#they sound like swarms of big bugs when they fly

[alliswyattonthewesternfront]

watching Carnival Row S1 again because they just dropped S2, and I need a refresher... once again i am reminded that the fairy detective show is the only series i've ever seen in a period setting where the undressing for a sex scene is accurate. and it's sexy! how is this so hard for most directors to grasp.

i'm gonna make a gifset of it this time since it's been 2 years since i last posted about this, and none of y'all have yet. somehow. because i have to do everything I GUESS

[another-identityofmine]

••••••••••it’s impossible•••••••••

summary: Reader just can’t sleep, she never can. Elvis walks in just in time to help shush you to dream land.

author’s note: HEHHEEHEHHE! I’m back hunniessss. So I wanted to get this out before all the nasty deeds come flying out of my drafts. And let me tell, they’re gonna be nasty. Anyway, this is inspired by ahem, ✨me✨ I don’t have diagnosed insomnia but I’m rlly thinking I’ve got it. Lmao I’m too broke to care, ain’t nobody got that government money 😭🤧.

author won’t shut her chapped lips: so I really hope you guys enjoy…hehe the fluff for now. It’s gon be hell’s butter on bread real soon 😭.

•••••••••• ••••••• •••••• •••••••

You huff to yourself in frustration. Tears flood into your doll eyes, only making the dark room fuzzy and cloudy. You purse your lips and frown, having absolutely no idea why you’re not getting any sleep. You were so tired earlier today, throughout the longing day, and now wide awake in bed.

You cross your arms, giving up as your chest heaves up and down in irritation. Thoughts, stupid thoughts that have nothing to do with anything just continue to swarm and bug you.

Is this even normal? You scoff to yourself finally, rolling your eyes that makes the tears streak down your cheeks. You rub your sweaty palms to your eyes, adjusting to the darkness and squinting at the dark, navy blue clock across.

You read, 1:13 am, and you groan. Throwing yourself back into the fluffy, silky sheets, and jumbo pillows arch into your back. You truly don’t know what’s wrong with you. It’s impossible to sleep like this! It’s impossible.

The sound of the bedroom metal, cool shiny door handle being twisted and opened clears your thoughts for a second. You glance back and meet the warm glowing eyes of your darling love. A soft sigh leaves your pretty lips as you look away and trail your gaze into your lap.

“Darlin’? Why ya still up? You’re usually asleep by the time I come back from work.” A warm, honey-sweet southern accent stuffs the room, a pinch of concern is present.

You shrug and frown, furrowing your brows and sighing heavily. You slump, your pretty pastel pink nightie hugs you loosely as one of the straps falls off one shoulder. “I-i dunno…I’m tired but I can’t sleep.” You admit, tilting your pretty head up to look him back in the eyes.

There’s an understanding spark of blue in those pupils that meet your eyes, he clicks his tongue and shakes his head. Walking slowly over to the bed, the soft sounds of his footsteps thudding onto the red, thick carpet are the only things that busy the room.

“Oh…gotcha, hunny? Is something on your mind?” He whispers out softly, crawling slowly onto the big fluffy and soft mattress. You don’t bother to look up though, still so absorbed and worried in what’s going on with you. Hell, you don’t even know what’s on your mind.

Everything seems to fall and not matter when a large pair of big chubby arms embrace you into a warming hug. “Baby, c’mon, ‘s okay, ya don’t gotta answer. I jus’ wanna sleep wit’ my yittle baby, mhm?” He whispers ever so gently into your locks of hair, the sweet scent of your strawberry shampoo fill his nostrils. You only nod slowly in agreement, wrapping your arms around his big frame. He’s almost like a huge soft, brown teddy bear.

His arms engulfing you into a bear hug keep you to his prodding belly that bulges into your side, and that only adds to this intimate, loving moment. Slowly falling to your sides, he pulls you closer and lets one hand slip away to swiftly grab the thick, velvety red blanket. Pulling it up your chin, only ending it up to his shoulder but he’s already warm enough in love.

You feel your eyelids already starting to droop, suffocated in his delicious spicy, strong scenting cologne, with the feels of his tickling chest hair that peeks out from his shirt. You nuzzle your face into his chest, sighing softly in delight and satisfaction.

“It’s impossible, ta tell the sun to leave the sky it’s just impossible.”

You hear the soft tone of his words, so light and an airy fluff. The scent of cherry coke and the faint scent of smokes from cigars lingers in his hot breath and warms above you, and you can feel his chest rise slightly as he takes in another breath to continue.

“It's impossible to ask a baby not to cry It's just impossible.”

He laughs out softly into your curly, puffy locks, gently shoving his face into the crook of your neck and inhaling the sweet, pretty scent of that new cherry strawberry perfume. “Can I hold you closer to me. And not feel you going through me? But the second that I never think of you Oh, how impossible”

He whispers out warmly against your skin, and your eyes close for bedtime. Your long lashes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings, as his voice continues to soothe you.

“Can the ocean keep from rushing to the shore? It's just impossible”

He shakes his head to himself, and you feel a soft peck of his plump, hot lips press to your collarbone. His nose pokes against the silver necklace he had customized just for you, shimmers with its glittering font that reads: Your love. “If I had you, could I ever ask for more? It's just impossible”

He smiles and nods slowly, his heart fluttering at the memory of you and him buying it from the shop. When he draws in a long, wandering breath, he adjusts his arms on your body tighter and full of passion. “And tomorrow should you ask me for the world Somehow I'd get it, I would sell my very soul And not regret it, for to live without your love Is just impossible”

He finally ends, ending with a hushed warm whisper. Finally pulling his face out of the warmth of your neck, he cups your doll jawline and scans so lightly of your calmed facial expression. You look so peaceful and restful as your eyes shut and you’re finally asleep. Leaning down to press a loving kiss to your smooth cheek, then holding, cradling you to his shoulder with a happy sigh. Shaking his head to himself and resting his own chin onto the peak of your itty bitty little pretty head,

“It’s impossible.”

•••••••••

I hope you enjoyed! It’s been a while so…my apologies if it’s not as detailed as before. Anyways, love you lovesss

tagging my hunny dolls: @bigdaddyelvislover @jhoneybees

[feline-evil]

I PROMISED I'D DO IT, IT'S TIME FOR REALS

HOTEL POD CHARACTER ROLLERCOASTER ASSIGNS!! BUCKLE UP!

Auditor- The Swarm.

Listen this ride is post apocalyptic alien bugs, if that doesn’t give you the reason i’ve picked it for good ol’ Aud i don’t know what will. I think she’d enjoy the aesthetic of the giant metal big-aliens that have destroyed the entire surrounding area by flying through it and slicing it up; I think she’d fly alongside the coaster train going YEAAAAH, WHOOOOO!!!

The Hotel Herself- Nemesis.

LOOK AT NEMESIS. LOOK AT HER. Metal bent around pulsing flesh and warped bone, she shoots laser beams out of her eyes in her original promotional advert, the water runs pink with blood around her. This is the Hotel Herself as a ride. Now, i think you could argue that The Hotel Herself could more accurately be a space themed ride, but Space Mountain just isn’t frightening enough to capture the cosmic horror of all that she is; so she gets my favorite of all time Nemesis assigned to her. Nemesis even had a themed hotel room at one point, it looked like rust and flesh! Perfect honeymoon suite if you ask me.

Lobby Boy- Saw The Ride.

Our little freak is out here building his grody little rooms so I think it’s only fair he gets the ride themed to another little freak who builds rooms of deadly traps! (He is drinking out the corpse fountain on the ride's first inversion out the station…. oh dear, can he get diseases from that? Maybe..)

The Owner- Gatekeeper.

While we’ve mainly stuck to rather dark and horror themed rides thus far i don’t think we solely need to be married to only picking scary rides when there’s only so many rollercoasters with a spooky feel; so i’ve gone gatekeeper here for The Owner, as i feel this soaring flying coaster that zooms not only over but THROUGH the main gate of it’s home park has the authoritative feeling that reminds me of him! He’s watching you enter, he’s in charge here this is his domain (in his eyes at least). Plus its logo has a bird on it, yayyy!!

(Sidenote: a runner up for The Owner was Oblivion!) The Concierge- The Wickerman.

Why The Wickerman, I hear you ask, fire and wood doesn’t really feel like the Concierge’s vibe! But while it may not on the surface feel thematic let me tell you this ride is gorgeous, it is slick, it is a smooth, powerful ride and it is IMPOSING in the most breathtaking way; it feels claaaaaaassy and that’s the Concierge to me! Powerful, dangerous, but slick and classy and cool; walking through the queue line on a rainy day I could smell the rich wood, and I thought to myself damn. This is a coaster that would pair nicely with a glass of cognac. And the Concierge, to me, is a man that pairs well with a glass of cognac too. Also the first time i rode The Wickerman i screamed the entire layout including out of the station, jesus christ that thing whips round the course when it’s warmed up, it’s like it’s ANGRY at you.

The Manager- Manta.

We weren’t going to be able to go the entire list without assigning at least ONE character one of my favorite types of rollercoaster, the B&M flying coaster! Now, while i am more familiar with Galactica, i don’t think ‘the world's most relaxing coaster’ really fits as a theme for the manager; but sea life? Well, she’s a deep sea kinda gal i think! Manta is a shoal (flock? swarm??) of manta rays that swoop and soar, and while yes aesthetically and in description this sounds quite relaxing, these manta rays are blasting high speed through loops you’ll take ON YOUR BACK which is an incredibly unique and fairly intense feeling at times! I think The Manager likes to keep up her appearances, keep up looking and feeling calm, cool and in control, so i think a flying coaster fits her well; elegant but not without any bite! This ride also has a water fountain fly-by effect, get sprayed!!

The Bellhop- Th13teen.

The Bellhop to me has such a mischievous streak, a little smirk that lets you know you can’t quite trust what she might do next; and without giving TOO much away about Th13teen (as i feel this is a ride WORTH not spoiling 'till you see the pov/ride it) it’s a ride that is much the same! Meticulously themed as some abandoned old structure in the accursed woods, overgrown and dark and impossible to see until you are on it, this ride will lure you into a false sense of security and then pull off some TRICKS you just won’t see coming!! When I rode this for the first time I genuinely yelled ‘Oh don’t you dare you are KIDDING me!!’ when it pulled one such trick lol.

There we go, this concludes my list; i do not claim to be the biggest expert nor the best at this, i really love coasters but my knowledge isn’t a complete encyclopedia of every single ride, my main expertise is the park i've been to (Alton Towers) as i don't get to go to too many in person and don't live in the states where some of the more well known rides are- so of course if you have others you think are better suited feel free to make your own assigns!! This was just for funsies, thank you for coming along with me to talk about some coasters! :]

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 34: Great Thunderbug

It took a while, but we’ve reached the last Small Monster of the Second Generation! After this, we’ll be hitting the big time, but I doubt this monster will be nothing more than a stepping stone. Let’s take a look at the Great Thunderbug!

(How it appears in the Second Generation)

Appearance: In the games, Great Thunderbugs just look like floating orbs of light, but in the render above, we can see that each ball of light is a cluster of bugs. This makes it questionable how Hunters can kill these things, considering they’re using weapons like swords and arrows on a bunch of really tiny targets, but realism in Monster Hunter is mostly dead anyway so who cares. These guys don’t really have much of a design; they’re just tiny specks inside balls of light. Still, that’s not something you see anywhere else in Monster Hunter, so at least I can say Great Thunderbugs are unique.

Behavior/Lore: Despite being living things, Thunderbugs are only ever seen as items used for crafting things like Shock Traps. Well, with one exception: they swarm around Great Thunderbugs, which have grown comparatively enormous thanks to...okay, this is gross, but apparently these things got so big and strong because they spent most of their life inside Elder Dragons. No idea how they leave their host--which honestly isn’t a bad thing--but when they do, they’ll typically stick around that Elder’s stomping grounds. Their bright glow attracts mundane Thunderbugs to them, eventually resulting in swarms like the kind in the render. Each swarm has only one Great Thunderbug, which acts as the leader, and the normal Thunderbugs will go their separate ways when it dies. Though the swarm is rather docile, if the leader feels threatened it will incite its minions to aid it in building up a powerful electric charge for defense,

Much like Remobra, Great Thunderbugs are interesting due to their connection to Elder Dragons, though the link doesn’t really last for the latter’s whole life. Sure, Elders are what make Great Thunderbugs, but once the zapper bugs leave their host, they don’t have much else to do with the living disasters. Still, I’d imagine that in-universe, coming across these suckers could make one uneasy, as there’s no telling if the Great Thunderbug’s former host is still in the area. It’s not as foreboding as the presence of a Remobra, but it’s something.

Abilities: While Great Thunderbugs normally glow blue, their red turns red when they’re about to attack. Said attack consists of the entire swarm generating electricity all at once, which is amplified by the leader, then flying into the object of their ire. The jolt they deliver is strong enough to paralyze Hunters, which can make Great Thunderbugs a nuisance when you’re fighting a Large Monster near them. They don’t do anything else, but that’s not exactly surprising.

