#huge shout out to these two legends as usual

[hyah-lian]

Sorta stimmy links stuff, and also v inspired by @triforce-of-mischief and her fic series Overcome (about trypanophobic Lege) hoping that they like this fic and find comfort in it bc it sounds like it's been a rough few days.

⚠️Trigger warnings for mention of the cause of trypanophobia/brief discussion of it. Also some descriptions ppl may find claustrophobic bc I have headcanons of Hyrule liking very tight spaces. BUT this is primarily supposed to be fluffy and comfort-y

It got a lot longer than I thought lol

---------

"I feel like a blanket would be more appropriate, 'Rule," Legend deadpanned.

He stared as the other hero wiggled into the small triangular gap he made between travel-packs.

"Nope," Hyrule popped the 'p', "this is better."

Legend shrugged and reclined to support his weight on his hands behind him while Hyrule fidgeted into the small trap he made for himself.

Then he wheezed out what felt like all the air in his lungs as Hyrule's head smacked into his stomach unexpectedly.

"Oh. I thought you were still behind me, behind me."

Legend couldn't even be mad with Hyrule's big eyes and smile staring up at him. He wheeled again, still catching his breath, before motioning for the other Link to sit up again. Legend scooted himself forward in the same reclined position until his shoulder was roughly lined up with Hyrule's back.

"There," he bumped an elbow into 'Rules back, "you can lay back now."

Hyrule did so with a happy little hum, pulling the two bags around his elbows in tighter before relaxing back fully. He squirmed for a second, pulling out scraps of fabric left over from ruined clothes and began twisting and braiding them into a rope.

"Comfy?" Legend snorted a laugh through his nose.

"Yep!" Hyrule popped the 'p' once more with a huge grin.

--------

Legend had been on edge all day after yesterday's fight.

More like yesterday's after-fight.

Hyrule couldn't count the number of times Legend's hands went to pick at and worry the edge of the bandage around his bicep. How many times he took a wide berth around Warriors and Time. How quiet he had been all day. The quiver and bitter-sour blackberry taste of fear weaved into Legend's essence.

They stopped for camp a bit earlier than usual, only because the path ended up shorter than anticipated and they found the spot Four said he needed to visit quickly.

The minish woods were sweetened with magic like candied grapes that had Hyrule feeling giddy and recharged.

The clearing they were in was near what looked like a miniature temple with a vast flat of lush green grass on top that sung of little motes of magic. It gave Hyrule an idea and he sprinted off to jump the small gap and little trickling stream of water in front of it.

Twilight shouted out in surprise and reached for 'Rulie as he ran off, but Four stopped him.

Four smiled after Hyrule, taking a moment to... listen? to something before turning over his shoulder to shout.

"LEGE! Hyrule's gone off the path again."

Legend turned and glared at Four for a moment before taking a deep breath and shouldering both his and Hyrule's packs over his good arm.

Hyrule grinned as he bounced on the balls of his feet, hair whooshing with the motion before continuing to carefully run his way up to the raised area. Something about it spoke of warmth to him, and like everywhere else in this forest, he kept the feeling that light and careful steps were a must.

When Legend bridged the gap between them, Hyrule took the bags with exaggerated care. He avoided touching Legend's good or bad arm and instead of grabbing the other's hand like he wanted to, he held his own out in offering.

Legend hesitated. Hyrule smiled and turned to keep walking with his hand still an open palmed invitation.

He felt Legend grab the tips of his fingers after a moment. If that was all he could tolerate, Hyrule was proud he made that step.

Legend followed, cautious and confused at Hyrule's winding path. The slowed pace, though, he was grateful for. Ever since patch-up last night he felt cotton-headed and on edge.

Wars has needed Time to hold-

Legend shook his head violently, shaking the world onto a new axis. He felt his breath hitch and drew back his hand like the touch burned.

"There is a step up in front of you, Lege."

Hyrule's words regrounded him briefly. He took a shaky breath in and nodded. He climbed up the small slope to stand atop the flat of emerald grass.

Hyrule tossed down his bag and gently placed Legend's and fiddled with them to make a short a-frame gap.

"Sit?"

<I'm fine.> Legend signed. He hadn't felt like talking all day. Not even sure if he could had he wanted to.

"Please? Try. It is like a hug but nobody is really touching you."

Legend felt a stab of panic again, thinking back to his wounds getting tended.

"You can push them off or make it as small as you want. A safe hide. Just here, your stuff, and the grass and sun."

Hyrule was leaning back and lazily running his hands through the warm blades of grass as if that was the only thing to want in the world.

Of course it could be his world is near-dead.

Legend quashed the negative thoughts as they tried to bubble up.

<Okay. I'll try.>

Even with Hyrule facing away, Legend knew he saw.

He sat next to the carefully positioned packs and tried to scoot his way under the way Hyrule would. Elbows and knees protesting, but even with that and the sour mood he had been stuck in it felt silly and he couldn't help the faint flutter of a laugh stir in his chest.

<Nobody will believe you got me to wiggle into a bag-tent like an inchworm,> he joked.

Hyrule just smiled, and for a second Legend wasn't sure if the traveler had seen him signing. But Hyrule stood and held the packs apart just enough for Legend to wiggle between them much more comfortably.

Hyrule sat behind Legend. Close but not touching. The bags dropped to lean against each other again, pressing the faintest pressure onto his chest and arms. None of the fear of restraint or hands on his skin stirred. Deeper breaths settled behind his ribs, and Legend felt some of his tense discomfort ease away.

"You can lean on me, if you want. Take a load off and breathe. It is safe here. You are safe here."

Legend wanted to, badly, but his chest tightened again. A split second of emotion jolting forward to choke him again. His eyes stung.

He dipped his head back cautiously and found Hyrule's shoulder solidly in place. He took a shaky breath, and another. The sun was warm, it was quiet and smelled like sweet lemon grass and pine. His breath hitched again on a sob, loose items in their bags jingling with the movement.

"It's okay," Hyrule said, swaying slightly but still a solid presence behind Legend. "I've got you when you're ready."

Legend broke.

After some time spent in an exhausted haze, Legend realized he had fallen asleep and was now waking up. He was half buried under rucksacks with his head on Hyrule's lap, warm orange afternoon sun heating him, and a steady weight pressed to his shoulder.

He took an unhindered breath in, heaving a huge sigh-turned-yawn. The scrap-rope Hyrule was working on swayed in front of his eyes. The boy was still gently swaying and humming, short snippets on repeat.

"Thanks..." his voice cracked with the word after going all day without using it.

"Any time."

----

It had been a good few hours since Legend and Hyrule had taken off. Four had separated himself after a lot of easing fears to go see the Minish.

They had spent those hours catching up with the small folk, and doing a few dispatches of pesky spiders or other favors.

After finishing those tasks, Four met with the Minish Elder in this village and they walked through the halls of one of the buildings Four liberated years back. They exited the doors into the warm orange glow of late afternoon to stand at the river's edge to finish talking.

Giggling and excited chatter tumbled down the slope of the building's walls, and Four climbed up to peek over the ledge.

Hyrule and Legend were leaning together, fast asleep, and a dozen or so minish were cuddled up to, or climbing on the two of them. Excited chatter about them smelling the same as Four and having the same soft aura to them filtered over.

Four scrambled back down and relayed the sight to the Elder before promising to come back again in the morning.

[mysticalbookkeeper]

I barely saw Villainous, all I saw are clips and some videos talking about the show on YouTube as I live in Canada, so guess who has to deal with that?

Anyway, from what I gathered, the show was FINE, it was harmless, it was kinda nice. But I think that the characters—other than Black Hat—were kind of…lacking in something. I saw bits and pieces of the english version, so I felt something wasn’t right with the characters. I feel as if Flug, 5.0.5 and Dementia could have been done a little differently from their usual stuff. But I also feel as if the team would benefit from having another character, someone to balance out the chaos that happens in their everyday lives and keeps things…less on fire.

Obviously what I mean is there should have been a straight man character to keep things in order and make sure things run smoothly.

Be it man, or woman.

So I have a little head canon to kinda test the idea of my own. I’m using my self-insert, Lilac (cauze I think I would be a great straight man, I am very tough, and, have travelled different worlds in video games and books, so I think I’d be the perfect person for the job).

In Black Hat Organisation, Dr. Flug was creating a new invention. Let’s say this one was to blot out the sun (like I think what happened in the first episode)? While Dr. Flug was in charge of that, a young purple skinned woman was concocting a brew of her own. One that would not be consumed by itself, but by sticking, for example, an apple inside, the fruit—or whatever food item used—would become poisonous and immediately kill the victim with just one bite. Only true love’s kiss would undo the death.

Lilac scoffed. Of course, true love wasn’t real. She had learned that lesson long ago when someone she thought she could trust turned his back and betrayed her (a CERTAIN someone from Legends Arceus).

Lilac was about to put the jars of the poison into the bio-hazard fridge to let them stay cool, when she heard a crash.

“For crying out loud, who the hell?!” She shouted and turned to see the commotion. Dr. Flug’s invention was currently being toyed with by Demencia, who was laughing and giggling wildly and playing with Flug’s machine.

“What does this do-hickey do?” Demencia drooled, looking at the ray. She went to aim it at a wall, and shot,, but thanks to Lilac’s quick reflexes, she used another ray gun laying around and used it to blast away Demencia’s ray and both lasers disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Lilac glared at the duo, with 5.0.5 looking frighteningly at her in the background, having been mopping.

“Demencia, what are you doing in here?! I told you to stay out of our way!” Lilac snapped, marching towards her.

Demencia, believing she was the real alpha among the two women, glared.

“You don’t tell me what to do you darn…freak!”

“W-with all due respect miss Lilac, we…”

“That’s ma’am to you bag-head! You told me you could keep her under control!” Lilac snapped.

“I did! I mean, I can! Just…she slipped out of my grasp and…”

“Demencia. Orders from Black Hat.” Said Lilac.

At that name, Demencia immediately was in front of Lilac and giving her a deranged grin.

“You are to count every piece of grass in the city while Dr. Flug and I continue our work. Black Hat believes that there’s been an overgrowth of too many grass and he needs you to go investigate. Understood?” Lilac asked, a scary calm to her voice.

“Yes ma’am! Anything for my lustrous beautiful overlord Black Hat!” Said Demencia. Then she scampered away on all fours, eager to please Black Hat.

Lilac grinned, proud of her lie. She knew Black Hat would likely be angry with her and she’d be in a lot of trouble…but then again, maybe some actual peace and quiet will help the two real smart people get real work done this time. Black Hat would definitely appreciate more work and peace and quiet. He might even give her an award. Although, the closest thing to an award Black Hat had ever given her was a dead leaf. But it was a HUGE leaf, and it was still intact, so it was the thought that counted. Besides, Lilac kept it safe in a small glass case next to her bed, so it was always safe.

“Dr. Flug, a word? Please.” Lilac looked at the doctor in question, her face expressionless.

Dr. Flug gulped.

“Relax, I’m not about to give you the smack down like Black Hat. But we need to speak about…her.”

Dr. Flug nodded.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t understand how she got inside. I kept th-the door locked a-and I had her watch t.v, and I gave h-her colouring b-books so…”

“T.v? Colouring books? For someone with a short attention span such as Demencia? I’d be surprised she even looked in those colouring books at all! You know she does this because she KNOWS she can get under your skin. She may have a few loose screws in her skull, but she still can outsmart you if you keep letting her take advantage of your….meagre nature.” Lilac said.

“Yes. Sorry ma’am.” Flug said.

“No need. Just stay on your toes Flug. We can’t afford any distractions.” Said Lilac.

Flug nodded and returned to working on his darkness-ray.

Lilac began filling her jars with the potion and began storing them away. 5.0.5 came to help.

Lilac smiled at the bear. It was hard to get angry at such a sweet and caring soul, even one who was a bear.

“Thank you 5.0.5. I appreciate it.” Lilac said.

5.0.5 grinned at her.

Suddenly the lights went out. Lilac screamed a little, but held onto the jars, as did 5.0.5, although, he quickly shoved the jars haphazardly into the refrigerator and covered his eyes, cowering on the ground. Dr. Flug was absolutely shivering in his pants. Lilac turned around and remained firm as a figure appeared in a cloud of black smoke and the lights flashed back on.

Lilac bowed, holding her jars in her arms, careful not to drop any of them.

“Lord Black Hat, sir. It’s an honour. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?” Asked Lilac calmly.

“L-Lord B-Black Hat, sir. It’s g-great to see you too. Ah, I mean, an honour, I-I mean…”

Black Hat rose a hand and Flug stopped speaking.

Black Hat slightly grinned at Lilac. It was…well, it wasn’t a rarity for Black Hat to smile, he has before. But that was usually when he was tormenting Dr. Flug and the other two. He tormented Lilac as well, but he had done it less and less when she threatened to quit and report him to a hero organization. He had got angry, but he considered her for a few moments and, begrudgingly, agreed to her terms. So long as she continued to obey him, he had no problem with her…independent nature. Rather, Black Hat enjoyed it, as she brought peace to the normally chaotic Black Hat headquarters.

Speaking of…

“I don’t see Demencia. Where did she go?” Asked Black Hat.

“I sent her away sir. She’s busy counting grass while we speak, so Flug and I could work in peace. She was causing trouble for Dr. Flug.” Lilac answered.

Black Hat would have yelled at Lilac for sending Demencia out, but if it kept his more…RELIABLE employees on track, then he’d allow it.

“Excellent.” Black Hat grinned menacingly.

“I see you have your potions ready and already being stored. Good work Lilac. Keep it up. How is your darkness ray coming along doctor?” Asked Black Hat.

“Ah, w-well, it’s coming along great! I may…need a bit longer to…”

Black Hat’s grin faltered slightly.

“WHAT?!” He growled and rose a hand. Dr. Flug froze and convulsed on the floor, writhing in agony.

Lilac looked away, knowing not to step in front of Black Hat when he was angry. 5.0.5 looked nervously and went to go to Dr. Flug, but Lilax stopped him and gently shook her head. She looked at the pained Dr. Flug with a neutral expression.

“He knew the risk. He let it happen.” Said Lilac.

Though she didn’t like it either, there was nothing she could do to stop it. Well, there was, but that would likely escalate the situation.

“You will make that ray or I’ll make you clean the shark tank again!” Black Hat said.

“We have a shark tank?” Asked Lilac.

5.0.5 nodded.

“Alright.”

Once Black Hat had his “fun” he left and the three looked at the spot he was before, before returning to work.

“Alright, we’re ready!” Said Flug. Demencia burst in the doors and looked around for anything to damage. When she discovered that there was nothing, she groaned in aggravation.

“Awesome! Our client awaits!” Said Lilac. “Follow me troopers!” Said Lilac and walked to where their flying hat would be.

They flew through the air, chilling, as the skies were sunny and clear. Not a good sign. For those who got severe sunburns like penumbra and her people. Lilac knew there was a simpler solution than completely blocking out the sun, but she guessed because people like Penumbra suffered severely, a hat and sunscreen was no good to her (and god forbid that stores stay open a little longer AFTER the sun had gone down. Really, if Lilac didn’t know any better, she’d think this town was full of racist people…no, wait, that’s exactly what they were.)

Lilac noticed the city where they were supposed to land and went to land somewhere in a large empty Wal-Mart parking lot.

Lilac and the others climbed out and hurried over to the street where they saw a huge battle going on, with Penumbra having scary burns on her skin.

The grey-skinned woman looked tired and exhausted and she looked like she could barely stay upright.

In the sky in front of the woman was a hero with big giant muscles and a golden suit, smiling a ridiculous corny smile and looking smug as he continued to fight the helpless woman.

“Oh sh*t! She’s gonna get heat stroke! Dr. Flug, you have the plans?” Asked Lilac.

“Y-yes. So, to explain, we…”

“You explained on the way! Get out there and put it into action! Go, go GO!”

Everyone panicked and ran into the street at Lilac’s command and went to face the hero.

Meanwhile, Lilac ran in with a large umbrella and covered Penumbra with it and she lead the woman into the cool conditioned flying hat and had her sit down and hurried to the bathroom and returned with a wash cloth and gently washed the woman’s bare skin with it. The woman gently took the cloth and proceeded to place it on her head.

“Don’t move, I’ll get you water!” Lilac said and hurried back to the bathroom and returned with water.

Penumbra gently took it and took a sip, before setting it on the table next to her.

“Thank you.” She said, smiling at Lilac.

“You’re welcome.” Lilac said and ran over to another corner of the hat and pulled out a rather large sword.

“Will you be okay on your own?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Awesome. Sit tightly, I’ve got a stupid hero to deal with.” Said Lilac and ran out the hat.

Lilac ran to join the other two.

“Where is that stupid jackass?!” She shouted. (I’m way too used to using cuss words in writing, my bad).

Flug and Demencia both pointed upwards to where the hero was flying towards them.

“Alright. Everyone! Spread out!” Lilac shouted and everyone ran opposite directions and the hero flew after Flug.

“Sh*t!” Lilac charged towards the hero, and got ready with her sword, but the hero blasted her in the eyes with his sun-ray vision, and everything hurt and Lilac fell onto the road, crying in pain, kicking her legs in the air and shouting every cuss word known to every pirate in the world and crying.

Demencia went to attack, not as a way to defend her teammates, but to please Black Hat.

She got onto Sunblast’s back and he tried to get her off, flying around.

“Get off me you freak!” Shouted Sunblast.

Demencia brought out a small dagger and was trying to stab Sunblast, but he kept flying around too much for her to properly aim, and she had to hold on, due to how fast he was going.

Lilac tried to open her eyes, but everything still hurt and she whimpered. If Black Hat saw her, he’d call her a pathetic whimpering baby. He did it to Flug, as he was always whimpering and soiling his pants.

Lilac tried to feel around and accidentally bumped into something frail and skinny.

“Flug?” Asked Lilac.

“Ma’am! Yes, it’s me!”

“Lilac is fine. Just…what’s happening?! Where’s that damned hero and Demencia?!” Shouted Lilac.

“Demencia’s fighting him off. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine! I’ll be fine, just need to rest a bit.” Lilac said, calming down a little at the second sentence.

“Just go blot out the sun! Just for today, because we need to hurry this up and hurry back to headquarters afterwards!” Said Lilax.

Flug looked at the decommissioned Lilac and then towards Demencia, who was now being flung towards the road and skidded to a halt, scrapes on her. He looked at 5.0.5, who was standing there, wondering what to do.

“No.”

“What?”

“We have to fall back! Sunblast is too strong.”

“Flug! We can’t just leave, we have a mission to do! You’re still fine, right?! You can use your ray thing to…”

“No!”

Lilac froze upon hearing Flug’s words. She wished she could open her eyes to see his expression right now.

“No…no. He’s too strong. If we all get hit, we might be…”

Dr. Flug stood up, a determined scowl on his face.

“DEMENCIA! 5.0.5! Get back in the flying hat! Now!” Flug shouted.

Demencia ran passed Flug and Lilac, and Flug stopped 5.0.5, before he got too far.

“5.0.5! I need you to carry Lilac! Get her onto the hat safely! I’ll be right behind you!”

5.0.5 nodded and grabbed the blind Lilac and ran towards the hat.

Flug ran towards them, when a voice stopped him.

“Ha.”

“Oh no.” Flug whimpered and slowly turned to where Sunblast was standing.

“You always were one to run away. I was just going to have a little word with you before your little freak show friend decided to ruin it for me. So I’ll make it brief. You never should have shown your face in front of me again! I told you to back off. You’re a loser that is just making us heroes look bad. To think you asked me to be my sidekick. As if anyone would ever want you. I’m even surprised that someone as nasty and despicable as your overlord Black Hat would even dare to choose you at all. But I guess you do make a good punching bag, so good for him I guess. Take your pathetic villain squad and never come back. If I catch you again, you won’t even be able to see the light day again once I get through with you.”

Flug just ran off and Sunblast smirked as he watched him go.

“Goddammit!” Flug slammed his fists on the control panel as they flew away (in invisible mode, of course, so no one could follow them).

“Stupid hero! I had him! I swear I did! You!” Demencia pointed at a still blind Lilac who was washing her eyes out with a wet towel over a large bowl in her seat.

“This is all your fault! If you just hadn’t stuck to the loser doctor’s stupid plan and just let me do things my way, then everything would have been fine!”

