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ashdoesfandomarchieved · 4 years

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Hey!! Could you write something shippy about Boimler and Mariner? What if Boimler regularly spent time in the holodeck acting out certain scenarios and situations with Mariner? 👀

A/N: This was way angstier than I meant it to be. And way less sexier. I apologize in advance.

ao3

She glares at him, mouth pressed into a thin line. “What happened to having each other’s backs? I put my ass on the line for you. Repeatedly.”

He winces. This conversation is not going how he’d planned. “Mariner, I-”

Mariner clenches her fists and straightens. “No, you don’t get to say anything after what you pulled. Fuck you.”

The image freezes and Boimler resets the simulation.

What seems like years ago, he remembers lecturing Tendi overusing the Holodecks for fun. The details are fuzzy. It was before the “GUYS I MADE US INTO A MOVIE'' incident with Mariner, but after that weirdass thing with Rutherford and his rogue program. He thinks she and Mariner had been using it to watch Ransom in an array of—what he now admits-hysterical situations—but can’t be sure.

She and Mariner have gotten up to so much shit, he can’t keep track.

He doesn’t know why he’s remembering it now. It was a random conversation that happened a long time ago—a few months after Tendi was assigned to the Cerritos? –so there’s no reason why he should be thinking about it right now.

Liar, a smug voice intones in his head. It sounds vaguely like Mariner. Boimler aggressively shoves it down.

This isn’t for fun, he anxiously tells the voice in his head. The voice is quiet. It does nothing to soothe the turning of his stomach.

It’s been three months since Boimler requested a transfer back to the Cerritos. Three months since he’d run into Rutherford and Tendi on shore leave and the three of them got swept up into a ridiculous, interplanetary civil war that took three different starship crews to settle out. Three months since he’d almost died more times than he can count on all his fingers and toes, three months since he thought Tendi had died, miles away from her home, on a world which would never remember her name, three months since Mariner swept in and fixed everything.

It’s been three months.

Not that he’s counting.

Somewhere between being in a remote alien prison with Tendi and hiking for a month in a perpetually dark wilderness with Rutherford, Boimler had come to the belated conclusion that his career didn’t take precedence over his friends.

(Also, if he’s being completely honest, he missed the chaos of being a lower deck ensign. Not that he still doesn’t want to be in the upper ranks. Just not without his dumb, dumb friends.)

After it was all over—and he’d realized that Tendi was alive—he put in his transfer request, surprising all his peers.

“This just isn’t a good fit for me,” was his official statement.

Captain Riker gave him a bland look. “You worked with Beckett, didn’t you.” His voice was flat, but his eyes were amused.

“Is it that obvious?”

“She rubs off on people. Don’t let her give you a hard time,” he added, signing off on the request. “It was nice working with you, Boimler. If you ever need anything, let me know.”

And so here he is, a newly minted ensign again, on the lower decks of the Cerritos.

(Captain Freeman is thrilled. “All operations have been down by 18% since you left. Good to have you back, Boimler.”)

Tendi and Rutherford seem hyped to have him back-Tendi especially, who’s been a little clingy with everyone since her near-death experience-but are acting uncharacteristically nervous around him. This isn’t a surprise. The tension between him and Mariner when she’d shown up on Roxadt II was insane and was only getting worse with every day. It’s been six weeks since he’d transferred, and she’s found a reason to be in a different room for all six of them.

Hence the simulations.

That makes absolutely no fucking sense, the Mariner-esque voice in his head sneers. Just talk to her you fucking wimp.

Boimler ignores it.

“Scenario A-187,” the clinical voice of the simulation intones. The simulation restarts.

It goes exactly the same way 186 other scenarios had gone. He corners Mariner. She stays quiet. He apologizes. She explodes.

Mariner’s anger had always burnt red hot. He’d first experienced it when an ensign got a little frisky with Tendi after she’d repeatedly told him no. Mariner’s fury at the situation felt justified. Vindicated. The ensign had been demoted so hard, Boimler was certain they’d seen the last of him for like. Well, forever. At the time he’d been astonished that she’d managed to pull it off, but after finding out about her familial connection to the Captain, it made sense.

He’d seen a glimpse of that anger a few more times—when Captain Freeman had forced her to go to therapy, after Rutherford had been captured by rogue Klingons, that one-time Ransom tried to promote her. But never toward Boimler.

Oh, she’d get irritated with him. “Loosen up, Boimler, it’s not that bad.”

“Look, the worst that’ll happen is that we get a note to file-stop yelling!”

“Dude if you don’t chill the fuck out I might actually throw you out of an airlock.”

Standard Mariner reactions, right? Yeah, she’d been pretty pissed when he took the promotion (his voicemail had been blowing up for the first 48 hours after he transferred), but it had died down fairly quickly so he had logically assumed that she had gotten over it.

He assumed wrong. If her icing him out was to be taken into account. So here he was, six weeks in, desperate and stressed from his friend’s apparent dismissal. The obvious solution, his sleep deprived brain decided, was to simulate a conversation with her using his high-tech program on the holodeck.

This may have not been the best idea. But he’s calculated the probability of anything going wrong and it’s under 3%, so he’s almost guaranteed success.

(So, of course, it blows up in his face, in true Boimler fashion.)

“Okay, I have a pretty high threshold for weird, but this might take the cake,” a voice slowly says.

Boimler startles. Whirls around. Shuts down the simulation. “Ohhh shit-”

“Yeah shit,” Mariner says, stalking into the room. “What the hell, dude?”

“This isn’t what it looks like!” Boimler sputters out, panicked. The simulation is shut down, leaving them in the empty holodeck room, but the echoes of Holo-Mariner’s rage still resonate between them. Actual Mariner is staring at him, face somewhere between completely shocked and furious.

“Did you use your dumbass hyper realistic program to simulate a situation with me so that you could cheat later?”

“I mean, kinda?”

“Then it’s exactly what it looks like!” Mariner slaps a palm over her eyes.

“Well what was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know—maybe talk to me like a person? Not use your creepy, hyper realistic simulations to roleplay it?” She drops her hand and glares up at him.

Boimler rolls his eyes. “You literally created a simulation to kill the entire crew because your mom made you go to therapy.”

“Yeah and it fucking worked.”

“Then why are you yelling at me?!”

“I’m not!” she shrieks. “I’m very calmly telling you to fucking talk to me next time!”

“There’s not going to be a next time!”

Mariner stops, mouth open. “What?”

“Look, I get it. I fucked up and you apparently don’t do second chances! I was trying to make things right but clearly it isn’t working. I’ll stay out of your way now.”

Instead of pacifying her, this seems to make Mariner even more furious. “You fucking asshole. what am I supposed to say to that?” she shouts, stomping up to him.

He groans in exasperation. “Apparently nothing, considering you don’t want to talk to me!”

Her hands grab his collar, pulling him down to eye level with her. “I literally just said to talk to me next time!”

“And how was I supposed to do that if you’re avoiding me?”

“You’re the one who fucked off in the Titan to god-knows-where,” Mariner grits out.

So they’re actually doing this. Boimler swallows hard. Takes a breath. Tries to quell the anxiety welling in his gut. “I’m sorry.”

“Right after you said you didn’t care about rank or shit,” she adds, twisting the knife.

“Yeah. It was really shitty of me.”

“And then you ghosted me for like six months.”

Boimler winced. “Yeah—I. Yeah.”

Mariner’s iron grip on his shirt loosens, but she doesn’t let go completely. “That was really shitty of you.”

Not sure what to say, beyond apologizing again, Boimler gives a jerky nod.

“You came back.” She stares at him, eyes unfathomable. “The Titan wasn’t everything you dreamed it would be.”

It’s not a question.

Boimler still has an answer, though. “It was.”

She stiffens. He pushes forward, intent on getting this out while he still has her attention. “It was everything I wanted in a career. I was doing what I wanted, everyone took me seriously. Our missions came straight from the Admiralty and they treated us like we weren’t a joke. I loved it.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I care more about my friends then I do about people taking me seriously.”

Mariner freezes and then lets out a strangled laugh. “Now I think you’re the simulation. Who are you and what have you done with Boimler?” She pokes at his cheek.

He grins. And then falters. “For what it’s worth—and I know it’s not worth much—but. I am sorry. I wasn’t a very good friend.”

“Yeah you weren’t.” She lets go of her grip on his shirt completely and draws back. “You said you were my best friend and then you left. For Riker.”

“That makes me sound like the love interest in a cheesy drama. And like I’m hooking up with Riker.”

“I said what I said.”

Boimler laughs. It feels real for the first time in a long while. “Are we good?”

“No.” Mariner smiles. “I’m going to give you so much shit and you’re gonna grovel for like months and then I’m going to tell my mom that you used to holodeck to simulate certain situations with me.”

“If you do that I’m transferring back,” Boimler tells her. “Your mom finally likes me; I don’t need her ejecting me out of an airlock.”

“She wouldn’t do that.” Mariner waves him off.

“She totally would.”

“Yeah, she totally would,” she agrees. Grabs his arm and begins dragging him out of the holodeck. “So maybe I won’t tell her. I am telling Tendi though and she’s gonna give you so much shit considering you reemed her out over misusing the holodeck.”

Boimler makes a face. “I’ll probably let her too. I’m such a hypocrite.”

“You are, but it’s super weird to hear you be honest about it. Stop being all apologetic, it’s weird.”

They’ve reached the corridor. Mariner steers them in the direction of the bar. “Only if you promise to deck me if I ever make a dumb decision like that again,” he says, giving in and allowing himself to be manhandled. It’s the least he owes her.

“Deal. And the next time you use your weird, hyper realistic simulator—which doesn’t even fucking work by the way, I’m not that much of a bitch—you gotta promise you’ll use it for sexy reason only.”

“Sexy reasons only,” Boimler deadpans. “You know they log everything we do down there.”

Mariner wiggles her eyebrows up and down. “I know.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“And you’re uptight, but you’re the one who was playing with simulations of me.”

“That sounds way worse than it actually is,” he cringes.

“No, it doesn’t. I would take some sexy action over your sad, sad trauma simulations any day. Next time I catch you, you’d better be having fun with it.”

“Mariner, what the fuck—”

They dissolve into good natured bickering. She says something lewd and he rolls his eyes and elbows her and she squawks in protest and threatens to get him thrown in the brig. It’s normal, but it’s also not. There’s something new in the air between them that wasn’t there before. Tension, but not negative. It’s charged with. Something else.

Boimler doesn’t examine it too closely. Better to let it work itself out naturally. After all, he has all the time in the world now.

#star trek lower decks #marinler #beckett mariner #brad boimler #fanfiction #my fanfiction #lower decks #star trek lower decks fanfic #prompts #lofi writes

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unfortunate-stranger-losers · 5 years

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Okay I don’t expect you to write this but imagine It/asoue au. What do the Baudelaires and quagmires see? How does their knowledge and resourcefulness help them? Who’s the biggest skeptic? The possibilities, fam.

Okay so first off, someone actually has written an ASOUE/IT AU! @weirdthoughtsandideas has written The Unfortunate Losers, and while I haven’t read it yet, I’ve heard from everyone else it’s really good! Definitely check it out!

I will mention that I did make a gifset for a potential Unfortunate Gen in IT AU about a year ago (May 4 2018) so I do have some ideas of my own that I’m gonna go ahead and put under the cut.

Again, haven’t read TUL, so any similarities are coincidences.

Okay SO here’s what I’d have for setup:

The Quagmires have been in Derry for a few years with their parents. Fiona’s been living near the lake with her Stepdad (her brother’s away for work). Carmelita is from the rich side of town, Friday is from the poorer side.

