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nyanberri · 3 years

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I've finally finished the first set! It's the same kids again tho, lol. But next time will be never before seen characters! So I wanted to get everyone drawn in the Omniverse style so I could visualize it all properly and it also made for a good opportunity to tweak designs as needed. They're all heavily referenced from official art so I could get it perfect and it made for great practice too! Of course I added some personal touches to the art style too cuz if I didn't it would have bothered me too much, lol.

Anyway, below the cut are finally proper profiles for all the kids and some additional info as well!

M'kay, so before we get started on the kids' bios, it's important to specify this is an alternate universe. And I don't mean it's an AU of the Prime Dimension. This is quite literally another universe within the omniverse. It's a mostly untouched one that even Paradox, Eon, and Maltruant have never been to and therefore a lot of things are different while a lot of things are still the same tho. It's unofficially called the Feniverse cuz Fen is the main character, but it does have a more official name. I'm just, uh… not aware of what that name is yet, lol!

Anyway, the Ben in this dimension branches off from the development of Prime Ben. Anybody remember the fact that the very first Ben 10K episode said Ben became the way he did in the future cuz he killed Vilgax by ripping him to pieces? Yep! That's what this Ben did too! But obviously he doesn't end up exactly like that Ben 10K. But so this dimension's Ben is therefore officially labelled Slayer Ben since some people refer to him as 'The Vilgax Slayer'. And that experience did definitely screw him up pretty bad, which is why he's so different from both Prime and 10K.

So from left to right:

Name: Fenrick Fih Rook-Tennyson

Age: 13

Height: 5'1

Voice: Todd Haberkorn

Bio: Fen is Ben and Rook's son. He has always been known for being quiet, surprisingly wise for his age, and quite the troublemaker. In actuality, only two of these things are true. Fen is more calm than he seems and as a young child he wasn't much of a talker, giving people the perception that he's quiet. Unfortunately, Fen also has many great ideas that end up badly. However, his ideas always come from the desire to help someone or solve a problem, but he always gets caught when his plans fall apart, making it look like he causes trouble. Some people even accuse him of trouble he didn't start, not helping his reputation. And as the son of Ben 10 of all people, he tends to be held to higher expectations. His wisdom never ceases to amaze people either. Even Ben and Rook get surprised at the wisdom he recites, wondering where exactly he learned it all. Due to that, he tends to put up a fight whenever himself or someone else gets wronged. He especially defends his friends and fellow alien kids in town. Although his only true friends seem to consist of his childhood friend, Millie, and his cousin, Sven.

At the age of 13, Fen discovered his ability to transform into a couple dozen of Ben's aliens. He quickly aspired to become a hero like his parents, much to Ben's disapproval, who worries about his safety. Despite that, Fen wants to form a hero trio with Sven and Millie and become the next generation of heroes in the galaxy.

Developer's Notes:

Fen's almost always been the same since I first created him, with just a few design and character tweaks done to him. He used to have a talent for jewelry making but that was switched out for him being wise for his age. He was also a bit more generic as far as the upbeat and reckless young male protagonist with famous parents archetype goes, but he's been adjusted enough that he now stands out from that archetype. Or, at least I hope, lol. Also, funny thing to note, Fenrick is not a real name! The closest name there is is Fenwick and iirc, that's a last name! I considered changing it to Fenwick or even Fenick but Fenrick is too special to me. His, uh, unfortunate name even has an impact in-universe with him being embarrassed by it and some using it to make fun of him. Also in-universe, I chalk it up to Ben having a dumb moment by misremembering the name Fenwick and Rook not knowing any better to catch Ben's mistake. Also, if you think his hair style is stupid, good. That's the point. He wanted it like that when he was seven and Ben and Rook were like 'sure' and it's been like that ever since.

Name: Millicent

Age: 13

Height: 5'0

Voice: Jennifer Paz

Bio: Millie is Ester's daughter. Her biological father is a human who decided he didn't want to be a father and Antonio soon stepped up to fill the father role when he and Ester got married. She has been friends with Fen and Sven since they were all babies. Millie is the level-headed one of the group and has been noted as being oddly emotionless. Her tone of voice is almost always flat and she usually keeps a straight face when not looking nervous. She never intends to be rude, but she will bluntly say whatever comes to her mind to her peers. At the same time, she can be nervous about making bold decisions and hates being a part of any decision making. She either refuses to do anything, or apologizes profusely for making a decision even when nothing bad happens.

Due to being more human than Kraaho, Millie is perfectly capable of handling the temperatures of Bellwood. However, she is still a bit sensitive to cold temperatures and needs to bundle up more than others during the winter. She sadly cannot handle the heat in the Hot Spot for very long either. Much to Millie's dismay, she was not born with the Kraaho's stretching ability. No one can figure out why, but it's simply something she can't do. As a result, she considers herself a normal human and has resigned herself to the fact that 'normal' is simply all she will ever be. Despite this, she has taken up quite a big secret that contradicts her decision and expresses who she wishes she really was.

Developer's Notes:

Millie only ever had one design change with her outfit and slight adjustment to the way her hair works and she's been the same ever since. Since the beginning she was always calm and stoic and I've always worried that she doesn't have much of a presence or purpose, but now I feel like she plays off Fen and Sven well enough that she stands out thanks to them. I've always flipped back and forth between Fen and/or Millie having a crush on each other, but I've finally settled on them both just seeing each other as near and dear loyal friends. It ultimately works out better that way and doesn't cause conflict with Millie's personal story or Fen's real love interest(and the one other character with feelings for him). Her name also used to be Mina, but since I've now taken that as one of my own names, it felt really awkward to keep her as that. I used to have a habit of naming characters with names I wanted before realizing I could change my name in the future, lol.

Name: Sven Elijah Levin

Age: 12

Height: 4'8

Voice: Wally Wingert

Bio: Sven is Gwendolyn and Kevin's son and Jenny's older brother. Sven is a rather unfortunate boy. He is constantly terrified of everything to the point of running millions of 'bad ends' through his head. He can barely talk most of the time without being a stuttering mess and always thinks he's going to be in trouble for anything and everything he does. Everyone is certain he either has severe anxiety or paranoia, or likely both. Perhaps even more. Who knows. Sven tends to cling to his cousin, Fen, who he looks to for guidance and advice, most of which isn't anything Sven should actually be following. Because he is a grade below Fen and Millie, he's often left alone to deal with problems in his own classes, or really just panic about them. He does, however, have a close relationship with Zed and likes to be the one to take her out on walks in the afternoon. And not many people know it, but he's actually a pretty decent artist.

Even though he is an Osmosian thanks to being Kevin's son, no one knows what ability he may have. It doesn't really matter though, since he wants to stay out of any potential trouble that having powers could bring him. Regardless of that, he has an interest in magic thanks to Gwendolyn's expertise in it. He even sneaks peeks at her spellbook and the strange bag she keeps in her office that he can hear a voice coming from at night.

Developer's Notes:

Now Sven is a character whose personality has always been pretty much the same while his design was never consistent until reaching his current one. He was originally very anime looking and in a gaudy orange outfit that I regret even thinking about, lol. He looks much better in neutral colors. I guess there's not much to say on him though, which makes me worry he's a tad unremarkable, but perhaps it's just since I'm leaving out the things about him that are better left discovering on your own… if I ever get to finishing that fic that is… ahaha.

Name: Saki Boulais

Age: 13

Height: 4'11

Voice: Stephanie Sheh

Bio: Julie and Hervé's daughter, one of the more popular girls in school, and the most deceptive in town. Saki has gone her whole life, since the first time she told a successful lie, tricking people into thinking she's a completely innocent little girl who's never done anything wrong. This allows her to get away with anything she wants, and she especially enjoys getting Fen in trouble when they butt heads with each other. The two have even been enemies since they first met at age three and Saki pulled Fen's tail, he pulled her hair in return, and she managed to get away with claiming he started it. Their feud has even turned into murderous intent, which Saki refuses to hide.

On a lighter note, Saki always has the company of her two best friends, Rachel and Diane, who will gladly join her in her tormenting of others. Saki even greatly admires the most popular girl in school, Fiona, and whoever the mysterious new hero girl, Miracle-M, is.

Developer's Notes:

Yes, Saki was always meant to be That Bitch in the cast. I feel like it's unrealistic to have all next gen kids be friends and get along with each other. It's perfectly believable to have some of them dislike, and in Saki and Fen's case, even hate each other. It makes it more interesting with them being Ben and Julie's kids respectively too. Adds good drama, lol. But anyway, really the only thing that's changed about Saki is her hairstyle and some other slight design tweaks like her necklace, shorts, and shoes. I also just recently changed her colors from purple and blue-ish purple to just blue so that isn't not all three girls here wearing purple. She also looks better in blue and it contrasts nicely with Julie's pink imo. I suppose I do worry about her being disliked since she's so antagonistic and with her being Julie's daughter, I really hope her character doesn't send the wrong message since I genuinely love Julie a lot. It really is just For The Drama Of It All. I think it's really fun to watch her go into full 'Murder Fen' mode too. Very fun to write, lol. Oh right, also Boulais is my headcanon last name for Herve. I just wanted her to have his last name but he doesn’t have one! So I had to pick one for myself.

Name: Jennifer Elizabeth Levin

Age: 10

Height: 4'6

Voice: Brina Palencia

Bio: Jenny is Gwendolyn and Kevin's daughter and Sven's younger sister. She is surprisingly serious and stoic for her age. She gets annoyed by her family's constant 'abnormal' status and wishes everyone could just act normal with no weird events happening. She throws herself into school work as a means to keep herself out of it and tries to keep her personal life at school with friends far away from her life involving family. She seems to have a quick temper, but really she just acts that way to get what she wants since she knows it works and in the hopes that she can use it as an opportunity to vent her frustrations. She hates getting involved in her brother and cousin Fen's antics, but sometimes her no nonsense attitude is needed to resolve a situation. She has a strange obsession with eating bread, finding it the perfect food and almost always exclusively eating something with bread involved. Gwendolyn definitely worries about her diet, but Kevin finds it harmless.

She may not have the spark like her mother, but she doesn't dare confess that her status as an Osmosian became very apparent just recently. As a result, she has a stash of broken objects stuffed under her bed and cracked floorboards that she covers with her rug.

Developer's Notes:

Jenny went through a decent redesign. Character wise I feel like I still don't have some things etched in stone for her as I still haven't gotten to the point in my writing where she does anything of interest. She could honestly probably end up pretty different from her bio here if I'm not careful, lol. The characters write themselves as they say after all! But I definitely prefer the newer Jenny compared to the previous way I envisioned her character, which was designed to fit a character type I actually hate just cuz I felt it worked for her. Thankfully I can avoid it tho with the big overhaul I did after returning to these characters. And I do like Jenny cuz I like writing her dialogue, but it still feels like her character is still that of a person I would not wanna be around, lol.

Name: Bevel Tennyson

Age: 20

Height: 5'9

Voice: Dee Bradley Baker/Yuri Lowenthal

Bio: Bevel is the youngest of the Big Chill offspring born twenty years ago. They were in an accident involving a passing spaceship on their way to Kylmyys that damaged their right wing to the point they could no longer fly. It's suspected the wing has severe nerve damage, making Bevel unable to unfold it as well. Their siblings helped them make it the rest of the way to Kylmyys, but over the years, the dangers of Kylmyys left the siblings with only Bevel and the eldest two, Emboss and Curve, remaining. As they got older, Bevel could never forget their only memory of their parent, who the others didn't remember. A desire to reunite with their parent caused Bevel to make the lone decision to explore the universe in search of their parent.

Bevel is a very cheerful and sweet person, but their secluded upbringing and lack of knowledge about Earth makes them very naive. They will believe anything they are told and have a very black and white moral view due to not understanding nuance. They have strange habits that appear unnatural in their attempt to act human and have an intense craving for Earth candy. They have also taken up being a mercenary to get by after leaving Kylmyys and once they join the Tennyson family, Rook suggests they use the skills they've picked up to become a Plumber, but that's an idea Ben isn't fully onboard with.

Developer's Notes:

Right off the bat I want to shout out that his old human design used to keep the Necrofriggian antennae. I still think it's a cute design even tho it wasn't canon compliant with the antennae. The only things that have changed about him too are just that, his hair style, and his shoes. Plus I stuck bunny ears on his hoodie recently as a shout out to those antennae he used to have. Otherwise he's always been the same. And I guess I haven't explained why he has a human form, but that's also an answer to discover later. I didn't draw his Necrofriggian form tho cuz we should all know what the UAF design looks like(and yes I am screwing with art style difference bullshit cuz OV Big Chill is not real and you cannot convince me otherwise). And I also just realized his pronouns aren't matching up in this section so I should add his official pronouns are he/they, but characters refer to him by he/him and narration uses they/them. He is still a Necrofriggian and therefore doesn't do the whole gender thing after all. Which is why he's fine with anyone viewing him as whatever they want to too. He just goes with it. That's also why he doesn't get what's weird about him calling Ben 'Mother' after he learned the word, lol.

#staff so help me if this disappears from the tags EVER we will have a problem #ben 10 #ben 10 oc #fenrick (oc)#Millie (OC)#Sven (OC)#saki (oc)#jenny (oc)#bevel (oc)#my art #artists on tumblr

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soulmate-game · 4 years

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This isn’t my usual Maribat, but I am testing out a new story just to get the creative juices flowing. This is a One Piece and Pokémon crossover, starring a Sylveon named Fae. Based off of/inspired by “the smallest straw hat” on fanfiction.net. It’s a new style and type of story from my usual, but I wanted to try it out. I love “The Smallest Straw Hat,” and I couldn’t help but wanna try out my own addition to the world, even if it isn’t canon. And I... kinda love Sylveon? like a lot?

—*—*—*—*—*

Everyone has their stereotypes about the color pink. And bows. Girly, they say with either fondness or disgust. Childish, they say with either nostalgia or scorn. Weak, they say. Because apparently “childish” and “girly” are both synonymous with “this thing/person is powerless,” or “useless,” or “worthless.”

Heh. I parade down the streets of the latest town I managed to reach, ears and tail raised high in show of my pride to be pink. Sure, I had my natural bows of fur that were just, well, part of me. And sure, I was mostly pink and white. But such was the design of every Sylveon, and most of my race were actually male. So. Everyone who immediately wrote us, and by extension me, off as being a girl just because of my appearance royally pissed me off.

I was proud to be pink. Nobody in their right mind, who knew anything about Pokémon, dared to treat a Sylveon as a weakling.

If they did, I’d make sure they knew better soon enough.

But alas, I wasn’t anywhere near Home. Back Home, everyone knew about Pokémon. We are everywhere. But all the way out here, where I was sure hardly any other Pokémon have ever ventured? Not a single human seemed to know the word, and by extension the entire species, even existed. The animals out here were all…

Normal.

Even more normal than Normal types. It was… jarring, at first. But I got used to it after a while. Life on the oceans, jumping from island to island on whatever ship I could get on, was fun. Compared to back Home, the living things out here didn’t surprise me often. So I could just enjoy everything I saw and did.

After That Day, the pure-hearted adventure was welcome.

“What is that?” And here come the whispers. Humans don’t seem to change much, no matter where I go. Fingers pointed at me, not expecting me to be fully aware of what they were saying and doing, as I garnered stares just by walking down the street.

“Some kinda fox, it’s gotta be with those ears and snout. I’ve never seen a pink and white fox before though!”

“Those bows look so real, like they could be part of the thing’s body!”

“No way that’s a fox, it’s gotta be a weird cat!”

“Those are bunny ears. Maybe it’s a mutated rabbit!”

I ignored everyone. It wasn’t like they would understand me anyway. A few brave thugs tried to tackle and grab me, but I’m no hatchling. I easily pranced and jumped out of their grasp, humming a random tune under my breath as I did so. Figuring a little fun wouldn’t hurt, I chanced them a little wink and channeled a bit of my charm. The weak-willed dolts were slumped in a pile in seconds, too enamored by my cuteness to even move. Chuckling, I just turned and pranced away.

Humans really never change.

Screams erupted, making me pause. I whipped my head around, trying to find the source of the sound. It was accompanied by the crackling of flames and thumps of heavy things being knocked over.

Too familiar. Too, too familiar.

I grit my jaw, turning as soon as I located the direction the cacophony was coming from and running straight for it. I might be a Pokémon, but I couldn’t stand screams. I failed my Home, my family. I was damned if I didn’t try my best not to fail people in peril again. Even if it was just humans, I had to try to help.

I had to.

Such was part of the reason I traveled. I was enjoying my adventure, sure, but there were two other reasons I didn’t try to head back Home. One; I was searching for someone. Two; as soon as I realized that Pokémon didn’t exist outside of Home, I decided I had to use my powers to help anyone I could. Heh. Guess a certain old friend of mine rubbed off on me, now I’m running into danger constantly without any plans. They’d be so proud.

Sliding around a corner, I finally saw it. Almost an entire street was aflame, the flags that flew just off the shore stopping me in my tracks for a second.

Marines.

I had spent enough time out on the seas to know how corrupt the supposed “good guys,” could be. Hiding under my breath, I ran toward the first burning building I could see. If there was anyone stuck inside, I had to get to them. But as I got to the door, I had to stumble back to avoid being trampled as a large, blond man came out carrying two passed out bodies over his shoulders. My squeak of surprise apparently caught his attention, and for a moment his black eyes met mine. He paused, scanning the street for a second before continuing on.

I followed him. I don’t know why, but something told me he got everyone left in that building, and was trying to finish getting those last two to safety. Regardless, I had no idea what was going on and he seemed to. For now, I’d get my cues from him.

He made his way to a large ship with a dragon figurehead, and I leapt to hide behind the corner of a not-burning building to watch as he handed the wounded people on his shoulders off to apparent allies of his before he took off again. Once more, I followed. This time, before he could even touch the door to another building that was on fire, I beat him there.

I let my ribbons expand, feeling as they started to glow. The light attracted his attention soon enough, making the man pause. He put a hand on the pipe that I now noticed was on his back, but otherwise only watched me. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to attack, I focused back on the building and let the power from my ribbon-feelers build up in front of my snout. Opening my mouth, I set off the move with a roar. My voice was the final trigger, power blasting out from my mouth in the form of a giant storm of winds, clashing into each other and whirling madly until they hit the building. The force of my fairy wind put out the flames on the whole building, though it left me slightly short of breath. I turned my head back to the blond, nodding my head to the building.

He grinned at me, taking his hand off his pipe and rushing into the building without me having to try to get the message across a second time.

That was when the footsteps stole my attention, and I whirled around. A veritable army of Marines was headed straight for me— no, straight for the building I had just put out. They were after the blond man.

I felt a growl build up in the back of my throat, quickly separating my legs and taking a fighting stance. The blond was one of the few people I could see actually trying to help with this horrid situation, I wouldn’t let anyone get in his way! But if there’s one good thing about everything I’ve been through, it’s that fighting is nothing new to me. I’d take care of these jerks, and buy that blond guy time to save as many people as he could.

As usual, nobody seemed to take the sight of me seriously. The marines seemed just about ready to run me over, but I wasn’t about to allow that.

“Idiots. You won’t pass me!” I shouted, though all they heard was “Sylveon! Eon!”

Taking a deep breath, I once again channeled my power into my feelers. Letting them raise and float straight up in the air, I narrowed my eyes and sang the tune that came naturally to me at that point. My voice rang through the air as if there were no other sounds to muffle it, as if there were no screams or flames or crumbling buildings at all. As my short song echoed unnaturally across the street, a thick fog burst into being around my feet before quickly spreading until it covered the entire block and went ten feet high. Only the area directly behind me was spared, since I didn’t want to hinder the blond man that I was doing this to protect.

The magical cloud of fog was thick and almost viscous, and it merely swayed in place instead of moving like a normal fog. It hung there, taunting and obstructing the marine assholes caught inside. I could hear the fumbles and curses as they began to trip over on another, unable to get their bearings. But merely stalling them wasn’t enough. Steadying myself, it had been a while since I had had a proper fight, I raised my head and changed my tone. Focusing on the people I could feel trapped in my fog, I let loose a siren-like wail that I knew from experience burrowed itself into the brains of those that I targeted with it. It didn’t even take a second for the screams of pain to rise up from within the fog, but I knew that it wasn’t enough to knock any of them out.

I sighed; sure defending and attacking strategically was a strong point of mine, but that didn’t mean it was very exciting. I admit, I might have a bit of an adrenaline addiction. I like fighting up close, so what? But that wasn’t my job, right then I had to just stall these guys so that—

“I got them out, nice job,” the voice that came from behind me made me jump, and I turned around to see the very man I had decided to stall for. He grinned widely at me, his mouth almost making a full D shape. “These guys aren’t too strong, but they would have slowed me down for sure. But there were more people than I anticipated in those buildings, mind giving me a hand?” He jerked his head behind him. Blinking, I followed the gesture and almost fell over. At least ten people, all in various stages of injury or unconsciousness, were strewn on the sidewalk. No way that came all from the one building I put out! How fast was this guy?

