#i just need to put it into the void somewhere and unfortunately this is maybe the best place i have for it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roxie-roo · 1 year

Text

Bird of Prey Chapter Three: How The Mighty Crumble

(taglist: @carry-on-my-wayward-gays, @bluiex, @devorakian-guilt, @teslapenguini, @majickth )

The sun filtered through the windows in the early hours of the morning. Yet the people inside the building were already awake, just not yet up and moving. Hushed laughter could be heard under the blankets.

The ranchers could take it easy this morning. Half their competition was gone, the other half they could worry about later. Sure, Cleo was vengeful, Martyn was unhinged, Scott was petty, and Pearl was plain unstable, but they were the sweet little ranchers.

What harm could they do?

Besides, everyone was trying to take a minute to process what'd happened. Some couldn't believe it, had a hard time thinking it had really happened. That such a person was really capable of such actions.

That such a fate was capable of befalling Grian.

How shocking it is when the mighty have crumbled to the ground.

But the rest of them weren't scared. They couldn't be scared. It was Jimmy for void sake. Jimmy couldn't hurt anyone intentionally. Maybe it was an accident.

A very. Very unfortunate. Accident.

But after a few days, things seemed to be returning to normal. Quieter, but normal. Besides, Bdubs and Impulse were always there to light up a room. Speaking of which.

"Wouldn't it be ironic if the one obsessed with time was forced to be awake at night."

The plan came out of no where, but Jimmy smiled nonetheless and ran hid fingers through Tango's hair. "It would... sounds bit vague, though. How would we do it? He always has a clock on him."

"Simple. Get him somewhere he can't get to a bed."

"You seem to have this whole thing all figured out, hm?" Jimmy teased. "Sounds like all your plan needs is for you to put it into motion."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the one coming up with all the ideas. I promise, I'll get the next two deaths.." He kissed Tango's cheek and grinned. "Besides, you know Bdubs better."

"Good point.." Tango huffed. "Good point... I'll take him mining!"

And that's exactly what Tango did.

It was "supposed" to be a simple mining excursion. Just to get some more materials.

Tango knew what strengths to play to, and what buttons to push. He stayed friendly, excitable, and reckless. And teasing especially, lightly poking at Bdubs' insistence they head back as the night drew closer, and the sun sank further into the horizon.

"Oh come on. What are you, scared?"

And Bdubs wasn't scared. He wasn't scared at all! There was nothing to be scared of! And even if there were, he wouldn't be scared then either, no sir!

Besides, Tango wouldn't let anything happen to him while they were on this trip. Right? Except for block him in with an enderman he accidentally looked at.

"Tango!" Bdubs yelled and pounded a fist against the stone wall. "Tango- that's not funny, let me out!"

"Can't hear you, bud!" Tango chirped as he walked away, grinning all the while with his new loot, the sounds of Bdubs' screams echoing through the cave.

The clock ticked away and Impulse grew more and more worried. Even moreso when he felt himself take damage. Bdubs. He tried to reach for his communicator, though he found it was too late by the time he'd grasped it.

[BDoubleO100 was slain by an enderman]

[ImpulseSV died]

"Four to go.." Tango muttered while he made his way back to the ranch.

Meanwhile, Jimmy had been formulating his own plan. He'd been friends with Martyn, like Grian and BigB, for years. There was a sense of trust built with them. There was also the whole "listener" thing the two shared. That, though, wasn't important now. What was important was the look of bitter anger on Martyn's face as Jimmy approached.

"Cleo?" He tilted his head. Martyn nodded.

"I don't know what's gotten into her..."

"You know..." Jimmy hummed softly as he looked up at his friend. "You don't have to put up with this kind of treatment from her.."

"Yeah,, I guess." Martyn sighed. "I just- I don't wanna be a dick if something's going on."

"Even if there is, she doesn't need to take it out on you. It's not good for your mental health, Martyn."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to get me to kill her." Martyn joked. Jimmy smiled innocently.

"Do you want to kill her?"

Martyn's eyes widened. He'd never heard Jimmy be this casual, this blasé, about killing someone. Especially with the soulmate dynamics, meaning that two people would be taken out for the price of one. But now that he thought about it, he can't say he hasn't thought about walking into lava and just sitting there, or hell, pull a Pearl and just sit in powdered snow. But no. He couldn't do that.

"That'd just make her even madder at me.. besides- it's not like she can't kill me."

"Can she?" Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "Who's the one you know who's the worst at PvP."

"Cleo." Martyn said without a second thought. Then it dawned on him. "You might be right... I can take her! She's shit at PvP!"

"You're a listener, Martyn, she's just a zombie who's shit at fighting." Jimmy patted his shoulder. "Just give it some thought. Alright?"

That was the last thing he'd told Martyn. That was the last he'd heard from Martyn. At least, until the death messages popped up.

[ZombieCleo was slain by InTheLittleWood] [InTheLittleWood died]

It was quieter now, almost uncomfortably so. There was one final pairing left to deal with.

"Pearl would be easier." Tango said to him. "I mean, she lives all alone in that stupid tower, it'd be easy."

"No. Scott would be." Jimmy shook his head. "Pearl hardly ever leaves that tower. And she doesn't trust anyone. Scott on the other hand... I know him. Well." There was a hint of something in his eyes. Remorse? Guilt? Regret? He couldn't tell. Tango nodded though, and hugged his soulmate tightly.

"Alright.. You did say you'd get this one."

He did. And he would. He would find Scott, angry and bitter, but with a hint of regret shining in his reddened eyes. Until he noticed Jimmy, at which his expression shifted to a smile.

"I figured I'd be seeing you soon." Being a former winner of the game had its perks after all. He may not have been able to see everything, but his own demise was well foreshadowed.

"Did you now?" Jimmy muttered under his breath. "Uh... hi.. It's been a while."

"It has." Scott nodded. "So.. you and Tango, huh?"

"I- I'm so sorry-" Jimmy whispered. "I- I don't know if we're still like- married or anything- or if you even like me like that anymore, or whatever- but I'm so sorry-"

"Jimmy, Jimmy.." Scott laughed. He smiled, shaking his head as he looked towards his former husband. "We're well past that. I'm glad you met Tango... I'm glad he's able to make you this happy. Void knows I couldn't."

"You... don't say that.." Jimmy thought he was going to be sick. That wasn't what he expected to hear from Scott. He expected him to be angry, maybe that would justify the murder at least a little. But Scott was happy for him?

"Look at it this way, Jimmy." Scott placed a hand on his shoulder with a smile. "In two lifetimes I've had you.. I've held you in my arms, and I've loved you in those two lifetimes... But we're in a new lifetime. We've died in both of our previous timelines together. And now, someone else gets to experience the joy of getting to know you, falling in love with you, and knowing what it's like to be loved by you... That wasn't a doubt in my mind when we were together, and I know it's not a doubt in Tango's. Besides,,, he's much better for you. I tried to protect you from everything.. keep you unaware of people that liked to poke fun.. But now look at you. You're standing up for yourself.. you're kicking ass, honestly." He laughed softly. "And I couldn't be prouder.. You've earned this, Jimmy." He stepped back and smiled. "How about it..."

"I don't think I'll ever be fully over what we had.." Jimmy looked at him with slightly teary eyes as he drew his sword. "But.. I'm glad to know you don't hate me."

"I could never." Scott reassured. "Go on then... You've earned this."

"I'll miss you... petal.." The nickname felt wrong on his tongue, especially now. But Scott smiled, arms wide and open. Jimmy hugged him, one last time, before driving the blade into him. It was a slower affair than Grian's. Jimmy was still left just as bloodied, but this one was a calmer, more intimate death. Two former lovers sharing one last smile, before the other one dies. Bleeding out on the grass with only a few words left to say.

"See you soon."

[Smajor1995 was slain by SolidarityGaming]

And Pearl wasn't sure if this was a murder, purposeful and harsh, or an accident. She imagined Jimmy's bumbling voice, stammering apologies and cries of "I didn't mean to!", but that didn't seem appropriate. "Well Tilly," she looked at her dog with a smile and hugged her tight as the damage took hold. "We've had a good run."

[PearlescentMoon died]

Jimmy cried that night. He cried in Tango's arms, told him everything, all of his and Scott's history. Tango listened, rubbing his back and running his fingers through Jimmy's hair. He listened as Jimmy slowly calmed down, eventually weakly hiccupping and looking up at Tango with a soft "Thank you".

The world was quiet. It was far too quiet, compared to what it had been at the start of the game.

It was eerily quiet. Jimmy shuddered in Tango's arms and looked up at him. "Is this what it feels like for all the winners?"

"I guess so.." Tango muttered. "So... that's it, huh? It's just us..."

"We won.." Jimmy thought he'd be more excited about this. He not only broke his curse, but he won the game. Shouldn't that be something worth celebrating? "Is it wrong that I feel.. numb..?"

"No.. I don't think so, anyways.." Tango kissed the top of his head. "it's been an emotional wreck of a few days.."

"You got that right..."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes more. Until Tango's voice finally spoke up again.

"So... what now?"

#roxie's writing #double life smp #double life fic #double life jimmy #Bird of Prey au

34 notes · View notes

black-occamy · 1 month

Text

After reading this amazing Remus analysis by @dufferpuffer I got inspired to try and put my ideas about the Pack in one place. It got a bit LONG though, so instead of hijacking a reblog of the post, I decided on a separate one.

I originally wanted to keep all these information to myself, gradually revealing it in a story, in hopes that maybe it will be fun for readers to discover it. That was a year ago. Since then I remembered that in fanfiction almost no one is expecting an original story and that almost no one is willing to give an OC a chance (unless said OC is slapped with a canon-like label and named Dorcas or Marlene or whatever). That said, I don't want it to sound like I'm giving up on my story - far from it - but since I'm currently stuck on writing and these concepts are just buzzing to be released - here goes... (It's a lot of rambling and after re-reading it a couple times I was seriously (ha!) considering not posting it at all.) (Mainly because it flattens my storyline to that of a romance and I have so much more in mind.) (But then, if I never finish it...)

Please note that if in the middle of reading this way too long post you decide that you'd actually like the story itself and don't want too many plot spoilers - links to ao3 are on my blog in pinned post. You're also more than welcome to send me a message with some words of encouragement - as all artists, I feed on comments, maybe it's yours that I need?

I've reiterated a couple times on this blog that in my personal headcanon Remus is a person who benefits from having support of loving people around him. What better way to exploit it in a story than to put him in a polyamorous relationship? (I mean, eventually, the story progresses from way before that happens.)

Chronologically speaking, Sirius was first for Remus and vice versa - both emotionally and physically (well, almost). Somewhere around fifth grade they realised they have feelings for one another and that those feelings are - clumsily and carefully, as two teenage boys would have them - reciprocated. I believe they hid those quite well from James and Peter at least for a time. Even considering I'm pushing my fanfiction timeline to more modern times, them being in a homosexual relationship would have been at least frowned upon (I know kids nowadays don't believe it, but it's true - being called "gay" used to be one of the worst insults a boy could receive in my primary school, sadly). This is also main reason why Remus - being who he is and hysterically afraid of being discovered as a werewolf - would basically force Sirius to keep their affection a secret. Sirius, the clingy and touchy labrador that he is, had horrendously hard time with that, but he tried. He really tried.

Still, it took but one outsider comment about "those filthy gays" (not even a wizard, random non-magical) for Remus to bail. Mind, I put zero blame on that gangly, insecure teen, who was ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED that he was SEEN on the street and COMPLETELY CONVINCED that he was dragging his beloved Sirius with him to the pits of discontent and social ostracism. So he broke up with Sirius, running away with his tail between his legs. Sirius, unfortunately, took it really badly. He is, after all, a devoted person, a wholehearted person, and he was ready to take on the world headfirst fighting for his right to hold his boyfriend's hand... If only his (now former) boyfriend was brave enough to do the same. Eventually Sirius realised that he cannot force Remus to be who he doesn't want to be and in an act of incredible maturity on his part - he let go.

Given that this doesn't happen in a void that is unaffected by other students and events of the First War, by the time Remus broke up with Sirius, they were already forming a sort of relationship with my OC Gemma, a muggle-born Slytherin. There are plot reasons for that, obviously, but from the future pack poly standpoint, what is relevant is that she was always affectionate about Remus, feeling the need to protect his secret (that she figured out, being decently inquisitive bookworm and nosy observer). She was close enough to him that in a moment of fondness they actually shared a very shy and sloppy first kiss (something Sirius would be bringing up for years and years in the future as a relentless jest). Sirius, on the other hand, riled her up by being an immature bully right until their final year in Hogwarts when he managed to grow up a bit, war and everything happening around him. With that change and with the fact that he was pretty literally smitten by her in a wand duel, they get together by the end of their seventh year and proceed to date along first couple years after. They match pretty well too - she is smart and keeps him on his toes, she doesn't accept his shit and gives as good as she gets - and Sirius cannot help but get enraptured by her sense of honour and logical mind that works best under pressure.

There is too much tension between the two, however, and between Gemma working as an Auror and Sirius' "vigilante activities", their fiery romance burns out in a heated fight and they separate - with Sirius moving in with Remus in a weird attempt to reconcile with his former boyfriend (where Remus is actually quite happy playing the role of rebound, deep insight certain that once the situation gets a bit calmer, Sirius will return to the love of his life that in Remus' eyes Gemma rightfully is).

Unfortunately, all sorts of bad decisions and even worse events lead to the tragedy that we all know well - Potters die, Sirius is imprisoned, everyone basically assume that he was guilty (although Remus, ever blinded by his affection, has the toughest time to accept this).

Over the next decade and a bit, Gemma and Remus grow closer together, being the only remnants of their old friend group. They have good times and bad times - her expertise as an Auror makes her more suited to handle his monthly issues and that leaves him both indebted and having a safe haven to return to when he needs it. But she's also a type that doesn't talk about emotions well - and Remus is left to his overthinking, his silent fears of not being enough for an independent ex-Auror-turned-bounty-huntress. They have a lot of falling outs and get-togethers: Gemma quietly accepts that Remus will eventually get back when he's ready and she thinks it's impossible for her to force him to stay for good - and she loves him too much to even try and make him do something he wouldn't want. Remus is blaming himself for everything bad that happens with or around Gemma and often pushes himself to the last possible hour before the full moon before he resorts to reaching out to her and spending it in her cellar.

Enter events of PoA - when Sirius and Gemma get together again and across series of plot bunnies actually get married (in order to lawfully adopt Harry), Remus wants to quietly run away again, but, alas, plot reasons render him jobless (again). Which prompts Gemma and Sirius to offer him a temporary stay at Grimmauld Place, because where else would he go, when they have so many empty rooms...

And it works out. What neither of the three could manage in separate couples, finally clicks as a triad. Sirius gets the attention he needs, he's a voice for emotions, when they need to be spoken, and when his temper runs too high, it's Gemma's place to tone him down so that Remus is less affected. Remus gets an anchor in them both and in return he gives them all the care and attention, meticulously building a household in old Black mansion out of books, jazz music and warm embraces. He's the force of calm for the trio, he gets to share the responsibility with Gemma, whose mild after-war paranoia makes her ever-prepared for anything that may happen, and he takes part in Sirius' shenanigans when she is rolling her eyes, too solemn to take part in antics.