Equipment: Unfortunately, Great Thunderbugs have no equipment directly based off of them, but there are weapons that specifically require their unique materials, so I’ll show those off. First are some Dual Blades which are, quite literally, Twin Chainsaws:

Y’know, at first I felt that these were out of place with Monster Hunter’s level of technological development, but now that I think about it, we don’t know for sure that the MH world doesn’t use chainsaws for tree felling. Then again, the Twin Chainsaws’ description says they were “once used to cut metal in a workshop” and that they were “crafted with advanced techniques,” so I guess my argument was dead on arrival. Anyways, these are clearly meant to be silly, and they get even sillier when you learn that they make actual chainsaw noises when they’re swung. Cleaning blood and guts out of the chains must be a nightmare, though; one of many reasons why you shouldn’t use chainsaws as weapons in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

The other weapon I want to show off is a Lance called the Spark Plug, and don’t worry--it’s not nearly as lame as it sounds:

According to its description, it’s “[a] new blade-based Lance with a Great Thunderbug's spirit,” which explains why it looks more like a sword. Speaking of its design, I really like the whole “open sword” thing it’s got going on, and the “core” near the hilt is presumably the source of its power, so it’s fashionable and functional! The shield’s pretty darn basic and honestly doesn’t feel like it matches the sword, but it doesn’t really take anything away from the weapon as a whole.

I know that these aren’t meant to be related to Great Thunderbugs, but I wanted to show them regardless because I think they’re neat--and in the case of one of them, silly.

Final Thoughts: I admittedly don’t have strong feelings about Great Thunderbugs; their two most notable qualities are that they have interesting lore and that they can be really annoying if you don’t take them out right away. I respect them for being different, but that’s all they really are.

We’re done with the appetizers, so I hope you’re ready for the main course next review!

[leopardmask-ao3]

NHH 2022 Day 21: Bee Balloon Bumbles Blissfully By, Bolstering Boons Beyond Belief

Link to the challenge Today’s Word is: Balloon Characters: Scar, Cub Season: HC7 Other tags/warnings: Hermitcraft Big Bee Swarm and the Infinibee Word Count: 781

Summary: The Infinibee is coming! Praise bee! But... where did the Infinibee come from?

Read it on ao3 or

Sparkles drifted from Scar’s sleeves as he slipped quickly out of the main Nether portal into the shopping district. He looked at his hands and dusted them off, but they still shone with magic. Shrugging, he stuck his hands in his pockets and headed for Doc’s food shop. He and Stress had been working on magic all morning to really make their part of the jungle stand out, and now he was ravenous!

On the way there, he passed Doc's old Mending Machine. It didn't get much use anymore, with Keralis' bookstore taking over most of the business... 

One of the "beeloons", the bees kept on leads for advertising, drifted toward Scar. "Aww, poor little guy," Scar cooed. He ruffled his fingers through the bee's fuzz. "I wonder if I should free you... I don't think Doc would be happy about that. I'll at least get you some flowers, okay? Once I get some food for myself first!"

Scar straightened up and continued on to the food shop nearby, completely ignorant of the small flecks of glitter still clinging to the bee.

-

Cub looked up from checking his Origin shop. What was that yellow flash-?

Oh geez that bee had startled him. It looked like it was the size of a ravager! It was just...

Was it a trick of perspective, though? Cub sidled around to look at the bee from a different angle.

It took off from where it had been sitting next to Cub's flowers, with a very loud and very low buzz. That... yep, that was a very big bee.

Cub glanced over at the mysterious tower nearby, the abbreviation that no one had figured out the meaning of yet. The BB in the middle... Big Bee? Hmm.

-

"So, yeah," Cub told Scar as the two of them landed on the Nether side of the shopping district portal. "It's this whole thing, I've got a speech prepared and everything-"

The portal spat them into the Overworld, where they found the exit unexpectedly blocked by a huge, curved wall of yellow and black. The thumping sound of very large wings flapping buffeted the ground.

"OH geez-" Scar yelped, stumbling backward and almost falling back through the portal. "Cub! What is that!?"

"That... would be the Infinibee," Cub mused, watching it fly away. "And it has indeed gotten even bigger."

-

"...We’ve brought this bunch of banners today in the belief we may yet bind and broaden the bridge between bees and builders. Praise bee."

"Praise bee," Cub's audience repeated.

As Cub stepped down from the raised lectern, Scar ran up to him. "Cub! Cub Cub Cub."

"Yeah?" Cub glanced around. The other hermits had dispersed; this conversation was as good as private.

"I-I kinda tuned out during your speech," Scar explained, "and I started thinking about the bee, right? When it flew right over us? And, Cub, I know where it came from."

"Wait, really?" Cub looked up at where the big bee, now larger than some of the shops around it, had alighted on the HCBBS tower. It flicked its wings, ignored the chorus plant Cub had grown for it, and instead tried unsuccessfully once again to get nectar from the rose bushes around Cub's shop without crushing them.

"I think..." Scar sighed. "I think I did that, Cub. I went shopping after I'd just used enlargening magic on some things around the village, and the bees at Doc's place were so cute, and the next thing I know there's a giant bee flying around! It's all my fault."

"Huh. Yeah, that tracks. But that means there's a limit on its size, right? Probably?"

"Cub. We have to get the giant hungry bee out of the shopping district!" Scar started pacing. "Maybe we could ask Stress if we could lure it to her base somehow? It would have all kinds of giant bug friends there, and she has the big flowers, too..."

Cub shook his head, still watching the giant bee bumble its way across the island. "Bees don't like water. I don't think there's a way to get it across the ocean."

"Well, we can't just leave it here!!"

"Why not?" Cub gestured at the bee as it bonked against the glass wall of the Barge and changed direction. "I don't think it can hurt much, except the local flower population. It might even like your greenhouse, Scar."

"Yeah... that was kind of what I'm afraid of."

"It's fine, Scar!" Cub encouraged. "The Infinibee won't hurt anyone after all, and it might even draw people in just to see it! This is just the way it is now, I think. The bee is part of the shopping experience!"

[island-last-name]

Because of having too many thoughts I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to go out for a quick smoke. When I went on the porch, I got quite upset I ran out of cigarettes. I went back home and stole one of my moms. Despite knowing her cigarettes are too thick for me, she doesn't want me to touch them and she is counting all of them, I have opened a new pack of hers, took one and put it back into the drawer.

I went outside and the first thing I saw was the pieces of the moon shining through the branches and leaves of the tall birches. I sat on the chair, lit my moms cigarette and I looked at the sisters of the moon, our porch lams. Sisters because they do look as smaller moons, same bright and round. I even did an image of them on my Polaroid years ago, and on it it looked like the Moon was wearing thongs. I named that image "Naughty Moon".

What I noticed when staring at the lamps is a big spider web above one of them. This is fun how smart they are, to build a web above the lamp, where all other bugs gather. And I kept staring at the web, looking at all those little bugs flying around the lamp hoping I would see them catch into a web and see a spider run to their body and eat them as I saw it to happen on the tv. Inject them with their acid juice and wrap into a cocoon.

I started to think: what would happen if spiders had an intelect of a human being? What would be their biggest invention? How different cultures of different species of spiders would be? Would the country the spiders are in depend on their culture? Would they start wars and destroy the webs of each other because of being different species? Would bigger and stronger spiders exploit the smaller ones for their food and leaving for the small and weak spider only a few cocoons with small mosquitos to eat, while eating the jusiest moth right in front of them?

Sadly, the cigarette was smoked before I saw any of the bugs to catch into the web, so I went back home walking tiptoes and hoping to not bother anyone with the squeaky door sounds. I went back to my bed, that already got cold after opening the window wide open. What I do not like about using a phone at night, it works same as a light outside, it attracts the bugs. This week several mosquitoes flew over my head and tried to bite me into my face if I covered my ears with a blanket cover to not hear their buzz. Yesterday when I was about to cover my head to not hear their buzzing, I accidentally hit a flying mosquito with a hand changing its trajectory and it ending to get lost in my hair, getting closer to my ears.

No part of my body is left with no mosquito bites this summer. They learnt to fly under the blanket and bit my legs, my hands, my fingers. Never before I had a mosquito to bite right into the tip of my fingers before. At moments when the bites are itching in the worst place possible, I wish mosquitos all died, but that would mean that birds go hungry. And the fish too. Just this year I found out that fish at winters when everything is covered in a thick layer of ice are feeding on the mosquito larvae and other bugs, that lay their eggs in water. When a species dies, the food chain gets broken. I've seen it happen in Belarus on the news, the city of Gomel got swarmed by mosquitoes, people walked in beekeeper costumes. The floors of houses, where people forgot their windows open, are covered in thick layer of dead mosquito bodies.

And whenever i remember that if I kill all mosquitos, the food chain will break and i may get swarmed with another type of bug, maybe worse than mosquito. So I just continue to hide and hope when summer ends I won't see them again.

[the-firebird69]

South Carolina residents calling police over noisy cicadas

I don't recommend eating this particular bug they carry a disease and they called the kissing disease and this is the same bug that you see the starship troopers and it is a cicada bug it's it most like three times and has three different forms and they say that it's a mutant and yeah molting is a form of mutation but it is more maturation it's similar to what I'm going through but I'm not a cicada bug at all and now these things are deadly assassins these are very dangerous bugs they're sick they carry disease the infect populations of varmints and other and make other people sick you lose consciousness while driving fall over in the middle of the crowd and amendments whatever covid-19 is supposed to be and could have been what it was the bug is very dangerous and when it makes this noise it's I like a hypersonic sound and I'm pretty sure what it's a cicada bug the assassin version it can still make the noise and I'm wondering I know their armies are going there to these stashes and caches but I'm not really sure why they haven't triggered these bugs or if they have because they would be there and the frequency that this is at causes people to sometimes lose consciousness when they're only three quarters of an inch long and that's the bug I can imagine when they're 20 foot long that that frequency would be amplified so in other words he'd probably be the same frequency but it would be amplified and would kill people almost instantly your ears would bleed it is extremely painful at times for people with acute hearing and other people complain about it too that Tommy Allen says it's very painful it's an ear splitting and it gives you a headache so other people here like I do it's it's massively painful at times real pain from these bugs and if they gang up on you you're not going to live if a swarm of them comes over you you're a dead person they like locust and when they're in their assassin form they fly too and their bite carries a disease is dangerous and little children are severe harm's Way but there is a theory I have there's something going on in those parks other than people ripping them off

Zues Hera

We have seen this before that the cicada bugs go in and they destroy robots and they pull them out thinking their people and they can't bite them and they can't swallow them so they think they're killing them and taking them out of their nest so they won't survive or come back now people are thinking it's them and each other did you see big armies going there and they think they're doing it and he's right this circaded noise could kill people quite easily and Ryan drive said going there with heavy and come out and you said I don't think so I said yeah when it's calmed down so he tried it and said you a****** and he says what the hell is this for and he said a tons of spaceships with 20 mm so he goes in and he looks in there and he says what the hell is this there's all these bugs coming out in his slaughtered the bugs hit them with a machine guns and it saw fine ones and they had the ships ready now he didn't do that but he's probably should and this is going to happen shortly

Thor Freya

Really Zeus really he installed every case and I guess you're saying it's time they're just wasting these and throwing them in a hole I guess we could be pulling them out of a hole and tell him thank you

I see that we might do that some people know where they took them is not true let's hope it's not to the phone phones clones they might not know what to do they're not used to things just being dropped there and this impossible to find even a dollar bill in the ground out here

Hera

Olympus

[chateau7afra]

22/10/23

I missed the gentle caw caw noises crows make. The air smelled like wood-smoke and I could hear traditional music coming from my neighbours garden. Um-Ta-Ta music, they call it lovingly. I don't call it that lovingly. I could do without it, but it reminds me of my childhood, so I guess that's a good enough excuse to smile at it while walking by. The mixture between the low setting sun and the warm temperatures is unsetteling in a very subtle kind of way. It's not a crazy juxtaposition, but weird enough to be noticeable.

A small swarm of gnats were frantically flying zig-zag lines through the middle distance. I wondered, if they shouldn't be dead or frozen. By the time we put up halloween decorations, the forest is usually heavily painted in colours other than green, but this year it is still mostly yellow, or lush green.

This was the longest summer of my life. Yet.

It's 9 days until halloween and I still feel like it's late summer. A couple of weeks ago, people were still swimming in the danube. Normal people, not the crazy ice bathing ones.

I always wanted to move somewhere south, which is the central-european way of saying "somewhere warmer", but I never thought, that "south" would so freely move to central europe. Which is again, unsetteling, to say the least.

When I walked to the small creek that is near my family's house, I heard frogs croaking and noticed even more gnats hovering above the water.

Again, they should get ready to be frozen too, in my books.

I watched the crows again, flying circles over the fields, behind them the halfmoon, which has already risen. Beautiful.

Dad came back from the forest and told us, the wild boars ventured out into the fields again. I don't blame them.

