#i put him in the field and he starts taking poison burn and confusion damage just by default

[mic-check-stims]

Stimboard of my son he has every disease

X-X-X X-X X-X-X

[joshslater]

Beached

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It's really amazing how the beaches can be so empty when the weather is this good. It's technically winter or spring or whatever, but that just means you can spend all day on the beach without getting heatstroke or sunburn. No one else appears to agree with me though. Someone is walking a dog in the distance in one direction, and some surfers are ignoring the warnings of big waves in the distance in the other direction. Like that would be bad thing in their minds, though just right now it isn't as windy as in the morning. Volatile weather is another drawback of spring weather.

I don't think it is the weather that is keeping people away though. This whole plague thing is really messing with people. The hotel was almost deserted and the room dirt cheap. Flight was cheap too. The plan was to go here with Will, but he chickened out at the last moment. Probably the positivity rates of their "second wave" or whatever. The tickets were refundable, only way they can sell anything these days, but I had already made up my mind to go here. Spring in Rio is better than summer at home, and the summer is decidedly over now, where you are never sure in the morning if you need jeans and hoodie. Here it is shorts and T-shirt every day, and the water is really nice when the waves aren't fatal. I really thought it would be colder the way the ocean looks.

As I walk along the beach in solitude I spot a gaudy, cheap beach chair also alone in the sand. I look up towards the road that goes along the beach. Sometimes there is a bunch of chairs or stuff chained together, waiting for busy days when the owner can charge a coin for a tourist to sit on it, but I don't see anything up there. I take a seat and look out over the crashing waves. There is a zen-like quality sitting on a lone chair on a vast beach, alone in a different country, watching the waves while the warm spring sun smiles down on you. No birds or animals around either, so you just have the white noise of the ocean keeping you at peace. I had fernet and coke in the lobby bar last night and evening has been going slow even before this, but somehow I felt I deserved a break from doing nothing.

I lost track of how long I was sitting there. I have all week after all. I'm taken out of my trance by someone behind me talking agitated in Spanish. No, Portuguese probably, as that's what they speak here. I turn my head and a stereotypical Brazilian beach greaser steps into my view. He wears a loose, pink tank top with Copacabana printed on the front. It reaches almost far enough to hide his green speedos that peeks out every step he takes. Brazilian tan, white teeth, black, slick hair, and a swagger that comes equally from acting macho and years of bodybuilding that prioritized looks over range of motion. "What?" I ask him, mostly just to tell him to speak English.

"This is your chair?" he asks. "Yeah," I say tentatively. At least I'm using it right now. It really was calming to look at the ocean like this. "No. No, it is not your chair," he says in an accusing tone, visibly upset. "You want to sit?" I don't need any trouble. It's soon time for lunch anyway. I start to raise myself from the chair. "No, you sit! You sit!" he almost screams at me, and I fall back into the chair.

I'm confused. Did I sit down again, or did something push me down? He steps towards me, and I again try to get out of the chair, but I'm somehow not strong enough to lift myself. He grabs the front neck of my T-shirt and pulls it up over my head. My arms do nothing to stop him. He then grabs hold of the legs of my shorts and pulls them sharply forward. Again, I can't do anything to stop him. I can move my body, sort of, but it's sapped of all strength.

If things were weird up until now, it just turned impossible. Instead of my Hanes underwear I wear black speedos with yellow print "ca-rio-ca" in front. How the fuck did they end up on me. He doesn't waste any time, but just bunches my clothes together in his hand and angrily marches off towards the road behind me. "Hey! HEY! I don't want this fucking chair." I shout at him while making another failed effort to get out of the chair as he disappears out of view. It's like being stuck with your ass in a big bean bag. I just can't get up somehow. I try to rock sideways to knock the chair on its side so I can roll out of it, but again with no success. Exhausted I fall back into the chair.

It's a cheap-looking foldable beach chair. Some green tubes as a frame with some blue and yellow nylon fabric as a seat, suspended between the tubes. I could see how someone would pick it out for its "Brazilian" colors, but all the shades were totally off compared to the flag. It couldn't be more than $10, probably much less down here. Why would anyone make such a fuss over it? I touch my magically appearing speedos. They appear completely normal. Some type of high tech stretchy fabric with yellow print on top. As I touch the print on the front of the speedos there is like a shock wave through me, like I rubbed the exposed head of my dick. I quickly move my hand back to the dainty armrests, but the damage is already done, at least for now. I can feel the blood inflating my dick, at least partially.

I look back at the ocean, trying to distract myself. I still see the surfers way off in the distance to one side, but I don't see anyone in the other. I'm a bit limited in my field of view though, reclined in the beach chair. Dammit, and I was about to have lunch. Fuck! My wallet is in the shorts. My phone, my credit cards, my cash, my hotel room key, all in the hands of some dude made of muscles and STDs. If he doesn't come back I'd have to walk back to the hotel, wearing only speedos like a fucking douche, tell the lobby staff to get my passport from the room to identify me, and issue a new key card. Then I have to take the laptop and block the credit cards and the phone SIM. I hope you can do that online. If nothing else you can call 800 numbers from Skype, I think. But first I need to get out of this fucking chair.

I make another failed attempt to get up. How can this be happening? Did he poison me somehow? Perhaps I just need to relax for a bit and regain my strength. That doesn't explain how my underwear was swapped out. Perhaps I'm making this more complicated than it has to be. These could be two unrelated events. Perhaps the speedos were somehow in my room, and somehow I put them on this morning without thinking about it. I think I've seen something similar in a store back home. "CA" could just as well mean California. This pair could have been forgotten by someone and then mixed into my laundry somehow, packed in my travel bag by mistake, and then ended up on me without me thinking about it because of the fernet. No, that doesn't make a lot of sense either. If you remove all impossible explanations, the remaining one, however improbable is the right one. It's just so very fucking improbable.

I want to drop it. Thinking about it more won't solve anything, and my current problems notwithstanding the day is still very nice. The slow burn of the spring sun, the smell of sand and salt, the soothing white noise of the ocean, and the wide visuals to go with it all. If I just let go of my predicament it was easy to relax again. That's what I needed to do, right? Just look out and feel the sun rejuvenate me. Despite it being essentially just indoor temperature, I've managed to get a tan. I trace the skin from my knees and up with my eyes. No, this is wrong. I should have tan lines where the shorts and T-shirt ended. I've only been sitting here topless for ten minutes, twenty at the most. There's nothing to tell time. The surfers are gone.

And I really shouldn't look this good sitting down. I don't sit down with a flat belly. I can't remember that I ever did, not that I really paid a lot of attention to how I looked. I try to stand up to have a better look, but only manage to lift a few inches before falling back. "Merda!" I say out loud. Not only did I fall back into the chair, but I managed to pull something. There's a cramp in the abdominal muscles that hurts like hell. I squirm in the unyielding chair and arch my back to make it stop, which results in both my legs cramping at the same time. I let go and fall back into the chair, and raise my legs up and try to shake them. I tense and relax the muscles over and over to make the feeling go away.

When it finally goes away I feel exhausted. I certainly don't want to feel that again. It's like a cosmic force doing everything to keep me in place, docile, and watching the ocean. While I want this to all be over I don't feel like I want to put up a fight. I scratch an itch on my face and feel my beard. I know I shaved less than... I know I shaved this morning, whenever that was. I've done that every morning from when I started to grow facial hair. I know nothing that looks worse. Nothing that looks more like you are taking a shortcut, or don't care. Yet I could clearly feel strands of hair all around my mouth and up the sides of my face. Not just stubble either, but fingertip length beard. The kind that doesn't look like a planned and neatly maintained beard either, but an accidental one. I didn't think I could freak out more when my hand touched the hair behind my ear, and I frantically felt the rest of my head. It was clearly a curly mess, and not just wavy but a tight curl. My hair is straight.

"Olá!" one of the two young surfers greet me. I'd been too preoccupied and had completely missed them walking across the beach towards me. They looked very similar, same height, same short cropped pitch-black hair, handsome white smiles, black and blue Mormaii wetsuit. My startled mind feels blank. I have no idea what to say to them. Somehow, inappropriately I can feel my dick stirring again. "Você quer foder?" I shout back at them. I have no idea what it means. They just keep walking, shaking their heads and ignoring me. What the fuck is going on? Can't I control myself anymore? I haven't since I sat down, I realize. This fucking chair is ruining everything.

I'm angry with it. I start hitting it. At first I'm just feebly pounding the armrests, but then work myself up to start hitting anything I can find. I'm banging the tubes, I'm pulling the synthetic fabric of the seat, I'm trying to pry the joints free. I'm only hurting myself of course, though not bad enough for any visible bruises. After some minutes someone has had enough of my tantrums and I feel a searing pain across my chest, back, and right ribs. I cry out in pain. My noise is met by the constant noise of the ocean. When it stops, just as suddenly as it started I look to either side and all I see is empty beach in both directions.

I'm almost afraid to look, and it is difficult to see well, but the skin has discolored where I felt the pain. On the right side of me is a sentence tattooed in cursive. I can't tell what it says. On my front chest is another large tattoo saying something almost as difficult to read upside down, just below my chin, also in cursive.  "Live fast, die young" I think. I can only imagine what platitudes are on my back. "Carpe Diem?"

My legs are hairy. They've been that for years, but now they are black pubes kind of hairy. Did that happen just now as well? What's with the slow walking? Just do all the things to me and be over with. Arms are hairy too. I'm not even going to be upset anymore. I'll just sit here until it ends, whatever that means. Listen to the ocean and let the sun do its thing. Holy shit, that isn't suntan. I have a different skin color for sure. No. Not upset, just listen to nature and come what may. Let the sun sparkle in the water.

I can also see a sparkle from my right nipple. I feel drained, dazed, and dumb. Did the nipple piercing come with the tattoos and I had just missed it, or did it sneak up on me somehow? I don't really care. I slowly reach for it with my left hand. It feel an explosion of sensations as soon as the vibrations of my touch reverberate into the nipple. It shoots right into my balls, into my spine, into my brain, into my dick. Not quite an orgasm, but definitely not not an orgasm. I can feel the cramp again. The muscles on my front all contracts, but this time it isn't really painful. It's more like when you exert yourself during sports.

As before I arch my back to flex the chest and abs differently to make it go away, but the cramps just spreads. I can feel it in my back as well, and my arms, then finally in my legs. It's like those youtube videos where you can see the muscles moving under the skin all on its own. I just turned to the side and rolled in the sand, unable to control anything. It wasn't pain, but definitely not not pain.

When it finally stops I'm on my back in the spring warm sand, exhausted, panting, looking into the blue sky, hearing the waves crash down at the edge of the beach. I somehow know before I see it. My arms are almost twice as muscular as this morning, my chest and abs chiseled, and my legs are massive.

The sun is getting low. It is probably getting close to dinner time, though it sets early. I sit up in the sand, looking in both directions down the beach. There's nothing but sand. I know how to walk back to the hotel, though I can't remember the name of it, and I think I know what my name is, but I'm pretty sure nothing on that passport will match me. I don't feel like going there though. I really, really need to find someone to fuck. Or be fucked by. I don't care.

[fakefeltflowers]

Howdy, I rewrote Sam's back story for something unrelated and though to put it on here. Sam's full name is Sam Orion and they live in a small town known for it's spooky happenings. Also, warning for animal death, namely chickens and cattle.

---

The Orion estate is a patchwork quilt of crops and fields for livestock, passed down from generation to generation, growing like a benign tumor.The estate itself was just about as old as Sarton itself and became a fixture of the community, for better or for worse, and with the estate came the hunters. Back when the estate was little more than a ramshackle hut that leaned at a 45 degree angle, there had been hunters. When Sam was a child, they only had a vague understanding of the family’s history and the rumors. They knew that ‘back in the old days’, whenever that was, their family had been known for being reclusive and cagey. The old family shot at any animal or person that had the gall to come too close to the fence that encloses the scraggly wheat fields or to the miniscule coup. But that was back then, not like that was something that happened now. Then Sam turned 16 and the chickens began to die.

During the dog days of that summer, Sam was supposed to take care of the chickens. As far as anyone could tell, Sam had done a fairly good job, they even managed to raise a few chicks themselves. You could understand why they’d be concerned at the sight of a dead chicken just outside the coup. Fearing the worst, Sam rushed to survey the damage, but instead there was nothing. The remaining chickens were stressed and refused to come out of the coup, but otherwise fine.

Confused, Sam went back to observe the carcass, eyes raking over claw marks and feathers matted with a sticky black substance that burned their eyes. There were bite marks but there wasn’t anything eaten. It wasn’t the kill of an opportunistic predator, it was too sadistic and there was too little eaten. But the other chickens were fine and the carcass was disposed of. Still, Sam couldn’t stop themselves from crying all morning.

“Kiddo, they’re just chickens. We still have eight of them left, just leave it be. I’ll take care of it,” said their father, Arthur. He said to himself that it would just go away on its own, of course he was lying to himself and Sam.

8 chickens became 7, 7 became 5, 5 became 2. The cattle followed suit, one by one their blood mingled with the poisonous black fluids and smeared a trail through the grass leading to the woods that stood on the edge of the estate. It was a mocking trail of bait made specifically for the impatient and the naive Sam. So, they resolved to fix the problem, like they would ‘back in the old days’. Armed with a hunting rifle that had been just a little too big for them, they clambered out of their bedroom window. Following the trail of dead grass to the entry into the Whispering Woods. Then Sam waited, refusing to let the tiredness that weighed their eyelids down over take them. Eyes glazed over, Sam watched the warm wind shake the leaves that obscured their forum. They watched bugs lazily flutter by. They watched the unmoving dark lines of trees. They watched and they watched and they watched-

Sam woke with a start at the sound of snapping twigs. The moon hung high overhead as they scanned the tree line for the source of the sound. Hidden among the towering trees, a shaggy beast with a pale face paced along the forest floor, it’s long body blending in with the tall grass that bordered the treeline. Of course, not that Sam was paying much attention because at that point Sam had fired the rifle in the woods, shattering the nighttime silence. In response the beast galloped into the dark of the night, a taunting laugh echoing behind it. The hunt had begun.

‘How long has it been?’ thought Sam, a thought that had at first started as a dim whisper that only grew louder as Sam’s legs began to protest and thorns had cut through their jeans, staining their calves a rust color. The trees had managed to weave together so that barely any of the moonlight was able to illuminate the forest floor. Sam’s knuckles were white from clutching the rifle, the cold steel of the barrel sapping any residual heat from their body. They realized that they had begun to shiver despite the warmth of the summer air.

‘It’s too dark out here. I shouldn’t even be out here, what was I thinking-’

“Sam?” a voice called out, cutting Sam’s clarity short. Who was that? It almost sounded familiar, but it was hard to make out.

“Sam?” the voice repeated. Sam unconsciously began to follow the voice, it was their father after all. They needed to go home, they were so tired.

“Sam?” the voice called out, even deeper into the woods.

“Sam?!” the voice became panicked, ‘He’s hurt,’ Sam thought as they started running. The voice repeated their name over and over, becoming shrill and panicked, to a certain point it barely sounded like Sam’s father, but at that point it didn’t matter. At that point Sam was too scared to rationalize, too scared to think of anything but home.

“SAM!” the voice called out one last time before it suddenly stopped. Sam found themselves at a clearing with a creek running through it that was otherwise empty. A dawning realization was replaced by fear as they heard the rustling of leaves above them, shortly followed by the sound of something heavy softly landing behind them. Sam whipped around and locked eyes with the beast, its hollow eye sockets swimming in a sea of dirty white canvas and sharp teeth. Sam knew that they were too close to aim the rifle but nonetheless the barrel belched out a wisp of smoke with a pop of light. The bullet that was haphazardly spat out whizzed by the beast and lodged itself into a tree just right of the beast. Momentarily distracting the beast, the shattering wood gave Sam enough time to twist their body so that the beast’s long claws only managed to graze the flesh underneath their sweater.

The icy water that soaked through their jeans would be shocking if the gun hadn’t slipped from their grasp. Then the icy fear in their veins was replaced by a burning hot pain that radiated from Sam’s chest. Their vision began to blur as Sam saw their blood began to oxidize into a thick black substance that burned their skin and eyes.

The beast began stalking towards Sam, that familiar mocking laugh fell out of a maw filled with sharp teeth as Sam began to choke on the taste of hairspray and apple seeds.

Suddenly, the maw of teeth shattered with a deafening gunshot, abruptly jerking the beast’s head to the side. Sam scrambled to their feet, grabbing the rifle and aimed at the beast, shooting wildly until they ran out of bullets. Then they realized that there was still another gun firing, attached to their father, who was entirely focused on the beast. Of course, at that point the beast was little more than a shadow of its former self, it’s jaw hanging loosely by a scrap of canvas and its fur was slick with the stinking black that seeped out of Sam’s chest. Eventually, Arthur’s gun had run out of ammunition, causing the beast to chuckle lowly and began to back away.

“‘I’ll take care of it,’” the beast said in Arthur’s voice, though that didn’t distract him from reloading. But before the shooting could resume, the beast had already disappeared into the woods.

---

The sound of fizzing hydrogen peroxide was the only thing disturbing the dense silence in the kitchen. Sam did their best to not cry out as Tayna gently blotted the reddish-grey foam off their chest, instead they hissed in reply.

