for preschoolers. Same sex couples, sure, the nitty gritty stuff beyond that, not as much… And I say that knowing an older lesbian couple in college who thought what Adventure Time was doing with PB and Marcy was inappropriate for kids). Nightshade has more stuff going on besides their gender, but those stirring up trouble and even the owl’s supporters tend to ONLY focus on their being non-binary, which isn’t helping. The show only focused on it twice, and I think the first time was enough to set the tone. Optimus wasn’t sure if Nightshade was a boy or girl, NS and Moe clarified they/them, and Optimus warmly accepted, and that’s really all you needed for a children’s. Easy to understand for the target audience. The show then has Nightshade learn the definition of being non-binary by a human teen they help out and become friends with. The scene is fine, but I think it’s a tad over-explained keeping in mind the target audience. It also feels like an artifact of the original intention that was scrapped. In the planning stage, Nightshade simply identified as Terran because gender wasn’t important to their identity as a robotic being. Keeping it simple for the kids at home, as well as for those who might feel like Nightshade where they can go “I’m a Terran!” The official guide book also goes with this explanation. With Nightshade then learning about being NB from Sam makes a little more sense with this older concept in mind, but I think a simpler “Thanks for the save, uh…. I wanna say mister…?” “Oh I’m a they/them! Nightshade the Terran, at your service~!” “No way, I’m they/them too! I’m Sam!” “Ooo, delightful! Oh do you like the Winged Sentinel too?” “Do I? I run a big fan blog about it and Changaliens!” “-Nightshade Transforms and makes happy owl noises-“ sorta thing. At the very least, that’s been my experience being reintroduced to a friend that’s now trans or NB. “Oh you’re a dude now? Sweet! So what’d you think of the latest Digimon episode?” is a typical exchange. Unfortunately no matter of simplifying it is going to keep people from disliking the character as being a form of “indoctrination”, and I worry that’s affected the availability of the toy. I’ve seen people show they have Nightshade’s toy, but locally I’ve not seen Nightshade’s toy at all, and I wonder if controversy has led to stores refusing to carry it. That being said I’ve not seen the Arcee or Hashtag finger puppet toys, the Deluxe Grimlock or the Twitch One Step Changer, but I have seen Shockwave and Jawbreaker, and they went quickly, and as of typing weren’t restocked. So could be crap distribution again, but I can’t help but worry the toy is functionally “banned”. I may not be NB, but I do jive with Nightshade being a reclusive, yet happy go lucky nerd. I enjoy their swagger too, something I wish I had, so there’s plenty to like on top of them having a owl beast mode. I was a Beast Wars kid so Beast Modes rule, man.

Anyhow, going back to another point, this is why I like RiD15 so much. It knew what it wanted to be, a mostly low stakes action comedy, and even when it leaned a bit into darkness, it still felt tonally correct with the show. Here we have a wacky episode about an Energon parasite possessed bear, and then they jump into heavy handed discussions of racism, violence and post apocalyptic disaster the next. That’s not organic, that’s just being indecisive on the tone of your show. It’s this awkward trend of trying to make your kids cartoon into a mature, sophisticated thing, but no one has the patience or finesse to pull it off anymore and it drives me nuts. And I don’t think kids care for it either. The age range for EarthSpark I spoke to are watching the Super Mario movie, classic cartoons and older Disney movies (a lot of them, especially boys, were into Princess & The Frog and Moana in particular as it happens) when it comes to western animation. Last time I saw kids interested in Transformers was Prime, Rescue Bots, RiD15 and Bumblebee. Outside of RotB, I don’t think recent stuff has been doing it for kids, as I haven’t found any kids hugging an EarthSpark Bumblebee like their life depended on it like I did with RiD15 Bee.

I want to be clear I still like EarthSpark, and I like a lot of the characters like Alex, Mo, Jawbreaker, Bumblebee, Frenzy and Nightshade, but the cracks have been starting to show and grow larger. 26 episodes and the end goal still felt very rushed as if they thought this would be like a long running anime and didn’t utilize their time the best, and with the current strikes as of typing, I fear that’s not gonna bode well for season 2’s production either. I am very skeptical atm we get a S3, so I hope they were more careful in crafting the next phase of the story. A second season was greenlit when the first season was still being worked on, so it seems odd to me they still felt the need to rush through things as if they didn’t have time. Maybe they didn’t due to other factors? Still I hope for the best, but I’m not as exited as I once was, and a possible Prime style Relic Hunt potentially being next makes me concerned…

[nonbinary-chaos-creature]

Tooth man removed my teeth, but he gave them back afterwards so he’s alright

[mst3kproject]

The Neanderthal Man

Since I'm taking a break from fishmen, I might as well let Bigfoot catch up a bit.  The Neanderthal Man isn't exactly a Bigfoot movie, but it’s along the same lines and its entire starring cast has MST3K pedigrees.  Robert Shayne was in Indestructible Man and Teenage Caveman. Richard Crane was Rocky Jones, Space Ranger! Beverly Garland was in Swamp Diamonds and Gunslinger. Even the composer, Albert Glasser, wrote music for Invasion USA, Last of the Wild Horses, and almost all of MST3K’s Bert I. Gordon movies.

Some little mountain town in the middle of the Sierras (which the Portentous 50's Narrator takes some trouble to tell us is a primeval place where 'the defacing hand of civilization has fallen but lightly') is having a rash of saber-toothed tiger sightings!  At first these are laughed off, but when the game warden himself sees one cross the road in the middle of the night, it's time to do something about it.  The warden shows a cast pawprint to Dr. Ross Harkness in Los Angeles, who is interested enough to come up and see for himself. Local Mad Scientist Dr. Groves pooh-poohs the whole thing, which is enough to tell me that we're not dealing with a local cryptid here.  Somebody is making prehistoric monsters.

So... I may not have actually run out of movies, but I seem to be running out of plots, because this is a remarkably similar movie to Monster on the Campus. The major difference between the two films is that Dr. Blake turned himself into a caveman by accident, while Dr. Groves here is doing it on purpose.

Another difference is that Monster on the Campus' story, while silly, was linear – events escalated in a way that felt logical, and there were reasons why things happened when and where they did.  By contrast, The Neanderthal Man feels like a first draft.  At the beginning of the film, we're dealing with the saber-toothed tigers that Groves has been creating by injecting cats with his de-evolution serum.  We hear about these slaughtering game and livestock, and it seems like only a matter of time before they move on to human beings.  The beginning of the film is quite upfront about the fact that Groves is responsible, too, as it is only mildly mysterious in its depiction of one of the creatures escaping his lab.

Sometimes the saber-tooths are represented by an actual tiger, usually filmed from behind or at a great distance so nobody has to put the prosthetic teeth on it.  They do have prosthetic teeth, but they're only visible in a couple of shots. Imagine being at a bar and some guy tells you his job is sticking fake fangs on real tigers for a caveman movie!  For close-ups, there's a hilarious puppet head that looks like the sort of thing you'd see mounted on a frat house wall as a joke.  The director had the sense not to linger on this in motion shots, but later we see still photographs Groves has supposedly taken of his experimental subjects and they're even stupider-looking than we imagined.

Anyway, this goes on for a while with rising action, as the game warden goes to get Harkness and they manage to shoot one of the animals, only to have it vanish from the kill site when they try to show it to Groves (the movie never bothers to explain how that happened, incidentally. The ending suggests that the creatures change back when they die, but there's definitely no dead kitty cat at the scene, either).  The whole movie could easily have just had the cats and their creator as the antagonists, perhaps even ending the same way as Dr. Groves proves his work to the other characters by injecting himself. That's not what happens, though.  Instead, the story mostly forgets about the cats one we find out Groves has also been carrying on human experiments.

(Before himself, Groves' first experimental subject was his disabled Latina housekeeper.  Another series of photos show her half-transformed into a cavewoman who for some reason is wearing drag queen false eyelashes.  And as long as I'm talking about the movie being gross and bigoted, there's a bit where a woman is violently raped.  This happens off camera, but the audience is not allowed to entertain any illusions about it.)

The problem is that before we see him give himself an injection in the arm, we have had absolutely no indication that Groves has been giving his serum to anything besides the cats! Cats are stealthy, cryptic creatures and if one of those has been seen wandering around killing things, then surely a full-on caveman beating people to death would not be able to stay out of sight!  If what we were seeing were the first time Groves had tried the formula on himself then that would be an explanation, but his notes reveal that he's been doing it for so long that he's on the verge of losing control of the transformation and permanently reverting to a pre-human status, as indeed he does for the climax.  Much like the stupid dinosaur in The Beast of Hollow Mountain, the movie's main monster is given no build-up whatsoever!

There's worse yet, though.  The main characters, Dr. Harkness and Groves' daughter Jan, are barely involved in the 'caveman' part of the plot. They get phone calls about the various murders that Groves is committing in caveman form, and they snoop around the lab to figure out things the audience already knows.  The same story could have been told without them, perhaps with the game warden and the hunter as protagonists, and it would probably have been more interesting. The script also repeatedly has Dr. Groves wander in and bluster about how the tiger sightings are hallucinations and tall tales, which seems a little unnecessary when we already know he's responsible. The film-makers can't seem to decide whether they want us to know that or not.

Dr. Groves wears glasses.  Maybe the reason his primitive alter-ego is angry and breaking shit (although it does politely open and close the window it climbs out of, which made me laugh) is because it can't see. This is also my theory about why the Hulk smashes, and what do you know?  In Avengers Endgame he's got Hulk-sized spectacles and only smashes when he's told!

The direction of The Neanderthal Man can probably best be described as 'serviceable'.  It shows us what's going on, but doesn't particularly add anything to the proceedings.  The 'Neanderthal' mask is immobile and uninteresting, not much better than somebody's Party City Sasquatch costume.  Even the eyes are just painted on, meaning the poor guy in the costume can’t do much because he can’t see where he’s going.

The dialogue is often very strange, with characters talking like they're in a Jules Verne novel. If only one person did this, it might seem like a character quirk – it works for Dr. Groves, for example – but it's everybody. Seeing the cat carcass is gone, Harkness declares, “I refuse to believe in the supernatural!  There must be some logical cause and effect to this unholy adventure!”  Groves' fiancee Ruth berates him for ignoring her, saying, “I want you, the man I once knew!  The good companion, the cheerful friend.  I want the happiness we once found in each other.”  It's bizarre to listen to, and often audibly awkward for the actors.

Monster on the Campus was kind of trying to be about how humanity must choose to evolve away from our inner savage, although the finale didn't bear that out.  There's a scene in The Neanderthal Man in which this movie seems to be trying to go in the opposite direction, saying that we were never savage to begin with.  Dr. Groves is speaking to a panel of scientists about the size of the brain in various 'primitive' species of human.  He points out that by the time we reached Homo erectus we were already working with four times the cerebral jelly of a chimpanzee, and argues that our ancestors would have been recognizably human in their behaviour and problem-solving capacity.

(Amusingly, his chart of human evolution includes Piltdown Man, which was proven to be a hoax literally a few months after this movie's release.  What makes this even more tragic for the writers is that their list of primitive humans seems to be the only place where they actually did any research.)

The problem with Dr. Groves' theory is that he already knows it's wrong. We soon learn that he's been experimenting on himself with his serum for a while already, and his notes show that he knows very well he regresses into a near-mindless animal.  The movie does not even try to reconcile these ideas.  If Groves were continuing his experiments in the hope that perfecting his serum would give him a more accurate reconstruction of ancient man, that would be one thing, but the script never goes there.

So now that we've had two 'man turns into caveman by injecting science juice' movies, of course I have to ask which one is better.  Monster on the Campus wasn't a good movie but it was definitely an improvement on The Neanderthal Man in several respects, and although I don't have any way to find out for certain, I suspect it was an intentional remake.  It's definitely more entertaining and gets bonus points for including the Meganeura dragonfly, but nothing in it is nearly as funny as The Neanderthal Man's fake tiger head.  I guess if you're gonna watch one or the other, stick to Monster on the Campus, but if you're gonna watch both, start with The Neanderthal Man and do them in chronological order, the better to spot the inspirations and references.

Before I go, a fun paleontology fact: current thinking is that the saber-toothed cat's eponymous fangs actually didn't show when it had its mouth closed!  There are zero cave paintings or ancient sculptures of a saber-tooth cat with teeth visible, and when scientists looked at the structure of the enamel in the canines, it suggested that in life the teeth were hidden by big, fleshy, St Bernard jowls.  Google 'smilodon lips' and behold how this looks fully three hundred percent more ridiculous than you're imagining.  I love nature.

[songsformonkeys]

Bullet wounds & Bandages (dave york x reader)

Pairing: Dave York x reader

Summary: Dave shows up outside your door one evening, hurt and bleeding. You help patch him up.

Rating: Pretty safe. Some mentions of injuries but nothing worse.

Warnings: None

Notes: Written for @yespolkadotkitty​ who made the request below. She offered to beta too but it seems I have zero patience tonight so I’m posting anyway (sorry, bby, I love you <3). So the inevitable mistakes are all my own. You have been warned.

Bullet wounds and Bandages

It's just after eleven on a Sunday night when there's a knock on your door. You're already in your pajamas, curled up in front of the TV with a mug of tea and you eye the door suspiciously, wondering who would be coming for a visit at this hour.

Setting the mug down on the coffee table, you pad over to the door on bare feet. The floor feels cold in comparison to where they had just been wrapped up in a soft blanket.

When you look through the peep-hole in the door, your first instinct is to scream. Outside of your door, in the half-dark of the corridor, stands a man whose face is mostly covered in blood. Your heart feels like it's stopped mid-beat and your mind flashes back to The Shining, that you had stupidly watched on TV last night. Was this man gonna break in? And where was your phone?!

You're pulled from your thoughts when the man outside speaks. He says your name, closely followed by ”Please” and you know that voice. He shifts and as the light from the overhead lightbulb hits his face in a different way, you recognize his face too. It's Molly's dad. You've been Molly's tutor for little over a year now and while you've talked to her dad quite a lot and have even been asked to stay for dinner a few times, there's nothing in your relationship that warrants showing up at the others doorstep, looking like you'd been run over by a car. Yet here he is.

It takes you a moment to get your body working to pull the door open.

”Mr. York!” you exclaim as he almost topples over the threshold. You catch him and as your hand lands on his upper arm, it's wet with something warm and sticky. You don't need to be a genius to figure out what. The coppery smell in the air is strong enough that you can almost taste it.

You kick the door shut and lock it before hurriedly guiding Dave into the kitchen. He drags his feet and looks like he's one nudge away from falling over. You manage to get him seated on one of your kitchen chairs and in the brighter light of your kitchen, you can more clearly assess the damage. Dave has a split eyebrow, which seems to be the cause of the red mask on his face, and blood is dripping down his left arm and onto your floor. His shirt is horizontally split open and there's a long, slightly curved wound across his chest, like a fleshy grin.

”Mr. York, stay here! I'm gonna call an ambulance!” you tell him but before you have a chance to move, his right hand captures yours, pulling your attention back to his face.

”No ambulance,” he croaks and you give him a disbelieving look. Is he currently aware of the horrific picture he's currently making? ”I just need you.”

For the briefest of moments, your body has a wildly inappropriate reaction to those words and something flutters to life low in your gut, but then you have to laugh.

”Dave,” you say, switching to the more informal way of addressing him in hopes of establishing some sort of authority here. ”You're hurt. You need medical attention.”

”And you're a nurse,” Dave reasons.

”I'm a nursing student!” you protest, the pitch of your voice rising just a little.

”You graduate in three months. You'll do fine. Just follow my instructions and I'll tell you what to do. I promise I'm not dying. I just need you to be my hands.”

”I...” You glance back towards the living room, where you're pretty sure your phone is somewhere on the couch. Dave sees you looking.

”No ambulance,” he grounds out and there's a clear tone of annoyance in his voice now. It leaves no room for further argument and there's something about the way he says the words that makes you think he would physically stop you if you attempted to get to the phone now. You sigh and Dave's shoulders relax as he recognizes your defeat.

”I have a medkit in my jacket,” he tells you and jerks his head towards his left side pocket. You fish it out and inspect its contents. It's quite an impressive kit and you wonder what a man like Dave needs a kit like this for? You thought he had an office job - something with the police but an office job nonetheless. Or maybe it was just the tailored suits he always wore that had tricked you.

Dave guides you through what needs to be done. You help him out of his jacket but are forced to cut him out of his t-shirt. It's already torn and he assures you that it's no greater loss. His torso is smeared red with blood and you grab a clean kitchen towel, wetting it under the kitchen tap, before carefully cleaning away the worst of the blood to be able to better assess the damage. The slash across his chest isn't very deep and you think you'll be able to get away with taping it shut. The arm worries you more. There's a small, circular wound that's still bleeding sluggishly. Your eyes widen with realization and you look up at Dave's face.

”You have been shot,” you tell him. It's not a question. Dave nods and places his big hand over yours, where it's resting on his left forearm. It's only then that you realize that your own hand is shaking.

”I have. But don't worry about that now.” Don't worry about that now?! You have half a mind to slap some sense into him with the bloody towel. Gunshots were definitely something to worry about, in your professional opinion.

”What happened?” you can't help but ask, because curiosity gets the better of you and you can't imagine a scenario where Dave York would get shot.

”Work stuff,” he tells you, ”I'm sorry, Sweetheart, but I can't go into more details than that, right now.”

The affectionate nickname is just enough to distract you from further inquiries and Dave takes that opportunity to continue.

”I'm gonna need you to fish the bullet out and sew the wound shut. There's a pair of surgical pliers in the kit as well as needle and thread.” He speaks way more calmly than anyone with a bullet inside them has any right to. Like you're the patient that needs soothing here. It feels a little embarrassing and so you steel yourself and try to distract yourself from the circumstances of this medical exercise and just focus on getting the bullet out. It works.

Dave sits patiently through your ministrations but the strained breathing gives away that he's not as unaffected as he looks. You apologize for the pain, even though it's not your fault. There's nothing you have at home that could lessen it right now. Not unless he drinks himself unconscious and if he did, that might come with additional problematic side effects.

”Are the girls at home?” you ask, trying to distract him, as you sew the bullet wound shut, ”Because if they are, we need to call someone. Even if you don't want anyone else involved, you have to do that. I'll sew you to the chair if I have too! But you can't leave them alone, Dave.”

Dave looks up, something curious in his eyes. Then he shakes his head.

”They're at Carol's place this week.”

”Good.” You place the last stitch on his arm and move to tape the wounds on his chest and eyebrow shut. Dave closes his eyes as you gently wipe a clean corner of the towel over his face, cleaning the blood from the crow's feet around his eyes, the beautiful curve of his nose, his smooth cheek and the corner of his lips. He opens his eyes when your thumb lingers just a little too long on his soft bottom lip – the fabric of the towel, the only thing preventing a kiss. You pull away and turn to rinse the towel off in the sink before he can see more in your gaze than you would like. Have you had a crush on Dave for the better part of the year that you had been working there? Yes, but that is besides the point and more importantly, hardly the reason Dave has come over tonight.

”You can use the bathroom to clean off the rest of the blood, if you like. I'm gonna clean up here.”

You don't turn but you hear Dave get up from the chair with a pained groan before slowly shuffling off towards the bathroom.

You clean up the kitchen and hallway as best you can but the smell of blood still lingers and you know you'll have to go over it again and do it even more properly tomorrow. But right now, you're a little too jittery for mopping the floors.

Looking down, you realize that you've got some of Dave's blood on your pajamas and also that you've stepped in it and are leaving footprints where you walk. You clean off your feet and quickly disappear into your bedroom to change into a clean pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt before Dave is done in the bathroom.

When he emerges from the bathroom, still half-dressed and shirtless but a lot cleaner than before, the two of you stand awkwardly on opposite sides of the living room for a few seconds before Dave breaks the silence.

”Do you think...maybe I could stay for the night?”

”Oh thank heavens! I was worried I was gonna have to argue with you about that too,” you say with a relieved sigh. That makes Dave smile faintly.

”Thank you.”

Dave does argue a bit, however, when you tell him to sleep in the bed while you take the couch. But you make a convincing case explaining to him how the wound on his chest is going to have a much harder time to seal up properly if he sleeps cramped up on the couch, and Dave eventually gives in. He wishes you a good night, casual in a way that you might be with someone you'd just had a drink with, not someone who'd just been inside your arm with pliers, fishing out a bullet. Then he disappears into the bedroom.

You go to your hallway closet to fetch an extra set of bed sheets. You're not sure if Dave minds sleeping in your sheets but you at least want to be a good host and offer an alternative.

When you get back to your bedroom, you hear Dave cursing under his breath and find him struggling to open the buttons of his pants with one hand. The other hand hangs limp and bandaged at his side.

”Oh, you need help?” The words are out before you have fully processed just what it is you're offering and Dave replies before you have time to take the offer back.

”Please,” he says and hangs his head in defeat. Too late to take anything back now.

You set the sheets down on the edge of the bed before walking over to him, feeling your chest restricting your breathing as you get closer.

You stand in front of him and Dave meets your gaze before you look down.

”Buttons,” you say stupidly, ”Trickier.”

Dave huffs out a laugh and you feel the soft gush of air against your face. His breath smells faintly of mint, like he's been chewing gum earlier. Before you can completely chicken out, you reach for the hem of his pants, picking at the fabric to help him unbutton his pants. You go slow, trying to touch as little as possible of him, but the fabric of his jeans is stiff, making it more difficult to get the buttons free. You can see why he couldn't manage on his own. On the second button, your fingers slip and your knuckles accidentally brush over the bulge of Dave's cock. He jumps slightly and his breath stutters. You apologize instinctively, as if you've hurt him. Dave doesn't respond and as you quickly move onto the next button, you no longer feel the huffs of warm air on your face so you're not sure Dave's even breathing anymore.

When the last of the button has been popped free, you take a step back. Dave's working hand twitches as if he's about to reach for you but then stops himself.

”There. You think you can manage the rest on your own?” There's a pleading note to your voice. If Dave asks for any further help undressing, you don't think you'll be able to survive with your dignity intact. Dave hears the plea too and he nods.

”Yes. Thank you. Again.”

You smile and give him an awkward little wave before fleeing out of the bedroom.

As you stretch out on the couch a few minutes later, you try very hard not to think about Dave's reaction to the brush of knuckles and the fact that he's currently almost naked in your bed.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, you wake up before Dave does. Your couch is comfortable enough but it's not ideal for lie-ins. So you get up and start the coffee-maker. Then you wait for Dave to emerge from the den. But he doesn't.

In his defense, you hadn't told him to set an alarm but, for you, the daylight had also come with the realization that you have a lecture today that you can't miss. A lecture that would start in about an hour. If you wanted to make it on time, you would have to leave soon.

