#obelisk force au

[fluffalpenguin]

IT'S HERE AT LAST @arcvmonth AU DAY YEAHHHH never mind that this post is late

I managed to stuff 10 AUs into this bad boy, so this is a image AND text heavy post, be warned! (I genuinely hope you enjoy the ride)

Not arranged in any particular order, and hyperlinks lead to doodles I've posted on Twitter unless stated otherwise!

(CW: imagery of drug use in the first one and mentions of violence in another)

1. Triad AU

It's the 1800s and everybody* does crimes! (*Not everyone)

Raised in the Fusion Society from an early age, Serena has always had mixed feelings about the child trafficking that her foster father's involved in. One day, she comes across a red-haired street performer that brings dazzling smiles of unbridled joy to children and decides to cut ties with her current life. As she eludes the men sent to retrieve her, she runs into who but the leader of a rival organisation, the Lancers!

This holds the distinction of being the only au that I didn't include pawn in some way or another because I can't figure out where to fit Yugo in (probably why my interest in it has somewhat fizzled out already lmao)

I wrote a short ~500 words fic of Serena announcing her departure to Dennis, Sora, and Yuri (conceptually the latter perpetually seethes about her audacity throughout the length of this au because that's funny)

2. Vampire Knight AU

Vampires and humans learning to co-exist in a boarding school is a genius set-up, thank you Hino Matsuri for giving me undying brainrot (pun intended) through creating this (albeit cursed) manga

Turned into a vampire against his will during a brutal massacre, Yugo curses his fate to be a blood-sucking monster every waking hour. And if his life didn't suck hard enough already, he's also forced to partner with (be the research subject of) a human with a set of morals worse than the most depraved vampire he's ever met. At least that lessens his guilt about drinking blood, because if anyone deserves to be a juice box, it's that smug purple-headed bastard! Life at the academy revolves around humans attending Day classes and vampires attending Night classes, but Yugo begs the headmaster to allow him some semblance of normalcy (denial) by letting him attend the Day Class, in which he dozes off often. Luckily, his roommate, Yuto, is there to poke him awake just enough times for him to pass his classes. Like his cousin Yuri, Yuto is also paired with a vampire through the latter's term in the academy. As one of the last surviving pure-bloods in the world, Yuya is uncomfortably used to his fellow vampires looking at him with undiluted reverence while fending off dubious intentions. The two quickly form a close relationship, a stark contrast to the other two boys that they share a house with.

I'm still deciding between having Yuri and Yuya being seatmates or not because both have their pros and cons (Also Yoko is a human, but is also the Night Class teacher; Yuya takes a liking to her pretty quickly)

Yuto, Shun, and Kaito are part of the school's Disciplinary Squad made out of vampire hunters-in training that patrol the grounds after dusk (to make sure their vampiric classmates aren't running around charming guileless humans into being supper) and Yuri, of course, despite being human has asked his beloved Papa for permission to attend Night Class in order to observe his research subjects in their natural habitat! (He unnerves everyone, but they don't disturb him because the last time someone tried they learnt first-hand that he has an taser whip to protect himself)

3. OCG AU

I've recently posted (how recent is recent?) a compilation post of doodles for this AU then I realised I never talked about the plot so

Childhood friends Yuto, Shun, and Ruri are training hard to join the elite ranks of the Dogmatikan Order. When Ruri doesn't return from her Ascension ceremony, the two defy sect rules to search for her. Yuto comes across a mysterious red-headed boy incarcerated within the inner confines of the Order's keep and...

I know it doesn't look like it but pawn is more of a background ship in this story, counterpart and swift take center stage (because Yuto and Rin are the main characters to me)

When I cooked this up in 2021, I was so desperate to escape from my schoolwork that I ended up making an 15+ chapter outline, here's an excerpt

(Just kidding I do have half a prologue and one chapter written out, one day I'll revisit this for sure)

Oh also, Yuri and Yuya are twins separated at birth

4. Exorcist AU

This one is the multi-series AU, because everyone has one, right!

This started as my 2022 Halloween pawn piece and then over a five-hour midnight bus ride at midnight two months later I decided to make a bad decision that led me to dozing off while queuing up in a theme park in the middle of the afternoon

(Yuto's design is so horribly outdated but I haven't digitalised his new one yet sorry, also shark and kaito heads are by @2-ennn)

In a world ravaged by demons, Yugo has spent his entire life on the tiny island he's called home learning the ropes of exorcism. His life is shaken up when he's assigned to show a visitor around, an exorcist from the mainland with a devilish smile that raises his hackles. He finally drops his suspicions and guard when Joeri sustains injuries protecting him from a demonic attack, and the two become closer... (They even have cute fluffy dates) Well, only until Joeri reveals that it was all staged and that he's a demon (and that his name is actually Yuri) before making off with the church's most prized weapon/artifact/thing/sorry I haven't really decided yet

If you saw my tweet from last year complaining about how I have to write 7 chapters first before I can write about my otp kissing I was referring to this au (joke's on my past self because I skipped ahead to write it anyway)

Yubel, Placido, and IV are the respective leaders of the three factions, but the island that Yugo (and Rin) grew up on is managed by Sherry because man am I hungry for Sherry Yugo sibling-like interactions

I love this AU, but writer's block crashes down like a brick (I've attempted to rewrite Chapter 1 more than two times and I'm still pulling my hair out because I need it to be Perfect)

5. DGS AU

What's up Ace Attorney fans, do I have a fangame in the works for you! It's based on The Great Ace Attorney/Daigyakuten Saiban, but there's no spoilers for it if you haven't played it

I can't talk too much about the plot since I do want to make a playable version one day but I will say that the first trial is defending Yugo from a murder charge (lol)

It's also one of the rare AUs where there's barely any explicit romance(?), only murder and mystery here! (you bet I'm going to write so many allusions for my favourite ships though winky face)

I started writing trial scripts for this but then I got really overwhelmed when looking for a good AA game maker so if anyone has recommendations please send them my way (Ideally they'd have the DGS UI...)

6. Casino AU

The Yuboys are dealers in a casino, and maybe it's a fun goofy little vn (it's a vn)

I have a whole thread on twitter for this one for the drawings i've made, but I'll post some on here so I can ramble a little

It started out as a concept for gacha cards, but then became its own monster (that's currently slumbering)

Originally Reiji was the owner of the casino, but I'm trying my best to include Ray and Zarc more into my aus when I can because I just want more excuses to write/draw my trophy wife (zarc)

this drawing is so old but clutches head i love u4 so much rrrrrrr

I wanted to make little acrylic standees back then (honestly still do a little)

Speaking of little acrylic standees...

7. Rune Factory AU

This one is roughly based on Rune Factory 5, but all you need to know is... nothing, actually; I can't even reference the plot because I've barely played the game myself lol but i just really wanted fantasy farming yuboys

(and then none of the characters ended up being vegetable farmers, even outside of the yuboys)

Harvest Moon/Rune Factory is a game where you live on a farm and eventually maybe marry someone, so one day when I've done all of the full body sprites (pauses and looks to the horizon) I want to make a uquiz that tells you who your destined Bachelor/ette is

It'd be one of the AUs without any 'canon' ships but Ray and Zarc's backstories are kinda tied together so... yup anyway here's a list of things that are true in this AU:

yuya zarc siblings and zarc is a mean older brother

i was going to make zarc the cool mysterious guy that you rarely see but gap moe is one hell of a drug

yuzu and her dad own the grocery store, yuya helms the local inn with yoko, who manages the baths within, zarc opens his diner for business when he feels like it (he's actually so good at cooking), yugo and rin are a blacksmith/carpenter duo, kurosakis have a bakery, though ruri spends her time playing detective, yuto runs the local clinic and sawatari is the town mascot

every monday night, a mysterious phantom thief with orange hair stalks the streets!

the squad that reiji captains serves to fix problems like monster infestations, but they usually have a lot of free time on their hands (well, not reiji) so yuri is constantly annoying yugo and yuto for fun and serena spends her time befriending the girls

ray only returns to town and opens up her flower shop when you defeat the 2nd boss and yuri can be found loitering there often, ray is the only person that makes him remotely uncomfortable

i was going to make yuto the 'protagonist' with amnesia (it's a RF thing) but then i was told he'd be funnier as a doctor (and now I can also give him glasses)

8. Gunvolt AU

Azure Striker Gunvolt is a fast-paced 2D action sidescr-- okay you know what, all you have to know is that the yuboys are villains belonging to a mega corporation that aims to control society through the power of virtual idols and music (yes, this is a real plot point from the original work) and Serena storms their hideout to kick their asses in order to truly free Yuzu (who escaped and was found unconscious in an alley by her now gf) from their clutches

Yuuri: Well, well. Maybe today won't be boring, after all. Serena: Is… Is he in a straitjacket?  Yuuri: I'd really appreciate it if you didn’t talk about me like that to my face, thank you. Serena: If I did, would you move out of the way? Yuuri: If I did, would you free me of these restraints? Rin: That doesn’t seem to be the wisest thing to do. Serena: Yeah. Dream on. Yuuri: Then we only have one choice left, don’t we?

(Yeah I put him in a straitjacket)

The grey numbers are for the design notes I wrote alongside when drawing this, here's a pastebin! (It's not required reading, but I would deeply appreciate it if you checked my rambling out)

Reiji is the final boss for some light AkaSere, but I'm still figuring out his character (and everyone elses', tbh)

The main fun of this AU for me was definitely making parodies of the skill cut-ins! (Yuri's one is due for a remake... I also really need to get around to finishing Yuto and start on Yugo's to complete the set)

Yuya's second one is for when you beat his first form and he uses his last resort to merge with the other three or something (His pose and cape is a nod to Astrograph!)

9. Obelisk Force AU

Okay, before you continue, go and get this song playing in the background first (I will give you a cookie if you read the lyrics too)

Okay, let's go! (with the energy of an excited tour guide)

It'd be an absolute understatement to say I love the concept of Obelisk Force Yugo; one time I made a 10-minute TED talk trying to pick apart why I liked it so much, but back then I still didn't have a good grasp of what my ideal ObeFo Yugo/Pawn was... Until I came across that song on Spotify and asked a friend for help on brainstorming (lost if u see this HI) and the rest, as they say, was history

Yugo is picked up (kidnapped) by Academia at an early age (think like, 5-6) after they witness his duelling skills (Leo really needs LOTS of child soldiers)

they erase his memories then for better assimilation into the academy, though he still retains a sense of stubborn individuality

he's constantly bullied by the other students for being an orphan from the Synchro Dimension, and he gets into fights often

eventually, Leo orders Yuri to take care of the matter (children will be children, but Academia MUST have order)

when Yuri approaches Yugo, he's just finished throwing hands against yet another crowd of students

Yuri attempts diplomacy, even challenging him to a duel, but Yugo is exhausted from his earlier fight and turns him down brusquely, stalking back to his room

Yuri attempts to block his way and gets shoved aside, falling to the ground and cracking his duel disk

he snaps, as the duel disk had been a gift from the professor, and how dare you?

he's beating Yugo half to death when a lightbulb goes off in his head

he proposes to Yugo to personally take charge of his education because he is so gracious and charitable and it's the least he could do for someone who shares his face

Yugo, of course, is completely dumbfounded but faints from a combination of blood loss and fatigue before he can reply no

when Yugo has recovered, Yuri pops the question again, and the two decide to settle the matter through a duel

Yugo loses (duh)

time flies as Yuri teaches Yugo how to stop students from coming back for revenge, among other things (it also helps that the other students are already creeped out by him) and significantly raises his quality of life at Academia which Yugo is thankful for

time skip! Yugo successfully joins the Obelisk Force and promptly unbuttons the jacket instantly (it's a tight fit, okay)

Yugo can feel his serpentine gaze drill into him from where Yuri sits cross-legged on a chair a distance away, his chin cradled thoughtfully in one hand. He waits for a comment, but nothing but silence comes. Finally, he mutters, "What, you're not going to scold me for desecrating the uniform?" A wide smile crinkles Yuri's face. "Not just your wardrobe, but even your vocabulary's upgraded, hm?" Before Yugo can form a retort, he goes on, "Actually, I think I like it." His chair barely makes a sound, muffled by the carpet as he stands up and makes his way across the room. The footsteps stop when teal and magenta are inches away. Lightly, he fingers the lapel of Yugo's new jacket as he rakes a half-lidded gaze from head-to-toe. "It makes you stand out from the others in the Force. And that's fitting. After all..." "You're not the Professor's. You're mine."

One day, Yuri and/or Yugo are sent to capture... Rin! Her picture gives Yugo a sense of deja vu, but he doesn't understand why...

