Run down your list. You are currently on your way to intercept the King, before he gets to the house. Whenever he gets there, it’s a bloodbath; metaphorically and physically. How many more times do you have to see everyone get frozen? See the King smash those who stand before him? You can’t see it again, you can’t you can’t you can’t, so you sneak out to face him instead. If he can’t get to the House, no one has to die, right? Simple as that. The endless night of his approach hangs right over Dormont, so you have to catch him, NOW.
You make a pit-stop at the Favor Tree anyway. It’s tradition at this point.
You did… something, here. Before you started looping. The hypothesis is that whatever you did at the Favor Tree caused the time loop you’re trapped in. You know you wished, a ton— at least ten times, or maybe twenty? All in as many different ways you could think of. Stretching outside the realm of how you know to wish. The desperation drove you to doing random things in hopes it would save you, and— well, it kinda has? You’ve doomed yourself for everyone else’s sakes.
That’s all well and fine enough, you rationalize. One person for many. Who knows what’ll happen if he actually takes the House; you don’t want to find that answer out.
The Favor Tree is huge. It’s a nice tree, lots of leaves, lots of shade. You could probably climb into its branches and never leave, get trapped in a web of tree bark and leaves like a cage, birds and squirrels and other such animals as your jailers. Maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. You could try that, next loop, if you failed here. You know you’ll fail, because nothing has worked so far. Your mind flashes with images of blood-stained floors, of screams both by and for many, many people. Hands reaching to you, hands reaching out.
Breathe. The memory fades away. Your hands curl into fists.
You depart, to fight the King. To stop the King.
———————
The King is very tall. A couple stories high, you’d reckon. He towers over you, the trees and everything else. The clearing you’ve stopped him in is very close to the House. Too close for comfort. Shouldn’t have stopped at the tree. Everything is swamped with the scent of burnt sugar.
He looks down at you— do you look like an ant to him? One singular ant? Wouldn’t that be interesting. A single blockade to the anthill, standing its ground. One mistake and he’ll turn you into a dark stain, or an icy statue. One mistake is all it’ll take for him to rip through the House like paper.
The Craft Bomb is heavy in your pocket. The backup potions, seven or eight of them, all in little tossable vials, toxic and burning and acidic, weigh down the other pocket of your lab coat. You remember drinking at least three of them. They all killed you. Painfully. Curse your desk for not being clean before you started looping. If you’d just taken a few minutes before you wished, so many deaths would’ve been avoided…
But that’s not important now. The fire in your throat, as imagined as it is now, still hurts. Your voice has taken an odd rasp to it now, the consequences of toxicity and blind reaching for water forever etched into your very being.
“How have you done it?” The King asks. You can’t see his eyes, past his endless, wild mane of hair and his gauntlets covering his face, but he sounds both confused and enraged.
You don’t answer, instead brandishing the bomb you worked so hard on. You made it in record pace, this loop. It too reeks of caramel.
The King simply moves a hand. You know what’s coming, and you move before he does. The curse of being so, so tall, is that you’re faster. The bomb goes flying, and you toss the potions all in one go for good measure before skittering out of the way. The King lunges for you as the bomb explodes, sending waves of fire and craft energy everywhere. Blinding, deafening. Its force knocks you to the ground.
He still moves, though. Not enough. Damn. Maybe you need two bombs… do you have the materials for a second one? You hope, as he swings his giant gauntlet down onto you to mash you like a bug, that he sees the weird shade your eyes have taken lately. A pair of blaring, dangerous warning signs.
You’re not scared anymore. This has happened many times.
You still scream.
His attack hits, and through the veil of absolute agony, there’s a tug on your stomach. Back to the drawing board.
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so... we were interested in my headcanon sometimes italy says dumb things as a joke and he's not actually serious? that he's just being playful and either doesn't realize or doesn't care that people think he's actually stupid? that maybe he likes getting a reaction out of people but also it keeps him entertained as well? well, here are some references i found from canon i feel support this headcanon.
(obviously canon is up to interpretation. this is just my interpretation of it <3 i might do an actual analysis on this later but for now, nah.)
this is from the translation of the gakuen hetalia cds. the last line here is the particular focus. he obviously does not think the statue is a woman who wants to date him 😭 also he's seemingly playing a prank with the sword to begin with, so i wouldn't take anything he says seriously.
also from the gakuen hetalia cds! prior to the part i've screenshotted, they're all talking about the panda in china's backpack. do you really think italy would not know what a cat looks like? do you really think he'd think a "triangle-eared, long-tailed" panda is a thing? i think he's just being silly and appeasing china here. especially when he repeats himself and germany corrects him a second time.
second panel. to me, this feels very playful. like he's considering the idea loosely and doesn't actually believe someone would do it. (it immediately cuts to america eating deep-fried butter. that's the joke.)
this one should explain itself lol. "excuses aside" yeah ok we know you're just being silly. poor germany doesn't get it.
self explanatory. he makes a joke then backtracks once his boss asks if he's serious lol
second panel. you cannot tell me this is an honest attempt at being manipulative. i see this as italy being playfully obvious with the intention of perhaps nudging his boss in the direction of what he wants from him (which is free lunch in this case). just very NOT subtle hint dropping in hopes it'll come off as charming.
this entire strip! italy is clearly being silly and then when germany takes him seriously... he's a little horrified
ok i'm tired of finding references but i hope u all see what is in my head <3
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I'm not as big in the self shipping scene anymore but I still follow a few prompt blogs (I've never had a self ship blog out of fear lol). One reblogged your recent art and I gotta say I love how you drew Eaglebones. From the expression to the pose and everything. Looks great! I didn't know there were self shippers in the Aquabats fandom lol. Have a great day!
Thank youu 🥹 💛 I had a lot of fun making that piece and it makes me really happy that people like it sm bajsjsks making bigger pieces has been a rough process lately so I’m glad I got to make one,, and yeah I joined the aqua.bats late last year, I was a fan as a kid and then forgot about them for a decade bwksjsksj I found out they were a ska band a few months ago and then rewatched the show… there’s not really any self shippers in there besides me and my roommate, but we’re chillin!!!
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