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#dear lord there are so many
kelocitta · 4 months
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opinions on rubicon? (i love it aesthetically)
It is a very cool region (if not a bit overly large) although like most of downpour its soured by miros vultures existing (I hate them and they have been banned from my game) My favorite part is the golden creature color swaps. Black and gold just always rules
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ace-geographer · 1 year
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Questies!
Today I offer you: even more Willow characters as textposts
Tomorrow: who knows?
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Part 2/?
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instantly-panicked · 8 months
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Hank Green really out there rewiring my brain every episode huh
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questforgalas · 1 year
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At first I was surprised that people were able to latch onto and make a whole ship out of Riyo just simply touching Echo on the shoulder with literally no romantic energy behind it, but then I remembered TCW fandom made one of the most popular ships, Foxiyo, based off of literally nothing. Literally the two characters never ever interacted on screen, but here they are, a clone wars power couple
Anyone who questions the power of fandom is a fool
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kykyhich · 22 days
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Current Akaibara members.
Ellie Rose
Kitsune. Founder of Akaibara. Also own an “Fox den” bar and working as a bartender. Strong willed woman who also could be really hotheaded.
Jacob Rose
Ellie’s half brother and werewolf. Actually he was adopted by her, but for some reason she forebade him to call her “mom”. Only sister. Has cheerful personality and he was first person who met Charles as a vampire.
Burt Curtis
Ex-Toppat member. At first was forced to join Akaibara for teaching Charles, but stayed at Akaibara as regular member. Laziest pureblood vampire in the world. Also gave Henry his blood for experiments because of Reg’s order.
Sam Turner
Shapeshifter originally came from China. Oldest member of Akaibara. They got rough edges but mostly calm and harmless. Trying to keep worst situations under control. Formally they are Ellie’s right hand.
Dave Panpa
Was born with big potential for necromancy. Unlucky for him, his powers way too strong so he can’t control it. Got coffins from Toppats to contain necromancy powers.
Charles Calvin
Ex-solider under Covenant’s control. Originally he supposed to fight against undead and inhumans but now since he became a vampire he was forced to join Akaibara to protect his second life from Covenant’s wrath. Ellie saw big potential in him so it was a reason why she even kept revived vampire.
Akaibara - illegal inhuman organisation. Was foundered to giving protection for inhumans, especially for yokai and werewolves.
Covenant - organisation of wizards. Their current goals: extermination of undead and controlling populations of inhumans. Sorta world government. Have their own regular army. Hubert Galeforce is one of high ranked member of Covenant and also the one who responsible the army.
Army - Despite the Covenant's dislike of the inhumans, the army includes a lot of werewolves.
The Wall - executors of Covenants decisions. All Wall members is pure blood humans who had special training against inhumans.
Toppat clan - crime gang. Foundered as protester against Covenant’s policy of undead’s extermination. Most of top members is vampires or werewolves.
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slightlyplant · 9 months
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sometimes i forget not everyone knows athena cykes is one of my favorite characters from anything ever bc somehow i haven’t posted a lot of art of her?????? i promise if you saw every time i doodled her in math class it would rival the largest museum collections
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momento-di-fratellanza · 11 months
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'I was briefly a runway model.' Yeah, no doubt. This mf is gorgeous.
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gio-cosmo · 18 days
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mdr-reikas · 3 months
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100% agreed on the whole way naruto shippers clearly do not actually care about or like madara and sasuke. for example fucking sasusaku shippers clearly do not notice or care about how sasuke is miserable fighting for some village that ruined his life and that no one knows the truth about the uchiha massacre they just see him as some strong skinny twink bishie boi who is only nice to their precious self insert sakura they see him as a thing for sakura. don't even get me started on fucking tobirama x madara or the toxic tobirama stans in general, i have seen horrific shit of madara being violently raped by tobirama on ao3 as a punishment of his crime for "being an uchiha who hasn't been humbled". the sad thing is that i have seen crossover romance shipping fanfic that actually respects both madara and sasuke as characters (making sure they ain't OOC or stripped of their nuance/personality) and they have more chemistry with characters from different anime/manga series. both madara and sasuke deserve better from this damn fandom than just being hashirama and naruto's cute little waifus who constantly get kidnapped like Princess Peach and get pregnant with uchiha babies like a fucking Uchiha baby factory.