Quigley and Duncan had been collecting stories from Derry for a while, convinced that there was something that made the adults not give a shit about the kids.

A few months-a year before the story begins, the Quagmire Fire happens. Quigley escapes with severe burns, hiding in the woods because he’s scared of the uncaring adults. After a while, Fiona finds him, and once he swears her to secrecy, she hides him in an old underground clubhouse and treats his wounds.

Duncan and Isadora eventually find him after Fiona says some cryptic shit and they follow her. They also agree not to tell anyone, but for more practical reasons; they’ve been placed under the care of Count Olaf, who is a right bastard and they don’t want Quigley getting hurt.

A little bit before the story begins, the Baudelaire parents die in an accident and they’re also placed under Olaf’s care.

Alright now after that here are the story beats I know I want:

The Quags sneak out to visit Quigley and get followed by the Baudelaires. This is how they all become acquainted with Quigley and Fiona.

Friday is either our Georgie (rip) or she’s the one who gets captured like Bev in the 2017 film.

Carmelita might fill a vaguely Henry Bowers role but idk if I want to make her irredeemable so maybe redemption? idk tho

Duncan and Quig are our conspiracy theorists who figure out about the clown first, though Sunny “I tried to bite a Demon Clown” Baudelaire certainly helps.

Possible implication that the ATWQ gang fought IT twenty-seven years ago.

And of course the best part: the FEARS

Violet gets Beverly’s fear, mainly due to Count Olaf’s… unwanted attention. She also get Bev’s haircut because the scene of her hair shooting out of the drain before blood spurts out… iconic!! So, yeah, she gets a bloody bathroom scene.

Klaus gets the clown taking the form of his dead parents, or the form of a dying Violet or Sunny, telling him that he’s worthless and stupid and nobody will ever love him. He also gets the creepy Clown Doll Room that Richie got in 2k17.

Sunny has no fear gets the werewolf bc why not.

Duncan and Isadora share a fear; the fire that killed their parents, and the memory of their parents struggling to get to them while dying. (Like Mike in the 2017 film). Sometimes Pennywise tortures them more by taking the form of a dying, burned Quigley.

Quigley gets darkness; he’s surrounded by a pitch blackness, and he can’t see what’s around him or find his way anywhere. All he can see, after several panicked minutes, is the glowing eyes coming towards him, before his siblings show up.

Fiona gets drowning. She’s alone in a room in her house when a leak starts, so she puts a bucket under it and continues on. But then another leak starts, and then another, and soon the room is flooding. She can’t get the door open, nobody can hear her, and the room is filling. As she starts losing her ability to float, she starts seeing this strange shape coming towards her, with glowing eyes… and then her stepfather opens the door, asking why on earth she was shouting, and he can’t see the water.

Carmelita gets isolation. Nobody can see or hear her, and after a while, she can’t see or hear anyone. Then the room starts closing in, crushing her.

Friday gets the Leper; someone who “didn’t listen to their parents” and “rocked the boat”, and thus is diseased and dying and chasing her, trying to get her to rock the boat.

Also one last note

Should we have a “27 years later they come back” storyline, everyone slowly starts to remember… except Sunny. Because she was like. a fucking infant. She is very pissed she got called to this weirdass town when she could be working in her kitchen and chilling with her girlfriend and she is 100% convinced that everyone else was just on drugs the whole time.

Sunny: Oh my God, shut up, there is no demon clown, you all were just super high. Violet: Sunny there’s literally a mummy right behind you Sunny, barely glancing behind her at the giant-ass scary mummy: That’s just how Maine is

#asoue #asoue netflix #a series of unfortunate events #it #it chapter one #it au #asoue au #it's unfortunate #the baudelaires in derry #mine #ask #eddiesarm

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diisenchvnted · 5 years

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KIERNAN SHIPKA, DEMIGIRL, SHE/HER. — looks like BEATRICE “TRIXIE” BELLEROSE is attending AURADON PREP in auradon. they're the NINETEEN year old child of THE ENCHANTRESS, which means they're from THE ISLE. heard they're ENERGETIC & CREATIVE, but can also be OFFBEAT & NAÏVE ; we all have our bad days. people normally associate them with RED PETALS FALLING OFF A BLOOMING ROSE, A CRACKED HANDMIRROR BY YOUR BESIDE, RUBY RED LIPS AND BIG BROWN EYES, WORN STUFFED ANIMALS SALVAGED WITH A POOR SEWING JOB. — hylia.

❛ it’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and... have you any dreams you’d like to sell ?? ❜ playlist. pinterest. to listen as you read. tws : mental abuse ( by a parent )

so hi again i am hylia and this is Baby. idk how long this one’s gonna end up eITHER bc my allergies are kickin’ my ass today and I should be resting but I cannot stay away from this group for that long. So yes !! pls continue reading for more info abt trixie bby here. i lov her.

HISTORY

The daughter of the Enchantress - yes , the same Enchantress that turned Prince Adam into a beast - Trixie never really understood why her family was stuck on the Isle. Since of course , the Enchantress only taught Adam a lesson , yes ?? It was maybe through more harsh means than one would think , but . . . she wasn’t a bad guy.

...Right ??

All Trixie knew was that this was the life she was given , and she had to suck it up and deal with it. And never one to really sit around feeling sorry for herself , she took it. And her life was pretty normal for an Isle kid , save for her mother projecting her anger at being thrown on Isle onto her child.

There was always a talk of showing them. Telling Trixie , One day we’ll show them what a real lesson is since they didn’t learn from last time. Excessively tutoring her in all things magic and enchanting despite the fact that powers like that actually terrified the child to her core.

But there was always pressure - and it only increased when it was found out the Isle kids were getting a chance. In Trixie’s mind , this was a new way to explore , a new opportunity for a brand new life - UNTIL Trixie’s mother decided it would finally be able to kick their plans into motion. All of that tutoring , all of the training that made it so Trixie never had many friends , couldn’t leave the house much - it would have to pay off.

Gifted with an enchanted mirror and an enchanted rose by her mother - exact replicas to the beast’s , the Enchantress gave Trixie an ultimatum to make sure revenge was sated : give the Beast’s family the same fate he once bore ( essentially , transform them all into beasts like he used to be ) by the time the last petal falls , or be doomed to become a beast herself.

And . . . that’s where she is now.

FACTS / CHARACTER

SO YES THAT’S IT - Trixie’s mother basically wants her to turn Belle, Adam , and their kids into beasts to get revenge or else Trixie’s gonna be the one turning into a beast if she doesn’t do it. And yes it’s fucking terrifying.

Nobody knows of this secret except for the two people involved in the deal - Trixie , and her mom. And by God Trixie does not want to do this.

And realistically , for RP purposes , I’m gonna inform you now that there is no way that the revenge is gonna be carried out. The Florians are fine. We all know she’s not gonna do it. But right now , since Trixie just got here and has that ultimatum , she doesn’t know that yet. So she’s struggling with a lose-lose situation since if she does do that , she makes herself an Auradonian criminal , and if she defies her mother and doesn’t , she becomes a beast and she has no idea how to undo a spell like that.

So yeah , just to clarify - nobody else really knows about this. Trixie keeps this deal hidden , and also hides the two items related to it in her closet ( the handmirror and rose ) so nobody finds them. Even though she routinely carries the mirror around with her and checks on the rose frequently because yes , its petals are starting to fall.

Which brings me to my next point - Trixie has AMAZING power , and essentially , later on in her life it’s destined that she’ll become the next Enchantress. But because Trixie’s magical prowess isn’t manifesting fully yet , aka - it’s not showing on the outside , she doesn’t think she has much of a talent with it. She doesn’t know her own strength yet.

And of course , her mother knows of this. Her mother knows she’s going to excel - but there’s both difficulties in keeping that a secret and letting her become aware.

She keeps it a secret right now - it’s in an effort to keep Trixie under her thumb. But this is also proving difficult for Trixie to carry out the revenge scheme due to a lack of confidence paired with her morals.

If Trixie becomes aware of her power , then that means she’s going to find out she’s growing stronger as her mother’s magic is waning - kind of like the deal with the Supreme in American Horror Story. Trixie’s power grows stronger as her mother’s grows weaker , but that isn’t showing yet in the former of the two.

So right now , Trixie is forcing herself to practice her magic to get stronger to appease her mother - even though honestly ?? She does not like magic. It terrifies her , and she blames her ability to use it for why her life kind of sucks right now.

To sort of make sure nobody is suspicious of her , Trixie doesn’t even tell people who her mother is. She just says her mother was a fling of Gaston’s banished to the Isle by association - that’s it.

And this is sort of how she’s managed to get a part-time job working in Ben’s castle as a maid to get close.

...Even though she really , really , really doesn’t like that.

But also !! One thing she has going for her is that despite everything - she is very outwardly FRIENDLY and optimistic - always smiley , always chatting up somebody up. This is sort of an effort to make herself feel better rather than put on a facade , since Trixie’s more keen on focusing on things that don’t make her feel sad to distract herself from the actual situation.

“Trix you’re in denial” “I know.”

Also this sort of influence her tendency to ignore or run away from situations as much as she can bc... mood.

Acting in her own world is very normal for her - and it’s a major coping mechanism. She’s very creative , obsessed with fairytales and stories and probably knows the whole story about your parents more than you do. She in fact writes some of her own in her spare time , always keeping a journal around with her for writing when she’s bored.

Also keeps a dream journal ( mR. ELECTRICDAD SEND HIM TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE AND HAVE HIM EXPELLED !!11!!1!!!!!! ) bc she is big into the belief our dreams have deeper meanings n stuff

She’s not the type to shy away from stuff tho in the sense of like... conversing about very out there topics or saying weirdass things that pop into her head. Sort of seen as a little weirdo for this but it all comes for the fact that Trixie is a HUGE thinker.

Also into the supernatural even on the slightly more malevolent side just bc she finds it interesting - she’s 100% the friend that proposes u guys try and summon demons during sleepovers

My lil weird baby

Looks rly good in green and red tbh and probably owns like forty-five different shades of lipstick since coming to Auradon

Also has a lot of rose-patterned/themed stuff just bc frankly it’s cute.

God as a character it’s so hard to describe her like... in words this sounds so pretentious but I do so much better showing and not telling bc her character is so complex in the sense that she’s. She’s like a dream. That’s the best way I can describe her - a dream as in the random , thought-induced , fantasy-like parts of dreams rather than the romantic parts of everything.

That probably makes no sense but. Yeah.

She’s weird I love her

Probably would do well in Wonderland if she didn’t have her mother lOOMING OVER HER HEAD

WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

OKAY SO PLSSS GIVE ME FRIENDS TRIXIE USED TO HAVE ON THE ISLE BUT SHE LOST TOUCH W/ FOR BEING SO... CLOSED IN

In general I just want friends that Trixie has that she can’t rly tell what’s going on with her. At all. And it breaks her heart bc she finally has the chance to fit in and get along with people but either way she decides to take her mother’s deal makes it so she can’t keep them.

Lots of secrets are gonna be passed about.

I’d lov her to eventually bond with sb so she can actually EXPLAIN her problem to and cry about it bc baby lowkey feels like she’s on her own in this and can’t turn to anyone for it

PPL WHO TRIXIE HELPS WITH WRITING BC SHE LOVES IT

Ppl who Trixie rly likes in any sense to point where she bases some fairytale characters in her own stories off of them

I’d also love some enemies pls gimme gimme gimme

Some ppl who suspect Trixie bc she seems so... vague. Like she’s not giving the full story.