You walk over to the bedroom and knock softly on the doorframe. There's no response and suddenly you worry that Dave might have gotten worse during the night. Maybe there had been an injury that you had missed?

Carefully, you push the door open and look inside. Dave is stretched out on his back on your bed, his injured left arm laying along his side while the right one is resting on the pillow above his head. You follow the line of his right arm, along his bicep and the dark patch of hair in his armpit, down to his chest. Most of it is covered by the sheets and you can only just see the white bandage peeking out. There's a foot sticking out at the bottom of the blankets and you don't know why the sight looks so endearing to you.

Dave looks relaxed but he doesn't stir as you move into the room and you want to make sure he's really okay and that he hasn't bled through his bandages.

The one on his arm looks okay when you lean in to inspect it. The one on his chest, you can't properly see, so you reach out to lift the blanket just a fraction, without disturbing him. However, when you do, Dave's right hand shoots out like a cobra and grips your hand like a vice. It hurts and you gasp out an ”I'm sorry!”

Dave immediately loosens his grip when he realizes it's you, but he doesn't quite let go.

”Is everything okay?” he asks, voice a little rough with sleep.

”Yes. I'm sorry. I was just gonna check you hadn't bled through. I didn't want to wake you,” you explain. Dave only nods and pulls the blanket down for you to check.

”Help yourself,” he says with a soft smile and you wonder, is he even hearing himself?!

The wound on the chest seems to be in okay order as well. You tell Dave as much and also inform him about your lecture. You tell him that he can stay until you get back, if he still doesn't want to go to the doctor. Dave accepts the offer of staying and you're part annoyed and part hopeful by that response.

When you move to back away, he captures your hand again, and holds it flat against his diaphragm. You can feel him breathing under your palm and your fingers twitch with the urge to touch more of him.

”Thank you,” he says solemnly, holding your gaze with his.

”You're welcome,” you say, forcing yourself to pull your hand free from his loose hold. ”I'll see you when I get back.”

”I'll be here.” It feels both like a promise and a threat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[pocketramblr]

Poll Results

Alright, that’s it, i’m tired of trying to sort the answers so yall just get the big list of all the free response answers to that quiz about ofa. be aware some are less safe for work than others.

memorable ones: OfA Snickerdoodle, I’d Give It To A Cat, So You Know Vore Right?, I’m in Love With Nana, Slicey Blood Oath, and Homoerotic Sword Fight

(My answer above is how I think it did happen, not how I want it to happen.) I personally think something along the lines of a Bruce Banner Jennifer Walker blood transfusion where the OFA holder doesn’t realize they’ve passed it on until later.

a tender kiss. perhaps loving. perhaps they're dying, and i already knew that they loved me, either platonically or otherwise, and we always knew that i'd be next. perhaps they tried so hard to make sure it never happened, and perhaps that tender kiss as an apology as much as it is a gift. sure sucks to be gay i guess 

Peacefully? By doing the do and making it a wonderful moment of lovemaking and passing on the future.. If we're in the middle of battle you bet your freaking butt I want them to kiss me dramatically, tell me they love me, and then yeet me away as they turn back to the fight. Ow but relationship goals. 

If we're not romantic because I am obsessed with the Duo Holders ship currently, blood works fine. Ingest it or have them pressing a bloody palm into a wound of mine *shrugs* Gotta pass it along somehow

Personally, I'd rather drink blood instead of hair. It feels less gross. But I'd pass it on as hair just to fuck with my successor

Hair or blood eating, but no touchy-touchy or whatever thx.

Probably a vial of blood so it’s easy and over quick

kiss 👉👈

i would like it to be blood from an already opened wound just cause it would probably less weird, ..........but knowing my luck and because irl my sister has attempted to feed me her baby teeth by shoving it to my lips and saying "eat", thats actually how i would get ofa. ( >:/ i have almost eaten at least two teeth this way because i thought she was being nice and giving me candy )

Consider: doing one of those blood oath things where you swear to be BFFs for eternity except now you also get a quirk out of it. But lbr kissing is way more romantic and you’ve made First/Second my new OTP, so I’ll stick with that for them. <3 But also, maybe to make the kiss option more romantic First thought something more along the lines of wishing he could give ~everything he has/all of himself~ to Second which counted as including his quirk, rather than specifically about giving him the power to defeat his brother?

This is going to sound gross but all ways of transferring DNA is. Just work up a sweat and have the other party drink it. It would probably be the best tasting option which is kinda a weird thing to think about. Nvm sweat doesn't contain DNA looked it up but I don't want to delete all of this so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe a scraping of skin cells

Honestly the hair is probably the way I'd want to go. That or blood. Like just swallowing it.

Look, i know realistically it was probably some desparate on-the-brink-of-death "please defeat my brother" thing and oo, magic he gets the quirk. But consider. First's last fight with afo. Second is holding his bleeding body, crying. First gently cups Second's cheek and pulls him into a bloody kiss before dying. Second pulls himself together just long enough to flip off afo, barely resisting the urge to absolutely slaughter him, knowing he would lose. He finds his successor and trains him to the best of his ability, determined to not lose another person he cared for

I mean like dead skin cells probably dont work right? Except hair works so thats not true. So like you totally could lick someone to get OFA. Like could you imagine the whole holding your hand over someones mouth to shut them up but they lick you and they somehow wind up with your quirk, like crazy. What must have been the trial and error with this stuff cause they must have kept passing it inbetween each other to figure out its dna right. How long did it take for them to realize. Like you’re eating breakfast and theres a hair in your food like ew and why am i stronger now. Overall, comedic timing for getting a quirk would be hilarious.

My apprentice lays broken and bloody beneath me as I cradle them in my arms, crying on to an open wound on their face praying the power will be enough to save them

little bit of skin like a hang nail just like put it in a sandwich and dont thing about it

Put it in my coffee.

If I received it from Nana then I would love to have received it via eating her out~ though for passing it on to others I think I would just either spit into their mouths or shove a bleeding finger down their throat until they swallow and then run and get myself killed by AfO while taunting him with "I DON'T HAVE YOUR BROTHER'S QUIRK ANYMORE! SUCK MY NON-EXISTENT DICK YOU LOSER!"

knock me out and just inject the blood. if i have to actively think abt ingesting someone elses dna im gonna yeet myself into the ocean. to pass it on i'll just spit in a cup (or in their mouth) bc im not gonna make someone eat my hair nor is anyone getting my blood

who in their right mind would trust me with a power like ofa 💀afo just looks at me funny the quirk is his. im not a mc for a reason

Sexy battle where I’m the villain, and randomly the hero thinks “I wish I could save you”. Boom I punch them with bloody knuckles and the quirk passes to me. Now the hero has to teach me how to be good again. Also we fall in love.

You know, I always assumed I would head canon it as something romantic until canon proved me wrong But these options are so varied - I had to choose the most Dramatic (tm) one As for my actual answer: a gentle kiss with full consent from both parties

I will bite a holder as a sign of affection. There's probably some dead skin cells in the arm I can swallow by accident. They are used to this and sometimes we switch the quirk around for funsies.

You know, I spent like 10 minutes trying to think of something original here, but knowing my shit luck some bastard would spit in my drink or something and cast upon me the Curse of Bone Breaking and/or.... y’know..... AFO...........

okay this is gonna sound weird but. consider this i marry a very lovely women. we are in much love. we get attacked by evil people because she is a good hero but plot twist. i am secretly her nemisis. the attackers are my minions. i wanted her to protect me because i am very smol but. my comrades were too mean. she is nearly dead. "take this" she says. she kisses me and i am one for all. fuck, i say internally, but i dont tell her. she dies in my arms. i run and become vigilante and take down my once comrades. all is not well. i die unsatisfied. i eventually pass it onto a cat in an alleyway because they are the only one who is with me when i get hit with a back alley sniper

Blood or just like. skin. You could use nail clippers to take a bit off from a really fleshy area, like just under the nail. It's that easy

Spit in my food like an underpaid fast food worker.

i have long hair so that would not be ideal, but blood seems kinda...unsanitary, but i guess it would be better if i was 100% positive i wouldn't pass on some sort of disease. so if that could be ascertained then like a few drops of blood in a glass of water or something and then down the hatch, bam ofa passed on. i know other folks are probably typing some nsfw stuff but just. no. keep it in your pants y'all.

Blood transfusion First, pick a hospital Second, steal all their blood Third, have the previous user donate their blood to that hospital Fourth, get into a major accident and need a blood transfusion near the hospital you robbed Fifth, hope either OfA will only pass onto you bc your the intended recipient, or that no one else needs a blood transfusion Sixth, get the transfusion Seventh, steal all of the previous users blood back Eigth, return all the other stolen blood Ninth, get new identities, this crime leaves DNA everywhere Tenth, die of a blood clot due to incompatible blood types (optional)

okay realistically bleeding into a cut or a drop of blood into water and drinking it would be easiest but like... what if somehow dna could be baked into like a muffin or cookie or something... like i know when cooking with wines and stuff the alcohol cooks away and evaporates out but is that process the same for like blood? like if you baked your blood into a cookie would traces of your dna still be there? basically i want an ofa cookie (snickerdoodle preferably)

no i like my bones

drink a drop of blood. it'd go down easier than hair

no

Something dramatic and desperate in the heat of battle like blood or something

First of all, I think First passed OfA as he was dying entirely on accident, because Second was badly (though not critically) injured and they'd been sort of dancing around each other's feelings and doubting their own worth, so First, knowing he was dying and that his brother was a petty bitch who would probably kill Second anyway because he knows that First cared about him, kisses Second with blood on his lips and his last thoughts before dying are about how he wants Second to have the strength to survive if his brother comes after him.

If I was given the option of getting OfA, I wouldn't take it. I'm a coward and being given something like that is a death sentence.

If it was forced, probably ingesting the previous users blood, because blood is a lot easier to choke down than hair.

If I already had it and had to pass it on, I would want it to be something suitably dramatic like collapsing on the doorstep of a trusted loved one and explaining with my dying breath who killed me and why and then raising my blood covered hand to their face like I was going to caress their cheek only for them to taste blood. They cry and try to get me take it back and when I finally die they swear vengeance over my slowly cooling corpse.

Pass it on in a non-life threatening scenario where I decide I actually don’t like the weird bone breaking power a random person gave me as they were dying and wish I could pass it to someone else and through a weird set of circumstances end up accidentally cooking some of my own hair into brownies I was making because I shed like a dog and passing it to my new neighbor I came to welcome to the neighborhood.

Either drinking a glass of milk with their saliva (no icky hair taste), or an epic sharing of blood while clasping hands like knights in a noble brotherhood!

not by eating all mights long ass hair thats for sure, why did he give midoriya one of the longest ones he had, he has shorter hair right there on the back of his head. not to mention the fact of like how i would prefer to recieve it or give it away which would be just, fucking sharing a pop or something and swaping it through the backwash??? less nasty than hair and not as weird as the other options for spit which is like straight up spitting in a drink or the other persons mouth outside of kissing. if someone told me i had to eat their hair i would straight up say no thanks, cheers for the fitness glow up tho homie

I want nana 2 kiss me, on.,, the m,,,.."#*(@÷out.h pretty lady.,

Q-tip to the inside of the cheek

Those blood pacts where you slice your hands open and do a little handshake thing. Not very creative, but idk it just appeals to me

Via consumption of blood, babey

I would want it to be with a maybe maybe not homoerotic sword fight in a Wendy's parking lot, preferably while we are both being impaled on each other's swords. The sweet pain of almost dying is a very intense moment to share isn't it?

Sweet love

Hair

If it's someone cute, a kiss. Otherwise I'd probably just swallow a hair with some water.

i'd just like. spit in their water bottle. if thats not enough dna i guess licking a paper cut it is. hair is bad idwa bc it doesn't digest and can get wrapped up in things. and like. im too aroace for kissing and such

Last option, cause first is sexy as hell

okay you know what vore is, right. and you know how blood and organ transfusions work? well...

Not at all, like?? I enjoy being alive and not having my body destroyed thank you. Literally everyone with OfA died young-ish or has suffered debilitating injuries bc of it. Like Midoriya's bones are powder, and we don't even need to go into All Might's medical history. Like thanks but no thanks no freaky dna ingestion 4 me

Had a open cut from a can lid and ofa holder had an open cut. While lamenting about fins a successor.

Blood

Assuming we can bypass the rules of canon, it would be funny as fuck is OFA was passed on by intentional physical contact. So yes, a smooch for First and Second (and Second and Third) but also. Bitchslap of destiny. Nana giving her protege one last hug. All Might ruffles Mido’s hair like a dad to pass it on. I’m sure you get it

Bleeding over an open wound

lil bit of spit in a milkshake.

I hold their hand Platonically but it's summer and we're both sweaty and they're a little loopy and having weird thoughts due to dehydration and heat lmao, literally hanging around anyone for any extended period of time guarantees you accidentally ingest SOME of their dna. Dead skin cells are floating through the air ~constantly~ and if you have a friend I promise you've inhaled their dead skin cells before. Have fun with that knowledge!!

ok so like deffo a kiss, but in canon people get weird biological urges for using their quirks, like bby Toga drinking bird blood. First has had a LOT of "spit in their drink" intrusive thoughts over the years. immediately post first-kiss he is mystified that his intrusive thoughts have disappeared entirely, but then BAM it seems that second has the stockpile now, and with it, a preoccupation with vampire lore

drink from the same water bottle?

“EAT THIS!”

Pass it on by making them lick my arm because that would make them rly uncomfortable, passed to me by spiting in my 20oz Red Bull and then chugging it

[sepublic]

Belos and the Emperor’s Guard

           I don’t have an exact idea of what Belos looks like underneath the mask- But generally speaking, I imagine his ‘face’ to be less a face, and more a discombobulated mass of flesh, bone, and sharp teeth clumsily mashed together, with at least two eyes that may or may not have come from an Emperor’s Guard, and not himself. I mean, come on- Belos already has cannibalistic motifs, and he seems to be experiencing organ failure on a body-wide level. A transplant is not out of the question, especially since we’ve seen him replace his own bile stores with a Palisman’s….

           And honestly, that last part makes me wonder what’s the deal with the Emperor’s Guard. It’s interesting that Belos’ eyes seem to take cues from them, whilst we know that members of the Emperor’s Coven are witches that can come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and eye colors. The Emperor’s Guard is a bit more unusual, as we can actually see a part of their body; And that part seems equally uniform throughout all of their numbers. There’s the not-mutually-exclusive possibility that Belos’ current set of eyes came from an Emperor’s Guard (and that he routinely replaces them as they decay and rot), but looking at his creations…

           His constructs are different from Abominations. They’re very much fleshy, composed of veins, muscles, and viscera. The things that Belos creates are alive, and come across as less magical than your typical Abomination, with not as much reliance on magic to animate them, particularly with mostly-functioning muscles and veins. The Intro Worm that Belos spawns seems to be a somewhat autonomous, living creature; I could see it being its own genuine organisms separate from Belos, AKA something that would fall underneath Beast Keeping magic, VS Abominations.

           And while we haven’t seen much, it seems Beasts are less controllable than Abominations, though they make up for it by coming in a much more diverse range of abilities and shapes. Given their unanimous appearance, I have to wonder if the Emperor’s Guards are actually fleshy, living constructs, made by Belos himself, constantly churned out? Unlike Abominations, these ‘constructs’ are fully living with proper organs and brains, which allows them to be a lot more autonomous, creative, and less dependent on Belos’ constant maintence and control to operate; But it could also mean the development of free will, and thus receding loyalty when it comes to Belos’ cause, especially when spread thin across the Boiling Isles and having less direct contact and oversight from their creator. Hence, some guards not being overtly-strict to the law, expressing their own individuality, and even supporting Wrath’s attempted hook-up with Eda, which should be illegal. Granted, Belos didn’t care about Eda until after he learned of the portal, which could’ve been post-Episode 1, but still.

           Though they’re made by Belos as a reliable source of soldiers that he can rely upon himself for, the Emperor’s Guard seems pretty weak compared to witches. No doubt effective in reigning in the powerless denizens of the Boiling Isles… But it seems that with Belos’ own bile stores constantly depleted as-is, it’s out of his capabilities, or at least immensely impractical, to create a magic-wielding witch from scratch. Overall, it just makes more sense to recruit his witches from the pre-existing people of the Boiling Isles, to serve in his Emperor’s Coven as his elites; Being much more powerful than an Emperor’s Guard, and more loyal- Or at least AS loyal. If Emperor’s Guards are capable of free will, then that makes them not much different than children who’ve been indoctrinated by Belos’ propaganda from an early age.

           However, there’s also the possibility that the Emperor’s Guard are all regular people, but upon recruitment, they undergo a magical transformation to fit an ideal mold that is potentially stronger than you average citizen. Belos is already altering his citizens’ bodies without consent by applying his bindings and making them law- I wouldn’t put it past him to be particularly controlling when it comes to his own forces. For all we know, the appearance of the Emperor’s Guard, or at least what little we see of them, is a reflection of Belos’ own features, or how they used to look like before he became so decayed.

          This also lends to the idea that perhaps the Emperor’s Coven witches are like this- You just can’t tell, because like their Emperor they’re closer to than anyone else, they obscure and cover themselves head-to-toe. There seems to be less stict indoctrination and control amongst the Emperor’s Guard, so this can be visually reflected by having them expose their eyes; But for the Emperor’s Coven who are much aligned with Belos’ values as an extension of him, they too regularly obscure themselves completely. Perhaps that’s what the Emperor’s Brand does; It physically transforms people into a specific mold/breed of witch, one reminiscent of Belos himself, to further conform to the creep, while spreading his image. It’d be visually symbolic of becoming more an extension of Belos than your own person- A soulless reflection of his visage and beliefs.

           Which- I don’t know if it’s just me, but the eyes of Belos and his Emperor’s Guard kind of remind of the eyes of a bird… Specficially a corvid’s, I believe. If we go by the idea that witches from the Emperor’s Coven have the same eyes and they’re just obscured, it… REALLY makes me wonder what’s behind that mask? If Belos is an actual bird-like creature, and how this might relate to his winged motif, that one-eyed owl mural we see in the Owl House… Clawthornes having a bird motif, etc. I’m not saying Belos is a Clawthorne, but I do wonder if there are certain similarities between him and that family lineage…

[second-chance-stray]

Rp Log: The door to Heartwood is blocked.

(...chronologically happens before this!)

Cravendy Hound pushes, but the machine will not budge through the door. She pushes harder. It still does not give. Cravs becomes incredibly angry and kicks it. It does not help whatsoever.

Riylli Aliapoh: "Try turning it again!" Riylli called out to Cravs, being totally helpful as she rested nearby with her hat in her lap.

Cravendy Hound: “Not ‘elpin’. ARGH.” Cravs tries to pull it out in order to adjust its angle, but finds it firmly wedged into the door frame. She takes a few steps back, and then rushes at it, her shoulder leading the attack. And for the second time that day, she regrets charging at metal.

Riylli Aliapoh: "Pfft." Riylli couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at Cravs misfortune. Serves her right for calling Miqo'te 'cat-folk'. She gets herself up on her feet, the ride back on the carbuncle having given her time to recover slightly. "Hmm... I think you got it stuck... Hope no ones inside still?"

Cravendy Hound rubs at her tender arm, wincing all the while. “.....No, there’s definitely people inside.”

Cravendy Hound: "But they're smart. They'll manage." She hopes. "Now 'ow are we gonna get this thing through?"

Riylli Aliapoh frowns, putting all of her thinking juice into the tank. "Maybe... Maybe we can take it apart, then just put it back together inside?" She offered, approaching to look the thing over, despite having no idea what she was actually looking for. "Uh... You good with machines?"

Cravendy Hound sucks air through her teeth. “Don’t think my smarts with guns translates to...to whatever this thing is. Take it apart sure, but don’t know if it’ll be put back together.”

Cravendy Hound hums in thought. “Ye think if we oil it up enough, it’ll slide through?”

Riylli Aliapoh nudged the thing with her foot. "...Maybe? Can't say I've ever had to use the stuff before. Couldn't hurt to try though, right?" She gave a helpful shrug, and another helpful nudge with her foot. "Do... we have oil? Where do we get oil?"

Cravendy Hound: “Uh.” She had not thought that far ahead. “We could go and buy some at the Botanist’s guild back in Gridania. But how many jugs of olive oil would it take to cover this thing, and...shit. Forget I said anythin’, this is a trash idea.”

Riylli Aliapoh: "Well we gotta do something!" Riylli insisted. "My votes still on taking it apart. That's what they're gonna do inside anyway right? What's it matter if we just get it out of the way now?"

(Cravendy Hound) seasoning the machine with oil and salt would just make a bad situation worse xD )) (Riylli Aliapoh) (Gotta season it properly before it can be researched (Rising Lotus) Way to go guys))

Cravendy Hound: “Well. I’m sure it’ll be fine if we just cut apart the outer bits.” She turns and picks up a conveniently placed saw from the frontyard’s forge area. “...Wait. Sawin’ through metal seems...questionable.”

(Cravendy Hound) let it marinate for a good while :D )) (Rising Lotus) how am I suppose to feed my fish now?)) (Haila Wetyios) Oh lord dont season the robot))

Cravendy Hound: “And by questionable, I mean tirin’. Argh, I want a drink.” But the drinks are inside, Cravs. The drinks are inside.

(Haila Wetyios) Kevin's geese are gonna eat it)) (Cravendy Hound) if they eat it, problem solved! Door unblocked xD )) (Cravendy Hound) but then we'll need another lmao )) (Haila Wetyios) Riylli and Cravs: " We got you the robot!"   Haila: "Why is it only half of it's body?..."))

Rising Lotus strolls through the gateway to the yard, slowing down as she see's the spider they had just hauled crammed into the dooryway. "...So..." she glances at the two she caught red handed.

Riylli Aliapoh: "Duh, saws are for wood and stuff." Riylli explained, looking around at the forge set up outside. 'What we need is... Hmm... Oh!" The Miqo'te's eyes glistened as she rushed over to the fire and picked up a pair of tongs. "This thing looks perfect!"

Cravendy Hound: "................." She looks away, avoiding Rising's stare.

Riylli Aliapoh: "Rising! Good timing, you get to prove how big and strong you are." She said, flashing a grin as she held up the blacksmiths tongs towards her

Rising Lotus is at quite a loss for words, especially as Riylli ran over to grab a pair of tongs. "..What's your plan here then?" she backed up a bit as the tongs were suddenly offered to her.

Cravendy Hound: “Plannin’ to take the machine apart, cause pushin’ it ain’t workin’.” Cravs walks over and peruses the tools available. A hammer, maybe? Smash it until it’s compact enough to make it through the entryway? Hmm...