Yugo's memories come back in a flood when he makes eye contact with his old childhood friend that he hasn't seen in almost a decade

The capture is successful, and back at Academia Yugo begs the Professor for the authority to be in charge of her incarceration (In trying to mold Yugo into his shadow, Yuri has unknowingly created a competitor for the Professor's acknowledgement)

Before the Professor can respond, a girl of Yugo's age steps into the room to report to the Professor as a fresh recruit

Leo introduces a brainwashed yandere Ruri as Rin's appointed jailer

Yeah that's right I managed to fit apple and swift in here thumbs up emoji

Anyway it's now a romantic comedy with a love triangle (it's not)

10. Hades AU

No deep thoughts nor any plans for this one it was more of a costume design exercise but I'm including it here because I still like them quite a bit

***

If you've actually made it this far, I don't know what to say... thank you!

If you'd like to see more of any of these (including some of the ones that I didn't manage to include but might have posted before like the Alice in Wonderland one, or the Dark Signer one, or the university one, or the Yuri half-turns into a Starve Venom dragon boy one, or the the Monster Hunter one (less of an AU and just a hey they are gaming), or the Z-arc suddenly has four toddlers and they are the yus and he has to juggle parenting and pro-duelling one, and whichever ones I might have forgotten, my ask box is open!! Again, thanks for reading!

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Duel Links has me Rin and Yugo pilled again and now I'm thinking of your dimension switch AU and I GOTTA ask, now that we got a better idea of their dynamic.... do they start bitching at each other in the AU at some point. I think it could be very funny. In the face of fear and a unhinged guy out to kidnapp her Rin starts throwing insults and Yugo thinking it is So Fun. I just want them to be friends in every universe, even if its a unhinged friendship that should not have happened but still did and no one knows how.

Also I just now realised Yugo's "It's not fusion it's Yugo" catchphrase now could turn into something like, "it *is* fusion/Yugo". "Yugo deeesu", said in the most threatening yet relaxed way possible. I love this guy he's so fun.

OHOHOHOHH i need to think about the potential of dswap rin and yugo--they DO meet but since the story beats of canon arc-v are a little scrambled yugo's never actually out to kidnap the girls. Rather he mostly stays locked up in his Academia dorm like a tiger pacing a cage (this AU's Leo making an actual dedicated effort to keep the Zarc pieces from meeting lol) ...at least until he sneaks out to follow Zuzu to Standard and ends up going a little wild in the streets during the ALC finales :^)

he ends up running into Rin and dueling her and she BEATS HIS ASS with her pepper witches, something he is, Extremely Unfamiliar With !! And it's gonna stick with him For A While!!

fusion!yugo really needs his own post to get into the intricacies of whats wrong with him but he is a deeply unsocialized animal who eventually gets reclaimed by Obelisk Force and taken back to DA, but he's definitely chomping at the bit wanting to rematch that strange feisty girl from Standard who made him LOSE. i like the idea of 'postcanon' maybe them having some odd sort of friendship...this yugo's track record of odd postcanon friendships really becoming A Bit Longer Than You Would Think (🐩)

also re: his name YEAH!! YEAH EXACTLY he picked his name out himself (trans flag emoji.) and it IS fusion thank you for noticing >:) Youre Gonna Be a Card Now OK Dude? OK???

[gx-gameon]

Since it was mentioned in a few posts that Seto was not informed of Banner's death, I can only imagine how he reacts to the FULL LIST of people that need to be replaced. Jaden: Yeah, so the janitor, a security guard, and the secondary nurse were actually Shadow Riders-slash-Duel Spirits, our Alchemy teacher-slash-Occult history teacher and head of Slifer Red was a Shadow Rider too and he was in a homunculus body so I might be having nightmares from finding his mummified corpse, oh and the Superintendent was the leader of the Shadow Riders and was in this weird life support system before he got young and swole so yeah you need to replace a lot of people. Seto: **trying to figure out how he's going to replace 5 positions over the course of a summer because they need to be good duelists too** Joey: ...I'll check with Mai to see if she's still in touch with Valon and his crew. Vivian too; they were close in the tag battle circuit. Yugi: Thank you Joey. I'll see if Bakura wants to replace Banner. I'm sure he would love to teach children about the Dark Arts.

You are correct. Seto sits Jaden down and is like okay the head of your dorm is dead. Who else is gone? *Insert your whole conversation here* Seto breaks something. That’s so many people to higher.

And you’re so right Bakura with his occult deck would be all over teaching children about the Dark Arts. He’s offended he wasn’t the first choice.

And I love Joey being like “we know people! Competent people!”

I was thinking about (and I can’t take full credit for this because I saw it floating around like 6ish years ago) Joey taking over as the head of the Slifer Dorms. Who beater than the king of the underdogs, who has the most growth in his series, to take the Slifer’s and raise them up. He’s the third best duelist in the world he’s got the credentials for it.

But I don’t think I can do it in this au because you know Joey would hear “there’s and evil cult in school grounds brainwashing people to join it” and he go, “not this crap again” as he struts across campus to handle this. Jaden and his gaggle of friends following behind thinking “omg we’re going to see Joy Wheeler duel!” And it turns into “omg we’re watching Joey Wheeler physically beat cult leader!” Joey, and exclent duelist and could win said I’m doing what I should have done the first time, and beats the crap out of Sartorius.

Sartorius: “ah Mr. Wheeler have you come for a duel” think he’s about to get Joey under his control.

Joey: rolling up his sleeves “not quite”

So ya Joey can’t be then head of Slifer dorm because season 2 would not happen or it would be greatly altered. Aster Phoenix shows up talking trash and trying to duel Jaden, ya no uncle Joey I mean Professor Wheeler said no.

They blow Jaden’s identity in a week because Joey watches Jaden win a duel and yells “that’s my nephew!!!!” Everyone looks at him “I mean my student!!!!” Everyone knows but Jaden and jeoy keep acting like they don’t.

Honestly this might have to be an au of my own au or I’ll make a new cannon where Joey is in charge of Slifer dorm from season 2 onwards (in a world where it’s cannon Jaden maybe??)

But the idea of Mai, Valon, Raphael, Vivian or Rebecca coming to teach is very fun.

It makes me want to add more of the cast in

Obviously Bakura is the occult teacher (wild that’s a job)

Maybe Serenity comes to work as the nurse (going into medicine after her eye surgery)

Duke teaches game making (an actual track the kids at duel academy can take)

Mai takes over the girl dorms and force them to allow more girls in (why are all girls automatically Obelisk? Do they only let in the best of the best girls and the mediocre boys can get in? You can’t convince me Mindy and Jasmine are the “best of the best” honestly I need someone to give me the enrollment rules for this school. Because I feel most of obelisk blue bought their way in and then there is everyone else. The red and blue uniforms being made girl and boy uniforms in 5Ds makes way more sense then what ever enrollment and ranking system is going on in Gx)

Also I’ve always loved Valon and Raphael and having them come in as security guards or something could be hilarious because the students are used the the security being pseudo military. Someone breaks the rules in season 2 and are expecting the military security but instead these three jacked bickers show up at their door. Because those three are not wearing any uniform.

I don’t know if any of this will be cannon but having Serenity on campus would actually be really fun. I wish we had more of her in cannon and her being the nurse puts her in an “active role” for season 3

[liberationwasboundtohappen]

Okay no but likeeeee

Ryou, Yuugi, and Marik are perfect casting in a MKR-esque AU???

Instead of the Rune Gods, they're aligned with the three Egyptian Gods:

Ryou: Obelisk

Yuugi: Osiris

Marik: Ra

And each of them are aligned with the sun (Marik), The Moon (Ryou), and the Earth (Yuugi) rather than pure elemental forces.

Yuugi meets a handsome thief who has a bone to pick with the royal family and the hierarchy that the world runs under.

Ryou meets the prince of the land, stoic but gentle.

Marik meets the headstrong and honest captain of the guard, who he clashes with at first but with whom he forms an unbreakable bond.

And they end up finding that they not only can't go home, but are destined to become human vessels for the sources of their power until they find and unlock ka of their own.

It ends with them fighting the Gods and truly saving the world... at the cost of being unable to go home.

So they get married in a triple wedding instead 83

[blackfeatherdragon]

Day 4 of @ygorarepairweek!

Title: Like a Wolf Without a Pack

Pairing: Ravenshipping

Wordcount: 1660

Rating: T

Prompt: Horror

Content Warnings: Werewolf AU, non graphic/non described body horror, several Obelisk Force members get (non graphically) killed

Ao3

(Full fic also below the cut!)

Shun races through the ruined streets of Heartland, looking for that familiar flash of blond hair. Normally he'd have a bit more stealth, but tonight? When the full moon hangs high in the sky and Kaito most certainly should not be out?

Caution is going out the window a little bit.

A noise echoes in the distance and Shun comes to a halt, listening. For a moment, all is quiet, then the sound of distant screaming breaks the silence of the ruins.

"Shit- Kaito!" All at once, Shun is moving again, beelining for the source of the noise with no care for stealth whatsoever. He vaults over a chunk of rubble that blocks the street, rounds an unstable building that might have once been a house, and there-

-There's a great blond furred werewolf, an Obelisk Force member hanging limp by one arm in the beast's jaws. Several more Obelisk Force members lay still on the ground, masks askew and blood staining their uniforms, and Shun can see a few of them still moving.

One injured Fusion Duelist stirs, reaching for his shieldlike Duel Disk, and Shun springs into action, swinging his own Disk up and carding him without hesitation. Another flash of movement, another Obelisk Force member stirring, and Shun cards that one too. Pocketing the two cards, he looks around, glancing over the battlefield-

-then he spots blue hair peeking up over a half collapsed wall. Shun rounds the wall, pulling around just in time to catch a glimpse of a bloodstained blue jacket and wide (pained, panicked) green eyes before the assumed Fusion Duelist promptly warps out in a flash of light.

"Damn it-" Shun's frustrated curse cuts short as he realizes that the Fusion Duelist wasn't looking at him in fear, but was instead looking at something behind him. He whips around just as a snarl sounds behind him, raising his arm in time to meet sharp fangs lunging for him.

Pain lances down Shun's arm, and it's all he can do to not try to yank away from Kaito's grip. Sucking a sharp breath in through his teeth to steady himself, he forces himself to meet the werewolf's blue eyes, forces himself to not show fear.

(He hasn't got time to waste. If Kaito were to stand up on his hind legs now, with Shun's arm between his teeth, Shun would be left dangling and helpless.)

"...Kaito, it's me. It's Shun. I'm on your side." Shun's voice is as even as he can make it through the pain, and for a tense moment, Kaito doesn't move, ears pinned flat to his skull as he softly growls. Then he blinks, huffs, and lets Shun go, backing off to rear up and sniff at the air, presumably in search of any more Fusion invaders.

"...They're all gone, Kaito." Shun says as he cradles his arm, trying to stem the blood loss as best he can. "We need to get back to shelter for the night, now."

Shun really isn't sure how much Kaito understands in this state, but his words seem to have some sort of effect as Kaito drops back down onto all fours and watches as Shun trudges back the way he came. Shun turns back, seeing Kaito still standing there, then awkwardly gestures until the great beast follows him.

---

'The hideout' turns out to be a barren store of some kind, most of the goods long picked clean by desperate Heartland residents. After making sure Kaito has actually followed him in, Shun digs out the emergency kit hidden on the back of a shelf by the Resistance and opens it up to reveal assorted medical supplies and shelf stable foodstuffs. He digs out a roll of gauze, then, glancing back at Kaito as he flops across the floor near the checkout, unwraps a cereal bar and tosses it at the werewolf. Kaito sniffs it, huffs, then turns to stare at Shun in what he can only assume is annoyance as he removes his longcoat to get at his bitten arm.

"Don't look at me like that Kaito, it's all we got right now." Shun snaps as he cleans the blood as best he can, giving him the chance to clearly see the wound for the first time.

(A deep bite wound, still oozing blood as he sets to wrapping it with gauze. Normally Shun would be worried about infection, but considering what inflicted it, he figures he's got bigger problems than normal infections.)

"...Can werewolves get tetanus?" Shun asks Kaito, who just yawns and glances away. No help there, which figures.

Satisfied that his bite wound is wrapped, Shun repacks the kit (minus a few cereal bars, he wants those for later), stuffing it back on the shelf before plopping down on the floor with his back to the barren metal shelf and his coat folded to the side. His small bag, which he's been carrying this whole time, is held on his lap, while his Duel Disk remains attached to his left arm (mercifully, also his good arm) just in case.

"I'll keep watch tonight Kaito, you're not in a state to watch for anything right now." Kaito's ear twitches in response to Shun's voice, and Shun, adjusting himself to better cradle his bad arm in his lap, settles in to keep watch through the clear glass doors.

---

Dawn is signalled by sound of Kaito whining in pain as the sun's light stretches across the dirty white floor of the store, giving Shun all the signal he needs to turn around to give his fellow Resistance member some privacy. More whining, overlaid by noises that Shun, quite frankly, does not want to know the source of/how a living body is making them, and finally, pained, heavy, but human breathing.

"I have clothes in the bag for you, Kaito." Shun (still facing away for Kaito's sake) slides the bag in Kaito's direction, who takes it and, by the sounds of his footsteps on the floor, ducks behind the checkout counter to get dressed.