A loud laugh drew my attention back to the blond, who was nearly doubled over with his cackling. “Y-y-you’re face! Hahahaha! Don’t be so surprised, little thing. I’m good at what I do. Now come on, think you can help me carry some of them? I think I can take four or five, how many can you get?”

I puffed out my cheeks, raising my head with a confident huff as I let my ribbons stretch out. “Sylvie!” These things aren’t just for show, ya know!

Walking forward and ignoring the heavy weight of the man’s stare as he watched me, I let each of my ribbons lift up two people each. The ones that were still conscious seemed to think that I was some fever dream, which at least kept them from struggling too much since they weren’t going to fight what they thought was a hallucination. I turned proudly, smiling at the man. See? Child’s play. You get the rest. “Eon? Sylvie Sylvie.”

He clearly didn’t understand me, but chuckled anyway. “Nice, you’re stronger than you look, for such a tiny thing,” watch it. “I’ll follow behind you with the rest, did you see the boat that I took the others to? Go there, my friends will know how to help these guys.”

I nodded, not waiting to see the blond grab the last three victims before I ran off in the direction of the dragon-designed ship. I actually scoffed a bit. No matter where I went, there was always something related to dragons. Why were humans so obsessed with those things anyway? They weren’t that impressive.

“Hey! What’re you doing with— oh, you’re handing them to me?” A girl with orange hair was waiting at the boarding platform for the ship, and seemed ready to fight until I all but shoved the people I was carrying at her. “Oh. Well, thanks?”

“Don’t worry, this little thing helped me out back there,” the blond had caught up, smiling at the woman as he handed off his own victims to someone else nearby. “Let’s get these guys to the infirmary, yeah? Wanna come with us, little one? The marines aren’t likely to forget you, you kinda stand out.”

I tilted my head. He had a point, I wasn’t exactly a stealthy Pokémon when it came to my appearance. And attacking marines was bound to get me in trouble later.

The blond seemed to notice my reluctance to just go off with strangers, and chuckled again before walking over and kneeling in front of me. “I guess it would help if I introduced myself, huh? You seem to understand me just fine. My name’s Sabo. I’m part of the revolutionary army, just like everyone on this ship,” he gestured to the boat behind him. “That girl is my friend Koala. What’s your name?”

“Sylveon.”

Sabo blinked, furrowing his brows a little. “Sylveon? What are you, then?”

“Sylveon,” honestly, dealing with humans who weren’t from Home was exhausting. Always the same questions, and I could never answer them any easier than I could before.

“Huh? Is that all you can say, your name?”

I huffed, already frustrated by this stupid language barrier. “Sylveon. Sylvi, syl, Eon. Sylveon.”

“So, Sylveon is the name of your species?” I nodded, close enough. “And that is all you can say? Variations of your name?” I nodded again. Finally, we were getting places. Sabo rocked back on his heels, humming as he observed me. “Can I call you Silky-Chan?”

Oh. Hell no. I growled, narrowing my eyes. Apparently that was amusing, because he just laughed at me.

“Come on, Silky-Chan. We can figure out more about you later, but we should go before they send stronger marines.”

I grumbled under my breath at the stupid nickname he gave me, but followed him on board anyway. If nothing else, he seemed interesting. I could always jump overboard when we got close to another island if I wanted to get away.

—*—*—*—*—*

#one piece #one piece fanfiction #pokemon #ONE PIECE x Pokémon crossover #Sylveon in ONE PIECE #Sylveon #Sylveon OC #Sabo #Sabo and Sylveon friendship!

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brightwanderer · 4 years

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I like how your 3D rendering of Aziraphale looks so far but gosh he looks like a creepy yet endearing mix of a Telletubby and... some kind of doll or maybe Barney the dinosaur if you squint? Idk its super cool and he's kinda cute but a little uncanny too. Great job so far!

I've never done anything except download and open Blender once many eons ago and then almost immediately nope out of it because it was so complex and scary looking. I find it really amazing that people can create things that are 3D and they look like drawings but... kinda aren't. Idk but its just super cool to me. I used to watch some sped up YouTube vids where people made these insane and amazing creations in Blender and i was so blown away, I dont remember any channel names now but surely they're out there somewhere lol. But its been a long time so your stuff is my first recent dip back into the "awesome world of 3D creations" pool. I especially liked your Stardew farmhouse, that was so cool! Didn't you make that in Blender too? If I'm remembering correctly and you did, that's just. That's just awesome. It doesn't LOOK 3D but wow. Still so cool. It was so different from the actual game but still very easily recognizable (and its one of my favorite games and I might just about die for a Stardew AU fic lol though I haven't found one yet). It looked so nice and cozy and I loved the colors!

Anyways I can't wait to see what Az looks like when he's finished, and good luck with his hair btw, I can't even imagine how challenging that's gonna be. Best of luck to you! :)

LOL yes 3D modelling characters is basically a process of putting up with the uncanny valley until you get to the part where you start working on the textures and lighting. One of the reasons I'm not particularly interested in photorealism in 3D modelling is that it's so, so difficult to really nail character art in that style, and I don't have the time or dedication to put into it. (The other reason is that I just really like toon and stylised art.)

All of my modelling is done in Blender, but I'm not modelling the characters themselves from scratch. I'm using Daz 3D, which comes with very customisable basic human figures and a lot of built-in pose and expression controls. I can set up characters in Daz by moving sliders around, much like on a game like the Sims, and then export the model to Blender to work on the clothes, hair, texturing, etc. The results are good enough for my current purposes, though there may come a time when I need to start pushing seriously towards modelling my own figures... we'll see. I did do the Stardew farmhouse entirely in Blender though! Speaking of which...

"I might just about die for a Stardew AU fic lol though I haven't found one yet"

... OH HEY DO I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU. The reason I made that model in the first place was because of my story "Untitled Stardew Omens Fic". It is 43k of ineffable farm fluff. I hope it's what you're looking for!

#asks #floofboi76 #good omens #blender 3D #3D modelling #fanfic #my fic #my art

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comicgeekscomicgeek · 3 years

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Chapter 75: Let’s Get This Show on the Road

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

Some are mine, but a decent chunk of the 1-C kids in this chapter were created by tumblr user and number one fic fan on tumblr @uninvited-eon

“Okay everyone, gather ‘round!” Itsuka Tetsutetsu called out to her class. Around the common room, the sixteen students of Class 1-C began to gather, some listlessly, some begrudgingly, but none of them eagerly. Her heart ached for them.

Whereas Aizawa and Super-Ball’s classes had passed their Final Exam… her class had failed.

She felt a strong measure of guilt over that. They were only the second group of students she’d shepherded through U.A. and she could not help but feel like she’d failed them somehow. Had she not trained them well enough? Had she not stressed the need for teamwork and cooperation, of thinking things through? They’d all done well in their Heroics Class and two of them had even made it to the Tournament round of the Sports Festival. And yet, when it had come down to it, victory had slipped from their grasp. Aizawa and Fujii had both told her she wasn’t to blame, as had her husband, but she still felt the sting of failure. She’d already vowed to do better by her kids. She’d already been working on new ideas for the next term.

“Yes, Sensei?” Yoru Kan, tall, buff, and pale, asked from her spot on one of the couches. It was strange to think her old teacher had a daughter the same age as Itsuka’s own child, but such was life sometimes.

“I know you’re all upset about not getting to go to the Training Camp with the other classes,” Itsuka said.

Ichigo Minoru, the lion-like Class Representative, growled. “We should have done better.”

This earned him a glare from the pink-haired Momoko Hohki, who blew a gum-bubble generated by her Quirk, popping it noisily. “You want to say that again, Fuzzball?” The two had never really gotten along. Hohki had… issues with authority.

“I’m just saying we could have done better,” Minoru said. He held up furry hands. She knew he bore the loss heavily as well, taking it quite personally. He was brave and selfless, but he had to be wondering if his leadership skills hadn’t been up to snuff. “That’s all.”

“I think we all know who screwed up,” Kan said gruffly, crossing her arms.

Ayahiko Akiyama pushed his glasses up, the red frames standing out against skin that was even paler than Kan’s. “Well, it sure wasn’t me.” His color-manipulating Quirk had been useful during the exam, unleashing wildly shifting color patterns to disorient some of their foes, but the lack of responsibility was typical too. She and the other teachers hadn’t been able to get him to step up just yet. They were giving it time, but he’d either shape up for ship out.

“Like hell it wasn’t,” Reiki Akamatsu snapped, the green quills along her head bristling. “You and Enoshima both! Throwing up your damn light shows so we couldn’t see!”

Hitomi Enoshima, whose Kaleidoscope Vision Quirk made looking her in the eyes dangerous, took offense with that. “I told you to get out of the way! Not my fault you didn’t listen!”

“Shouting “get out of the way, losers!” doesn’t count as telling people to get out of the way,” Kin Shiji snapped. The parts of his face that weren’t patches of metallic gold were flush with irritation.

“Can we… can we not fight?” Shika Mizuno asked. The antlered girl bowed her head and closed her eyes. She was gentle and soft-spoken, reminding Itsuka very much of her friend and former classmate Komori. Trying to play peacemaker when the more outspoken members of the class fought was common for her.

Unfortunately, Mizuno’s words did little to quell the arguments brewing. Sides were taken, insults shouted, and things started getting loud very quickly.

Employing her Quirk, Itsuka enlarged her hands and brought them together in a singular clap that resonated throughout the room. It left some of the Class holding their ears, especially the lion-like Minoru and the bear-like Tsukiko Kuma. But it did its job and silenced them all for a moment.

“Sorry about that,” she said, reducing the size of her hands back to normal. “But I could tell that was going to get ugly. And fighting amongst yourselves is part of why you failed the exam.” There had been so much arguing, so many strong-willed hot heads in her class determined to do things their own way. They’d gotten in each other’s way during the exam, hadn’t coordinated properly, and ultimately the faux-Villains had gotten away with their target.

“You’ve got potential,” she said. “I believe in you. But there’s a lot we need to work on. Which is why, while the other Hero classes are at their Training Camp, we’re going to be having one here at the USJ. Water Spout, Doc Clock, and I will be putting you through your paces from pretty much sunup to sundown, with a particular focus on teamwork and collaboration.”

She frowned. “Failing your exam is a big deal. But it’s one you can come back from, with hard work. I believe in all of you. Which is why I also arranged for some extra help with your additional training.”

At that, the doors burst open. “Woooo! Who’s ready for some training?!”

Itsuka pinched the bridge of her nose. “Tetsu, I told you to wait outside until I texted you.”

Her husband blushed and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, ‘suka. Got done dropping Kana off and got bored… figured you’d be ready by now.”

It was going to be a long two weeks.

***

Nearly all of Class 1-A and Class 1-B had already assembled by the time Katsumi arrived. She’d been rather insisted that she and Dad not arrive together. It was going to be enough of a pain having him as one of her teachers, but she could live with that. This was a practical matter of asserting her own independence. And there was some small part of her that wanted to take in everyone’s reactions when they found out about him. Maybe she ought to get her phone ready. Depending on how people reacted, she could get a new ringtone out of it.

Izzy gave her a polite nod as she approached. “It is good to see you, Katsumi,” she said.

“Good to see you too, Iz,” she replied. Thoughts of her dad’s promise to push all of them hard ran though her mind. She’d spent years thinking of Izzy as fragile and in need of protection. Even if the last few months of U.A. had told her otherwise, her first instinct was always going to be to protect her friend. Even if she and Iz weren’t romantically compatible, she loved her still, as the most important person in her life. “All set for roughing it?”

Izzy closed her eyes and nodded. “I believe so,” she said. “My parents were concerned, of course, but ultimately convinced that I would be in good hands.”

Of course they were. Katsumi nearly rolled her eyes. Izzy’s parents were crazy protective sometimes. Nearly all the time, actually. She’d have thought they’d have learned by now. Best not to think about it, it would just make her angry.

“Any idea where they’re taking us?” she asked instead. Even without Villains after the Hero classes, U.A. had stopped publicizing the location of its Training Camps years ago. It was a lot safer that way. Not that she’d been able to get anything out of Dad. He’d cited “tradition” as being the reason he couldn’t tell her. She was also sure getting on her nerves was also one of the reasons.

Izzy shook her head. “I am afraid I have no idea. We shall just have to see.”

Katsumi just laughed. “Ah, well. Worth a shot.”

In the meantime, she could see the Class Representatives making the rounds, with Toshi and Tokyami talking to the members of their class, and Kana and Awase talking to theirs. She could see Aizawa too, off to the side and in consultation with 1-B’s teacher, Super-Ball. She couldn’t hear what was being said, but Aizawa was giving the rubber-bodied Hero a death glare and looking like he wanted to be absolutely anywhere else on the planet. Super-Ball was talking animatedly and occasionally elbowing Aizawa in the side. Given what she’d heard about Super-Ball, her sympathy was entirely with Aizawa.

“Five hundred yen says Aizawa wraps his head up to stop him from talking,” she said to Izzy.

Izzy shook her head again. “What is it you would say? “That’s a sucker’s bet?’”

Katsumi laughed again. “You are listening.” She doubted Izzy had ever seen that small an amount of money in her life anyway.

Around them, most of the class was in its usual friendship groups. She could see Shinso babbling to Haimawari, who was indulging the hyperactive, purple-haired kid, nodding occasionally at whatever he was going on about. Sero, Sato, and Ojiro were talking as always, probably discussing content for their damned web show. The Iida twins and the new girl with the wings, Kocho, were watching the discussion with something somewhere between amusement, fascination, and confusion. Mineta was talking to Koda, while Aoyama and Shoji stood a little bit apart from the rest of the class. One person she did notice was missing though. It wasn’t until she looked around until she noticed…

“Hey, Iz?” Katsumi asked.

“Yes?”

“Why the hell is Kaminari hanging out with Monoma?” Izzy was friends with the electric dumbass. There was a decent chance she’d known what was going on.

“I cannot say,” Izzy told her.

“But you know,” she pressed.

“Chihiro has asked that I not speak of it.”

“…What.”

***

“What?” Chihiro asked, as Monoma slipped the bracelet around her wrist. It had been made in the kumihimo style, she could tell, yellow with just a little bit of black in it, like her hair. She wasn’t sure they were at the gift-giving stage of… whatever it was exactly they were doing. They’d gone out once.

Which had been nice, she actually had to admit. Nothing fancy, just a walk and some ice cream, but he’d turned out to be surprisingly good company. When he wasn’t being a competitive asshole or didn’t have Kirishima-Bakugo around to rile him up, he could actually be a decent guy, and even pretty funny. He was smarter than her, that much was sure, and ridiculously well-read, but he didn’t lord it over her and listened when she talked, especially about music, he actually asked questions and wanted to know more. He’d been more encouraging during that walk that he’d been in the entirety of the time she’d known him before.

More vulnerable too. He’d been damn close to quitting before he’d talked to her. And then there was the way he talked about his classmates and how much potential he saw in all of them…

She was beginning to understand what Mika had seen in the guy. Granted, Mika’s type was “alive,” but she was actually beginning to see why Koda willingly associated with him.

They’d talked on the phone and texted more on top of that. She’d actually found herself looking forward to it. Chihiro was well aware she was no amazon with pneumatic boobs like Mika or Sora Iida, or even a girly fashionista like Ojiro. She was relatively plain, her curves barely there. She was fit, but hardly a paragon of physical fitness, and she was never going to be the smartest person on the planet. Even her Quirk wasn’t that impressive without lots of Support Gear.

Having someone actually interested in her, for who she was, when there were so many other better options available was still a surprise.

“It’s a gift,” Monoma said. “I made it myself.” He smiled, sheepishly. “I watch a lot of tutorials on Viewtube, so I can pick up other skills. You never know when it might come in handy. Besides, it’s more than that. It’s a promise.”

“A promise of what?” Chihiro cast a few nervous glances around. Someone—Ojiro probably—was probably already noticing she’d been talking with Monoma for a while now and speculating wildly. Several of Class 1-B were definitely already looking at her.

She wasn’t exactly as embarrassed by the thought of people finding out she was dating him as she’d have thought, but she’d kind of wanted to control the message. But he’d been so insistent on giving her the bracelet before the busses arrived…

“It’s an apology too, for my earlier behavior, but it is a promise,” Monoma said, “that I won’t kiss you again.” He leaned in close, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “Until you kiss me first.” She was pretty sure she heard Fukidashi gasp.

Well, wasn’t that presumptuous of him? Why was he so pretty when he was being so arrogant? “Don’t,” she breathed, her Cords rising up reflexively, sparks dancing on the tips, “don’t you mean “unless?’”

He gave her one of those all too confident smiles, his eyes practically twinkling. “Giving up on us so soon?”

Chihiro flushed red and couldn’t find the words to respond to that.

***

Toshi looked down at the clipboard he was carrying, nodded, and looked over to Asuka. “That everybody?” he asked.

“It is,” Asuka told him, checking her own clipboard. Frog-Shadow was sitting on her shoulder, looking vaguely bored. “Everyone’s here, everyone’s luggage is accounted for, and the buses should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Good,” he said. Being Class Representative came with a lot of responsibilities, but his classmates made it easy. None of them put him through half has much as their parents’ class had put Uncle Tenya through. The worst he usually had to do was keep Katsumi from killing Mineta when the latter was being particularly aggravating or mediate a conflict between Aoyama and Sero. It helped that he’d known the majority of them for years and understood their eccentricities.

“Okay!” Toshi called out. “Everybody listen up!” It took a moment—Sero was being especially chatty—but eventually, everyone did quiet down, with Kaminari hurriedly joining the group at the end.

“Thank you,” Asuka told them. “Toshi and I both want you to know we expect all of you to be on your best behavior during the Training Camp. Aizawa-Sensei wishes for us to emphasize that there will be severe consequences for misbehavior.”

“He was really scary when he said it!” Frog-Shadow piped in.

“He was,” Toshi agreed, shuddering at the memory. “But I know you’re all mature, responsible individuals who can be counted on not to do anything stupid.”

“How’d you manage to say that right a straight face, Toshi?” Katsumi asked, arms crossed, grinning smugly.

“It wasn’t easy,” he admitted. “Now, any last questions?”

Mineta’s hand went up.

“That aren’t about fraternization during the camp?”

Mineta’s hand went down. Toshi breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned around and looked over to where Aizawa and Super-Ball were. “All set,” he called out. He heard Kana Tetsutetsu do the same.

The two teachers walked over so they were standing in front of the two classes. “Thanks, Class Reps!” Super-Ball said, grinning broadly. He spread his arms in an expansive gesture. “Is everybody ready for a summer of fun?!”

Silence greeted him.

“That’s right!” 1-B’s teacher went on, as though they’d responded. “Well that’s too bad, because Aizawa canceled all the fun. Your friendly neighborhood bouncing ball tried to talk him out of it, but well, you try arguing with that face. C’mon, make the face, Aizawa.”

Aizawa’s expression did not change.

“Yeah,” Super-Ball said. “That’s the one. Seriously, though, you guys are gonna work really hard. But I know you can do it, and you’re gonna be better for it! And we’ve got one extra surprise for you. You want to take this one, Aizawa?”

“Right,” Aizawa said flatly. “In addition to Fujii and myself, your new Heroics teacher will also be accompanying us.”

A dozen plus conversations broke out among the two classes, as they began to speculate who that might be. Toshi had known that with Grandpa Might becoming the new principal, they were looking to fill the slot, but he hadn’t known for sure that anyone had accepted the job. The weird thing was, neither Katsumi nor Shota seemed surprised by the news.

“Who is it?” Rika Bondo, the blue slime girl from 1-B, asked.

“That’s be me.”

“Uncle Kachan?!” Toshi stammered out. Uncle Kachan had appeared almost out of nowhere, no less stealthy for his recent injury. He was dressed comfortable, in civilian clothes, but still looked ready to take on any challenge that might come his way. There was the slightest of limps to his step, but you had to be really looking to notice it.

But never, in a million years, would he have thought he’d be their new teacher!

Someone had let out a girlish shriek. “Oh, man, Monoma!” Anime Fukidashi giggled. “You should have seen the look on your face!”

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, we’re all going to die,” Sero wailed. He’d gone a distinctly paler shade of pink.

“Well,” Toshi heard Izumi say, “this is unexpected.”

“This is… wow…” Haimawari trailed off.

“Guys? Seriously? I think Monoma’s broke. He hasn’t moved for, like, a minute.” Fukidashi’s voice carried over all the others. “Tetsutetsu, maybe you want to smack him?”

“I’m fine, dammit!” Monoma snapped. All eyes were instantly on him. He gulped nervously. “My… apologies, Senseis.”

Uncle Kachan didn’t seem to care and Aizawa was as impassive as ever.

“Breathe, kid,” Super-Ball said. “He’s legally prohibited from killing you.” He winked. “But you’d be surprised what you can live through.”

Uncle Kachan looked over at Aizawa. “Is he always like this?”

Aizawa just sighed. “This is actually one of his more sedate days.”

“And you didn’t think to mention that, you sorry excuse for a hobo?!”

“If I have to suffer, so do you.”

“You two do know I can hear you, right?” Super-Ball asked, though he didn’t sound offended. “And so can they? The impressionable children?”