There's something missing, however. And eventually a fourth person joins, when Dora starts developing feelings for Remus - she doesn't know about their triad arrangement (given that Remus is still horrified at a thought of coming out to anyone outside of the closest found family), but she takes to the idea momentarily. After all, she was having a bit of celebrity crush on the "famous Auror Gemma 'the Occamy'" and after all, she's always up for more pranks with her cousin twice removed... Her romantic relationship focuses on Remus primarily, with him being in a solid enough place emotionally to never consider leaving, even though he's scared shitless when she gets pregnant with him, still haunted by the idea that he can bring a werewolf-cursed baby to the world.

I've written a few short pieces that portray their later pack relationship - with Dora they will eventually be able to raise hers and Remus' children (two), but there will be more kids and teens that will over the years fall under their protection, starting, obviously, with Harry. I think that's when Remus will flourish, being a caring and loving father, drawing from support of his three beloved people, his Pack. I also think that's something Sirius will excel at - while immediately rejecting the idea of having children of his own (Black) blood, he will devote himself to spoiling and raising all the kids who will LOVE HIM to bits.

It's not surprising, I suppose, to add that all four of them have patronuses that share the form of a wolf. They are each other's strength after all.

#the black occamy #sirius black #remus lupin #gemma appleby #dora tonks #pack polycule #idk just rambling I suppose

4 notes · View notes

bgech · 2 years

Text

What's up besties? I'll tell yah, school. Kickin my ass once agian. Whatever. Double life halfslab have my whole heart, this is way more shippy than I intended, enjoy. 3409 words.

Tw for vomit tho, stay safe <3

Sometimes Etho will get skittish and quiet as he sinks into the recesses of the world to sulk or think or do whatever he does when he vanishes.

It seems to be happening now, which is unfortunate because "now" is the middle of a death game.

Etho was fighting off some pillagers and Joel, foolish as he was, thought it'd be funnier if he just sat by and watched. It was funny to Joel ok? Etho is perfectly capable of taking care of a few pillagers and often refuses help if offered in a situation not dissimilar to this. So Joel thought he'd be in the clear with watching his soulbound jump away from most of the arrows and keep on the offensive.

Maybe it was because they were red, maybe it was something else, but even though they never dropped below five hearts -Joel made sure of it- after Etho was done disposing of the pillagers he walked past Joel without a wink of acknowledgement. Immediately Joel stopped his teasing about porcupines and pin cushions to follow Etho into the Relation.

He was too slow up the ladder though, by the time he made it below deck Etho was gone.

It's not the worst thing that can happen, their health isn't going down so he's not in any immediate danger, but even though they have all ten hearts, Etho still got shot. A lot. Healing doesn't pull arrows out of skin, in fact it makes it worse as the arrows are now healed in, granted they're deep enough. Joel can feel the uncomfortable pulling as they're shifted while Etho moves.

He feels a sharp pain on the back of his leg, one that sends him to sit on his bed while it passes. It's not enough to take a heart away so he can't even eat to heal it. Etho's pulling out the arrows somewhere, alone, probably in the dark. Despite his nature to lurk in the deepest shadows and slink away to seep into the void, he hates the dark. Joel knows he hates the dark.

When Etho went with Impulse down into the deep dark he came back with not much enchanted gear and way too many torches. Every square inch of their base was bright as daylight, to the point where Joel couldn't sleep. He asked Etho about it a few days later and got him to confess that he hated dark spots. Still wasn't used to the new spawn patterns of all that go bump in the night.

There was another pain, this one in his shoulder, this one a lot worse. It took a few hearts and when Etho decided that healing was optional, Joel decided to find him. He was going to give him space and time to be alone, etho likes his own company more than anyone else's and is probably the only person Joel knows where it's a better idea to let them isolate. But if etho isn't gonna take care of himself he needs finding.

Now, finding etho is one of those things that doesn't happen. Especially when he vanishes. Etho does not want to be found so he will stay hidden. Joel knows this, everyone knows this. So how is Joel gonna do it? Well he's gonna cheat.

<Smallishbeans> etho's gone

<Grian> that's our problem because...?

<TangoTek> ditched ya?

<Smallishbeans> no, he's gone. like, sunk into the cracks of your server gone.

<ZombieCleo> oh shit!

<Pearlescentmoon> uh oh!!

<Grian> o no, ok, everyone stay put, stay still, joel i'll be right there

He hates to make Grian go all admin mode in the middle of a session but..well even though it's just a game Joel has become quite attached to Etho, and would like him to not be bleeding somewhere in the dark.

Grian does arrive, in all of his purple eyed glory, to ask exactly what had happened to make Etho run off into the night. At which Joel had to look Grian in his many, many eyes and admit that he was being a bit of an asshole while Etho was getting shot, at which Grian just looked..so disappointed. Mostly at Joel, some at himself, but man. A many eyed disappointed stare has a lot more power than the normal, expected, two eye experience.

Joel just feels worse when Grian sighs, rolls his shoulders, and blips away in a flurry of obstructed code and feathers. He decides to just go inside and make sure he has enough bandaids to cover for all the freakin arrow holes Etho is sure to have. So he sits there, twiddling his thumbs until he hears Grian shout something indignant from over the hills and Etho comes skittering in through a window, some arrows still in him.

He freezes briefly when he catches sight of Joel but when Grian's footfalls sound on the deck he scrambles under Joel's bed. Etho's an arctic fox but he's a sewer rat man at his core. He steals, he vanishes, he squeezes into places he Very Much Shouldn't be able to fit in. And, and he lives in the walls, in the basements of the world, so it's no surprise when he chooses to burrow underneath something when push comes to shove.

Grain climbs down the ladder, holding Etho's jacket and looking more out of breath than Joel has seen him during the whole damn game. He tosses the coat at Joel's face, muttering something about fixing his mistakes and Etho being a "slippery little shit when he wants to be". Grian then fucks off to probably fix whatever he broke chasing Etho back home.

They sit for a while in the quiet, the only sounds being the critters outside in the night.

"He's gone," Joel says to the empty air, "you can come out now, I don't bite" Etho shifts under the bed, his fluffy tail brushing against the back of Joel's ankle making him jump.

"Etho I know you hate the dark, and I know for damn sure you're bleeding all over my nice floors under there"

Etho responds with a very respectable growl.

"I know, I was mean to you, shouldn't have been," he dangles a box of bandaids below the bed frame, "I've got batman bandaids," he sing-songs, "and I'll make you some borscht"

Etho snatches the box and tells him to go away, which he does. If Etho wants privacy, then privacy he shall get. Plus he promised him borscht and like hell Joel is going back on that.

Making borscht is not a skill Joel has honed, but living with etho has made him learn how to make a decent pot. He gets through the whole process before he feels Etho pull out another arrow, this one rips at the skin more than he'd have liked to know and he hears a stifled yelp from the window.

Balancing two bowls of borscht, holding spoons, and climbing down a ladder is hard and he's suddenly very thankful that he built the Relation. Unbeknownst to everyone there's a trap door at ground level, which he uses to enter instead of breaking his neck on the way down.

Now, Etho is not a pitiful man. Though he's wire thin, impressively quiet and often alone, he's a very respectable player. He's profound in redstone, great at building and not half bad at pvp, especially in the forever vaguely mentioned "good ol' days". But looking at him now, it is hard to believe. In nothing but his trousers and mask he's struggling to reach an arrow lodged between his shoulder blades, ears pinned to the side of his head, he's really got the Kicked Puppy look about him.

"Etho," he doesn't startle, just turns to look at Joel with mistrust, backing away with his hands slightly raised, "can I get that for you etho?"

"..you actually made borscht?"

" 'course I did, you can eat it while I, y'know, make you less full of holes?"

"mm, ok, fine"

"Thank you, I'll be gentle I promise"

"You don't need to be gentle Joel, I can take a little pain y'know"

"I know just," he takes a breath, "just let me do this for you Etho, think of it like an apology hm?"

Etho's ears perk up for a moment before swiveling like he's misheard. He glances at all the corners of the room, a perimeter check, before taking the offered bowl and spoon and sitting on Joel's bed. Not his own, because it's been overturned to make a nice little cave for him to sleep in.

He reaches up to lower his mask but hesitates, throwing a glance back at Joel who's getting a cloth saturated with warm water and his ears flick back again.

"I won't look Eth, just enjoy the stew"

Etho turns away, lowering his mask and taking a sip, "it's a soup"

"Right right, my bad, soup it is. I'm gonna get this arrow out now, ok?"

"..ok"

With the help of the warm cloth and proper angling the arrow slides out without much protest. His back twitches at the feeling involuntarily but Etho's still happily eating the borscht and Joel can confirm that it didn't hurt too bad. He thought about making a comment along the lines of "isn't that better than ripping em out" but it'd do more harm than good so he keeps it to himself.

He replaces the arrow with a patch and puts a bandaid on top for good measure. There's a few other spots that Etho missed or just didn't have time to get to so he starts on cleaning away the dried blood and patching up those too. By the time that Etho's back is clean and bandaged he's finished his borscht and his head is bobbing slightly.

"You falling asleep etho?"

"Mmm"

"D'you wanna get in your cave or..?"

"..maybe." He leans back, mask back in place, and knocks his forehead against Joel's ribs, "maybe not..?"

"What's got you so clingy?" He asked as brushes his thumb over etho's forehead, sweeping back unruly bangs, "not that I'm complaining but, you've never been..well like this, I suppose"

"You're not dark"

"I'm not what?"

"It's still dark and..well, you're not" it was now that Joel noticed that etho's hands looked to be dipped in black ink, the space around his eyes having the same treatment, like eyeliner on a rainy day. "Can you stay here till it's bright again?"

"Oh, Etho of course I can, just, ok just give me a moment alright?"

Etho, albeit very reluctantly, lets himself be detangled from Joel, who gets up to change into something to sleep in. He also puts away Etho's empty bowl and his still full one to save for later. He contacts Grian that everything is ok, who then contacts the rest of the server saying the session can continue. By the time he returns Etho has decided that waiting up for him was overrated and inefficient. He's commandeered Joel's blanket to wrap around himself with his head under the pillow. That's right, under it.

The left side of the bed is still free and Etho did say he wanted him to stay, so instead of awkwardly trying to disturb whatever peace etho's found, he just climbs in next to him and opens his book to read. Etho curls around him and comes out from under the pillow to shove his masked face into Joel's side. Joel makes the mistake of glancing down after a paragraph only to make eye contact with Etho's best puppy eyes.

Here's the thing about Etho's eyes. They're pretty large in comparison to the rest of his face, maybe it's because of the mask blocking everything else from sight, but fact of the matter is Etho has big, sad eyes and he knows it. He uses it to his advantage at every turn, every moment he can he puts on the Sad Eyes and he'll get what he wants. This is all well and good, except for the fact that Joel doesn't know what he wants.

"What is it?"

Etho whines at him, a very distinctly not human sound.

"Do you want me to read aloud? That it?"

Etho settles back to his previous position, letting his eyes relax into the half closed state they're usually in.

Alright then, he can read out loud. Not well nobody said he was good at it, but it can be done, and if it'll keep Etho calm for the night then who's he to say no?

And though every time he reaches a character name and he has to pronounce it out loud for the first time, failing at least twice, and every time he comes across a word like "grotesque" he has to fight back the urge to say "gro-tes-que", Etho seems to be enjoying himself. How does he know? Well Etho's wrapped himself up in a little burrito roll, every part of him covered, save for his face of course, and the very end of his tail. The end of a tail which is constantly tapping away on the mattress.

As long as he's happy, Joel is happy too.

He gets through a surprising amount of the book before Etho gives it up and closes his eyes. He had been blinking lazily for the past however long, obviously exhausted from whatever run around he did avoiding grian, but trying to stay awake anyway. But now he lay still as a rock, tucked carefully into Joel's side. Joel himself is just as tired so he decides that a nap won't hurt. It's not really a nap now that it's past midnight, it's just sleep, but he has a bit of a sneaking suspicion that the Dark will be making another appearance before the sun rises.

He drifts off easily, how can he not? He's warm and safe and he's got someone curled around him, holding him gently. He doesn't dream, never has, and maybe he never will. It doesn't matter to him.

What does matter is the fact that he's been proven right. He usually likes being proven right because that means he wins, he was correct all along and they were foolish to think otherwise. He does not like being proven right when it's about the dark. They've only been through it once before, etho's first night after the warden shenanigans went down. He had gone under his bed into the cave he'd built, only to wake Joel up when he jolted awake and tried to run. Thing about having a cave for a bed is the escape routes are one way and quite narrow, so in his panic to get out of the dark and away from the warden that he was sure was right there, he ran into just about every corner and wall on his way out.

Needless to say that it hurt and combined with the pain and the noise Joel was awake and at his side fairly quickly. Joel, for all he's worth, is not the greatest at calming people down, he knows this. So in his attempt to stop Etho from suffocating them to death via panic attack, he got them both outside and made etho stare at the sun for a few minutes. It didn't calm him down at all, but the confusion of why he was unceremoniously dragged outside and then forced to look at the big ball of burning gas was enough of a puzzle to get him to breathe again. Maybe the wind and light was what did it, who knows.

It was a big win for everybody involved.

Staring at the sun, while a nice confusion tactic, hurts the eyes and is not actually recommended by anyone of any sorts of smarts. So maybe don't stare at the sun, it'll hurt ur eyes

Anyway, Joel was proven right when at around 3, maybe 4, Etho's subconscious decided that it was no longer a good idea to be asleep. Joel woke up to etho sitting up rather abruptly. In his sleepy haze he didn't realize why and was honestly just annoyed that his pillow had left him.

"Y'aright etho"

He doesn't get an answer, just a wet sounding cough, which is bad for a lot of reasons. Is it blood? Vomit? Just spit stuck in Etho's throat?

"Etho"

He sits up and puts a hand on Etho's shoulder, trying to turn him around to maybe get a better idea of what's wrong. Etho shakes his head and pulls away, coughing into his hand again, sounding worse than before.

"Bucket?"

He nods and coughs again, doubling over as it doesn't stop. Joel gets up from the bed and tries to find a bucket before Etho's willpower loses against whatever is choking him but in all his frantic searching he finds nothing but the empty borscht bowl from earlier. If it's as bad as it sounds the bowl is not going to be nearly enough, he has to find a goddam bucket, or Etho is going to drown in his own misery in front of him and, oh it was staring him right in the face the whole time.

He returns to Etho's side not a moment later and shoves the bucket under him just as Etho's hand moves out of the way and he makes a god awful retching sound. Joel looks away for common courtesy, nobody likes to be looked at when they throw up, but he doesn't move from his post next to Etho. He knows from personal experience that it's good to have something solid to lean on after a long bout of throwing up, and while the wall is there it's probably not very nice to bump into after a go like this.