They dig up big holes in the fields and the farmers and hunters have to close them again. I'm not exactly sure, what they are looking for. But probably bugs and roots.

I didn't go through the forest yet, to check for mushrooms. I don't look for edible ones, because I am very sure that I would kill myself and others, if I cooked anything I found in the woods. I know what chanterelles and toadstools look like, but that is it. I like to take pictures of them though. Last year I found a couple of fairy rings. That is the thing when mushroom grow in perfect circles. It has something to do with mycellium, but I'd rather think of it as something magical, which is more fun.

Mum harvested some apples and a huge zucchini. We made a ragout and applesauce. It always grounded me, to cook with foods that grow on the farm.

Our farm is situated in a small valley. I am sometimes jealous of the farms and houses, which are on the hills, because they get more sunshine and a better view. We are basically surrounded by forest. Which I don't hate.

Sometimes, we get deer grazing with their little ones, right in front of my window, under the apple trees. The scene feels very peaceful, especially when there is some fog lingering on the field, which happens a lot because of the little stream, that bubbles it's way through the houses.

It feels a little less peaceful during the night. Deer make a sound that seems to not be from this world. You can hear a lot of different sounds in the forest. I've never really see badgers, wild boars and foxes, but they are around. They just don't want me to see them.

Sometimes we find our chicken's eggs in weird places. I love it when that happens. I wish I could pretend it's magic. But it's just ferrets. I still wonder how they transport them so professionally.

I don't blame people from the olden days, for being supersticious and believe in ghosts and all of that. Without the full moon it's pitch black in the forest. For human eyes at least.

I want to be a fox, just for one full moon night and stroll through the forest. Just to see what's going on in there. A night were all the hunters are asleep though.

[onenicebugperday]

@ashedink submitted: I have a number of nice bugs that I've wanted to submit, but I kept holding off so here is a whole bunch of fine friends from east Tennessee:

A very fine wooly worm I found just a few days ago! I'm not used to them being solid black, mostly we see black and orange banded ones. This well dressed child was so big! Nearly three inches in length!

A small centipede and a big old ant mound with my hands for scale, I see maybe 6-7 of these giant mounds on my daily walk, like 90% certain they're fire ant colonies. I love to marvel at their architecture and their security response time when I give their nest a little brush. Also my hand is not touching the mound in this picture, ant swarms are no joke when they're that big!

This is one of my favorites, she lives in my art room and actively hunts, running across the floor! Including legspan she is about the size of a gold dollar, and I have always assumed she is a wolf spider, until I realized just how many wolf spider look alikes there are! This is the one I want ID'd the most if the picture is clear enough.

A delightfully chubby oak worm. For about a month I was finding them in the road constantly (and gently tossing them off to the side of the road), I assume migrating from their initial host plant to wherever they planned on pupating.

And these were the first pictures I knew I wanted to submit. I have ALWAYS loved bugs, but like the charismatic ones like mantises, spiders, caterpillars, moths, wasps, pill bugs, hercules/rhinocerous beetles, katydids, and millipedes. I never thought much about grasshoppers until I saw some stunning pictures shared on your blog, and I realized just how COLOURFUL some of them are! Especially getting into their adult colors! So after marveling at the pictures I saw here I made it a point to take a photo of some of the meaty adult grasshoppers in the field next door. Some of them were big enough that when I would spook them and they'd take off flying I would momentarily mistake them for a tiny meadow bird. Shortly after I took this photo I accidentally spooked one into flying straight into my face and they were weighty enough that it made an audible THWAP sound. It was a charming day.

Thank you for running this blog!

Hi there :) The first caterpillar is a giant leopard moth - you're likely used to seeing Isabella tiger moths. Love the precious tiny centipede. And wow that IS a big ant mound. I accidentally stepped on one as a kid and boy let me tell you it was terrible. Would not recommend.

The spider is indeed a wolf! The eyes are the easiest way to distinguish them from lookalikes. Looks like possibly Tigrosa annexa. Very cute oakworm! Glad you helped them off the road, they are so small and don't know what cars are :(

Grasshoppers are wonderful! They were actually one of the first bugs I was into as a kid because we had so many in the field behind our hours. They will absolutely thwap you in the face but we'll just say that's a grasshopper kiss.

Thank you for sharing all your friends!

[benevolentcalamity]

Be Our Guest

So uh.

This is a thing. That I am doing.

Anyway.

Alcina Dimitrescu x Female! Listener

Just so we’re clear this is too long to get to much so this’ll have a smut chapter next time. Just FYI. This is just implied smut but nothing happens, so enjoy.

Enjoy you stunning pomegranates

“Mother, I found her first - I should taste her blood!”

“No, me, I’m the one that said she was pretty!”

“Daughters, please. There’s plenty to go around, so don’t lose your heads.”

Through the throbbing pulsations in your head, you pry your eyes open enough to peer through your lashes. Three black clothed figures are in a perfect line, bickering amongst themselves until the towering white behind them reprimands them, patting them on their heads. It pushes through them, approaching you, until you can make out the figure.

A woman, undeniably tall, dressed elegantly in a white gown and hat, black gloved fingers fiddling with the cigarette holder with almost disturbing dexterity. Her red-painted lips stretch into an amused grin too big for her face, clearly noticing you rousing from unconsciousness. Kneeling, she reaches for you, patting your cheek.

“Wake up.” Her voice is more playful, like a mother ready to torture you with a day full of work. “Come now, wake up.”

Her patting grows harsher, and you blink a few times until she��s clear. By instinct you put your hand up in defense, and she backs away, her only objective having really been to wake you. Turning a bit to cough into your fist, you push down on the floor to sit upright, rubbing your eyes.

“She looked cuter passed out,” One of the black trio pouts, prompting one of the others to shush her.

The tall woman’s hand extends toward you, beckoning you. More confused than afraid, you take it, and she pulls - more like yanks - you to your feet. You feel a bit wobbly and maybe cold; a reminder that you are in fact alive, and here you are. 

“Name?”

You blink, wrenching your attention from your momentary hunger pangs back to the woman. “E-excuse me, ma’am?”

 “What is your name?”

Swallowing, you interlock your fingers to stop them from shaking. “[Name]. [Name] [Last Name].”

She nods. “Well met.” Almost flamboyantly, she puts her cigarette hand to her chest. “Alcina Dimitrescu - but you may address me as ‘Madam,’ ‘Ma’am,’ or ‘My Lady,’ understood?”

“Yes.” You don’t know what to do.

“... Well don’t stand there pouting, daughters, introduce yourselves.”

With visible glee, the black haired girl steps forward, giving you a somewhat snobbish grin through red-stained teeth. “Cassandra,” She sings, bowing her head.

Then the redhead. “Daniela.” Her smile is more... seductive, but one that signals to you her type of seduction isn’t the kind you’d want.

The blonde is last, her smile a Cheshire cat grin - one that simply says ‘danger’. Nothing more, nothing less. “Bela.”

“Good daughters.” Lady Dimitrescu grins in satisfaction, putting her hands on her hips. “Now, the moment we’ve waited for.” She then raises her hands, snapping her fingers. 

“Yes, Mother!”

Cassandra and Daniela move to either of your sides, gripping your arms. They’re too strong to fight against, rendering you motionless in seconds. On your right, Daniella flashes you a smile, before gripping your wrist and slicing your palm with a curved blade.

You cry out, prompting her to move her lips to your ear. “Shhh... Plenty of time for screaming,” She purrs, stretching your arm out as Lady Dimitrescu approaches.

Wrenching your wrist from Daniela’s fingers, she leans down, pausing for a moment before dragging her tongue across your wound. Almost ravenously she does a few more strokes, sucking on it to get as much blood as she can. Fear and confusion bring nausea at the sight - you swallow whatever vomit threatens to wrench itself from you.

She pauses again, eyebrows raising, before her lips open into a red-stained grin as she stands straight.

“Sweet and succulent!” She declares, prompting the trio to close in on you more, holding onto your arm and partaking as well. “Now, now, daughters, we mustn’t be so hasty. This is just too good to disappear into the cellar.”

“String her up!” Bela grins. “Store her and we’ll drink from her when we wish!”

Daniela’s arm goes around your waist, her free hand holding your chin. “But she’s so cute - would it be fair to treat her like a pig?” “What do you say, Mother?” Cassandra asks.

With a quick onceover of you - why that includes an elevator look at you you’ve no idea - Lady Dimitrescu takes a drag from her cigarette, blowing a smoke ring toward your head. “Whether this girl has somewhere to go from here, it doesn’t matter,” She hums. “Her blood is some of the best we’ve had in a good while - she’s worth keeping alive.”

You swallow, Bela and Cassandra backing from you, Daniela moving behind you to keep cuddling you. “As of right now, she is a guest in our home,” Lady Dimitrescu continues. “I will deliberate as to what to do with her; Mother Miranda won’t need to know so long as she’s not making trouble. Daniela, show little [Name] where she’ll be staying.”

“Yes, Mother.” Daniella grips your arm, thrusting you outward as if dancing with you, before wrenching you back to her. With a sultry giggle she lifts you bridal-style into her arms, the other two waving at you as you’re sped away as though flying on a magical carpet.

It’s a smooth ride, one that’d easily repeatedly trick you into thinking you’re gliding instead of being carried, but a glance at Daniela’s grinning face reminds you that you’re indeed welcome - you’re not home.

A second passes, and she stops, putting you down onto your feet. However, her arms wind back around you, but around your shoulders, leaving you at the mercy of her teeth.

“Here we are!” She giggles, throwing her arm out, inviting you to look around the room. It’s large and... definitely more Versailles than any you’ve seen, but comfortable had it not been for the fact you’re here with women that could spell your demise.

Releasing you from her hold, Daniela circles in front of you, flashing you a smile alongside a tilt of her head. “I hope you enjoy your stay. And if there’s anything we can do to make your stay more...” She pauses for effect, running the blunt edge of her blade down your face. The cold steel freezes your spine, and your palms grow clammy. “Don’t hesitate to ask.”

She replaces the touch of her blade with her hand, forcing you to look in her eyes. “And I’m warning you~” She sings, “You’d better not do anything to make Mother regret her well-placed mercy. You understand me, little one?”

Quivering, you nod. “I-I understand.”

Her smile grows to show her teeth, and her blade snakes around the back of your neck, forcing you to lean forward to avoid being cut. Mischievous, she leans forward as fell, planting a kiss on your cheek before retreating, dispersing into locust-like insects before leaving, the door somehow closing when the swarm leaves.

Stepping away from the door, your lips purse and release with emotions and sounds that crash against each other, creating a practical thunderstorm in your chest. Everything’s still spinning a bit; your head still has a nasty bump from when some smelly hairy man with a hammer jumped you in the village. Your brain’s foggy, but your memories are still intact. How long, though, is the question.

Deciding to examine the room, you walk around, taking your shoes off and holding them to avoid staining the rug. The first thing you notice is the vanity, gilded and polished to perfection. Sitting down in front of it, you comb your fingers through your hair, more to calm yourself down than anything. Eventually, your hands fall still in your lap, and you stare into the eyes of a girl powerless to stop whatever will happen to her in this castle.

Dread slowly twists your stomach, and you stand, meandering to the window. The snow falls swiftly, nearly obscuring the view; a telltale sign a snowstorm is brewing. No sense in trying to escape and risking frostbite.

“I guess... I just wait now,” you mutter.

Helpless, you head over to the bed. Shedding your coat, you fold it neatly and put it on the nightstand, crawling into the layers of blankets. It smells like linen that, though clean, hasn’t been touched in years, not even by the faintest speck of dust. What’s there instead is an oddly comforting aroma, like grandma’s house but if she were rich.

Reaching into your pocket, you tug out your phone. No signal.

You’re isolated, locked away, with no one knowing where you are.

The knowledge brings tears to your eyes, hanging over you as you tug the covers over your head, eventually curling up and drifting softly to sleep.

___

What rouses you from sleep isn’t your alarm clock as you’d have hoped, nor is it the chirp of the birds or your phone ringing asking where you’ve been. Rather, it’s your nose being, for lack of a better word, jiggled. Someone or something is poking the tip and wiggling it in circles.

Jerking your head a bit, you swat with your hand, opting to cover your nose, furrowing your brows.

Then a hand grips your wrist, and your eyes open. With black hovering above you, you’re thrown into perfect alertness, the red hair skirting over your cheek sending your palms down as you attempt to sit up properly.

Daniela grins maliciously at your reaction, licking her lips. “Mother needs you.” 

As she says that, a swarm of bugs burst through the door, clouding around you for a moment. Their buzzing almost seems to mimic your cries, some landing on you to wrench more screaming from you, before they pull away from you, concentrating at the foot of the bed, eventually forming Cassandra, Bela eventually sauntering in as well.

“Y-Your mother’s asking for me?” You near-squawk.

Cassandra snorts. “Of course. What else?” She asks. “Mother really likes you. Now, upright.”