“I’m gonna clean this out with some alcohol, this might sting a bit,”

“Fuck!” Sam jolted away as the throbbing pain sharpened into a stabbing pain, “just, lemme do it,” they said as Tayna muttered an apology. As Sam gingerly blotted away at the claw marks on their abdomen, Arthur stared them down with an indiscernible mix of anger, disappointment and something else Sam couldn’t quite place.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he said as Sam began to dress their wounds.

“Arthur-” Tanya began, but was cut short.

“No, really Sam, what the fuck is wrong with you? Sneaking out at night with a gun like a moron, I told you I’d take care of it!”

“But you didn’t,” Sam said, avoiding eye contact with their father.

“What?” The clock above the stove top read 3:52 am, but Arthur’s voice continued to rise, “You have no right to go out in the middle of the night like that. Not only did you disobey your curfew-”

“No, you don’t get to make me the wrong one here, you knew damn well that what was killing the animals wasn’t normal!”

“And it would’ve killed you-”

“What if it went after Jack?”

“Don’t you dare bring up your brother in this,”

“I can’t believe you hid this shit from me after refusing to do anything about this, you’re supposed to take care of us!”

“I can't believe you have the gall to come into my house after nearly getting your ass killed, acting like I’m the bad guy,” the two’s voices overlapped, escalating into a shouting match. At this Tanya has joined, attempting to be a peacemaker, but it only added to the chaos, eventually waking up the whole house.

Every family member that lived in the house stood in the kitchen, tired, angry and confused. Even littlest Jack, who was only 5 years old at that point, stood at the bottom of the stairs that lead into the dining room with bleary eyes. They all stared expectantly at Arthur and Sam, who was beginning to put their shirt back on so they could avoid making eye contact with anyone in the room.

“Listen Sam, we’ll discuss this in the morning proper. Go to bed, all of you.” Arthur finally said, and people began to filter into their bedrooms, with Sam being the last one to fall asleep at the ripe hour of 5:30.

---

The sound of croaking magpies woke Sam up the next morning, though at this point it was closer to noon. Every fiber of their body screamed in protest as Sam rolled out of their bed. Not to mention the feeling of their bedsheets clinging to their still sticky body as residual sweat and blood coated their body. Unfortunately, the shower and the new set of clothes did little to ease the nausea.

The rest of the morning was less a blur and more a haze of events, a confirmation of some rumors, a disproving of others. Some monsters were real and others were made up to sell t-shirts and keychains and others were a little bit of both. A vague introduction to a house on the edge of the estate, a bed, a wall of weapons. Something about never trusting strangers and that the monsters would keep coming.

“Are the monsters ever gonna stop?”

“No, Sam, they aren’t. But you have to try,”

[rainingjewel]

Sweet Nothings - An Ochre prompt

Something simple for @teirrart

As far as Pigment was concerned, it was a beautiful day. The breeze felt wonderful against his skull and the scent of the wide variety of plants that thrived on Sandy’s mountain was soothing. It was a little cloudy, but that just meant he didn’t have to worry about his bones getting burned in the bright sun here! Despite how empty the mountain was, it was a very beautiful place and it kind of reminded him of where he grew up. Just without the beach part.

 Sandy, however, was looking up at the sky, noticing the cloud patterns. Rain was going to be upon them, and what was worse, a storm was brewing in the east. He would have to take Pigment up the mountain, into his old home for shelter… or they’d have to leave. That was not going to be an easy case to make. The smile Pigment wore warmed his soul… he hated to break the news to him that his perfect calm day of learning was going to be put on hold.

 “Minty,” Sandy called out to the daydreaming skeleton. “Come now, we should get moving.”

 “Why? We have all day! You’re always telling me to slow down, why the rush?” Pigment tilted his head in confusion, innocent eyes filled with orange and yellow shapes.

 “A storm is coming later. We won’t be able to do as much field work as we originally planned.”

 “Huh? But it’s such a nice day!” Pigment declared as he protested Sandy’s assessment.

 “For now it is. Come on, you grew up on the beach. Don’t you remember how the weather would suddenly turn?”

 “I guess…” Pigment pouted.

 Sandy sighed at the disappointed look on the younger skeleton’s face. He couldn’t help it, what emotions he did have, Pigment wore on his sleeve. It was endearing, and one of the reasons he had fallen in love with him. Seeing his boyfriend upset in any form twisted his soul, but weather was one thing he could not help with.

 He gently leaned in, kissing the top of the smaller skeleton’s skull. “There’s still time before it all. And while we wait out the storm, I’ll let you use my supplies. You can start your own potion, on your own. I’ll just keep back and watch, okay?”

 Pigment’s pout turned into a gentle smile at the alchemist’s promise. He hadn’t really been able to use any of Sandy’s tools without his extensive oversight. It wasn’t unwarranted either. Pigment had attempted to mix several dangerous things together with his powders in the past. But that had been some time ago, he was better now, not just grabbing random things because they were a certain color.

 “I wouldn’t mind you being close and observing either,” Pigment snuggled into Sandy’s chest, embracing the taller skeleton with an unintentional flirt.

 Intentional or not, it always got to Sandy when Pigment would be forward like that. A light golden dusting appeared on his cheekbones as he felt the tip of his boyfriend’s nasal cavity scratch him lightly through his clothes. “Heh… I suppose I can arrange that.”

 Pigment laughed a little as Sandy fluttered kisses down his jawline, a bit of a rainbow hue brightening his cheeks. Despite them being skeletons, Sandy’s kisses tickled and he knew he was sensitive, especially along the side with his mark! He barely pulled away, giggling for a brief moment, before their teeth met together.

 Pigment, despite being kissed many times before, was always slightly overloaded with the emotions that flowed through him whenever Sandy got this close. It was surreal and addicting. He could never pick one emotion that was prominent when it happened, which was what he tried to do when he overdosed. This wasn’t like that. His cheeks burned, his head felt light and dizzy, part of his chest felt like it was inflating with… something, he didn’t know. It took him a moment or two to recover, just holding onto his boyfriend’s arms as his head continued to swirl.

 Once Pigment was back together mentally, the two would walk around the mountain, doing some field work. The apprentice was quizzed by the master on a variety of things, allowing him to take his samples and ingredients for later.

 While collecting some thistle, Pigment heard a faint sound further into the plants. He slowly moved through the thistle and tall grass, stopping when he saw some stinging nettle… his old enemy. He glared at it, his round face rather humorous to look at from the outside. Carefully, he went around it, trying to find the source of the sound…

 Laying at the edge of the nettle was a black and white cat with longer fur. The sounds were its pitiful mews of discomfort. Instinctively, Pigment went to reach for it, but he felt himself yanked back by his jumper.

 “What are you doing?”

 The quick, harsher tone of the alchemist startled the smaller skeleton, and Pigment’s hands went to his chest, pulling himself closer together.

 “It’s hurt,” Pigment said innocently, looking down at the cat.

 Sandy glanced down at the cat. It had been stung by the nettle… how did it get sick enough by the amount it had walked in, he wondered… it was at the edge of it.

 “Minty…”

 “Sandy, please! I know how painful that is! Don’t you have more of your medicine for it?”

 “I do but—”

 Pigment started digging through Sandy’s satchels, looking for the right ointment. “It’s in this one right?”

 “Pigment!”

 The smaller skeleton jolted back up, looking uneasy at the tone his boyfriend had just used. It wasn’t often he did something to warrant the tone, and he couldn’t comprehend why Sandy would use it now. He only used it when it was serious…

Sandy had been trying to push the smaller painter away from the cat since he saw it, but Pigment was having none of it. He felt for him, and the cat. It wasn’t as if Sandy wanted the creature to suffer…

 “It’s a human pet, Mint,” Sandy emphasized, leading Pigment way.

 The younger skeleton felt his fight leave for a moment, letting himself be moved away from the small, suffering creature. As he moved further away, tears started lining his eyes. He remembered very clearly what the warnings were… humans were toxic, especially to monsters in this world… anything domesticated was to be avoided too… tainted…

 “I-it’s not… it’s a cat, Sandy… it’s not a human…”

 “If the pets aren’t toxic themselves, they can still poison you if it scratches or bites. You don’t have a soul to ward it off, I can’t treat you the way I have the other monsters that have been exposed. I won’t risk you for a cat, Mint.”

 “Please…” he pleaded. “C-can’t you check it or something? I…”

 Sandy’s soul twisted in his chest as Pigment looked up at him with those pleading eyes. Watery, innocent eyes… it was hard enough to not want to help it. It was just a cat, and Sandy had grown very fond of the species thanks to a mutual friend of theirs…

 With a heavy sigh, he relented. “Fine… but you have to stand back,” and he pointed to a tree across a clearing, a good distance away.

 Pigment wasn’t thrilled with that idea. He wanted to help but he understood why. “Be careful…”

 As the smaller skeleton walked over to the designated waiting spot, the alchemist turned his attention back to where the cat had been laying. This poison was something he was used to, but it caused serious damage… it always got his nerves up…

 Carefully, Sandy walked toward the cat, his bare feet softly crunching the brush beneath them. He looked at the cat as its chest heaved, as if not getting enough air or it was hard for it to breathe. His own soul felt tight as he fell into his old role…

 “Sorry, kitty…” he whispered as his hand started to glow with a gentle yellow. The weakened feline’s soul was surrounded by the same light and brought to the foreground…

 Much to Sandy’s surprise, the taint of the humans of his world was barely upon this cat. A small amount, but not nearly enough to suggest it lived amongst them. That alone was strange… did the animals start to move into the forest? That could be dangerous… he would have to investigate…

 But that was later. Now, he had a patient… he still couldn’t risk Pigment being bit, even with this low level of taint, but at least if he was bit, it wouldn’t be serious. He had been around this type of poison for far too long and had grown resistant… but it was something that was forever with him, and it would give him nightmares if he could sleep…

 He had medicine for the taint… he had medicine for the nettle… but something else wasn’t sitting right with him about this whole thing. How did this cat end up being so badly poisoned from the stinging nettle if it was so close to the edge of the patch?

 As he attempted to treat the cat, forcing medicine into its mouth a lot easier than he thought, given how weak it was, he found his answer… talon marks… a bird had scooped this cat up and dropped it into the nettle. How many internal injuries did this poor cat have?

 Pigment fidgeted as he watched Sandy barely move. Sitting still was not his forte, he wanted to move around. He wanted to help. He was getting better at medicine. If nothing else, a second pair of hands couldn’t hurt, right?

 But he also understood Sandy’s concern. Monsters were incredibly susceptible to the toxins human souls produced in this world… and without a soul to combat it, he was uniquely compromised… but after minutes upon minutes standing there, and not being able to tell if the cat was okay, Pigment couldn’t take it any longer.

 He tried to mimic Sandy’s quiet steps, but his shoes always gave him away in the brush. Despite his best efforts, he just… couldn’t be quiet.

 “I told you to stay back.”

 “I want to help,” he quietly declared. “You’re in danger too if it’s tainted… I won’t risk you for this either!”

 Golden eyes met watery blue and green and Sandy couldn’t help himself. “Oh, Minty…” he sighed with a gentle smile.

 Pigment moved in with Sandy’s gentle coaxing and he sat down beside his beloved. The sight of the cat still struggling to breathe worried him.

 “What’s wrong with it?”

 “Between human toxins, the nettle, and being dropped from a great height… there’s a lot, Minty… I don’t know if I can help it…”

 “But… you have to! You’re a doctor!” he began to plead.

 It was times like this Sandy deeply regretted never being able to follow in his father’s footsteps, never inheriting his gift for healing…  “Minty, I don’t… I’m not…”

 Sandy felt arms wrap around his middle, squeezing him tightly. “You’re the best doctor ever, Sandy! You can do things no one else can, you see things that everyone else misses. I know you want to instantly make someone better, but your healing is better than that. I know it’s not easy but I know you can do it. And I’ll do whatever you need me to, to help!”

 The alchemist glanced back at his partner before resting his forehead against the other’s. Sandy’s success rate of critically injured patients wasn’t the greatest… that instant healing would be really handy to get them out of the woods… but it did generally lead to complications down the road. Things went overlooked or missed in the rush to close a wound, poisons got left in, infections would spread… neither method was superior but his was all he had at the moment.

 With a little help from Pigment, Sandy did what he could for the cat. He tried to ease its breathing, treating symptoms as well as the overall problems. Medicine took some time to work so it was a waiting game… but all in all… it was a good experience for Pigment. He got to really apply what he had learned so far, and perhaps learn a little more… not to mention he did what he did best… Sandy was always humbled by how quickly Pigment would cheer him on, how he always supported him.

 As he was stabilizing the cat, a faint rumble was heard above them.

 “What?” Pigment started to fret. “It was sunny a second ago!”

 This was what he was worried about. Sandy ripped off his half-cloak and very carefully used it to pick up the cat. Luckily it was too weak to really fight.

 “We need to get inside, Mint,” he spoke up, snapping the other back to reality.

 “O-okay.”

 Running up the mountain to the old, abandoned village, the sky ripped open and started letting out its torrent. Pigment cried out a little as he tried to cover his head from the freezing cold water while Sandy just tried to lean over the cat more.

 It felt like it took far longer than it should have before they finally made it to his old home. It was a modest cabin, made of logs and stone with some straw for insulation on the roof. It was fairly dry inside despite the pounding weather outside. Sandy went and gently placed the cat down on the floor, still wrapped in his cloak. As he tried to start a fire in the middle of the living area, Pigment began to whimper. He didn’t handle the cold well…

 Sandy glanced back at him, managing to get a small fire going. It wasn’t as if he kept a lot of firewood here… he didn’t stay in this house too often, preferring to camp out… too many memories. But what he had left… it would hold them for now.

 “Jeez, Mint,” Sandy went over, beginning to tease, “I think you took in enough water to fill a lake.”

 “Sandy…” he whined.

 “All right, all right,” the elder chuckled before leaning in, gently kissing his boyfriend’s cheek. “Take off those wet clothes and hang them by the fire to dry. I’ll go scrounging around for something for you to wear in the meantime.”

 A rainbow tint came across Pigment’s face. “U-um…”

 “It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before, Mint,” Sandy smirked a little at his lover’s embarrassment. “Or are you wanting to do it in my old house?”

 “N-No, I-I…!”

 “Though, I suppose it would be a good way to warm you up.”

 A high-pitched whine escaped Pigment as his entire skull erupted in his rainbow-hued blush, hands covering his face.

 A soft chuckle and another peck to his flushed cheek, Sandy gently caressed Pigment’s skull. “I’m merely teasing, Mint,” he whispered with nothing but love coating his words. “But I am serious about getting you out of these wet clothes before you get sick. Can you do that for me? Once we’re in dry clothes we can cuddle by the fire and keep an eye on our new friend.”

 The blush didn’t fade, but Pigment nodded. He understood the why, but emotions were still… difficult for him to process and it wasn’t always sure when Sandy was serious or teasing. It made for some awkward moments, despite Sandy’s patient and nurturing nature. Pigment was glad he was so sweet and understanding with him…

 After finding a spare set of clothes for them both, Pigment swimming in the taller skeleton’s already baggy clothes, Sandy had also found a blanket for them to wrap up in. The cat was wrapped in a blanket as well, the cloak hanging to dry with the rest of their clothes.

 Despite it being early in the afternoon, Pigment managed to fall asleep against Sandy near the fire. It was a cozy little scene after all… a nap with his boyfriend sounded like the best thing in the world right now… it was too bad he couldn’t sleep…

 As he debated about laying down and just pretending for a bit, he heard a sound coming from the other blanket. Hating to abandon his cozy love bug of a boyfriend, but needing to check on his patient, Sandy reluctantly laid Pigment down on his own, wrapped in the blanket. He scooted over to open the blanket. He was greeted by a weak hiss. He should have expected that… Cats were the most dangerous when they were vulnerable.

 “Easy there…” he spoke softly, gently extending a finger for the cat to sniff.

 A low growl, but after a moment, the cat began to sniff his skeletal finger. Then, as if recognizing the scent, maybe realizing it was Sandy who had helped it, the cat put its head down. He took a chance and went to gently stroke the feline’s head. It didn’t seem to mind, or perhaps was too weak. What did surprise him was the soft purr that emanated from the ball of fluff.

 It was something to focus on as the storm raged outside, and as Pigment slept. As the hours passed and the storm settled, however… Sandy began realizing that they had no way to truly care for this cat… sure, he could medically take care of it… to a point. But there was no food and he wasn’t qualified to care for a cat… but he knew someone who could.

 Pigment awoke to find himself alone on the floor, wrapped in a blanket. He whined a little. This always happened! He couldn’t blame Sandy, things needed to be done while he slept… but just once he’d like to wake up with him…

 As he sat up to look for him, he realized that he wasn’t far this time, holding something wrapped in a blanket…

 Right! The cat! He was embarrassed that he had forgotten. He shot up, forgetting that he wasn’t in his own clothes as well, and tripping over the baggy pants he insisted he wore, despite the fact that Sandy’s spare shirts were almost down to his knees…

 “Mornin’ sunshine,” Sandy smiled at Pigment as he blushed.

 “Is the cat all right?” he tried to distract from his own embarrassment.

 “Better than I hoped… not truly tainted… and friendly, despite that…”

 “But..?” he pressed, knowing that tone.

 “I don’t think I can keep taking care of it. I’ve never really taken care of a pet before… I mean, Muffet had a pet chicken I would look at once in a while but…”

 “Muffet… had a…” Pigment had to shake his head to get himself back on track. “But you did so well, Sandy! I’m sure you can do it!”