So he stays while Etho continues to spit and hack into the bucket and he stays when Etho starts to cry in between heaves of sour smelling, bloody looking gunk. He stays a warm presence at his side as Etho coughs and coughs again, trying to rid himself of the Dark that's crawled inside his lungs and infected his stomach. He's there to catch him when Etho finally, finally finishes and crumples to the side. He lets etho recover for a moment before he gets up to get him a wet rag to wipe his face with. He then takes the bucket outside and burns it. And when he gets back from his impromptu bonfire he'll give etho a cold glass of water and make a show of turning around so he can drink.

"Feeling any better?"

"Mm-mm" Etho shakes his head negative

"I sort of figured," Etho huffed a laugh, "but I am sorry that whatever..that..was happened"

Etho didn't respond, just hummed a little and curled his arms around himself in a loose sort of hug. Joel could only see his eyes but he still looked like a sick dog about to be taken out back. He's still not got a shirt so Joel turns to find him one, that'll make him feel better, right? Not so exposed. A harder task than once thought because Etho likes to squirrel away all of his things into little holes and cubbies and containers all around which leads Joel to just give up and give Etho one of his own. With the height difference he was initially worried about it being much too small, but Etho's all legs and bone anyway, he'll be fine.

He dumps the shirt on Etho's head and settles himself back against the headboard, it is his bed after all.

Concerningly, Etho doesn't move for a few moments, somewhere Else to be sure, but he comes back fast enough that Joel isn't worried about him blipping away again. He stops staring at the back of Etho's head and turns his attention to the ceiling, counting and recounting the grooves of the wood, waiting for Etho to make a decision. A decision that's decided when he feels Etho tentatively lay down next to him, on his side, facing the wall. His hands are curled close to his face, which Joel now notes is uncovered by the normal mask. Instead it's tucked under the blanket, held in place by his hands with his nose exposed.

Etho's ears are back to being relaxed atop his head and his eyes are closed so Joel counts his blessings and settles in for more sleep.

I hate how this ends aach but I wanna post it before class is over lmaoo.

Shout out to all the people who stare at the sun during meltdowns, I'm one of u.

#what are the tags help #double life smp #trafficshipping #ethoslab #joel smallishbeans #i feel like doublelife is one word #doublelifesmp #like that #boat boys #smalletho #ok byebye i gotta go to math :(

92 notes · View notes

livehexmoments · 11 months

Text

OK SO I HAVE AN AU YIPPEE!! I love the hex side characters sm for some reason, im making an entire au centered around them. These are just copy and pasted from my doc i made (and still working on so it might be a little rough!)

So, basic plot summary because it's not that deep: Wizarro found a bunch of supposed “dead” characters somewhere far off into the void on his travels and took them in to travel with him. Some characters like Shrewd and Rocky are actively looking for someone, while others like Jack and Alley just follow because they have nowhere else to go. Catarina joins them later on because she feels bad and wants to at least help them in finding a safe place to stay. Chaos ensues. Adding onto this, I was thinking they would eventually find a place to live in “beneath the Surface” or somewhere like it! (for fellas who don’t know, it's a free game that was made by Carla in canon. It contains the secret ending for the Hex).

Main Cast:

Wizarro:

Description: Very cryptic guy but friendly (Like “I don’t sleep, I dream'' cryptic)!! Always calls people his friend and isn’t afraid of much. Tends to wander from place to place, which is how he found most of them. His magic is VERY weak, even weaker than Moji’s. He’s trying to get better throughout the events of the au and does manage to learn some powerful spells to protect himself and his new found family. At least he is able to fight back and can do some hand to hand combat (he wasn’t the best fighter in combat arena x but got by). He used to work for Gameworks and was assigned to Combat Arena X but quit during the development of Secrets of Legendaria and has chosen a life of wandering in worlds/engine (which explains how he ends up in the weirdest of places). Irving didn’t really care too much, since his hands were full with SOL, so he was able to get away with just leaving. Wizarro is someone who appreciates the newfound company and is actually afraid to lose it. He’s been wandering by himself for a while and it does get pretty lonely.

Appearance: Wizarro still wears the same clothes as he did before, with the addition of a little handbag he carries around, a scarf around his neck, and maybe a patch or two on the shirt. The handbag actually works on cartoon logic, as he seemingly can fit a lot of stuff in there (yet constantly forgets to put what they actually need in there). His sunglasses are still there too and he’s never seen without them. Even when it’s cloudy, he refuses to take it off. One change he does have is with his hair as it grew a bit longer from his travels and he doesn’t want to cut it.

Rocky:

Description: BELOVED ROCKY ...He's so confused on this journey and just wants to go home with his pops (if he could find him that is). He doesn’t remember too much from his death, just the forest and the hat lady shooting him out of existence, which he still has nightmares from. While Rocky is confused, he is also very kindhearted and protective over his new found friends. Like Rust, he doesn’t understand the concept of being a video game character and whatnot and tends to ask a lot of questions. Well, he always did that, he’s just a very curious person. Like to crack jokes and puns to lighten the mood and hear the stories of everyone. His protective nature came naturally from his time in the wasteland, the unfortunate downside is how he usually treats himself as a meatshield and will take a lot of hits for people, which isn't good.

Appearance: Rocky’s appearance hasn't changed too much. Instead of the undies he wears in game, I gave him shorts that are a bit torn up from being in the wasteland for so long. He still wears his worn out sneakers and bandages on his arms. I also gave him a lot more scars. Not only on his arms from those implants when the mods took over, but also just from cuts and bites from when he fought raiders and rad rats. One notable thing I did give him compared to his canonical design is he wears a large brown hooded cloak. I don’t know how he got it yet (thinking either they found it or Wizarro/Mr. Shrewd made it for him) but I wanted him to wear something that was a bit similar to Rust’s hood. I also think that most of the members of this travel gang wear stuff that covers their identity a bit, since they don’t want people immediately recognizing them and causing issues (especially Gameworks).

Jack:

Description: SNARKY BITCH. Has a hatred for liars and hates being here sm. The only person he tolerates at first is Wizarro as they knew each other well from Gameworks, everyone else is for him to get used to, ESPECIALLY ALLEY AND JUNIOR. They both annoy him so much. He is still a door, so he moves around with magic and floating. He is the best magic user by a long shot, but his only spells relate to ankhs and that’s it. He says his sense of smell is good…that’s a lie, it’s really bad. He misses his queen sm and he honestly misses Secrets of Legendaria, as he truly did consider it one of the better games he was assigned to.

Appearance: There’s not much I can say about his design because I didn’t change much. I will say that since coming back, he does have a couple of more cracks showing, specifically on his door body, arms, and face. I’m thinking about also just giving him a chipped ear because why not. OH and a tail on the backend that yes, will wag if happy or excited (he hates it).

Alley:

Description: Uncontrollable swearing. Is the reason why Rocky now knows 10 swears including Fuck. He is a pretty strong character too (apparently from dialogue, he was put in the npc detention center for being OP), but only in short bursts. He then gets tired and can’t fight so he’ll either give up or pass out. Known for having a bad temper and short patience. Easily irritated and only calm during rare moments when nothing is going on. Despite all that, he is not one to pick fights unless he’s approached directly and feels threatened…which is a lot of the time.

Appearance: Alley is the one character who died that doesn’t have any major design changes in this au, other than maybe his clothes being scuffed up with rips and a few scratches (he’s perfect as is <3)

Mr. Shrewd:

Description: Wonderful old man and dad. The father figure of the group and someone to keep everyone calm. He’s used to dealing with impatient or jerkish people (see Weasel kid and Mr. Squarrel here), so he can handle whatever fighting is going on that day. Pretty stern yet always giving good advice and support to anyone who needs it. While is a horrible fighter, he is decently quick with getting anyone out of a sticky situation and his ability to burrow underground will be useful. He honestly wants to try and find Weasel and/or Squarrel but realizing how much time has passed, he grows more unsure of that plan since he doesn’t want to upset them and bring back old trauma. “I miss my husband and kid…I miss them a lot. I’ll be back.”. Honestly I think he is pretty protective overall. He’s so used to being like that in Super Weasel Kid 1 and I do think it does come from a genuine fear of seeing people he cares about being hurt in any way :(

Appearance: Mr Shrewd has big ass glasses because of his old ones being “missing” (with mr Squarrel). He also has an amount of gray on his sideburns and mustache as he still is considered a bit older. It applies to his fur too, as the color is much paler. The wiki says he wears a green tee, so i'm gonna change it to be a green plaid sweater vest with the white shirt and tie kept because honestly i like that better. Oh so because he was initially designed (COUGH no legs COUGH), i think that the gang manages to code him in some legs and they’re so small. He would have khakis and a small tail with these new legs.

Moji:

Description: I feel so bad for Moji, he’s honestly seems so nice and just trying his best. Kind of a dumbass and too naive for his own good but he tries. Goofy little guy who’s just trying his best and desperately wanting to spend the time he missed with his kid. The resident healer of the group who makes sure everyone is in good health and spirit (Even if they don’t want it). He can get upset, but it’s very hard to genuinely make him mad or sad. If you do, what’s wrong with you, he’s been through enough. He’s more lenient as a parent, basically letting “the kids” which consists of Junior and Rocky, to do whatever as long as it isn't super dangerous. He honestly forgives Chandrelle for killing him, he isn’t the type of person to hold a grudge (Junior does that for him). He still is apprehensive towards actually seeing her again and honestly I do think that forgiveness comes from him wanting to believe the good in people, even someone like Chandrelle who killed him in cold blood.

Appearance: So many burn marks and a scar from being stabbed by a sword on his chest. It’s honestly kind of horrifying. Moji otherwise has barely any notable design changes such as that. I will mention it here (and it applies to Junior too) but I think moglees’ eyes work in the same way as Olimar’s does in Pikmin. Basically always closed but when expressing extreme shock, fear or anger, go wide open. idk i just thought it would be funny

Junior:

Description: The “Wildcard” of the group. Very chaotic and a “You can’t tell me what to do kind of guy” (except when his dad tells him no). Does not regret killing Jay at all as it was per the agreement. LOVES COMMITTING WAR CRIMES (and regular crimes). He does regret one thing: Blaming his father for abandoning him when that didn't happen at all. He is so traumatized from secrets and his own death it's insane. Loves denying it though to keep up his toxic masculinity. When he finds out about Chandrelle and how Lazarus kept quiet about it, he is going to lose it. While him and Lazarus aren’t the closest or anything, he does respect Lazarus’s skills and actually looked up to him since he was a kid (he thought being a knight was cool, he was like 10). Although being a bit older than Weasel, he is very much more immature than him and doesn’t know how to take responsibility for his actions that well.

Appearance: Junior has a lot of scars from his days in Vicious Galaxy, his child self dealing with the Vallamir attack, and his untimely demise being crushed by debris. He also has some stitches on certain parts of his body that he doesn’t remember getting at all. He absolutely ditches his armor and goes for the most punk/goth clothes you can think of. I can imagine him finding a red trench coat with combat boots and ripped jeans and being like “yep, im wearing this from now on, this is badass”. He carries his shotgun on his back at all times and is not afraid to use it. He’s very much taller than Moji

Jay:

Description: Oh god, this man has so many issues. He is still a meek and cowardly man, but since his death, he’s…changed. He’s honestly become a bit more jaded and bitter, actually getting over his anxiety when the time calls. He’s less afraid of getting into arguments but still is relatively quiet. I know I compare him to Lazarus a lot but they are alike in my eyes. But unlike Lazarus who became more depressed, Jay became more angry. Finally being sick of being treated like a tool and dirt (dying does change your mind lmao). He looks out for everyone as best as he can. Out of everyone, he’s the 2nd person to know most of Reggie’s plan but refuses to ever step foot in there again. His feelings about everything and his death and…them are complicated and too much for him to handle. So he’d rather avoid the pain than confront it. He does not tell the others about it though. Only him and Catarina understand the extent of his revenge and both would rather not let the others know to avoid any potential problems.

Appearance: Jay has scars from the vicious galaxy and his death. But his death scars are the biggest pain to deal with it because they fucked him up physically. I think the shotgun bullets hit his backside (need to check in game and stuff) so id like to think his head, back and maybe arms are a bit fucked. He gets frequent migraines, mood swings, and even can have serious back/arm pains during the worst of it. Jay still wears his old armor (and occasionally wears his old robe if necessary), the only real difference is with the helmet. Think of Master Chief's helmet but with the visor being in shape with the arrow and a removable mouth piece for drinking and eating. He wears it not for protection, but to keep his identity hidden if needed.

Catarina:

Description: Now I was debating on making her a side character or having her be a part of the gang...Ultimately, I chose the latter because 1. Cat lady and 2. I love her. Barely see anything about her so I'm gonna change that. She’s the last person to join their little traveling gang and she didn’t do it out of a big reason or wanting anything. She did it for fun. While she had nowhere else to go, she was feeling rather lonely and just wanted to be with other people. This group seemed chaotic yet welcoming when she stumbled upon them so why not join them? She gets along with everyone fine (especially shrewd who she sees as an old friend). She actually cares about them a lot. The group’s safety is important to her (she grew attached to these silly men) so if she foresees some bullshit, then she will let them know and try to get them to avoid it. She is also someone who knows everything about the plan and stuff, and agrees with Jay that going to the Six Pint Inn is a bad idea. Before the Hex, she actually knew it was going to happen, and yet felt powerless to do something. it’s one of her biggest regrets to let it happen (not because of Lionel but for the npcs that were killed and how the patrons’ lives were basically fucked).

Appearance: No change to her design at all. The only thing I will say is that she can be seen walking more rather than using her carpet everywhere. This was a personal choice by her. She wanted to be on their level and walk alongside them so she only uses the carpet for emergencies or if they need to get somewhere fast (it shockingly can hold all of them but only barely).