Uncle Kachan sighed, then turned his attention to them. “I’m not big on speeches. So I’m just letting you all know now, All Might was the good cop. I’m the bad cop. And I’m gonna work you all like you’ve never been worked before!”

Several of the students gasped. Toshi was pretty sure he saw Monoma look faint. Katsumi just grinned that grin she did before she punched someone.

Anything else was cut off as the automated buses arrived, one of which seemed a bit larger than the other, probably to accommodate Kentaro Fukui, the nearly three meters tall member of 1-B. “About time,” Aizawa said. “Get your luggage loaded and then get on the bus. Class 1-A in the first bus, Class 1-B in the second. We leave in ten, with or without you.”

***

It didn’t take long for the buses to get underway. Aizawa was seated in the front of the bus, Uncle Katsuki in the back. The various couples in the class were sitting together, as were the usual friends like Chihiro and Mineta and Isamu and Shota, while Asuka was sitting with their new classmate Kocho. Their odd numbers meant that Shoji was sitting alone, though he didn’t seem bothered by it. And, of course, Izumi was sitting with Katsumi.

Izumi turned to look at her friend. “So,” she said, “I am assuming you knew about this?”

Katsumi smirked at that. “Oh yeah. All Might offered him the job a couple of days after the break started. He thought about it for maybe a day tops before he said yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

That earned her another smirk from Katsumi. “You didn’t ask.”

A smile spread across Izumi’s face and a small giggle escaped her lips. “That is true,” she said. “I did not.”

“Besides,” Katsumi added, “he swore me to secrecy.”

Uncle Katsuki would certainly be a… different teacher than All Might, she was sure. But he was Japan’s Number Four Hero, with numerous Villain captures and cases solved behind him. The media often liked to paint him as a volatile brawler, but she knew there was far more to him than that.

Izumi nodded. “He has a wealth of experience to offer. I am sure he will take to the role readily.” More importantly, Izumi was glad to see that Uncle Katzuki was doing well and getting back to something approximating normal. With traumatic injuries like he had experienced, it took a truly exceptional individual to come back from them. But then again, her father often said that Uncle Katsuki had “more guts than sense.” She was reasonably certain that he had not meant it was a compliment—especially as her mother had swatted him for saying it—but guts were definitely required here.

“Yeah, well…” Katsumi trailed off. Her dear friend rarely allowed herself to be vulnerable, and even here, it was only for the briefest of moments. “Beats having him mope around the house while he’s taking medical leave.”

Medical leave, not retirement. That was potentially promising sounding. “They are hopeful for a more functional prosthetic?” Katsumi had told her that her father’s Quirk made traditional prosthetics unwieldy for long term use, but that Doctor Shield and Mei Hatsume were working on a better one.

Katsumi shrugged. “Nothing yet. They really don’t know if he’ll ever…” Her voice started to crack, but she was fighting it. She so hated to show weakness in front of anyone, even her.

Izumi reached over and gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. Katsumi returned the grip, mindful that Izumi was not as strong as she. No other words needed to be said. As always, they would have each other’s back.

“But yeah,” Katsumi went on, her tone shifting back to something more in line with her usual self, “in the meantime, he’s going to make everybody here’s life hell.” She looked around the bus. “Pretty sure Aoyama and Sero might die. Maybe Monoma too.” That caused her to snicker. “Did you see his face?”

“I did,” Izumi said, her tone carefully neutral. She did not wish to encourage Katsumi’s delight in the misfortunate of others, though that was probably a battle she would not win. But Uncle Katsuki would likely be an unrelenting taskmaster, and she knew she could expect no favors or special treatment due to her friendship with Katsumi or her own limitations.

Limitations she would not have were it not for her grandfather.

No. She could not dwell on that now. She had learned much, but she was still deciding what to do with that information. Izumi had not even mentioned her visit with her grandfather to her parents. Mercifully, Chihiro and Mineta had not pressed her for details, respecting her privacy. Soon, she hoped, when she had time to grapple with the reality of it, she would tell her friends. But for now, she needed to focus on getting stronger. She would need all her wits about her for the camp ahead.

***

“Anxious?” Asuka asked Kocho. Frog-Shadow was dozing on her lap. Long rides always had that effect on her familiar. She knew their new classmate was already friends with Toshi, Haimawari, Sero, Ojiro, and Sato, but as elected Vice-Representative and unofficial “Class Mom”, she too had a duty to reach out to her, so she’d volunteered to sit with her for the bus ride while the others paired off. Frog-Shadow had been upset that she wasn’t going to sit next to Shoji, but her other half had to learn that, even with their increased cooperation, she couldn’t always get what she wanted.

The moth-girl shook her head. “Yes,” she said. “Sorry, did I just contradict myself?” Her wings were folded around her as much as she could make them, taking up the majority of her seat.

“A bit,” Asuka told her. “But understandable. Are you comfortable? I don’t mind pulling up the arm rest.”

“I’m fine,” Kocho said. “Little close, but it doesn’t hurt. This is still nicer than taking the city bus.” She gave Asuka a reassuring smile.

Asuka flipped up the armrest anyway and Kocho let her wings spread out a small amount. “I won’t say your anxiety is unwarranted,” she said. The truth of others experiences and feelings was not open for debate. “But this is very standard for the Hero Courses. They find a few Heroes or a Hero team from outside the school, so that they can bring a fresh perspective to our training, and under our teachers’ guidance, push us to increase the strength and versatility of our Quirks and skills. It will be exhausting… but ultimately rewarding.”

She looked down at the sleeping frog on her lap. Nothing but peace and contentment flowed through their link. Asuka was determined to enjoy it while she could. It wouldn’t last long once Frog-Shadow was awake. “Though what exactly they can do with this little one, I’m not sure.”

Kocho chuckled at that. “Any idea who they got to teach this year’s then? Or is that one of those ‘rational deceptions’ Deku and Shinso were trying to warn me about?”

“They keep it a secret,” Asuka told her. “Though it’s not a rational deception in this case. It’s really more of just a U.A. tradition. They like keeping us on our toes.”

This got a nod. “Makes sense, I guess. Any idea what they were talking about then?”

Asuka could hazard a guess. “You probably don’t have to worry about that,” she said. “If they try to drop us off a cliff, you can fly.”

“You’re, you’re joking about that, right?” Kocho asked, dark eyes going wide. “Tell me you’re joking!”

“Not at all,” she replied. She put a finger to the side of her beak in thought. “I’m told it wasn’t a particularly big cliff, though.”

“I still can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” Kocho replied.

“She doesn’t joke,” Frog-Shadow said sleepily, stirring on her lap. “She’s the most boring person alive! I’m the fun one in this relationship!”

Asuka looked down to glare at her living Quirk. “And here I was enjoying the peace and quiet.” She shook her head. “But I doubt there will be any surprises like that at this Training Camp.”

***

They’d been on the road for about three hours and the anxiety in the bus had practically become a palpable thing. They’d made two stops already for bathroom and snack breaks and Isamu was fairly certain most of his classmates were going to jump out of their skin every time. About the only people who weren’t waiting for the other shoe to drop were Kocho, who didn’t know any better, and Shinso, who didn’t seem to see Aizawa in the same way as everyone else. Between their parents stories of school and their own experiences so far this year (Sending real—albeit reformed—Villains after them? What?), they were all rightfully paranoid.

Granted, his parents had known Aizawa too, even if they hadn’t been his students. They’d said he was gruff, but fair, and had actually been supportive of the work they’d done, despite them being Vigilantes. That somehow didn’t make him any less scary.

Throughout the trip, Shinso had kept up a steady stream of talk about Heroes and recent Hero events. Isamu had nodded along politely to a lot of it, occasionally adding to the conversation, but mostly letting the smaller boy talk. The two of them had gotten into a debate though, over whether Shoto or Gale Force was cooler, when Shinso had brought up a recent team-up the two of them had had.

Shinso had been rather insistent that Shoto was cooler, especially because of the fast way he could take down Villains without anyone being hurt. Isamu, on the other hand, had gone to the mat for Gale Force, liking the Hero’s larger than life personality and All Might level of cheer. It had been a friendly debate, though neither one of them was backing down from their position.

The two of them were sitting more towards the back of the bus. Occasionally, Shinso would look back to where Ground Zero was sitting, his arms crossed, and looking vaguely irritated, occasionally smiling a very familiar smile, as though enjoying some private joke. It was the same one Kirishima-Bakugo made before she punched something. The Number Four Hero was their new Heroics teacher? Ground Zero certainly had a reputation as having a hair trigger temper, but there was no denying that he was also really good at what he did. The look on his face suggested he was going to get far too much enjoyment out of putting them through their paces.

He’d survived Kirishima-Bakugo this long. How much worse could it be?

“Toshi! Toshi!” Shinso piped up. “You’ve gotta settle this! Who’s more awesome? Shoto or Gale Force?”

Midoriya was across the aisle from them, sitting with his girlfriend. Sora Iida was leaning against him, absorbed in some technical manual. Midoriya was definitely making progress. Not that long ago, that much prolonged physical contact would have had him shaking like a leaf.

Isamu was hoping to get some time with his girlfriend as well, this trip. Kana had loved the signed Godzillo statue he’d brought back for her from I-Island (He didn’t tell her he’d lost the first one) and they’d managed to see a marathon of his movies between his return and the leaving for the camp. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too busy wrangling her class that they couldn’t share a few moments of their limited downtime.

“Oh no,” Midoriya said quickly, “I’m not getting dragged into this. Besides, I’m a Lemillion guy.”

“Not one of the choices,” Isamu told him, chuckling. Leave it to Midoriya not to take sides.

“I stand by my statement,” Midoriya told him.

“Aw,” Shinso said, pouting, “you were supposed to agree with me!”

Midoriya just laughed. “Maybe next time, Shota.”

Before they could continue, the bus came to a stop. Isamu checked the time on his phone. They’d been traveling a while now; it had been a little over an hour since their last stop. They’d left the main roads behind after the second stop, taking back roads, until they’d pulled through a long stretch of wooded areas. He was pretty sure he’d seen more than a few security cameras mostly hidden in the trees.

He could see some kind of big building out the front of the bus window, and what looked like several smaller buildings spread across a well maintained lawn. Beyond them, he could see more woods and maybe a lake.

“Either of you recognize this place?” he asked Midoriya and Shinso. “Is it an Agency?”

“I don’t know,” Shinso admitted. “But it looks pretty cool! Whoever owns this place has to be awesome!”

Midoriya’s eyes widened slightly, his mouth making a small o before a grin broke out across his face. “Oh! So that’s who they got!”

“You’re not going to tell us, are you?” Isamu asked.

“Nope!” Midoriya said. Isamu hadn’t seen that mischievous a look in his eyes before. “Don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

***

Katsumi looked around as the classes and teachers disembarked. It was a big complex for sure. Not exactly roughing it, though the woods around the buildings might hold some surprises, and one of the buildings looked like fairly utilitarian barracks. It all looked vaguely familiar though. She’d never been here, at least, not that she could recall, but she was sure she’d seen it somewhere. Had Toshi shown her pictures? She wouldn’t have put it past him. Despite basically having Hero-stuff as the background radiation for his life, he still ate, drank, and slept it.

There were four Heroes waiting for them. One was a man with spikey, sandy blonde hair, wearing a black bodysuit that left his arms bare, with silver boots, shoulder pads, belt, and bracers. With him, there was a brown-haired woman in a pink costume that looked damn close to a princess dress decorated with darker pink hearts, who was even wearing a tiara. Them, she recognized, Ravenous and Lady Lumious. Ravenous had briefly been one of Papa’s sidekicks. He even looked a bit like Uncle Tetsu, though they weren’t related.

The other man was blond, tall, with a costume in dark blue, with red highlights, boots, and gloves, along with small, gold pipe-like structures on his arms.

Ah. So that’s who they got this year.

“Oh, shit,” she heard Monoma gasp. Katsumi resisted the urge to cackle. He was having a bad day for surprises.

“Why so down, little cousin?” the man in red and blue, the Hero called Boost Rush, Daichi Monoma, asked. He was a tall man, towering over his cousin.

“I am the average height for my age!” Monoma snapped back. “You could have at least told me you were going to be here!”

“And spoil the surprise?” Boost Rush asked. He had the same arrogant, Monoma sneer all of them seemed to master. Katsumi had to fight the urge to laugh again. Monoma’s misfortunes were always funny. On the other hand, he hadn’t actually bothered her in months, no since his failed confession, so she could at least make an effort not to laugh at him when he could hear.

Katsumi’s eyes fell on the last of the four, a woman with light brown hair, who wore a costume in black, green, and orange. There was more than a passing resemblance to Dad’s costume. Her light brown hair was done up in twintails. She had her arms crossed and was smirking. It was an expression very similar to the one Katsumi and her dad often wore.

Katsumi, at the front of the group of students, gave her a smirk right back. “They must be getting pretty desperate to turn to you, Old Lady.”

The woman’s expression instantly shifted to rage. She pointed a finger at Katsumi. “Still got a mouth on you, don’t you, Brat? Well, we’ve got two weeks to beat it out of you.”

“You could try,” Katsumi shot back. “Won’t you have to go to bed too early for that though?”

“Show some respect for your elders!”

“So you admit you’re old?” By now, several of her classmates and 1-B students were staring at her in open surprise. Some, like Sero and Kaminari, had taken several steps back and away from her. Toshi just looked mortified, while Aizawa was burying his head in his hands. Even Lady Luminous and Ravenous looked vaguely puzzled.

“And so it begins,” Dad growled. “Ladies, can we wrap this up?”

“I will when she takes that back.”

Dad just sighed. “Mahoro, you and I both know that’s never going to happen. Can we just get on with it?”

Mahoro Shimano, also known as Vanish Veil, just grinned, but gave Katsumi a look. “This isn’t over, Brat.”

Katsumi smirked right back. “Bring it, Old Lady.”

Aizawa cleared his throat. “If we’re all done?” he asked. He didn’t wait for an answer. “As some of you have figured out, this facility and the surrounding wilderness is a training facility used by the Rookies, a loose configuration of Pro-Heroes and Sidekicks, many of whom attended U.A. together, and of which Water Spout and Doc Clock are also members. They’ve got a varied skillset and are also some of the best trainers in the country; Agencies frequently send their new Sidekicks to them for additional instruction. You will listen to them, you will follow their instruction, and you will not fight with them, no matter your previous or personal relationships with them.” He gave Katsumi and Monoma an extra-long glare.

“Now…” Aizawa went on.

He didn’t get to finish. “U.A. Hero students… think you’re pretty high and mighty, don’t you?” a voice, a girl’s voice, broke in. Whoever it was, they weren’t one of the Rookies. There were five of them, she realized, coming out of the building. Katsumi instantly tensed for a fight, wishing she had the gauntlets from her costume.

The seeming leader of the group took a step forward. She was large, and powerfully built. “We’ll show you all how weak you really are.”

#itsuka kendo #shouta aizawa #toshi midoriya #isamu haimawari #katsumi kirishima-bakugo #izumi todoroki #chihiro kaminari #shiro monoma #fan fiction #fan fic #my hero academia #their hero academia #my writing

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kuixotic · 4 years

Text

aight it’s headcanon time

I had this thought for a while of hey there’s no flags for the pokemon regions and me being me I decided to try my hand at some theoretical flags for the main games (sorry ranger/coliseum/etc) with color meaning and all (and I’m gonna hide it under a read more because this is gonna be a lot)

These are just lil headcanons for my own purposes but if anyone wants to revamp some of these for their own use I’m so chill with that and would LOVE to see them!

Kanto-Johto

I can see Kanto and Johto having a combination flag since in G/S/C/HG/SS you travel to both regions and they’re explicitly connected to each other geographically speaking. Initially I did think of a white bg but that would hide the fact that Lugia’s wings are present, so I opted for a pale blue that could double for the sky/sea (for Johto in particular since we’re dealing with Ho-oh and Lugia) meanwhile the circle in the middle (borrowing from Japan’s actual flag) has a triad thing going to represent both the legendary birds and beasts, maybe kinda the “first” three games too? We all know Green was there before Yellow sooo-

Hoenn

(I also made a version of this with the Birth Island puzzle pattern because who doesn’t like “conspiracy theory” things right)

Hoenn was pretty fun, initially I thought of putting the eon siblings in here but since I tried sticking with box legendaries welllll yeah, oops. I kinda did the stripe order to resemble the start credits in the originals, the red acting as dirt/rocks under the grass Brendan/May is riding their bike on. White is a standard harmony/peace color so I had it binding/connecting the glowing marks that the weather trio have on their respective start menus, kinda doing a lil trinity thing on that regard.

Sinnoh

For Sinnoh I kinda played around with the idea of the region being a bit remote compared to the prior three, and what’s more remote and has a flag than Antarctica right? I borrowed from Hokkaido’s flag with white=snow since especially in Platinum the region is more snow covered, also taking into consideration that creation is thought to originate from Arceus (obviously from Sinnoh) which explains the use of the actual region in this rather than symbols. Not only you’ve got the box legendaries (Dialga/Palkia/Giratina) represented by their respective colors, but also the lake trio and their territories. For the middle design it could also be considered an inspiration of Hokkaido’s while also being on the Spear Pillar (line it up with a Sinnoh map, do it) and the “petals” are actually 18 plates ;D (18 since this would be a “current” flag featuring fairy type). The line cutting east and west is actually through the rest of the mountain range in Sinnoh too.

Unova

Unova was relatively easy to work with-the whole truth v ideals/black and white/yin-yang was very quick to come up with ideas for. Since Unova was based on the U.S I did initially think of adding something along the 13 stripes but things would start looking less like a flag and more like a ripped piece of a prison uniform. Instead I opted for a star in the middle made with alternating black-white pieces and connected by grey-doing that whole gray space/morality in the face of truths/ideals thing yknow?

Kalos

Kalos has a similar scheme to Hoenn save for the fact the color stripes are horizontal to emulate the French flag, the only difference being the “Zygrade green” instead of white. Considering the context from the games surrounding it, the Eternal Flower is a bit of a negative connotation especially with the color scheme resembling Yveltal’s, We’re looking for a balance here right, and Kalos would probably not want their most memorable feature to be death and destruction. So instead we have a sort of reverse of it, maybe called the Peace Flower??? White is generally associated with peace/purity, coupled with Zygarde’s green really brings the importance of the balance between life and death that it keeps a check on.

Alola

Alola was fun to think on, being my next favorite region in general to Sinnoh. The color order for the stripes goes from east to west-the same progression the sun and moon have when passing through the sky. Obviously-the colors come from the islands with Ula Ula in the far east and Poni to the far west. You can kinda think of the sun/moon positions as rotating around the flag so that if it were animated-the moon would be next to the red stripe and the sun by the purple to just continually cycle around.

Galar

Galar was an idea and while roughly executed (partially due to style choices because wtf are heraldry lions doing are they in pain- and partially due to being the last thing I drew up today and my energy was DYING but if I didn’t do it all today I would’ve never done it at all) We hardly know anything about Calyrex and truth be told I don’t have a switch so I can’t say I’ve gone through the region thousands of times to make my own headcanons yet. I did like the logo from Leon’s clothes and thought it was too good to pass up for use, combining Calyrex’ head-thing since it looks like a crown. As much as I would think Galar would use the crowned versions of the za-siblings, “Hero of Many Battles” just kinda gives more of that “ancient” vibe that I for some reason associate the region with (I’m calling the U.K old because compared to my lil U.S self-it is). I really took some inspiration from Scotland’s coat of arms because of the unicorn and all, and while this flag deviates from the pattern of subtle references to main legendaries I feel it fits considering how different Galar is in comparison to the other core games.

#pokemon headcanons #pokemon #kanto #johto #hoenn #sinnoh #unova #kalos #alola #galar #my art

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schoolastica · 4 years

Text

Writer in the dark

Starker AU. Based on the song by Lorde. Also in my AO3 profile, as ilikesadstories.

Break the news, you’re walking out

To be the good man to someone else

His bags are by the Penthouse door. Tony has a lump on his throat and a Tablet in his hands showing the headlines:” Stark and Parker are officially done!!!.”

Peter has a lump in his throat and the Penthouse keys in his hands. He already said goodbye to Edith, Tony’s dalmatian, and he cleared the place of anything that belonged to him. No reason to stretch the pain more than it needs to. Tony’s back is turned on him.

He wants to scream, to command Tony to the acknowledgment that he's leaving. He does no such thing. Tony only starts to cry when he hears the elevator doors closing. That’s it; that’s three years of relationship on a ride to the lobby. Tony suppose they have been rotten for a long time, they just didn’t want to let it go, not just yet. But it happened. After three years, 2 cop-related problems, 4 major fights, 1 photo of Tony cheating.

They hanged more than most people would.

Sorry, I was never good like you.

Tony Stark wasn’t a good man. Not good like Rhodes was, or good like Steve was, not nearly as a good man as Peter Parker was. He was rotten through and through, too old, too spoiled. He was a writer, he made his fortune written the sci-fi book series called “Avengers” when he was 15 and bored. All of the characters were based on his friends at the time, friends that didn’t even keep contact with him now. But he made money, real money. Enough to start his publisher, the Stark Royal Seal, worth billions, now that he was at his 50’s.It seemed like an eon ago when he was young and excited about being famous.