You’re so spooked by the intrusion and the presence of all three sisters that you hurriedly slide away from Daniela and onto the floor, sliding into your shoes. Swallowing, you jolt at the sisters approaching you, a bead of sweat falling from your brow when their hands raise.

“Oh shit.”

They each grip you with both hands, suddenly turning into insects aside from them and holding you in the air, and just like with only Daniela you’re gliding. Only this time, you’re screaming horrendously, but the sound is so drowned out by the triplets’ sadistic giggling you’re unsure you’re making a sound. One hand crawls up your leg, causing you to squirm, and for a moment their faces materialize just so you can see them laugh at you for a moment.

Through sharp turns and whatever else, you’re eventually unceremoniously tossed to your feet, standing in front of a door. Whirling around, the girls materialize again, waving at you before dispersing into their swarms, swirling around you to make you squeal before flying off, likely to get to their own duties. Biting your lip, you turn back around, raising your hand to knock on the door.

“Enter,” Lady Dimitrescu’s voice calls. As you do, she continues, “Very good. At last, someone else around here with any sort of dignity and manners.”

“You... wanted to see me?” You ask, closing the door behind you.

“Sit.”

Peeking, you note the bench near the vanity where she’s sitting, avoiding eye contact with her reflection as it applies overwhelmingly red lipstick. Softly, you sit down in it, folding your hands on your knees.

“As you’re most definitely aware, I’ve had a discussion with my daughters as to what to do with you, and I’ve come to understand you’re certain to meet a grizzly demise if you attempt to leave this place.” The calm in her voice and the way she momentarily looks at you through the mirror twists your stomach. “... Ah. Dear girl, your heartbeat - I can hear it. It’s music to my ears.”

Pausing, she wipes some stray lipstick from the corner of her lips. From here, she looks normal sized, but you’re a good stretch from her. Swallowing, you try your best to remain composed. With no one coming to save you or even knowing you’re here, your best hope of survival is appealing to this giant of a woman.

“My daughters and I both adore you - and I mean adore you.” At first she cranes her neck, but then decides to turn her chair around, gesturing at you with her lipstick. “Look at you, my dear! Delicious blood, yes, but such pretty looks - it’d be a waste to just toss you down into the cellar.”

“So... what are you going to do to me?”

She throws her head back to laugh. “To you, the four of us can agree anything’s possible. With you, the decision itself is clear.” Her smile falls into a straight, business-y line, and you gulp. “You’ll become a resident of my castle, and you will not die a horrible, painful death.”

Relief at not dying washes over you, but then she stands and approaches you in what feels like a blink, and you flinch.

“However.” She uses a gloved hand to lift your chin. “You are not to leave, disobey, and you will repay us by allowing us to drink your blood. That is our condition. If you decide you don’t want to stay, then out of the good of my heart, I can promise you right now that your death in this room will be quick and painless.”

Your face grows cold. So you can be a personal bloodbag for all four denizens of the castle, or you can die. Splendid.

“Think about it. No one’s going to live to even see your face if they try to save you, and you’ll have the pleasure of being in my care as opposed to that fool Heisenberg,” She hums along with a chuckle deep in her bosom. “And if you want my personal opinion, you’d be far better off.”

Do you really have an option? “... O-Okay. I’ll stay in the castle.”

Her face brightens with that signature smile. “Ah, good girl!” She leans down and her hand reaches to pat your cheek. “We’ll find ways to take your blood that won’t leave scars, don’t you worry.”

Ring! Ring!

With a roll of her eyes, she straightens up. “As if there’s any more ways to take up my time...” She beckons you to follow as she returns to her vanity, and you awkwardly stand at her side as she sits back down, picking up the phone.

A moment passes, and she composes herself. “Mother Miranda, I regret to inform you that something unexpected has happened, and I’ll be a bit late for the meeting.” Glancing at you, she beckons you again, scrunching up her nose at your confusion. Lifting her free hand, she pats her lap twice, and beckons you again.

You blink. Does she want me to sit in her lap or something?

“Are you... asking me to sit?” You ask, and she nods. As you begin the motion she guides you the rest of the way with her hand around your arm, and you awkwardly shuffle so you’re comfortable.

Through her dress and your clothes, she’s cool to the touch, but not to imply she’s a walking corpse or something. Glancing at her reflection, she gives you an almost cheeky smirk as she adjusts her arm to keep you balanced.

“No, Mother Miranda.” Who is...? “Yes, of course, I understand the importance of this meeting. This will take me about fifteen minutes at most... Yes, Mother Miranda, I swear.” Then she nods, her hat gracing your forehead. “Very well.”

Then she hangs up the phone, letting out an exasperated huff. “So demanding.” And with no effort at all, she lifts you below your arms and stands, putting you on your feet like a toddler, patting your head. “You’ll have the pleasure of dining with us tonight. Since she seems to like you so much, Daniela will be responsible for ensuring you know where to go and what to do.”

Trying not to protest or show nervousness, you nod, to which she gives a satisfied upward nod.

“Now then, you’re grown enough to remember where your room is, yes? But feel free to explore the castle - but allow me to warn you, the cellar is off-limits. Do you understand?”

You nod. “I-I understand, Madam.”

“Very good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have matters to attend to. When I return, I expect you’ll be well accustomed to the castle.” She flashes you a smile, her hip gracing your shoulder as she passes you. “And [Name]?”

You turn to face her, some sweat dripping down your neck. “Yes, Madam?”

Her eyes narrow, but her smile doesn’t drop; a look that says you’re in for something when she returns. “Enjoy your stay.”

Then she leaves, and the door shuts behind her, leaving you to listen to the sound of her footsteps fading away. Swallowing, you meander towards the door yourself, pushing it open.

And just as you do, the buzz of the insect swarms fill the air, and you clench your fists to stay calm even as the sisters materialize. With playful yet sinister smiles, they approach you, with Daniela going behind you to hug you just like before.

“Mother’s left for her meeting,” Cassandra points out.

A crazed look in her eye, Bela reaches and pokes your face. “I haven’t cut open a pretty girl in a while!”

“No, no~!” Daniela near-whines. “I’ve always liked the cute ones - I say we play with her a little.”

“And Mother made us promise not to leave scars.” Cassandra reaches out, cupping your chin, grinning at your face losing color from the dread twisting your stomach. “So don’t worry. We’ll be gentle.”

“We promise,” Daniela purrs.

[grubloved]

Near the exit to Lake Springfield smack dab in the middle of Illinois we hear the greatest din that has caught us thus far. Even with the air conditioning cranked and the windows closed, we hear this wave of cicadas. So we leave the interstate to investigate. Driving past the lake the sound only gets louder, and it culmi nates at a single tree at the corner of East Lake Shore Drive and Vigal Road, one small round tree with a sign pointing to a KOA Campground down the pike. We look at each other and smile. We have found it. The great swarm. The world tree. Grand Cicada Central, the concatenation of all things Magicidada. This is the epicenter, this afternoon moment, the place of human cicada music that we have been waiting for. (...)

Creeping right to the edge of the world tree, the epicenter, the tree of innumerable insect souls. Living, noisy cicadas drop from branches into our hair, all over our clothes, soon inside our clothes, just hanging there, singing. They start to tickle, I begin to laugh. I run for the open field, giggling. What else can I do, the scene seems so ridiculous.

It's about to get even more absurd. I have no choice in such situations except to pull out an instrument. More used to the delicate earthiness of the clarinet, with this great volume I have no choice. Must pull out the saxophone, to cut to the chase, or cut through the swiiissssssssshhhhhhsssssssssshhhhhhsssss... I pull the straight golden horn out of its case and immediately cicadas are excited, they jump right onto the shine. I'm worried about starting to play because I don't want to crush any of them who might try to climb from the inside of the horn out one of the tone holes. They're all over my brown shirt, outside, stuck to the stripes, and inside, holding their ground. They're all over my scraggly hair, alighted on my ears, tymbaling up a storm. It is essential to wear sunglasses just to keep them from bounding and bouncing into the eyes.

As I finally get up the nerve to play I find I must hunch over to keep the swarm from overwhelming me. The noise is deafening, but the soprano is used to cutting through. A tentative, minor melody comes out. I reach out, and try. Up, down, a look around. Upon holding out a long tone I suddenly hear the cicadas swelling along with me. Contact! Contact! They're certainly crawling up my naked back under my shirt, but I'm more excited about possible contact in sound. They are all rising in volume in a great big swish. I imagine it is certain notes that I play that bring on the sync. Later, though, I read about the three concurrent thirteen-year species and I learn I'm in the midst of a swarm of tredecassinis, and the swell is just what they do, whether or not a sax is pontificating in their midst.

But who thinks of causality at a time like that? I am awash in a mist of tymbalic noise, the strangest orchestra I have ever tried to join. How could they possibly care about my sound, so differ ent it is than their own, so fixated they are on the mantra of fly! sing! mate! die! And yet, fly at the sax they do, jump to the shine, swell with sound all over my hair. I had read that in Zen temples when a gong is struck, all the cicadas jump right at it. They love sound, all sound, surprising sound, expected sounds. They need not think much about it as they have been waiting for this moment for thirteen years.

bug music, david rothenberg

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Ch. 124

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Chapter 124: Long Sword

Once the insect swarm dispersed, Lin Qiushi's group left the dining room. The moment they stepped outside, however, they found that the flying insects had appeared in the hallway, batting their wings to form a faint black line in midair that led off to some unknown room.

This was likely what the string signified. Lin Qiushi had thought it would be more complicated than this, but somehow, Ruan Nanzhu's messing around had yielded them the correct answer. He glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and asked, "do we follow and see where it goes?"

"Sure." Ruan Nanzhu looked at the time and confirmed it was still early. "Let's go."

Then they headed off in the direction the insects were guiding them in, toward where all the rooms were.

Every five minutes, the positions of the rooms changed, and when that happened, the direction the insects pointed to also changed. Hovering in mid-air, they were all connected together in a single-file line. The three of them kept following the path of insects, but very quickly, they discovered something off—at one point, the insects broke off into two swarms. One pointed left, and one pointed right, in different directions.

"Why's this happening?" Gu Longming was utterly confounded when he saw the split insects. He grabbed a bug off-hand and trapped it in his palm. When he released it, it swiftly returned to its original position. "Why have these mosquitoes split up? Unless…"

He understood something. With a pained expression he peered at Lin Qiushi.

"Unless there are two monsters?"

That seemed to be the only answer, but Lin Qiushi didn't think the matter would be so simple. He asked, "we'll split up and see?"

Ruan Nanzhu thought for a bit.

"Okay, Gu Longming goes left with you, and I go right."

Lin Qiushi nodded, not arguing. He only reminded Ruan Nanzhu that if Ruan Nanzhu did find something strange, he shouldn't force anything; the objective this time was to gather information.

Hearing Lin Qiushi's earnest suggestion, Ruan Nanzhu couldn't help but smile.

"I knew it, our Linlin's all grown up. He worries about me now, how heartwarming."

Lin Qiushi: "…I'm very serious."

"Yes, I know you're serious." He came over and gave the corner of Lin Qiushi's mouth a casual peck. "I'll be careful. See you later."

Lin Qiushi waved a hand at him.

"See you later."

As they were conversing, the space around them changed again, and the directions they were heading altered once more. This time, the insects seemed to be guiding them toward the lowest-level deck.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming wasted no more time, jogging the rest of the way ahead, hoping to find the room the insects were guiding them to before everything changed again.

The two were quick, finding the room indicated by the insects in half the time. At this room, those bugs flew through the air and attached themselves in a dense layer all over the door. As soon as he was near, Lin Qiushi got a whiff of a strong, rotted fish stench.

It was truly too pungent—about as bad as how the room from last time smelled. It was too easy to anticipate that inside this room, they would find that giant fishman monster shut away.

At the room, Lin Qiushi didn't rush and try to enter. Instead he put his ear to the door and listened for any sounds inside. The room was quiet enough to seem like it held nothing alive, but Lin Qiushi still heard something odd: a faint breathing sound coming from the door…The breaths came from somewhere close to him, as if there was only the single door between him and whatever was inside.

Gu Longming, on the other hand, was looking through the window. He seemed to have spotted something in the inky black, face going slightly pale as he took a couple of steps back. He gestured toward the inside of the room at Lin Qiushi, nodding emphatically to say that there was something inside.

So Lin Qiushi got up and looked through the window too.

Through a crack in the curtains, he saw a pair of yellow eyes hidden in the dark. They were fish eyes, with perfectly circular pupils and the whites of the eyes giving off a bright golden glow. They were currently staring out the door with a none-too-friendly expression.

Those eyes slowly moved, like the thing had sensed there were people standing outside. Lin Qiushi saw it slowly open its mouth, filled densely with white teeth and a tongue softly glowing blue.

Hang on…yellow eyes? Lin Qiushi’s breathing froze. He felt that he'd caught onto something, swiftly pulling out his cell phone, turning on the flashlight, and tossing the beam of light in through the curtains.

As the light entered the room, Lin Qiushi could finally see the thing clearly. It was a creature difficult to describe—at least, Lin Qiushi had never seen its like.