So real!!! I think one of the reasons why this happens sometimes is because a lot of naruto fans/shippers are very pro konoha, so anything that Madara or Sasuke do is instantly a crime against humanity to them, so in order to make their ship work they have to take their morals and issues away from Madara and Sasuke, so they "aren't evil" anymore.
Also, that last part about t*birama/madara is so true. I mean, aside the fact that Madara would never be able to forgive him for killing Izuna, Tobirama also just had zero respect for him as a person. Tobirama felt no empathy for the Uchiha, and to pretend that he would set that aside for Madara is just insane to me. It's fine as a crack ship or if you write it to be intentionally toxic (which can be fun sometimes), but just taking away all the nuance these two characters have to make them fuck??? why?? Like, with hsmd I atleast understand where people are coming from, childhood friends trope and all, but what is the appeal of tobimada? No one who actually likes Madara would be able to ship tobimada, and no one who actually likes Sasuke would be able to ship sasusaku.
Madara and Sasuke definitely deserved sooo much better, they deserved loving people who actually respected them and their dreams (and no hsrm did not respect mdr's dreams while he was still in the village let's not play pretend).
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ulysses
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theverytiredghost · 1 year
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enola holmes 2 confirmed that viscount tewkesbury is a plant dad and i don’t know what to do with this information
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randomminty · 7 months
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Hbubhhuhub. Rais ea suillen
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soyavmilk · 2 months
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wauh brain rot
close ups below
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shes so faint dear lord
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cokowiii · 7 months
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Is it your birthday? If so, then HAPPY WOMB EVICTION DAY COKO! Glad you escaped the birth IRS :]]]
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B o r t h
Ty y’all there’s SO FKN MANY
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sleepimali · 1 year
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Super honoured to have been invited to take part of the Washi Station's Lovebirds collection 🦆💖 you can find my tape HERE !
Please do check out all the other lovely tapes and artists on there too 🥰
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thebusytypewriter · 29 days
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Hail the Lamb, Resilient and Eternal
Here it is, the starting point of the Tri-God AU timeline! Many thanks to Jonnie @jonquilandlace my beloved for helping me out :D
You can also find this on AO3 if that suits you better.
CW: blood, gore, major character death (not permanent)
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“MEDICS!”
All hell broke loose at the cry, startling every creature within the grounds into action. The aforementioned medics scrambled from their idle activities to meet a wide-eyed rabbit at the camp entrance, where they kept their benevolent leader from collapsing by holding them upright as best as they could.
The Lamb of prophecy, who seemed indestructible to the common folk, stood half limp in their support. Crimson blood flowed down their face from somewhere atop their wooly head, dripping onto both an equally-red cloak and the vegetation below. One eye was bruised deeply to the point of being swollen shut, while the other stared at the ground, cloudy and unfocused.
Truely, it was a rare sight to behold for their flock, and many panicked animals dropped what they were doing to either assist or observe.
In the small hut of a kitchen remained one deer, silver in color, who watched the events unfold with worry. Kaliaphra wasn’t one to act in such situations, lest she be in the way of the people whose skills mattered there. That wasn’t to say she was unskilled, just that she’d never belonged to the area of healing.
Instead, she stared with horrified intrigue, a half-finished fish dish already forgotten on the counter behind her.
“My Lamb!” exclaimed the head medic, an elderly turtle by the name of Zelva. “My Lamb, what happened? Can you speak? Please, say something if you are conscious!”
Despite her distance, Kaliaphra could tell that The Lamb didn’t respond based on the increased numbers of furrowed brows. More hurried words were exchanged between Zelva and her students, and the largest among them took their leader into their arms to carry them toward the healing tent. The Lamb’s limbs dangled limply as they did so.