Riylli Aliapoh fiddled with the tongs, opening and closing them like they were a set of jaws. "Well, were gonna take the outside parts off the thing, and I bet you can use this to... pull it..? Like peeling an orange." She finished with a nod too confident for the current situation

Rising Lotus "Wasn't the whole point of bringin' it back more intact? I feel like it'll piss Haila off if parts of it are all smashed up, as good a plan as that is..." as she looked over the broken machine and then the doorway she was mentally picturing where to smash it to let it slide, shaking her head of the idea afterwards. " Hmm, I got an idea though, Riylli, can you magic me up a rock?"

(Haila Wetyios) im just here sitting and eating while terrified for this poor spider))

Riylli Aliapoh hesitated, still pretty drained but not about to admit it. "Er... How big? What're you planning?" She asked, absolutely not stalling for time

Cravendy Hound: “If all fails, we can smash the doorway.” In an effort to look cool, Cravs hefts the hammer over her shoulder, but nearly loses her balance as the heavier end falls to the right. The hammerhead is stopped by the stairwell, and Cravs crosses her legs a beat after. All according to plan.

Rising Lotus held her hands apart, about the size of the soccer ball. "All ball like, smooth too."

Cravendy Hound suddenly realizes that there's somewhere she needs to be, and leans back forward. "Bugger, I'll 'ave to leave ye two to it. Best of luck."

(Cravendy Hound) brb dinner! :D ))

Riylli Aliapoh rubbed the back of her head. "Well... I can't really make it into a ball. You kinda just gotta take rocks in the shape they come, unless you wanna sit there working it for bells at a time." She blinked as Cravendy suddenly ran off. "H-Hey! You can't just leave us with your mess!" She called out angrily, then huffed as she realized it was too late and the woman was gone

Rising Lotus rubbed her chin. "Well it's not gonna work if she's gone. Was gonna smash the window with the rock then help unstuck it from the inside." she looked back to Riylli. "You look a little too spent to try that kind of liftin' right now."

Riylli Aliapoh planted her hands on her hips. "I'm fine." She stated stubbornly. "Why'd it even have to be a ball if we were just gonna smash a window with it? And... I don't think Haila and the others'll be happy if we break the window"

Rising Lotus beamed. "Well, I needed you to give me a rock so I could blame ya for breakin' it of course! Figured if it'd be a fancy rock it'd make more sense that you did it." she shrugged "Beside, between the spider, the door frame, the window, whatever might get smashed ain't gonna make people happy. Window jus' seems like it'd be the easier to fix.

Haila Wetyios | Suddenly there was a loud knock on metal from the other side, it was a very alarmed Viera that immediately called out to them. "Please tell me there were no casualties when bringing this?!" she said from the inside as the big spider moved a little bit due to pushing from Haila's end of the door.

Riylli Aliapoh made a face. "Alright, I'm never making any rocks for you now-" She began, only to jump as Haila's voice suddenly rang out from inside. "Um... N-No, no casualties!" Riylli awkwardly called back. "Cravs got the thing stuck trying to fit it through the door though. And Rising was gonna break a window and blame it on me!" She tattled to the Viera mom, giving Rising another glare as she did

Rising Lotus rolled her eyes. "Yeah it went very well, thing should be mostly workin', almost no thanks to Riylli though. She wanted to smash it to get it out of the door." If the miqo'te was going to tattle she might as well too. "But now that you're here, well there, you can help us get it in.. or out maybe. Where do ya want it?

Riylli Aliapoh: "I didn't want to smash it! I wanted to PEEL it. With these tongs!" She clanged them together once more for added emphasis. "You don't need the outside part anyway, right?"

Haila Wetyios stopped trying to push at the spider from her end, for a moment if either of the two were sharp on listening in, they would have heard a sigh of relief from the Viera, followed by silence. "I can tell 'tis mostly intact... and with clean cuts to the joint too.." she murmured, clearly passing her hand over the large creature. She paused, looking it over before calling out to them once more. "How about you just peel back the flesh? It won't really need it and I can attach whatever falls off."

Haila Wetyios | That's right, a good chunk of the spider was actually covered in weird squishy flesh.

Riylli Aliapoh immediately shoved the tongs into Rising's hands, sticking out her tongue victoriously. She was an adult. A victorious adult.

Rising Lotus glared at Riylli, snapping the tongs in an attempt to catch the girl's tongue. "I'm sorry I didn't want to start takin' a killed spider apart! At least comin' from Haila I know it's safe now!" she flung the tongs onto the ground, taking the knife off the back of her belt. "Go grab somethin' to start cuttin' of your own, It's you're an' Crav's fault it's stuck after all, and she ain't here so get to it." she moved to a side of the machine, starting to cut into the fleshy parts and lobbing them>

Rising Lotus off onto the ground.

Riylli Aliapoh: "Wha- It wasn't my fault! Cravs did it all, not me. Maybe if yoouu had been around it wouldn't have gotten stuck." She chided, finally removing her coat as it was beginning to get a bit warm with it on.

Haila Wetyios sighed rather loudly this time, "Less talk and more work! Whoever brought this in could have set it on the front yard and then let everyone inside know you were back you know..."

Rising Lotus was busy carving away, mostly ignoring Riylli's complaints at this point. "You'd think this stuff would smell worse than it would, but it ain't too bad." she pulled a particularly sticky and slimy piece off "Gross feeling though."

Riylli Aliapoh eventually did approach with her own knife in hand, beginning to help carve the spider despite her complaints. "That was Cravs," She decided to chime in still, wanting a bit of revenge for getting ditched with the problem. "Please don't start eating the spider... Even hunters have limits."

Rising Lotus had made a pretty good time with her carving, most of it on her side near or almost near the metal core. " I mean, well this thing ain't natural, but if there was a real big spider you wouldn't try it? It's legs would probably be like crabs legs or somethin'." she pondered a old fashion spider boil "Though I guess if it's poisonous you shouldn't eat it."

Riylli Aliapoh had started later, but she had plenty of experience in carving animals and was making good progress. "Ugh, no... We occasionally kill banemites back home, but not even the elementals getting pissy would convince us to eat 'em." She muttered, trying not to think about it. "I ain't about to eat crabs either. Nothing but water spiders if you ask me."

(Haila Wetyios) getting pretty tired here, I think Imma call it)) (Riylli Aliapoh) (Alrights, goodnight! (Rising Lotus) Okays! We'll leave the spider and piles of flesh outside haila's door)) (Haila Wetyios) thank you guys for the rps! night night)) (Haila Wetyios) that's if they can even squeeze it into the door leading there~))

Rising Lotus "Crabs acre actually somethin' callled crustaceans! Different than spiders somehow, not sure how but that's what some fish scientist told me once." she sheathed her knife and clapped her hands together as her side was done, leaving it much slimmer than before.

(Cravendy Hound) I'm back! )) (Rising Lotus) Welcome back!))

Cravendy Hound returns, clearly inebriated. The appointment that had dragged her away from this problem earlier? Maybe not something she had to go to right away. She stumbles over, raises a bottle over her head, calls out to Riylli and Rising. “Oyyy, not done yet?”

Riylli Aliapoh: "Yeah, well, some scientists think Miqo'te are related to cats, so..." She left it at that, her thoughts on that conclusion likely obvious. She turned around to glare angrily at Cravs as she suddenly appears, and appears drunk at that. "You... This is your mess, get over here and work dammit!" She said, tossing her latest carving of flesh at her

Rising Lotus grumble as Cravs returned, bottle in hand. "Aye! Get you're drunk ass over here and push this thing in now!" following Riylli's example, she found a particularly slimy bit she cut off and lobbed it towards Cravs, grinning devilishly as she did so.

Cravendy Hound laughs as the flesh chunks smack her directly on the chest. “My mess? Was it?” She hiccups, and then takes a seat on the ground. “Yerrrr both doin’ great though. Keep up the good work.”

Riylli Aliapoh: Nope. Nopenopenope. Riylli marches over and snatches the bottle out of the drunken Cravs' hand, taking a swig for herself and refusing to give it back. "Y'know what, it's carved enough. You go push it now, doubt you'll be useful for anything else anyway." She chided angrily, complete with her hands on her hips

Rising Lotus sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose and she started to walk away from the carved up spider. "Yeah jus' hurry up and get it in, I need a drink myself after this..." after saying that though her face lit up and she pulled a flask out of her satchel. She popped the cap off and took a swig...of nothing. Damn you past Rising!

Cravendy Hound wobbles back as the bottle is taken from her hands, as stable as a pillar of jello. She doesn’t struggle at all, and instead chooses to lie down on the ground, rolled to her side. “Bloooody bilgerat...yer not me mum.” A string of incoherent half-insults and half-words follow.

Riylli Aliapoh blinks, then nudges Cravs with her foot. "It's been like... not even a bell since you disappeared. How th' hells a giant like you such a lightweight?" She let out a sigh, then took another swig. Maybe Cravs had had the right idea after all. "Alright, whatever, you're up then instead Giant Number Two." She said, motioning to Rising with the bottle

Cravendy Hound: “The secret, my fuzzy funny friend, is drinkin’ lots in a short amount of time.” And whatever is in that bottle is awfully strong. Hic!

Rising Lotus started grumbling again until it loud scoff. "You two are both useless! Both of ya get it stuck and I'm the one that has to do the most work!" she stomped over to the spider, squatting down and  easily lifting the heavy machine. There was lots of swearing and grunting, but she managed to get it inside with a mighty shove, clearing the doorway. Panting, she stood in the doorway looking back at the two. "Well at least /I/ can get inside now." with a smirk she slammed the door shut >

Rising Lotus the next sound being the lock clicking closed.

(Cravendy Hound) also I was catching up and sdjfkldsfj Rising asking for a smooth rock killed me )) (Cravendy Hound) YOU LOCKED THE DOOR AAahahah xD ))

Riylli Aliapoh blinked, staring at the now locked door for one long moment before taking another big swig. "You Roegadyn are impossible..." She mutters at Cravs, then marches up to the door. "AND HOW'RE YOU GONNA GET IT THROUGH THE SECOND DOOR, GENIUS!?" Riylli yelled as loud as she could.

(Riylli Aliapoh) (Can you believe these guys helped build a town

Cravendy Hound lets out a hoot as the entrance is -finally- cleared. Alright, time to get off the ground. The bed in her room is far more comfortable than lying on the dirt. She rolls onto her stomach and then heaves up with no small amount of effort. Cravs groans, forcing left foot over right until she’s miraculously next to the door...but why won’t it open?

Rising Lotus would yell back "NOT LIKE YOU'D HELP ANYWAY! HAVE FUN SLEEPING IN THE RAIN!" she stomped up the stairs towards the bar.

Cravendy Hound: “Nnnnnoooooooo, come back. Rising, I’m gonna die out ‘ere.” A gross exaggeration, clearly, but Cravs wails nonetheless.

Riylli Aliapoh: "I DON'T EVEN LIVE HERE YOU IDIOT!" Riylli shouted right back, at this point the pair having probably woken up the neighbors. She lets out a frustrated sigh and plants her head against the door, going quiet for another long moment before finally turning to Cravs. "...So... Do you got a key or somethin'..? You ain't gonna like... Die, if I leave you out here, right?"

(Cravendy Hound) we're capable heroes! ...but not during our off hours ahah )) (Riylli Aliapoh) Front door (Savage)

Cravendy Hound blinks, uncoordinated, but snaps back to attention when Riylli asks her about dying. “SHHH, don’t tell that to Risin’! We want ‘er to open the door!” She whispers loudly.

Rising Lotus after a few minutes footsteps could be heard coming towards the door and it was unlocked, Rising opening it up and still looking quite frustrated. "..Jus' hurry up an' let her get in here so she can lay down.." she had a bottle of her own in her hand by now, and clearly wanted to get back to it once Cravs wasn't passed out on the lawn.

Riylli Aliapoh glares, muttering under her breath as she basically shoves Cravendy in through the doorway. "'Hurry up' huh? Like it's my fault you locked the damned door... I didn't sign up for this shite, I should be hunting monsters right now..."

Cravendy Hound: “..mhn, that’s right...I’m an officer.” Cravs reaches into her pocket, pulls out a key, and attempts to guide it to the keyhole. But what happens is that the door whips open, she gets pushed through, and she ends up jabbing the key at Rising.

Rising Lotus was able to catch the roegadyn as she was shoved in her direction, keeling forward a bit as the key was pushed into her gut. Taking a deep breath in she fixed her gaze at Riylli, staring daggers at her. "Well. She's in here. so then LEAVE." there was a sharpness to her words as the unfortunate Miqo'te became the target to vent all of this sudden frustration on.

(Cravendy Hound) a slowly unfolding disaster )) (Rising Lotus) Right xD? (Riylli Aliapoh) (If only Rising had just used those darn tongs (Rising Lotus) To be fair though, I think we all know how moving couches through doorways can be, this was bound to happen (Cravendy Hound) xD ))

Riylli Aliapoh: "Fine! And when Haila asks why there's a spider carcass in the lobby and guts all over the lawn, you better not leave any details out!" Riylli shot back angrily, tensions definitely running high. "I'm goin' home, good luck with the hangover." She muttered finally, and began to stomp off on her long way home

Cravendy Hound leans her full weight on Rising and wraps an arm around her shoulders. Pressed up against her, she weakly tries to defuse the budding conflict. “Oy oyy, there’s no need for fightin’...” And though it takes a while, she eventually finds her balance again. Seeing Riylli leaving, she calls out to her. "SEE YA..."

(Cravendy Hound) ...space cowboy )) (Cravendy Hound) nothing like bonding over a dangerous battle, only to lose it all over door drama pff )) (Riylli Aliapoh) (The only solution is to bond over drinking next time

Rising Lotus grunted as she was suddenly supporting Cravs, huffing as Riylli started off, the frustration in her face starting to change to regret. With a sigh she pushed it all down, rolling her eyes as Cravs said her good bye. Once she was  able to stand on her own, Rising dumped her on the couch and hurried off to her room.

(Rising Lotus) lol, and it was such a successfull mission too xD (Riylli Aliapoh) The end! What a happy ending lol (Cravendy Hound) hehe door rp was so fun + funny tho xD ))

Cravendy Hound faceplants on the couch and quickly falls asleep.

[pomrania]

D&D Spells for TMA Entities

Since I'm currently on a The Magnus Archives kick, I thought I might as well look through the sourceboks, and go over which spells would fit with which Powers. Might also work as inspiration for flavouring in unrelated D&D games.

Spells marked with a (x) are from Xanathar; everything else is from the PHB. This isn't complete; more spells will be added as I write up description for each of the Entities associated with them.

For simplicity's sake, all the "fire" spells that are only associated with Desolation: Aganazzar's Scorcher (x) / Burning Hands / Create Bonfire (x) / Fireball / Fire Bolt / Fire Shield / Fire Storm / Flame Blade / Immolation (x) / Produce Flame / Scorching Ray / Searing Smite / Wall of Fire

Animate Objects Stranger: It shouldn't be moving, yet it is.

Antimagic Field End: Even magic itself shall eventually die.

Arcane Gate Spiral: Doors appear wherever you want them to.

Arms of Hadar Dark: You carry the night within you, and the night is hungry. Web: Spider legs sprout from your form and thrash about, sucking the life out of those they touch.

Banishment Dark: You send someone to commune with your god for a little while, somewhere that light never existed; the place may be "harmless", but they don't know that. Lonely: Spend some time, completely alone. Spiral: A door opens on your target, and they wander the endless halls. Vast: Enjoy the endless falling, for a moment.

Blindness/Deafness Dark: It's a gift, really. End: Temporary death of the senses. Lonely: When you can't see or can't hear, you are cut off from others; as you always were. Web: You seal shut the target's eyes or ears with fine silken threads.

Call Lightning Vast: The sky's power is your own.

Calm Emotions End: There's no point in feeling, when death will take us all eventually. Lonely: You're distant from everything, including what you might feel. Web: You can still feel the terror or anger or joy; but it's distant, and something prevents it from determining your actions.

Charm Person / Charm Monster (x) Spiral: You've always been their good friend, even if you just met. Web: They will do what you want, because they like you.

Clairvoyance Beholding: Your eyes aren't limited to what you have in your head.

Comprehend Languages Beholding: Nothing shall be a barrier to your understanding.

Compulsion Web: You tug the strings to drag them around.

Control Flames (x) Dark: Extinguishing and dimming only. Desolation: It only takes a spark; and you'll make sure that that spark heads to where it can cause the most devastation.

Cordon of Arrows Stranger: Imagine the looks on their faces when an arrow starts shooting itself!

Create Food and Water Corruption: Even as you chew and swallow them, the summoned insects won't stop moving. Flesh: You won't like where it comes from, but it DOES technically create something that can be eaten for nutrients. (Optional: requires material components of a blade and a fleshy body, which can include the caster.)

Crown of Madness Slaughter: Sometimes you need to encourage them a bit before they start killing. Web: So many people already want to cause harm, it only takes a tiny nudge to direct that desire.

Cure Wounds Corruption: Cancerous growths seal shut any injuries you may have. Flesh: It hurts, a lot, but it will cure your injuries. Up to you to decide if it's worth it. Stranger: Wood and plastic meld to your form and fix any breaks; after enough of these, you'll look more like patchwork than a person. Web: Your wounds are stitched closed by phantom spiders; they leave behind them a silken embroidery where your scars would have formed.

Darkvision Beholding: Night is no protection against your gaze. Buried: Deep underground, away from the sky and the sun, you can see perfectly. Dark: "Needing light" is for the weak.

Death Ward End: Whenever this spell triggers, somebody else dies, instead of you, and you are aware of it.

Detect Evil and Good / Detect Magic Beholding: It doesn't matter if it's hidden; you know.

Detect Poison and Disease Beholding: If you spare the effort to look, nobody can secretly poison you. Corruption: Like calls to like, and you can feel others that have been touched by your patron.

Detect Thoughts Beholding: Even within your own mind, you're still being watched.

Disguise Self Spiral: If you absolutely need to, you can look normal. Stranger: Even if they've seen you before, you can still be unfamiliar.

Disintegrate End: You leave nothing behind.

Dispel Magic End: Against death itself, mere "magic" cannot stand.

Dominate Beast / Dominate Monster / Dominate Person Web: Sometimes you need a more direct control.

Dragon's Breath (x) Flesh: The potential is there within each body, and you can release it.

Earthbind (x) Buried: Flight shall be no escape.

Eldritch Blast Slaughter: Distance can't stop the killing.

Enemies Abound (x) Lonely: No matter how many people are with you, nobody is truly on your side. Spiral: You can't trust your senses; it's best to assume that everyone is a danger. Stranger: Everyone seems unfamiliar, and you know they mean to hurt you. Web: Maybe they don't want to hurt you, but they're being controlled, they're dangerous to you.

Enhance Ability Corruption: There's so much strength to be had, if you let the bug take over your weak form. Flesh: The body will eventually fall back into its normal state, but for now, it is at peak performance. (Optional: only for Constitution, Strength, or Dexterity.) Stranger: If you can use someone's skin, you can tap into their power. (Optional: requires material component of a piece of skin from a creature with a high score in the desired ability.)

Etherealness Lonely: Nobody can touch you and nobody can see or hear you.

Expeditious Retreat Hunt: The name is misleading; you don't retreat, you CHASE.

Eyebite Beholding: Being seen by you is dangerous. End: You hold the power of death within you, and can bestow aspects of it with but a glance.

False Life Corruption: You're part of something greater than yourself, and it protects you from harm. End: You know death well; you can place yourself a little bit farther away from it. Flesh: Anything will have to get past your vestigial organs to deal actual harm. Stranger: So much of your body is made of things that look like you but aren't you.

Feign Death End: If you pretend to have already been taken, maybe death won't take you. Lonely: They left you behind because they thought you were dead.

Find the Path Beholding: The way to go is obvious.

Find Traps Beholding: Your eyes are drawn to what you need to know about, to avoid.

Fly Vast: There's nothing more delightful than finally being free of the need to set your feet somewhere.

Fog Cloud Corruption: Spores and tiny insects answer the call, and form a thick cloud. Dark: It's not true darkness, but it will do. Lonely: There might be nobody else around. Vast: Who knows how far it is beyond, when you're enveloped in cloud?

Foresight Beholding: You can't see the future; but you can see all the factors affecting what's around you, and that's a close approximation.

Freedom of Movement Hunt: You will not slow your chase. Slaughter: Nothing can stand in the way of violence. Vast: You will not be held down.

Friends Web: People just need a little encouragement to do what you want them to, at times.

Geas Web: Your will shall be done, or there will be consequences.

Gentle Repose Buried: The earth protects what is entrusted to its care. Flesh: Keep the meat from going bad.

Goodberry Corruption: Insects and fungi are your friends, and provide so much nutrition. Flesh: It's not a berry; you can still eat it, but it's not a berry.

Gust (x) Lonely: Give yourself some personal space. Vast: You are intimately acquainted with both wind and distance.

Heroism Slaughter: Don't let injury or fear hold you back from hurting others.

Hold Monster / Hold Person Vast: Vertigo prevents you from moving. Web: You know you can move; but for some reason, you choose not to.

Identify Beholding: Knowledge just comes to you.

Illusory Dragon (x) Dark: Shadows take an intimidating form. (Optional: the breath weapon can only be necrotic.)

Inflict Wounds Corruption: Skin rots at your touch. End: Tissue death. Desolation: Liquefied fat. Flesh: You control the blood and muscles and bones in their body, and can damage them as you will. (Optional: caster can choose to deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, instead of necrotic.) Slaughter: No weapon, no problem. Web: You start to drain them dry.

Insect Plague Corruption: Share the love with everyone.

Investiture of Stone (x) Buried: The earth's embrace stays with you, even when you get up.

Investiture of Wind (x) Vast: Carry the sky with you.

Invisibility Lonely: If nobody knows you are there, then you're basically alone.

Knock Spiral: It was never locked.

Legend Lore Beholding: If it's important, you will know it.

Levitate Vast: Height is what you tell it to be. Web: Invisible strings hold you up.

Locate Animals or Plants / Locate Object Beholding: You have eyes everywhere, and you can tap into them just enough to find what you seek and not be overwhelmed.

Locate Creature Beholding: Nobody can hide from the eyes that see all. Hunt: Without a direction, there's no hunt.

Maddening Darkness (x) Dark: This is everything you desire for the world. End: You create a small area that displays what awaits people when they die.

Mage Hand Corruption: Insects swarm at your willing, to manipulate what you direct. Spiral: Why should you have to touch something in order to move it?

Mass Suggestion Web: Spin your influence even further.

Maximilian's Earthen Grasp (x) Buried: Share the embrace of the earth; either they'll learn to love it, or they'll die, win/win situation.