"...One of the Fusion invaders you attacked last night got away," Shun states while waiting for Kaito to emerge.

"An Obelisk Force?" Kaito's voice responds from behind the counter, and Shun can imagine his frown as he pieces together what happened during the night. It's been like this over the past few months; Shun filling Kaito in on what he did while transformed.

"No, he wasn't dressed like an Obelisk Force. Blue hair and coat, green eyes, looked like you bit his arm. He warped away when he saw you coming."

"..." A sigh sounds behind the counter, followed by heavy footsteps as Kaito finally steps out. Shun turns to look at Kaito, trying to downplay his own arm injury, but by the look on Kaito's face, he can tell there's no point in hiding it.

"Stand up and let me see that." Kaito steps over and Shun grimaces before obeying, letting Kaito unwrap and examine his injured arm. For a moment, it's silent, broken only by a muttered curse from Shun as Kaito looks, then Kaito finally turns away with his usual serious look.

"...You should know it's not just the full moon that forces me to change. I go through emotional changes, too."

"Emotional- you turn when you get mad?" Shun's never seen Kaito go through that, but then again, it's Kaito.

"Mad or stressed. I have practice avoiding that, but you don't." Kaito glances back, and Shun knows damn well what Kaito means. His temper has never been super, and especially not when confronted with the invaders.

"What about you? You never had problems with running off before your father and Haruto were carded." Kaito tenses at being reminded of his family, but otherwise doesn't storm off or snap back like he would have for anyone else, so Shun continues. "You bit people last night. I don't care about the Obelisk Force members you killed, or the ones I carded, but the one who got away will be the same as us now."

Kaito still doesn't respond, giving Shun the chance to slowly put a hand (his good arm; the bitten one is still sore, if somewhat less so now) on his shoulder.

"Kaito, I get it. Those bastards took my sister too. If you let me help you-"

Just then Shun's Duel Disk pings with an incoming message, and Shun hesitates until Kaito glances at it. Huffing, he lets go of Kaito to properly answer the video call, making sure to keep his injured arm out of frame.

"Oh good, you weren't carded." Yuto blinks from the video, his gaze fixing on Kaito watching with his arms crossed in the background. "As happy as I am that you seem to have found someone-"

"It's not like that, Yuto." Shun's interjection comes too quickly, earning a doubtful look from Yuto, and belatedly Shun remembers he's still not wearing his coat.

"Uh-huh. Anyway, you two need to get out here, we found a bunch of dead Obelisk Force members and Sayaka's not taking it well."

In the background Shun can hear the sound of someone freaking out, and he sighs. "We'll be there soon."

Shun reaches to end the video call, and he hears a frantic "Wait, what happened to your arm-" from Yuto before he's cut off.

"Let's go, Kaito. Yuto found those Obelisk Force members." Shun quickly rewraps his arm, collecting his coat and throwing it back on before abruptly remembering something.

"Oh yeah, here." Digging through his coat, he locates three of the cereal bars he took from that emergency kit and passes two of them to Kaito, who takes them and immediately rips one open. The third he keeps for himself, to eat on the go. "You didn't eat at all last night, so I know you're starving."

"Thank you." The two set off, heading back towards where the bodies were left without another word.

[aberooski]

Rewatched the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy for the 80th time and watched 4 and 5 for the first time

So...........

Atticus/Alexis/Chazz trio pirate au

Plot part 1....? 🤷‍♀️

______________

Chazz is a noble who was kidnapped during a pirate raid on his family's port, but a few days after before his father's ships can catch them, the pirate's ship is attacked by the infamous crew of the Obelisk Blue, a ship captained by a fiercesome young woman, said to be sailing the seas in search of her long-lost brother.

The crew of the Obelisk the J-Squad plunders the ship and coming across the valuable prisoner on board, they take him on board the Obelisk Blue where he comes face to face with Captain Alexis Rhodes, fiercest female pirate to fly her colors in the seas of the Academia Isles. She elects to keep Chazz on board since his value could bring them great fortune, which she could most certainly use to fund her long and arduous search for Atticus, who had gone missing at sea some years prior, though she refuses to believe he's gone. So long as Chazz can earn his keep, he will remain unharmed and be treated well until she and her crew can make a deal with his family to ensure their protection in their waters, and the resources needed to scour the seas until Atticus is found, or sell him to the highest bidder.

So Chazz is forced to either work amongst the crew or be locked up in the brig, and so he gets to work. Eventually, Alexis invites him to her cabin to have a discussion. She's very vague about her intentions with him when he asks, but even he's heard her sad story whispered on the winds of the Isles.

He recounts the tale of the female pirate's past. Of the beloved brother off to sea on a merchant vessel that never came back to port, save for one man. Disheveled and mad, half-drowned and muttering and raving about a phantom ship, the Shadow Rider. The legendary ship they say is captained by a man cursed by the very darkness itself, old and decrepit and long since dead, he sails the seas harvesting victims, taking revenge on still living sailors. Once a ship faces the Shadow Rider, you either die, or if your soul and will are strong enough, he steals you and makes you apart of his crew, and you become cursed by darkness too. A fate far worse than death, some say. Seldom does even a single man survive to tell the tale. He tells her of the young girl who ran away from home and single handedly commandeered a ship after stowing away, and put together her own crew to find her missing brother. Chazz doesn't believe in the tale of the phantom ship.

But Alexis does.

Her brother isn't dead, he has to be trapped on that ship. And she counters that if he knows the story of the Shadow Rider, he's not heard the whole story. Kagemaru, captain of the Shadow Rider, takes revenge on the living, yes. But his purpose is greater. He sails in search of seven keys that can break his curse, and restore him body and soul. And if that were to be true, the keys must also be able to free the crew. Atticus must be apart of the crew.

He asks her how she could possibly know that, and she reveals to him that she's seen it in her dreams. Every night she sees a man on a decrepit old ship. His face is distorted and he's chained to the deck, but she hears her brother's voice calling to her. It has to be a sign. And she reveals that she's already found four of the seven keys. She only needs three more. And so they make sail for a particularly dangerous port, where she just might find allies to lead them to one of the remaining keys.

Little do they know that there's even more to the legend than even Alexis knows. The seven keys alone can free the crew and captain of the Shadow Rider from darkness, yes, but to return the captain to life and youth as well, a toll must be paid. A sacrifice of the blood of a sovereign, more potent than any common base-born blood. And Chazz just so happens to fit the bill. He also requires the souls of the crew. And to make matters worse, two of the three keys are already in the possession of the phantom crew of the Shadow Rider, who are in pursuit of the remaining pieces, and know of the female pirate who has come into possession of four.... and the precious cargo aboard the Obelisk. And so, the phantom ship searches for the Obelisk Blue.

When the Obelisk makes port after a few more days, Alexis leaves Chazz locked up on board as he's still technically a prisoner, though he is admittedly starting to grow on her a little, and sets off to find her contacts, Sartorius and Sarina, a pair of mystic siblings well versed in the legends and curses of the sea. They give her a secret map they kept hidden even from her, that reveals the location of the final key. But before she can return to her ship, unbeknownst to them all, the Shadow Rider has found them.

Back on the Obelisk, the phantom ship is spotted out to sea, and the crew prepares to defend their ship and the keys without their captain, and Chazz remains locked up below. But as the crew prepares on deck for a fight, members of the phantom crew infiltrate the ship under their noses, and make for the four keys. The keys are kept in Alexis's cabin, so a fight brews up on deck, but there's still one enemy left down below. And with Chazz left unguarded in favor of the keys, and his unknown importance, the unknown man in the mask comes to collect the boy. All the while back on land, Sartorius and Sarina tell Alexis the truth of Kagemaru's ambitions. He has two of the keys already, and if he claims all seven, he will use them to break his curse and restore his life and youth. But to do that, he needs Chazz's blood. And if her brother really is apart of the crew, if Kagemaru's plan succeeds, she really will lose him forever. Alexis is horrified by this, and without having a second to breathe, Sarina gasps and reveals that the Shadow Rider is here. She senses the ship's presence. Alexis, more horrified, takes the map to the final piece and runs back to her ship!

Back in the ship, Chazz is face to face with the mysterious man in the mask as swords clash above them. The man says nothing, but Chazz, studying him, realizes he seems to resemble Alexis even with the mask obscuring his face. He interrogates him for a moment, asking if he knows who the captain of this ship is. Her name is Alexis Rhodes. ring any bells? And he asks if there's a man named Atticus on the ship, but still the man says nothing. But his head does begin to hurt at the mention of those names. And gripping his head in pain, he breathlessly calls for Alexis, but then from above deck, a voice calls down below, ordering the man, called Nightshroud, to secure the boy and return to the Shadow Rider as they've successfully stolen the keys. This seems to almost reactivate Nightshroud, and with great strength, he breaks open the cell and grabs Chazz, restraining him and throwing him over his shoulder, whisking him away from the Obelisk with the phantom crew and the keys. Alexis returns to the ship just in time to catch a glimpse of Nightshroud as he and the crew escape on a boat back to the Shadow Rider with Chazz and the keys in tow. She recignizes him as the man from her dreams, and desperately calls out to him. Atticus! She screams, and again his head begins to hurt and spin. But this confirms it for her.

Her brother is alive.

But now they've lost the keys and Chazz, so Kagemaru now has six keys and the blood sacrifice he needs. But Alexis has the map to the final key. And they can still recover the other keys and rescue Chazz and her brother. It can, and it will be done.

Also all this time they're still being pursued by Chazz's father's fleet of ships. So there's that problem too.

_____________

That's all I've got atm and not sure if I'd actually fully write this out or not but like this is awesome????

[frosty-mage]

YGO OC Week Day 5: Swap!

I mentioned in the previous post that Penelope has several AU versions and that one of them is ARC-V. It's an universe I always liked exploring, but the collective ARC-V brainrot in YGOS more or less forced my hand. Big thanks to them for helping to flesh some of this out. So let's examine that version of her character!

Penelope grew up in the Fusion Dimension. She always wanted to be praised and looked up to, and so she did her best to be the best student she could be. This allowed her to test straight into the blue dorm through her entry exams. During orientation, she was assigned to the group led by Fuschia (@fluffalpenguin's character). Being the brownnoser that she is, she wanted to appease the upperclassmen, and so she ended up making a small levitating Aluber figurine for him. The two stayed allies throughout school, though Penelope would consider him a friend in addition to being a mentor.

The next few years were pretty straightforward for her. Attend classes, improve her dueling, learn about other dimensions, learn about the new tech and how to work with it, and so on. She was totally enraptured by the lofty goal and didn't pay as much attention to the details as she should have… up until the Academia invasion. At this time, she was using her Reclamatron deck (card designs still WIP).

As a member of Obelisk Force, she was one of the members to invade… but immediately, she was plagued by doubts. She wanted to make the world a better place, hence her desire to fulfill Academia's goal, but seeing the terror of the XYZ dimension's inhabitants made her question her motives. When her first assault was over, she returned to Academia and grabbed Fuschia to talk about the whole situation. She wanted out, while he was still her senior and wanted to continue the invasion, still not questioning Academia's motives and mission. What was initially some doubts and discussion turned into a heated argument, and later, a duel by one of the many cliffs of Academia's island. One poor dodge from an attack made her land on unstable ground that crumbled beneath her, sending her into the ocean. She would have met her demise there if she hadn't immediately activated her disk and transported herself to synchro, ending up in City… and still splashing immediately into the water there. It was still enough to survive, but she knew she couldn't go back. Fuschia, for his part, thought that she had died then and there.

Still, though, she wanted to establish herself here. The first thing she did was disable the tracking on her disk. (Luckily, she'd already known enough about how it worked to have this be something she could turn off at a moment's notice. She decided to get a lay of the land and managed to help someone with a small repair, letting her get somewhere to stay for the night. She eventually got settled in synchro, setting up a repair shop in the commons area. Her time there was one of conflict; on one hand, she wanted to appease those in power, but on the other hand, she wanted to prevent the wrongs they were causing. She always justified her actions in favor of the tops by saying that she'd be able to use those resources to help those in need… such thoughts were probably suggested to her by other tops, since she's quite malleable in that regard.

Post-canon, she continues to run her shop, repairing other peoples' runners and gadgets while also improving her own. She occasionally visits Fuschia in Standard and has started to become friends with some of his colleagues there.

Since moving to synchro, she's put together the Crystron deck she's known for elsewhere. She still has her Reclamatron deck, just like she has the chassis for her old disk, but the internals have been removed for a standard synchro one. Her duel disk's blade is a sector of a gear as well, rather than any of the standard ones.

@ygoc-week

[ojamayellow]

weird things that trigger me but dont actually trigger me full on theyre just make me severely uncomfy:

-the obelisk force from yugioh arc-v / ygo gx "arc v" AU's -transformers prime (havent watched it, the fandom just make me upset, wont watch it for another 2 years i bet)

a genuine trigger which origins is the same as the obelisk force thing: -one piece

[epicstuckyficrecs]

Weekly Recap October 11th-17th

MARVEL TRUMPS HATE AUCTION WEEK IS LIVE! I'm offering two different auctions this year 😃 

- #1106: typesetting for the fic of your choice! INCLUDING A PHYSICAL COPY OF THE BOOK! Bidding is tiered, so 50$ for 50K, 60$ for 60K, etc. up to a 100K max!