Isle kids who know EXACTLY who Trixie’s mother is and for some reason resent her for tht bc I don’t think the Enchantress is the nicest magic user out there rn

Friendships that went sour bc Trixie’s been keeping so many SECRETS

First love who went sour for the same reasons : /

The general uhhhhh exes, crushes, that sorta stuff

Any ship that’s gonna b like a full on sHIP SHIP will have to b seen how chemistry works out !! But Trixie’s a panromantic asexual bby who I adore.

I’d love some folks she aCCIDENTALLY exposes her magic to and they can either

A .) Blackmail her n threaten to expose her for it

or B.) Find it RLY RLY RLY cool n she just shows them a bunch of magic... trix

hahaha HAHAHAHAHA

please clap.

BT ALSO LETS DEFFO BRAINSTORM SOME !!! again i’ll be making an official connections page for her like i am w/ luke but in the meantime ! lets plot !

#no graphic atm bc i can't b bothered i'm so sorry #usoa:intro #abt tag tbd #mental abuse tw

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tumblunni · 6 years

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Weirdass Real Cis AF Conversation going on downstairs

"Oh my daughter's wedding yeah i want the girliest dress yeah she loves girly stuff. Like even when she was a baby she'd always wear frilly petticoats."

Like..umm.. You put her in those clothes...?

Serioudly she was on about how she bought a whole fancy old fashioned petticoat for a literal one year olf including frilly knickers, and how THE DAUGHTER IN QUESTION said she didnt want to raise her own kids so heavily gendered from such a young age as she was, but the mom was like "oh just wait til theyre born and you see them! You'll totally understand! Mommy instincts blablabla!"

Like wow i've never seen talk of these certain type of baby underwear instincts before. Seriously man that must be so uncomfortable for a literal one year old in a diaper to have frilly scratchy stuff everywhere?? And like an eight layer petticoat she cant even run around in?? Like if you're really insistant on only buying stereotypically feminine clothes you could just go to the actual baby clothes aisle and pick up something pink? Man it must have been hell for the mom too, to get all that stuff off every time a diaper needs changing!

And then seriously how can you say 'oh my daughter liked that and my son would never like that' when theyre both too young to even say their first word? Of course theyre gonna wear whatever you put on them, they cant exactly fight you off! They dont even have object permenance or a concept of what dresses ARE, let alone the social implications of fashion and gender roles! I just wanted to interrupt and be like "oh your son doesnt like it? So you've let him try it? And you've let your daughter try other outfits too?"

And It doesnt really bloody sound like the daughter liked being dressed that way as a kid if she argued with you about doing it to her own kid. And she was all laughing about "oh lol my son was always covered in sick instead of his clothes, he'd always pull them off haha Boys Amirite". Dude your kid is just a nebulous blob of vague comprehension of the world. Both of them would be running around being 'little terrors' if both of them could run! And serioudly thats just how much babies HATE clothes at first, they dont know why they have to wear a thing around their neck and chest or why its bad to take it off. Can you imagine how much more fidgety a kid would be in the most over the top petticoat nonsense? And not being able to crawl or run or play because she's not allowed to get stains on the stupid thing?

Ugh man i wore a frilly petticoat like that when i was a kid up to around age 6 or 7. Because it was all i had and my parents decided what i wore every day. And i didnt know that some things were 'girly' or 'manly' let alone that i was trans yet! Well i mean i guess i kind of still was me but i didnt know to feel bad about it cos i didnt know boys couldnt wear this or girls had to wear this. I just had no feelings on it except that it was annoyyyyying to wait thru all this long process of putting it on each morning and i'd fidget like hell. And then it was uncomfortable and i just had to get used to it because i thought ALL clothes were just as bad? I liked how the skirt fanned out if i ran but i hated that i wasnt supposed to run in it. And i still tried to run around and climb trees and roll in the grass and hide behind the sofa and make forts and be a "little terror" even when i kept getting told off for "ruining" my good clothes. And i think thats where i started my general hatred of shoes cos those fancy dress shoes were so tight and cut up the back of my feet. I'd take them off as soon as my parents werent watching! And theyd all swear that i "loved" having my hair tied back in a ribbon even though i'd cry about people tpuching and pulling my hair and then keep conveiniently losing the ribbon by the end of the day. Seriously bad parents will just make up a personality for you and never bother to actually ask you! Like i mean i dunno of this lady is a bad parent just cos she believes in kinda exaggerated gender stereotypes, but my parents did and yeah it reminded me of they who were very much not good :/

OH MAN LOL its funny looking back on how my parents were ~so concerned~ at my ~sudden phase~ of hating dresses and choosing to wear "boy clothes" literally AS SOON AS I LEARNED THERE WERE OTHER OPTIONS. And they still chose everything i wore so i'd just have to go for the least feminine of the bunch and like ignore half of the closet until they got the hint. Imagine like entire years of slowly getting slightly more neutral clothes until eventually i had one singular t shirt. Still with care bears on it. And as soon as i actually got to choose my own clothes i was totally off on the me train! "What has caused this alarming new trend out of nowhere?" Asks zero memory mom, who was complaining about the same damn thing every time i did anything non girly for the last decade. Also they complained that i was "less vibrant and happy and didnt run around like you did as a kid" despite the fact they friggin punished me for running around and not being a demure young girl :/

And then there's the whole subject of how all babies regardless of gender wore frilly smocks and bows in victorian times. It was still considered unmasculine for a grown man but it was like in an "immature" sense. It was called the breeching of the child, i think? That age when you get old enough to start wearing pants, it was treated as a lil life milestone celebration. There's loads of other stuff like that of our ideas of masculine and feminine clothing switching sides throughout history! Baby blue was considered the primary feminine colour for a long time, and pink was just considered a shade of manly red. High heels and tights were both invented as male fashions,and you see LOADS of regency era men wearing them in portraits! They only became degraded as a women only thing because crossdressing women would wear them and society had a homophobic transphobic panic and decided to abandon the trend. And over time it was all forgotten and the idea morphed into a 'ultinate symbol of straight femininity' just like it was the ultimate straight masculinity before...

So yeah lol sorry i just overheard a very stupid excuse for why imposing super over the top gender roles on a kid is ~totally good~ and i just went off on a brain thought train about the whole subject. I guess im still a bit upset from the whole transphobic mess yesterday and im probably judging this lady a bit too harshly.

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carcinized · 3 years

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Okay tell me the magic powers I wanna know

oh boy. theyre the magic powers of a) heightened intuition and b) weird coincidences like seriously what the FUCK

[warning for like. uhhh superstitious stuff, talk of paranormal stuff, just,,, weird coincidences??? yeah]

so heightened intuition is kind of what i consider the weird coincidences that could have been my subconscious mind putting pieces of information together and only sharing half the conclusion with my conscious mind. picking up on maybe four things i KNOW, then reaching a vague conclusion that turns out to be correct without informing me WHY.

for example, a few days ago my cousins and i were hanging out in the dark under the stars (we were camping, thats why i was gone!! :D) and kinda just hanging out and talking about life. which came to superstition and then being spiritual--my cousins use like. hippie crystals as placebos, kind of (this is a different story but essentially while they dont believe they have magic properties, they use them as ways to channel confidence, happiness, etc. consciously, if that makes sense). and my eldest cousin knows a lot about different types!!!

and she starts talking about how some of them are weird, and she says the word "moldavite" and all my hair stands on end and i WHIRL around to check behind me (nothing was there dw). she goes on to inform me that moldavite is the weirdest, most sketchy crystal--it's supposed to suck negative energy out of your life, and there are hundreds and hundreds of stories of moldavite rings breaking clean in half or disappearing or other things. when that happens, a bit negative thing seems to disappear from people's lives. but she made it sound sketchy as hell and sufficiently freaked me and my other cousin out, no weirdass hair on end needed!!!

why i consider this to be intuition, not fully a coincidence, was that she WAS going into the weird side of crystals, and she said that. why i consider it WEIRD is that my hair STOOD ON FUCKING END. which doesn't happen to me all that often anyways? when i get scared i cry, not get goosebumps. and the fact that i felt the need to look behind me, its WEIRD!!! its not something i know how to explain, which is why i say its more than just my brain being smart. i dont really call it magic, but it's something weird. and this happens a LOT.

another example of the intuition was when i was nine, my school took a field trip to mission solano. mission solano was a mission built by the spanish in california that essientally enslaved natives to the region and forced them to convert to christianity. hundreds died there. and i knew that. however, when they took us into the church to do a mini service to make it feel more authentic, i started silently sobbing through the whole thing. for no reason other than i was utterly terrified of some unknown menace. i also cried in the courtyard when we walked past plaques with the names of people who died. sobbed. no one else seemed affected.

i found out last december when i got into buzzfeed unsolved that the church is supposed to have a demon in it and the courtyard has had multiple spottings of a ghost of a bear in it.

THATS FUCKING WEIRD RIGHT IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THATS WEIRD??????

but it's possible that my brain put together hey!!! lots of people died here!! there could be restless spirits!!! thats scary!!! cry!!!! yk??? but theres that element to it thats just WEIRD.

anyways on to the full on coincidences i cant explain with ANYTHING. for example, when i was... hm, eight, nine, ten ish??? idk, but it was storming and i was taking a shower and the lights flickered a tiny bit!!! and i got all excited because i used to like power outs, and i got out quick and got dressed. as i was walking down the stairs, i hopped down from the bottom step to the floor of the hallway and sang "i hope the power goes ou-" and the power went out as my feet hit the floor and i said out. THATS WEIRD. THATS SO FUCKING WEIRD. like yeah it was stormy and i saw the lights flicker, but ON??? THE??? WORD??? AND MY STOMP??? WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. I DONT UNDERSTAND, UNIVERSE.

and i guess i cant prove any of those stories, but i have one ON TUMBLR. A FULL COINCIDENCE. I HAD LITERALLY ZERO INDICATIONS OR POWER FOR THIS.

so on august 2nd, i posted "pspspspsp tubbo you want to post your song to spotify soooooo bad ooooooooooo" at 3:08 pm PST. normal post right? well then at 8:31 pm PST that SAME DAY he posts "4:31 AM Update my song is done and im recording the music video strap in..." on twitter. blah blah yeah its fandom its cringe i dont CARE its fucking WEIRD ITS WEIRD???? not kidding just over five hours after i posted that he announced its done. thats WEIRD. THATS SO FUCKING WEIRD.

and then theres lots of other examples of this but in the interest of not making this post go on forever and ever we'll leave it here. i would say a coincidence usually smaller than those happens around once a day to me??? probably at least bsddsb

anyways that's my magic power :DD people seem to be creeped out by it but as long as i'm not having a really bad day with derealization i usually find it quite nice--the universe is so connected if only you let yourself find the dots. :]

#NEW TOBIN LORE JUST DROPPED FOLKS #long post #allyster rambles #ask #imconfusedallthetimehelp #ask to tag #abt me #caps lock tw

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umbrahighpriestofgiratina · 7 years

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Out In The Cold

A fic written for one of Serebii’s old Quarterly Challenges. It involves /tg/ and Ed Edd n Eddy references and what @antialiasis deemed an adorable Kyurem.