Mending Spiral: Apparently it wasn't broken, after all.... Stranger: Parts of the object come to life and knit themselves back together.

Meteor Swarm Desolation: Such utter destruction of everything in its path, it's glorious.

Mind Spike (x) Beholding: Once you've seen someone, there is no hiding from you.

Mirage Arcane Spiral: "Reality" is but a plaything, and "stability" is only an illusion; even the ground under your feet isn't how it seems.

Mislead Spiral: Even your apparent presence is a lie.

Misty Step Dark: You dissolve into shadows, or your form melts in the light, then you appear someone more suited to your tastes. Lonely: You don't have to stay with them for one second longer than you wish.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum Dark: "Being seen" is antithetical to your nature. Stranger: No prying eyes allowed.

Nondetection Dark: Your truth stays hidden. Stranger: They can't see you coming in advance.

Nystul's Magic Aura Spiral: One more lie to tell.

Passwall Spiral: Walls are, at best, only a suggestion.

Phantasmal Force / Phantasmal Killer Spiral: It's all in your mind, of course; but it will still hurt you.

Power Word Kill End: Death is unavoidable.

Power Word Pain (x) Desolation: Their agony is delightful to you. Hunt: You haven't torn into your prey yet, but you describe how your teeth will rend their flesh, and their imagination cripples them.

Protection from Poison Corruption: It will not harm you; it loves you.

Scrying Beholding: You cast your sight outwards, to view that which you seek.

See Invisibility Beholding: You can see what would be concealed from all else. Hunt: Prey can try and hide from you; it won't work. 

Seeming Spiral: Appearance was only ever an illusion to begin with.

Shadow of Moil (x) Dark: The embrace of the dark is a home to you, and a weapon against those who would hurt you.

Silence Dark: This is the natural state of the world. End: All sound dies.

Silent Image Spiral: You can see it, but it isn't real, and was never real.

Skywrite (x) Vast: The expanse is beautiful, and also informative.

Slow Spiral: You are ripped from the natural flow of time, cast into a world that moves too fast. Vast: Hard to move when you feel like every step will send you falling over the edge.

Spare the Dying End: It wasn't your time. Yet. Flesh: It's important to keep the meat fresh until you need it.

Staggering Smite Slaughter: They don't know how to react to the sheer force of your violence.

Stinking Cloud Corruption: You corrupt the very air that others breathe.

Stoneskin Buried: The earth's embrace surrounds you and protects you. Desolation: Wax is difficult to meaningfully damage. (Optional: caster only.) Flesh: Your meat is thick. Stranger: Flesh becomes as resilient as plastic.

Suggestion Web: It's the only sensible course of action.

Thunder Step (x) Vast: The sky sends you on your way, striking out at those who would hold you back.

Toll the Dead (x) End: Once death already has a grip on someone, it gets harder to resist. Slaughter: The pipes mark your doom.

Tongues Beholding: You are the common language.

True Seeing Beholding: There are eyes that cannot be fooled by anything, and you have access to them.

Unseen Servant Dark: The darkness caters to your whims. (Optional: can't be cast in bright light.) Stranger: Around you, objects do actually pick themselves up.

Web Dark: Shadows take physical form, and bar the way. (Optional: the webs dissipate if they take radiant damage.) Web: Duh.

Zone of Truth Beholding: They can try to hide their stories, but they can't lie to you.

[recentanimenews]

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul – Trials Make Love Stronger

I finished the first season of Made in Abyss three years and a week ago, commenting that while I ached to know what would happen next, a long rest was in order, so that I might recover from the emotional wounds throughout that first run, culminating in the shockingly brutal story of Mitty and Nanachi.

Turns out no amount of time would heal those wounds to the extent they wouldn’t be re-opened and—very soul freshly re-crushed—upon watching the continuation of the Abyss story. That’s because the deeper Riko, Reg, and Nanachi descend, the more acute and devastating the horrors they encounter.

This is the third of three Made in Abyss films; the first two were a retelling of the first season, while the third is a direct sequel As such, spoilers throughout.

Case in point: upon arriving at one of her mother’s favorite spots in all of the Abyss, the Garden of Flowers of Fortitude, they encounter one of Bondrewd’s delvers, the Umbra Hands, harvesting tissue from other delvers who have been infected by a parasite that not only feeds off you while you’re still alive, but feeds itself to you in order to keep you alive. Lovely!

Few anime do soaring vistas like Abyss, and there’s something just so otherworldly and dread-inducing about the sight of the Fifth Layer’s Sea of Corpses, along with Idofront, Bondrewd the Novel’s domain. But as cold and unyielding and inhospitable as the spinning ghost city seems on the outside, within resides one of the sweetest, warmest, most human souls they’ve yet encountered: an adorable little girl named Prushka.

Prushka is Bondrewd’s daughter (voiced by Minase Inori), who is initially suspicious of outsiders coming to help her dad when she thinks she should be enough. But once she meets Riko, Reg, and Nanachi, they open for her a whole new world of questions and information about the Surface (she was born in the Abyss).

It’s so strange to see Prushka acting so lovey-dovey with Bondrewd, perpetrator of countless acts of sickening biological crimes, especially since he and his Umbra Hands resemble evil robots. And yet that evil robot still has a strange gravitational pull Nanachi finds hard to resist. Nanachi can’t forgive Bondrewd, but something still draws them toward him. Nanachi was something of a child figure to him, after all, so Nanachi sees Prushka as a younger self.

Bondrewd has bad news for Riko: while she may have her mother’s White Whistle, only the person for whom the whistle was made can use it to activate the altar that will take her down to the Sixth Layer. He offers them accommodations to “think things over”, but there isn’t any doubt his intentions for them are about as far from harmless as they’re all far from the Surface.

Despite her cozy room, soon Riko wakes up alone, and upon exploring, finds that she’s trapped in a small area with the only exit being a stair Prushka warned will cause “strains of ascension” if climbed. When Riko attempts to climb them anyway, she loses all sense of touch and balance, grinds her baby molars away and falls down the stairs, gaining cuts here and there. But she hallucinates far worse: as the very concepts of what and where are gradually eaten away by white light.

Ultimately, the reason Bondrewd does anything all comes down to curiosity and the aspiration to reach the bottom of the Abyss and learn its infinite secrets, same as Riko. It’s just a matter of scope and scale. Riko has managed to retain her humanity throughout her descent. But while has the affable dad voice and general form of a man, there is simply nothing left of Bondrewd’s humanity.

After Nanachi offers to stay with him and help him continue his research in exchange for Riko and Reg’s safety, Bondrewd tells them that, uh, unfortunately, he’s already tossed Reg to his Umbra Hands, who restrain him, slice off his right arm (along with Incinerator) and start collecting his bodily fluids. That’s when Riko, who was helped up to the upper level by Prushka, intervenes, and Prushka learns the truth about her father for the first time.

With Bondrewd showing his true horrific colors loudly and proudly, Nanachi, the most experienced with how he operates, comes up with a plan to take him out. This involves luring him into a nest of giant seven-tailed scorpions, trying to infect him with parasite larvae, and finally Reg crushing his body with a giant boulder.

Naturally, Bondrewd praises both Reg and Nanachi every time they toss a new tactic at him, saying things like “wonderful” and “I’m surprised.” After all, Nanachi is one of the creations of which of which he is most proud, one who unlike Mitty and the others was able to receive the “Blessing” of the Abyss rather than fall victim to the Curse. You’d could mistake it for fatherly pride if, again, Bondrewd had a shred of humanity. But his willingness to offer love and pain and suffering in equal measure disqualifies him as both from being either a parent or a human.

None of the tactics against him end up working, because the Umbra Hand who escorted Prushka simply takes the mask off of the crushed Bondrewd and places it on his head, thus transforming into a new, untouched Bondrewd. Turns out all of his Umbra Hands are him—and his immortality is tied to a relic called Zoaholic. The fight ends for now, and Bondrewd returns home with Prushka.

If Zoaholic didn’t make Bondrewd insane, the act of splitting his soul and essence into multiple bodies still removed what was left of his empathy or humanity, which is why he ends up having Prushka cruelly vivisected just like all of the other orphan children before her. He’s satisfied her experiences with Reg, Riko, and Nanachi helped “perfect” her, and this is the natural next step. She is never told this would happen, and never asked if it’s okay.

Her body is marked with “X’s” to signify the parts that will be cut away and discarded (most of it) until all that is left is a mass of “fleshy curse repellant” to be placed within a suitcase-sized cartridge. It is in this way that Bondrewd staves off the curse; using the pain and suffering of still technically-living children as his strength.

It’s truly skin-crawling, horrible, horrible stuff, and even though I had a reasonable suspicion that Prushka was doomed to a Mitty-like fate, I was still not ready to see even a little of that fate carried out, nor would I ever be. No one would!

By the Riko, Reg, and Nanachi return to Idofront to rescue her they’re way too late, while the sight of the “processing” room brings back Nanachi’s memories of assisting with said processing. When Bondrewd arrives, Riko and Nanachi they buy time for Reg, who hooks himself up to Idofront’s power supply and ends up rebooting in Berserk Mode.

Bondrewd tells Riko that his own White Whistle is the result of sacrificing his own body and soul, and that all White Whistles are made in this way—with a willing human sacrifice, not carved stone.

It’s then when Berserk-Reg arrives and fights on the same level as Bondrewd, ultimately blasting a huge sphere-shaped chunk out of Idofront. He lands in a pit of Mittys—material for Bondrewd’s cartridges, and we’re reminded of all those lights on the wall representing their lives are labeled: he remembers the name of every child, their unique qualities, and how cute they were. Shudder…

As Bondrewd and Reg are locked in an epic battle, we hear Prushka’s disembodied voice as she recounts her life with Bondrewd, starting as a failed subject. He decided to raise her as his daughter, gave her Meinya as a pet, and gave her a fun and happy childhood, ultimately culminating in her helplessly watching as pieces of her are removed one by one on the operating table.

We hear Prushka because she’s now a cartridge that Bondrewd is currently using in his fight, and ends up being his last cartridge. Even after what he did to her, she still wants to help her dad achieve his dreams—even if it means helping him fight against Reg, Riko, and Nanachi.

Thus aided by Bondrewd, Reg can’t defeat him with one arm, which is why he was buying time for Riko to retrieve his other arm. Even disconnected from his body, she’s able to aim it at Bondrewd and fire it, blasting him to pieces.

As this is happening, Prushka pleads with everyone not to fight, because they’re all going to have adventures together. An image of that dream appears in the climax of the battle, and is pretty much the most heartbreaking goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.

Then Bondrewd falls to the ground, finally beaten, and Nanachi stand over him. True to form, Bondrewd isn’t bitter about losing; on the contrary: he’s never been happier to find someone with stronger aspirations, will, and love defeat him. It means they, not him, are worthy of exploring the greater depths of the Abyss, and all the curses and blessings therein.

Riko holds the spent cartridge of what’s left of Prushka, simply red liquid that spills everywhere, and very understandably begins to bawl in absolute despair. But then she notices an object lying in the puddle of liquid: a White Whistle. Turns out Prushka’s soul willingly became the sacrifice necessary for Riko. Now her dream of going on adventures together can be realized.

With that, Riko gains the means to make her Last Dive, along with Reg (who learned a great deal about what his relic body can do) and Nanachi (who found a degree of closure in her vendetta with Bondrewd). Bondrewd, oddly enough, is still alive (after a fashion), but no longer a threat to them, and indeed is happy to see them off as they enter the “elevator” that will take them to the Sixth Layer, that much closer to Riko’s Mom, whatever’s become of her.

Quite appropriately, the end credits pull double duty as an illustration of that elevator descending ever deeper  into the Abyss, accompanied by an achingly gorgeous song that is a collab between MYTH & ROID and Kevin Penkin. Penkin, of course, also contributed the score and outdoes himself in the task; his music has been and continues to be a vital piece of what makes Abyss so unique an special.

It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to end this in less than 1500 words, but whatever; this was basically four episodes of the anime comprising a Fifth Layer arc, enshrining Bondrewd the Novel as one of anime’s all-time most monstrous and compelling villains, exploring the ways ambition can mutate “love” into a heartlessly destructive force.

It also ably reinforced Abyss’ uncanny ability to tear its viewers’ hearts and souls to bloody shreds before painstakingly sewing them back together with delicate threads of hope. And with a second season in the early stages of production, the story of Riko, Reg, and Nanachi is far from over.

By: magicalchurlsukui

[infantbluee]

title: count to eight

summary: in another timeline, maka is killed on the moon and the world descends into madness. five years later, a reclusive soul stumbles across a girl who claims to be his dead best friend. 

pairing: soul/maka

rating: explicit

warnings: angst, smut, canon-typical violence, sort of love triangle (though not really because it’s just between maka and two souls) 

links: ao3 // ffn

—

oh my gosh, this is my second resbang fic ever and i still can’t believe i got so lucky! this year i was paired with the amazing, brilliant, hilarious, and adorable @ochako999 and @maevenneverland who had a full-time job making me laugh-cry over their shenanigans while also making GORGEOUS art for my fic. (links can be found here and here respectively.) please excuse me while i sob over their talent for the next 84 years because they are perfect.  

even more hugs to my ridiculous discord family for keeping me insane, as well as all the other wonderful people i’ve met on tumblr, twitter, and even just by exchanging reviews on fanfics! there’s a reason i’ve been so glad i joined this fandom and it’s because of every single one of you that make it so warm <3

please enjoy the short excerpt below! 

—

It’s surprisingly cold this year.

Soul blows into his hands, rubbing his palms together to retain warmth. Normally he can escape Kid’s annual Christmas party and hide out in the gardens without any sort of penalty, but apparently Mother Nature decided she was bored this holiday season and wanted to take a turn punishing the antisocial hermit.

That, or she’s calling him a coward.

It’s probably that last one.

“Hiding already?” a familiar voice calls. “This must be a record.”

Holding back a grimace, Soul maintains a blank expression as he turns his head to see his girlfriend approach him along the cobblestone path.

She’s too pretty to be real in this setting, surrounded by glazed tree branches and the twinkling lights strung all over to make up for the blackened moon. Wearing a dress like that with her hair so long and loose, she might as well have “serenade me, you coward” plastered all over her forehead.

“Idiot, you’re going to get frostbite,” he scolds instead, already scowling as he shrugs off his suit jacket to drape over her shoulders. “What are you thinking, coming out here without a coat on?”

Maka smiles sweetly. “I was thinking my weapon always takes care of me.”

Stupid. He thinks the word twice, both times so pathetically filled with affection. “Did Kid send you to hunt me down?” he asks. “I swear I was gonna go back inside. Continue wooing those foreign emissaries or whatever the hell he expects me to do. I just needed a break.”

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s Christmas; he doesn’t expect you to spend the whole time working.” Her eyes twinkle. “Besides, I already handled it. The dignitaries love me.”

He snorts. “Of course they do.”

“Hey, one of us has to be doing our jobs right,” she teases.

“Suck-up.”

“I prefer the term eager to please.”

Soul is incredulous. “How the hell did you manage to find the one phrase that’s dirtier than suck-up?”

Her smile is angelic. “It’s a talent.”

He responds with a growl as he nuzzles his face against her skin, his hands sliding under the jacket he covered her with to trace the artfully exposed curves underneath.

“Soul, stop!” she giggles. “We can’t do it out here. It’s cold.”

“So keep me warm then,” he grumbles. “And anyway, is that really the first thing you worry about when I’m trying to cop a feel? Not ‘oh, someone might catch us’ or ‘what if your dick shrunk too much in this weather for me to feel it?’”

This time when she laughs, he hides his own smile against her skin. She doesn’t stop him, letting her head fall back with a sigh as he presses kisses along the base of her neck. Even when it’s this cold, she’s so soft. It’s really unfair. He’s seen her moisturizing routine. She hasn’t done anything to deserve this level of silky perfection.

“Soul,” she gasps when he nips particularly hard at her throat. Her hands grip at his shirt, desperate, and he decides that maybe getting a little dirty on a garden bench wouldn’t be the worst thing after all.

But then the lights flicker.

That in itself wouldn’t have been enough to tear his mouth away from her skin, except that it’s accompanied by a deep tremble beneath the earth which causes Soul to stumble into his meister. She catches him, always so impressively steady on her size-five-hidden-by-giant-boots feet, and the speed at which she goes from horny girlfriend to calculating meister is seriously impressive.

And hot. Really hot.

Soul’s never been as adept at switching off his hunger as she is.

“A pre-kishin attack?” she asks with a frown as they rush back towards the party. It’s been a long time since they’ve encountered a pre-k without actively hunting one, and even longer since one has existed within the walls of their city.

“Maybe a demon,” Soul guesses. They’re also rare these days, but they still exist. Though the Witch Treaty has significantly put a damper on their confidence.

As they approach the mansion, they can already hear a commotion brewing. Plenty of shouts, glass shattering. A horrifying, almost unearthly slithering sound as fluid shadows spill out of the windows like overflowing bath water. They pick up their pace.

When they finally burst into the room, they’re horrified by the sight in front of them.

“Kid!” Maka cries.

The chandelier is history, now scattered around the dancefloor in a million tiny little pieces. The decorations are torn; the tables cracked and thrown about. The civilian guests have all been ushered to the sides of the room as several witches hold up a barrier to keep them safe, but the real terror is the enormous entity in the middle of the room that seems to have no problem fending off the advances of half a dozen meisters.

It’s like nothing Soul’s ever seen before, even during the worst of the war. A giant, oozing ball of shadowy flesh with these sharp, jerking limbs that regenerate and extend from its body whenever someone tries to attack it.

Accompanying it is this smell, putrid and awful—but even worse are the low, chittering moans coming from its repulsive form, over and over and over again, filling the room like a sickening hum.

“Maakaa. Maaaaaaaakaaaa.”

Soul feels his blood run cold.

Kid, who is currently trying to hold back several of its limbs from further attacking the civilian barrier, jerks his head up at her call for him, his face flashing with horror. It’s obvious how long the creature must’ve been moaning her name by the intensity of the reaper’s panic.

“Maka, get back!” he screams.

In the same moment, she gasps as Soul tackles her to the side just in time to avoid getting pierced by a flurry of sword-like limbs. He then rolls and grabs her hand, jerking her to her feet as he starts off in a sprint, squeezing to get her attention. “Maka!”

“R-right!”

He shifts into weapon form just in time for her to swing him in defense. She manages to block two of them, slicing off three more, before being forced to jump back as another wave rushes at her. The monster seems to have forgotten about the others completely now that it has her in its sight, its several dozen eyes turning to train directly on her.

“I don’t understand,” she says as she blocks more of its attacks. “Why does it keep coming for me?”

“Doesn’t matter,” growls Soul. “I’ll die before I let it take you. The only priority now is to kill it.”

“But how?”

“To your left!”

She twists to the side, barely dodging the next stream of violent hands as they scrape off Soul’s blade. But instead of relief, he can feel her horror, because those same regenerative limbs that had just tried to rip into her heart somehow jerk to the side with enough force to shatter one of the barriers protecting the guests.

He hears Angela among the screams.

“Maka, no!” he cries out.

Too late. She flips over one of the creature’s arms to run against it, slicing at the others with a ferocity that would impress him in any other circumstance. At the end of her sprint, Maka dives, pushing Angela out of the way from an attack and twisting in a way that cushions the young girl’s fall.

Through their bond, Soul can feel the pain shoot up Maka’s spine and he cries out for her, demanding to know if she’s hurt.

She forces a smile as she sits up. “I’m fine,” she lies terribly. She glances down at the young witch and looks relieved that she’s unharmed.

Before she can say anything else, she’s yanked away so quickly that Soul is literally whipped from her grip and clatters to the floor. He shifts back to human form in an instant, scrambling for her with a cry, but it’s too late.

The monster has Maka dangling by her ankle over its main form, the rest of its extensions retreating as well. Black Star and Kid both try to charge at it only to be swatted away like flies and held back with the pressure of mutated shadow limbs.

Then it does the worst thing possible.

It drops her.

“NO!” Soul screams.

It’s like a detonator is pressed. The moment Maka’s body is absorbed into its inky flesh, the creature begins to twitch a jerk violently, pulsing and moving so rapidly that even the meisters have no choice but to back up.

With a horrifying screech, it’s sucked into the earth through an invisible exit, like some sort of oversized blob of goo being sucked through a vacuum or forced down a drain. The whole fleshy monstrosity continues to be pulled through that tiny unseen gateway until it has completely disappeared from the ballroom. Gone.

And Maka along with it.

[ read more on ao3 or ffn! ]

[riflesniper-a]

so... what is the story behind exos as a race? where did they come from? i wanna know because their backstory seems Very Similar to the backstory of a race of robots i thought of from what little i’ve heard, and i wanna know if I accidentally stole their backstory

okay im gonna put this under the cut and go fucking bonkers and yonkers bc even though the lore behind this race is still….. underexplored? there’s still a lot of fanon that stands a damned good chance of becoming canon

the exos were originally an augmented human race created during the golden age by copying the neural maps of humans to an artificial mind made of exoneurons and stuffing it into a super cool body. though the ethics behind this process in the first place and the treatment of the exos after theyre converted is shady and CB’s current lore points to it being a super skeevy corporation that’s hiding hundreds of human rights violations

their primary purpose still isnt exactly known. were they created for a war, against the vex on venus or against other humans or both? were they created so that humans could live forever? were they created as a private corporate military, utilizing upmost stealth, killing other corporate and political figureheads that threatened CB? who knows!!! 

the most we’ve gotten about what the exos used to do is from cayde’s treasure island book, a raid armour piece’s lore entry talking about ‘the man clovis bray had to kill 13 times to keep him in check’, and descriptions of the deep stone crypt, a dream that’s experienced by all the exos, and though it slightly differs from person to person, it’s often described to be quite disturbing. it’s theorized that the crypt is an actual place, and it’s very heavily pointed to being on enceladus. i cant find the fucking lore entry for the life of me rn but cayde talks about ‘flesh giving into the ice’ and being turned to metal and reset.

speaking of cayde, he’s the only canon exo character whose pre-guardian  backstory we have actual insight into. he used to be a bodyguard for a scientist at venus’ ishtar academy. he’d try to talk to her, but she’d ignore him. one day, they discovered something idk super secret and cayde mentions having to keep it a secret or it’s gonna be ‘another trip to wipesville’ aka he’ll be reset.

and the funny thing about resets! their reason for existing is a half truth! the number that’s tacked onto the end of an exo’s name is how many resets theyve had, and the more rests theyve had the more memory and mind fragmentation issues pop up (the threshold for this is about 20 resets, after that it’s downhill). resets were justified as a treatment for a disorder called dissociative exomind rejection (DER) that was caused by the human neural map going fuckin bananas in its new not fleshy body and saying ‘fuck this’ before shutting down

now this very well may have happened during the inital prototyping of the exomind. i would expect it to happen! but as time went on and the neural maps became more stabilized and features like eating/drinking to feed a bioreactor or something and being CANONICALLY able to fuck were stuffed into the body, the actual need for resets narrowed to extremely traumatic situations. but with CB being CB (and CB is skeevy as fuck!!) they decided to keep up the lies. 

resets were now being used to wipe the memories of disobedient and rowdy exos who were writing down classified sketchy bullshit in diaries and getting too close to Figuring Out Shit That Theyre Not Allowed To Figure Out. exos were treated as something under human and it’s canon that human characters are suprised at how nuanced and intact their personalities and emotional patterns are. CB saw them as an infantry, soldiers to be controlled, to mindlessly obey or else. 

almost all knowledge of clovis bray and the origins/history of the exos were lost in the collapse, along with the technology needed to understand their neural maps. one bray was revived as a guardian, ana, and while she’s well meaning and very kind... she’s incredibly naive, especially since she’s paired back up with the extremely powerful, partially fragmented and very morally grey warmind rasputin, another system-wide project by CB. while they’re both working to uncover warmind network fragments, lost golden age tech and even the crypt itself, rasputin still seems awfully quiet about any info concerning the exos...