#the hex #the hex game #finally im posting this BWUSBWJ #its a little rough but hopefully i got it acrossed alright #im sorry im bad at describing appearances imagery is not my strongsuit at all #ive been working on trying to write more for this and them because i love my interpretations of them too much #i also want to see if i can fit irving and/or vallamir in here #orginally going to be apart of the main cast but i decided against it cause i just couldn’t make them fit

8 notes · View notes

gnegon-g · 5 months

Text

Having finally watched Arcane I started thinking what other Piltover & Zaun champions I'd like to see in S2 and which I'd rather have the showmakers NOT include and so I assembled a simple list of yes's and no's just so I can be annoying with my shitty little opinions

who I'd LIKE to see:

Renata Glasc: seems the obvious choice, Silco's demise surely left a void to fill and frankly none of the other chembarons introduced in the series seem fit to be anything more than third-rate characters. Plus, Sevika's effectively lost her job and she'd definitely like Renata's business model

Urgot: my man, my boy. Same as above, really. This is a very good moment to introduce him, especially with the whole theme of Zaun barely becoming its own independent thing now. Unfortunately I have little hope since he's unpopular among players, is difficult to animate and would completely fill the frame in every shot

Twitch: what can I say I love the asshole rat. I'd be happy if he even appeared for just a moment, but there could be like a scene where characters end up in a sewer and realize there's something really fucked up there

Janna: I'm always a sucker for Janna representation, especially after her LoR redesign. But I don't so much need her to appear on screen as just be mentioned as something Zaunites believe in. Maybe a statue somewhere? I feel this isn't a good story to get actual deities involved

Ziggs: Heimerdinger needs a buddy now, come on. Ziggs could show him that making deadly weapons is actually very fun and productive and definitely safe

Camille: honestly I don't care much for Camille but I'm willing to believe Arcane could convince me otherwise. She has potential

and now why I DON'T want to see THESE guys:

Corki: who gives a shit about Corki? It's a badly designed character all around and I feel like that's irredeemable. His two paragraphs of entire lore put him in Piltover but honestly if you're not gonna delete him from Runeterra completely then move him to Bandle City with the Bandle Gunners and have him not interact with humans at all cuz there's no way that could work imo

Dr. Mundo: I love Mundo but there's no way in hell he could fit into this series. They'd probably delete everything that makes him funny and turn him into a generic tragic character and I don't care how well that'd be written or animated, I don't want the chadification of Mundo to continue

Orianna: same as above, I love Orianna but she'd require so much screentime to do her justice. Anything less would be an affront to the character

Seraphine: I wouldn't be surprised if they make like a bar concert scene with her or something but I just don't give a shit

Zeri: fuck Zeri all my homies hate Zeri

Ezreal: we are not ready for the YA Netflix side of Tumblr discovering Ezreal. trust me

Blitzcrank: beep boop boring

Zac: absolutely can't fit into the series' mood, don't even try (and 100% they won't, Riot clearly doesn't care about Zac)

#league of legends #arcane #lol #league of legends arcane #arcane netflix

3 notes · View notes

seizethecringeofproduction · 1 year

Text

Sins of the Condemned

When everything went white, there had been a sense of relief and hope. Relief and hope that maybe, in their next world, things wouldn't turn out so horrible.

Unfortunately for her and everyone else, they would soon learn the true consequence of what they had done. Just as all others had.

When she returned to consciousness, she found herself not in a void of blinding white light but rather in one of a pitch-black abyss, with a musty odor of mold and decay entering her nostrils and a feeling of warm, soggy dampness on her left cheek. Cringing in disgust and jolting herself up to her knees, she opened her eyes to find a sight that made the void look more appealing; it was not the island that the Titans Tower was built upon but rather a seemingly man-made hallway. The dampness came from the coarse, wet and moldy carpet which was either brown or had turned that way. Some spots were darker and more drenched than others. The walls were a dull green, with faded arrows in between vertical lines painted endlessly across, leading up to a plain white tiled ceiling that looked a sickening yellow in the flat lights that repeated throughout.

Speaking of which, in her ears, there was a light humming noise that she at first attributed to these lights. She could just barely comprehend it, but a gentle drumming wouldn't go away no matter how much she tried to focus on her surroundings; not that there was much else to focus on, this hall was seemingly endless both in front of and behind her, with turns and corridors being thrown about haphazardly without rhyme nor reason.

"Where am I...." looking down at her feet and body, she could at least confirm she was still herself. She was still Raven, or Rachel Roth, now fully blossomed as the 'White Raven', with her usually dark violet hooded cloak a bright white instead along with the rest of her tunic even including her heeled boots. Her face was now full rather than the emaciated state it had been before, and her jet-black hair still reached her shoulders. Everything else about her appearance was the same as before she had ended up in his place. Speaking of which, "What is this place?" was her next question muttered into this strange dimension.

She would receive no answer.

"I need to find Damian, Constantine, Clark, Diana...someone...anyone..." saying that as she realized she'd find none if she just stood there idly she started moving, taking her first steps forward into the endless hall. The wet and sloppy sounds her heels made upon contact with the carpet were disgusting, and she even rubbed her face in concern for what she may have been laying in, but she couldn't put too much thought into it. She had to, somehow, find a familiar face. If any were even there.

Everywhere she turned, everywhere she looked, there was only a seemingly endless expanse of the same thing. Halls and corridors. There was nothing at all to distinguish the few meters of carpet she had just walked through from the infinity in front of her. It was the same bland square room with the same four borderless archways inside with literally every step she took. All with the same molded carpet and torn, fading wallpaper, which made her nausea woefully increase.

"What is this place?" she gently asked herself with a sickened whisper, once again scanning her eyes across the landscape only to find that for as far as her eyes can see it was merely the same 'room' repeated over and over again from all sides, as though she was perpetually staring into some mirror that wasn't there. Aside from that faint droning hum, there was no sound beyond that of her footsteps and the flutter of her hooded cloak as she walked. Yet, despite not actually seeing any sign of life, in her mind she still felt like something was in this place. Somewhere.

Perhaps that faint noise was just getting to her.

Keeping her head towards the floor and cradling both hands to either of her shoulders in a self-embrace, she started hoarsely coughing as she continued her trek through these mysterious halls and corridors.

She kept thinking about whether or not she would encounter any life here, human or otherwise.

This entire structure looked man-made, though there was no actual reason to live in such a place. It was seemingly devoid of any amenities that a sapient being would require. There was no furniture, no plumbing, no electricity, nothing but plain and empty space. For eternity.

Yet just as she realized that she heard a faint noise from just ahead of her. It was different from the faint humming, it was much more clear and familiar. The sound of unmistakable static from what had to be an electronic device. Perking her head up she approached the direction of this noise, turning a corridor to her left and finding an inexplicably wider line with the repeating thinner ones on all sides. In the center of this rectangular atrium however lay a lone television set about 25 inches in screen size, all cased within a primitive wooden box—something straight out of the 1980s. Its screen was on, though unable to get any signal it instead just perpetually played static. There was no remote to be found. She thought that perhaps if she could find the remote and get a signal on this thing, she would be able to at least get some sense of where she was, and how to get out of there.

It was when she looked behind the television set that her heart sank though.

It was not plugged in.

The black cord extending from it ended but a few feet away from it, and was not connected to any outlet—there wasn't even any on the visible walls at all. Yet, somehow, the television remained on, playing its sound of repeating static out into the ether.

This realization filled Raven's heart and mind with a sensation of dread.

Soon her stunned head found itself turning back the way she had come when she thought she had heard a faint noise from many feet behind her. She found nothing, but it had been a sound different from both the static and the humming. It sounded like a loud thud from the halls just behind the entrance she had come from, and it was only giving her more apprehension; especially as when she turned around, she saw nothing but the expanse of those repeating corridors. Yet she knew what she had heard, and against better judgment, she called out to it.

"Who's there?" she said, trying her best to put her fear beside her and show her Titan bravery, "Show yourself now!"

She received no answer.

If it had been one of her friends, they would have simply come out of hiding and approached her.

If it was not them, however...

Or perhaps, it was nothing after all? She shouldn't jump to such conclusions, it could have very well just been a piece of the wall or ceiling falling off given the strong stench of mold in this place.

Calming herself with the latter explanation, she took a deep breath and slowly backed away. Eventually slowly turned herself back to the endless path ahead of her and continued down it once, giving it a few more moments of stand-off just to make sure nothing was pursuing her. The question of whether that was the sound of dilapidation or a living being would not entirely leave her, nor would the thought that just maybe she was being stalked.

When she reached the back entrance of this bizarre atrium, she did find herself re-entering the same repeating hallways that she had seen before or while inside her. To her further bewilderment, she instead found herself inside a massive, almost warehouse-sized room containing nothing but small columns painted the same as the repeating walls found throughout this entire place. So large was it that the walls did appear many miles away, and even so as they only led to more repetitive chambers they never truly looked entirely like exits at all.

This was when Raven stopped in her tracks.

When she had seen this place from the room she was previously in, she had seen that it was the same set of repeating halls that she had been in before. She was able to see the "preview" of it clearly from the atrium with the television set; there was no sign of these columns. There had been no indication that the place had changed or shifted, nor that it even could do such a thing. She had been looking in this place's direction, and yet she hadn't noticed this blatant change in geography until she was already within it. The fact she hadn't perceived this change was what scared her more than the change herself. She was used to the existence of illusory magic, though somehow that rationalization didn't work to calm her nerves this time.

Her eyes once more widened and body slightly shaking, she asked herself once more with a soft, startled whisper "What is this place?"

Against better judgment, she let her distrust of this unexplained shift control her movements as she instead turned back towards the atrium from which she had come in the hopes of returning to some familiar ground—the only other chamber in this building which had been unique at all; only she found no such familiarity. In other words, once she turned around and walked back through that square archway back into the room with the television, she found herself not within that room at all. It also had seemingly shifted itself into being a different place entirely.

Much to her shock, she now entered the room descending a smooth wedge-shaped ramp, the "arch" she passed through suddenly seeming about the width of a garage door the moment she had completely passed through it with no sound even implying it had transformed. To her bewilderment, the room was now about the same size as the previous one with all of the small columns though was far emptier in being entirely devoid of any noteworthy features at all.

At least, except for one.

Right ahead of her, some indiscernible few meters ahead, in direct alignment with her body, was a perfectly square hole in the wall leading out into what appeared to be a pitch-black abyss. Once more did her heart feel like it was sinking into her stomach, practically gulped as a shiver of fear ran down the length of her spine? She couldn't explain, not even to herself, what brought her so much fear and apprehension despite there not visibly being any danger. Perhaps it was the way this place now seemed to be shifting its geography with so much as a breeze in the wind to indicate any change had even happened at all, making her feel as though her own perception of reality was disturbed in some way; and of course, these movements of what seemed to be reality itself implied that there was some kind of presence within this place—and she did not want to find out any more of it.

After calming herself with a deep breath, Raven progressed toward the mysterious crevice in the wall. She lightly trembled as she did so, not sure of what she would find on the other side. As she slowly neared it, levitating herself just high enough to peer into it, she saw that on the other side was a small square-shaped room with indeed the same carpeting and wallpaper as the rest of this place thus far, except there were no lights besides a single ray coming from the room Raven was already in. There was also a long narrow hallway leading into another black abyss, the dimness of this other room's light completely masking whatever it led to.

Scanning her eyes across what she could see, she found nothing of any real note in this small room, another location completely devoid of any real detail.

However, she couldn't bring herself to enter it.

Much like the rest of this place, there was just no reason for any of it. This room had nothing to give her a reason to enter it—being that it was darker than the one she was already in, she had more reasons to avoid it.

At least until she heard something from behind her.

It was hoarse, bitter breathing accompanied by sour wheezing. A new horrid smell soon thereafter entered her nose, the unmistakable stench of disgusting bile and decaying flesh. Hot and rotten breath spewed onto the back of her neck, her eyes now widened more than ever as she trembled. She would typically have no fear about facing things like this, but her empathic powers were now kicking in—and she was not liking what they were picking up. The emotions she was reading could best be summed up as hatred pure and simple. Hatred, and evil. Even more than that of Darkseid or her father. In fact, a complete absence of any positive emotions. Merely contempt. Never before had she felt such disdain towards her in her entire life, nor had she ever thought that she was in such danger; not even when she was storming the tower of Darkseid himself did she feel so much dread coursing through her mind.

Swallowing her spit in a now truly frightened gulp as she began to tremble, Raven slowly turned her head and vision to the direction of what was behind her as it continued to exhale its foul breath onto her.

She knew that she wasn't ready for whatever it was that lurked behind her, though also that nothing would change that.

When she saw what stood a mere feet away from her, her entire body froze in horrified numbness. A tingling akin to that of sleep paralysis took over her as she locked up in terror. The figure before her eyes was a familiar one, with the "was'' being very much key. Once he had been a friend and a fellow titan known to her as Superboy, also known as Conner Kent. In life, he was youthful and cocky, though, a capable young man who not too long ago had offered glimmers of light in the otherwise dark and serious demeanors of heroes like Damian and Raven. Damian often found him an annoyance while Conner seemed to enjoy messing with the boy wonder's head. He had only experienced the wonders of the world for a mere 2 years and 6 months after busting out of his tube at LexCorp, and only had 6 months more of experiencing having a family at all before all he had was a man who saw him as a liability and two people who saw more value in having a family of their own in the absence of John and Martha.

Raven had not thought much of Lois' decision to sacrifice Conner to the Paradooms during the war. She had always cared much more for Damian than she did any of the other Titans, so much so that she didn't think at the time to point out to Lois that Doomsday had managed to kill a full Kryptonian nor that bringing a being with Clark's power set would be rather useful going into Apokolips. She didn't think to see it like that at all, she only concerned herself with whether or not Damian was alright. Only now, when the consequences of her inaction finally stood to face her in a bitter act of hate and defiance, did she at last feel guilt.

Conner was not the happy, smiling boy he once was in life. He was now an embittered, grotesque, and decaying monster. His skin was pale and in a perpetual state of rot and decay, with his body being host to horridly excessive growths of biomass all across, giving him a hunched-over posture and causing him to only barely resemble his original form at all. The largest grouping of tumors were centered around the back of his neck and his upper back in general, and each of them was merely an extension of his decomposing flesh. His left arm had now become thin and spindly, its fingers elongated like the branches of a tree though motioned like whips; all textured like the decomposing form of a corpse. His face, once vibrant and beaming with youth, was now miserable and sunken in, with much of it being inflamed and bleeding. Foul-smelling puss and other fluids pulsated from his pores and other orifices, even drooling disgustingly from the corners of his mouth. Speaking of which, his facial expression was no longer a smirk, but now his jaw lay open, letting out horrific sounds of both anger and agony as his soulless eyes looked upon the girl who he once viewed as a teammate and friend.

From what Raven's empathy could read, he no longer viewed her as such. As her heart raced as fast as it could go, she saw nothing of the Superboy she once knew. She saw only a being that wanted her to suffer as he was suffering. The sounds rattling her eardrums were a horrific, blood-curdling mix of animalistic roars and cries of abject agony. She couldn't tell if he was crying for relief, or her death. Perhaps it was both.

Still hoping that some humanity was to be found within him, some remnant of a soul, Raven reached a hand out to him. "Conner....it's me...Rachel...I'm...I'm sorry about what-" With a single crack of the tendrils that had once been his left hand, he wrapped her right arm and violently tossed her aside and to the ground. So vicious was this that he had managed to elicit a scream from the top of her lungs as she felt a piercing pain throughout her body. As she tried to stand herself up, she soon realized to her horror that with this one attack, he had managed to rip the entire arm clean off of her. Worse, he had devoured it. As she desperately tried to hold her cloak close to her bleeding remnant of a limb, she watched as he tossed her severed extremity into his maw and crunched it to pieces; her blood splattering onto the carpet beneath their feet.

The message was clear.

There would be no forgiveness.

All she could do was run, and run she did.

