#note the triangular head large eyes and small mouth

[illimitablespaces]

If you gently pull back the ears on a cat, they vaguely resemble an alien.

[raintailed]

Finally drew a sheet for scouts!

More info on their toyhouse

Scouts are a species that was created by Winding Roads at Dusk, using genes from slugcats and northern vultures. They patrolled the regions near WRD, killing or chasing away trespassing creatures.

Now that WRD (who was cruel to the scouts) is dead and the scout blueprints recovered, it's possible for other iterators to make their own scouts. As a result they are an open species; just ask Clear Focus for the blueprints.

Note: scouts have feathers instead of fur and walk quadrupedally.

Notes transcript under the cut

1st Image

Kinda long necks

Long arms + shorter legs = sloped back

Deep chest

Dark body, bright wing/tail feathers & eyes. May have white markings

Hands & feet are scaly

2nd image

Hawk wing shape

Primaries attach to a 4th finger

Feet: 1st toe can be rotated to be in line with the other toes

Hands and feet grow "snowshoe feathers" for the winter

3rd Image

Some scouts have bright head feathers

Wattles :D

Scouts have masks! Their mask grows with them & is shed when they reach adulthood. The mask does not regrow.

Scouts don't like going out without their mask.

Mask: large eye holes, triangular nose notch, spikes don't obstruct mouth

4th Image

Lay eggs!

Babies are born bald, then become gray, downy babies with small masks and dark eyes

Juveniles have unfinished masks, small wattles, and don't have bright wing/tail feathers

5th Image

There's a long-tailed variant

Look scraggly when they're molting

They preen each other :]

They often howl at night to check on family

Can walk on hind legs for a short period (it is awkward)

Go into fluff mode (tm) when they are cold

[its-ya-girl-phoeni]

Same Character, Different Fonts (crossover with @ohmystarrynight's Human AU)

-

It had only taken a minute or so for Thomas to fall asleep, essentially using the front of his own vehicle as his bed. Although he had a perfectly good one at home, he was far too tired to deal with walking all the way back there at the moment.

It had been a long day for him, shunting, delivering, the usual tasks those who worked on a railway dealt with.

The front of the train wasn't exactly an ideal resting place, but it had to do for now, at least until he got some energy back.

His momentary power nap was cut short, however, when a voice began to speak.

"Um... excuse me, sir? You shouldn't be sleeping on my front like that. I wouldn't want you to get hurt!"

It sounded remarkably similar to his own, leading him to assume it was another worker around the yard.

"Mmfgh...?" Thomas slurred, blinking the sleep from his eyes. "Is that you, Robert?" He looked around for the source of the voice.

"I'm up here, actually."

He slowly glanced up.

A circular grey face stared back at him, a small smile forming. "...Hello!"

Thomas yelped, nearly falling off the front of the apparently-alive engine before he managed to catch himself. "Wha- What's going on? Who- What are you?!" He stammered, wildly gesturing to the confused engine in his panic.

"...I suppose you must be new to Sodor?" The train questioned, tilting his head (or perhaps just his face). "If so, then my name is Thomas the Tank Engine! ...Or just 'Thomas' for short."

"B-But... my name's Thomas!" He sputtered, pointing to himself with a shaking hand.

"Oh, don't be silly!" The blue train laughed, sounding uncannily like him once again. "It's a very common name to have."

He could only stare in disbelief as the engine snickered to himself.

"This... this can't be real." Thomas muttered. "I have to be dreaming. I'm not actually talking to a train right now, am I?"

"Well, I can assure you that this is real, sir." Train Thomas replied, his face showing a softer expression. "All of the engines here can talk. Most visiting the island are just as surprised as you, trust me."

There was a moment of silence before it was broken by Thomas clearing his throat.

"...Alright, I guess I can accept that my workplace somehow has magical talking trains now, wish someone could've at least given me a warning or two first, but that's not the point right now. What I want to know is..." Thomas began, twiddling his gloved fingers absentmindedly. "Given how you have the same name, and look like my own train, funnily enough... could you be... me? As in, a version of me from another world?"

The question was so baffling and out of nowhere to the tank engine that he couldn't help but laugh.

"BAHAHAHA-!"

Smoke billowed out of his nostrils and mouth, and he coughed for a moment.

"HAHAHAHAck-! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed, but it's just... that sounds so silly! Next you'll tell me that YOU'RE actually a human version of ME!" He laughed harder.

"Well, I'm just trying to make sense of this, alright?!" He snapped, his cheeks turning red. "Why else would I be talking to a train that looks just like me?!"

At that, the Engine Thomas stopped, and began to take note of the man's features.

His small frame, his round button nose...

His thick triangular eyebrows, the way his mouth would curl at the edges when he was upset...

The bright blue clothing with the red ribbon...

The hat with the large number "1" emblazoned on it...

"Oh. Oh. I... I see it now." Train Thomas looked away, embarassed.

"You're welcome, me." Thomas dryly replied. "Now, what should we do with this information?"

A goofy smirk formed on the train's lips. "Oh, I can think of a couple things."

And so, the alternate duo set out on a day of work, friendship-forming, and all sorts of shenanigans together.

[funnywormz]

some notes on my hotel character designs which i am writing mostly for myself but also posting in case anyone is interested. wording these in a list format bc it's easiest for my pea brain

the auditor vs the owner

similarities:

- long pointy noses

- wings

- spiky long-ish hair

- widows peak hairline

- both often wear suits

- greyish skin

differences:

- the owner is tall, auditor is short

- in terms of shape language, the auditor is mostly made of circles and triangles, owner is squares/rectangles and triangles

- owner's arms and wings are one and the same (like a real bird), auditors wings are on her back and separate from her limbs (like a real fly)

- owner's hair is black, auditor's hair is white

- auditor's eyes are small, black and beady, owner's eyes are big and yellow

the manager vs the concierge

similarities:

- both tall and lean, long arms and legs

- grey eyes with white glowy pupils

- sharp dressing, tend to change their outfits the most out of all of the crew and are probably the most "fashion conscious"

differences:

- manager is a little bulkier in her shoulders and has a slight paunch compared to the concierge

- concierge has a rounded chin, manager's chin is triangular

- manager has long hair, cierge keeps his short

- concierge is depicted mostly in greyscale aside from his pocket square and reading glasses, the manager tends to be pretty colourful with her green skin red lips etc

- concierge tends to smile with his mouth closed, the manager shows her teeth

the bellhop vs the lobby boy

similarities:

- not particularly tall but yoked as hell

- triangular body shape with large arms and short legs

- square jaws

- black hair

- similar uniforms + hats obv lol

- grabby little hands

- shoulders hunched over

- little to no visible neck

differences:

- once again, hop is depicted in greyscale while the lobby boy is pretty colourful

- hop has a full head of hair, lobby boy is balding on the top

- likewise, lobby boy's hair tends to hang limp with long strands, hop's is short and although she tries to slick it down it goes puffier/spikier when she's excited

- lobby boy is always very hunched over, hop tends to stand straight up when she's feeling neutral but gets more hunched over the more feral she becomes lol (think like a cat hunching down onto the ground before it pounces on prey)

- lobby boy is knock-kneed and his legs are skinny, hop's legs are thicker

- hop in general has more meat (no pun intended) on her than lobby boy lol

- hop's eyes are wide and always moving and staring, lobby boy's eyes are blank and vacant (although he does also like to stare)

- hop's nose is small, lobby boy's nose is LARGE

[bogleech]

Around a dozen people in my notes lately weren’t entirely sure how a leech and a lamprey are different so I shall talk about my two favorite wet vampires, with “scary” images only under a cut!

LAMPREY:

A vertebrate like you and me!

Big googly eyes

Rows of small, round gill openings

Having gills, it’s one of the vertebrates we call a “fish” and it’s sometimes referred to as a “lamprey eel”

Technically not an eel or related to anything else on earth other than hagfish!

Together the lampreys and hagfish are the last remaining Agnathans, jawless cartilaginous animals older than sharks!

They are quite big, several feet in length at maturity!

No species of lamprey is known to deliberately bite humans; they are specialized in preying on other cold-blooded, gilled aquatic vertebrates, like all those newfangled fish with jaws.

Not all species actually feed as adults, though.

Young lamprey are blind, transparent filter feeders that live buried in sediment!

Despite no direct relation, many species migrate from ocean to freshwater river to spawn, exactly like almost all true eels.

Good parents. Will use their suckers to build a nest out of stones and protect the eggs!

Messy and grisly vampires. Again nothing to worry about if you aren’t a fish, but those that still feed in their mature form rasp a large wound in the victim to vacuum up blood and even tissue. This is frequently deadly to smaller river fish such as immature bass and trout.

LEECH:

Annelids closely related to earthworms!

A sucker at the head end houses the mouth. On the tail end is a second sucker to help grip surfaces or “walk” like an inchworm.

Usually have a bunch of tiny speck eyes around the head, but some have eyes down the body and on the rear end too!

Most are amphibious to some degree and some live their whole lives on land in moist environments.

Only some species drink blood. Most leeches are predators of snails, worms and aquatic insects.

ALSO good parents! Some leeches leave a cocoon full of babies with its own food supply inside, like a yolk, others carry their young on their underside until they’re big enough to fend for themselves.

Careful and polite vampires. Those that drink blood create only a tiny little pinhole with their bite, using a powerful anticoagulant so blood flows freely from the surgically delicate wound. Once full, they detach and drop off on their own.

MOUTH COMPARISON: (MAY DISTURB SOME PEOPLE???)

LAMPREYS have the big, gaping circular mouth full of frightening looking teeth, borrowed by countless pop-culture monsters and, incorrectly, most pop-culture leeches.

“JAWED LEECHES,” which include most of those that will suck your blood, have a mouth so tiny it’s often not even visible, but it is surrounded with three very tiny jaws in a triangular arrangement, each covered in microscopic teeth.

There does however also exist a large group of “proboscis leeches,” which drill into the host with a needle-thin, barbed “tongue.” Very few of these feed on mammals like us! Yet another group of leeches are both jawless and tongueless; they actually swallow whole prey like a snake.

[canmom]

Animation Notes: evolution of the anime girl, part 1

So last week we investigated ways of drawing the human head in a realistic way. Armed with this knowledge, let’s see how to stylise it...

Nowadays, when people speak about ‘anime style’, or an ‘anime girl’, they probably mean a moe design like this:

(That’s Aoi Miyamori from Shirobako, designed by Ponkan8.)

Animators learn to draw this type of design, and various standardised symbolic expressions, in books like キャラの気持ちの描き方 (kyara no kimochi no egaki kata, How to Draw the Feelings of the Characters).

Certain features you expect to see here:

the basic structure is resembles the Loomis head: spherical cranium, jaw coming down.

the cheek/jaw contour is simplifed and comes to a point (or close to it), with an outwards curve along the cheek. There is no major sharp indentation around the eye socket, but there may be a gentle concave curve.

the eyes are very large, with a lot of detail put into the shading of the pupil, specular highlights, and the shape of the eyelashes; the face is balanced around these large eyes so it doesn’t look alien.

the nose by contrast is massively deemphasised to the point of just being a dot in many cases.

the face has almost no structure or shading, so that it’s almost always a completely flat colour.

the mouth is also drawn very small, with no shading or structure applied to the lips; a small shadow under the mouth might be applied.

the neck is very narrow, and meets the head in the centre, so the cranium goes back about as far as the face goes forwards in side view.

the hair is broken up into roughly triangular locks. (the number and position of these locks of hair is actually part of the settei and the animators are expected to keep it consistent.)

the hair has typically three layers of shading: midtone, shadow, and specular highlight. the shape of the specular highlight is part of the design and won’t usually be changed based on lighting conditions. the skin rarely has a specular highlight. the eye could easily have four or more layers of shading.

lines are very thin and even, and may sometimes be broken inside the form - particularly on a closed mouth. the contours of major forms are typically outlined, while shadows and highlights are usually lineless

generally speaking, characters’ heads are much bigger than they are on real humans relative to the rest of the body.

At some point I made a little turnaround based on that book of my best attempt at the time of a moe anime head. here,

Looking back at this I can see some issues, e.g. with inbetweening the upper contour of the head, but overall this still works pretty well. Maybe soon I’ll try and do a more complex head turn with acting and like... actual hair lmao.

Anyway, this approach to stylisation could be considered something of a ‘default’ in the anime industry, but of course 1. it has evolved considerably over time, and 2. ‘anime’ encompasses a huge range of styles.

We could focus on a number of threads, but in this case, I’m going to zero in on drawings of main character girls in 3/4 view - chosen because these are some of the least diverse not the most, since, male characters tend to be more varied in general, either with more ‘realistic’ proportions or more exaggerated and stylised.

Actually, to comment a little further on that. The ‘large eyes’ stylisation is typically applied to characters intended to have a certain amount of cuteness, so in addition to the familiar genus of anime girl, it is also commonly applied to young boys. We can see this in the wildly popular ufotable adaptation of Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer), which in classic shōnen fashion has a young hot-headed boy as its protagonist:

(Tanjiro, designed by Akira Matsushima)

However, as your anime boy grows up into an anime man, his eyes will tend to get smaller, closer to a real size. It’s hard to find another example in Demon Slayer (I couldn’t find anyone scanning the first few episodes) so let’s turn to another anime.

A much stronger of dimorphism example comes in Production I.G.’s anime Psycho-Pass. Here is protagonist Akane Tsunemori, designed by Akira Amano and Kyoji Asano, who has huge eyes with a distinctive shape:

Starring alongside her is Shinya Kōgami, who’s 28 years old, and has much smaller eyes:

and for even stronger contrast, the older Nobuchika Ginoza:

You can see therefore that as a character gets older, their design often (not always) shifts further towards realism: their eyes get smaller, and a lot more lines and wrinkles are added to the face. (The strong shadow under the cheekbone is incidentally a Production I.G. staple.)

Something similar also applies to women; smaller eyes and more structure tends to indicate maturity. Let’s take a different Production I.G. work, Seirei no Moribito; here is 30-year-old Balsa designed by Gatou Asou:

and returning to Psycho-Pass, here is Jōshū Kasei, the director of the police unit, an older woman:

Although the amount of extra face detail isn’t quite so extreme as Ginoza above, we see the addition of lines to indicate the nasolabial fold, and more complex shading around the eye socket.

(Of course, not every anime takes this exact approach. In particular, there are ways of stylising old people which push into exaggeration; Hayao Miyazaki loves doing this.)

Now, this ‘look’ to anime has only been the standard for a couple of decades at most. The styles used in anime of the 1980s tended to look very differen, as you can see comparing Gunbuster (1988-9), with characters designed by Haruhiko Mikimoto...

to its sequel Diebuster (2004-6) a decade later, with characters designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto:

This particular shot animated by Ayumi Shiraishi might be a bit looser, simplifying shapes for comedic effect, but one of the differences is precisely the greater willingness to go off-model like this.

Part of the difference is surely the transition from physical, painted cels to digital colouring and compositing, but as you can see looking at the settei above, there is a real difference in feel from the 80s design to the 2000s one. This comes in places like: the shape of the chin, the use of hatching, the general feeling of the shapes (more rounded in the 80s), the bulk of the hair.

So, where did the ‘anime style’ come from? Let’s trace its evolution across the entire duration of anime, in a manner similar to Kimi Rito’s ‘expressionist’ approach in The History of Hentai Manga. Of course, it would be impossible to comment on every anime ever made, but I’d like to find representative examples of most of the major styles used in the industry in their respective eras.

The Very Dawn of Anime

Japanese animation (whether or not we yet consider it ‘anime’) is pretty much as old as animation itself, i.e., started in the beginning of the 20th century.

Famously, Osamu Tezuka got the ball rolling on TV anime with Astro Boy, but prior to him there was a reasonable amount of film animation, and prior to that, short film animation. I believe the oldest known Japanese animated film is Namakura Gatana (1917) by Jun’ichi Kōuichi, a short film about a samurai with a blunt sword, in a cutout animation style looked like this:

Naturally this has little resemblance to any of the future styles that became known as ‘anime style’. To me it calls to mind a little ukiyo-e artists such as Sharaku, but also presumably shows the influence of international animators like Émile Cohl. We’ll skim over those first few experiments though - please read about them here if you’re interested!

In contrast to later styles of anime we’re going to cover, here the balance of features is essentially opposite with a large jaw and mouth, reduced cranium, exaggerated forehead. I’m not going to draw a study of this one.

1930s

Unfortunately many of the films of the 1920s are lost, so it’s difficult to comment on them. So rolling the clock forward a bit, we can observe one interesting example in Benkei tai Ushiwaka (1939), a fantasy/mythological film that came in a period when animators were largely required to make propaganda films for the nationalist government.

So here’s Ushiwaka (Minamoto no Yoshitsune); there’s no credited character designer but presumably the design is due to Kenzo Masaoka, the director of the four-person team. (He and his wife also did the voice acting.)

What influences this design? It’s hard to say without a much deeper familiarity with Japanese art history at the time. We might see the influence of Fleischer; at the time Japanese animators were competing with foreign productions by working cheaply (la plus change...), but American animations were widely shown, so no doubt Fleischer and their contemporaries would prove an influence - particularly in the animation itself which uses a lot of loops in the same way as Fleischer. And, indeed, in this film, Masaoka was experimenting with pre-recorded sound to follow the American method. Regardless, we’re here to study faces.

So here’s an attempt to copy Ushiwaka; no tracing, etc. I picked this character because he seems the most similar to future anime designs.

The way I broke this down is a kind of wedge shaped head (like a Loomis head), which I indicated with dashed lines, and then cheek chub added on to make a rounder head shape overall. The overall contour has a slightly thicker line weight. The forehead seems very large here, and the eyebrows faced very high, bc he’s a historical monk etc. etc. The big difference is that the eyes are simple and haven’t been drawn very big, and the way the nose is drawn.

Looking at the designs in this film, it doesn’t look exactly like any Disney/Fleischer characters, but I do think it shares a bit of a design sensibility with Disney of this era (notably Snow White).

Beyond animation, the other major cultural presence of illustration would be kamishibai paper theatre, where performers would show illustrated cards to a accompany oral storytelling. It’s a little difficult to find examples of kamishibai boards dating back to the 1930s, but here’s one I found in this article from a kamishibai called Cry of the Andes (アンデスの叫び Andesu no Sakebi) originally sourced from Manga Kamishibai by Eric P Nash.

This has a painted style that resembles American commercial illustration in the same period, though notably the face is quite flat and without much shading away from the eyes, or the use of line weight under the nose.

1940s

After Snow White proved that an animated feature film was in fact possible, other countries jumped on in. So the first feature-length Japanese animated film - a propaganda film - came during the second world war.

(In fact, as an aside, Japan’s animators were beaten to the feature film punch by the Wan brothers in Shanghai who completed Princess Iron Fan under Japanese bombs! Animation Night 29 - that film may be watched here on the Internet Archive, though sadly it’s quite a rough print.)

In this period, the fascist government was exerting severe control on art, but also throwing a lot of money at those animators willing to play along and make propaganda films. That takes us to Momotaro: Sacred Sailors (1945), the sequel to the 37 minute Momotaro’s Sea Eagles (1943). It centres on the folk character Momotarō who had been increasingly appropriated as a nationalist symbol, portrayed as a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army/Navy, since the First Sino-Japanese War.

This one uses mostly anthro animal characters, and features for its time extremely sophisticated animation of war machines, and generally a high drawing count. Shōchiku made a 4K print of it (complete with big disclaimer at the beginning) which can be viewed on Youtube here.

The actual character designs are very simple - perhaps even more so than Ushiwaka above. Very rounded cutesy shapes - an early instance of cuteness being used to promote imperialism and war I suppose. This character is a monkey, but we can look at them a bit like a human still. The face is very flattened: the overall head shape is two curves connected by straights. It’s kind of like a lego head.

Momotarō is mostly relevant because of the influence it had on later animation. Notably, a young Osamu Tezuka saw the film in 1945; WP unsourced writes:

He later said that he was moved to tears by the movie's hints of dreams and hopes, hidden under the appearance of war propaganda. 

The staff on the film included Kenzo Masaoka, director of the above discussed Benkei tai Ushiwaka; most of its staff (quite a small list!) had a limited career in subsequent anime.

Kamishibai also took on a militaristic tone during this period, such as Kintaro the Paratrooper seen here:

I don’t have the evidence to really document whether the difference in style from the previous example represents a general trend, but these illustrations are a lot simpler and more graphical.

In 1945 of course Japan lost the war and the country came under American occupation. US comics, films and TV flooded into Japan, and this kicked off an explosion of manga creation - indeed, the definition of manga as an art form. So this is where our history really begins.

Next time: early manga, Toei’s films, the styles of Osamu Tezuka and Go Nagai, and the first steps towards more complex designs...

[ahamkara-apologist]

Morphology of Different Eliksni Houses

*Quick note: These are all generalizations about what members of each House generally looked like back on Riis, and do not reflect all members of all Houses. Likely there was a lot of genetic drift pre-Whirlwind, with some of the ancestral traits becoming more pronounced or dying out post-Drift after the Houses became too mistrusting of each other to interbreed. I also headcanon the Eliksni to once have had horns (facial carapace spines essentially) on Riis, which no longer develop post-Whirlwind due to a lack of essential horn-building nutrients that are scarce in Sol

House of Kings: The 'typical' Eliksni, with a rounded face, brown-ranged carapace, and purplish skin, dwelling in scrubland and by the oceans of Riis. Eliksni from the House of Kings have the largest size difference between the young and their elders, with Kings generally staying small until they hit a huge growth spurt later in life. Out of all the other Houses, they have the sleekest, most rounded appearance (yes that includes weight too), which was theorized to have been a leftover from when the Eliksni moved from the sea onto land. Lightly speckled carapaces were occasionally seen, but the most distinguishable King trait other than the face and carapace shape would be a markedly lighter underside with a darker back. Very small, rounded horns were common (more like nubs than actual horns), but the keel on their back plates was typically more pronounced than those of other houses.

House of Devils: Broad, square jaws with a sturdy frame and long limbs make House Devils, who once lived in the grasslands/wetlands and new-growth forests of Riis. In terms of growth without ether, they're usually a moderately large clan, and generally sport a ruddy brown carapace, though more blue or grey shades are not uncommon. Despite their sturdy build, squared-out frame, broad shoulders, and sloped muzzles, they're more genetically related to House Kings than others, and some theorize that the similarly long-legged frame of the House of Wolves was the result of some Devils running away to the forests to found a new House. They've got the highest chance of red or pink eyes out of any other group, and sometimes had thylacine-like markings on their carapace. Often had very straight, sharp, cone-shaped horns jutting back from their head, with some smaller ones flanking the cheekbones or jaws.

House of Wolves: Like House Devils, they have square jaws than other houses; unlike House Devils, however, the members of the House of Wolves often have a more triangular headshape, with a wide jaw, roman nose and a much narrower muzzle than other Houses. It was this distinct facial feature that won them their name in human tongues, paired with their ferocity. The House of Wolves lived in the forests and foothills of Riis, which reflects in their carapace colours- they are much darker than other Eliksni, with shells that can shade from midnight blue to indigo to purple, and eyes to match. Wolves generally tend to have more height than mass, and typically horns that sported a gentle curve to them

House of Stone: Generally large and heavyset with a thick exoskeleton, which earned them their name, as they appeared to be carved from rock. Pronounced brow ridges and heavily-keeled carapace plates was their distinguishing trait, along with chances of dappling around the mouth and hands. The House of Stone was large and sprawling, so they didn’t often settle in just one place at a time, but their ancestral home was typically on hills/plateaus with lots of exposed rockfaces or scattered boulders. Horns tended to stick out from the head and have a pronounced curve to them. Pale grey or tan carapace colours with darker marks were typical to members with ancestry from House of Stone. Albinism was more common in the House of Stone than with others, and green or yellow eyes were often found in a good portion of the population.

