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thesunicarusfellfor · 3 years

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Hello! I'm in love with the way you write c! Ranboo like hsgsj- amazing! So I would like a request Yandare c! Ranboo and tubbo with a soft reader that is oblivious on how they act twords them but loves them unconditionaly (just fluff please maybe maybe put a Micheal seen in there as well because Micheal is the best character 😌)

I think this is the best compliment I have ever received... Thank you so much🤍🖤

I didn't know whether or not to do headcanons or a full-length fic, so I went with a shorter story if that's alright. ^^ if it's not feel free to send another request!

FYI THIS CAN BE SEEN AS PLATONIC OR ROMANTIC

Too Sweet (For This World) Yandere!C!Ranboo x F!Reader x Yandere!C!Tubbo

It was very common for you to see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you looked, you only saw a bunch of purple particles drifting slowly towards the earth due to gravity. You just assumed there were quite a few endermen still hanging around Snowchester, or some of the goats had come down from the mountains when you saw small little horns peeking out from behind bushes.

There were a couple times a day where you accidentally and very conveniently bumped into Ranboo out in the crater of L'Manberg or Tubbo when walking around Snowchester. It honestly was funny to you that you always seemed to bump into them when you were feeling sad or lonely. Plus, after talking to them and spending time with them, your problems almost magically seemed to disappear!

Such as, there was one time when you were helping clean up the red vines around buildings and Fundy was nagging at you for being so slow or bad at doing everything. After storming away and ranting to Ranboo about it on the verge of tears, Fundy practically scrambled up to you the next day shaking and almost crying, apologizing for every single thing he's ever said or done.

Huh... Maybe he felt that bad about it to the point where he was crying?

Although Fundy never said anything mean to you again, he also stopped hanging around you completely.

When you mentioned this to Tubbo, he explained that Fundy must not have been a real friend and that he and Ranboo would always be there for you before anyone else.

Once the mansion was built, the two platonic husbands eagerly invited you to stay with them, even saying they had Foolish make a room specifically for you! At first, you quite enjoyed your home around L'manberg, but then one day you returned home to a wall of your home completely destroyed by vines, deeming it unlivable. Although a tad convenient..

Tubbo and Ranboo had heard about it through your sobs when you called them, saying you had no clue what to do anymore. They had arrived at your side in almost minutes and quickly helped you pack and move everything to the mansion.

"I thought Snowchester was like... Half a day's walk away from here..." You sniffed, rubbing your red and puffy eyes. The two men of greatly varying heights tensed up momentarily.

"We were in the area." They both blurted out at the same time before glancing at each other.

Tubbo cleared his throat first, "I was in the nether, but luckily for you, I was close to the old L'manberg portal!" He smiled softly at you as you three walked away from your old home.

"M-Me too!" Ranboo coughed awkwardly, causing Tubbo to shoot him an odd look that you decided to brush off, "Now, uh, come on! Michael needs to meet his new mother!"

You blinked in surprise at the new title but didn't question it much, assuming it was simply just a title. Unbeknownst to you, your two best friends already thought you were part of their platonic relationship, despite you never agreeing nor denying, or them even asking.

It took a few days, but the zombie piglin warmed up to you and practically saw you as another one of his parents, which made Ranboo and Tubbo extremely happy. Instead of placing you into one of the regular rooms, they had Foolish turn the basement into two heavily secured rooms a few days before your house had been destroyed, strangely enough, and even designed one perfectly to your liking!

After washing the fruits you had, you walked towards the bookshelf and pulled on the fake book that caused the shelf to swing open. You walked down the quartz stairs after shutting the hidden door, then made your way up to one of the two doors with a pink sign with 'Michael' written in yellow cursive paint. Punching in the code, the iron door slid open and you stepped in before closing it behind you.

A loud cooing grunt was heard and the sound of quiet tapping echoed through the room before a pair of arms wrapped around your leg. "Hello, Michael." You giggled softly as Michael made grabbing hands up towards the bowl of fruit. Placing it down on the table, the child eagerly ran over and began munching on the food as you brushed over the books on the shelves to find one you haven't read to Michael before. "What about... The story of Persephone?"

A disappointed grunt was your only response.

"Guess I did read that one... Hm... Oh! What about the story of Icarus?" This time his response was a happy squeak and tippy taps of his hooves against the warm quartz floors. You sat down in the rocking chair and waited until the child scrambled over and jumped into your lap.

You opened the book and began reading to him for an hour until your eyes slowly slid shut to the quiet snores of the child of your two best friends, who at this point was beginning to see you as a mother.

Quiet 'meh' sounds and 'vrrr'ing noises and a dim flash woke you up from your spot in the rocking chair. Cracking open your eyes, your arms shifted around the nether hybrid as you saw Tubbo holding a camera making happy bleating noises, while Ranboo, who was the source of the buzzing noises, took the book you had been reading from your limp hand to put it back on the shelf.

"What time is it?" You murmured softly to keep the child asleep as you rubbed the back of your stiff and sore neck.

"It's about 5:30pm. Still rather early. Tubbo walked over and gave you a gentle yet affectionate headbutt while he scooped Michael up from your lap to bring him to bed. This caused an odd whining noise to come from the enderman hybrid before he quickly walked over and rested his forehead against yours, resting it there for a few moments before pulling back, his cheeks flushed the same colours as his eyes.

You giggled softly and gave him a gentle pat on the head as he helped you up. He held onto one of your hands as Tubbo eagerly went for the other, jokingly sticking his tongue out at Ranboo who gave a noise of mock offense, causing you three to giggle softly as you left Michael's room and went upstairs.

Tubbo and Ranboo weren't big fans of you leaving the basement on your own, and you were rarely allowed to leave the mansion even with the two boys at your sides. The former president told you it was because he heard rumours of Technoblade searching around for all the members of his cabinet back when he was in charge of L'Manberg, and he just wanted to protect you.

You saw no problems with his story as it was extremely believable. Your history with Technoblade hadn't been the cleanest and he would've definitely taken one of your canon lives back during the attack on L'Manberg, had a stray black and white firework not saved you that day. It had fired off and must've swerved a way that wasn't predicted, because it hit Technoblade hard enough in the chest to knock him away from you.

You don't remember much of that day, except for Ranboo immediately running over to you and dragging you away from the destruction and chaos. Thanks to him, you were almost completely scar free and standing proudly at three canons lives.

A gentle hand on your shoulder brought you back to reality and you saw two sets of eyes staring at you with concern. "Hey... Are you feeling okay?" Ranboo asked softly, tilting your head up to place his free hand against your forehead, "See. I told you she should be getting more sunlight, Tubbo!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" You laughed softly at their worry, rubbing your thumbs along the back of their hands, "Just... Remembering the war with Dream and Techno..."

"What about it?" Tubbo asked, bringing you into the living room to sit down with your friends on either side of you.

You pursed your lips together for a moment as you looked at the ground, "Just how... Scary Techno is. And how he was about to kill me without a care about who or what I was."

Angered growling and seething noises came from Ranboo and Tubbo as you felt their grasps tighten around your hands, almost to a painful degree. You looked up and saw their expressions stone-cold and steely although vastly different from each other.

Ranboo's green eye was purple, and the black tone of his skin was beginning to seep into the side with the lack of colour. The corners of his mouth were slowly splitting open wider and wider as his lips parted, allowing you to see the glowing purple colour inside his mouth.

Tubbo's was less obvious. His eyes were blank but also had a bright fire, one burning for revenge, reflected in them. His ears weren't flicking and neither was his tail, his entire body stiff except for a faint sound giving away the fact that his teeth were grinding together.

As much as you tried to endure it, the grip became too harsh and you couldn't help but give a small pained gasp. This caused all physical contact with you to suddenly vanish as the two boys immediately flung themselves away from you, horror and fear in their eyes.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"

"Are you okay?! Do you need an ice pack?!"

"Or a bandage from my claws?!"

They were both kneeling on the ground in front of you with both of your hands in their grasps again. They repeatedly turned your hands in their own, testing the joints and checking for marks or bruising. "Boys, boys!" You laughed softly, placing your hands on their heads to ruffle their hair gently. You pulled your left hand adorned with two beautiful rings and held it up for them to see, flexing it and moving it around, "See? Perfectly fine. No pain whatsoever!"

While they seemed to have calmed down a lot, they still seemed to be extremely upset and guilty. "I'm still going to get an ice pack... We don't want our wife to be injured..." Tubbo murmured as he quickly got up and walked towards the kitchen.

"I will get started on dinner. And as an apology, I'm making your favourite. (F/f)." Ranboo tried to be a little more upbeat than Tubbo, but you could still see the small amounts of guilt as he turned and followed after the goat hybrid.

Sighing softly at their overreactions, you leaned back against the couch...

Before doing a double-take.

Adorned with rings?!

You quickly flung yourself forward again and looked at your left hand. On your ring finger were two diamond rings, one gold with a green gemstone, and the other silver with a black gemstone, both glistening a faint purple from enchantments...

...

When did these get put on you- wait... Did Tubbo say... wife?

#tubbo x reader #yandere tubbo x reader #ranboo x reader #yandere ranboo x reader #mcyt x reader #yandere mcyt x reader #mcyt #ranboolive #ranboo #tubbo #dream smp #dsmp #ranboo dsmp #ranboo dreamsmp #tubbo dsmp #tubbo dreamsmp #tubbo mcyt #ranboo mcyt

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icarushasfallenfromthestars · 3 years

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Too Sweet (For This World) Yandere!Ranboo x F!Reader x Yandere!Tubbo

I think this is the best compliment I have ever received... Thank you so much🤍🖤

I didn't know whether or not to do headcanons or a full-length fic, so I went with a shorter story if that's alright. ^^ if it's not feel free to send another request!

FYI THIS CAN BE SEEN AS PLATONIC OR ROMANTIC

Huh... Maybe he felt that bad about it to the point where he was crying?

Although Fundy never said anything mean to you again, he also stopped hanging around you completely.

When you mentioned this to Tubbo, he explained that Fundy must not have been a real friend and that he and Ranboo would always be there for you before anyone else.

Once the mansion was built, the two platonic husbands eagerly invited you to stay with them, even saying they had Foolish make a room specifically for you! At first, you quite enjoyed your home around L'Manberg, but then one day you returned home to a wall of your home completely destroyed by vines, deeming it unlivable. Although a tad convenient..

"I thought Snowchester was like... Half a day's walk away from here..." You sniffed, rubbing your red and puffy eyes. The two men of greatly varying heights tensed up momentarily.

"We were in the area." They both blurted out at the same time before glancing at each other.

Tubbo cleared his throat first, "I was in the nether, but luckily for you, I was close to the old L'Manberg portal!" He smiled softly at you as you three walked away from your old home.

"M-Me too!" Ranboo coughed awkwardly, causing Tubbo to shoot him an odd look that you decided to brush off, "Now, uh, come on! Michael needs to meet his new mother!"

A disappointed grunt was your only response.

"What time is it?" You murmured softly to keep the child asleep as you rubbed the back of your stiff and sore neck.

You giggled softly and gave him a gentle pat on the head as he helped you up. He held onto one of your hands as Tubbo eagerly went for the other, jokingly sticking his tongue out at Ranboo who gave a noise of mock offence, causing you three to giggle softly as you left Michael's room and went upstairs.