“And what?! Get us all killed then?! You had no plan Demencia! Your idea was to run in there with no strategy or idea on how to face our opponent! In a battle, that is really freaking stupid! You don’t run in there without knowing yourself, or the enemy! You need a plan!”

“We’ll yours and Dr. Flug’s plan sucked!”

“Just because you didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it sucked! We just didn’t…see…him coming. Well, we did, but we had no idea he would outsmart us like that. Next time, we need to account for super-speed. And his stupid sun ray vision!” Lilac groaned in pain.

“We…we have to tell Black Hat the truth. We screwed up. The plan failed and we couldn’t do anything to stop Sunblast.” Flug looked sadly at Penumbra, who was doing a lot better than the rest of them at the moment (though she was still recovering from her sunburns).

“I’m…so sorry miss Penumbra. We failed you and your people.”

“No. You did everything you could. It was that damn Sunblast! He thinks that darkness is a bad thing, but we need the dark! It’s important not only to my people, but to everyone who lives on earth!” Said Penumbra, slamming her fist on the arm of her chair.

“Welp, better get cozy. I can’t wait for Black Hat to chew you and that stupid purple freak out!” Demencia said.

“He’s going to chew us ALL out once I tell him! Now…”

Suddenly, the window changed and Black Hat appeared on the window, blocking out the sky in front of them.

“Report Dr. Flug. I see you have Miss Penumbra. Were you able to succeed in your task then?” Asked Black Hat.

Dr. Flug looked at the man for a few short seconds. He sighed.

“No. No, sir. We…actually failed to block out the sun and miss Penumbra almost…and Lilac, she…”

Lilac couldn’t see Black Hat’s expression. But she knew he was most likely looking at her with contempt and rage. She wouldn’t be surprised if he exiled her for her incompetence and flat out blamed her for this mess. Just like when she was in Hisui.

However, what Lilac did NOT see was Black Hat looking at her with a neutral expression, watching as she whimpered and washed her face.

Dr. Flug looked at Black Hat nervously.

“Then hurry up and get over here! Are you being followed?” Asked Black Hat.

“No. We turned on invisibility mode, so that we couldn’t be seen, sir.” Said Dr. Flug.

“Good. It would have been very stupid of you to lead a hero to my headquarters Dr. Flug. I’m honestly glad you remembered this time. Once you get here, I want miss Lilac in the infirmary and I want you, Demencia and 5.0.5 to report to me. ARE WE CLEAR, DOCTOR?!” Black Hat made a scary face at Dr. Flug, grinning manically while his tongue stuck out and tentacles appeared from his back and a mouth opened on his neck.

All of Dr. Flug, Demencia and 5.0.5 screamed in terror at his face.

Darn. Lilac thought. I wish I could have seen what face he was using.

Once they returned to Black Hat headquarters, 5.0.5 carried Lilac to the infirmary where he proceeded to help Lilac with getting clean new towels and filling up the bowl as she sat on the bed.

Meanwhile, Penumbra waited in the waiting room as Flug and Demencia stood in Black Hat’s office.

“Sir, we failed, but we can get Sunburst! We just need to calculate for his super speed and find protection against his sun-ray vision! I promise we can…”

“I’m not mad doctor.”

“You’re not?” Asked Dr. Flug.

“No.”

Black Hat whipped around, a scary face on him again.

Demencia and Flug jumped back.

“I’M FURIOUS!”

“Look, I know we failed to stop the hero and…”

“You think this is about the hero?! No! I thought I trained you for this! Always look out for one another! What’s the one rule I have?!”

“To help Villains in becoming better villains?” Asked Dr. Flug.

“And…?”

“To…help your fellow villains in need. Even if you don’t agree with their ideals.” Answered Flug.

“Yes! And what happened to one of ours?!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for Lilac to…”

“You’re just lucky that a sun-ray vision to the eyes was all she got! Sunburst is dangerous! All superheroes are! Or…all these self-proclaimed super-heroes are!” Black Hat spat.

“I…I didn’t mean…I didn’t want…”

“What would you have done had she been attacked with a sun flare fist?! Or a melting sun beam?! You think anyone could survive that?! I can! But not a mortal like Lilac, or you for that matter! You’re not invincible like me! You’re all flimsy, noodle, easily destructible beings! One snap and you all could have perished just like that! You all just got lucky!” Snapped Black Hat.

“Yes sir.” Said Flug, looking down.

“And Demencia!”

“What did I do?! I did as told!”

“Did you? Or did you just blindly attack the hero without any idea of what you were getting into? You went to attack Sunblast without any strategy! Even when witnessing what happened to Lilac! But we all know how less you could care about her! Demencia, you and Dr. Flug and everyone need to start working as a team! Lilac and 5.0.5 as well, otherwise…we’ll all be in trouble if the superheroes continue to win.” Said Black Hat.

“Yes sir.” Said Flug and Demencia, though she said it more begrudgingly.

“Good. Now go…I don’t know, go do whatever it is you do when I don’t have need of you. I need to think.” Said Black Hat.

Both Flug and Demencia nodded and they left the office, glad to have their limbs and insides intact.

[welcome-to-hyrulepark]

[CHAPTER ONE: AN UNINTENDED JOURNEY (PART TWO)]

Locate: shrine of ressurection. Date: 06/04/2017. Time: 9:15 am.

We started arguing about what we should do:

«What is this blue bullshit where Craig and his homies fell?» Kyle wondered.

«It looks like a bigger version of portals from the "Portal" game,» Cartman theorized. «And if we have the blue portal, there must be the orange one.»

«Where exactly? Maybe in hell?» Kenny asked sarcastically.

«Come on, guys,» Butters said, «Let's just jump in and then everything is gonna be clear.»

«Okay, mr. Smartypants, here you go!» Cartman said and kicked Butters right into the pit.

«Cartman, are you fu--» but Kyle didn't manage to say the full thing, since he was kicked right after.

«KYYYLEEE!» Stan screamed and jumped to save his best friend.

«CANNONBALL!» Cartman yelled and literally dunked into this portal.

Kenny got a little bit confused, but then he decided to jump after everyone else. I was left alone in the woods, sat a little on the boulder that the guys tried so hard to push, and then I realized that I had nothing to lose and jumped into this damn portal.

--------------------------------------------------

Craig finished his flight in the portal and ended up in some kind of cave, filled with the blue lights. Then Tweek flew into his arms. After that, Clyde and Token appeared. Suddenly, Butters, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman fell out of the portal.

«Hey, what the hell are you doing here?» Craig asked.

«We- We had no other choice.» Butters said.

Soon someone’s scream came from the portal, and a few seconds later a horse’s ass appeared in the distance.

«Disperse!» Cartman shouted.

Just like cannonball, Kenny stormed into the cave. He barely stood up and noticed that he had changed a lot.

«Holy shit! Look at me! I'm a real centaur.»

«And my ears are sharper for some reason.» Kyle said perplexingly.

--------------------------------------------------

When I was last out of the wormhole, Stan was calming everybody down:

«Don't panic, folks. We just need to enter this blue hole and then we gotta go back to South--»

However, as soon as Stan looked towards the portal, it began to close.

«No, no, nooo!» Stanley screamed and started punching where the wormhole used to be. All we had to do was find a way out of the cave, so we could at least figure out where we were.

Usually the cave is a very dark and scary place. But not this one, because it was illuminated by blue light. The lights were moving in a very definite direction, as if showing us the way out. We were moving in this direction, and the light was getting brighter and brighter. Finally, we saw a very bright light in the distance. «Is this the exit?» I thought. But it turned out to be something resembling a tub with a huge lamp above it, like an operating table. The boys were scared because it could be some kind of secret laboratory, but for me this place seemed to be familiar. It was then that Kyle decided to approach this very tub.

«Guys, look!» he said with a note of panic in his voice. «What is with this guy? Is he going to be subjected to terrible medical experiments?»

«Is there a guy in there?» Craig asked.

«Yeah.» Kyle answered. «He's about 16-17 years old, only wears underwear and has the same sharp ears as me.»

That description makes me feel overwhelmed, because this is exactly the same picture I had of a glowing cave and a teenage elf in a tub filled with the same glowing liquid on my TV screen yesterday. To test my guess, I decided to look here myself. At that point, I almost had a minor heart attack, because I realized — we found Link.

«Jimmy, are you okay?» Clyde asked.

Yes, I was okay. Moreover, I was sure I knew a way back into our dimension. I turned to the guys and asked them:

«Guys, do you know, what is The Legend of Zelda?»

Everyone was silent and only Cartman answered:

«Oh, oh, oh! I know these games! I played Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword on my Wii.»

«Great, Eric!» I said. «So, why did I ask you that question? Now, what I’m about to tell you may sound a bit freaky to you, but judging from this place and this fellow lying in this stone bathroom, we find ourselves in the world of the last game of the series, Breath of the Wild, which I played on my brand new Nintendo Switch.»

«Wait, wait, wait!» Cartman interrupted me. «How long have I been sleeping? Nintendo has released a new console?!»

«Yes, but that’s not what’s important now.» I went on. «In the game’s plot, Link wakes up here after a hundred years of sleep, because back in the day he failed…»

«Don't spoil me! Please, no spoilers!» Cartman yelled.

«Eric, I'm actually going to suggest we follow the plot of the game so we can get home.» I said. «You’ll know the story before you get to the video game anyway.»

«So, what exactly do we do?» Tweek asked.

«First, we need to wait until Link, I mean this fella, wakes up.» I said. «And then he can help us find our way out.»

We sat there waiting. Five, ten, twenty minutes had passed, but he was still not getting up. Everyone was getting bored and I was still sitting there waiting. Finally, Craig couldn’t take it:

«Jim, are you sure we’re here at the exact moment when your Link is supposed to wake up?»

«Do you have any doubts?» I asked with suspicions.

«Of course I do because I’ve watched a lot of science shows about space and quantum physics. It was said that such wormholes are completely unpredictable, and can carry not only to another dimension, but also to another time.»

«You mean we can sit here even for fifty years until he wakes up?» Tweek panicked.

«I'm not going to wait for so long!» Kyle exclaimed.

He walked up to Link, took him by the shoulders and started shaking.

«Dude, Wake up! We need you!!!» he screamed hysterically.

Kyle stopped holding Link, he fell down, hitting his head, and came round finally. After seeing dozen oddly dressed boys, Link wanted to scream, but he just wheezed (of course, because he hadn`t spoken for a hundred years). We looked at him like he was our biggest hero, while he looked at us like he lived his whole life in the woods and didn’t see people.

«Guten Morgen.» I said. «We’ve been waiting for ya.»

In response, Link just started mooing and wheezing, trying to say a word.

«Are you sure this guy will help us with anything?» Token asked me.

«Sure.» I said. «All you need to do is give him time to adjust.»

«Wh-h-sh-hat I... You a-a-re dho-o-oing here?» Link asked.

«Congratulations!» I said, shaking his hand and winking to the others. «You just woke up from a hundred years of sleep, and we came from another dimension to help you adapt to a new world for you.»

«A h-hundred years? Another dimension? It seems like some kind of joke,» Link said. «I am just dreaming about you all.»

«So that blow to the bottom of the tub didn’t wake you up?» Kyle asked with displeasure.

«We are just wasting our time!» Craig said. «Come on! We can find this goddamn way out by ourselves.»

Of course, I was upset by such a twist because I felt bad for that Link. I thought that he deserves better and should become a hero. But the others were adamant. Getting home is what they were thinking about right now.

--------------------------------------------------

Link kept lying in the tub, trying to realize what happened to him. He just opened his eyes as some kids told him they came from another dimension, and he’s been here for 100 years. But how exactly did it happen? What was he like in that old life? Link was trying to remember something, but it was like nothing in his head, and he couldn’t remember anything except for those first minutes after he woke up. What is this strange place and what is beyond it? Link realized that he could no longer stay here and decided to follow those freaks. His hands trembled and he tried to get to his feet. It took him a lot of work to do that, because after such a long time he couldn't even stand still. Now he had to get out of the tub and find those boys. He lifted his leg, stepped over the edge and was able to touch the ground. However, before he could lift his other leg, Link tripped, fell, but broke nothing, as he had put his hands forward. Barely standing up, he began to walk step by step towards the corridor to find his new acquaintances.

--------------------------------------------------

«Wait! I'm with you!» We heard suddenly.

«You’ve made up your mind!» Kyle said happily then he walked up to Link and let him hold on to his shoulders.

«Let me help him walk.» Kenny said. «Because I’m higher and have four legs.»

Link took Kenny and used him as a walker. We kept looking for a way out, following the same principle - follow the lights. And these same lights piled up in a blue, shining stalactite that had some sort of terminal below it. We came up here, and Clyde then said:

«Guys, look! It’s a tablet charging at the docking station. Holy cow, the tablet in the fantasy world! It even has a camera!»

And then Clyde pressed the camera button and took a really bad selfie, as you know, if we’d taken a picture of ourselves with a Japanese toilet without knowing it.

«Be careful, Clyde!» I said. «It’s an ancient artifact, Sheikah Slate.»

«How do you know about our artifacts being from another dimension?» Link asked.

«Ha-ha-ha! Trust me, buddy, aliens from a distant universe can know a lot.» I responded.

As I took that Sheikah Slate, an arrow appeared on the screen that acted like a compass needle. «It probably points in the direction to the exit.» I thought. Then I gave the slate to Stan, because my hands were holding crutches and we all went in the direction of the arrow. Eventually, we came to a huge stone door, which had to be open with the same Sheikah Slate, as I remember. Stan tried to lean it on something like a scanner that was nearby. The door opened on its own, and the bright sunlight almost blinded us. As soon as our eyes got used to daylight, we saw in front of us an incredible landscape. Link was the first to exit the cave, and suddenly we heard someone’s voice:

«Finally. We were starting to think you’d never wake up.»

We followed Link out and saw that there was an old man with a staff sitting near the entrance whose face was covered with a hood. Seeing us, he was as surprised as we were.

«K-kids?! They weren't in our plans.»

«You won’t believe this, but they’re saying they came from another dimension and trying to help me.» Link said.

Those words confused the old man even more, but I tried to explain him everything:

«Believe us, sir, it would be dangerous for him to go alone, and together we would make a great team. We have an archer, a swordsman, a wizard, a paladin and a guy who always knows what to do.»

«It’s true. This boy even explained to me what this thing is.» Link said, pointing on Sheikah Slate.

The old man pondered a little, stroked his beard, then said:

«Well, let’s just say that you were sent by the Almighty to help this guy finally stop the chaos that is now unfolding throughout Hyrule. If we lose again, nothing can save us.»

«We are glad to oblige.» I said, and stretched out my hand to him.

Then I noticed that I did not feel this old man, my hand passed through him. «Was the ghost talking to us?» I thought, then looked up and recognized king Rhoam in this man. He looked at me and smiled, then he looked up at the others and said:

«Well, the only thing I can do is wish you luck. Let your own adventure begin!»

After that Rhoam went away, gradually disappearing. We gave him a look, and Butters even waved at him, then asked Link:

«So, are YOU ready for this adventure?»

«Probably yes.» Link responded. «But I’m not going in there naked, am I?»

We noticed that Clyde had found a chest of Link’s old clothes at the entrance of the cave: yellowish robes, brown pants and boots. There was also a folded paraglider, which was given at the beginning of the game. Link put all this on, I took the paraglider, and we set off.

«Jim, don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that the wormhole took us exactly to the beginning of the game?» Craig asked me.

«Let’s assume that the old man was right, and we were brought there specifically so that we could help this unfortunate world.» I said in response.

I've been wanting to remake the first chapter for a very long time, but doing it in comic form would mean at least another 2-3 months of work, and I need to move on and draw the third chapter. That's why I did everything in WattPad fanfic format: text that is interrupted by illustrations so that reading is not boring.

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[datoneboardedguy]

Avatar: Legend of Korra Fanfiction - Korra x OC Male Reader.

(DISCLAIMER’S: I DON’T OWN THE LEGEND OF KORRA IP OR IT’S CHARACTERS! & THIS IS A NON CANON FANFICTION THAT ISN’T CONSTRAINED BY THE LIMITATIONS OF THE OFFICIAL AVATAR LOK CANON & ANY ATTEMPT’S TO SILENCE THIS FANFIC IS A BLATANT VIOLATION OF MY FREE SPEECH RIGHT’S!)

Chapter 9: The Angelic, The Demonic & The Phantom..

Part’s 2/2

M/R’S POV:

It’s been nearly 3 Months since I’ve unlocked my new Airbending abilities but I’m still keeping it to myself, since I accidentally sent two men seemingly to their deaths by unknowingly tossing them high up into the sky never to be seen again I don’t want anything to do with Airbending, all it’s done is make things worse & gets people like those guards from earlier hurt which thankfully seems to have gone completely unnoticed. Due to recent world events regarding a crazy power hungry earthbending war lord lady going on a rampage throughout the entire Earth Kingdom which was thankfully stopped by the Avatar.

I’m currently working on cooking an order in the shop while Nox’s going on his usual supply runs who usually should be back by now, as I finished & served the order to the customer I hear Nox shouting outside the shop & rushed outside to see what’s going on & find Nox on the ground surrounded by men in black hooded cloaks just kicking him laughing & demanding “You should have paid the tax on time.” “Yeah you very well know what happens if you don’t pay the bill!” This starts to bring up bad memories of myself being tortured in prison & a well of anger starts brewing up within me & as I approach to confront them I shout “HEY YOU COWARDS!” They all looked at me & dismissively say “Get lost worm, this doesn’t concern you!” “Yeah move along Runt!” That last insult triggered something in me & Nox see’s the visible anger on my face & says “Don’t ya dew it kid!” In a last ditch effort to try to calm me down before I escalate the situation too far, I then took a step back & tried to calm myself down but those efforts were soon proven to be in vain the second one of thug’s provocatively insulting says “Go now & run home little Runt!” Nox sighs then says “Oh, Dang Spirits.” I then start marching forward towards them which to worry about what’s about to happen & shouts “Nooo!..” “This kid have a death wish or something?”- I then thrusted my fist forward to punch the Thug & to his, Nox & everyone else’s surprise who’s watching on in the street successfully sending the smart ass flying into the group of cowardly thug’s behind him knocking them all over I then helped Nox up to his feet & tell him “Sir are you alright?!” “Yeah, I think so. Kid what just happened, what you did.” “I know, it’s pretty new to me too Nox.” “You’re an Airbender, kid this is huge.” then we notice the thug’s are starting to come to so we immediately backed away from them as they got back up “You’re an Airbender?! No matter, you’re still can’t take us all on! GET HIM!” & they all started bending Fire, Lightning, Earth, Water & Metal projectiles at me. I managed to dodge the Earth & Water Projectiles & just barely narrowly dodged the lightning bolts & air blasted a couple of the thugs in the face & the other right in the Cabbage’s but then I got nailed in the face by a shard of metal staggering me back a few feet & blasted in the chest sending me right into the nearest wall with a fireball then dropped onto the floor “ugh, ow!..” as I get back onto my feet they’re encased in Earth & I started getting water whipped in the back *WHIP* “AARGH!” *WHIP* “AAAAARGH!” *WHIP* “AAAAARGHAAAHAAHAARRGH!” ( “PLEASE S-STOP!” “Heheh! I’m sorry but there’s no mercy for the weak.” *WHIP* AAARGH!) then as they go for another whip I then turn & catch it, broke from my earth constraints & air blasted all them out of town as I frustratingly shouted “..PISS OFF!”