That was a time, right at the beginning, that Tony loved press, every tabloid about him, good or bad, was a prize. He was 15, inexperienced and easily lead on. By his 20, he was a world-wide playboy, he never stopped being. Now, a much older man, he had written 20 novels, 15 for the Avengers series(and he's not going back to writing it, Steve deserves a rest) and 5 romances, 3 of them were a critic failure.

Now he gets to live in his big, brand new Penthouse in the middle of Manhattan, all alone; because the love of his life is going down the elevator to never come back. As he lays down, crying in the fetal position, feeling a pain he only ever felt when his parents died, he thinks he will write a novel about hurt the next morning.

Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark

Their first meeting was a thing from the movies. Tony Stark, the acclaimed writer, the same man that was in a sex-tape leaked last week at the same time to have a billion contract with Netflix to produce the film adaptations of his book series, had to make a commemorative reading of the 30th year of the release of Avengers: The year of the fallen.This event was the most waited for in his whole schedule, Pepper had been talking about it, how he should be dressed and how he should behave since January.

The reading would be more symbolic than anything, it would take place in the first bookstore Tony ever did the first reading, Schmidt & Cia Bookstore. It only fits about 300 hundred people there, so the tickets at 500$ each were sold out in 40 minutes and about 10 of them were donated to raffle to the NY Writing course students. When the day came, Tony drank so much in anxiety that Pepper almost had a fit. She arrived at the Penthouse, threw the last of his expensive scotch in the sink and practically made him look presentable. Pepper had been with him since he was 18, they had a brief romance in the ’90s but now, seeing at how they behaved, it made sense to broke up, she was more of a mother to him than anything.

So here they were, once again at the front of Schmidt & Cia Bookstore. The building was still intact, even after years, all its colors and its old sign at the front of the window. The major difference was that now, at least a thousand of hallucinated fans were surrounding it, all screaming when his car, drove by Happy, approached. When he got out, the did the usual: smiled to everyone, old or young, talked to some reports and flirted around. He only wanted to come out of the little room they had prepared for him when the time of the reading came. When that happened, he lifted himself a little podium to speak and looked around the little crown that gathered around him.

Some faces there surprised him, they were middle-aged men, by the end of the room, witch Tony knew were powerful. All of them looking eagerly for his words. The ones closer to the podium were pretty, extremely young. His gaze wandered in each of their faces, landing on the prettiest boy he ever laid eyes upon. Curly, brown hair, smooth and fair skin(probably never touched) and a Cherubin's face. His brown eyes were sparkling while he held a hold, absolutely worn down a copy of his book, close to his heart. He was probably from the NY Writing course.

It seems like a foolish thing now, how Tony took one good look at that open and fresh face and got his strength from there. But he did. He smiled at the cameras pointed at him and said: “I want to start this reading by saying that a lot has changed since the first time I did this. People came and people left, but throughout all of this, I always had this crew” he lifted the heavy book as in indicating what he was saying,” to help me”. And with that, he began the reading. The first chapter was pretty much introductory, Captain America was aboard the spaceship J.A.R.V.I.S in search of his long lost crew that was lost in their last mission. The chapter had about 4 pages of text, and while reading it, Tony couldn't stop thinking how his first draft wasn't much different than this, and how his writing style had changed since he was 15.

When the chapter was over, everyone stood to give him a minute of applause and all of the journalists present shouted questions about him, about his legacy. He tried to ignore it because now it was time for him to give his autographs.Pepper and their team set up a little table, in front of a wall full of posters from the books, where Tony would sit and sign everything that 300 people wanted him too. He had his special pen for this, alongside with a bucket full of ice for his tired hands and a sly smile and soothing words for everyone. Tony had probably given his signature to about 100 people when he received the old and worn down first edition of his book.

Surprised, he looked up to see that beautiful and shy boy fixing his glasses while looking at him, blushing. If Tony was a good man, an honorable man, he would have smiled and signed the book without a word, being polite but not curious about this youngster in front of him. But he was a nasty, nasty man. He smiled his sweet smile, the one he knew made people’s knees buckle and said:” You must be quite a nerd to spend this kind of money in a first edition, Mr……?’ he fished for a name. “Oh’ the boy seemed surprised that Tony recognized the book “This was a gift, actually,” The boy said.

Tony kept looking at him, for a more elaborate story.“My dad bought it when it first came out’ the boy’s voice was soft and open as his face was “He gave it to me one month before he died. That's why I want you to dedicate it to ‘Richard and Peter Parker” if that's not a bother’ he said, his voice disappearing through the sentence. Tony analyzed him, smiled broader, and wrote: To Richard and Peter Parker, always in each other's hearts. He got the book back to its owner and said:” What are you doing after this?”.

Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark

They meet that same night, in a new restaurant called Francesco's Dark Dinner. The whole thing was a weird concept, a place where you had to use all your senses minus the sight, and it a young, youthful place. Tony suggested an old, well-known restaurant, with fine culinary but Peter had said that it was a place with great Italian food. He arrived earlier and waited for his partner to arrive while listening to the conversation around him.

When Peter arrived, he couldn't see how he was dressed or if he had a good day, the only thing he was glad he could do was smell a sweet, strawberry scent that he basked in. Their conversation was fluid, vivid, along with truly great food (Tony was really satisfied with his dishes) and Peter was, in no short of words, a true genius. He was in the NY Writing program and he was older than what he looked like, he was 20 years old. He was an only child, like Tony, who lost his parents at a young age, like Tony, but he never drank or took anything, unlike Tony. He almost didn't get a place at today's reading, his name was the last call, and he had cried of happiness when he got it. He was extremely polite and his voice stutters every time Tony brushed their hands together.

He was a prey ready and ripe for the taking.

When they kissed, Peter tasted like youth.

Stood on my chest and kept me down

Hated hearing my name on the lips of a crowd

Did my best to exist just for you

They had been great, really good for each other in the first year. Tony decided to be the best version of himself, he was punctual and caring. He introduced Peter to Pepper, Rhodes, and Happy as his boyfriend and he demanded respect. They pretended to dislike the boy at the beginning, saying he was too young and naive, but Tony saw Pepper’s hidden smirks, Rhodes open laughs at Peter’s stupid space jokes and saw how protective Happy became of him.

Peter's friends were a completely different story. MJ was a force to fight with, she looked at Tony as if he had killed Santa Claus with his bare hands. Ned was a funny goofy person, saw no evil in no one. Tony took them to Conney Island and they hang around the pier till sunset. During all this time, Ned would’ve shut up and MJ said about 3 words. It didn’t matter though, because Peter had smiled so wide all the time and when they went back to Tony’s place, he rode Tony’s cock like a champion.

Sex with Peter was a whole different experience. Either if they fucked quick and dirty or slow and passionate, it always made Tony shine with joy afterward. When he was younger, Tony had the habit of smoking a cigarette after a good fuck, but that ended when he quit smoking. Now, after leaving Peter sleeping in his bed, he develops the habit of writing. He starts writing and does it through the night. At the beginning, it’s just some short stories or he just describes what he just did with Peter(in very raw, crude words) but as the months are passing, it starts to form a romance novel. It’s about two man, not quite right for each other and every time Tony needs inspiration, he looks over at Peter, peaceful sleeping, his back shining with the sweat of their past activity and he has all the words he needs.

Peter was on the edge of finishing his degree and had an internship with the Osborn publishing, Tony offered him a place at his own company, Peter said no. He wats to grow alone, working in newspapers and them to release his own novel someday. Peter really wants to write a romance, but he secretly enjoys writing children’s books, actually. It really tells a lot about his personality. They are really into each other in their first year. Peter graduates and Tony is there with beautiful aunt May and Peter’s friends to celebrate. They go on summer vacation in Tony’s village in Italy and they make love under the stars there. When New Year’s Eve arrives, their picture was featured in all the major gossip magazines and Peter goes to Tony’s annual party.

When the watch hits 0, they kiss so deeply that Tony can taste Peter’s soul. Now she's gonna play and sing and lock you in her heart7 months after their break up, Tony is releasing his first book since having crushed his heart. ‘Resorsfullness’ its called. Its a tragedy, it was developed from that first romance novel Tony had begun to write during the first year with Peter. After they broke up, his writing became bitter and it slowly morphed into an epic love tragedy.

Pepper said it was the best works he ever did, she organized a huge US Tour and the marketing is heavy on this one. He drinks his weight and cries himself to sleep every night, but his life is still together. He still googles Peter’s name weekly and finds out that he’s releasing a second children’s book next fall. He pretends to be fine when he’s around his friends, but the only person he cant pretend to is Pepper. She sees right through all his bullshit, she invades his penthouse one day and pours his drinks in the sink and clean his kitchen. She screams at him when he wakes up and almost cries when Tony starts crying. She holds him through it all and just loves him for all he is.

I am my mother's child, I'll love you 'til my breathing stops

I'll love you 'til you call the cops on me

The first time the cops are called for them, they are dating for 19 months and they are getting tired. Tony drinks a lot, everyone knows that. Peter knows that, but he doesn’t like it. So they go to one gathering party of The Daily Budge, the newspaper Peter is working for. Tony always thought J.J. Jameson was funny, but the guy used Peter like he was a slave and pissed him off. To add up, Peters coworker, Quentin Beck, was a little shit.Peter never hid from anyone in his relationship, so Beck knew who he was seeing. Still, the guy would hit on Peter heavily and whenever he talked to Tony, he implied how old Tony was, how Peter was probably unsatisfied and that he was useless. Tony punched him, Peter screamed at Tony and they left the party in a huge arguing.

Tony gave Happy the day off so they decided to walk to and from the party, so they went the whole way to their home. At some point, they screamed so much that a passing by called the cops. It wasn’t pretty, they were on the next day’s highest searched subject on google.

The second time the cops were involved was when Tony was banging on Peter’s door at three am, begging for forgiveness, 2 weeks before they split.

But in our darkest hours, I stumbled on a secret power

I'll find a way to be without you baby

Tony’s strength cames back to him together with his words. Pepper clean his house sets him up straight and takes him to long walks in Central Park with Edith. Tony promise to stop drinking for once, he joins an AA and Rhodes and Happy take turns taking him there. Edith is the best pal he ever had, loves him and makes him do exercises every day.

The ache in his chest slowly fades, still there, but not so latent anymore. The first work he does, besides the hurt book that Pepper makes it be a success, is poems. He never wrote poems before, but the words bleed from him every sunrise and every sunset. He’s sitting in a Central Park bench, throwing a ball to Edith, that runs excited around the park, when he watches a small family picknick. He sees how the father acts with his 2 children, and watches how they sit eagerly to read ‘Polka dot dog’ by Peter Parker when the first seed of his idea is planted on the back of his mind.

He spends the next month searching about kids and by the end, he meets with Pepper to discuss having children. Tony knows she always wanted to be a mom, never found someone quite right, but when he brings that up she just laughs at him. ‘You can’t be serious, you don’t even look after yourself” she tells him. He promise he changed, that he’s ready, but it still takes her 2 months to come around the idea.They visited a Fertility clinic right after that.

They weren’t good for each other romantically, but they are the best of the friends and the doctor says they have a good chance to conceive. 16 months after they broke up, Pepper is confirmed to be pregnant, and Tony’s heart hurt is almost healed.

I still feel you, now and then

Slow like pseudo-ephedrine

When you see me, will you say I've changed?

I ride the subway, read the signs

I let the seasons change my mind

I love it here since I've stopped needing you

Peter was, without better words to put it, Tony’s first love. He had loved that boy as much as he could, as hard as he could, but it hadn’t been enough. He experienced his first true heartbreak late in life, but now he feels it all was worth it. His daughter, Morgan, was his true love, he knew that.

She was 5 years old and she was perfect. Tony hadn’t touched a bottle of alcohol for almost 6 years now, Pepper was so proud of that. Pepper was his best friend, she was his rock of moral rightness. They lived separated, but they were 5 minutes away from each other, Morgan was starting to walk between the houses all by herself. The last book Tony published was called ‘Parenthood and all the things I didn’t know how to do’ and it was his first attempt at poems, all about parenting. It was a huge success. But Morgan didn’t like his writing. She loves small, funny little children’s books and her favorite book was Mrs.Penguin by Peter Parker. His heart stopped every time she asked him that book as a goodnight story.

On his Sunday with her, Pepper looked apologetic to him and said she had promised to take her to a reading of the newest book Peter was going to publish but she had a party to go. He feels bile rising in his throat but he smiles and takes Morgan to see her first favorite author. The bookstore the reading is happening is small but childlike and Morgan looks amazed.

The book is named ‘The sunflower and the frog’ and when Peter shows up to do the reading, he looks straight at Tony and smiles. Morgan is not exactly a secret, Tony and Pepper are constantly at the news, and when its time for autographs, Tony had to wait in line for 50 minutes till Morgan got her chance. Peter looks dashing, 29 years old and beaming with health and fashion. He now looks more like a man than he did before, so pretty that Tony aches. Peter gives Morgan a big smile and asks if she likes his books. The girl is absolutely besotted by the young author, opening up like a little flower and Tony can’t help thinking that Starks always falls for Parkers. Peter gives her full attention and only looks at Tony when he’s signing the book.

He says, looking at Tony’s eyes: “I’m writing: To my dear Morgan, the happiest girl I’ve known’ and when he delivers the book back to Morgan he looks at Tony and says: What are you doing after this?

#starker #breakup #angst #hurt #songfic #starkerau

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kpopisthereasonihavenolife · 5 years

Text

Bracelet Bells & Teddy Bears

BTS

Jeon Jungkook/Reader [F]

Genre: Paranormal, Thriller, Ghost Hunter AU

Words: 10.9k

Jungkook- a stupid, self-proclaimed ghost hunter in college- decided to take his best friend with him to investigate a 2-story old house that has been on the market for ages. The reason he was interested in it? Well, it hadn’t been rented or bought ever since he was a child. The ‘It’s not haunted!’ attached above the ‘For Sale/Rent’ didn’t help.

-----------

“This is literally the stupidest fuckin’ idea you’ve ever pitched to me before. I honestly don’t know why I’m standing next to you right now. I actually hate you,” Taehyung grumbled as he stood next to his excited best friend of 6 years. He held a camera around his neck with a bag on his back filled with different lenses to attach on.

“The only thing you hate is the fear of pissing your pants when we get in there and see some ghosts!” The best friend- Jungkook- in question, quipped back. Having a pocket full of batteries and a ready to go ‘state of the art’ camcorder in his hand he was practically giddy. Black pants, white tee and a jean jacket over his shoulder with a black cap on his head to cover his messy black hair. Taehyung, on the other hand, was a bit more creative in clothing with his blue skinnies and checkered button down, a black bandana strapped around his forehead.

“I’m gonna kill you and throw your stupid body in that house so you haunt it for the rest of existence.” Taehyung seethed. He wasn’t scared per se, he's used to Jungkook’s ‘ghost hunting’ by now. It’s just that he had a recital coming up soon and he wanted to be home right now practicing for it. Not breaking and entering into a property that is no doubt private by now.

Jungkook new this, but tonight was the perfect night for a good ole ghost hunting! The moon was high, shining brightly with the light of the full moon and not a cloud was in the sky. The stars speckled the sky and the soft spring breeze was calming and warm. It wasn’t cold, nor rainy and the full moon so clear had to be a sign! It was now, or never. Of course, if he explained why it had to be today to Taehyung, he’d ultimately leave him behind to hunt on his own. Every famous ghost hunter needed an assistant; even if Taehyung denies that he is.

“We go in, walk around a little bit and batta-bing batta-boom, we’re out. If we don’t see a ghost in the first 2 hours, then I promise we’ll call it quits and we can go for a late night burger run.”

“And I expect you to be paying for this burger run?”

“Well, that’s up for debate.” Taehyung rolled his eyes as he hiked his bag up his shoulders more and clicked off the camera’s lens cover for it to dangle. Seeing his fall into submission of Jungkook’s scheme, he cheered and fired up his camcorder. “Alright! Exploration and investigation of 12th Avenue’s mystery house is officially underway. Let’s get it!” He charged off the sidewalk and weeded through the knee-high tanned grass- if you can call it that- all the way up to the porch. Taehyung followed, taking the walkway up to the door, however, and watched as Jungkook turned and swiveled in every which way to capture anything he could on his cam.

Taehyung sighed as he watched his friend even film underneath the old, broken table that sat on the very unstable, rotten wood. “I’m leaving your sorry ass behind I swear to god,” he muttered as he looked at the front door. Or the poor excuse for one. The hinges were all busted, the door handle rusted and the front oval shaped glass broken. The wind whistled in through the broken glass. There was no way the door wasn’t going to fall off if he touched it.

Jungkook stood next to Taehyung and cupped his chin. “Maybe we can just pluck it off the frame and move it? If we make too much noise, the ghosts may hide.”

“You made enough sound going through the treacherous jungle that is the lawn. I’m pretty certain the ghosts- if there are any- are already well aware some fuckboy is trying to get in.” Jungkook walked forward and hooked his camcorder to his belt as he gripped over sides of the broke door and jerked. Once, twice and the third time he nearly stumbled backward. The door flew off the hinges ti was barely attached to and Jungkook blinked.

“Yo, we wanted to take the door off, not destroy the damn frame.” Jungkook moved the door to the side as Taehyung examined the wooden, splintered frame. “That was some force you had, Jesus.”

“It.. no. It felt like someone kicked the door at me.” Taehyung ticked a brow up at his friend as he rolled his eyes. Already not believing him. “I’m serious! It felt like someone pushed the door off for me!” Taehyung just waved him off as he stepped inside. Jungkook huffed as he followed him in. “Damn,” Jungkook looked around, “this place is a wreck.”

“No kidding. It’s been vacant for a while and no one bothers with upkeep around here.” Taehyung answered back as he snapped pictures here and there. The flash of his camera igniting the dark room for milliseconds, leaving only outlines of objects behind. “No doubt the power’s been cut.” Jungkook unhooked his cam from his belt and switched the camera mood to ‘night vision’ and trotted to Taehyung’s bag on his back.

He pulled out two small flashlights. There were small and like 4$ at the local drug store, but damn they were bright and the batteries lasted- what Jungkook swore- eons. Not to mention it was a sweet deal when they came in packs of 2. Just what he needed for only 4$.

He flicked them both on, already stocking it with prime AA+ batteries, and tossing one to Taehyung, keeping the other for himself. Of course, out of the two colors, he tossed the pink one and kept the blue. Taehyung only rolled his eyes as he separated from his friend to waltz into the living room.

“Hey! Rule #1 in hunting in old, creepy houses is not separating!” Jungkook scolded. Taehyung only flipped him a slender, middle finger as he rounded the doorway into the dusty room. Jungkook swung himself around. “Fine, get molested by a ghost. I don’t care.” He walked into the kitchen.

The island in the middle of the open room was dusty and a glass vase filled with cooking utensils caught his eye. Why would they be here? Did the last family who lived here- whenever that was- leave them? He shrugged as he filmed the room thoroughly, capturing anything.

Cobwebs hung and swung in the slight draft in the air from the ceilings, connecting to walls. The tiles of the floor were cracks or just flat out broken as Jungkook crunched them under his feet or kicked them with his heels. The counters were a mess, dusty, grimy and coated in a thick layer of dirt. The windows were cracked and covered in a hefty layer of dust. Opening the fridge, he cringed as he saw a dead rat in the lower rack of the fridge door.

Shutting it back, he looked up at the ceiling. Damaged and moldy. “Gross,” he muttered as he filmed. Working his way back out into the main room, he followed Taehyung into the living room, seeing his friend capture photos and looked around furniture.

The house was still almost completely furnished. A love seat and 4 person couch sat adjacent to one another with an old-style box TV the size of a bathroom window sat on an old, open shelved audio tower. The shelves were lined with dusty DVD and VHS players with a small collection of about 20 movies below on the bottom shelf. Jungkook zoomed on the old piece of technology.

“Woah, dude. This is older than I thought. Just how long has this place been vacant?”

“Don’t act like you didn’t watch back to back Sailor Moon on VHS when you were 5. It’s not that ancient.” Jungkook gasped.

“Don’t insult me. Everyone knows Sailor Moon was the best anime of its era.” Taehyung opened up an old china cabinet, still filled with expensive china.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever weeb.” The two continued to investigate and look around. Directly behind the living room, the dining room sat. The table oval and fit for a large family with 6 chairs surrounding it. A vacant fishbowl was filled with far-stale water with stupid rocks in the bottom and things floating in the water that Jungkook would rather not guess the name of.

The house creaked with each step of the grown men, being an almost all wood floor home. Rugs placed here and there, basically attached to the floor by grime and some mystery fluids here and there. Honestly, if some homeless beggar, squatting in the corner popped out at any moment, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Having gone through the downstairs enough, they set their sights on the staircase leading up. By now, even Taehyung was thoroughly invested in the exploration of the house. Not that he wasn’t before, Taehyug literally wrote a report in high school about this house and the weird vague origins around it. He was hardly able to dig up any information on it, even when he called up the retailers, they just hung up on him and never picked up again. Jungkook nudged his arm with a broad, shit eating grin on his face.