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" You laughed softly at their worry, rubbing your thumbs along the back of their hands, "Just... Remembering the war with Dream and Techno..."

"What about it?" Tubbo asked, bringing you into the living room to sit down with your friends on either side of you.

You pursed your lips together for a moment as you looked at the ground, "Just how... Scary Techno is. And how he was about to kill me without a care about who or what I was."

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"

"Are you okay?! Do you need an ice pack?!"

"Or a bandage from my claws?!"

Sighing softly at their over reactions, you leaned back against the couch...

Before doing a double-take.

Adorned with rings?!

...

When did these get put on you- wait... Did Tubbo say... wife?

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shirophantomvox · 3 years

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Analyzing Illumi Zoldyck's Character

Chrollo Analysis | Hisoka Analysis | Killua Analysis

What’s up y’all! Sorry for being away for the last few days. I needed a break from social media because I am so tired of seeing toxic, self-righteous people on my TL. Anyway, quite a lot of you liked my posts about analyzing HxH characters and somehow comparing them to VLD characters. Today, I’ll be talking about Illumi Zoldyck and I’ll try to compare him to a Voltron character. I know many people have already analyzed this character before, but it wouldn’t hurt to add to the discussion some years later. If you want me to write about anything else, send me an ask! The formatting of this post may be different than the one I wrote about Hisoka Morrow (click his name to view that post).

HERE WE GO!

In the first season, all of the characters are contestants for the Hunter’s Exam. I say contestants because this is a contest to see who can win without any injuries and can keep up with each host. I forget what number stage they were at, but I do know they were at the stage where each opponent has to fight each other. They are declared the winner if their opponent forfeits or gives up mid-match. (Off-topic, but) I am going, to be honest; Gon was my favorite character but his flaws began to show, annoyed me, and later led to his horrific downfall (based from YouTube clips). He didn’t know when to stop and kept pushing himself over the limit. Anyway, Killua and Gittarackur are set to fight. This is when things take a turn for the worse.

Gittarackur is a form of a disguise for Illumi to mask his identity. His face is long; nearly (and reminds me of) in the shape of a Tiki. His face also reminds me of the Witch Doctor mask from Scooby-Doo and Hell-raiser. He has several pins stuck in his face to maintain the facial features of Gittarackur. On the flip side, if he removes the pins, his biological form is revealed. Once he does this, Killua is nearly paralyzed; he cannot believe his eyes and I’m sure the trauma he endured at home hit him like a sack of rocks. Illumi then tells Killua that he wants him to return home, that he cannot maintain a friendship with Gon, stated that he was going to kill Gon, but realizes that if he does so he will be disqualified and will not obtain his Hunter’s license.

I’m assuming the cops aren’t a thing in this reality and the only way for them to “destroy” under the law is by obtaining the license. What do you think? I rarely see police officers; all I see are the Mafia and every they suck compared to the Zoldyck's and the Phantom Troupe. Shit, it seems like they’re the police but have twisted motives.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a fictional character or not, first impressions matter and he bombed this one...even for a villain.

But you did this for what?

How can you hypnotize (by using Nen) your own brother into killing another opponent because he doesn’t want to become an emotionless zombie like you? At least, that’s my perception. Telling your brother to run every time he faces an opponent that he knows he cannot win against is the sickest shit I’ve ever seen. I know I’m jumping around but another thought popped into my head. As the seasons go on, Illumi expresses an odd way of loving his younger brother and to him, that means to make him suffer in the same way he had to. It seems like Illumi is jealous of Gon in a way. (I’ve seen clips on YouTube) Killua takes Alluka to the hospital to heal Gon. Illumi has stated several times to Hisoka that Killua was hiding rules from him and that he still wanted to get rid of Alluka. Although it is clearly stated why he wanted Alluka gone, I still think that Illumi was jealous of Gon simply because his younger brother preferred to be with a friend instead of him. This is why he emphasizes “You cannot have friends. Either they will betray you or you’ll betray them.”

As I read and watched as the seasons went on, I noticed something about Illumi and his family. We all know that the children were raised by their parents. Specifically, their dad is a trained assassin. I can’t remember but I think Zeno is their grandfather who is also an assassin.

I view him as a character that has suffered from abuse and trauma in order to mold him into an assassin. He is emotionless, doesn’t really care for others, has an odd relationship with Killua that he doesn’t have for his other siblings, and is a hypocrite. Killua can’t be friends with Gon but every time the show cuts to him, he’s with Hisoka? Something is fishy there. Are they more than friends? OK, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Here's the physical analysis below.

Face

When masquerading as Gittarackur, his face has several pins in them and his hair is in a rock star form of Mohawk that is purple. I’ll give him 10/10 for uniqueness, yet it still reminded me of Hell Raiser.

I’ve noticed that when he is in public he is in costume. Why doesn’t he reveal himself in public? I’ve researched this and no one could answer this question. My guess is that he is a verified hunter and assassin. How can you carry out your missions if everyone knows what you look like? Without the pins in his face, it reverts back to his natural state. To me, his large eyes and long, shiny black hair are his distinguished features. Although he may be my least favorite character, he does have pretty eyes. Haven’t you all heard of “I got lost in his/her eyes”?

Yeah, that can be said about him. Most definitely. He rarely smiles and when he does, something BAD is going to happen. I saw him laugh crazily once Alluka began the healing process, the Nen (I guess) rose from the hospital and got on him. This scene reminds me of how Haggar reacted once the Komar’s quintessence bounced from Voltron and bounced onto her. Wow, these supernatural abilities make y’all feel that good?

Clothes

Gittarackur and Illumi wear the same clothes, which should be a clear giveaway that they are the same. Illumi wears a neural green short jacket that has yellow pins in them, a light green shirt underneath, and green pants. His shoes remind me of loafers with a heel on them, something my grandmother would wear.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say again, these bad-ass men in this show are very stylish and seem to be in shape more than I am. Although Illumi irks me, his fashion is great and this is why people prefer him to be their favorite character. Shows should always produce characters that are memorable; that is the key to a long-lasting fan base.

In conclusion, this anime (for the most part) has well-rounded characters that make the plot interesting and wanting more.

Illumi and Lotor are somewhat similar. They both grew up in abusive households and lost some sense of sensitivity, common sense, and were often “misguided” by their own selfishness. Illumi wants a better life for Killua by constantly brainwashing him into thinking that he cannot have friends and his can only find happiness through killing. Zarkon raises Lotor to be a prince that shouldn't work with planets and should destroy them. This explains why he used deceased Alteans from the colony, drained their quintessence, and didn't give them a proper burial. Lotor IS just like his father but Killua IS NOT like Illumi. Ironic, huh? As we all know by now, Lotor is the son of Honerva (Haggar) and Zarkon. After the rift accident, he became an emotionless, ruthless monster that colonized and destroyed planets just to gain their quintessence. He taught this to his son and once he was old enough to think for himself, he refused to act in such a way. Although he was exiled and said he wasn’t like Zarkon, he was; but worse. Lotor studied and gained knowledge about Altea and its people while using Allura to gain the secrets of Oriande. I say he used her because he knew from the moment he met her that he was harvesting Altean quintessence. While fighting the white lion, he yelled “Victory or Death” which is a common catchphrase the Galra use when they are in battle. In fact, the Galra have been victims of trauma from Zarkon. Zarkon’s ruthless ways of ruling had no other motive except for obtaining quintessence so he could live forever. Silva’s way of raising his children was done to mold them into assassins. Since he was taught this way he did the same thing to his children. Zarkon, Silva, and Zeno think that their ways of parenting are necessary for survive in life when it doesn’t have to be that way. Illumi and Lotor have experienced this horrific parenting and deal with it in different ways. Illumi is oddly obsessive of his younger brother and Lotor is a fucking liar.

This analysis was fun! Next, I’ll be analyzing Killua and Keith Kogane.

If you’d like to see more posts like this, send me an ASK!

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incorrectlumityquotes · 3 years

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FULL REVIEWS: “I Was A Teenage Abomination”

So if you read my previous review you know that I didn’t like the last episode. That scene of Eda and King mocking Luz almost made me drop the whole show, but the lesson at the end convinced me to to give the show another chance especially since the season just started. Good thing I did because wow did the show deliver.

I’m not the biggest fan of the magic school trope, but I can see why people use it. The most common settings for fiction are schools, homes and work places because they all force people to come together and interact. And while I do think all magic schools look alike (almost all of them) because they’re just castles, I don’t know if Luz, Eda and King can carry an entire show by themselves. A school would force new and different characters in. Variety is the spice of life as they say. What Luz needs is more people her age to bounce off of and we got them.

The episode starts hilariously with The Owl House fam at the beach collecting crap from a dead giant ass slug. It’s when Luz suggests that she might some actual witch apprenticeship in her...witch apprenticeship that Eda accidently lets it slip that magic schools are a thing that exists in The Boiling Isles. BTW, if everyone could do magic on The Boiling Isles, wouldn’t magic school just be called school or is there a separate school system where magic is just an elective you can opt out of? I’m thinking too hard.

Luz decides that being knees and elbows deep in garbage isn’t for her and walks off to find our first new friend, Willow.

Willow is just a little sweetheart. Friend to all plants, kind of a pushover, but kinda really not. She lets Amity walk all over her but that could be just because of their past history together. But as soon as Amity is out of sight, Willow lets the anger flow through her like the Emperor’s dialogue in a Star Wars movie. Also looking back on this episode, it’s so weird to see Willow wearing the abomination purple uniform. I guess because she wears plant track green for the rest of the season that seeing her in her old uniform is unnatural or something.

And here comes the spice of life, baby. When I first heard about Amity I didn’t think twice about it until I heard that she was going to be voiced by Mae Whitman. Freaking Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yuffie from Kingdom Hearts 2, April O’Neil from TMNT 2012, Rose/Huntsgirl from American Dragon Jake Long, Tinker Bell in...Tinker Bell and Roxy from the live-action Scott Pilgrim movie. I had to see it. And wow. She’s so good at being such a bitch. It’s delightfully mean-spirited. But I think if you compare her performance here to later episodes (especially her first lines) you can sort of hear how Mae Whitman finds her groove to become Amity. Kinda like when you hear Marco Diaz in Star vs the Forces of Evil in the first episode and then in the last episode. But that’s nothing new.

My first impressions of the character were that she was going to be a Draco Malfoy clone, especially after how she put down Willow. Also this filled out enough Harry Potter tropes to make me think that they were going to go down a checklist or something. That’s just the way the world is now. Someone says magic school, first thing you think of is Harry Potter.

Luz has seen enough hentai to know where this is going!

But seriously back to the episode. Willow is surprised to see a human on The Boiling Isles and we see Luz pull her first scheme to help Willow: dress her up in as her abomination and sneak Luz into the school. Willow gets a good grade and Luz gets to see the school. Easy peasy, one two three-sy.

Another thought that I remember having when I first watched this episode was what the H is an abomination? I’ve known people to use the word when they don’t really like something but other than that I have no clue. It’s not the Marvel villain, and it’s not something that causes a feeling of disgust. It’s not even a biblical reference. I checked. It’s more like a golem, but whatever. It’s Dana’s fantasy world. So it’s not really a reference to anything.