 “I could probably fumble my way through… but that’s not fair to this little one… not when we know someone who could do much better than I could.”

 Pigment blinked, then smacked his forehead. “Ccino!”

 Sandy couldn’t help but chuckle softly. He had the cutest reactions. “So get dressed, we should probably go and take it to someone who actually knows cats.”

 “Yeah, could probably tell us if it’s a boy or girl too so we can stop calling it “it”.”

 The alchemist snickered and held his tongue so his boyfriend would focus on getting dressed. He had already gotten back into his classic clothes, not that his clothes were much different from one another.

 Pigment cut open a portal with his giant pallet knife into the fabric of reality itself. It was still as strange to Sandy as he first saw it, the concept of it all anyway… however, he was well versed by now and knew well of what the multiverse could offer… this was just one of those things you had to learn to accept.

 As they crossed into the portal and appeared on the other side, they were welcomed by a familiar, friendly voice.

 “Pigment, Sandy! Welcome back!” he said enthusiastically.

 Ccino was always glad to see his friends. They were good for business too, as Sandy spent so much gold on coffee and coffee beans for the road. He missed them when they traveled the multiverse…

 His attention was quickly grabbed by the blanket in Sandy’s arms, however. He knew that shape better than anyone. In a moment, the coffee in his hands were put down and he ran over.

 “What’s this?” he had to ask, curiously.

 “We found a cat!” Pigment exclaimed.

 Ccino’s eyes lit up for a moment, before he was sobered by Sandy’s explanation of the situation, “It’s pretty badly hurt… I can only do so much medically…”

 “I’m not a vet,” Ccino quickly fretted, catching onto Sandy’s inflection.

 “But you do know cats!” Pigment pipped up.

 “A lot more than I do,” Sandy smiled softly at their friend. “I was hoping you’d help us nurse them back?”

 The sweater-clad skeleton looked up at the other two. “So you… wanna stay and work together?”

 “Absolutely!” Pigment grinned. “And then we can keep it!”

 “Minty…”

 “Aw, please, Sandy? With minty leaves on top?”

 “We don’t have a place for a cat.”

 “Your house?” he tilted his head.

 “We travel too much.”

 “You can always bring it back here, I’ll cat-sit,” Ccino offered with a grin.

 “See?”

 Sandy glanced between the two, before letting out a defeated sigh. “I’ll think about it…”

 “Yay!!” Pigment wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s neck, barely missing the cat.

 “Well,” Ccino chuckled, “How about we check out this little fluffball, huh?”

 “Careful, it still has some taint on it.”

“What?” Ccino blinked.

 “We’ll explain as we go through,” Pigment smiled as the three walked into the back.

[sinemoras09]

solatium excerpt: personality

More ficlets: Obito and Kakashi fight over barbecue. Obito deals with Madara, and then zombies. Kakashi makes fun of Obito’s wardrobe. Rin and Obito share an inside joke. Rin helps Obito after a bad day. Fluff and crack. @innovativestruggles

(Series of unrelated ficlets. Obito is Hokage. Rin is resurrected and living with him. Madara is married to fem Hashi and has a boatload of kids. Ficlet #7 references the marriage certificate drabble.)

----

1.

She was Obito’s guardian spirit, but sometimes Kakashi would pray in front of her headstone, and Rin would feel her consciousness being ripped away from him. All at once she'd be in the middle of a bright, grassy field, the sun shining on the graveyard while Kakashi laid flowers and an ero book as an offering. "It's a new volume, Rin," Kakashi would say, because she was the one who read ero books first, and he'd set the book down in front of her grave.

Rin would look around and see blue skies and white clouds, birds singing overhead. And then she'd feel Obito calling to her again, and all at once she'd be transported, find herself in dark spaces, cold air and claustrophobic cliffs, Obito having killed another person, blood dripping down his arm as he looked up at the slate gray sky, the rain sluicing down his mask like tears. She followed him all those years because he always spoke to her - when he felt lonely, when he felt uncertain and overwhelmed - and even if she’d start to fade or drift away, she'd feel her consciousness being called toward him again.

They were transported to the gravity dimension. Rin watched, horror-struck, as Obito and Kakashi both fell to their knees, unable to stand up.

A chakra rod shot through the air, moving as if being dragged through thick molasses. She saw Kakashi and Obito running. At least let me be a shield for them! If I could just make it in time--

Rin could hear their prayers.

Her consciousness spread far, able to reach both Kakashi and Obito from across the gravity field. Her hands clasped both of theirs, and she made contact - her spirit, which was weightless and formless, suddenly had heft in this dimension, and as soon as she grabbed their hands she ran, yanking them toward the center, helping them.

I'm going to see my friends again, Rin thought. The chakra rods were hurtling towards them. I'm going to see my friends again and I could talk to both of them!

But the rod heading toward Kakashi started to swirl, and Rin could hear Obito's thoughts, just like she always did.

 Rin. This time, when I get there...let's spend some time alone together, just you and me....

The rod smashed into Obito's stomach.

 Kakashi would only be in the way. I'm leaving him here.

*****

The three of them are sitting over barbecue, Kakashi in charge of the meat because Obito kept taking it out too early. "That's not ready to eat, you need to let it cook more," Kakashi says, and Rin giggles as Obito grumbles that Kakashi is being a pain in the ass.

The meat sizzles. Rin picks up her glass, taking a drink of water when Kakashi asks, "Rin. Was that really you back there, in the gravity dimension?"

Obito looks up. Kakashi doesn't look at either of them, concentrating on flipping over the pieces of meat with his chopsticks. "Kaguya had launched chakra rods toward Naruto and Sasuke, and Obito and I were trying to get there in time to block them--"

"I was there, I know," Rin says. Kakashi sits back, surprised.

"Really?" Kakashi says.

"You two weren't going to make it on time, and all of a sudden my spirit had weight. I grabbed you both and pulled you there."

"Amazing." Kakashi looks at Rin, awestruck. "So you really were following him?"

"Mostly. Sometimes I'd hear you talking to me, though, and then I'd find myself back in Konoha again." Rin picks up her chopstick, then turns a piece of meat in front of her. She frowns, thoughtfully. "It was always such a change," Rin says. "Konoha was so bright, every time I'd find myself there, I'd think maybe I was in paradise. But then Obito would call to me, and it'd be like we were underground again, everything was so dark and cold and lonely. I wished I could actually be there with him."

Obito gives her a small smile. Rin rubs his arm, scooting next to him.

"Anyway, yeah," Rin says. She plucks out a piece of meat. "That was me."

"Amazing," Kakashi says again. Obito's eyes widen.

"Oi! The meat's burning!" Obito starts pulling the meat up with his chopsticks. "Bakakashi, this is why you shouldn't be in charge of grilling--"

"Wha- if you were in charge everything we'd eat would be raw!"

"Why does anyone have to be in charge anyway?" Rin says, because she was actually paying attention to the grill, her meat is cooked perfectly.

*****

2.

If people didn't know any better - if they hadn't known Kakashi and Obito when they were kids, like Rin did - they would assume that Kakashi is the laid back one, while Obito is the serious one.

Rin watches, growing more and more amused as they slowly revert back to their old personalities, arguing over something as stupid as barbecue.

"No, Obito, it's not done yet, put it back," Kakashi says. He flips over the menu, showing them. "The rules here say you need to let it cook for at least three minutes--"

"You cook it until it's not red, I don't like eating meat that's turned into jerky," Obito says. Kakashi huffs.

"We listen to you, and we're all going to get food poisoning," Kakashi says. "It even says right here that--"

"That's just a guideline," Obito says.

"What?" Kakashi says.

"It's an approximation. The heat varies. The conductive capabilities of the grill can change. Also, the meat's not red." Obito plucks the piece out with his chopsticks.

Kakashi's eyes widen. "Baka! There's still blood on it!"

"It's medium rare."

"You order steak medium rare, you idiot, you're gonna make yourself sick!"

Rin starts giggling. The two men turn.

"Obito, you see that?" Kakashi says. "Rin is laughing because you're being stupid."

Obito grumbles, "You're the one who's stupid."

"You're both stupid," Rin says. She picks up her chopsticks. "I'm putting meat on the grill."

*****

3.

Even with chaperones, Madara still causes problems.

"We're so sorry, Obito-san! But Madara-ojiichan acted so fast, we couldn't stop him, dattebayo!" Naruto says. Gai hangs his head.

"I am ashamed to say it, but even my Dynamic Entry of Heart-Pounding Love wasn't enough to stop him."

"It's alright, Gai, Naruto," Obito says. He glares at Madara. "This isn't your fault." Madara rolls his eyes extravagantly.

"To think that I have sunk so low as to be lectured by my idiot apprentice. There is nothing to talk about. There were no casualties," Madara says. "The only reason why I've deigned to come here is because of Hashirama."

Hashi elbows him in the ribs. Madara sniffs arrogantly.

"Madara: why the hell would you perform a fire jutsu of that size and magnitude in the middle of an elementary school playground? And then activate your Susanoo and then forcibly draw out and ride around on the Kyuubi?" In fact, there were multiple reports of Madara rampaging at the playground, riding on the Kyuubi with Naruto getting dragged along in the background. Madara shrugs.

"The idiot behind me makes it so easy, you should be talking to him," Madara says.

"Why?" Obito says. Madara crosses his arms.

"Uchiha Madara is not just some house husband."

"Oh god," Hashi says.

"That pissant father needed to be taught a lesson, and so I taught it well. He now knows never to cross me."

Hashi clarifies. "His kids were hogging the swings," Hashi says.

"This was over swings?" Obito says.

"A territorial dispute that could only be solved by a display of force." Madara crosses his arms. "I believe I schooled him thoroughly."

"I'm so sorry. They've been fighting over playground equipment for weeks, I didn't think it'd go this far, otherwise I would have gone with him," Hashi says.

Obito sighs. "At the very least, it appears nothing was damaged--"

"Of course nothing was damaged. I was in complete control at all times. And yet you call me in here like some apprehensive school marm."

*****

"Hokage-sama! We have a problem!"

"What is it?" Obito says. The shinobi rests his hands on his knees, breathless.

"There are zombies that have taken over the civilian quarter!"

"What?" Obito says.

*****

"I'm so sorry!" Hashi says. Their neighbors are cowering in Madara's Susanoo while Hashi tries sequestering the undead nin she tried bringing back. "It worked with Izuna and Rin, I thought I could bring everybody back--"

"Raaaaar!" Zombies burst through the fence, making their neighbors scream. Madara knocks them down with his battle fan.

Obito stares. "How many did you resurrect?" he says. Hashi thinks.

"Um, I think the entire shinobi army? And I tried resurrecting Minato's wife, too."

"Ahhhhh!" another zombie says. Madara kicks him in the throat and punches another one behind him.

*****

"YOSH! Who's ready to kick some zombie ass, dattebayo!"

Ino shrieks. "It's Neji! Naruto-kun! Neji's a zombie!"

Minato pushes Kushina back, his hand flat against her forehead. "This is bad," Minato says. Kushina flails, then bares her teeth at him. "This is really bad."

In the middle of it all, Uchiha Itachi stands in the civilian quarter, cracks in his skin and his sclera blackened, looking thoroughly confused.

Sasuke gasps, "Nii-san! You're not a zombie?!"

"No, I am merely undead." Itachi frowns, looking at the chaos around him. "Is the war still ongoing? Are they attacking the village?"

"RAWR!" a zombie smashes through the glass window of a cake shop, then begins stuffing its face with pastry.

"Nevermind, Little Brother, I think I know the answer."

*****

Obito walks through the village, assessing the damage. What was once the civilian square is now a bombed-out waste, buildings crumbling and the streets covered in detritus and broken glass. "Do we have any casualties?" Obito asks. Shizune flips through her notepad.

"74 people injured, zero fatalities. But reports of missing persons are still trickling in, and the damage to the village's infrastructure is quite immense."

"Tch." Obito rubs his head.

It took a platoon of ANBU nin to herd the zombies into the forest, where Hashi sealed them with her Mokuton prison. There, Itachi showed her how to negate the jutsu, and after weaving a few hand seals, the zombie nin crumbled into dust and ash. ("Won't canceling the Edo Tensei affect you too?" Hashi asked Itachi. Itachi shook his head.

"I released myself from that jutsu awhile ago."

"Oh, okay. Cool.")

"Were any houses in the residential areas affected?" Obito asks. The ANBU nin nods.

"Approximately ten percent of civilian housing got razed by the zombie attack. Most of the damage seems to be confined to the commercial areas, but we have a team already mobilizing an emergency shelter in case any residents are displaced."

"Good," Obito says. "Notify the village council. The villagers will need disaster relief. We'll have to figure out how to re-allocate funds to provide adequate aid."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." And the ANBU nin disappears into the smoke.

Outside, the civilians venture out, cleaning debris and sweeping the dust and detritus. Obito and Kakashi stand in the middle of the civilian town center, looking at the smashed up windows and thick columns of smoke.

"Wow, what a shit show," Kakashi says. He glances at Obito. "They're gonna blame you because you're Hokage, you know."

Above them, a piece of roof falls after catching on fire.

*****

"Madara is Hokage?!" Itachi's eyes widen. His hand grips his sword.

"Worry not, Little Brother," Itachi says, and he pulls out his sword in one fluid motion. "I will do what I should have done a long time ago."

"Wait wait wait wait WAIT Itachi NO!" Naruto and Sasuke have to physically block Itachi from leaving. Itachi whips around.

"What is the matter with you two? Are you under his genjutsu? Let me feel your chakra, he may have disturbed its flow--"

"That's not the real Madara dattebayo, that's the real Madara," and Naruto points to a man with a bunch of kids strapped to him, a baby chewing on his battle fan and a toddler walking on a leash. "The guy you thought was Madara is really a guy named Obito."

"What?" Itachi says. Naruto nods vigorously.

"Yeah! Old Man Madara activated the Moon's Eye, but instead of creating a new reality, he grew this giant tree that cocooned everyone and sucked up all the chakra from all the shinobi! And then this biiiiiig alien lady came and I guess she was some kind of goddess or somethin' and we all thought we were screwed but Obito woke up and was like 'what the heck is happening,' and then he HELPED US, Itachi! An' then we went to a gravity dimension and a fire dimension and Sasuke was trapped in this DESERT dimension but Obito found us and she threw these chakra rods at us but then he jumped in front of us, dattebayo!"

Itachi blinks. He turns to Sasuke.

"Can you genjutsu me with the information?"

"Yeah, sure."

*****

4.

"You should dye your hair," Kakashi says, apropos of nothing. Obito furrows his brow.

"What, why?"

"Because for most people, white hair is distinguished, but on you it just looks weird."

Obito frowns.

*****

"Eh? Dye your hair?" Rin looks up. "Why?"

"Kakashi seems to think I look weird. That maybe I wouldn't scare off the delegates as much if I dyed my hair and used foundation on my neck and hand."

Rin looks. It's true, the patches of cloned skin can look a bit off-putting. His hand and neck are the color of an etiolated egg, translucent and criss-crossed with fine, purplish veins. And that isn't even taking into account the scars on his face, which are jarring even on a good day. Rin frowns at him. "Wouldn't the foundation rub off on your clothes, though?"

"I don't know, would it?"

"Here," she says, and she rummages through her makeup bag.

*****

On a whim, Rin goes to the convenience store to pick up some hair dye.

"I got a couple boxes so you can pick out the best color black," Rin says. Obito frowns at her.

"There's different colors of black?"

"Apparently there is."

"I feel idiotic," Obito says. Rin sets down her bag.

"For the record, I don't think you have to do this. I think your hair looks fine the way it is."

They both look at the box. "This seems complicated," Obito says.

He doesn't dye his hair.

****

5.

Obito doesn't wear the Hokage robes.

He doesn't wear the robes. He doesn't wear the cape. He doesn't even wear the hat, even if ceremonial circumstances dictate it: he'll only hold it gingerly and then pawn it off to Kakashi. Kakashi turns the hat over in his hands, frowning. "Obito. You can't tell me wearing this hat is any worse than wearing those masks."

Obito doesn't look up from his papers. "I don't like things sitting on top of my head."

Kakashi blinks. The boulders. Right.

Kakashi leans back, looking at him. He's wearing the standard green flak jacket, but beneath that he's dressed the way he used to dress when he pretended to be Madara - black pants and a black shirt that covers his neck up to the chin, and he puts on black gloves if there's a visitor. All he would need is his orange mask.

Kakashi knows without asking why he's wearing gloves and a turtleneck - half of Obito's neck and his entire right hand is made of Hashirama's cells, so the color contrast between his face and the rest of his body is jarring.

"Obito. What did you do with all those masks, anyway?"

He turns a page. "I burned them."

"Ah."

There's only the sound of Obito's pen writing on paper.

"You really should dye your hair," Kakashi says. Obito sets his pen down and frowns at him.

*****

"EH?! Kakashi why do you have to keep picking on him?!" Rin says.

Kakashi raises his hands. "Hold on a minute, Rin-chan--"

"You're such a jerk! Obito is working really hard and all you do is make fun of him!"

Obito shakes his head. "This is word for word the same conversation we had as kids," Obito says. Kakashi and Rin turn.

"Really?" Rin says. Obito nods. Rin whirls around toward Kakashi.

"Kakashi you grew up into a jerk!"