Then when the dust cleared Nox & the rest of the town residents had started to panic about what I had just happened, then Nox worryingly asks “Kid, Did ya know what ya’ve just done?” “..Yeah, I just stopped you from getting hurt & mugged by those hooded jerkholes?..” “Ya just picked a fight with de Red Lotus & drove ‘em out of town!” “Well.. Isn’t that a good thing?..” “NOT WHEN DEY CAN SEND IN REINFORCEMENTS TO DESTROY DE NTIRE TOWN & KILL EVERYONE IN IT TO SET AN XAMPLE & I ASSURE YA DAT DEY WILL BE BACK!” “..O-Oh!.” Then civilians started screaming “We’re all going to die, there’s no hope, by spirits this can’t be happening!” & other various pessimistic things, as the distressed crowd started turning on me with anger & hatred I see Nox looking at me with worry (then I see Farther’s face) & “sighs I gotta do something.” I then stepped up onto a pile of crates as the crowds started getting violent & shouted “HEY HEY ..ENOUGH! PULL YOURSELVES TOGETHER EVERYONE, WE’VE SURVIVED THROUGH WORSE THAN A GANG OF THUGS! WE’VE SURVIVED THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR WITH THE FIRE NATION, WE’VE SURVIVED THE SIEGE OF DARK SPIRITS, WE’VE SURVIVED KUVIRA’S EARTH KINGDOM INVASION, WE WILL SURVIVE THIS ATTACK OF THE RED LOTUS! WE’LL SURVIVE BECAUSE WE DON’T GIVE UP, WE JUST GO ON!..” I hear a single person in the crowd say “Well Spirits, I’ll fight for that!” then everybody cheers then Nox shouts out to the crowd “Alright lads, we’ll be expecting company at dawn tomorrow. Now let’s get to turning this town into the most heavily fortified & deadliest town in the entire Earth Kingdom!..” we then get to fortifying our towns boarders, after the first boarder is set up Nox pulls me aside to ask me “Alright kid, what’s your plan?” “Err I don’t have a plan other than just survive..” “umm Kid dat’s not a plan, just a goal.” “What do you want from me? I barely held my own against those thugs, my bending was barely effective against them.” “Look kid don’t despair ya got da makings of greatness in ya. Ya gotta take the helm & chart your course. Stick to it no matter the squalls. & when the time comes ya get de chance to really test de cut of your own sails & show ‘em what ya made of, ..well. I hope ya find someone who can be there by your side, catching catching some of the light coming off ya dat day. ..Ya might not be able to flawlessly blow ya enemies away ‘yet’ but ya still have your old man’s smarts, so use it..” my eyes well up, I wipe them *SNIFF* “Thanks Nox..” “Anytime kid, now go get yourself ready. We don’t have long..” “Ya got it hoss!”

I then went back to my dad’s old apartment & pulled out my farther’s old Metalbending grappling device & got to work on retrofitting it operated completely through Steam, attaching a grappling hook that also doubles as a blade from a common rope dart & replaced the majority of the metal components with pure platinum metal ore’s. I then looked at my current shredded clothing & said to myself out loud “I definitely need to get changed, I can’t have my enemies looking at my three chest hairs.” I then opened my dusty old wardrobe that I haven’t opened since I moved in & surprisingly I see a box with a bow & not from Ikki? “You may not want to be an Airnomad but you’re still an Airbender & every Airbender needs a uniform! Hope it fits, Ikki..” I then open the box to find an Airnomad red & yellow coloured wing-suit, I try it on. It’s a bit tight around the old grappling hook but otherwise it fits perfectly & is very comfortable. I then looked at myself in the mirror to see if the wing suit fits, it fits perfectly & I see it’s very form fitted & flexible. I then took the wing suit off to recolour it with some black & red paint, after a few minutes I finished repainting it to be a black with red lining wing suit while also adding in black hood with red stitching through it & I finally strapped my my new steam powered platinum cabled grappling hook darts.

As I finally finished getting ready I take one last look at my farther’s cactus plant with “Love always sprouts if you let it grow.” Written on it then quickly water it. I then looked at my old family picture, I then took the photo out of the frame & put it in one of my wing suit pockets. I decided to sit down & meditate waiting for these Red Lotus thugs to arrive..

M/R In Meditation dreams:

I see my mother’s dying in my arms as I her killer shadowy silhouette run out of the window, I then hear my father say “Survive!..” I turned to see my father’s death *SNAP!* then the ground erupts from under my feet into a bright beam of light propelling me up into the darkness hitting the brick roof face first then my perception of the room spins upside down & suddenly the roof becomes a brick floor.

I then stand up to realise that I’m now in a black shadowy forest then I hear a thunderous scream from the wall of trees ahead of me as I approach the trees I see cracks of light piercing through. I reach & peered through the trees only to be met with a blinding flash of light & suddenly I see a short haired man in robes attempting to hurt a black haired woman woman in black leather clothes with red accents that’s been taken hostage then my vision goes red & I am charging at him with pure rage & push him back into a spirit & that spirit passes through him & severely deforms him then everything goes white.

M/R’S POV Back in the real world:

It’s now the break of dawn, I am woken up by Nox banging on my apartment door while shouting “KID, ya in there?! It’s almost time!..” “ALRIGHT HOSS JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE TO GET READY!” I then quickly got up went into my bathroom use the toilet, after I finished I went to wash my hands as I was washing them I looked up at the mirror only to essentially be jump scared by the short haired woman with glowing eyes staring right back at me for a brief second causing me to jump & recoiled back & I rapidly blinked then she was gone. I then heard a loud bang from outside & quickly dried my hands then went outside the appartment to meet Nox. “Hey, nice suit kid!” “Thanks, the little Airnomad girl left me this suit. Is it time yet?..” “Yes. It’s time.”

We then make our way to the barricades on the perimeter of town, as we approach the main road barricades start to fail due to the bombardment of large flaming boulders launched from a fleet of Red Lotus trebuchet’s. I asked the residents trying to repair the barricades “What’s the situation?!” “Well, ‘as you know’ the Red Lotus has ambushed us & our distress call to the nearest metal bending police base has been received & they’ve dispatched a small army of Metal Benders to help but they’re not going to be able to get here in time!-“ “OF COURSE I KNEW THAT, WHY IN THE SPIRIT’S ARE YOU TELLING TELLING ME THINGS THAT I ALREADY KNOW?!” “Oh, well uh..-“ “Just tell me something that I don’t know!” “They have the entire town surrounded, their commanders are behind the armies of Red Lotus Soldiers over there!” He says as pointed out to the east-western side of the town boarders towards the mountainside. “Okay, Nox make sure to hold the line while I take the Red Lotus’s commander’s from above!” “Ya got it kid oh & be careful!” “You too hoss!..” we quickly hug each other then I fire both of my steam grapples to two steel flag poles & pull myself back a few feet then I mumble to myself as I slingshotted myself into the air “Welp, here goes nothi-AAAAAANG!….” I’m sent flying high up into the sky.

As I approached the height of my jump pulled out my wing suit & started to soar further than I could ever have imagined, wind blowing in my face, the peacefulness of the air however brief had brought me momentary peace until I flew close enough towards the Red Lotus army to hear one of the soldiers scream “What the?!- SHOOT! ..SHOOT THE FLYING DEMON!” & they drew their bows while some of the other Red Lotus soldiers had started bending projectiles of various elements towards my direction. I then flew left to right, dodging and weaving until I was close enough for my grappling whips are in range when a familiar grunt shouts “OI, IT’S DAT RUNT AGAIN, THE ONE WHO CAN’T AIRBEND FOR SHI!”- I then hook grappled around his waist then pulled him in “-AARRGH!” & air kicked him right in the face sending him flying off straight into the soldiers behind him & stick the landing with a tuk & roll & retort “I may not be an Airbending master but I’m still experienced enough to kick all of your asses with some good old fashioned ‘air to whip’ combat!” I then grapple whipped the guards operating the trebuchet’s, then I airlifted & tipped over the nearest trebuchet smashing into trebuchet next to it destroying them both. I then air punched into one of the trebuchet Fire boulders pushing it towards the enemy encampments nearby rolling through & wrecking trebuchet’s, tents, & flattening Red Lotus soldiers. I then sent more flaming boulders into the steamrolling the Red Lotus armies as I’m making my way towards the Red Lotus commanders location I see Red Lotus fire benders trying to put the fires out as I cause a massive wind storm whirlwind making the flames too much for the fire benders to handle.

Nox’s POV:

I’m doing what I can to help fortify the barricades but it’s doing little good with the spreading wildfires & say “Ugh I feel like boarding deze barricades up at dis point may result in dis being an ever growing exercise in futility!” Then I’m send hurtling backwards through the air by a massive flaming boulder explosion. I then smash through the entrance of my shop landing & smashing into the cash register completely taking the wind out of me. As I start to fade in & out of consciousness I hear the screams of my friends being brutally beaten by the Red Lotus & see a few soldiers murmuring townsfolk without mercy I tried my hardest to get up & help them but my entire body’s too saw from the explosion, all I could do was was whisper out in a raspy voice “N-Nooo-oo…” I then black out.

M/R’S POV:

Then they gave up on trying to extinguish the flames & just went to shooting lightning bolts towards me, I dodged a few & quickly grapple the nearest rock boulder in the way to block the last lightning bolt exploding the rock bolder into small pieces then leg sweeped the Red Lotus soldiers with my grapples & air blasted them into the trebuchet then I triggered the trebuchet’s mechanism sending them flying to their deaths. I then get surrounded by a bunch of Red Lotus guards “Well, now the tables have TURNED!” I say as I air spun in circles creating a mini tornado wiping the floor with the non bending guards then the bending guards swarm me with a flurry of bending attacks, i block & countered with my own air bending attacks & dual grappling blades like I’m dancing around them. Soon enough I defeated the last of the soldiers then I’m hit in back by huge rock boulder sending me down the hill towards the village, I fall straight through the a through a building wall & land right into the kitchen of Nox’s Shop.

Nox’s POV:

I’m woken up by the smashing sounds coming from the kitchen, my head is throbbing, my whole body is saw all over. I then hear a another crashing sound, I suck it up & force myself to get back up to see what’s going on in the kitchen as I approach the open kitchen doorway I tumble back down onto the ground & as I look up I see M/R on the ground as the Red Lotus commander is standing over him as he literally slams the kitchen sink onto his head then frustratingly exclaims as he’s ruthlessly punching M/R’s face “Y-you’ve been *PUNCH!* a thorn  *PUNCH!* in our side *PUNCH!* long enough!” *PUNCH!* he’s now coughing out blood at this point. As the commander keeps on monologuing ”You killed my soldiers, *PUNCH!* you destroyed my organisation, *PUNCH!* you even killed MY BEST AGENT & COMPLETELY DERAILED MY PLANS!” *PUNCH!* M/R’s barely conscience at this point then the next thing he said shook me to my very core “YOU SHOULD’VE JUST LAID DOWN & DIED IN THAT DAMMED PRISON!” *KICK!* M/R’s the escaped prisoner! M/R killed his own Farther?! I don’t believe it! In utter disbelief I mutter out loud “N-Noo kid, what’ve you d-done?!..” the commander hears me & I then realise how much of a mistake that was when look’s over to my location & smirks as he makes his way over to my location.

M/R’s POV:

I’m barely conscience after that beating, then the commander heard someone saying something just behind me smirks at something behind & walks towards what he’s looking at. I force myself to roll over onto my stomach & started to crawl towards the direction that the commander went. As I crawl over the pile building debris I see Nox staring back at me in horror & say “You’re the escaped prisoner? M/R ..you killed your own father?!” (“..Survive!” “..NO!” *SNAP*) “..I would never, i was set up & a Blood Bender killed my father ..right in front of me!” “& you snuffed out the life of my only Blood Bender. & for that!”- the Commander grabs & lifts Nox up by the throat & Earthbend’s a sharp spike around his right arm pulled his arm back to his spike arm through Nox’s torso as he says “You can now watch your mentor get skewered right in front of you!” “Then I start to panic & shout “N-No no nonono no DON’T! Don’t do this!” Then Nox closes his eyes knowing what’s about to happen, my desperate pleads fell on deaf ears as the commander says “..just like your father.” & thrusts his spike arm forward & in a split second decision I quickly shot out my grapple dart towards Commander Rook but at the last possible second he moves Nox in the way of my grapple dart to use him as a human shield & as my grapple dart pierces his heart Commander Rook thrusts his spike arm into his spine & right through the front of his torso & then suddenly I’m overwhelmed with with loss, guilt, anger then everything goes red & I SCREAM “….ARRGGGHH!”- *Rapid Flash’s of the glowing eyed short hair woman screaming* “-ARGH!..” & suddenly I was in the middle of the street with Commander Rook down on the ground & my grapple dart is impaled right through his throat into his brain killing him. I look around only that everybody in the town is dead on ground sliced up like animals & I look at my bloody hands in complete & utter shock.

I heard the sounds of Earth Kingdom Satomobiles & I run, detaching my grapple dart that’s still lodged in Commander Rook’s head leaving it behind. Runner off into the night..

Tenzin’s POV Hours Later:

I’m looking in complete disbelief at horrors I’m seeing & says “My spirits, this is a massacre. Who or what could’ve possibly done something like this?!..” chief Beifong walks up next to me & says “I don’t know, but whatever it is will be brought to justice.” I then see Asami show up in her Satomobile & she walks up to me & asks “What in spirit’s happened here?!”- “Where’s Korra?!” “She’s back in Republic City helping Pema watch your kids, now what happened here!” “We don’t know, we received an S.O.S. distress call from the town marital but by the time we arrived we- *sighs* ..we were already too late..” She looked around at the dead silent street & asked “may I take a look around?” “Of course but I’m coming with you.” She raised an eyebrow as she asks “Why?” I reply with a look of determination “Because I have to know what happened here ..& Korra will kill me if something ever happened to you.” *sigh* “Fine, let’s go.”

Asami’s POV:

We then go into the nearest building & we find ourselves inside of a destroyed food shop. I look on in horror as we find a dead body lying in what remains of the kitchen I see Tenzin inspecting a lonely wall painting of the dead elderly man who we presume to be person who owned this shop standing next to somebody else that couldn’t make out who it was since half of the painting is completely burned off. As he’s looking at it I search the body & find a key ring with several keys on it & a badly folded up invoice containing the address for a couple of apartments in a nearby apartment building say “I found something.” He turns to me & I say with a smirk “Let’s see where these lead us.”

Chef Beifong’s POV:

I find the remains of what used to be a unique uniformed soldier with some kind of dagger lodged right through his chin into his head, i tried & failed to Metalbend it of his head so pulled it out the old fashioned way & inspected it closely to realise that it’s made out of pure platinum & I say to myself while intensely frowning “Hmm, I don’t like this ..one little bit.”

Asami’s POV:

We finished our inspection of the elderly man’s apartment & now we’re approaching the second apartment door as we reach it I unlocked & opened it & as we walked into the apartment I started walking over the bedroom & see a photo of the guy who used to live here he must’ve been the other person in the painting & I come across a Small Cactus plant that’s covered in soot. I decided to take it put into my farther’s shoulder strap bag & I find a note next to where the Cactus plant was sitting & I read it finding out that this guy’s farther was a member of the White Lotus then I inspected the end table next to the bed & find an old tattered Prisoner Uniform that was child sized. As I put two & two together Tenzin walks into the room & asked me “Did you know anything?” He sees the shocked look on my face & asked me with great concern “Asami, what’s wrong?”- “Care to explain THIS?!” I interrupted him as I hold up the child prison uniform in front of him. “It can’t be, that’s ..just not possible!” “What? WHAT’S NOT POSSIBLE?!” Tenzin concerned expression immediately saddened with guilt as he looks down & reluctantly said “The young man who lived here was a prisoner at Temple Prison we originally locked Zaheer In before he became an Airbender. There’s was a Red Lotus Spy who’d infiltrated our ranks & made an attempt to break Zaheer out of his prison but was thwarted at the last minute by one of our own guards only for him to lose his life in the process, by the time we found the Red Lotus Agent responsible for the break in the child had murdered him. Bludgeoning the Red Lotus agents head in with a bolder. He went missing & was presumed dead by Zaheer when he broke out of prison with his newfound Airbending abilities.” “Why did you lock a child up with a known serial killer like Zaheer?!” “We had no choice, he- ..he killed his own mother.” “I- I can’t believe it, we gotta tell Korra.” I say in shock & in complete disbelief of what I just heard as he tells me “Asami, Korra can never know.” “Why?” “This is a White Lotus matter to handle!” “Tenzin, this man is dangerous, wiped out an entire town!” “Which is why the White Lotus will handle it & Korra’s got enough on her plate right now!” “But why? Why are you soo adamant about not getting Korra involved?!” “Because she knows him!” “W-what?” “They were childhood friends & if she get’s involved she’ll try to save him not stop him & he’ll kill her. For Korra’s safety she can’t ever get involved.” “Please Tenzin, me & Korra are now in such a good place after our relationship went public, please don’t make me keep this secret from her!..” “If you truly love Korra ..you will. I’m sorry Asami but Korra can never know.” *sighs* “okay..” I said reluctantly.

M/R’s POV:

I’ve taken refuge inside a small cave nearby where I can sleep for the night to get some much needed rest & regain my strength but before I head off to sleep I looked at my broken grapple & say with a single tear drop stranding down my cheek ”I tried to put my past behind me & make you both proud of me ..but my past always haunts me everywhere I go, unless I haunt them back & I swear to you Mum, Dad, Nox that I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I KILL EVERY LAST MEMBER OF THE RED LOTUS!..”

-End of Prelude Chronicles!..

Next chapter the fun begins!..

[hobimo]

Green on the Horizon chapter 3 preview

hello if u have missed my previous posts here i have finished chap 3 and im getting into chap 4 but im not pleased with them so i have decided to lock them up until may where i will reassess them once they have fermented enough and Developed Flavour and post them both for mermay.

Until then please keep reading to see the first scene of chapter 3 below! I’m pretty happy with it but when u see it next it might be tweaked a bit idk. thanks for your patience :)

The stories have always depicted dragons as benevolent gods. As wise. As merciful.

The sound of water breaking disturbs the crew and Seokjin so much that he flinches before the dragon’s huge tail slams down onto the deck directly in front of him. Seokjin feels the ship lurch and sink further into the water under the dragon’s weight. Easily as tall as him, the scales are so large and green and wet with water he can see his own terrified face reflected in them before they disappear into the huge white tuft of fur at the end, just like a lion’s tail.

Red spines peek out through the fur, long enough to impale Seokjin with one swipe.

When Seokjin dares look up at the beast, its vermillion eyes are narrow and cruel.

Its lips pull back as their gazes meet, vicious. Beyond the torrents of water falling from the dragon’s huge, serpentine body, the deck is completely silent. Seokjin feels cold the more he stares at the creature, frozen still as its red eyes bore into him. It’s so large it blocks out the afternoon sun behind it; an eclipse realised.

To show his sincerity, Seokjin had foregone even his usual rope knife. He is completely defenceless before the dragon, its maw big enough to bite him clean in two. From above them, the dragon growls something awful, so loud and intense it makes Seokjin’s bones tremble under his skin, the very air heavy like water as he grapples for a rope, just to stay on his feet. He can barely breathe through the weight of it, hitting his chest so hard he doesn’t even know if his heart can beat under the pressure.

Every painting, every sculpture, every story Seokjin has ever heard or seen, pales before the dragon before him. Does not capture the weight it carries, the sound of it, the predator’s gaze. For the rest of his life, all legends will be ruined for him, no tales of dragon mercy will ring true. This is a beast that wants Seokjin dead, and it is happy to wait for his sweat to wash away the stink of snake wine before it strikes.

One day when he dies, this dragon will peer down and watch which realm his soul goes to next with those same crimson eyes.

From the corner of his eye, Seokjin sees Jimin duck behind the main mast, tip-toeing to the bow of the ship.

Right. They had a plan. And Seokjin has to do his part.

The dragon pries one talon out of the wood, splinters flying, and then lowers it down one step further, the maw of razor-sharp teeth inching closer. Its neck is so long that even with its talons halfway down the mast, it can curl up like a cobra, looming over them. Just its neck alone must be the same length as the mast itself, thicker than it where it meets its chest, before thinning again, the rest of its snake body writhing as it adjusts its posture on the wooden beam.

“Dragon King!” Seokjin shouts, barely audible through the dragon’s growling. His voice sounds scratchy and raw, not clear like it should be, but he doesn’t dare stutter, not here. He will force the words out with his whole body if need be. The dragon’s growl intensifies in response, eyebrows twitching and furrowing, clearly displeased. It lowers its head inches further, the feathery edges of its whiskers almost touching the deck.

The killing intent is almost enough to make Seokjin’s legs give out, but he grips the rope until his knuckles turn white and clears his throat. He can’t give up now, not after everything he’s done. Not when they’re finally getting close to making the impossible a reality.

“I will not talk more than necessary,” Seokjin grits out, and the dragon’s red-scaled lips pull back further, all of its white teeth on show. “I want to borrow the power of your yeouiju.”