- #2045: one fic cover/banner for the fic of your choice!

You can find the full details for both my auctions here!

Complete

💙  The Bargain by GoodbyeBlues/ @goodbyeblues-ao3​ (Historical AU, Marriage of convenience | 20K | Mature): Forced to wed to keep his inheritance, Steve finds himself married to a handsome but gravely wounded soldier. There are a number of issues surrounding this arrangement, but the most prominent one is also the most unexpected of all: Steve's dying husband is no longer dying.

💙  Take You for a Ride (On my Garbage Truck) by GoodbyeBlues/ @goodbyeblues-ao3​ (Modern AU | 20K | Teen): Despite how it often looks, dramatic millennial Bucky Barnes is not actually homeless. He's just really, really bad at flirting.

💙  The Taming of the Brew by GoodbyeBlues/ @goodbyeblues-ao3​ (Coffeeshop AU, Magic Bucky | 18K | Mature): When overworked nurse Steve Rogers sets out to get a simple cup of coffee, he somehow finds himself in a curious little shop owned by a captivating, yet slightly confusing young man. Steve soon discovers that his life begins to change for the better when he becomes a frequent customer, but that's got to be because of the delicious beverages, and absolutely not because of... anything else. It couldn't possibly have to do with the beautiful man behind the counter, who whispers secret words into cups of coffee and seems to know Steve better than he knows himself. ...Right?

Number Twenty by plutosrose/ @plutosrose​ (What's Your Number AU | 13K | Explicit): After finding a magazine on the subway that says that omegas who have more than 20 sexual partners have a 4% chance of getting married, Bucky becomes determined to find out if one of his exes was secretly The One. There's definitely, absolutely zero chance he'll fall in love with the hot alpha who lives across the hall.

The Irony of Fate by janedarling/ @anonymousjane (Canon adjacent | 11K | Explicit): Bucky had been curled up at one end of the couch when Steve got home on Tuesday, buried up to his collarbone in a purple flannel quilt Clint had recommended as "the coziest shit ever, you have to get one of these" and so absorbed by The Obelisk Gate that he barely said hi. Steve had simultaneously wanted to crawl under the quilt to suck his cock and bring him a cup of tea. He'd landed on tea, but now he's regretting it. Bucky had been so warm and soft, and Steve could have slid up under the quilt, spread his legs and settled down in between them. Maybe Bucky even would have kept reading a bit, and Steve would have had to work at it a little to distract him, do his best to get Bucky's attention with just his hands and his mouth— “Have you tried talking to him, or are you just thinking about sex all the time?" Sam asks.

Not Technically A Bromance by dontcallmebree/ @iamthe-wo-manwhocan​ (Canon adjacent | 2,5K | Mature): “A bromance?” Bruce asks, voice tinged with restrained laughter. “Yeah, we have one of those.” Steve glowers at Bruce, who’s patently laughing at him, eyes bright and twinkling with mirth. Bruce composes himself, biting at his bottom lip. “And you’ve had sex how many times?”

WIP

A Tapestry of Two by BlueSimplicity/ @bluesimplicity73 (Post-Winter Soldier, Mute Bucky | 4/? | 23K | Explicit): Ever since DC, things haven’t been easy for Bucky Barnes. HYDRA stole everything from him, even his voice, and two months later he’s barely surviving as he struggles to pull the few scraps of himself left into a cohesive whole. Until he gets his hands on a blanket and everything changes. Fascinated by its color and softness, he begins a journey he never would have imagined. Taken in by a stranger who teaches him to knit, Bucky slowly discovers he is so much more than a dropped stitch in the fabric of life. With time, patience, and the help of a few who have had their eyes on him for a long time, Bucky begins to turn himself into something stronger, softer and more beautiful than before, weaving a tapestry of friendship, laughter and love warm enough to embrace the entire world, fix old wrongs, and wrap around the only other person who never stopped believing in him.

💙  Read, White & Blue by JJK/ @trenchcoatsandtimetravel (Shrunkyclunks, Librarian Bucky | 4/16 | 18K | Teen): If Steve was certain one thing would have stayed the same during his sixty-something years in the ice, it was that libraries were still the place to go if you needed information. And Steve needed information. Lots and lots of it. aka Librarian Bucky helps freshly desfrosted Steve learn how to use computers and catch up on everything he missed whilst he was in the ice.

💙  What Once Was Mine (A New and Improved Guide to Project Rebirth by Steven G. Rogers) by dontcallmebree/ @iamthe-wo-manwhocan​ , kocuria-visuals (kocuria)/ @kocuria​ (Canon divergent, Post-TFA | 1/2 | 13K | Mature): Fresh out of the ice with no recollection of his past, Steve Rogers strikes out on his own and tries to cobble together a life worthy of the clean slate he’s been given.

[lala-ladybug]

Healing Hands: Chapter 8

You brush your teeth. now BOOM orange juice. That’s life.

Jasonette Sword Art Online AU

Read here on AO3

Chapter 8: Adrien Elizabeth Agreste, we do not have "plenty of time"

Tag list: @iloontjeboontje​ First | Previous | Next

Marinette was tired. Sure, she didn’t have to be class president, worry about akumas, or study for the baccalauréat, but she was more tired than she’d ever been in Paris. She’d been running herself ragged with training day after day for weeks, waking up earlier and going to bed later than everyone else.

Even her Order was starting to worry about her.

“Hey Mari, let’s go shopping! I’ve heard there’s a really posh fabric district on level 8.” Chloe wheedled as Kagami poured them both a cup of morning tea. The blonde had a sharp look in her eye that meant it was more serious than just a shopping trip, but Marinette wouldn’t budge.

“Sorry Chlo, I want to level-grind so I can prep for tomorrow,” Marinette shrugged and grimaced at her friend. She hadn’t picked up a needle in months, chances were slim to none that she’d start now. And tomorrow was too important to skip training.

Adrien came in from the garden and traded glances with Chloe. He sat down next to Marinette and said softly, “You really don’t have to overwork yourself this much, you know.” He gestured to the four of them and Luka, who sat plucking at his lute. “We’re all here right alongside you, and we always will be.”

Marinette forced a smile. “I know,” she replied. And she did, really. But it was still so hard to let herself relax, even for a moment. She felt more burdened here than as Ladybug. At least back home all they had to do was wait for the next akuma attack. In here, every second not actively spent fighting in the dungeons or leveling up was another second lost in the real world. Another life lost, too.

The newspaper had daily progress updates and blurbs about quests, but every month it also put out a death toll. There were so many names. A good month only had a few dozen. Marinette always read them all, whispered their names to herself as a reminder to keep fighting.

“I should be heading out,” she gulped down her tea and rose from the table. Ignoring the worried faces of her friends, she packed a bag and shouldered a full quiver of arrows. She waved without turning to look behind her and left through the door to the stables.

The roan stallion, playfully named “Rouge” by Nino, had taken a liking to her, so that was the one she saddled up and mounted. They rode into town, where Marinette touched the teleportation obelisk and directed their destination to the thirteenth floor.

She shielded her eyes against the bright sun. The heat rolled off the clay buildings in shimmering waves, carrying with it the scent of spices from a nearby market. In the distance, she could see rolling hills of sand stretching on for miles. This floor was the highest that was open, but the dungeon wasn’t scheduled to be beaten until the next day.

Despite their best efforts to defeat each level by themselves, the Order quickly found that other guilds fought right alongside them. They were much more competent than the Parisians had given them credit for, for various reasons. The game cultivated a cutthroat culture where limited resources served as selfish motivations for players to do as they pleased. Some groups wanted to help, just like them. Others wouldn’t think twice about abandoning allies to save their own skins. Above all, no one wanted to be left behind, not after the fiasco of the first level. And of course, everyone wanted to go home.

When she wasn’t talking strategy with the other guilds, Marinette trained hard to increase her level. She was nearly at level 20, and wanted to be at her absolute best for the dungeon battle. She’d read in the paper that morning that there were scorpion monsters lurking out beyond the limits of the villages. They would be perfect practice.

She spurred Rouge onward down the stone road that wound through the dunes. They’d barely made it out of sight of the village before, sure enough, waist-high black scorpions started tailing them. Rouge tossed his head as he trotted along, sensing something was amiss.

Marinette nudged him into a gallop, which he gladly obliged to get as far away from the threat as possible. But a glance over her shoulder revealed that the monsters were doggedly following. Their pace sped up enough that she could hear the clacking from their many legs scraping over the stones of the road.

Twisting in the saddle, Marinette fired at their pursuers. Her archery skills were her favorite thing to practice. The ranged attacks and versatility were similar to her yo-yo, and moving targets only made it that much more of a challenge.

Her arrows hit their marks, and she didn’t have to turn her head to see the congratulatory loot windows popping up in front of her to confirm it.

More scorpions approached from the sides, which made it even easier to pick them off. Rouge seemed to be enjoying the exercise, never flagging as they bolted across the level. Fending off enemies left and right, dodging fast-paced obstacles, feeling the wind rushing in her hair....

It was the closest she had come to feeling like Ladybug since the game began.

She fell into a rhythm that allowed her mind to wander to Tikki. How was she holding up? Had she found another holder? She would probably need one.... The Order hadn’t talked about it, but they all knew that Hawkmoth likely wasn’t taking it easy on a city devastated by so many deaths and disappearances.

Marinette frowned and swallowed against the lump in her throat. All of the Miraculous holders were here and there was no one left to distribute new ones. She felt so stupidly careless to have left Paris completely undefended.

The next arrow that found its mark sank deeply enough to reward her with a level-up.

Eventually, they reached another village. They stopped for water and some lunch, then kept going onward. By the time the sun was setting, Marinette had reached level 20 and was well on her way to achieving level 21. She felt more ready now, the physical activity having calmed her nerves somewhat.

She and Rouge teleported back to the house just in time for Alix, Kim, and Max to serve dinner. Marinette raised a questioning eyebrow at Luka. She could’ve sworn they’d taken their turn to cook dinner just a few nights ago. Her friend just sighed and mouthed, “Lila.”

Ah, of course.

Lila did deign to come downstairs, allegedly from the girls’ bedroom where she had to take a nap because her vertigo was acting up. Which it only did when there was something she didn’t want to do.

Marinette was the first to serve herself. She piled some of the food from the kitchen onto her plate and took a seat next to Alya. Her best friend was chatting with Adrien and Max about the game plan for the boss fight tomorrow. Listening in to get the context for the conversation, Marinette took a bite of the potatoes.

It was bland.

Terribly, awfully bland.

She hid her face as politely as she could, then stood to retrieve spices from the cupboards in the kitchen. She applied them liberally to her own plate and then to the rest of the serving platters before anyone else could try them.

Upon rejoining her friends at the table, she heard Adrien and Kagami once again shut down Alya’s pleading to join them in the fight. Of their guild of classmates and friends, the Order comprised the only members they’d allowed to fight in the dungeons. Marinette knew her civilian friends were more than capable, hell she’d trusted many of them with a Miraculous at some point or another, but the chance of them getting hurt and dying in the game was too great to take risks.

“What if we just stayed with the support teams? I don’t want to get in anyone’s way, but if there’s something I can do to help I want to do it!” Alya protested.

Kagami shook her head sharply. “Absolutely not. Even the support teams have sustained damage in prior fights. You should leave it to us.”

Lila sat down smoothly on Alya’s other side. “What makes you five so much more competent? Everyone knows how clumsy Marinette is.” She waved a casual hand.

“Well, Kagami and I fence together, and....” Adrien started explaining but trailed off.

“Chloe has been bringing me and Luka to her self-defense classes back home,” Marinette blurted out. She internally cringed at the questioning looks Chloe and Luka gave her. “There’s so many akumas near us at home, we thought it might be a good idea.”

Oh Kwami, she hated lying to her friends. But she couldn’t put them in the line of fire. If something happened to one of them, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

Luckily, it seemed like they’d bought her half-truth.

“Really?” Lila raised her eyebrows.

Well, most of them had.

“I hope that’s really the reason and it’s not just because you guys are hoarding all the loot you get from beating the dungeons,” she sniffed, leaning forward slightly to look directly at Marinette.

Marinette’s stomach dropped. To even think that they could be so greedy and manipulative....

“Oh come on, there’s no way our friends would ever do something like that.” Alya gently put her arm around Marinette. “My bestie is our Everyday Ladybug, and I’m sure she’s going to do her best to help get us out of here.”

Nino and the others spoke up about their support for Marinette and her Order, but she tuned them out. As grateful as she was for her friend’s support, Marinette couldn’t help but feel even more overwhelmed. Being called their “Everyday Ladybug” only served as a reminder of how much they all depended on her.