A sweatdrop forms on Kakashi's brow "O-oi."

"Picking on Obito just because he looks weird! He can't help it!" Rin says. (She said something similar when they were kids: "Kakashi you're a jerk! Picking on Obito just because he cries a lot! He can't help it!")

"This is making me nostalgic," Minato says.

*****

6.

"Why do you have to keep picking on him? Obito is working really hard! Just because he still can't do basic ninjutsu doesn't mean you can make fun of him!"

*****

"Kakashi be nice! So what if he cries a lot? He can't help it! He's sensitive!"

*****

"Why do you have to be such a jerk, Kakashi?! Just because he lost six times in a row doesn't mean you get to make fun of him!"

*****

"Kakashi this is like making fun of a baby, stop it!"

*****

"I mean, it's okay, not everyone gets it on the first try." A beat. "You've been working on this for a month?"

*****

"Don't apologize, Obito, I don't mind treating your wounds. You're the reason why I'm so good at suturing!"

*****

"Ne, Obito. Do you think Kakashi likes me?" (Proceeds to wax poetic about Kakashi for half an hour).

*****

The genjutsu ends. “Sorry,” Rin says.

*****

7.

They're sitting on the couch, watching a movie, when Rin leans over.

"Ne, Obito?"

"Hm?"

"Please deactivate your ninja eyes!"

Obito starts laughing. Rin giggles and snuggles against his shoulder.

*****

It becomes an inside joke: Rin will be walking past him in the kitchen, or sitting next to him on the couch, when she'll lean over him and say, "Please deactivate your ninja eyes!"

Invariably, it makes Obito crack up, and Rin will give him a mock serious look and tell him, "Sir! Deactivate your ninja eyes! This is no laughing matter!" and it's so stupid they both end up laughing.

It's the only time Rin's seen him laugh.

*****

8.

The Daimyo of the Land of Water is demanding reparations, and so Obito dips into his secret accounts, various Akatsuki holdings that he had disclosed to the Five Nations prior to becoming Hokage. "We demand recompense," a Kirigakure representative says. "Uchiha Obito stole from our country, depleting our wealth and lining the coffers of the Akatsuki with our money. It isn't fair that the Akatsuki's war chest be split up among the five nations at Kirigakure's expense. And lest we forget, he murdered hundreds of shinobi under the guise of being the Mizukage."

Obito stares at them, incredulous. "We already paid everything back with interest," Obito says. He gestures to the other kage. "We already agreed that what is left should go to the other four villages, Konoha included. Tsunade-sama signed the pact."

The Mizukage sniffs. "I see no reason why Konoha should profit."

Obito snaps, "The matter was settled, why is this being brought up again?"

The other kages glance uneasily at each other.

Obito sits heavily on the bed, head in his hands, frustrated. If they don't clinch the trade deal with the civilian village, Konoha will be thrown into debt. Rin sits next to him, touching his arm. "Everything okay?" she says. Wordlessly Obito lists sideways, leaning against her.

He genjutsus her and shows her the whole disastrous meeting, and Rin responds by pursing her lips and resting her hand on his head. "They haven't voted on it yet," Rin says. "Gaara and Darui openly said they'd support you."

"Onoki is still afraid I'm acting as Madara's puppet." Obito sighs, heavily. "There's only four of them and I can't vote on this, we're at a diplomatic standstill."

She rubs his back, and she can feel him start to relax. He plops his head face-first into her shoulder.

Rin lets out a startled laugh, "Obito!"

"Would it be terrible if I just genjutsu them?" His voice is muffled by her shirt. "It would be easy. No one would know."

"I thought you were trying to be a good person?" She rubs soothing circles by the nape of his neck. He moves his head to look up at her.

He reaches up, then tucks back a strand of hair that had fallen by her cheek, the tips of his fingers lightly brushing her temple. His eyes are soft. He smiles at her.

Rin gives him a puzzled smile. "What is it?" she says. Obito searches her eyes quietly.

He rests his head onto her lap, and Rin responds by resting her hand on his head, letting her fingers lightly scratch his scalp as he curls up on his side.

"Rin?"

"Yeah?"

"What would you have done if I did this when we were kids?" Obito says. Rin considers, bowing her head downward to look at him.

"I don't know," Rin says. She cards her fingers through his hair. "Probably freak out."

"Heh. I figured."

"No! I mean, I'd think that you were really injured, like maybe you were too orthostatic to keep sitting up."

Obito laughs. Rin responds by wiggling out from under his head and flopping down next to him.

They rearrange themselves so that Rin is lying on the left side of his chest, resting her head against his shoulder. Obito wraps his arms around her, propping his body slightly to the side so that he's not quite flat on his back. Rin fits her body against his, curling up into the concave hollow of his chest. He feels good and warm and she nuzzles her face against him.

"You know, I thought you'd be more upset about this," Rin says. Obito hugs her.

"I guess I haven't had much time to think about it," Obito says, and Rin realizes she's just brought up painful memories again. She sits up and starts to apologize, but Obito hugs her closer. "I tried negotiating with Onoki one-on-one. The Land of Earth is suffering crop damage from a massive drought, so I offered to open up bilateral trade agreements between their village and ours in return for his vote. He refused, and then he ratted me out to the other kage, claiming I was trying to influence him. I can't even be mad, because I was," Obito says.

"What would you do if you were in the Akatsuki?" Rin asks.

"Genjutsu them. Take I want. Maybe install a subordinate to infiltrate them. Start a whisper campaign in favor of our vote. And if that didn't work, I'd probably send one of the teams to kill them. I'd make it look like an accident, of course," Obito says, and he shifts to look at her. "Onoki would be easy. He's old - all I'd have to do is imply that he needs to do something to protect his legacy. 'Your village is suffering, and on your deathbed you will look back and have nothing but regret. Think about it,' I'd say, and then I'd disappear and let him mull it over."

"So what are you doing now?"

"Trying to convince everyone that I'm harmless and that I'm trying to do the best for the village. Ironic, because the village council doesn't trust me, either." He shifts Rin closer to his chest, then squeezes her fondly. "It's one of the reasons why I'm trying to bring the civilian villages into the fold. They don't know me. Granted, they know I have the Sharingan and they're afraid of me, but it's for an entirely different reason."

Rin feels herself start to drowse. His voice is soothing. He feels comfortable and warm and the entire time he's been talking, he's been absently running his fingertips up and down the skin of her arm. She feels him rest his cheek on her forehead. She smiles and presses a soft kiss against his throat, cuddling him sleepily. "Maybe you should listen to Kakashi," Rin says.

"What about Kakashi?"

"Wear makeup and dye your hair."

Obito scoffs. "Bakakashi is a pain in the ass."

Rin giggles. Obito reaches across her body to switch off the lamp, then shifts her weight, pulling the blankets over the both of them.

Like every night, Obito is the big spoon. Rin curls up on her side and Obito cups his body against hers, his arm draping across her torso and pulling her to his chest. He doesn't say it, but Rin knows he takes comfort in this, being able to hold her and cuddle her the rest of the night. Every so often he'll nuzzle his face into her neck or brush a soft kiss against her nape. Before, he rarely slept, relying on Hashirama's cells and sheer willpower to stay awake. He used to have nightmares, dreams where the walls would suddenly cave in, where the people he killed rose up to accuse him. Frequently he dreamt of Rin's death, and it would be as if he'd witnessed it all over again.

Sleep is comforting now, because he can sleep next to Rin, can feel her move and stir against him.

There is another round of negotiations, and Obito is caught off-guard when an Iwagakure representative asks him about the possibility of a bilateral trade agreement. Obito looks up and sees Onoki scowling, his arms crossed and his face pinched. He sees Obito and looks away dismissively. "I'm doing this for my village," Onoki says. His cape flutters as he floats over, scowling. "That's the only reason you've got my vote."

"Thank you," Obito says, and his face brightens. The other kage look and whisper to themselves. They had never seen the Sixth Hokage crack a smile.

[secret-engima]

Oo! For your Nox verse you mentioned Axis and now I'm all ears for anything you're willing to talk about for the Kingsglaives. Is Axis Nox's assigned guard? Does Noctis have one he's close with like you hinted Arra is for Nox? Does Regis assign *Ardyn* a glaive? It might give more reason for him to interact with Titus? Just what is the Kingsglaive in general's reaction to the chancellor being not that bad actually and basically defecting to Lucis?

(cracks knuckles) Anon. ANON. Kingsglaive are a fav okay? I am always willing to talk about them. ALWAYS. In this AU though, Axis is not actually a glaive. The Kingsglaive was only formed a few months after Nox and Ardyn time-traveled, and Nox met him sometime not long after arriving in the past, so Axis was wandering around taking Hunts to get by. Axis, upon meeting Nox “I’m going to single-handed blow up ALL the Nif’s stuff” Izunia ended up tagging along a few times and then just … never really stopped. Be ends up becoming Nox’s official Shield after Nox is discovered by Regis, but honestly considered himself that well before (because someone has to keep these moron, and his uncle by extension, alive). Nox gets to know the rest of the galahdians through Axis after he’s discovered.

For the rest of the glaives (who are actual glaives in this), Noctis … I don’t think he has a particular favorite? Nox starts dragging Noctis down to the glaive HQ to “train” with them (read: play with them and endear himself to them) so Noctis kinda ends up adopted en masse by these guys (though honestly Tredd might glom onto being Noctis’s buddy/reckless older bro just to spite Axis, because how DARE his buddy in crime get his own LC and not share with Tredd?). Regis assigns the Kingsglaive and the Crownsguard in rotation to guard Ardyn because Chancellor of Niflheim, but Ardyn’s trolling tendency weeds out 98% of the Crownsguard pretty fast (Ardyn: ”It’s not my fault they can’t take a joke!”). Titus, being also Glauca (and secretly Ardyn’s newest minion) tends to volunteer himself after the first five trolling sprees just to keep this moron (who is also somehow his boss, Astrals save him) from driving the entire Citadel nuts.

For your last question. Hmmmm (straps on HC hat) warning this is gonna be LONG:

-Nobody in the glaive is happy when they learn that the Chancellor of Niflheim is a guest (actual guest, not prisoner) in the Citadel. The fact that he’s going to remain a guest for the indefinite future because their King apparently had a kid with the Chancellor’s sister just makes it worse. Nobody is happy and some Potentially Traitorous Things are often mumbled half-heartedly over their alcohol in the first few days when only the Crownsguard are allowed near him (mostly just different ways of calling Regis an idiot, nothing actually harmful or murderous). The glaive however, don’t think the Crownsguard are going to stay Ardyn’s primary keepers for long. Not just because of their general disdain for the organization that prefers to hide behind the Wall rather than fight, but because all of them saw Captain’s face when Ardyn’s arrival was announced. It was the same face he wore the last time the Nifs unleashed a trio of Behemoths onto the field. The one that screamed “Damage Control Inbound” and “This is Going to Become Our Problem and We’re All Collectively Doomed”.

-Then they actually start getting assigned to the man and he’s … nothing like what they were expecting. There is no brilliant tactician, no cunning, poison-tongue politician. No enemy infiltrating their second home using his own nephew as leverage. There’s just a man in tacky clothes and the world’s Dumbest Hat who hides from the irate doctors who insist he needs medical intervention for his weight and general health problems Right Now and only lets Captain or his nephew bully him into eating more than a single meal per day. There’s just an uncle who teases his nephew mercilessly but never lets the boy get lost in his own head (which is too easy for the kid to do, they all recognize the signs of Battle Trauma) and dotes on their crown prince like he’s a long lost nephew rather than the son of the Lucian king.

-There’s just a very, very tired soul who they sometimes find in the Hall of Arts, staring up at the picture of the Founder King and First Oracle with deceptively blank expression and a faintly cracking voice as he sings something Ancient that sounds like a lullaby for all they can’t understand the words, swaying to the melody of his own song like he’ll topple and shatter the moment someone puts pressure on the wrong place.

-Nyx is the first one other than Captain to find him like that, and for all he wants to hate the man who represents Niflheim (represents the empire that burned Galahd and killed his sister), he instead finds himself coaxing Ardyn away from the Hall with gentle words and steady hands, just like he would any of his brother or sister glaives. Nyx mentions it to Captain later, which is how he and the others learn that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. That they should keep him away from the Hall of Arts if they can.

-It’s the first sign that Ardyn isn’t a vicious leader of monsters playing nice to trick an enemy, but a broken, tired man using his nephew as an excuse to finally escape his glittering cage of “Chancellor”.

-None of them are quite sure what to make of that, so they watch, they listen, they learn. …They get attached. Grudgingly. One prank and melodramatic smile and accidentally witnessed quiet moment at a time. There are a lot of sides to Ardyn Izunia, like the individual fragments of a broken mirror, and somehow the glaives keep being allowed to stumble on them. Somehow they keep getting attached to the shards, one by one and moment by moment without realizing that Ardyn is getting attached in return.

-Until one day, on a good day when Ardyn is wearing his Cheerful, Melodramatic Self and the glaives are hiding their snickers in the corners as they follow him like shadows, two of the King’s Council meet him in the halls. Look down their noses with contemptuous eyes, just like they do the glaives themselves and (in that uniquely flowery way only politicians can) start insulting Ardyn under the guise of casual conversation. They watch, seething despite themselves, as Ardyn takes it, smiles through it, tilts his head like he doesn’t know exactly what they are doing. Libertus finally ducks out of the shadows, bites out some made up excuse of Ardyn’s presence being requested by Cor (the councilmen wouldn’t prevent the Marshal’s orders from being followed and wouldn’t ask him about it later and discover the lie), grinds his teeth when the two councilmen turn their flowery poison on Libertus and the Kingsglaive (the Galahdian refugees) as well. Just like they always do.

-In the middle of taking a step to follow Libertus away, the glaives see Ardyn go still as a painting. See blue eyes sharpen like blades and then-. He turns around in one fluid movement, like it was intentional all along, his easy smile still in place but now dripping an unstated sort of malice that takes the glaive by surprise. They watch, gaping and confused, as Ardyn suddenly transforms into the monster they expected to find those first weeks he arrived in the Citadel, the vaunted Niflheim Chancellor who could ruin people with a smile and a few honeyed words. Where a moment ago he’d been passively taking insults, now Ardyn runs verbal mazes around the two councilmen, ripping them open and stripping them down to their barest, ugliest parts all while never dropping his friendly, polite mien. Somewhere in the “conversation” (massacre), the glaives are pretty sure Ardyn blackmails the two councilmen into supporting a bunch of refugee support programs that, as a technical enemy politician, Ardyn should not know about and they are definitely sure that Ardyn manages to pull it off while simultaneously insulting the two men’s family lines all the way back to the era of the Founder King. By name.

-As he suddenly bids the sputtering councilmen good day and trails along after a wide-eyed Libertus and a long-suffering Captain who arrived somewhere in the verbal massacre, his footsteps silent and predatory when around the glaive he’s always been easy and noisy (to let them know he’s there, to ensure he cannot startle them), the glaive realize that Ardyn is every inch the monster they were expecting. Every centimeter the poisonous, deadly politician they complained about before getting to know him. He just … doesn’t bare his fangs at the people that, by all conventional logic, he should. Somewhere along the way, this Niflheim Chancellor decided that he was more loyal to the line of Lucis and the ragtag refugees called the Kingsglaive than he was his own empire, and that if hiding his claws and acting oblivious around disapproving, snobby nobles was what it took to stay rather than having to return to his own country (his prison), then he would.

-Over drinks, they all agree Ardyn Izunia, former Chancellor of Niflheim, is the scariest person they’ve ever seen. And that they are all really glad he’s on their side.

(hope that satisfies your Ask, Anon! It … spiraled out of my control)

[paperback-writers-blog1]

Valentines Day

By: Mod McCartney

Rating: NC-17

Paring: John/Paul

Summery: One year ago John made the biggest mistake of his life. With Valentines Day approaching can he finally make it right?

Warning: Adult themes

John had always known he was a stupid man. He seemed to specialise in fucking himself over at every opportunity. Most of his successes were due to someone elses input. Usually he didn’t care. ‘Fuck it’ he’d say to himself and move on. However there was one mistake he could never move on from, no matter how hard he tried. It still haunted him a year later, the way he had lost Paul.