With all of the strength she could muster Raven forced herself back up to her feet and made a mad break for it, just barely evading the mutated Superboy as he let out a gurgling scream and pounced onto where she had just previously been. Raven only had a split second to decide what direction she was going to head in, and she chose the way from which she had come. So fast were her thoughts racing that she didn't even realize she hadn't returned to the column room but was rather racing down a narrow hall with senseless sudden turns and sporadic corridors - but she headed only straight ahead, her instincts taking over. She didn't even look back towards where her pursuer had been, she could hear his angered yet tortured screams from behind her.

Unfortunately, with all of her surroundings looking so indistinguishable from each other her ever more to an extent she felt as though it would soon burst from her chest.

Raven's perception of time was already long disrupted by the nature of this place and her skin running paler than usual with the loss of blood from her now severed arm it did not take long for her vision to begin blurring and her balance beginning to collapse even in the face of how hard her body was trying to pump out adrenaline to keep her running. There was no telling if this was truly instantaneous or if it was the product of fleeing from her pursuer for hours.

With a truly high-pitched scream, she fell, losing her balance after taking a sharp turn just as the beast that was once Superboy had nearly caught up with her. However, she did not know that the hall she turned into was actually a stairway and as a result, she violently tumbled down it. Her screams were repeatedly cut off by the loud thuds she made as she hit each step on the way down. When she finally reached the bottom and was left laying on a carpet being increasingly stained by her blood, left stunned after her fall and unable to see due to the incredible darkness of the chamber she had now found herself in, she could do little else besides let out soft and barely audible whimpers. She worried at this moment that her legs no longer worked, as for the first few seconds she couldn't move either of them. On top of it all, she could feel her blood seeping from her nose and into her mouth.

Using the arm she still had intact she tried to pull herself at least partially back up, only to find herself trapped in complete darkness. Only the vague shape of the impossibly long stairway she had fallen was visible behind her, and for once she was also in true complete silence besides that of her voice with not even the humming being audible to her ears once they finally stopped ringing.

Raven found the silence even more unnerving than the alternative.

At first, Raven wanted to just let her head fall back down onto the floor and drift into unconsciousness in the hope that perhaps she would at last wake up from this cruel nightmare and be in that promised new reality that the third flashpoint was supposed to have created. She wanted to simply give up, plain and simple, increasingly convincing herself that there was nothing else for her to do. After feeling such intense hatred and rage from what little remained of Conner, all of it directed at her mere presence, much of her will to continue living had once again left her.

Perhaps if she just gave up, it would at least be over soon.

The only thing to prevent her from surrendering was the breaking of the silence around her.

It was a faint, echoing noise from somewhere beyond the darkness. A scream. A scream from a voice that was very similar to her. Parking her head up and in the direction of it, she heard it a second time.

"D-Damian?" she said, recognizing the voice to be that of her beloved Damian, whom she last remembered sharing an embrace and kiss with moments before the light of the flashpoint had consumed both of them.

His scream was not of her name, but it was in the form of distress.

"Damian!" she yelled, suddenly motivation overtaking her as she first tried to crawl towards the echo of his voice, her heart once again racing as she feared the worst.

Eventually, she mustered the courage to stand onto her feet, forcefully snapping her legs back into place by both willpower and by slamming them against the floor with all the magic she could muster, screaming with all her might from the necessary pain from doing so. Once on her feet again, she would not allow herself to falter any further, the thought that her only beloved was in the same peril that she had been before proved more than enough motivation. The pain radiating through her body now served as a constant reminder of her determination and it was with a deep breath that Raven focused all of her magical energy, channeling it into her limbs, reinforcing them with a newfound strength.

Ignoring the throbbing ache from her severed arm and still stinging legs, she persevered one step at a time. Every stride sent shockwaves of agony through her and she could only move with a hardened limp, but she pushed through, refusing to succumb to the pain. Each step became a testament to her resilience, a declaration of her unyielding spirit.

How unfortunate that this was all in vain.

Journey deeper into the quite literal howling dark, she had no idea of where she was headed or what her surroundings even were. All she had to guide her were the memories of where Damian's echoing screams had come from. They had stopped being heard by the time she was limping towards them, her screaming of his name yielding no responses.

"Damian!" she continued to scream into the still air, "Damian! Don't die on me, Damian! Not again!"

Never a particularly religious person (in fact suggesting such would be incredibly ironic) Raven now found herself mentally praying that she would reunite with Damian the moment she found her way out of this void. She prayed, practically begged, that this nightmare would end shortly. Her pleas would go unanswered.

Though she was too distracted by Damian's potential peril to take any notice of it, it was apparent to her ears that her surroundings were different than they had been before her fall. No longer were her feet moving across moist carpets stained by hot warm mold, but rather they were clapping against what had to either be concrete or tiling. The sounds were too indistinguishable for a judgment to be confidently made, and the location was too dark for the same purpose as well.

Until it wasn't.

In yet another defiance of all she knew about the rules of reality, there was suddenly a light far ahead of her that she hadn't even caught a trace of before. Heading towards it as quickly as she could in her state, she found herself and her surroundings slowly illuminated by this literal bright end of the tunnel—and yes it could be confirmed that she was this entire time traversing an area of stone and concrete. Only at the very end of the tunnel could she barely make out that this second area resembled vaguely an underground parking lot, except with the ramps placed without any particular logic and an equally senseless placement of walls; there was also a curious absence of any vehicles, though the visible parking spaces were drawn in strange and obtuse angles and often intersected with each other anyway.

There was no time for Raven to check whether or not any figures were lurking in the shadows beyond the radius of light. She was too fixated on leaving this area as quickly as she could.

Her hope that this was some exit from this horrible building and out into the real world yet again was soon dashed however, once her body passed through the blinding light of the tunnel's end and her eyes also adjusted to what lay on the other side her optimistic smile turned yet again into a defeated and pessimistic frown. She found no salvation. She found only an extension of the labyrinth she had been sealed within, even if it was one far different from where she had just been.

"No..." she uttered beneath her breath, scanning her tired eyes across the new landscape presented to her, repeating that word over and over at a just barely audible volume, "No...no...no, no, no...."

Laid out before her, there was a more pleasant though no less unnerving location than the endless hallways halls from mere moments ago; it was also no less an endless expanse. She was standing at the edge of an all-white tiled platform with black creases down the middle of each tile. These titles themselves were repeated across both the floor and walls, only shifting to plain off-white plaster on the ceiling which itself often had random contours and crevices that much like the rest of this place seemed to be designed without any real rhyme or reason.

At her feet was the very last centimeter of dry tiles before she would have taken a dip into the waters of a rectangular pool of murky blueish-green water. Raven was standing in the center of the last dry step of a stairway leading directly into the waters, and from what she could tell this "pool" was hardly like that of any pool she'd ever been to. It was at first glance a cross-shaped intersection with dry "land" lining each side up to the side directly in front of Raven's eyes. There stood two rectangular tunnels immediately beside each other, turning into yet more black abysses once each turned into opposing directions.

"What the fuck is this place..." Raven uttered coldly as she scanned the area with her eyes, aside from some sporadic columns reaching to the ceiling there were no real details of note in this chamber.

Worse still, the walkway along the sides did not extend into the tunnels and stopped just short of them. The only way forward would be a trek through the water. This would not normally be a dangerous idea, and Raven would have simply gone and done it had she not looked down and taken note of just why the water was so murky. It didn't take long for her keen eye to notice that the waters were teaming with thick clouds of algae and bacteria practically swimming around the entire length of wherever the water touched. As she still had a very open wound just barely kept safe from the elements, she did not want to take such a risk. Beyond that, as soon as she became aware of what was floating about inside the water she smelled it as well and nearly gagged from the foul odor of death and decay entering her nostrils; she had to back away a few steps to not fall into the water.

Raven stood frozen on the edge of the dry platform, her mind racing to comprehend the twisted reality that confronted her. The stagnant pool before her held a sense of foreboding, its murky depths seeming to whisper tales of hidden dangers to her ears. The faint humming noise from the earlier halls returned to join these murmurs, though now was a louder and clearer sound. It no longer was a faint, droning humming. It was now the faint and distant sound of screaming; the screaming of what had to be millions, billions, or perhaps even trillions of voices crying out in agony from beyond where Raven could see. They came from all directions, from the ceiling, the walls, and even the floors. Raven could feel each of these people's abject terror and agony upon this revelation, all of it flooding into her and overwhelming her with pain and grief. The voices, initially muffled by the geography around her soon seemed so loud that they were sounding off from directly beside her as she fell to her knees with her remaining hand grabbing at her forehead. Not even on Apokolips or within the fiery depths of Hell had the feeling of this much torture been felt. As she was beginning to practically slip out of consciousness from her empathy being strained to its absolute limit she almost vomited, the putrid stench from the water having grown stronger as well; it suffocated her senses and caused her to nearly choke on her fluid as she struggled to retain her composure.

She desperately closed her eyes shut, intensely trying to block out the smell of death and the haunting chorus of suffering. A near-impossible task, one that she very nearly failed, until she remembered what drove her in this direction, to begin with.

"Damian..."

She once more thought back to the final moments after John Constantine had sent Flash off to create a new flashpoint and restart their universe. Herself sitting beside Damian, head resting on his shoulders as they looked on towards the horizon. A beautiful and striking sunset over what ruins remained of Titans Tower, a bit of beauty after a bitter two years of death and destruction. It was a moment that she wished could last forever, but alas it could not. As the light of the incoming flashpoint hurried forward to consume them, they shared one final embrace and kiss upon the lips before facing the howling unknown. She was glad she did not know that this would be what she would wake up to. How she yearned to see Damian's face just one last time if this truly was to be her eternity.

Remembering him though. His young, raven-haired face was the spitting image of a younger and handsome Bruce Wayne though with those emerald green eyes inherited from his mother. Staring right into her own with a very rare and very warm smile across his face. She now feared she could only dream of ever seeing that again, yet remembering it, and also remembering all of the times they had together, managed to have a calming effect on her.

It was during these memories that the sounds and smells around her seemed to peacefully fade, her attention focusing entirely inward and tuning it all out as she remembered only the background voices of the surviving League members behind her and the sound of the ocean around her. The breeze of the Flash ran off to the horizon before that fateful final kiss. She could almost still feel Damian's lips pressing onto hers.

Even in the real world, she almost cracked a smile from these memories. She quite nearly had finally put herself back on the path of further perseverance.

Until the memories started shifting.

They become more real.

Suddenly there no longer was an incoming wave of light, nor was there a tranquil sunset. Instead of the orange and yellow hues, there was only a sickening green and brown coating the entire sky accompanied by a thick and nauseating fog that brought with it the same stench of death that she found in the "real" world. An odor of bile and rot. She was also completely alone on the island, the sensation of Damian's lips touching her own now gone as he vanished without a trace. The ocean around the island, now looking pitch black against the polluted sky, ran completely still with nary a single wave hitting the shore.

"Damian?" she asked, looking around the landscape of the ruined tower and surrounding city for any sign of him and those who had been there before. Growing more panicked by the second as she cried out, "Damian, where are you?!"

It was then that finally, another voice spoke to her.

Yet, it was not a voice she had hoped to hear.

This "alien" voice was deep, graveling, and haunting. Shivers went down Raven's spine as the reverb vibrated around her as it echoed into her eardrums from a place she could not even perceive the following words "He is one with me now," it uttered in what just vaguely came off as sinister delight. "One of many corpses, left within this tomb."

Upon hearing that voice's cold and ghostly words, Raven tried to escape her fantasy and bring herself back to reality, yet she found herself frozen in place. She could not return her vision from what she was imagining back to where she had been before. All of her limbs and muscles had locked up, the tingling numbness of paralysis taking over as if another entity had taken control of her body. She tried with all her might to initiate her demonic abilities, though not even a glimmer of her dark side was allowed to fade into the stained white fabric of her cloak. All she could do was stand there, staring at the empty air where once Damian had sat, a prisoner in her own body and mind as the voice of true evil echoed from beyond existence itself.

She had to fight with all of her might just to be able to move her mouth to talk, and even then it wasn't clear if she did it on her own or if she was simply allowed to.

"Who...what are you?!" she exclaimed

"I, I am the resting place of all sins left behind. I am everything, yet I am nothing. I am everywhere, though nowhere. I am that which eternally lies.”

This entity's penultimate words struck a nerve with Raven, unlocking but one brief memory from before the moment on the island, and in a tired voice she inquired; "Is my father here?"

"He too is part of me now. As with all the other times who have reached their untimely conclusion. His self is now my own, and so is yours."

Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach upon the utterance of those words. Its words were horrifying and cryptic, though still clear enough that she understood what this thing was saying was nothing even remotely good. Right as she contemplated with this beast could mean, her eardrums were assaulted by the symphony of screaming now entering the hallucination as well, this time at full volume as though all the trillions of living beings crying in their sheer suffering were all right next to her; yet once more, in this vision, she was frozen and alone on that island. Not even able to shield her ears from the petrifying onslaught.

As she groaned and struggled against the noise and the numbness of her paralysis with all of the might she had left in her, Raven with her eyes closed tightly screamed loud as she could "No! You won't have me!"

"I already do."

On the outside lay Rachel Roth, once the superheroine Raven, daughter of Trigon and one of the most powerful Teen Titans. She rested now in a tunnel of rotten flesh and putrid biomass, pulsating and gurgling as though it were the massive insides of a living organism or a hive of the most horrific nightmares imaginable. The room she was in was now appearing as what it truly was all along, a monument of death itself. The walls of rotting flesh had various faces protruding out from them, each of them motionless and gazing out into the foul beyond ever expressionlessly. Some were entirely skeletonized, others were still fresh. All were long gone. Mere feet away from her lay flooded tunnels of black sludge, filled with the juices of death and thus forming a dark abyss that no being would want to find themselves within.

Raven herself lay spread out like an angel with her lone arm outstretched and cape spread open beneath her body, her back pressing against the floor of rotting fleshy mass as small tendrils began to wrap around and attach herself to every inch of her. Their texture was like that of a disgusting slime as they passed over her twitching, motionless form. As she was dragged ever slowly into the mass that this place was truly made of, she was observed by the powerless forms of the former allies she had hoped to see again.

Diana, Clark, Bruce, Damian, Kori, Victor, Dick, J'onn, Katar, Mera, and even Ace. All of them had been held directly above where she had been—though they were not themselves anymore and never would be again. Each of them very much resembled the mutated form that Conner had displayed earlier, though unlike him they were all half-absorbed into the landscape itself rather than roaming "freely". Diana, Mera, Victor, Katar, and Kori no longer had their cybernetics on them—though the replacement of grotesque, rotting, and fleshy growths with protruding tendrils were hardly a viable replacement. No longer truly the masters of their consciousness, control only being given back to them so they could witness Raven's fall. The only parts left of Diana, Victor, and Kori that even gave a resemblance of who they once had were only lone eyes of theirs; the rest of their forms had been reduced to a pulsating, twitching mass of decay.