She finished her meal and quietly thanked Alix and Max (Kim was busy arm-wrestling Adrien). While washing her dishes, she felt herself nodding off. Rouge still needed to be brushed after their long ride, so she shook herself awake and trudged to the stables to do that.

Luka and Chloe were waiting there for her, to her surprise. Luka was already working to brush Rouge’s coat, and Chloe wordlessly took Marinette by the shoulders and firmly guided her upstairs to their room.

“Hey, wh--” Marinette tried to ask before Chloe shooed her up to their loft beds.

Chloe followed her up and said, “You need to rest,” then began tucking her friend in.

Marinette made an effort to protest, but the quilted covers invited her to give in to her heavy eyelids. So she let her friend fuss over the sheets and straighten the duvet.

She hardly remembered whispering her thanks before falling asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Marinette woke from a dreamless sleep. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so long, or so well. She yawned and stretched with a groan, blinking blearily at the large circular window in front of her.

The window spanned nearly the height of the two stories in the girls’ room. It cast shafts of swirling dust, gilded in the morning sun, across the beds on the floor below. She and Chloe had thought at first that they’d drawn the short end of the stick when Lila had insisted they be the ones to take the loft (the extra climbing would be awful on her knees, you know how it is), but in her grogginess Marinette took a moment to appreciate it.

From her vantage point, she could see clearly out into the front of their yard. The hills of their spread-out neighborhood sloped downward to reveal the mountains in the distance beyond the limits of the main town.

As she watched, small songbirds flitted between the apple trees lining the path. She could hear their soft chirping in the distance, as well at the hum of the beehive that had been growing in their eaves.

Today was an important day, she knew that much, but why...?

Oh no.

A glance at the clock embedded in her player menu revealed that she’d overslept. She was late.

She threw the blankets off and quickly dressed, hopping in place to tug on her boots. She slid down the ladder and rounded the corner of the landing on the stairs, terrified she’d missed her team leaving to fight the boss.

Adrien’s bubbling laughter followed by Luka’s soft chuckle told her otherwise. She breathed a sigh of relief and slowed her pace down the rest of the stairs. Thank Kwami.

In the kitchen, Adrien was holding a yellow hairbrush high above Chloe’s reach while she pouted and jumped to try to grab it. Kagami shook her head while Luka snuck up behind them and plucked the brush out of Adrien’s hand.

Chloe huffed at Adrien when Luka handed it back to her. She began brushing out her already-perfect hair, chastising him. “You know this is my travel brush. I’ll need it for after the boss fight! Kwami knows how utterly ridiculous it will look after that.”

Kagami noticed Marinette's arrival and sidled up to her, hands clasped behind her back. “Can’t imagine why she was ever Queen Bee,” she said drily. Marinette put a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. Kagami’s practical sense of humor had only grown the longer her friends had “corrupted” her, as Adrien liked to claim.

“Melody!” Luka smiled warmly, greeting her with a wave. Adrien and Chloe stopped their play fighting to look at her. They crossed the room in an instant, Adrien’s hands placed lightly on her shoulders and Chloe grasping her hands. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Better than I have in a while, thank you Chlo,” Marinette smiled at her friends.

Adrien glanced over her head to check the clock in the kitchen. “We still have plenty of time, why don’t you have some breakfast.”

“Adrien Elizabeth Agreste, we do not have ‘plenty of time,’” Marinette retorted. “I’ll take some food to go.”

Lila, sitting with Alya on the couches nearby, gave them a questioning glance. Alya quickly explained, “His middle name obviously isn’t actually Elizabeth, but it’s way funnier to pretend that it is,” before hopping up to give Marinette a quick hug.

“Be safe,” she whispered into her hair, holding her tightly for a few seconds. Marinette gave her a tight-lipped smile as they parted, then caught the apple that Kagami tossed her.

They opted to leave the horses, in case some other players tried to steal them while they were busy with the boss fight. The five friends walked to the teleport kiosk in town.

Marinette felt tense and nervous, but couldn’t help relaxing in the presence of her carefree friends. They all joked and made horrible puns (thank you Adrien) the whole way to the thirteenth floor.

Surprisingly, they didn’t run into any other guilds along the winding, cobbled roads of the thirteenth floor. They must have already been gathered at the dungeon since they were approaching the designated meeting time. Marinette hoped they would wait.

The entrance was an ornately carved archway framing a spiral staircase. The steps led into the depths below the shifting dunes. There were lit sconces every so often, affixed to cavities in the curved walls. The steps were made of glass, but the overlapping flights of stairs didn’t clue them in to how deep the passage went.

A hot draft blew up and scattered the sand at their feet. With a glance to her team, Marinette led the way down.

Their boots had little grip on the glass steps, and they had to grip both walls to try to avoid falling. Adrien cracked one too many jokes about it being a “slippery situation” and earned himself a hearty slap on the back that sent him reaching the next landing a little sooner than he would’ve hoped.

Marinette only paid half-attention to their antics, devoting most of her brain power to going over the plan. Pamphlets in NPC shops said that this boss had ranged area attacks, which wouldn’t mean much until they saw what exactly it could do. She hoped that the extra upgrades she’d given to their armor would protect them from whatever projectiles that could possibly entail.

While her small squad would lead the assault, archers would back them up and hopefully be able to counteract the boss’s ranged attacks. Healers were on deck, of course, and there were plenty of defensive lines with shielding capabilities.

More and more guilds were joining the front lines as the people started to band together. Meetings were no longer the exclusive events they once were, and the plans of when and where to attack were placed in the paper. That meant they’d have some wild cards. Marinette frowned as she considered where they would fit in.

She sighed. Again, they probably wouldn’t know until they were in the thick of the fighting. A glance upward revealed that they could no longer see the daylight warping through the glass steps above them. It couldn’t be that much farther, though it was odd that the air around them was getting hotter, not colder, the farther they went.

Adrien cocked his head and he gestured for the others to quiet down. The five of them had retained some of the attributes lent to them by years of consistent miraculous use, and his hearing was better than most of theirs. They proceeded carefully.

Marinette began to hear it too, a low murmur that sounded like....

Players, dozens of them, were waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

They were scattered about the long, tall antechamber with golden walls that glimmered in the soft torchlight. Arches, like the one at the entrance far up above, supported the ceiling. Three-meter tall pillars displayed vases and other beautiful decor. There was an open doorway at the opposite end of the room, but they couldn’t see anything beyond it but darkness.

The gentle pressure of a hand at her back told her Adrien was standing by her side. She made eye contact with one of the other familiar guild leaders and made her way over to him and his team.

“Hey Danny, are we the last to arrive?” She greeted her American friend. He ran a hand through his cropped dark hair and his icy blue eyes met hers. “Hey Mari. Nah, we’re still waiting on Crimson Dragon.”

His raven-haired friend Sam shook her head. “They’re always late,” she muttered.

Next to her, their other friend (Tucker, if she recalled correctly) shrugged. “But you gotta admit, they always deliver!”

Marinette had to agree with him there. Thanks to the programming in the system, everyone in the game spoke and understood the same language. That meant that the Miracle Workers had wound up working with both Ghostbusters, Danny’s guild, and Crimson Dragon on several occasions even though they both spoke English as their native tongue. She had to admit she was impressed with how well they did. Unorthodox as they were....

“‘Sup party animals!?” A loud voice echoed down the stairwell. The whole room of players turned to look at the small figure sliding to a halt, boots squeaking against the floor. He tossed the hood of a bright red cloak back and threw up finger guns. “Miss me?”

Next to Marinette, Chloe scoffed in a way that said she most definitely did not. Jake was... quite the eccentric character. The rest of his guild, two very embarrassed-looking girls and a tall boy, descended the stairs as well to join their leader.

“About damn time!” Someone spoke up from the back. Jake’s head whipped around and his eyes flashed. Beside her, Danny winced at his hotheadedness. Before anything worse could happen, Marinette gave Luka a meaningful look.

He gave a sharp, loud whistle that drew everyone’s attention to them.

“Listen up people! We all know the plan. Is everyone ready?” Marinette raised her voice to reach the whole chamber. The atmosphere shifted to a laser focus, and she saw grim nods as people drew their weapons and potions.

A glance to Adrien confirmed that it was time. “Let’s go.”

She and her Order led everyone through the great doorway, and into the unknown.

The boss’s room was an enormous, golden circle lined with torches that flickered to life as soon as she stepped onto the glass floor. She could barely see the far wall of the round chamber. Levels of glass flooring circled up to the dome high above their heads, carved into the walls. A few alcoves dotted the walls, but other than that there was hardly any cover to be found, which was concerning.

A whispering noise thrummed through the chamber, made louder by the acoustics of the massive room. Marinette held up a hand to halt the movement of everyone behind her. She listened intently for the sound to happen again.

It didn’t take long, and it was getting louder now. She jerked her head to Adrien and Kagami, who started silently directing groups to assume their stations. While they moved, Marinette cast her eyes around the chamber. Where was the boss?

A loud hissing sound seemed to come from the floor, and then--

Shattered glass erupted from the floor at the center of the chamber. A colossal golden snake with red eyes reared up and bared its fangs at them. This had to be it. Marinette yelled, “Scatter!” and they all ran for it.

It struck right where she had been standing only moments before. Her boots slipped on the glass as she scrambled to gain purchase and hoist herself up onto the nearest alcove. She managed to do it just in time, the boss snapping at her heels.

She raised her shield and distantly heard Kagami shout for the archers to take aim and fire. A volley of arrows fell on the great beast, and Marinette twisted sideways and crouched to take cover under her shield. Loud hissing meant at least some of them had found their target, and to their credit only a few missed and bounced off of her shield.

“Hey, you big ugly worm! I bet you’re all hot air with nothing to show, huh?” Adrien was bravely doing what he did best. Distracting the villain so that Marinette could come up with a plan. She risked a peek from over her shield to watch the snake whip around to face Adrien, who stood a few levels up on the opposite side of the chamber.

It leaned backwards only to shoot forward a few feet, opening its mouth wide. Screams echoed from the people it faced. Oh Kwami, what was that?

Marinette bolted to her feet and raced up the sloping pathway, trying to get a better angle. She stopped and her eyes widened once she could finally see what was happening.

A cone of air coming from the maw of that thing shimmered with heat. She looked in horror to see that Adrien was shielding himself and the civilians around him as best he could, but those he couldn’t reach shouted in pain as their armor began to melt off. The glass around them started to sag and they screamed louder as the floor bent beneath them.

A blur of motion jumped onto the head of the snake from high above. That was Chloe’s signature move, and sure enough it was her. She landed hard enough to knock the boss’s head down to the ground, its body collapsing probably from sheer surprise.

Or maybe it needed a cooldown time? Shit, this wasn’t good. They knew nothing. They were underprepared and overwhelmed.

Mariniette coughed as sand fell from the faraway ceiling at the impact the beast had made when it fell. Below her, Chloe was hacking away at the monster’s face with her flail. It gave no warning before snatching its head back to knock her off her feet and coiling its tail around her. Marinette cried out wordlessly as her friend was trapped in a matter of moments.

She was still squirming when the monster bared its fangs and let loose another breath of boiling air directly onto her.

Marinette could only watch as Chloe's golden armor heated to a bright red and began to melt, her friend still squirming to get out. A desperate cry fell from the blonde’s lips as the hot metal touched her skin, and still the snake kept going.

She flashed a look to their party’s health bars and saw Chloe’s dropping fast. Too fast. Marinette grabbed a specialized arrow and drew back her bow. When she let it loose, the arrow exploded into goopy foam. She’d aimed perfectly, and the snake’s closed mouth was soon covered in the quickly hardening substance.

She pushed off from the wall and jumped. There was a moment when she was suspended in the air where time seemed to slow down. She saw the snake loosen its hold on Chloe and writhe in confusion. She heard the deafening cries from the wounded, and her name on Adrien’s lips. From the corner of her eye, a glint of metal flashed and she felt a split-second of coldness.

Then the moment was over, and she was tumbling onto the snake’s sinewy form and hoisting Chloe up. She half-carried her as she bounded away from the monster. She could see it shaking its head in her peripheral vision. But that wasn’t important right now.

Luka was waiting for her in the antechamber, out of the boss’s reach. He and several other healers already had potions at the ready. Marinette didn’t wait to see how many it would take to save her friend. She ignored Luka’s shouts and ran back into the monster’s room.

* * *

Well, Jason had finally convinced his stupid brothers to fight on the front lines. But the fact that they expected him to fight with them? Laughable.

When they made it to the dungeon, he had left them in the dust, or sand as it were. He was scouting up onto the higher levels of the paths that led up to the top of the dome when it happened.

Some girl was caught in the hold of the boss, a snake with apparently really fucking bad breath. He tensed as it blew a torrent of hot air right on her, but before anyone could move an arrow flew out and hit the beast smack in the mouth, releasing some foaming substance as it did.

Movement on his level caught his eye a few feet away. Jason stilled and observed as best he could without moving.