And then we have our other friend, Augustus. A supposed human expert who thinks Luz should’ve had gills. Luckily Luz knew an Augustus in the human world that everyone just called Gus, so new nickname. He’s...smaller than the others but we find out in a different episode that he’s actually younger than everyone else and skipped a grade. He’s smart but still a kid.

“Boy, let me tell you what!”

Luz helps Willow get a good grade and this pisses off Amity something fierce because she’s (in this episode) the kind of person who needs someone who she knows she’s better than to feel good about herself. But we find out in a later episode it’s because she’s a stickler for the rules and abhors cheaters. (That’s a good word, abhor.)

Amity’s freakout at the cafeteria gives her an opportunity to call Principal Bump into the situation, but I’m still stuck on Luz being excited over a PB&J. LIke seriously? What has Eda been feeding her? Or not feeding her? She knows her has to feed Luz right? Humans gotta eat too. I have concerns.

Yeah no, your ass would be fired.

Bump tries to bump (lol I’m funny) Luz and it’s out that she’s not an abomination; she’s an intruder. The climax happens which is fine, but Luz punching out abominations reminds me of my argument on why zombies aren’t scary. I mean, if they are decaying flesh how would they have super strength or any strength? It makes no sense. If abominations are just walking piles of goo how would they have super strength? Magic? Is that gonna be your answer to everything?

“Curse you Boiling Isles public school system!!!”

I forgot to mention the B-plot with King and Eda and I really like it. I love the comedy in this show and the B-plot has all of my favorite jokes in this episode. I just get upset talking about it because I know some asshole is going to call it filler. I remember a time where “filler” was used to refer to anime only episodes or story arcs that were produced to let the manga catch up with some more chapters. Now everyone uses it to refer to stories they don’t like. Not stories that don’t further the main plot, but stories they don’t like.

Animation is difficult and takes a lot of time and money. If they do something, they do it for a reason. If it doesn’t further the plot then it develops the characters. It’s okay for a comedy to just have an episode that tells jokes. That’s the point of a comedy, to be funny. It’s okay if an action show just wants to do a fight scene or a set piece. That’s what action does. But I know some dipshit is gonna reblog or reply and argue with me about what filler means or what it really means and yada yada yada. Free tip, do that and I’ll block you because this is my blog and I can do that. Also, fuck you.

“I have no son!” My favorite line of the episode.

The episode ends a little too neatly with Willow telling Luz that everything was resolved offscreen. Willow is now in the plant magic track. Amity is begging Bump for a good grade, and Luz is banned from Hexside. For now...

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it!

This episode was a bunch of fun. It was super funny, introduced some great characters and saved my interest in the show. I knew I made the right choice to give this show another chance and it paid off. I wondered why they would introduce the school only to have Luz be banned but I just figured we would have more sneaking in scenarios. Egg on my face, huh?

Still this episode was a great time and I couldn’t wait for the next one.

#the owl house #my works #full review #full reviews

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gonbe-nyanya · 3 years

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How to Actually Play Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (MTG, or just Magic) is the first and one of the most popular trading card games in the world. Described as the chess of card games, you can go as complex as you want (even make a computer) or have as much fun as you want, diving into the multitudes of worlds, creatures, and characters to express yourself.

But first you need to know how to play.

Lots of guides tend to be overly simplistic, so here I’ll try to go really in-depth in the rules while still maintaining an introductory tone. I will also try to provide as many pictures of relevant cards as possible to expose you to the vast array of effects cards may have, and how they interact with what I’m currently discussing.

1. The Colors of Magic

The most defining part of Magic are the five different colors. Each has its own flavor, playstyle, advantages, and disadvantages. You can combine different colors in your deck to have access to interesting combos and to balance out your deck’s weaknesses. Different color combinations also have their own specific flavor, often embodied by groups such as the guilds of Ravnica.

White: This is the color of unity, healing, and order. Cards in this color will often gain you life, protect your creatures from damage, tax or outright prevent your opponents from doing tricky things, and make armies of small creatures that together make mighty fighting forces. It is also associated with artifacts, enchantments, and exiling.

By the way, I will be defining Magic terms as they come up, like so.

Token: A representation of a creature, artifact, or something else. You can use it like a card while it exists, but it will vanish when it leaves the battlefield. (the rest of these terms will come up soon.)

Exile: Originally called “removed from the game”, exile is a zone that is inaccessible to most cards. It makes sure your opponents’ creatures go away forever. Sometimes, creatures go to exile and come right back to get extra enter-the-battlefield effects, known as blinking.

If you see something that isn’t immediately defined, just keep it in mind. Chances are I’ll cover it in a later chapter.

Blue: This color is related to knowledge, water, and the cold. You’ll get to draw lots of cards, but your creatures will be lacking. Instead, you will have access to powerful spells that bounce, freeze, or steal your opponents’ creatures and even give you extra turns. Quelch your opponents’ attempts with counterspells. It also has affinity for artifacts.

Black: This color represents death, disease, and ambition. Full of evil kill and discard spells, you will have access to your own army of zombies, vampires, and demons. You will also be able to do powerful things, but often at the cost of cards, creatures, or even your own health. In the words of Dark Confidant, “Greatness, at any cost.”

Red: This is the color of passion, fire, and explosive power. Many of the direct damage spells, including the iconic Lightning Bolt, are Red, as well as aggressive, fast creatures and multiple combats. You will have an extreme upper hand in your first few turns, but will quickly run out of gas if you don’t use another color to keep up on card draw. Red also brings with it mighty dragons and world-morphing chaotic effects.

Green: The color of nature, Green is similar to white in its abilities to heal, create tokens, and destroy artifacts and enchantments. However, Green has a wild side and is full of giant beasts, swarms of bugs, and rapid evolutions. It also brings out lands quickly and makes tons of mana.

2. Dissecting a Card

Sidisi is a popular character that hales from the plane of Tarkir. She’ll be helping us as a prime example of what a card looks like. There’s a lot to take in, but we’ll start from the top and work our way down.

First is the border (yes, from the very top!). It seems silly, but there are actually a few different borders that mean different things. A vast majority of cards have the regular black border. You may also see cards with white borders - these tend to be older cards, but they’re just as good as the black bordered ones. Silver borders come from the Un-sets, a series of joke sets full of wacky mechanics and inside jokes. None of these cards are tournament legal, but you’re free to have fun with them with your friends. Gold-bordered cards will also have a different back, and were printed as a part of tournament-winning decks back in the day. These are not tournament legal, but since they are often cheaper than their “real card” counterparts, people will use them in casual decks.

Next is the name. “Sidisi, Brood Tyrant” is the full, English name of this card. Each deck can only have up to 4 copies of any single card (there are very important exceptions to this I will cover in the next chapter). There are also a few cards which specifically reference others by name.

To the right of that is the mana cost. In this case, we need to use one black mana, one green mana, one blue mana (each represented by their respective symbol) and one mana which can be of any color, or even colorless, represented by the 1 in the circle. We’ll find out how to get mana in the next chapter as well. As a side note, many cards will consider the mana value (formerly, converted mana cost), which is just the total cost of the card as a number. For Sidisi, it’s four.

Beneath that is the art.

Arguably the most important part of any card, Magic’s art is what really sets it apart from other games. People fall in love with specific cards for their dramatic poses, mighty beings, and stunning vistas. The art brings character to every card, and ties flavor and function beautifully. This is the best way to express yourself, and find what you really like about Magic.

Next is a thin bar called the typeline. This will tell you first what type of card it is - either a land, creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, instant, sorcery, or tribal (or some combination!), which dictate how you use the card, and what other cards interact with it. Card types can be divided into permanent, which go on the battlefield once played, and nonpermanent, which you play for a single effect and immediately go to your graveyard. There are also some supertypes. Sidisi herself is Legendary, meaning she represents a specific character from Magic lore. This also means you can only have a single copy of her on the battlefield at any one moment; if you somehow get another, you’ll have to sacrifice one. Basic is another important supertype we’ll cover soon.

On the other side of the hyphen is the subtype - this is almost exclusively used for creatures to tell you what tribes they belong to. Sidisi herself is a Naga and a Shaman, and will thus interact with cards that care about that (these are often called tribal effects; for example, “Elves you control get +1/+1″). From Trilobites to Trolls, the creatures of magic are a diverse crowd.

Finally comes the set symbol, that strange orange shield thingy to the right. This tells you two things: the set the card comes from, and the rarity. This specific symbol represents the set Khans of Tarkir, so booster packs from that set may contain Sidisi. Rarity comes in 5 different colors.

Black: Common (Simple, often weak)

Silver: Uncommon (May have cool mechanics)

Gold: Rare (More powerful and complex)

Orange: Mythic Rare (The most powerful and complex)

Purple: Special (This is only used in situations such as Time Spiral, where they reprinted cards in the old border)

The rarity often (but not necessarily) corresponds to power level. It’s better to think of it as a ranking of design complexity. Newer Rares and Mythics will also have that shiny, elliptical sticker near the bottom, which simply guarantees the authenticity of the card.

The bottom half of the card is dominated by the text box. This will tell you the effects and abilities of the card. Sidisi has two abilities: one that triggers whenever she enters the battlefield or attacks, and one that triggers whenever a creature card is put into the graveyard from your library (on modern cards, this is called milling). We will go over abilities later.

Notice how Sidisi aligns with her colors. As a Naga, she is Green. Her zombie tokens are characteristic of Black, and tokens are generally Green as well. Milling is a Blue ability, and putting creatures in the graveyard to bring back to life is definitely Black.

The text box is also home to flavor text, the italicized text beneath the rules. This will often be a little blurb or quote relating to the flavor of the card. Consider it an extension of the art.

Creatures will also have that rectangle to the bottom right, called the Power and Toughness. The first number is the power (how hard it punches) and the second is the toughness (how hard of a punch it can take). This is relevant for combat and we will cover it extensively later.

Finally come all those funny symbols at the very bottom. This will include the collector’s number (199/269), the set (KTK = Khans of Tarkir), the artist (Karl Kopinski) and the copyright.

3. Lands

Lands are by far the most important component of your deck. They are what generate the mana you need to cast your spells, and dictate the colors of spells you can play.

You can play one land per turn - just plop it from your hand onto the battlefield. They have no mana cost, and thus the top right is blank.

The Basic land is the prime exception to the four-card limit, as you can have as many as you want in your deck. The Basic supertype also interacts with several cards, such as ones which let you get more from your deck onto the battlefield.

The 6 basic lands are Plains (white), Island (blue), Swamp (black), Mountain (red), Forest (green), and Wastes (colorless, only used in decks such as Eldrazi Tron, and are often not included).

This cycle comes from Lorwyn, a set based in Gaelic mythology.

All Basic lands come with the implied rules text that they can tap to create one mana of their respective color, and as such will often have the cinematic mana symbol instead.

Tap: A common cost on a permanent to activate an ability. Turn the card sideways to tap it. It will stay tapped until your next turn, when it will untap during your untap phase (more on that later). A tapped card can’t be tapped again, and a tapped creature can’t block.

Some lands, especially those that can make different colors, will enter the battlefield tapped, so you’ll have to wait an extra turn to use them. Other lands might only create colorless mana (represented by a number on older cards and a diamond on newer cards), so they’re less useful for casting spells, but will have interesting abilities, such as:

This Mutavault can turn into a creature for just 1 mana, which you can use to attack and block with. (Pop quiz: see if you can recognize each part of the card!) There are dozens more examples that do everything from draw you cards to destroy your opponents’ pesky lands.