There’s a hitch in the growling, the dragon clearly surprised, and it opens its mouth. From between its fangs, it extends its tongue, pink and slick like a dog’s, suspending the pearl before him like a taunt. The jewel is huge, so large Seokjin would need both hands just to hold it, pearlescent and so full of magic Seokjin can feel it, like he has never felt magic before. A tangible presence, power so concentrated it could corrupt anyone with a touch. Seokjin’s hands itch to reach out and snatch it before the dragon can hide it away again, even though he knows better. The temptation digs under his skin like a parasite, urging him with a ferocity he didn’t know existed—take it. Take the pearl. Kill the dragon.

He drags his eyes away from the stone to the dragon’s red gaze above, and feels like choking on seawater. Those eyes are narrowed and waiting. Baiting him. Luring him right up to its teeth, like an anglerfish.

“Yes. I need its power just for one task,” Seokjin continues, and the dragon’s eyes narrow further, retracting its tongue and the yeouiju back into the safety of its mouth. “There is a ship that sails between the mainland and Tsushima island, manned by the ghosts of those murdered by their crews at sea. I want to revive someone, using your yeouiju.”

The dragon’s eyes widen, its surprise startlingly human, before they narrow even further, growling viciously again. It’s jaw opens an inch, enough to see the way its tongue and lips pull back, worse than any dog or tiger, wood creaking and ship swaying as its weight shifts, preparing to pounce on him.

It won’t. The smell of the wine hasn’t faded yet.

“I only need it for that one thing,” he continues. There is a shadow moving on the main mast, beside the dragon’s curled body, and Seokjin forces himself not to look. “I have no intention of stealing it from you. If you would be willing to lend me the jewel—”

The dragon snaps warningly, lurching out to bite through the air in front of Seokjin, so close the rush of air stings. The snap of its jaws is terrifying, so loud and close Seokjin is scared one of his own bones has snapped. The growl changes and sharpens with a hiss in the back of the beast’s throat, its white beard swaying as it shakes his head, licking its chops.

He misspoke, then.

“I have no intention to use the jewel for anything else,” Seokjin insists, the dragon growling so loud and close he can barely hear the words come out of his mouth. It’s approaching him, enraged even to the point of enduring the smell, it seems. “I swear on my life.”

For a fleeting moment, Seokjin lets his hopes mislead him. He almost thinks the dragon will be as benevolent as the legends claim, that it will be moved by his plea, or that perhaps it will use the jewel in its mouth to divine the truth in his words.

But like all else, the tales pale before the dragon.

The look in its eyes is so furious Seokjin expects it to begin swearing at him, to curse his bloodline for generations—but it does no such thing. Like an animal it climbs one step further down the mast, until the deck is within its reach, its neck coiled up to stay just far away from Seokjin that the wine’s smell doesn’t reach. And then it growls lowly, before jerking its head away from him. The meaning is clear, even to Seokjin: his life is worthless.

And then it begins to rain. The dragon watches him, eyes wide and perfectly still, as the rain begins as nothing but a few timid drops and develops into a downpour within an instant, the harsh sunlight fading and replaced by gloom. The blinding reflection of the sun on its scales is replaced by a buffeting wind that kicks up salt and spray onto the deck, whipping the white mane around the dragon’s head furiously.

“I ate the swallow purposefully to lure you here,” Seokjin bites out, his words lost to the wind but the dragon hears him just fine, roaring at him as wood splintering under one of its talons. Its tail whips away from him, slapping the water so hard spray hits the deck and stings Seokjin’s skin. “It was not my intention to offend you. We had no other option. The yeouiju is our only hope.”

When the dragon opens its mouth and hisses, it’s like staring down the gullet of a crocodile. The force of its breath is enough to sting his skin, and instead of smelling foul, it smells only like the harshest ocean wind.

“The fortune teller foresaw you would help us!” Seokjin snaps, desperation turning to frustration. The dragon recoils violently at this, rearing up so much so that even its front talons leave the wood, suspended only by its body wrapped around the beam. “So tell me, what must I offer for your jewel to be used this once?”

The dragon’s eyes blaze, and when it tenses up a little further, Seokjin knows it is going to pounce on him, ignoring the stench of wine and snapping him up. All of this for nothing. Summoning a god just for it to deny him, to cast him aside.

The shadow on the mast drops from where it had been holding onto the halyard, falling right beside the dragon and grabbing halfway down its green whisker. The dragon shrieks in pain as its head is wrenched down, and Jimin’s feet hit the deck with barely a sound. Seokjin watches with horror as the dragon’s red eye swivels to see who has grabbed it, before it roars and throws its head back.

It’s exactly what Jimin wanted, Seokjin realises. Jimin manages to kick his legs just enough that when the dragon hauls him back up in the air, Jimin swings right under its chin and can hook his heels in the battens of the sail, enough to drag himself right onto the top of the dragon’s head. Jimin’s snarl is so ferocious Seokjin can see the slash of white teeth even from here, as the man grabs one of the dragon’s antlers and uses that strength of his to pull the whisker tight enough that the dragon’s jaw is wound shut.

“Now!” Yoongi shouts, and men on either side of the deck pick up a coil of rope and throw it high, over the dragon’s neck and head. Together, the crew grasp the slick ropes, wet from the downpour, and winch them down. The dragon thrashes and struggles, roaring and hissing in the back of its throat, shaking its head violently to try and dislodge Jimin, who holds firm.

Its weakness is that dragons are benevolent. Seokjin hadn’t understood it, but as the dragon’s eyes frantically search around it for somewhere to flee, Seokjin sees the exact moment it realises it cannot escape without throwing the crew overboard, possibly killing them. That it’s trapped.

With one final heave, the men pull the ropes tight, and the dragon’s head pressed down into the deck. Jimin doesn’t move from the top of its head, wrapping the whisker around his arm like a rope. Its lower body writhes and struggles, trying to pull it free of the rope, but one of them has been secured behind its antlers and can’t move. Its tail slaps the water, swipes the side of the boat, those red spines nailed through the wood, but not even that can save it.

Jimin stands on the captured dragon like a demon, the wind whipping his black hanbok around him, eyes feral. “I told you I could do it,” Jimin says, grinning despite how heavily he’s breathing. All the muscles in his arm jump as he adjusts his grip on the antler, knuckles white. “Go on then, Siren Captain. Make your demands.”

The dragon growls as Seokjin approaches, no less threatening even now that it is restrained. Its snarls as best it can with his jaw wrapped shut, its eye furious and human where it glares back at Seokjin. It throws itself against the bindings, trying to at least hit Seokjin, but Jimin yanks on the whisker so it can’t budge.

“You’re trapped, Your Majesty,” Jimin taunts it, his voice cutting through the ringing in Seokjin’s ears. “Better to give in and listen.”

The dragon growls, struggling again, but its head doesn’t move. Tentatively Seokjin approaches, placing one foot down after the other until he is close enough to speak directly into that red eye.

“Forgive me,” he whispers, low enough that Jimin hopefully will not hear. The dragon’s eye rolls from Seokjin, up to try and see Jimin perched on its head, and finally all the fight leaves it. Its huge eye closes, and the rain stops immediately, the wind abating, the clouds immediately beginning to fade.

“Dragon King,” Seokjin says again, even more daunted by the silence than the lashing rain. His voice comes out far quieter, and the dragon barely blinks open its eye to look at him. “I need the power of your yeouiju for a task. I simply need you to allow us to use your jewel just once. If you can agree to that, we will release you.”

The dragon simply looks at him for what feels like an age, the intensity of its eye never lessening, until it makes a small noise and sighs, eye closing again. Seokjin hopes he is right to interpret it as acceptance. He will have to take the risk, gesturing for the men to release the ropes.

Park Jimin does not.

The air floods with heat, energy so intense and otherworldly that Seokjin stumbles away. Before their eyes the dragon begins to shrink, its tail evaporating where it pierces the side rail of the ship, its twisted torso around the mast disappearing into salt spray. The ship springs out of the water as the dragon’s weight sinking it disappears, and its head shrinks and warps into the shape of a human.

Jimin does not release the dragon even as it becomes a man pressed onto the ground beneath him, Jimin’s hand fisted in his head of white hair.

“Park Jimin,” the dragon-man hisses, hair fading from blinding white to the shiny black of a young man, the last part of his transformation. His hands come up to grab at Jimin’s arms behind him, fingers digging in. “You—”

“Accept the deal,” Jimin snaps, yanking on his hair. The dragon’s answering snarl is as powerful in the air as it has been when he was a hundred times the size he is now. Jimin isn’t fazed, pulling roughly on his hair again as he yells, “accept it!”

“I accept!” The dragon yells, yielding, his eyes finding Seokjin’s where Jimin keeps his face pressed to the deck. “Now release me!”

Jimin drops his hair unceremoniously, picking his feet up and stepping away from the prone man. Yoongi lingers at Seokjin’s side, staring in wonder and horror as the dragon pushes himself up, his free hair spilling over his shoulders, naked and human, betrayed only by the vibrant vermillion of his eyes.

“Fetch him clothes,” Seokjin orders, his voice shrill even to his own ears. When the dragon stands, roughly grabbing at Jimin for support, Seokjin is startled by how tall he is. Perhaps not quite his height—he must be the same height as Seokjin, not even as tall as Namjoon—but rather how small Jimin looks beside him, almost a head shorter, and yet the dragon moves away from him as soon as he’s steady on his feet, as if it pains him to be close.

The dragon king is as striking as a man as he was as a dragon, his face easily belonging in a mural rather than on a live person.

“What shall they call you?” Jimin asks, and Seokjin itches to hit him at the mocking tone he uses. Even at this distance between Seokjin and the dragon, an easy six paces, the air thrums around him with dangerous power.

“You push your luck, Park Jimin,” the dragon snaps. He turns to Seokjin with a grimace, vitriol in his eyes as he inclines his head. “You may call me Taehyung, Kim Seokjin. Siren Captain of the Southern seas.”

“And crew,” Jimin jabs. When Taehyung snarls at him, his teeth are fanged and sharp.

“And crew,” Taehyung bites out. Jimin grins at him, apparently unbothered by the dragon’s anger.

“I will remain with you until the moment you require the jewel,” Taehyung explains. “I cannot leave it in your care. I will not lift a finger to help or protect you or your crew. You should have made me agree to that while you had the chance. Be warned, Kim Seokjin—everything you barter for in this life, I will personally ensure you are robbed of it in the next.”

The threat from a dragon puts salt in Seokjin’s bones, but he sets his jaw. He was never naïve enough to expect he could pull this off unscathed.

“So be it.”

Jimin snatches the clothes the crew bring out, and throws the outer layer of the hanbok over Taehyung’s shoulders, leaving him to dress himself. Seokjin is almost embarrassed at the shabby clothing they offer the dragon king, averting his eyes. He can see Yoongi keeps watching him, expression unreadable, hand tight around the hilt of his sword to hide how his whole arm shakes.

Namjoon hovers near the poop deck, unsure whether to approach, so Seokjin gives up and waves him over. Namjoon is strong, physically and in spirit, but he lacks the disposition that makes a truly strong fighter—the cruelty. He is too kind, too gentle, and it makes him too scared. No matter how these three years after Jungkook’s death have affected him, Namjoon was never prepared to kill a dragon, if it came down to it. He shuffles behind Seokjin like an anxious puppy, enraptured by the presence of the dragon.

“It’s good we didn’t die,” Namjoon mutters, and the bark of laughter that comes out of Seokjin shocks even himself.

“Yes,” Seokjin agrees, dragging his eyes back to Jimin and the dragon, who has tied the hanbok around his waist. A dragon, on board Seokjin’s stolen vessel. All to use its power to bring Jungkook back to life. He can only hope that the dragon vowing not to protect them means he won’t also harm them, too tired for much else.

Dragon trapping. Another one of Park Jimin’s frightening abilities.

Yoongi’s warning to stay on his good side echoes in Seokjin’s mind. At least for now he finds Seokjin entertaining enough to stay on board, to offer his help. They are almost done.

“Now we only have to find the ship itself,” Seokjin reminds both Yoongi and Namjoon, and it feels like years since he has seen them smile so sincerely. It probably has been.

“We truly did it,” Yoongi mutters. “It feels like a dream. Jungkook will come home.”

[theaceofskulls]

Woops read a few more Warhammer books and want to talk about them

I’ve gone through a few now but the one I really, really want to talk about is Hammers of Sigmar: First Forged by Richard Strachan.

The book follows the titular Hammers of Sigmar Stormcast Eternals (the posterchildren of the armor wearing Einhenjar paladins of the setting) who are struggling with quite a few things:

They’ve got a huge war going on across all the Mortal Realms stretching themselves thin

The stormhost has been suffering under the effects of their constant reforging

A funny demon man unleashed a cloud up in the air that has the hilarious effect of grabbing their souls up when they usually get grabbed by lightning to be reforged after death

They’ve made armor to deal with that but there’s not enough of it to go around

Oh and the Khorne worshipping warlord who was the first boss they beat when they teleported back into the Mortal Realms to free the realm of fire might be coming back. He’s been on the moon, allegedly. Look all the moons are haunted in this setting.

And to top it all off, the mercenary guild that they’re working with to try and deal with that threat is horribly corrupt

The book centers mostly around the interaction with the last two points, though the threat of the Cursed Skies has certainly changed how the previously immortal-but-at-a-price legion looks at the world. Each of the main characters of the book come from a different chamber of the stormhost, each feeling different strains and all of them clearly coming with their own baggage.

From a new recruit who is surrounded by legends who are at their lowest, clad in the older armor, to the scout who wishes to be a legend, to the warrior priest in the tattered remains of his chamber, looking after the relics of all his fallen brothers and sisters, knowing that soon his chamber is about to be retired, all the characters stand out from each other and feel distinct.

But the reason I want to talk about this story is because it’s exactly the book I thought Space Marine books would read like before I learned anything about Warhammer in general.

It’s an action adventure romp full of blood and action (and a lot of gore, I’ll come back to that in a second), with set of good guys going into a big battle against the spikey bad guys and being very tired when they’re not shouting to each other about comradery.

It’s a safe book in that regard. It has just enough stakes and believable danger for the characters in it that it stays interesting but never something that fully sticks in your mind. It’s fantastic if you’re craving Stormcast Eternals content, especially one to showcase just how recent developments in the setting have humbled but not broken them.

I can’t even fully call it a middle of the road book. The characterization is good and it handles multiple viewpoints fantastically.

Sadly, I feel like it probably comes down to the villains of the book. Khorne as bloodthirsty cannibals with a grasp on battle tactics but no real motivations outside of killing and slaughtering and seeing their rulers put on thrones (not nearly as nice of ones as the one their god is one but still better than a chair) is one of those things that always kind of bores me about that particular aspect of chaos. Problem is that this book is clearly a love letter to the start of the whole setting and Khorne and his general Khorgos Khul as the threat to the legendary Vandus Hammerhand (which are the two generals that came in the first starter box) are kind of necessary to complete the circle they’re going for here.

Meanwhile the plotline regarding the freeguild captain whose corruption has caught up to her, as the guild lumbers along to try and get the one battle she needs in order to retire to a cushy life, is a far more interesting story which crosses paths with a witchunter and a suspicious sorcerer, but it doesn’t get enough of a payoff to really pull the book up another notch.

In the end, the most interesting detail ends up surrounding Actinus, the warpriest who refuses to give any personal details about himself to others. I feel like that’s the character I’m going to remember the most as you barely manage as the reader to pry any of his secrets loose and the few you get are actually memorable.

I said I’d talk about the gore and yeah I do feel like this is worth mentioning as well, as this book really does exemplify it. There’s a feeling like the level of detail is almost out of place, which makes it rather shocking at points. Yes this is a book with the minions of the Blood God taking center stage but it’s always funny to me that Black Library books tend to be devoid of any character cursing and any expression of romance more than a quick peck or a hug, but what feels like a lighter action adventure novel will gladly describe in great detail gorn.

Like I said, it’s what I expected Space Marine books to feel like, especially when I heard the phrase “bolter porn”

In the end, this book is something I’d only recommend to people already into the Age of Sigmar setting and I’d only recommend it after you’ve read a few of the other must-reads first, unless you’re really into Stormcasts or are just wanting an easy good vs evil romp.

It’s nowhere near as disturbing as Gloomspite (which I need to talk about) but you probably want to go in with the content warning at least.

Anyways, I’ll be talking about a few more soon.

[44gamez]

5 games to play first on your new PS5

Congratulations: You bought your arms on a PlayStation 5! Almost three years after launch, the PS5’s world scarcity is a factor of the previous and the console is promoting higher than ever. Now that you just’ve lastly gotten Sony’s newest gaming console, there’s only one easy query: What do you play on it first? Don’t sweat it. We’ve received the solutions. The PlayStation 5 has amassed a sizeable library of thrilling video games to play because it first launched again in 2020, from spectacular first-party exclusives to terrific third-party releases. Right here at Polygon, we’ve put collectively our prime picks for which video games new PS5 homeowners ought to play first with the intention to get essentially the most out of their new console. There’s a ton extra video games to select from than simply what’s on this listing, as our exhaustive listing of one of the best video games on PlayStation 5 can attest. These are our suggestions of the place you must begin earlier than gaming to your coronary heart’s content material.

Picture: PlayStation/Twitch Everybody with these two traits loves Astro’s Playroom. First, they've a duplicate of Astro’s Playroom and second, they’ve performed that duplicate of Astro’s Playroom. Usually there wouldn’t be a lot distance between these two traits; nevertheless, Astro’s Playroom comes bundled with the PlayStation 5 and, because of this, I typically fear it goes unnoticed as a result of Huge AAA Recreation is the precedence. So I’m right here to just be sure you, as somebody with refined tastes, don't make that mistake. Fireplace up Astro’s Playroom and be rewarded with a captivating, three-ish hour journey that's equal components PlayStation 5 tutorial and PlayStation historical past tour with simply sufficient exact platforming that you could be end up going again to scrub issues up for … make that 4, no 5 hours. And when it’s sadly throughout, you possibly can queue up the soundtrack on repeat (shout out to “I’m Your GPU”) and start the lengthy, painful strategy of awaiting its successor. —Christopher Grant

Picture: CD Projekt Pink CD Projekt Pink’s open-world first-person role-playing recreation set within the dystopian world of Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk tabletop universe has been on a wild journey over the previous three years. A notoriously buggy and damaged preliminary launch in 2020 turned to vital reappraisal following the sport’s 1.5 patch and the effusive reception to the sport’s first (and solely) enlargement. Cyberpunk 2077 has undergone one of the dramatic redemption arcs seen of any recreation of the previous couple years. In spite of everything that’s been stated and performed, you seemingly have solely two questions: Is Cyberpunk 2077 price enjoying? Is the sport lastly ‘fastened’? The reply to each questions is sure, and there’s by no means been a greater time than now to play it. Cyberpunk 2077: Final Version comes full with the unique 60-hour base recreation along with this 12 months’s Phantom Liberty enlargement, in addition to all the following fixes, updates, and free content material added to the sport post-launch. Tear by means of the darkish way forward for Night time Metropolis’s streets and make your title as a legend among the many metropolis’s mercs. —Toussaint Egan

Picture: Sq. Enix The PlayStation 5 glow-up model of Remaining Fantasy 7 Remake consists of not solely the award-winning authentic recreation but additionally the PS5-exclusive DLC starring Yuffie, a hyperactive teen lady activist with far more emotional vitality than the moody Cloud Strife. However in the event you’re a brand new PS5 proprietor who didn’t play FF7 Remake on the PS4, Intergrade is much more of vital. Regardless of having the phrase “remake” within the title, FF7 Remake is rather more than that, because it’s a complete reimagining of the unique 1997 RPG’s story. —Maddy Myers

Picture: SIE San Diego Studio/Sony Interactive Leisure When you’re a baseball fan who owns a PS5 (or an Xbox Sequence X, or a Nintendo Change), I've to think about that you just’ve already tried Sony’s perennially terrific MLB The Present collection. However I’d strongly advocate 2023’s version no matter your emotions concerning the sport, because of its terrific new mode Storylines, which lets gamers study and relive the historical past of Negro League baseball. The mode tells the tales of Negro League legends like Satchel Paige by means of sequences the place you play as them in period-accurate uniforms and ballparks. These segments are accompanied by instructional movies narrated by the charismatic Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick, which offer extra colour about these athletes’ careers and lives — with out shying away from the terrible actuality of life underneath segregation. Main League Baseball is enterprise a long-overdue effort to acknowledge and grapple with this shameful history, and doing it in a online game makes MLB The Present 23 a very particular work. —Samit Sarkar

Picture: Housemarque/Sony Interactive Leisure by way of Polygon Returnal is without doubt one of the must-play video games on PS5 just because there’s nothing else prefer it on the platform. There’s nothing else prefer it wherever, frankly. Most bullet-hell video games provide the advantage of a fowl’s-eye view — far sufficient away you can weave by means of the deluge of projectiles from a eliminated distance, hopefully safely. Returnal, in the meantime, throws you proper within the thick of it. The “thick of it,” on this case, is an exoplanet whose biomes appear to be playable heavy metallic album cowl artwork. Just about in all places you go, some jerk alien is lobbing a ceaseless torrent of vitality globules towards you. With out fail, everytime you assume you’ve dodged all the things and eradicated your aggressors, you'll die, after which you'll die once more, after which once more (and once more). Finally, by means of grit and perseverance (and presumably a substitute DualSense controller or two), you gained’t die. And the following feeling of victory? It’s certainly one of a sort. —Ari No Read the full article

[arjaandsimoni]

The Howling House

“Just sort it out Fullmoon! I’m paying you enough!”