It was a typical winter in Icirrus City, which meant one thing: Snow. Inches and inches of it, piling up every year without fail. And it didn't stop a young man with ginger hair and bright blue eyes from staring out at it all in wonder from the window of a modest two bedroom apartment. From a bit further in the apartment, another young man with black hair and hazel eyes took a swig of his beer, then plopped the bottle down amidst a couple empty ones and glanced over at his fellow in annoyance. "...Tom, it's just snow. You don't have to stare at it for fifteen minutes." "But it's so pretty here, Roger!" Tom said. "There's just something about all the white everywhere that's so nice to look at!" Roger continued to stare at him irritably a bit and sighed. "Alright. If you wanna stare at all the fancy white ice go ahead. I don't give a damn." At that Tom's smile disappeared and he turned to Roger with concern. "...You're still sad you couldn't visit your family for the holidays, aren't you?" "...I'm not. Don't ask about it again." Tom gave a distinct pout and moved over to the table, sitting across from Roger. "Hey, c'mon. You can tell me if you're sad." Roger just stared to the side blankly. Off a ways, a Scrafty and Golurk, previously playing a video game, looked over at the two humans with similar concern. <Yo, Vladimir?> said the Scrafty. <I'm thinkin' your trainer needs some cheering up.> <I was about to note the same, Estragon,> said the Golurk. Together the two moved over and stood by the table, Vladmir in particular placing one of his massive hands atop Roger's shoulder reassuringly. Roger smiled slightly. "Heh... I guess it's still nice having you all around..." He quickly frowned and looked down again. "But... I dunno, I wanted to see my family for Christmas after all the shit from us joining Team Plasma and then all that promptly going down in flames... I mean, that's the whole fucking reason we had to lay low and hole up in the first place, but I... I..." He groaned and slumped his head on the table. Vladimir gave Roger a gentle pat. <The necessary evils of life are hard, to be sure...> <Yeah, ain't denying that's really rough,> said Estragon. Tom, meanwhile, stared anxiously at Roger and fidgeted nervously. "...I've always wondered... Where did Christmas come from anyway?" Roger looked up at Tom with a weary expression. "Honestly, no one fucking knows. Some say it started with some human avatar of Arceus whose birthday was supposedly around the time... Some say it started with something about Xerneas and that's why they call it X-Mas sometimes... We do know over the years all these other holidays got mixed in so that's why no one knows how it fucking started... And I dunno, sometimes I get the feeling it's some other world's holiday that got tacked onto ours for some weirdass cosmic reason..." He paused. "...I'm being weirdly existential again, aren't I?" Tom fidgeted more. "Um... I guess?" Roger shrugged. "Figured. I suppose it's the alcohol. I come up with the most insane bullshit when I'm drunk." He took another swig of his beer regardless. Tom looked off to the side nervously before his eyes lit up and he turned to Roger with an excited, if somewhat nervous, grin. "Hey! If it cheers you up I can tell you a story about a holiday we celebrated where I grew up!" Vladimir's lit-up eye flickered nervously. <...I do dearly hope it isn't like that Ugly Binacle sto-> "It's not basically that Ugly Binacle story again, is it?" said Roger. "Nope!" said Tom, smirking. <Crisis averted! Mabye. I hope,> said Estragon. "Right..." said Roger. "You said you grew up in Lacunosa before moving to my hometown at age 14, right? What the fuck do they celebrate there?" "Well... You know about Lacunosa and Kyurem right?" "Yeah... Kyurem showed up one day and started using the locals as midnight snacks, so they made a bigass wall like in that one gory and depressing cartoon about the giant man-eating Mr. Mime and have locked themselves in every night since. Right?" "Yep! But they say in the winter months, Kyurem gets extra-hungry, so we take preemptive measures!" "...Like what?" "The Great Feast of Kyurimek!" Roger raised a concerned eyebrow. "Please tell me this doesn't involve fattening up select human sacrifices to be ice dragon abomination food." "Don't worry, it doesn't! It does involve making sure Kyurem's belly is too stuffed to want to eat anybody!" "Reassuring. For now. But go on?" "Well... Every year on Kyurimek the people of Lacunosa set out food! Loads and loads of food everyone in town chips in to prepare to be as tasty as possible, so Kyurem can make it into a stew that will delight its icy tastebuds and keep it full all winter - and leave Lacunosa alone!" Tom's eyes sparkled in delight at fond memories rushing through his mind. "And when the clock strikes midnight on Kyurimek, Kyurem emerges from its lair in the middle of the Giant Chasm and walks through the streets of town gathering up all the food! If it's particularly pleased with the offering, it makes the winters less harsh and blesses the people of Lacunosa with good fortune and well-wishes, especially good girls and boys that offer their favorite snacks and treats!" His expression became somber and serious. "...We don't talk about what happens to the bad little girls and boys who only give the vegetables they don't want to eat." Roger gave Tom a bemused look. "About as bizarre and nonsensical as expected... But that's all just bullshit, right?" Tom grinned. "Nope! Kyurem actually does that! I've seen them myself!" Vladmir's eye flickered again. <He's encountered... The Shell?> <OK, now this is getting really interesting!> said Estragon, pumping his paws excitedly. Roger, on the other hand, merely raised an eyebrow skeptically. "OK... Go on. Tell me how the hell you'd know Kyurem's holiday shtick isn't as much of a fairy tale as Santa Claus is for my holiday." Tom put a hand to his chin. "Well..." *** On a cold winter's night years ago, the townspeople and Pokemon of Lacunosa were in a frenetic rush, piling all sorts of fine and freshly prepared food in the middle of street crossings, in front of their houses, in any place they could. All the while they sang, with a universal air of joy, hope, and... more than a tinge of fear. Deep within the chasm dark There lives the dragon god of old Whose appetite is bigger than Its power over bitter cold. Hey! Great Kyurem who fell from the sky And with wings of ice desperate to fly! Great Kyurem who craves the meat And should have something less morbid to eat! Great Kyurem who calms the ice Especially if its meals are nice! Great Kyurem who hides away To hopefully stalk another day! But should your meal be ill-prepared Your feeble dish too weak in flavor Great Kyurem will surely come And make sure you're the one to savor! Great Kyurem who curls up in its hole And roars its wishes to be more whole! Great Kyurem who can't ever feel The greater power of truth or ideal! Great Kyurem, forever incomplete And tried to fix that with our meat! Great Kyurem, take our gifts instead And spend the winter away and well-fed! Amidst it all, a young boy with ginger hair and blue eyes was carrying an armful of various bagged snacks and candy bars. "Kyurem's gonna love these! Especially the carmelly ones! Those are my favorite!" He suddenly blinked as something crossed his mind. "Wait, I've got some fruity candy it'll like too!" He attempted to fish some out of a bag he was carrying to the side, only to spill the rest all around him. "Oh no! Kyurem's gotta have some good snacks!" He scrambled to pick up the assorted scattered junk food. As he did so, however, a clock chimed eleven and echoed through the town, and the townspeople all immediately rushed to dump their food wherever they cold and sped back to their houses to lock the doors behind them. In the mayhem they didn't notice the boy, and in turn the boy didn't notice them in his frenzied attempt to gather his treats... ...Until he finally finished his task and looked up to find himself alone, in a cold, dark, silent town. "...Oh no." He rushed around, desperate to find his own house but lost in the darkness and silence. He banged on doors, only to hear yells from inside about Kyurem's coming. He ran more, panicked, desperate, scared... ...Until overwhelmed from exhaustion he collapsed amid a food pile. -------------- The first thing he noticed as he started to come to was the even greater cold. His still-waking body was already shuddering at it, and as he gained more consciousness he curled up into a ball to keep warm. It was then he noticed the cold shift somewhat. It became more concentrated somehow, specifically around his face. Despite the shock from that he managed to pry his eyes open... ...And became much more fully awake seeing a massive pair of blank yellow eyes staring back into his. He immediately screamed in utter terror and pedaled backward. The massive, gray dragon with much of their body encased in ice immediately mirrored his actions, backing themself into a corner and letting out a staticky buzz vaguely akin to a cat's terrified hiss. "P-Please, Great Kyurem, d-don't eat me, I probably t-taste terrible..." At this Kyurem paused, before warily gesturing to another corner of the chasm they were in. The boy looked over to find a massive pile of all the food the Lacunosans had left out. "Wait... I... I'm not food?" Kyurem hesitated for a second before slinking over to the food pile and shoveling some of it into their maw, chewing and swallowing it before gesturing to the food pile again, in a way the boy read as... concerned? "Oh, s-so you're happy with all the food? Th-that's good..." Kyurem raised their haunches slightly and gave another buzz. At that, however, the boy furrowed his brow. "Weird... You don't make any growls and such and say bits of your name like most Pokemon do... You make those weird buzzes, like a broken machine..." At the word "broken" Kyurem shrunk back again and hung their head in an ashamed fashion. "Ah! D-Did I upset you? I-I hope not, you r-really will eat me then..." Kyurem backed away further, letting out a small, faint buzz. "I-I'm sorry! Wait!" The boy hurriedly got to his feet and rushed to the food pile, hastily digging through it until he found a small bag of fruity licorice. From there he steadily, carefully approached Kyurem with it. "Um... If it makes you less likely to eat me, I got these especially for you..." Kyurem eyed the boy carefully themself before steadily standing upright, inspecting the bag of licorice. "Um... H-here, you probably can't open it very well with your claws..." He ripped open the bag and scattered the contents in front of Kyurem. Kyurem immediately sniffed one of the fruity pieces of candy before lapping it up with their tongue and chewing lightly. Their eyes widened and they gave an ecstatic buzz before gobbling up the rest quickly and then giving the boy an expectant look, at which the boy waved his hands in panic. "Ah! I-If you need me to get more I can..." Kyurem stared at him, then the food pile, then back at him, tilting its head. The boy blinked. "You don't want any more food?" Kyurem stared at the boy blankly, shifting nervously. "Um..." His expression suddenly brightened. "Hey! If you can understand me... Here's a human thingy! Shake your head up and down for yes - that's nodding - and shake your head side-to-side for no - that doesn't have a name, it's silly. But got it?" Kyurem hesitated before nodding. "Good! Now do you want any more food?" Kyurem looked to the food pile and then back at the boy before shaking their head side to side. "Um... What do you want, then?" Kyurem regards him quizzically again before sitting down the best their anatomy could allow it. The boy stared back in confusion. "...Huh?" Kyurem made a loud series of buzzes. The boy blinked again before he realized something. "Do you...Want to talk?" Kyurem's expression brightened as they nodded. "Oh, OK! Um..." He thought a bit to himself before responding. "Um... I'm Tom. Tom Rosencrantz! Do you know how human names work?" Kyurem nodded. "Yay! I already know your name is Kyurem..." Tom's brow furrowed. "Were you always called Kyurem?" Kyurem hesitated before shaking their head. "What was your name, then?" Kyurem attempted to respond with another buzz, only to realize their own incomprehensibility and hang their head in shame again. Tom responded waving his hands defensively again. "I-It's OK... I can just call you Kyurem..." An awkward silence ensued. Tom eventually looked around the chasm out of curiosity. "So this is that big ol' giant chasm where you live, huh?" Kyurem nodded. Tom looked off to the side in thought for a bit before looking back at Kyurem. "...You know, you don't seem like the kind of Pokemon who would eat people... At least not anymore... You actually seem really nice! Why don't you go to my town and show them that so they're not afraid of you anymore?" Kyurem stared awkwardly at Tom before shifting uncomfortably. "...What's wrong?" Kyurem hesitates before turning to give Tom a better view of their left leg, at which point Tom notices a large scar. "Wha..." Kyurem turned again to show another scar on their arm. Then opened their mouth to show a broken tooth. Then various parts of their icy bits that seemed cracked and worn before something finally clicked for Tom. "They... Did all that to you?" Kyurem stayed still a long while before finally nodding. "Oh... I... I'm sorry..." Kyurem immediately shook their head. "Huh?" Kyurem gestured to Tom, then to one of their scars, before shaking their head again. "Oh... It's not my fault?" Kyurem nodded and buzzed in a reassuring way, and Tom smiled. "That's good to hear, at least..." He suddenly approached Kyurem with arms outstretched, at which Kyurem cowered away again and gave another hiss-y buzz. "D-Don't worry! I know you think I am, but I'm not gonna hurt you! I'm gonna do, like, the opposite!" Kyurem tilted their head warily. "I'm gonna give you a hug! Humans give each other and their Pokemon hugs to make them feel better! I'm gonna do that to you!" Kyurem stared at him a bit longer before hesitantly righting itself. Tom slowly approached Kyurem before getting close enough to quickly hug their leg, only for both to recoil in shock. "Ah! You really are cold..." Kyurem shifted warily again. "Don't worry, there's gotta be a warm spot on you somewhere..." He held a hand close to Kyurem's body without actually touching it and used it to scan, Kyurem noticeably nervous but still allowing Tom to do so. Eventually, Tom's hand reached the un-iced part of Kyurem's chest, and he suddenly stopped and smiled. "Wait a minute!" He carefully touched Kyurem's chest. Kyurem flinched noticeably, but stopped when Tom just felt their chest gently. "Your heart... I can feel it beating! And it's so warm!" He slowly pressed his head and other hand against Kyurem's chest and closed his eyes. "It feels so nice..." Kyurem looked down in shock before gently clutching Tom with their claws. They stayed that way a good while before Tom moved away and smiled up at Kyurem. "Glad you liked that..." He looked back at the food pile and then to Kyurem again. "You already got lots of good food... But after tonight I wanna give you something extra-special that's not food!" Kyurem tilted their head again as Tom dug into his bag and pulled out a figurine of a woman with bright red hair in even brighter red full armor. "This is a Crimson Lady action figure! It's from a TV show I like where great heroes from the past team up to fight bad guys! And she's my favorite!" He handed the action figure to Kyurem. "...So I want you to have her!" Kyurem stared at Tom in shock before clutching the action figure gently in their claws and inspecting it carefully. "I dunno... Everyone back home thinks you're this big scary monster who eats people and really you're just hurt and scared and want to be alone so you don't hurt people or other Pokemon and they don't hurt you back... So I know she's a toy and not the real person, but maybe she'll make you feel less alone?" Kyurem looked down at the action figure then back at Tom before nodding vigorously with a contented buzz. Tom smiled brightly back. "Yay! That's great!" He then frowned. "...Sorry, I gotta get home... Everybody probably thinks you ate me..." He looked around the chasm nervously. "Though... I don't know my way out of here..." Kyurem looked to the side in thought a bit before looking back at Tom, hunching down, and gesturing to a non-icy part of their back. Tom grinned in response. "You'll give me a ride?" Kyurem nodded and buzzed contentedly again. Tom immediately went to Kyurem and climbed onto their back, flinching again from the cold at first but then getting to a position where he could ride comfortably enough. "Alright... Let's go!" Kyurem gave a triumphant buzz before stomping out, Tom astride his back. ------------ It was early morning in Lacunosa, and the whole town was searching desperately for a certain someone in panic - a man and woman in particular. "I... I can't believe we just left him out there..." "Relax, honey, Tom's a resourceful boy, I'm sure he found a way to hide from that thing..." "Yes... Just... The thought of it eating our child alive... I... I can't..." "Hey Mom! Hey Dad!" The pair turned immediately to see an unharmed, if weary-looking, Tom standing before them. They both immediately embraced him and sobbed as the other townspeople and their Pokemon looked on happily with murmurs of relief. "Honey, we- we're so happy you're OK..." "Yeah, I'm fine... Kyurem helped me out!" "...What?" "Yeah! It was actually really nice to me!" "Honey... A night out all alone must be addling your brain... You need rest!" "But Mom, Dad, I'm telling the truth! Really!" He was promptly ignored as his parents hauled him back to his house, despite his protests the whole way. *** "...So yeah! I got to be friends with Kyurem!" said Tom, puffing his chest out proudly. He promptly deflates a bit and frowns. "...Even though no one believed me. Still bitter." Roger, Vladimir, and Estragon, meanwhile, were all staring aghast. <...Well, that certainly went in a bunch of crazy directions,> said Estragon. <The Shell... So different from what I thought...> whispered Vladimir. "Tom, you... You really made friends with the one being your hometown feared the most?" "Yep!" Roger smiled softly. "...You know what? I believe you, man. If only because I know you're the one person crazy enough to pull it off." "Thanks!" Tom shifts a bit. "And... I told you because it's a lot like what you're worried about." "...Oh?" Tom frowns. "Well... Kyurem was all scared and alone and hurt and had nowhere to go, right? That's kinda us right now, after what happened in Plasma. After we... W-we failed N... And that's why we have to hide away here and we can't see our families..." He smiles. "But... Kyurem was just so happy I kept them company then... So... I figure sticking with each other now will help too, right?" Roger smiles brightly back. "...You're damn well right, Tom. You're damn well right." Vladimir and Estragon looked on fondly before the latter nudged the former. <Yo, Vladdy! Bet these two would appreciate being in on the vidya.> <Some friendly competition would be good, yes...> Vladimir nudged Roger, who looked up at him as he gestured to the TV and video game console. <Would you be interested in virtual kart racing, Trainer?> Roger smiled. "I'm assuming those beeps and that 'lurk' mean you guys are up for four-player?" Tom pumped his fists. "Dibs on first player!" Roger glared in response."Tom, what did I fucking tell you about that?" "Hey! Remember who brought the console here." "Remember who's being kinda stupid and rude." "I'm rude? You-" The two descended into incomprehensible prattling as their Pokemon looked on and sighed. --------- Deep within the Giant Chasm, Kyurem tossed the last of the food gathered from Lacunosa's streets into that year's pile. After doing so and pondering a bit they decided they weren't ready to help themself just yet. Instead, they walked over to a corner of the chasm, where a Crimson Lady action figure was set upright on a small outcrop, Kyurem gazing at it fondly. <Merry Kyurimek, Tom... Wherever you've gone...> ~~~