[rubyspearsmegamanproject]

30. Danger In The Desert

The episode begins with some strange robots approaching a town in the middle of a desert. They are at the outskirts of the town. They then put their pipe-like arms into the ground, and begin sucking up water. All over the town, people are noticing that the water supply is disappearing. They check the pipes to see what is causing the water to suddenly be drained. Dr. Wily's robots approach the townsfolk and tell them that if they want their water back, they need to pay a rather large sum of money. The townsfolk look at each other with concern and worry. They tell them that they don't think that they can pay the ransom. The evil robots tell them that that's too bad, and so they will have to take the town. The townsfolk hold each other and whimper in fear.

On the other side of the country, Mega Man, Roll, and Rush are at a gas station on the side of a highway. Mega Man and Rush are waiting at their car for Roll to be done at the gas station's store. Mega Man is drinking a bottled drink, and Rush is drinking from a portable dog bowl. Roll comes out of the store with a drink of her own and a bag of some stuff. They all get in their car. On their way back to their home, Dr. Light calls them up on the car's videophone. He tells them that Dr. Wily has drained a town in the southwestern part of the country of its water, and that he is holding their water supply for ransom. Roll pulls over the car so that Mega Man and Rush can get out and fly over to the town.

When Mega Man and Rush arrive at the town, they find that it is being guarded by some Wily Bots. Mega Man destroys some of them with his plasma cannon. Some more Wily Bots come towards Mega Man. "Wanna try me?" Mega Man yells out to them. The Wily Bots fire at him. Mega Man cries out "Guess so!", and destroys them also with his plasma cannon. Mega Man then says to Rush, "Come on Rush, let's drive 'em out!" They then run into the town. In the town, Dr. Wily's robots are taking apart the pipes that carry water to the town. Guts Man reaches into the ground and tears out a large section of pipe. "Here's some more!" Guts Man cries out to the other bad robots. Proto Man praises Guts Man and turns to Cut Man digging out the pipes with the cutters on his head and says so that Cut Man can hear, "If only some robots were more efficient at ripping up pipes!" Cut Man yells back at Proto Man, "I'm trying my best, okay!?" He gets back to digging up some pipes. He manages to get one out and is carrying it to the pile of pipes. He sees Mega Man and Rush heading towards them. He cries out "Mega Man!" Mega Man responds with, "That's my name don't wear it out!" Proto Man runs up to Mega Man aims his cannon at him. Proto Man yells out "I'm going to wear you out, little bro!" He then fires some shots at Mega Man. 

Mega Man avoids the shots and fires back at Proto Man. Somewhere in the town, Pump Man hears the conflict and runs over to assist Proto Man and the others. Pump Man yells at the water-draining robots to continue their work. Meanwhile, Guts Man grabs one of the pipes and yells "Pipe down, blue dweeb!" at Mega Man and throws the pipe at him. The pipe hits Mega Man and pins him down onto the ground. Mega Man tries to lift the pipe off of himself. Guts Man stomps onto the pipe and pins Mega Man down with his foot. "Sorry, Mega Dweeb!" Guts Man tells him as he is struggling to get free, "But I've gotta put my foot down! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Guts Man pushes his foot harder on Mega Man. The pressure causes the pipe to crack. Mega Man charges up his plasma cannon and fires a fully charged blast at Guts Man's head. The blast shoots his head off. Gut's Man remaining body steps off of the pipe and goes of to retrieve the head. Guts Man's head lands into a trash can. Guts Man's body is aimlessly running around. His head yells out "Hey! Over here!" His body gets nearer to thetrash can. The body feels around in a recycling bin nearby. "No! Over here you idiot!" Guts Man's head cries out, the trash can making his voice echo. His body finally comes over to the trash can his head is in. The body reaches in and grabs the head. "Careful!" Guts Man's head yells out. The body puts his head back on. Meanwhile, Mega Man manages to lift the pipe off of himself. He gets up and sees that there is a large crack over his pectoral plate. "That's going to need some stitches!" Mega Man says to himself. Proto Man charges up his cannon and aims it at Mega Man. He says to Mega Man "Last warning, bro! Leave or be destroyed!" Cut Man also aims his weapon cannon at Mega Man and says "Yes, Mega Man! Beat it!" Pump Man and the water-draining robots aim their respective cannons at Mega Man as well. Mega Man sees that he is outnumbered, and walks away. An evil smile appears on Proto Man's face. "Ready...aim..." he slowly says. Mega Man turns his head around and sees that they are all preparing to fire at him at once. Guts Man manages to pull a huge chunk of rock out of the ground and prepares to throw it at Mega Man. Mega Man tries to run away from them as fast as his robotic legs can. "Fire!" Proto Man cries out with great power. They all fire their cannons at once. Guts Man throws his reasonably sized boulder. Mega Man manages to avoid some of the shots, but is hit by the rest of them. The boulder hits him on the back of his head. He gets knocked out and falls to the ground. Rush sees that Mega Man has been hurt, and runs up to him to get him out of danger's way. He places him on his back, turns into his Jet Mode, and flies away. Dr. Wily's robots watch them fly off. Proto Man yells out "Yeah, that's right! Fly away! Fly very far away!"  

Back at Dr. Light's lab, Mega Man is getting his pectoral plate fixed. As he is getting repaired, Mega Man is telling Dr. Light about the current situation at the desert town. "That's terrible!" Dr. Light says. Mega Man replies "Yeah, the whole entire town has been deprived of water!" Roll comes into the main lab and suggests secretly giving the townsfolk water while Mega Man sorts Dr. Wily out. Dr. Light tells Roll that Dr. Wily and his robots might do even worse to the town as they know that Mega Man is assisting them. Mega Man tells Dr. Light that that is still a good idea in order to keep the townsfolk alive and well. Dr. Light is now done with repairing Mega Man. Mega Man still has a scuff on the back of his helmet from where he was hit on the back of the head with Gut's Man thrown boulder. "We'll worry about that cosmetic defect later." Dr. Light tells Mega Man. Just then, a call comes up on the big screen. Dr. Light goes up to it. A few people show up on the screen. They quietly tell Dr. Light that their town has been taken over and deprived of water. Dr. Light tells them "You're going to have to speak up, I can barely hear you." Against the others' protests, one of them speaks up louder and tells Dr. Light "Some robots have taken our water supply! They're ripping the water pipes out of the ground and-" A disturbingly familiar voice cuts the person off. "They've gone over here!" the voice yells out. The people look over and see Guts Man and Cut Man walking down towards them. Dr. Light gasps and fears that they will be harmed for giving out information about the current state of their town. "We're cutting your little forbidden call short!" Cut Man yells out. He throws the cutters on his head at the screen. The screen blacks out. Dr. Light immediately goes over to Mega Man. Mega Man is still lying on the table, and has gotten comfortable and is sleeping. "Mega Man!" Dr. Light cries out. Mega Man suddenly wakes and cries out "What is it, Dr. Light?" Dr. Light says to him, "Dr. Wily's claimed another town in the desert, and it looks like his robots are going after the inhabitants there! You must get there immediately!" Mega Man gets up off of the table and says to Dr. Light "I'll be there in two shakes of a robot lamb's tail!" He calls out for Rush. "Rush! Come on! We have some humans to save!" Mega Man cries out. Rush runs over to Mega Man and immediately turns into his Jet Mode. Mega Man jumps on him and they both fly out of the main lab and off to

the desert. Dr. Light has Roll get some water tanks. He has her fill them up with water and pack them onto the Air Raider. "You can count on Roll's water delivery company!" Roll says to Dr. Light as she boards the Air Raider. The Air Raider flies off.

Back at the desert town, Guts Man is carrying the last of the townsfolk towards a makeshift cage. Aqua Man opens up the cage door, and Guts Man throws them in with the rest of the people. "You've been naughty!" Guts Man yells at them as they quiver in fear of the large robot "You brats need a time out! Ha ha ha ha ha!" He slams the door of the cage shut. Pipe Man walks over to Guts Man with some of the water-draining robots. He tells him that they need Cut Man and Proto Man to look out for Mega Man, as it is very likely that he has heard of the townsfolk's plight. "You should be on the lookout too!" Pump Man tells him. Guts Man protests "But da fleshy rats might es-" Pump Man cuts him off and says "Don't worry, Guts Man, they'll be fine!" Guts Man groans "Oh, alright! I'll go look fer da blue dweeb!" Guts Man walks away, as does Pump Man and the water-draining robots. The sun begins to beat down on the cage. Elsewhere, Proto Man is looking up at the sky for Mega Man. Up in the sky, Mega Man is flying towards the town. He spots Proto Man and tries to fly past him as quickly as

Rush can. Proto Man spots them and yells out "Hey! I thought we told you to not come back to these parts!" Mega Man yells down to Proto Man "It's a free country, Proto Man! Me and Rush can go wherever we please!" Rush barks in agreement. He then says "And I can do this as well!" Mega Man fires at Proto Man. Proto Man shoots back and hits one of Rush's jets. Rush cannot stabilize himself and ends up leaning. Mega Man nearly falls off and holds on to Rush. "Down Boy!" Proto Man says as he fires another shot at the other jet. Both of Rush's jets have now been destroyed. He plummets to the desert terrain. Mega Man is thrown off of Rush and lands hard onto the ground. The sun is brightly shining, making the ground rather hot. Rush turns back into his original form, and scoots his butt on the desert in order to stop the flames. Mega Man gets up off of the scorching ground and fires again at Proto Man. Proto Man calls up the robot masters and tells them that he needs reinforcements. Mega Man hears Rush yelp and looks over to see that Guts Man has gotten ahold of him. Mega Man aims his cannon at Guts Man and yells out to him "Let him go, Lug Head!" Guts Man says "Sure thing, Mega Dweeb!" He slams Rush down onto the ground, smashing him into parts. Mega Man angrily fires a fully charged blast at Guts Man. Guts Man is knocked down. Mega Man thinks that he has been knocked out and goes over to pick up Rush's parts. To his surprise, Guts Man gets up and swings at him, launching him across the area. "Surprise, Mega Dummy!" Guts Man yells out as Mega Man skids across the burning desert ground.

Mega Man tries to get up, but he has been a bit damaged. "Hurry! While he's down!" Proto Man cries out to the other evil robots. Cut Man, Aqua Man, Dive Man, and Guts Man each grab one of Mega Man's limbs. They tie him down onto the ground and leave him to be overheated by the sun. "Don't forget your sunscreen! Ha ha ha ha!" Proto Man says as he and the robot masters walk away. Mega Man looks up and sees that the sun is making him hot. Rush comes to and sees Mega Man bound to the ground. He tries to put himself together, but mixes up his body. Rush tries to hop over to Mega Man, but falls apart. Mega Man looks over

to Rush and tells him "It's okay, boy, you tried..." Rush whimpers and can only watch as the sun gets brighter and Mega Man's race getting redder from the intense heat of the desert sun. Mega Man looks up at the sun and closes his eyes. "So this is how I'm going to check out...fried like a motherboard..." Mega Man says to himself. He closes his eyes very tightly. He braces himself for his coming solar demise.

Proto Man and the other robot masters watch the whole situation from a distance. Cut Man says to Proto Man "Maybe we should turn him over so he's evenly cooked on both sides! Ahe he he he!" "No," Proto Man says to Cut Man "Just let him roast, real good! Ha ha ha ha ha!" He looks back at the other bad robots and says "Come on! We have another town to suck dry!" They walk away, leaving Mega man to slowly overheat. Mega Man closes his eyes tightly and begins to pant from the intense heat. He slowly says "Dr. Light...I'm sorry...I'm sorry that I failed...I should have just..." He suddenly feels a cold splash of water on his face. He opens his eyes and looks up. Roll is standing over him with a now empty bucket of water, the remaining drops dripping onto his nose. Roll laughs and says "You looked like you could use some cooling off!" Mega Man looks at his restraints and back up at Roll and says "Uhhh....I could use some more than just a quick, cold shower..." Roll smiles and says "Rush has got it covered!" and points over to Rush, who has been put back together by her. Mega Man's

face lights up as Rush runs over and rips off his restraints with his mouth. Mega Man gets up and hugs both of them. "I can always count on you guys to save my blue skin!" he says to them. Rush barks at them and points with his snout in the direction that Dr. Wily's robot ran off. "Good boy, Rush!" Mega Man says to him "Let's go round them up!" All three of them run off, but as they are about to get there, Mega Man begins to short circuit. He falls down. "Mega!" Roll cries out. Mega Man tells Roll "Guess my circuits were sizzled!" and tries to get up, but falls back down. Rush's rear end begins to smoke again. "Not you too, Rush?" Roll says to him as he rubs his butt on the ground to put out the smoke. Roll calls up Dr. Light on her arm and tells him that Mega Man and Rush need repairs. Dr. Light tells her that he will be right there in his Mobile Lab. Mega Man and Rush sit down on the ground and wait. Rush lays his head on Mega Man's lap. Roll tells Mega Man "Why don't you two wait in the Air Raider, where it's much cooler!" Rush barks and runs up to the Air Raider. Mega Man slowly walks to the air vehicle, twitching a bit along the way.

Inside the Air Raider, Mega Man and Rush are relaxing. Mega Man has his feet up on the dashboard. The videophone suddenly comes on, startling Mega Man. Mega Man nearly falls off of the chair. He then presses a button and answers the call. Dr. Light comes up on the screen. He tells him that he is calling them from his Mobile Lab. He informs Mega Man that Dr. Wily has claimed a few other towns. The other towns have also been drained of their water. Mega Man and Roll are shocked by this. Rush hears something and gets out of the Air Raider. "Rush! Where are you going?" Mega Man yells out. Rush yells out "People! Trouble!" Mega Man and Roll follow Rush in the Air Raider.

Elsewhere in the town, Rush finds the cage with the townsfolk inside and barks out to the Air Raider. The Air Raider lands and Mega Man gets out. He goes over to the cage to see the townsfolk. They are red and covered in sweat. "Mega Man!" one of them says "Thank goodness you're here!" Mega Man yells over to Roll "Roll! Give these humans some water! They really need it!" Mega Man blasts open the cage and frees them. Mega Man asks them about how the water had been taken from their town. As the townsfolk explain to Mega Man how Dr. Wily stole their water, Guts Man sees that Mega Man freed them. He jumps down from one of the rooftops with a thud so powerful that it breaks up the earth. Mega Man and his allies are nearly knocked to the ground by the earth-shattering force of Guts Man's jump onto the desert ground. Guts Man stomps over to them, smashing his footprints into the ground. "What do ya think yer doin'!?" he roars out. Mega Man aims his cannon at Guts Man and yells out "Don't even think about it, Guts Man!" Guts Man sees that Roll is quickly giving the very thirsty townsfolk some water. "Now yer in fer it!" he yells out at Roll. He runs over to her, getting ready to strike her. He tries to smash his way past Mega Man. Mega Man

sees that Guts Man is about to attack his sister. "Oh no you don't, Guts Lug!" Mega Man yells out in anger. He bends backwards, grabs Guts Man by his sides, and suplexes him forward. Guts Man is smashed into the ground with astonishing force. The force breaks up the ground around Guts Man. Guts Man's lower body and legs are sticking out of the ground. Mega Man wipes the sand and dirt off of his hands. Roll finishes up giving the townsfolk water and loads them up into the Air Raider. Proto Man and Cut Man hear and feel the commotion and run over to where the noise was coming from. They are too late, Mega Man and the others have flown away in the Air Raider. Proto Man sees Guts Man's legs flailing around and laughs at the spectacle before him. "What are you doing there?" Proto Man asks Guts Man, still laughing, "Trying to do a handstand?" Guts Man growls in anger, his growls muffled by the earth he is buried in. He yells out "Don't just stand there and gawk, help me out!" Proto Man replies "Why can't you get yourself out? I though you were the strongest robot in the world..." Guts Man becomes very frustrated and roars out "Fine! I'll get myself out!" The ground splits into large cracks as Guts Man frees himself. He pops out of the ground and falls right on his butt. Proto Man is surprised. The force of Mega Man's suplex has split

Guts Man's helmet completely in half, its halves remaining in the ground. Guts Man senses that he doesn't have his helmet on. He feels the top of his head and feels his buzzcut blonde hair. "Aw! Dat blue dweeb owes me a new helmet!" Guts Man yells out. Cut Man yells out "Proto Man! Over here!" Proto Man runs over to where the cage is. Cut Man points to some puddles on the ground. "So..." Proto Man says "They've been watering them under our noses..." He looks up at Cut Man and tells him "They must be hauling some water around and giving it to our towns. We need to put an end to their charity work!"

Back at the Mobile Lab, Dr. Light and the other townsfolk have set up camp. Dr. Light tells Mega Man and Roll to deliver water tanks to the townsfolk to keep them clean and hydrated until Dr. Wily can be sorted out. In the meantime, Dr. Light will create a large robot that will reinstall the water pipes. He tells Mega Man to attack Dr. Wily's robots if he must. Mega Man says "I sure hope they don't have any dirty little tricks up their metal sleeves..."

At Skull Fortress, Dr. Wily's robots are training in the "gym" room. Proto Man is using some rather heavy barbells. He hears Guts Man grunting loudly. Proto Man looks over and sees that Guts Man is lifting up a barbell with two tanks at each end. Proto Man snickers and says "Don't burst a wire, Guts Man!" Guts Man looks over and says "Aww, shut up, Proto Pipsqueak!" Guts Man looses his balance and falls backwards with the barbell landing on his neck. Cut Man is lifting a barbell with the cutters on his head. The p.a. system comes

on and makes a loud screech. Cut Man covers his ears. The barbell falls down and takes his cutter along with it. Dr. Wily comes on and tells his robots to report to the main lab for their next mission. "Finally, some action!" Proto Man yells out with excitement. Guts Man manages to lift the barbell off of himself and runs off along with the other bad robots. All three of them enter the main lab. "What's up, Doc?" Proto Man says to Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily groans at Proto Man's jokey greeting and turns around. He tells his robotic minions that he has a way to put an end to Mega Man and his allies bringing water to the townsfolk in the conquered towns in the desert. "You three are going to play 'spies' for me." Dr. Wily tells them. He tells them that when they find the water tanks, they will destroy them. There is a metal box on the table in the middle of the main lab. Dr. Wily goes over to it and says "I made you gentlebots some friends to assist you on your spy mission..." Dr. Wily opens up the metal box. Inside the box, are some strange-looking Batontons. They are basically large, metallic white eyes with grey irises and black wings with purple webbing. "Interesting Batontons, Doc..." Proto Man says as he gets in closer to see them. He then says "Are these Bantontons any different from the garden variety bat bots?" "Very different!" Dr. Wily says to Proto Man. He takes one out of the box and shows Proto Man how it works. He tells him that it is a spying robot. He explains to him that when he puts his information into it via touching it, its iris will change color to match his eye color. He can now close one eye in order to see through the Batonton's eye and use it to spy on wherever the Batonton flies to. "Cool!" Proto Man exclaims. "Yes, Proto Man," Dr. Wily says, "Very, very cool." "We are going to spy on Mega Man with these!" Dr. Wily tells his evil robots. Dr. Wily then says to them "There will be many eyes watching him, there will be nowhere for him to hide!" Cut Man is excited to use them. He reaches out a hand to touch one of them. Dr. Wily closes the lid of the metal box right on Cut Man's fingers. "Ow!" Cut Man yells out in pain. He looks at his hand and sees that four of his fingers have been crushed. Dr. Wily tells his robots that when they arrive back at the town, that each one of them should touch an Eye Batonton and use it to track down Mega Man and his allies. He hands the chest to Proto Man, who takes it with open arms. "Oh, and one more thing.." Dr. Wily says to Proto Man. "...and what's that?" Proto Man asks him with a bit of sass. Dr. Wily looks him straight in the eyes and says sternly "Do not fail me!" Proto Man frowns and simply turns and walks away. Guts Man and Cut Man just stand there with some fear in their expressions. Dr. Wily points in Proto Man's direction and yells at them, "Follow him!" Guts Man and Cut Man salute him and run off after Proto Man.

At one of the desert towns, Mega Man and Rush are hauling a tankard of water off to the next row of houses. "I wonder how Roll's doing..." Mega Man says to Rush. Proto Man sneaks onto a rooftop and sees them. He then jumps off of the building and runs off. Rush sniffs the air and growls. "Are Wily's bots around here?" Mega Man asks Rush. Rush nods and continues growling. Mega Man chuckles and says "Wily's robots stink, don't they?" They continue on with distributing water to the town's houses. Proto Man goes back over to Guts Man and Cut Man. Guts Man is holding the metal box. He places it on the ground and opens it up. Proto Man claps his hands and says "Alright, each of you get a Spy Batonton!" All three of them grab a Spy Bantonton. "Now place your hand on them," Proto Man continues "like this..."  Proto Man places his hand on the Spy Batonton. The Spy Batonton copies his head plan and its iris turns red to match his eye color. Guts Man and Cut Man place their hands on their respective Spy Batontons. They too copy their head plans. Guts Man's Spy Batonton's iris turns sky blue, and Cut Man's Spy Batonton's iris turns completely black. Proto Man yells out "Now unleash them!" All three of them throw the Spy Baontons up in the air. The Spy Batontons fly off in search of Mega Man.