House of Rain: Typically smaller and blue-grey in colour, with rounded cheeks and a gently sloping, tapered muzzle. Freckles were common, and their horns, though small, sometimes would have prongs near the base. The House of Rain was named not for their freckles, which was often referenced as looking like raindrops on their carapaces, but because they typically lived on the lakes of Riis, in floating settlements on the water. Many spiritual leaders came from or were tutored by House Rain, but their unique propensity for floating dwellings generally kept Eliksni not born to their lifestyle from moving into their settlements. Pale blue or purple eyes generally outclassed the normal bright cyan. Shoulder, back, and elbow spines occasionally popped up among members, giving them a more crocodilian appearance.

House of Judgement: Members are almost entirely made up of relinquished orphans and thus have no set house traits. While breeding is discouraged to prevent the House from becoming too overwhelmed with hatchlings, many of the broodnests tend to have mixes of features of many different houses.

House of Scar: Once a desert-based house, these Eliksni are typically smaller, reddish-brown in colour, and have flatter, wider, boxy heads with many small carapace spines that jut outwards (like a horny lizard). Instead of piercing blue-greens, they often had warmer eye colours, ranging from red to orange to gold to match the red-oranges of Riis’s arid areas. Dark marks around the eyes to filter out sun glare were typical of House Scar, with mottled striping around the shoulders and a pale underbelly. The teeth at the end of their mandibles were also larger than those of other Houses, and their carapace was more spined/barbed instead of sleek to help capture dew along their backs in the early morning, which ran down grooves in the plates onto points with high circulation to keep them cool later in the day. Like House Winter, many had flat feet with thick carapace pads to better withstand unstable ground and extreme temperatures.

House of Winter: Named for their affinity to mountains and polar regions of home-Riis, these Eliksni still show their ancestry quite clearly. House Winter purebreds tend to have carapace that is a lighter grey in colour, and can vary to near-whites or blues in some morphs. They're heavybuilt, naturally one of the largest of the Eliksni, and often have pale blue eyes with much darker skin. Spacefaring and interbreeding has darkened them somewhat, but their chunkier frames and distinctly rounded features set them apart even now. They had the highest fat to muscle ratio of any Eliksni, and partial albinism/piebaldism (albinism only of the skin, not the carapace) would sometimes lead to pale Eliksni with light purple skin. Generally had broad feet and hands with thick carapace pads to deal with cold temperatures, and serrated claws to help them grip the ice.

[angryschnauzer]

Full Mast

Summary: Your idyllic life as a trophy wife of a rich lord is suddenly disturbed with the arrival of a pirate ship and a mutiny... what will your husband do to save you from the pirates grasp?

Fandoms: Henry Cavill, Sand Castle - Movie, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Night Hunter, Hellraiser Hellworld

Pairing: Captain Syverson x Female Reader.

A/N: This is a CRACK FIC. After a brief discussion with @nuggsmum about the cheap romance novels that you could find in the 80′s and 90′s, i called upon the awful storylines, plot holes, and general cheesyness of those books that walked so fanfiction could run. Read the warnings please.

Storyboard note: The only artwork i could find that was suitable to show a Henry-like character included the woman seen above. I tried to crop as much of her out as possible, the story itself does not describe the female reader at all.

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, Very Dubious Consent, Dub-con, public fingering, public sex, shackles, imprisonment, very corny word choices that echo back to the romance novels. 

Full Mast

You resisted the strong arms that pulled you along, the rough blindfold shielding you from your destination, and yet you could hear the call of the gulls so you knew you were near to the shoreline. The cloth tied tightly around your mouth to gag you overwhelmed your senses, the rich musk of male sweat reminding you in no uncertain terms that these were far from civilised men that had snatched you away from your husbands rose garden as you’d been quietly cutting blooms in the dewy morning light.

The ground beneath your feet changed from loose earth to cobblestones, and you could smell the stench of the docks; of the gutted fish and the slop buckets, of the morning after the night before sailors' tavern. You had never been inside but had heard tales of the men that frequented it; dark and dangerous, men that circled the globe as well as the law. Your husband had regaled you with stories of such men, no doubt to frighten you from wandering off, but the man your father had arranged for you to be married to was but two generations your senior, old enough to be your grandfather, and rarely finished a story without veering off to start another. You’d had no say in the matter, the Lord had paid your father a princely sum for your hand in marriage, ignoring your pleas and protests. It had been three months since your father had hopped upon a spice ship returning to Europe with his gold, forgetting about his only daughter.

“Almost there” a gruff voice uttered, and you were suddenly hoisted over a wide shoulder

“Mmmmfff!” you exclaimed around the gag, but your protests were not heard as the men climbed the gangplank and aboard a vessel. Soon you were tied and thrown into a small room, left alone in the darkness as you heard the ship being prepared for sail.

-

The ship was on the open water when you were pulled out into the bright daylight, having managed to work the blindfold lose you were now wishing it was still in place, the bright carribean morning sunshine now blinding you as it glinted on the crystal blue waters. Big men stared hungrily at you as you were dragged across the deck to a small staircase that led up to the ships wheel and that’s when you saw him;

“Captain! Here she is!”

The big man at the wheel grinned, his bushy beard and cropped hair doing little to distract you from his piercing blue eyes that shone with a marked interest. Nodding to a young dark haired man he handed the control of the wheel over before quickly descending the stairs and landing steadily on his booted feet just inches from where you stood. With a toothy grin he looked down at you, his gaze falling to your heaving bosom where the stays of your corset had become loose in the struggle, licking his lips before he addressed one of the men gripping your arms;

“Well ain’t she a peach… caught a good one here Constable”

Your attention snapped to the man at your side and you suddenly realised who he was; Walter Marshall; the town constable. His wild and unruly hair and stone cold stare had kept order in town for as long as you’d lived on the island, but you recalled the last town meeting that had been held at your husband’s mansion had been far from smooth, with a number of towns people getting into a heated argument with the lords and gentry, Constable Marshall being one of them.

“You can still smell the roses on her Sy” the man on your other side commented.

The Captains beard tickled your cheek as he leaned forwards and inhaled, his nose brushing against your bare neck and sending a shiver down your spine, the whimper that escaped your throat barely audible and yet he pulled back, a faint look of surprise on his face that was quickly replaced with a smirk;

“She might be smellin’ of sumthin’ else once we’re done with her” he paused and nodded to the man on your other side; “Walker, shackle her to the rigging chest, we’ll be in the shadows of horseshoe cove shortly until it's time to do the sail past… her husband will realise paying the towns folk their dues is the only way to ensure he can live his idyllic life”

-

An hour of being chained to the enormous storage chest had given you time to watch the goings on of the ship, the way the men worked together, and you’d learned a thing or two about what had seemed to be your boring and idyllic island life had in fact been a town of corruption and mutiny. Captain Syverson had been a Navy Captain, retired once injured but seemingly now fully healed. Walker had been Infantry with the Fusiliers and was a crack shot with both a pistol and a rifle. Of course you already knew of Constable Marshall, and from eavesdropping the conversations you’d learned that they had scuttled the entire islands ships; anything the gentry owned was out of service and unable to sail. With the fishing fleet having left for open waters at dawn there wasn’t a single seaworthy vessel left on the island. Covert operations had meant the fuses for the island’s canons had all been removed in the dead of night, meaning a quick attack would be out of the question. Captain Syverson planned to sail just out of shot reach of your husbands mansion, the ransom note having already been delivered that morning an hour after your disappearance, and only the sign of a yellow flag being waved would ensure your safe return. 

When the dark haired deck hand suddenly came to sit next to you, you were surprised as he started to remove the scarf that still acted as a gag;

“Don’t scream, ok? Capt’n has told me to make sure you drink, he doesn’t want you passing out from thirst”

You nodded and the younger man carefully untied the scarf, before taking the earthenware flagon and lifted it to your lips, the cool ale it held soothing your parched throat. Tipping it a little too much it spilled from your mouth and onto your chest, his eyes going wide in fear;

“I… I can’t touch you… Captain’s orders”

“It’ll dry, its hot out today”

“You’re surprisingly unafraid”

“Should i be afraid?”

He shrugged;

“Dunno. I’m Mikey by the way”

“Aren’t you a little young to be a Pirate?”

Mikey shrugged;

“I guess it was just the inevitable”

Through the conversation that followed you found yourself telling him all about yourself; how your father had basically sold your hand, how your husband was literally only on paper, having far more predilection for the handsome young footman than for you. Mid sentence the Captain’s voice boomed across the deck;

“Mikey! Back to work!”

“Yes Capt’n”

-

When you heard the bells chime of the church on the hill to say it was noon you were moved, the ship sailing around the side of the island and into position 100ft from the shoreline of your husband’s property. With your arms pulled above your head, you were tied to the base of the mast, the big captain coming to stand at your side, his eyes glancing at your breasts as they threatened to spill from your corset that had become loose and had slid down your ribcage.

“What do you see Walker?” 

Peering through the spyglass the moustached man paused before he spoke;

“No yellow flag Captain… wait a moment... they’re using semaphores” He was referring to the message flags that the Navy used to send messages from passing ship to passing ship, each small triangular flag each meaning a different seafaring reference; “Hang on… ‘No duties owed’”

The Captain roared and grabbed the spyglass, peering through before grunting  and handing it back;

“Lets see if we can change his mind, eh?”

Pulling his knife from his thigh holster he hooked the blade beneath the stays of your corset, tearing the garment in two and watching as it fell to the deck at your feet, your breasts now on full show and greeted with a wild cheer from the crew. Syverson turned to Walker;

“How about now?”

He peered through the spyglass before letting out a defeated sigh;

“Same again… no duties owed”

“So, he’s sticking to his guns… let’s kick this up a level”

Turning back to you he smirked;

“This ain't personal sweetheart…”

To your surprise the big man started to gather your skirts, your eyes wide as he pulled up your petticoats and his large hand slid between your silky thighs, finding you without your undergarments and he cocked an eyebrow;

“Your men found me before I had dressed fully for the day”

“I ain’t complainin’ sweetheart, makes it easier to find…”

His hand found your petals and you groaned quietly as he discovered you slick and ready, his calloused fingers seeking out your clit before he slid two into your velvet channel, filling you more than your own fingers ever had;

“Tight little thing, aren’t ya? Your husband got a small dick?”

You turned your head to face him, emboldened by the wanton display;

“I wouldn’t know, i’ve never seen it”

The Captain froze;

“Fuck”

His hand stopped, still inside you and you could feel your walls trembling with excitement around his digits as his men approached, Walker and Marshall both having heard your admission;

“Sy… we gotta continue, we’re owed for three months pay from the Lord…”

He nodded to the mansion;

“What’s the message?”

Checking again, Walker sighed;

“Return Cargo. No duties owed”

The Captain roared with anger;

“The fucking bastard! Every single man on this ship is owed half a years wages, and for what? Keeping his idyllic island life”

The look on his face had changed, and you finally saw the Pirate in him as he approached you, wrapping a big hand around the back of your neck and kissing you roughly. When you willingly opened your mouth and your tongue pushed against his it gave him the green light to go ahead, his body pressing you to the mast and you could feel his hardness pressing against the thin layers of your petticoats. With a flurry of hands he pulled your skirts up and unbuttoned his breaches, revealing his fat length, almost as thick as your wrist and patterned with veins. 

You may never have lain in the marital bed or known the intimate touch of a man, but you had sought your own pleasure with your fingers and even the occasional candle from your husbands drawing room. But you’d never had anything as large as the Captains throbbing length inside you. You hooked your leg over his hip, pulling him close even though your hands were still tied, and let out a cry of pleasure as his hot flesh speared your soaked cavern.

Syverson ravaged you against the mast, fucking you with such a fury that you could feel your body start to tighten around him, and with a cry you came, pressing your head back against the hard wood, a blissful smile across your face as you had your first ever orgasm that you hadn’t given yourself. You were vaguely aware of him pulling out, fisting his shaft and spilling his seed over your bare thighs, before your skirts were dropped and he was fastening himself back into his breeches;

“Well?” the Captain demanded of his men.

Constable Marshall cleared his throat;

“There’s a new semaphore… Cargo Abandoned”

“HE WHAT?” you spat out, filled with anger that your husband would just leave you to the Pirates.

“Very well” Syverson nodded; “Hoist the mainsail, we sail for Kingstown”

He turned to you whilst addressing his men;

“Get her down and have her taken to my cabin” he turned to you; “You ever sailed before?”

“Spent a decade on spice ships Captain” to which he nodded.

“At least you have your sea legs then”

Mikey had unshackled you and was stripping himself of his vest, helping you to slip it onto your arms so you could cover your naked chest.

“Michael?” the captain boomed; “... find her some of the chests of finery we took from that French vessel a couple of months ago”

“Yes Father”

“He’s your father!?”

Mikey nodded;

“Welcome aboard The Cavillry. We’re like one big family here”

Just then the bow hit a wave as it reached the deeper waters, spray splashing up and soaking you, much to Mikey’s amusement;

“You’ll get used to being wet here”

Part 2 Link HERE

-

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Masterlist can be found on AO3, link HERE

[alicemitch09writes]

(un)loving miya atsumu

twelve.

you’re my sunflower.

You didn’t like zoos.

It’s not like you didn’t like animals, there were a whole lot of fascinating creatures that lurked and filled the earth. Coming in different shapes and sizes - some rule the land, some soar the skies, and some are masters of the ocean, they can even be as large as a mountain or as small as your fingernail. Truly, they are humble dwellers on the face of the earth. It’s just that humanity, since their evolution, has learned to dominate the land thanks to their superior intelligence.

Thus, animalia that once ruled the earth were now cut down while humanity increased.

Once they roamed free, now, they are caged and put on display for all of mankind to see. Isolated from the freedom forever.

Hence, why you didn’t like zoos.

Watching animals on display, not being able to run wild and free just didn’t sit right with you.

“Wah!!!! Look, look, look at it, (Y/N)!” Atsumu held on to the railing, leaning down to look at the nearing creature – it looked like a giraffe, but fluffier, lankier, almost floppy.

Sadly, it was mandatory – being a school event and all. It was your first school trip, since moving to Hyogo. It should be exciting if it weren’t for helpless animals put on display.

“It looks like a giraffe and a sheep had a baby,” Osamu said, nearly voicing out your thoughts.

Laughing into your muffler, you eyed the approaching creature warily. “It’s an alpaca.”

“Oh!!!!” Atsumu was shaking with excitement, hand reaching out to touch it.

Very speedily – almost a quick reflex, you pulled Atsumu back at the creature spat, its slimy spit landing just inches from Atsumu’s feet.

“HEY! WHAT THE HECK!”

“Careful, they spit.” You warn, letting him go cautiously. Osamu laughs behind you.

“Ha, not even they like you,”

“’SAMU, SHUT UP!”

A caretaker, who was guiding the gentle creature, looked at the boy in shock, appalled by his language and tone. You had to bow in apology for Atsumu, prompting him to quiet as the three of you continued to roam the outside area of the zoo.

Passing the kangaroo farm, just across it was the penguin walk, where you could hear your schoolmates cooing at the sight of waddling flightless birds.

A collective gasp once the birds appeared, followed by cooing of the girls, some of the boys were clapping their hands to get their attention. Sure, they were cute. But not even that could ease your unease.

“Are you okay, (Y/N)?” Osamu turns to you, seemingly having enough of flightless birds.

“Yeah,” Atsumu rounds you, honey-brown eyes watching. “you barely said a thing since we came here!”

Feeling bad about your lack of response, you could only bow your head in shame. Muttering an apology under your breath, nose digging into your muffler. Cold winds blew in, winter must be approaching.

“Are you hungry?” Osamu asks.

“Do you want to take a dump?” Atsumu asks next.

Shaking your head, head still hung low. They both glance at each other, then to you.

Fiddling with your gloved hands, you wondered if the twins would leave you then and there. Eyes staring down on the concrete ground, focusing on the material that came to view.

You shouldn't have come.

At first, there was a hand – two hands, holding your own. Then a tug.

Suddenly, you weren’t seeing animals on display, allowing yourself to be whisked away.

Veering northeast from where you were.

“Where are we-“

And then, there was a burst of color in different shapes and sizes.

Flowers.

Reading the sign, blinking, the twins brought you to the ‘Flower Garden’.

“Girls like flowers, right?” says Atsumu with a smile, Osamu smiling next to him.

Feeling a smile coming on, a gentle tugging at your heart, slowly you nodded.

“…zoos are just weird,” you say finally, walking down the path, the twins on each of your sides, matching your pace. It shouldn’t be hard, since you were inches taller than them.

“Weird how?” Osamu asks, nose wrinkling as he sniffs around.

Shrugging, you thought of your next words carefully. “Maybe I just don’t like the idea of animals in cages?”

“Well, that’s what zoos are for!” Atsumu says, almost helpfully.

“And that’s where the problem lies.” You point out, drinking in the many flowers, far as the eyes can see.

Walking along the pebbled path, several schoolmates were in the area, gushing and watching at the flowers in interest. There were even some adults, two teachers leaning towards each other, whispering and giggling. Atsumu wrinkled his nose at the sight, Osamu just walked on quietly.

Having rounded the Flower Garden, the three of you leave, your eyes looking around until your eyes fell on the bricked flowerbed by the exit. An array of flowers were on full display, but your eyes on a particular flower. Little pieces of the sun, sprouting brightly against the rest of the equally bright, blossoming, and elegantly arranged flowers. The little sun was peeking up, proud and tall.

Osamu was busy watching some butterfly while Atsumu turned to you, curiously following after your gaze.

Out of nowhere, a bark sounded off. From the corner of her eye - where you vaguely read a sign that said 'Dog Stage' a blur of white and a bright pink tongue came rushing your way.

Quickly, you hid behind the boys, holding on to Atsumu's shirt. Osamu turned to you in shock, then at the dog, a smile spreading across his face. "Hey, a dog!"

Laughing, the caretaker approached you three. "He's just excited to meet you lot!" Kneeling, he gently ruffles the dog's head. "Why don't you come say 'hi'?"

White in color with splotches of brown littering his face and body, the dog had an oddly-shaped head, almost shaped like an inverted egg, its triangular brown eyes were bright.

Furiously shaking your head, a yelp left your mouth when the dog broke away from Osamu, walking up to you. Despite its obvious friendliness, the dog was half your size. Seeing your fear, Atsumu puffs his chest, holding his guard against the sweet boy.

"Sorry mister," Looking down at the gentle creature, Atsumu then pats the dog. "doggy, but (Y/N)-chan here isn't up for it."

His reply was a bark, causing you to yelp again.

"Okay then, guess we'll have to go now." Pushing himself to stand, the caretaker whistles for the dog. "Come on, Bowser."

From behind Atsumu shoulder, still holding on to his shirt, you watched the dog happily wagging its tail as it walked behind its caretaker, leaving adoring glances from everyone on the path.

The two brothers exchanged glances.

"Well, looks like you don't want to meet our granny's dog, huh?"

When it was time to leave, everyone settled in the bus. With a total of four classes, two classes had to share a bus, meaning, to your luck, you and the twins sat together.

"Atsumu," you berate at the boy, rushing towards your seat. "where have you been?"

Osamu, who was sitting by the window, was forced out by Atsumu, who sat on top of him, wiggling until he moved in disgust. 

"You'll see!" he grins ear to ear, excitedly clutching on to his backpack. Noting his dirtied nails, Osamu frowns and mutters something under his breath.

"Okay, everyone here?" Your teacher asked, his response was a chorus of 'yes'. Nodding, he turns to the driver, and the bus slowly careened off the road.

Once the bus was miles away, instantly, Atsumu perked up and turned to you. “(Y/N)-chan, I have something for you!”

Ducking down low, very carefully, he zipped open his bag, produced a paper bag, which was covered in dirt for some reason.

Bright yellow, as though the sun's rays solidified itself, came to view. The very sun shrank to the size of a child's hand, sprouting out from the same child's bag as though in greeting. Mouth parting, you stared at the flower before you.

“Ta-dah! I got you a sunflower!”

“’Tsumu," Osamu frowns, hating that he was in the middle. "that’s stealing, ya know.”

Swiping the underside of his nose, you saw dirt under his fingernails. “They’ll never know!” he says rather proudly. "And hey, (Y/N), did you know?" he scuttles closer, voice low. "When it rains, and the sun's gone, sunflowers face each other to harness each other's energy?" He puffs his chest out, all smug. "Pretty cool, huh?"

You took a moment to appreciate the tiny sun in his bag, that he got. For you. Registering Atsumu's words, it was kind of endearing, and he looked really proud of the information he shared. 

However, "That's a misconception." You tell him, he guffaws, Osamu cackles between the both of you.

Fingering the smooth yellow petal, seeing the dirt cumulate in his bag, which will probably earn an earful from his mom, the fact that he did this for you was enough. Smiling, you tell him, “Thank you so much, Atsumu.”

(Atsumu swore, your smile rivaled the sunflower he got for you.)

Hiroshima was surprisingly calm.

Proclaimed early on as the 'City of Peace' postwar, the city was only fours hour away by bus, the prefecture was known majorly for being one of the first to suffer the nuclear attack from the first world war that devastated the island. And yet, it feels peaceful, calm.

Like all the years ago, those past sins, have all but wavered into the wind, forgiving the many generations to come.

A strange sense of calm washed over you, gazing at the structure before you, feeling for the victims - direct and indirect victims of the bombing. Even the very ground you stood on, was once covered in casualties unimaginable today, a traumatic experience impossible to dismiss. Truly, after the war comes peace. But that peace comes with sacrifice, bloodshed, and tears.

"(L/N)-san?" a voice calls, cutting you of your stupor. Turning, you met Kusakabe's kind face. "Are you okay? I've been calling your name for a while now."

Feeling your hand holding on to the itinerary plan, your other hand on the railing, hearing students murmur all around you brought you back - you were having a class excursion. In Hiroshima. For three days.

"Um," putting the booklet down, you gave a weak nod. "yes. Yes, I am. Sorry. I was just" you peek back at the monument. "awe, for lack of a better word."

He smiles, pushing his glasses back. "I understand what you mean. Coming to these monuments just makes you appreciate the history behind it."

You nod again, looking at the map - it would be a long walk, considering the park's grand area and the monuments you'll visit along the way.

"Anyway, I just came to inform you that we can roam around the park for an hour. Then we'll meet up by the parking area for lunch."

"I see. Thank you so much, Kusakabe."

He nods, smiling.

"Kusakabe!" from behind him, a group calls, waving.

Turning to you, Kusakabe asks. "And ow about you, (L/N)? Do you have a group?" the wind blows, you wrinkle your nose at the cold. "If you want, you can join us."

Before you could even reply, someone walks up to you - well, four someones that is.

"...That's why I told you, if we strike that bell hard enough, it could probably echo throughout the park!"

"Idiot, you want to ruin the sanctity of the bell? It's called 'Peace Park' for a reason!"

"Woah," Suna deadpans, eyes on his phone. "'sanctity', that's a big word, even for you, Osamu."

"Now, now, let's just enjoy the trip, yeah?" Ginjima, ever the peacemaker, tries to settle things, smiling apologetically when he meets your eyes.

Heaving a sigh, wearing a smile on, you gestured to the boys with an open hand. "As you can see, I have a group of my own."

Nodding at the trouble children, Kusakabe breathes a laugh. "I can see that. Well, I'll see you around, (L/N)."

Osamu asks, watching said boy meet up with his group. "Wasn't that the student council prez?"

"That is him."

The rest of the boys watch Kusakabe approach his group in joint interest, especially from the way they move - all good posture and all, neatly pressed uniform, not a hair out of place, all of them were pretty as a picture.

"Elites, huh?"

You rolled your eyes at Suna's words. "Just because Kusakabe and I belong in a college preparatory class does not mean we're elites."

"Well, your class does give off some sort of vibe," Ginjima explains helpfully.

That was a strange way of putting it, you thought. After all, you've been classmates with them all of three years, with the occasional new classmate last year. Other than that, it was just like any other class, filled with different personalities on different faces, except everyone in your class was outstanding students with equally outstanding grades. 

Cold wind gushed, (h/c) strands of hair flying in your face.

"It's gotten cold, huh?"

"We're just a week off nationals and we're greeted by cold," Suna mutters.