Really, getting Paul was not difficult. At least, it wasn’t as difficult as John imagined. He always saw Paul as this unobtainable, higher being. As much as John had pined for him, he would tell himself Paul would end up with someone as gorgeous and flawless as himself and they would be a sickeningly perfect couple in a perfect house with the perfect jobs. Ugh. Of course, Paul did have flaws. And he didn’t want the life John had imagined for him, basically dating a clone of himself. While John had been obsessing over this imaginary life for his crush while putting himself down, Paul had been noticing more and more similarities between them. At first they had seemed like total opposites but as they got to know each other more, Paul noticed a more… two sides of the same coin dynamic. They had very similar dreams and motivations, however would handle them in wildly opposing ways. But their extremes complimented each other. Paul, the sweet charmer could very easily smooth any damage or upset John caused. John, the wild spontaneous adventurer would encourage Paul out of his shell more, helped him be that little more daring and less under his father’s thumb. It was therefore much easier than he had imagined for him to get Paul. Paul was already smitten with John, cool, older and rebellious. One night of heavy drinking, John had simply turned up at Pauls home. Words failed him, but the booze made him bolder and he simply kissed the younger man. The next day he had woken up with Paul snuggled against his chest. After coffee and an explanation from Paul, they were boyfriends. Although nothing was officially said, it was more than obvious. They did everything together, went everywhere together and when they were apart were constantly talking or thinking about the other. When they finally found each other again their embraces and kisses were like they had been apart for years. Of course a candle burning that brightly wears out very quickly. John always cursed himself thinking about that night. What was worse, it was Valentines. John had planned a romantic surprise for Paul. With Mimi away for the week, he had planned a dinner and a little pamper session for Paul. He was excited but a little nervous. What if Paul didn’t like it? What if it was too much? So he did what he always did when he panicked. Drank. Just a beer for courage. That didn’t work as he hoped so maybe another. When the beers weren’t working, he dipped into whiskey. By the time Paul arrived (exactly on time as usual) John was roaring drunk. Paul wasn’t that bothered. He had seen it all. However because of his insecurities John was feeling particularly nasty. And with no one else to tease and snipe at, Paul was the only victim of his poisonous tongue. At first he had tried to ignore it, brush it off as John being drunk and stressed from the planning. But as the night wore on, with wine and Paul not reacting like John wanted, he got more vicious. Paul asked him to stop, why was he being like this? The tears in his doe eyes gave John that sick satisfaction that he was getting to his victim. John didn’t stop. He pushed and pushed until Paul just couldn’t take it. And as easily as the relationship had started, they had ended. John had woken up the next day on the couch. The only evidence of dinner was the neatly stacked dishes on the draining board, no doubt courtesy of Paul. Upstairs Johns room was untouched. The slightly cheesy romantic setting he had worked hard on was still there. Confused he had tried calling Paul and had been told in no uncertain terms by Mike to not call again. That only caused more confusion and John had to go to George for answers. George was Pauls best friend. John had no doubt he would tell him everything. It took a good few days but finally he got his answers. He immediately regretted it. He never meant to hurt Paul! He tried all sorts to get Paul back but to no avail. The damage had been done and was far too fresh. The problem was, George was dating John’s best friend. It made for some uncomfortable situations, mainly birthday celebrations.

Now a year later, and 2 days before Valentine’s Day, John was lying in his bed plagued by thoughts of Paul. He didn’t want to move on. He didn’t want to date others. He wanted Paul. He wanted to smother him in affection and hear that cute giggle, see those big eyes filled with adoration for him, kiss those soft lips again. Part of him thought Paul probably had someone new. He was too damn attractive and sweet to stay single for long. Still, John would curse himself forever if he didn’t at least try. He needed to know for certain he had completely ruined any chance. Tomorrow was the 13th and the day John would start this little plan. And despite the nerves creeping in, he wouldn’t touch a drop. He’d do this properly. After a little planning and preparation, John fell into an uneasy sleep.

********************************

Paul woke up bright and early as usual. At first, it was just an ordinary day. He wandered downstairs for some breakfast, thinking he might call around Georges later, see if he was up to anything. His thoughts were interrupted when he cast a glance over his dads’ paper. Feb 13th. Paul felt sick. Was it already nearly Valentine’s day? Fuck. He had had offers, of course he had. Including a very sweet one from George to hang out and have a ‘friends date’. He said Richie didn’t mind celebrating on a different day. But Paul declined them all. Because it shouldn’t be like this! He should be celebrating properly with John! Even after all this time he couldn’t believe the things John had said to him that night. But the conviction he said them… and the way he seemed to enjoy Pauls hurt. Paul sighed and made himself some tea. He found he couldn’t face the world today. Give it a few days and all the shops would be focused on Easter. Valentine’s Day would be a long forgotten memory until next year. When he had finished his drink he intended to hide away in his bedroom for as long as possible. He had no doubt George would be around to check on him. Paul spent the morning making his room into a little blanket fort, stocked it with snacks and drinks and plenty of entertainment. It had worked very well. He felt better in his little world where this damn holiday didn’t exist. It must have been two or three in the afternoon when Paul heard the knock at the door. He paused confused. He had been expecting George, but he wouldn’t knock. He figured maybe his dad or Mike had ordered something, and forced himself downstairs to answer the door. When he opened the door he was greeted with a woman in a uniform holding a rather large and pretty bouquet. Paul accepted the delivery, taking the card that went with it and thanking the lady. He thought nothing of it, assuming it was for Mike. He had stuff like this all the time. He played the field quite a bit and seemed to be perpetually stuck in the honeymoon period of relationships. He should’ve guessed there would be gifts for him today and probably tomorrow too. Paul took them to the sink to let them sit in water until Mike got home. He felt a little pang of sadness looking at them. Among the romantic red and pink roses were some of Pauls favourite flowers, simple daisies and lilies. He sighed, a little part of him wishing he had someone to send him something so sweet and romantic. He couldn’t help it. Paul was the romantic sort, totally putty for the very cute and often a little cheesy romantic surprises that came around this time of year. He had, in a wild moment, thought of sending something to John. But he wasn’t as taken by the romance as Paul and would probably think it was dumb or too slushy for him. With a little wistful sigh Paul went to put the card on the kitchen table so Mike would find it when he got in. He went to leave then did a double take. That couldn’t be right…. Could it? He carefully picked up the envelope again and re read it over and over as if his wishful thinking was making him see things. He traced his fingers over the print, maybe he could wipe away the delusion and would see Mikes name underneath. But no matter what he did, it still said in plain black print, Mr J. P. McCartney. Only a few people used or even knew his first name was James. Maybe it was George and Richie trying to help him feel better. Cautiously he opened it. The card slipped out into Pauls hand. He expected some cutesy cartoon or a for a special friend on the front. That was something George would do. But there wasn’t. It was… confusing yet slightly familiar. There was no words on the front, just pictures. Black and white photo fragments of places and events that called to Paul. He recognised the birthday cake in one photo, but the head had been cut off the person standing over it, no doubt blowing the candles. There were shots clearly taken around Liverpool, some of his favourite places to go around the Docks and parks. Occasionally there was an arm or foot of someone just peeking into shot. But they were horribly blurred, like it had been zoomed into. He carefully opened it, not sure if he should be scared by this or not. Inside there wasn’t many clues either. And it still had an ominous feeling about it. “I need answers. I know you do too.” Under that was an address, time and date. Paul recognised the place. It was a little restaurant he had been to a few times with… no. It couldn’t be… could it? John? That brought both pain and excitement. He never thought John meant those things he had said! He thought John would come to his senses and come round to explain but he never did. Paul knew nothing about the phone calls. He assumed John had meant to break up with him, but he never understood why. So yes. He did need answers. But what answers would John need? Looking back at the front of the card, it started making sense. The snapshots could very easily be from his time with John. And the flowers containing his favourites…. Paul quickly got a vase and sorted the flowers before taking it all up to his room. He set the vase and card on his desk and sat staring at them. Maybe it was just a way to get Pauls attention, it didn’t mean it was a date. It probably wasn’t. Then again… to get dinner out on the 14th reservations must have been made. It would be a little more expensive than a regular night. And why a restaurant where they had had a few of their dates if it was just to talk? In fact their first official date was there. Paul groaned. This was too confusing. Still… his curiosity was piqued. And if John wanted to explain what happened Paul would let him. He might even put in a little effort in his appearance. He had to calm down and not get carried away. This did not mean they would be getting back together. This did not mean they were going on a date. It could all be a twisted mind game, John was good at those. Still there was a tiny, hopeful part of Paul that he just couldn’t calm down. He needed it to be tomorrow already. When he noticed the date this morning he never expected to be excited for the next day.

*****************************************

That was phrase one complete. John checked his watch. Paul must have received the flowers by now. He was a little shocked he remembered Pauls favourites, he usually forgot stuff like that. John dropped as many hints that it was him without explicitly saying so. Using his full initials, his favourite flowers, booking the place of their first date, the snapshots of him and Paul. Paul was smart, he would probably figure it out easily. John hated the waiting that happened now. He paced and went for a wander around the streets. He tried to draw or play his guitar but nothing kept his attention for more than half an hour. The day stretched on for a ridiculous amount of time. He felt like the universe was adding hours just to annoy him and keep him from seeing his Paulie again. Finally a chance to end this year long torment. When it was an acceptable time to go to bed he rushed to his room. The sooner he fell asleep the sooner it would be tomorrow. He would spend the day making himself look as good as possible. It was hard but eventually he managed to fall asleep.

******************************************

Paul had had an awful nights sleep. His mind had been racing with all kinds of possibilities. He had weird dreams that kept waking him up. So he rose a little later in the morning. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw were the flowers. Fuck! He looked at his clock. Alright there were still 8 hours to get ready. Paul got up and started looking through his clothes, searching for the best outfit. He felt giddy like a girl who had been asked on her very first date. He had to look his absolute best for two reasons. If there was a chance for him and John to get back together, he needed to be absolutely irresistible, so John would have no doubts. However, if Johns plan was to humiliate him publicly, if he looked his best he’d show John exactly what he was missing. It took him the entire morning to come up with the right shirt and trousers combo. With that settled he had to shower. It’d take most of the day for his hair to dry. He used a body wash he saved for special occasions. Once showered, he then went about making sure every part of him looked good. He used a facemask to give himself that fresh glow, he made sure his fingernails were clean and neat, he kept making sure his hair was drying straight and neat, He used lotion to make his skin soft,. From top to bottom there wasn’t an inch of Paul he didn’t pamper, clean and neaten. He had never looked so good. He even shaved back some of the hair that had grown over his hands and gave his eyebrows a little going over with the tweezers. No he wasn’t one for plucking his eyebrows, they naturally grew like they did but today was special. He checked the clock. 2 hours to go. Good. That gave him plenty of time to get into town. He didn’t want to rush and mess himself up again. He needed to take his time not only to preserve all the work he had done, but to keep himself calm. His heart was beating almost too fast as he left to catch the bus into the centre of Liverpool. Today was not the day to be walking. Of course this meant he would be in town an hour and a half early, but there was plenty to occupy his time. He strolled around the docks, had a coffee and did a little window shopping to kill time. Finally he realised he had 10 minutes to get to the restaurant. Ignoring his heart and shaking, Paul quickly checked his appearance in a nearby public bathroom then went to stand outside the meeting place.