Some creep was wielding a metallic blowgun, aiming it dead ahead at the--

No, not at the boss. At the person who’d just fired the arrow, the person who had just jumped into the air and left themselves wide open.

He didn’t even think, he just tackled the sneaky bastard. In the commotion, they dropped the dart they’d been about to fire and it sank into their own leg.

As Jason watched, it didn’t take long for green tendrils to start appearing under the person’s skin. They clawed at their leg, but the movements grew weaker by the second.

And then they stilled.

Jason’s eyes widened as he watched them dissolve into pixels. As he watched his own name in the upper corner of his vision turn orange, indicating a player-kill.

Well shit. Dick was going to be pissed.

* * *

Marinette felt calm. Her hands had been shaking when she’d handed Chloe off to Luka, but now she felt nothing but a cool, calculating rage. As she stalked back into the chamber, she saw the boss struggling under another wave of arrows fired from all around the chamber.

A glance upward and a once-over of the pathways spiraling up the walls of the chamber confirmed all she needed to formulate a plan.

Marinette drew her knives and flicked her wrists. This monster was going to regret that. She broke into a sprint and slashed around the body of the snake. It was fast for its size, and it tried to keep up. But she was faster.

Arrows rained down around them, sticking out of chinks in the beast’s scales like some twisted sea urchin. The boss worked furiously to try to unstick its jaw, but as cracks appeared in the substance holding its mouth closed Marinette distracted it with a particularly deep slash.

It wasn’t ready, not yet.

“Get back to the antechamber!” She yelled to the other players. Most of them ran, but some-- Danny, Jake, her Order-- hesitated.

“Go!” She egged on the monster to move towards her, away from the door, giving everyone a chance to escape. “I have a plan.”

They reluctantly followed the others as they left her alone in the dungeon. Adrien paused, asking her, “My lady, I help with--”

“Go.” She growled, glaring at him as best she could while battling the serpent. He gritted his teeth and retreated with the others, but stayed within view of the battle.

Good. Now she could put her plan into action.

Marinette sheathed her knives and pulled out her bow, then dashed to the sloping walkway. The snake pursued, seemingly going after an easy target running scared.

When she’d nearly reached the carved alcove, she fired an arrow with a cord attached to it. The cord was a special elastic design that could retract but couldn’t be pulled to be any longer. It landed high above her and anchored itself into the wall with a distant click. Then came the tricky part.

Marinette turned toward the giant snake and ran at it. Its red eyes burned with rage and the cracks deepened in the hardened foam still leashing its mouth. Still holding onto the other end of that cord, she gave it a sharp tug that sent her flying through the air, far above where the monster had expected her to be.

The leap carried her to the opposite side of the circular walls. She neatly landed on the walkway about two stories up from the ground. The snake gave a muffled hiss of fury and set out on the bottommost level, steadily approaching her as it wound around the cavern.

Marinette let the cord go and started running.

She kept an eye on the monster, firing a regular arrow at it every now and then to keep it angry. That didn’t seem to be a problem. What would be a problem is if she timed everything wrong, or if the snake caught up to her, or if the ceiling wouldn’t--

No. There wasn’t time for doubt. She had faith in herself, and she could almost hear Tikki’s little voice cheering her on. She thought of Chloe and pressed on even harder.

The beast got close enough that she could smell the reek of it before she fired another corded arrow and launched herself across the chamber again. She gained even more height, and continued the climb to the top.

This only made the boss angrier, but she could tell that it sensed victory. There was nowhere left to go once she reached the top. Nowhere but down, that is.

A third corded arrow brought her to the uppermost levels, and then it was only a short run before she reached the edge of the dome. She was panting for breath and her legs were aching with the effort of so much running, but she wasn’t done yet.

One steadying breath in. Two.

The serpent had nearly reached her. Marinette could see it rounding the final curve that would bring it to her level. She drew her bow back and aimed it at its mouth, counting it out in her head.

She held until the beast was nearly upon her, then fired. The arrow was tipped in lead, and easily broke through the already-breaking foam. Immediately after, she fired an arrow directly above her. It hit the apex of the structure holding back all the sand above them.

The beast looked up at the mass of sand falling on it and opened its mouth to fire a hot stream of air.

Marinette didn’t stick around to see how it would play out. She fired one final corded arrow to the side where she could see an alcove in the wall. And there she stayed, facing the wall and shielding her face from the sand pouring into the chamber behind her.

Finally, the avalanche slowed and then stopped. Only then did she risk stepping away from the wall and peering down to see if her plan had worked.

The snake was laying on the floor of the chamber below her. Its form was contorted and broken, speared by great spikes of glass that it had created itself. As she watched, it faded into glowing dust, and a screen popped up in front of her displaying her cut of the loot.

She sighed with relief. Then raced back down as fast as she dared on the dusty glass, anxiety twisting in her gut. She had to see if Chloe was okay.

If something happened to her....

Her thoughts turned to the worst as she neared the bottom of the chamber, no matter how she tried to stay positive. Her hands were shaking when she finally made it to the glass floor and, carefully avoiding the glass spikes, picked her way over to the arch leading into the antechamber.

Adrien was waiting there for her. He embraced her and said, “Don’t scare me like that again,” then let her go to see Chloe.

Tears were brimming in her eyes as she saw her friend, still lying prone on the floor with her head on Luka’s lap. She looked up when Marinette came into her view and sat up with a wince.

“Well,” she said. “I made it.”

Marinette burst into sobs at that and collapsed by her friend’s side, hugging her tightly. She heard Luka softly telling her that Chloe had been at 1 HP, but all the healers put everything they could into bringing her health back up.

It only made her cry harder.

And as she held her friend close, she thought to herself how she would do anything to keep this from happening again. How she couldn’t stand to see her friends get hurt anymore. How she had handled the boss on her own.

There was no Maman and Papa, no Tikki, no Order that could help her. She was alone in this fight, and that was how it had to be.

First | Previous | Next

[fluffalpenguin]

⬅[Prev] Day 4: Relationships

@ygoc-week Day 5: Swap

Short one for today featuring an AU where the Vedelles swap dimensions!

It has two variants based on whether Fuschia (pink blorbo) also swaps dimension or not; he's the type of guy that's influenced easily by his surroundings, so in Xyz he's just a typical Resistance member.

Because Fuschia is in Slifer Red and Viol is in the Obelisk Force's Special Ops (his outfit is based on GX's Society of Light) you'd think they'd never interact.

However, Fuschia is friends with Abel and Arte, and his interest is piqued even further when he witnesses Fuschia's dueling skills that clearly do not align with Slifer Red's standards.

He stares holes into Fuschia and his pink hair across the school cafeteria often. Fuschia is equal parts perplexed and intimidated...

➞[Next] Day 7: Free Day

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Do Mr Cyber End himself Zane for the ship prompt

*GRABS CHAIR* *PULLS IT OVER AND FLIPS IT AROUND* *SITS IN IT BACKWARDS LIKE A COOL SUBSTITUTE TEACHER* ALRIGHT LETS DO THIS

ok first of all, i Bigly headcanon zane truesdale my beloved as some degree of aromantic because it's my party and i'll project onto my favs if i want to lmao, anyway thats very an ingredient in the way i analyze and interpret his relationships. keeping that in mind,

My NOTP for them: so weird to me they make NOTP first??? anyway, uh, if you ship him with his brother i think i should get to snap you in half like a number two pencil. get the hell outta here.

My BROTP for them: endless sobbing crying etc. over his relationship with syrus i have talked about them a thousand years and i will talk a thousand more i love them SO much!!!!!!! it has hands down become probably my favorite yugioh relationship just... in general. god. theyre special to me. i ALSO do love his relationship with jaden and alexis too--zane genuinely likes and cares about these kids!!!! he has three little siblings actually!!!!!!!

My OTP for them: i literally halfway through gx was like "no ships have grabbed me by the throat with this show lol" and then like a week after i finished it idolshipping rose out of the ocean and broke my ass in two. tag force 3 slammed me into the ground. love love LOVE him and atticus together, wwaahhhh. my beloved zatticus..... very often thinking about my personal brainworld take on this ship with aro zane...something about zane loving his best friend so goddamn much and atticus's turboromantic ass meeting him halfway and loving him romantically enough for the both of them. i could talk on this for ages lol......theyre just good. life partners.

My second choice pairing for them: ok i do think he and aster's dynamic is very, very funny, i like their post-canon potential a lot, though i particularly especially just enjoy them as annoying besties and/or fwb who argue 24/7. this is essentially their relationship in my college AU and it's one of my favs.

My fluffy pairing for them: idol.............love thinkin about them pre-atticus' disappearance, just goofy 15-16 year olds awkwardly figuring things out. something very sweet to me about atticus being the only person whose goofy antics can make zane crack a smile.

My angsty pairing for them: IDOL AS WELL............................ the things ep 89 did to me. stares out to the sea..... ive been listening to let me drown by orville peck a LOT lately and it is giving me ultra absolute zatticus agony, my GOD.

My favorite poly ship for them: do enjoy the obelisk elites as a trio ship..... tfw duel academy's 3 best duelists are all mentally fucked up nonbinary guys like, fuck it, let em cuddle together!!.

My weirdest pairing for them: this isnt a romantic ship but none of yall know the level of college AU madness im on with my roommate wherein zane and a college aged claus from the hit nintendo video game Mother 3 have an extensive tom and jerry-esque....rivalry?? friendship????? static noises??? zane wants to hit him with his car. we are truly going places never before reached with these characters

>send me ygo characters for this meme

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 44- Monstrous Memories

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

The hermits discover the secret Magistrate Dolios has hidden within the forest.

____________________________________

Zed reminded them it was probably best they don’t stay in the Forest of Memories overnight. Mumbo’s power surge spooked the shleep, and if they fall asleep in the forest, they’ll be fraught with nightmares, which will only give the Forest an in to their fears once more. As much as he hates having to force Mumbo, fresh from a surge, into walking again, they don’t really have a choice. Guess Zed just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. 

Thankfully, TFC and Xisuma agree with him. The hermits defend themselves with potions and amulets, though their greatest defense is just knowing they have one another. Mumbo stays close to Iskall and Grian, who both do their best to distract his worries about hurting Grian with their favorite stories. Like the time Grian nearly dropped Mumbo into the ocean from the sky, or Iskall almost blew away the cloud that Grian’s home perches upon. 

Ren casts his spell again, following the veins of red back to the main leyline. It’s massive, so much magic and power that it scares Ren. Who, or what, needs all this magic? All this energy, stolen from all over Lairyon. What could Dolios need all this for?

BDubs gets a shiver, as if someone just dropped ice down his back. He turns to see if Stress is pulling a prank on him again, opening his mouth to make some smarmy quip, when he sees the leaves above him. 

They look like they’re burning, blackened to the stem, grey embers frozen at the edges of the leaf. It looks so much like the husk magic, and yet at the same time completely different. BDubs reaches up, fingers shaking as he plucks the leaf off the tree. “I think we’re going in the right direction.” 

He shows the once green leaf to the others. It’s as if the ground was saturated with dark magic, poisoning the trees rather than draining them. It’s impossible to distinguish the leyline from the rest of the earth around them. They've made it to the center of the Forest. They’ve made it to what Dolios is hiding. 

The canopy is thick, impossible to see even the crown of the trees. Grian wonders if he flew above the Forest of Memories, would he be able to see this black spot from the sky? Or has Dolios even thought of that? 

“Whatever Dolios is hiding, it’s here somewhere.” Xisuma states, pulling out a torch and lighting it using Tango’s hair. Tango objects at first, but when a distant rustle causes him to leap into Impulse’s arms, he allows the torches to be lit. 

“But where? We don’t even know what we’re looking for.” Doc snarls. He wanders deeper into the darkness, holding his torch high before turning and looking at the other hermits. Both his mechanic and mortal eye narrow at the guild. “It could be as small as a pebble, or so mundane we’d never pick it out!” 

Etho notices a shift in the darkness behind Doc, the swirling mist of grey and black cresting over an angled oval, creased down the equator. And he realizes he’s not looking at mist, he’s looking at slime. “Uh,” He whispers, “Doc, maybe tone it down?” 

But Doc wasn’t listening. “We’ve gone on some wild goose chase, when we need to cut the head off the beast while we can!” 

“Maybe don’t talk about killing beasts, Doc.” Hypno squeaks, realizing what Etho is seeing as well, He sees a grey tentacle, wrapping through the ashen ground like a sticky tree root, more creases all over the body. 

“Why? It’s clear there’s nothing to find here! We’ve searched through the most dangerous place in all of Lairyon, for jack shit!” Doc raises his torch to prove what he means, eyes wild as he stares down the hermits. With the increased light, the entire guild can see the monster behind Doc. Mumbo nearly faints, Stress feels sick, and all the hermits can feel the pressure of dark magic weighing on their chest. It’s like Gildara, but worse. 

“Doc….” Scar whispers, shaking as he creeps closer to the hybrid, trying to pull Doc away from the slumbering monster. They both trip over a slimy black tentacle, head over heels and the torch left behind. “Doc we found it!” 