"At least it's not hot anymore," Osamu grumbles, remembering the unforgiving summer that passed.

Busily working on your hair, your muffler ended up loosening to the sides in the process. Letting out a sigh, you undid your muffle, ready to fix it when large hands took the ends of your muffler.

"Not to mention the culture festival next month!" Atsumu gushes excitedly, making quick work on your muffler. Next month, being November. Time sure flies when you least expect it.

"Oi, 'Tsumu, step away from (Y/N)," says Osamu, walking towards you both. "you might end up choking her."

"Will not!" he yells, yet his hands carefully folding around your neck, tying in front. "I know how to fix a scarf, idiot!"

Wincing slightly at the volume of his voice, you suddenly found yourself unable to look away, frozen in your spot, watching Atsumu busy himself on fixing your muffler.

"On your own, maybe."

"U-Uh, guys...?" Ginjima fumbled, Suna just watching in veiled interest.

Doing some finishing touches, ever so gently looping and pulling the ends, Atsumu nods, clearly pleased, before he steps back to admire his finished work. "There, see!"

Osamu steps in, eyes on Atsumu's work, face neutral, eyes laughing. "Sloppy."

"HAH!?"

Glancing down at Atsumu's work, it was a bit sloppy, but it seemed to hold up just right. 

"You should be ashamed, now (Y/N) will lose face."

"From a fucking scarf!?"

"You've ruined her, idiot."

"You're ruined!"

Exhaling, you just walk ahead letting them argue amongst themselves. Ginjima and Suna were quick to follow after you.

"Um, should we-"

"You've been with them for three years now, Ginjima. They'll be fine. They'll just follow after." Suna nods at your words, randomly taking photos of the area.

For the next few minutes, relative calm washed over your group walking along the path, watching ancient buildings. What's left of it, a skeletal piece with absent windows, floors, or life, covered in scars from years past. Each of the boys carefully regarding each monument in awed whispers.

Although, time to time, someone would comment about how creepy it was to be up close to it, then would be called disrespectful by someone. You'd only have to turn and then they'd be silenced. Every now and then, you'd write down about the monuments on a small notepad, so you could use it later for your essay after the trip.

Furiously writing, a vibration went off in your coat pocket. Putting your notepad away, you flipped your phone open to read the text.

"Who're you texting, (Y/N)?" Osamu asked beside you.

"Aran-san."

“Eh? What about Aran-kun?” Atsumu asked, suddenly appearing by your shoulder. Suna and Ginjima looked up, at the mention of the senior.

“Well, he tried out for Tachibana Red Falcons a few weeks ago." You tell them, seeing no harm in it. Hitting send, you waited until the confirmation popped up before pocketing your phone away. "He’s going to get a call of his results sometime this week.”

Nearly all of them raised their eyes in shock, amazed by the news. It was the same reaction you had when he told you.

"Hear that, 'Samu?" Atsumu laughs at his twin, pride and unbridled happiness. "Aran-kun!"

"I heard, idiot." Not even Osamu can hide his joy and pride, like that of his twins', over the news.

"It's nice that you've still kept contact with Ojiro-san and the others." Ginjima noted with a smile.

Suna, appearing beside you, gently guided you towards the next destination as your group converged with some tourists, some girls giggling at Suna. "It's so you to keep in contacts with the seniors,"

"Because I respect them?" Burying your nose into your muffler, at the chilly wind that blew past.

"Because you fit right in with them."

Reaching the Peace Bell, just at the heart of the park, you were told that you can ring a bell and make a wish.

"Normally people wish for world peace here," Ginjima says aloud, reading from the booklet.

"Maybe we should wish for Ojiro-san?"

"I believe we can do that."

So you rang the bell, a soft gong echoing out, clapped your hands twice, palms pressing together, then lowered your head. Offering a quick prayer. For Aran-san. For Kita-san. For Akagi-san. For Oomimi-san. For Reiki. For Mika.

Following after you were the Ginjima, then Suna, and then finally, the twins, which you had to stay and watch over, lest they try to really smash the bell so loud it'll echo throughout the park. Thankfully, they behaved under your watch.

Later, while having lunch at a nearby restaurant, your phone vibrated.

“Ah.”

“What is it?”

The four boys turned to you - Osamu sneakily taking a meatball from Atsumu's bowl, Suna was putting mushrooms and carrots into a small plate, Ginjima was blowing into his bowl.

“He got in.”

At first, there was silence. Then, you ever so calmly turned your phone in your hands, showing Aran's text, for further confirmation. And then, the trouble children burst out in joy - all hoots and cheers, happy for their senior, uncaring at the spectacle that they've caused. And Suna caught it all on camera.

(Aran cried when he received the video)

“Something’s different about you,” Atsumu says to you. You blinked twice, surprised.

“…I’m wearing my winter uniform?” You say, almost consciously, gesturing to the blazer you now donned on your uniform, contrasting the summer uniform, which was just a shirt, a sweater, a skirt, and shorter socks. School-issued brown blazer shirt, shirt, maroon tie, black skirt. Your socks were knee-length because of the seasonal change.

Even with the culture festival going about, students were encouraged to wear their uniforms - well, students of Inarizaki High School that is.

With October long past, students were all to wear their winter uniforms to anticipate the cold weather ahead.

In spite of the season dropping a few degrees though, the culture festival at your school rolls easily. The school was filled to the brim with life coming from its students, visitors from different schools, and supporting families.

Yet for some reason, amidst the fanfare going around, Atsumu keyed on you.

Something was shining, hitting Atsumu in the eye.

“Wait a minute,” Atsumu closed in, too close for comfort, tucking bangs and some strands of hair behind your ear. “You got a piercing!”

There was a stud by the inside of your right ear cartilage, just by the inner middle rim.

Suna whistles. “Wow, never thought you had it in you, (L/N).”

“Uwah, it looks cool, but does it hurt?”

“More importantly, when did you get it done?” Osamu asks with a frown.

Atsumu’s thumb was tracing along the shape of your ear, staring at your conch piercing in fascination, standing way too close. Gulping you took a step back, fixing your bangs as you explained. “I, uh, did this on a whim. And yes, it did hurt, because it was on my cartilage, but nothing I can't handle.”

The four look at you, eyes wide.

It kind of ruins the image of the perfect role model people has cooked you up to be. Then again, you were never perfect, to begin with, it was nice to ruin that image and shatter people's expectations.

“Woah.” Ginjima's eyes shined at the stud on your ear.

“Badass,” muttered Suna.

"When did you get so rebellious?" Osamu teased, as though reading your thoughts, pinching your nose with his knuckles.

Atsumu couldn't look away at the new addition in your body. "But when did you-"

"(L/N)-senpai!" a voice cheerily called you from behind, green from the torso up - green wig, green coat, ruffled white undershirt, black pants, with black shoes. Oh, and there was some sort of contraption strapped on their arm.

Atsumu stared in confusion as the person happily greeted you, holding your hands and full of smiles, he just about to burst when Osamu elbowed him.

"It's Yoshimichi," Suna explained, admiring the costume. "y'know, one of the kits."

"Or the managers-in-training," Ginjima added, enjoying the interaction between you and the younger girl.

"Yoshimichi!" you greeted, taking her in. "Wow, you look amazing!"

The younger girl flushed, her usual dark brown eyes were replaced with light blues - contacts, it seems, gripping your hands tighter. "Thank you so much! I worked hard on it! But senpai, your hair looks great!"

"Ah, thank you," you say with a faint blush. "Asano worked on it." More like, she worked on them while you busily sat on your booth, studying the papers from all the attendees who came to the volleyball club's gig. Asano took advantage of your preoccupation to work on your hair. You couldn't hate her for it, since the style proved to be helpful from keeping your hair from your face.

"It's times like these where (L/N) can really be a girl, huh," Ginjama said.

"You're making it sound like she's not." Suna deadpans.

Sputtering, Ginjima tries to defend herself. "Y-You know what I mean!"

Atsumu sort of does, having known you all his life. You weren't the girliest girl around, but you dressed like one, but it was average at best and formal, compared to Mika, who loved wearing frills, brightly colored dresses, and all. Plus, you didn't have many female friends because you had the twins. Most of the time, you were surrounded by boys, so you had to toughen up.

"But who're you supposed to be?" Osamu couldn't help but ask.

"Lyserg from Shaman King!" Yoshimichi says excitedly.

"Your class is doing a cosplay cafe, huh?"

"Right on! Senpai, you should visit!" remembering that you weren't alone, she looked at the four boys behind you. "Ah, you senpais can come, too!"

"I feel like she's extended the invitation to (L/N), though," Suna mutters, Ginjima laughs.

From the end of the hall, someone, with an equally elaborated costume, holding a sign, calls out to her. 

"Ah, that's my cue! I have to go now!" Before she leaves, she turns to you. "Senpai, I'll be waiting!"

Smiling, you wave off as she runs towards her classmate, watching them stroll down the hall.

Once the younger girl left, you turned to the boys. "Yoshimichi's family owns a tattoo and piercing shop. I had it done there." Their reactions were instantaneous - multitudes of shock.

"Yeah, but when?" Atsumu asked. He can't even fathom the idea of Yoshimichi - bright, bubbly, cosplayer Yoshimichi Ryoko to come from a family of punks!

"Um," uncharacteristically on the spot, you rubbed at your elbow. "A day after we came back from Hiroshima."

"Who would've thought that our kit comes from a ragtag fam."

"That's a rather crude way of saying it,"

"Yeah, but the flip side of getting a tattoo is you can't go to onsens,"

Ginjima hisses, eyes suddenly sad and dim. "Ah, that is sad and true."

"On the contrary, there are onsens that allow tattoos, so long as it's not visible or in an innocuous location," you say helpfully, automatically bringing backlight in Ginjima's eyes.

"(Y/N) have mercy on us with your words," Osamu cries. "the lot of us are idiots here!"

You'd expect Atsumu to retort, absolutely refusing to be called an idiot, or likening to one. But he was quiet, right by your side, smiling.

"Heh, I'm thinking of getting a piercing myself!"

Three eyes turn to him, doubtfully.

"What?"

"Everyone knows you're likely to cry getting one."

"HAH!?" And there he was. His aura was emanating warm and gentle, like his usual vibe from before. What's weird was, you were there, yet he was smile was genuine, probably brighter than everyone in school.

"(L/N)-san, are you alright?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Um," Asano's eyes went from your face to the mechanical pencil in your hand. "y-your pencil lead…it’s run out." You stopped writing, or what you thought you've been doing. "For a minute now." Oh.

Pushing your pencil, seeing the lead pop out, you write again.

"Thank you, Asano."

"You're welcome," she smiles, but her lip turns up, eyes filled with worry. "But are you okay?"

"I've just got a lot on my mind."

Asano's face fell, eyes not leaving your face, noting the heavy intake of breath, followed by the sag of your shoulders. Even your eyes seemed lost, sad.

The feared and great 'Inarizaki's Fox Keeper' was known for her uptightness, her stoic and cold aura - intimidating by name, more so in person. Highly respected and feared, even the coaches held her to a high regard. With a reputation like hers, it was no wonder she was able to manage the team on her own for years, even aiding them to nationals, and holding her ground against Miya Atsumu. (L/N) (Y/N) was the perfect manager, a standard for all club managers. A reputation that definitely lived up to her expectations.

However, Asano Miki, found that you were actually just a really reliable person, extremely kind, and a saint-like patience. Under your guidance, she eventually got out of her shell - she and Yoshimichi, and easily adjusted to the club thanks to your guidance. And behind closed doors, especially during those nights at training camps, you were practical, uptight like a mother, and almost always preoccupied.

And yet, underneath it all, there was always this sort of sadness in you. 

She couldn't help but think of the iceberg theory, that's there's always more to a person.

With her and Yoshimichi, you could open up more about yourself. With the rest of her seniors, you could, too. But Asano could feel like it was to a certain degree, there was something you'd like to keep within. The more she thinks about it, the more it scares her of what's underneath it all, of how long before the truth just freezes her over.

A flash of yellow appears from the corner of her eye, when she turns, it was the captain - Miya Atsumu.

Just a year ago, you and him were not on good terms, having been childhood friends for a long time. The team's dynamic changed drastically, but you remained as manager, only colder and more robotic, as the rumors say. It was said you supposedly resigned, only to wordless come back. Magically, the team's dynamic changed for the better. Even your dynamic with the now, blond-dyed, setter-captain.

"Oiiii, As-a-no~" Yoshimichi calls in a sing-song, her fellow manager-in-training nudges her shoulder. The girl turns to her. "C'mon, I'll pass the bibs to the opposite team, you fetch the cart from the storage room. Okay?"

"O-Okay!" she starts for the storage room. However, unable to help herself, she looks over her shoulder, to where you were, with the captain standing close, the two of you seem to be discussing something. You were doing the talking, pointing with your mechanical pencil, talking a mile. And then there was the captain, eyes soft and warm...watching you.

Atsumu - known for his smug smirk, likened to that of a fox, filled with general mischief and mayhem, wore a true smile. A smile that softened his features, that made him (and his twin, because they were identical) admired by many, a smile that brightened him more, one that reached his eyes - one that Asano knew was reserved for you and you alone.

Of all the things Asano knows about you, one thing is for sure: Miya Atsumu was the cause for the sadness in your eyes.

“You know, I worry about you,” Osamu says to you, echoing questions that have been thrown to you for days - mostly indirectly, at your usual convenience store over a shared sashimi set.

Something's bothering you, has been bothering you, from the looks of it. Osamu knows it.

From the dim moonlight that hung up in the sky, contrasting against all unnatural light, you blinked at him. When your eyes met, his grey-brown eyes took you out of your stupor, making you feel bare and open, without even saying anything.

“I’ve been worrying about you." Osamu adds, voice thick. "For a long time, you felt this need to put others before yourselves. Don’t get me wrong, it’s admirable and honorable at best. It's what many of us love about you, (Y/N). But," his shoulders sag, gray-brown eyes softening "if you keep putting them over you, one day, you’ll forget yourself altogether and just crush from the weight of keeping everyone first.”

You feel the need to defend yourself, to make a statement rebutting all his claims. Yet, your tongue feels heavy, mouth clamped shut. Looking up at him reluctantly, you were met by his unwavering kindness - so, so kind, and worry. Worry growing, seeing as your eyes turned glossy, neutral expression cracking.

Osamu reached an arm, pulling you over. You wanted to pull away, but his warmth washed over you.

Quietly, eventually, you leaned against Osamu, crying softly.

Strong as they were last year, it wasn't enough to satiate the hunger of your foxes, led by Atsumu, that brought them to victory. Still, Karasuno's presence was felt, establishing themselves in the national scene now that they've made a resurgence in the past year with an invaluable set of players. One of them, being your dear childhood friend.

"Sho-chan!" you called out after the match ended, seeing as you had time.

The redhead turned, eyes widening and brightening at the sight of you. "(Nickname)!"

Running to him excitedly, he did the same and the two of you met by the sides.

"Oh wow, your hair's getting shaggy!" you laugh, ruffling at his hair. "By the way, great game, today. You guys are as tenacious as always."

Noticeably, some people were looking your way - still surprised that by some twist of faith, you and the spry middle blocker were acquainted, let alone childhood friends! Too busy being in your friend's presence, you hadn't realized the attention you were receiving. Too busy catching up to the ball of sunshine before you, going on and on about the feats they did today, freely smiling about with your childhood friend.

"Inarizaki is crazy strong this year! Especially with Miya-san's serves!"

"Which Miya?" you laughed with a cock of your head.

"Oh, uh...the blonde dyed one??"

"Ah, Atsumu."

"Are you close?" Hinata asked, sensing the familiarity when you said the setter's name.

"Um," tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, you were unsure how to answer. "kind of." That seemed like a good answer. "He and his twin brother live next door and were my first few friends when I moved to Hyogo." Behind him, his captain was calling for him. "Neh, let's continue our chat later, okay?"

"A-Ah," he sputtered, short-circuiting.

"You're here until tomorrow, right? Better make it worth your while. After all, we haven't talked much in a while. Well," you take his hand in yours, squeezing. "face-to-face, that is."

At the prospect of seeing more games, and maybe spending more time with you, he brightened. "Sure thing, (Nickname)!"

Unable to help yourself, you ruffled his hair playfully. "Then, wait for my text later, okay?"

Later that day, dinner, a bath, a short meeting later, you were slipping on an oversized hoodie over your pajamas, and took off. Despite it being a rather exciting day, you still had enough energy to go about, carefully making your way to meet your childhood friend.

Meeting Hinata just a block away from your hotel, the two of you walked a few more blocks until you reached a neighborhood playground, chatting aimlessly as you sat by the railings framing the park.

"Since it's your last year of high school, do you have any plans, (Nickname)?"

"To be honest? Not really." Wrinkling your nose at your answer, you tried again. "Maybe nothing special. How about you, Sho-chan?" you ask, despite him being a second year.

To your surprise, he readily answered. "I wanna do beach volleyball!" 

"Beach volleyball? Why?"

Something sets off in his eyes, almost like excitement, assurance, burning compassion. "I want to try and learn a lot of things!" It even showed off from his voice, no longer quivering, strong and firm, with a hint of childish excitement. "I want to try and get better to be able to play more volleyball!"

That was a rather interesting take into his career, choosing to play outside court. Plus, you've heard beach volleyball can be demanding with just two players.

"You're really set on it, huh?"

"Yes!"

You felt warm.

"Well, good luck with that, Sho-chan. I'll be rootin' for ya~"

Extremely, pleasantly warm, despite the January cold.

“(Nickname), you’re really a lot different, huh?” Before you could ask what he means, he furthers. “I mean, from all our texting, you seem…kinda…on hold? Like you’re holding back? But in person, you seem more relaxed now.”

You blink, remembering bright lights, head against another warm body, a shared sashimi set.

“Maybe it’s because I’m with my Sho-chan.” you smile, forcing the thoughts away. “A lot’s happened in my life. I’m not ready to unpack them all to you, but Sho-chan, you just really have a way with making people feel relaxed about themselves, of making them feel like it's okay, y'know?”

He flushes at that.

“I’m really jealous of that part of you.”

“W-Well, I’m jealous of how smart you are, (Nickname)!”

The two of you laugh into the night before you randomly blurted out wanting something sweet to eat.

"Want ice cream?" Hinata asks, gesturing to stand.

Peering out at him in the dark, the park was a bit dim, your childhood friend shined bright. "Nah, maybe I should head back."

"But you said you wanted something sweet!"

Chuckling, breath coming out in puffs, you stand. "Alright, but you're buying, okay?"

"Aren't you older?"

Playfully frowning at the younger teen’s argument - because yes, you are the older one by a year, you just link your arm around his. "Yeah, but you lost to us!" you threw back.

"How mean, (Nickname)!"

On the way, you realized how eating something cold during a cold season wasn't feasible, which made the younger boy panic. Laughingly, you assured him that it was probably because it was so cold that you wanted something sweet, for a boost of insulin or that happy feelings rush.

At the nearest convenience store the two of you could find, which was a few blocks away from your hotel, the two of you make idle chat over ice cream despite the January weather, explaining further on sweetness, boost of insulin or that happy feelings rush.

"O-Oh! I see!"

Seeing the look on his face, you guessed that the mini-biology plus chemistry lecture made his head spin. "Do you really, Sho-chan?" you tease, handing him a plastic spoon. "It's okay to say you don't."

That caused his nose to scrunch up, brows furrowing together. "I understand, (Nickname)! Sheesh, I passed biology!"

Laughing again, both of you opened up the small pack of ice cream to share. It was in salted caramel.

One bite full and comically, both of you felt warm inside, moaning in absolute delight at the sweetness and saltiness.

The conversation started anew from there with topics that flew from fun plays, his sister, Natsu, taking an interest in volleyball, your sister and her boyfriend, Kaoru and his soccer, talks of the new Karasuno captain.

"Hey, Sho-chan," you asked, watching him chew. "if we didn't move..." if her dad wasn't an asshole "...do you think...?" you mulled, thinking of all the people you've met since moving. Weakly, you leaned against the younger boy, much to his surprise. 

"(Nickname)-"

"...do you think things would be different?"

Hinata falls silent at that.

Who knows what your life would have turned out had your family stayed in Miyagi, or your uncle didn't forcibly bring your mom out of her depression and move the family all the way to Hyogo? Would you be happier? Would you have turned out better? Who would you even be?

"Does it matter? What's happened, happened. And whether we like it or not, it's for the best!"

Ah, such a simple-minded sweet boy. "That's true."

"But," you push yourself off, watching him. "had (Nickname) remained, maybe I would've had a boost up with my skills! I would be at maximum level now!"

Snorting, you broke out laughing. "Maximum level!?"

It was a shared moment of nostalgia between two childhood friends over a tub of ice cream, all smiles and laughter.

...which is how Miya Atsumu found you.

"Miya-san!" came Hinata's energetic cry, you look up in shock.

"Shoyou-kun..." the setter says quietly.

Was he looking for someone, you thought, spooning a chunk into your mouth. Or maybe he was out for a late night snack?

Chewing, you didn't notice your captain walking towards you. "(Y/N), if you wanted a late night snack, you shoulda counted me in!" Huh?

Before you could react, he took your spoon and fed himself the last chunk, moaning dramatically at the burst of flavors in his mouth.

"Mi-Miya-san!" shrieked the younger boy, cheeks flushing for some reason.

"You could have gotten your own spoon, you know," you frown, grabbing the spoon from him, he whines. "Besides, you shouldn't be eating sugar before your bedtime."

"Speak for yourself, (Y/N)."

Thinning your lips, you put away the spoon. Your captain turns to the redheaded boy. "Anyway, it's getting late and we should all get back." Turning to your childhood friend, the setter asks. "Shouyo-kun, you're here until tomorrow, right?"

Recovering from whatever it was earlier, the younger boy nods. "Ah, y-yes, n-no!"

"Which is it?" you ask worriedly.

"That's cool!" without warning, he stands next to you "Be sure to watch our game, 'aight?"

"Of course!"

"We should probably head back now," you announce as you stood up, taking your trash with you. "You need a full rest of sleep. Both of you." At the last part, both athletes felt chills run down their spine. 

When all three of you were at the door, Hinata assuring you that he can walk back to his hotel just fine, you suddenly remembered something and called out to your friend. "Sho-chan!” the younger boy turns to you. “Actually,” seeing you uncharacteristically sheepish, he keeps his eyes on you, waiting. “I'm on the fence with what I really want."

Offering you a smile, you feel warm all over. "That's okay, (Nickname)! You still have time!"

"We're months away from graduation," you reply, a small smirk at his crestfallen face. "but I think I'm settled."

Instantly, he recovers. "That's good to hear! Well then, good night, (Nickname), Miya-san!"

“What? What? What?” Atsumu turned to you curiously, picking up on the conversation with Hinata. “What were you two talking about?”

Burying your hands into your pocket, you debated. Osamu, Hinata, and Mika were the only people you’ve shared with, the ones you could trust with. The career form fresh in your mind.

“C’mon, (Y/N)!” he whines. “You can tell me!”

And for some reason, you opened your mouth and told him. “We were talking about future careers after high school,”

“Ah, really?” Before your third year even started, you were already thinking and dreading life after high school. “It’s strange that you don’t have a plan after high school.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean," he shrugs easily, carefully steering you to his side, his other side to the open street. "you’re so well organized and value order above anything else. Not to mention, you’re one of the smartest people in our year-“

“Just because I’m part of the top students doesn’t mean I’m guaranteed success,” you tell him, bluntly. Despite the cold, Atsumu feels even more chillier at your pointed words.

But he chips at the ice.

“Still! It makes a world of a difference because it’s you!”

You stopped at that, his words sinking in.

“It’s…me.”

“Yeah!" He continues to chip at the ice, mouth opening, as though reminding you of the most obvious thing on earth. "Plus, I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine wherever or whatever you end up choosing. I’ll be rooting for ya!”

Despite yourself, you smiled, warmed by his words. “Thanks…I kind of needed that.”

Atsumu glanced at you, the two of you carefully taking a turn. “So, what did you write in your career forms?”