Whatever had happened in Anura, it wasn’t good.
“Kali, your tuna’s burning.”
She startled, whirling back around to pull her skillet off the fire. “Hells, Theo! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
The brown buck that entered the kitchen—Theanno, her cousin who might as well have been her brother—simply smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “At least you’d be seeing Death. Aside from the, um, burning, how’s it coming in here?”
“Slow,” she sighed, pulling out a cloth to wrap the burnt fish. “I was already having a difficult time staying on task, and then The Lamb returned, and… did you get a better look at them? How bad is it?”
He leaned back against the countertop adjacent to her. “Couldn’t have seen more than you just now. That was… a lot of blood coming from them, though. I wonder if the healers can patch them up.”
“Well, even if they cannot, our leader will return to us shortly after, right? Death favors them. They bear his Crown.”
“Yeah, but…”
Kaliaphra turned sharply toward her cousin with wide eyes. “‘But’? Theo, you cannot question the nature of the Lamb.”
“I’m not,” he insisted. “I’m just worried. We’ve never seen them so hurt, right, so what happens if we lose them? Do we just… go back to where we were before?”
“We should not be thinking about this.”
“It’s a real problem, Kali! We couldn’t stay here; the Bishops—”
With a loud metallic thunk, Kaliaphra slammed the still-warm skillet on the counter next to him. She stared up at Theanno there, at his stunned expression, and hissed, “The Bishops, of two there are remaining, cannot touch this place. I am not worried about it, and you should not be, either. Imagine if an elder heard you; they would think that you are dissenting.”
Calmly, solemnly, Theo raised one hand and extended a finger to lightly boop her on the nose. “I’m not dissenting. We’re under the Lamb’s protection, I know. I’m just… thinking out loud. I’ve gotta get back to the crops. You should see if the healers need lunch. That way, you can keep an eye on our Lamb.”
The tonal shift of their conversation threw Kali off-balance. “What—you—”
“Okayloveyoubyeeee!” In a torrent of a wave and a head pat, Theanno slipped back out of the hut, leaving her alone again.
He throws existential dread on me then leaves, she grumbled to herself. Now I have to check in on the Lamb.
She grabbed a few covered bowls from the storage crate—only berries would be properly stored there—and layered them on a tray, careful to balance each even as she lifted the tray. It wasn’t an unpracticed movement, given how she’d taken to serving dinner to her family before, well, being separated from them. If anything, it was comfortingly familiar.
Kaliaphra slipped out of the kitchen hut and crossed the grounds toward the infirmary tent. Many of her fellow cultists were still floating around the entrance, their tasks remaining unfinished in their hands, but they didn’t seem to care. They stared at the infirmary in deep concern and only scattered when she gently told them to shoo.
With a deep breath, she prepared to announce her entrance, but a scream cut her off.
She shouldered her way inside to assist and was met with a rather… frightening scene.
The circle of healers had taken a large step back from the cot, each raising their hands in some semblance of placation. Upon the cot, most worryingly, squatted the Lamb. Their eyes were wide with fear, and they had somehow managed to grab hold of a small and pointy stick.
“Get back!” the Lamb shrieked, waving their acquired stick like a dagger. (Instinct, perhaps?) “I won’t go with you, do you understand? I refuse to be sacrificed just because of some… some dumb prophecy!”
Confounded murmurs filled the space.
“Prophecy?”
“Sacrifice?”
“Have they forgotten the years of this establishment?”
“My Lamb,” Zelva said, playing up her comforting tone, “we are not here to bring you to the Bishops. You escaped from them, and you have unified us all here under the Red Crown. Do you… not remember?”
They stared up at her with the most dumbfounded expression Kali had ever seen on them. “I don’t know what in the hells you’re talking about. I was… on my way to scavenge when a group of robed individuals—” The Lamb glanced suspiciously about the tent, which contained several people fitting that description— “bounded me in chains to take me away to the Bishops. I don’t follow the Red Crown; I don’t follow anyone!”