The older man shouted across the desk, wearing a three piece suit and sweating uncomfortably in the balmy southern heat.

Alabama wasn’t a major tourist destination, but sometimes the rich and powerful liked it as a vacation home, if only so they could sneer at everyone in the state who wasn’t rich and powerful like they were. Also there was apparently some good golfing.

“Just saying, we would need to know as much as we can about the situation beforehand.” replied Nelen, sitting in a leather armchair across the desk from him. This client was getting on his nerves, but he’d always had issues with guys like him. They reminded him too much about why he had what he did on his hands.

Dawn just sat nearby grinning, the feline shapeshifter in her human form at the moment, wearing her usual baggy jeans, sock hat, and shiny reflective sunglasses to hide her less-than-human nature. Her purple teeshirt sported a grinning depiction of Disney’s take on the Cheshire Cat from the animated version of Alice in Wonderland.

The man sighed, “All I know is that rotten old house is sitting right where I want to build my summer home… but every work crew I send in gets chased off. Machinery gets sabotaged, huge claw marks in engine blocks, and now someone has turned up dead.” he huffed, “I want this sorted out before the police get involved! I don’t want a scandal! Find out what the hell is doing this and get RID of it!” he snapped.

Nelen nodded, “Claw marks… any idea what kind of claw marks?” he asked.

“NO!” he shouted, “THAT’S WHAT I’M PAYING YOU TO FIND OUT! NOW GET TO IT!” he retorted, spit flying from his mouth.

Nelen held up his hands, “Alright alright, Dawn and I will go take a look around the site and see what we can figure out.” he nodded, getting to his feet and nodding for his ‘daughter’ to join him.

She hopped to her feet, then with a smirk said “Later, scotch breath.” and followed Nelen out of the office, the man glaring at her. He had a five-year coin from Alcoholics Anonymous framed on his wall.

He rolled his eyes at her, “Jeez Dawn, he’d better not cut our fee.” he muttered under his breath.

“Oh come on, I had to. So any idea what this one could be?” she asked.

“Probably not a ghost at least, I mean claw marks implies something corporeal, but if they’re in an engine block that could be something dangerous. Those things are cut from solid steel normally, they can take a beating.” he nodded. “Its late though, we’ll hit the hotel tonight and head out first thing tomorrow.”

Later, at their Hotel

The hotel was a nice one for once. Not exactly amazing, but one of the better Holiday Inns in the area. Clearly the client wanted this done. There were two empty pizza boxes on the table next to the TV, along with a half empty two liter of Coke and an empty pint of milk. Nelen stretched out on the bed, flipping through urban legend wikis on his tablet as Dawn watched a re-run of the classic William Shatner Star Trek series, her tail swishing behind her.

“Hm… okay, this might be something.” said Nelen, “Dog Boy. Apparently there was this kid in the 1950s who actually lived at a house in the area, real sick bastard too. He’d catch animals and torture them, locked up his parents apparently too. He died of a drug overdose in prison though.” he said.

Dawn hissed at that, “Oh EW. We got a slasher?! Ugh… I hate those guys! They always come after innocent cats first!” she glared, her tail thrashing about angrily.

“Well, not necessarily Dawn. He said claw marks on an engine block, even a grizzly bear would have a hard time doing that. Whatever is there probably isn’t human, or at least not a mundane.” he nodded, “Of course, this is an Urban Legend wiki. It could be something totally different, or the story could be bullshit."

Dawn shrugged, “Eh, we’ll find out tomorrow I guess.” she nodded.

Nelen nodded too, glancing back over that story. “Hm…” he muttered.

An abandoned house in rural Alabama.

The rental car pulled up outside of the house, the two of them climbing out of it. It was a fairly big house, nothing massive but definitely the kind of house that said ‘someone who had some decent money lived in me once.’ What architecture remained suggested it predated the 1950s at least, possibly made in the 1920s or earlier. The left side was busted in, clearly where the demolition work had begun, but the rest was still standing.

The same couldn’t be said for the construction equipment. A bulldozer’s engine was indeed sporting several deep gashes on it, severing a fuel line and leaving a spark plug missing, and a crane’s arm had been completely ripped off as well. Nelen frowned at those, walking up to the house. “Hm…” he sighed, “Well shit, guess we gotta at least check…” he shrugged, flexing his hands, then walking in along with Dawn.

The inside of the house had seen better days. Grime and dust covered most surfaces, the furniture out of date by several decades, at least what wasn’t wrecked. Dawn hissed, her tail floofing, “GUH! What the fuck is that smell?! I… oh.” she paused as they turned a corner and found, well, most of a deer.

It had been torn open, the inside left to rot, its entrails spilling out onto the floor. “That… narrows the field a bit.” said Nelen, looking down at it. In the gloom it was hard to make out, but he could tell that whatever had pulled it apart had done so with its teeth.

“Nelen… we should probably get going…” she whined, her ears folded back. She had untucked her tail and left her hat and glasses in the car. Nobody was around to see that she wasn’t human anyways.

The mage nodded, “Yeah, I need to check some stuff back at the hotel.” he muttered. He’d brought his messenger bag with him, but he had a feeling that this would require some serious prep work.

As they left, Dawn’s nose twitched again, the feline girl whining softly in the back of her throat…

Back at the Hotel

When they got back to the hotel however they found the concierge waiting outside their room, with the police.

“THERE you are!” he shouted, “Officer! Arrest this vandal!” he snapped.

Nelen took a step back, “Woah woah! Hang on! We just got back, whats this all about?” he asked.

“Whats this all about… your room is completely destroyed! You had better believe I’ll be pressing charges for this Mr. Ferguson!” he shouted, and Nelen immediately glanced at the cop. He’d signed in under a false name. This could be getting messy…

“Hey! If someone trashed the place it wasn’t me. Me and my kid were out driving around today, c’mon whats this all about?” he asked.

“See for yourself!” frowned the concierge, standing back and jerking a thumb towards the room. Nelen walked to the door and winced.

The mattress on the bed had been torn to pieces, the TV taken apart as if by a hammer, and scratched into the wall above the bed were the words ‘Go Away!’

“Okay, look. I know this looks bad, but this wasn’t me. Check the security cameras! You’ll see me and my kid leaving hours ago!” he insisted.

The cop however was far more composed than the hotel worker. “Afraid Mr. Ferguson is right sir. What we could see on the cameras clearly showed he left the premises.” he nodded, “That being said, about two hours ago the camera on this floor wound up in the same state as your room, so we can’t prove whether or not you came back…” he added as the concierge grinned in a smug way.

“Someone is going to pay to have this room rebuilt sir, and the room is in YOUR name.” he nodded.

Nelen glanced between them, then sighed… “Fine fine, I guess if I gotta then I go- DAWN!” he shouted, ducking as the girl scrambled up his back, whipped off her glasses, and there was a sudden bright flash from her eyes.

The cop and the concierge dropped to the floor like puppets with their strings cut, the cop gasping and frantically pawing at his shirt as the concierge whimpered and covered his mouth, his eyes rolling in their sockets.

“Spiders and scorpions, we got a minute tops.” she nodded. “Poof to the car and initiate Plan fifty three?”

“Got it in one Dawn.” he replied.

Plan fifty three: RUN LIKE HELL!

A minute later a rental car was burning rubber out of the parking lot, Nelen speeding off down the road and sighing. “Dammit, I liked that place too.” he frowned. He was glad he’d at least kept their luggage in the car this time.

“Yeaaaaaaah, pity. Ah well, back to the ‘bedbugs, whats that, never heard of ‘em’ hotels for us.” she shrugged.

Nelen sighed and nodded, grateful that his partner could pull that trick off.

Dawn was a mixed breed, half tortoiseshell cat, half Cheshire cat… as in the Cheshire cat of Wonderland, and besides the teleportation and invisibility the grinning feline was known for she also had another trick that hadn’t made it into the works of Lewis Carrol.

They called it her ‘Wonderland Eyes.’ Dawn carried a little piece of Wonderland inside her and by making eye contact she could show it to anyone, inflicting them with hallucinations and insanity temporarily. There’s only so much the human mind can cope with. Still that meant that they would have a cop who after the spiders went away would have had every reason to believe he was fleeing the scene of a crime.

“Well, at least we know something. Whatever did this is able to pass among humanity.” he nodded.

“Oh?” she asked.

“Those claw marks on the walls were the same kind on that engine block. I think whatever lives in that house saw us there today and figured out where we were staying somehow…” he sighed, “Fucking hells I bet I know what it is too.” he nodded.

Then he told her.

Dawn winced, “Yeaaaaah, had a hunch. I mean I smelled something like that back there, but I was hoping it was just the mundane kind.” she frowned.

He sighed, “Well, at least I can say I’m doing the family business this time.” he smirked ruefully, “Either way, we gotta get back to that house, preferably before dark.” he nodded.

Soon, back at the half-ruined house.

From the gloom of the house came a snarling snapping sound, an elderly looking hobo of a man hunched over what was once a wild raccoon. His face and hair were matted with blood, his clothes clearly second hand. “Fuckers better go after that…” he snarled, then paused, sniffing at the air as he heard something nearby.

“Yanno, I really liked that room.” came a voice from the shadows of the ruined house.

The man snarled, baring his teeth. “MY LAIR! GET OUT! MINE!” he barked.

“If they make me pay for it, I’m going to be pissed.” he said, the voice echoing oddly.

The man glared around him, sniffing, but the scent was… gone? He couldn’t smell anything of him, even soap. “Who’re you?” he grunted.

“Sorry that rich asshole wants your house. He must’ve believed the story about you dying of an overdose in prison, but a bit of heroin won’t stop one of you for long will it?” came Nelen’s voice. “Your parents had no idea did they? Must’ve been a recessive gene somewhere. First change came and you had nobody to tell you what was going on or show you how to cope with it.”

The man snarled, his eyes flashing dangerously in the darkness of the wrecked house. “Monster! They called me a monster! Their fucking son! I had to… I had hunt! I had to chase and bite and tear and eat!” he snarled.

“Pity... You’d think one of the local packs would have found you, but I guess they might not have realized what was up until after you got arrested.” came Nelen’s voice again. “Too late now. Wrong guy noticed you. He wants a neat summer home in Arkansas, but I think a rich businessman like that would find the idea of capturing you to sell you off to the Cheiron Group to be way too good a payout to pass up.”

The hobo snarled again, and as he did his body seemed to get bigger.

“Its not your fault, I’m still willing to help you escape. Plenty of wilder areas around here where some of your kind still live out in the open, though a half-feral like you would be a really hard sell…” his voice came again.

The hobo glared, baring fangs from a now long furry muzzle, his clothing tearing free from his body. He barely noticed it, his clawed feet pawing at the floor as he straightened up to a full ten feet in height.

“… but we gotta do something. You did good staying hidden for a long time, but we can’t have a lone werewolf running wild.” came Nelen’s voice.

The werewolf roared in fury, breathing in deeply, his ears twitching and flicking around.

“Don’t bother, I’m using a scent charm and a cantrip to throw my voice. I could be standing right behind you, I could be outside the damn house.” came Nelen’s voice again, “Ever hear of Clan Fullmoon? We specialize in werewolves. We were formed to deal with the old cannibal packs of Ireland. I’m not some jackass with a gun and a hat that says ‘bounty hunter’ old man, I know what I’m doing.”

The werewolf ignored him and lunged, smashing through a half-rotted kitchen table, scattering the wood! His head snapping up as he sniffed around again, trying to find some trace of a smell.

“Yeah, see, this is how I can tell. Any werewolf in a pack knows how to balance man and beast, but you? You’re all beast now. You never learned how. Your soul is so far outta whack you can’t even understand what I’m saying anymore can you?” asked Nelen.

The werewolf lunged again, crashing through a wall!

“Yep, thought so. Well fine then.” he said, and from outside the house came a faint whistling sound. “Here boy! Here puppy! Over here! C’mon boy!”

A moment later the front door and most of the wall around it came down as the werewolf charged through it, seeing a man shaped figure on the ground. “Oooo! Almost! C’mon boy! You can do it! Fetch the stick boy!”

The werewolf roared in fury, rushing towards the prone figure, then tackling it and digging his teeth in.

A moment later there was a crash of thunder and the werewolf went rigid as a bolt of lightning arced down from the sky and slammed into him, sending him flying with a loud yelp!

“Goooood boy. Sit. Stay.” came Nelen’s voice as he walked into view with a stick that had several runes carved onto it, lowering the hand he was using to direct the soundwaves, a strange wooden charm dangling from a string around his wrist.

The werewolf lay unconscious next to the smoldering remains of the scarecrow Nelen had swiped from a local farm, the sack cloth man set ablaze by the lightning bolt. Laying on the ground nearby was a copper coin inscribed with the symbol of Thor’s hammer. Not an Irish trick, but hell, shock collars worked on mundane dogs. For a werewolf you just had to scale up appropriately.

“So now what? We stick a silver knife through his heart?” asked Dawn as she appeared next to him.

Nelen looked down at the stunned lycanthrope, then sighed, “… his own fucking parents called him a monster Dawn, you heard him.”

Dawn rolled her eyes, “You’re not seriously considering…” she frowned.

“Yeah, I made a call while you were in the bathroom at the library. C’mon, get the back door open.” he said, taking out a charm that looked like a crescent moon. “I’ll make sure Fido stays asleep.” he said, tying it around the stunned werewolf’s wrist.

The wilds of Alabama, some time later.

The werewolf’s eyes flew open. It was nighttime now, the moon high in the sky, and he was far from his lair.

He snarled, looking around. This area smelled different, very different, where was he?! Where did that human take him?! Where…

And then a howl went up in the distance, his ears going up.

He could understand that howl… it had no words, but somehow… he just knew.

‘We are like you, we understand, come to us brother.’

The werewolf gazed out across the wilderness. He’d ached to hear such a thing for years and years… more than he could count. He threw his head back and howled in response, then tore off into the woods towards the source of the sound. He was an old wolf, it had taken years, but the one thing that a werewolf couldn’t exist properly without was their pack.

Nelen sat nearby on the hood of the car, then opened his phone and called a specific number, “Yeah. Hey yeah its me. House is all clear now. Your men can get back to work tomorrow. Just wire the money to…” he paused, then pinched the bridge of his nose, “Yeah look, that wasn’t my fault. The mark found out where we were staying and came after me okay? The hotel is insured right?” he asked, then sighed, “Alright alright fine… whatever.” he sighed, then disconnected the call.

Dawn looked over at him, laying on her back as she gazed up at the stars. They were far enough from the cities that they could see them properly. “Hotel wants him to pay for the room?” she asked.

He sighed, “To be fair Dawn, he did make the reservation so it’s his card on file.” he replied.

Dawn rolled her eyes, “Sheesh, so we’re doing this pro-bono?” she asked.

Nelen smirked, “No, because I already know you emptied his wallet before we left the office that day.”

Dawn grinned at him, “Whaaaaaaaat? I thought the rule was client always pays up front, even if they don’t know they are.” she replied.

Nelen smirked, “So, we definitely can’t go back to that town for a while. Swap the rental’s plates, head down to New Orleans, and invest some of that at the fish market?” he asked.

Dawn grinned as only a Cheshire can grin, “Now THAT sounds like a good idea!” she cackled. In the distance, another howl went up, and you didn’t need to be a wolf (or a wolf-like being) to recognize that the one howling was happy.

Next Story

Previous Story

[moodswingsabz]

Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes: a not-so-local legend in the making

As I sat in the South Stand, watching our new unknown quantity look like he was absolutely killing himself to chase a ball down the channel, I was finding myself asking more questions, rather than finding any answers to the ones that had arrived with Luis Lopes. How would a player without any real senior football adjust to life in the Scottish Premier League? Is a striker or a winger? Why is he called ‘Duk’? And now I found myself wondering if this guy was up to match fitness? Did he have the ability and flare that been stated when he signed? Whenever he reached the ball he looked as if he needed to catch his breath before he could do anything with it. Not long after this I remember being in The Bobbin beer garden, catching the last of summer, when my Celtic-supporting pal told me that he thought Duk was a real player. I was non-committal, I still wasn’t sure either way I told him. Thankfully, the answers the to these questions and a certainty of feeling, for myself and surely all Dons fans, weren’t long in the post. The likability of Duk as a character and the sheer joy of shouting ‘DUUUUUUUK’ whenever he scored, created something, put in a tackle or simply ran close enough to the Red Shed gave him an instant rapport with the Dons support during matches but in the initial stages it did still feel like the jury was very much out on what we were going to see from Duk across the season. He was prone to perhaps overplaying slightly and losing the ball too often and Jim Goodwin was only too happy to remind the media and fans that he wasn’t yet up to match fitness, often accompanied by a random percentile. Then came the goal against Ross County, a sublime touch and finish that lit up an afternoon that would end in frustration for Aberdeen. After this, Duk began starting games and it was in only his second start at Pittodrie, against Hearts, that the all the scraps of talent and desire that had been seen in previous performances came to fruition, with a cool finish through the legs of Craig Gordon followed by an assist, where whilst down injured, he managed to receive the ball, work his way past the Hearts defence and the lay the ball on a plate for Vincente Besuijen. For me it was then that we really knew what kind of player we had on our hands. Last time out I spoke of the affections that can be garnered for a hometown hero but it can be just as enjoyable, even if very different, seeing a player come from the relative unknown and really find their feet for your team. We’ve been lucky enough to see it a few times recently at Aberdeen with the likes of a James Maddison, Danny Ward or Sam Cosgrove (arguing this is probably a tougher sell than it was getting him off to Birmingham) and this season we could be seeing this scenario for two or three in the squad with Bojan Miovski, Leighton Clarkson and of course, Duk. It’s quite a rare phenomenon and no one would argue that we haven’t had to endure our fair share of duds, players who landed with plenty of promise that really never took off, who left Aberdeen with not much more than the knowledge safely secured that you can put pasta in a pie, but when it works, it works. It’s simply a great feeling as a fan to see a player come in from parts unknown and really take to Aberdeen as both a place to develop their football and a city as a whole. Reading what Luis had to say about his time at the club and city this week, how at times it almost felt like he’d been in born in Aberdeen, had me feeling a bit more emotion than I’d usually like to admit on a football blog. There were a very tough few months for Aberdeen post the World Cup break and Duk wasn’t immune to this but with the recent turnaround in performances under Barry Robson, he is back to his blistering best. The back heel at Tannadice felt like the springboard for what is hopefully a huge turnaround in our away form this season and the brilliant early double against Hearts confirmed that with the resurgent Dons, comes a resurgent Duk. Inevitably the conversation has already started about how long we’ll get to enjoy seeing Duk’s moments of magic in an Aberdeen shirt, his brilliant and passionate celebrations after scoring and the general ‘scenes’ he seems to be able to create at Pittodrie. There is already talk of other, more financially fruitful clubs coming knocking and that we should enjoy Luis whilst he’s here. However, as a football fan, it could be said that there is no certainty of enjoyment in the future and quite often the present can be too stressful to be fully enjoyed (other than those magical times where ball hits net) and it’s really the past we look to, to find our satisfaction. Despite everything that has happened this season, Duk has delivered many brilliant moments , some mentioned in this article but also many more. So of course, we’ll need to enjoy him whilst he’s here but no matter what happens next, no matter what happens with the young lad from Benfica B, Duk has given us memories to look back on and enjoy for many years to come.