#kyurem #lacunosa city #yangverse #fanfic

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lamiaward · 8 years

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Knights, queens & sleeping curses

I don’t own OUAT

Summary: the curse doesn’t work like Regina imagines it will. It leaves them in the enchanted forest- although there are changed there too. It wrecks her enemies’ minds, but not quite in the way she imagined. And Emma Swan, the greatest threat to her curse manages to escape to another realm. Until her 28th birthday that is, when she returns to the enchanted forest to fight ogres, wake people up and fall into a sleeping curse. Just imagine her parents’ shock when they discover who her true love is...

Emma Swan had seen a lot of shitty and weird things in her life. One foster parent liked to collect the creepiest dolls ever- not just the ones with the big eyes and the creepy, bigger smiles but ones that had gruesome injuries. Some kids she knew from the street played a game that they called 'how long can you', and consisted of stuff like putting your hand into a fire or holding your breath or only eating one type of food. And so on. Eighteen (or actually fifteen; she had been with a family until she was three) years in the system, several years in prison and the last years working as a bailbonds person had made sure that Emma was familiar with shitty and weird.

But this was really shitty, and really weird.

Why the hell are there trees? I live in New York, there are hardly any fucking trees and definitely not in my block. That was pretty much the first thought Emma had when she opened her eyes again, right after the world had turned into a rollercoaster ride. Or one of those games where you run circles and then try to walk. It was right after she had wondered 'how the Hell can I feel hangover when I didn't even drink last night?'

To which the answer was 'you're probably dead'. At least, that is the first answer she had for suddenly standing in the middle of a fricking forest. With trees that probably had fancy Latin names she didn't know. And she hadn't really spent much time in forests , but weren't you supposed to hear birds chirping and see squirrels and have this happy, calm feeling?

Because this felt more like a horror movie honestly

Great. Either some jerk knocked me out and this is some weird hallicunation or dream- or there is even something weirder going on. Emma treaded towards the first tree, carefully touching it. It was - just a tree. Nothing weird about the wood beneath her hand, nothing unusual at all.

Nothing, apart from the fact that it shouldn't be there.

Wait. Isn't a thing you can't read time in dreams? I need a clock. Except she was still in the middle of a forest, that somehow managed to have chills race down her spine despite the fact that the sun rays were turning the leaves pretty colors and that nice smell there sometimes is after it has rained.

There was a word for that - petrichor. Which Emma only knew, because one of the nicer families had actually cared whether she got good grades and she had gottten a dictionary and the order to learn a new word each day for christmas. Before she had been sent away, again.

She repeated it in her head now, in a weak attempt to distract herself enough to not feel jumpy as Hell. Petrichor petrichor petrichor. She clutched her hand around her gun, carefully stepped over a branch, and strained her mind to remember something, anything to keep her from this feeling she was starting to have. She vaguely remembered one of the girls she shared a home with for a while, breaking down once. She got a bag to breathe in and she kept wheezing into it, barely able to even hold it her hands were trembling so badly.

Emma has that feeling now, and it is weird. She isn't easily scared. And for all the running she has done, she is far more likely to react to something scary with punches, than she is to run. So why the fuck-

Fuck Fuck Fuck . The gunshot is unnaturally loud in this place, and Emma's hand is sort of trembling so even if she managed to shoot in the direction of that sound, she probably still hasn't hit whatever horror monster made the so-

She stumbles back, and rests her back against a tree. Still clutching the gun, she tries to remember what the people used to say to the girl prone to panic attacks. Breathe in deeply? Breathe through your nose and hold it? She is trying any of these when she waves her arm wildly and only barely manages to keep in a scream at the sound repeating.

What is that?! It sounds like the goddamn Spinosaurus roar from Jurassic- Oh gods, no. Emma kind of felt like choking on air while at the same time laughing hysterically, before she reminded herself that 'that sound is probably not even what a real spinosaurus makes. We have no idea what dinosaurs sounded like. Also- the likelihood of there being dinosaurs somewhere is probably really tiny'.

Which of course left her with some creature that sounded like a large, carnivarous animal, trapped in the middle of a forest that was somehow creepier than every scene from The Ring.

She looked at the gun in her head. Okay, pros of turning the safety pin on: not accidentally shoot myself, and possibly even kill myself. Cons of turning the safety pin on: possibly being eaten by some sort of nightmare.

She sighed, then slowly turned it off before creeping forward. It is ridiculously difficult to not just start running and never stop running, or at least not stop until she is far away from whatever hellhole this forest is in. But she is pretty sure that would be stupid. It never saves the people in horror movies anyways.

She is not sure whether she prefers this deathly silence to the spinosaurus roar. It might be a bit of a tossup, really. So she starts to try to distract herself again, naming random facts she happens to know (she once had to stay a couple of days in a library and she read a lot to not focus on how damn cold it was)

Last shake o' the bag is Victorian slang for 'youngest child'.Emma tightened the hold on her gun whenever she passed another large tree, despite the fact that they were seemingly absolutely ordinary ones. She also made sure to never actually come too close to any roots- as far as it was possible, of course

There were really too many fucking roots here. Predicting the death of Henry the eighth was punishable by death. She snickered once, then nearly jumped as she could swear she saw something move. She quickened her pace, careful to watch the ground as she moved through the forest.