It had a gigantic head of a fish and a fragile human body. Because the head was so big and heavy, the creature couldn't even stand straight; both the head and the thin, mismatched body could only sprawl on the floor. Most eye-catching was the long, sharp horn at the top of its head—it looked both piercing and deadly…and the first thing Lin Qiushi thought of was the long sword that killed the Minotaur from the myth.

The fishman's attention was caught by the light Lin Qiushi brought and a strange roar came out of its mouth. Gu Longming saw its strange appearance and couldn't help but rub at his arms, forcing a grin.

"The heck is that thing?"

"What we saw in the first room seems to be this fish-person," Lin Qiushi said. "Remember the yellow eyes from that room?"

Gu Longming nodded that he remembered.

At the mention of the yellow eyes, he finally realized. The eyes of the human-eating fish-monster were not yellow, but a discomforting shock of white. This kind of detail, however, easily blurred in shocking situations, and it was only due to Lin Qiushi's reminder that he could now faintly remember.

"So there are two monsters?" Gu Longming swallowed. "And so the purpose of this monster, could it be…"

His gaze fell on the needle-sharp horn at the top of that monster's head, and said the words Lin Qiushi was thinking.

"The long sword?"

Lin Qiushi: "We can suppose so."

At least so far, they had yet to find another appropriate, weapon-like item on the ship. The truth was, the moment he'd gotten a clear look at this fishman's apperance, Lin Qiushi had had the similar thought. Gu Longming had clearly drawn the same conclusions that he did.

The sound of the two talking seemed to have stimulated the monster inside. It began to crawl about a little violently, twisting about in a grotesque and scary manner.

Seeing its agitation, Lin Qiushi got a bad feeling. So he grabbed Gu Longming and backed up a few steps.

The moment they backed up, a long sharp spike appeared through the solid wood wall in front of them. The thing in the room had used the horn on its head to stab straight through the wall—two, three times, leaving a number of holes behind. Had they not backed away just now—and had gotten unfortunately stabbed—it was easy to see how painful it would've been.

But after Lin Qiushi confirmed the identity of the thing inside the room, time was up for another switch. The room before them disappeared, replaced with just another normal bedroom. The path of the insects changed as well, and the location of that fish swapped to the upper deck.

Gu Longming was disgusted by even the thought of this fish. He'd actually enjoyed eating fish before this door, but after marinading in fish stench for the past few days, he’d become reflexively nauseated at the thought of that taste. The unfortunate likelihood was that even after leaving this door, it would be a while still before he stopped being grossed out by fish.

Lin Qiushi: "Come on, let's go see where Zhu Meng is."

Gu Longming nodded.

The two left the bottom-level deck and headed up. They found Ruan Nanzhu standing on the top deck with his head poked out over the black seawater.

He turned around at the sound of their foot steps.

"What did you find?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I think we found the long sword."

Ruan Nanzhu's eyes gleamed: "You found it?"

Lin Qiushi nodded and gave him a quick rundown of the thing the saw. He emphasized the long horn they'd seen on that fishman monster's head and how it’d looked both sturdy and sharp, like it would make for a great offensive weapon.

As for Ruan Nanzhu, he said that in the room he found, he saw the giant fishman who'd eaten a person the night before.

"But how are we supposed to kill that fishman?" Gu Longming asked, squatting on the planks and dejectedly eating the candy that Lin Qiushi gave him. "I don't think that thing's any easier to deal with than the fish monster we saw before."

What they were most concerned about was not the width, but the depth of the wounding; once a wound got deep, it had a hard time healing, particularly on a ship that lacked medical supplies like this. It was obvious that once stabbed by that horn, even if you didn't die the day of, complications like tetanus, etc.  would kill you in the next few days.

Ruan Nanzhu listened to Gu Longming's worries and comforted him—by saying don't worry, if it really does come to that, we'll finish you off nice and clean.

Gu Longming: "…how about no. Thank you."

Lin Qiushi thought this was something of a paradox. They had to first kill the yellow-eyed fishman before they could kill the monster symbolized by the Minotaur, but that was where the problem lied—how were they supposed to kill the yellow-eyed fishman? Did they really have to just take their dinner knives and go head-to-head with that thing?

As the three were discussing what to do, they heard a sudden ruckus from the dining room, interspersed with shocked shouts and agonized screaming.

At this sound they knew instantly that something else had happened. Lin Qiushi traded a glance with Ruan Nanzhu and turned for the dining room. Before he even went inside, he could smell the thick scent of blood—Lin Qiushi looked down and found a pool of it on the floor planks. A wounded man was lying on the ground inside, covering a wound in his abdomen with his hands. The wound seemed very deep, lumping up and spilling forth bright red blood.

Gu Longming took a few steps forward.

"What happened? How did he get hurt?" He took off his jacket and, using it as bandaging, began treating the victim's wounds in well-trained motions. He was trying to stop the man's bleeding.

Seeing his actions however, Lin Qiushi formulated a guess about Gu Longming's job outside the doors.

"He discovered outside that the insects seemed to be leading in a certain direction, so we followed it." The person speaking was the man's companion—he'd been a bystander and witness to the entire process of how his friend got hurt. He continued shakily: "But when we got there, this long spike came out of the room and stabbed him right in the body."

Gu Longming frowned.

"It doesn't look good, the kidney looks like it's been perforated." There weren't any useful medical supplies at hand either, and considering the blood flow, this person was likely…

A girl nearby said: "I brought a hemostatic spray, can you use that?"

"Give it here," Gu Longming said. "I can only try—treat a dead horse like a live one, right?"[1]

He did his best to tourniquet the person's body to reduce the output of blood. Then, after using up a good half of the hemostatic spray, he managed to stop the ever-flowing bleeding.

"What was the thing that stabbed your friend?" Seeing the person stabilize, someone turned their attention onto the person who was still alive.

"It looked like a fish," the survivor answered. "I'm not sure…I only caught a glimpse before this happened."

"We'll go have a look too." The crowd was clearly interested in this fish, and so dispersed from the dining room.

Moments later, there were only a handful of people left inside.

"How does it look? Will my friend survive?" that person asked Gu Longming plaintively.

Gu Longming sighed, saying, "if he gets out early he might be saved, but…" This wasn't a place they could come to and go from at will.

So everybody quieted down. Gu Longming looked at the blood on his hands and said, "I'm gonna go wash my hands real quick." He got up and went to the bathroom.

The victim's breathing grew weaker and weaker, and even though Gu Longming did all he could, a few hours later, the man still died.

The entire dining room was filled with the thick stench of blood. It was also, coincidentally, time for supper; the Dead Fish Dinner Sets just happened to be placed on the tables, and the stench of the fish plus the smell of blood meant everyone had even less appetite. Nobody even wanted to go through the motions before taking off from the dining room.

Ruan Nanzhu, however, stayed where he was. Lin Qiushi didn't rush him either, because he knew that if Ruan Nanzhu was staying, then Ruan Nanzhu must have his reasons.

Due to the death of the person that afternoon, Gu Longming was a bit down. He poked at the noodles on the plate in front of him without much energy or appetite.

After most people left the dining room, Ruan Nanzhu pulled a few plastic bags out of his clothes.

"What are you planning to do?" Lin Qiushi startled.

Ruan Nanzhu: "I don't think the door would have us go head-to-head with that thing. There's too much of a difference in power."

Lin Qiushi: "So you want…" He watched as Ruan Nanzhu took all the dead fish from the dining table and stuffed his own pockets until they were bulging. "You want to feed the fish to that thing?"

"It was the aperitif that got the Minotaur drunk in the myth," Ruan Nanzhu said. "We pretty much know what the aperitif refers to now."

The eaten fish was fermented inside the belly, to be tasted once the stomach was split open; it was truly a kind of appetizer liquor.

So Ruan Nanzhu wanted to use the dead fish to lure the Minotaur to the yellow-eyed fish monster. They didn't know if it would work, but they had to give it a try.

This method, after all, was a lot more reliable than bringing a dining knife to a fish fight.

Ruan Nanzhu packed up all the dead fish and took them to go, following the path of the insects to once again find the room where the yellow-eyed fish monster resided.

There were already many more holes in the room; it had clearly used the sharp weapon on its head to make them.

Ruan Nanzhu gestured for Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming to stand further away as he tossed, with a single throw, the fish in his hand through a gap in the window.

The dead fish splattered all over the ground. That yellow-eyed fish monster pounced on them in excitement. It picked them up with its hands and began an aggressive gnawing; it ate quickly, and finished in short time the entire bag of fish that Ruan Nanzhu tossed in. It was a good thing they were prepared, quickly throwing in the other few bags of fish as well.

As it ate, Ruan Nanzhu stood watching from the side. Lin Qiushi was a big worried about him getting hurt though, since the blood from the last victim was still dripping in display on the window.

The yellow-eyed fishman finished all the fish, not leaving behind any heads, even. When it was full, it looked on, contented, before going to sleep on the ground just like that.

"Let's go," Ruan Nanzhu said to Lin Qiushi.

It was already a bit dark outside, and even though he really wanted to see what would happen here tonight, staying out was not a smart move.

So the three went and found another room they could rest in, and got in bed waiting for evening to arrive.

The last beam of light disappeared with the sun descending beneath the horizon. It was a moonless evening, with only the howling sea winds and the storm clouds like a piece of fabric hung up in the sky.

Lin Qiushi couldn't really sleep, staring idly out the window.

Ruan Nanzhu had first been in a different bed, but mid-sleep he'd somehow scooted over beside Lin Qiushi. So the two were now squeezed together.

They didn't speak, nor did they even look at each other. The way they simply knew each other was as if they'd already experienced hundreds and thousands of the exact scenario before them now.

They were both waiting—waiting on the answer to their experiment.

Around three in the morning, their waiting finally yielded results.

Lin Qiushi's ears caught something like the roar of a wild beast—and then the sounds of a violent battle. They were quite far from those sounds, and couldn't really make out what was happening, but the battle lasted for a very long time. It wasn't until the sun was almost up again that it gradually faded away.

"Who do you think won?" Ruan Nanzhu asked quietly.

"I don't know," Lin Qiushi said. "There's no difference either way."

Though things were mostly going as planned, something still happened that exceeded their expectations—not long after the sound of fighting stopped, there came the sound of human crying and screaming on the ship. When he heard this, Lin Qiushi jumped, crawling out of bed and going to the window. He wanted to see exactly what was happening outside, but the evening was too dark and he couldn't make out anything at all.

Luckily, Ruan Nanzhu's vision came into use at a key moment. He saw the fishman drag a struggling human onto the upper deck.

"How could this be?!" When Lin Qiushi heard Ruan Nanzhu's description, he couldn't believe it. "Nobody ate any fish inside the dining room today—"

Ruan Nanzhu's brow puckered. "You…remember the guy that Jian Qianyuan injured yesterday?"

Lin Qiushi: "…" He nodded.

Ruan Nanzhu: "I don't think he came to the dining room at all today."

Lin Qiushi's attention had been on the two monsters all day, and he hadn't noticed: "But isn't it a good thing that he didn't come to the dining room?"

Not coming to the dining room meant that he didn't eat the fish, so why would the monster target him?

Ruan Nanzhu only grimaced.

"It's not only the dining room that has fish."

Lin Qiushi: "…" He immediately remembered that filthy kitchen.

"There's plenty of fish to be had in the kitchen," Ruan Nanzhu said. "There's got to be a sacrifice."

Lin Qiushi sighed. He'd thought that there wouldn't need to be a sacrifice tonight, but now that he thought about it, he’d been naive. It wasn't kind inside the doors at all. The longer they stayed here, the worse the casualties would be.

That person's screams gradually faded, leaving behind only the silence of a long evening.

Before morning came, Lin Qiushi managed to get some sleep. But he didn't know whether it was due to a nightmare or if he didn't actually manage to sleep—he kept feeling that for the rest of the evening, that thing had kept circling the room they were in. He'd even smelled that nauseating stench of fish.

On day three, none of the three were in good spirits. They hadn't slept well for the past few nights, disturbed as they'd been with a number of things.

Conducting several days of christening meant the group was already numb to another body appearing on deck. They got rid of the body in well-trained motions and scrubbed the deck clean, returning to the day like nothing had happened at all.

Lin Qiushi's attention was not on the deck. He went off to the dining room early, hoping to find trace of the bugs. But disappointingly, the insects that had formed the string yesterday had disappeared.

"There's no rush." Ruan Nanzhu glanced at his watch. "It's still early."

"Mh," Lin Qiushi said in understanding.

Without the string, they couldn't find the two monsters, so they could only keep waiting.

At around eleven or so, the scenario that Lin Qiushi had been waiting on finally appeared—the NPC that became the insects yesterday showed up once more in the dining room. He wore the same clothes, had the same expression, and looked just like an NPC who kept resetting in a game.

They didn't need Ruan Nanzhu this time for someone to approach this NPC and pat him hard on the shoulder.