[skyward-floored]

I said I wasn’t going to write more of the chain mistaking other wolves for Wolfie but. um. here we are.

Legend and Four this time, tw for a big ole forest fire and the circumstances that stem from being caught in one.

————————————————————

“Look out!”

At Four’s hoarse shout Legend immediately dove forward, a huge flaming branch crashing to the ground where he had just been standing.

He barely had time to glance back at it in shock before the smithy dragged him to his feet and they kept running, flames roaring around them.

The nine heroes had thought the blaze was plenty far away for them to outdistance it, but at some point the wind had changed, blowing the forest fire right at them. Legend and Four had somehow been separated from the others by the flames, and were now making their way to where the group had originally been headed, towards a nearby river. Hopefully it wasn’t too dried up by the late summer heat.

Legend wasn’t sure what they’d do if it was.

A tree creaked loudly nearby, and the two heroes dove for a rock that would hopefully provide some cover. Moments later they heard the oak crash to the ground, a wash of hot air and sparks blowing past their shelter. The two covered their eyes as they took the opportunity to try and catch their breath.

“I—“ Legend coughed, his eyes burning with smoke and tears, “have got a bone... to pick with whoever invented forest fires.”

“Would that be Din or Farore?” Four rasped from next to him, sounding exhausted. Having shorter legs was not terribly useful in these sort of fast-paced circumstances.

“What?”

The smithy took a deep wheezing breath. “Well Din is usually associated with fire, but Farore—“ he broke into a coughing fit, and it was a minute or two before he continued. “F-Farore has more jurisdiction... over living things.

Legend stared at him for a minute, wheezing as he tried and failed not to break into a coughing fit himself.

“Let’s just blame them both,” he rasped.

“Sounds... good to me.”

They leaned against the rock together for another few moments, but the heat was getting worse, and Legend knew they couldn’t stay there much longer.

“Keep going?” he croaked, and Four let out a wheezy laugh.

“We don’t exactly have a choice here.”

And they ran out from the rock together, not a moment too soon. Seconds later a tree crashed to the ground, and would’ve either trapped or crushed them if they hadn’t gone when they did.

Small mercies.

As the two continued to run, they occasionally crossed paths with other creatures fleeing the fire, a couple deer, a few birds, and several small woodland critters. The animals were making better time then Four and Legend, especially since the two kept slowing down to try and get air into their smoke-filled lungs, but they were helpful in showing the clearest path to take at least.

Legend watched a fox zip by without barely seeming to feel the heat, and scowled at it.

Four had wrapped his headband over his nose and mouth, and Legend did the same with his hat after a bit, but it made little difference, only making it seem harder to breath than ever. It maybe would’ve worked better if they’d moistened the clothes before putting them over their faces, but they were out of water and didn’t have time to stop anyways.

They couldn’t stop.

Legend heard a crack and yanked Four behind another rock outcropping, the stone narrowly shielding them from the huge tree that fell mere feet away. Sparks flew into the air, and the two watched as a few remaining animals charged past them, running through the gap the tree had made. Legend made to go after them but Four stumbled to a knee next to him, breathing hard.

“Vet... I don’t thi—“ he broke off into a coughing fit, breath wheezing in his chest. He sounded terrible, and Legend felt his stomach twist. “I... I don’t...”

“Smithy no, come on,” Legend croaked, clutching his shoulder and giving it a shake, “we’ve got to be close. Don’t quit on me now.”

Four could only cough in reply, tears streaming down his face from all the smoke in the air.

Another animal came out of the smoke towards them then, but Legend barely spared a glance towards it, occupied as he was with trying to get Four moving again.

He wasn’t even sure where they’d go, as the gap the tree had left was blocked again and he didn’t see any other way out. He was on the verge of considering trying to hold out next to the rock until the fire went past when a soft whine somehow made its way to his ear.

Legend turned, and startled at the animal that was suddenly inches away from his face.

A large grey wolf stared back at him.

It’s fur was so blackened with soot and ash that Legend could barely tell it was supposed to be grey, and it’s eyes reflected the firelight so brightly they looked almost orange, shining with intelligence.

It whined again as Legend stared at it, and took a hesitant step forward.

“Rancher?” he croaked. His eyes were watering from the smoke so much he didn’t know if this was Wolfie or not, but why would a wild wolf come up to them like this? Unless it was just sheltering from the fire like they were?

It whined yet again and pressed its forehead against Legend’s tunic, and he decided that was good enough for him.

“All this smoke h-hurts your nose and eyes I bet huh?” he rasped, and hesitantly patted the wolf’s head. It drew back at the touch, but Wolfie didn’t like being petted so that wasn’t a surprise. “Can you get us out of here?”

The beast stared at him, eyes shining, and turned tail and began to trot away, looking back over its shoulder to make sure the veteran was following.

Legend steadied himself, taking a (not too) deep breath. Then squeezing Four’s shoulder, he lifted him up onto his back, which the smithy would usually have severely protested at but only let out a weak cough at the action. Despite the tremble in his legs and severe ache in his lungs, Legend began to jog after Wolfie, who somehow managed a path through the woods.

Time seemed to blur a bit after that, Legend putting all his energy into simply putting one foot after the other, more and more frequently breaking into coughing fits. He kept his gaze moving between the wolf a few feet ahead and the ground in front of his feet, scanning for dangers from any falling debris or sudden gusts that would fan the flames.

It seemed they’d been going for hours, though it couldn’t have been more then one, and as Legend’s steps grew slower and Four seemed to grow heavier on his back, soon the only thing keeping him going was the sight of the wolf’s tail swishing in front of him.

It was almost mesmerizing, watching it flick back and forth, sparks floating into the air as smoke billowed around them.

Legend abruptly stumbled, and the wolf was immediately at his side, supporting him as they continued to plod along through the roaring flames. Legend kept one hand around Four and the other on Wolfie’s back, continually telling himself to just keep going, just a bit further, they must be nearly there...

And suddenly they were out.

The trees and fire had thinned without Legend even noticing, and as he stumbled out of the woods, a cool breeze swept across his face, one almost entirely free of the reek of smoke.

They’d reached an area the fire had already burned past.

A relieved pant came from next to him, and Legend vaguely registered something lick his hand. The veteran blinked the tears out of his eyes to see the river in front of them, and a blurry figure running in his direction, wearing green clothes of some sort.

Must be one of us, he thought dully, and tried to get himself moving again to go meet whoever it was. But his abused body had had enough, and he found himself pitching forward when his legs refused to hold him up any longer.

Strong arms caught him before he hit the ground, and Legend managed to raise his head to see Twilight staring down at him, bright concern in his eyes.

“Veteran!” he exclaimed, relief heavy in his voice, “thank the gods, we thought you and smithy were goners!”

Legend blinked in confusion as the other heroes quickly joined them.

“H— rancher?” he coughed, letting someone gently take Four from off his back, “wh— what do you mean you’re... worried? How’d you get— what happened to all the soot you... you were coated in?”

Twilight tilted his head in confusion, putting an arm under Legend’s shoulder and supporting him as they walked closer towards the water.

“What? I was by the river with everyone but you and Four, we backtracked and went around the fire. I didn’t get too near it at all.”

Legend stared at him as he coughed again.

“Then— who’s the wolf that led us out?” he croaked.

“A wolf led you out?” questioned Warriors, his eyebrows raised.

Legend turned back to look for the creature and saw it trotting away down the riverbank, following the water downstream away from the fire. It glanced back at them all, orange eyes shining brightly, then continued on its way, until it disappeared around a bend.

“Oh.” Legend said faintly.

Time put a hand to his forehead and rubbed it, looking older than he usually did. “So the only reason you made it out is because a wild animal for some reason guided you?”

“Stranger things have happened to us old man,” Wild said with a smirk.

“Well yeah, but not usually three times in the space of a couple of weeks!” Wind exclaimed. “That’s three times now wolves that aren’t Wolfie have helped us! Does he have friends or something?”

Twilight went to answer but was cut off by Legend’s thick coughs, and instead gently rubbed his back.

“We can worry about that later,” Time said, studying Legend’s face in concern as well as glancing over to where Warriors was holding Four, still unconscious. “Let’s focus on our injured for now.”

Wind frowned and looked like he was going to protest further, but lowered his head and nodded.

They all moved closer down towards the river just in case the fire took a turn, and Twilight helped Legend settle down to the ground, the veteran too exhausted to protest at the assistance. The others gave them some space, knowing how Legend disliked being coddled, and left Twilight to take care of him, knowing he’d do a good job.

“You really thought that wolf was me?” the rancher asked Legend after a moment, and he shrugged, still feeling dazed from the heat and smoke he’d been exposed to.

“It c-came right up to me...” Legend murmured, “and it was... was too smoky to really make out any colors—“

He broke into another coughing fit, and Twilight immediately drew closer and rubbed his back again. Somehow Legend ended up leaning on his shoulder, but he couldn’t find it in himself to bother moving.

“‘S smithy okay?” Legend wheezed after he finished coughing, and Twilight nodded reassuringly.

“He’ll be alright. Captain and ‘rule are taking care of him, they’ll fix him up,” he said gently, and Legend looked with half-lidded eyes over at where the two were fussing over Four.

The smithy still appeared to be unconscious, but Warriors and Hyrule were obviously doing their best to dress up the burns he’d received, and make sure the smoke he’d inhaled wasn’t a life-threatening issue.

“Good,” he croaked, and didn’t even argue when Twilight make him sip his own potion.

The sweet liquid immediately soothed his throat and made the couple of burns he’d received feel better, but also made him realize how truly and utterly exhausted he was.

His body was out of danger, and it wanted him to sleep, and by Nayru was it going to make him get some.

Legend leaned a little heavier on Twilight’s shoulder, and the rancher shifted so he’d be more comfortable, a gesture Legend grumpily ignored. He began carding a slow hand through his hair, brushing out the ashes that had stained his pink locks, and Legend felt himself start to drift.

Right before he let himself sink into sleep, he flicked his gaze down at the river bend where the wolf had gone, distant smoke still drifting in the breeze.

He almost thought he saw a grayish tail tip disappear out of sight.

[ray-ray-writings]

A Dedicated Pig-Technoblade

#3 and 47 from this prompt list! Check out my masterlist here! This is in the DreamSMP Au. I

This is a Technoblade x GN reader! 

So in this AU I am making it so that your cannon lives are shown on your left wrist. And if someone types something in chat or if someone joins the server, it appears as text on your right arm until you dismiss it! If you are confused feel free to ask me any questions!

Part Two! Part Three! Part Four!

Y/N finally meets the one that everyone has been walking on eggshells over.

Y/N’s POV

I will never forget the gasps, murmurs, and then tense silence that followed the notification that everyone received on their right arm. Technoblade had joined the SMP. I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal though. Of course I had heard the stories. The horrors that he had done. The fights he picked and won. The amount of blood that had been shed at his hands had earned him the title of “The Blood God”. But when push comes to shove, he’s just another mortal man.

Everyone was a little freaked out and on edge because of the new addition to the server. I mean, Schlatt had just banished Techno’s family, his two brothers, from the nation that they created and fought for. Everyone knew that family was everything to Techno and if there was one thing Techno would do anything for it was his family. He would literally go to hell and back if it meant that his brothers and his father were safe. 

Finally after a few minutes of everyone holding their breath, I scoffed, rolled my eyes, and went on with my work, cleaning up the election decorations. All eyes turned to me “Y/N” Niki hissed, “Do you not understand what just happened? He could be anywhere” I let out a joyless laugh as I looked at my best friend, “You really think he’s going to come here right away? With nothing on him? With his brothers on the run? You think he’s going to worry about coming here, where it would be a 1 vs…” My eyes scanned the crowd doing a quick mental count, “15 plus? Come on Niki, think with that big brain of yours.” I claimed, a little annoyed, as I took down a banner. 

Niki let out a shaky sigh but nodded and continued helping me. “You’re right,” I chuckled at her response and bumped her shoulder, “You know I always am”. Soon, everyone went back to their own tasks, forgetting the news we all had just received. ‘See Mr. Pig Man Blood God’ I silently thought to myself, ‘You’re not as scary as you may think’. 

*Time skip*

A week and a half had gone by since Technoblade had joined the server and no one had seen him. Like I had predicted, he immediately had searched and met up with his brothers and had stayed clear of the main part of the server. That being said, I should have known that he would rear his pink head at some point…

When I first joined the server, I had made myself a small farm for food. Well of course everyone found out about it and wanted a part of it. So my small farm grew and grew. When Niki built her bakery, she needed a steady supply of well… supplies. Sugar, wheat, eggs, milk, and all that. I had plenty and I was more than happy to give her what she needed in exchange for baked goods. So once a week I would haul boxes of supplies across the SMP from my farm to her bakery. 

Everyone was aware of this and so on these days everyone would stay out of my way. Which is why I was so surprised to slam into someone while carrying a box of eggs to the bakery. 

I let out a huge gasp as the sound of eggs cracking filled my ears as I slammed into someone. The box fell out of my hands as raw egg covered my hands and body. “What the hell!” I cried out, looking up to yell at whoever had just crashed into me. I was momentarily stunned. There in the flesh, right in front of me, stood the Blood God himself, Technoblade. My surprise  didn’t last long as I remembered why I was angry in the first place. 

“What the hell are you doing here? It’s bakery day, sure you didn’t know that, but you should have taken the hint not to be here when you didn’t see anyone walking this part of the Prime path!” I shouted at the pink haired man. Techno’s brown eyes widened as I verbally attacked him. “And now I’m covered in raw egg! This is not pleasant! It’s gross and sticky and cold and I do not enjoy it! You are sooooo lucky I have a change of clothes at the farm and that my chickens laid a lot of extra eggs this week or else you would have had to explain to dear sweet Niki why she wouldn’t be able to open her cute bakery this week.” I hissed out. 

“I’m sorry,” Techno began with a raised eyebrow, “Do you not know who you’re talking to?” He questioned with a deep voice. I let out a loud scoff at the audacity of his question, “Of course I know who you are, Mr. Blood God,” I mocked. “So. You do know who I am and what I am capable of.” I scoffed at his smug words. “I said I did, didn’t I? And frankly I couldn’t care less about you and your reputation. You’re just a guy. A guy that has ruined my day because I now have egg all over me!” I complained, wiping my hands on my pants. 

I reached down and began picking up the box and the eggs and egg shells that had fallen on the ground.“You know, I could kill you with no hesitation?” Techno claimed as he crouched down, moving his face close to mine. “I’ve done it before to many others. They blink and my sword has entered their chest. I’ve probably slaughtered more people than you’ve ever met in your life,” Techno mused, a smug smirk tugging on his lips. 

I looked up from my box with a blank expression on my face, “Am I supposed to be scared of you? Is that supposed to scare me? Make me shake in my boots?” I questioned, my eyebrow raised. Techno’s smirk slowly slipped off his face. He quickly stood up and stared at me in shock, “Didn’t you hear me? I could kill you!” He explained. I rolled my eyes and also stood up. “So could another human. Literally anyone else. So could a fall from a huge height. So could a dedicated chicken. You’re not special.” I stated, turning on my heel and began walking back toward my farm. 

“So you’re really not scared of me?” I heard Techno question as he began to jog to catch up to me. “Haven’t I made that clear? You may have scary stories and legends surrounding you, but when it comes right down to it, you’re a man. Well, part pig, part man, but a man and mortal all the same.” Techno let out a scoff, “Technoblade never dies,” he claimed. “But you could. You have three cannon lives just like the rest of us.” I concluded. 

Techno silently followed me as I moved through the barn, replacing the eggs that had cracked when we collided. After I filled the box once more, I set it down before stepping into the bathroom I had built. “I’ll be right out. Don’t touch anything.” I commanded. Techno gave me a mock salute before looking around the barn once more. I closed the door and quickly cleaned up. I took off my egg covered clothes, washed my hands and body before putting on the clean clothes I kept here. 

I found Techno where I left him. “You ready to go?” I questioned softly. His eyes trailed from my horses back to me as he gently nodded. I made my way back to the boxes before picking the egg box back up. “Is this going to?” Techno asked. I looked over and found him pointing at the last box needing to go to the bakery. “Yeah, but you don’t have to-” I was cut off by Techno picking up the box. “Let’s go” He said walking out the door. I let out a laugh before following him, being sure to close the door behind me. 

The two of us made small talk about anything and everything on our way to the bakery. Techno told me all about Wilbur and Tommy’s constant squabbles and I told him all about everyone’s wariness ever since he joined the server. Techno helped me put everything away, which caused me to be done a lot sooner than I usually get done. The two of us left the bakery and made our way back outside. We began strolling the prime path and subconsciously came to a stop where the two of us met. 

Our conversation died down and the two of us stood there for a moment, just staring at each other. I finally cleared my throat, “Thank you for helping me today. I really appreciate it.” I thanked, running a hand through my hair. Techno mirrored my actions with a shy smile on his face, “No problem. It’s the least I could do.” There was a slight pause before he spoke again, “Hey. Listen. I’m sorry for threatening you earlier. It’s just… Everyone I’ve ever met has been terrified of me and when you weren't… It really threw me for a loop. So… thanks. Thank you for giving me a chance.” I let out a giggle at his vulnerability, “It’s no problem…. Maybe when this is all over and you and your brothers are welcome back into L’Manberg, we could hang out more.” I offered. Techno gave me a soft smile and a gentle nod, “Yeah. I’d like that. A lot.” 

“Techno!” A voice whisper shouted. The two of us jumped at the sudden interruption and turned to look at who had called the pink haired man’s name. It was Wilbur. “There you are! Where have you been?!” He questioned, marching up to the two of us. Techno made a gesture to me. Wilbur’s eyes shifted to me. I gave him a smile and a wave. “Hey Wilbur. It’s great to see you” Wilbur’s eyes softened as he gave me a smile, “Hey Y/N. It’s so good to see you too. We’ve got to go. Techno was supposed to be on a spy mission, but I see he got distracted…” I laughed at his words and nodded. “Something like that,” Techno claimed, rubbing the back of his head a blush. 

“Well it was great to see you Wilbur. Tell Tommy I miss him and that I say to stop trying to decorate with things that aren’t his, yeah?” Wilbur gave me another soft smile and nod, “Will do Y/N. Tell Niki I miss her?” I returned his smile and nod. I then turned to Technoblade and gave him a smile as well, “It was lovely to meet you. I really hope this is over soon so I can show you my weapons collection.” Techno’s eyes lit up and he nodded. “It was amazing to meet you too Y/N. And I would love that. So much.” I giggled at his response and nodded. “I knew you would. Bye guys.” I gave them both one last smile before turning and headed back to my farm. 

As I was leaving I overheard the next part of Techno and Wilbur’s conversation. “So… Y/N huh?” “Shut up.” “Who knows, when this thing is all over maybe you’ll get together and have pink haired, Y/E/C babies… Oh I would be the best uncle and-” “I’ll give you a five second headstart.” “Oh come on Techno-” “Five” “Please” “Four” “Tech-” “Three” “You know it’s-” “Two” “Oh come on” “One” “OH GOD! RUNNING!” 

I let myself look over my shoulder at the two. Sure enough Wilbur was sprinting down the prime path as fast as he could, but Techno was right behind him. “Get over here!” Techno shouted after Wilbur. “NO!” I let myself giggle at the two’s antics. My eyes focused on the two for as long as I could, but soon enough the two were out of my view and my ear shot. Oh I can’t wait until this is all over. 

There you go! I hope you enjoyed! And I hope I did the anon that requested this justice! If you did enjoy, be sure to leave a like! And maybe even a reblog or reply telling me what you liked about it! Until next time!

[hermannsthumb]

I have a fun prompt I've been thinking about I hope you have time for one day! When Newt and Hermann meet actually things go really really well and they even get together. It's just they bicker so much and have huge science-based arguments that everyone assumed they must have hated each other on sight.

sure thing! i had fun with this one

----

"So," Newt says. "I was talking to Tendo today."

Across the mess table, Hermann hums in feigned interest. Newt knows it's feigned 'cause Hermann doesn't stop either thing he's doing: using his left hand to wind noodles around a fork, and using his right hand to scribble away a series of lengthy equations on the back of a paper napkin. His full attention has been hopping between both for about ten minutes now—no room for Newt to slip in there. He's testing his limits enough as it. Half of the last equation ended up scratched into the tabletop, and the last time he lifted his fork to his mouth, it was empty. And then he swallowed anyway. Newt kinda loves the guy.