Elsewhere, Mega Man is delivering water to a two-story house. "Thank you so much, Mega Man!" the woman living there says. She then asks him about the pipes being reinstalled. Mega Man tells her about Dr. Light building a large robot that will replace the pipes. Proto Man's Spy Batonton flies over behind Mega Man and Rush. Through the Spy Batonton's eye, Proto Man sees and hears that Dr. Light is going to build a robot to replace the pipes. "Bingo!" he says to himself. Proto Man calls up Cut Man on his arm cannon and says "Got the scoop on Roll yet, Cut Man?" Cut Man is in the town's plaza, siting on a bench. Cut Man answers Proto Man's call and says "I've still got my eye on her, if you know what I mean." One of his eyes is closed. Proto Man next calls up Guts Man. "Yo, Guts Man!" Proto Man says "Are you seeing anything good?" Guts Man is walking through one of the town's districts. As with Cut Man, one of his eyes is closed. Through the Spy Batonton, he comes across a huge vehicle. Dr. Light walks out of the vehicle. The mayors of the conquered towns ask Dr. Light about the progress of the robot. Dr. Light tells them that he is almost done constructing it. Guts Man chuckles evilly and says to Proto Man "A little Spy Batonton told me dat Dr. Light's gonna have a large robot replace dose pipes we ripped out." Proto Man laughs evilly and says "Dr. Wily's gonna love that!" Proto Man is distracted by Guts Man's revealing information, and doesn't notice that Rush has alerted Mega Man to the Spy Batonton behind them. "Sizzling Circuits! A spying batonton!" Mega Man yells out, grabbing Proto Man's attention. Proto Man tries to get the Spy Batonton to fly away, but it is too late, Mega Man quickly destroys it.

Proto Man shakes his head. Guts Man calls up Proto Man and tells him that Dr. Light has spotted his Spy Batonton. Proto Man calls up Cut Man and tells him to be careful, as their adversaries have found out that they are being spied on.  Cut Man doesn't pay attention to him, he is using his Spy Batonton to watch some robot girls. "Cut Man! Cut Man?" Proto Man calls to him. Cut Man laughs in a perverted way as he is watching them. Proto Man, in anger, yells out "Cut Man!" Cut Man is startled by Proto Man's angry yelling and cries out "What? What? What is it?" Proto Man groans and tells him "Keep an eye out! Literally! The good guys know they're being watched!" Cut Man replies "Don't worry Proto Man, my eye is peeled! Ahe ahe ahe!"

Meanwhile, Mega Man and Rush are running around, looking for the remaining Spy Batontons. "We need to keep our eyes out for those eyes!" Mega Man tells Rush. Mega Man calls up Roll on his arm cannon and tells her that there are some Spy Batontons flying around gathering intelligence for Dr. Wily and his robots. Roll tells him that she is almost done with bringing water to the townsfolk. Just then, something catches her eye. She looks up and is frightened by the sight of a Spy Batonton flying right in front of her. She runs away from it, but her means of escape is blocked by the other Spy Batonton. She switches to her ice pick attatchment and aims it at the flying robotic eye. She yells out "Get any closer and I'll poke your eyes out!" She aims her ice pick at both of the Spy Batontons. She hears Guts Man roar out "There she is!" She looks over to see Guts Man, Cut Man, and Proto Man looking down at her from the roof of a large general store. Proto Man tells Roll "There's a no water rule around here!" Cut Man throws the cutters on his head at the water tanks. To Cut Man's shock, Roll deflects the cutter with her ice pick. The cutter ends up slicing through the posts holding the general store up. The building falls down. Proto Man and Cut Man manage to jump off of the building before it crumbles down, but Guts Man is unable to get off before the building collapse. Cut Man and Proto Man cannot see Roll due to the dust cloud that has formed from the building collapsing. Cut Man tells Proto Man "Let me use my Spy Batonton!"

Through the Spy Batonton, Cut Man cannot find Roll anywhere. "She must have used the dust cloud to make an escape!" Proto Man tells Cut Man. He then says to him "Let's get her!" Cut Man asks Proto Man "What about Guts Man?" Proto Man replies "Don't worry about him, Cut Man, he can get himself out!" They run after Roll with Cut Man's Spy Batonton following them. The dust cloud settles, revealing that Guts Man is buried under the wooden planks of the general store. Mega Man and Rush run over to where the general store now lays in a heap of broken wood and glass. Guts Man's Spy Batonton turns around and spots them. Guts Man bursts out of the wreckage and yells out "Those dorky bots are mine!" He has his Spy Batonton go off after them. He runs off after them.

In the next town over, Pump Man, Aqua Man, and the water-draining robots are walking over to the Skullker. The Skullker is at another town. Dr. Wily gets out of the Skullker, looks at the town, and says "Another town, another trophy..." He then commands Pump Man and Aqua Man "Pump Man! Aqua Man! Suck them dry of their precious water! Mwa ha ha ha ha!" Pump Man responds "With great pleasure, Dr. Wily!" Aqua Man signals the water-draining robots to follow him into the town. "We'll drain them dry! Bone dry!" Aqua Man gloats with malice. They all walk towards the town. Back at the desert town, Roll is running away from Proto Man and Cut Man, with Cut Man's Spy Batonton flying behind them. Cut Man says "Let me get a better view of her! Ahe ahe ahe!" He has the Spy Batonton fly up closer to her.

Meanwhile, Mega Man and Rush manage to locate Roll. They see that she is being pursued. "Let's get down there and rescue Roll!" Mega Man says to Rush. They are about to jump down from the roof that they are on, but they are stopped by Guts Man's Spy Batonton flying

up right in front of them. Mega Man and Rush are startled and jump back. They hear Guts Man behind them yell out "There you are, ya rotten robots!" Guts Man climbs up onto the roof. On his way up, Guts Man yells out "I'm going to squash ya and turn ya into a Mega

Pancake!" Guts Man gets up onto the roof and uses his Super Arm to rip out a huge chunk of the roof. Guts Man throws the chunk at Mega Man and Rush. They both casually step aside to avoid the chunk. The chunk ends up hitting Guts Man's Spy Batonton and destroys it.

Mega Man smirks and says "Looks like your little toy got broken!" Guts Man stomps his foot and growls in anger. Smoke comes out of his 'ears' and his face turns red. He charges at Mega Man and attempts to hit him with his arm. The roof of the building gives way. Guts Man falls through the roof and lands with a loud, shaking thud. Mega Man and Rush look down the large hole in the roof and see that Guts Man has landed into a large crate of watermelons. Mega Man yells down to Guts Man "Drop by again next fall, Gutsy!" Mega Man and Rush then jump off of the roof of the building. Guts Man falls out of the watermelon crate, and tries to get up. But, he slips on the watermelon juice on the floor and lands into a large crate of tomatoes. He kicks his feet and lets out an enraged roar. Meanwhile, Roll is trying to shake of Proto Man and Cut Man. Cut Man's Spy Batonton flies in front of her. This gives her an idea. Cut Man says to Roll "I see you're cornered! Ahe ahe ahe!" Roll suddenly grabs the Spy Batonton and throws it at Cut Man. The Spy Batonton smashes into Cut Man's chest, knocking him down. "Strike One!" Roll yells out. Proto man says to her "Pretty sneaky, sis!" He gets ready to aim at Roll, but Dr. Wily calls him up on his arm cannon. Proto Man groans and says "I never get to have any fun!" Mega Man and Rush find Roll and walk up to her. "Are you alright, Roll?" Mega Man asks her, a little bit out of breath. "Of course I am, Mega!" Roll tells him. She looks down at a knocked out Cut Man and says "Too bad the same can't be said about Cut Man!" Dr. Light comes up on Mega Man's arm cannon and tells him that the pipe-placing robot is ready and that he needs him to serve as its "bodyguard". He tells Roll that she should continue in giving the townsfolk in the occupied towns water. Roll is a little upset that she can't assist Mega Man in guarding the large pipe-laying robot. Mega Man tells her that her assignment is much more valuable then his. Roll thanks him for the complement. Mega Man, Rush, and Roll go their separate ways. Mega Man and Rush fly off to where Dr. Light's Mobile Lab is parked, Roll runs over to the Air Raider.

Unbeknowst to them, Cut Man was feigning being knocked out. He gets up and throws the destroyed Spy Batonton off of himself. He stands up and hears Guts Man throwing a fit. "Guts Man?" Cut Man cries out. He can hear Guts Man from a few hundred feet away. He runs over to the source of Guts Man's yelling. As he gets closer, he can make out Guts Man yelling out "That blue dweeb and his dumb dog are going to pay for my ruined armor! Raaaaah!" Cut Man finds him getting out of the crate of tomatoes. Cut Man yells to Guts Man "Guts Man! This is not the time for a snack!" Guts Man finally gets up on his feet and yells out "It's the blue dork's fault! He's the one who made me-" "Never mind the blue dweeb!" Cut Man interrupts. He then says "We got to stop his ditzy sister from giving our hostages water!" Guts Man yells out "Well what are we waiting for!? Let's get her water delivery business all wet!" Guts Man runs out of the building. Cut Man sighs and follows him. Back at the Mobile Lab, Mega Man and Rush arrive at the wheeled lab. Dr. Light shows them the large pipe-laying robot. "Awesome!" Mega Man says. Dr. Wily's robots see that the robot is a lot bigger than they thought. Proto Man calls up Dr. Wily on his arm cannon and tells him "We're going to need the others, Doc. The pipe layer looks like it's one tough hombre!" Dr. Wily tells him that Pump Man and Aqua Man are busy and that they will have to take care of the robot themselves. Proto Man protests and says "But Mega Man and his dumb robo dog are going to be its bodyguards while it reinstalls the pipes..." Dr. Wily groans and says "If you say so...." Proto Man smiles, pleased that this time Dr. Wily actually listened to him, and says "In the meantime, me and the robo boys will give the good guys a very hard time!" Proto Man snickers evilly and presses a button on his arm cannon to hang up the call. He then says to Guts Man and Cut Man "Let's get them while they're gearing up! They'll be at their weakest!" All three of them run down towards the good guys. Rush hears them and barks out to Mega Man. "What is it, Rush?" Mega Man asks him. Rush turns to where the evil robots are and growls at them. Roll and Mega Man look up and see Dr. Wily's robots charging towards them. Proto Man and Cut Man fire at them. Mega Man has Roll and Rush guide the pipe-laying robot while he defends them from attack. "We're putting an end to your humanitarian endeavor!" Proto Man yells out as he fires at Mega Man. Mega Man replies "I didn't

know you knew big words!" Proto Man responds "That's right, Little Brother! Big words and big blasts!" He then fires a fully charged shot at Mega Man. Mega Man loses most of his power and falls down onto the ground. Proto Man turns to Cut Man and says "Execute him!" Cut Man laughs evilly in his unique way and says "Of course, Proto Man! Ahe ahe ahe!" Cut Man takes off the cutters on his head and prepares to throw them at a downed Mega Man. Dr. Light quickly gets back in the Mobile Lab and Eddie comes out. Roll switches to her vacuum attatchment and gets ready for Cut Man to throw his cutters at them. Cut Man remembers then previous times she's done that and says "Oh no! I'm not falling for that again!" He stops himself from throwing the cutters on his head. Guts Man yells out "Let me at 'em!" Mega Man has Roll go ahead and protect the pipe-laying robot. Eddie gives Mega Man some energy cans quickly. Mega Man drinks them and has his energy restored. He gets back up. He yells out to Guts Man "Ready for round 2, Gutsy?" Mega Man puts his fists up and prepares to fight Guts Man. Guts Man tries to punch him, but Mega Man keeps dodging his punches. Proto Man yells out to Guts Man "Quit playing with him, Guts Man, and just put his lights out!" Proto Man looks at Cut Man and says "Looks like he needs some tag partners!" They run over and fire at Mega Man. Mega Man fires back at them. Dr. Light comes out of the Mobile Lab and has the pipe-laying robot get on top of it. Mega Man charges up his cannon and fires a fully charged shot at Dr. Wily's robots. All three of the evil robots are knocked into a cactus patch. The Mobile Lab drives away with the pipe-laying robot on top of it.

Proto Man crawls out of the cactus patch. He picks off the spines that are stuck in his yellow scarf. He calls up Dr. Wily on his arm cannon and tells him that Dr. Light and the pipe-laying robot are heading towards one of the conquered desert towns. Dr. Wily yells out "What!?"

The calls hangs up much to Proto Man's surprise. As Guts Man and Cut Man are picking spines out of their armor, the Skullker lands in front of them. Cut Man finds that a large cactus spine has found its way in one of his ears. He pulls it out and flicks it to the ground. He sees the Skullker and says "Wily got here quick!" Guts Man spits out needles that were in his mouth. Dr. Wily yells out "Get in here now!" The evil robots quickly board the Skullker. The Skullker flies off in pursuit of the Mobile Lab.

At the town, the Mobile Lab parks in the town's plaza. The pipe-laying robot gets off of the Mobile Lab. Dr. Light and his robots get out of the lab on wheels. Pump Man, Aqua Man, and Dr. Wily's water pipe robots approach the plaza. "It's an ambush!" Mega Man cries out. Aqua Man tells them "We're going to dampen your pathetic attempt at saving our towns!" Pump Man sees the giant pipe-laying robot and says "Nice robot, Doc! It would be such a shame if something were to happen to it...like this!" He uses his weapon on the large pipe-laying robot. "Mega Man!" Dr. Light cries out "Defend the robot!" Mega Man nods at Dr. Light and fires at Pipe Man. Pipe Man and Aqua Man combine their weapons and fire a strong burst of high pressure water at Mega Man and Rush. The blast knocks Mega Man's helmet off. Mega Man is pushed against the Mobile Lab. He appears to have been knocked out, but he gets up, grabs his helmet, pours the water out of it, and places it back on his head. "Alright you washed-up robots!" He yells out, still dripping, "I'm ending this water fight!" He fires at Pump Man. Aqua Man order the water-draining robots to attack Mega Man. The water-draining robots charge at Mega Man. Mega Man fires a plasma shot into one of their tubes, causing it to explode. "This is a blast!" Mega Man comments. The other water-draining robots swing their tube-like arms at him. Mega Man grabs one of the robots by its arm and swings it into the other robot. Another one swings at Mega Man, who jumps above its arms and delivers a martial arts kick to its head. The robot comes crashing down. Pump Man sees that the water-draining robots are being destroyed one by one. He yells out "Let's give them a hand!" and runs out into the plaza. Aqua Man just stands there, a little bit confused. Pump Man runs up to Aqua Man and says "Come on, Aqua Brain!" The two water robot masters run out into the plaza. They fire their weapons at Mega Man. Mega Man grabs one of the water-draining robots, lifts it above his head, and throws it at Aqua Man. The water tank on top of Aqua Man's head breaks open as he falls down to the ground. He lays there, short-circuiting. Mega Man walks up to him and says "Ha ha ha! Looks like you've tanked, Aqua Man!" He bends down and copies his weapon, but before he can finish copying his weapon, he is hit by Pump Man's weapon. He is slightly damaged, but is still okay. He shouts out "I was in the middle of something, Pump Head!" Pump Man replies "Well sorry to interrupt your little copycat trick, Mega Man, but you're through this time!" He is about to fire his weapon at Mega Man again, but Mega Man says "I'm afraid you're the one who's through, Pump Man!" and fires a fully-charged shot right into the pipe in his chest. "Oh no!" Pump Man cries out before he explodes. He then explodes into parts. Mega Man goes over to one of his arms and says "And now to do my copycat trick!" He copies Pump Man's weapon and then goes over to Aqua Man and copies his weapon as well. He then goes over to stop the other evil robots, but sees that Rush is the only one in the plaza. He looks around and asks Rush "Where did everyone go, Rush?" Rush whimpers and points with one of his paws over to one of the streets. Mega Man sees that the Mobile Lab has left a trail. Mega Man tells Rush "We gotta chase Wily down and stop his pursuit of the Mobile Lab! That large robot is vital to saving the towns!" Rush barks and turns into his Jet Mode. Mega Man gets on them and they both fly off in the direction that the Mobile Lab went.

Meanwhile, the Skullker is pursuing the Mobile Lab. Inside the Mobile Lab, Dr. Light tells Roll that he doesn't know if the Mobile Lab has enough fuel to keep going. Roll says to him "Well, me and Eddie will stop the Skullker, right Eddie?" Eddie shakes his head vigorously, clearly not wanting to risk his life. Mega Man and Rush finally catch up to the Skullker. Mega Man says out loud "I'm sabotaging this hunt, Wily!" and fires at the Skullker. Inside the Skullker, an alarm sounds. The Skullker is suffering some significant damage. Dr. Wily turns to Proto Man and says "Proto Man, go out the back door and fire away!" Proto Man smiles widely and opens up the back door. "Hello there, Little Brother!" Proto Man sarcastically says to Mega Man. "Hello yourself!" Mega Man replies. He fires some shots at Proto Man. Proto Man gets hit by one of the shots and falls back into the Skullker. He bumps into Cut Man as he falls backwards, knocking him to the ground. "Proto Man, you klutz bot!" Cut Man yells at Proto Man. Proto Man gets up and says, "Hey, it's not my fault Mega Man has such great accuracy! Maybe next time, don't get in the way!" Cut Man tries to snap back at him "And you, you, you..." Dr. Wily yells at them "Quit fighting, you two, and do your jobs for once in your miserable mechanical lives!"

Just then, Mega Man manages to get into the Skullker. "Your town rustlin' days are over, Dr. Wily!" Mega Man yells at the mad robot scientist. Dr. Wily prepares to press a button on the cockpit's control panel. Mega Man aims his cannon at Dr. Wily and says "Don't you dare!" Dr. Wily laughs evilly and says "I will dare!" He presses the button. The Skullker charges up its laser cannon. Mega Man sees that it is going to fire at the large pipe-laying robot. "Just try to stop it!" Dr. Wily says to Mega Man. Mega Man runs over to the cockpit, but Guts Man grabs him and holds him tightly in his arms and laughs. "I need a hug! Ha ha ha ha!" Guts Man says to Mega Man as he writhes in his arms. He then says "And don't even think about giving me a 'hot foot'!" Mega Man bends his head down and jerks it back up, smashing his helmet into Guts Man's large mandible. Guts Man's mandible flies off of his face. Guts Man drops Mega Man, who then runs over to the cockpit. Dr. Wily shouts out "Stop him! He's going to power it down!" Cut Man throws the cutters on his head at Mega Man. Mega Man grabs the cutters and throws them back at Cut Man. Cut Man is cut in half horizontally. Cut Man tries to fire his weapon at Mega Man, but Mega Man shoots him and knocks him out.

Meanwhile, Dr. Light sees on one of the screens in his Mobile lab that the Skullker is going to fire its laser cannon at them. "Evasive maneuver, Roll!" Dr. Light yells out to Roll, who is at the lab's dashboard. "Right!" Roll says. She steers the Mobile Lab. The Mobile Lab turns right and makes a u-turn. The Skullker's laser cannon fires, but the Mobile Lab has avoided the blast. The blast instead hits the desert ground, kicking up a large cloud of sand and dust. Dr. Wily yells out in anger. He yells out to his remaining robots "Throw that blue piece of junk out of here!" Before Mega Man can react, Guts Man, who now has no lower jaw, grabs him. Before he throws him out, he tries to say something to Mega Man, but because he has no jaw, he basically mumbles. "You too, Mumble Mouth!" Mega Man yells to him. Guts Man hurls him out of the Skullker. Mega Man lands onto a large rock. One of his legs is broken from the fall. "That's gonna leave a mark!" Mega Man says to himself. He lets out a whistle. Rush comes flying over to him and sees that one of his legs has been damaged. Rush whimpers and says "Mega...." Mega Man tells him "Don't worry, Rush, I can still fight!" He crawls up on Rush, and they fly off in pursuit of the Skullker. The Skullker spots them and almost rams right into them. Mega Man sees that the Skullker is preparing to fire at the Mobile Lab again. "Not this time, Wily!" he shouts out. He fires Pump Man's weapon at the Skullker. One of the water-filled bubbles covers up the laser cannon. It backfires and ends up badly damaging the Skullker. Dr. Wily tries to fly it, but it is too damaged to do so. Dr. Wily can only watch as the good guys speed away with the pipe-laying robot. Guts Man mumbles something. "I have no idea!" Dr. Wily screams out. Proto Man says to Dr. Wily "We need to get you out of here before it falls-" The Skullker begins to fall apart all around them. Dr. Wily quickly gets into his Wily Capsule. Guts Man picks up his lower jaw and Cut Man's two halves. Proto Man and Guts Man hang onto the Wily Capsule as it launches out of the Skullker. The Skullker falls to pieces. The pieces scatter all over the ground. As the Wily Capsule flies off, Dr. Wily laments "My towns, I've lost my towns! My towns have been-" Proto Man cuts him off and says "Yeah, we get it, Wily! You've lost your precious desert towns!" The Wily Capsule flies off into the desert sky.

Back at one of the reclaimed desert towns, Mega Man is using Aqua Man's weapon to fill up a water tank. The large pipe-laying robot is reinstalling the water pipes. Roll comes over to Mega Man and tells him that another thing needs to be filled up. Mega Man follows her. She points to a kiddie pool. "Are you serious!?" Mega Man asks her. Roll tells him "But they really need the water!" The children in the kiddie pool plead to Mega Man. Mega Man rolls his eyes and says "Alright!" He walks over to the pool and refills it. The children thank him and begin splashing in the pool. Rush sees the pool, and runs over and jumps in it. Mega Man tells the children "Just make sure you share it with others!" and laughs. The episode ends with Rush splashing in the pool and playing with the children.