“You’re having fun. Admit it. I’m a genius.” Taehyung shoved his shoulder as he started up, testing the wood of the stairs, making sure he wouldn’t fall through with each step. “Hey! It’s the team leader’s job to go first!”

“How humble,” Taehyung monotonously replied as he headed up. The wooden stairs were in the middle of the main entrance by the front door. Kitchen to the right, living room and dining room to the left. The stairs themselves weren’t looking so hot. A torn and tattered rug lining each step upwards posed a threat of someone tripping and subsequently dying, but thank god for rotted, old railings, right?

After a careful hike up, the two looked around the upstairs landing. In front of them was a large, bay window. The portion of the window poking out for aesthetically pleasing selfies or calm poetry sessions were covered with a sense of dread. A lone, torn and stained teddy bear lay face down on the bay.

Jungkook walked over to the window and knelt, getting a close up on the bear. “If ever I’ve seen a cursed object,” he muttered as he moved to get another angle of it. Taehyung walked up behind him, snapping a picture of the window letting in the moonlight as it illuminated the landing on the ground. Taehyung gently picked up the teddy bear as Jungkook rolled his eyes. “I just said it was probably cursed, and what do you do? Pick it up.” Taehyung gave yet another famous eye roll.

“Shut up. It’s a bear with a hole in the side of it. If it’s cursed, then surely its eyes would glow red and it'd bite my hand off or something.”

“That’s a horrible picture, thank you,” Jungkook shook his head as he stood. Taehyung was gentle in setting the bear back down, only now sitting it up and against the wall comfortably. The bear will surely remember his kindness.

Jungkook moved around and went to the left side of the stair landing while Tae took the right side. Down Jungkook’s end was one door and the other side was 2. Of course, the unspoken agreement was to open and explore. Taehyung went into the first of the two room and scoffed. Typical.

There was a bunk bed against the east wall. The bottom bunk had a hole in the mattress as springs pierced through clumps of polyester covered in grime. The floor was covered in toys that had paint chipped away or were broken and well worn in time. Climbing a step up the ladder in the bed, the top bunk seemed oddly in place A blanket thrown over the mattress and a pillow, albeit devoid of a pillowcase, wasn’t torn at all. All with a stuffed elephant standing against the pillow. He snapped a shot and descended to look in the closet across the room.

The closet door was stuck. Even with digging his heels in the floor and jerking, the door just wouldn’t budge. So, with a huff and a little fixing of his shirt he had bunched up, he turned and abandoned that hope. Not realizing the reason he couldn’t open it was the hand holding the doorknob from the other side.

The other room was nearly identical save for the lack of a bunk bed and only a king. Fit for parents. The room was lined with shelves with empty or broken frames. The frames that held pictures of people, the faces were all scratched out or cut out completely. He’d be lying if Taehyung said it didn’t give him the chills. This room had the door of the closet completely off, only there was absolutely nothing inside. Not even a mouse trap.

On Jungkook’s neck of the woods, the room he entered was the bathroom. It was pretty old styled. The toilet sat against the back wall with a shelf above it where one would place towels. Next to the throne was a broken toilet paper holder. Further along, the main wall was the sink with a mirror opening to reveal a medicine cabinet inside it. When he opened it, old prescription bottles rolled out, crashing into the sink’s bowl and scaring the poor boy. He shut it back as he took the bottle that fell and read the label the best he could.

“Chlorpromazine,” he read, reading each syllable out he could. Not knowing exactly what it treated and the label being far too damaged to read, he simply placed it on the side of the sink and turned to investigate further. “What the fu-” he trailed off when he looked at the bathtub. The tub filled to the brim with water, clear and freezing. The shower curtain lay on the floor under his boots as the shower head dripped with a never-ending water splash into the tub. “Oookay, right. Moving on.” He spun, not able to capture the small ripple rip through the water’s surface.

He caught Taehyung coming out of the second room as he waved to him and leaned against the wall.

“Find anything?”

“Maybe. Just the kids and parents room, a lot of dusty shit but there were a few creepy things, not gonna lie.” Jungkook’s face broke into a smile.

“Lemme see!” He pushed off the wall, ready to rush to his friend to go through the sweet picture he got, but he hardly got two steps in. The floor gave way under a particularly hard step and buckled under the young man’s weight.

“Jungkook!” Taehyung screamed as he watched his best friend fall through the floor. Rushing down the stairs, nearly falling on that damned rug, he stopped at the bottom and looked around and up at the hole above him. Yet, at his feet, didn’t lay Jungkook groaning in pain. He wasn’t in the kitchen, the living room, the dining area, the landing, the front yard, he just wasn’t there. Not even hanging pathetically from the hole he fell through. He just… disappeared?

XXX

Jungkook groaned as he rolled from his side and onto his back. He coughed as a shiver ran up his spine. Cracking open his eyes, he expected to see Taehyung peering up at him with a hole in the floor where he very clearly remembers falling through. But, to his shock, he stared at a perfectly whole, wooden ceiling.

“He probably just moved me,” Jungkook reasoned as he pushed his sore body up and grabbed the back of his head. A nice lump on the head and a killer headache are exactly what he didn’t need. Beside him, his camcorder lay completely busted. He gasped as he grabbed it. “Aw, man it’s completely fucked.” He sighed as he popped open the battery compartment and ejected the SD memory card and carefully pocketed it. Whatever was recorded on this puppy was all he would have, unfortunately.

Leaving the broken piece of metal, he forced himself up and thank god for dollar store flashlights. Seeing the light of the torch he hobbled over to it and picked it up. Bending at his hip to pick it up and then straighten back out his light shone into the face of a someone.

“AHh!” He screamed as the person he was pretty sure he just blinded screamed back at his own scream. Jungkook, ever the baby, fell back onto his ass as he whipped his light back up to see who he just shone his light onto. But, no one was there. He took the broken cam and tossed it into the darkness of nowhere, only to wait. There was nothing.

Next thing he knew, the cam was flying back at him, skimming past his shoulder as he quickly leaned out of the way.

“Hey!” He scolded into nowhere. “Don’t throw my shit!” Suddenly, a person’s face hung upside down and annoyed in front of his face.

“You threw it at me first!” He screamed again as the person, floated above him? Their- her- feet off the ground and body languid and iridescent? “I swear, men are the most pathetic thing.” She floated around, just relaxing in the air as her body was transparent and she wore older clothes. She looked no older than 19, and her capris and loose, untucked stripped teeshirt were at least early 2000s fashion.

“What the- I mean- you’re a-” An actual ghost was floating right in front of his eyes and his damn video camera was conveniently broken. God, what awful timing. He jumped when he heard the squeaking of the floors above him. Where was he, or rather where was Taehyung?! He was missing all the action! The ghost girl gasped as she grabbed something and threw it at Jungkook, grabbing his wrist as his body disappears.

“Shh,” the ghost hushed as he clutched a cube of scented wax in his hand, the thing the ghost threw at him and listened. The squeaking moved and soon was down the hall, and before he knew it he saw something pass through the floors above and come down. It was just across the room from him. It, he didn’t know what it was. It was tall, completely shadowed, it twitched, red hazy red like unfocused cat lasers. It was unbelievably tall, hunched as it’s pointed shoulders and chin seemed like it could impale steel. Soon, the figure who had sniffed around searching for anything-anyone that could be around- phased away. Where to, Jungkook really didn’t want to find out.

The ghost girl let go of him, as Jungkook became visible once again. A cold sweat gathered at his nape and traveled down his spine.

“What in the hell was that thing?” He fearfully whispered. Just looking at it instilled him with pure terror. He’d never experienced freezing fear before, now he has. He moved to look at the ghost who had moved to kneel on both her knees in front of him, sitting politely as she signaled for him to look at the cube of wax in his hand.

“That should keep you safe. It’ll make sure he doesn’t smell you. His eyesight isn’t good. If you don’t move and don’t make a sound with that cube, you’ll be safe.” The ghost explained, but that didn’t explain hardly anything at all.

“Who are you?” Was the only thing he found himself asking.

“My name is Y/n. I lived here a long time ago. My little brother, father and mother lived here with me.” You leaned closer to Jungkook and inspected him. His style, his face, his hair, his clothes, his shoes, everything. “What year is it outside? Time is kinda jumbled in here.” He opened his mouth.

“Uh, 2019 just started.” You gasped.

“It’s been that long!” You hushed yourself immediately and looked around, making sure no one, or rather, nothing heard you. “I’ve been dead for that long?” You lowered your voice significantly, almost in disbelief.

“So, you know you’re dead?”

“Well, of course. How else could I logically explain glowing, floating in the air and just conveniently turning invisible.”

“You were also able to touch me. How’s that work?”

“It took me a while to get that down, but with enough focused energy, I can become tangible. It’s pretty hard to do though.” He shook his head as he blinked and put his hands in front of him.

“Wait, wait, hold the fuckin’ phone. This is all way too much to process.” He took a moment, pinching the bridge of his phone, eyes skewed shut. “Right, so you’re an old, but young, dead girl. There’s some sort of demon? Roaming around? And I fell through the floor into a whole other room.” He opened his mouth, trying to make sense of it, yet it still left him utterly confused. Then his mind jumped back to Taehyung. “Oh god, Taehyung.”

“You’re friend?” You had seen him? He nodded.

“Yes! Oh my god, is he going to be okay?!” You nodded. “You’re way too calm about this. That thing is somewhere and my best friend also happens to be somewhere and I have no idea what to do about it. I don’t even know where the hell I am!”

“Calm down. My brother’s animals will see to it he is kept safe. He was very kind after all.” He blinked, falling further and further into confusion.

“Animals? What, so there are ghost animals too?”

“Not exactly. My little brother was forced to leave all his possessions behind when Mother left with him. He cared so much for his little stuff animals, they now possess souls. Your friend was very kind, so they will keep him safe.”

“Kind? When was he-” Jungkook remembered him picking up and replacing the teddybear ever so carefully. “The bear,” he said in realization. You nodded as the bear in question waved to you from the far end of the room behind Jungkook, before phasing out. “That small thing is gonna keep him safe?” You stood up, hopping up to have your toes brush the ground as you lazily floated.

“There are others. My brother had many toys. His favorite animal was an elephant,” you chuckled as you remembered him running around his room, elephant toy in hand making the most obnoxious sounds.

“An elephant ghost?!” You swore you saw the human’s eyes light up, just like your brother’s. He must be rather immature himself yet.

“Come on, I’ll get you back to your friend. You two should get out of her as soon as possible.” Jungkook sprung up, chasing after your elegant, flowing body. Your hair wisped behind you, like spider webs. If you stood on the ground in front of him, he’d be quite a bit taller than you. Actually, even for a ghost, you were rather pretty.

He followed you to a small ramp to a trapdoor above the two of you. He watched as you phased through the door above and he heard a click of what he assumed to be a lock and small bang on the door. He crawled up the ramp and pushed the door open. It squeaked with rusty hinges as he pushed it and it fell open. Peaking out, his hair whipped around, the cap he had lost previous somewhere no long restraining it in place. He was outside? Be looked around.

“The cellar?”

“That’s right. This house had an extensive cellar that runs underneath a good portion of the house. Now hurry, we need to find your friend.” He stopped you.

“I- I haven’t told you my name yet.”

“Why would I need to know it?”

“I know yours,” that was a fair point. You turned to him and sat with your knees to your chest as you got eye level with him. Waiting patiently for his name he was so eager to give. “My name’s Jungkook.”

XXX

He kept following your back, like a lost puppy. He felt oddly too trusting, but you didn’t seem like you’d walk him into a dangerous situation. I mean, you gave him a way to hide and stay safe and reassured him his best friend would be alright. He was worried about Taehyung, he was worried about when he’d get to go home, how long he’s been here and just exactly who were you?

You said you’d use to live here, with your family in this house. And your reaction when he told you the year out, you were shocked, too shocked for your death to be anytime in the last decade. That’s to be expected though, this house hadn’t been lived in for as along as Jungkook could remember.

He had a bazillion questions in his head, but his main priority was to find Taehyung. He needed to located and secure his best friend’s safety first, then maybe he could ask you a few questions.

You had led him around the house and back to the front door. The door had been replaced on its hinges and even locked shut.

“What the..” he looked at the door. It was like he never ripped it off in the first place, in fact, it looked better than it did before! “I- does that stupid shadow thing fix doors?” You shook your head.

“No. That was probably a different spirit here. There’s some here who don’t like it when stupid kids destroy their property.”

“You mean there are others here?”

“Of course. You’ve run into 3 already. Even your friend didn’t realize he was right in front of one before. Of course, Vivi doesn’t like it when people try to go into the closest without knocking first. It’s just bad manners.” Your hand phased through the doorknob, twisting the lock and opening the door perfectly. Opening like a door should. “We here aren’t allowed to leave until we’re found.”

“What- found?” You nodded as you both reentered the house. It was just as before, the hole Jungkook fell through still there. “Oh sure, fix the door but not the floor that’s convenient.” He spits in spite. You focused enough to whack him on the head as he cursed your stupid ability to become tangible in the first place.

His whining was cut off by a scream up above. It was Taehyung. You were off, floating in speed up the stairs in which Jungkook followed. Checking each room upstairs, not to fall through again, he didn’t see his friend. He very clearly heard him up here though! You stood in front of the bay window, Jungkook joining your side.

“The- that damn bear is gone!” You nodded.

“He probably has your friend.”

“Well, how do I get him back!” You looked up at the ceiling. “What? Is there something important about the ceiling?” You rolled your eyes as you floated up and soon revealed a hidden attic door. Dangling the custy pull, he rushed open and gripped it. Yanking it, he squawked and backed up as quick as possible before the stairs relentlessly fell onto the floor. It was like some cheap ass booby-trap. You flew up into the opening as he carefully climbed the how-ever-old ladder.

His head popped up the opening and he gasped as he saw his friend backed in a corner, that small teddy bear in front of him while that same shadow man-thing stood around. Taehyung had his palms clamped over his mouth as his nose exhaled harshly, making the tall shadow try and pinpoint his location. The bear hovered around Taehyung’s head, dinging like a soft bell. With each ring, the shadow twitched until it screech. It was a god awful sound.

Jungkook almost let go of the ladder to cover his ears, but you stopped him as you covered them for him. Your hands that you made physical were soft over his own, and it as like he was listening to the ocean waves. He didn’t realize that ghosts had such a pleasant internal sound.

The shadow screeched and seethed as it slashed through boxes, torn fabrics, threw anything it could touch in madness. It was horrific. What if what he was doing was done to a person? They would be mutilated, ripped, torn no doubt killed. The thought chilled Jungkook as you felt the change in his atmosphere. You hung upside down in front of his face and stopped his eyes from reaching that horrid, shadow.

“Don’t look,” you mouthed but didn’t speak. Soon, the shadow seemed to have enough and Jungkook once again saw it fade into nothing, leaving nothing but cold behind. You removed your hands and spoke. “You’re friend,” Jungkook was quick to get the rest of the way into the attic and rush to Taehyung’s side.

His hands had dropped to his stomach, holding it like he was going to retch. The teddy sat at Tae’s side, swaying in the air like it had marionette strings attached to it. His eyes were wide and he was shocked to see his camera in one piece around his neck yet.

“Tae! Tae! Hey, snap out of it!” You floated down to your knees as you knelt beside the frozen young man. He looked to you. “Can you help him?”

“I’m going to try.” You looked at the small teddy and asked him for something. The teddy rung again, a pleasant sound and a small cube sat in your palm. It was just like his scented one, so the bear is responsible for creating those? You held it up under his nose and soon he began to cough. You smiled as Taehyung seemed to come around as he gasped and held at his shirt. Jungkook smiled as he pat his friend on the back, trying to soothe him.

“Thank you,” Jungkook whispered to you.

“What the fuck was that?” Taehyung practically whimpered. Jungkook looked at you.

“That’s what I’d like to know. I have more than a few questions for you.” You nodded as you sat and crossed your legs. After Taehyung gathered himself, Jungkook caught him up on the situation to the best of his ability. Though, after that, the questions just kept growing.

“Alright,” you sat, ready for a questionnaire. “What do you want to know.”

“Everything,” Jungkook answered. “What the hell is going on? Why are you here, how did you die, when and-”

“What the ever loving fuck was Mr. Shadow-beast?” Taehyung injected in the final question. You sighed. It wasn’t a hobby of yourself to revisit your death, much less the last leg of your life, but if it will stop their questions and make sure they don’t come back like horror-driven kids tend to do, you’d tell it. The full story. Your story.

“I lived here with my family. We moved in the early 1990s. I was only a teenager at the time, and after 4 years of living here, my mother had my little brother. A family of 4, and we were happy. For a time, but then my dad started to get sick. He was ill, not right in the head. Nothing we did would pacify him. He’d get angry over any little thing, he’d push us around and scream and terrify my little brother. Soon, mother wanted out, so she ran out, taken my brother with her and leaving me behind. I was 19, so I could leave whenever I wanted, but…” you stopped as you looked around at the mess.

The mess that shadow man-made.

“Father, he became too ill. He stopped me from going anywhere. He locked me away in a secret room, told me ‘they’ told him to. He’d keep me there and I was never allowed to leave. Soon, I just lost track of time and one night when I fell asleep, I woke up-” you gestured to yourself “-like this.”

“You’re dad... he killed you?” Taehyung asked delicately.

“In a sense.”

“That isn’t ‘in a sense’, Y/n! He killed you. He forced you into a cage and killed you!” Jungkook scolded. “Is that why you can’t leave? You’re angry at your father?” You shook your head.

“No, that’s not it. Dad, he hid me. I can’t leave before he’s hidden me and he won’t let me leave. You saw earlier what happens when I try.” You looked once more at the wreckage.

“No way, that thing is your dad?!” You sighed.

“I don’t know what happened to him, but I don’t really care either. I’m sure he’s in a lot of pain, but what he’s put everyone threw, he deserves all the pain he’s receiving. Even after death, he won’t stop.” You looked at the two boys. “But, he’s confined here. He can’t leave this house, this property. He’s stuck here too.”

“When you say he hid you, do you mean your body?” You nodded. “So, what you said earlier, about being found. You want someone to find your body so you can finally go?” You nodded again. Jungkook shook his head in confusion though. “But, we were in the house, Y/n. Where could he possibly hide you in a house you know so well?”

“I don’t know, Jungkook. If I just managed to get close to my body- wherever it may be- I’m sure I could sense it somehow. Even a ghost has limits, and finding their own body is a major one. Why else do you think it takes exorcisms or man-lead discoveries for spirits to move one. We can’t do it alone.” The teddy that sat beside Taehyung rung once, twice and moved to fly and circle your head. It was almost trying to cheer you up. You smiled after giving the small teddy a poke as it floated back to Taehyung. You giggled. “I think he likes you.” Taehyung rolled his eyes.

“Y/n, what if we found your body?” Jungkook proposed. Taehyung looked at him shocked.

“Woah, what? Did you hear her, she doesn’t know where it is?”

“I know, but I don’t feel comfortable keeping her here with him. She’s helped us and with these,” he showed his wax cube, “he can’t see us. I swear, if we do this, I won’t mess with ghosts ever again.” Taehyung squinted at him, obviously skeptical. “I’ll pinkie promise.” Taehyung gasped.

“Oh my god, you’re serious.” Taehyung thought it over. “Well, I suppose we can’t have a full-on horror movie themed adventure without concluding the obvious plot slapping us in the face, now can we. I’m in, but you’re so giving up your title after this.” The two clasped pinkies- like real men would- and you interjected.

“But you can't! You need to go!”

“Sorry girlie, we’ve already done promised on it. Do you know the punishment for breaking a pinkie promise? It’s not fun man,” Taehyung said. You just huffed as you cradled your forehead, making the boys chuckle in the small moment of amusement.

“Boys.”

XXX

Jungkook lead Taehyung around to the still open door to the cellar. Crouching and shuffling down the ramp the 2 of them practically sashayed inside. You floated behind them, silent the whole time. Now, they were here, but where to look? Jungkook rubbed the back of his neck.

“Just, start looking around I guess?” Taehyung just shrugged as he turned and began doing just that. That same teddy floating ever near at his back. You stayed near Jungkook as he looked around. Behind boxes, barrels, under tables, he even pulled objects from shelves expecting a secret room to pop out from the wall. But, nothing. You sat on a box, a hopeless look on your face. You never expected to see yourself again and refuse to get your feeble hopes up.

“Y/n, don’t worry. We’ll find it- er you.” You shook your head.

“You shouldn’t have bothered,” Jungkook wished you were something, someone he could touch. He’d hold you, tell you it’d all be okay. But, how do you comfort someone who has already died while you search their old house for their body? With their demonic father stalking around no less.

Speak of the Devil.