"Yeah," Newt says, deciding to continue like Hermann responded the way he was actually supposed to respond, which would've been something along the lines of what an utterly fascinating story, Newton, do tell me more. I love hearing you talk, Newton. How marvelously smart you are, Newton, and how melodic and breathtaking your voice is. Now watch me bite down on an empty fork again. "Kinda funny. He was asking how we met."

Hermann finally looks up at Newt suspiciously over the rims of his glasses, which are slipping slowly down his nose. He stills them with the tip of his index finger before they land in his dinner. "Why?"

"I don't know, man," Newt says. "He just was. It was like, small talk, you wouldn't get it. He dropped by the lab when you were out this morning to let me know that there was extra space if we wanted it. Like, lab space." Hermann resumes scratching an equation into the table absently. Newt rolls his eyes. "As in, we could have separate labs if we wanted now."

Hermann knits his eyebrows together. "Separate laboratories?"

When Newt and Hermann first started at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, the k-scientist team was pre-existing and significantly bigger, and anyone who joined on later—like, you know, them—basically got shoved in wherever they fit. For Newt and Hermann, that happened to be Laboratory Space D, Basement Level 1 (the only basement level), along with a former marine biologist who was killed on a research excursion a month later when a kaiju made unexpected landfall, like, right on top of their chosen shelter. Bad luck. Anyway, Newt's known about the existence of other Hong Kong Shatterdome lab spaces in the vague and absent sort of way that you would an urban legend, but (similarly so) he never thought he and Hermann would actually ever lay eyes on one. And then Tendo stopped by to dangle it in front of Newt on a stick.

"The other labs were being used as storage for ages after everyone else—" Newt searches for a word tasteful enough to encapsulate got stomped by a kaiju and wised up and decided to live out what are probably our last few days before the world ends with their families instead of alone in a military bunker. "—left. Anyway, Tendo told me they've been going through shit like crazy this month, I think to see if they can salvage any old tech, and that the other labs are basically totally emptied out now. We just have to ask and they're ours."

Hermann sets down both his pen and fork, twisting his mouth contemplatively. He finally loses the battle against gravity with his glasses, and they miss his plate by an inch, swinging back on their chain and bouncing harmlessly against his chest instead. Newt briefly wonders if getting a chain for his own glasses would save them from their frequent fatal falls into kaiju organ cavities and buckets of non-neutralized kaiju blood, but decides not even the money he'd save on replacement pairs would make a fashion faux pas like that worth it. "You know I don't much fancy the basement," Hermann says.

"Your joints," Newt agrees. The damp of the basement sets Hermann's joint pain off frequently, something Hermann talks about just as frequently. Newt's not really a fan of the basement either, though for different reasons—he would kill to get some windows and natural, non-fluorescent light in there. Sun lamps can only do so much. He's pretty sure he'd fucking glow if he stepped outside right now. Also, it's cold down here.

"And it might be nice to be closer to LOCCENT, in case of an emergency," Hermann continues. "And closer to—oh, hang on. What has this got to do with us?"

"Huh?"

"How we met," Hermann says. "You said, that Tendo asked—"

"Oh," Newt says. It's his turn to play coy. He stirs his chopsticks through his own dinner, accidentally flicking a piece of tofu to the table. It lands on top of Hermann's etched equations. Hermann scowls, because that's how their routine goes: Newt gets Hermann's stuff dirty, and Hermann gets mad. "Well. It was just that Tendo was like you can finally be out of each other's hair, how the hell did you guys get stuck together anyway when you obviously can't stand each other, that kind of stuff."

"Ah," Hermann says.

"And I said that it was because we knew each other before," Newt says, "and that we transferred here together. And that's when he asked."

"And what did you say?" Hermann says.

"That we used to correspond professionally," Newt says, "and met at a conference way back in 2017." He adds, with a grin, "Also professionally."

This was technically true. Newt and Hermann did write to each other, professionally, and they did meet at a conference, professionally, but what went down after a long and public shouting match in the events hall of a very nice hotel—in Hermann's room, five floors up in that very nice hotel—was not very professional. The events of the week that followed—spent, intermittently, between Hermann's hotel room, several coffee shops, a bench under a tree in Newt's favorite park, a rotation sushi restaurant, brushing knees shyly on the tram, and, finally, clasping hands on the staircase of Newt's apartment and gazing deeply into each other's eyes—weren't very professional, either, but Newt likes to think that they were very romantic. Rom-com level shit. Newt revealed none of this to Tendo, who referred to the 2017 conference as that Infamous Day for the rest of their conversation. "Well, it was professional," Hermann sniffs.

But he reaches across the table, and, very timidly, crosses his pinkie over top of Newt's. It's the most blatant form of PDA Hermann ever willingly engages Newt in. Newt thinks if he ever tried to touch two fingers at once in anywhere but the lab, or God forbid, hold his whole hand, Hermann's ears might start emitting steam like something out of a cartoon. "It might be nice," he says again.

Laboratory Space D, Basement Level 1, is unique—Newt knows—in that Newt and Hermann's quarters are connected to it directly. None of the other labs have that luxury (and Newt has a feeling it's because Lab Space D wasn't actually intended as a lab space). He remembers being told that when they were shoved into it. Yeah, you have the darkest and tiniest lab space on base, but your rooms are right there! When Newt wants to go to Hermann's room, or if he's in Hermann's room and needs a sweatshirt or something from his own, he just has to step the three feet between their two doors. Moving labs could throw a wrench in that—they might be asked to move quarters, too, and might be shuttled to opposite sides of the Shatterdome, and though they could just bite the bullet and request couple's quarters already, it's nice to have their own spaces when they need it. That would never work. And, well, besides—the lab, their lab, feels like home to them at this point. Newt shrugs.

"On the other hand," Hermann says, and he taps Newt's pinkie lightly, "I quite like how things are. I can live with the damp, really."

"We can get a dehumidifier," Newt offers.

Hermann nods, and he gives Newt the barest hint of a smile.

Their monthly delivery of lab supplies—whatever they can afford with their shoestring budget, which, these days, mostly means chalk, rubber gloves, and nice instant ramen—comes three weeks later. Newt wouldn't exactly call the Shatterdome delivery guy a friend, seeing as he has yet to divulge his name to Newt (and also Newt's pretty sure he has a thing for Hermann, since he always seems to wait until Hermann is in the lab to stroll by with his package trolley and always calls him Dr. Gottlieb with big stupid heart eyes, oh, Dr. Gottlieb, that new sweater looks soooo nice on you!, so anyway, that makes him Newt's rival by default), but he, at least, recognizes and acknowledges Newt at this point. That's more than Newt can say for most people on the base. After his usual greeting to the two of them (hey, Newt, oh, hellllooo, Dr. Gottlieb, did you do something new with your hair?), he starts to unload their packages, also like usual.

"I was surprised to see that you guys are still down here," he tells Newt, not like usual. "Tendo mentioned something about you getting your own labs."

"He did?" Newt says, meaning to frown, but grinning instead. It's kind of fun to be the subject of gossip. He pulls off his gloves and tosses them in the trash to help with their supplies—the dehumidifier he requested should be in there, and it's fancy and definitely on the bigger side.

"Yeah," their delivery guy continues. He hands Newt a fuckin' massive brick of a package. Hermann's stupid chalk. The amount that Hermann tears through in a month really is astounding: Newt has a private theory that Hermann is an undercover space alien from a planet where chalk constitutes all of the primary food groups, and he secretly sneaks out here and eats it in the dead of night when Newt is asleep. "Anyway, sorry I'm late," the delivery guy says, as Newt imagines Hermann crunching on a piece of chalk like a carrot stick, "I went to all the other labs first."

"No worries, dude," Newt says. "Sorry for the confusion."

He lugs the package over to Hermann's desk, and drops it down on the only spot not over-cluttered with papers and books. Hermann complains about Newt's messiness a lot for a guy who is just as bad, if not worse. "Need any now?" Newt asks Hermann.

Hermann, scribbling away at his chalkboard, grunts. Newt decides that's a no.

"Hard at work, Dr. Gottlieb?" the delivery guy says, practically fluttering his eyelashes.

Another grunt. Newt snorts.

"I thought you guys would've moved right away," the delivery guy (obviously disappointed at Hermann's lack of attention) tells Newt. "Tendo mentioned you've been stuck together for a while, ever since some sort of dramatic confrontation at a conference ten years ago." he adds eagerly, "Did you really get thrown out? I don't know how you haven't killed each other yet."

"It's taken a lot of hard work," Newt says. Yeah, the whole being-ejected-from-the-conference-and-barred-from-all-future-ones-forever thing is technically true too, but everyone there was too stuffy and serious for Newt's fun vibes anyway, so he thinks it's their loss. The most important part of the scientific breakthrough process, Newt frequently thinks, was having someone there to challenge you and push back at you. Sometimes loudly. And in public. In the conference hall of a very expensive hotel, in front of all of your scientific peers, some hotel security guards, and a poor graduate student who made the mistake of asking you and your penpal-colleague for your joint opinion on something and got caught in the crosshairs. Besides—out of everyone at that stupid conference, Newt and Hermann were the only ones snapped up by the PPDC, so it's doubly their loss. "And, yeah, we got thrown out. Me and Hermann fight a lot, but we always make up eventually. It's no big deal. It's, like, our thing."

"Make up?"

Newt waggles his eyebrows and doesn't elaborate. The making up part is the best part of arguing with Hermann, honestly, but he's not about to go giving private details about stuff like that to his rival.

By the time Hermann finally descends his ladder, three hours have passed, and Newt is frowning over an email he's just gotten from Shatterdome HR. Hermann will probably see it in a second when he checks his own email—it was sent to both of them, after all—but Newt waves him over to his desk anyway. "Look," he says.

He draws out the spare chair he keeps by his desk (for Hermann), and Hermann drops into it gratefully, propping his cane up against the arm. Then Hermann pushes his glasses up onto his nose and scans the email with a frown of his own. Newt reads it aloud for him anyway. "'Subject: Quarters Reassignment,'" he says. "Dear Drs. Geiszler and Gottlieb: It has recently come to our attention that you will be transferring to Laboratories A&B. Should you wish to transfer quarters as well, you will find the necessary paperwork..."

"By Jove," Hermann groans, and pulls his glasses off again, smudging a bit of chalk on his cheek, "can't they just leave us alone?"

Newt laughs. "I'll tell them we're not interested. Wait, listen to this bit at the end: Congratulations—this must be a relief! Guess they were getting your complaint forms after all, Hermann." Both Newt and Hermann had long-since assumed that any and all official complaint forms stamped with a k-sci lab return address are filed right into the garbage. It's never deterred Hermann from sending them in, though.

"Hmph," Hermann says.

Newt carefully rolls his shirtcuff back down to his wrist and uses it to rub off Hermann's chalk smudge. When it's gone, or at least, mostly gone, he brushes his fingers back through Hermann's short hair. Hermann's eyelids flutter shut, and as he leans into Newt's touch, his creased forehead smooths just a little. "Mm. You're lovely," he murmurs. "We really ought to tell them we're married. It's gone on long enough."

"I guess," Newt says. "But it's kind of funny, isn't it?"

[ivynajspyder]

The relationship between Meta Knight and Fumu is goddamn fascinating to me okay o_o So I need to rant a bit.

And I mean this in an entirely non-shippy way! There are relationships other than romantic ones damnit!

It’s an interesting case of a cross-generational friendship with a lot of mutual respect, while also being great foils to each other. She’s quick to anger, while MK is almost too calm about things. He can be a cold-hearted jerk, while she has huge amounts of empathy.

I’ve also seen them described as two halves of a ‘manzai’ comedy duo. It’s a style of comedy in Japan where you have the ‘boke’ (‘funny man’) and the ‘tsukkomi’ (‘straight man’) who corrects or reacts to the former’s behavior in a deadpan way. (You can more clearly see this dynamic with Dedede and Escargon, though they’re both more likely to be the ‘funny’ one)  In this case, MK is the funny one, as he often says or does outlandish things or makes amusing mistakes, while Fumu reacts and calls him out when he’s wrong.

Either character alone wouldn’t quite work- they need to balance each other out, especially when it comes to the job of raising Kirby.

(I read a short fic on Pixiv, where Meta Knight wants to take Kirby off Pop Star post-finale to continue his training. But he wants to bring Fumu with because as he says, “I can teach him to be a soldier. But you can teach him to be a good person.” and boy I just... I can’t... )

And their dynamic is so unexpected. I mean, here we have Meta Knight- this possibly centuries old war veteran who has Seen Some Shit, who mostly detests people, and the only person in the whole country whose company he ever seeks out is this precocious, headstrong little girl, who has no fear of calling him out on his bullshit.

There’s a pragmatic reason for it- their common interest in protecting Kirby- but even outside of that, he’s genuinely concerned for her too. He also trusts her enough to share more about his past with her. When she asks for advice, he seems to struggle with his usual ‘you made your bed now sleep in it’ philosophy. He’s definitely softer on her than anyone else lol

She definitely has trouble understanding him, but I think she slowly picks up on him over time- like learning that he’s not all-knowing.

And he’s probably used to fawning fangirls or people who treat him like an untouchable legend, but she doesn’t fall for his ‘mysterious badass loner’ schtick at all and is comfortable enough to just barge into his room and shout at him. And he’s cool with that.

It feels like neither of them really has anyone else to relate to. MK has Sword and Blade, but they’re so loyal they’d never question him. And he hates all the villagers. (I think maybe he could get along with Curio?)  Meanwhile Fumu has no other kids her age around, and usually acts more as a teacher/parent figure to them than as an equal. Her parents are loving but not the most responsible or helpful. There’s a reason she most often goes to MK for advice and not her father, you know?

Not to mention the whole ‘Fumu sits by the fountain and MK inevitably shows up to ask what’s bothering her’ thing.

(When did MK originally come to the village anyway? Did she grow up with him around? I assume she only started to get to know him after Kirby showed up, and thought of him as only Dedede’s lackey before that. SO MANY QUESTIONS oh god I wanna write a fic or three...)

It is also somewhat unfortunate that they have so much chemistry, since it immediately leads people to ship them. Which... okay, I understand why it’s popular, given the above.There’s also an element of wish fulfillment. as it’s often young women who ship them and might see themselves in Fumu, with the whole ‘brave knight saves the princess’ dynamic, lol

It can be easy to forget that Fumu is canonically a child, what with her being smarter and more mature than 99% of the adult cast. But please don’t forget that o_o

And even if that wasn’t the case, he’s not even her type??? We’ve SEEN her type.

She likes pretty boys, and more importantly, people much kinder than MK  rofl

So yeah just needed to get that out. I think people should remember to have them interact more in fanworks, because they’re honestly just more interesting when playing off each other. Just, ya know, keep it platonic plz

[justnerdthings]

Frigid Heart Ch. 4

F!Reader x Bi-Han

Okay. I'm not feeling so well, so this chapter might not seem as well written as the others. But, I'm also not so great with action. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

@poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @whitelotusfighter @icy-spicy @crazytxgradstudent @d-taslim @bihansthot @legends-of-apex @lillikue @missroro

Bi-Han was chopping wood when you returned late in the afternoon. The girls were still talking when you left, and you were sure they were still talking as you walked towards your master. Thema had braided your hair. She’d weaved in some blue flowers to match Sub-Zero’s robes. Cho had painted your lips a deep red. Suki had made-up your eyes. And Margita? She’d shown you how to properly carry yourself.

Snowflake had beamed at your finished look. “You’re so pretty!” She’d told you. Snowflake was sure once the scars faded, that you’d quickly catch the eye of the Grandmaster, himself. But when the girls had told you what the Grandmaster did with his girls… You weren’t so sure you wanted your scars to heal.

Bi-Han looked up as you came into view. You could see his brow furrow at you, as if he hadn’t recognized you, but it quickly faded as you stepped closer. You caught the slightest hint of him fighting a smirk before he turned away, back to the wood. “Did you enjoy yourself?” He asked before swinging his axe down, easily splitting the wood. You eye’d the odd colored axe for a moment before you realized it was made of ice, just like his blade from yesterday.

“Yes,” you answered plainly. “I’d never been to a hot spring before.”

“Well, now you can’t say that,” he said, setting up another log. “I see you’ve met Cyrax’s servant.”

You blinked and reached for your braid that was draped over your shoulder. You ran your fingers over it gently and admired the small flowers. A reddish hue painted your cheeks as you remembered something Thema had told you. “Do you… Like it, Master?”

Bi-Han swung his axe again. The wood split just as easily as the last and fell off the block. “It looks nice,” he told you without looking back at you.

You didn’t mind that he hadn’t looked at you again. It actually took some of the pressure away. But his answer still made a sheepish smile come to your face.

“I shot some grouses earlier—” He’d begun.

“I’ll get right to them!” You interrupted, a bit too zealous. Your blush darkened when you caught him glance over his shoulder with a raised brow. He chuckled and looked back to his growing wood pile.

“Do that,” he told you.

You gave him a quick bow before hurrying off behind the house.

Two large grouse hung outside. Heads severed. A puddle of blood was below them. They’d been bled out. But that was the most Bi-Han had done with them. The rest was for you to handle.

Your sleeves had been tied up to avoid staining them. You’d have to ask about getting more clothes. Ones that were more practical, preferably. You didn’t want to ruin such nice clothes, even if they did seem plain and simple to everyone else.

With the grouses plucked and cleaned, you’d placed them both in a wide pot with several herbs. What vegetables you’d found were chopped and thrown in with them. A lid covered the pot before you carried it over to the hearth and carefully placed it. Soon enough it would be ready to eat. You would clean your mess for now.

You’d made quick work of the kitchen. Outside, you collected the bucket of feathers. Those could be used. Padding in armor. A pillow. Trading. They had use. You secured a lid on the bucket and set it aside carefully.

A deep, echoing growl had caught your attention. You knew that sound…

The sounds of horns alarmed the village. Your heart pounded and raced as voices shouted in the distance. Heavy thudding was coming closer. Monstrous snarls filled the forest. Bi-Han came around the house, looking in the direction of the commotion.

“Get inside,” he told you as he walked past you.

“Master—”

“Get inside!” he ordered as he ran into the forest.

You stepped back and towards the house, but stopped at the door as you heard blood curdling screams. Assassins from the village went charging after the screams. Trees fell in the distance, the cracking of their trunks sent shivers up your spine. You knew of only one beast that could snap trees in half with little effort and make hardened warriors cry in fear.

Ice beasts.

Your heart skipped a beat as the shouting grew closer. The ground beneath your feet was starting to shake with each step that beast made. No… Beasts. There was more than one.You jumped the next second as the treeline began to collapse in front of you.

A beast broke through a line of assassins with a mighty roar. Ice shards were sent flying in every direction. You ducked out of the way.

A large chunk of ice lodged itself into the wall of Bi-Han’s house. Your eyes grew at the sight. It’d only just missed you. The chill of adrenaline rushed through you as you looked back to the beast. It was quickly joined by another and you could still hear fighting deeper in the forest. Had it been a whole herd?

The two beasts stormed the village. Palace guards were pouring out. Servants were running for their lives. Just those two ice beasts were enough to destroy the courtyard. Assassins were being torn apart. The snow white coats of the ice beasts were stained red with blood. You were frozen in fear. You’d never seen such brutality. In your old village, ice beasts never attacked like this. One would appear in a fit occasionally. But they were quickly tamed. The Snow Ninja clan was gifted with being able to tame such beasts.

Lily had come out of the palace, blade in hand, the Grandmaster at her side with two blades in his hands. They wore matching armor as they watched their guards get thrown around like toys. More ice beasts broke through the treeline, charging into the village with such ferocity you hadn’t seen. You quickly moved to take cover as you watched the chaos.

Was this a common occurrence? Did the Lin Kuei often fight with the ice beasts? Did the ice beasts often attack the Lin Kuei with no warning? Both the Grandmaster and Lily charged into battle. Lily took every chance she could get to guard the Grandmaster. She reminded you of a female wolf guarding her alpha, putting herself between the beast and the Grandmaster, protecting his weak spots as they fought off one of the beasts.