But what exactly does it mean to create a mana? Well, really, it gets added to your mana pool, as you may have noticed on the Mutavault. This is an arbitrary place where all your mana goes so that you can spend it. This isn’t often relevant, because you’ll mostly tap your lands while casting spells and the mana will immediately be used, but there are a few scenarios where it might be useful. For example, someone targets your land to destroy it because they don’t want you to have the mana open to kill something they’ll play next. Just tap your land to keep a mana “floating”. However, all the mana in your pool will automatically drain out each time you change phases (more on those later).

Tapping lands for mana is an ability, but since it’s a mana ability, it won’t use the stack, so you can use them just about whenever. More on the stack later as well.

Most decks will be around one-third lands, with more or less depending on how low the average cost of cards you have are. The less colors you run, the less cards you have at your disposal, but the more flexible your mana base can be - more colors often use lands that enter tapped and are inconsistent at drawing the colors they need.

Have fun experimenting with your mana base, especially in casual formats. In more competitive formats, lands are actually the most expensive cards! The top lands are called the shocklands, fetchlands, and original dual lands - the last of which are several hundred dollars each.

4. Permanents

Besides lands, just about every other card you play is considered a spell when you cast it (you’ll see this on cards such as Counterspell). However, for the sake of clarity, I’ll be using “Permanent” to refer to anything that goes directly on the battlefield once it resolves and “Spell” to refer to single-use cards.

Of the card types mentioned above, permanents include lands (which we just covered), creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and the mighty planeswalkers. I’ll include a visual example of each as we go.

Creatures are your basic way of winning the game. They can attack your opponent to take down their life total, but might also have interesting abilities that make them more valuable as repeatable spells than combatants.

Incubation druid is a great example of both: she starts off as an additional land, giving you more mana quicker to play your other cards. With 0 power, she’s useless as an attacker. However, her Adapt ability lets her grow into a formidable 3/5, so you can attack and block with her much more effectively later in the game. Notice the curved arrow symbol that represents tapping.

+1/+1 Counter: This is a permanent buff to your creature, giving it an additional power and toughness each. Counters in general can come in many forms: -1/-1 counters are self-explanatory, but ability counters such as a Flying counter give your creature a new keyword. Other counters, such as Lore and Filibuster, keep track of certain things for you. Always bring a few dice with you to every game, as you’re sure to want to track some sort of counter.

Creatures enter the battlefield with summoning sickness, which means they can’t attack or use any ability that requires them to tap until your next turn. Creatures also get summoning sick when they change control. A creature with Haste, a keyword ability, lets you ignore this, and is often found on red creatures.

Artifacts, lore wise, are artificial, sterile creations of wizardry, and as such, almost never correspond to a color. They may imitate the effects of a certain color, but to prevent other colors from having easy access to it, they will often be overcosted. A common type of artifact is colloquially known as the mana rock, as it generates mana. There are many cards that interact and enhance artifacts.

Hedron Archive is a typical mana rock, costing four mana of any color and boosting your mana generation ability by two. Later in the game, if you already have more than enough lands, you can cash it in for two mana to draw some more cards. Notice the distinct metallic border.

Artifacts often combine with Creatures to form Artifact Creatures, or less commonly with Lands to create Artifact Lands.

Artifacts can also come on the form of Equipment, which will give an effect when equipped to a creature. This often comes in the form of a buff to its power and toughness, but can also include adding keywords and other cool abilities. You’ll need to equip it by paying a cost, and can pass equipment around between any of your creatures. This can result in some funny mental images, such as a cat wearing a suit of armor and wielding three swords!

Enchantments are similar to artifacts in that they sit on the battlefield and have an effect, but they will have color. Also, Green and White excel at “cleansing” both by destroying them, but Red is only good at blowing up artifacts - after all, an ogre with a mace can smash a rock, but not a mystical spell.

Some enchantments have the subtype Aura. This means you cast them targeting a specific permanent, and they will enter the battlefield attached to that permanent like a piece of Equipment. These, however, can’t be moved around, and will fall off and go to the graveyard if the thing they enchant ever leaves the battlefield. Auras will often buff creatures, but can also subdue permanents or boost a land’s mana production.

Planeswalkers are the newest and arguably the most powerful of the permanents. They represent the primary characters of MTG lore, beings who have incredible magical prowess and can teleport from plane to plane. They are (as of yet) all legendary, and thus you can only have one of each at a time on the battlefield.

They look pretty weird, don’t they? Instead of a power and toughness, they have a loyalty in the bottom right. Each planeswalker will enter the battlefield with that many loyalty counters on it. You can activate one of its abilities on each of your turns by adding or subtracting the indicated loyalty. Once a planeswalker is at zero, it dies and goes to the graveyard (or rather, gets fed up with your mishandling and teleports away, as per loyalty flavor). Planeswalkers can also be killed by spells that specifically target them, when they’re dealt damage, or when they’re attacked by creatures. Their last ability is often incredibly powerful, and is called an “ultimate”. Newer planeswalkers sometimes also have static abilities.

Planeswalkers are not creatures, and can’t attack or block. That being said, there are some planeswalkers that can turn into creatures.

Permanents are very useful, as they stick around and provide value turn after turn. Many strategies revolve around certain tribes, or using artifacts. Creatures are the main way to get damage through to your opponent to win the game. And planeswalkers have powerful abilities, requiring an answer from your opponent to stay in the game.

5. Spells

As stated above, all nonland cards are technically spells when cast, but here we will talk specifically about Instants and Sorceries. We will also define timing, as instant- and sorcery- speed is something we will discuss often when looking at casting spells, activating abilities, and using the stack.

Sorceries are your basic single-use card. Pay their cost, they’ll resolve, and you’ll get their effect once before they go to the graveyard.

Something I haven’t brought up yet is when you can play cards. We’ll go over the turn structure more in depth, but for now, know there’s a beginning step, a main phase, a combat phase, and a second main phase. You can play any of the previously mentioned cards, including sorceries, and activate planeswalker abilities, whenever it’s your main phase and the stack is empty.

The Stack: Whenever you cast a spell or activate a non-mana ability, or a triggered ability triggers, it will go on the stack. Things on the stack resolve last-in, first-out.

Instants are just like sorceries, but you can cast them at any time you have priority. This means they can go on the stack above other spells, which allows them to interact with other spells. Activated abilities can also be activated whenever, except for planeswalker abilities and those which specify otherwise.

Priority: When you have priority, you will have an opportunity to cast spells, play lands, and activate abilities. Everyone gets priority every phase, and it starts with the active player (whoever’s turn it is) and is passed around in turn order.

Whenever something goes on the stack, priority is passed around as well. Once each player has passed priority, it resolves and priority is passed once again for the next thing.

You can hold priority to cast multiple spells in a row.

Here’s a quick example to see how spells, abilities, and priority all interact on the stack:

Johnny and Timmy are playing each other, and it’s Timmy’s main phase. Johnny has a 0/2 Incubation Druid.

Timmy plays a Bala Ged Scorpion, which goes on the stack. Priority is passed around and it resolves. Its triggered ability goes on the stack, and Timmy targets Johnny’s Incubation Druid, since its power is 0, less than 1.

Since the ability is on the stack, Timmy gets priority and passes it to Johnny. In response, Johnny casts Burst of Strength, maintains priority, and casts a second Burst of Strength. Now priority passes between them for both, and they both resolve. Incubation Druid is now a 2/4.

Priority passes for Bala Ged Scorpion’s ability, but since the Incubation Druid now has more than 1 power, the ability does nothing and fizzles.

Fizzle: A spell whose target is no longer legal does nothing when it resolves. This is colloquially called fizzling.

Assuming he had the mana for it, Johnny could also have activated Incubation Druid’s Adapt ability in response to the Bala Ged Scorpion, making it a 3/5 and also letting it survive.

There are lots of cool things you can do with the stack, such as making slick plays to foil your opponents’ spells or to copy big spells for massive value.

Some permanent cards have Flash. This is a keyword ability that lets you play the card as if it was an instant. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is the quintessential Flash card, as it also gives your other creatures flash and prevents your opponents from playing at instant speed.

6. Where are We?

I’ve been throwing around terms such as Graveyard and Battlefield, so what exactly do these mean? Well, these are all zones. We’ve already looked at one zone - Exile. The Stack is also a zone.

A zone is a place where cards can exist. They may have abilities that work while in that zone, most often on the battlefield. Public zones are where all the cards are known. This includes the Battlefield, the Graveyard, and Exile.

Urabrask’s ability only works while he’s on the battlefield, and only creatures you control on the battlefield would get haste - after all, those are the only ones who can use it, anyways. Yixlid Jailer takes away abilities from cards in graveyards, so Momentary Blink would not have Flashback while it’s there. Momentary Blink also exiles a creature (using the old wording of “removed from the game”) and brings it back, known as flickering.

Private zones are anywhere where cards are not public information. This includes your hand and your library. Thoughtseize, and other similar hand disruption spells, let you take a peek at what your opponent has. Loads of cards like Armillary Sphere let you search your library for cards. Others may reveal the top card of your library, or let you look at the top few.

It’s also possible to have “hidden” cards in public zones. Willbender feature the Morph mechanic, which lets you cast it face-down as a 2/2 creature. This means your opponent won’t know what it is until you turn it face up, but you will. Other effects might put cards face-down in exile, where you could cast them.

Whenever a card changes zones, it becomes a new “object”. That means all counters, equipment, and auras fall off, and it is no longer being targeted by anything that was targeting it before. A classic use of this rule is flickering a creature being targeted by a kill spell - even though it comes back to the battlefield, it is a new object and is thus no longer being targeted by the kill spell. The spell will fizzle and your creature will be safe.

7. Starting the Game

Ok. So you’ve got a basic understanding of all the cards and the different locations. How do you get started actually playing?

There are lots of ways to play the game, but I’ll start out with the most common: a 1v1, best of 3 duel. This will also get a little bit into deckbuilding, but there’s a lot more on that later.

Most 1v1 decks will be 60 cards. In fact, this is a lower limit, and you can have as many cards as you want, but it’s convention to stay at 60 cards to maintain consistency. In a best of 3 match, you will also have a sideboard - 15 or less cards that may target specific strategies such as graveyard decks or artifact decks. After your first game and seeing what your opponent is playing, you’ll be able to switch out cards in your deck for the right silver bullets for games 2 and 3.

Common sideboard cards against Burn, graveyard, and artifact strategies.

If you’re playing a casual game with a friend, feel free to omit the sideboard, but it’s a staple part of competitive play and is a fun way to personalize decks in strictly defined metagames.

Now that you’ve got a deck (and presumably, a friend with a deck as well) shuffle up. Cut your opponent’s deck by putting the top half on the bottom (a customary ritual to prevent cheating) and let them cut yours. Figure out who’s going first by rolling some dice (whoever wins gets to choose, but generally going first is preferred), and draw seven cards.

You may not like your hand for several reasons. Maybe you have too many lands, or none at all. Your lands might all produce the same color of mana instead of all the colors you need, or you might have only highly-costed spells and nothing to do on your early turns.