She thought she saw something, something that looked suspiciously like a house. Ancient Greeks declared their love for a woman by throwing an apple at her. Please let that be a house, of someone who has like a machine gun or a tank or whatever is needed to kill that thing behind me. She quickened her pace even more, until she was nearly running

She felt her heart rate speed up even more when her foot got caught by something. The moment she felt the wet earth beneath her hands- and heard the spinosaurus roar or whatever it was- she pushed herself up and sprinted the last distance between her and the house.

Vultures can turn a dead body into a skeleton in under five hours. Great, I just made this even more freaky. She nearly slammed into the door, pulled with all her weight and immediately slammed it close when she was inside. Which was when she slowly turned around, I need a table or something else to barricade this door - and-

Stared at , well everywhere really. The walls were chocolate - not just a pattern, but actual chocolate. Chocolate with silver little balls that had her stomach rumble softly. What the - she spat out the handful of candy she had immediately taken from a table next to her, discovering it was stale and kind of gross.

She was just debating whether being in this weirdass place was better or worse than facing whatever was outside when there was the familiar sound of glass breaking and she only barely managed to avoid being killed by a flying stone. She automatically allowed herself to fall, and pretended to be unconscious.

As soon as she heard the footsteps, she lurched and half-slammed the person against the wall. Only to immediately loosen her grip when she realized it was just a girl with a fierce scowl and-

" Kid! Jesus, stop that " she explained when the girl immediately tried to kick her. She darted backwards, holding up her hands. " I am sorry I grabbed you, but you don't need to hurt me".

"Leave us alone! " she snarled. Emma quickly grabbed her hand when she tried to put another stone in the sling she had in her hand. " Hey, don't use that thing on me. That's lethal, you know".

The girl snorted. " That is the point".

"Surely you're not just going to kill a stranger?"

" You're no stranger. I know what you are?".

" What I am?".

" Yeah. You're one of the queen's guard, meant to keep my papa aware from me" the girl was good at pretending to be careless, Emma would give her that. She was just not good enough; Emma noticed the slight wobble in her voice.

Before she could find some way to comfort the girl, she rolled her eyes and said "Don't think the foolish garments will make me think you are just a traveller".

" I think I might be actually" Emma said, slowly letting go of the girl. She glanced at the sling. " Can you put that away?".

" No".

" Okay, fine, just don't use it on me".

" I am not swearing to anything, I still believe you are a guard".

" If I am a guard, why am I just talking to you and not doing anything? And really, who is this queen".

She is kind of insulted by the girl's expression, but she is also kind of amused. " The queen. You know, the reason the whole enchanted forest is unbalanced and these things keep- ".

" Wait, enchanted forest? ".

Emma still thinks this is all not real. Surely it can't be.

The girl - Gretel, and what the fuck- sighs. " Hey!" Emma snaps, rubbing at the sore spot on her arm where she just got pinched really hard. The girl just shrugs and leans back against the table.

"It is all real. We're really here".

" In a cursed land- ".

"Realm, yes".

"Where there is a queen who has magic, which is a thing here- ".

" Well, not really. Not anymore- the queen controls all the magic now" Gretel frowns. " I think she even controls the magic of all the villains".

" Because that is apparently a thing she can do. And this queen has also given everyone amnesia".

" I am not sure about that part. It is kind of extremely dangerous to go anywhere- with all the curse has changed- but I think some have forgotten everything and some have had their memories replaced completely? ".

"Yeah, sure. If that is the case, why do you still have your memories".

Gretel clenches her jaw and looks away. " The queen wanted me to live with her. I think this is supposed to be a sign she would be kind to me. And- never mind".

" No, tell me. If I am stuck in this hallucination, I may as well hear everything".

" It is not a hallucination".

" None of this is possible!".

" If it isn't possible, how come it is there?".

" I hit my head. I am probably in a coma or whatever".

" In a what?".

" A coma. It is - " Emma tries to think of a proper metaphor, and finally shrug and says " It is like sleeping, but far deeper".

Gretel nods. " Sleeping curse, got it".

Emma rolls her eyes. " Not everything is about curses".

" Here it kind of is"

" Well, then you break them" Emma says, shrugging. She still thinks this is a weird dream or whatever, but she also thinks the look in Gretel's eyes is painfully familiar. And she can't stand that; no one should feel like that.

" Break them?".

" Yeah. Curse can be broken right? What do you need to break them?".

She scofs. " True love".

" Uh okay, something else perhaps?".

She shrugs. " It is the only thing I know off".

" Like what, you kiss someone and there is curses breaking?".

"No , I think it's like- you can have true love with a friend, or a family member or " she pulls a face " The person you want to be wed to. But you have to have a true connection- you have to really know them and it has to be mutual. And true love is similar to magic or is magic, so then it could do pretty much anything".

" I have never heard you could share true love with a friend"

Gretel shrugs. " Not everyone falls in love, so it makes sense" she is still looking away, and Emma thinks she understands why. " Besides, from what I've heard- friends are great".

" Don't you have friends?".

"No. Just my brother"

" That's good too, right? I mean, having a brother sounds pretty good"

Gretel shrugs. " He is a moron, sometimes. But we used to be really good friends"

" Used to? ".

Gretel stands up. " If you really are not a guard, I can try to get you to the neutrality border".

" Neutrality border?".

" The villains and heroes are scattered, but there is border where anyone is safe. From there on you could get a horse and travel to queen Snow. I am not sure- I do not know how much she remembers, however".

" Yeah that - actually I probably should go home- except I don't really.." Right. This is a hallucination. Not anything real, because that is impossible.

" You do not really, what?".

Emma sighs. " Never mind kid. Where do you need to go to?"

" Sorry?".

" Where did you last see your family? We will have to find them first".

Gretel scoffs. " You can't".

Emma slowly gets up. " I think I can actually- finding people is kind of what I do".

Gretel slowly turns around. Emma kind of expected it, but it is still awful to see her eyes are slightly puffy and red. " I have been searching for my father for ten years. And I never even found a trace off him".

" Perhaps the queen has him".

" That was the first place I looked".

" Hm. What kind of clues do you have?".

" Clues?".

"You know,when did you last saw him? Why did he leave?".

" He did not just leave . She took him".

"The Queen. Well, isn't he in her bedchamers or something then?".

" My dad would never- "

" Her bedchamers are probably the most secure place. And it is probably the last place you or anyone else looking for your father would look ".

" Oh. That is actually a good idea".

" Thanks" Emma drily said.

Gretel stares at her. " So you are offering to help me find my dad?".

"Yes, sure ".

" It will be dangerous".

" Yeah, I get that".

" You might get hurt".

" I have gotten hurt before. Didn't stop me then".

"And if the queen somehow discovers you are helping me- ".

" Kid. You are not going to change my mind".

Gretel doesn't smile, or say thank you, or even look happy. She just offers her hand, slowly. Emma takes it. " If you get into trouble, I am not saving you".

" Fine by me".

So that is how Emma nearly gets eaten by an ogre.

It might be one of the most embarrassing things ever, having to be saved (and scolded by) a girl. A girl who somehow manages to jump on a freaking ogre's back and slip a knife in his neck ( that's not enough to kill them, just to temporarly paralyze them).

" Run!".

" I thought you said you paralyzed that thing!".

" Yes, but they recover really quickly".

Emma stumbles and nearly humiliates herself even more when Gretel pushes her. She catches her, glances back where that thing is slowly starting to move again and starts printing. Next to her, Gretel is slinging stones at their pursuer with deathly accuracy.

Emma curses and runs back when she sees Gretel actually stop and calmly take another stone from the pouch around her middle. " GET AWAY FROM HERE" Emma yells, wildly grabbing for the girl at the exact moment she shoots-

and the ogre is hit in its ugly eye.

Emma immediately stills, only moving again when the pain in her shinbone registers and she slowly lets Gretel go. Who immediately glares at her, rolls her eyes and stomps away. Emma is pretty she just muttered 'useless'.

Taking one last look at that thing ( it is still kind of terrifying even when it is obviously dead), Emma folows the girl. She might even be right.

They don't really talk much while they walk through this forest. Gretel had safely gotten them to the neutrality border, where they had gotten two horses and Emma had pretty much spent the entire ride clenching her thigh muscles and nearly cutting her hands on the reigns she was holding on to them so tightly. Now there in another part of the kingdom, supposedly halfway to where the queen's castle is.

Gretel suddenly goes right. " Should we leave the path?" Emma calls after her, glancing at the darkness and the plants growing everywhere. Going that way pretty much means cutting your legs open- even if you are wearing your best pair of jeans.

" Yes. Just follow me".

Emma sighs, then rolls her eyes and follows Gretel. It only takes ten minutes, but she gets caught on giant thorns (except those look like warts. Do thornes have those?) thrice and her jeans are more or less ruined at the end of it. She runs to catch up with Gretel.

" What is this place" she breaths. The 'path' they had just taken had been dark and gloomy, with the only light coming from eyes around them. This is a clearing, with strange flowers everywhere and soft chirping and a really good smell. Emma's stomach immediately starts to rumble: it smells like pancakes. Or waffles.

" You will see" Gretel says, grabbing Emma's hand and pulling her along. She pushes open the wooden door from the house Emma hadn't even notice at the same time that she calls out "FRIENDS AND FOE ALIKE FEAR THE SHARPNESS OF THE STONE".

" Ah Gretel" a voice says, before an elderly man arrives, smiling at Gretel. Who actually returns the smile. For a millisecond. With a twist of her lips. But still. The man gently claps Gretel on her back. " What can I do for you?".

" We need a sword. And some fitting garments".

" Does she need to be able to fight".

" Yes" Gretel sighs. " Although I fear you will have to teach her".

Emma rolls her eyes again, but then just smiles as the man laughs joyeously. "Always good to share knowledge, Gretel".

Gretel just plops down into a chair and shrugs. " Good luck".

And Emma glares, thinking I can fight. Because she can. She has taken selfdefence classes, and lived on the streets several times. She knows what to do when someone has a knife, when someone just uses fists, when there are two or three or even four people trying to fuck you up. She knows how to deal with desperate people, and near-psychopaths.

Turns out, she doesn't know how to deal with a sword. And neither of these two people will allow her to just use her gun. Of course, Mason is a lot nicer about it than Gretel ( who cracks nuts, and throws the non eatable parts at Emma's head), but still. It is a good thing Emma likes exercise or she would seriously hate the world after the hours they train.

"You will not be staying here for a fortnight?".

" No. We need to keep moving".

" Okay" Emma only barely catches the sword when it is thrown at her. " She is a quick learner, so you should be able to avoid being killed. I will get the equipment".

" Equipment?".

"Yes. You will need other clothes, perhaps a dagger. Things like that" Mason quickly returns , throwing a pouche at Emma that she only barely catches. He chuckles.

" Is that all you require?"

Gretel nods. " Yes. Thank you".

" You haven't even seen what's inside this thing".

" I do not need to. Mason always choses the right things".

"Fine".

Gretel nods at Mason. " Goodbye. Thank you for your hulp ".

" Do not forget you have a friend here, Gretel".

She doesn't even reply, just walks away. As Emma says her own goodbyes, she wonders again what exactly has happened to her. Gretel has lost her family- but there seem to be even more hurt than that.

But she can hardly talk to her about that ( and she isn't the type for emotional talks anyways)

Turns out that being thrown head-first into an insane world with half human-half lizard things and dark knights and gnomes (or whatever) is the best way to get pretty good at sword- fighting

Emma puls back and thinks 'hallucination hallucination, Gods it is just a hallucination'. But she can squeeze her eyes shut , and there is still a thing that shifts from all these faces she would much rather forget, things that made her run. Always run.