**************************************

Fuck fuck FUCK! Of course he was late! John was never any good at keeping time however part of it was not his fault, but two old women in the flower shop who would not stop talking while John waited to make his purchase. Of all times he had to be late… John sighed as he finally got off the bus. He checked his watch. Okay, only a five minutes late. Fashionably late. But he knew Paul was punctual and had no doubt he would already be there. He couldn’t leave him waiting. He smoothed down the smart shirt he had put on and did a speed walk to the place. As predicted, John saw Paul standing there. He had to stop as he was completely taken aback. It had been a while since John had really taken in Pauls appearance. But he had quite clearly grown a little more. He was taller than John remembered, his jaw was more defined but he still had those adorably chubby cheeks. The slight podge Paul used to complain about had pretty much gone. He was no longer that awkward teen but becoming an extremely attractive young man. Johns eyes unashamedly raked Paul while he could, while Paul was clueless that he was. His eyes finally tore from that gorgeous face down. Paul had curves. On some men it would look ridiculous but Paul carried it off flawlessly. His arse was perfectly round, hugged nicely by his choice of trousers, his thighs… John had to stop before he started drooling. Besides he noticed Paul looking around and getting more nervous. He knew if he didn’t go to him soon, Paul would think John had messed with him and he’d have blown his chance. John gave himself a little shake and took a deep breath. Mustering all the confidence he could he approached Paul. “Hey.” He said softly. Pauls head turned to look over and he seemed to freeze. In his head Paul was going to turn and say hey back. But something caught in his throat. He wasn’t used to seeing John so groomed. He looked so good. Was that effort? Had John put in effort for Paul? He tried to not get too excited by what that meant. Paul swallowed. “H… Hey.” He smiled. John melted hearing that voice and seeing that smile again. He then remembered what he was holding in his hand. “Oh fuck…I mean… damn… I mean I got ya these!” John got flustered and held out the rose and small box of chocolates for Paul. Paul couldn’t help the little giggle. John looked far too adorable that flustered. Johns cheeks were getting pinker. God he felt dumb. Paul took the gifts. “Thank you. They’re lovely.” His face fell a bit. “Sorry I… I didn’t get you anything.” John didn’t like how upset Paul looked at that. “No no no it’s okay ya didn’t have to. No ya shouldn’t have! I invited you! And… I have a lot of apologising to do.” John looked down ashamed. Paul bit his lip then in a daring move, reached forward with his free hand and held Johns. Johns head shot up. Encouraged, he smiled and gave Pauls hand a little squeeze. Paul looked even happier at that. “Right… well now. I believe I promised you dinner.” John announced, getting that bit of confidence back. As John acted more like himself, Paul relaxed with him. “Lead on.” Paul stood next to him, but didn’t let go of Johns hand. John grinned and took Paul inside. Of course it had been a late reservation so they didn’t exactly get the best table. But they got in and that was all that mattered. When they were sat, John ordered wine much to Pauls surprise. There was a bit of silence as they scoured the menus, the only bits of conversation being talking about what they may order. Once the food had been ordered and the wine poured, John took a moment to just take in what was happening. He was sat at dinner with Paul, something he thought would never happen again. Hell, he wouldn’t have given anyone a second chance if he had been treated like Paul had. That was what made Paul so amazing, so much better to John. And in the dim candle light he looked more beautiful than ever. However as John stared Paul got a little self-conscious. “Wh…What?” “Huh? Oh… nothin… s’just… I don’t think ya ever been more gorgeous...” Paul blushed heavily at that and busied himself with taking a drink. John thought he looked too adorable. He loved making Paul blush with compliments. “So… flirting are we Lennon?” Paul teased. Johns smile widened. “Of course. Who wouldn’t?” John felt another flutter as he made Paul blush again. Talking to him was just so easy. He found he didn’t want to talk about anything heavy just yet. No, this dinner was to make up for last years failure and to give him the chance to treat Paul like a princess. It went so smoothly, better than John could have imagined. Paul was receptive, laughing at Johns silly jokes, blushing when he was complimented and accepting John feeding him a bit of his food to try. He even fed John a bit. By the time it was finished, John was on cloud 9 and Paul was almost certain this was a dream now. John paid the bill and got up and held Pauls coat out for him, being the perfect gentleman. With linked arms they headed out into the night. “Now… it’s up to you… I don’t wanna pressure you but… Would ya like to come back to mine?” John asked nervously. Paul seemed to think about it. Memories of last year resurfaced making him falter a bit. However tonight had been perfect. John was clearly not drunk and besides, he knew they had a lot to talk about. Slowly Paul nodded. “Yeah…. Yeah I’d like that.” John felt a bubble of excitement rise in his chest. He had this chance to get Paul back! Instead of taking Paul to get a bus, he paid for a taxi. During the ride, Paul even put his head on Johns shoulder. Johns eyes widened and he shakily put an arm around Pauls waist. Fuck that felt good… it felt right, holding Paul against him in that protective way. Once inside Johns house, John carried on being the perfect gentleman, taking Pauls coat to hang up for him and making him a drink. He put on some music and sat with Paul. They had a little light chat to relax the atmosphere. Eventually, John couldn’t hold back anymore. “Look… Paul… I owe you the biggest apology. I was a fuckin idiot. I didn’t mean any of what I said. It were my own insecurities comin out… nothing to do with you. Ya… Ya fuckin perfect Paul. Too perfect for someone like me. I understand if ya just wanna take this night as an apology an we never see each other again. But… If ya would wanna… Would ya give me a chance ta treat ya like ya should have been all that time?” John just went ahead and blurted it all out before he lost his nerve. Paul listened carefully. He knew John could get nasty when he was drunk and if something was upsetting him or making him uncomfortable in any way he would lash out like he did. “It hurt I ain’t gonna deny that John. I ain’t ever been hurt like that before.” Paul started, making it clear to John this wouldn’t be a ‘forgive and forget’ thing. When John looked at Paul sadly, Paul took his hand. “However… Ya seem genuine. I believe ya know ya were an idiot. Ya learned from it. An… I would like ta give ya a second chance.” John looked at Paul with wide eyes. He was certain Paul was going to reject him! Without thinking, John pulled Paul close. “I’ve been dyin to do this all fuckin night.” With that he crushed his lips against Pauls, wrapping his arms around him. He felt another jolt when he felt Paul hold onto him tightly, grasping fistfuls of his shirt. John didn’t want to break the kiss. When they needed to breathe, John moved to kiss Pauls jaw and neck. He felt a shudder as he heard Pauls soft gasps and moans. He remembered Paul lost in throes of passion and to John there was never a more beautiful sight. No, he had to do this right. Although he could feel himself getting aroused by Paul, he pulled back. “I… I’m so grateful… ya fuckin amazin y’know that?” Paul blushed again. Before he could say anything, John stood up. “An someone as amazin as you deserves ta be spoilt.” He held out his hand. Paul looked at John confused but took his hand. John was going to give Paul that pamper session even if it was a year late. John took Paul up to his bedroom, where he had covered it in rose petals and little LED candles. On the bed was a towel and fluffy pillows. On the bedside table, a selection of scented oils. “I understand if it’s a little much… but I’d really like ta show ya what I wanted to give ya last year.” Paul looked at John with wide eyes. He had gone to all this effort! With a little smile, Paul nodded. “I’d like that.” He needed to know John hadn’t meant to be cruel, that his intentions had been sweet and romantic. John looked so happy at that. “If you don’t mind then… I would need you to remove that lovely shirt.” Paul was a little uncertain however he had to trust John. He reached down to unbutton the shirt. John frowned. No, Paul shouldn’t have to do anything. “Here, allow me.” He carefully reached down and started unbuttoning Pauls shirt, exposing his soft, milky skin. His hands were shaking and his breath coming in gasps as he got to see Pauls body again. He couldn’t resist appreciating it a bit. He bit his lip, noticing Paul had a little trail of black hair going down towards his pants. John couldn’t resist brushing it with his fingertips. Paul always loved hair being brushed and played with. Paul gasped a bit and his eyes fluttered. John swallowed, no he had to carry on. He couldn’t get swept up in his overwhelming urge to rip Pauls clothes off and have him right up against the wall. He had to pamper Paul. He carefully finished unbuttoning the shirt. Paul had definitely grown into his body more. His muscles were more defined. Despite having that feminine charm, Paul had an equally intoxicating manliness and John was completely taken. He carefully slipped Pauls shirt off him. “Alright darlin… On the bed… lie on ya stomach.” Paul looked confused but did so. John sat next to him. There was a pause before Paul felt something cold on his back. He hissed but before he could say anything he felt Johns hands instantly get to work, massaging him. Fuck he had no idea John was so good at it. Paul was quickly relaxed, resting his head on his arm, his eyes half closed. John smiled seeing Pauls reaction. He made sure Paul was relaxed all over. When he was done with Pauls back he bit his lip. “Hey… Paulie… Can I do ya front?” Paul looked up then carefully rolled so he was on his back. John felt a flutter seeing Paul lying on his bed like that. Swallowing again he resumed his massage, shaking a bit as his hands glided over Pauls stomach and chest. Paul suddenly gasped as one of Johns hands ran over a nipple. Paul looked up at John with unsure eyes. Of course he felt that heat pooling in his lower stomach as John ran his hands all over him. John recognised that look. It was almost identical to the one Paul had given just before they had sex for the first time. John knew then this was affecting Paul as much as it was him. “Shhh Macca…” John cooed, to keep him calm. “It’ll be alright… I won’t push… but I just wanna make ya feel good…If I go too far…. Just say… I’ll stop okay?” He understood that Paul might need easing back into it. Paul gave a little nod. John thought his heart was going to explode as he carefully undid Pauls trousers. “I’m just gonna give ya legs a little massage, okay?” He reassured Paul. Paul helped get his trousers off. John could see the stirrings of an erection in Pauls boxers. He had to ignore it and the urges he had to go directly there. Instead he carefully massaged Pauls thighs. As Paul relaxed, John got a little braver and moved to Pauls inner thigh. Pauls breath hitched and he opened his legs a little more. Encouraged, John slowly worked up them, alternating between legs. He could see Paul was now fully erect. Paul had propped himself up on his elbows to watch John. His eyes kept fluttering shut, his lips parted as he gasped. When John got near his cock, Paul let out a tiny moan. Johns eyes flicked up and he drank in the sight of Paul like this. He loved seeing Paul needy. “Is this alright Macca? Is this what ya want?” He asked. Paul nodded without hesitation. “P…Please… fuck…. John…” He gasped, his voice heavier with need. At that, John wasted no time. He reached up and gently stroked Paul through his boxers. Paul cried out, a mix of pleasure and relief at finally being touched. John went as slowly as he could, despite feeling like he was going to break the zip on his trousers soon. He spent some time just palming Paul through the material. Eventually he could hear a few little pleas in Pauls moaning. He needed more. And who was John to refuse? John slowly ran a hand down that trail of hair to Pauls boxers. Carefully, he pulled the waistband down, pulling the last piece of clothing from Paul. John couldn’t help the little moan as he exposed Paul completely. It felt like a lifetime since he had seen Paul naked and erect. He threw down Pauls boxers and took some time to just take it in. Paul moaned impatiently beneath him. John snapped back to reality. “Paul I… Fuck it!” John suddenly stood up and grabbed Pauls wrist. Paul was shocked and a little more turned on at Johns roughness and he yanked Paul up and pushed him against the wall. “I gotta have you Paul. An I can’t be sweet an slow. I gotta fuck ya till ya can’t see straight!” John held Pauls wrists against the wall as he kissed him roughly. Paul could do nothing but kiss back and moan. He had always loved it when John got like this. John paused briefly to feverishly yank off his own clothes. Paul bit his lip and watched as John got himself just as naked. Fuck he looked so good to Paul. Pauls eyes were drawn to Johns own erection and he felt a shiver of excitement. “John…. John please…” He moaned. John grinned hearing that. He’d never tire of it. “Alright love calm down. We gotta do this properly though.” John reached down and finally wrapped his hand around Pauls cock, stroking it roughly. “Ya not used ta bein fucked anymore are ya? I gotta make sure I don’t hurt ya… gotta make sure ya up ta goin all night.” Paul looked at John with wide eyes. All night? Though he had a feeling John would stop if he really asked him. Paul just let himself get lost in the feeling, moaning and gasping at what John was doing to him. John suddenly stopped. He went to a draw and got out a bottle of lube then knelt in front of Paul. “Alright ya needy boy… I got ya.” He grinned. While he was talking, John slicked up his fingers and reached up to tease Pauls hole. He groaned remembering the feelings of taking Paul. His desk still had scratches in it where he had fucked Paul mercilessly against it. Paul seemed to be having similar memories as he felt John tease. After a little teasing, John slowly pushed a finger in. Paul hissed and squirmed. John licked up Pauls cock, trying to distract him. It worked, as Paul was distracted long enough for John to slip in two fingers and properly prepare him. He suddenly stood up, lubing himself. “Alright Paul, I think ya ready.” John grabbed Pauls leg and lifted it to give himself an easier entrance. Paul was shaking with excitement as he felt John pressing his tip against his hole. Carefully he slipped into Paul. Both of the boys cried out in pleasure. Paul missed feeling so full and John missed feeling Paul around him. Paul wrapped his arms around John as he pushed all the way in. He ignored the tears welling up and helped John as he slowly moved inside him. “Fuck fuck fuck John…s…s’so good…yes!” Paul moaned right down Johns ear. John held Paul in place as he sped up. Unfortunately the position, while it helped push John into Paul deeper was tiring on both of them. When it got too much, John pulled out and spun Paul around, pushing him face first into the wall. He carefully lined himself up again then grabbed Pauls hips and slammed into him. Paul screamed out his pleasure, pushing back against John as he fucked him roughly. Sweat and tears poured yet they had no intention of slowing down. “Sh… Shit John…m…M’gonna cum! Gonna cum!” Paul cried as John slammed into him, hitting that oh so sweet spot inside him. At that John pulled out. Paul whined at the loss of feeling, the welling orgasm dying inside him. John turned Paul around again. “You’re not cumming just yet love.” Before Paul could answer John had gone to his desk. He swiped everything off then shoved Paul against it. Paul remembered the last time they had done this, how good it felt, how John could perfectly hit that sweet spot inside him. With Paul bent over his desk, John knelt down and licked up Pauls thigh. Paul gasped not expecting that. He moaned in frustration needing to feel John inside him again. He had been so close! John licked all the way up until he was at Pauls hole. It felt so exciting tasting himself there as he pushed his tongue inside Paul. Paul had never felt anything like it. His head was blank as John licked him and stroked his cock. John was a master at edging Paul. He knew how much to give and when to take it away. When Paul couldn’t take anymore teasing, John stood up and pushed into him again. “Yes! Yes John fuck yes yes yes!” Paul cried as John began fucking him mercilessly into the desk, scraping it along the floor a bit. Paul was sure he’d have a bruise on his stomach from this. He didn’t care. It wasn’t long before Paul was screaming that he wanted to cum. John listened and pulled away just at the last minute. “FUCK!” Paul screamed in frustration. “John please! Please let me cum! Need ta cum!” John pulled Paul up and kissed him. “I gotta watch ya cum though.” John explained before pushing Paul onto the bed. He’d let Paul cum now he would be able to see his face. He wrapped Pauls legs around his waist and pushed him again. This time no edging, no teasing. He wanted to see Paul lost in passion. Besides he couldn’t keep this up much longer himself. Paul threw his head back and cried loudly as John fucked him. He was a mess, his face red and tear streaked, sweat making his hair messy and John loved every damn second. He could feel Paul getting close again. “A… Alright Paulie…. Gonna… Gonna make ya cum…a…all over yaself…. Messy boy…” John groaned, reaching down to stroke Paul as he assaulted his sweet spot. “Yes! Yes John please please gonna cum gonna… gonna-” Paul came very suddenly. Loud and violently after all the teasing. John dragged out the orgasm as long as he could. The problem was seeing that, hearing that and feeling Paul around him he couldn’t hold back any longer. John came, filling Paul up. He collapsed on top of Paul. They took a moment, catching their breath and to come down. “Wow…” Paul gasped softly. John smiled at Paul and kissed him sweetly. He carefully pulled out of Paul. “C’mon lets get ya cleaned up.” John muttered. He pulled Paul to the bathroom where they had a quick shower. Paul just wanted to snuggle with John after that so was rushing a bit. Finally, John took him back to his bedroom where he threw the towel onto the floor to deal with in the morning. He wrapped Paul up in his arms and the covers. Neither cared about the mess around them of clothes and candles. All they cared about was each other. Paul buried his face in the crook of Johns neck. “I love you.” He muttered making Johns heart soar. “I love you too, so much Macca.” He replied kissing Pauls head. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

[a-plethaura-ask-blog]

So, I started this comic page about a few months ago. (yeah, I know, it really narrows it down, huh?) This was a comic page intro I was going to do for my AU ContaminationTale. However, there are quite a lot of things stopping me from actually making the comic. I want to start a comic, but I think I would do fairly poorly at actually making a good comic that will keep attention.

I also have all of my characters designed for ContaminationTale, but I do not want to actually do them digitally cause I am afraid I will mess it up. I am bad at character reference sheets. I love to have something going on, or something more implied, and not just a character. However, I hope I will fix that with myself soon.

The backstory behind ContaminationTale is besically something kinda similar but very adjacent to how Error Sans was formed. As confusing as it is, allow me to elaborate-

ContaminationTale is an AU where classic Undertale is taken over and corrupted by a strange human that is not Chara, or the other human souls. It is just a random human that had run across the world and watched the events of the world pan out. So in a way, they are like a way to breach the 4th wall, whilst not being able to communicate with the obersevers of the AU. (Myself, or people that may view my works) Here is the old set of information I made for ContaminationTale when it was first created. Including characters, places, items, food and other stuff like that.

[ ° Basic Information ° ]

» Classic Undertale ™ is slowly fading away, being overshadowed by it's many various AU's, which have became far more popular than the classic game. So when the infamous, and to-say-the-least very unwelcome 'Shadow Player' comes back, and completely takes control of the game, he controls all of the characters as well. Now, running on only hate, fear and sadness; Undertale is going to make a fatal, feral strike-back at the many AU that fans so ADORE.

[ ° AU Connections ° ]

➡ All of the AU, over a large span of years, have managed to completely coincide with each other and accept each other's existence. They even have come to think of each other as kin. Family and such. Error is way more level, having been around Ink and Blue so much made him less homicidal and seemed to get rid of his 'God-Syndrome'. Other more homicidal AU, such as Horror and Killer have also calmed down murder wise, however they do have their slip ups. Nightmare since then had also split into two versions of himself. Night, who is the one with no black ooze on him is able to be with dream, and be happy, and Nightmare, who is more level in the head, but still a jerk. At times there can be tension but they all get over it rather fast. This is called the 'Pacification of the Bad AU' (As restated later, this is NO WHERE NEAR CANON. This is for the plot of ContaminationTale.)

Quick Note: As another note, in this AU, the monsters hate killing, and Chara was pacified. He is in the same boat as the monsters. The monsters of ContaminationTale used what free code they were able to spare to make it to where any AU versions of themselves they killed respawned in the Flower Patch being as it was the furthest from most of the while they were able to keep their 'good' conscious. The person who hacked them was unable to reverse it.

[ ° Characters ° ] (All Characters keep their same personalities when in their 'Free Form' however, in their 'Contaminant Form' they all remain kind of similar to themselves, but become homocidal, and attack any AU characters soon there after, or instantly.

» Sans

» Papyrus

» Grillby

» Toriel

» Gaster

» Asgore

» Alphys

» Asriel

» Flowey

» Undyne

» Burgerpants

» Mettaton

» Nopstablook

» Temmie

» Doggo

» Monster Kid

» Monster Kids Parents

» Chara

» Frisk

» Endogeny

» Muffet

[ ° Common Reference Places ° ]

» The Waterfall

➡ No longer exists. When the world started to vanish, the waterfall went first and was unable to be brought back.

» Grillby's Bar

➡ Doesn't really function as a bar anymore. This place is actually more it less used for medical treatment and a weapon station.

» Echo Flower garden/field/cave

➡ All places that have echo flowers in them are or can be used for a torture room. When a person is trapped in there, the flowers only scream, cry and laugh at the being inside. There are no identified words that are ever said, other than 'DIE'.

» MTT Station

➡ This place is actually used for the Shadow Players base and planning area. Off limits and heavily guarded with technology. It had many secret operative plans that happen in it all the time.

»Asgore's Castle

➡ Mostly a moot point area. However when any of the classic monsters die they respawn in the center room of the castle. However the center room is also a jail cell and the monster that spawns there gets three days solitary confinement for getting killed.

» Flowey's Flower Patch

➡ Any au characters that are killed in ContaminationTale that are not part of the AU spawn in the flower patch. Other than that this location is rather useless.

» Toriel's Ruins

➡ Long since abandoned. However the au characters that come to ContaminationTale often regroup, stay and recoop themselves here. They use this as a base and plan area. It provides shelter to those AU that can't make Portals like Dream can.

» Alphys Lab

➡ Used to mix poisons, and is filled with mechanical body parts used to replace lost limbs that didn't kill the victim. It is also used to overview the town and make traps.

» Sans Station - Bridge Crossing

➡ Loaded to the brim with motion sensors and traps ready for the unsuspecting. This causes confusion is and can be very dangerous if you are not careful or nimble because stuff comes at you from all sides.

[ ° Common Food and Food Stats ° ]

- Cinnamon Bun - (Restores 25 HP)

- Hot Dog w/ Bun - (Restores 50 HP)

- Hard Tac (Restores 30 HP)

- Alfrado ( Restores 100 HP)

- Cupcake (Restores 10 HP)

- Spaghetti ( Restores 50 HP)

- Pie (Restores 40 HP)

- Candy (Restores 5 HP each)

[ ° Weaponry ° ]

» Sans Butcher's Knife

➡ /+30 ATK/ - /-5 SPD/ - /+10 HP/

↪ Fire Perk - With this Sans can give the Butcher Knives the ability to set themselves on fire on the blade. However this one lasts for a few attacks before he has to build up a charge again.

» Papyrus's Bone Staff

➡ /+40atk/ - /-5spd/ - /+15hp/

↪ Dead Weight Perk - The dead weight Perk is used to inflict extra damage on characters when a weapon is swung. The dead weight puts more pressure and force behind the attack. Depending on how willing he is the fight, it affects how well Papyrus is able to use his weapon.

» Gaster's Scythe

➡ /+10 HP/ - /-5 SPD/ - /+15-20 ATK/

↪ Invisibility Perk : This makes the weapon itself unable to be seen by the naked eye after so many attacks for a stent of time. However you can still see the weapons shadow is it is in a lit area. That's why Gaster is more likely not to be found in dark scenery or places. If there is light anywhere, that is where you need to stay. Gaster also has the ability to blend into the dark, and it makes him a harder opponent.

»Toriel's Arrows

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /- 5 HP/ - /+5 ATK/

↪ Tipped Arrows ; this means they are actually poisoned with a small odor causes nausea, draining HP, and confusion to enemy characters. It however takes a small toll on her health every time she shoots an arrow. This is why she alters the arrows she uses. Her alterations come in an irregular patterns and it is spontaneous when she pulls one out.

» Asgore's Scepter

➡ /-15 SPD/ - /+10 ATK/ - /+0 HP/

↪ Electricity : like any other weapon, this one reacts better to opposite elements. The weapons this one better completed and takes out are wooden and metal weapons. It can not travel through rubber or other materials that have specific metals that do not connect well with the ability to travel through. If he uses a lightning based attack on a material that is not a conductor, the electricity comes back to him and will either stun him, or be shot off somewere else.

» Asriel's Slingshot

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /+5 ATK/ - /+ 0 HP/

↪ Explosive pellets are the thing that Asriel launches from his sling. These pellets are strong mini fireworks packed with acid. When it touches skin,fur or bone, even metal, it burns around the area it hit with a 5-7 inch radius. Depending on where he hits and what he hits, it can cause serious damage and make someone get bad infections.

» Undyne's Spear

➡ /-0 SPD/ - /+5 HP/ - /+10 ATK/

↪ Dead Weight Perk: Similar to Papyrus, her Spears are made of basic magic they don't have any initial weight untill they are seeing seeing at a Target. So initially her perk is the same as Papyrus's perk from there. However, if she is close enough, she can cause her weapon to lose all it's weight for faster movement, and gain all of it for maximum impact.