No problem, just shuffle it back in and draw seven more. This is called mulliganing. You can do this as many times as you want, but don’t be too hasty, because once you find a hand you like, you’ll need to put one card from your hand on the bottom of your library for each time you mulliganed.

Now it’s time for your first turn. But before we really get playing, let’s look at the structure of a turn.

8. Phases of a Turn

credit to u/paper_alien

From this fancy diagram, we can see that your turn is broken down into roughly three different parts. I’ll be including examples of cards that interact with each phase. First is the beginning phase.

Your untap step is right at the start, when all your permanents untap. Simply turn them right-side up. Claustrophobia would prevent one of your opponents’ creatures from untapping, rendering it useless as an attacker and blocker, as well as preventing its tap abilities from being used. No player gains priority during the untap step, and play immediately proceeds to the upkeep step.

Normally, nothing happens here, unless an ability triggers. For example, the Luminous Angel gives you a 1/1 token on your upkeep. Players will get priority, so you’ll have a chance to cast instants or activate abilities as well.

After that is the draw step. You immediately draw a card, and abilities like that of Font of Mythos will trigger. Again, priority passes around. Once you’ve finished with the draw step, move on to your main phase.

Side note: Normally, players will typically condense these three steps into one (untapping and drawing), because it’s rare that you do play something here, but the steps are distinct for those cases in which you do need to take an action.

As mentioned above, your main phases are the only times you can play lands and non-instant spells, as well as activate planeswalker abilities. They sandwich your combat phase. It’s uncommon for cards to trigger during your main phases, but the two above are prime examples of such cards. Many activated abilities will also have an explicitly written restriction to only use them during your main phases.

The combat phase is the most complex, as it is really made up of five to six distinct subphases. First, you declare that you are going to move to combat. This will trigger cards like Hazoret’s Favor, and will give your opponents an opportunity to subdue your creatures before they can attack but after you have a chance to cast relevant non-instant cards.

Once priority is passed around, you move to the Declare Attackers step. Here, you will tap each creature you want to have attack, meaning you can only attack with untapped creatures, and declare the player or planeswalker it will be attacking. Creatures do not attack other creatures (this isn’t Hearthstone), and instead your opponent will have a chance to block your creatures with their own.

This happens after priority is passed around and you move to the Declare Blockers step. Your opponent will choose which of their untapped creatures they want to block your attacking creatures. Each creature can block up to one other creature, but any number of creatures can block one creature.

Next is the Damage step. Here, each unblocked creature will deal damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking, and each blocked or blocking creature will deal damage equal to its power to the creature(s) it’s been pitted against. If one of your creatures is being blocked by multiple, you need to divide its power among them. For example, a 3/3 being blocked by two 2/1′s must deal 1 damage to one and 2 damage to another. All creatures who have been dealt more damage than their toughness die and are put into the graveyard.

The theoretical sixth step actually occurs before the Damage step - the First/Double Strike step. If any creatures with first strike or double strike are involved in the combat, this step will be created and those creatures will have an opportunity to deal damage before other creatures. For example, if a 5/1 with first strike is blocked by a 3/3, the 5/1 will deal 5 damage to the 3/3 before it has a chance to fight back, and the 3/3 dies. Double strike means the creature deals its damage twice - during this phase and the regular combat phase.

Finally is the End of Combat step. Similarly to the Beginning of Combat step, this is mostly a formality, but some cards do trigger here (such as the Wall of Cinders), and priority is passed around.

Notice that you also get priority after every one of these phases, meaning you have tons of control over what happens. This allows you to play combat tricks. For example, say you attack with a 4/4 and your opponent has a 4/2. They might think you just want to trade creatures (meaning both die) and blocks your attacker. Before damage, you have a chance to play Giant Growth, pumping your creature out of range of your opponent’s creature, so yours survives.

This is also a great time to cover the keyword abilities I’ve been bringing up throughout, as many of them concern combat. Many of them are fairly self-explanatory, and are not exclusive to creatures.

Deathtouch: Whenever this creature deals damage to another creature, that creature dies.

Defender: This creature can’t attack. Often seen on Walls.

First Strike/Double Strike: As mentioned above, these let the creature deal damage before other creatures. Double Strike means it deals damage twice, once in the first strike damage phase and once in the regular phase.

Flash: You can play this card at instant speed. Can appear on any permanent card.

Flying: This creature can’t be blocked except by other fliers and creatures with Reach.

Haste: This creature isn’t affected by summoning sickness.

Hexproof: This can’t be targeted by your opponents’ spells and abilities. This doesn’t prevent it from being affected by “choose” or “all” effects.

Indestructible: This can’t be destroyed by damage or effects that say “destroy”. It can still be sacrificed, exiled, or given -X/-X to reduce its toughness to 0.

Lifelink: Whenever this deals damage, you gain that much life.

Reach: Can block creatures with flying.

Shroud: Like Hexproof, but also prevents you from targeting it (for example, with a pump spell or equipment).

Trample: Excess combat damage can be dealt to your opponent. However, you still need to deal lethal damage to any blockers. For example, a 5/5 with trample being blocked by a 2/3 must deal at least 3 damage to the 2/3 so that you can deal 2 damage to your opponent.

Vigilance: This creature doesn’t need to tap when attacking.

Menace: This creature must be blocked by at least two creatures.

There are many, many more keyword abilities, but these are the most common - the rest you will come across as you explore the different sets and planes.

After your second main phase comes the end step. In reality, you’ll care more about your opponent’s end step, because it is the optimal time to play removal, card draw, or other useful instants because it will give your opponent the least amount of time to react before your next turn. However, once priority is passed during your end step, check if you have more than seven cards in your hand - the maximum hand size. if you do, the cleanup step is created. Here, you must discard down to seven cards, and there will be another chance for priority after that. Seven is the default maximum hand size, but there are many cards that let you play around with that.

So now you’ve got your deck, you’ve mulliganed as you need, you’ve played an Island. I see you preparing to cast that Opt - but wait! Casting a spell is quite a bit more complex than it first seems, so let’s go over that now.

9. Casting Spells and Activating Abilities

All this time, I’ve been talking about casting and activating without really explaining exactly what that means, so now let’s make sure you know what that means. There is a lot of nuance to properly casting a spell, but once you understand it, you can ignore all the decorum in most cases. However, it’s still important to know exactly what happens to prevent common misunderstandings, and because Magic is full of strange cards that love to bend the rules; you will doubtless find fun corner cases.

The steps to casting a spell and activating an ability are identical except the first, so I will be going over them together, referring to casting a spell.

Declare you are going to be casting the spell by putting it from where it is (generally, your hand) onto the stack. An ability will be put onto the stack as an arbitrary object.

Declare all the additional and alternative costs you wish to pay (for example, Vandalblast’s Overload cost), the mode of the card for split cards (such as Assure // Assemble) and double-faced cards (such as Alrund, who is also a bird on his other side!), and define the value of X (such as for Chalice of the Void), which you can pay for in mana of any color.

Choose the targets of your spell. You must have a legal target for each time the word “target” appears on the card (this is when effects such as “When this becomes the target of a spell” are triggered and go on the stack, to be sorted out and resolved later).

Now determine how much you need to pay. This includes cost reductions and additional costs, such as for Torgaar, as well as taxing effects (i.e., “noncreature spells cost {1} more to cast).

Activate mana abilities, such as those from your lands and mana rocks, and pay all costs as required. This means, for example, that you can tap a creature that produces mana and sacrifice it to pay for Torgaar.

Congratulations! Your spell or ability is now on the stack. Abilities that trigger while you are casting your spell, such as Talrand’s, will be on the stack above it and will thus resolve first. We covered fizzling before, but to clarify, a spell will fizzle only if all its targets are no longer legal, either through dying, or gaining Hexproof, or some other means. This means you get no part of its effects. If it has multiple targets, and only some become illegal, the card resolves as normal.

Like I said, you really don’t need to understand all of this in depth, but it helps clarify the occasional odd rules interaction.

10. Abilities

There are four types of abilities that you might find on cards. The one we’ve just covered extensively was activated abilities, which further come in two forms.

Draconic Disciple handily features both: a mana ability, and a normal activated ability. Notice that all activated abilities use the syntax “Cost X, Cost Y: Ability.�� As we covered last chapter, you need to use mana abilities before paying costs when activating an ability, so you couldn’t tap Draconic Shaman for mana for his own ability as well as tap him to summon the dragon.

The main distinction for mana abilities is that they don’t use the stack, resolve instantly, and can be used while casting spells. An activated ability is considered a mana ability if and only if all it does is create mana. That means that Deathrite Shaman’s first ability is not a mana ability, because it exiles a land in addition to creating a mana.

The three other types of abilities are triggered abilities, passive abilities, and replacement effects.

Vanquisher’s Banner features a passive ability by giving all your creatures of a certain creature type +1/+1. It’s pretty straightforward: a static ability simply applies as long as the permanent which has it is on the battlefield. There are nuances in “layering”, but this is already far more complex than you’ll need to know for the majority of games. Feel free to read that article, though.

Vanquisher’s Banner’s third ability is a triggered ability - an ability that goes on the stack when something happens. This could be casting a spell, a creature entering the battlefield, or drawing a card - or just about anything. These are generally in the form “When” or “Whenever”, and should not be confused with replacement effects.

Replacement effects, like the one seen on Teferi’s Ageless Insight, come in the form “If... would... instead”. They are similar to triggered abilities in that they occur in response to something happening, but they don’t use the stack. Instead, think of them as modifiers to abilities. For example, if Teferi’s Ageless Insight was formatted like a triggered ability, drawing you a card each time you drew a card, you’d be stuck in an endless loop of drawing. Instead, replacement effects only apply once to each thing they modify.

There are many ways that abilities might manifest themselves, and they don’t always need to be on the battlefield. Bridge From Below’s wall of text works when it’s in the graveyard. Skyscribing’s ability only works from your hand, and is keyworded by Forecast, which only appeared in the original Ravnica set.

The best way to experience all the different interesting abilities and cards is just by playing and expanding your collection. Enjoy playing around and learning more about the game.

This is just about all you need to know to understand the game itself. However, Magic cards just love bending the rules, so you’ll always be encountering interesting rules interactions that will teach you more about the game as you play.

11. Formats

Here is where the fun really begins. Choosing a format is like choosing a social media platform: it comes with its own drama, flavor, speed, and player personalities. All formats use 60 card decks with 15 card sideboards, and start at 20 life, except Brawl and Commander. Each format has its own banlist, so make sure you check that before building just any deck. However, feel free to totally disregard all formats and just build whatever deck you want to have fun with friends!

Here are the most popular formats:

Standard: Probably the most popular 1v1 format, Standard uses cards from the last few sets, and constantly rotates. Deck prices can range from under 100$ to over 500$ when certain powerful cards are in rotation, but when a card rotates out, it can lose its value if it isn’t played in older formats. It can be competitive, but also lets you play with fun new cards in a weaker environment.

Pioneer: The newest official format, Pioneer uses cards dating back to the set Return to Ravnica. It has the same fresh feel as Standard, but doesn’t rotate and is closer in power level to Modern.

Modern: This format uses cards from the newest set all the way back to Eighth Edition from 2003. Decidedly more powerful than Standard, and expensive as well. Competitive decks can range from 200-1000$, but the vast size of the card pool means you can find budget builds and underdog decks to tinker with.