Off to the side, smoke had begun to fill the village. You recognized it. It was the same kind of smoke that had covered your old village and blinded your old clan. It creeped along the ground and quickly engulfed the beasts to disorient them, leaving the Lin Kuei to freely attack with the new advantage. Explosions rocked the village. The ninja in red who you’d known as Sektor was firing hand cannons. The yellow ninja, Cyrax, was appearing and disappearing out of thin air around the battlefield.

A blue blur whipped by you. You recoiled and ducked behind the stone wall as ice crystals rained over you. A strong hand gripped your arm and pulled you away just in time as a beast’s foot came down and destroyed the spot of ground you’d been hiding in.

“Get out of here.” You turned to see it was Tundra who had saved you. But your brows knotted and you looked back. If Tundra hadn’t been the blue blur thrown past you…

Sub-Zero pushed himself up with a strained growl as the beast came barreling toward him. Your heart was about to jump right out of your chest. You looked back to Tundra with panic in your eyes. “You have to help him!” You screamed.

“Get out of here!” Tundra shouted. His eyes then shifted and he pulled you behind him. A wall of ice grew in front of him as a bolder came flying for the two of you. As it crashed into the ice wall, the ice cracked, only just barely able to hold back the attack. You ran. But not away.

“What are you doing!?” Tundra called after you as you ran around his wall and into the chaos. You grabbed a dead assassin’s sword as you ran for Sub-Zero. Blood was staining his clothes as he struggled to keep what surely was the alpha beast at bay. Bi-Han’s attacks were thwarted one after the other. He was pushed onto the defensive. Ice walls grew all around him, only to be knocked down by swings of the beast’s fists.

You did what you’d saw Lily do. You’d done what you were raised to do in your old village. You slid to a stop in front of an injured Bi-Han, facing the beast yourself. You couldn’t see Sub-Zero’s reaction, but he hadn’t shouted for you to leave like Kuai had. Your eyes locked on the beast’s. It swung a giant fist down and you jumped back to avoid it. Ice beasts were huge and powerful. But they were slow and dumb. This one had a strange look in its eyes. Something wasn’t right. You could feel it.

More attacks came from the beast. You dodged each one until you felt yourself back into Bi-Han. He grunted. He was leaned back against a tree. His breath was heavy in your ear as you stood your ground. The beast reached and grabbed the tree. The tree was pulled up from the ground, roots and all, and was tossed aside like a simple stick. You fell back with Bi-Han to the ground. As a massive foot was lifted, you threw your sword.

The beast let out an ear rupturing roar as the blade speared deep into its foot. Someone was grabbing you. You looked back to see Tundra again. His arm was wrapped around his brother as he tried to lift him and you to your feet. He swung you both around the next second. Another ice wall shot up from the ground as the beast sent its fist down. But the wall didn’t hold. It shattered, ice shards being sent in everywhere. You covered your face with your arms. What in the world had gotten into these ice beasts. They had usually been so peaceful in your old village.

You caught the strange eyes of the beast again. Your stomach sunk as a feeling of desperation came over you. You pushed past Kuai and rose to your feet. The beast roared at you as you stepped closer in defiance. Your eyes were locked on the beast’s. It seemed to take it as a challenge to its dominance. It slammed a fist into the ground, shaking everything around you. You managed to keep your footing as you stared down this abomination. “No.” You told it, stepping closer.

The beasts huffed, steam filling the air. It roared, sending icy spittle at you. You didn’t budge even as the tiny shards of ice stung your face. “No!” You shouted.

Another roar shook the trees around you. This beast seemed to be having trouble dealing with your defiance. Despite its injured foot, it backed up only a single step as it snorted. “NO!” You screamed with every ounce of air from your lungs.

The beast recoiled, stepping back further. You stepped closer. The beast dropped to all fours to support itself and raised its injured foot up. Its head shook as if trying to shake something off. You stepped closer. It grunted and snorted, unsure of your intention and kept backing away. You could hear Kuai trying to coax Bi-Han--trying to awaken him. Bi-Han must have passed out. You hoped, at least, that he’d only passed out. What would happen to you if he died? Your jaw hardened as you kept moving towards the beast.

It howled. The sudden cry jolted you, but you didn’t back away. You fought every instinct your body was screaming at you to turn and run. You kept your eyes right on the beast’s eyes and watched as clarity began to spread through them, like some veil had begun to lift.

The howl had signaled the rest of the ice beast to cease their attacks. Some were killed at the first sign of forfeit. Some were trapped. The rest had been given caution as they fled the village.

You were so close to the alpha now. You reached out as it lowered itself to your level. Those massive eyes turned the most brilliant shade of blue as they watched you. Your breath hitched when your hand finally touched, and rested, on the beast’s face. Your blood was roaring in your ears and your heart was shaking your whole chest as you stood there. The beast was heaving chilled breaths. Whatever spell this beast had been under, it seemed to have waned.

You let out a slow, calm breath as you stepped closer and placed your other hand on the beast. Your fingers combed through its thick fur. Oh, how you missed the feel of ice beast fur. So thick and coarse… But so warm when made into blankets or clothing. It backed away and you noticed it winced.

Its foot.

Slowly you broke eye contact with the beast and moved around it, letting your hand trail along its fur as you moved towards the injured foot. It snarled and you looked back to its eyes. It huffed, then moved to sit on the ground. You reached for the blade stuck in its foot and in one quick yank, pulled the blade clean out.

The beast howled again and pulled its foot away, guarding it.

Assassins had come running, shouting and readying their weapons. They were going to kill this beast. You couldn’t let that happen. You backed away from it and looked into its fearful eyes. “Go,” You told it.

You didn’t have to tell it twice. The beast quickly rose and took off deep into the forest. You then moved back to Kuai and Bi-Han as the assassins came. Bi-Han’s eyes were still closed. Kuai was watching you in disbelief as you dropped to your knees next to him. Bi-Han’s wounds were filled with ice, keeping them from bleeding.

“What happened?” the Grandmaster asked as he made his way to the front of the crowd. Kuai reluctantly shifted focus from you to his master. “He’s been injured.”

The Grandmaster stepped closer to get a better look. His expression was hidden behind his mask, but his eyes showed a level of sadness. He caught your eyes the next second, lifting a brow before they shifted to the sword in your hand, coated in blood. You quickly released the blade and averted your eyes.

“It was not her doing,” Kuai answered to your defense. “She… helped.” He seemed to have some trouble admitting that you had stepped in. Or maybe he was just confused with how you managed to subdue an ice beast.

“Someone bring Sub-Zero to the palace,” he ordered no one in particular. “Have him treated before the others.” Kuai helped a fellow assassin carry his brother away. The other assassins had begun to thin out and assess the damage to the village. You were alone on the ground with the Grandmaster’s eyes weighing heavy on you.

“You. Girl.”

You looked up to the Grandmaster slowly, not wanting to make any sudden moves.

“Where did you get that blade?” He demanded of you.

You swallowed the lump in your throat. “I took it from one of your dead. My apologies, Grandmaster. I only wanted to help my Master.”

His eyes searched you before he was joined by a limping Lily. Her eyes fell on you and filled you with dread instantly. But to your surprise, and Lily’s, the Grandmaster had sheathed one of his swords and stepped forward. He offered you his bloodied hand. You froze. Your eyes shifted from his hand, to his face, then to Lily’s deeply baffled expression. “Come,” the Grandmaster said. You looked back to him, then his hand. It wouldn’t be wise to refuse the Grandmaster...

You took his hand.

[thomastospace]

Legacy SMP Season 2 - Alternative Ending

Here are my notes on how I wanted S2 to end, rewritten a bit so it’s more clear what I meant. Beforehand, it’s important to note this was not discussed with the other members. Usually we throw ideas together, and it of course becomes something different and better.

Unfortunately due to work being busy, I wasn’t be able to run this storyline at all, and unfortunately I had to scrap it. I’m really happy how Lime did the end though, I think it’s certainly fitting, and a wonderful way to go to season 3. His editing  (Did you spot the green screen he used? ;) )

What was already there? I joined the season in a big fight, I appeared when the Legends were fighting the withers. A withering energy had been annoying them all season, and this was the big fight. We won the fight, but the withers took Logic. This was a storyline added so he could take a break.

I was building a huge progress bar in my ‘lab’. This was underground, below the main community area. In the middle of this, there was a weird machine that would randomly turn on/off. This turning on & off was controlled by viewers who had worked out a secret. On the server, and plot wise, this was ‘controlled by the withers’.

Before this episode, I would build a science-like tube in the middle of my base, connected to the side. This tube would hold the ‘weird machine’ / withering energy machine.

Legacy Season 2 Ending A news segment starts, the newsreader explains that strange things have been happening, and they think they might know the source. A Secret Underground Lab. The news switches to a live feed out of Thomas’ Underground Lab.

In the lab, the progress bar is visible, it’s nearing completion, then when it reaches it’s end, a vertical lightbar lights up with 1 light. Thomas is there, looking at the light, ‘I think it’s working...’.

A timelapse starts, while the progress bar slowly continues. It’s a giant TNT block with a timer on it. The timer shows 5:00, and doesn’t count down during that moment.

The progress bar completes another round, and the light lights up one more. While this happens, you hear the glass cracking sound. A crack appeared in the glass tube holding the withering energy machine.

“It’s working, I can’t believe it’s working”

Thomas exits the lab, and goes to the rift. Here you see him standing with a book, while hearing his voice. “Dear Logic...” [ I haven’t actually written what I would write to Logic, but here I would communicate to Logic. I would tell him we were going to leave this world. And that if he wants to come with us, this might be his last chance ]

Thomas meets up with Lime, and tells Lime that the end of the world is near. We need to escape. We need to exit to another world. Lime knows how, we’ll dig a tunnel, and break through the bedrock.

Thomas returns to the lab, where the power is almost at the top. Just two more.

One more happens, and wither skeletons spawn. The glass in the tube cracks again.

Then, the light reaches the top. ”Oh, it’s happening, it’s finally finally happening!” (Gravity Falls reference)

The lab shakes, different black stripes appear in the lab like cracks. Thomas enables the countdown on the TNT and exists the lab.

Outside, the world is changing, the sky turns dark. But not like a regular night. The withers appear, and start blasting some buildings while Thomas & Lime meet.

The countdown appears on the TNT appears again. It shows the timer reaching 0:30

Thomas shouts to the withers, ‘Hey Withers, can we have a talk?’ The middle wither replies: ‘What is there to talk about, we’re here to finally own this world.’ Thomas replies with ‘You know what, you can have this world. It’s all yours. A gift.’ The middle wither replies with ‘Oh, really? That’s actually pretty kind. Nobody has really ever been kind to me. Everybody always tries to fight us! It all started when I was just a little wither....’ Thomas interrupts, and shouts ‘Because we’re going to leave it! Lime, open the gate!’

The countdown is visible again, reaching zero. Things in the world start exploding.

Lime activates a button, which explodes the ground. A giant hole to the void opens up. “Everyone, jump in!” Lime shouts. All Legends jump in, and the hole closes behind them.

[princessofprocrastination]

I Messed Up Didn’t I? (Dream)

MASTERLIST

pairing : dreamwastaken x singer!reader (angst) 

summary : after the breakup, he sees that you’re growing as a singer, while he’s suffering alone, but you don’t think that about him, seeing he’s growing on youtube. 

a/n : you’re replacing gwen in the voice! 

hey! this isn’t going to be the only part! stay tuned for more!

it ended after an argument. he was constantly on his computer, and would forget every important day. from your birthday, to your anniversaries, he forgot them all. 

he even would disregard it, saying it wasn’t important anyway, that everyday could be a special day. that hurt you a lot. you two have been together for a long time and you didn’t want to lose it. you couldn’t afford to lose him, not like this. 

sometimes it felt like he didn’t love you anymore, that he didn’t feel the same anymore. it hurt to see him on his phone, or on discord call with his friends. 

you thought his friends were amazing and supportive, but his friends took away your limited time together, and hurt like a bitch. 

at first, you were okay with his constant video games, knowing that’s his job now, and that he’s been supportive of you, and you should be supportive of him too. 

at first, it had been tough, you brought in the money, paid for the bills, bought groceries since you were making money through music. you weren’t stingy, you are totally fine with spending money for him, but it felt wrong at the same time. 

your mum always told you never settle for a guy, that he would do things for you if he wanted to. and that stuck to you, but you love dream, with everything in you. you couldn’t afford to leave him, to break this long time relationship. 

you two had been there for each other since the roots. and to see it crumble like this hurt a lot. 

he didn’t notice. he didn’t care enough to ask you how your day went anymore. he was too busy on his computer. 

you made the effort. you asked him the usual questions, to which he’s reply with a ‘’m fine’ or simply not answer. you brought him food whenever you notice he’s been skipping meals to sit on his desk. 

you got him a new monitor, gaming chair, a new desk. everything he could’ve ever wanted. if it made him happy, you’d buy it, even if it took time away from you together. 

he didn’t notice how you’re slipping away, barely talking to him, barely even sleeping on the same bed anymore. he didn’t notice the constant emails on your phone. or maybe he did, and he didn’t care. 

he didn’t notice that you two were basically living separate lives in the same house. he didn’t notice that you were thinking about leaving. 

it never occurred to dream that you’d snap one day, that you’d leave him. it never occurred to him that you’d buy your own house one day and leave him, alone in his house. 

it started small, you invited him to go to a dinner you had with your producers. he said he would left out, so you let him be, understanding it completely. 

then you’d ask multiple times for him to just get out of that chair and eat dinner with you, even if it’s just once. you told him you missed him, yet he still pushed you away. 

you didn’t understand where the relationship went wrong. you tried your best to work it out, talk it through, but it seemed like he didn’t even want it anymore, judging by the way he’s acting. 

he says it’s just a part of the relationship, getting comfortable. but you didn’t think getting comfortable meant that you both didn’t talk to each other all day. you didn’t want this type of comfortable. 

“just this once, let’s go get dinner. we can go eat at your favourite place.” you begged him. 

“no, i want to finish editing, can’t you go yourself, maybe bring me takeout?” he replies to you. 

“i could but i just want to spend time with you.” you begged again, almost whining. 

“just go, we spend so much time together anyway.” dream tells you, almost out of anger. 

“we haven-” you tried to say before getting cut off. 

“OMG JUST LEAVE, I’M STRESSED OUT RIGHT NOW, LEAVE” he screams at you. 

“i just-” you tried again, almost crying at that point. 

“LEAVE.” he scolded again. 

you left the room quietly, not wanting a screaming fest to start again. 

you sat on your shared bed. thinking about what went wrong. how did your relationship become this bad. 

you packed a bag. you didn’t care about your clothes, you could always buy new ones. you didn’t bother packing much, just the necessities. 

you walked out the door, grabbing your car keys on your way out. 

as you started you car, you sat there for a while. this was it huh? 

you told yourself that you made the right decision getting a house before this argument came.

you didn’t mean to hide it away from him, in fact, you wanted to bring it up during dinner, but since the dinner invitation didn’t work, you didn’t bother. 

the longer you drove, the more sad you became. tears trickled down your cheeks as you drove silently to a hotel before needing to sit a long drive from florida to california. 

you sat on the hotel bed, thinking about dream. you hated ending it this way. you didn’t even think this would end. you were planning to get married, for god’s sake. 

you cried even more thinking about it. 

you felt alone. but you knew you still had friends who supported you. but it felt like there was a void left unfilled after you left that house.

maybe it’s for the best. 

-

DREAM’S POV

i heard the door close. i heard it all. i heard her packing her stuff. but i don’t know why i didn’t stop her. i was too busy streaming. 

it didn’t hit me until a couple days later. and when the days came, it was too late. 

i knew i messed up. 

when i told george and sapnap, they were furious. they said they warned me before. they asked why i’m not looking for her. 

i told them it’s cause i knew you were no where near me. 

i knew i messed up. 

terribly. 

-

YOUR POV

months went by so quick.

the hold in your chest unhealed. but you knew you needed to get over it. 

you saw twitter, instagram, youtube. you saw that he had been blowing up. 

over 13 million subscribers. you were impressed. you were immensely proud of him. you wish you were there to celebrate it with him. but you weren’t. 

fortunately for you, months after you moved to california, you were offered to be a judge on the voice. 

you didn’t waste a second telling your team to say yes. you grew up watching the voice. and plus, you got to meet the john legend, kelly clarkson and blake sheldon. who would miss that opportunity. 

you spent a while trying to settle down in your new house. it was huge. huge for one person. but you needed it, the time alone. 

you liked it peaceful and quiet, it helped you heal slowly. it helped you to move on. 

you came out with a full album since then, which ended up being a hit. you were super grateful for the love you’ve been getting. 

now, you sat in one of the judges chairs for blind auditions. 

your hairstylist was making sure your hair was fully sprayed and looked good. you made small conversation with her, thanking her for making you look good for the camera. 

there was a camera for each judge. you looked into the one right in front of you and said. “holy shit i can’t believe i’m here.” 

john, who sat next to you laughed at your antics. you glanced at him and gave him a grin. 

“we’re ready.” the producer said to the judges, signaling that they were starting. 

audition after audition, you met amazing artists. 

“you’re amazing and i used my block on john for you. if you didn’t know, he’s a little scary when he’s competitive. i would love for you to be on my team.” you said to an amazing singer you turned your chair for. 

she sung an r&b song, to which got a four chair turn, but you were desperate. you needed her. 

“um, oh my god, this is hard.” she said to us, before choosing her mentor. 

kelly and blake chimed in, making her turn her head to look at them. 

“no. please, don’t listen or look at them, just me.” you said to her, practically begging. 

john laughed at this and said. “holy shit, you’re that desperate?” 

“yes, john, i love her.” you laughed along with the other two judges. 

“well-” the artist started. you crossed your fingers, hoping that she would pick you. you had a good chance as john was blocked. but kelly was good competition too, not counting out blake. 

“i pick.” she paused. 

“oh my god, spit it out already.” i screamed and laughed a little. 

“i pick y/n” she announced. 

“HOLY SHIT YES.” you stood from your chair and jumped a little, excited. 

“you losers.” you told the other three judges. 

“yeah, yeah, whatever,” kelly played along. 

-

blind auditions went along really smoothly. 

you’ve seen your face plastered all over the voice’s instagram and twitter. they even posted a clip of you being excited after getting picked as a mentor for the r&b artist. 

you were having a blast. your family from back home would facetime you and congratulate you or laugh at the stupid things you did on tv. 

what you didn’t know was that dream had seen them all. after all, he hadn’t paid attention to you before, why start now? your little jumps on your judge seat as you waited for the next audition. your little shouts to amazing singers auditioning. 

he was proud, to say the least. 

in this couple of months, he’d seen you grow into a young and successful woman. he was sad that he couldn’t be there to congratulate you through all your achievements. 

but that’s what he gets for abandoning his one and only love. 

at first, he didn’t even look into what you were doing. not until a few weeks after you left, george and sapnap had said something along the lines of your name and you being a judge on the voice. 

them two had been purposely teasing him. they knew that he treated you like absolute shit before you left and they made it a thing to make sure clay knew that. 

you weren’t in contact with dream for obvious reasons but you facetimed george and sapnap constantly, even before and after your shows. 

they had been through it all with you. since you were only a couple years older than nick, you two clicked well together, always talking about tiktok trends and the new lingo. but you don’t count off george for being one of your bestfriends. 

you actually had shown the camera once or twice when you facetimed george and sapnap. well, now the world knew that you three knew each other. they just didn’t know how you three met. 

twitter blew up with lots of hashatgs about you three, talking about ‘when worlds’ collide’.

you thought that was funny. they even asked you to link up and be friends with dream, who you knew was dream, but you’ve always ignored those types of comments. 

you saw the ship comments between you and george. you two would laugh it off and constantly say that you two are just friends. he’s your exes bestfriend, that would be awkward. 

dream saw it all, the facetime calls are all over the internet. your supporters were shocked to see that you knew each other. they didn’t know that dream and you knew each other though. 

he saw that you’ve been ignoring the comments to link up with him. his heart broke at that. but he deserved it. he ignored you for the longest time. now it’s your turn.

his heart broke at the shipping comments between you and george after knowing how often the facetime. 

dream knew he deserved it. he deserved all the pain coming to him. 

he felt grateful of his new, large following on the internet, but it felt like nothing compared to having you in his arms. why had he taken you for granted?

he was determined to see you again, to ask you to come back. he needed you. 

PART TWO!