Taehyung froze as he sunk back into the shadows, teddy at his chest to ‘protect’ him. You gasped as the shadow, your father, just barely caught sight of you. The shadow moved fast- too fast. The walls behind you morphed, sucking in the shadows as they peeled off the wall like twisted arms. THey grabbed your body, sucking you partially into the wall to keep you imprisoned. You struggled as your father approached, danger in every footstep.

Just as he always did when he saw you. He’d suck the energy out of you, growing darker- stronger- with each time you allowed yourself to be so foolish you were seen. Just as he did when you were alive. He’s taking everything away from you, even in death.

The wall would sink you further and further in, sucking you through space. Taehyung watched as Jungkook quickly started moving, knocking over anything he could in his wake. “Idiot!” Taehyung screamed at him before he realized that they were both now side by side, and easily located by the demon that once was your father. The Shadow turned towards the sound, making out the faint, blue, breathing outlines of the two men and the small pesky bear that floated at their side.

The scream the shadow emitted was very different this time. Directed directly at the boys, they covered their ears and you struggled against the shadows that forced themselves down your throat as you choked and gagged and wanted so badly to scream. Jungkook swore he almost saw what you would look like if your body wasn’t see through- if you weren’t dead. He thought he caught a glimpse of what or who you would be if you were still alive.

All before he was thrust away, and found himself and Taehyung none to gently thrown back into the front lawn. They don’t know exactly how they got back out there from the back of the house from the cellar, but nonetheless, there they lay in the tall unkempt grass. The bear sat on Taehyung’s leg, latched to his thigh with those stuffed arms of it’s. The two sat up with a collective groan and endless whining as they rubbed their shoulders, back, arms, head, anything that hit the ground with at least minimum force.

“What the hell just happened?” Jungkook whined as he looked around the outside. Still dark as a pupil with the moon covered by clouds that appeared from nowhere. Masking the once bright guiding light it provided. “Y/n?” He looked around, you weren’t there. He quickly stood up, too quickly as his vision blanked for a moment and a wave of dizziness washed over him as he stumbled. Rubbing his eyes as he regained his sense of balance, he looked around the abandoned yard. Taehyung moved to stand next to him, a much slower pace than his best friend.

“He threw us out,” he murmured. Taehyung looked behind him at the property line leading to the road and away from the godforsaken house. “He must be telling us to leave,” he looked at Jungkook, “but we aren’t, are we?” Jungkook shook his head.

“Abso-fuckin’-lutely not. Not when we know what’s going on and that people are being hurt.” He looked down at his feet, at his palms and remembering the broken camera and the memory card in his back pocket. He could go home now, prove so much about ghosts and the dead that roam around this house. He can’t though, his conscience wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t leave you without solace. “We promised her,” was all he said.

He was going to find your body. He swore. Taehyung nodded as he plucked the bear from his thigh and placed it on his shoulder where it sat upright and steady on his shirt. Was it strange to say a grown man walking around a haunted demon house was comforted by a possessed teddy bear who protected him? It’s a phrase best left unsaid, for his pride’s sake.

The two men started to go back around, but something stopped them. When they came back to the cellar door, it wasn’t there anymore. The door was just gone. The place in the ground where the entrance would be, was just dirt and mud with a water spigot on the side of the house, dripping with something they both assumed was most definitely not water.

Jungkook dropped to his knees, in a frenzy started digging with his hands into the disgusting mix of mud and the mystery ghost fluid in the ground. Surely if he dug, he’d bust through into the cellar he knew was there. Taehyung grabbed the back of his jean jacket as he yanked him up, screaming at him to get ahold of himself when a window from above caught their attention.

The old, rickety window shambled open and all was silent for a moment as the two boys looked up in curiosity. Thinking some random ghost who just wanted to smell the good ole night air opened the window, they were quickly jumping out of the way of something that was thrown out.

It was small, not larger than the palm of Taehyung’s hand, as it hit the grass at their feet. Taehyung looked at the curtains that were sucked out by the wind’s breeze while Jungkook knelt and picked up whatever was thrown out. Taehyung tore his eyes away from the window above with caution as he looked at the now rising Jungkook, holding a medicine bottle in his hand.

“This was in the bathroom, I found it when I was in there before,” the familiar word ‘Chlorpromazine’, reflecting in Jungkook’s vision.

“So,” Taehyung drew out the word as he hooked his thumbs in the belt loop of his skinnies. “We’re going to the bathroom together? Adventurous.” Jungkook threw the bottle at his friend who was obviously trying to get Jungkook out of the panic he buried himself in. The gesture was recognized and greatly appreciated. No wonder the ghost bear liked him so much.

The two of them hiked it back to the front of the house where they saw a blurred silhouette of a very blurry dog. Remembering what you told him earlier about the animals being coherently on their side, he reassured the friend at his side who raised his fist. Yeah, like he was going to throw hands at a ghost, real clever fella he is in the face of danger.

Walking inside for the third time for the young Jeon, he noticed that there were animals in the rooms. The living room held a dog, the same dog from earlier as he sat in the doorway. His ghost tongue hanging from his almost smiling chops. The kitchen was a monkey, Taehyung almost smiled as he saw it’s figure having a ball along the ceiling and the small noises of it swinging to and fro from whatever was in there. From further back in the house, Jungkook practically fist pumped the air with the loud, vibrating belt of mighty elephant. He whipped around to an ever confused Taehyung as he looked at the car laying on the top of the landing at the top of the stairs.

“These are the spirits Y/n’s little brother gifted to his toys. Tae, they’re not going to hurt us.” Taehyung relaxed as he saw his best friend no longer frowning, but smiling at the animals who signified a save zone. Even if temporary.

The two made it up the stairs as the cat that lay at the landing stretched and pranced around the giant hole in the floor and turned into the bathroom. Okay, so whatever was in there was harmless- the animals said so after all.

With care sidles along the wall, the boys came into the tiled, dirty bathroom with the water still dripping one drop at a time into the full tub.

“Was that always full?” Taehyung questioned as he pointed accusingly at the tub.

“Yeah, it was earlier too,” Jungkook replied.

“Ah,” a rather short, unpleasant response of confirmation. Enough to get the point across that it was both disturbing and confusing for this full bathtub to be a thing when the water has long been shut off. The two watched as the cat sat at the side of the tub and then both boys let out unattractive shouts of terror when someone started to come out of the water.

The clear water turned murky when a little boy with the shaggiest, wet hair sat up. The water of the deep tub hit just at his chest as he sat and piddled his hands in the water to make small splashes. He was just a child having fun and playing at bath time. Jungkook looked at Taehyung as he just shook his head.

“No way,” he whispered at his gaze as Jungkook then approached the tub’s edge in the end. He knelt down and placed his fingertips in the water. The little boy followed the foreign ripples and looked at Jungkook, and Taehyung with the bear behind him. He smiled so innocently.

“Hello there,” Jungkook softly spoke. “Do you like playing in the water?” The little boy nodded eagerly. “Would you mind if I played a bit too, with you that is? The boy silently seemed to want to laugh as he turned and motioned to a dirty rubber duck on the edge of the tub where a bar of soap could sit snuggly. Reaching over he looked at it.

The yellow paint was chipped in places and it was horribly faded. The face had only one eye still painted black while the blue and purple paint scarf was patchy. The sailor hat on the duck was still a shade of navy blue though. It was stiff, not having the warmth and usage of a child for a very long time. “Is this your favorite toy?” The boy nodded again. “Well, he’s mighty dirty. I think this sailor needs a bath too.” The boy splashed happily as Jungkook scrunched his nose cutely to his new little friend and stuck the toy under the water and gently cleaned it.

He thumbed off the as much dirt he could. Some coming off in chunks other bits smearing and wiping off. Soon, the duck wasn’t perfect, but significantly better. The little boy smiled as he reached out for it, wanting to bad to have his toy back. Jungkook gently placed the toy in his hand and it was like the toy and little boy were alive again.

The little boy's body glowed and his skin was honey tanned and hair dark and damp. The duck looked bright and newer than ever. The boy mouthed a happy ‘thank you’ without actually speaking before he disappeared and the tub began to drain. Once the water was gone, at the bottom of the tub sat a hairpin. Picking it up he stood and bowing once to the tub, trying to honor and say goodbye to that sweet little ghost boy as he went to Tae’s side.

“So, you played with a ghost kid. We’re just meeting all sorts of ghosts, huh?” Jungkook nodded as he showed Taehyung the pin. It was thin, black and one of those you could run your thumb over and glitter would suddenly be fused with your skin for the next three days. It was far from a fancy pin, but if a little girl who had long bangs needed to pin them back, it’d be the perfect hairpiece. “So, where too now chef?”

“Y/n mentioned something about a ghost in the kid’s room closet.” Taehyung though as he cupped his chin.

“Come to think of it, that closet didn’t open for me. I couldn’t get it open to save my life.” Jungkook nodded as Taehyung took the hairpin from his palm and held it in his own.

“It’s because Vivi doesn’t like people who don’t knock.”

The two of them moved carefully to the children’s room. Inside on the bottom bunk of the bed sat plethora of small animal ghosts. Small bears, snakes, tigers, lions even a T-rex sat miniature sized on the torn up mattress. Y/n’s little brother sure had a heart full of love for all his toys, just as you said.

They moved to stand in front of the closet as Taehyung moved forward. He was the one who tried to barge in earlier, so he’d suck it up and stop being a weenie for once and apologize for his lack of manners: in this case, not knocking. He took a shaky breath, gripping the hairpin in his hand as he knocked three soft times.

The door handle turned as the door cracked open and a little girl, no older than 7 stood at Taehyung’s midsection. Looking up at him through her long, thick locks that covered half her face. Her one visible eye a shining blue contrasted to her colorless body. He knelt down to one knee as the girl’s head followed him as they were eye to eye now. He smiled to her, making her shoulders drop any tension they once had.

“Why are you hiding in your closet? I’m sure all the animals here would love to play with you?” The older man suggested as he gestured to the animals gathered on the bed. “Wouldn’t you like to play with some friends?” She nodded but remained in the closet, hands gripping the door handle in fear.

“They would tease me,” she whimpered.

“Tease you? A sweet little girl like you? No way,” he cooed as opened his palm and showed her the hairpin. “Tell me, is this your hairpin?” He saw her eye shine in recognition. “A sweet little boy showed us where you lost it and asked to give it back to its pretty owner next door.” The little girl peeked out just a bit more to glance over into the bathroom across the way.

“Did he finally get to play?” Taehyung looked over his shoulder to Jungkook behind him, then back to the girl in front of him.

“He had a blast playing with my friend here. They splashed and played with his favorite duck. Now, it’s your turn to play with your friends.” He slowly reached forwards and the pin was able to clip into her hair, pulling her bangs fully back where the other half of her face showed an empty socket where her other shining blue eye should be. So, she lost an eye somehow. How tragic for such a small child. “Is that why you’re too shy to go play?”

“The grown-ups always made fun of me,” she cried as her one eye allowed a small crystal tear run down her ghostly face. “They wouldn’t let me go out and make friends because I was too scary.”

Taehyung shook his head as he poked at the little girl’s tummy and smiled at her when she let out a little giggle. “Well, can I be your friend then? And this little guy will be your friend too,” Taehyung spoke to the teddy still sat on his shoulder. “If we're your friends, then those fun little rascals behind me would love to play with you for as long as you want.” She gasped in glee.

“Would they play hide and seek with me?” He nodded.

“It’s their favorite game. Go on and play now, Vivi.” She smiled wide as she pushed open the closet door fully and stepped out. She hugged Taehyung around his neck as she giggled in his ear and placed something in his hand before she ran off to the crowd of animals behind her. She chatted away before running out of the room, laughing the entire way until the laughter faded, leaving only a gentle, pleasant breeze.

Taehyung stood up as Jungkook clapped his back. “Good job, now we both have some cute little ghost friends.” Taehyung laughed as he looked at the key in his hand. It was old, really old. The end looped like an oval while the front of it was shaped like it would slide into a music box. “Where would there be a music box around here?”

“I think I remember seeing one downstairs on one of the dining room shelves.” Taehyung recollected. The two worked their way out of the room, but not before saying goodbye to their friendly ghost companions. They would surely remember to always mind their manners now.

Just as Taehyung said, downstairs sat a single, wooden music box. It sat about eye level with the boys as they tried to take it off the shelve, but it shouldn’t budge. It was like it was attached on. Not wanting to possibly break anything and create a panic or worse stir up more trouble, Taehyung just placed the key in the music box on the shelf. With 3 good cranks, the key locked in place, sticking out of the keyhole and started turned counter-clockwise and a small melody began to play.

It was a soft tune, friendly and warm. As Jungkook listened, the more it reminded him of you and how you were a warm presence, despite you being a ghost. Once the soft lullaby ended the key was spit back out and the wall next to the shelf slid open to reveal a hidden wall. A secret passage of sorts. Taehyung picked up the key and placed it next to its rightful partner; the lovely little box of lullabies.

“Well,” Jungkook chirped, “if ever I’ve seen a horror movie-”

“We’re so going into the new hidden door. Let’s move Mr. Ghost-Professional.” Taehyung interrupted as he shoved his friend's shoulder and the two began to shimmy through the small passageway. It wasn’t long before the passage leads to a small opening in the floor with a ladder leading down.

“This has to go to the cellar.” The ever attached bear of Taehyung’s moved to his head as the two began to descend the ladder without second thoughts. It’s not like they’d through in the towel now anyways. The assumption was correct. The boys had indeed found themselves back to the cellar.

You were held captive against the wall from shadows, but the demon was nowhere around.

“Y/n…!” Jungkook breathed as he ran to you and touched the black restraining you. The shadows were just shadows. They were a strange, disgusting black goop that felt like slime and peeled like tar as he shook his hand away from it’s gross, slimy texture. Though, regardless of how revolting, he reached your mouth and dug away the grime from your throat. Once you were free of the black from your tongue, you coughed and hung your head low. “Y/n,” he repeated, “please, talk to me. Say something.” He pleaded as Taehyung joined his side.

The bear looked at your ‘unconscious’, dull eyes figure and as it did before when it comforted you. It shook it’s furry body and rang like a bell. The ringing reverberated in your head as your eyes came back to life, regaining their ghostly glow as you were finally able to see the two boys- two friends in front of you.

“Jungkook, Taehyung?” The nodded. “How did you get here?” They looked at each other and smiled.

“Vivi and the little boy in the bathtub helped us. Oh, and the animal’s of course.” Jungkook chirped.

“You.. you helped Vivi and Jacob?” The two of them explained how they were able to help make the two children smile and laugh. “Jacob was a little boy who was drowned by his mother. She believed her child was cursed since he was born without a voice. Vivi was a little girl teased constantly because when she was younger, she lost her eye in an accident. You helped them both?” The boys nodded.

“They were very sweet little kids.” You smiled.

“Thank you,” you bowed your head, best you could. Then your smiled faded as you looked back at them and turned seriously once again. “You two need to go. If he comes back, then he’ll-”

“No. We promised you, remember,” Jungkook interrupted.

“You don’t understand! Please, just-” You stopped short when you stiffened. “Go back, back away to the walls. Now, hurry!” They did so without argument. Just as they were on opposite walls, the demon pulled himself up from the fucking floor. From below? Could there be- was there another section below the cellar? The shadow moved and stood in front of you, your body that was once relaxed now shaking uncontrollably.

Jungkook stood still, staring at your expression. For the first 2 times, he’s been saved by you, you hadn’t shown your fear. Now, you were close to crying- weeping rather- as your father disgustingly stood above you. Ghost tears, it was almost an interesting concept if they weren’t being threatened to be spilled by you.

He slowly shuffled to a shelf, grabbing a nearby bottle and quickly throwing it. The bottle shattered on the ground, making the shadow turn and screech. Jungkook covered his ears, hissing. The shadow stepped away from you, just a bit. He still hadn’t located Jungkook yet.

Taehyung understanding gave his small, stuffed possessed companion a nod. A shield of sorts surrounded the both of them. Taehyung was officially safe. “Hey!” He shouted. The shadow whipped around. Seeing the spiritual essence around Taehyung, he marched with heavy steps forward.

“Wrong way!” Now, it was Jungkook’s turn. He held that scented wax so tightly in his warm palm, it threatened to begin to melt. He remained completely still, not moving a muscle. When the shadow turned again, Taehyung sprint to a shelf of alcohol bottles. Pushing every bottle off, they shattered on the hardwood floor one by one.

“You've had enough beer, pal!” Taehyung chided. You watched the two continue to jerk around and confuse the shadow- your father. Back and forth, like a game of pong with your father as the ball. While the boys continued to distract the reel shadow demon, the teddy by Taehyung’s side rung, that same rining echoing into the small enclosure of the cellar.

A loud screech ripped out of the shadow as he turned his back on the sound. It seemed to cradle it’s head as it screamed and the shadow of its body almost seemed to fluctuate. It was like bells hurt the beast? The beast raised it's arms into the air, ready to strike into the ground.

You forced yourself from the shadow’s harsh imprisonment for the first time ever. You focused your entire body before you ripped free of its confines. You were quick to get to Jungkook’s side who was currently in the way of taking the brunt of the soon to come smash of your father’s fists. Desperate to save him, you made your entire body tangible and wrapped your arms around his shoulders, your head next to his own.

Jungkook instinctively held you against him. It was odd, holding you. You were solid, but light. It was like he was hugging a breathing person, but you were so cold. He didn’t fell the beat of your heart, didn’t feel the pushing of your chest against his when you breathed. You were a dead person, a ghost, yet he held you.

The shadow slammed his fists into the floor with utter rage, the wood splitting and creating chaos. Taehyung lost his balance as he fell against the back wall, the bear floating to his chest, still protecting him with a shield of sorts. The hole created by the beast was jagged as Jungkook and yourself fell through it. All while the demon faded away for the time being mid-tantrum.

Jungkook groaned, falling through the floor for the second time that night. He looked at your exhausted ghostly body. Your spiritual glow fluctuating as you seemed so tired, too tired. He wanted to open his mouth and ask about your state, but the sound of bells silenced him. They weren’t the sound of that dumb bear. This sound was much different. So pure, innocent in a sense.

Jungkook got up, following the sound of the bells, leaving your ghostly body to lay on the ground. He didn’t exactly know how to help someone he could no longer grasp. He ran until he found a single case hidden in the underneath hideaway of the cellar floor. Inside that case was none other than a skeleton, full body with a set of bells next to the yellow and while colored skull.

Down the way, your spirit fluctuated until it blew into a graceful wisp of blue. You traveled the wind until you found Jungkook; until you found your bones. Jungkook watched in awe, it was like your soul was dancing around the body long lost to you. A bright flame of peace. He smiled as the bells floated towards him and he reached out with his palm as they fell into his hand.

Your spirit manifested once more- for the last time- now in a beautiful, white sundress. He smiled as did you. You came towards him, relief in your ghostly gaze. You kissed his cheek, your flame giving warmth and spreading a wisp of blue along with it.

“Thank you, Jungkook. Give my thanks to Taehyung as well.”

“I will,” he almost choked. Your spirit sprung to life, your fire bright as your spirit shot up the ceiling and out of the cellar floor- scaring the poor Taehyung mind you. Your fierce, powerful, free spirit easily located your tainted, evil father in the house and quickly wasted no time in surrounding him. Your fire latched onto his shadows, devouring it as the spirits and ghosts of your comrades, his other victims, joined your plight to finally put your father down.

“You’ve done enough, Father.” The shadows pulled back from the host form of your father just enough to see his grotesque face once more. Burned, disfigured and rotten was his flesh from the long age of his demons. His time was ending, and he would get what he finally deserved. You seethed and sneered at his face. “Begone, you wretched disgrace.” Engulfed by his shadows once more, he was ignited by your pure light and disappeared. Along, so did you. Your presence, and those others not gone.

The house was finally vacant.

Jungkook climbed back up to the cellar, Taehyung helping him as he looked at the motionless bear at Taehyung’s feet.

“Was she- I mean did Y/n?”

“Yeah. she’s gone now.”

“Oh,” he spoke with a dip in his voice. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“Let’s get out of here, Taehyung.” Tae nodded as he reached down and grabbed the bear at his feet, not hesitating to take the little guy along with him back to the surface. Perhaps he had gotten a bit attached.

With the disperse of the demon, the cellar door had reappeared and the two men crawled out onto the lawn outside once again. They rounded the house and soon took the way walk back up to the sideway at the edge of the property before turning and staring back at the house.

“So,” Taehyung started, “what was it like?”

“What was what like? Nearly dying?”

“Hitting on a ghost.”

“Oh my god,” Jungkook left, Taehyung laughing behind him as he held your bells tight and safe in his palm.

XXX

The following week, your remains were found by the police when Tae put in an ‘anonoymous message’ that someone was found going into that house. Now, somehow that house- your house- was scheduled for destruction within the month. Jungkook sat in Taehyung’s room as he flipped through his newest comic he nabbed at a store downtown.

“You think they’ll rebuild over the property?” Taehyung asked as Jungkook shrugged.

“Beats me. It’d be nice if they didn’t. Maybe put a small little cemetery or memorial instead.” Taehyung nodded with a smile.