Legacy: You can use any card in the history of Magic, except those from the Banlist. The power level is incredibly high, yet the stereotype of 2-turn games is not as true as one might think. Because of the original dual lands, decks are often over 1000$, but mono-colored decks such as Burn can be brought down to 200$. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Vintage: Like legacy, all cards are at your disposal, and this time, instead of a banlist, you have a restricted list, meaning you are limited to 1 copy of certain cards. A single copy of Black Lotus can be tens of thousands of dollars, and is a staple alongside the rest of the Power Nine. Very few play it because of the price tag, but it lets you tap into the true power of the oldest Magic cards.

Commander (AKA EDH): Play with any card, like Legacy, but with the distinct Commander banlist. The deckbuilding process here is very different: Pick a legendary creature you like, and pick 99 more cards that are of the same color(s) as your commander. This is a singleton format, meaning you can only have one of each card except for basic lands. Commander is also a multiplayer format, played in pods of 3-6; most often 4. Your commander starts in the Command Zone, where you can cast it. Each time it dies, it goes back to the Command Zone, where you can replay it for an additional 2 mana each time. The multiplayer nature, 40 starting life total, and high variance make Commander incredibly casual, much more a social event than a game. Have fun casting huge spells, playing pet cards, and embodying your commander. That being said, there’s a competitive scene in EDH, known as cEDH.

Brawl: Ah, Brawl. Commander’s younger, forgotten brother. It’s a cross between Commander and Standard, in which you have a commander (in this case, it can also be a planeswalker) and must have singleton copies of cards. Like Standard, you can only use cards from the last few sets, your deck is only 60 cards (no sideboard, though), and games are 1v1. You start with 25 life. Almost nobody plays this in person, but it’s very fun on MTG Arena.

12. Where to Play

Assuming you don’t have a group of friends ready to accept you into their playgroup, finding people to play with can be hard. First, I’d recommend checking Wizards of the Coast’s official Store Locator to find local game stores that might be hosting events and selling cards. If you go to their websites, they’ll often have calendars listing events by date, format, price, and prize. Explore and find one you like. MTG players are generally friendly, and will be willing to accept you into their playgroup, teach you about the game, and maybe even let you borrow a deck!

If you don’t feel like playing in person, there are several online options.

Magic Online (AKA MTGO or MODO) is the primary official way to play. Pay 10$ for an account, and you can buy, sell, and trade cards as if they were real. No really - Magic cards are almost like stocks, and MTGO cards are basically digital versions of Magic cards, so their price will generally mirror their real world counterparts, albeit at a lower price.

Magic Arena (MTGA) is the newest official online game. It only has cards from recent sets, back to Kaladesh, as well as a few odd cards hand-picked for Historic play (a format specific to the game that uses all cards available). Because of the smaller card pool, MTGA is limited to Standard, Brawl, and Historic as the primary game modes. However, it is free to play and your collection can’t be traded, so you collect cards somewhat like Hearthstone.

There are also a few unofficial programs, including Untap.in, XMage, and Cockatrice, which are free and give you access to the full range of cards for testing new decks before you buy them in paper.

Make sure you keep track of MagicFests, official conventions hosted both around the world and online, to meet tons of new people and play in competitive events.

Ultimately, though, many people choose to play at home around the kitchen table with friends and family. Play wherever and however you feel most comfortable; after all, Magic’s best aspect is self-expression.

13. Accessories

Credit: Tolarian Community College

If you’ve visited a local game store by now, you may have noticed that they sell way more than just cards. There are a myriad of accessories you can use to personalize your game and protect your cards.

Dice: from D4′s to D20′s, you can find these in countless colors and styles. Have fun picking your favorite and use them to keep track of life totals, counters, tokens, and more.

Sleeves: These can come in many different colors and designs, but vary wildly in quality. Pick the ones that feel right for you. These will help you shuffle your deck with ease and prevent your cards from getting damaged. Inner and outer sleeves provide additional protection for your most valuable and prized decks.

Deckboxes: Again, tons of variation. The right deckbox for you will depend on how many cards you want to fit in it, if you want space for dice, the design, and much more.

Playmats: These provide a sleek surface for you to easily pick up, tap, and move your cards around. Pick ones with your favorite Magic art, or order one with your own.

Trade Binders: Once you’ve built up a collection, you might have a few valuable cards you want to show off. Put them in a trade binder, and approach people to find other neat cards you might need.

Tolarian Community College on Youtube provides the best reviews of popular accessories, rating and testing them thoroughly. He also dishes out incredible commentary on new sets and the state of the game. Probably the most popular MTG Youtuber out there.

14. Further Resources

You’ve made it this far, but there’s still so much to explore! Here, I’ll be listing plenty of websites that are excellent resources to expand your understanding of the game.

The official rules: Quite dry, but this is where to go if you ever find a confusing interaction.

Tolarian Community College: I just discussed him, but I must reiterate how awesome his channel is.

Scryfall: A powerful search engine for all the Magic cards you might be looking for. What I’ve been using for card images this whole time. WOTC’s official Gatherer pales in comparison.

TCGPlayer: My favorite way to order cards online, but alternatives include Card Kingdom, StarCityGames, and ChannelFireball.

MTGGoldfish: An excellent all-round resource for keeping track of metagames, card prices, and interesting articles and gameplay. You can also use it to find, build, and share decks and see their prices.

EDHREC: This site conglomerates EDH decks from around the internet to give you a condensed list of the best cards by commander. A must-have resource when building new commander decks.

Last but not least, the best way to learn to play Magic is to watch others. I started out by watching gameplay from Grand Prix’s and other competitions on Youtube. Even though I barely knew what the cards were, I quickly picked up the most popular ones, learned common play patterns, and more. You don’t need to be a pro to learn from them.

15. Have Fun!

Yeah, it’s cheesy, but as I’ve reiterated, Magic is a game of self-expression. With thousands of cards to pick from, plenty of formats, styles, and accessories, customize your play experience as much as you want and be comfortable with that. Meet new people, participate in trading, and play in local events. Magic is what you make of it, so make it the best it can be.

#mtg #magic the gathering #mtg guide

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celestial-coolatta · 3 years

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... Okay. I need a concrete answer on what non-human, cold skin colors are okay for Benrey designs. This is getting out of hand and at a certain point we need to come to a reasonable conclusion that doesn't hurt anyone. I've asked a lot of people at this point and most of them say nobody actually gives a shit but I still don't want to upset anyone so we NEED to find a better solution than just assuming we all know everything

Here's all I know on the subject. Please tell me if I'm getting any of this wrong.

Obviously, green is very, VERY bad. That's obvious. As far as I'm aware of, there is no logical reason why green would make any sense, either.

Doesn't work with the uniform's color palette, and I can't think of any lore reason why he'd spend the entire time off-camera coated in copper, anyway. Big Nope.

The main issue is, green is partially connected to a lot of well-known antisemitic propaganda and dog whistles, so, while it's not inherently bad for ALL characters (ie. would be fine for grass-y characters that are literally made of green things), linking this to a villain specifically known to be deceptive (specifically in regards to appearing human at first glance) is a much bigger problem.

Blue has issues re: antisemitism, too, although it's not as well-known. Not as prevalent as green; I know where the green skin caricature comes from, but I've been trying to find information on where blue came from, and the majority of people who actually study this sort of thing appear to agree that it doesn't actually have any historical root, it's just been linked by association as a generally unnatural color.

Matches the color palette of the uniform and is much less "bright" than green, so it blends in well with shadows.

Generally associated with Livor Mortis (which is, if you're HCing Benrey to be partially undead in any way, absolutely NOT something you can afford to gloss over like you could with other set-ups), freezing/morgues/general cold storage, and/or complete exsanguination.

Common trope for zombie/alien characters, but, again, has a lot of negative connotations.

Not inherently awful when used for things like elementals/ghosts, but still could be taken very, very wrong with the specific archetype Benrey fills.

Purple has no link with antisemitic caricatures, unlike green and possibly blue.

Works as a cleaner method of expressing Livor Mortis or exsanguination, because it's closer to the tone that many lighter skin colors turn when drained this way.

A little harder to mesh neatly with the rest of the color palette than blue, for obvious reasons, but has the bonus of looking much "warmer"/pink at a glance, so it makes more sense that someone might look at Benrey and not immediately get that it's not just a trick of the light.

Grey is... Neutral, in most ways? I've never heard of this being consistently used as an element of caricatures. I think it was used once in Mulan, but that's literally the only time I've seen it used to mark someone as an "other", and it wasn't exactly the most, uh, eye-catching element of that shitty design. To be completely honest, I've only really seen it used for stone/metal elementals, robots, and Homestuck characters. If anyone has sources that say otherwise, though, please tell me! I wasn't able to find anything when I looked it up, but I'm not that good with search terms.

Matches the color palette, but doesn't feel "cold" so much as it feels... Yeah, I think neutral might be the best word I've got. It's just... Nothing in particular. Definitely gets the corpse vibes across, but feels less undead and more regular dead. I'm sure some folks who are better at palettes could figure out a way to make it work, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

... He could prrrobably look human-ish at a glance like this, if the lights were low or whoever was looking at him just didn't pay attention to colors??? I could see this working under harsh florescent lights - y'know, the kind that bleaches things out? - but that's a pretty niche scenario.

That's all I've got at the moment. If anyone else is aware of connections I've missed, or specific cold color shades that have their own distinct complications, I'd appreciate the feedback.

... Side-note: I know it's fairly common to just ditch this side of the color wheel entirely and suggest yellow because it's easy to water down into something that looks good with the blue tones, but... No. I'm not doing that. We are not side-stepping one group of caricatures only to jump into another. I can't think of any good reason why someone would suggest red, but that should be an obvious no, too, for the same reason. Muted oranges and browns are just... Normal human colors, and clearly, that's not what we're searching for, either.

I am specifically asking for safe COLD COLORS. Idk how to be less subtle about that

#hlvrai #benrey #half life vr but the ai is self aware #character design #color theory #... does this count as color theory??? idk but we're rolling with it #also! for blacklist >>#discourse #i know some people would rather just stay out of it and stick to regular human colors #i'm not gonna blame anyone for ignoring or filtering out this post. no guilt tripping in this house

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pagankingfinn · 4 years

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The Unfaltering Chaos Trio - Chapter 1 - Goddamn it Izu

The noise of multiple sets of feet pounding against the pavement echoed up the walls of the building around them. The tallest figure spun around to cover their escape with a veil of fire, following the shorter companions soon after. The shouts of heros and the sirens of police cars reverberate around the inside of their skulls.

The tallest had dark, almost purple in color, burn scars that covered his body. Between old and new injuries it was difficult to tell what his condition was. He seemed to mostly be covered in dirt, however, the unlit alley ways provided no way to tell.

“Izuku this is all your fault!” The tallest yelled, the smallest responded by flipping his head back with a grin and a giggle. His green and black curly hair was pulled into a messy bun, his dark moss green eyes glimmered with mischief, he had several injuries already but didn’t seem to notice as he ran with a limp. The female running beside him was covered in scrapes and bruises, the hems of her clothing were singed and ripped.

“You’re welcome Dabi!” He responded as he looked forward again, and led the other two through the streets. Despite the delays they had been setting up, they could hear the pro heros getting closer and closer. A fireball narrowly missed the female of the group, hitting Izuku in the back. He cried out in pain as he stumbled and fell.