" I thought magic wasn't real"

" It is. The queen controls it. This is the queen's " the queen's monster. Gretel's voice is a mere whisper, and she is pale. She glances at the small group of villagers behind them, shaking her head. She touches Emma, very briefly. " Watch" she whispers, in that same voice.

She does. The villagers- she doesn't know how to describe them. Half of them are smiling -but those smiles make Emma flinch and take a step back. The other half is just repeating motions, nearly robotically.

The first person that talks to Emma, is nice and chatty and keeps talking about her tasks and what a good day it is and how they will surely have a nice day and 'oh really, my lady, you must talk about your adventures'. Emma tries to explain she isn't actually a knight, but they're both led towards the largest house and sat down and offered refreshments-

It should be nice.

It really, really isn't.

Their host pours steaming tea over her own hand, and hardly blinks. There is a lady with a very sweet smile, who casually throws a knife at a fly that is annoying everyone. There are people with blisters on their hands, and manure on their faces. A boy starts to tell in a story and blinks dazedly when he is halfway- looking around him like he is waking from a nightmare. There is man with raggy hair, and sparkling skin that keeps giggling, and muttering rhymes to himself.

" There was something dearie, something was. Something was, and never will be again. Gnawing, gnawing it gnaws. Was it , was it a man?"

Emma nearly chokes on her drink when Gretel whispers " some people lost their minds because of being halfway into remembering, and halfway into nothing"

Emma would really, really like to run but she is stuck at a table with people with crazy or empty eyes, cruel smirks or fake smiles that stumble over words a lot. She kind of feels like these people are going to rip their skins off, and reveal they're demons. Or something.

She nearly screams when he clutches at her arm and leans in. His breath smells sour, horrible. "Oh dearie- would you do something for an old man?".

" Depend on what".

He giggles again, actually clapses his hand. "Names! I deal in names. Would you give me yours?".

" You deal .. .In names".

" Yes yes. Pretty names. Ugly names. Bad ones and good ones. Give me yours".

" He doesn't know his own" it is a young man across from her who tells her.

" Okay, but why would you- "

She grits her teeth when the man slams his fist on the table. "Name!" she has to keep herself from punching him when he leans in even closer. His teeth seem to be rotting. " Please, please dearie give me your name".

She hesitates, then shrugs. " Emma".

" Emma ".

She wrenches her hand back when he grabs it. He giggles again. "Such a lovely name. Such a lovely... " Emma's hand automatically reaches for the hilt of her sword when the man suddenly seems a lot less unbalanced than before ( how does he seem more dangerous than when he is unbalanced?). " princess".

Emma laughs awkwardly. " I am not a princess. Definitely not".

" Snow, and Charming, looking for their little Emma. Snow, and Charming looking for their little Emma" he giggles again. " But she isn't little anymore! No" the moment he growls, Emma jumps to her feet and pulls her sword.

" She isn't little, isn't little anymore. The time has gone, the time has come. Blood will be spilled, the queen will be killed" he giggled again.

Emma grabbed Gretel's hand and hauled her up. " I am not staying around this lunatic one more moment. Come on". And she stomps away, with the giggles and chants of that man in her ears &

people nearly reverently whispering- or also chanting, it is almost like a ritual- 'Emma. Emma. EmmaEmmaEmmaemma".

Of course, the past should've warned her for something like this. Because Emma has never been able to outran bad things. And maybe it doesn't happen immediately- it doesn't. Maybe they even manage to travel a lot- see a lot, also a lot of things Emma did not need to see- before it happens.

She seems like an ordinary woman. Smart, pretty, helpful. She smiles at Emma and laughs when she sees Gretel's scowl. Her skin is very hot, and she gently pulls them towards her home. Perhaps Emma should've been more careful, considering it is a castle, but she is hungry and her back aches from the nights sleeping on cold earth so really, it seems all too good to think about things like 'why did the queen give this woman something that seems like a good life' , and are that 'skulls in the corner'?

The woman laughs, low and deep, and gives Emma more wine. It is the first time she has seen wine here, and she usually doesn't drink wine but it's good. It's good and they're both warm and the woman seems the first person they meet that doesn't make Emma's skin crawl. Gretel keeps tugging on Emma's sleeve "E-emma, that's bones. That's bones and that's - that's clawmarks" she whispers but it doesn't make sense to Emma. What bones? What clawmarks? What rusted armour?

She never giggles. But she sort of does when she tries to stand and her wozzy head has her stumbling- right into the arms of the woman. "Hey "she mutters, and blinks. Alcohol has never made people's eyes glow like that before. It's pretty.

" You really are pretty" the woman whispers, bending towards her.

" Thanks.. Hm I guess" she mutters, blinking. It is all kind of hazy, and maybe she is already dreaming? There is smoke around this woman. Her breath smells like ash. " Regina will be so glad when you're gone " she thinks she hears.

She wrenches her eyes open. " Wha- " she numbly glances down at the pain that registers through the haze. The woman is holding a needle, the tip of it buried into Emma's skin. The world is rapidly darkening - apart from the edges, where there are flames.

The last thing she feels is lips against her temple. The last thing she hears is Gretel's furious shout. Then darkness &

fire

#swan queen #sleeping curse #alternate dark curse #true love

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corvid-knight · 6 years

Text

Demon Eyes - chapter 12

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13740258/chapters/32108052

"I got blood on you," you tell Karkat, as you (reluctantly) let him go. And you did; kind of a lot of blood. Looking at the stains on his shirt sets off a chain reaction of association—blood on Karkat, blood on the white sheets, Dirk's shirt soaked in blood—

"Dave. Hey. This isn't my blood." Karkat makes a deep soft sound, hands coming up to cup your face and make you look him in the eyes. "Dirk's fine, right now. Do we need to go see him before you clean up?"

"No." I believe you.

Karkat's proud of you for that answer, you realize as he lets go of your face. That knowledge feels...good. Really fucking good.

"Sit down for me," he tells you, gently pushing you to sit on the lid of the toilet. "I think I'm going to cut your shirt off; you'll get blood on your face otherwise, and I really fucking doubt we need to handle that right now."

But he doesn't move, and you sit there confused for a minute before you figure out that he's not just telling you what he's about to do. He's not just giving you warning, he's asking for permission.

You can't find your voice to give it to him, but you nod. Go for it, man.

When he leans forward with that sickle, though, you have to close your eyes. Sharp metal near your skin while you're unarmed and helpless isn't something you're okay with seeing. You can feel Karkat hesitate, try to dip into your mind and check to make sure you're still all right; he doesn't move to cut your shirt until you think reassurances at him.

When he does move, though, all you feel is a little tug at the neckline, hear a quick sharp tearing sound, and then the clink of metal as he lays his sickle down on the counter. You open your eyes again so you can kind of squirm out of the remains of your shirt, even if Karkat still does most of the work.

This leaves you shirtless, though, nothing on your upper body but smears of blood, and god damn but there's the panic again. You have to take a breath, watch Karkat as he opens cabinets in search of a washcloth, and remind yourself, he already knows what scars I have; he saw them the first night when he healed me in the hotel. And this is Karkat; he won't use my fucking weak spots against me—

"Scars don't mark weak spots, anyway." Karkat shakes his head and runs water from the sink over the washcloth he's found, then takes your hand, wiping your wrist and arm clean. The blood comes away easily, maybe because he knows how to wipe and maybe just because he's the one with dominion over blood and he wants it to. "If anything, they're strong spots. Nobody wants to get fucked up the exact same way twice."

...he has a point. Although if you were given the choice of being hurt repeatedly in one place, or of just taking the spread-out patchwork of marks you actually have, you'd take the former. "One really bad patch of scars'd be better and easier to hide than this shitshow."

"Yeah, but you get hurt in the same place often enough and you get so you can't stand to be touched there." Karkat taps the back of his own neck with his free hand, before moving to your other arm. "Right?"

You remember how you shuddered when he touched you in that spot before, and almost shudder again. "That one, that's a...a memory thing, for me. Association. Not like it was the worst I ever got hurt..."

"It still counts. Even if that wasn't the most painful thing, you're stuck associating it with the other shit." Karkat shrugs a bit, moving to start cleaning off your chest and immediately stopping when you can't help but flinch away from his hands. "Dave? Do I need to—"

"Just give me a sec." You close your eyes and take a deep breath, relaxing a bit as he takes your hand instead of touching you anywhere else. "Can't handle touching if you wanna talk about Bro fucking me."

He winces. You can feel it in your head. "Sorry." That could be an apology for bringing it up, for it happening at all, for anything at all. The vagueness is nice. Means you don't have to reply to it. "...do you want me to heal your hands?"

"Not if it's gonna make you pass out." And only if you want to.

"It won't." He snorts, adding, of course I want to, dumbass. Then, "This is a little thing. And I just ate; even after closing Dirk's wound I've got energy to burn."

His fingers trailing across the raw spots on your hands feels like grabbing a handful of dry ice. "Ow, shit—ate?"

"Three of those weirdass hybrids." At least he moves fast; he lets go of your hand and moves to the other in less than ten seconds. "Did you see what they were, or...?"

"I saw—" Dirk. John. You. Bro. You have to check that Karkat's still there even though he's holding your hand in both of his, and you get your eyes open in time to see him wince again.

"Fuck, Dave."

"What'd you see?"

"Not that." He pauses, thinking for a second, then puts one hand under your chin to get you to look at his face for a moment. When he blinks, for just an instant you see a snapshot of a being that's definitely not a siren—something hairless and almost skeletal, low cunning but not much actual intelligence written on its greyish-skinned face. The damn thing's mouth doesn't close properly over its jagged teeth, and one hand has claws that're significantly longer than its fingers.

"Holy shit, 'kat." Nasty.

"Since they can fuck around with humans' minds, 'nasty' doesn't even start to cover it." He shakes his head, letting go of your chin and brushing his fingertips across your shoulders, finding a set of spots that sting at his touch. That'd be where the beast that looked like him grabbed your shoulder, right? "You almost got hurt really fucking bad...next time, we don't split up."

There will be a next time.

Maybe you should feel—worried? Concerned? Resigned?—about that, but you really don't. You're used to hunting; it's been your life since Bro decided you were old enough to handle a gun.

(Eight. You were eight. He guided your hands to aim and fire at a demon lying bound and bleeding in a summoning circle. Perhaps because he was the one holding you steady, the bullet took the demon almost dead-center in the forehead; it made an ungodly mess but killed him fast. Bro dug the deformed bullet out, laughing at your unwillingness to watch him doing it, and got it made into a charm that was almost always either around his neck or dangling from the rearview mirror. Lucky charm from my lil' man, he called it, and you hated the memories it brought up but never dared tell him that. You're sure he knew anyway.)

There's always been a next time, after every hunt. And yeah, that knowledge has made you feel hopeless before—you don't have control, you don't know what you'll be expected to kill next, whether Bro is going to make it quick and clean or drag it out for hours, whether you'll have to watch or even participate, whether it'll be one who's a true danger or some poor innocent bastard.

But now? Karkat's the one partnering you here, and he has some fucking idea of the difference between a monster and a demon. Bro doesn't.

"Didn't," Karkat murmurs as he drops the washcloth in the sink.

"Oh. Yeah." Past tense is...hard.

He nods and touches your cheek again, light and gentle and gone before you can even try to lean against his hand. "I'm going to go get you clean clothes. Your pants are fucked too; you can wait until I come back and let me help, or clean yourself up while I'm gone." I'm okay with the latter, but I know you might not be.

"Thanks," you tell him, because you don't know how to say you're right, I'm not, I'm sorry.