» Mettaton's Gun

➡ /+15 SPD/ - /+0HP/ - /+10 ATK/

↪ Silencer - the gun have no special or notable perks but it is good for power and stealth kills. The silencer makes it to where there is only ever A very faint click heard if the gun is fired. The gun itself fires off long bullets/pellets that are filled with acid. The second the bullet goes into skin, or hits something and gets stuck, the acid will start to burn through it.

» Frisk's Staff

➡ /-10 SPD/ - /+5 HP/ - /+5 ATK/

↪ Knock Back Perk : This makes a large gust of pressurized air go at the opponent and knock them down effectively for 1-3 attacks. Mainly due to having the 'wind' knocked out of them. /Funny? Only me? Ok... ;W;/ either way, this makes it to where Frisk usually does not have to get too close to anyone or anything and keeps them a safer distance away from the action while still being able to help out.

» Chara's Knife

➡ /+15 HP/ - /+15 ATK/ - /+5 SPD/

↪ Long Range Perk : after weapon is used so many times, the weapon can go through a stent of long range power ups. That means when the blade is swung it creates a red projectile cutting Lazer in the form of the slice and can only go forward for for up to 15 feet. Once it reaches that and is unable to catch anything, the attack turns to the ground, and goes into it. This can cause the ground to gain holes in it that are up to 25 feet in depth. After so many missed attacks, it will cause the ground to collapse, taking less space for movement against the enemies.

» Grillby's Arrows

➡ /-10 HP/ - /+20 ATK/ - /+10 SPD/

↪ Fire Perk : the fire only goes out when he snaps his fingers, but his fire in particular can't burn polyester. However, after so many uses, his fire won't reactivate itself until he has had a 10 minute rest.

» Tikal's Lasso

➡ /+5 SPD/ - /+10 ATK/ - /+0 HP/

↪ no perks, batter for stealth attacks

»Muffet's Glass Throwing Knives

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /+5 ATK/ - /+5 HP/

↪ respawn: if the knives are broken, they rebuild the partial belt bag, it might be better just to have more battle ready

» Alphys' Axe

➡ /-15 SPD/ - /+20 ATK/ - /+5 HP

» Monster Kid/Family Tail + Crossbows

➡ /+25 SPD/ - /+30 ATK/ - /-10 HP/

↪ no perks

[ ° All Weaponless Characters ° ]

» Temmie

» Burgerpants

» Doggo

» Endogeny

» Napstablook

» Flowey

[ ° Weaponless Characters Abilities ° ]

» Temmie

- Speed Attack: Used to confuse and knock out characters. Temmie runs around them and strikes their body in various places to try to cause more consistent confusion.

» Doggo

- Lock Jaw: Doggo locks his jaw around anyone's limbs. He won't let go until you give into Contaminated or you break his jaw. On the same note, if you break his jaw, his teeth will break from his jaw and sink into your skin until the contamination is spread. In the matter of 3 hours, his teeth grow back, and his jaw repairs itself.

» Endogeny

- Corrupt : uses the shades to possess enemies and attack other enemies or take themselves out.

» Burgerpants

- Incinerate: he always has a lighter and gasoline on him somewhere. So when he reacts he can use it to gradually put on his enemies then he can burn them alive when he lights it up.

» Flowey

- Vines : Shred or Strangle - Flowey can either crush his opinions with several Vines or throw needles at the enemy that are hard to dodge and have incredible sharpness.

» Napstablook

- Sonic Scream: Nopstablook screams silently at the other one enemies and the sound waves lower defense, and confuse them. It also makes them unable to see straight, makes them nautious and can cause surrounding items or building parts to collapse, gain damage or go haywire

[ ° Common World Items ° ]

* Machine Parts

- (Commonly found in the lab, or Mettatons News Station.) The machine parts vary, however, there is no real use for gears anymore, otherwise as throwing weapons. However, longer machine parts are used to make traps, or as close range weapons such as bo-staffs.

* Desk Supplies

- (Can be found anywhere) Desk supplies unclude things such as tape, pencils, pens, paper and other forms of common utilities. These also serve as weapons. They are easier to hide, find, and store without being weighed down.

* Marbles

- ( A rare find that some monsters used to posses. Such as Toriel) These are used as a good tripping device, or as a good distraction to those that can't avoid them.

* Contaminated Black Tar

- (Everywhere) This black tar only forms when a monster from Undertale / ContaminationTale is killed. Instead of turning into a pile of ashes, or dust, the turn into black goo and reform in the stated 'respawn' point. This can afflict other AU or humans that enter the world and turn them into a being like the afflicted monsters. However, since they are not considered 'Undertale' characters, they find a way to kill / destroy themselves. If they are just a human from the surface world, they will destroy themselves and not regenerate. However, if the are an AU, they regenerate fully healed in Flowey's flower patch.

* Silverware

- (Anywhere) This also serves as a great weapon.

* Broken Pipes

- (Inside walls and other items they can be placed in) these are used both weapons on 'inobvious spyware. They are all stuck into walls in order to spy around and keep an eye out without being seen right away.

>> Other Things to Clarify <<

1) As you have seen, there are both a "Flowey" and an "Asriel" in this AU. This was not a mistake, or an error in planning. They are both separate characters.

2) The 'Affiliations with other AU' including known AU Sanses or other characters is NOT CANON. I know most of you know this already, however, this is to those who get easily offended. The other AU checking in on the 'Classic' world is because if something happens to destroy Undertale, ALL OF THE AU will be destroyed in the process.

3) Undertale and ContaminationTale are both the same thing here. I know you all think that since it is an AU like this, it might be like Dust, or Killer Sans and they diverge into another AU. Which is both true, and not true. It becomes it's own AU later, however I have it set up to exist where the other AU characters need to help the Undertale characters escape their situation and beat the hacker first.

4) After the hacker is beaten, ContaminationTale becomes its own AU where it lives abandoned, and no AU characters come into it anymore. Meaning the reason behind it's existance is actually kind of futile, and the human gets killed by the ContaminationTale monsters later only to come back. It turns into an ever-turning genocide AU.

5) ContaminationTale Characters can only kill other copies of theselves so they are more equally matched. If they attack a version of another monster, most of their attacks will be barely even able to cause damage, no matter how powerful. This is due to a slip-up in the coding that contaminated them.

6) The main reason the other AU care so much about helping this AU is because at the time it is still 'Undertale' not just 'ContaminationTale'. Undertales code is becoming unstable, and it is inevitable that it will cause Undertale itself to collapse. Killing all of the AU Sanses and their respective AU.

//Afternote: Another reason I made this AU is cause Classic is usually helping the other AU, and the other AU don't really help him out. So I wanted to change that. I also feel bad cause Undertale ins't as popular as it's AU anymore. I did a survey with all the Undertale Lovers in my school, and I was the only one who voted on Classic Undertale out of 76 kids. :( //

[thedragoninthesnow]

“No, no, no, don’t die on me!”

Send me “No, no, no, don’t die on me!” for a scenario in which my muse dies protecting yours.

Jon had been more aware of things around them, he had paid more attention than most to every little thing since his death. Something wasn’t right. The King in the North could not quite place what it was, as they greeted Cersei Lannister in the dragon pit. Sansa had told him not to underestimate or trust Cersei Lannister, and Jon had a feeling that by the end of the day she would be right. He kept an eye on her, waiting for her features and body language to give anything away.

He stood a little bit closer to Dany than an ally should. He was just an ally, but he also was a sort of suitor as well… Drogon and Rhaegal flew over head, ready to rain fire on the city if needed. He prayed that it would not come to that, he had not seen what dragon fire could do but he had an idea. He had read about the Field of Fire when just a boy. That had the closest amount of damage to scale with Dany’s dragons as the numbers were closer. They would be the same if not for me…

Jon caught himself thinking of the Targaryen Queen as ‘Dany’ again, as he had for the past several months. He had to stop doing that, to stop using a name her late brother had for her… Ser Jorah, Brienne, Podrick… they were all close enough to help should something get messy. Clegane had hold of the wight, and Davos was not a fighter. Podrick wasn’t much of one either if Jon was quite honest. He prayed the boy had become at least a little competent since Jon had headed south.

His eyes scanned everything, every aspect of the dragon pit as Daenerys and Cersei made an exchange of words. That was when it hit him… where was her Hand? The Kingslayer was certainly not wearing the badge of office, so where was the man who was? As Dany kept a brave and straight face when asked where the third dragon was, Jon looked for any sign of the man named Qyburn. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he grew tense. He felt like a trap was closing in, like he had the moment he read the word ‘traitor’ at Castle Black.

Finally his eyes spotted a gleam in the far side of the pit, near where part of what was once the roof now rested. Instinct took over when he saw it, and he moved in front of Dany, surprising a good few of those in attendance. He turned his head to tell the dragon queen that he had a bad feeling when he felt it. A sharp stinging prick in his throat, just below his chin. Confusion coursed through Jon and he put his hand up, feeling the dart even through his leather glove.

The King in the North removed it and looked at Dany in shock, a feeling of dread washing over him before the burning sensation began. Jon swore aloud, his hand going to cover where he had been hit by the small projectile, wishing that pressure on it could stop the burning sensation. Poison… Fear began to wash over him as he looked at the Dragon Queen in desperation. It did not take long for her to realize what had happened. “JON!”

His breathing increased, and he fell to his knees. He had not thought of the possibility of poisoned darts, had not thought to protect his throat more. She was beside him now, as Jorah, Podrick and Brienne formed a line of defense in front of them. The smaller woman helped him to lay back, and he could hear her protesting. “No, no, no, don’t die on me!” It was already starting to feel like his blood was on fire, boiling in his skin.

He could hear a commotion around them, but all he could focus on was her… Her beautiful silver hair, her pale eyes… She was crying, and he recalled her words about him before he headed to Eastwatch. ‘Perhaps I have grown used to him.’ Gods, he wanted to pull through this. “Dany…” She looked at him when he spoke, and he could not help but feel his heart break. “Don’t use them… keep your children safe… the scorpions…” 

He would not cause her to loose another dragon, not today. Jon found it hard to swallow, hard to breathe. His hand gripping hers as he choked for air, almost as if he could feel his airways closing. “Dany...” He didn’t want to die alone, not again. He was growing light headed, his vision going black around the edges. There was an odd tingling sensation in his lips, and the fear began to melt away. If only he had more time... he found it odd that he wished that horrid red priestess was here... Just so he did not have to slip into the nothingness... and leave Dany.

[ecotone99]

[MF] Normal Part 2, a continuation of one of my previous post

Part 1

It has been two years since I unleashed my serum on the world, ridding it of superpowers forever. Now, it seems my time as a free man may be running out. Before that happens though, I’d like to give my account, from my eyes. Before the rest of the world demonizes myself and my actions. Although, they would be right to. I have completely changed the world. Devastated it even. I have some regrets, though I do not regret doing what I did. It seems a good a place to start would be after the serum started taking effect.

It took a few weeks before people started to really understand what was happening and by that time, it was too late to stop it. My serum had already traveled through the North American continent, the entirety of the west actually and the effects had just started manifesting in Europe and Asia.

Needless to say, no one took it very well. There were accidents, deaths, suicides, riots. What you would expect when an entire culture is shook to the core. I really did sympathize with a lot of them at first. Worksite accidents were very common at the beginning. Yesterday Jeff the construction worker could have lifted that 2000-pound I-beam. Today, though, he was crushed by it. People with super intelligence feeling their mind slowed down to what seemed like a standstill. They all would feel so… Normal. It was a beautiful thing.

Soon after, I decided it was time to seclude myself. With all the chaos happening it would be easy enough for me to slip away unnoticed. I packed up all the important things. My research, my samples, my serum and most importantly the “anti-serum”. I’m not entirely sure why I created it. The anti-serum worked essentially the same way as my serum, only, instead of programming my “normal” DNA into others I could write others DNA into someone. Essentially, I could give someone superpowers if I had samples from before my serum went live. Which I did.

I watched the world spiral into chaos as world leaders and researchers scrambled to figure out what had caused this. I was impressed when they found out it was the water. There were handfuls of people who were not yet affected by my serum due to them being lucky enough to be in situations where they were drinking solely bottled water. Researchers out in the field where fresh water was scarce, astronauts in the various space stations. To them, bottled water became more valuable than gold. I wasn’t worried about that though. There was only so much bottled water from before and soon enough, those remaining would be forced to drink my serum.

There was one person, who caught me off guard, that was left with there powers. Benjamin Wrigley, one of my few childhood friends. Loyal and righteous to a fault. He found me one day, in a diner in Wyoming of all places. I was amazed that he still had his powers. I had to know why.

My curiosity was my first mistake.

I asked him too many questions. I was too specific. Ben was never the smartest kid, but he wasn’t stupid, and his years of hero work must have taught him a few things. I found out that part of his power made it so he didn’t have to eat or drink. He was kind of like a plant. He could essentially photosynthesize sunlight into whatever he needed, he could stockpile the energy he consumed from the sun and use it to increases his strength, his speed, his bodies natural healing process. I never considered the small minority of people who didn’t need to drink.

I left the diner soon after and continued my journey. I eventually set myself up in a small house in rural Nevada. It wasn’t too long until Ben found me again. It was about 7 months after I unleashed the serum. I was watching the news, interested in how the world had been adapting and they were doing surprisingly well. People were finally starting to come to grips with their situation and began picking up the pieces. Stronger, more centralized law enforcement was formed. People began finding ways to do things without superpowers. The few superheroes that remained were doing their best to help around the world.

There was a knock at my door, around 2 in the morning. I got up and looked out the peephole. It was Ben. With hesitation I opened the door. I’d never seen him look so betrayed.

“It was you.” he finally said.

“Ben, what are you-“ I couldn’t finish the sentence before he grabbed me and pinned me up against the wall.

“You did this to us! You destroyed everything.” He screamed. “You… you killed so many people…” he whispered, releasing his grip as I fell to the ground.

I had said too much when we last met. Somehow, he put together the situation. But how?

“Ben… I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I lied

“Don’t lie to me, Alex! We found you DNA in the water. It took so long but we finally found your poison. Polluting everything. Permeating every water source in the world. You’re a monster.”

“Ben… someone must have… used my DNA. Some villain must have created it using my normal biological code!” I kept up the lie, hoping he’d believe me.

“You were never a good liar Alex. The only villain left is you.” He looked down at me, rage filled eyes staring daggers. Piercing through me. “I wanted to confront you myself. Before we released our findings. I wanted to know. Why? Why did you do this.”

He was right. I was always a terrible liar.

“You want to know why, Ben? So that you could all know what it was like to be me. Helpless. Weak. Equal. All these people running around with superhuman abilities. They were a menace! You go on saying how many people I killed, but did you ever stop and think about how many people you have killed?”

I was also never good at keeping my temper in check.

“I’ve never killed anyone, not even a villain!” He yelled back at me in disgust.

“We both know that that’s bullshit, Ben. Thursday, April 16th, 4:16 am.” I spat, looking directly in those burning eyes, watching the fire slowly fade as my old friend made the connection.

“I… I didn’t… it was an accident… We were at war!” I could see the anger flicker in his eyes, but also shame, regret.

“It took me a while to put it all together. But after I saw the footage. After I saw my hospital get disintegrated! I knew I had seen something like that once before. Tell me, Ben. Just how long did you have to bake in the sun to make a blast that big? A week? A month? Honestly… I was amazed. Amazed and horrified. The news wrote it off as a hero deflected some attack from a villain. But it was the other way around wasn’t it?”

“Stop.” Ben whimpered. Pathetic.

“That blast that Blackbeam swatted away from you killed hundreds of people. Men, women, children, doctors, mothers, fathers. Do you know how many lives were crushed because of your negligence? Did you even think about the damage that a blast like that would have caused, even if it did hit its mark? You didn’t, did you? All that mattered was stopping the “bad guys”. Well guess what, Ben? You were all the bad guys that night. That’s why I did what I did. I was tired of innocent people getting hurt. Caught in the crossfire of your petty squabbles.” I felt the passion again. The passion that I felt when I first started working on a cure for Kenny. The passion I felt when I first started working on the serum.

I stood back up, knowing deep down that what I did was right. The amount of lives lost that my serum indirectly caused paled in comparison to the amount of lives cut short by superhumans over the years.

Ben looked almost like a ghost. He always did take things too personally, another flaw of his. But he never let anything stand in the way of what he believed was right.

“What’s done is done, Alex.” He finally spoke, regaining some of his composure after minutes of silence. “We’re going to let the United Nations know that it’s you who caused all this. I’ll be taking you to the authorities myself. You’ll be lucky if you just get life in solitary.” I felt his hands grab me by the shoulder, ready to pull me away and throw me in a jail cell.

“That isn’t going to happen, Ben. Not when I’m the only person in the world who can change this.” It was time to play my hand.

“I don’t want to hear any more from you.” He began, I could feel the spite in his words, almost like a knife against my skin.

“I have an antidote. I can give people powers again but if you take me now. It will never see the light of day. There’s no one alive who knows what I know, and by the time someone does unravel the secrets that I did, superhumans will just be stories.”

Ben stopped in his tracks “Why should I believe you.” He asked, not looking at me.

“You said it yourself. I’m a terrible liar.” I felt his grip loosen.

I took Ben to the small warehouse I’d set up my lab in. Another one of Ben’s flaws was that he would take any opportunity, no matter how unlikely, if it meant a chance to set something right. I opened the doors and ushered him inside.