There was something of a faint collective gasp among the group (which made sense, since the Lamb was essentially speaking heresy without realizing it).
“Zelva,” Kali murmured, setting her tray of berry bowls on a table, “what… happened to them?”
The old turtle sighed and dragged a hand down her face. “From what I could see before they began threatening us with a stick, there are signs of severe head trauma possibly originating from their most recent trip through Anura. They most certainly defeated the Bishop Heket, but I imagine something hit them before they made their escape.”
“Meaning…?”
“Amnesia. At least partially. They appear to have forgotten events after their execution, including the founding of this camp.”
“And the Red Crown?”
“At the moment, Filip is placing the Crown within the Temple.”
“The sermons?”
“Canceled until further notice.”
“The Bishops?”
“Will never know.”
“But—”
“Kaliaphra.” Zelva grabbed her by the shoulders. “We will ensure that the Bishops will never know. If they find out, our little camp here is done for. We have nothing to defend us. Please, remain diligent in your duties, and if anyone asks, the Lamb is injured and recovering.”
Kali looked between her and their now-sedated leader, who appeared as a small lamb for once instead of the grand holy being the cult knew them to be.
Or thought them to be.
“Yes, ma’am,” she nodded. “If you or anyone here needs anything, let me know. Or let Theanno know.”
Zelva visibly relaxed, a tired smile finding its way onto her face. “Of course. Thank you, dear. We will get through this together, under Death’s grace.”
“Yes, ma’am. Praise the Lamb.”
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Sleep was difficult to wrangle that night, and the next, and the next.
Kaliaphra stared at the roof of her tent as she silently begged to fall into the sweet abyss, but her thoughts granted her no such relief. She was too busy thinking about the events of the previous days, about Theanno’s words and Zelva’s worry and the Lamb’s evident amnesia.
“We’ve never seen them so hurt, right, so what happens if we lose them?”
“We will ensure that the Bishops will never know. If they find out, our little camp here is done for. We have nothing to defend us.”
Granted, it had hardly been half a week since the Lamb returned, but with how fast word spread about the camp, Kali was certain that all of the Lamb’s followers would know soon. If doubt grew among them, flowering into dissent, it would only be a matter of time before someone left and crawled back to the Bishops.
The Lamb was not improving.
Someone had to do something.
They needed help of divine levels, and she wondered, if nothing else, whether the Lamb’s sacred Red Crown would have some form of solution, even a temporary one. She’d seen its power in action before, when the Lamb took command over their fields during the Heket-inflicted famine. Surely it had something, like a barrier to put up around the grounds.
The only question was whether someone had to wear the Crown—or maybe even be skilled with it—for it to do something. Only one way to find out, she supposed.
Kaliaphra pushed herself up from her bedroll and cautiously poked her head outside, letting the tent flaps continue to obscure her some. She appeared to be lucky in that all lanterns around the residential area of the camp were out, save for the infirmary, which was still a large enough distance away that it wasn’t a threat.
She went through a mental checklist of members, trying to discern who did and didn’t have one of those moon pendants the Lamb had offered. The only one that came to mind was a medic, who was no doubt in the infirmary.
Assuming no one was guarding the Crown—and why would they, when anyone in the cult hardly separated it from its bearer in terms of fear and respect—she had a straight shot.
As swiftly as possible, Kali made a sprint for the temple. She dared not go slower, even if it meant a lesser likelihood of stepping on something loud, since it would be way more likely for someone to wake up for a snack or to use the outhouse. All she had to do was slip in through the semi-ajar door (which she mentally thanked Filip for, even if it was unintentional) and close it behind herself, which went off without a hitch.
A dim temple greeted her, the only light coming from the ever-lit candles on either side of the lectern. It was just enough to provide some visibility, even if both Kali and Theanno had great night vision to begin with, but more specifically on the Red Crown sitting upon the altar.
It was odd, seeing the Crown not on the Lamb’s head. While the Lamb, in their state, seemed much smaller than usual, the Crown without the Lamb felt larger than it should. More imposing, even. Its singular red eye remained wide open, and though its glow had dimmed significantly, she had the feeling it was anything but dormant as it stared through her.