So the same thing that happened yesterday happened again. The insects swarmed then dispersed, disappearing from inside the dining room, and at the same time, two lines of insects formed outside, leading off in unknown directions.

Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu, and Gu Longming began following a string to find the place they were looking for. A few minutes later, they came upon the exterior of a room. Compared to yesterday, it looked very different, because it was readily apparent from the outside that last night, this room had been the site of a vicious battle. The wooden window slats were completely crushed, and the lock that hung on the door had also been torn violently off.

It seemed like the two monsters did have a fierce battle between them. Judging by the final incident from the night before, however, it seemed that the giant fishman had gotten the advantage.

[Ch. 123] | [Ch. 125]

[small-as-a-mouse]

Daisy Pt. 7

(tw graphic description of injury, medical supplies, discussion of death as part of the natural order of things)

“Daisy?” The human, Toby, said, and if his voice was working, Aster might have laughed. Him? A Daisy? Did the human really think… he looked at his flower. Noticed the petals. His sister wouldn’t have…  Oh bugs. Now he really felt like laughing. In his panic he’d mistaken the color for his namesake but the human was right, it did look more like a daisy then anything else. How embarrassing. Now he hoped the human would kill him just to save him the shame of making such a mistake.

“You don’t really… uh. Look like a Daisy,” Of course he didn’t! “No offense! That’s a wonderful name,” Perhaps Toby meant this as a compliment but Aster was quickly gaining new negative emotions atop his already long list of terrible feelings. This was worse than death. He tried to speak again, but that same feeling of a pressure in his throat and chest caught up with him and he just let out an undignified choking sound. The fear that had kept him frozen earlier was still there, buzzing like a swarm of wasps beneath his skin. The slight movement of his cough caused him to shift where he was lying in the box and he groaned, lowering his arm back down and closing his eyes. Toby, (and what type of name was Toby anyway) didn’t say anything, but Aster could still feel those big eyes looking down on him.

The quiet allowed his mind to slip to other things. Something was wrong with his wing. He hadn’t looked at it yet, because he could feel deep in the pit of his stomach that as soon as he looked he would hit his breaking point. Twice now he’d tried to fly only to have been so unbalanced that he couldn’t stay airborne. He was worse than a hatchling. 

    Sage would probably laugh at him. He hoped she was alright. He remembered her being far ahead of him when the dog had caught up to him, and he’d definitely distracted the beast long enough for her to get past the treeline at least. He didn’t remember much after that though. He wouldn’t want her to ever see that. If she hadn’t seen what happened, then perhaps she would assume that the dog… finished him off. He knew what the village would do. They would keep her safe. He didn’t begrudge them. It was their code- if you were dead then you were meant to be dead. If you were lost then you were meant to be lost. Sage had never taken things lying down like that. Aster had been more reasonable. He understood. The woods wanted what they wanted, and if someone died then it was simply the way things were meant to go. He had just hoped the two of them would be one of the lucky few. But apparently not. 

    “Daisy?” Toby whispered over him, being surprisingly quiet for someone his size, “I really need to change the bandage on your leg. I know you understand me, and it’ll be over really fast.” Aster stared blankly up at him. He was having a hard time processing what the human was saying but understood the implication.

    A fear gripped him, but he didn’t have much choice really. His leg wasn’t working. His wings weren’t working. His voice was broken. Either the human would hurt him or help him. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice either way. So he gave a slight nod, and watched as the worried expression on the human’s face gave way to a smile. 

    He shook as the human’s hands came down around him. He was slightly surprised when he wasn’t lifted into the air again (a horrible experience that he’d gone through twice now). He didn’t want to look but he couldn’t tear his eyes away as the massive appendages took hold of his leg. Toby seemed to slow when Aster’s shaking increased, but started to unwrap his leg with a careful precision. It took a moment for Aster to realize that small tremors were shaking Toby’s hands as well. He glanced upward to find that the kind, reassuring expression had been replaced by an intense focus. The human seemed almost… worried, which didn’t make much sense. What could Aster be doing that could possibly be frightening to a human? He looked back down to his now bare leg. His eyes widened and filled with tears at the sight. His legs had five giant holes that he could see, that were still open and weeping. He wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it was horrible to look at

    “Not too bad,” the human muttered, but Aster was sure that wasn’t meant for him to respond too. He had seen worse wounds on other fairies, dead and alive, but describing this one as ‘not too bad’ would never have occurred to him. “This is going to sting,” the human said, though Aster didn’t have time to react before a wet, foul smelling cloth was being laid on, and he screeched and pulled his leg. The human just rubbed the injury quickly and removed the cloth. “Sorry, can’t be too careful,” He said before pulling out more gauze and some other things Aster didn’t recognize. He squeezed something onto the gauze before wrapping it tightly around Aster’s leg. Toby breathed what sounded to Aster like a sigh of relief. “There doesn’t seem to be any infection but we’ll keep an eye on it, dog bites are tricky. I’m going to let you rest, but let me know if you want some water. Or if you want me to look at your wing. I might not be able to help much but you never know.” At that reminder Aster twitched his wing muscles reflexively. No. After seeing what had happened to his legs he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle the human looking at his wing. He didn’t want to hear how bad it looked. He turned his head and stared at the brown wall of the box. Maybe if he just closed his eyes, he’d never have to look at it at all.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Earth is Space Australia, “Plagues of Earth.”

I finally got to write an earth is space Australia ft. (Australia) lol. I hope you guys have fun, i enjoyed making this, though I had less time than I wanted to elaborate. 

Also inspired by a cover of “The Plagues of Egypt” Done by Johnathan Young in a heavy metal style. I would suggest listening to it when you think about this piece. 

Also, sorry if I said anything inaccurate about anyone’s country. I had less than two hours and a quick google search for facts 

“Their planetary defense is strong, but they prepare for battle on a large scale.If we bring our troops to the surface in small drop ships, and lead their military carriers away by attacking their nearby colony. We will take the planet.”

“What would be the point of this?”

“Humanity is held up as deity by the rest of the galaxy. As long as they fight, the GA fights with them. But if we destroy them, crush their planet at the source, then we crush the morale of the rest of the galaxy.”

“Where do we drop out soldiers?”

“Everywhere, on every major landmass, near every major city. But we do it quietly, drop them into the wilderness first so the humans won’t see them coming.” 

“If we can defeat the humans, we can defeat them all.”

***

Location: Upper-Mid Merianda (Previous US/Canada border rocky mountain region) 

The burg landed in the thick forests of the north. The human planet was lush and green, and the temperature was moderate, though it leaned slightly towards cold under the canopy of branches. There were sounds everywhere, the chattering of wildlife and strange flying creatures flitting through the trees. The nearest human residence was not far off, maybe a ten cycle march down hill.

They would reach it in no time, and make their sneak attack.

Their team commander barked his commands to the following Burg soldiers and together they began making their way down the hill.

None of them noticed when things began to go wrong.

They had never been to earth, and so were not aware of the sudden silence in the forest that comes before a coming storm.

You see, the Burg are similar to the Iotans, in that they give off a pungent smell. Not so pungent as it tends to affect humans, but pungent enough to affect the nearby wildlife. A wildlife that was not pleased with their presence.

It might have been fine, if they hadn’t stumbled into the den.

It started with a light squeaking. A sound that gave them pause as they looked around for the source. One of the burg pushed aside a green fern to reveal a hole dug into the embankment. He would have investigated if it weren’t for the loud piercing howl that echoed through the trees just to their right.

They all leaped upright in confusion and fear backing into a circle.

Another howl pierced the forest from their left, another form their right. Until they were surrounded by the sound. Shapes flitted through the trees, furry on all fours and hunched.

A howl from directly behind them.

They spun in place.

As the wolf leaped from the top of the embankment her teeth flashing.

As it turns out wolf pups are fond of Burg flesh

***

New Brazilia (Somewhere in what was once central Brazil, Border rain forest district)

This was the perfect climate, nice warm, dark and moist, shady below the trees that towered overhead in great twisting arcs. The foliage below them was very thick and hard to cut through as they made their way towards the human colonies. This was surely going to be their element, and they laughed at the idea of making the humans suffer as they waded their way through the trees.

The ground before them opened revealing an embankment on the side of a river. There was a hole in the foliage here, and the ground was dry. The burg stepped down onto this spot, their feet crunching slightly in the dirt.

One of them slapped absently at one of it’s segmented legs, brushing away a small insect that had crawled onto its body. Another party member did the same.

One of them even shrieked in pain, “It bit me!”

They looked down brushing the little black bugs off their bodies, only to find that the ground was absolutely swarming with them. One of the Burg shrieked, and tried to run his entire body now covered with hundreds of these little black creatures, however he tripped and fell onto his face.

His entire body was black.

The others began to scream as well, swatting at their bodies and their weapons falling to the riverbed as they were overrun by a massive troop of army ants.

They would never make their destination.

***

United Slavic  Districts (North/eastern Russia)

This forest was both humid and somewhat cold. It was early morning in the summer, and yet frost still built up on the leaves of the plants overhead. The burg weren’t particularly pleased about this, but they were going to have to deal with it.

It was best to keep moving at times like this, and they hurried their way through thick banks of early morning fog towards the not-to-distant human civilization. Their feet were nearly silent over the frosty forest floor dirt compressing under foot.

They had been walking for some minutes when they heard the sound. A strange mournful cry from the woods almost like the cry of a human infant, though slightly deeper. THe sound made them excited. Where they were infants there were likely humans. And who knows that could be a human noise.

They followed the sound looking about the foggy forest.

The noise came again, so close.

Ah, and there it was, though they were disappointed to find it was not a human at all, but  two fuzzy brown animals no bigger than waist height. They were so small, so pathetic and pitiful and they cried out in terror when the burg approached.

One of the burg raised it’s weapon angry.

The bellow came echoing through the trees rending the very air around them and sending birds scattering into the sky.

The burg turned on their heels as the massive brown bear came charging out of the forest bellowing her teeth flashing.

As it seemed the great land, of what was once, Russia was not pleased with their presence.

***

East Trans African Belt (former Ethiopia)

It was hot and dry, and the burg didn’t like it. But at least the ground was mostly flat, and the dirt was easy to navigate. Tall grasses raised to either side of the shallow river just to their left. Animals grunted off in the distance and the sky above was bright and blue. Dust rose up from their feet as they made their way towards the edge of the river, hoping that the water would help to moisten up the air around them.

The grunting grew louder.

They glanced over seeing large bulbous shapes in the water. It didn’t much matter to them, and they mostly ignored the creatures, knowing that anything that big was likely to be equally slow. They were making their way up the riverbank now, and the creatures rested in the water just to their side.

Distant grunting grew louder.

One of the burg was standing just next to the bank now when the water exploded casing great droplets into the air as the Hippo burst from the river mouth open wide at it’s four foot extension and bit down upon the unsuspecting burg dragging him violently into the water.

The others tried to run, slipped on the mud, and were set upon by the rest of the family.

***

Southern Indasia (India) 

The river bank was calm, nothing but floating logs out on the distant water. One of the burg officers was listening to her communications.  There were reports form all across the human’s home planet, that many of their parties had gone radio silent. She wasn’t entirely sure what that could mean but it worried her. Many of them had been traveling along river pathways just like her and her group, and she wondered if that had anything to do with their current situation.

One of the young burg stood at the edge of the water kicking stones into its murky green depths.

“We should definitely move along  from this area.” She was saying moving back up the bank and towards the forest of trees.”

One of he logs had floated closer to shore.

The young burg agreed and bent down to retrieve his weapon from the bank.

A moment later his head had disappeared vanished inside the mouth of a crocodile who then began to spin violently  dragging the burg into the water. Alerted to the frenzy others came as well racing up onto the bank.

There was never any evidence that the Burg had visited india, though there were reports about strange noises by the river that morning.

***

Australia (still just Australia)

They came as the sun was rising. A low mist had coated itself over the land, though the day was lucking to be annoyingly hot. 

They were just coming up to the edge of the human settlement when they saw it. A distant shape silhouetted between two trees. At first it looked like a man, but as the fog drew back they found a strange creature staring back at them.

One of the burg snorted.

The thing looked like a Tesraki almost, but dumber and a bit taller with large pointy ears, an absolutely massive trunk, and a very long back tail that it used like a Tesraki to stand on iits back legs.

One of the Tesraki crouched down in the foliage resting his hand on a low garden wall.

“Just shoo it off.” Their commander ordered, and two of the Burg moved up to confront the dumb looking creature.

Three things happened at once.

First the crouching burg cursed violently flicking his hand and tossing the angry funnel web spider into the bushes. 

A hiss rose up from the leaves.

And the kangaroo violently kicked the first burg in the chest collapsing his carapace beyond repair before moving over to stomp his friend.

The death adder struck.

Two  of the Burg were convulsing on the ground, another two lay silent and broken. The next two ran off in different directions, one towards the nearby beach and the other back into the forest.

No one is entirely sure what happened after that. All we know is one was found belly up at high tide near the docks where blue ringed octopus are known to be found, and the other was completely gone, though they did spot a rather bloated and very happy looking python chilling in the bushes not far from where the incident occurred.