[edenkept]

❛                      NOW    I    KNOW    IT’S    NOT    YOU    ,    but    me    that    i'll    love    a    little    more    .

wish    i    could    use    emojis    to    express    how    i    feel    ,    but    jus    know    that    for    the    entire    day    that    ONE    PART    in    roman    holiday    has    been    playing    in    my    head    on    repeat    &    i    ?    couldn’t    turn    it    off    .    anyway    ,    my    intros    r    usually    super    long    SO    i    tried    to    keep    it    -    how    u    say    -    condensed    this    time    .    but    i’m    so    excited    &    i    am    so    hyped    to    write    w    all    of    u    !  @opalsmedia

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𝑭𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑳𝑺

full  name  :  baek  ye  -  seul

nickname(s)  /  alias(es)  :  eden  park  (  english  name  )

age  /  dob  :  twenty  one  /  march  3  ‘99

hometown  :  seoul  ,  south  korea

current  location  :  guildford  ,  england

ethnicity  :  korean

nationality  :  english  -  south  korean

gender  :  cis  female

pronouns  :  she  /  her

orientation  :  pansexual  ,  grayromantic

religion  :  agnostic  ,  raised  catholic

face  claim  :  jung  chaeyeon

language(s)  spoken  :  korean  ,  mandarin  ,  cantonese  ,  english  ,  some  french

speech  :  english  is  her  first  language  -  seven  years  spent  in  london  before  being  whisked  away  to  another  world  ,  she’s  still  got  a  hold  on  a  formal  accent  -  though  ,  doesn’t  sound  completely  english  or  american  ,  some  ambiguous  mixture  of  someone  who’s  practiced  the  language  with  someone  who  isn’t  a  complete  expert  .  all  being  said  ,  she’s  enchanting  enough  to  fool  even  the  wisest  into  listening  -  schemes  flinging  from  parted  lips  that  garner  attention  ,  though  often  what  follows  is  informal  &  laced  with  sour  intentions  .

hair  :  naturally  dark  ,  so  dark  its  comparable  to  a  moonless  sky  ,  though  ,  in  the  summer  &  constant  sunlight  it’s  known  to  lighten  (  just  -  barely  )  .  kept  just  past  her  shoulder  blades  ,  her  hair  is  naturally  straight  (  barely  wavy  )  &  not  often  styled  .  healthy  &  thick  ,  requires  little  uptake  at  current  length  ,  so  it’s  common  to  see  it  all  down  -  at  most  ,  will  be  swept  up  into  a  messy  up  -  do  to  be  kept  out  of  her  face  when  doing  something  important  .  entirely  effortless  ,  her  hair  is  often  the  least  of  her  worries  .

eyes  :  quite  the  defining  feature  ,  her  eyes  are  sharp  &  cat  like  .  the  same  color  of  the  earth  after  an  unforgiving  rain  storm  ,  it’s  easy  to  see  past  a  confident  exo  -  skeleton  to  see  the  unresolved  pain  in  her  eyes  .  holders  of  wisdom  &  excitement  ,  there’s  a  lot  of  sadness  that  reside  in  her  hues  -  a  lone  survivor  in  an  unheard  war  ,  she  doesn’t  let  enough  people  close  enough  to  ever  let  them  see  it  .  instead  ,  it’s  more  often  found  to  catch  her  sending  a  glimpse  from  over  the  edge  of  a  book  -  sly  &  clever  .

height  :  five  feet  ,  five  inches

build  :  athletic  ,  with  toned  limbs  &  a  toned  torso  .

tattoos  :  none  .

piercings  :  only  earlobes  .

scars  :  easily  hidden  ,  a  small  two  centimetre  scar  on  the  inside  of  her  right  wrist  ,  just  below  the  fleshy  part  of  her  palm  .  when  asked  ,  the  consistent  story  is  an  accident  when  moving  in  with  her  adopted  parents  -  a  child  throwing  a  tantrum  &  getting  themselves  hurt  .  nobody  knows  the  real  story  ,  she  doesn’t  seem  keen  on  sharing  .

clothing  style  :  academia  aesthetic  ,  she  surrounds  herself  with  like  minded  women  who’ve  the  same  ideals  &  personalities  .  distinguishable  by  their  clothing  ,  carefully  smoothed  high  waisted  a  -  line  skirts  ,  high  turtlenecks  &  long  coats  over  black  tights  .  looks  sophisticated  enough  to  have  a  butler  (  which  ,  she  does  )  but  intellectual  enough  to  debate  her  professor  (  which  ,  she  often  does  )  .

usual  expression  :  like  she  knows  too  much  ,  as  if  she’s  seen  too  much  &  she’ll  use  it  to  her  advantage  .  with  the  constant  curve  of  her  lips  &  the  glint  that’s  always  present  in  her  eyes  ,  she  always  looks  as  if  she’s  about  to  cause  as  much  trouble  .  devil’s  advocate  ,  it  wouldn’t  be  too  far  off  for  her  to  be  minutes  away  from  stirring  the  pot  .

distinguishing  characteristics  :  her  fleeting  laugh  -  it  catches  your  ear  as  she  passes  you  in  the  corridor  ,  always  red  nails  ;  deep  in  color  ,  it  matches  the  shade  of  blood  ,  a  walk  that  demands  attention  -  it  exudes  an  aura  of  importance  ,  cat  like  eyes  that  always  look  like  they’ve  caught  you  doing  something  you  aren’t  supposed  to  be  doing  .

𝑹𝑼𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺

exterior   :  ethereal  ,  she  holds  herself  to  an  impossibly  high  standard  that  everyone  can  see  .  is  it  intentional  ?  the  looks  sent  over  her  shoulders  ,  how  she  parts  the  halls  to  reach  a  friend  -  no  .  a  normal  girl  from  a  normal  world  ,  she’s  sat  in  the  front  of  the  lecture  hall  making  eye  contact  with  the  instructors  ;  the  kind  of  classmate  who  learns  everyone’s  (  everyone’s  )  name  &  collects  numbers  in  a  well  worn  notebook  to  send  out  guides  &  make  friends  .  even  if  you  don’t  know  eden  ,  you  know  of  eden  -  the  life  of  the  party  who  always  arrives  with  glowing  skin  &  a  passionate  argument  to  have  in  the  kitchen  .  elite  ,  the  rumors  of  a  heaven  fallen  girl  wrap  around  her  with  the  moonlight  (  her  journal  left  in  the  library  ,  she’s  god  chosen  )  -  passionate  ,  with  the  fires  of   both  heaven  &  hell  wrapped  in  her  .  almost  normal  (  not  quite  )  ,  the  kind  of  girl  to  greet  everyone  by  name  while  running  through  almost  empty  corridors  -  she  tugs  a  lifetime  of  sorrow  behind  her  ,  hides  it  behind  ambition  &  blind  loyalty  .

interior   :  war  torn  ,  a  victim  of  poison  dipped  claws  &  a  dip  into  the  river  styx  .  her  mind  doesn’t  match  her  body  ,  stuck  in  between  the  pages  of  a  grand  journey  where  she  views  the  world  as  a  story  .  a  punishment  for  early  childhood  ,  penance  has  been  found  in  intricate  metaphors  that  don’t  match  the  sharp  callousness  that  falls  from  her  lips  .  lost  in  a  universe  where  she’s  half  god  ,  half  devil  &  her  enemies  are  heaven  -  bound  ,  she  pushes  it  all  down  to  pass  as  normal  .  a  normal  girl  ,  with  normal  goals  &  normal  roles  .  poetry  in  her  dreams  ,  written  down  on  hidden  yellow  pages  that  aren’t  meant  to  be  seen  by  the  ordinary  .  found  hidden  away  in  locked  boxes  are  journeys  &  important  figures  that  only  her  mind  understands  ;  a  gaping  scar  in  her  life  that  she’ll  never  rid  herself  of  .

𝑪𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑳𝑬

this  is  NOT  gna  be  pretty  i  spent  too  many  brain  cells  on  my  app  .

TRIGGER  WARNINGS  :  abuse  

there’s  an  email  from  doctor  seong  ;  it  reads  of  baek  ye  seul  &  important  things  to  note  before  a  first  session  with  her  .  irreversibly  traumatized  from  early  childhood  captivity  &  abuse  ,  she’s  learned  to  cope  by  transforming  her  life  into  an  intricately  weaved  story  .  each  significant  figure  in  her  life  has  a  title  ,  an  assigned  metaphor  &  character  -  though  ,  outwardly  ,  she’ll  show  no  signs  of  trauma  .  in  fact  ,  the  opposite  -  she  shows  tremendous  progress  in  her  personal  life  ,  easygoing  with  peers  ,  approachable  &  passionate  -  keep  an  eye  on  her  movements  ,  if  anything  internal  ever  goes  external  ,  it’s  a  dangerous  sign  .

a  file  left  open  on  an  agent  prothero’s  office  -  MI6  stamped  &  redacted  but  he  knows  the  story  by  heart  .  poor  eden  ,  left  in  the  hands  of  a  capable  agent  that  chose  a  target  over  her  own  country  .  the  product  of  a  traitor  &  a  criminal  ,  whereabouts  were  unknown  for  the  first  six  years  of  her  life  ;  but  through  extensive  therapy  &  decoding  childish  messages  ,  he’s  learned  enough  to  swear  to  always  keep  an  eye  on  her  .  held  captive  on  a  london  penthouse  ,  had  her  life  threatened  &  well  being  always  held  just  out  of  reach  while  her  mother  &  father  stayed  hidden  .  not  much  else  is  known  ,  no  specifics  ,  just  one  instance  -  she  drowned  ,  almost  ,  she  says  .  held  under  ,  he  can  still  remember  her  asking  what  the  most  peaceful  way  to  die  is  .  he  sends  her  to  partners  in  south  korea  ,  people  who  want  a  daughter  &  promise  to  raise  her  the  best  they  can  .

pour  over  comments  left  on  old  social  media  pages  ,  she’s  a  hit  in  her  new  life  .  sheds  her  english  name  as  quickly  as  she  received  it  &  thrives  overseas  while  growing  into  a  formidable  woman  .  she’s  intelligent  (  reminds  someone  of  a  mother  who  had  it  all  once  )  ,  sharp  &  witty  .  filled  with  enough  passion  to  light  a  palace  ablaze  ,  she  strives  for  greatness  &  settles  for  absolutely  nothing  .  always  equipped  with  a  plan  &  a  way  ,  she  gets  everything  she  wants  (  &  she  always  earns  it  ,  there  isn’t  a  single  unearned  trophy  on  her  shelf  )  .  either  loved  or  despised  ,  she  shines  as  bright  as  stars  that  are  millions  of  light  years away  from  earth  .

in  her  planner  ,  an  acceptance  letter  carefully  pressed  &  laminated  .  someone  told  her  she’d  never  get  in  ,  but  she  sits  on  campus  &  smiles  -  she’s  capable  of  doing  anything  she  wants  .  next  to  the  letter  is  an  unblemished  business  card  .  agent  prothero  ,  who  found  her  ,  gave  her  the  means  to  burn  everything  down  -  he  hands  her  a  promise  &  information  that  always  swims  around  her  head  .  her  parents  aren’t  dead  ,  kept  hidden  by  everyone  in  her  life  ,  they’re  still  kicking  &  on  the  run  .  a  goal  formulated  as  he  reminds  her  to  finish  her  schooling  -  there’s  the  same  glint  in  his  eye  that  she  often  sees  in  the  mirror  -  a  promise  made  to  finish  &  return  .  some  people  deserve  a  downfall  ,  her  mother’s  will  be  her  .

𝑪𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑫

throuple  /  trio    :    hee  hee  ,  as  explained  in  my  app  ,  jus  three  prodigies  who  get  along  so  well  that  they’re  jus  the  best  of  friends  .  kindred  spirits  ,  always  found  together  ,  wearing  complimenting  colors  while  they  try  not  to  laugh  to  hard  in  the  library  over  something  rly  stupid  .  they  hold  hands  while  walking  through  hidden  corridors  &  keep  their  heads  down  to  the  wind  ,  but  it’s  always  the  three  of  them  .

unrequited  rivalry    :   i.e.  an  opal  who  sees  her  as  a  “rival”  (  or  jus  pushes  her  )  &  eden’s  like  haha  peepeepoopoo  in  response  cos  she  doesn’t  think  anyone’s  worthy  enough  to  be  her  rival  .  if  anything  ,  she  thinks  it’s  more  endearing  than  annoying  &  it  gives  her  something  /  someone  to  look  forward  to  when  the  time  comes  down  to  it  .

the  angle  to  her  deivl    :    anyone  who’s  a  lil  kinder  ,  a  lil  softer  &  not  as  annoying  around  the  edges  .  eden  consistently  plays  devil’s  advocate  &  will  stir  the  pot  it  if  brings  drama  &  a  little  bit  of  chaos  into  her  life  ,  this  muse  is  someone  who’s  always  the  ‘  eden  no  ’  to  her  ‘  eden  yes  ’

in  relation  to  her  circlet    :    fully  explained  in  my  app  ,  but  eden  unabashedly  views  her  coven  as  family  -  even  if  she  does  lean  into  the  role  of  annoying  cousin  .  she’s  no  leader  ,  more  of  an  antagonistic  side  kick  who  always  plays  devil’s  advocate  &  causes  trouble  .  that  being  said  ,  when  things  get  dirty  &  things  need  solving  ,  that’s  her  main  job  (  she  ?  thinks  )

in  relation  to  the  opals    :    opals  ,  shmopals  .  a  characteristic  flaw  is  her  disregard  to  authority  figures  (  always  seen  arguing  with  professors  ,  will  fight  the  p*lice  when  called  to  a  party  ,  has  tackled  various  figures  around  campus  )  ,  including  the  opals  .  respect  should  be  earned  &  besides  being  her  seniors  ,  she’s  seen  no  other  reason  to  respect  them  .  so  ,  she’s  outwardly  disrespectful  &  idk  what  to  say  .

[harianadimples]

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Warning: none 3.7k+: fluff, light angst, university!au, spooky szn

| – | – | – |

The house begins to look like a haunted house well before October 31st.

They finished refurnishing the walls and the floors of the living room three weeks into September and are now in the process of putting in furniture and decorating. Harry didn’t really bat an eye when Ariana was bringing home small Halloween related pieces like ceramic jack-o-lantern models and a practical witch’s spell book, but he felt he needed to step in once he saw her carrying a familiar bust into their living room.

“You are not putting that in here,” Harry immediately takes the bust from her, maneuvering it away from her grabby hands as they reached for it.

The bust was from a shoot he did for his first year, special effects makeup class in university. He had to create a prosthetic of his face; a mask, essentially. It turned out a little wonky since Harry didn’t have the experience he has now, and he might have been high while working on it. He kept it as a portfolio piece before it inevitably ended up in a storage unit. He would have thrown it away if Ariana hadn’t wanted to have it, and now he’s strongly reconsidering his decision to keep it.

“Come on, you know how much I adore that thing. It’s art!” Ariana huffs as she tries for the bust with Harry’s face again, but he only holds it above his head where he knows she won’t be able to reach it. “Hey, careful with him!” She gasps, making the jump to grab the bust from Harry which she quickly runs and places on the coffee table.

“It clashes with my Michaelmas Daisies,” Harry huffs motioning to how the fleshy bust dampened the soft nature of his purple flowers.

“What if I put him with the landline?” Ariana asks.

“No, it’s old and the direct sunlight isn’t good for it,” Harry shakes his head, trailing off as he looks around the living room, “I suppose he can go on the shelf there, with the paper weight Matt gave us.”

“Hmmm, if Matt ever heard you calling his wedding gift for us a ‘paper weight,’ he’d ghost you again,” Ariana laughs as she brings the bust over to the shelf.

“What would I do with a small crystal dog other than use it as a paper weight?” Harry asks. “It can’t give me kisses or cuddle me.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Ariana grins as she steps into Harry’s arms which invitingly wrap around her in an embrace that warms them both. She leans upward and kisses the bottom of his chin before slipping out of his arms so she could continue her decorating.

“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”

or

The one where Halloween complicates a marriage when you couldn’t care less about Halloween while your wife’s the kind of person to paint ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ on your new walls with fake blood

-:-:-:-

After five of years of marriage and being together for nine years in total, Harry thinks he knows his wife pretty well at this point. So, when she came into their living room one summer morning, her eyes suspiciously aglow for someone who had to go to the pharmacy to pick up his ointments, Harry knew that she was up to something. He could see the cog wheels in her mind turning as he met her eyes from across the room.

“Look what I picked up. I saw it in the shop next door, and thought it was the cutest thing. I think it’ll look great on our mantle,” Ariana says, the pitter patter of her socked feet thud over their half-done wood floors to where Harry is sitting by a pile of floor boards. She pulls out a small skeleton doll, made mostly of tiny (he hopes are fake) bones and a barbie-sized head. Only the head is missing a face, and had a head full of matted black hair.

“It’s creepy,” Harry makes a pinched expression as he looks at it up close, “isn’t it a bit too early for shops to sell Halloween decorations?”

“It’s never too early for Halloween,” Ariana disagrees as she takes the doll from Harry, taking it to the fireplace to place it on the mantle.

They’re currently re-doing the living room so, the mantle isn’t flocked with family photos and the small gifts they’d collected at past weddings and birthdays. She sets the doll down in the middle of the mantle, stepping back to admire it in its lonesome.

“Have we decided on ‘silver chalice’ or ‘silk pillow’ for the walls?” Harry asks as he sets his phone down.

“Silk pillow,” Ariana sighs, “but I still think black would be divine.”

…

The house begins to look like a haunted house well before October 31st.

They finished refurnishing the walls and the floors of the living room three weeks into September and are now in the process of putting in furniture and decorating. Harry didn’t really bat an eye when Ariana was bringing home small Halloween related pieces like ceramic jack-o-lantern models and a practical witch’s spell book, but he felt he needed to step in once he saw her carrying a familiar bust into their living room.

“You are not putting that in here,” Harry immediately takes the bust from her, maneuvering it away from her grabby hands as they reached for it.

The bust was from a shoot he did for his first year, special effects makeup class in university. He had to create a prosthetic of his face; a mask, essentially. It turned out a little wonky since Harry didn’t have the experience he has now, and he might have been high while working on it. He kept it as a portfolio piece before it inevitably ended up in a storage unit. He would have thrown it away if Ariana hadn’t wanted to have it, and now he’s strongly reconsidering his decision to keep it.

“Come on, you know how much I adore that thing. It’s art!” Ariana huffs as she tries for the bust with Harry’s face again, but he only holds it above his head where he knows she won’t be able to reach it. “Hey, careful with him!” She gasps, making the jump to grab the bust from Harry which she quickly runs and places on the coffee table.

“It clashes with my Michaelmas Daisies,” Harry huffs motioning to how the fleshy bust dampened the soft nature of his purple flowers.

“What if I put him with the landline?” Ariana asks.

“No, it’s old and the direct sunlight isn’t good for it,” Harry shakes his head, trailing off as he looks around the living room, “I suppose he can go on the shelf there, with the paper weight Matt gave us.”

“Hmmm, if Matt ever heard you calling his wedding gift for us a ‘paper weight,’ he’d ghost you again,” Ariana laughs as she brings the bust over to the shelf.

“What would I do with a small crystal dog other than use it as a paper weight?” Harry asks. “It can’t give me kisses or cuddle me.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Ariana grins as she steps into Harry’s arms which invitingly wrap around her in an embrace that warms them both. She leans upward and kisses the bottom of his chin before slipping out of his arms so she could continue her decorating.

Harry spends some time rearranging their photos on the mantle which is worryingly overcrowded now, but he felt adamant about every photo being included. Each photo held a great importance to him, so much so that he went out of his way to have them printed and framed. There’s one from their first date, one from when they got engaged, and of course, when they got married. The other photos were every-other-day photos of them that he really loved, not to mention that they’d be great to show their kids and their kids someday; Harry can’t wait to be that one grandparent with the stories, you know the one.

Harry glances at the photo he’s holding and can’t help but grin. It’s a photo from when they met; a group photo taken at a Halloween party she’d hosted in her third year of university (Harry was a year below her).

…

“Why the hell are we here, Matt? Holly’s moved on and so should you,” Harry looked at his desperate friend in disbelief, trying his best to keep up with Matt as he kept walking further into the house. Harry didn’t even know whose party they’d crash, but he knew he needed to stop Matt before he caused a scene.

“I just want to see the prick she left me for,” Matty huffed, “now put on your mask, I don’t want to actually confront her. If she sees you she’ll know I’m here too, because we all know you hate Halloween. She’ll think you’re only at this party because I dragged you here.”

“Heeey!” Harry frowned, “I don’t hate Halloween, don’t make me out to be some bad person. I just don’t find it fun; the dressing up, the decorations, the stress of it all–.”

“Yeah, whatever man. Come on,” Matt slipped on his zombie mask along with Harry and the pair began walking through the house.

Harry wasn’t impressed much when he saw the different costumes. It’s clear that not everyone got the memo about the Night of the Living Dead theme, though to be honest there weren’t many people to begin with. While Harry still didn’t care much for the festivities of Halloween, he figured that if a Halloween party has a theme you should at least try to follow it, otherwise why attend? He felt most unimpressed by those who disregarded the theme entirely. It wasn’t that bad of a theme. A little dated maybe, but Night of the Living dead is a cult classic horror film that he can appreciate for the special effects makeup.

“Hey Matt, you know whose party this is?” Harry asks.

“Ariana Grande, from one of Holly’s classes. I think they’re friends, but you never know with her what your relationship is,” Matt shrugged, “Anyway, yeah, she’s kind of weird.”

Harry took in the decorations littered around the house. Through the dim mood lighting, he could make out the cobwebs stuck in every corner, the gentle fog which sweeps around his feet, and finally the fake bloodied limbs. There’s fake tombstones set up in places, and models of zombies made for lawns propped up in random areas. Whoever this Ariana girl was she really put in the effort in decorating the place.

The two made their way into the kitchen where the drinks were. Harry poured himself some red punch, which he wasn’t surprised was spiked with some alcohol when he gulped it down. He heard Matt gruffly speaking next to him, but it wasn’t towards him. He looked and saw Matt speaking to someone dressed as Mark Hamill’s Joker. They’re talking about Holly again and Harry’s about had it with Matt being hung up on Holly; if he didn’t love his best friend so much he’d be anywhere else, but he didn’t want Matt to do something stupid that would end up in a fight again.

Deciding to distance himself from the two, Harry made his way back to the table with the punch. He poured himself another glass and looked around. There’s some finger food (literally… fingers; they’re sugar cookies, he discovers) which admittedly tasted sinful with his spiked punch. There was a large bowl of chocolates as well which he was inclined to reach into when he spotted his favourite chocolate brand. When reaching into the bowl Harry was startled when a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist from within the bowl, buried beneath the chocolates.

The noise that came from Harry wasn’t pretty.

He’s sure that the whole house heard him scream. Matt and his friend were looking at him in confusion and worry, while other’s just stared in awkward silence.

Then muffled laughter; he heard laughter, coming from the bowl?

Harry looked for the owner of that laugh, readying himself to tell them off for being so childish, but instead he watches with forced composure as a young woman slides out from under the table. Her laughter is less muffled now, and when she’s standing in front of him with a pleased expression he notices how she looks like a proper zombie, her face in a genuine state of decay with her large school sweater ripped and dirtied.

“God, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting under there,” She said, reaching for a cup to pour herself some punch.

“I suppose I’m your first victim, then,” Harry murmured as he fiddled with his cup.

“You’re actually the only one to fall for it so far. It’s an old trick that only the dumbest people fall for,” She smirked, “I miss when Halloween had more tricks, as well as treats. Isn’t it fun getting scared?”

“Not a fan of the surprise but the aesthetic is sublime,” Harry shrugged. “I’m not much of a Halloween enthusiast but, whoever put this party together knows how to throw a good Halloween party.”

“Why thank you,” She smiled as Harry realized who she is.