“You should pitch that idea. It’s a good one, and I’m sure the city hall would listen since a body was discovered.” Jungkook smiled as he looked out the window of his best friend’s room. The sunny sky devoid of any pesky clouds.

“You know, I think I just might,” Jungkook said. He wanted to put a grave down for you, and all the other ghosts too. For Vivi and for Jacob who were just innocent children who hadn’t done wrong; far too young for death’s unfair grip.

That’s what he thought as he watched over the sewn up and cleaned teddy bear on Tae’s window sill. The jingling of the two bells around his wrist that had been weaved and carefully placed onto a precious new bracelet he wore wherever he went- without exception- as they always seemed to jingle in approval.

Yes, a memorial was a fine idea. Maybe he did like you a little bit- just a ghost of a crush.

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memoirsverse · 5 years

Text

Dresden Files/The Authors of Paradise: Dark Days

This is a crossover fan novel featuring my own characters and world of The Authors of Paradise, blended with those of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. This derivative crossover work is being written for the sheer fun of it, with no financial gain. Jim Butcher owns Harry Dresden, The Dresden Files, and all associated characters. I own Evelyn Alvar, Arabella Thorne, Thornebridge Manor, The Authors of Paradise, and all associated characters. I’ve taken the two worlds, mashed them together, and whipped up this meandering thingamabob. Mmm, tasty.

This novel is rated M for Mature, because it’ll get bloody. This chapter isn’t bloody, though; just dreadful.

i. Evelyn

I emerged in a room that shifted and warped, always in motion, always changing, and turned my attention to the figure standing at the far end. A softly glowing, color-changing mist curled around my ankles as I walked past impossible staircases and other Mobius-like structures, approaching the figure. It stood dispassionate, sexless, an endless void that glimmered with distant stars. Its name was Thornebridge, and this was the form it took in this place.

If I looked too deeply into that void, I would be drawn in, tumbling helplessly for eons as every potentiality, every reality, every actuality, every universe seared itself indelibly onto my conscious mind. I would know the truth about myself if I did that. I didn’t want to know. I most certainly did not want to know. I was confident it would drive me mad.

My bare feet settled into place, concealed by the mist, as I stopped directly in front of Thornebridge. I was wearing the filmy white thing that I always wore when I Traveled, and hair the color of moonlight tumbled over my marble-toned shoulders. I’d seen my reflection before in this form. I looked like a marble statue with intensely purple-jewel eyes, inhuman and profoundly alien. I had grown accustomed to it, but I still didn’t understand the why of it.

“You have something to tell me?” I ventured finally. I would never be entirely comfortable talking with Thornebridge-- if talking was the right word. The entity had its own language, one that didn’t often translate well into English, or any other language with actual words.

The response was instantaneous. From out of the mist, a great tower pushed its way out of the hidden ground, rumbling like thunder as it grew to a great height. Dust and debris rained down from it as it stretched higher and higher like some kind of monolithic tree, until its top vanished into the star-studded, nebula-swirled darkness above. A pair of winged figures circled the tower, armed with swords, their wings beating the air into a whirlwind as they flew around and around and around it.

A low, animalistic growl surged behind me, and I turned to see a man dressed in robes and expensive finery, crowned by four inverted pentacles that spun around his head. The man looked like a photograph in negative exposure, black and white, light where he should be dark and dark where he should be light. He ran at the tower and leaped on it, clawing at its base, digging to its foundations, tearing off huge chunks of stone and dropping them into a large canvas bag he carried slung over one shoulder. The two angels didn’t seem to see him, continuing their high-altitude patrol.

I sighed. The overall message was obvious, but the details were still obscured. “Who’s attacking you?” I asked.

The robed man vanished from his place by the tower and appeared before me so suddenly that I took a couple of steps backwards. I took a breath to steady myself and turned my eyes to Thornebridge. “But who is he?”

The human-shaped starry void said nothing. Of course. It stood still, its head turned towards me.

I could look into its void and See...

Shaking my head, I motioned with my hand to the diorama. “If you want our help, you’re going to have to be a bit more clear than that. Okay?”

Thornebridge just watched me. This was apparently the entirety of the message; I wasn’t going to get any more unless I Looked.

I ran my hands through my hair and sighed again. “All right, fine. I’ll see what I can dig up.”

Thornebridge nodded, and the scene vanished, replaced once again with the Escher-like environment. Closing my eyes, I let myself phase through the layers of reality, back to whatever dimension my Traveling form was held in. I felt the threads of silken energy close around me like a cocoon, and my conscious awareness faded to gentle black before becoming aware of the weight and solid mass of my everyday form.

I lay there for a minute, eyes closed, letting my consciousness re-align with physical reality. Slowly, my senses re-connected and began to filter information back to me: the lingering scent of incense, the soothing flow of the meditative music that I had set to play in a loop, the spongy feel of the mat between my body and the hardwood floor, the slight chill in the room that raised gooseflesh over my arms. It was September, and morning, and my stomach informed me that I had not yet eaten breakfast.

Opening my eyes, I stretched, then rose to my feet. The room my housemate Arabella and I had designated for communication sessions with Thornebridge was sparsely decorated with a couple of small tables, a bowl for incense, a scattering of candles, a few carefully placed crystals, some calming prints framed on the walls, a small rock garden, and an iPod set up with a meditation playlist. It was simple and zen, intended to cultivate the kind of relaxation needed to put one’s self into a deep trance.

I turned off the iPod, blew out the candles and the incense, and left the room in the heart of the house, winding my way through corridors that never seemed to follow the same path. I had gotten lost on multiple occasions while trying to find my way through the less stable portions of the house, until I had learned to open my senses enough to navigate my way to the space Arabella and I lived day-to-day.

I saw the door, and my senses told me it was the one that led to the mundane part of the house. It was always a different door, sometimes massive and intricately carved, sometimes simple and rustic. Today, it was narrow, arterial red, and half my height, sporting an ornate silver knob. I turned the knob, opened the door, and stepped out of the dizzying instability of Thornebridge Manor and into the dimensionally stable, comforting warmth of the house’s living space.

The difference in energy always takes a moment or two to adjust to. It’s a little bit like waking up from a dream, as reality re-establishes itself around you, solid and fixed. After taking a few slow breaths and doing a little grounding exercise by placing my palm flat against a wall and feeling its solidity, I moved on, making my way to the kitchen.

_________________________________________

The coffee tasted hot and sweet as I sipped it from my favorite old coffee mug, which depicted a calico cat similar in appearance to my own Nimue, batting playfully at a Victorian-style fairy. The house was strangely quiet and felt vast and empty; Arabella had left town to attend some sort of bookseller’s conference. Slowly, I ate a breakfast of eggs, biscuits, and fruit, as I held my battered, leatherbound notebook in my left hand and read over the notes I had written on this morning’s communication with Thornebridge. A well-worn deck of tarot cards, its colors faded and its edges tattered, rested beside the notebook.

I took a bite of scrambled eggs, set my fork down, and flipped through the cards, withdrawing the Tower, the Emperor, Temperance, and the Four of Pentacles, laying them out on the table beside my plate. Chewing thoughtfully, I studied the cards, static images embodying the living diorama I had seen in the communication room, but I came no closer to achieving clarity. The only thing I knew for certain was that someone was attacking Thornebridge, someone Arabella and I-- the Guardians of Thornebridge Manor-- had not yet seen or encountered.

That... was not good. There was an endless list of reasons why that was not good. But I still had precious little to go on. It would be nice, I thought, if the damn house would learn to speak English.

An alarm sounded on my phone, alerting me that it was time to get ready for work, so I put my plate in the dishwasher, returned to my bedroom to dress, made sure my cat and Arabella’s dog Ghost had plenty of fresh water, checked on Virgil the ferret in his little house, and hurried out the door to drive to the shop. There wasn’t a lot I could do until I had more information, and I certainly wasn’t going to figure out the puzzle sitting here all day.

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I own a little shop called Boreas Curios, Antiques, and Odditites. It’s a quaint little place, sharing a storefront with a pizza parlor and a jewelry store, and is situated directly across the street from Arabella’s place of business, an antique bookstore that she inherited from its former owner when he retired. It was something akin to kismet that the two of us spent years working in these places, across the street from one another, before we met for the first time through completely unrelated events. And it wasn’t for a lack of browsing each others’ shops either-- I love books, and Arabella is a bona fide pack rat and loves to collect all sorts of strange and wonderful things. And vice versa. We just always managed to visit when neither of us was in our respective shop.

The shop was slow throughout the morning, giving me time to sort through inventory and clean a little bit as I tried to shake the lingering feeling that something wasn’t quite right. I chalked it up to the vagaries of my communication session with Thornebridge and carried on. A few minutes to eleven, Violet breezed in through the front door, smiling brightly at me with her black-lipsticked lips as we greeted each other. Her hair was short and spiky, black tipped with blue, and she wore black-and-white striped stockings on her arms and legs, a green corset, a knee-length black tulle skirt, and a pair of worn old army boots. She waved at me with a black-fingernailed hand and disappeared into the back of the shop, re-emerging a short time later wearing a blue apron that absolutely clashed with her getup.

I didn’t mind her eccentric way of dressing; in fact, I felt it fit the atmosphere of the shop perfectly. She cashed in to her register, and then set about helping me sort through a box of mini-Furbies that had been programmed to say diabolical things. The store rang out with sinister phrases such as, “I am Lord Beelzebub, hear me rooooar!” and “Sacrifice your virgins on the altar of the Goat King!” for several minutes as we inserted batteries, cataloged everything in the system, and put the Furbies in a wire bin near the register. The Diabolical Furby Collection was Violet’s idea, and I thought it fit nicely in with the theme of Strange and Bizarre I had cultivated in the shop. After all, I kept a constant supply of haunted dolls on a shelf situated on the back wall. People loved creepy things. They always sold well.

Right around 1:45, just as the lunch rush had mostly dissipated, the sky went dark, not gradually, but in a quick fade, as if somebody had used a dimmer switch to turn off the sun, cloaking the world in night.

Violet, looking up from where she was ringing up one of the last customers in the store, frowned. “Um. Evelyn?” She paused, then added, “Did somebody forget to pay the sunlight bill?” The joke fell flat as her voice trembled a bit.

I was busy staring through the glass door, blinking in confusion. The slight uneasiness I had felt earlier amplified itself, evolving into the kind of dread that speeds up the heart rate and sends butterflies swarming through the stomach. Violet clearly felt the same, but it was probably just from the inexplicable celestial event. Right?

“What in the blazes...” I murmured. Casting a glance at Violet and her equally confused and anxious customer, I strode across the shop and out the door, peering up at the sky, searching for the sun. Violet joined me a minute or two later, after shooing the customers out and locking the door.

“Is... is it an eclipse?” she asked, doubt slowing her words. I shook my head, but pulled my phone from my apron and began pulling up an online almanac to be sure.

“Probably not,” I said. “Wouldn’t have gone dark that quickly.” I scanned the almanac long enough to determine that there had been no eclipses predicted for the day, and then my phone went dark.

So did the rest of the block. All around us, the lights illuminating the buildings flickered out, plunging the world into heavy darkness. Even the cars on the street died, rolling to a stop. I heard the metallic clatter of a car wreck somewhere in the near distance, and somebody screamed.

The creeping dread flared into visceral, heart-pounding terror, and for a moment, I was lost in it. I wanted to fall to my knees, pull at my hair, and moan with it. I wanted to dig into the ground and hide from the darkness, to curl into myself, to lose myself to the fear, to be consumed by it. It coiled around me, a primal, atavistic horror that threatened to strangle the life from me. I was barely aware of Violet next to me, frozen and trembling with the same terror.

A long moment passed, and the dread eased of its own accord. It still lingered, pulsing softly on a psychic wavelength, but it no longer threatened to drive us mad. I found I had indeed fallen to the ground, and slowly got to my hands and knees, reaching out to help Violet to her feet. The girl was still shaking, her blue eyes wide in the gloom, but she let me stand her up and steady her.

“What was that?” she cried, but then seemed to realize how near to panic she was edging, and took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. She leveled her gaze on me and said, “I’m going to guess you’ll be leaving the shop to me for a bit.”

I hadn’t ever told Violet about my other job, the one where I worked for the sentient spirit of a dimensionally transcendent and unstable house, but the girl wasn’t stupid. She’d picked up on the fact that I had a tendency to deal with the out-of-the-ordinary things that seemed so often to happen around me. I sighed and ran my hand through my short, wavy hair, a deep chestnut with hints of red and a stark contrast to the flowing silver locks of my Traveling form.

I turned on my heels and strode around to my car, a 90s-era silver Accord parked in the employee-designated spaces in the parking lot. Violet followed. Unlocking the trunk with the key set I had in my jeans pocket, I removed the emergency bag I kept packed and ready. “Close the shop,” I told her, then frowned. I had been about to tell her to pack up and go home, but she lived several miles away and it seemed as if the cars had all died too. “Stay indoors, keep the doors locked, and watch for looters.”

“That baseball bat still under the counter?” she asked.

“Yep,” I said, and paused. If that feeling of dread had been city-wide, it meant we’d be dealing with mass panic, and panicked people can be violent. “But don’t try to be heroic, okay? If anybody gets violent, just get on out of there. Find somewhere safe. There will probably be some sort of organizational effort to keep things under control, maybe a place for people to gather for shelter, a church or something. Try to find it if you can’t stay in the shop.”

“Gotcha.”

From the bag I removed a pair of silver rods, slender, about the length of my forearm, and etched with runes, then slung the bag over my shoulder.

Then, taking a deep breath, I stepped into the darkness.

#not roleplay #ok to reblog but don't try to roleplay with it please!#so this is the first in what will hopefully turn into a series #in which i'll explore other tAoP characters as well #this chapter is a doozy at over 2600 words #other chapters will probably be shorter #maybe #next chapter will be from Harry's POV.#fic #Dark Days

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stationhousesix · 5 years

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Dragons of the World

Dragons aren’t that strange of a creature when compared to the other animals in the world of in the black that are capable of calling upon a god. They aren’t more intelligent than a dog either so there are many myths surrounding the birth of these animals. Some believe the gods made them as servants of their will. Others believe they were born from the fires of a great volcano that once stood where the country of Alta is today. Anthropologist of the dominion believe they are descended from a common ancestor which was similar to chymmos of today. No one has the answers but these creatures still walk and live in the world alongside wolves, deer, lions and flies and are able to call upon certain aspects of the gods to breath fire, fly and control currents, regardless if they know they are doing that or not.

Dominion Drake and Dragon

Closely related to Dominion Dragons, Drakes are slightly smaller and tend to only have odd numbers of horns on their head while true dragons will always have an even number of horns. Found all around the Dominion several subspecies share color patterns with Dominion Dragons. Which leads to many people attempting to own a Drake as a pet to be shocked to find they have an actual dragon the first time it breaths fire.

Drakes tend to live in tree tops by making their own nests or in the crocks of buildings and on roofs. While Dominion Dragons tend to live in the roots of trees or in caves. It is common for both of these creatures to steal bits of shiny objects for their nests called hoards. Candy wrappers, foil, silk, metal bits, or even coins they will take it all in order to brighten up their hoard to attract a potential mate. While Dragons live more solitary lives Drakes prefer to live in small groups of 3-5 members. These groups are often called a Dance of Drakes for the way they play together. Weaving between the bodies of other members without getting caught in a knot.

Snehovian Firethorn Dragon

The largest land walking dragon alive. They are a the national animal of Snehovia even appearing on the Snehovia flag. Firethorns are particularly aggressive dragons who do breath fire and will do so just to display their strength at any creatures that dare to challenge them. They are typically found along the southern border of Snehovia and hunt anything they can get a claw on, but a subspecies called the Islinthorns (an all white species) can be found further north preying on polar bears and seals. Firethorns create hoards in abandoned mines or caves. Some will dig burrows throughout their territories and move between them during different times of the year to be closer to prey. Firethorns like other dragons like to decorate their hoards in shiny objects. They have been known to venture into settlements to steal licenses plates off cars or sheets of metal they can carry while flying. They are particularly intelligent when placing these materials as they will melt them together to fortify their hoards.

Firethorns typically live alone or with their mate, but often don’t interact with other firethorns unless challenging them for their territories.

Chymmos

Chymmos are some of the oldest lineage of dragons in the world. Sirens have featured them in their writing and stories since they invented writing. Chymmos are a hexapod with four stubby legs, and a pair of fins that make them fit for both land and sea. This paired with the natural ability to manipulate the water currents around them allows them to leave the sea but take a bit of it with them. making sure that their bodies are moist at all times.

Chymmos don’t keep hoards like other dragons. Due to a very nomadic life style they only build a nest when they are going to mate. When they do lay a eggs it is often laid in the shallows to protect the nest from large sea creatures. The parents will often take turns guarding the nest from birds and any creatures that will try to harm the eggs. Chymmos and Sirens were a good fit for each other as Sirens would build special structures around Chymmos nests in order to protect them from creatures and in return Chymmos were fiercely loyal to the Sirens. For eons Sirens and Chymmos were one of a kind, hunting together, eating together protecting each other. Which lead to their domestication by the Sirens.

Now there are thousands of Chymmos breeds, some more capable in hunting then others, while others are breed for style or intelligence. Chymmos are some of the only dragons that prefer to be in groups and will live in large pods with up to 40 other members. They will separate and come back together through out their lives as if nothing happened.

Solidios Wyrm

Not much is known about the Solidios Wyrm. Once considered the top of the food chain in Los Solidios mountain range. It’s been an eon since one has been spotted. There are thousands of myths surrounding these dragons and most of them fit somewhere in the Ceilo Mythology. It was said that when Ceilo reincarnated as a Ravian during the 4th Era that he rode a Wyrm he commanded back to life. It’s said the Solidios- the tall stone spires that jut up from the ground in seemingly no rhythm or reason them self are the the spines of a giant Wyrm that was slain by the living god.

Before they were hunted to extinction by Ravian Roc riders Wyrms were considered a powerful beasts that children were to praise and fear as it was said these angering these beasts could lead to poor harvests and bad luck on entire villages.

It is unknown if these dragons could actually breath fire or manipulate the weather somehow. Even the Wyrm that the reincarnated Ceilo rode was special for it was the mount of a god (as Ravians consider) so it was likely unlike the actual living Wyrms. The only traces of these dragons can be found in fossils in museums around the world.

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Don’t think this counts as a mood-board for @homesteadhorner mood board Monday prompt for next week. -shrug- I know everyone loves hearing about dragons though so hope you guys enjoy!

#dragons #in the black #dragon lore #lore #fantasy noir #fantastic creatures #character design #creature design #digital art #writing #writeblr #wyrm #drake #lizard #shark #landshark #monsters #azzyfree art

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dewdlebot · 5 years

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Now that I’m thinking about Fable 4 and it wasn’t shown at E3 (maybe next year?) I wanna go into a more in-depth talk about my feelings regarding the leaks. This will be tagged with Long Post so y’all can skip it, unfortunately I’m on mobile so I can’t slap this under a read-more.

First/Third Person- Gonna be honest I wish they’d just stick with Third person and not bother with first. Will go into detail a few points below.

In Depth Character Creator- I see no issue with this whatsoever. God Speed.

Completely Open- Ok so, I’m not directly opposed to this, but I kinda wish they wouldn’t? I preferred Fable 1&2’s style of doing things. Have open areas that are interconnected. Again, I’ll reiterate why in a few points

No Guns- Eh, I have no real preference on this. Tbh if it fixes the combat then yeah I’m down for it.

Can Ignore Main quest and never become a hero- And here we reach the crux of my issues with a potential open world and first/third person camera. It’s because NOT EVERY FUCKING GAME HAS TO BE SKYRIM. THE FABLE SERIES ISNT JUST A DAMN KNOCK-OFF ELDER SCROLLS. DONT TURN IT INTO ONE. That’s it. That’s my issue with this one

Players can build towns, ties into main quest heavily if you get the bad ending and fail- I uh, gonna be honest I don’t know how to feel about this one? I mean I guess Fable 3 had a somewhat similar thing going on but it wasn’t implemented the best so I’m apprehensive on this one but willing to see what it might be like.

Multiplayer- Ok what kind of multiplayer we talking? Something like Fable 3 where you can play with friends using your own hero’s to help each other out or some always online mmo bullshit? Because I’m definitely okay with the former, the latter can fuck off.

Unreal Engine- No opinion

Albion and Aurora are gone, “Lands Reduced to Fables”- Oh haha I bet y’all thought y’all were clever with that slogan. But uh, no I’m not down with this, what’s even the point of making a direct Fable sequel if your not gonna use the damn world? But I might be willing to be ok with this, will reiterate later.

The Spire was rebuilt and used by a Mad King to wish that an asteroid would strike the planet. He also wished it would happen again in the far future- What sort of contrived ass bullshit...? Look I’m just gonna be blunt, that sounds lazy as hell. It sounds like “we couldn’t be bothered to come up with a legitimate reason everything went to shit so uhh...here have a fucking asteroid. Also it’s your main damn plot because fuck you.”

Eons later and everything is new (medieval themed, new continents) and you have to stop the destruction of the planet again- I’m conflicted, on the one hand I’m ok with a medieval setting, not a fan of how we got to this medieval setting, because again, a fucking asteroid? REALLY?