Slumbering in the trees, a monster beyond anything the hermit’s have ever seen looms. It’s larger than a dragon, made of ebbing and flowing grey and black slime- which takes a moment for the hermits to realize is pure dark energy, pouring over the creature like an overcoat. Citizens’ lifeforce, their magic drained to create this multi eyed, multi-mouthed eldritch horror. Tentacles, dug into the ground, sap the energy fed by the leylines. 

This monstrosity, this manifestation of darkness, is still growing. Slowly, but surely, as it feeds off the leylines. This is but an infant, not yet born. And already it has done so much damage. 

“Oh my word.” Zedaph wipes away a few tears with the heel of his hand . “This thing has no soul. It’s just...pure hatred, pure catastrophe. Why would Dolios bring such a dangerous thing to life?” 

“What does it matter?” Beef shrugs, rolling his neck and preparing to cast his magic. “With this gone, Dolios will crumble.” 

“Hold on.” xB grabs Beef by the horns, holding him back. “We have no clue what this thing will do if it wakes up. What could it do if we attack it right now.” 

“xB is right.” TFC hums. “We would be foolish to fight a monster we know nothing of. Just like going in blind to Gildara, we won’t win that battle without knowledge.”

“So what do we do?” False makes the war hammer she summoned disappear, a bit disappointed. 

Xisuma looks at the ashen ground, following it back to the edge of the monster’s meadow. He sees the four leylines, in four cardinal directions. “This thing is being fed by the leylines. The leylines are set by the obelisks, which are powered by crystals. If we starve the beast before it can awaken, we can take away whatever Dolios plans to do with this.” 

“So...what? We just leave this thing here? Go back to breaking crystals?” Iskall shrugs.

“We came here for more information, and that’s what we’ve gotten. Information is more valuable than action sometimes.” Cub of all people would know. He looks at the others, then continues to speak. “We have all the pieces put together, we can finally see the whole picture of Dolios and his insane plan. With all this, we can fight back better. We know what to do. We starve the beast, and turn all of Lairyon against Dolios.” 

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

“Hmm.” A low silky voice dances in the dark office, gold trimmed sleeve blinding the wizard to his crystal ball. Curly brown hair rests on the other hand, elbow perched on a plush arm of his office chair. A chair fit for a king- no, a god. Soon enough. 

The single eye of the unborn beast closes. Eurynomos is far from ready, just a fetus at this point, but every day it grows stronger. The more stolen magic Dolios feeds the creature, the stronger it will be. The stronger they will be. Dolios is a patient man, he can bear to wait a little bit longer. 

What he can’t bear is the infuriating interference of these hermits. Dolios knew that Mumbo was powerful- how he drools for all that magic stored in one vessel. And the angel, he’s yet to add such divine magic to his ever growing collection. The rest? Fodder. Or so he thought. They’ve been persistent, and they’ve gained too much knowledge. Just when Dolios thinks he’s caught up in making new corrupted crystals, those damn hermits destroy another. Just when Dolios has destroyed a guild or village no one will miss, they swoop in and stop him. He should’ve killed them in the dungeons that day, so long ago. But now, they’re a problem. 

“Pen an order.” Dolios’s words cause an enchanted quill to stand at attention, tip poised over a blank piece of paper. Dolios doesn’t turn around, his eyes trained to the south. To the Forest of Memories. “The Council hereby declares the Order of Hermits enemies of the state, threats to Lairyon’s future, and a danger to the public. All known whereabouts are to be reported to the Arcane guard, and the Hermits face capital punishment for their crimes.”

[stillness-in-green]

Spinaraki Week Level 2, Day Four: Control | Edge

A return to a scenario I brainstormed up last time with/for @codenamesazanka: the “Shigaraki and Spinner Karma Houdini their way out the end of the series and run off to be vigilantes in BNHA!Macau” AU.  That and, “Shigaraki’s hanging onto Mr. Compress’s quirk while he lays low,” is all the context you really need for this, but if you want more, it’s here.

Of course, back in August, there was still a lot we didn’t know yet about Shigaraki and vestiges...

(Content Notes: sleep paralysis, some body horror, AFO being Too Close.)

———–      ———–      ———–      ———–

“So how are things going with you?” Compress asks him, the wind snapping so loud in his coat that he has to raise his voice to be heard over it.  Somehow his hat doesn’t blow off, though, despite the fact that they’re having this conversation on top of New Oumun’s high-speed monorail.  “Putting me to good use, I trust?”

Shigaraki sits sprawled across the roof of the train car, watching the buildings blur past, old alternating with new.  It’s too bright out, but that’s how Compress’s dreams usually are—all vivid colors and frivolous moving parts to distract from what’s going on below the surface.

He shrugs in answer.  “Used you to help us jump a high roller in his own suite last week.  Threw all his chips out the window when we were done.  We figured it’s what you would have wanted.”

Compress laughs, twirling his cane.  “I hope you saved enough for a lobster dinner.  I would have considered that an important component of my evening.”

“Would’ve had to pay for dry cleaning first,” Shigaraki replies, the smile tugging at his face still feeling strange after all this time.

“Ah, yes, the spectacle of you in a dress suit.  You—”  

Shigaraki looks up when the vestige breaks off with a hum of dissatisfaction.  “What?”

Compress tells him, “Hold on.”

Movement in the corner of his eye, something broad-chested but quick, and then the cane’s hitting him dead in the chest.  Pushed over the side, he plummets, catching just a glimpse of the form as it jumps after him.  Overhead, the train flickers by, light rebounding off the windows, the sound of it a high, sibilant humming.

There’s a flash of black; the wind dies.  

In the dark, the whistling movement of the monorail transitions to the long, even sweeping of a blade over a whetstone.  There’s a familiar heavy sensation in his chest.  Shigaraki’s eyes flick open.

Sensei.  Ass planted on Shigaraki’s chest like it’s just the nearest patch of clean ground available to sit on.  The weight burns, clips his breath short.  Sensei looks down at him, head wreathed in smoke that doesn’t quite cover the edges of his hair, the brightness in his eyes.  He smiles—a fitful, twitching little quirk of his lips like he’s trying not to laugh at something—and raises one finger to his mouth.

Get out, Shigaraki tries to tell him, but his lips won’t move.  Sensei just reaches down and brushes at his hair, combing disarrayed strands out of his eyes.  The boundaries of the room throb in time with his depressed heart rate.  The cool rasping of metal on stone continues unabated.

Shigaraki’s body pulls up into a sitting position.  His head swims with vertigo.  Sensei’s sitting behind him now, chest to his back, arms wrapped around his shoulders. The edge of the cologne he used to wear back before All Might collapsed his skull worms its way into Shigaraki’s nostrils, warm musk and a hint of sage.

“A little walkabout, Tomura,” he breathes.  A gnat in Tomura’s ear, one he can’t lift an arm to swat at.  “For old time’s sake.”

Get out.  Shigaraki’s eyes burn; his shallow breathing stays regular, level, even through the rising of frantic anger in his throat.  His heartbeat roars low in his ears, rattling through the walls of their tiny apartment like a tidal wave about to make landfall.

All For One stands him up, tugging his loose shirt into place from where it got twisted around in his sleep.  His heart pounds harder, but still so damn slow; dull clouds of red afterimage drift around the ceiling as his arms stretch up, fingers kneading at empty air.

Sensei fists his hand in Tomura’s shirt—his flesh twists in the grasp; he can’t breathe—and pulls him forward, and finally the whetstone sound scratches to a halt.

“Shigaraki?”  Surrounded in knives and polishing cloths, Spinner looks up at him from the low table in front of the couch, his favorite katana fallen still mid-stroke halfway across the stone.

“Be it ever so humble, hmm?” Sensei asks, his tone amused as his glance takes in the peeling paint, the uneven floor, the clutter.  Shigaraki’s eyes move away from Spinner and over to the window.  “Ah, Tomura; what to do with you?”

Let me go, old man!  You lose this every time!  He tries to force his eyes closed, to focus, but between All For One and the damn sleep paralysis, he’s apparently not authorized for use of his muscles right now.  As his feet walk him over to the window, the smells of the city spin free association images across his vision—the tired smile on the woman running the gai daan jai stall on the corner; Spinner working polish into his and Toga’s blades in their downtime during those weeks against Machia; Sensei sitting down beside him in his old bed and rubbing his shoulder until he could move again, winding a supportive arm around his back as he shook through the remnants of panic afterward.

In the distance, the casino towers climb over everything, obelisks stamped black against the sunset, periodically caught in the sweeping beam of their own spotlights.  Sensei leans in from behind him, fingers knitting together over the top of Shigaraki’s head, elbows on his shoulders, and sighs appreciatively. The vibrations of it buzz through him in a steady thrum.

“We should be up there, you know,” All For One says.  “And that’s just for a start.”

Spinner says something behind him, specific words muffled by the blood rushing in Shigaraki’s ears.

The feel of the sword resting on the side of his neck is a lot clearer.

All For One chuckles, and Sensei slides his arm down Shigaraki’s clavicle, fingers hooking in beneath skin and bone, flesh melting into flesh.  He pivots them around to meet Spinner’s stare, steady at the other end of an outstretched sword-arm the apartment only barely has room for.

“Still so dedicated, Iguchi-kun,” All For One drawls, the grin stretching wide to show teeth.  “But are you really satisfied with the one you chose to follow just scraping by in a place like this?”

Like the Doc’s lab was any better, Shigaraki thinks at him with all the vitriol he can muster. The katana isn’t quite turned all the way in, the flat of the metal cold and grounding, its freshly honed edge just a reminder of a promise.  

“We have our own kitchen and enough space to curtain off the bedroom.  That’s luxurious compared to how some people here live,” Spinner answers, curt anger in his eyes.

“But fear, too,” Sensei says, easy bordering on idle even as All For One is responding using Shigaraki’s tongue, Shigaraki’s mouth.  Sensei’s broad fingertips trail one at a time over Shigaraki’s ribcage, and if Shigaraki couldn’t breathe before, he barely wants to now, trying to keep his lungs from so much as brushing up against those probing hands even as pain starts to clang between his temples.  “He’s never been able to hide how afraid of us he is.”

And that’s not even worth arguing with.  Shigaraki stares into Spinner’s eyes—the anger, yeah, the fear, sure, but there’s awareness there, too, because they talked about this before, and Spinner knows what he’s doing, beyond just keeping himself out of grabbing distance.

Spinner’s mouth moves, and the motion of it doesn’t match what Shigaraki hears—“Shigaraki, you got this?”—but it’s what his eyes are saying anyway as the edge of the blade turns in.

It’s barely anything, hardly even enough to raise the white line of a papercut, much less draw any blood. But, hyper-aware of his locked-up body, Shigaraki latches onto it, the impossibly fine variegation of the blade pattern pressing into his skin with as much clarity as Spinner’s open hand, the scales a rough, insistent comfort.

He reaches up and closes his good hand around the bare blade.  Pain, sweet and hot and real, scores his palm and the insides of his fingers, and there’s a tsk of annoyance from Sensei as All For One falls away under the sudden sensation of slick wetness oozing past his knuckles.

Spinner catches him as his knees give out and the sword clatters to the floor.

“Shit,” Spinner breathes, and, “Let me see.”  He lowers them down to the ground, one arm clutching Shigaraki tight around the waist.  With his other hand, he gingerly turns Shigaraki’s palm towards the light.

“S’fine,” Shigaraki mumbles, rubbing at his face with his left hand.  He’s trembling, which is annoying, but typical of coming out of a sleep paralysis spell—all that strain he was putting on muscles that couldn’t respond right until just now.  The pain’s already fading, his regeneration kicking in just like it was designed to.

Spinner watches the wounds close up anyway, and conspicuously exhales once they do.

“He still talking?” he asks in an undertone, knitting their fingers together and dropping their hands back into their laps.  His thumb rubs absently over Shigaraki’s knuckle, claw scratching across his skin.

“Nah,” Shigaraki answers, tucking his head up into the curve of Spinner’s neck.  “He’s pretty quiet these days.”

“Not quiet enough,” comes the grumble, and Shigaraki huffs in agreement.  They sit that way for another minute, quiet as the noise of the city carries on around them.  Shigaraki breathes it in, lets it ground him—as he’s been finding for the last couple years, the more he’s got to ground him, the better.  Wanting to tear down everything doesn’t give you a very stable foundation to fight for control from—go figure.

Finally, as the first moth finds its way in to start fluttering around the lamp, he straightens up, tugging free of Spinner’s hands.  His partner gives him a plaintive look, at which Shigaraki grins.

“Scum of the city’s not gonna off themselves, Spinner.”

Spinner shakes his head, but he’s already fighting off a grin himself.  “Yeah, yeah.  Let me clean my sword off and I’ll be good to go.”