“Shit! Come on Izuku, tell us which way to go!” The female spoke as the taller male carried Izuku on his back. The anxiety of the three rose with every passing second, the heros were on their heels as they continued to run through the streets.

Before they could get any instructions, their escape was cut off by a wall of branches. The other passage was blocked off by several pro heros. Their sweat dropped as they heard the familiar thump of combat boots against concrete. They spun around to look at the raven haired man.

As Dabi and the unnamed female took a fighting stance, they were cut off before anything could happen.

“Your friend needs medical attention, it would be wise to surrender before he gets worse.” The pro hero, Eraserhead, stated. The pair didn’t seem to like that, seeing as the female gave a loud outburst in response.

“NOBODY TOUCHES OUR LITTLE BROTHER!” She screamed, the only thing keeping her from lunging forward was the weak grip she felt on the shoulder of her sweater. She looked to see Izuku was the one who had grabbed hold of her sweater, while Dabi sweeped his arm out to keep the female back.

“Toga, we’re surrounded. If we fight now, we might lose Izuku. Look at him-” Dabi tried to reason, Toga’s head dropped to the ground as she reached up and gently grasped the hand holding onto her sweater. They both knew that there was no way to easily heal him, after all the organization they belonged to had no healer in the group.

Izuku began to slip off Dabi as he spoke, Toga let out a screech as he rushed to try and support their chosen family member. Dabi looked alarm as they turned their attention to the boy faintly breathing at this point. They shared a look before slowly nodding, and surrendering.

Except, they forgot to put Izuku down beforehand, so they ended up dropping him on accident. Luckily Eraserhead was fast enough to use his capture gear and grab the boy.

The rest went as expected, except with Izuku in an ambulance while Toga and Dabi were being taken in for questioning. They ended up taking an offer that they couldn’t refuse from a mouse bear dog creature, and then were taken into the newest place of residence for the next few years.

That’s how Izuku woke up, handcuffed to a hospital bed, covered in bandages, with Toga sleeping next to him and Dabi leaned across the end of the bed in a chair. He stirred slightly and made a small noise as he reached out for his older brother.

“Hey Izu, how’d you sleep?” Toga asked him as she woke up and sat up, hooking an arm under his right armpit and holding his left arm to help him sit up. She then used her foot to poke Dabi awake.

“... Where are we?” Izuku rasped out, looking around the room carefully. Dabi slowly looked up and saw that Toga was helping to support the sickliest member of their sibling group. Dabi moved onto the bed, sliding behind Izuku so that he could fit. He looked at the bandages on his back and slowly untied them.

“We’re in UA. They used you as a bargaining chip against us, if we didn’t accept they were going to seperate us all.” Dabi explained as he unwrapped the tight bandages. Unfortunately, because of how Izuku’s broken bones had healed when he was younger, he had to be careful to not cause any more breakage. Izuku slumped softly against Dabi once the wrappings weren’t so tight.

“Thank you.” Izuku mumbled in gratitude. He shifted until he was more against the larger male, enjoying the heat his body gave off as it helped relax his taxed muscles. Toga joined her brothers in the pile on the bed, nestling into the crook beside Izuku.

That’s how the UA staff found them, well, that’s how Aizawa, Nezu, and Recovery Girl found them. They looked up silently at the door as it opened, the three of them stiffening as their muscles tensed. Dabi dragged Izuku closer to him as the trio subconsciously tried to squeeze themselves as much as possible against the white brick wall. They stood out against the sterile environment of the infirmary.

Izuku glared at the three, ignoring the tender areas on his back as he pressed against Dabi. He pulled Toga closer as well. The sight was quite interesting, with the three teens tense and hunched over like vultures. They didn't make a move or speak as they looked at the adults in the room.

Nezu jumped up on the bed and Izuku nearly screamed in response. It was hard to not want to reflexively screech when a white furred creature jumps up onto your hospital bed. Toga, Izuku, and Dabi were all too dazed and off put by the surreal events to fully process what was going on.

Recovery Girl did end up yelling at Izuku for not having his bandages on, when it was explained that the boy had a history of breaking bones without proper treatment. Meaning that, and this was especially true for his ribs, if there was too much pressure applied he could break his bones again. It also didn’t help that Toga and Dabi wouldn’t let the old woman get near Izuku if she had any intent of breaking his bones to heal them.

Once Izuku was no longer clad in a hospital gown. He instead was now wearing his tattered clothing that had been repaired with staples and the most hideous prints Izuku had ever seen - courtesy of Dabi and Toga - a random tee shirt, and the rest of his regular outfit. Including the twink shorts, stockings, garter belt, and high tops that had been dragged through the zombie apocalypse and back four times over.

Soon enough the chaotic trio had been led to the 1-A dorms, and shown their rooms. As the three weren’t allowed to leave campus yet, Nezu had instead placed them in the dorm systems as guinea pigs for how dorm life would look. Nezu would open up the dorms, likely at the end of the first semester, to the students.

It was only once the three children were inside the empty dorm building that they let out the breath they had been holding. They looked around the commons for a bit, then Aizawa gathered them shortly after.

“Alright you three, there’s a separate floor that’s just for you guys. Nezu had Cementos add to it while Izuku was in the infirmary. It does have running water and electricity, it’s also the floor where the boiler, furnace, and backup generators are. But you won’t be able to access that area.” Aizawa explained to them with an authoritative tone as he led the trio to the elevator. He inserted a key, opening up a button that would take them to the basement.

It was eerily quiet, the teens were still trying to process what in the fresh fuck was going on. It wasn’t too much of a surprise as their world had been turned upside down within only a few days.

“Thank you, we should be able to find our rooms from here.” Dabi huffed out as he coralled his siblings out of the elevator and sent them off down the hall. He raised his eye skeptically while Aizawa glared at him.

“What? We may have just had our entire world flipped, but we can take care of ourselves. We don’t need you or any other adult to keep us in check. The three od us may be chaotic but we’re not stupid, and even if Toga and Izuku are the most likely to get into trouble, they still know when to not push the boundries.” Dabi responded dryly, crossing his arms as he stood in front of Aizawa. His piercing lightning blue eyes seemed to cut into the hero’s soul.

“Yeah yeah, just stay out of trouble. Here’s a copy of the key to the elevator, don’t lose it.” Aizawa responded with the same dry tone, he placed a spare key in the hands of the teenager. He continued his conversation as he walked to the elevator.

“You three will be required to wear the UA uniforms tomorrow. I or another staff member will grab you tomorrow morning when classes start.” Aizawa spoke as he entered the elevator. The doors shut behind him, Dabi watching the entire time until he could hear the box departing. He headed in the direction Izuku and Toga went.

Toga came running around the corner screaming, hiding behind Dabi while the croaky cackling of Izuku could be heard. “He found a bunch of tools left over from construction!” Toga squeaked as she cowered behind Dabi, Izuku came tearing around the corner soon after with a sledge hammer in hand as he grinned widely. He was covered in dust and seemed very proud of himself.

“I knocked out the walls between the point where two of the bathroom cabinets connect, and the wall between two of the closets. So now we can have tunnels to visit each other!” He squealed, dragging them off to show his handy work. Surprisingly he didn’t absolutely destroy the walls and had somehow managed to get fairly clean cuts.

“How did you-” Dabi began to ask, before being cut off by Izuku.

“Magic.”

Dabi looked at Toga, who gave him a shrug. He seemed to just accept the fact that their younger brother was one to take action without thinking. This was clearly one of those moments, as Izuku ran off to go explore some more. Meanwhile, Toga and Dabi decided to explore the now connected rooms. Each of them were bare beyond a closet with some uniforms, a night stand, and a bed. They wrinkled their noses in disgust with a light sneer.

“Hey Izuku! We’re going to dismantle the beds and move them all to the central room! Bring that tool box you found!” Toga yelled out into the halls, there was some rustling and a crash before Izuku came bounding over with a tool box. Dabi set out on dismantling the wooden frames while Toga and Izuku went to work on moving the mattresses out into the hall.

Izuku and Toga soon returned to grab tools and go dismantle the other bed frame, they kept the one in the central room intact. Using the closet tunnel they moved the pieces of the frame into the central room. Dabi got them to help move the pieces into the hall and into the central room.

The entire process took over an hour, and rebuilding a bed frame to fit three mattresses all next to each other took even longer. By the time they had finished they were all wiped out, they had no clocks in the dorms, but guessing by their biological clocks and their exhaustion they figured it was around 9 or 10 pm.

The low growling of their stomachs shook them from their shock as they sighed, Toga flopped onto one of the mattresses with a heavy huff. Izuku gave a sigh.

“I’ll go scrounge something together for us, there’s likely something I can manage to find in the school kitchen.” Izuku offered, he had the most experience with living on the streets than the other two. So when it came to times like this he was usually the one to go and scrounge around.

On the other side of the city, it had taken Aizawa until he got home to realize he forgot to tell the kids to go grab food. He mentally cursed at himself, there wouldn’t be any other teachers present at this time to tell the kids. He didn’t have any way to call them, as he didn’t have their numbers despite them having phones.

Izuku didn’t take long to exploit his skills of having the flexibility of a ferret. To the boy, climbing around and finding escape routes was like a sixth sense. So within fifteen minutes, he had escaped the basement, gotten out of the dorms, snuck into the cafeteria through the kitchen back door, and was now poking around to see what he could find.

There! An open bag of white rice. He looked around for something to put the rice in, deciding to turn his hoodie around and use his hood to carry the rice. He filled it with as much as he could manage, pulled the draw strings tight, and fled before he could push his luck too far. He was back to the dorms even quicker now that he knew where to enter the basement again.

It wasn’t long before Izuku had found a hot plate and a small pot to cook with, he squirreled away back to the room where his siblings were. Toga sat up when she heard Izuku, and Dabi looked over from where he was seated. They watched as Izuku filled the pot with water and plugged in the hot plate. He scampered off to grab a lid, a stirring spoon, and some dishware to use.

Izuku had only made a small portion of the rice, and soon enough the rice finished cooking. The trio was able to dish up their plain meal. Izuku unplugged the hot plate as he and his siblings dug into the bland rice, but even so they enjoyed just having something warm to eat. Soon enough with the warmth of food inside them, mixed with exhaustion, they all climbed onto the beds and fell asleep with their limbs entangled.

The next morning the three woke up fairly early, each of them got up and stretched individually. Without saying a word, Toga bounded off to one of the bathrooms to shower, while Izuku and Dabi used the same one. Both boys had trouble reaching various spots. Izuku often couldn’t get all the soap out of the thick mop of hair on his head. While Dabi couldn’t always reach his back to clean the dirt out from under the staples and in between his scars. Izuku also liked to help Dabi re-dye his hair when the black began to face.

Soon enough all three were finished with their showers and had dried off. They each dawned the new uniforms they were required to wear, and Izuku went to wash the pot and cook up some more rice before a teacher came to grab them. All three of them scarfed down their rice after it was finished cooking. After, Izuku styled Toga’s hair into her usual space buns.