She almost wanted to tell it to blink.
Nevertheless, Kali swallowed her unease and strode forward down the aisle just as she had been for something close to twenty years, which might as well have been two years with the enchanted pendants the Lamb had gifted her and Theo. It came second nature; little light needed to guide her.
Though she had never been afraid of the dark, her fur stood on end as she noticed the feeling of being watched. By the Crown? Perhaps, but… not quite.
With a bowed head, she stepped up to the altar. Her heart raced with the panic of I should not be here, I should not be the one standing at the altar, but she tried her best to shove it down. What she was doing was important and could possibly save the cult from being wiped out.
Kaliaphra lowered herself to kneel in front of the altar, bending until she was just under eye-level with the Red Crown and folding her hands neatly upon her lap. “I am… unsure if I should be addressing Death here, as I am simply looking at the Crown without its bearer, so I will plead with both god and tool.”
If the Crown could look expectant, it did.
“I fear for the safety of these people,” she began, letting her eyes fall shut. “I have only ever been afraid like this when the Lamb brought me here for the first time. I doubted then. Over time, I have grown to trust them with my life. But they have fallen. Not in death, but I am afraid this is worse. If it were death, The One Who Waits would surely revive them. Instead, they cannot be helped outside of medical attention, and even that is a waiting game.
“If the Bishops find this place, all will be executed for heresy. What shall be done? I would sacrifice anything to make this right. I would give my own life. What is my life in comparison to the many other lives being lived here? It is but a speck of dust.” Kali paused for a moment, cracking one eye open to check if the Crown was still paying attention. (What a silly thought, she mused. The Red Crown is not sentient.)
Its singular red eye stared back at her, unblinking and unmoving.
Somehow, that was more discouraging.
She sighed. “We were taught that The One Who Waits does not answer prayer directly. He speaks through his vessel in miracles, but they are the one to hear our pleas. What is left when the vessel forgets that they are a vessel? What is left when a fawn who loves her family has to leave them behind? Theanno… he is all I have of them here. I promised him that he would be safe in this place, under the Lamb.”
A growing desperation bubbled in her chest with each passing thought, and Kaliaphra found herself crawling forward to grasp the altar and stare into the Crown’s eye directly as her vision blurred. “Please, do you not understand how hopeless this is? I do not ask for much if you do not wish to give it, but the situation must be remedied! Tell me what I have to do! Help me!”
The plea rang out through the temple, bouncing off the walls again and again until it faded.
The Red Crown did nothing.
Bitterly, she had the passing thought that a no would’ve hurt less than this.
Kaliaphra pushed herself up to stand over the Crown upon the altar, wiping the few stray tears that had fallen. “…Foolish. I do not know why I thought Death would listen to one little follower, anyway. It was worth a—”
In a flash, a literal flash of red, the sacred artifact shifted forms.
No longer did she see the Red Crown as a crown, or at least not a full crown; the pointed tips of its top stretched and wrapped around and around each other to a point, leaving it in a vague lance shape in the span of milliseconds.
That is, she was only somewhat sure it came to a point. The end of the Crown was out of her view, even as she followed it from the altar closer to her and—
Through her chest.
Through her heart.
Out her back.
That was when she registered two things a second too late. One, the deafening squelch and crack of flesh and bone being driven through by, well, Crown. Two, the burning pain that felt more like a stream of red hot fire than a blade.
Kaliaphra screamed, agony tearing through her throat.
There was a fleeting thought that she just woke up the entire camp, but it was drowned by growing panic accompanied by the taste of iron in her mouth. Her throat was closing, but was it due to the blood, or was she in shock? Shit, she didn’t know enough about medicine to tell.
What she did know was that she was going to die.
She had asked to help her be rid of the situation.
Was this a sick joke?
Was it mercy?
To be put out of her misery?