More and more berg had stopped answering their calls.

Most of the burg would never find out what happened.

But we do.

Burg were found dead all over the world.

A young girl reported a burg attack in the outskirts of London, though her rottweiler had made quick work of that enlisting another pack of suburban dogs to protect the little girl from the freaky bug things.

Alligator attacks in Florida.

Six burg were found plowed over by a speeding bullet train in Japan.

in  Lower Mid Mericanda, a group of self-claimed hillbillies  with cutoff sleeves and unironic mullets were speeding through the forests on the back of four wheelers taking pot shots at anything remotely burg shaped. They had  at least ten confirmed kills, and the creatures never made it out of the swamp.

Another group of burg had made the mistake of landing in one of the last nuclear fallout zones in eastern europe, and ended up cooked by the radiation, their bodies to remain rotting there until cleanup finally made it to the site. It was likely they didn’t last more than twenty minutes.

A surfer off the coast of New Zealand watched a school of dolphins ravage a group of burg who had through a water approach would be more prudent.  He had no idea how the dolphins knew the burg were intruders, but they seemed very interested in helping out.

One group of burg had managed to land themselves in a city in the european provinces, and found themselves beaten to death violently by a group of drunk civilians carrying improvised weapons, one of them even brandishing a pool cue.

Two more teams froze to death before they reached their destination.

Another was washed away by a minor flood.

One of the burg ended up tipped off a cliff by a massive eagle, falling to his death hundreds of feet below. 

Another entire group managed to walk their way into a patch of poison ivy breaking out in horrible boils, which later necrosed as they lay paralyzed on the forest floor. 

Somewhere someone was trampled by a moose, while their other friends were whisked over a waterfall.

In yellowstone (yeah it still hasn’t blown up yet bc the vents are a good pressure release) at least another team of burg found themselves cooking in the natural hot springs after ignoring the signs that said (keep on the walkway).

Those who chose to land in the city were not greeted cordially either, packs of marauding street dogs, gangs, the homeless, drunk civilians, angry policemen, and a high school baseball team supported by the high school chess team.

Long and short of the story is that earth was-not-having-it.

The burg had made a grave mistake. 

Mother earth was fond of her children, even the human ones. 

[nataliedanovelist]