They watched powerlessly as the tendrils which attached themselves to Raven split into thousands more, taking the form of small miniature hands taking hold of her, tearing her skin as they tightened their grip. Even when the entity finally allowed her to exit her illusion and return to reality, letting her bear witness to the true horrors she was now within, she was still paralyzed. She could only gaze in silent terror at her surroundings and at the unbearable, incomprehensible pain as she was consumed by a living floor of the decaying flesh of all those who had ever been "discarded". She wasn't even able to scream.

Only now was it understood by all of them that no reality is ever truly "reset". Only discarded.

12 notes · View notes

jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear · 2 years

Note

I was thinking about how much I love when writers make Scarecrow less depending of fear toxin (using it more as a tool than… his whole thing) and how much I love it even more when there’s some religious symbolism in the story, and my mind kinda came up with a headcanon interaction between him and an arkham doctor? I mean, I have no idea if there was ever something like that, maybe there was and I am unaware of, but I kinda wanted to put it somewhere. (tw for religious guilt? Being watched? Kinda?)

So like, imagine if the doctor is religious, very religious, and deep down believes he is helping God by trying to save His children. And he is unfortunate enough to have interviews with Jonathan Crane, the religious trauma manipulative flour sack. Okay there he is, Jon trying to lead the interview yada-yada, and I can’t help but imagine how he could try to slowly break the doc by talking about God.

Do you think you are doing Him a favor? Helping His mission? Saving people? But and all your failures? Do you really, really believe you are helping these people? Are you here just for money? Isn’t that greed? Imagining these people as inferior to you, is what you do really a favor or just a tiring routine you gave up on? God seems disappointed at least, since He’s always watching and know every single thought of yours. Whatever, list goes on, I bet he could formulate the words better than I do.

And I just can’t stop imagining SOMETHING like that, imagine if fear toxin is not even needed to make the always calm and kind guy angry, explode and then be corrupted by guilt and fear.

I don’t know, writing it down makes me a little shy, but I really didn’t want to throw my shower thought into the void

Wow, this is such a good ask and I am sorry it took me so long to answer. I especially love your wording, the flower sack bit got me hahaha

thank you for sharing this, I think the closest you could get to this sort of things is the four issue story known as Fear of Faith. As the name implies, it's about religion and it's really good imo, worth the read.

#MistressAnswersYourLastWords #great asks

17 notes · View notes

freyito · 4 months

Text

ᴠᴀʟᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇꜱ ᴅᴀʏ & ᴛʜᴇ ᴋᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ʙᴏʏꜱ [ᴍᴋ11 + ᴍᴋx]

✧ a/n: and here we are with part two. these two were really fun to write tbh, even though it took a LOT out of me. i apologize if some characters you expected weren't in this, there are some characters im not exactly confident in writing... plus some were left out because I don't think they'd celebrate V-Day. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY THO MWAAH

🗒 cw: gn reader, just fluff, not proofread

✎ wc: 1554

⎯ Liu Kang

With some free time and a good plan in mind, Liu Kang’s got V-Day SET. He’s got an entire night planned out for you and him, he makes Valentine’s Day out to be a pretty big deal. He’s got a list of what he wants to do and what he wants to get you. All holidays are pretty big with him.

A nice lunch date, some candies, maybe even a silly little stuffed animal. That’s all he needs. And it’s a beautiful day, nonetheless. In truth, he could care less about all the big gestures, but at the same time, it’s fun for him. Part of him won’t deny the spectacle, but he’d also rather just sit down, with you in his arms, and tell you how much you mean to him. The world, and more.

⎯ Kung Lao

Kung Lao’s sure he’s got Valentine’s Day down. A classic bouquet, way too much chocolate and candy, and some of his best (horrid) pickup lines and one liners. Shit, even he does the stupid rose petal trail thing. And he’s proud of himself for it. How romantic!

And the look on your face is priceless to him. Yes, he knows that Valentine’s Day is meant to celebrate your love for eachother, but he enjoys making it about you. Every little gesture met with a small blush or something and it only makes him happier. Every year, he tends to treat V-Day like a second birthday for you, really. So, so many gifts.

⎯ Lord Raiden

Amongst his duty as Protector of Earthrealm, Raiden has lost the flow of Valentine’s Day. But, that doesn’t mean he won’t try. He doesn’t see the glamor in gifts or candies, a simple ‘I love you’ could do for him. But at the same time, he sees how into it you are… so he puts a lot of effort into planning a date for you two.

A night underneath the stars, somewhere in Earthrealm that you can’t discern. It’s tranquil, with no light pollution to hide the entirety of the night sky. The sky is painted in deep blues and oddly vibrant purples. The stars are many, all together, dancing in the sky. So many that it’s hard to find constellations.

⎯ Fujin

Finally back from the void, Fujin has been looking forward to human traditions. Valentine’s Day is one that's on the top of his list. He’s so sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. For years to come he plans out V-Day meticulously, because there’s so much he had missed out on. And he wants to do every cliche thing with you.

So, Fujin takes it one step at a time. For this Valentine’s Day, he brings you some pink orchids. He tries to find different flowers for you with beautiful meanings each year. This year he chose a night of dancing. He’s terrifyingly good, leading you through all the steps, humming along to the music, stopping for a second to just stare down at you and smile… it’s the perfect night.

⎯ Kuai Liang

As Grandmaster, Kuai Liang can;t necessarily take a day off. He’d love to, but duty calls, unfortunately. That doesn’t mean he won’t celebrate V-Day, though. It’ll end up much later in the day, just barely before midnight. He’s practically scavenged for a bouquet, with white daisies and red carnations.

It’s not the most grand celebration, nor the most luxurious. But it is time with his beloved, and it is enough. Regardless, he professes his love for you (like he doesn’t every day…), and you two dance in the kitchen. If he could, he’d drop his work and dedicate his time to you. But these little moments with you in his arms, laughing as he stumbles a little while dancing… perhaps he is okay with it.

⎯ Hanzo Hazashi

Hanzo’s coordinated as hell for Valentine’s Day. He always does his best to make it memorable, even given his busy schedule. But somehow, some way, he’s managed to get most of V-Day off. He plans the perfect night for you two, all he’s left you with during the day is an invitation for a night at his home. He did his best not to give away what he had planned.

When you open the door, you are met with perfectly dimmed lights, and the smell of a home cooked meal, something… doughy. And he greets you with a warm smile– a rare sight these days. He’s made a 3 course meal, but the star of the show is the Castella Cake. He doesn’t get to cook much, but when he does it is a treat. You two stay seated at the dinner table for what feels like hours, well past midnight. Just talking. That was what Hanzo was really looking forward to.

⎯ Johnny Cage

When he was younger, Johnny would’ve definitely bought way too much for you. We’re talking like seven bouquets, all the chocolates and candies off the shelves, a shitton of stuffed animals and teddy bears, and god knows how many cards. He’d probably just sign the cards, younger him wouldn’t take much time to even think about a nice little note to write.

But, lucky for you, he’s grown up. And while he’ll spoil you regardless, he knows there’s no meaning to a gift if he doesn’t think about it. Johnny gets you a nice bouquet of roses, and takes you out for dinner and a movie. He’s got his arm around you the entire movie. And at the end of the night, after he’s dropped you off at your house, he presents one of those silly, cheesy cards to you. With a cute little message on it. ‘I love you to the moon and back’... something like that.

⎯ Kenshi Takahashi

Kenshi’s cocky, but he’s modest, too. As much as he’d like to buy you an over-the-top display of his love, some horribly rich and luxurious chocolates, and hell, even one of those damn swan boat rides. But, he also holds immense restraint. He’s a sappy, cheesy lover, and good gods, is it hard for him to not show it.

Eventually, he settles with something classic. Given his work with Special Forces, he can’t do everything he wanted. Regardless if he convinced himself that it was too over-the-top. So, he gets you a simple bouquet (Sonya helped him pick it out) and a nice dinner. Nothing too fancy, something local and quaint.

⎯ Takeda Takahashi

Takeda is admittedly a mess when it comes to stuff like Valentine’s Day. But, he’s able to pull it off. He’s managed to slip away from the Shirai Ryu and his father for V-Day. Sure, he’s gonna get an earful from BOTH of his dads, but it’ll be worth it. He spends a ridiculous amount of time looking for the right flowers and the right candy for you, he’s… nervous. Real nervous, to be honest.

It’s a surprisingly intimate day! He takes you out to an arcade (once you’ve put the flowers in a vase), and oh… does he like to show off. He’s crushing almost every game (besides guitar hero), doing his best the get the highest amount of credits possible, so he can buy you one of those massive stuffed animals in the prize room. And if there’s a claw machine? Takeda bleeds it DRY. He’ll get you all the stupid little stuffed animals or toys in that thing. He has to. He’s insanely passionate about that, actually.

⎯ Kung Jin

Kung Jin is more of a mess than Takeda, actually. And he’s worse at hiding it. He’s got an entire checklist, what flowers you might like, if you’d prefer sweets or a candle-lit dinner, which stuffed animal he should buy. And no matter how many times he goes over it he can’t quell the butterflies in his stomach. He can’t just talk himself out of it either.

But, he pushes through, and shows up at your door with a bouquet of sunflowers in hand. He trips over his words at the start, but eventually he grows more confident as you two walk around a nice, local outdoor mall. The real date (as he frames it) is at night, when the streets are lit up by fairy lights, and the crowd is much less dense. You two settle down at some restaurant and just… talk. That’s it. Granted, he sprinkles in some cheesy one liners and small ‘love you’s.

⎯ Erron Black

When Erron ran off to Outworld, he thought he wouldn’t have to deal with some Earthrealm holidays. It’s not what drove him off, of course, but he didn’t care much for them anyways. Much less Valentine’s Day. But when you start talking about it, he feels like he’s obligated to. He doesn’t complain, and actually, he’s just as into it as you are. He’s a little homesick, in a way.

It’s no spectacle, but he’s got an idea. The nicest bouquet he could find (with flowers that he cannot pronounce the names of), with a nice little handwritten note. And a horribly cheesy joke. It makes him smile. He’ll teach you how to ride a horse (whatever his mount is called I couldn’t find it), which is really his favorite part of the day. Doesn’t matter if you complain that you already know how to, he still finds it fun. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll egg you on to do the Two-Step with him. To what music? Don’t ask.

#⁺◟freyito #mortal kombat x reader #mortal kombat 11 x reader #mk x reader #mk11 x reader #liu kang x reader #kung lao x reader #raiden x reader #johnny cage x reader #hanzo hasashi x reader #scorpion x reader #kuai liang x reader #sub zero x reader #erron black x reader #fujin x reader #kung jin x reader #takeda takahashi x reader

258 notes · View notes

mothicalspoken · 2 years

Text

There’s burning where her lungs should be.

Gasping doesn’t help much. Not in this state- her eyes are all blurry and she closes them hard against the onslaught of smoke.

It’s hard to tell what’s up and what’s down, whether this fire under her palms was connected to a wall or the floor, whether she’s still on her bed or how long she has been laying here. She thinks she can hear sirens in the distance. Along with the crackling of wood, it’s getting closer.

Breathe, she tells herself. It’s a silly thought, honestly. Breathe.

This air isn’t right for her.

There are a lot of things flashing right now. She wonders where Sasha and Marcy are, whether they’ve been sleeping as soundly as she has. If it didn’t hurt to move, if she could move at all, maybe she could crawl out of here. Somewhere. There are heavy footsteps on the stairs. Probably. Maybe it’s her parents.

She’s got time.

It’s the last thing that crosses her mind before her candle is snuffed out by lack of oxygen.

—

She opens her eyes to a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors.

It’s just as calming as it was the first time. She could train her eyes on it forever, relax in the cool grass with the stars gently spiraling across the night sky.

Unfortunately however, there’s a familiar cat blocking her way.

I didn’t expect you to come back so soon. The deity murmurs, putting a paw on her face. She mumbles, and gently pushes it off. It’s not your fault though. You were asleep when the fire engulfed the room.

“I thought I still had time,” Anne answers back, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. She looks over the edge of the island. It’s nothing but abyss, and somehow that doesn’t scare her. “You said 78 more years. I should have had 68 to go.”

That was more of a wish on my part, Not-Domino says, calmly sitting next to Anne and yawning. 91 is an ideal age to die. 23, not so much. I didn’t expect this. Thought I’d give you a fulfilling life before taking over this job. It’s stressful.

“...So can I go back?” Anne asks, and she almost feels bad for leaving so soon.

She puts a hand to her chest and inhales. It doesn’t feel any different. Just like last time. The pins and needles weren’t there at all when she first woke up in this place. She wonders if this is a blessing on the deity’s part, or if it’s simply a part of this space.

You will. You’d be surprised at what medical technology can do these days. The deity almost seems sad. Anne can’t help but feel bad for it- it must be pretty lonely up here. She’s always been a social person. Being away from others for this long must be unbearable. Amongst other things. Any moment now.

“Not looking forwards to the health problems,” Anne says, and she laughs a little to stave off the anxiety over future medical bills. “You can’t make another copy of me, right?”

You still have your body that I gave you last time. It will be a little dysfunctional for a time, but I trust that it will work smoothly given human technology.

“Right. Well,” Anne murmurs, looking over the edge once again, her legs swinging mindlessly as a bright light opens up underneath them. She’s seen how this goes. “Guess this is goodbye.”

Fur brushes its way past her arm. You could stay. I could make you stay, if you wanted. Are you sure you want to go back?...

“Sorry dude,” Anne says, as the white void rises up. She avoids looking at the deity. She’ll keep justifying it with her own development, until the time comes. “Got lessons I need to learn. Like how to fireproof my house.”

Right. Well. I wish you luck.

“Good luck to you as well,” she says, and she lets the void swallow her whole.

–

She awakes to the sound of monitors.

Her entire body aches. Which is to be expected, given the amount of scratchy white bandages she can make out on her body, even without moving her head. Right. Lessons. Fireproofing her house.

She didn’t ask the deity about the stones.

Damn it.

“Holy shit, Mars- she’s awake! She’s actually awake! Oh thank frog-”

Right. She’s got people looking after her too. She didn’t mean to die, but it must have been stressful for Sasha and Marcy to have their best friend dragged out of her apartment.

She closes her eyes again. The lights are too bright, nothing like the faded hues of the afterlife.

Hopefully, she’ll have enough time between lives to forget again.