Theresa and a Heroes Guild are preserved on another planet via a demon door- so I’m not gonna ask where this supposed new heroes guild came from because that would most likely be brought up in-game. But...didn’t Theresa die in Fable Journey...? Unless this is talking about her body and now she’s a ghost in which case: Coolio. Otherwise, I don’t mind them bringing Theresa back because she’s practically the one staple character the series has and I love her so yeah. Also demon doors have connected to weird places in the past so another planet isn’t out of the question.

Time Travel heavily involved in play- ok so I’m not actually against this in theory. Now this is where I’ll reiterate my point about Albion and Aurora, I’m not okay with them just being destroyed and forgotten about, HOWEVER! If they use this supposed time travel mechanic to let us go back to the time when Albion was still around then I can be okay with that! I think in this case it would be interesting to see.

Jack of Blades returns- 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 YES PLEASE BRING MY BOY HOME.....okay gushing out of the way this is actually the point I’m SUPER CONFLICTED ABOUT. Because on the one hand I am a starving traveler in a desert thirsty for any sort of content about Jack, on the other hand. ON THE OTHER HAND. I’m nervous to see what they do with him. I can deal with them bringing back the stupid sounding deep voice. But I don’t want a whole redesign of him. His current design is FINE. It’s GOOD. There’s literally no flaws to it. Leave it alone. And his personality is fun and charismatic and wonderfully evil, leave it alone. Just bring him back with Minimal redesign of his character design and personality and we’ll be good.

Now with that out of the way: I’m remaining cautiously optimistic about Fable 4 based on these leaks, I will be the first to admit I am heavily biased against games that are no longer in the hands of the original developers, but I understand that LionHead isn’t around anymore to take up the mantle, so I’m trying not to let it color my view of this game too much. Just...don’t turn it into Skyrim please.

#Fable 4 #Long Post

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nellynee · 5 years

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Together alone lore bits

In the fresh aftermath of Together alone, we’re getting a lot of YAY Pink Pearl and all that, but there’s a few things I’ve noticed that no one else has pointed out yet.

Ok so this first point I have seen pointed out so it’s important to remember, that Steven’s dream is not a play by play of Pink and her Pearl, the presence of Steven specific things (his bear, chaps, guitar) confirm this, even if Yellow Diamond’s neck had not

Pink Pearl is the cutest thing I love her

Also the way Steven carries himself when he floats. We’ve known it was a callback to Rose for a while now but is it like, legit PinkD muscle memory?

Some pointing out that the smooch might have been a hint to why PD and her Pearl were separated good eye everyone. It immediately makes me think of the episode “Now we’re only falling apart” and Pink’s openness, awkwardness, and attempts to build a rapport with our Pearl

Yellow’s happy face in Steven’s dream made me happy. There’s goodness in that relationship, even if it’s in his subconsciousness

Dreams of coughing up hair are actually usually attributed to physical discomfort rather than having some sort of meaning. That being said, such dreams usually have to do with being in stressful situations, and wanting to get rid of the thing causing discomfort immediately

I have to wonder, whether or not Pink Pearl’s presence was Steven’s subconscious. Her disappearance, followed by White’s immediate appearance, might be indicative of her being White’s patsy in Steven’s dream.

I do, truly believe that thanks to the color scheme, the dream sequence, if indeed influenced by memories, was a confirmation of Pink Pearl. But taking into account what I stated above, there is a chance that the memory was of OUR Pearl, and White inserted her own (think Connie’s mom replacing Yellow in Jungle Moon). Just throwing ideas out. Not likely. Don’t think that’s the case. but there it is

I also do 100% think this was a dream, not a memory. Other than the mirror they were preening before, there was nothing new in that dream. Yellow’s expressions, the Pearl present, juggling, Rose and Pearl flirting, White in that pose, are all things Steven is aware of, mostly was recently introduced to, and could be attributed to him

ALSO, and most important. Steven calls it a dream. In the other two instances we’ve seen of him reliving Pink’s memories, he’s been aware of it on some degree. Even when he didn’t know what was happening on Jungle moon, he could recognize what he was seeing was something that happened, that the emotions were not his own, and how that pertained to his powers. He knows when he’s living a memory. Steven experience that dream as a dream, not a memory.

Confirmation that the pebbles aren’t isolated from other gems (ie, they aren’t hiding from Steven’s friends). I’ve seen thoughts on how the pebbles might be to Pink what the comb and walls were to the other Diamonds, semi sentient byproducts of their extractions. Their little society thrived on Pink’s good will, it was simply how she applied these not quite gems.

That they are so quick to declare Era 3 on Pink’s return further supports the theory that the resource crisis came not from the lack of acquisition of Planets, but from whatever Pink was able to provide (ala extraction)

Which brings the question, how old was Pink? We usually assume, based on how they treat her, that she was significantly younger than her diamond sisters. But if all four of their extraction liquid is needed to make viable, full strength gems, then we should, at the very least, be in era 3 already. There should have been an era before Pink and her contribution, before she was made

Meaning she may have been just as old as her sisters

It’s just, the being treated as a child because she was younger never sat well with me, because we are being continuously smashed in the face that a newborn gem knows exactly what it’s made to do, how to do it, and how to fit in. The outlier gems we know and love are just that, outliers. That they would have to coddle Pink while she learned the ropes as a young gem is ridiculous. That they had to coddle Pink because she showed repeated incompetence as a ruler in the style the Diamonds are accustomed to makes more sense.

Pink, as Rose, often lamented her inability to change and her deep belief in a gem not changing their purpose. Not something she’d be so set in if she herself was able to change.

So basically, Pink might be just as old as Yellow and Blue, but her incompetence and childishness has nothing to do with inexperience, and all to do with how she acts and how she’s treated in kind. She Emerged childish, and remained so, not expected to change.

Between Yellow’s jealousy of Steven getting to talk to White, and Blue’s eagerness to please her and comparing that need to please White with their own Court’s requirement to please their Diamonds, I’m leaning pretty heavy into the ‘White existed before all, and made the others’ theory.

YELLOW PEARL WALKING EN POINTE MY BALLERINA WEAK ASS CAN NOT HANDLE

“You can accept or reject the members of your court at your leisure” What happens if they’re rejected?

Like, this is such a stressful situation for Steven. Good on him for double checking tradition and protocol and trying to impress he knows this is important and needs to get his foot in the door. Breaking the mold is not what he needs, and this is so hard for him my poor boy.

I’ve been sitting on this for a long time. But I feel like dancing and singing for gems is a lot more than demonstrative. Between the dancing having some sort of correlation for gems getting into the mindset and harmonizing for fusion, the Pearls being requested to sing to make Blue feel better, the idea that a Diamond should never need to dance, the corruption being a song, I feel like there’s something physiological going on here. I’ve been hovering on the headcanon that song can artificially boost a gem’s mentality (as sung by say, a servant, like a comb or Pearl), but I’m starting to wonder if the foundation is there for canon

Based on her mouth, Yellow Pearl is actually making that smug AF face when she says “my feelings are irrelevant” and like... I can see her thinking that way based on the proud demeanor she puts on and the expectations of a Pearl. It’s a good thing she’s recognizes and is ok with that fact.

Blue Pearl speaking up! We all like to characterize her as shy but like, she buts in when Blue is needed, went exploring while Blue grieved on earth and found Greg, has somehow arranged with her Diamond the allowance to draw during court...Heck the way she glances down when Yellow is talking and then inputs that she likes to draw looks more like contemplation than hesitance. She’s not shy, she’s soft spoken, like her Diamond!

Really all this Pearl interaction is so good I could watch it forever

Yellow Pearl your aesthetic is on point and I love you (pun intended)

Even after explaining to Yellow and Blue, the idea that they don’t really comprehend what he is, and thus can’t change out of his “prefered shape” to something more pleasing to White is a hard hitter, but expected. Their comprehension of what’s going on with Steven/Pink is a delicate, complicated thing, and explains a lot about why they think of him as Pink, because they don’t really understand what he is.

Though Blue changing the subject to the Earth gems feels like the show writers desperately trying to acknowledge this without talking through the logistics or consequence, yet, since there’s a lot to cram into an episode. I feel like they might be saving that comprehension by the Diamonds for an emotional climax

Blue Pearl hiding her drawing like. She knows when that’s allowed and now aint it

Like, being immersed in homeworld and seeing how stifling it is, you can almost physically see Blue making allowances for subpar gems for Pink’s sake. Their reluctance, even in the face of obtaining usable gems, to work towards Earth makes a lot of sense this way. If they’re struggling to deal mentally with four outliers, then why would they want to waste effort on a planet of traitors and off colors, even with a few usable loyal gems to sweeten the pot? It’s just a few lowley gems and they’ve been gone this long already. It’s bellow their notice. They are making allowances for Pink, because this is her little project and she’s doing something productive. But it’s more cute than anything

We now have our homeworld Garnet spectrum! We already knew about Hessonite, but we now have the Demantoids and the Pyropes as well. Of course, the Demantoids are a green spectrum, and Pyropes are red, giving us the core three colors

The way Blue says “I’ll take care of it, I’ll take care of everything” when asking Steven if he’ll ring in the ball is very telling. When she arrives latter, she congratulates Steven on how well he’s done, but this right here, after she’s gotten fed up with his attitude, his lack of understanding, ect, is very similar to her dismissiveness of Pink in Steven’s dream on the moon base. Gem society is one that expects perfection from the second you are made. It makes sense that eons of picking up any slack that Pink left behind as a leader in a society that doesn’t need to learn has made them unwilling to teach and quick to frustrate and jump in

The way Garnet says “She’s not going to listen to me, but she may listen to Pink” makes me wonder if she saw something. It would explain why she showed up anyways.

The wall statue that sings is the creepiest thing ever. It also might indicate that there are no gems whose purpose is music

Lets talk for a moment about this

Over the course of the episode, we get a pretty good idea of what the whole room looks like. This point in time is before the arrival of the guard. Rubies will stand on the left side, with the yellow spectrum gems, and the sapphires on the right side (this is debatable, as we see them in both directions when the dancing breaks up, but they are at the very front), with the quartz, made up mostly of Amethysts with a sprinkling of Jasper, taking up a row between this crowd and the Ruby/Sapphire line. There is a Sprinkling of Aquamarines in the back attending the curtains.

So here’s what I want to talk about.

Who’s gems are these?

I kept an eagle eye out, and of all the gems, only the Amethysts (like the famethyst, blue) and the Rubies (like the Ruby gang, yellow) have designation diamonds. So there are a few possibilities. None of these possibilities necessarily excludes the others. It could be all, none, or a combination of these.

That higher ranking gems do not need disgnational diamonds. If you’re a court gem, then you should be recognizable by your diamond by sight.

The primary group of gems here are shapeshifted. Blue Diamond mentions that the court gems should be putting their best gem forward for their diamond, and the dancing for this particular group of gems seems oldy specific to their shape. Steven universe puts a lot into the little aesthetical details for worldbuilding. That most of these gems are homogenous in clothing design, the odd leg mass, lack of businesslike diamond insignia when they’re on the guards... A lot of people are disappointed that the diamonds didn’t dress up, but the diamonds are perfect as they are, why should they? This might be a court gem’s idea o dressing up. I went back through The Answer, to see if I could find any cases of these gems silhouettes in the crowd, and a few of them actually do show up! Some in the form of round skirts, but a lot of the clockwork gear skirts have waist and up matches in the crowd of Blue’s court.

These were the only, very specific type of gem allowed to even attend. Despite listing Garnets, none are apparent in any way in the crowd. The cut of gems are also very suspiciously homogenous for a show so focused on detail. Even Shadow puppet flashbacks had differentiating gem cut. But, this is Pink’s first debut, and Blue does mention taking over everything right before this. She may have dictated which gems were allowed, or expected to attend. Hence, we get this homogenous bunch, a gentle and easy to please group, a kids glove version of court for Pink, amethyst and like quartz, sapphires, and rubies, so Pink’s earth friends can blend in, and Aquamarines, to guard the door and not ruin this for Pink.

these are bulk gems designed without thought. But again, with all the detail and worldbuilding that Sugar has been painstakingly slotting together for years before the show was even approved, this seems not at all the case

So what does that have to do with who’s gems these are?

I think there are two possibilities. One is that the entire group is Pink’s. As of the arrival of Blue and Yellow, Steven is already going through the process of greeting the clockwork skirted gems, and Pearl says they are nearly complete. We are then (before the Diamonds) given the arrival of Amethyst, who we know must arrive with the other quartz. All the Quartz have Blue Diamond’s yes, but the quartz crowd is made of of Amethysts and some Jaspers. We know that (Despite our main Jasper being Yellow’s) Blue took on a majority of Pink’s quartz soldiers, and up till now, Amethyst and Jasper have been associated with Pink specifically.

Then, the arrival of our Ruby and Sapphire, with a group of their own kind, all presenting themselves specifically to Steven. The Rubies all have Yellow diamonds on them (and we know there were Rubies taken in by Yellow) but present themselves to Steven anyways, meaning these may have been Pink’s warriors.

We know, from Yellow Pearl, that the Diamond’s all worry about acknowledging the presence of their own Courts. Steven would be presented with his, to approve or reject at his leisure, as would Yellow, and Blue. Now there’s no guarantee that all of these gems have been acknowledged, but the fact that the Sapphires, all blue, presenting themselves to Steven means that colors outside his spectrum are not automatically excluded from his court. (And are these all his sapphires! OR are these ALL the Sapphires there are? Either way, that is incredibly rare compared to the sheer numbers coming out of kindergartens. No wonder Blue recognized our Sapphire.)

We also see none of the Garnets that Blue listed as attending, nore Agates, which Zircon (during the Trial) mentioned should be in Pink’s Entourage, despite the fact that their purpose is to keep grunt gems in line, and there are Amethysts in attendance. This could indicate there there are more gems due to arrive after their Diamonds.

Alternatively, and more likely, the group of pastels on the right are Pink’s, and the group of greens and yellows on the left are Blue and Yellow’s. Following the idea that these gems were hand picked to either let Pink’s friends blend in, or to be so passive and simpering and forgiving that they are basically Baby’s First Court, we also see a Yellow and Green gem (the outliers who later fuse) reacting to Yellow and Blue specifically, and their fusion has yellow and blue diamonds on it. Finally, of all the silhouettes I found in The Answer, all of them belonged to the group on the left, which makes sense, if both have examples of Blue’s court.

TLDR: Pink’s gems on the right, Blue and Yellow’s on the left, Amethysts and Rubies are Pink’s, Saphire’s like, 70% sure Pinks, and the entire group was demanded, and the only ones allowed, to come. Also the skirts are not every day attire.

The first time I saw Amethyst in the limb enhancers, I thought for sure that she would be wearing them all of Diamond days and that she’d be taking them back to Peridot. I was legit disappointed by Opal fusion because of this.

Also was 100% sure Amethyst’s trick was gonna be picking her nose.

Notice, that on little notice, Sapphire, Ruby, and Amethyst all know the dance they are supposed to do. Sapphire and Ruby make sense, if said dance never changes, but Amethyst seems to be failing more from the unfamiliarity of limb enhancers than lack of knowledge. Gems don’t learn or get taught things on homeworld, so I wonder if it’s something Amethyst just knew, if Pearl or Garnet taught her, or if it’s something to do with the music. I really just want an episode dedicated to her obtaining her limb enhancers.

Steven batting away the floating finger is precious.

so.many.sapphires

Sapphires are such an ascetic I love them all

Our Saphire is still most babe

But seriously, they present themselves to Steven, are they all Steven’s Sapphires, or just ALL the Sapphires that exist?

again, Padparadscha, so I think there’s more Sapphires. So these are all Steven’s Sapphires?

Everything about the Diamond entrance is so extra. but understandable. It’s a poshed up, showy event for the sake of the lower gems. It’s SUPPOSED to be extra

But them striking their mural poses are ESPECIALLY EXTRA

dat blue diamond hip sway. It’s ok random crowd gem, I’d cry too.

Not sure when to mention this but the circle cut gems with nose placement baby girls I’m so sorry.

That Aquamarine with the nose like wow

Jasper.... she made out good

two screens of interaction an I had already shipped the future fusion gems

White Diamond’s (Through her Pearl) reiteration of era 3, and her creepy, almost approving stare, says a lot about how she’d feeling about Pink. I’m starting to buy more and more that that her performance at the end of “Legs from here to homeworld” were the dredges of 6000 years of denial in the face of Pink shattering and her current mood is pushing Steven as hard into that niche as possible. I’m really getting the feeling that she might actually help with corruption, on the condition that Pink Diamond never leave homeworld again. Heck, that might have been her plan all along, in giving Pink the kind of colony she did and with corruption.

Really, the way that it cuts from White Pearl’s stare, down to Steven looking up, is in such a way that insinuates that she’s staring at Steven.

The way the cog wheel skirts bend, and knowing Sapphire has legs, is what inspired the “shapeshifted for the occasion” bit

regardless, I think there’s legs in there

For serious though. That these gems have such flat looking clothing, when we see such variance in other gems before, that they all have the same cut of gem and hair makes it look like just simplified crowd building. No to say that we don’t see examples of recolors and copy pastes in the crowd. But there’s such variance in the facial expressions and we’ve seen some of these silhouettes before. SOMETHING is up with this weird group of gems, especially with such detail everywhere else. I would bet REAL ACTUAL MONEY these gems were hand picked to be the most appealing to White Diamond for Pink’s benefit by Blue

People are already ragging on Connie for being super dumb about dragging Steven on the Dance floor but like. This is the first real exposure gem culture too, and no one is focusing on her to manhandle all these rules and manners into her. There was an entire episode dedicated to him experiencing Gem Stuff on a much more intense level than her and all the trouble that caused in their relationship. But even understanding the gravity of the situation. She’s right, White isn’t there, and the Diamonds so far seem really lenient with Steven, and they weren’t intending to fuse. On top of that, this is obviously a callback to Alone Together. She’s trying to cheer him up the same way he cheered her. She’s trying to be emotionally supportive to a friend who’s so emotionally worn out and exhausted. She has no reason to believe a few moments of dancing wouldn’t be forgiven, and the payoff of cheering Steven is way bigger than that risk. Her perception of the situation is different than our, and that was the smart, kind, thing for a friend to do at the time.

Sapphire notices Steven and Connie, but SO DOES RUBY. I wonder, based on their IMMEDIATE reaction of fusing, what they saw before the ball? Did they see this possibility and come because of that, keeping their eyes peeled just in case?

Buuuuut based on her dialog, I do wonder if Connie intended to fuse? Like, you know what happens when you dance girl? Again, White isn’t there, Yellow and Blue are lenient, Steven is a diamond, and she hasn’t really had the taboo of fusion bashed into her head with the same context Steven has. Steven is tired, and tired of being Pink. The line “Im here” is such a loaded one with a lot of history in fusion for them, especially after the episode Mindful Education. She might have been outright asking if he needed to fuse for a while.

Stevonnie’s fusion twirl is just... so cute and dynamic and so reminiscent of Garnet’s second fusion I love it

Why do we get Amethyst and Pearl’s reaction here but not Ruby and Sapphire’s GARNET WHAT DID YOU SEEEEEEE?

Pearl’s reaction to seeing Garnet too. They know that fusions have no chance against the diamonds. What does this stand do other than paint targets on them? Did Garnet warn them beforehand? like “If I fuse during the ball shits going down form Opal”? What’s going to happen to them now? What. has. Garnet. seen?

Honey I don’t know who you are, but you’re a mess and I love you unconditionally. She’s just so happy to be here

Also Everyone else is shocked and then there’s this disgusted bitch. That being said, this does confirm these gems to be different types, despite having such similar cuts

But Opal and Stevonnie both looking at Garnet and Garnet just being like IDK. Just a hard, solid reminder that Garnet can only predict when someone acts typical to themselves, and two court gems fusing in secret is not predictable at all

It makes me wonder, under what circumstances does this sort of thing occur? What is it exactly about cross fusion that fulfills some sort of need in gems? We know it tends to happen when gems are of similar mind and emotional state, so I can see it happening accidentally, but it happens so rarely, and seems almost addictive to the gems in question. What are gems fundamentally lacking that fusion gives them?

That this girl, this candy apple, seaweed, grass in the wind mess of a girl, is 100% on board after like two seconds cause she’s just so happy to see another cross gem fusion just, don’t hurt her please.

That being said, the through the teeth kind of anger we are seeing from Yellow and Blue speaks a lot more of embarrassment than true fury directly at what they see. White’s influence is a mighty thing.

What I’m saying is, how different would it would have gone, if Stevonnie hadn’t happened at the ball?

Stevonnie in Pink Diamond’s outfit is everything I possibly could have wanted. I still want to see them with their hair down post Connie hair cut though.

And that’s... it, that’s the end of the episode. We don’t see the end of the ball, or what happens to the Crystal gems, or where Stevonnie was taken. We know they unfuse next episode, and that it’s the last episode before the special, but this one got me really thinking

#Steven Universe #su spoilers #diamond days #su diamond days #su meta

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