GF - Mystery Twins: Ghost

A new AU inspired by Mystery Skulls…

AO3 link

ch.2

~~~~~~~~~~

A catchy song played on the radio, making the young pair of twins in the back bob their heads and jump in their seats to the music. Ford smiled, looking back with his near-view mirror, and his smile stayed even when he had to focus back on the road. His hands and body weren’t used to driving the red Diablo, but he managed it okay, mostly because he was with his family.

Driving through the backwood-roads in the dark forest, the car was operating fine, but then the radio was glitching and the car was sputtering to a stop. The eight-year-olds in the back braced themselves as they slowed down, Ford listening carefully for an indication as to what was wrong with the Stanmobile.

“Grunkle Ford, what’s wrong?” Dipper asked, the boy who often felt like a ghost.

“I’m not sure.” Said the man who knew the most. “It sounds like the battery…”

“Maybe it has something to do with that.” Mabel suggested, looking outside and pointing to a structure they were coming up on.

The car came to a stop in front of a very large, rich-looking, antique cabin. With many levels and even a tower, this grand old-styled building seemed to be beating with life, like a giant wooden heart, and a faint reddish glow came from within. The Diablo refused to move any further, so Ford and the kids got out. The aged scientist popped the hood with Dipper by his side and they both saw the red bolts of lightning sparking around the battery and engine, freezing everything.

“Looks like somebody doesn’t want us to leave.” Ford theorized and looked up at the large house, but he gasped with horror seeing his little niece skip to the door. “Mabel!” He hissed.

Dipper turned and ran after his sister, holding his lucky pinetree hat down to keep it from blowing off his Pines’ fluffy brown hair. “Mabel, wait for me!”

The little girl stood on tippy-toes in her black flats and white socks and rang the doorbell. It sang a surprisingly joyful tune, and then the door opened. The children entered and the door remained open. Ford ran inside after his children; he knew they were more than capable of taking care of themselves, but given recent circumstances, he’d rather not take the risk.

The second Ford stepped inside the dwelling, however, the door closed by itself. The guardian wrapped an arm around each child, with Dipper on his left and Mabel on his right, and they were entertained by a small performance of bright red fire dancing in the suffocating darkness, until the flames landed on tall candles by the wall, and everything was highlighted with reds, oranges, and yellows.

Mabel’s eyes dazzled with excitement, as well as Dipper’s while he did sweat a bit on the forehead, and Ford was even more on guard. Three small goat-resembling blobs of red soul appeared from the floor and swarmed the small family. Mabel reached to pet one, but Dipper grabbed her hand and ran, and Ford ran after them.

The red fire brought life to the painting of Natives and lumberjacks. While the live humans ran down the hallways of the large wooden manor, many different ghosts flew around the air; little child-like spirits were being chased by punk ghosts, keys and keyhole were floating aimlessly, a soul-sucker landed on Ford’s shoulder, but he flicked it away like it was an annoying bug.

“This place is amazing!” Dipper cheered. “Look how many categories, Grunkle Ford!”

“Yes, it is impressive,” Ford huffed, half excited, half worried for the children’s safety. “But let’s hope we don’t meet a Level- AAAAAAAHH!!!” A trap door suddenly appeared beneath him and the old scientist fell, the hole quickly covered before the kids could see what had happened.

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, shrugged, and ran down the hall to the shining room ahead of them.

Ford fell harshly on a cold, concrete floor and rubbed the base of his back; he would be feeling that later. He looked around. He was in some kind of cellar, a room in the basement for storage, possibly food in the olden days. Ford looked ahead, and highlighted with glowing red energy, was a casket with a square skull on the door. As Ford stood and braced himself, the door opened to find a smartly dressed skeleton inside.

A skull missing it’s bottom jaw glared at the old man, who was far too used to it to be too shaken, but he was on edge and ready to fight or flight; whichever would ensure he would make it out of the cellar alive. The skeleton had sharp cheekbones and jagged cracks. His skull levitated an inch above the collar of his suit, the lines sharp and smart, the lines and the tie coated in red, though the suit was black. His ribs were outside his jacket and his hands were an odd bland of glove and bone. But what was most peculiar was not the fact that a fancy-dressed skeleton was alive and glaring daggers at the meat-puppet before him. No, what conjured Ford’s curiosity was the golden heart beating on the skeleton’s right chest, like a badge of honor.

The ghost stepped out of the coffin, his heeled shoes clicking on the concrete floor, and he stopped right in front of Ford and pointed harshly at him. Ford glared back, hand in his trenchcoat, ready to shoot and by himself some time, but there was no guarantee if it would even have time for an attack.

It didn’t matter. Suddenly the pupil-less eyes of the skeleton were lit up with red pupils, red fire encased more candles, and with an upward tilt of the skulls, a red block of fire appeared on his head. Ford, as quick as light, whipped out his special ray gun, shot, and ran for the exit. The ghost dodged the bolt of cold blue light with a lazy motion of his head, and then started to fly after his target.

Meanwhile, Dipper and Mabel were helping themselves to big towers of warm pancakes in the kitchen, about to dig in when they heard the commotion. They poked their heads out of the kitchen and gasped to find their uncle cornered by a big ghost, definitely a Level 10, his back to the wall and his gun pointed at the angry spirit, but the kids knew they could help.

Just before the ghost could touch Ford, the pair of kids stood in front of their grunkle, both flinching and ready for the impact, their arms outstretched to try to shield their guardian, but they opened their eyes cautiously when no attack came.

The ghost had stopped, standing a few feet in front of the tiny family. His red eyes were on the children, and appeared to be… not angry. Almost sad. Mabel took a step forward. Maybe she could help Mr. Ghost feel better so he could go back to sleep. Maybe something hurt. She could kiss it better.

Dipper was right by Mabel’s side, a hand on his chin, studying the ghost curiously, his brown eyes sparkling with wonder. Mabel grinned at the ghost and waved. “Hi, I’m Mabel!”

Instantly, the ghost seemed to smile. Kind eyes and a general aura that swore no harm. The young pair of twins noticed the golden heart floating towards them. Dipper’s mouth was open slightly, while Mabel held her hands patiently for it, waiting for the heart to land on her, rather than harshly grab it and risk frightening the kind soul.

But then Ford scooped up the kids in his arms and ran for the door, leaving the kids to look back at the skeleton and for the skeleton to reach out longingly, only for the golden heart to fall to the floor and crack, now a cold, lonely, icy blue.

At once, the ghost was engulfed in rage and fire, his arms trembling with anger, and he had his red fire swallow the entire hall, with Ford jumping out, through the door, at the last second, with his kids in his arms. He piled them into the red Diablo and thankfully the ghost was too distracted to have the car deactivate again, and they sped away into the woods.

Inside the large cabin, the skeleton watched them go through a window. He picked up the cracked blue heart, tapping it so the locket opened. Inside, a picture of Stan holding his children in his arms, smiling and laughing and having a good time, haunted him. The broken spirit could only shed a single tear as he growled to himself and floated out of the manor, causing it to fade back into its tiny, pitiful, abandoned cabin once more.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (15/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Doctor's Disorders}

“Ugh, what is that smell?” Danny asked as he and Valerie approached Tucker.

“This,” Tucker held up a spray can. “It’s my new all-over body spray. I made it myself, I call it Foley by Tucker Foley. It combines with your natural odor to create a sweet, manly scent that smells different to everyone who sniffs it.”

Their noses scrunched up as Tucker started spraying himself.

“Tuck, you smell like a sweaty cookie.”

“By choice. The ladies will be swarming all over me.”

“Doubtful,” Valerie snorted. “You smell horrible.”

He pointed at her with the can. “You don’t count. You’re already dating Dan-”

The can slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground, spraying Valerie in the process.

She scowled as the smell of sports bra and sugar cookies washed over her. “You better hope this washes out,” she growled and shoved past him towards the locker room. Thankfully she had first period free so she could shower and drown her clothes in perfume. It didn’t completely help, but it was better. Maybe she should consider keeping a spare set of clothes in her locker. It’d help for the times she tears her clothes in a fight.

“Anyone in here?” Tetslaff called just as she finished fixing her hair.

“I’m here,” she said, tossing her mini curling iron into her locker. She grabbed her bag and walked towards the door to see Tetslaff eyeing her.

“You feeling okay, Gray? Any bug bites?”

“No. I’m fine. Why?”

“All students need to report to the gym. Anyone else here?”

She shook her head. “Bailey was in here, but she left a few minutes ago.

The PE teacher nodded and escorted her to the gym. She was surprised to see the entire student body either sitting or laying on the floor and bleachers, most of whom were glowing. The teachers were hovering over everyone as a man in a doctor’s uniform drifted through, occasionally stopping to talk to the students.

When he saw her, he came over. “And who do we have here?”

“Valerie Gray, what’s going on?”

“What symptoms is she showing?” he asked Tetslaff, ignoring Valerie’s question.

“None as far as I’ve seen,” she grunted and the doctor frowned behind his mask.

“Interesting. She’s the fourth one. Sit her with the others.” He gestured to the corner and Valerie smiled to see Danny, Sam, and Tucker waiting there.

They looked surprised when she joined them and Danny pulled her into a hug. “You okay?”

“Other than still smelling a little awful, I’m perfect. What’s going on?” she asked, pulling back but staying pressed into his side.

Sam gestured to the other students. “Some sort of ghost bug, literally. A whole swarm attacked the school and started phasing into people, resulting in that. You didn’t notice?”

“I’ve been in the showers.” She sent Tucker a look and he ducked behind Sam. “None of you got the bug?”

They shook their heads and Danny pointed off to the side, “Jazz did though.”

Valerie looked over to see Danny’s sister curled up on a mat, her body fuzzy at the edges. “Well, there goes the idea that prolonged exposure to ghost hunting equipment is what’s protecting us. Are your parents doing anything?”

Danny shrugged. “We’ve been in here the whole time. The doctor said he wanted us close since we’re the only ones showing signs of immunity. And they took our phones so I can’t call my parents.”

She smirked and took out her phone. “Looks like they forgot to take mine.”

Danny took it and the three crowded around him to keep him from sight.

“Do your parents have something that could fix this?” Sam asked as Danny dialed.

He thought about it for a second then smiled. “Mom, Dad… Yeah, I’m okay… Really? That’s weird. Why wouldn’t they tell you anything? Nevermind, I’ll explain everything, but can you guys grab the Ghost Catcher before you leave?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is it just me or does Dr. Rand look really mad that his patients are being cured?” Valerie hummed.

Said doctor was currently standing off to the side as the teachers lead students through the ghost catcher, Danny’s parents sucking up the ghost bugs as they were pulled out.

Jazz took in his scowl with a frown. “Maybe it’s a pride thing? He was pretty much useless.”

“Or maybe he was part of a government conspiracy to experiment on us while we possessed ghost abilities,” Sam suggested.

“Sounds like something the Guys in White would do,” Danny muttered sleepily from his spot in Valerie’s lap.

“He’s a doctor. All doctors are evil,” Tucker agreed.

“What’s his problem?” Valerie whispered to her boyfriend.

“He’s afraid of doctors, nurses, hospitals, so on.”

“What’d you say his name was again?” Jazz asked, still staring at the man.

“Dr. Bert Rand.”

“Bertrand? Like Ms. Spectra’s gh-assistant?” Jazz stuttered.

The trio turned to her, then groaned, “Oh my god, we’re idiots.”

Valerie frowned as their voices nudged at her, but pushed it aside as Jazz asked, “What?”

“Spectra was a ghost, same for Bertrand. They must be behind the attack on the school,” Sam explained.

Valerie narrowed her eyes and moved Danny off of her. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Jazz bit her lip as the girl left, then nudged Danny. “You three should go too. You, uh, don’t know when you might get another chance.”

They frowned, but agreed quickly and left.

Jazz smiled and leaned back. Those three could take care of the ghosts. Now she just needed an excuse for when Valerie got back.

{Pirate Radio}

Jazz sighed as she relaxed on her blanket, only to frown when someone started messing with the radio.

She sat up to glare at Tucker. “Knock it off!”

He held up his hands and backed up.

“Come on, Jazz. This music bites,” Danny said. “It’s our turn to pick something to listen to.”

“I like it. It relaxes me.”

“Well, we do outnumber you four to one,” Valerie pointed out.

Jazz grabbed the radio and held it close to her, scowling at the younger teens that she had joined on the Ops Center for stargazing.

Just then, the ground began to rumble and a pirate ship of all things burst intangibly out of the street.

Jazz jumped to her feet and gestured her brother back. “Danny, you, Sam, and Tucker need to go. Uh, go get our parents. Downstairs. Out of view.”

“R-right, we’ll go get them,” Tucker said and the trio ran off.

“I thought your parents were out,” Valerie said.

“Oops, I forgot.” Jazz turned to the girl and was surprised to see her pulling a ghost pistol out of her bag.

The girl froze. “Oh, uh, Danny gave it to me. For, you know, protection?”

As cute as it was that Danny was so worried about his girlfriend, Jazz would have to talk to him about handing out weapons of all things.

“Got anything else in there?”

Valerie tossed her a thermos just as a group of pirate ghosts landed on the Ops Center. The two girls went to work blasting and sucking up ghosts. Jazz saw a pair heading for the shield and pointed them out to Valerie, but Danny or one of his partners cut them off. She turned back to the main group of pirates and smiled when she saw the other two flying through the air.

She frowned when they seemed to fire on nothing. “What are they doing?”

Valerie looked up, then gave her an incredulous look. “Fighting the ghost captain.”

“I don’t see anything.”

“Weird,” she shot a headless pirate and Jazz sucked him in. “Can you hear him?”

“No.”

“Lucky you. He’s a brat. Maybe eight or nine years… Okay, so he’s eleven. Like that makes a big difference,” she snorted. Then her eyes widened and she barrelled into Jazz.

Something exploded behind them.

“You’ve never babysat, have you? Jazz asked as they picked themselves up. “Kids don’t like to be told they’re younger than they think they are.”

“I’ve only babysat actual babies. They don’t talk back,” Valerie said.

The ghost ship flickered then disappeared.

“What happened?”

“Doppelgänger caught the brat.”

The sound of a guitar-strumming echoed around them and two of Danny’s trio slammed into the ground in front of the girls.

“Ember’s back,” they said, rubbing their heads. “You guys might want to either get inside or put on Specter Deflectors before you get hypnotized.”

“M. Bersback? The guy who gave us that awful Vapor Drone? He’s a ghost?” Valerie asked.

They stared at her blankly, then one threw their hands in the air. “Oh come on! That's not a clue. That's a billboard! We really got to start paying more attention to these things!”

{Reign Storm, Part 1}

“Did you get the book report done?” Valerie asked as she passed Danny a water bottle.

“Mm-hm.” He took the bottle and tried to drink it.

“Lid Danny,” she chuckled.

He scowled and took the lid off. “I think you beat the ghost out of me.”

“Then I did my job,” she chuckled. “Seriously though, you’re doing really good.”

“Can I have my black belt then?”

“Not quite. Now come on, we’ve still got fifteen minutes before we need to clean up.”

He groaned, but pushed himself to his feet and followed her over to the wrestling mat. Jazz had somehow talked Tobias, the wrestling coach, into letting them use it for their sparring in the morning after Tuesday’s practice in return for cleaning up after. It was a lot better than sparring at home, even if it did mean getting up way too early.

Of course, being at school meant there were sometimes distractions.

“Think fast, Fentoni!”

Danny turned just as Valerie caught the football that was headed for him.

“Unless you’re here to spar, then get lost, Dash,” she huffed, tossing the ball to Kwan.

“Spar with Fenton?” Dash laughed and Kwan joined in.

“You’d snap him in half before he could even throw his first punch!”

“I thought I said to get lost,” Valerie growled stepping between them and Danny.

Dash leered at him. “You gonna let a girl fight your battles.”

Danny raised an eyebrow as Valerie stiffened. “Now you f-ed up.”

“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Baxter?” she asked, cracking her knuckles.

Kwan grabbed Dash’s shoulder and whispered something that made Dash pale.

“J-just that Fenton’s too weak to fight his own battles, he has to rely on his girlfriend to do it for him. I did-din’t mean, you know, that a girl couldn’t kick butt.”

“Nice save,” Danny said and Dash gave him a death glare.

“Leave,” Valerie said.

They did.

“I’m definitely going to pay for that later,” Danny chuckled as he got into position on the mat.

“If you’re not going to fight back then stop antagonizing him,” she said.

“I’ve considered fighting back.”

“Then why don’t you.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t met Sidney Poindexter, then.”

“Who?”

“He’s the ghost who haunts my locker. He gets huffy with me if I try to get back at Dash. I was putting my annoyingness to full use on Dash when we first met and Sidney is paranoid I’ll do it again. According to him, I’m just as much of a bully as Dash if I do and he hates bullies.”

“Need me to take care of him?”

“Nah, we’ve got a truce. He’s not too bad. I just can’t pull anything on Dash without risking a lecture from him. And he’s still learning modern slang so a lecture from him is even worse than one of Lancer’s hip and funky fresh talks.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you guys know why Nathan’s been giving me evil eyes?” Danny asked as the trio walked home.

“He’s got a crush on Valerie. He’s ticked you and her are dating,” Tucker explained.

“He came up to me the other day and tried to tell me I needed to, Get your cheating boyfriend away from my Valerie! It took me fifteen minutes to get him to back off and I think he still believes you’re two-timing Valerie and I,” Sam said.

“We’re dating? Sam, why didn't you tell me? I'd have put my book down.”

Sam shoved him towards his stoop. “I want to break up. It’s not me, it’s you.”

“Okay, but I get Tucker in the divorce.”

Tucker shook his head and linked arms with Sam. “Sorry, Danny, but you knew I was a gold digger going into this.”

Sam shoved him away as well. “You can have him.”

“Changed my mind, he’s yours now.”

“You’re both awful,” Tucker fake whined and marched off.

“See you tomorrow,” the two yelled at his retreating back.

Danny turned to Sam. “Are you going to head out for patrol or do you want a snack first?”

“Depends, what’s the likelihood your food’s contaminated?”

“My mom and dad are partway through a new invention.”

“Pass.”

“You guys are ridiculous,” he called as she went to the nearest alleyway.

“Ectoplasm’s not a veggie,” she called back.

“Okay, fair,” he snorted and opened the door. “I’m home. Anything happen while -”

Danny cut off as he saw his family in the living room surrounding a certain fruit loop.

“Ah, hello, Daniel!”

“You!” he shouted, tossing his bag aside and marching up to the group. “What are you doing here?”

Some of his anger lifted as he saw his mom accidentally poor tea right onto Vlad’s lap. “Totally valid question.”

“Still steaming?” Vlad asked in his creepy stalker voice.

“You have no idea,” she growled.

Vlad turned his attention to Danny. “I was just, you know, passing through. And then I saw that marvelous battlesuit and thought, since I can't just destroy Jack and take it, I suppose I'll steal its secrets right out from under his nose!”

Danny’s fists clenched as Vlad met his dad’s eyes with a smile and the two started laughing.

“Oh I swear, I am such a josher,” he held his cup up to Danny’s mom. “More tea please.”

She poured it on his head.

“Not there! Ooh!”

Danny’s mom stomped off and his dad followed.

“I don't know what you're up to, Plasmius,” Danny started in a whisper, then blinked. “Actually, I do. You just told me.”

“That’s right! And say a word and I'll share your secret with your little friend.”

Danny stared at him blankly. “What friend?”

“Miss Gray.”

“How do you even -”

Danny was cut off when an alarm sounded through the house. His dad ran back into the room and hit a hidden button to bring up a radar system.

“Galloping goblets, it's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm!”

“The Ecto-whaty-what?” Jazz and Danny asked.

“The Ecto-Exodus Alarm! An alarm that only goes off when we're about to face a massive ghost invasion!”

Danny faked reaching into his pocket so he could grab the Fenton Phones out of his Space Fold. “I need to make a call!”

He felt Vlad’s eyes on his back as he ran upstairs, but ignored them.

“Sam, Tucker, please tell me one of you can hear me?” he said into the phones and through their link as he shut his door.

“What’s wrong?” Sam said.

“Ghost invasion. Big one. Coming right at us,” Danny said and transformed. “We need to get back here right now.”

Danny’s ghost sense went off.

“Too late.”

Danny flew out of the house as ghosts came pouring out of the portal and onto the street. His eyes landed on Johnny and Kitty and he flew towards them.

“Hey Thirteen, what’s going on?” he asked as he came level with the bike.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” Kitty said, turning to him. “Pariah Dark’s back.”

“Who?”

“If you don’t know, we’re not going to tell you,” Johnny snorted.

“Come on. We’ve been letting you mostly run wild as long as you don’t hurt anyone or destroy anything. Can’t you just tell us?”

Johnny growled and stopped the bike. “Look, we don’t know too much. He’s way, way before our time. All we know is that he’s called the King of All Ghosts and someone woke him up. Now he’s trashing the zone and looking for some ring that will give him ultimate power or something when paired with his crown. He’s powerful so everyone’s getting while the gettin’s good. Speaking of which.”

Johnny took off, but Danny didn’t bother to chase him. Instead, he turned to Sam as she joined him.

“This is bad. No kidding.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tucker flinched as his ghost sense went off for the fifteenth time. Where were all these ghosts coming from? He hoped he got into range of the mind link soon. Sam at least should be transformed so he should be getting close. Why did he have to choose today of all days to visit the gaming shop in Elmerton?

Someone blasted him and he groaned. He’d wanted to regroup with his partners before picking any fights. He turned to his opponent and groaned again. “What are you doing in town, fruit loop?”

“Haven’t we already been through this, Daniel?” Vlad asked flying closer and Tucker rolled his eyes.

So Danny or Sam have talked to him then. He hoped they were okay. “Refresh our memory.” Goosebumps swept over him and he gestured towards the ghost. “Are you the reason all these ghosts are around?”

“I’m flattered you think I could organize all this.”

“You’re right. We forgot you put everything into intelligence and strength. No way you could convince all these ghosts to listen with your charisma being a dump stat,” Tucker said, nodding. “Our bad.”

Vlad looked confused for a moment, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not here to play games, Daniel.”

“Then you’ve got the wrong half-ghost.” If he didn’t want jokes, he should have gone with Sam.

Vlad scowled at him, then he was being grabbed from behind. He looked up to see another Vlad holding him. The older halfa pinned one of his arms behind his back and held the other out to the first Vlad.

“Let go of us, creep!”

“Calm down, Daniel. I’m not going to hurt you,” Vlad one said, flying closer and grabbing his wrist. “I simply need you to hold onto something for me.”

“And why would we ever help you?”

Vlad one disconnected his glove from the hazmat and pulled it off, revealing green skin and black nails.

Wow, Sam would like those.

“Because this is a powerful relic,” Vlad two explained as Vlad one slipped a green and black ring onto Tucker’s middle finger. “One which I’m sure you’d want to keep safe and out of the hands of dangerous ghosts.”

“Like you?”

Vlad one smirked and replaced his glove.

“If it’s so powerful, why would you give it up?” Tucker asked as the Vlads let him go and merged together.

“That is for you to discover on your own. Ta!” He teleported away.

“We need to get a restraining order or something,” Tucker muttered, rubbing his shoulder. He glanced down at his hand uncertainly. Vlad could certainly have been lying, but if he wasn’t, Tucker couldn’t just toss the ring and risk it ending up in the wrong hands.

With a sigh, he continued on his way. The trio could figure this out together. Thankfully he only had to fly for a few minutes before his mind connected to Sam and Danny.