Maybe Karkat gets the meaning of it even though you don't think it at him either, because he pats your cheek again, smiles, and then leaves you alone in the bathroom.

Ten minute later you're dressed, mostly presentable (well, as good as you're going to get without the shower you can't handle taking right now) and heading into the kitchen with Karkat close enough behind you that you feel his body heat. The only person there is Hal, who's got two laptops open on the table in front of him. He's typing into an open chat on one, but seems to have his focus mostly on the other; it's hooked up to what looks like some kind of storage device or external hard drive, with four videos playing at once in split-screen.

You lean over his shoulder to look at the latter. Top right is what you're going to guess is a real-time stream of Dirk, laid out in bed, unconscious and with his bloody shirt gone. The other three are footage from the little devices Hal put on your shirt—and Karkat's, and Dirk's, and Jake's. Jake's cam isn't displayed, but the rest of them are.

Damn, those bastards are ugly, you think, watching yourself decapitate one. Did you really do that?

"Are you going to be all right." Hal's voice doesn't rise at the end of the sentence, and it takes you a second to realize that he's asking you a question. Especially since he doesn't look up.

"Shook up a lil, but fine. Karkat, uh. Did some damage control."

"Oh." Hal nods, relaxing just a tiny bit. He still doesn't take his eyes off the text onscreen, though. "Jake, um. Jake might need 'damage control' as well. And Dirk."

Karkat reaches out to tap the screen. "You're keeping an eye on Dirk—where's Jake?"

"John's cleaning him up. He's fucked up; I don't know if you really spoke with him—"

"If he's anything like Dave was, I don't fucking need to." Karkat growls quietly, crossing his arms. "Did you get those fuckers ID'ed yet?"

The shikigami shakes his head. "Nobody I've contacted has seen anything like them before—which isn't surprising, since I'm fairly sure they're some kind of hybrid. Possibly a new species, if they bred true—"

Karkat's growl is louder and more unhappy this time. "Yeah. They probably did. You don't get that many from one fucking litter, not from sirens or vamps, and they were luring in guys. The one that went after Dave first was pretty obvious about what it wanted."

Huh. Okay. You already can only kind of remember that. Like, you know it happened, you remember Karkat—well, not Karkat, the hybrid demon—and you remember killing the damn thing, but the details are already going soft in that memory.

Karkat's watching you curiously when you look up at him. You alright? he asks

Can't remember that shit. You open your mind to him as well as you can, will him to see the weirdly vague memory.

Surprisingly, he grins. Good.

Hal taps a few keys and glances over at the other monitor. "Well,now they're an extinct species. Fuck them. A cleanup team's on its way. It'll be a day or two; I asked for Rox instead of anyone closer, which is a bit of a security risk but I don't fucking care. I want her here."

He's scared, you realize. You don't quite know why.

Then he says, "Is it possible for you to fix whatever's fucked up in Dirk's mind now, or do you have to wait until he wakes up." And you get it. Hal's worrying about Dirk, because that's what normal fucking families do.

Karkat, you can fix him, right?

Not exactly. But I'll make sure he ends up okay, I swear. "He'll sleep for a while longer. Keep an eye on him and don't fucking leave Jake by himself, all right? Do you guys keep chalk around, or do hunters not bother to do that anymore?"

"Top drawer on the left." Hal points without looking, and pulls the laptop with the chat back towards himself, beginning to type again.

Karkat mumbles a thank-you and yanks the drawer open, getting what he wants and then heading for the door. You trail behind him, slightly confused.

What're we doing?

I mean, I'm summoning a demon. Well. Assuming you'll give me a hand, since there's this stupid fucking loophole that won't let demons summon their own kind.

Okay, you have no idea what he's planning. Oh well. "Cool, never done that before. Lead the way, 'kat."

Karkat spends ten minutes drawing the circle on the concreted portion of the backyard. You feel like it's there precisely for this purpose, or something kind of like it.

Technically, what he draws is a double circle, one within the other. You sit in the grass and watch as he adds lettering in the space between the two—some of it's Latin, some runes, and the rest symbols that you don't recognize. They have meaning, though; you don't doubt that for a second.

"Hey." Karkat sits back on his heels, dropping the half-used piece on chalk and looking over at you. "Come here and test this for me."

He sends you an almost-image of what exactly he wants, so you know to get up and step closer to the circle, cautiously putting your hand into it. If there was a summoned demon in there, this'd be dangerous as hell; you can feel the tingle of magic as the circle's temporarily broken by having you bridge inside and outside.

"It's complete," you tell him, and pull your hand back. The feeling of magic reminded you of a question, though. "There's a barrier around the house, remember? Won't that—"

"Fuck this up? No." Karkat shakes his head, putting a hand on your shoulder to pull you back a few steps. "I asked John about that—it's not even for demons at all; it's a ward against curses and ill-willed magic. He said they use this place as a safehouse for hunters who've ended up with especially bad fuckers—the kind with access to more powerful magic—after them." He glances at you, the corners of his mouth twitching up for a second. "A barrier to stop demons would be a fucking hassle; poor Hal's demon enough to trip it. He'd be stuck either in, or out."

You can just imagine. "And pissed over it too, huh?"

"Exactly." He snorts and moves to stand behind you, hands resting on your shoulders. "Are you ready to try this out?"

"I still don't know what I'm doing, but...yeah."

"Okay." It's simple. I'm going to put the words you need in your head, you speak them. As long as you trust me, it'll be easy. His hands tighten, just a little. Anxiety, you think. "Do you trust me?"

"Hell yes." Breathe in, breathe out. This'll be a cakewalk. Let's get this show on the road.

He snorts out a soft laugh, and starts feeding you words.

It's weird, doing this. For the first couple seconds you can't figure out how to keep up with his pace—it's too quick, maybe you can speak that fast but there's a lag between your mind and your mouth that screws everything up.

Then you realize that all you have to do to minimize that lag is open up a little more to him. Let him in your head just a bit farther.

You have almost no problem with doing that, even if it makes you stumble over a syllable as you do it. You can feel Karkat's relief that you came to this conclusion, as he settles in your mind and starts speaking the words of summoning through you.

(It actually occurs to you that he's pretty much possessing you, right now. It's a mark of the kind of shit that's happened in the last week that instead of being worried, you find that funny.)

(Also pretty damn nice. Means he's close to you.)

So you just relax, and you let him make you do what he wants. There's a lot of words that go into calling a demon, apparently, because it's at least ten minutes before Karkat pauses, you feel something twist in your chest—some measure of power leaving you—and in the circle, something changes.

Someone arrives.

You only get a flash of red and the impression of a startled face, though, because your sight immediately wavers and goes blurry. Karkat seems to know what's happening, maybe expect it, because he catches you before you can do more than start to fall.

"Karkat," whatever you've summoned says reasonably, "if you've harmed that boy—"

"Shut up for a fucking second, Kankri," Karkat growls.

Your brain's too fuzzy to remember why you know that name. Eh, you'll figure it out when you wake up...

#demon eyes

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tumblunni · 7 years

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wtf is up with creepy anime game things using robots and metaphors as a way to sneak comparatively extreme sexual content past the ratings board? Like I mean there was a relatively Not Bad version where Aigis gets a metaphorical sex/makeout/something scene when you romance her in persona 3. Fixing one of her robot parts is apparantly erotic to her or something?? It was really cringey but like it wasnt OVER THE TOP, and it was alright in context cos like it meant she was the only gay option in the updated rerelease. (Since she still gets the scene if you pick the female character.) But like still it was really weird and dumb. But I just saw an EVEN WORSE version of that same damn scene in this thing called Ar Tonelico! Like friggin EVERYTHING in the game is a robot sex metaphor, and there’s really problematic fanservicey bullshit about it. Everyone has weirdass pervy outfits and you unlock more weirdass pervy outfits by ‘diving’ into their ‘cosmosphere’, aka magic dungeons that represent their soul. But like you don’t even get an explorable place or cool boss battles, its just a bunch of really cringey dialogues full of pervy nonsense and like.. 5% actually semi-emotional proper character development stuff. But its really hard to feel anything about those when you had to get past all this weird ‘oh its my first time’ and ‘i’m mad at you cos the man should ask the woman to Dive’ and ‘plz come insid me protagonist sama uwu’ and one of these sexualized characters being a ten year old who’s really an eighteen year old and just GAHHHH And like apparantly the series gets even worse in the sequels and you get ‘battl damage’ making the robot girls naked when they take damage and like BUT THEYRE ROBOTS WHY DO THEY EVEN HAVE BOOBS AND STUFF?? i mean they look exactly like humans and apparantly they can interbreed with humans but also they have to stick microchips in their ass and stuff?????? OH AND THATS THE WORST PART like somehow EVEN WORSE than the ‘dive’ system is the ‘life extending agent’ scene cos apparantly half human magic robot people need to consume some sort of magic robotic.. thing, or they die. Its very poorly explained. like its called an agent so you’d think it was a liquid but then its apparantly a circuit but then that circuit comes in a giant crystal rock that you have to shove inside them.. YEAH YEAH YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING cos they have an ‘expansion slot’ that all their robot stuff goes into, and its like a magic tattoo somewhere on their body. and like this is what i mean about EVERYTHING being pervy! its already creepy enough with them being all female magic robots that physically require being partnered to a man in order to fight, cos they can only do support and need to be protected and like lets have a forty hour plot about the true definition of protecting your love and blablabla. And also all the bad people have robot girls too, and they’re like.. metaphorical sex slaves. Cos you can still ‘dive’ and use ‘expansion slots’ if the robot isnt consenting, and just... ugh. Thats even creepier than literal rape! What if the rapist could actually walk inside your soul and change stuff around to make you more obedient! Game, why are you not thinking about what you wrote??? And like all the upgrades are this ‘expansion slot’ where you shove pointy metal things inside a girl’s boob hole and she yells out in pain but ~uwu i have to do it to help save the world~ gahhhhhhh And the LIFE EXTENDING AGENT which isnt an agent and is instead a big ol dildo rock the girl who has to do that has her expansion port on her back so the animation is just extra sexual and its all ‘BUT ITS SO BIG’ and ‘PUT IT IN HARDER’ and just fuckin STOP, GAME, STOP and then she falls into his arms all exhausted and like apparantly she has to do this once monthly to not die and the game is just all ~wow she is so brave please love this poor suffering anime waifu~ and like.. patronizingly plays out as if this was a normal legit plot point and the audience isnt meant to notice its a giant crappy inuuendo. Like if you wanted me to take it seriously then JUST DO THE PLOT ABOUT HER LIFESPAN BEING LIMITED. I can’t cry for her when she’s dying because of DONG DISEASE and the cure is MORE PEGGING also like neither of the two girls has any chemistry with the protagonist yet they’re all falling over him and being jealous girlfriends after like two days of.. vaguely existing in the same room as him and being female and loli girl says she was his childhood friend but he doesnt remember her. And he just... believes it?? nobody questions it?? we still dont know who the fuck she even is?? and she’s allowed to act jealous and mad at him for talking to other girls even though he doesnt know who she is and seriously you’re not fucking dating him?? and also you’re like twelve?? but really eighteen?? as represented by a giant naked portrait of yourself within your own headscape?? god this game is a plothole wrapped in a trashy bikini also it sucks that i keep losing respect for Gust as a company when i find out that like.. i just got lucky playing the few games they have that ARENT super fanservicey, and now its a fuckin roulette every time i hear about another game. i just want your cool alchemy minigames i dont want robo rape plots T_T

#blunni thoughts #meh im glad i didnt buy it at least #this is why lets plays have saved me a thousand times

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