“Um…nutritionist, psychologist, or probably something related to sports.”

“Wow,” he thinks back to your background, awed at how much your past impacted your future. “That’s amazing, (Y/N)!”

"Nowhere as amazing as you," you tell him, with utmost sincerity and honesty. He was, after all, a nationally recognized athlete for a high schooler. With his impressive reputation, he'll definitely go far and have the best teams at his disposal.

He barked a laugh, happily. "But of course! Sucks that 'Samu won't be with me, but I'll work for the both of us. No," he thrusts three fingers in the air as he declares "the three of us!"

For some reason, that was a moment of calm for you, filling you with the assurance you'll need. No matter how many years passed, even with his hair dyed lighter than his natural dark roots, he was still that same self-assured, cocky boy you know. You get the feeling he'll always stay like this, which you find you don't mind either way.

Much like Hinata, this boy right here, made you feel inexplicably warm. "That's surprisingly mature of you, Atsumu."

His name came out surprisingly easy. And to Atsumu, who stares at you as though he discovered a snowflake's design at a microscopic level, it was the sweetest thing he's ever heard.

Snow gently falls down, your breaths coming out in puffs, Atsumu's unable to look away.

"We should really head back to the hotel now."

"Y-Yeah!" Atsumu takes hold of your hand, much to your surprise, tugging you forward.

Inarizaki, unfortunately, made it to the top 3 after losing to Kamomedai – who, under the captaincy of Hirugami, were relentless as always – you and your team found yourself with heavy, weary hearts. There were regrets here and there, but the fact that the team maintained its spot as the top 5 made the pain of losing less. Also, you kept your promise to Aran and the rest, who were over the moon (and probably in tears) from watching in the benches.

Speaking of Aran and the rest, you had met up with the rest of your former seniors. Ever the emotional man that he was, Aran was tearing up at how proud he was of how well the team played, and how much the trio – the twins plus you, held the team up.

Being captain in his final year, with his brother as vice-captain, and you as manager, was definitely a highlight in Atsumu's high school career. Smiling at the camera, arms hooked around you and Osamu, Atsumu will forever cherish this amazing high all his life.

Now that you think about it, when did you first start liking Atsumu? What was the instance that made you fall in love with your best friend?

It's been almost ten years - 9 years, to be exact once the cherry blossoms bloom. It's been that long since you met the twins, met Atsumu, and loved him. 

But for however long you loved him, a most precious feeling for your young heart, never had you expected it to be inferior in the eyes of many. You may never have said it out loud, but when Atsumu read your love letters out loud in front of the whole team - seeing the looks in their eyes, you felt so cheap. Maybe your feelings were cheap, a joke. Even after the incident, even after a new year and the new faces, that scar was still there - the unavoidable scar that lingered on the fearless, 'Inarizaki's Fox Keeper'. 

If people knew the actual reason for the dispute between you and Atsumu, would people think of you differently? It never bothered you, but the knowledge of your feelings for someone as perfect, unattainable, unreachable, and out of your league?

It only made sense.

In a sense, it was like an old toy - one you loved so much as a kid, but once you've played with it too much, it gets worn out, broken, and useless, you'd have to throw it away.

The whole time you held on, foolishly you were also holding on to the possibility that maybe one day Atsumu would come to return your feelings. In a cliche way, he'd think of you as more than a friend, see you as something more, then come around to love you. Again, you were foolish. 

It was wishful thinking.

Atsumu's eyes and heart were set on your perfect big sister, Mika.

And who wouldn't? She was perfect, beautiful, smart, kind - everything you're not.

You? You were boring, plain, an afterthought.

Annoyed at the person staring back at you, you childishly flicked water at it - as if it would magically dispel the ugly. Nope.

All you found was a splotchy view of you, strings of water running over.

For all your feats - or whatever people thought of you, you had one terrible weakness: you gave your heart way too easily.

Your asshole of a father was one.

He was your father, of course it was only natural to love him. Until he broke it in a million pieces.

Miya Atsumu was second.

You gave your heart to him since he took you by the hand, never getting the courage to take it back. Atsumu can do whatever he wanted with your heart, just so long as it's still with him at the end of the day.

You had to wonder though, much of your heart was left in his hands?

The human body was composed of atoms – millions and billions of them in the form of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. It also contains much smaller amounts of the other elements that are essential for life.

The human body is also composed of love. Now, compared to atoms, its amount was infinite, endless.

Atoms burn out and die each day, easily replicated the next second, but not love. Love was something that you give but never runs out.

How much was a single person capable of loving?

How much of their fill until eventually, it runs out?

You might never know.

Scientifically speaking, love was just…unexplainable.

Law of attraction or serotonin can do very little in explaining the amount and power of love.

It was infinite in quality and quantity, yet it's also finite in a way.

"Nee-san?"

Lately, you've noticed that Kaoru tends to call you 'nee-chan' behind your back. You heard it once when you were sick. Normally, he just calls you 'nee-san', Mika was 'nee-chan'. It was just an honorific, with subtle tones when using.

"What."

His brows furrow, arms folded against his chest. "Why are you lying on the floor?"

"Because of gravity," you reply, staring into nothing, maybe at the ceiling, maybe at cracks, maybe at the ceiling fan, maybe at the spaces in between composed of billions and billions of atoms. Inhaling through your nose, exhaling the same way. Some days, it was just getting harder to think...to be, to seem.

Kaoru frowns harder, always hated how cryptic your replies tend to be, whenever he was genuinely worried for you. Then his expression wipes clean into worry.

"Nee-san," you could hear the franticness in his voice. "are you crying?"

Alarmed, you didn't move to hide your eyes, lest you worry him or make it worse. Instead, you sigh and close your eyes. "No. It's just dust."

You didn't see the slight panic in Kaoru's eyes, his big (e/c) eyes on you - his big sister.

“…nee-chan?”

You hummed, not daring to open your mouth at the sudden wave of emotion.

Kaoru was silent, for a while, and then. “I love you.”

Smiling at your brother, opening (e/c) eyes met lighter (e/c) ones, saying it back. “I love you, too.”

masterlist • thirteen

[utilitycaster]

The Matt's Descriptive Vamping Game

First: I mean this from a place of deep respect and gentle teasing; I would LOVE to be as good as Matt at coming up with detailed place descriptions because I do fall on the side of Just the Facts, Ma''am as a DM and struggle to create atmosphere.

Second: NO CHEATING via transcript search (honor system) and don't reveal the answers in the notes. This is more to like, illustrate my point and also it would be really fun to play at a con or with friends who are fans of the show or something.

Guess the location and general arc for these Caverns In Rock Formations Descriptions:

1. "most of the rock follows the familiar pattern of tectonic shift that's broken and cracked in places, but it's been, over hundreds and thousands of years, just settled into its natural state. There is one section of rock just maybe 200 feet from where you are landing at the base where it looks like the texture, the natural lines of the rock, is in a different direction. And upon you heading in that direction, you can see, now, what it appears to be is a large rock, very large, maybe 20, 30 feet wide, that is jammed into an entranceway."

2. "one mountainside's mild discoloration before you catches your eye. A few hundred feet up from its base, a faceted, jagged, unnatural frostscape of white-blue ice appears to have claimed the rocky incline for a few hundred feet more, looking like a plague of ice vines erupting from the mountain's belly, frozen in time after climbing and attempting to burst out of the mountain itself. In the center of that spiraling web of ice, you see a massive cluster of cage-like ice growths that encircle an oblong mouth. A cavern that enters the mountainside."

3. "The lush plants and ferns that have taken residence around this space here are wedged in the earthy cracks of the mountainside are vibrant and a very, very healthy...The winds are a little strong, though, as you get close to it, towards the crest where this entrance is, and you reinforce your footsteps instinctually. As you reach the foot of this cavern, there is a faint wind coming from the inside."

4. "there are a few small caves and entrances to the side of this mountain, but after you sweep past once or twice, doing a couple loops, one catches your eye. You look at it from this vantage point. It looks like a small inlet, like a cavern. As you get closer, unlike the other rough entrances, this one seems intentionally carved in the mountainside in a triangle. Directly about 30 feet to its peak, there is a triangular entrance to the very very base of this mountain that is recessed into the mountain rock itself."

5. "you can feel it shifting to the right until eventually you come up to the edge and the rock begins to look familiar. You can glance and it brings you to a point where there was a small pocket that is hidden in shadow from where the light's coming from above. There, recessed about two inches in the side, about the size of a palm, is a round stone crest."

6."There is black, cragulous, climbing rock. From it, you can see three different drifting plumes of black smoke from different positions along its side. You can just barely see little glowing streams of orange pouring from different vents along its side."

7. "the ominous mountains, steep as they climb from the floor, sculpted by the elements to resemble jagged stairs for an impossibly large behemoth. The clusters of the [redacted] trees protrude from pockets of earth that appear to be wedged or have found purchase within these somewhat shifty mountain bases. You can see bits of color against the darker stone, as these trees have found really still on the base elements where they can grow...following the shapes of the range, you can see hidden slopes that wind up the side. Your eyes catch the mouth of a divide, about a quarter mile up. In the side of the cliff, you can see an element where this cleft exists and pushes into the mountain, and there's a small, shallow ravine that's out of sight beyond the angle you're looking."

[a-plethora-of-peters]

So a few months ago I drew a reference picture for Scar and I decided to clean it up a bit and color it for #scarsupportweekend!

(Image description: Transparent image of a reference of GoodTimesWithScar, a smiling light tan skinned man with medium brown hair and olive green eyes. He has prominent cheekbones and numerous scars on his face: three on his right cheek stretching from below his eye to his jaw, a small diagonal scar on his chin, a scar across the bridge of his nose, and a vertical scar on his left side next to his mouth. He has a nasal cannula hooked over pointed ears and the hosing trails out of sight behind his back. He has a metal forearm crutch in either hand. There is a note to the left that he "uses crutches on bad days".

He is dressed in a white dress shirt with a black string tie around his neck, a maroon tailcoat with cufflinks, and a leaf green vest with brass buttons over top. There is a large top hat tilted towards his right on top of his head that is the same color as his coat and color of his vest matches the ribbon wrapped around his hat. He has a plain leather belt that is holding up dark gray pants.

To the right of Scar is a close up drawing of his cufflinks which are pale blue with a silver border. On the blue center of each one is a black bowtie and two white Cs, one C above and one below the bowties. There is a note beneath the cufflinks that says "Concorp Cufflinks (Accesses HUD and Inventory)".

Slung across his chest from right shoulder to left hip is another belt. There is a note pointing from the belt to another image to the left of Scar. The note reads "worn on back" and the second image is of a leather pouch with a diagonal strap attached to it and a copper hook latch holding the pouch shut. Emerging from a hole in the top of the pouch is the upper section of a canister with some hosing emerging from it. There are additional notes identifying it as an "oxygen tank" and that it's "swapped out every 6 hours or so".

The upper left corner of the image shows a side and frontal view of Scar's shoes and part of his pants. They are dark brown leather dress shoes with thick darker brown soles.

Spread out on either side of his head, just above his shoulders are floating crystals that make a rough bat-like wing shape. Two long thin L shaped crystals with a trio of small crystal spines at the top bend makes up the "bones" of the wings. Three triangular crystals make up the "webbing" of said wings. There is a note above the right wing that says "crystal Vex wings". End ID)

[kintatsujo]

LoZ AU- The Courage of Running Away Part TWENTY-ONE

alsdjakdsla gosh

Reminder that I’m just keeping on until the full storyline’s covered since I’m nearly to the conclusion I had planned.  If we have to have August in September so be it lmao

Go read the previous post this one starts right on its tail!

#AU August

#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away

King Aldway takes a moment to assess where Gray’s wound is (somewhere around the midriff) and tears a sleeve from the Sheikah coat Gray wears tied around his waist, to staunch the bleeding, then lifts the young man into his arms and tells Princess Zelda to hang on to his elbow as much as possible.

[Image Description: Aldway is holding Gray in a bridal carry as Gray curls against his chest, grimacing in clear agony.  There is a cloth around Gray’s midriff, although if there is any blood it’s been hidden.  Aldway is giving a concerned twist of the mouth in the direction of Princess Zelda, who is holding his arm by Gray’s legs and looking behind them with an alert and angry expression.  End ID.]

The crash in the hallway is, of course, the scarred woman’s crew, terrorizing the staff from well within the castle where patrols shouldn’t have to expect to go-- because as noted in the previous post, the Pikku aren’t on the level of Sheikah but they’ve stolen a lot of tricks and plenty of those tricks are, in fact, Sheikah tricks.  

(I want you to think of the Pikku as sort of like low rent ninjas.)

[Image ID: Four rough and tumble seeming characters, first without fox masks and then with their fox masks.  They are labeled, left to right, as “The Burly Man,” “The Unsuspicious Girl,” “An Average Middle Aged Guy,” and “Shady Guy.”  The Burly Man has a large nose, muttonchops, a bandana, and large eyebrows, the right of which has a small scar.  The Unsuspicious girl is wearing a mischievous smile and has her hands on the shoulders of the men to either side of her, and has a round pretty face and sleepy long eyelashes.  The Average Middle Aged Guy has a narrow nose and an enormous feathery mustache.  The Shady Guy is missing his right eye and has covered his eyepatch partially with his hair, and has prominent cheekbones, and in his masked version the right half of his mask is missing.  The image is uncolored so we have no idea what anyone’s color schemes are.  End ID.]

I thought I’d just base them on thief characters from ALttP and LBW and what I got was the most hilariously ragtag crew, which I should probably have expected.  Burly Man is based on the thief archetype enemy from ALttP, Unsuspicious Girl and Shady Guy on “Theif Girl” and Shady Guy from LBW, and Average Middle Aged Guy is based on my actual favorite NPC from ALttP, An Average Middle Aged Man, yes that is his name, who you basically blackmail into picking the lock on a treasure chest so you can get the bottle inside.

They are all nicknamed in the style of those games because I’m not naming these jokers unless I have to.  

Aldway leads the Pikku on a chase around the castle with Zelda at his side and Gray in his arms; he’s trying to get to the castle infirmary without running headlong into them and while he’s got the advantage of knowing where the hell he’s going it’s hard to tell who’s coming around what corner.  He’s not a fighter by any means-- Zelda chose him because he was good with business and people and administration, after all-- and he’s a big guy and he could tank if he has to, but with Gray hurt he’s got no choice but to keep them moving.  

Things get turned around such that Aldway finds himself in the throne room with the kids in tow, but there’s guards here, for all that they’re confused, and when he hears someone shout over the commotion that Her Majesty the Queen is incoming, he thinks he can breath a sigh of relief.

[Image descriptions: The Shady Guy says to the Scarred Woman, “Boss there’s NO getting PAID enough to deal with the whole royal guard under the Queen’s orders!”  The Scarred Woman answers, “You’re right,” and pulls forth a glowing green diamond with triangular sides, “But our client provided a contingency-” and she shatters it at her feet.  Smoke rises to the ceiling, a shadowy form coalescing within... and as the smoke parts, it reveals a silver skinned Hinox missing one ear and covered in white hair down its back and enormous arms, with much longer tusks than average and slather, snot and tears running down its face, its single eye furious and enraged and its blue tongue lolling.  It leans forward and screams with a force to shake the room.  The Scarred Woman stands behind it, but her reaction if any is unreadable due to the mask.  End ID.]

This motherfucker promptly sends the room into havoc and Aldway and Princess Zelda scrambling for safety, Gray still in Aldway’s arms.  

And that’s when Hera the loftwing, guided by Astramorus and carrying both Link and Queen Zelda, drops onto the balcony outside, the others’ loftwings landing where they can.

[Image Description: Link, Queen Zelda and Astramorus are staring in horror at what’s presumably the Hinox wreaking carnage.  Link has his sword in hand.  “Hylia’s grace,” Zelda says faintly.  Link’s face shifts to determination and he starts forward.  “Well, it’s not the FIRST hinox I’ve had to kill with a sword,” he says.  Zelda’s head snaps to Astramorus, who flushes in ashamed embarrassment and averts his eyes as she roars, furiously, “It’s not WHAT?!”  End ID.]

[tabletoptrinketsbyjj]

Trinkets, 37: Interesting baubles, semi magical objects and items touched by mystery.

A blue steel mask that resembles a face at rest, emotionless and cold to the touch when not worn.

A small silver orb with the word "McGuffin" acid etched into its surface. It is coveted by all who look upon it.

A jar filled with potpourri that smells like their childhood home to each person who smells it.

A charm made from small pieces of whale bone fastened together by metal and leather and etched with strange sigils. The object has been treated with mixtures of rare herbs and other substances and the entire bonecharm hums with power, creating a faint but distinctive ‘song’ that the spiritually perceptive can hear.

A small, polished, fossilized cross-section of wood. The interior cracks have filled with some opalescent material in shimmering blues and green. Knowledgeable PC's can identify the mineral as opalized wood.

A double recorder hewn from a strange, pale ivory not of this earth.

An iron pocket watch with the chain extruding from an eagle's mouth mounted into the top of the watch. The clasp at the end of the chain is a talon.

A small, handheld harp made from the wishbone of a celestial griffin. It was alchemically treated with elemental fire, laminated with entsap, and enameled with scenes from myth and legend. The instrument is translucent and slightly opalescent in coloration and strung with mithril wire.

A dozen glass roses are arranged in a lovely bouquet. A ribbon of purple silk around one of them has an ivory card attached. The words on the card say, “Glass thorns cut more deeply, my dear.”

A glass bauble with no visible means of opening it contains blue sand and white insects that resemble ants but have iridescent wings. When they fly, a pleasant and soothing song emanates from the bauble.

—Keep reading for 90 more trinkets.

—Note: The previous 10 items are repeated for easier rolling on a d100.

A blue steel mask that resembles a face at rest, emotionless and cold to the touch when not worn.

A small silver orb with the word "McGuffin" acid etched into its surface. It is coveted by all who look upon it.

A jar filled with potpourri that smells like their childhood home to each person who smells it.

A charm made from small pieces of whale bone fastened together by metal and leather and etched with strange sigils. The object has been treated with mixtures of rare herbs and other substances and the entire bonecharm hums with power, creating a faint but distinctive ‘song’ that the spiritually perceptive can hear.

A small, polished, fossilized cross-section of wood. The interior cracks have filled with some opalescent material in shimmering blues and green. Knowledgeable PC's can identify the mineral as opalized wood.

A double recorder hewn from a strange, pale ivory not of this earth.

An iron pocket watch with the chain extruding from an eagle's mouth mounted into the top of the watch. The clasp at the end of the chain is a talon.

A small, handheld harp made from the wishbone of a celestial griffin. It was alchemically treated with elemental fire, laminated with entsap, and enameled with scenes from myth and legend. The instrument is translucent and slightly opalescent in coloration and strung with mithril wire.

A dozen glass roses are arranged in a lovely bouquet. A ribbon of purple silk around one of them has an ivory card attached. The words on the card say, “Glass thorns cut more deeply, my dear.”

A glass bauble with no visible means of opening it contains blue sand and white insects that resemble ants but have iridescent wings. When they fly, a pleasant and soothing song emanates from the bauble.

A white ceramic mug with an unknown substance or creature that has excess of writhing gray tendrils coming out of it.

A dartboard that has a picture of the local regent on it. The eyes currently have darts sticking out of them.

A dark, mahogany box roughly the size of a dozen coins. The box does not appear to have any obvious hinges or opening mechanisms. A perceptive PC will discover a tiny hidden latch that opens the box. Inside and laid together are a matching set of ten gold coins. Each coin is ornately crafted, but slight variations in the coins suggest that they may have been individually handmade.

A smoky black precious stone. When held up to the light you can see the back of a devil pressed against the gem, but no matter how you turn it, you can never see its face.

A small pouch with a moist eye within it. When you bring it into the light, you see the pupil quickly constrict. A PC well versed in religion can tell that this is the living eye of a dedicated follower of the god of orcs. The original owner can still see from this eye.

An ink dip pen made entirely of tiny bones, complete with matching ink pot.

A mummified baby wrapped in funerary wrappings with a solid silver and gold scarab on its neck on a very tight dried leather thong.

A basilisk egg, tightly bound within a leather pouch and swaddled in a bundle of furs.

A small sack filled with eight gears and springs of incremental sizes that appear to be of the same make or set.

A Gnome’s skull that possesses a distinct odour of wine and gnome blood, faint to a human, but strong to a race with keen noses, like elves or kobolds. Rough garnets the color of clotted blood have been pounded into the skull, along with nails of silver and gold. Around lower edges of the brain-case, the tails of giant weasels have been attached, giving the item a furry fringe. The jaw has been wired to the skull with silver wire and a wispy fringe of beard and mustache cling to the bits of dried skin around the skull’s mouth. Runes of foul power have been chiselled into the bone.

A small bag made of chainmail, tightly tied closed and locked. Found inside is a heart made of glass.

A grossly oversized fist-shaped gauntlet that is a fused amalgamation of plates, spurs, gears, and rivets. It smells of grease and machinery.

A child’s toy chariot with the face made from a stuffed growling dog.

An unsettling ceramic figurine of a whale with a mouth full of victims.

A pair of repulsive metal bells designed like bloated women eating fish.

A drum, set with stretched gargoyle hide and woven with choker sinews. It requires a strong arm to pound the instrument but the sound is unique, like a deep thumping of stone.

A black fan made of kobold skin with graphic images of kobold torment.

A worn-looking box of dark wood, fitted with simple hinges of brass, is roughly the size of a man’s head, and rattles when moved. The interior contains a collection of tiny humanoid bones. The underside of the lid bears writing that appears in the primary language of anyone reading it, and states that the most recent reader is attuned with the box. No further explanation is to be found within.

A masterwork steel lute with a triangular body and a headstock that resembles a carved demon’s skull.

A strand of ten flat black stones on a knotted leather thong, each carved with the “Yr” rune and roughly the size of a typical gold piece.

A gleaming crystal shard that shifts its coloration every few seconds, hurting the eyes of witnesses as it does so.

An eel-hide leather pouch filled with an unspeakably foul-tasting coarse salt.

A grey leather vest is made of the rough, tanned hide of a goblin shark.

Orb of forgetfulness. When touched the orb you will remember the last thing you tried to think about but forgot. You will however forget why you wanted to remember it.

A small silk pillow has split open here to reveal that it has been stuffed entirely with brilliant golden hair.

A handwritten note which reads, in part: “She keeps it in the vanity. Without it, there’s no proof.”

A porcelain mask resembles a skull with its mouth sowed shut.

A box made to resemble a heavily pregnant woman with fangs instead of teeth. Her copious belly contains a rather grotesque image of an infant with three heads, each with an open mouth like a key-hole.

A large hourglass labelled "The World Entire." There isn't much sand left in the top bulb.

A clay pipe with the name "Underhill" inscribed on the side.

A copy of Playdrake magazines. Its pages are filled with lewd images and salacious stories of draconic females. It is not suitable for minors.

A small wooden bowl engraved with the heads of a snarling lion, bear, a screaming eagle, and a fish's face.

A vial of scented oil that can be burned as incense of worn as a perfume. Everyone smells something different but, always something nostalgic and a bit sad.

A cube three inches across, made of thin glass of six different colors, one on each face. When it is placed on a side, the colors shift until they finally settle with one color on top (sometimes the same color that was placed, often a different one). There doesn't seem to be a pattern to which colour ends up where.  

A leather vest with one hundred pockets, divided between the outside inside and a number of secret hidden ones. One of the pockets contains a four leaf clover.

A guitar that, regardless of what string is plucked, will always produce the same set of notes in the same order. Only the speed at which these notes are produced can be changed.

An iron orb that always rolls against gravity, but only while in contact with a solid surface. If not in contact with a solid surface, it has no unusual properties.

A gemstone that takes on the appearance of the birth stone of the last person to touch it.

A chess set that animates and attacks people who attempt to cheat at the game.

A vivid, deep purple crystal that appears to consist of a random assortment of thousands of tiny cubes bound together. Knowledgeable PC's can identify the mineral as fluorite.