#this is very barebones but it's only because i wanted to try out the idea #okay so. deity is in the form of a cat. cats have nine lives. you see what i'm getting at #like i think anne getting the chance to have conversations with the deity about various things over and over would be pretty interesting #but i wanna know what poeple think #because. i don't enjoy killing off characters over and over it's ick #my writing #like maybe it's more of a anne almost dies sort of thing #idk but have this anyways #tw character death #tw death #tw fire #amphibia #amphibia spoilers

63 notes · View notes

astrologanize · 3 years

Text

2021 for the ascendants

aries ascendant: man, it’s like you’ve forgotten what you want for the past few years but you’ve been trying with all your might to run through a list of desires with the hope that eventually something will provide you with contentment. worry not, you will be met with situations that highlight your principles so that you are able to decipher what it is that brings you oneness. ask yourself if the company you keep is meeting expectations and if there are behaviors you’ve been allowing, but more importantly, ask yourself if you are leading by example and what you are leading with. this is a time for you to make sure that you are taking the proper initiative towards your own fulfillment, if you’re feeling a disconnect then maybe you should seek for an understanding of the objective; how can you expect others to meet expectations if you aren’t doing the same for yourself? why are you tolerating what you shouldn’t have to? it’s time to up your ambition and strive for resolution by making sure that you are setting yourself up for greatness. “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”

taurus ascendant: life has been a slippery slope for the past couple of years, the way life can change in the blink of an eye and the way we can get carried away without intending to is something you’re awfully familiar with by now. you’ll feel like you’re getting somewhere, you figure things are on the up ya know, and then of course something totally stops you in your tracks and it makes you question yourself - which has only made your taurus ascendant self clam up harder buuuut you’ve been trying to process it. you will be met with situations that allow you to reap the benefit of your efforts. it is time for you to go after what you want, this is prime manifestation time so if you are desiring change to circumstances make sure you are working towards it and utilizing the power of affirmation. if you don’t have a job then i would strongly advise this as a time to obtain one or attempt to obtain one; if you do have a job/are in a career then expect there to be change that is ultimately positive for you even if it may not seem like it at the time.

gemini ascendant: you guys have been on a mission of self-discovery through the numerous voids we utilize to dissolving other parts of ourselves, i’m getting very “cranes in the sky” by solange - “i tried to drink it away, i tried to put one in the air, i tried to dance it away, i tried to change it with my hair” (etc. read the rest of the lyrics if you’d like!) sometimes in us getting caught up in excessive behavior we’re able to understand that there’s a bigger issue at play and we’re acting from a place that is without authenticity. you will be met with situations that reveal the answers that you’ve been searching for and your perspective will begin to breakdown and reform. this year you should try to think before you speak, in fact, let your actions speak for themselves so that you don’t have to start running off at the mouth. absorb and filter through the information that you have so that you are leading with the facts; no more following unreliable curiosities, bouncing back & forth, and wallowing in careless behavior.

cancer ascendant: for a while you’ve had to take a hard look at family, support systems, what you bring the to the table, and how you can find liberation for yourself in relation to these things. it’s been easier for you to fall into a pity party because you’ve had to deal with and be met with responsibility in a new way, a way that has showed you where you’re needing to grow up, and this can make you want to sink further into your shell with all your vices of comfort (those ‘security blankets’ can be so pesky). you will be met with situations that can soften out your old ways and in doing so provide you with a chance to have a legitimate regeneration. finding acceptance and embracing vulnerability at it’s most candid is how you will find your footing. this is a time to try to re-evaluate your patterns of behavior so that you can work on creating new, healthier habits for yourself so that you are able to lay down those roots of security that you long for. you have been receiving the tools you need and all you have to do is utilize them instead of trying to shield up and be overly defensive.

leo ascendant: i feel like life for you has kind of felt like someone took you out of your home, drove you to a forest in the middle of nowhere and dropped you off with the bare necessities and said, “okay, now figure out your way back.” thankfully you are getting a groove back for yourself and taking on a new outlook of the hindrances in your life. you will be met with situations that make you reconsider the way you’ve been carrying yourself, what you’ve been allowing, and the situations that you have been placing yourself in. it’s time for you to be more selective and imagine what you want for your life, what is your ‘dream life’? - answer this question and start taking the steps to getting there, decide what isn’t aligning with this dream, what you need to pull back from, and what is worth the effort. if you have family or a support system then examine your relationship with them - are they holding you back or are they willing to work on things with you and vice versa because it could be you who is needing to be more deliberate with people. if your home (life) isn’t ideal then find a way of to move elsewhere or renovate your space by getting rid of what has no use in your life so that you can add or rearrange accordingly.

virgo ascendant: ah, attachments and feeling withdrawn, dissatisfied, ineffective are issues that you have been dealing with but this year you will be tending to the source of this by learning how to keep momentum. though you have been putting in effort, it’s you working harder and not smarter because you’re working from a place of inadequacy instead of working from a place of ingenuity. along with working harder and putting in unnecessary effort is you nitpicking to the very last crumb when really this is you just, again, being dissatisfied with where you are in life. you will be met with situations that force you back down to earth and emphasize what it is that you have been evading or how you’ve been evading. this is a time to make the transitions that you’ve been yearning for, this is not a time for waiting things out, if you want something then you need to act on it. you’ve been in your head in a very unhelpful way, you’re like “nope, this won’t work for me because xyz, i can’t do that because of abc, this is too wrong, this isn’t lmnop enough, blah blah blah” and it’s been excuse after excuse. get out of your own way and revise!!! make the best with what you have!!!

libra ascendant: gosh, why has everything felt like it’s been crumbling away? things are supposed to come together, not fall apart, right? as of late your efforts have felt as though they’ve been in vain - other people aren’t taking to you, you’re not attracting what you want, and everything has felt unfair. this balance beam has been feeling anything but balanced! you will be met with situations that bring you back to the notion that what we attract is based around what we’re putting forth. have you ever pointed the finger at yourself? are there any issues that could be stemming for you? maybe it’s you who is needing to learn how to keep yourself in check. after all this crumbling away you should be able to start piecing together the leftover fragments to gather an understanding of what life has come to be. omg i just envisioned the mulan scene: “when will my reflection show who i am inside” - this is your mulan moment!!! negativity has clung and been projected from you in recent years and it’s on you to mend those behaviors and in doing so your paths will narrow down, the indecision will cease, and you’ll see where you can go, where you’d want to go.

scorpio ascendant: feeling as though you’ve missed something is not something you’re that familiar with because you like to think you have awareness but unfortunately recognition has not been your strong suit as of late. you’ve reached that “who am i?” stage of rock-bottom and the “what in the hell am i even doing?” but what a year 2021 will be for you in terms of being able to end certain cycles, which is a pretty major thing for your ascendant. you will be met with situations that force you to gather your bearings and revise your demeanor, which can be a nerve-wracking thing for someone who doesn’t like to adhere to what they would consider the follies of others. it’s a time for openness so lessen your grip and consider the possibilities rather than feeding into your sensitivities and fixations. how can you transform if you’re too busy digging yourself in deeper? the way scorpio is able to bring together both boldness and vulnerability is what you should be striving for, the self-sabotaging is for the other birds - you’re a Phoenix!

sagittarius ascendant: i extend my deepest condolences for the past couple of years but you’re starting to get a better idea about the part that you play in matters and what you’re needing to improve upon so that you can find a direction, or better direction, in your life. hopefully you have been paying heed to the areas in your life that have accumulated to the point of no return and are planning a big ol’ yard sale because it is time to bring back some decency. you will be met with situations that test your ability to make the right choices/decisions by infringing upon your lifestyle. this is a time to explore inwardly and address the emotions that you’ve kept tucked away, seeing as your decisions are too often dictated by these unturned emotions. you’ve done enough wandering by now, these upcoming days should be about you tying up loose ends and bettering the circumstances you currently have so that you don’t feel the need to flee. don’t let things go unexpressed this year because this baggage is what is hindering you and freeing yourself of this as much you possibly can would be in your best interest.

capricorn ascendant: ah, those dark feelings of being misunderstood and having a chip on your shoulder because let’s be honest, you’ve been having an identity crisis and haven’t been the most reassuring person to have around. all i’m hearing is “it’s my life!” and envisioning a person who is refusing to be told what to do, we get it - you think you’re above cooperation. you will be met with situations that challenge the security within yourself and in your life through having to face your own inability to properly articulate yourself to others. it’s time for you to take on the mindset of a novice. everything you’ve established or think that you’ve established? yeah, leave it at the door. try your best to pretend that you know nothing and that the world is brand new because it’s your own preconceived notions that are clamming you up. other people won’t be receptive to you if you’re not being receptive to them. not everything is about standing on the mountain or being ready to die on a hill, you should be enjoying the process and experimenting and considering alternatives because that’s how you find what works.

aquarius ascendant: so you guys have totally recoiled into yourselves to the point of being lost within, huh? i just know y’all have been going full weirdo and doing shit that probably even you can’t grasp because it’s been coming from such a subconscious place. once you’ve hit a low point it’s easy to become a bitter betty and partake in not the greatest of coping mechanisms because you’re feeling alienated from yourself. there is a reason for this though - you have unacknowledged feelings! have you had any regrets or lingering emotion towards people or towards situations? perhaps these are stifling your ability to feel present. you will be met with situations that turn you inside out by taking away the option of preparing yourself so that there’s no time to go robotic about it. this is a time for you to revel in activity, get out of your ~woe is me, nobody wants what i have to offer~ and start showcasing your abundance! give for the sake of giving, have fun with your generosity, try to tap into that aquarius energy of playful but well-intentioned nonchalance.

pisces ascendant: well, you have been trying to work on your celestial flow and have dove deeper into your visions and idealisms for life but your moods have never been more easily swayed. these have not been the sort of tides that you have cared to ride because they don’t lead anywhere! they crash and dissolve, crash and dissolve, crash and dissolve - when will they carry you somewhere you’d like to go? your escapisms and illusions have been getting the better of you and floating is a pretty accurate way to describe where you’re at. you will be met with situations that question/alter your reality and reveal to you what you’ve been overlooking. i imagine it as your *record scratch* *freeze frame* “yup. that's me. so you're probably wondering how I got myself into this situation.” moment. it’s time for you to gently pull back and take note of what you’re investing your energy into and what this has been producing in return. your energy is best left being funneled into yourself this year so that you can thoroughly examine where you’ve been pigeonholing yourself; in you examining such you will be able to tap into your intuition in a way that you have not been able to before, it’ll be like unlocking a new level of your own consciousness.

#2021

1K notes · View notes

redorich · 3 years

Note

For the canyon au, what would happen if one of the hermits got hurt during a scout? Like, if etho is out scouting, something happens, and he’s unable to message the hermits or get help. Would he be willing to be seen? Would any smpers besides Puffy help him?

Zedaph didn't mean to leave the canyon, honest! He was just looking for a sheep of his own for a completely ethical experiment involving pistons and a perfectly reasonable quantity of peanut butter, thank you very much. He wasn’t about to steal a sheep from someone else’s farm, and for some reason sheep don’t tend to spawn at bedrock level. So really, he had no choice!

Zedaph is rethinking a lot of his decisions. He’s also wondering if he left the jump-powered stove on. Then he remembers that it’s jump-powered, and as he is not currently jumping on it, it is most likely unpowered. Unfortunately, it seems as though Zedaph is going to be eating a lot of cold food for a while if he makes it out of this alive, because he’s not going to be jumping on anything with a broken leg.

Despite his punishment for trying to take a cross-section of something that he now knows is probably sentient (oops), he can’t help but want to go back, to learn more. What is the rate of growth of those red vines? Are they all from the same plant? Are they actually sentient, or is the crimson kudzu in possession of an automatic response to attempted harm? Did the vine know it was hitting him off a ledge which would break his leg, or did it just know “whack human away from vine”? Would the vines taste good in soup? Are they flammable? Could Zedaph theoretically knit a fashionable sweater out of them, and if so would the sweater be capable of independent movement?

He is torn from his musings of a wriggly evil sweater by another thrum of pain. He hisses. There’s... more blood than is advisable. Outside of his leg, that is. Inside his leg is likely less than the advisable amount of blood, and come to think of it, his head’s probably a bit empty as well, seeing as how he’s having so much trouble thinking straight-- well, straight for him. His jumps in logic are incomprehensible to most on a good day, but right now even he can’t follow his own thought process. What was he thinking about again?

Ah yes. The overwhelming pain from being yeeted off a ledge. Come to think of it, the ledge he fell off-- the one he’s sitting leaned against-- is shaped awfully unusually. It must be manmade. Whoever made this is not a good terraformer. Zedaph should bake Scar some cookies. Is Scar allergic to peanuts? Ow. Ow. Ow. Zedaph will need to borrow Impulse’s oven-- or he could set up his own oven with an armor stand that jumps for him?

“Hey there, who are you?” says a female voice. Zedaph looks up. He doesn’t have to look very far up.

Standing in front of him is a woman with a cool pirate-looking coat (red, of course; all self-respecting pirates wear red), with long fluffy hair like white wool and rainbow fringe! Oh, and she’s, like, half sheep or something. That’s cool too.

Wait. There’s something about sheep he’s forgetting... How could he have been so stupid?! He came to the surface in the first place in search of a sheep, and now he’s (kind of) found one!

The cool pirate lady says something, but Zedaph-- well, he does hear it, but it doesn’t process. Words are just mouth-sounds. He is in pain.

“Found a sheep,” he mumbles, “Come back to the canyon?”

“You’re hurt, man,” the sheep-pirate-lady says. She has pretty rainbow hair, and the white parts look like clouds.

She laughs. “Thanks.”

Clearly, this woman is a mind-reader! As well as a sheep. Really, two for the price of one. Zedaph isn’t quite sure what to do with a mind-reader, but his head will be much clearer and therefore able to dream up wacky hypotheses once he respawns--

He gasps, jerking forward and choking on his own breath when he remembers the cold truth. Xisuma won’t be able to respawn him, not for several days. Zedaph doesn’t want to spend that long in the void.

“Woah!” the woman exclaims, rushing to steady him. “You look pretty bad, dude. Let’s get you home or something. Where do you live?”

“Canyon,” Zedaph rasps. “I’m not supposed to tell you that, I don’t think. Can’t remember why.”

The nice woman goes very still. “Hey. My name’s Puffy. I’m gonna take you to the canyon. Do you think you can stand if I help you?”

“Puffy..?” Zedaph squints off into the middle distance, trying to remember something. “She’s the person who keeps coming back to that barrel, isn’t she?”

Puffy pulls Zedaph’s arm over her shoulder and gently pulls him up to his feet. “She is,” Puffy says softly.

“I hope she liked the enchanted diamond shears,” he mumbles.

“She did,” Puffy says softly. “She didn’t even know diamond shears were a thing.”

“I was going to make an emerald flint and steel,” Zedaph rambles, “but it turns out that items made of flint and steel aren’t conducive to being made of not-flint and not-steel."

"Who would have thought?" Puffy laughs, then trips over a vine. Zedaph makes a pained noise at the jostle to his leg, which is dragging a bit on the ground because Puffy is so much shorter than him. She notices this, and rethinks her strategy.

"At this rate, we'll never get back to the canyon," she gripes. "Climb on my back instead, I'll carry you."

Zedaph obliges, but warns, "Tango says I'm heavy.”

“I’m stronger than Tango, I’ll bet.”

The Hermit is actually a bit heavy, but this is a matter of pride now. And also, quite possibly a matter of urgency. The Hermit isn’t responding anymore. He’s still holding on, so he isn’t dead or completely unconscious; still, he’s not in a good state.