“Here it is. My life’s work.” I exclaimed, motioning him over to the equipment. “If you bring me to the police, I will make sure that every piece of information I have is erased. You will have the answer, but none of the work leading up to it and without that, you can’t even use the antidote.”

He looked around, Ben was never very good at science, so he had no idea what any of this equipment did and hadn’t the slightest idea how my serums worked. The confusion on his face was endearing.

“I might as well explain. The way my serum works I mean.” I said, moving over to my computer. “Have a seat.”

Ben hesitantly sat next to me as I pulled up diagrams and simulations.

“The serum essentially rewrites the patient’s DNA. I found a very specific, unique piece that every superhuman has- well, had. We’ll call that the “S-block”. Once ingested, it starts to work. I found that I also have a very specific, even more unique piece of my genetic code. We’ll call mine the “N-block”. The serum breaks down the patient’s DNA, destroys the S-block which gave them their powers, and replaces it with my normal N-block, so that they don’t fall apart. This in turn, rids them of their powers entirely. Making them normal. Like me.”

As he watched and listened, I could see the horror on his face. Was I playing God? Changing the very building blocks of human life. Did it really matter?

“The antidote works exactly the same way. Only this time it targets the N-block and replaces it with an S-block of my choosing. You will need a DNA sample from before I let my first serum loose and only, I know how to extract the S-block from it to make the antidote work. And, as I said, if you apprehend me now. All of this will be destroyed, gone forever. The choice is yours, Ben.”

Ben was silent for a while. Just staring into space. Thinking.

“I can’t just let you go, Alex.” He finally said, his eyes distant. “You don’t get it. I never came here to find a cure. I was sent here to bring you in. We don’t need you to cooperate to get the information out of your head.”

I knew I had no way to talk myself out of this. Ben never let anything get between him and completing a mission. I began to sweat. I felt trapped. Just like when I was a kid. When they strapped me down and performed test after test after test. I wouldn’t let that happen to me again. I would never be a guinea pig, strapped to a table while someone poked and prodded.

“It’s time to go, Alex. We’re done here.” He stood up and walked over to grab his coat.

It all happened so fast. BANG. There I stood, a smoking gun in my hand. Ben slowly turned, putting his hand to his chest as he grabbed at the hole. I could tell he was using his powers, trying to close the wound.

“I’m sorry, Ben. You never should have gotten involved. I wish you could have just let everything be…”

I felt sick.

“A-Alex… why?” He started, struggling to talk as he used up all the energy he had been storing to heal the wound.

A second bang as his wound was still closing, but this time I shot him right between the eyes. There was no way he could recover from that. I watched as Ben, once my best friend, fell to the ground. I still remember the look in his eyes. The sadness. The confusion. The shock. That was his last flaw. He never thought that I could be a threat.

I’d never killed someone before. That night, I killed my best friend.

submitted by /u/Brick_Wall_Britches [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2JPZSAR

[a-plethaura-ask-blog]

So, I started this comic page about a few months ago. (yeah, I know, it really narrows it down, huh?) This was a comic page intro I was going to do for my AU ContaminationTale. However, there are quite a lot of things stopping me from actually making the comic. I want to start a comic, but I think I would do fairly poorly at actually making a good comic that will keep attention.

I also have all of my characters designed for ContaminationTale, but I do not want to actually do them digitally cause I am afraid I will mess it up. I am bad at character reference sheets. I love to have something going on, or something more implied, and not just a character. However, I hope I will fix that with myself soon.

The backstory behind ContaminationTale is besically something kinda similar but very adjacent to how Error Sans was formed. As confusing as it is, allow me to elaborate-

ContaminationTale is an AU where classic Undertale is taken over and corrupted by a strange human that is not Chara, or the other human souls. It is just a random human that had run across the world and watched the events of the world pan out. So in a way, they are like a way to breach the 4th wall, whilst not being able to communicate with the obersevers of the AU. (Myself, or people that may view my works) Here is the old set of information I made for ContaminationTale when it was first created. Including characters, places, items, food and other stuff like that.

[ ° Basic Information ° ]

» Classic Undertale ™ is slowly fading away, being overshadowed by it's many various AU's, which have became far more popular than the classic game. So when the infamous, and to-say-the-least very unwelcome 'Shadow Player' comes back, and completely takes control of the game, he controls all of the characters as well. Now, running on only hate, fear and sadness; Undertale is going to make a fatal, feral strike-back at the many AU that fans so ADORE.

[ ° AU Connections ° ]

➡ All of the AU, over a large span of years, have managed to completely coincide with each other and accept each other's existence. They even have come to think of each other as kin. Family and such. Error is way more level, having been around Ink and Blue so much made him less homicidal and seemed to get rid of his 'God-Syndrome'. Other more homicidal AU, such as Horror and Killer have also calmed down murder wise, however they do have their slip ups. Nightmare since then had also split into two versions of himself. Night, who is the one with no black ooze on him is able to be with dream, and be happy, and Nightmare, who is more level in the head, but still a jerk. At times there can be tension but they all get over it rather fast. This is called the 'Pacification of the Bad AU' (As restated later, this is NO WHERE NEAR CANON. This is for the plot of ContaminationTale.)

Quick Note: As another note, in this AU, the monsters hate killing, and Chara was pacified. He is in the same boat as the monsters. The monsters of ContaminationTale used what free code they were able to spare to make it to where any AU versions of themselves they killed respawned in the Flower Patch being as it was the furthest from most of the while they were able to keep their 'good' conscious. The person who hacked them was unable to reverse it.

[ ° Characters ° ] (All Characters keep their same personalities when in their 'Free Form' however, in their 'Contaminant Form' they all remain kind of similar to themselves, but become homocidal, and attack any AU characters soon there after, or instantly.

» Sans

» Papyrus

» Grillby

» Toriel

» Gaster

» Asgore

» Alphys

» Asriel

» Flowey

» Undyne

» Burgerpants

» Mettaton

» Nopstablook

» Temmie

» Doggo

» Monster Kid

» Monster Kids Parents

» Chara

» Frisk

» Endogeny

» Muffet

[ ° Common Reference Places ° ]

» The Waterfall

➡ No longer exists. When the world started to vanish, the waterfall went first and was unable to be brought back.

» Grillby's Bar

➡ Doesn't really function as a bar anymore. This place is actually more it less used for medical treatment and a weapon station.

» Echo Flower garden/field/cave

➡ All places that have echo flowers in them are or can be used for a torture room. When a person is trapped in there, the flowers only scream, cry and laugh at the being inside. There are no identified words that are ever said, other than 'DIE'.

» MTT Station

➡ This place is actually used for the Shadow Players base and planning area. Off limits and heavily guarded with technology. It had many secret operative plans that happen in it all the time.

»Asgore's Castle

➡ Mostly a moot point area. However when any of the classic monsters die they respawn in the center room of the castle. However the center room is also a jail cell and the monster that spawns there gets three days solitary confinement for getting killed.

» Flowey's Flower Patch

➡ Any au characters that are killed in ContaminationTale that are not part of the AU spawn in the flower patch. Other than that this location is rather useless.

» Toriel's Ruins

➡ Long since abandoned. However the au characters that come to ContaminationTale often regroup, stay and recoop themselves here. They use this as a base and plan area. It provides shelter to those AU that can't make Portals like Dream can.

» Alphys Lab

➡ Used to mix poisons, and is filled with mechanical body parts used to replace lost limbs that didn't kill the victim. It is also used to overview the town and make traps.

» Sans Station - Bridge Crossing

➡ Loaded to the brim with motion sensors and traps ready for the unsuspecting. This causes confusion is and can be very dangerous if you are not careful or nimble because stuff comes at you from all sides.

[ ° Common Food and Food Stats ° ]

- Cinnamon Bun - (Restores 25 HP)

- Hot Dog w/ Bun - (Restores 50 HP)

- Hard Tac (Restores 30 HP)

- Alfrado ( Restores 100 HP)

- Cupcake (Restores 10 HP)

- Spaghetti ( Restores 50 HP)

- Pie (Restores 40 HP)

- Candy (Restores 5 HP each)

[ ° Weaponry ° ]

» Sans Butcher's Knife

➡ /+30 ATK/ - /-5 SPD/ - /+10 HP/

↪ Fire Perk - With this Sans can give the Butcher Knives the ability to set themselves on fire on the blade. However this one lasts for a few attacks before he has to build up a charge again.

» Papyrus's Bone Staff

➡ /+40atk/ - /-5spd/ - /+15hp/

↪ Dead Weight Perk - The dead weight Perk is used to inflict extra damage on characters when a weapon is swung. The dead weight puts more pressure and force behind the attack. Depending on how willing he is the fight, it affects how well Papyrus is able to use his weapon.

» Gaster's Scythe

➡ /+10 HP/ - /-5 SPD/ - /+15-20 ATK/

↪ Invisibility Perk : This makes the weapon itself unable to be seen by the naked eye after so many attacks for a stent of time. However you can still see the weapons shadow is it is in a lit area. That's why Gaster is more likely not to be found in dark scenery or places. If there is light anywhere, that is where you need to stay. Gaster also has the ability to blend into the dark, and it makes him a harder opponent.

»Toriel's Arrows

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /- 5 HP/ - /+5 ATK/

↪ Tipped Arrows ; this means they are actually poisoned with a small odor causes nausea, draining HP, and confusion to enemy characters. It however takes a small toll on her health every time she shoots an arrow. This is why she alters the arrows she uses. Her alterations come in an irregular patterns and it is spontaneous when she pulls one out.

» Asgore's Scepter

➡ /-15 SPD/ - /+10 ATK/ - /+0 HP/

↪ Electricity : like any other weapon, this one reacts better to opposite elements. The weapons this one better completed and takes out are wooden and metal weapons. It can not travel through rubber or other materials that have specific metals that do not connect well with the ability to travel through. If he uses a lightning based attack on a material that is not a conductor, the electricity comes back to him and will either stun him, or be shot off somewere else.

» Asriel's Slingshot

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /+5 ATK/ - /+ 0 HP/

↪ Explosive pellets are the thing that Asriel launches from his sling. These pellets are strong mini fireworks packed with acid. When it touches skin,fur or bone, even metal, it burns around the area it hit with a 5-7 inch radius. Depending on where he hits and what he hits, it can cause serious damage and make someone get bad infections.

» Undyne's Spear

➡ /-0 SPD/ - /+5 HP/ - /+10 ATK/

↪ Dead Weight Perk: Similar to Papyrus, her Spears are made of basic magic they don't have any initial weight untill they are seeing seeing at a Target. So initially her perk is the same as Papyrus's perk from there. However, if she is close enough, she can cause her weapon to lose all it's weight for faster movement, and gain all of it for maximum impact.

» Mettaton's Gun

➡ /+15 SPD/ - /+0HP/ - /+10 ATK/

↪ Silencer - the gun have no special or notable perks but it is good for power and stealth kills. The silencer makes it to where there is only ever A very faint click heard if the gun is fired. The gun itself fires off long bullets/pellets that are filled with acid. The second the bullet goes into skin, or hits something and gets stuck, the acid will start to burn through it.

» Frisk's Staff

➡ /-10 SPD/ - /+5 HP/ - /+5 ATK/

↪ Knock Back Perk : This makes a large gust of pressurized air go at the opponent and knock them down effectively for 1-3 attacks. Mainly due to having the 'wind' knocked out of them. /Funny? Only me? Ok... ;W;/ either way, this makes it to where Frisk usually does not have to get too close to anyone or anything and keeps them a safer distance away from the action while still being able to help out.

» Chara's Knife

➡ /+15 HP/ - /+15 ATK/ - /+5 SPD/

↪ Long Range Perk : after weapon is used so many times, the weapon can go through a stent of long range power ups. That means when the blade is swung it creates a red projectile cutting Lazer in the form of the slice and can only go forward for for up to 15 feet. Once it reaches that and is unable to catch anything, the attack turns to the ground, and goes into it. This can cause the ground to gain holes in it that are up to 25 feet in depth. After so many missed attacks, it will cause the ground to collapse, taking less space for movement against the enemies.

» Grillby's Arrows

➡ /-10 HP/ - /+20 ATK/ - /+10 SPD/

↪ Fire Perk : the fire only goes out when he snaps his fingers, but his fire in particular can't burn polyester. However, after so many uses, his fire won't reactivate itself until he has had a 10 minute rest.

» Tikal's Lasso

➡ /+5 SPD/ - /+10 ATK/ - /+0 HP/

↪ no perks, batter for stealth attacks

»Muffet's Glass Throwing Knives

➡ /+10 SPD/ - /+5 ATK/ - /+5 HP/

↪ respawn: if the knives are broken, they rebuild the partial belt bag, it might be better just to have more battle ready

» Alphys' Axe

➡ /-15 SPD/ - /+20 ATK/ - /+5 HP

» Monster Kid/Family Tail + Crossbows

➡ /+25 SPD/ - /+30 ATK/ - /-10 HP/

↪ no perks

[ ° All Weaponless Characters ° ]

» Temmie

» Burgerpants

» Doggo

» Endogeny

» Napstablook

» Flowey

[ ° Weaponless Characters Abilities ° ]

» Temmie

- Speed Attack: Used to confuse and knock out characters. Temmie runs around them and strikes their body in various places to try to cause more consistent confusion.

» Doggo

- Lock Jaw: Doggo locks his jaw around anyone's limbs. He won't let go until you give into Contaminated or you break his jaw. On the same note, if you break his jaw, his teeth will break from his jaw and sink into your skin until the contamination is spread. In the matter of 3 hours, his teeth grow back, and his jaw repairs itself.

» Endogeny

- Corrupt : uses the shades to possess enemies and attack other enemies or take themselves out.

» Burgerpants

- Incinerate: he always has a lighter and gasoline on him somewhere. So when he reacts he can use it to gradually put on his enemies then he can burn them alive when he lights it up.

» Flowey

- Vines : Shred or Strangle - Flowey can either crush his opinions with several Vines or throw needles at the enemy that are hard to dodge and have incredible sharpness.

» Napstablook

- Sonic Scream: Nopstablook screams silently at the other one enemies and the sound waves lower defense, and confuse them. It also makes them unable to see straight, makes them nautious and can cause surrounding items or building parts to collapse, gain damage or go haywire

[ ° Common World Items ° ]

* Machine Parts

- (Commonly found in the lab, or Mettatons News Station.) The machine parts vary, however, there is no real use for gears anymore, otherwise as throwing weapons. However, longer machine parts are used to make traps, or as close range weapons such as bo-staffs.

* Desk Supplies

- (Can be found anywhere) Desk supplies unclude things such as tape, pencils, pens, paper and other forms of common utilities. These also serve as weapons. They are easier to hide, find, and store without being weighed down.

* Marbles

- ( A rare find that some monsters used to posses. Such as Toriel) These are used as a good tripping device, or as a good distraction to those that can't avoid them.

* Contaminated Black Tar

- (Everywhere) This black tar only forms when a monster from Undertale / ContaminationTale is killed. Instead of turning into a pile of ashes, or dust, the turn into black goo and reform in the stated 'respawn' point. This can afflict other AU or humans that enter the world and turn them into a being like the afflicted monsters. However, since they are not considered 'Undertale' characters, they find a way to kill / destroy themselves. If they are just a human from the surface world, they will destroy themselves and not regenerate. However, if the are an AU, they regenerate fully healed in Flowey's flower patch.

* Silverware

- (Anywhere) This also serves as a great weapon.

* Broken Pipes

- (Inside walls and other items they can be placed in) these are used both weapons on 'inobvious spyware. They are all stuck into walls in order to spy around and keep an eye out without being seen right away.

>> Other Things to Clarify

1) As you have seen, there are both a "Flowey" and an "Asriel" in this AU. This was not a mistake, or an error in planning. They are both separate characters.

2) The 'Affiliations with other AU' including known AU Sanses or other characters is NOT CANON. I know most of you know this already, however, this is to those who get easily offended. The other AU checking in on the 'Classic' world is because if something happens to destroy Undertale, ALL OF THE AU will be destroyed in the process.

3) Undertale and ContaminationTale are both the same thing here. I know you all think that since it is an AU like this, it might be like Dust, or Killer Sans and they diverge into another AU. Which is both true, and not true. It becomes it's own AU later, however I have it set up to exist where the other AU characters need to help the Undertale characters escape their situation and beat the hacker first.

4) After the hacker is beaten, ContaminationTale becomes its own AU where it lives abandoned, and no AU characters come into it anymore. Meaning the reason behind it's existance is actually kind of futile, and the human gets killed by the ContaminationTale monsters later only to come back. It turns into an ever-turning genocide AU.

5) ContaminationTale Characters can only kill other copies of theselves so they are more equally matched. If they attack a version of another monster, most of their attacks will be barely even able to cause damage, no matter how powerful. This is due to a slip-up in the coding that contaminated them.

6) The main reason the other AU care so much about helping this AU is because at the time it is still 'Undertale' not just 'ContaminationTale'. Undertales code is becoming unstable, and it is inevitable that it will cause Undertale itself to collapse. Killing all of the AU Sanses and their respective AU.

//Afternote: Another reason I made this AU is cause Classic is usually helping the other AU, and the other AU don't really help him out. So I wanted to change that. I also feel bad cause Undertale ins't as popular as it's AU anymore. I did a survey with all the Undertale Lovers in my school, and I was the only one who voted on Classic Undertale out of 76 kids. :( //