A small hood for a trained falcon. Any bird wearing the hood does not need to eat or drink as long as the hood remains on.

A pair of small metal rods, each about five inches long and a half inch wide, with bulbs at one end. When held, the bulb transmutes into the proper utensil needed for the current meal.  

A glass jar that automatically separates any liquid poured into it into multiple layers of individual substances, as though a centrifuge had been employed.  

A braided lanyard bearing the words "BEST FRINEDS". When the wearer of this braided lanyard closes their eyes, they experience the sensations of having warm sun shining on their face and a gentle breeze tousling their hair. The scent of campfire smoke can be smelled, and the laughter of children can be heard.

A pen of exquisite craftsmanship with a body like smooth, polished marble and gold trimming. The pen has a small golden leaver where in the tip of the pen can be touched to the shadow of an individual's head and enough ink for a full sheet of paper is extracted.

A leather wallet stamped with the symbol of a mousetrap, containing a full set of certified identification papers denoting that the bearer is a member of the ratcatcher's guild. The section containing the member's physical description (Height, weight, sex, race, eye, skin and hair colour) is completely blank and could be filled in by anyone with half decent handwriting.

Mirror of Self-Interest: A small steel mirror that doesn't reflect anything but the face of the person holding it. However, this image of the person is perfect, devoid of any flaws or incongruities with the holder's appearance as though they were the most attractive person in the province. This image is also only visible to the bearer.

A black and purple scale of some enormous horror of the far realm.

A velvet coin purse containing half a dozen egg-sized polished stones in various natural hues.

A skull carved out of charcoal. When burned, the skull will turn into a pile of ash. Within an hour, the skull reforms into charcoal.

A thick caribou skin frontier jacket covered in mythological scenes.

A perfectly preserved human brain, encased in a large dome of clear glass.

Apple of Doubt: A fruit that looks like an apple, it tastes like an apple, it smells like an apple, for all intents and purposes it appears to be an apple, but you are certain it is not an apple.

A blood red mask made from carefully sculpted bone, shaped to look like the face of a grinning demon. The eyes of the mask are the only parts that are open, with the eyes of the bearer appearing bright crimson while looking through it.

A suncatcher in the shape of an evil deity literally catches the light of the sun, forming a hazy space of shadows around it.

A large, round-bottomed flask containing a faintly golden liquid which smells sweet, but overwhelmingly of alcohol.

A deck of cards carefully organized within a small box. The card faces are beautiful but contain a great deal of seemingly meaningless text beneath hand-painted pictures.

A set of windchimes that move though no wind is present. The mellow sounds of their chimes bring back memories that make you ache with anguish and despair.

A scroll that repeats these words endlessly; “Seek out the Gilded Glade and place me upon the pedestal.”

A large painting portraying the wonders of underwater life. The viewer see merfolk, sea elves, and all manner of aquatic creatures going about their lives. The edges of the driftwood frame around the canvas is dripping seawater.

A simple silver fork. Embossed into the handle are the letters “JA.” The tines of the eating implement give off a slight green glow. A crowded inscription on the back of the fork reads: “To King Ragnis, may venom never touch thine lips.”

A small envelope sealed with a wax sigil. If unsealed the letter inside reads: “Meet me at the Red Rose at 7 in the eve. Kill the bearer of this note.”

A tightly rolled cloth that unfurls into a solid black banner, with a faint, hard-to-look-at pattern shimmering in the weave.

A rough-hewn, rust-colored stone filled with half-buried flakes of dark blue crystals forming the semblance of a rose. Knowledgeable PC's can identify the mineral as azurite.

A statuette of a six armed man, holding shields in each hand. With a ring-loop for a head, which is looped onto a necklace.  

A large obsidian sphere with jutting shapes carved in and sticking out.  Each surface is intricately carved with a complex script composed of squares.  It is wrapped several times and held inside a smooth pottery sphere.  

A squat metal cylinder of brass that resembles a small compass. When opened, it reveals a dull blue gem.

Neverspill Mug: Any drink poured into this mug can never be spilled accidentally. Someone can be struck upside the head with it, without a single drop escaping.

Unending Chalk: A stick of chalk can be used to draw, but never gets shorter or breaks.

A rolled up canvas painting of a dreary field with dark uninviting woods beyond. The leaves of the trees in the background of the painting seem to sway and there appears to be something moving through the field.

A hilt of what once must have been a magnificent sword but the blade has been removed. When the hilt is picked up, the wielder feels the weight of a whole sword and when the hilt is whipped around, the wielder can hear a blade slicing through the air. But it is just a hilt...

An apple that is the most mouth-watering, beautiful apple you have ever seen...but when you approach within three feet of it you begin to see it rot and spoil right in front of your eyes and even touching it and smelling it confirms that it is indeed rotted. As you back away you see the apple's rot and decay reverse and it becomes the same beautiful apple you saw seconds earlier.

A set of sky blue robes made from a high quality cotton with the Order of Deacons symbol sewn into the chest.

A set of bagpipes made from a rich mahogany wood, artfully carved and well balanced.

A hooded lantern with an adjustable iris to control the light level. Its adamantine casing is covered in stars and concentric circles, as well as text no one seems able to read.

A set of robes primarily red in colour, with subtle green highlights, as well as silver thread embroidery and grey fur lining around the collar, hood and sleeves. Overall it seems to border a fine line between looks and utility, given that the sleeves feature each a strap allowing them to be rolled up and secured, and several leather belts attached to the inside of the robe fill in the role of pockets or holsters. Under direct sunlight, the robes have a very faint, barely noticeable iridescent sheen to them.

A large obsidian sphere with jutting shapes carved in and sticking out.  Each surface is intricately carved with a complex script composed of squares.  It is wrapped several times and held inside a smooth pottery sphere.  

A long and pale wand engraved with several horizontal slits,

A bleached white jawbone once belonging to a dwarf. It shouts insults in dwarven whenever it is touched by an elf.

A pair of golden earrings, with sapphires set in the center. The sapphires always appear to be as if they are catching light, no matter the light condition, giving them a false, glowing appearance.

A marble statuette of a scowling woman with octopus tentacles for arms emerging from dark ocean waves.

A well-made holy symbol of the minor God of Random Domain that when carried or worn by a bearer who is not a devout follower of that God, fills its owner with a sense of dread

A pair of war drum clubs whose handles are made of a dark brown wood with human skulls bound with leather strips on the ends.

A heavy iron mask, intricately carved patterns and runes.

A white porcelain mask, smooth and beautiful, except for the tears of blood coming from the eye sockets.

A small, palm-sized mass of interlocking carvings. The carvings on closer examination resemble five interlocking crescents. The icon is fashioned from what looks to be ancient bone and knowledgeable PC's can determine that the object was fashioned from the knuckles of five different dragons.

Coin of Indecision: A gold coin with the word "YES" on one side and the word "NO" on the other. If it is flipped while asking a question, the coin always lands on edge.

A thin chisel wrought in the shape of a stylized finger, with a perpetually flaking lacquer of dark green.

A leather wallet acid etched with the symbol of an alembic, containing a full set of certified identification papers denoting that the bearer is a member of the alchemists and apothecaries guild. The section containing the member's physical description (Height, weight, sex, race, eye, skin and hair colour) is completely blank and could be filled in by anyone with half decent handwriting.

Wand of False Life: An elm wand that if set down on a solid surface, will sprout tiny legs and arms, and move around like a living thing, spontaneously wandering around in a small area and sometimes dancing, particularly if there is music being played. It isn't actually alive and will not move more than three feet from where it was placed. The arms and legs will fold away if the wand is picked up, but it always seems to have an elongated face as part of the grain of the wood at one end.

[yashimolala]

⎡ where are you now? ⎦fushiguro t. & m.

★ part two of ⎡ can you hear me now? ⎦ ☆  

❀ pairing: fushiguro megumi & fushiguro toji (familial)

❀ word count: 1,494 words

❀ genre: fluff/angst 

❀ author’s notes: this is not incestuous in any manner. 

❀ tags: character study, fushiguro toji-centric, introspection, purple prose, somewhat canon-compliant (?) 

❀ description: the moments that were left at the back of the father and son’s minds, and the places where they could’ve been.

。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆　　 。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆

Sunflowers.

Megumi’s eyes flutter to the sight of a delightful scar.

He knows this is a dream, but it was a real memory flashing in his eyes, one that he’s never been able to recall before.

The scar was graceful, stretching to its’ full beauty on a smile. It was straight,  adorning the left side of the person’s mouth.

Slightly-chapped lips, rosy hues on glowing cheeks, and large, rough hands reaching out for him. And his safety in a delicate body is entrusted to their palms as he’s wrapped in strong, built arms.

He could not see the upper half of their face. It was a rather blurry vision he had.

But he could tell… they were joyous. Delighted. Glad. Genuinely happy. They smiled like it was the most beautiful moment of their life. Like his very existence was a miracle.

Tenderly cradling his small, fragile body; gently rocking him to a soft tune. He doesn’t know the song itself, but he loves the comfort it brings. The small humming is imprinted in his memory, a precious memento to cross at his heart.

Megumi then closes his eyes, drifting to a deep slumber, all the while listening to the serene sound.

He lets the darkness wash him over to a new dream.

Interlude.

Your smile rivals the vibrance of a sunflower, Ever brilliant and happy, Blooming with a vivid yellow power, That I can never exude.

Shining brighter than the glaring star in a summer night. Fiery blooms of beauty captivating me in its splendor, Always facing the direction of its Creator Like a lost sailor in search for a ray of light.

- Yashi

Aloë.

Megumi remembers getting ice cream in the mall when he was a child.

He was observing the strange tubs of bizarre flavors illustrated in posters; he seemed like he wanted to try them out.

His father was watching him from afar, hands shoved into his pants’ pockets. The man then sighs, “Stay in the bench over there.”

Megumi nods, sitting himself on the vacant furniture, unknowing of what he was planning.

The older male disappears from Megumi’s sight into the flood of crowds, not even uttering another word before leaving.

Minutes of swinging his legs back and forth were spent as he waited. Person after person passed by him, never sparing a glance but he felt like the eyes lurking from the shadows are on him, but at the same time, he feels like he’s within a void of empty crowds.

Just as he was to hop off and set out to search for his father, the man was right before him, handing down a triangular-looking biscuit with a building swirl of soft white.

The child looked astonished, wrapping his small hands around the cone, green eyes sparkling with the smooth, glistening frozen treat.

Toji just sits beside him, seemingly uninterested with legs spread wide, in comparison to the kid’s knees that were almost closed in a timid manner.

Megumi blinks once, before glancing down the ice cream, bringing the pointed tip of coldness to his lips, taking a small bite.

Chilled velvety mush melted into sweetness as he savors the flavor.

It’s a classic vanilla that his father could only afford.

The father glances to his side at once, watching a small smile stretch on the kid’s usually stoic expression.

“Is it good?”

“Anything that father gets me is the best.”

Toji then closes his eyes with a contented smile, clearing out the chatter of the crowds in the mall and etched Megumi’s smiling face into the back of his head.

Aster.

Toji sees the color of the skies on Megumi.

He could never forget the beady gaze of his child, often glimmering with curiosity that he could never unravel.

They glow with a glint of excitement and interest, with every thing it explores, may it be the old bookstore down the street, the trashed alleyways in their neighborhood, or the stray puppy that he saw in the park.

Toji sees the only blessing in his life.

Toji sees Megumi making his own blessings out of the world.

A small smile pulls on his lips as the child’s hand holds onto his larger one for reassurance, relishing in the sound of his laughter.

Megumi has his mother’s eyes, but he also has his own soul in those pair of sapphires. It was somewhat funny because everyday when Toji looked into the mirror, all he can see are soulless orbs of dread.

But now that he can see the life in his blessing’s eyes, he’s more than satisfied.

Azalea.

The first time Toji went out with Megumi’s mother, they eloped to the beach, where the color of their eyes can be found, symbolic of their persona as well.

When he takes the boy to the ocean, his eyes gleamed with excitement as he starts talking about the sea creatures he’s read about, like the starfish, the crabs, the seahorse and more.

His blue gaze was a living memory of his mother, reminding him of the calm ocean waves that came crashing on the grains of gold and the clear skies that rolled across the earth.

He notices his mussed hair that was disheveled by the salt water that soaked into their skin and takes a photo of the footsteps they’ve left on the shore before it’s washed away by the sweep of shallow water.  

When he feels delicate fingers graze on his knuckles, his chest surges with euphoria upon seeing Megumi who held onto his hand with his small digits, lips stretching with a smile and wet lashes framing his face.

He wants to wake up every day to this shade of blue, the voice of his son filling his ears, to live in a moment that will last until the end of his time.

Interlude.

‘You look just like your mother.’

The man remarks as he glances at the shape of his hair — same black, same spike, same curl that framed over his features that was a tad softer than Toji’s.

‘I guess I do carry her tenderness well.’ Megumi brings up a hand to the expanse of his neck, averting his focus away, refusing to make eye contact with his father.

This does not go unnoticed by Toji, as his emerald gaze catches on Megumi’s ocean ones. They were a deep shade of blue, drowning in the abysmal depths of the sea, accompanied by the shadows.

He speaks again. You both have the same eyes.

‘Cause we are both exhausted.’ The younger male responds almost immediately, but it never came out in an exasperated manner. It escaped his lips as a gentle sigh.

Toji’s eyes travel down to explore more what he shared with his mother, halting by the slim phalanges that he wore.

‘And the hands.’ He adds.

‘We share the same wilting fingers.’ Megumi wearily says, demonstrating by shifting his digits into a hand gesture that he does not recognize, only familiar with the lines and curves that shaped his wrist.

‘But that rage, your mother doesn’t wear that anger.’

‘You’re right.’ His expression that was once serene contorts into one of madness, bathed in blood and the laughter that cascades from his lips is almost maniacal. ‘This rage is the one thing I get from my father.’

Sweet Pea.

Fushiguro Toji was not expecting to have the latter half of his plans ruined by the Gojo kid who went berserk after rising from death.

All he felt was unease, unease, utter unease.

Just when he thought he had thrown his feelings away, it all comes back to him with an excruciating ache to his chest, tugging painfully on his heartstrings.

All he remembers is clinging onto his wife’s back like a helpless beast, the joy he had when Megumi was born, raising him up until he was five and fuck, he wishes he could have seen him grow up more — deal with his teenage phase, watch him graduate, have a peaceful story of his own.

He longs for a life where he could hear about Megumi’s dreams, where they talk about what happens in his everyday life over dinner, where they could live as a small and happy family with Tsumiki.

But he can’t go back to that life, can’t return to where he left off, can’t have what he want anymore so what’s the point?

He looks into the long path that was stretched out on the other way, disappearing into forever. He’s afraid to say this is the end he’s reached, but deep inside, he knows that he’s already lost, deep in the restraint of his own pride, in the choice of path that he chose and in this battle.

So when he chooses his last words, he tells them to the white-haired teen in hopes that his child will at least be able to live a better life than he did.

He just hopes that his only blessing is okay.

。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆　　 。·:*:·ﾟ★,。·:*:·ﾟ☆

The language of flowers: 

❀ Sunflower = “The sunshine in your smile”/Radiance ❀ Aloe = Affection and grief ❀ Aster = Love and daintiness/Remembrance ❀ Azalea = Family ❀ Sweet Pea = Goodbye

Oh and please do keep in mind that, in the second interlude, the dialogues that are in italics belong to Rupi Kaur’s ‘Milk and Honey’.

additional notes: i said i’d write more of this so i did. 

[siobhanromee]

a series of creatures

[Image Description: a series of sketches done on post-it notes in black pen. Described from top left to bottom right.

1. A crescent moon with a person's face in profile, surrounded by stars

2. A stylized sun, bearing a face with sleepy eyes and a lazy smile

3. A cat with curly whiskers and a wide smile.

4. A small fluffy creature with 2 pointed ears like those of a cat. It has 2 eyes high on its head and a wide mouth near the bottom of its body. It has two small clawed feet and no visible arms. It looks in surprise at an apple to it's right.

5. A creature with large eyes and bushy eyebrows. It has two triangular ears on either side of its head and a crown of fluffy hair atop its head. It has a tiny nose and is surrounded by noise (represented by squiggly lines).

6. A crab-like creature with a bumpy shell and an oval head. It has sharp teeth and a pair of branched antennae.

/End ID]

[bcbdrums]

Waterfall!!! And also I appreciate the font!#

You thought I forgot...  You thought it would never happen...  Well friend, I never delete anything!!!  Enjoy waterfalls, and adventure galore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @gothicthundra!!!

FFn     AO3

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

Lost World

Shego pushed her hair out of her face as she gave Drakken a sidelong glance from where she sat piloting the hover-car low over the ocean, rapidly approaching an island—their first sign of land in hours, when their destination should have presented itself early that morning. Drakken's brow was lifted in a furrow as he held the large map out in front of him, the corners flapping in the breeze as he turned it clockwise once, and then again. Shego let out a groan.

"Do you even know where we are?" she asked, licking her lips against the slight chapping that was beginning from the hours in the wind.

Drakken seemed to startle and he brought the map close to his chest, turning an innocent and far too broad grin on her.

"Eh, heh-heh..."

There was a pause as Shego blinked at him before groaning.

"Ugh, fine. You fly, I'll navigate."

"But you said I'm not allowed to fly because the last time we were over islands we—"

"Ugh."

They traded roles, with Drakken handing her the fluttering map as she shifted over one seat so he could take the center in front of the steering column. It wasn't too long after the change that they descended through the remaining cloud layer, and in following the small chain of islands a more promising destination soon came into view—a massive island the size of Iceland.

"All right," Shego said decisively, "Hench said it was near the—"

She was cut off as a shadow suddenly covered them, and they had but a second to look up and then duck before what could only be a living creature swooped in to attack them. As a the hover-car was rocked in the air and a horrendous scraping sound filled her ears, Shego registered a glimpse of brown leathery wings and teeth within a beak.

The sound and shadow gone, Shego lifted her head and whirled around in her seat, hands ablaze and ready to defend them. But their adversary had vanished, presumably up and into the clouds.

"Was that a pteranodon!?" Drakken sputtered, spinning in his seat and leaning over the dash in search of the creature.

"No. They're extinct, dingus," Shego said, her ire misplaced as her heart pounded for fear.

"But it looked just like one!"

"As if we really have a clue what any extinct thing looks like," Shego scoffed, peering over her side of the hover-car. There was no sign of their attacker. "It was probably some kind of condor."

Even as she spoke, their eyes locked together on broad scratches into the back of the hover-car that appeared to have been made with talons. Shego swallowed nervously and rolled her eyes, turning to quickly sit down again.

Drakken was frowning and appeared quite anxious, but he sat back in his seat, Shego hoped noting the logic in her words. She herself realized that the map had been lost when she ducked, and she tapped the control console to hopefully distract Drakken's attention from that fact and the bizarre attack. She had definitely seen skin, not feathers...

As Drakken gripped the controls again, another shadow suddenly covered them, but as they looked up this time and gasped in unison, it wasn't a single creature, but a flock. Distinctly triangular wings with claws at their apex drove the creatures directly toward them, and Shego barely had time to throw her hands over her face before Drakken was clinging to her, and somehow together they fell to the floorboards as the hover-car was scraped, rocked, and spun during what Shego could only call a bird strike. Or in this case, a seemingly-not-extinct pteranodon strike.

It ended with a loss of sound and a gaining of black smoke that billowed up around them as Shego felt her stomach suddenly float. They were falling out of the sky, fast, and Drakken realized it as she did when they gasped again.

"Get off!" she cried, shoving at his arms even as he was scrambling away, both of them reaching for the controls as the craft plummeted.

They ended up both half-seated in the center as they pulled back on the control stick, trying to level the hover-car. But whatever the creatures had done was making it nearly impossible.

"Rrghh! What's wrong!?" Shego shouted over the wind, and after moment of blinking out of his panic, Drakken turned and started looking around at the damage to the craft.

"Nnh! The right engine is out and I think the gyroscope was damaged, among other things!"

"Can you fix it?"

"Not in the air!"

Somehow, the craft was beginning to respond, and as Drakken slid back into the seat and rejoined Shego in pulling on the control stick somehow they started to level out. But they were still rocking violently and Shego finally noted the blaring of alarms from the instruments. The smoke from the flamed-out engine was no longer choking them and they all but fell through the last wispy layer of clouds as they moved too quickly toward the nearest island, upon which trees and cliffs were beginning to gain definition.

"We need a place to land!" Drakken called above the wind.

"If we can do anything but crash I think we should call it good!"

Shego internally felt the grimace that Drakken displayed, and they fell into silence for several minutes as they fought the controls in an effort to bring the craft safely down. The cliffs and trees that came into focus were revealing a tropical paradise, which was in fact the type of location they had been looking for, but whether or not it was even the right island anymore was in question.

"I think we can make that ridge over there," Shego said, risking taking a hand from the stick to gesture to the only visible clearing they could see as the hover-car continued to rapidly descend despite their joined efforts.

"Then what? Nyaaaaahh!"

Shego let out a scream herself as below them, out of the trees emerged a massive barrel-shaped head, a gaping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, and short limbs that reached for them as they soared past. A deep yet deafening rumble sounded from the giant creature, and whether it was from both their efforts or only one Shego didn't know, but the control stick was yanked violently away from their new adversary and the hover-car started to flip.

Shego grabbed onto one of the restraints just as Drakken grabbed onto her, and as the craft spun wildly beyond any hope of control they fell back to the floorboards in a heap where Shego tried to brace herself inside to keep from being ejected as their usual place of security became a violent ride worse than any rollercoaster she'd ever braved.

She heard Drakken scream her name, but he was still holding onto her so she didn't acknowledge him but with a pointed cry.

"Hold on!" she said and then grit her teeth as the hover-car slammed into things, rocks and trees and who knew what else, until it finally hit ground hard and slid to a stop beneath some cooling shade.

Shego realized she'd closed her eyes and opened them as she tried to calm her breathing and assess her situation. She was bruised, but nothing felt broken, and she felt like she'd been through the worst of the old Team Go training routines that Global Justice had ever designed.

She had a flash of panic as she realized Drakken was a dead weight atop her, and she elbowed him hard as the first instinctive reaction she could muster.

"Owww, Shego!" he complained.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "How badly are you injured?"

"Well thanks to you I have bruised ribs."

Shego rolled her eyes and gave him a gentle shove, and was further relieved as he slowly climbed off of her, wincing but seeming to be in no worse state than she was. She sat up slowly and together they peered at their surroundings.

They were deep in a tropical forest, the trees rising high and cool, lush greenery surrounding them. There was a distant sound of water along with the cries of unfamiliar birds and the buzzing of insects. Shego grimaced and watched Drakken's concentrated frown as he slowly looked around them, probably mentally asking all the questions she was.

Where were they? Were they okay? Could the hover-car be repaired? If not, was there another way off the island?

"Was that a T-Rex?" Shego blurted out before she could help herself.

Drakken blinked down at her. "No. That thing was much...larger."

Shego blinked in surprise as Drakken offered her a hand up, but she took it. She suppressed her groan of pain as she righted herself and then they both climbed out of the hover-car and took a few steps away to truly assess the damage.

Their trustworthy vehicle certainly looked battered beyond repair, with numerous gashes from the talons of the winged creatures they'd encountered and dents and scrapes from the impact of the crash. The right engine had flamed out entirely and was definitely inoperable, and from the look on Drakken's face when Shego glanced at him, there was far more wrong with the craft than the superficial damages.

"I'm guessing we can't fly that out of here?" she asked.

"Nghn... Help me get the hood open," Drakken responded.

After forcing the hood up and feeling the start of a headache from the disapproving scowl on Drakken's face, Shego decided to do some quick scouting.

Looking all around, she could only see trees and lush greenery that seemed to grow thicker in every direction except one. She headed that way, and after cautiously pushing past several trees she thought she recognized she spotted the high ridge they had previously been seeking for landing. She also saw smaller cliffs nearer and others beyond, all covered in the same tropical vegetation. Distantly, she thought she could hear the roar of a waterfall.