As soon as the elevator down to the bottom of the canyon comes into view, Puffy books it. Surely, in the canyon base, the Hermit will have healing potions? He (They? Multiple Hermits?) gave her a whole beacon, so obviously he/they are late-game enough to have plenty of potions.

Stepping into the elevator, Puffy presses the button, then puts her hand on the Hermit’s neck. It’s a bit of an awkward position, since his chin is hanging over her shoulder, but it makes her feel better to have a hand on his pulse. He makes a pitiful noise as the elevator descends.

“Easy there,” Puffy says, “you’re almost home.”

The moment the doors open, she ventures out into the village. The only safe place she knows is the barrel where she leaves her items for the Hermit(s), so she takes him there. Now that she’s looking, she spots shadows, eyes, movements, throughout the supposedly empty village. One such person comes out of the woodwork, sprinting.

“Zedaph!” exclaims a tall, musclebound man. His face is twisted in naked worry as he meets Puffy at the barrel, which she sets Zedaph down on.

The large man, who wears a black shirt with a creeper face on it (does that mean something, Puffy wonders?) scrutinizes the blond man on the barrel for a moment before springing into action, splashing potions and bits of lapis and-- holy shit, is that a Totem of Undying?! When the blond man, Zedaph, seems to come back to himself enough that he could reasonably eat a golden carrot with minimal choking hazard, the new man hands him one. Finally, he turns to Puffy.

“Thank you,” he says. The relief in his voice is tangible.

Puffy shifts awkwardly. “I was just doing the right thing. I noticed, uh, his bracelet.”

They both look to Zedaph’s wrist. It’s got a woven bracelet on it. The textile isn’t astounding, but the pattern on it is intricate. Puffy would know, she made it herself as a gift for the Hermit. As Puffy and the other Hermit look at each other, she realizes that he is also wearing something she made: a pair of fingerless gloves which are now stained with redstone dust.

He catches her staring. “We all have one-- oh, uh, my name’s Impulse, and this is Zedaph--”

“Impulse,” a new blond man hisses from behind the two. Puffy jumps. She didn’t hear him coming.

“Tango!” Impulse greets, suddenly nervous. Why a man as big as Impulse would be nervous when facing anyone, let alone a normal-looking guy like Tango, is beyond Puffy. Maybe Tango’s red eyes have some sort of significance?

“Impulse,” Tango repeats, looking around for anyone that isn’t a Hermit. “You’re not invisible.”

Impulse’s eyebrows draw together in a frown. “I had to see Zedaph.”

“Yeahhh,” Zedaph slurs.

“Besides, if we can trust any of the natives, it’s Puffy,” Impulse insists. He crosses his arms in what should be an intimidating display, but truthfully looks more like a pout.

“You know what Xisuma said,” Tango says. “I’m grateful to have Zedaph back, but...”

“Xisuma would agree with me,” Impulse says stubbornly.

Tango sighs explosively, full of nerves. “Alright, fine, can we at least get out of sight? Anyone could come wandering across the surface and spot us.”

“How many of you are there?” Puffy breathes. Everyone’s eyes snap to her.

“Twenty-four,” Zedaph says happily.

“Zedaph!” Tango admonishes.

Rolling his eyes, Impulse scoops Zedaph up off the barrel like he weighs nothing. He carries the dazed blond man down the path and into a cottage-style house. As Tango goes to follow, he catches Puffy’s eye.

“Sorry,” he says, “nothing personal. Just trying to avoid being explodificated, which means not being seen by the people who live on this server. You get it, yeah?”

He jogs off to catch up with Impulse, and Puffy hurriedly follows. Tango’s got a bracelet like Zedaph’s, but it’s one of the ones Puffy made out of different shades of red. She wonders if all the Hermits wear something she made.

The inside of the house is a bit cramped, but it’ll do. It’s got a bed, at least, so Zedaph’s got somewhere to keep his leg off the ground. This all feels surreal.

“So, uh...” Puffy says into the stuffy silence of the room. “How about that, uh, bedrock?”

Nobody has anything to say to that. Fuck.

Out of nowhere, yet another Hermit shows up. There’s a trapdoor in the wall that, now that she looks at it, Puffy realizes that Tango was hiding intentionally. That’s all gone to shit, though, because a man with white hair and a mask over his face peeks his head out from the hole in the wall.

“Hey guys, what--” The man takes a look around, spots Puffy, and freezes. “...On second thought, I’ll come back later.”

“Wait!” Impulse says to the man. “Get Xisuma, or at least tell him Puffy’s here if he can’t make the trip right now.”

“Karl thinks you’re Mothman,” Puffy blurts out to the white-haired man.

The man looks very self-satisfied for someone who’s only showing a quarter of his face. “Oh? Where does he live? For absolutely no reason, of course.”

“Etho...” Tango groans.

“Oh, alright, I’ll go get X.”

The man leaves. Oh boy, thinks Puffy, this is going to be interesting.

#mcyt #hc x dsmp #hermit canyon au #captain puffy #zedaph #zedaphplays #impulsesv #tango tek #xisuma #xisumavoid #ethoslab #me.cpp #me.txt

585 notes · View notes

paintedkinzy-88 · 2 years

Note

I wonder how Error reacted to learning that Ink shifting was painful since I remember him saying before that it wasn't? (yn, usually)

I’m feeling generous today ლ( ` ∀ ´ ლ)

Also because this has been a wip for very long and would love to put something out so here ya go, a fairly-long snippet of Violet is My Least Favorite Color Part 2

“Whatever. Fucking shift back and put on some damn clothes.” He jerked his head toward the pile he’d thrown down earlier. “I’m dumping you off somewhere else, but not as a fucking dragon. You know how to shift, right?”

…Unfortunately.

At his nod, Error crossed his arms and turned around, giving the Protector as much privacy as he could in this space.

Ink stared down at the mismatched clothing items. It looked like just a pair of jeans, a shirt, and what he thinks was a Fell ‘verse jacket, though there might be more items underneath the thick coat. Truly, they looked small, but then again, so did Error, if only slightly. His dragon form wasn’t too much bigger, after all.

He wasn’t scared of shifting back. If he had his paints, he would be. He’d be terrified. It was painful, and he was scared it would remind him too much of that moment XGaster hurt him in the first place. But, just because he couldn’t feel the crippling fear and dread didn’t mean he exactly wanted to either. He didn’t need emotions to dislike pain.

But, in the end, he’d troubled Error enough as it was. If there was one thing this blank state was good for, it was following orders.

With that bit of hesitation Ink closed his sockets and focused on shifting back. After doing it twice now, the process was a bit faster. It only took a couple seconds for the first sickening snap to sound through the Anti-Void.

Just as every other time, his bones cracked and broke and shifted to realign themselves in the right position. He felt his wings, tail, and horns crumble into shattered pieces that piled on the ground and turned to ink droplets moments later. It was almost reminiscent of dark rain. His very spine and ribs shuffled about to a proper humanlike form, his pelvis snapping and flattening out back into a bowl-like shape.

He wondered if this is what it would feel like to be a clay figure, slowly pinched and bent and carved into the correct form, bits that were too big torn off completely. He’d only worked with clay on occasion. Maybe he should try again later.

Slowly, Ink’s body got smaller, head pounding and bones once again doused in black blood, until he was back to the form he was more used to. The gauze hung uselessly from his bones, completely soaked in ink now. He’d need to reapply new ones later, if he couldn’t get to one of his brushes soon enough to just paint over his injuries.

When he looked up to shakily reach for the clothes, he caught sight of the Destroyer. He had turned back around to look at him at some point. His face was devoid of the usual grumpy anger, replaced by a mortified horror as he looked Ink’s battered body up and down. At first, he thought it was because he ruined the blankets he was still sitting on. Maybe shifting here was a little inconsiderate when he was well aware of the mess he’d be making.

That didn’t seem to be the case, though. Error quickly snatched his bandolier off the string still hanging beside him, tossing it onto the pile as well. His expression still startled, he turned away slowly and uttered, “Change of plans. You’re staying here. Don’t fucking touch those clothes. I’m gonna get you some new bandages.”

With that, he disappeared through another portal, leaving the soulless skeleton confused and alone once again.

Following the orders given to him, he sat back and waited.

#he ain’t happy about it that’s for sure #here’s to hoping this app doesn’t delete everything under the cut like it usually does—#asks #dragon balance au #undertale multiverse #undertale #errorink

46 notes · View notes

formidxble · 3 years

Note

Happy 900, lovey! Onwards to 1000 ❤️ i had a request for you--- Jisung, as angsty as possible, prompt #5 ( “I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending that they’re you.” )

Thank you so much and congratulations yet again!!!🤩🤭

elliana !! thank you for the kind words and the request! 🧡 i hope i did it justice and that you enjoy reading it! <333

𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 - H.J.

part of the drabble event !

𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: absolute angst || best friend au

𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 1.3k

the sound of keys rattling echoes in the empty apartment hallway, alongside the soft groans of your best friend, who’s clinging onto your side. the stench of alcohol reeks off of his clothes and you wonder what pushed jisung to this brink—getting drunk off of his face every single night of the week. it’s become a problem, his other friends have stated, but none have made any steps to stop him from going down that hole any further.

the thought forms a knot in your chest.

it makes you realize how much you’ve been absent in your friendship with him. no more calls, no more text messages, just the occasional small talk the both of you force yourselves to do for the sake of keeping the relationship.

you just never really noticed how bad it has gotten, how bad jisung has gotten.

it’s the soft mumble of your name that gets you out of your thoughts and you finally get the apartment door open. you pull jisung inside the room with a grunt. you make a few steps in before he’s pulling away from your arms to plop himself on his couch. he sighs when his head makes contact with the cushion.

“you need to get your shit together,” you state, gently closing the front door behind you. on the couch, you hear jisung chuckle dryly. he responds with a slew of words, all jumbled and muffled.

“i didn’t get any of that.”

he raises his head from the cushion, “i have my shit together.”

your eyes meet and it’s then that you see the true state of your best friend tonight—eyes as red as the entirety of his face with disheveled hair and dried vomit on the side of his mouth. your shoulders drop and the knot in your chest tightens even further. a lump forms in your throat, but you swallow it away. you weren’t here to baby him anymore. this is a problem that needed to be addressed and crying in front of him won’t help. he tries to give you a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“you’re drunk every night, jisung,” you sigh. “what do you mea—“

“it doesn’t hurt to live a little, y/n,” jisung interjects. “you should try it sometimes.”

a thick silence surrounds the room and it’s enough to suffocate the two of you. he coughs awkwardly and you shift in your position as you straighten your back. maybe it’s the alcohol talking, but isn’t it that alcohol brings out the parts of yourself that you’ve hidden? you clear your throat softly, your heart ringing in your ear as you cross your arms in front of your chest and you wonder when and where it went downhill between the two of you. just yesterday, the both of you were talking about meeting up again.

this wasn’t what you had in mind.

“i’m just concerned,” you mumble after the silence. jisung chuckles dryly again. “jisung,” you step forward, “i’m your best friend.”

“and that’s all you’ll ever be, right?”

the sentence stops you in your tracks, your eyes widening. “jis—“

“why do you think i’m doing this?” jisung questions. he opens his eyes, locking them with yours for the second time tonight. “i know you aren’t that stupid. i know you’ll figure it out.”

when it finally hits you, it starts on your chest, then it travels to the entirety of your body, wrapping itself around you enough to make you feel lightheaded. you absentmindedly take a step back, using the darkness of the apartment to shield you. meanwhile, jisung’s eyes don’t leave you and for the first time in your whole relationship, the gaze burns.

the friendship went to shit weeks ago. jisung became cold just hours after you introduced your new partner to him. days after, the drinking started and the conversations stopped. the phone calls became non-existent. suddenly, the both of you don’t have time for each other anymore. he faded away from your life as quickly as he entered it years ago and you were stupid enough to ignore it and brush it off as him being busy.

“jisung, you don’t have to—“

“i need to,” he sighs exasperatedly, standing up from the couch, though a little wobbly.

“it’s just going to hurt you, jisung. it’s not the rig—“

“do you think i don’t know that?” jisung scoffs. “do you think i’m happy doing this shit?”

you stay silent.

“because i’m not. i’m not happy. i haven’t been happy,” jisung huffs, voice breaking towards the end. “i fill the void you left with bottles of alcohol, with girls who have names i can barely remember, in apartments i’ll never go back to.”

the lump that has formed earlier has found its way back to your throat and you clench your fist as you take another step back, a sob threatening to leave your lips.

“i get so black out drunk that i don’t remember anything and…and i think that’s the fucking point, right?” jisung laughs bitterly, looking up at the ceiling as he puts his hands behind his head.

when your eyes meet again, jisung exclaims, “but why is it that when i drink to forget, i always remember you?” you hear your own heart crack and you wonder if jisung hears it too.

“your face, your lips, your eyes, your voice, your scent. fuck,” he sobs. “do you know how fucking hard it is to convince myself that i’m okay, that what i’m doing will help me forget about everything, but y/n,” he pauses as tears start falling down his eyes. “i can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending that they’re you.”

the silence that comes after is heavier and louder than the one that came before it. you don’t notice immediately, but your cheeks are now wet with the tears you’ve desperately tried to stop earlier. you unintentionally take a step toward his direction and it’s what breaks the silence, unfortunately.

“don’t,” jisung pleads softly. “just…”

“jisung, i’m not…” you sigh. “why’d you only tell me now? now that i have someo—“

“because you never listened to me!” he cries out. “you never took me seriously and it’s always the ‘jisung, you’re so funny’ shit! you never saw me as a man, someone you could love—“jisung runs a hand down his face”—instead, i’m just a best friend in the sidelines. just someone you can run to when you’re upset because that’s all i’ll ever be.”

“but you could say that i played the part well, right?” he continues. “because you never tried it with me. never. you shot me down every time.”

as you roughly wipe your tears away, you mutter shakily, “how could you say that?”

he doesn’t respond as he turns his back to you, crying softly to himself. the sound breaks you down even further and your hands ache to reach out for jisung, to take him into your arms and tell him that everything will be okay. but you knew, deep down, things won’t be okay. not after tonight, not after the words that have been exchanged. instead, you return to your previous position, hiding yourself in the darkness as you allow yourself to untie the knot that has formed in your chest earlier. you bite down on your lip to stop a sob from leaving it.

“you should leave,” jisung mumbles after some silence. you look up, hoping to catch his eyes again, but you’re only met with the sight of his back. the sentence rings in your mind and you badly wanted to say no, but maybe it’s in the best of both of your interests if you did.

so, without saying goodbye, you start to leave, retreating from the shadows of his apartment to grab the door handle of his front door and pushing it down. however, when the front door opens and the light from the hallway seeps through, you turn to look back at your best friend, only to find that there’s no one there anymore.

somewhere in the apartment, you hear a door close.

#kim tries to write #han jisung #han jisung angst #stray kids #skz angst #skz imagines #stray kids drabbles #stray kids imagines #stray kids angst #lovely moots

125 notes · View notes