[blackfeatherdragon]

The Domino City Field Trip in the GX Teacher AU is so wild. You've got Bakura, acting as the substitute Red Dorm head for the trip (he has not been made the official head just yet), and he's tasked with trying to get the Red dorm students to the city's museum for a bit of a tie in to his history class. (He is Not looking forward to seeing his father at the museum again, considering his father tended to be kind of distant/more invested in his job than his son.)

Meanwhile, traveling with the Reds are Shou (just wants to hang out with Judai), Kenzan (also just wants to hang with Judai), Fubuki (really doesn't want to stay with Blue atm after most of Blue got converted into the Society of Light/he narrowly avoided conversion/the Obelisk Whites are all gunning to convert Fubuki since he's one of the strongest Duelists in the school), and Edo (starting to feel a little offput by Saiou's Society of Light cult but not willing to admit it yet), and a good chunk of the students are more interested in sightseeing the major Battle City locations/trying to pester Bakura about the tournament (which he doesn't remember most of).

Bakura definitely has to remind the kids that Battle City had some messed up stuff going on without getting into his own possession situation, especially once they stumble on the pier where Yugi and Jounouchi were forced to duel or die. (Bakura, probably: My friends almost died here, this isn't a sightseeing spot.)

And that's not even getting into what canonically happened on that trip with Mizuchi...

[vesperlionheart]

Vesper’s Quarantine ‘Finished’ Reading List

If you’re stuck indoors and feeling anxious sometimes the best thing is to drown your brain in distractions until you’re able to function again. Thus, I’ve put together a list of Sakura centric stories to entertain you. There’s a lot of shameless self promo here, fair warning, but it’s my blog and my blogpost so that’s where we’re gonna start.  Some of my favorite fic are ones still being updated but this list includes only stories marked as [complete]. 

[Finished personal fic]

Obelisk: Kingdom of Man By: VesperChan 'She could swear she smelt sulfur when she exhaled. Nothing good ever came from boys who smelled like sulfur.' An ancient Egyptian curse and a world of dreams opens Sakura up to a life devoid of safety. In the darkness her nightmares bow themselves to her. In the morning they feast on her heart. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Beasts By: VesperChan One Kingdom down, three to go. Carrying the scars on her heart, Sakura must brave the dreams again as this time, there are more sinister things then men waiting for her when she goes to sleep. The wolves have come to feast and her body will know their teeth. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Monsters By: VesperChan More than halfway through the curse, Sakura's nightmares hold nothing back as fangs and spells seek to drag her down and bury her with the dead. Monsters have come at least to feast on what is left of her bones and devour her wounded heart. Beyond the scars and bloodshed, her soul is beginning to fade under the dim lights of another enchanted speakeasy and ruby eyes. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Gods By: VesperChan Entering the final kingdom, Sakura stands atop a castle of sand to face down the gods who first orchestrated the curse and began the bloody tradition of collecting human souls in a little black obelisk. Gladiators, Egyptian gods, and blood thirsty pharaohs paint a vivid picture on the inside of her mind as she sleeps, dreams, and struggles once again. AU SakuraMany Total word count for Obelisk series: 565,292 (just over half a million words)

RED KING By: VesperChan In the wild country where it never snows but always freezes, the Red King marches his armies against the White Tsar. That is why Sakura is swept away from the lonely streets and the empty barracks into a car with a bastard prince and a promise of redemption, but if only she can face the demons that chased her in the first place and be what the king needs in his war. SakuraCentric 

Touken Revolution by Vesperchan (rated E)  Sakura, a sword smith, is nearly killed for what she really is: a sage, one who can animate weapons into warriors and give bodies to the souls she hears inside swords. Now a refugee in the land of Kiri she's building an army because it's her only hope for survival and maybe even happiness. SakuraKiri Sakura centric

Things We Lost in the Fire By: VesperChan Years later, living alone in the woods with half a dozen dogs, questionable reading material, and crippling non-attachment issues, Sakura realizes she has turned into her teacher. Agebent Sakura Sensei ShiSaku

Jealous gods by Vesperchan When a coup takes the lives of the king and the rest of the royal family, Sakura, the sole surviver, escapes to the edge of the world with Kakashi to strike a bargain with an old god. Her worship in exchange for his power. She's warned he's a dark and jealous god, but that's not enough to sway her. ItaSaku Kakasaku darkItachi AU

Lindworm & the Tam Lin Love a Changling by Vesperchan Sakura travels as a curse breaker across the land, doing what she can to put some peace back into the world. She doesn't think much of it when she breaks the curse on a lesser dragon or a fae knight, but maybe she should have. MadaSaku, HashiSaku Poly

A Confluence of Stars by Vesperchan (my WitcherAU) With the war over between two princedoms, Sakura, a sniper, returns home to celebrate Confluence with her grandmother, the local Story Keeper. She had expected it to be nothing more than just another celebration when the star rivers overlapped and the poor people partied. But, along with the rest of the world, Sakura soon realizes that Confluence did more than just give people a reason to celebrate. A wicked new world filled with monsters and magic straight from Baba's tales spills into theirs, and Sakura is forced to turn to her rifle and her stories to make sense of it. Sakuracentric 

Sugarplum by Vesperchan "They will use you up, and love you all the while, until there is nothing left of the girl you used to be." Sakura had been a chosen one, once upon a time, but that was years ago, and all the magic has left her. Still, the world calls her back and she has a new role in supporting the next girl savior many years her junior. ItaSakuSaso

Stag by Vesperchan  He was a wizard with a tower and a set of rules he should never break. Sakura was a girl with just a bit of budding magic he decides he can't ignore. Some things were made to be broken. TobiSaku 

[Finished general fic list]

Hollow Point by Sariasprincy @sariasprincy​ Arms dealing is her trade, but young and in a man's world, it takes a criminal mastermind to play with the big dogs without getting bit. TobiSaku/ItaSaku. Crime!AU. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

Where it Happened also by @sariasprincy​e He was the new head of Cardio and her new boss, and though she thought him a little full of himself, it seemed there was more to the famed Uchiha Itachi than he led on. Not that she could claim her life was that uncomplicated as well. ItaSaku. Modern AU. Grey's Anatomy AU. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

Nightmare in Red by @sariasprincy​ Haruno Sakura used to think the eyes were the windows to the soul, but after witnessing the horrors of the Sharingan firsthand, she's convinced they are the doors. ItaSaku. Nonmass. Rated T

Blurred Lines  by @sariasprincy​He was an international criminal. She was a federal agent. And she wanted nothing more than to arrest him - or shoot him - if only he would stop providing her leads to more desirable criminals first. MadaSaku. Rated T.

The Man in Black  A man in black haunts her hospital. But what does he want and why is it that Sakura is the only one that can see him? ItaSaku. Modern Myth AU. Death AU

The Choices We Make by @sariasprincy​He was the Head of the Uchiha Clan and she the fearless discipline of the Hokage, but how the hell was she supposed to find the strength to tell him she was pregnant? MadaSaku. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

halcyon days by jaylene @thefreckledone​ Sakura sees dead people. Well, two dead people to be exact. Everything changes. Sakura-centric. Indra/Sakura/Ashura. 

hands like houses by @thefreckledone Sakura finds herself trapped in the past and discovers a new family along the way, however unwilling she may be. Time travel. Fix-it fic. Sakura-centric.

Borage by @thefreckledone Sakura is in search for answers. What she finds doesn't please her.

Forest Fire by Moor @kendochick-moor Mod AU. Sasu x Saku x Ita. A small spark can launch a forest fire.

Forest Fire II by Moor @kendochick-moor Sequel to "Forest Fire". University AU. Sasu X Saku X Ita. After Sasuke inexplicably broke up with her when he leaves for Oto, Sakura throws herself into her school and social life. Friends like Ino, and surprisingly Itachi, are there to help her along the way. Meanwhile another threat, in the form of unbalanced Uchiha Madara, stalks her, ever nearer.

Tipsy series by Moor @kendochick-moor Mod AU. MadaSaku. The 1-5 part  of the "5 Drunkfics" prompts.  (Rated 'M' for language & themes)

Akatsuki Sakura AU by moor  DeiSaku, ItaSaku. Konoha-verse AU. Akatsuki Sakura AU. Raised by Uchiha Madara as part of the Akatsuki, Sakura is sent to infiltrate Konoha's ranks. Things become complicated when she is promoted to a team with one of Konoha's most well-respected ANBU captains, Uchiha Itachi.

Soulmates by Moor - KakaSaku. Age-swap AU. Based on the "Soulmates" prompt from the October 2015 tumblr KakaSaku fest. Kakashi has a reputation as an enfant terrible; at least, until Sakura sensei takes him under her wing. Rated M for later chapters.

Fancy Footwork by silverfootsteps @silverfootstepswrites For Sakura, there's always been dreary days of schoolwork and unreliable people. Who knew a clumsy womanizer, an accidental pervert, a soft-hearted glutton, and an incredibly sexy virgin would light her life up like this? A friendship founded on dancing and the strange threat that tied them all together: "Fiji". AU

Equinox by silverfootsteps Sakura is half-siren, half-human, and 100% unprepared for what waits for her when she moves to a little seaside town. A place where calling someone a monster always receives the answer: "….well, duh". Monster AU. Multisaku.

Lullaby by Silverfootsteps Sakura is part-siren, part-human, and learning how to deal with a nest of lovable dorks. But nothing seems impossible in the sleepy little town of Old Pines, where magic hangs heavy in the air and a certain werewolf has learned to stop pissing everywhere. Sort of. Sequel to Equinox. Monster AU. Polysaku af.

Butterfly by silverfootsteps After winning her first and only Olympic gold, Haruno Sakura shocks the world by announcing her retirement from skating. When she returns to her little hometown of Konoha, she finds that not much has changed. The same old temples, the same old persimmon trees. Resigned to a quiet life, she settles in for what she hopes will be an uneventful retirement. Skating AU. Itasaku.

Five Kingdoms for the Dead by Evil Is A Relative Term After the Forest of Death, Sakura comes to realize that being weak is no longer an option. However, she finds that change is sometimes painful and that truth doesn't always come easy. Luckily, she'll have some help along the way.

Vertigo by Cynchick Sakura accepts the most critical and dangerous mission of her life, but the price of success may very well be her soul. When your entire world turns upside down, how do you keep from going under? DeiSaku.

An Indispensable Assistant by TayMor Professional. Intelligent. Intuitive. Haruno Sakura is the assistant every boss wants. She is smart, she is capable, and she is experienced. Operating with her own hard and fast rules, Sakura has one, very important personal rule. Never fall in love with your boss. However, being indispensable to Uchiha Itachi will put that rule under heavy duress. AU. 

The Third Chance by TayMor reviewsJust because he died didn't mean he got to stay dead. The Rikudo Sennin reincarnates Uchiha Madara as his 26 year old self and he begins his third life broken, humiliated and full of despair. But things change as Madara finds himself competing against Sasuke for the attention of Konoha's favorite medic... MadaSakuSasu Set after the final battle and during the blank period.

Rainy Days by Wynth It took her a while before Sakura was convinced that she was once again in her twelve year old body, but by that time it was too late. •Time-Travel / AU•

Consequences of Saving a Life by BelleDayNight reviewsAt the end of the war, Neji is revived by Sakura. She has saved his life, now she is responsible for it. The Hyuga clan leader covets the power that Naruto and Sakura could bring the clan with unions with Hinata and Neji. Can they survive the politics of the noble clan? Naruto trains with Sasuke and Hanabi for CPE while Sakura and Neji embark on a mission together for the Daimyo.

Take It or Leave It by kc-archive  Akatsuki & Sakura. After a moment of shock, Sakura realized that two fully grown, fully naked men were sitting squished uncomfortably together in her bathtub. (dubcon warning)

Till Death Due Us Apart  by SpeedDemon315​ Ever since he was gone, she never was the same. The world was warm and cheery while she was cold and dreary. She thought there was no hope left for her…or was there? Oneshot, character death [SasorixSakura]

Bringing Back What's Dead by SpeedDemon315  Sequel to Till Death Due Us Apart. She made a promise to herself to discover a way to revive him and have him finally see his son. What happens when your greatest enemy from the past is the only one who can grant your fondest wish? SakuraxSasori

Time Flies Like An Arrow by katlou303 Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's a four-year-old civilian having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

Uneasy coexistence by DeGlace One grinning shark–man. One pink–haired medic. Ankles. Teeth. Kisame x Sakura. Yes, you read that right.

The Art of War by leafygirl  Entry for the LJ Kakasaku AU contest. Sakura gets stuck following her teacher after a bet with her friends. But his mysterious life is nothing she ever expected.

Vespertine by Cynchick  Two enemies strike a bargain to save what they both hold dear. He will reveal a truth that shakes her beliefs, drawing her into a web of lies and betrayal. She will offer the redemption for which he never hoped and show him how to be human again. ItaSaku.

Caught and Set Loose by Celtic Oak AU. On a mission, Sakura and her companions find themselves in the custody of the wildest clan of the East Province. Forced to accept their hospitality and a redheaded escort, the medic must make the best of her situation, wherever it leads her. GaaSaku.