Her hooves scraped weakly at the floor beneath her, the Crown’s sharp blade holding her just aloft with surprising strength—as if she weighed nothing to it. As she struggled to catch her breath, choking on it instead, a strangled bleat pulled itself from her in some desperate attempt to call for Theanno.
The Red Crown retracted then, its lance shape ripping from her chest and dropping her onto the wooden floor. Kaliaphra’s vision was flickering then, and a horrific numbness began to settle in. The floor grew wet beneath her, and she felt it pooling around her fingertips and ear as she lay discarded on her side.
What… did I do wrong?
A distant muffled bleat was the last thing she heard.
Then there was nothing.
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When her eyes opened, Kaliaphra was blinded with white.
Given how dark the temple had just been, the change of brightness was undesirable. The sky above her was far too bright, and the ground beneath her was far too soft. Fluffy, almost.
Odd.
She turned her head to get a better look and was greeted not with a wooden floor, but with what appeared to be… clouds.
A discomfort upon her chest suddenly became apparent to her, both crushing and sharp, two different sensations. Images flashed through her memory. The eye, the blade, the blood.
The weighted sensation, she realized, was likely her stopped heart.
Kali moved to sit up, knocking something sitting on her chest onto her lap instead. When she looked down, she was greeted with the unblinking stare of the Red Crown.
“You,” she murmured, afraid of her voice carrying through the expanse. “What… did you do?”
There was no response, which had to be the most normal thing in the situation. It was still enough that one wouldn’t have known how it morphed to stab her only moments ago.
Kaliaphra huffed through her nose with growing annoyance. “Some help you are. Perhaps if I simply stay here and do not move, do not interact with anything, I will wake up from this nightmare. The Lamb will be fine, everyone will be safe, and everything will be as it should.”
“I know you’re there.”
A deep, rumbling voice reverberated around her, startling her and sending some of the clouds scattering. Kali looked up from her lap to fully survey her surroundings, and she took notice of a distant but massive figure bound in chains among the clouds. The image was familiar, one that the Lamb had explained vaguely to their flock from their times of indoctrination. Death had an incredibly recognizable appearance, all things considered.
She swallowed hard, a pit opening in her stomach.
The distance and the veil made it impossible for her to see his face, but she somehow knew that The One Who Waits was looking directly at her. “Come closer, little fawn,” the tall cat bishop purred. “In death, you will be of use to me.”
Kali looked back down at the Crown.
It looked back at her, and she’d almost expected it to give a meaningful glance toward said bishop. A go on gesture, in a sense. But it gave no such answer.
Once again, incredibly helpful.
She lifted the Crown from its place on her lap and pushed herself up, instinctively brushing off her tunic as if rising from the dirt instead. (It was silly, she acknowledged, but at least it could give her the appearance of being put together.)
Kaliaphra strode forward on shaking legs through the parting clouds. If she was to meet her god, she needed to be calm and collected, but her tight grip on the Crown did nothing to help.
As she grew closer, she noticed the two smaller cats kneeling on either side of the god. Their fur was a deep gray—not quite black—and their matching pairs of crimson eyes remained solely on her as she approached. The one on Death’s right donned black and red robes, while the one on his left had white robes. Both wore veils like their master, though theirs were slightly more transparent, hence why she could meet their intense stares.
She felt more like an intruder within their space. Her gaze snapped once again to the being in the middle, though she dared not look him in the eye, instead settling for the clouds at his feet.
The sound of her footsteps changed from soft pompfs of air to hooves on stone as she stepped onto a small circular platform painted with a pentagram, and she figured that was a good place to pause. Kali dipped low into a curtsey, one she had perfected during her time under the Bishop Shamura, but said nothing. The common rule within the Silk Cradle was do not speak unless spoken to.
Given how she was standing before Death, she didn’t feel like testing the limits with other gods.
“Polite little thing,” said The One Who Waits, finally. “What a refreshing change of pace. Stand, little fawn, and let me see you.”
Without a second thought, she complied, raising her gaze enough to find the bottom edge of his veil.
“How peculiar that you would enter my domain with my Crown in your hands. I entrusted that Crown to The Lamb. How is it, then, that you hold it, mere follower?”