She felt her brow knit as she turned back. The new lair they had been heading to—a specialty design and first of its kind from HenchCo, fully equipped with a variety of automated defenses and standard super-villain tech—was supposedly on that island, if they had navigated correctly. But there had been nothing, absolutely nothing in that brochure...about dinosaurs.

As Shego returned to the hover-car where Drakken was bent deep within the engine and grumbling, she wondered if Drakken's map-reading had been that bad or if Hench had pulled one over on them. When she reached the still-smoking vehicle Drakken stood up, wincing in pain as he slammed the hood closed.

"Can you fix it?"

Drakken glared at the craft. "Not here."

"Well...great, just great. Now what?"

Drakken rubbed his neck, wincing again as he cast his eyes over the wreck. He reached down to the dash and pushed a button Shego couldn't clearly see.

"We still have the map... Let's just...go to the lair."

"Uh, we lost the map," Shego admitted.

Drakken's brow twisted and he reached back to the rear of the vehicle. Shego's eyes widened as he pulled the map she'd let go during the first attack, tattered and soot-stained, from the ridiculous tail fin of the center engine. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah... Maybe the water's turned on at that lair. I could use a shower."

Drakken was turning the map over and then seemed to startle as he took in Shego's words. She watched as he assessed his own appearance, his coat twisted and a bit dirty from the smoke, but not damaged. His hair was unkempt as hers was, and her own suit was a bit dirty. But more notable was the sweltering heat that reached them even beneath the shade of the trees. Sweat had already beaded on her brow and was worse on Drakken's.

As she took the map from him and turned it the right direction, leading them back the way toward where she'd seen the ridge, she wondered if the quest and impulsive purchase of a new lair wasn't a fool's venture to begin with.

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

The grade was at least forty-five degrees, Shego decided, after a mere three minutes into the more difficult part of the hike. They had navigated through thick trees, across a trickle of a stream that Drakken had wanted to follow, but Shego reminded him their new lair was on a cliff, and up a hill densely packed with shrubbery. They had both been slapping insects off of their faces more than once, and Shego was grateful for the suit she wore and even for Drakken's coat, if it meant that much less complaining.

"Shegoooo," he whined.

She rolled her eyes. "What?"

"You said we'd find a break fifteen minutes ago," he said pointedly.

Shego grimaced. The 'hill' they were ascending had turned into a mountain and the incline had grown steeper by the minute. After almost an hour she was ready to acknowledge the need for a break, but there truly was nowhere to stop. However the trees were thinning and the sun was becoming brighter—good for the possibility of a rest stop, but bad for their mildly injured condition.

"Okay, we'll stop once we get through these trees," Shego compromised, adjusting her step to be more towards the light. Unfortunately it meant changing her gait to walk more sideways, and she wondered if Drakken would catch on. "Hey, Dr. D.—"

"Ahhh!"

Shego rolled her eyes and shook her head as Drakken slipped and fell, tumbling several feet before smacking into a tree trunk. Shego winced sympathetically and carefully started toward him.

"You all right?"

Drakken waved away her offer of a hand up as he used the tree for leverage.

"I'm beginning to wonder if Hench wasn't just feeding us a line about this...state-of-the-art lair..."

"You think?" Shego scoffed.

Drakken stumbled past her and began climbing the mountain again. Shego noted the sweat dripping down the side of his face before wiping her own brow as it suddenly began to itch. She followed him in silence, the map useless in their present endeavor since they simply needed to reach the top.

"Shego! Look!"

Drakken had paused and was leaning back against a tree, and when she reached his side she saw what had caused him to grin.

Not a flat area, but a sharp cliff's edge awaited them, rocky and just as thick with trees as the part of the hill they were walking. But more telling was the view beyond, where a thin, sparkling waterfall fell from a higher ridge and down beyond view.

Drakken cast a smile toward Shego as he pushed off the tree and started toward the cliff. She followed quickly, worried he might slip and fall over to a horrible end, but as they reached the edge a few minutes later she saw...while a dangerous fall, it wasn't sheer. The rocky cliff was peppered with vegetation, and it appeared one could climb down if determined. The waterfall emptied into a shimmering blue pool below, looking like something out of a dream.

Beyond the tiny oasis, the larger ridge was in view through the trees, and Shego could hear but not see a thundering waterfall somewhere beyond what the tropical forest concealed. She wondered if they were still heading in the right direction, since the map did indicate a fall near the lair. But the map hadn't said anything about dinosaurs...

As if in reminder, a sudden deep rumble echoed off the cliffs, the sound bouncing over the mountain in menacing waves and seeming to even vibrate Shego's bones. The birds nearby responded in flight, scattering from the trees in zig-zag patterns and revealing their bright, foreign colors for a moment before returning to their havens.

"I'm going for a swim."

Shego did a double-take as Drakken picked his way to the edge of the cliff, looking up and down the smaller ridge for a convenient way down.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm hot, tired, bruised, and smelling a bit ripe. We can take a break here," he said decisively as he climbed a bit further up the edge of the cliff. Shego's breath caught as his foot slipped on loose rock dangerously near the edge, and then she started up after him.

"Dr. D., we're lost, probably trapped, and there's dinosaurs on this island. I don't really think there's time to be getting caught with your shirt off."

Drakken had fairly tripped his way several more feet up the incline, Shego cringing with his every step, and he had apparently found a place he thought suitable and was beginning a climb down the cliff.

"Stop being such a panic-Nancy."

"That's not the phrase, and—"

"You could always join me, you know. You're not exactly smelling like roses this afternoon either."

Shego's jaw dropped in a gasp, and she watched with wide eyes until Drakken had descended out of sight beneath the cliff face. She was so busy processing the insult and the request and trying to understand which had made her face suddenly flushed beyond the heat of the sun, that she forgot she needed to keep an eye on him. When she finally picked her way to the cliff's edge, Drakken had already reached the bottom where dense shrubbery surrounded the pool. Drakken was peeling off his lab coat.

"Dr. D., you realize that there could be parasites or something in that water."

Drakken's gloves were stuck inside his boots along with his socks, and Shego narrowed her eyes at the button-up shirt he was wearing beneath his lab coat...and was beginning to unbutton.

"We don't even know if this is the right island, Shego. If we have to climb this mountain I'd rather be at least mildly comfortable doing so. And I'm fairly certain I lost some skin in the crash."

Shego was about to protest, but Drakken's shirt had come off very quickly and had been tossed atop the lab coat on a bush and she found her mouth had gone dry. The white tank top beneath his shirt was sweat-soaked and showed the definition of his muscles quite well. She was staring at his broad shoulders and the way sweat seemed to glisten on his biceps, when the telltale sound of a buckle being undone suddenly sent her heart racing.

Shego reached blindly for a tree to hold onto as her breath caught when Drakken stepped out of his pants, folding them carelessly and tossing them on the bush, and then he pulled off the tank top. He even removed his hair-tie and sat that atop the pile. When his thumbs hooked beneath the elastic of his boxers, Shego spun around and gripped the tree trunk with both hands, noticing suddenly how heavy her breathing had become.

"Wait! Sh-Shego, you're not peeking are you?"

Shego rolled her eyes before gritting her teeth. It took him until he was naked to think about that? Was he...trying to get her to look at him or something?

"No I'm not," was what she managed, her mouth still dry.

"Good... Oh, Shego..."

Her heart leapt to her throat at the way he moaned her name and she stepped nearer the tree, as if it could protect her somehow.

"What?" she snapped.

"The water is perfect!"

Shego swallowed anxiously and slowly turned around. Drakken was over waist-deep in the water but she could still see far too much pale blue beneath the ripples than was decent. She drew her gaze upward to his face, but at that moment he ducked his whole body beneath the water and swam toward where the tiny waterfall was splashing down softly, the white foam further disrupting the clarity of the water to Shego's relief.

She watched as Drakken stood beneath the fall, tilting his head back and letting the water run over his face and wetting his hair down into a shiny black curtain over the back of his neck. When he reached his arms high under the stream and stretched, Shego's heart began to pound.

Drakken... Drakken was...startlingly attractive.

As if without permission, Shego's eyes drifted down to where the water rippled and obscured the pale blue beneath the surface. Strong legs held him up, and atop them she saw the healthy curve of his rear and...

She looked away again, swallowing the lump in her throat as her eyes stared without focus at the trees. Yes, he was very attractive.

"Shego? This is very refreshing. Are you sure you won't join me?"

Shego let herself slide down the tree trunk to sit. It gave her less of a view of the pool, but she could still just see Drakken from where she had settled in her frustration. He had taken a few steps out from beneath the falls and was peering up at her.

"No thanks," she said, crossing her arms and legs. It was then that she suddenly noted just how itchy her skin was, the sweat even worse for Drakken's antics, and she grabbed up her tangled hair and piled it atop her head in an attempt at some small relief.

The desire to peel out of her own suit and slip beneath the waters was suddenly very strong as she felt the heat under her collar, the way her suit was sticking to her in places, and the way too many of her muscles and joints were aching from both the crash and the prolonged exertion of the climb. But Drakken's seemingly friendly request had her heart pounding and her head racing in confusion. Was he actually expecting her to strip and swim naked with him? Was it some kind of...awkward proposition or come-on, disguised in an innocence he hoped she wouldn't see through?

She couldn't find an answer that made sense, so she let her eyes fall back to where Drakken was still standing next to the small waterfall, rubbing and scratching at his skin with a small grimace on his face. Shego wondered just how banged up he was from the crash and considered again how amazing it was neither of them had come out with worse injuries. After a few minutes of 'showering,' Drakken stepped fully out from beneath the sparkling fall, the sunlight seeming to accentuate his best features both above and below the water, and then he turned to float on his back. Shego's cheeks reddened and she looked away.

"Ah...Shego?" Suddenly his tone was anxious.

"What?" she said tersely, studying the dirt on her boots.

"I think...uhm. Ah... That is. Were you going to join me?"

"No," she said just as curtly, not daring to look down. "Someone's gotta keep an eye out for prehistoric nightmares."

The hesitation in his voice suggested he might have realized his state of indecency, and that the waters were crystal clear rather than the gray-blue that surrounded their usual lair. It allowed her heart to calm just slightly, knowing he hadn't in fact been propositioning her in any way. Although it didn't erase the images she was trying not to picture, the revelation of just how appealing her boss was from head to toe still at the forefront of her mind.

"I, ah...think I'm done actually, if you...wanted to clean up? A-After I get dressed," Drakken added quickly.

The tiniest of smirks curled Shego's lips upwards, knowing Drakken had figured out just what he'd done and he was hopefully now as embarrassed as her. She could make it worse with a quip thanking him for the show, but before the thought could leave her lips another occurred. If she accepted the admittedly tempting offer to slip into the waters, would Drakken then be perched atop the cliff ogling her?

It seemed unlikely, given his present nervousness, but...he was only a man, right? Would he be tempted to watch her? Or perhaps simply notice by mistake...

Of far, far greater concern was the heat rising in her chest and pooling deep in her core, and in fact...that she was leaning towards going down to the waters to see if he would peek at her. And the sudden, unthinkable desire for him to actually do so...

"Shego?"

She startled, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them, letting her hair fall as she stared wide-eyed at Drakken's face suddenly less than ten feet from hers as he had ascended the cliff. He was fully clothed once again, his wet hair pulled back into its usual ponytail.

"What?" she snapped far too harshly, and he recoiled.

"Did you...want to clean up, and I can keep watch?"

Her heart pounded. Her lips parted even as she still mentally tripped over the choice she suddenly found desperately difficult to make, but then...

Another deep rumble, closer than the last, sent birds vacating the trees and this time many of them didn't return, but headed toward the higher ridge. Shego swallowed the lump in her throat and ignored the rising heat in her body as again the sound seemed to shake her to her core.

"I think my turn's gonna have to wait, Doc," she said, pulling herself upright.

Drakken climbed the rest of the way up and over the cliff, and Shego watched him with a wary eye even as she glanced around over the dense trees that were likely hiding unknown horrors.

"So you feel better now, huh? Can't be comfortable to have gotten dressed while wet."

Drakken glanced at her a bit nervously and then after wringing out his hair, resumed the trek ahead of her up the cliff.

"I used my under shirt to dry off. It's better than being itchy," he tossed back over his shoulder as Shego paused to consult the map again.

They still didn't even know if they were on the right island, so she wondered if there was even a point. But the ridge that was hidden beyond the tiny oasis would seem to line up with what they had been told, if the distant sound of a larger waterfall was any indication.

Puzzling over the map and their location helped Shego refocus on their present circumstance, and not the brief show she'd been witness to minutes before. Not to mention Drakken's renewed grumbling as he half-stumbled up the ridge ahead of her. But if she needed a further distraction, it was quick in coming as a few steps later had her nearly crashing into Drakken's back.

"Uh, what's the big—?"

"Hsshh! Shego!" Drakken whispered in a hiss, turning and nearly knocking her down the steep cliff. Their mutual grabbing of each other's arms was her saving grace, and she was about to protest when he suddenly pointed to the top of the cliff which was the source of the thin waterfall. Shego's jaw fell open.

At the top of the cliff was a herd of small creatures, perhaps the size of a retriever dog, but distinctly dinosaur-like in appearance. They looked like sauropod dinosaurs, gray-green and scaly, and they were all moving about the cliff in apparent ease, drinking from the unseen waters above and foraging in the bushes.

Shego swallowed slowly. She was about to make a comment when from somewhere behind the ridge, a massive head rose up into view on an even more massive neck, at least three times the girth of a giraffe's by her estimation. She had no idea where the ground was below the creature, but if the head and neck were any size indication then the thing was over twice the height of a giraffe as well.

"Drakken..." she heard herself choke out, though she wasn't sure why.

"It's...it's a sauroposeidon!" he whispered gleefully. "And her tiny broodlings!"

Shego turned to him with a grimace. "You just made that up."

"I did not!"

A shadow passing overhead caused them to both look up, and the massive silhouette of a pteranodon was clear as it blocked out the sun momentarily, then flying away and down past the cliff that concealed the greater body of the sauropod.

"Okay, I think we're on the wrong island," Shego said, trying to lean out of Drakken's grasp. "Unless DNAmy got here first..." she added in a mutter.

"What?"

Just then, the sauropod raised its head high and it let out a low call. All of the young ones turned and vanished into the bushes and trees, and Shego and Drakken watched as the massive creature seemed to turn before also disappearing beneath the cliff. A foreboding worse than had already been swimming around Shego's mind took over with a pounding in her head and chest.

"Should we be worried about that?"

Before Drakken could answer, the birds in the trees around them all took flight, and they turned just in time to see the massive barrel-shaped head from before with its gaping mouth of teeth moving through the trees on the steep hill they had already traversed. Shego could see more clearly now the gray-brown color of the creature's scaly skin, the life in its amber eyes, and the way it moved with purpose towards them.

"Drakken..."

"Okay, maybe it is a T-Rex," he said through a nervous laugh. "A very, very...very big one."

Not one coherent thought ran through Shego's head except 'run', which was useless as there was absolutely no way they could.

"Run!" Drakken cried, pushing past Shego and moving down the hill and toward the dinosaur.

"What...?"

She didn't have long to wait as Drakken started scrambling down the cliff again and toward the pool. She followed, having no other recourse, and she noted with rising anxiety that the dinosaur was advancing on them with ease.

"It'll probably just get us more easily down here!" she protested as she caught up to him, and together they attempted to push through the dense foliage and move along the perimeter of the pool. Beyond were more trees, and presumably a stream or some other outlet for the waters. Shego knew there must be another cliff just out of sight somewhere, given where the large sauropod had been.

"Well it definitely would have caught us up there!" Drakken retorted.

Shego couldn't argue, and as she glanced behind them to where the sounds of breaking branches and a heavy thudding that were surely the creature's footfalls indicated its continued its pursuit, her eyes widened at how close the animal suddenly seemed.

"Dr. D. it's gaining!" she alerted him, and he paused to glance back with a frown.

Shego moved past him then, escaping some of the thicker shrubbery and wading through a shallow stream that was revealed as the small pool's outlet, her boots sinking into the heavy silt.

"Hey be careful crossing this," Shego cautioned, turning back as she left the less than knee-deep waters.

"I think the Tyrannousaurus is of greater concern, Shego!"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him as he stumbled into the waters, still moving forward herself. But then she gasped as suddenly the ground gave way beneath her and yet didn't as her feet and calves were engulfed by a viscous material. Her arms flailed as she fought the momentum trying to send her face to the ground while her feet remained suspended one in front of the other in a run. Managing to stay upright, she looked down at the same time she heard Drakken's strangled cry from behind her.

"Quicksand..." she muttered.

"Don't move!"

Shego twisted her torso to face him.

"You think? Get me out!"

In crossing the stream they had moved beneath some taller trees, which Shego hoped would give a momentary shelter from the pursuing beast. She held stock still, knowing the slightest movement would increase the rate at which she was sinking, and that there was a point coming soon at which there would be no escape.

"How!?" Drakken said, looking around frantically.

The thudding of massive footfalls and the snapping of branches was growing nearer, and Shego felt panic begin to grip her heart as she realized that without movement, she was almost defenseless against the terrible lizard. But would it go for the stationary target, or the moving one?

"Oh, Shego! There's vines!"

Her worried gaze that had come to rest on Drakken lifted to follow where he was pointing upward, well out of reach, to where some vines wound around the trunks and branches of the tall, tropical trees. She grimaced as she realized they were useless, but it was a short-lived thought as at that moment, the dinosaur stepped into view.

Its head was about level with the vines, at least twenty feet off the ground, and its sharp eyes fixed first upon her and then down to the nearer target of Drakken. Shego instinctively tried to move, but that only resulted in her lifted leg sinking further and feeling cemented down. She ignited her hands and fired a massive, glowing blast at the face of the creature.

The dinosaur recoiled, and an unsettling rumble so low in frequency it was scarcely audible shook Shego so violently that she stopped firing and held her hands to her ears, Drakken doing the same even as he stumbled away in attempt to flee the creature. Shego realized the sound had come from the dinosaur, and she grit her teeth and resumed firing, ignoring the painful vibrations in her chest as she sought to defend them against certain death.

To her dismay, the beast only shook its head against the flames and continued forward and in her direction. Her eyes widened at the sight of its gaping maw, every tooth sharp and glistening as it sought to make a meal of her.

"Drakken!" she screamed as she fired blasts into the fearsome animal's open mouth.

It recoiled again against what she hoped was a worse pain, and then out of the corner of her eye she was stunned to see Drakken had also apparently attacked the creature, though merely by slapping and kicking at it repeatedly as he was doing in the glimpse she caught. Whether or not it distracted the beast she didn't know, but the situation took a startling turn as the T-Rex took a foul step and sank deep within the quicksand.

A strangled shout left Shego's throat as the beast's body fell less than ten feet from her in the quagmire, it not being able to maintain balance as she had.

"Drakken!" she screamed again as its head wagged toward her, and she resumed firing to hopefully discourage it.

"Shego, cut these vines!"

Drakken's voice suddenly came from somewhere above, and she blinked in surprise to find he had climbed up onto the tail of the dinosaur after it fell. Drakken was pointing to the vines still out of reach on the higher branches, but before Shego could fully process his request the dinosaur thrashed in attempt to free itself. Drakken was tossed upward by the unexpected action and Shego gasped as he smacked into the trunk of the tree. She fired at the nearest vines to where he'd hit and was surprised again as Drakken had the wherewithal to grab onto not just one, but two of the pieces of loosed vegetation.

One vine slipped from his grasp, but he managed to hold onto the other and get both hands on it as it spun and fell, bringing him down in a spiral toward both Shego and the dinosaur. He cried out incoherently, his eyes wide as he sailed so near the T-Rex's face he could have touched it, but then the length of the vine ran out and he began falling back the way he'd come, still spinning and looking dreadfully out of sorts.

"Shegoooo..." he called helplessly, sounding almost sick. But before Shego could reply Drakken had crashed into the tail of the dinosaur once more and this time he held on.

"What...what are you...?"

Drakken had climbed up on the felled creature's back and was traversing it towards her.

"Tie the vine around you, and...I'll pull you out," he said, stopping his approach near the creature's hips. He was still a good ten feet from Shego, but apparently found it near enough as he hurled the vine toward her. Unfortunately, the dinosaur chose that moment to thrash again, and Shego watched in horror as Drakken was propelled up and back, this time falling hard on the ground beyond her sight somewhere behind the large creature. But she had caught the vine.

"Dr. D.!?" she called even as she began pulling the vine into a make-shift harness, unwilling to reject the one opportunity of escape that had been presented.

As she tied the vine she glanced over to where the horrible beast was likewise trapped, its bright amber eye staring at her with intelligence and menace. Her heart beat faster for the look of threat, and as she finished securing the vine she tore her eyes away from the massive creature and back to the jungle, her gaze darting to and fro searching for blue.

"Dr. D.?"

Silence was the only response. And it was with that uncertainty that for the first time since even before the crash, she felt true fear begin to weave its dark tendrils around her heart.

"Dr. D.!?"

"Hold on!"

Shego craned her neck until she saw Drakken ascending a tree behind the dinosaur. She was confused until she saw that the tree's branches were just as overgrown and entwined with those of the larger wild tree where her vine was anchored. She realized he was trying to reach the vine in attempt to free her, but the other tree would have been impossible to climb.

The dinosaur slowly wagged its head toward Shego, and she noticed that it didn't seem to be sinking any further into the quicksand though its hind legs were completely submerged. She wondered if there was a bottom to the deadly pit she had unwittingly stumbled into, and for the moment hoped not because it might save her from the T-Rex. It had moved its head to within fifteen feet of her, lolling in the quicksand and staring at her with a fierce, calculating glare. She ignited her hands to see if it would see her as a threat, but it only continued to watch her. It reminded her of a wolf sizing up its quarry.

She glanced upward cautiously to where Drakken was crawling along a twisting branch, and she followed the vine with her eyes. It wound around the branch he was on several times, and then seemed to grow from the other. She narrowed her eyes.

"I'll cut it loose," she called up to him, and as soon as he affirmed the decision with his eye contact, she shot a blast up to sever the vine between the two branches. As soon as it fell, end still smoldering, Drakken grabbed it and started unwinding it from the branch while his other arm gripped the limb desperately.

The dinosaur brought its head nearer to Shego, within ten feet, and she leaned away instinctively. Its upper body had sunk somewhat into the quicksand, but perhaps because of the greatness of its surface area it hadn't gone in too deep. The beast appeared to be smiling due to the natural set of its jaw, and Shego grimaced. It would just be her luck, to be gobbled up by a smirking dinosaur.

"Hold onto the vine!" Drakken's voice sounded from above, drawing her focus. She complied, noting how Drakken had wrapped the vine around his waist and one arm. She was concerned he would injure himself, but had no chance to warn him before he suddenly let himself fall from the branch.

The shortened vine caught him quickly where it was still draped over the branch, and she felt the tug as his weight was the force trying to heft her up out of the restrictive quicksand. But it still gripped her legs like a vise despite the slight give she could feel, and the resulting pull of the harness was painful as she took all of Drakken's weight. She glanced at his face which was twisted in pain, his arm clearly being pulled to its limit where he had wrapped the vine around it, and she started trying to move her legs back and forth to create space around the confining substance. At first she only felt herself sink further, but her persistence coupled with attempting to pull herself up on the vine finally resulted in some upward movement.

"It's working!" she called to Drakken, who acknowledged her with a brief look even as he struggled against the restraint he'd put himself in. Shego wondered if his arm wasn't going to end up dislocated, but then she felt an even greater give in the quicksand.

Shego turned her focus almost entirely to escaping, peripherally watching the dinosaur that seemed to be eyeing her now with anger. She wondered if it was intelligent enough to understand that she was going to be free, while it most certainly was going to meet its end. The seemingly growing menace in its eye, mere feet away from her, seemed to imply just that, and it gave her the adrenaline she needed to hasten her escape.

After what felt like forever but was probably just over five minutes, she had fully extracted one leg. The release of the one vise-like grip let Drakken's weight settle even more, and the tug against her other leg was increased and it took even less time to fully free that leg.