“Ariana, right?” Harry decided to make sure it was her.

“Yup. So, you’re Harry. Holly mentioned you hated Halloween,” Ariana said as Harry sighs, “It’s not that I hate Halloween, I just know it takes a lot of dedication so I’d rather not bother myself with the stress of it all. I’m a last-minute-costume sort of guy. I have nothing against anyone who celebrates Halloween,” he defends.

“Well, at least you came to my party on-theme so I’ll forgive you for being a Halloween hater,” Ariana said, referring to his mask.

“I’m not a Halloween Hater–!”

“Not after I’m through with you,” She warned, grinning mischievously as she approached Harry, “I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve. I’ll give you a Halloween you won’t forget.”

Harry watched as she leaves, immediately losing her in a sea of fake fog and other party goers. Matt wasn’t wrong about her being kind of weird, but Harry thought of it in the best way, like she clearly has a personality behind her prosthetics and costume rather than sharing a hive mind with the rest of the undead in the room. Harry made a mental note to ask her about her prosthetics when he had the chance. In the meantime he rejoined Matt.

Though he’d rather not admit it, he was on edge for the rest of the night. He genuinely feared getting tricked by Ariana again, mostly because he was the jumpy type and would leap out of his skin even at the slightest noise and he’d rather not have to deal with her laughing at him for being such an easy scare.

Harry is unsure if Ariana let it slip to Holly that he was here, because at some point in the night Holly had come up to him and Matt (she was dressed as a zombified pageant winner) and somewhere between his fourth and sixth cup of spiked punch, Harry had lost the two and was left alone to mope on the sofa next to some couple making out. Right when he was thinking about getting up to look for Ariana, she’d reappeared from the hallway and had caught his gaze from across the room. She smiled and approached him, careful not to bump into the dancing bodies loitering the living room.

“Hey,” Ariana greeted him as she sat next to him.

“What happened to those tricks you said you have up your sleeve?” He teased her, smiling when she rolled her eyes.

“I think the real trick was not having to do anything and just watching you constantly turning around to make sure I wasn’t there. Anyway, I waited a bit but Matt was by your side most of the time and he’s hard to scare, so I gave it a rest. I thought you’d have forgotten about me by then,” She said.

“It’s kind of hard to forget you after my life was threatened,” Harry retorted.

“I just wanted to give you a little fright,” She laughed.

“Your face is frightening, alone,” Harry huffed as his bleary eyes began to struggle to find where her eyes exactly are.

“Thank you,” She smiled, “it's all prosthetic though, but don’t worry there’s a whole lotta ugly underneath this mask too.”

Her comments made Harry laugh as he shook his head, “Yeah, I took a special effects makeup class in my first year. I’m in the film studies program. So, I know a thing or two about prosthetics.”

“Oh sick, I’m in the theatre program. Same as Holly,” She replied. “You probably think my prosthetics look like trash.”

“No, no, actually, I think it’s pretty good. You know, for an amateur. You did that yourself?” Harry asked.

“Yup, just myself with an hour long tutorial on YouTube,” She nodded, “I had Holly help with some of the placement though. Is it really fine?”

“Honestly, it’s fine. I doubt I could do any better. I had to reconstruct my face for an assignment once. Got it on a bust in a storage unit at my dorm. It looked horrifying to say the least,” Harry chuckled.

“Can I have it?”

“No offence but, I just met you so it’s a little weird that you’d want to keep a bust of my face. You’d probably make it a part of your whole Halloween theme and I’d rather not showcase my worst work yet,” Harry shook his head as Ariana pouted. “Well, then how about we get to know each other better?” She suggested. “I know your name is Harry and friends with Holly and Matt, and I know you’re a film studies major and you know how to do special effects makeup. You know that my name is Ariana, and I’m also friends with Holly and Matt. I’m a theatre major and I love Halloween. Oh, I almost forgot, you hate Halloween.”

“I don’t!”

“Right, you just don’t think Halloween is fun,” Ariana rolled her eyes, “shall we unmask the monster under there?” When Harry didn’t try to stop her, Ariana continued to lift the mask over his head. When she saw Harry beneath the zombie mask she swore her heart skipped a beat.

“Well?” He asked her, his green eyes bleary from the alcohol, late hour and fake fog.

“Nothing,” Ariana huffed as she slid the mask back over his face.

Harry pulled his mask off again and set it down in his lap. He glanced over at Ariana who’s got her arms crossed, the rim of her cup tucked between her lips as she looked anywhere but at him.

“Now this isn’t fair. You know what I look like without my mask, but I don’t know what you look like under yours,” Harry pointed out.

“You’re not missing anything,” She assured him with a grunt, “trust me.”

“I suppose I’ll be the judge of that when I see you next, say, tomorrow afternoon? Coffee to nurse our hangovers?” Harry asked.

“Sure,” She shook her head, though she sounded a little hesitant in agreeing. “I’m sorry, are you asking me out?”

“I’m just completing your suggestion. I guess I want to get to know you better too,” Harry shrugged.

“Okay, but fair warning. There’s a lot of weird going on up here,” Ariana motioned to her head as she looked at Harry. “And I love Halloween, so I don’t know how that’ll fit in your anti-Halloween agenda.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake–,” Harry started but was cut off by her laughter. This time he realized he found her laugh quite pretty and nice in his ears despite him being a little annoyed by her teasing.

“Hey you two, we’re doing a group photo. Care to join?” Holly appeared with Matt behind her. Neither Harry or Ariana rejected the offer so they both stood; Harry first, and then Ariana who he helped pull off from the sofa.

Harry and Ariana end up stood beside each other. It’s then that harry realized that Ariana was quite small compared to his height and the other’s. She seemed to be getting pushed back by whoever else was trying to get in the photo, so he did was seemed logical in the moment and ushered her to stand in front of him.

Ariana seemed thankful and Harry gave her a small reassuring smile before putting his mask back on. He rests his chin on top of her head and wraps his arms around her.

“Say… Halloween!”

“Halloweeeen!”

…

Halloween morning, Harry wakes up alone with his face pressed into Ariana’s pillow having rolled onto his right side at some point overnight. He can tell because he can smell her on the pillow covers.

He wanders through the hallway, his socked feet sliding over the new floor boards just for the sake of it as he mindlessly admires his handiwork. He’s wrapped up in his lavender dressing gown as he makes his way downstairs where the temperature drops, and he wonders if the thermostat is being faulty again.

What he finds in the hallway leading towards the rest of the house is worse than a faulty air con. Among the corny Halloween decor, is the words ‘YOUR NEXT’ painted on the walls in thick fake blood (he hopes).  

“Babe?” Harry calls for his wife as he blinks at the mess on the wall.

“Yeah! I’m in the living room!”

“Come here a minute!” Harry says as he stares at the wall.

The pitter patter of her feet follow his request and soon Ariana meets Harry in the hallway, her hands still covered in the fake blood she’d smeared on their newly painted walls. She’s still carrying a plastic Tupperware container of the fake blood with her.

“Morning baby,” She greets him nonchalantly as she looks at him for a reaction to her work on the walls. “What do you think?”

“You used the wrong ‘you’re’,” Harry sighs as he takes the Tupperware container from her and dips three of his finger’s in. He begins to fix her mistake, adding the apostrophe between the ‘U’ and ‘R’ and an ‘E’ at the end.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize. I was honestly half asleep when I started in the hall,” She admits with a giggle as she takes the Tupperware container back from Harry. “Come see the living room.”

Their living room doesn’t appear much different to Harry except for the fake blood smeared across the walls and on the floors. Though his bust is sitting on a silver platter, acting as a centre piece on their coffee table, and somehow it seems to be flattering his Michaelmas Daisies today.

“We’ll have to paint the walls over and then wax the floors again,” Harry reminds her, “this time it’s your turn to do the work.”

“Of course, but I want to keep this all up for as long as I can,” Ariana pouts. “Do you think our guests will finally dress on-theme this year?”

“Well, if we’re talking about our party being the Met-Gala of Halloween parties…. I doubt it,” He chuckles.

Later that day, Harry helped Ariana with the prosthetics for her costume. She’d asked for a deformed reimagining of her face earlier that week, so Harry had drawn up a few sketches for her to select. She’d chosen the worse looking one of course, and excitedly pestered him about it throughout his process of making the pieces.

As Harry finished up on her face, he took a step back to take in the finished product.

“How do I look?” Ariana asks, looking at him through the vanity.

“You look horrifyingly, beautiful,” Harry grins as he dabs his brush over the corners of her mouth before hooking his finger under her chin so he could turn her head and press a gentle kiss over her prosthetic lips. “Couldn’t be more in love with you, y’weirdo.”

“Thank you,” She laughs.

Harry’s costume is meant to match Ariana’s, so he’d made himself prosthetics as well. When the pair finished getting ready, they went into their living room and set up Ariana’s phone on a timer so they could take photos.

“I really like that one,” Harry says as she stops scrolling on the photo where they’re sat on the sofa next to each other just talking. It’s candid, and lovely, knowing she was probably going on about how excited she was about their party and Harry looks properly enamoured by her love for Halloween and her passion that shows when she talks about it.

You wouldn’t have guessed that he didn’t find Halloween very fun, though he’ll admit that over the years he grew to appreciate the spooky season more and more for the way it never failed to make Ariana’s eyes light up with pure happiness. The essence of the spooky season never really leaves, so long as Ariana has anything to do with it. Harry doesn’t mind, after all, Halloween is just another Thursday night for the pair nowadays.

| – | – | – |

Hey there, thanks for reading! I really wanted to write something inspired by the events that unfolded today: Harry saying with his whole chest that ‘Halloween is not fun’ and Ariana’s extra™ ass posting endless Halloween content of her in her twilight zone costume which this one shot title takes its inspiration from. I just love the parallel and wanted to write it in the context of a marriage because no one stopped me lol.

Hope you liked it ♡  

+ masterlists

[creativenicocorner]

I...I hesitantly want to believe I’ll manage to have ch13 of Terpsichore out by the holidays, and perhaps typing this out into the world wide webbo will help will that into reality. Or maybe it won't - time will tell lol

In the meantime have a collection of disconnected and short Terpsichore sneak peeks:

//

Walter stared down in transfixed horror and shame, his hand hovering over her back, before slowly, hesitantly, rubbing her heaving back.

Walter Strickler squeezed her close as much as his strength allowed.

“Was it real? Was any of it real?” asked Barbara in a whisper so low, unable to look the changeling in the eye - hesitant to relinquish her lasting hold on the thin thread that tied them together.

“Every bit of it.” came Walter’s voice, this time without any sort of pause, with enough reassurance that broke Barbara’s heart and caused her to close her eyes with a blob of fresh tears.

“Walter” she said with a crack in her voice, the dreaded ‘End is Nigh’ in sights.

“It was,” admitted the changeling, holding Barbara close, “one of the most real experiences of my life. Yes it was real. Of course it was real. From being pushed out of your window, to watching Star Trek together, to you getting a bikini wax.”

Barbara gave a knee jerk laugh cry at that, sobbing a cackle into the changeling’s chest. “Oh my go- that’s right, you felt those?!” asked Barbara looking at Walter at last.

His face was warm, and gooey. Not the sort of face she’d ever expect to be an assassin, or some sort of part troll person.

With a gentle brush through Barbara’s hair Walter said, “Every strip.”

This caused Barbara another fit of laughter, fresh tears falling and reddening her cheeks. Streaks of tears fell into the creases of her pained smile. Barbara laughed and hated Walter more for being able to, even now, despite everything, make her laugh.

“Good.” she sniffed, rubbing her nose into his sweater. A final act of close familiarity shared, of held and being held.  

It ached how painfully easy it felt to slip into a sense of before - to warm idle chats with scones, and sitting side by side on a swing-set at the playground on the hospital grounds during her breaks. Though really, their chats were always warm, no matter the setting.

Mustering her strength Barbara pushed herself out of Walter Strickler’s embrace.

To Walter’s wordless, ‘you good?’ Barbara nodded with a sniff, and sat upright once more. Her spine felt cold though.

Then, after a delicate pause, scratching the side of his nose and watching Barbara sniffle, Walter reached into that near Mary Poppins level inside pocket of his, and pulled out a handkerchief for her.

The kind gesture burned at Barbara’s heart like a wild fire. It pained her to smile, nod, and take it.

“Do you still want me to kill Andrew Wakefield?” asked Walter Strickler, leaning to the side some to be at her eye level, but with still a bit of distance.

Barbara’s nose blowing sputtered into an escaped laugh. Dabbing her nose she bit her lip and closed her eyes. “That,” she said in her classic ‘more mad at how such a joke could make me laugh’ look Walter knew so well, and a wave of her finger. She tried with all her might to not be amused, “that’s not funny.”

“I have the connections.” he said, like a used car salesman trying to bribe a smile out of her.

“You’re probably over qualified.” she couldn’t help but snark in equal dryness. Then sighed, lowering her hands into her lap, “…I suppose you can kill him, hu?” she considered aloud.

Slowly, like an arctic wind she knew was in the forecast but hoped would just go away and be mistaken about, she realized, with a cold drain of blood and warmth from her features, the unforgivable as a mother.

“Then that means,” she said with disinfected coldness “it’s also true that you tried to kill my son.” with a look in her eyes that gazed into Walter Strickler’s like an obituary.

//

“Right.” said Vendel at last. He turned to Shuri and said, “Take her to Heartstone. I’ll have to inform the Trollhunter. Come on you.” he added with a click of his staff to the ground at Strickler - waking him from darker thoughts.  

Strickler knew he was walking, but it felt more like a distant experience, observed from elsewhere outside his body. He winced at the neon light of the main medical ward, but didn’t wait for them to adjust - instead he felt himself move toward Barbara’s direction.

Her pained simpers speared through his ears and dug at his heart.

Vendel’s staff intercepted the changeling, a sour faced and all.

Strickler didn’t have any quips left, the wind out of his sails. He had other things to care about. Leaning to the side, and with a hand floating up curl gingerly around the sling, he said, “A blanket. The..heartstone it’ll be warm, I suppose, if the staff felt warm to me, but…” Walter Strickler took a step back and croaked, “What have I done?”

Sympathy was not found in the old troll’s eyes, nor as he inhaled slowly through his nose. “Enough. I’d say you’ve done enough.”

The changeling didn’t move, but watched misty eyed as Shuri carried a groaning Barbara out a side door.

“A funny thing, consequence.” Sniffed Vendel. “You will have plenty of time to think of that soon - for now it is imperative the bond between you is broken.”

“What if the heartstone won’t work?”

“Changeling, are you listening?”

Walter’s mouth felt dry, his throat lumpy and in need of clearing, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to do so. “Gumm-Gumm magic. The bond is made by Gumm-Gumm magic…”

Vendel gave the changeling a look that was the closest to the trollish equivalent of a dryly delivered, ‘no shit Sherlock.’

Strickler continued, “I had Angor carve it into totems...what I’m saying is - they’re could be backfires - erm,” he paused to think of a better word, his fingers snapping quickly as if it’d help speed up his mental search “side effects.”

“Heartstone is more powerful than anything you, your kind, and your Gumm-Gumms could possibly divine. I have faith in it, and so should you.”

“What, cause my blood glowed? Sound thinking, that- sure. No further research needed - case closed - treatment : Glowing rock, side effects: hopefully tickety-boo.” to which Strickler crossed his fingers at Vendel and smiled gruesomely. “While we’re at it why don’t we rip out the entrails of a dead rat and see what the horoscope for the month will be, hm?”

Vendel looked down his nose at the changeling, and said nothing. Then with a tap of his staff and a gesture of his arm, had the changeling walk in front of him - where the Trollhunter and others were waiting.

//

It was during one of these moments that a pair of trolls hurriedly crossed to the other side of the road tugging at a child in hand. Unfortunately the child stumbled in Strickler’s path.

The trolls held their breath, as if anticipating a sort of bomb to go off.

Strickler slowly turned his head to look solemnly down at the young troll. Their eyes were wide. Their breath quickening in horror. Looking up into the face of the flesh and bone creature that had heavy unblinking eyes.  

But Strickler didn’t act, or move, or did anything - he just waited, either for the troll to pick themselves up, or for someone to help them up. He even took a moment to look at Blinky to see if he would do anything, but the troll seemed momentarily distracted with a bookseller.

When nothing happened Strickler sighed upward, unable to refuse his teacherly paternal like nature, and leaned leaned forward with an outstretched hand. The bare minimum, really.

The young troll flinched away, covering their face as if that would cast the pretend troll out of existence. They tried hard not to think about what it must feel like to walk with a soft outside and rocky inside - and she tried not to think about how strange this fleshy creature walked without a sound without rattling with the bones inside…surely bones rattled, right? Or were they more like trolls but with their insides stretched on their outside?

Curiosity getting the best of them, the child peaked through their fingers. Eyeing the offered soft hand with hairy knuckles.

“Are you inside out?” asked the little troll.

“Not presently, no.” said Strickler “But the future is full of possibilities.” and then he gave a small ironic sort of smile.

The little troll removed their hand from their face and, found themselves smiling in return. Then slowly…hesitantly…reached towards Strickler’s hand.

//

And onwards they continued. They moved discreetly through a winding stretch that became more desolate with every step, tented carpets, and around a wall of piled televisions which Strickler couldn’t guess the reason of it being there for the life of him. If the circumstances were different, he might have asked Blinky.

There were less neon signs near the stronghold, as if preserved in an area that found light and electrical currents moderately suspicious at best. Not that either Blinky or Strickler found this to be a problem, the slow decline of lights helped in favor to their eyes adjusting. Sharp greens and screaming purples and icy blueberry blues diminished - replaced by one tone browns, a splash of yellow, and perhaps the idea of orange.

The trolls guarding the threshold were at shoulder height the same size of an average moose, and frowned with the grace of a snarling gargoyle as they passed.

Here, none of the guards seemed surprised at the sight of the changeling. Their primary reaction being a tighter grip on their halberds, and a low growl that rippled bear like past their jagged yellow teeth.  

“Cheerful.” commented Strickler dryly, “Like being greeted by sadistic bellhops.”

“Show any sign of a trick, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy their version of asking for ‘a tip’.”

Strickler held his wounded arm closer to himself with a dry gulp, “Well, I give shoddy advice at best.”

“No not that kind of-!” Blinky turned and looked at the deceptively calm expression on his face - patient as an iceberg. Blinky’s frown deepened. “Oh, you’re joking.”

The changeling gave an ironic, serviceable bow.

//

And that’s probably it for sneak peeks until the chapter is released (maybe)

[aerdendios]

Week 6  War

“They’re marching on the city, we need to get all these patients moved NOW!”  The commanding officer ran by shouting orders throughout the medical tent and immediately it became a madhouse as everyone started moving at once.  Aerden froze in his tracks as his thoughts drifted back to the attack on Quel’thalas all those years ago, this was all sounding way too familiar.  He was still a kid then, helpless and confused.  Now he was expected to do as he was told, even if that meant putting himself at risk in order to help his brethren.  It was the way of the military, after all.  It’s not that he didn’t want to help, these men and women had already been through so much but was it too much to ask for a moment of respite from all this war?

He shook the horrid memories from his mind before getting to work.  He helped patients into wheelchairs and gave others crutches, shuffling them towards the portal opened at the front of the tent.  Those in more serious conditions would need to be carried and of course none of the cots had wheels.  They were levitated by the priests or rushed off on a gurney, most were able to make it through the portal but those too weak that would be affected by the portal’s magic were taken to higher ground.

As hectic as it was the healers had managed to clear the tent fairly quickly and it seemed as if they still had time before the warband arrived.  Aerden helped his final patient into a wheelchair and began rolling him towards the exit just as he heard a blood-curdling scream come from just outside the tent.  He stopped and watched as the portal faded from the entrance and one of the healers, no older than himself, stumbled in with a spear protruding from the center of his chest.  He gurgled out some incoherent words before falling dead to the ground.  The sounds of battle swelled outside and Aerden realized that he was the only capable fighter currently inside this tent.

“Shit...shit shit shit…”  He pulled the dagger from his belt and crept towards the front of the tent, holding up a hand to the two wounded that were still inside.  The one in the wheelchair was on enough drugs that he probably didn’t even know where he was or what was happening, he would be of little help.  The other had only suffered a broken leg so she was ready, wielding her crutch as a weapon.

Just as he reached the front flap of the tent, two females blood trolls burst in and sent Aerden sprawling onto the ground.  He rolled away just in time to avoid being pierced by the tip of the spear, hopping up to his feet as he put some distance between himself and the trolls.  They had the size and the strength, but Aerden easily had them beat on agility.  

One of the trolls went after the woman with the crutch and the other jabbed her spear again towards Aerden’s chest.  He jumped to the side and wrapped his closest arm around the shaft of the spear before giving it a hard yank towards himself.  The troll had not been expecting that and the sudden jolt caused her to stumble forward which gave him enough of an opening to drive his dagger up into the fleshy part beneath her chin.  She grunted and tried to pull away before realizing what had just happened.  Blood trickled from the corner of her lips before she fell to her knees and then collapsed to the side, taking Aerden’s dagger with her in the process.  

He was about to retrieve it when he noticed the injured woman had been knocked to the ground and had her ‘weapon’ stripped away.  He only had a split second to act before it would be too late.  He grabbed hold of the spear that had toppled next to him and with a forceful burst of chi, he sent the weapon flying towards the center of the other troll’s back.  It found its mark, and then some.  The spear clattered to the ground next to the injured soldier and at first Aerden had thought he missed completely.  

Then he saw it; the hole in the troll’s chest.  She seemed just as surprised as he did, he had put so much power behind that throw that it went straight through her chest.  Now wasn’t the time to contemplate how he did that, he had to get these injured soldiers to safety!  He extended a hand down towards the woman with the broken leg and she took it with a look of astonishment.  

“Can you walk?”  he held out the tossed aside crutch to her as she nodded in response.  “We gotta go.”  He peeked out of the tent flap; a handful of blood trolls and a couple military personnel laid dead a few yards away as those left scrambled to get the remaining few away from the area.  It must have been a scouting party, he assumed, probably shadow walkers.  He rolled the drugged man in the wheelchair out behind the woman on crutches and they started following the rest of the group to safety.

“Ohh shit, you injured Lo’sharri??”  One of his fellow healers stared in horror at him.

“What…? No, I don’t think so?”  He looked down at himself and realized his arm and the front of his shirt was soaked in blood.  Troll blood.  Gross.  He felt the bile rise up in his throat and quickly swallowed it down as he soldiered on.  He had seen plenty of death by this point in his career, but never before had he taken lives.  It was a necessary evil and he knew he shouldn’t feel bad about it, but a part of him felt sickened. 

On the other hand, another part of him felt more alive than he had before.

@weekly-writing-challenge