Despite having little-to-no control over that exact situation, Kali stuttered, “I mean no disrespect by it, my lord! The Lamb is—”
He held up one skeletal hand to stop her. “I am well aware of what has befallen my vessel. It is… inconvenient, to say the least. Since The Lamb is neither dead nor dying, I can do nothing to assist. Truly a setback.” Jagged teeth became more visible as the corners of his mouth curled upward. “But no matter. You worry for the safety of your flock, do you not? That is why you volunteered your life.”
Kaliaphra bit her lip anxiously for a moment. She did offer her life to the Crown in panic, didn’t she? While she certainly didn’t expect to stand before The One Who Waits in order to fulfill that statement, there really were only so many ways such an offer would come to fruition. “What… What would you have me do, my lord? I am just a deserter who can only somewhat mince fish and cauliflower.”
“Ah… but you can brandish a knife, then?” The God of Death inclined his head in what she faintly recognized to be a patronizing manner. “While you may not believe it, that is more than The Lamb could say when they first appeared before me. Rejoice in your abilities, for they will save your hide in battle.”
“B-Battle, my lord?”
She swore she saw the cat at his right snicker from her question.
“Battle,” he repeated. “Despite the façade you put on, I know you are familiar with it. I have seen you cut down many an enemy during your time as a soldier trainee.”
Ah, damn it. “Oh, I, uh—“
“And yet you lie to my face.” The ever-present grin dropped abruptly. “Fear lingers in you despite your experience, Kaliaphra. I will be merciful just this once.”
Kali’s breath hitched as terror took its choking hold on her. He knew her name. He knew her by name. “Forgive me, please! I would have been upfront about it, but… it has been some time since I fought last.”
The One Who Waits waved a hand. “It has become instinct for you, nonetheless, one that you will utilize while you bear the Crown.”
It was like ice had been dumped over her. She dared to meet his gaze, finally. “…My lord?”
“A temporary vessel,” he clarified, his wide smile of sharp teeth returning. “You shall take on the duties of the Lamb until they can return once more. Tend to the flock. Venture forth on crusades. Spread faith and influence. Slay my traitorous siblings. That is for which you have volunteered your life.”
She stared up at him, up at the gleeful unblinking trio of red eyes behind a veil, and found no trace of humor. No ounce of empathy. The One Who Waits was placing her in the position of leader against her will. If she should decline…
One clawed hand, belonging to the white-robed cat in white on Death’s left, twitched as if he’d heard her thought.
Ah. She couldn’t.
To decline meant death. No doubt it would be an insult to the bishop himself. She had no other option.
“It will not be for an eternity,” The One Who Waits purred, “that much I can swear with the assumption that my vessel recovers. Should they not, your position will become a permanent one. Do we have an understanding, fawn?”
As much as she wanted to do otherwise, Kaliaphra lowered herself back into a deep curtsy. “Y…Yes, my lord. I will do everything in my power to serve you.”
“Good. Do not disappoint me. Unlike the Lamb, you are incredibly replaceable.”
The pentagram lit up beneath her feet, and her soul left the Below with a new weighing dread upon it.
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Kaliaphra propped herself up with one arm and promptly vomited onto the floor next to the altar.
Her chest ached, not with the pain of the fatal wound but with anxiety and horror. She was faintly aware that she had, in fact, returned to the living world, but she was waiting for the pounding of her heart to cease before fully taking stock.
Was she dreaming? Surely, she had been dreaming. In her panic to do something about the Lamb’s situation, she had run into the temple and… hit her head. Passed out. That was the only logical option. Or, better yet, all of that was a dream, too; she’d eaten some wild mushrooms by mistake and had a wild dream as a result.
…Why did her head feel so heavy?
Something, some form of light, reflected off of the polished quartz altar, startling Kali. As she turned her head back to further investigate, the colored light reflected again—red. Once she sat still, the steady red glow remained… just above her head, if the silhouette was anything to go by. Was that…
She raised one hand up to grab it, but the crash of the temple doors startled her into dropping her hand and pushing herself onto her feet.