She maintained eye contact with the dinosaur as she ascended, Drakken's weight bringing him to the foliage-covered ground where he didn't even bother trying to stand, laying on his back as he tried to extract himself from wrapping of the vine. Shego looked down at her legs, dripping with the thick, wet sand, and despite the sudden trembling of her frame she began pumping her legs powerfully.

As soon as she had enough momentum and before Drakken could unwittingly drop her back into the quicksand, she leapt from the vine and landed next to him, mere feet from the tail of the T-Rex.

Drakken peered up at her, seeming to assess her, while she did the same to him. His arm didn't look dislocated, and he was looking at her in a mxiture of pain and confusion.

"You have quicksand in your hair," was what he finally said as he lay panting on the ground.

Shego rolled her eyes, ignoring her own heaving chest and shaking limbs as she reached down to give him a hand up.

"We should get out of here."

"I don't think it can get out... Shego..." He had let go of her hand after standing, and she turned back to see him staring at the dinosaur in childlike awe. "It's a Tyrannosaurus rex."

"Yeah, and it has no interest in small talk. Let's go."

Drakken acquiesced with only a small frown of dismay, this time following when she grabbed onto his wrist. As they moved with utmost care around the massive wash of quicksand, the dinosaur opened its jaw mere inches and another bone-shaking rumble caused them to stop and cover their ears, the low-frequency vibrations causing even Shego's hair to hurt.

When the sound stopped, Shego grabbed Drakken's wrist again and hastened their departure. As they left the dangerous mire behind and approached what appeared to be a break in the trees for the sun shining through, she paused to look back at the beast one more time. She felt unease as it made eye contact with her again, and she suddenly realized why: it wasn't behaving like a trapped animal. It seemed wholly calm, and was clearly intelligent enough to know it was trapped.

Shego swallowed nervously and decided to put the creature out of her mind as they turned to leave the denser part of the jungle behind. As they approached the sunlight the sound of water grew louder, and it wasn't long before they saw why.

"Whoa..." Shego said as they exited the trees and came upon another cliff, this one sheer and dropping away to another lower plateau. It was there that a massive waterfall poured down over yet another far larger cliff, which gave way to a valley beyond. The tributary that the falls were flowing from ran along the plateau, and as Shego followed its shimmering line further she could see the large sauropod in the distance, having made its wise escape. The plateau extended far, and the fast-flowing waters curved around the other side of the mountain they had been previously ascending. She wondered briefly if there was a spring at the top, or if it was simply snow melt that fed the various falls.

Suddenly her senses were assaulted by the familiar rumble which was the T-Rex's bizarre and unnerving vocalization. She stumbled from the pain it caused, sending vibrations through every fiber of her being, but then she gasped in fear as Drakken's own pained stumbling brought him to the edge of the cliff.

"Drakken!" she shouted, lunging for him in time to grab his shoulders, but not too late to prevent them from both going over the edge. They half-fell, half-slid down the cliff face, knees and elbows bumping painfully against the jagged rock while Shego tried to keep one hand on Drakken and grab for anything to slow their fall with the other. He was apparently doing the same, as suddenly their fall was broken by an impact against thin tree branches, which they then tumbled through until Shego managed to get a strong grip on one of them. Drakken slipped out of her grasp, but she was relieved to see him get his hands on another branch moments later.

They made eye contact through the falling leaves, again assessing one another, and when Shego released the breath she was holding Drakken let out a small whimper. She expected him to complain afterward, but he merely gritted his teeth against obvious pain and turned to start descending the tree.

"You all right?" Shego heard herself say as she moved to follow suit.

"Never better," was Drakken's sarcastic yet flat reply. Shego's only response was to grimace until they were on the ground again, and she looked around to be sure this time it was solid. There was no sign of quicksand, and the plateau was far more open than the higher part of the mountain had been, the trees more sparse and the foliage less dense.

Shego discovered she was still trembling as she started toward the fast-flowing waters of the broad tributary, intending to clean off the quicksand that was somehow spreading from her legs over the rest of her. Drakken was clutching his left arm as she passed him, and he followed quickly.

"Are you okay? Shego?"

"If this is the right island, Hench had better give us our money back," was her reply.

They reached the silty bank and Shego paused, second-guessing the decision as she wondered if the slick ground was going to prove to be another death trap.

"Shego?"

"I'm all right..." she muttered absently, wondering again what they were going to do. The map had most definitely been lost during the last misadventure, before she'd even stumbled into the quicksand.

"Shego!"

She looked down as Drakken's hand was suddenly on her arm, and then she was yanked forward along the bank of the stream. She had no need to protest as looking up she saw his cause for alarm. Less than ten yards away, one of the winged creatures—a pteranodon, if she remembered right—was standing beneath a tree and had begun walking toward them, the claws at the apex of its wings suddenly turning the creature into a quadruped. Standing, the creature was taller than they were. As she was processing this, another movement at the corner of her eye attracted her attention, and what had seemed merely like gray-green rocks suddenly became living forms that she soon recognized as more of the winged creatures.

Drakken stopped running and she nearly crashed into him. Peering over his shoulder she saw he had stopped about ten feet from the edge of the next cliff, next to the massive waterfall. He looked nervously between the waters, the drop off into nothingness, and the advancing pterosaurs. Shego stepped up to the edge and looked down. This was the waterfall she had been hearing, over thirty yards in width and falling what appeared to be nearly two-hundred feet to a broad, sparkling river in the valley below.

Shego looked back up to where the creatures were still advancing.

"I don't suppose there's any chance these ones aren't carnivorous?" she asked.

Drakken took a step back toward the cliff, shaking his head as he frowned in worry. One of the animals spread its wings then, their extended length reaching nearly twenty feet.

"Nrrgh!" Shego groaned in pain, her face twisting as she yanked at her hair in frustration. She noted then the quicksand that Drakken had mentioned earlier, tangling the ends of her dark tresses. She would worry about that if they survived. She turned and grabbed Drakken's face and forced him to look at her.

"What? Shego—"

"Don't flail too much because you need to stay upright. Right before you hit, straighten your legs and press your feet together, point your toes, and press your arms down to your front."

"What? I don't underst— Shegooooo!"

Fearing there was no time to lose, she had simply picked him up as she ran the last few feet and leapt off of the cliff, letting go as soon as they were in free-fall. It had been the right decision, as seconds later a pteranodon passed over their heads, its talons closing on air as it sailed past.

"Don't forget!" Shego called, catching his fearful gaze just before he accelerated past her.

She grimaced and grabbed hold of her hair as it whipped around her, keeping to herself that they would hit the water below at over one hundred miles per hour and that her instructions on how to fall could mean life or excruciatingly painful death. But there was no more time even if she wanted to, as the water was approaching faster than she could process. She pressed her feet together hard as she held her hair in front of her with her arms down, holding her breath at the last second.

Just as being trapped by the quicksand had been like being stuck in cement, entering the water felt like slamming into concrete, and for a moment she almost forgot to hold her breath as pain arrested her every sense. But as time seemed to slow she gradually felt the encompassing wetness, her hair floating away from her body as she had somehow let go of it. As her momentum decreased and she became aware that her limbs, though feeling like jello, were still attached to her, she remembered to move them and started pushing against the water that seemed determined to pull her downward. Then she opened her eyes and started looking for Drakken.

Turning all around she finally saw a dark blue shape amid the lighter blue waters, descending rather than ascending. She mentally cursed as she pushed her pained body toward him, hooking her arms under his without taking too close a look at him as she kicked her aching legs to bring them to the surface. If he was dead, or terribly injured...she couldn't bear to see it.

When finally air hit her face, she gulped in a breath even as Drakken's head lolled onto her shoulder. The spray from the waterfall kept her face from drying and she feared her voice would be lost in its roar, but still she filled her lungs again and fairly shouted.

"Drakken!?"

His closed eyes pinched more tightly shut before sliding open to peer deliriously into hers.

"Shego?"

That was all the response she had time for as her strength was giving out. She turned to look all around them, but the riverbank was at least fifty feet distant or more on both sides. She nearly felt like crying at the effort it would take to swim them both to shore, but then Drakken's hand lifted slightly out of the water and pointed.

"There," he said through a cough, and she looked to where behind the waterfall there was a clear space along with rocks and foliage, and the hint perhaps of a cave. It was far closer than the banks, and so gritting her teeth she held onto Drakken with one arm and began to swim.

After several strokes which brought them nearly to the crash of the falls, she felt resistance and was surprised to find Drakken pulling away from her, beginning to swim on his own power. She watched as he pushed his hair out of his eyes and appeared to be in great pain as he swam with purpose toward the mossy rocks behind the falls. She wasted no time in matching his stroke, and before long they were climbing up to safety side by side, the thick moss providing easy handholds for her shaky grip, and then gratefully she found herself on an almost flat surface.

Having slid her body up to be face down, she leaned up on her elbows to watch as Drakken did the same. They made eye contact in that same way they had been for the last several minutes of chaos, assessing one another, searching for the assurance from the other that everything was okay. Receiving it again, despite all odds, Shego let her strength give way as she fairly dropped her cheek down upon the thick, soft moss that covered the rock. Drakken did the same, holding her gaze even as they both blinked in exhaustion from the ordeal of the fall.

"Shego..." Drakken said quietly.

"Mmh," she fairly grunted in reply.

"If this is in fact...the right island... How should we kill Hench?"

A laugh that sounded more like a cough left her lips in reply, and despite the desperate urge to simply close her eyes and sleep, she lifted her head again to peer around at their surroundings. The mossy rocks gave way to the familiar, lush foliage and the darker rocks of the cliff, eroded away after years of being beaten upon by the waterfall. There was a tall, narrow crevice that could be a cave or merely a trick of the eye. And as she turned to look on either side of the falls, she saw that on one side the cliff rapidly grew steep and more jagged, and was completely impassible. On the other side however, it looked as though they may be able to walk their way out to the opposite bank rather than swim, if they were careful.

A light misty spray from the falls was still hitting them, and Shego slowly rolled to her back and was amazed at the sight that met her eyes. The sun was shining directly on the falls, the thicker parts looking gray but the rest a brilliant white as the cascading water droplets reflected the light. She let herself lay down fully, the pain from impacting the water finally settling in as the shock diminished, and she might have slipped into an exhausted sleep right then if not for a slight tugging she felt at her scalp.

"You still have quicksand in your hair," Drakken said quietly, his gloved fingers pulling at the ends of one thick tress and dirtying with the remnants of the sand and scraping up bits of the giant moss in the process.

Shego withheld a groan as she painfully pushed herself upright. Astonishingly, she didn't think she had any injuries that were easily detectable. No broken bones, at least.

"Are you all right?" she asked Drakken as he continued to be distracted by her hair.

He blinked at her and slowly sat up, grimacing in pain as he did so.

"Something's wrong with my arm," he said, and she noted he all but let the left one lie limp—the one he'd wrapped the vine around.

"Can you move it?" she asked.

He cautiously lifted it and began testing its limits, each movement accompanied by a fresh wince of pain.

"You might have torn something," Shego continued, shifting closer and taking his hand, starting to feel his joints for anything that might be out of place. She entirely missed the startled look on his face while she did so, and for a minute as she felt up his arm, searching for torn muscles or ligaments and anything that might give more pain and an indication of how badly he was hurt, she was unaware of his other hand still trying to clean the quicksand from her hair.

When her hands reached his shoulder he let out a hiss of pain, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment before the look suddenly softened. She was surprised by this, and as he held her gaze she suddenly found her cheeks flushing, though why she did not know. She pushed on his shoulder again to distract him from it, and a distinctive 'ow' left his lips.

"Yes, that's where it's the worst!" he affirmed, leaning back from her slightly.

"You might have torn something, but it's not bad," Shego said. "It would be best to immobilize this arm."

"And just where are we going to find an ACE bandage out here, Shego?"

She rolled her eyes and shifted away, sliding her shaking legs back into the water.

"Same way we got a harness and pulley?" she said.

Drakken half-frowned as he watched her dip her hair into the water and run her fingers through it, removing as much sand as possible. But after a glance around them showed no vines or other suitable binding material nearby, she simply climbed back on the rock and returned to his side. Her legs still felt like rubber beneath her and her body ached, and she wondered how Drakken was managing to sit upright enduring at least the same pain as she was, if not more.

When she was next to him again the fatigue suddenly hit her like a weight, and she looked from beneath heavy eyelids to where he cradled his arm, his wet hair plastered down to his forehead as he looked at his limb worriedly. She was surprised as the emotion was suddenly transferred to her, his brow rising as he looked at her in concern. This time when her face flushed she didn't look away, but merely marveled at how well Drakken had endured everything they had been through. She was frankly surprised that she had survived, let alone her boss.

"Are you cold?" Drakken asked.

Shego realized she was hugging herself and shaking, her muscles tensed. It was probably a combination of shock from all that had occurred, but she was indeed cold.

She nodded to the affirmative as Drakken let out a huge yawn, his teeth chattering when his jaw closed again. The look he gave her then caused her heart to beat harder, though it wasn't any different that she could tell from his prior worry and assessment. But before she could analyze it further he was unbuttoning his sodden lab coat.

"What are you doing?"

Drakken paused. "Did you...want to keep moving?" he asked, appearing a bit dismayed at the prospect.

Shego's brow rose, and knowing that he must be at least as pained and exhausted as she was, it was clear then that a rest was apparently in order. Especially since all danger seemed to have passed. At least for the present.

"Not yet," she said, shaking her head. "Let's...break here for awhile."

She lay down on the moss and watched as Drakken got out of the lab coat, unbuttoning a few buttons of his shirt beneath as well. There was no sign of the tank top he'd worn before, and she wondered if it had been left behind at the pool or was simply shoved into a coat pocket.

As her eyes lingered on his sculpted collarbone and his broad, muscled shoulders revealed through the wet shirt, she almost missed him spreading the coat out over his legs like a blanket, wet though it was. She was surprised then when he moved to spread it over her too.

Her first thought was actually how much warmth the coat suddenly brought, despite being wet. The second was a further flushing of her face and pounding of her heart, which she knew had been encouraged by Drakken's physique being put on display again. But it was hidden again as he settled down on his back on the moss and closed his eyes, pulling the coat up to their shoulders and then holding his injured arm across his chest.

Shego watched him for a moment, but then as rational thought caught up to the emotions that had seemed to rule over her since the hover-car crash, she realized that he was probably just as concerned for her as she was for him. The insecure part of her wanted to cast off his kindness and say she could take care of herself. But the more mature part was eager to accept the small offer of comfort and safety; it was all they had at the moment, after all.

She moved nearer to Drakken on the moss until she was almost touching him, and she caught his suddenly nervous gaze just before she let her eyes slip closed. It would serve him right to be a little uncomfortable, after the show he'd given her earlier...

With her mind racing with images of every moment between the crash and the present, and with her body feeling so heavy that it might simply dissolve, she fell fast asleep.

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

Shego nimbly undid Drakken's shirt buttons with one hand while her other pushed his collar aside. She bent forward to place a soft kiss on his shoulder as her fingers continued to explore his physique. A thrill ran through her as his hands slid into her hair at the back of her head, his fingertips running gently under her jaw to draw her face up toward his. She looked at his lips, smiling softly, and as she leaned forward to meet his kiss her gaze lifted to his eyes, warm, and full of love...

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

Shego woke up. Her racing heart was the first thing she was aware of, and the roar of the waterfall second. Next she realized that somehow, she had moved nearer to Drakken in sleep and was pressed up against his side.

A flash of imagery from her dream caused her to hesitate, but only for a moment before she backed away. Drakken was still sleeping, unmoved from when she had closed her eyes before. She wondered how long she had been out, suspecting only a brief period because her hair and suit were still very damp. Of course, the lab coat retaining heat and thus moisture could have something to do with that.

As images from her dream came back to her again, she stared at Drakken's still face. She thought back to when he had decided to bathe in the pool, unaware of her watching him. That had to be the reason for the dream... Nothing else. She had no other feelings for him, besides...

She blinked at herself as she watched him sleep, wondering at herself. What were her feelings exactly? Protectiveness... She wanted to keep him safe. It was her job, after all. And she supposed there was a sort of caring and friendly regard that had developed over the years. But nothing deeper. Nothing like the lust she'd felt in the dream, or like...that look in his eyes.

She rolled over to face away from Drakken, her face twisting in worry. He didn't...have feelings for her, did he? He couldn't...

And yet despite all the uncertainty and fear the idea brought her, she couldn't deny the warmth trying to seep into her heart at the idea. A sudden, sharp inhale from behind her alerted her to Drakken's waking, and she felt a fluttering in her chest and stomach. She groaned internally before rolling back over to face him again.

He was blinking in confusion, and when she took a deep breath his eyes flashed to hers in fear.

"Dr. D.?" she asked quietly.

His expression calmed and his cheeks colored—from embarrassment, she was sure, nothing more—and then he moved his hand over his injured arm.

"Shego... If this island really is some sort of lost world...we could make a fortune—"

"Whoa, hold it right there Chief," she said, pressing a finger to his lips to silence him. "We are not selling, cloning, mutating, mind-controlling, nothing with these dinosaurs."

"But Shego—"

"Nope. Has the...what, hour and a half at most that we've been here taught you nothing?"

Drakken's face fell. "Fine..." he said, more disappointed than angry. It surprised Shego, especially as she'd been hoping for a tantrum to try to bring more normalcy back to her thoughts.

She was saved then by a gurgle from Drakken's stomach, and she carefully pushed herself upright, every joint and muscle protesting the action.

"You hungry?"

Drakken likewise started to sit up, slower than she had and grimacing with the movement.

"Like there's a Chez Couteaux around here..." he muttered.

Shego rolled her eyes. "We can catch some fish from the river," she said, gesturing broadly.

"Oh."

"After we find some place with more sun so we can dry off," she continued, slowing standing to her feet.

Drakken winced doing the same, and Shego noted how he still held his left arm to his chest as he fumbled with his coat.

"Wait... What about using your belt as a sling?" she suggested.

Drakken blinked back into focus as he peered at her curious.

"My belt?"

"Yeah. Here, I'll do it," she said, reaching for the black belt of his lab coat and pulling it out from the loops. She buckled it and then reached up to put it around his neck. She couldn't help but blush from the closeness, and when she glanced at his face it had colored too. She frowned and looked down to his wrist, carefully looping the belt around it several times until it was elevated and held close to his chest. She then draped his coat over his shoulders so he wouldn't have to fight with it, fastening the collar so he could wear it like a cape, though he slipped his right arm into the sleeve regardless.

Drakken cleared his throat. "Ah... Thank you."

"Just be careful," she said, regretting how harshly the words came out. He hadn't actually done anything... It was her own mind to blame if she was having any confusing thoughts. "Let's look for a place we can start a fire and get dried off."

Drakken nodded his agreement, and Shego took the lead as they picked their way over more moss-covered rocks and others that were simply slick from the surrounding mist. The sun still shone brightly, and it helped in their carefully moving out from behind the thundering fall and back into familiar, lush foliage, birdsong eventually reaching her ears as they moved further and further from the waters.

It occurred to her then that there was no guarantee of safety down in the valley. In fact there would probably be more creatures near the water in the more forgiving terrain. But thus far there were no signs of dangerous animals, and she decided to relax while she had the chance. There was no telling how long the peace would last.

Several minutes later found them in a slightly more arid part of the forest, the shrubbery less dense and the air not so damp. There was no sign of anything she could use as kindling, but she could always cook a fish on a rock if it came to that. She paused and squeezed down the length of her hair, but only a few drops fell from the ends as the sun was doing a good job of drying it.

"All right..." she said, sighing lightly. "Dr. D. if you wanna wait here and maybe look for something to start a fire, I can go— ...What is that?"

Drakken was several paces behind her and trying to hide something under his coat. But with the one arm immobilized he wasn't very successful, and she could see what he held was white and about the size and shape of a melon. He smiled nervously as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ah...lunch?"

Shego realized the object in his hands was in fact...a massive egg. Which could only mean one thing... She rubbed her temples as the ache in her head grew.

"Where did you get it? Wh-When did you get it?" she fairly stuttered, in awe of the man's ability to not only get into trouble but also to find a loophole in the litany she'd given him earlier.

"Over there by that boulder," Drakken said, nodding back to a massive, gray-lavender rock partly concealed by the shrubs.

At that moment, the boulder seemed to rise several inches and then sink down again, the process taking several seconds. Shego and Drakken had both frozen upon seeing the action, and then Shego tiptoed next to Drakken who was chewing his lip nervously.

"That's...not a boulder, eh-heh...is it..." Drakken muttered.

"No, it's a big mama dinosaur!" Shego hissed. "Put...the egg...back!"

Drakken favored her with sad, pleading eyes, but she only frowned at him in response. He grimaced and started tiptoeing toward the new potential threat. The creature let out what could only be a snore, and Shego held her breath as Drakken crept nearer.

Suddenly, the 'boulder' rose again, and Drakken scurried quickly back to Shego's side where together they slowly began backing away. The dinosaur took shape and Shego recognized it as a triceratops, at least ten feet tall and twice as long.

She expected the beast with its impressive frill and threatening horns to turn on them, but it only gave them a momentary glance before trotting away at a brisk pace.

Shego felt tension drain from her frame as she relaxed and Drakken did the same next to her, both heaving sighs of relief.

"You would steal from the one dinosaur on this island that isn't carnivorous... Still gotta put the egg back."

"But...but Shego—"

"Nope, I know you don't actually want to eat it. And an angry mama dinosaur is the last thing we need right now."

Drakken looked like a hurt child as he started toward where the triceratops had rested. But at that moment, a familiar bone-shaking rumble sounded through the valley. Shego held her ears as Drakken cried out in pain, clutching tightly to the large egg.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Shego shouted. When the sound stopped and the pain diminished, she ran forward and yanked on Drakken's shoulder, nearly causing him to trip as she started running after the triceratops.

"Shego, why are we...? Oh, yes, good plan!" he said, smiling in approval as they ran through the thinning forest.

"Makes sense to follow the natives. That...long-necked one knew how to escape, maybe this one will too!" she said, voicing the thought that Drakken had already figured out.

They moved through the thinning trees until the valley opened up into a vast grassy field. They stopped short at not only the sight of the triceratops, but also more sauropods and other dinosaurs of varying species and sizes, some in herds, others alone or in small groups.

Shego and Drakken turned to look at each other simultaneously.

"Wrong island?"

"Kill Hench anyway?"

They nodded to each other just before another low rumble caused them to cringe, and they continued forward into the field having nowhere else to go. Shego hoped the T-Rex would have more of an appetite for familiar saurian prey than new.

They had passed the triceratops and noted other smaller dinosaurs fleeing, some heading away into the trees and others looking to shelter with the larger specimens. Shego paused as she realized, there was no shelter in the field, and she doubted a dinosaur would recognize them as friend.

A sound between a snort and a roar caused her to turn around, and she gasped in shock as a T-Rex burst through the treeline out into the field. Whether it was the one that had threatened them before or not, she didn't know, but it was running faster than she and Drakken were and if it chose them as its target, there would be no escape.

To her surprise, the triceratops then turned around to face the advancing predator, sounding its annoyed snort again in challenge.

"Doc, look!" she called, and he stopped running and turned in confusion, his brow rising as he saw what appeared to be about to happen.

Shego watched as Drakken's face morphed from fear to shock and then unbridled joy. Her own brow furrowed in confusion until she realized...the scene unfolding was probably a childhood dream come true. Two prehistoric creatures, inexplicably living, and about to engage in epic combat.

"Is this all just a dream...?" she mused to herself as she turned back, just in time to see the T-Rex commence its attack.

The beast opened its mighty jaws and lunged down toward the triceratops's neck. The slightly smaller dinosaur turned, its frill and one horn meeting the attack and sending the T-Rex recoiling in pain. The triceratops advanced then, thrusting forward with its long horns. The larger bipedal dinosaur stepped aside with shocking agility and went again for the neck of the shorter one.

Shego was just as transfixed by the scene as Drakken, but as a dinosaur that looked like an oversized ostrich suddenly ran in front of them, she realized they were missing their opportunity for escape.

"Dr. D., I hate to interrupt this childhood fantasy, but we really need to go."

He made a sound of protest as he looked at her in dismay, still clutching the massive egg to his chest.

"Look, I know this is a unique situation, but we're really exposed out here."

She watched as Drakken's expression became torn between the wisdom of what she had said, and watching what was surely a once in a lifetime display.

"Nyeh... Nnh, nragh!" he cried out, his face twisting in frustration, and Shego breathed a small sigh of relief at his acquiescence.

They glanced around together and then made a broad circle around the battling dinosaurs, heading back toward the treeline and the high cliffs beyond. Everywhere else around them was too distant, and too uncovered. And besides...there was far more prey for the T-Rex in the field.

When they reached the treeline, panting for breath, they paused to watch the fight once more. The triceratops still seemed to be an equal match to the predator, thrusting its horns toward the T-Rex's belly as the larger creature continued to try to gain a fatal bite.

"I wish we'd brought the camera," Drakken grumbled.

"These probably aren't the last dinosaurs we're going to see today. Come on."

They pushed back into the foliage, leaving the valley with its herds and the fierce battle of the legendary beasts behind them.

The next several minutes were a silent journey, following the sound of water again until it led them right back to where they'd left, albeit from a different angle. They found the side of the foliage-covered cliff, beautiful and entirely impassible, and then moved along its rocky base back around to the waterfall which had proven their one place of respite. Shego was considering the cave-like crevice they had seen, wondering if it too would hold terrors or if it would be one place on the island devoid of prehistoric creatures come to life.

Drakken either guessed her thoughts or trusted her without question, because he didn't say a word when they arrived back at the river and she began leading them back across slippery and precarious moss-covered rocks. Her hair hadn't fully dried yet, but she tried to keep them nearer the cliff wall to avoid the spray and the mist, sure that Drakken in his damp layers was far more uncomfortable than she was.

When they arrived back at the flatter place where they had had a brief nap, Shego paused to look at the waterfall. The sun was still shining through them, the waters cascading down like waves of liquid lace, taking form and then vanishing, the sequence restarting and never ending as the waters emerged from the top and joined the river at the bottom.

She grimaced, the sight suddenly unsettling in that it wasn't something tangible she could exert any will over, just like waves across the ocean.

"Shego?"

She startled slightly hearing Drakken's voice right at her ear, and she turned to see him still holding the melon-sized egg, and then looked up to his concerned face. He backed off slightly when she raised her brow in question.

"Ah...were you...thinking we should try the cave?"

"Yeah," she said, hurrying to move past him and climb higher up the rocks to where the crevice began.

Was she just imagining that Drakken seemed softer and more attentive toward her, or was that a result of all they had been through on the island? Or was he perhaps always that way, and she was only just noticing it now?

The thoughts sent her heart racing again, and she put them aside as she hefted herself up the final rock and onto the ledge where the crevice began. She turned, realizing Drakken would need help, and reached down to take the egg. He looked reluctant before handing it off to her.

"Don't break it!" he cautioned fearfully.

"Not yet. You said we could eat it, well...we're going to."

Drakken looked dismayed as he used his one arm to raise himself up, Shego tugging at his coat with one hand to provide some aid, and she shook her head at his expression.

"No taking dinosaur eggs home to experiment on, either. If we're not eating this thing, then stop carrying it around."

"Ngh... Fine," Drakken said sadly, again surprising Shego with his lack of fire and protest.

Her brow furrowed as she handed the egg back to him and then turned to examine the crevice. It ran at least fifty feet up the side of the cliff beneath the fall, narrowing at the top, and was scarcely six feet wide at the bottom. But Shego could see now, it ran deep under the mountain and there was light coming in from somewhere else, which meant it at least had a 'window' if not another outlet.

"Let's go," she said, striding forward confidently.

Drakken followed close behind, the damp rock beneath their feet soon becoming dry, and no less than twenty paces in did the path broaden and two paths diverged. One grew more wide and seemed to get darker the further it went. The other seemed to be the source of the other light and was narrower. Shego looked over her shoulder at Drakken, who was glancing between the two paths.

"I...would prefer light right now, if...that's an option," he said.

Shego silently agreed and turned to go down the narrower path where light still shone on the ground. The ceiling above grew lower and soon the path was a mere crack, and Shego paused wondering if it was worth continuing and if it would open up at all. But distantly...she could still see light. Drakken made no objection when she turned sideways to continue squeezing through the narrowing passage, and she noted Drakken struggling to keep the large egg from bumping on the walls as he did the same.

"Oh... Whoa," Shego finally said as their efforts were rewarded and the tiny passage suddenly opened into a vast cavern. But it wasn't the space, but the cavern's contents that caught her attention.

"Amethyst?" Drakken said as he stumbled out to stand next to her, the both of them gaping at their surroundings.

A hole in the ceiling was providing the light, and the walls of the cave were entirely covered in sparkling crystal formations. Even parts of the floor were adorned with the majestic-looking stones, and Shego wondered if it was safe to walk on. She had never seen anything like it, and glancing at Drakken's face she was sure he hadn't either.

"Well..." she finally said, swallowing dryly. She took a few steps forward and then sat down on some of the normal stone in the cave. "Want to crack that baby open?"

Drakken blinked back into focus and sat down, his expression morphing into a pout. He leaned forward awkwardly to set the egg down, his left arm still restricted slightly due to its partial-immobilization, and the large egg bobbed slightly on the stone ground before coming to rest between them. Shego lit her hands as she stared at it.

"I guess roasted in the shell would be easiest?"

Drakken grumbled something incoherent, twisting uncomfortably on the ground until he finally reached up to unfasten his collar and then shake the coat off of his right arm. Shego noted that his shirt and pants were still quite damp, and she wondered if since there was an outlet in the ceiling, an actual fire wouldn't be useful.

"I could go grab some firewood?" she suggested. Drakken looked confused, so she continued. "You could dry off a bit more."

"Nngh...all right," he agreed, and Shego rose again, taking a moment to look around at the sparkling purple of the cave before making her way back out through the narrow passageway.

She glanced back to see Drakken gather up the egg into his lap, and she shook her head. She could understand his feelings about the situation... Granted, harnessing dinosaurs for evil would be pretty impressive. But knowing Drakken, ultimately he would likely get bored with the endeavor and simply want one as a pet.

As she moved back out of the passageway and toward the waterfall, she considered the prospect. Where would they even keep a pet dinosaur? And the egg Drakken had taken, from the triceratops... If the size of the mother was any indication there was most definitely no room for a full-grown specimen at the Caribbean. Not to mention, it probably needed food sources that could only be found on that island.

No, a pet dinosaur was simply impossible. Unless...

Shego let the roar of the waterfall mix with her thoughts, the sensation somehow calming as she considered their entrapment. If Jack Hench had really sold them a lair on a lost world, there were a lot of questions to be answered. How had he managed to build it? Why hadn't he mentioned the dinosaurs? If they were truly on the right island, as the map had seemed to indicate, was all of it nothing more than...a plot by Hench to get rid of them? They had ripped him off plenty of times over the years, one time even destroying his entire inventory via accidental explosion when they stole a neutronic laser.

Shego had gathered a number of branches in her arms as she mused over the possibilities, but nearly all were still green. Not that she couldn't ignite them, but Drakken would certainly find the heat uncomfortable. The thought struck her then, that if it was too hot he might take off his shirt.

Her face flushed and she almost stumbled over a mossy rock at the idea. She really, really needed to get those thoughts out of her mind. And yet, the image of a broad blue chest and muscled arms was suddenly filling her vision.

She groaned at herself and shook her head in attempt to banish the thought. So her boss had an attractive figure, so what? That fact wasn't about to change anything between them, and she certainly didn't want it to, so it was best to forget all she'd seen before.

She awkwardly shoved her way back through the passageway, the branches and twigs in her arms making the task more difficult, but finally she managed to push through and returned to the sparkling purple cavern. She was surprised upon entering to find the dinosaur egg sitting alone atop Drakken's open lab coat, the man himself standing next to one of the walls and apparently just staring.

"It's gonna get hot in here," Shego said by way of greeting.

Drakken jumped and whirled around, and a tiny smirk curled at the corners of Shego's mouth. Even with all the noise she'd made in returning, she had still been able to startle him. It was a welcome familiarity, and she focused on that to be rid of her other thoughts as she began arranging the branches and sticks into a pile.

"Oh. Ah...Shego, would you...like a crystal?"

Shego looked up to where Drakken was still standing next to the wall, and holding his right hand behind his back.

"I'm guessing you already got one somehow?"

Drakken then revealed a tiny laser cutter in his left hand, and Shego rolled her eyes as her smirk grew. He stepped back over and sat down carefully, next to her rather than across from what would be the fire, and then he opened his right hand to reveal a beautiful, sparkling amethyst.

Shego felt her face grow inexplicably warm again, and she plucked the golf-ball sized crystal from his palm and pretended to study it in hopes he wouldn't notice the pink in her cheeks.

"This is another volcanic island," he commented as he pocketed the laser cutter and shifted to be more comfortable.

Shego grimaced. "I think we are in the right place... But I'm thinking Hench just sent us here to get rid of us."

Drakken glowered. "Should leave him stranded here..."

Shego leaned back, grinning pleasantly at the idea. "Sounds like a plan. All right, how about lunch?"

Drakken's face fell, but he leaned over and rolled the egg toward him from where he'd left it on his coat.

"So...just set it in the sticks and we can roast it, I guess," Shego commented.

Drakken moved to do just that, but then he gasped and held the egg out in front of him, almost dropping it before he managed to set it on the ground where it rolled until hitting the sticks.

"What?" Shego asked.

"It moved!"

Her brow furrowed. "Eggs don't... Oh...oh no."

A small cracking sound was heard, and Shego stared in horror while Drakken gasped in glee as a small hole appeared in the egg, something gray starting to poke through. Drakken reached down and began trying to pry away pieces of the shell.

"Ungh... Dr. D., you know it probably needs to do that itself to...build strength or something, I dunno..."

Drakken gasped again as he pulled his hand away.

"You're right! Ohh I wonder how long it will take!"

Shego grimaced as she idly looked at the large amethyst still sitting on her palm.

"Look, Dr. D.... I already thought about this. We can't have a pet triceratops. Or any kind of pet dinosaur. It wouldn't fit back at the lair, and it probably needs some food that can only be found on this island."

Drakken turned to her with expectant eyes. "But if we find the lair that Hench sold us here..."

"I don't think there is a lair. And if there was, there's no way we're living on an island filled with dinosaurs."

"But...but Shego—"

"No buts. It's not happening."

Drakken's frame diminished as he sighed, and he turned to watch the egg thoughtfully as he began scratching at his shoulder. Shego considered the pangs in her stomach and considered that they would still need food, especially since it looked as though they would be there for awhile.

"I can still catch us some fish. Want me to start the fire now?"

Drakken considered and then nodded, picking up the egg and moving it several feet away, near part of the amethyst-adorned ground. He then scooted back himself as Shego shot a continuous blast at the stick pile, the heat rising instantly in the cave as it took quite a bit to ignite the green wood.

Shego stood once she was sure the sticks were ablaze and shook her hair out, eager to finish drying off herself. Drakken's scratching had reminded her of her own discomfort, and she wondered if it would be out of place to take a purposeful dip in the river and let her suit dry next to the fire.

She opened her mouth to suggest the idea and ask if she could borrow Drakken's coat for modesty, when her words caught in her throat at the sight of him peeling out of his shirt. But he got stuck due to the belt wrapped around his wrist.

"Ah, Shego could you help me with this?"

Her heart was pounding.

"Help yourself," she answered, a slight edge to her voice. As her eyes lingered on his bare shoulder while he carefully extracted his left arm from the makeshift sling, she thought again about wanting to clean up further... And then her mind recalled the image of Drakken under the waterfall, this time adding herself to the picture.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, the heat she was feeling having nothing to do with the fire she had built. She sat down again, this time on the opposite side of the fire from Drakken.

The flicker of the flames was creating a fascinating effect on the rich purple crystals of the cave, making them shimmer like waves, some slow and others quick and fleeting, matching the chaos of the tiny blaze. It was distractingly beautiful, and she forced herself to focus on that as it became clear to her that her imagination couldn't be trusted for even a second.

"Shego! It's hatching!"

She looked down to where an impressive amount of progress had been made, and she could see a broad curved beak and scales within the much larger hole in the egg. Its sides were also cracking as the creature seemingly pushed against its entrapment, and she let herself slip into the distraction of watching the process, the sounds of the fire and the shimmering surroundings of the cave becoming a mere backdrop to the magic occurring in front of her.

It could have been minutes or even half an hour, but Shego didn't care as long as it provided distraction. Drakken had all but laid down as he stared at the egg, a broad grin on his face as he occasionally muttered encouragements to the creature within. And then finally, the shell gave way to reveal the baby dinosaur.

Drakken apparently couldn't resist any longer and began pulling pieces of the shell away as the baby triceratops, about the size of a chihuahua, rolled over and wobbled up to its feet. It fairly matched the cave, being gray-lavender in color, and it blinked between Shego and Drakken and let out a cry that sounded something like the moo of a calf.

Shego straightened up as her brow furrowed. An internal war began as she looked between the creature and Drakken's excited face, and it was with an annoyed growl that she rapidly came to a decision.

"Oh, look Shego! It's so cute! I'm going to name her...Crystal, after the cave where she was born," he said happily.

Shego's brows knit together.

"How do you know it's a girl?"

"Well—"

"Never-mind. Dr. D.... We have to take it back to its mother."

Drakken looked devastated. "But...but Shego, can't we—"

"Doc... Have you ever seen a baby...anything, born before? What's the first thing they do?"

The little dinosaur let out another cry, louder than the first, and Drakken frowned as it stumbled across the floor and continued looking around.

"They eat," Shego finished the thought. "If you want...little Crystal to survive, she has to go back."

"We don't even know if the mother survived..." Drakken protested faintly.

"Yeah, but this thing'll still stand a better chance out there than it will in here with us."

Drakken frowned, but sighed with the logic of her explanation. As he started to re-dress she looked down to the amethyst crystal she still held and suddenly wondered...why had he given it to her?

Finding no suitable answer, or at least none she wanted to entertain as her cheeks flushed again, she put the gem away in her leg pouch and then hesitantly made to pick up the little dinosaur. Drakken wouldn't be able to manage a squirming creature with his injured arm, and he watched in surprise as she grabbed it and held it away as it began wiggling violently in protest.

"Wild animals don't make good pets..." she muttered as Drakken shrugged into his coat, putting both arms through the sleeves but leaving it open as he put his arm back in the makeshift belt-sling himself.

"Sometimes..." he said sadly.

"Well not this time. Leave the fire, this is still probably the safest place to spend the night."

"Spend the night?" Drakken said as he started leading the way out of the cave.

"Well yeah, unless you have some brilliant escape plan?"

The conversation paused until they had traversed the more difficult part of the passage, and then Drakken glanced at her as they began moving back toward the waterfall.

"It shouldn't take a full day for the henchmen to reach the wreckage. It only took us about...six hours, to get here from the lair?"

"Wait...what are you saying? Why would the henchmen come looking for us?"

Shego very nearly dropped the baby triceratops as it renewed its struggling, and Shego could tell by the look on Drakken's face that he wanted to hold it. She would have gladly handed it over if not for the risk of further injuring his arm.

"They'll just follow the hover-car's tracking device."

"But why? How would they know we need help?"

"Because I activated the distress signal," Drakken said plainly as he began moving over the moss-covered rocks behind the waterfall.

Shego's eyes widened and she felt anger begin to boil in her veins.

"You...you what!?" Shego cried, almost dropping the baby dinosaur in her rage.

Drakken nearly slipped on a rock as he looked at her in confusion and fear.

"Yes, before we left to look for the new lair..."

It was the sheer bewilderment in his expression that caused Shego's fury to diminish as she realized...it made sense. They were supposedly in search of a new lair, and wasting time standing around a pile of wreckage for hours when there was a promise of modern comforts made no sense. It had just been their bad luck that they had most likely been crossed by Hench, and of course Drakken would have activated the distress signal.

Shego scoffed and stared down at the dinosaur, its fearful wiggling continuing while it also appeared to briefly take in their surroundings every few seconds. The small creature reminded her of all the pain and extremely near-death experiences they had been through in their hours on the island, not that she really needed reminding; her body still ached from the death-defying cliff jump.

"Okay, after we get this thing back, we're going to the hover-car. If there is a lair on this island, we're not finding it today, and I wouldn't want to even if there is."

Drakken's face fell again, but she knew he would eventually see it her way. A lost world with all of its unknowns was not the place for a super-villain's lair...

At least, not until it was better understood.

She considered this for the first time as she followed Drakken back through the trees toward where they had first encountered the mother triceratops. Yes, the island was rife with danger... But Drakken said it was volcanic, and that was a plus. They could easily build a defensible lair on an active volcano; they'd done so before, after all. It was doubtful that dinosaurs would be a problem in that harsh an environment, and the fearsome creatures would provide a natural defense against any intruders. Not to mention the island's other hazards, quicksand and giant cliffs, and who could know what else...

Shego's thoughts were broken as Drakken stopped short, and she looked beyond him to see that the mother triceratops was about twenty yards distant, rooting at the ground with her snout and seeming either ill or confused as she turned in large circles and moved back and forth over the same spot of ground. It was clearly looking for its egg.

Shego looked at the slightly-calmer creature she held, and then to Drakken's sad but awed face.

"You...want to pet her before we let her go?"

Drakken startled and looked down at the baby dinosaur. He hesitated, and then reverently ran his fingers over its frill. As he did so Shego looked back to the massive creature in the trees ahead of them. She noted the lines of red blood over its frill and back, indicating where the T-Rex had gotten a few bites in. She wondered if the battle had ended in a stalemate, or a triceratops victory, but she wasn't about to voice the thought and give Drakken the idea of going further into the valley to find out.

She looked down to where Drakken was still petting the small creature, which had amazingly stilled in her hands. Its curious eyes were teal in shade, she noticed for the first time, and its gray scales definitely had a lavender tinge. It really was...cute, with its small nubs of horns and tail that was swinging idly as Drakken gently felt over the creature's skin.

Shego looked up at his face. He was in pure awe of the creature, and there was longing in his eyes as he even ran his gloved hand over the sole of its small foot, seeming to try to memorize everything about it. Shego was tempted to sigh and hurry him along, but...she decided to let him have the moment. It was surely one that would never come again.

"All right," Drakken said with a sigh, his eyes sad as he retracted his hand.

Shego set the baby triceratops down and faced it the right direction, giving it a nudge to get it to start stumbling forward. It let out another of its moo-ing cries, and the mother triceratops immediately looked up and started in their direction.

Shego began backing away, setting a hand on Drakken's shoulder to make him move with her. But the flash of fear she'd felt was apparently unnecessary, as the hatchling and its mother were united in moments, the large dinosaur's attention turning solely to its baby. But then, it lifted its head again and looked directly at them.

Shego held her breath, seeing the same intelligence in the creature's eyes as she'd seen in the T-Rex's before. But it apparently bore them no ill will as after regarding them for a moment it turned to head deeper into the forest, its small baby running at its feet. She sighed in relief, and turned to see Drakken looking almost as if he would cry.

"Come on, you big marshmallow, let's go."

"It was a baby triceratops, Shego! A baby triceratops! Do you understand what this means? The implications of this very island?"

"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."

As Shego walked back through the trees toward the river, Drakken began going on about theories being proven and dis-proven, and how the scientific community would be forever changed by the discoveries that could be made on the island. She couldn't help but smile at his excitement, but he stopped suddenly when they broke through the trees and saw the waterfall in its full glory.

The sun had begun to set, making the falls look like liquid fire as they thundered over the cliff and down to the blue of the river below. And then near the top of the fall, a ripple of purple shone through and broke the brilliant gold, and Shego realized that somehow the amethyst cave or perhaps another was also catching the sunlight.

Drakken seemed transfixed by the sight, and Shego's smile grew. It had been an adventure...but one she knew she would remember fondly.

"So..." she began, "let's say we strand Hench here as punishment, and then...in return for getting him out safely, he finances our new lair here."

Drakken did a double-take, his entire form brightening as he fully comprehended her words.

"You mean it? We can have a lair here?"

"Long as it's in a volcano."

Drakken let out a gleeful cackle and raised both fists triumphantly, recoiling slightly as pain arrested his left arm. But as they began walking along the river and in the direction of the hover-car, she knew he would be fine as his prattle about scientific discoveries changed to that of how everyone would soon fear 'Dr. Drakken, prehistoric menace.'

Shego grinned as she listened to his ideas. A T-Rex with a mounted laser cannon did sound like quite the idea.

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

Drakken ran his hands back over his head beneath the thin, sparkling falls, the water shimmering over his blue skin. And then he reached forward to set his hands on Shego's bare shoulders as she stepped under the fall to meet him, his fingers beginning to trail downward sending a thrill to her heart...

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"Hey Boss? Miss Shego?"

Shego startled awake and sat up, hands ablaze. The startled henchmen recoiled with cries of fear, and the vision in Shego's mind started melting away as she took in her surroundings.

She was seated in the ruined hover-car, apparently snuggled up against Drakken's side where he was still asleep. In front of them stood three henchmen and not too far beyond, two more hover-cars sat parked. The sky around them indicated that twilight had fallen.

Shego's face flushed with embarrassment and she shoved Drakken hard.

"Wake up, you blue dolt. We're rescued."

Drakken let out an annoyed grunt as he was startled awake and likewise looked around them to gain his bearings. Shego moved away from his side and climbed out of the wreckage.

"Hey Boss, can we get going? Schwartz said that he saw a velociraptor, and even though I know dinosaurs are extinct I definitely saw something prowling around in the trees."

Drakken's confusion turned into a smirk as he climbed out of the hover-car and started toward one of the two rescue craft.

"Oh ye of little faith," he said, wagging a finger at the frightened trio. "While we haven't seen velociraptors, there are a great many species of dinosaurs on this island, where we shall be setting up our new lair inside of a month if all goes well. You know, there is a long-held belief that dinosaurs are in fact no more than the dragons of legend and ancient history..."

"Dinosaurs?"

"New lair?"

"But first," Shego interjected as she followed after Drakken, grateful for the distraction, "go kidnap Jack Hench and bring him back to the lair."

"R-Right away, Ma'am."

The three henchmen scurried toward the other waiting hover-car as Shego and Drakken stepped into theirs, Drakken pausing and looking at Shego in confusion.

"You don't want to get him yourself?"

Shego's face flushed, and she hoped the dim light would hide it.

"We can torture him later. I had something else on my mind..."

"Oh... What is it?" Drakken asked as he settled in behind the controls.

Shego made a show of yawning as she sat down. "I'm still tired. Can you set the auto-pilot?"

Drakken looked at her in confusion, but complied with the request as Shego settled in and with a race of her heart moved nearer to his side. He looked at her again in surprise, and she ignored the look as she reached down to her leg pouch to pull out the amethyst he'd given her. It looked different in the twilight, but no less magnificent as she turned it over in her hands.

"Thanks," she said, indicating the gem, and then yawned again before boldly leaning into his right side and setting her head on his shoulder where it had lain before.

Drakken tensed, and for a moment Shego wondered if she'd misread the gesture of the gift, and the looks he'd been giving her throughout the day. Or the way in which he'd snuggled nearer to her before when he thought she was asleep... But then he relaxed as he pressed the button to activate the autopilot, and Shego noticed the flush to his face when he leaned forward slightly. He took his left wrist out of the sling and settled comfortably against the back of the seat, and then hesitantly set his arm around her.

"Sh-Shego...?"

"So. Dragons?" she asked, giving him a soft smile.

His expression relaxed, and he began exhorting about some legend from the middle ages, gesticulating with both hands as he grew more animated doing so. Shego looked down at the gem she was turning over in her hands as her smile grew, and she settled her head back on his shoulder as the hover-car began taking them back home. The next time the dream came she would let it continue, and hoped that someday...it would become reality.