“Kaliaphra,” came the clipped voice of Zelva as she led what looked like the entire cult into the room. “What on earth is—Are you wearing the Red Crown?”
Her eyes ran over the assembling crowd, already trying to think of a way out of facing them yet. Was there one, though? Was it right to wait, if this was in fact really happening? Was there even a way for her to answer without looking like a fool? “Y…Yes, I am.”
The old turtle scoffed incredulously. “Stars above, no one should be touching it but the Lamb. And—is that… blood? Vomit? Child, are you drunk?”
“No!” she snapped back, the weight of the eyes on her immensely present. “I am not drunk. I… I have…” 
But she trailed off, uncertain how exactly to explain the situation. Kali’s eyes skimmed the assembled followers, searching desperately for reassurance, for familiarity, for her cousin’s eyes among colleagues, friends, acquaintances, accusers. 
In the doorway, familiar horns just barely fit in the doorway. 
She held her breath, a long moment, then began again. “I have spoken to The One Who Waits. It appears that he has placed me in the Lamb’s position until they recover. And I know that sounds insane, but…” She looked down at herself, reaching up to run her fingers over the tender flesh where her impalement wound had been. The skin there was still agitated and raw, like a fresh scar had just formed. “I died, I believe. That was the commotion you heard. If you will just—”
“A’right,” huffed Chifre, the rhinoceros in charge of behavior enforcement, as he stepped through the crowd toward her. “Take the Crown off, c’mon.”
Anxiety flipped to annoyance in just a moment, and she straightened her spine stubbornly. “I cannot. I now have a duty to uphold, it seems.”
“No, you don’t. Take it off, or I’ll take it myself. Playtime’s over, kid.”
“I am not a child!”
Her voice boomed through the space, and she would’ve taken notice of how it split apart if it weren’t for the flash of bright red, almost like lightning, that illuminated it all. The light seemed to startle the crowd more than her, as they all scrambled back several feet from the altar, eyes blown wide.
They… weren’t looking at her.
Kaliaphra turned, slowly, and looked up to the front wall of the temple.
Over the wood and stained glass, there resided a massive shadow, one of distinct silhouette, stretching across the pulpit floor to the wall and traveling up to touch the ceiling. The body, with its tall feline ears and glowing trio of eyes, was incredibly familiar to Kali herself. Its limbs, clearly defined as skeletal and crude, extended over the walls and arched across the temple floor. There, the claws of bone hovered around the place where the deer stood, as if claiming her—his plaything, perhaps.
Separate from the shadow, Kaliaphra was graced with the whisper of feeling bone brush her cheek. It was a distant mockery of sentiment, but it made her heart leap into her throat all the same.
“Stand tall, my vessel,” the voice of The One Who Waits purred into her ear. “They will learn to fear you in time.”
Then, with another flash of red light, it was all gone. Kali and the others were left standing in an empty temple, shellshocked at what had just occurred.
They stared at her, no longer annoyed, but hesitant. As if they didn’t know what to do.
Across the crowd, Kaliaphra’s gaze finally found her cousin’s, meeting eyes wide in something between awe and terror. He ran his gaze over her form, inspecting her, she thought, hesitating on the blood stain on her shirt, then the glowing crown, and then back to meet her eyes in turn, looking for something, the same safety they’d promised one another for years.
Then, finding it, whatever he was looking for, his expression calmed, pride replacing the fear as a grin stretched over his cheeks. He bent his knee, head still raised, unwilling to break her gaze, yet folding over nevertheless.
A bow, she realized. He is bowing. To… to me?
“My Fawn,” Theanno called.
The followers nearest to him looked back, murmurs rippling through them, noises and expressions flickering wildly between surprise and… uncertainty, perhaps, before looking back to the crown that now rested on her brow. 
Then, with the same subtle confidence, one follower after another bent at the knee, their gazes turning to the ground. 
“My Fawn.”
“My Fawn.”
“My Fawn!”
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