Dabi took the bun out of Izuku’s hair and brushed it while the other male was busy with Toga’s hair. He put it back up into a bun before brushing his own hair. Dabi grabbed the key and used it to access the elevator so that they could go sit in the commons. The three teens went and sat on the floor near the doorway while they waited for a teacher or staff member to come grab them. Time ticked by agonizingly slow for the tree, Izuku took to napping against the wall. Toga decided to subtly move the furniture around, while Dabi just charged his phone and played on it.

Finally salvation came in the form of the door knob turning. The three jumped to their feet and wept in joy as the boredom was finally banished from the kingdom, at least until the quest reset for the next person to come along and obtain it.

Izuku immediately recognized who the hero was without so much as looking directly at them. He quietly muttered indignantly under his breath, but didn’t comment on it as they followed Japan’s national golden labrador. Sufficient to say, the reverse-otaku for a hero was not the most favorite among the three. The vibrations of him walking up to the door were enough to rudely jar Izuku awake, and the smile that reflected light even in the depths of the abyss was enough to get the green haired teenager more than annoyed.

The walk through the halls didn’t seem to lift their spirits any higher. The sheer size of the place was enough to put all of them on edge, and the idea of it being filled with future heros didn’t help in the slightest. Eventually they reached the gargantuan doors of class 1-A, and just in time as they were called to enter the classroom.

Swallowing the anxiety in their throats and steeling themselves for the events of the future, they slid the door open and walked into the classroom. The murmurs and shouts of excitement died out entirely for a few blissful milliseconds, only for the chaos to return. They looked between each other, unsure what to do, before the caterpillar on the floor got up to quiet down the class.

“All of you be quiet. We have three new students joining us, as you can tell, they will introduce themselves and then you may ask questions. Keep the volume down, if I have to be woken up because you all are too rowdy there will be severe consequences.” The tired talking caterpillar spoke, the three stared at the amalgamation before realizing that it was a sleeping bag that contained their homeroom teacher.

Izuku hesitantly walked up to the podium to introduce himself, he wanted to get this done and over with. He spoke clearly to the class in an excited manner.

“I’m Izuku Midoriya, I don’t have a quirk. A fun fact is that I’ve broken several bones and never gotten any treatment, the worst is from when I broke four ribs.” He beamed, bouncing on his heels as if it was perfectly normal to have broken four ribs and even more bones.

Dabi gently pulled Izuku back, the small boy easily following as Toga soon took the place of where Izuku was once standing. She seemed to share the same attitude towards her greeting as Izuku, except not as much bent on the breakage of one’s body.

“I’m Toga Himiko! My quirk is Transform, I have to consume the blood of someone to take their form. I like knives and one time I ate a bird!” Toga enthusiastically spoke, spinning around to join Izuku. Dabi was the last one to go.

“I go by Dabi. My quirk is Cremation, basically I can use blue fire. These are my adopted siblings.” Dabi spoke plainly, making blue fire in his hand as a demonstration before putting it out and joining his siblings.

That’s when izuku noticed a particular ash blonde and pressed as close as he could to his siblings. While Izuku didn’t necessarily fear the man, he had mixed emotions and typically avoided confrontation at all costs.

“DEKU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU QUIRKLESS BASTARD!” The boy remarked angrily as his palms popped with the sound of small explosions. Izuku let out a sigh and stepped forward slightly.

“I’m not here by choice, flaming dumpster fire man fucking hit me with a fireball and I woke up here after collapsing on the ground. I’m here not because I want to be a hero, but because I’m a villain who got captured thanks to the pompous assholes you all look up to. Got that, Kacchan?” Izuku snipped back, the class went quiet as the resident angry pomeranian stopped working. Izuku gave an annoyed huff in response as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“We’re not answering any questions.” The three spoke before heading to their seats. They quietly conversed between each other as they ignored those around them.

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almostshadydelusion · 3 years

Text

yaI was tagged by: @inappropriatefangirlneeds thank you very much, hopefully these answers are as detailed as yours, feel free to tag me anytime.

If I were a month, I’d be : I have a soft spot for December cause it’s my birth month but, October also has a place in my heart. I love Halloween. My problem is that I love American weather assigned to months. December is Summer in Australia but I love the idea of Winter December and snow. October in my country is Spring so allergy season and also what we call swooping seasons. I adore the ideas of falling orange leaves, pumpkins and soft greens. I think the slight chill in the air and softer colour palette match the kind of month I’d be. So, in short I’d be American Autmn.

If I were a flower, I’d be: I’ve always adored blue and purple flowers so I’ve been researching flower meanings and also considering the general look of the flowers themselves. So far I appreciate Forget-Me-Nots for their well fairly obvious meaning (remembering those we love who are lost). Cornflowers are my favoutire minecraft flower but the historical association with Nazi’s have kind of pushed me away from picking this one. I evetually decided that based on the meaning of the flower I’d be a blue rose (not a natural rose colour), meaning “ mystery, the impossible, or the unattainable”. As for looks I’d be a midnight plum mini calla lily, which is said to symbolise fertility, faithfulness and the part I like rebirth. Best of all the website I used told me that blue roses and midnight plum calla lillies compliment each other.

If I were an album, I’d be : I have a wide taste in music but I’d say I’d be a dramatic/depressing album, maybe with some hopeful songs but not many. I’m torn between Your City Gave Me Asthma by Wlbur Soot, which while I’m not completely in love with all the songs on that album the general soft vibe matches what I want to acheive and also any Cavetown album, I’m leaning towards Sleepyhead but literally Aminal Kingdom and Lemonboy also call to me.

If I were a mineral, I’d be : I was intending to do a lot more research but, one caught my eye almost immedietly with both the meaning, the historical significance as well the meaning amonst those who deal with crystals and the look of the gem itself. Technically it’s not a mineral but a rock but, I’m putting it down anyway. The most common term for them are apache tears, which are rounded pebbles of obsidian. Spiritually they are apparently used for overcoming depression, bringing greif to the forfront to be dealth with and allows people to reach a “state of self-realization”. Historically they are named for a tribe of Native Americans who rather then be captured ran after losing a battle, rode their horses off a cliff.

If I were a sound, I’d be : the gasping breath before a sob

If I were a colour, I’d be : #7f1734 ‘Claret’ A deep shade of red that pairs well with darker colours or greys. Interestingly enough my shade and colours I associate with my friends don’t quite fit but neither do any of their colours with the others and yet I love that.

If I were a drink, I’d be : Something cherry flavoured that’s an acquired taste. If I were an alchohol I’d be, not by choice but if I just were one, I’d be sambuca (a strong flavour that only certain people like).

If I were a fruit, I’d be : I was stuck reading into fruit appearing in myths but I’ll settle for plum.

If I were a quote, I’d be : I don’t remember a lot of quotes particularly long ones. have a bad memory. I’d like to say I’d be a Pride and Prejudice quote but I don’t think I’m worthy of Austin. I was trying to think of a suitable fandom quote maybe “It was never meant to be” from the Dream smp or “I don’t want to go” from Doctor Who but I think I’ll pick a song lyric. Of course I went straight to Cavetown. “ I wanna make a colour that no one else has seen before. I wanna be so much more.” This is the one that I picked. Though there are so many. He just makes me feel things, sometimes I am so calm listening to him but then sometimes I’m balling my eyes out.

If I were a television series, I’d be : I want to pick a good one but I don’t think I’m worthy. Maybe a non problematic Gotham but that’s just me projecting. Actually maybe I’d be ‘I Am Not Okay With This’, a beautiful show cancelled for budget cuts after covid but has beautiful representations of mental health, non toxic masculinity and lgbt teens. I think I’d be something that has brillaint gay characters at the very least because that’s very important to me.

If I were a movie, I’d be : Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s brilliant and just my niche.

If I were a fashion brand, I’d be : Probably a really cheap one that makes sizes for bigger people cause I know the pain of nothing pretty ever fitting.

If I were a mythological creature, I’d be : I love Medusa but creature wise I’d be Bastet from Merlin. I’ve been obsessed with the winged panther creature for years. here’s what Gaius says about the species “ The writers of old called this creature a Bastet. A monster of nightmare that inhabits the twilight world between the living and the dead”.

If I were a taste, I’d be : An acquired one

If I were a scent, I’d be : Sweet and floral, just enough to entice someone into asking about it but not overly sickly sweet

If I were a fabric, I’d be : I want to say silk but I think I’d be leather or velvet. Like the pretty leather that one can make pants out of.

If I were a body part, I’d be : Back cause I carry a lot of stress

If I were a song: This is difficult. I might pick a Cavetown song but I lean towards She by Dodie Clark. I do like many Cavetown songs but I’ll put down Fool (I am currently listening to it and I just adore it both lyric wise and music wise). Idk either I’d be song about anxiety or being closeted.

If I were a god/goddess, my four attributes would be : Comfort (I’d want to be Goddess who is there for the vunerable and able to both provide and inspire comfort in self), Attachments (I’d like people to pray for strong platonic attachments to people and animals), Anxiety (I’m a firm believer in the devine having positive and negative traits, I feel like this is a defining traits and the opposite of comfort but that doesn’t mean that people can’t take aspects like overanalysing.) and my final trait would be loss (the other foil to my trait. When to let go of attachments and dealing with loss whether death or other causes).

So, that’s me.

I’d like to tag (feel free not to do it): @marcceh , @leafenclaw , @yanderebeat

#I didn't edit this sorry

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lisaofcypher · 3 years

Text

My Home (A Dream SMP fan novel)

Once there were two orphan boys, with no where to call home but each other, until one summer trip to a weird town in Oregon, US. From strange disk journals, mystery authors, time traverlers, zombies, amnesiac half endermen half ghast people, hybrids, and teenage angst, with demons thrown in as well, looks like this summer will have more in store then they thought.

(Summary is poor, but try the first chapter, it explains the plot better. Loosely inspired by Gravity Falls)

Episode One- A Mystery in Vinyls

Episode One- Having Disk sounds great

Tommy’s leg bounces up and down, hitting the metal floor of the bus.

“Are you nervous, Tubs?” Tommy asks, looking out the window as they pass a bunch of pine trees.

Tubbo sighed, “A bit, yeah.”He paused for a moment. “You?”

Tommy smiles. “Of course not? I have two brothers and a dad! That’s awesome!”

Tubbo only smiled, a hint of sadness in the air. It was common knowledge between the two that for whatever reason, Tubbos parents had left him on the side of the road, and if it wasn’t for a random couple driving by and noticing him, he’d be dead by now.

Just the thought made Tommy shudder.

“I hope he has great music taste!” Tommy.riM. “Maybe he knows some hot girls.” He winks.

Tubbo sighs, “Are girls all you think about?”

“I also think about drugs!”

“You disappoint me.”

“I know!”

“Next stop, L’Manburg!” The bus driver yelled, breaking up the conversation.

“That’s our stop,” Tommy exclaims, getting his bags.

Tubbo inhales quickly, grabbing his own small backpack. It was full of clothes and a bunch of pollen and nectar for his weird obsession with bees. There were over 500 different species of bees living in Oregon.

Tommy was never gonna hear the end of it.

As they walked off the bus, thanking the bus driver politely, they were greeted by a guy with a beanie and a JD style trench coat. He was leaning against a pole, looking like a classic stoner.

“Hey,” he says, shrugging, clearly not too bothered by actual emotions.

Tommy was shocked, no gasps, no hugging and crying about how their baby brother came home.

Instead he got, “You look scrawnier than I expected.”

Wow.

That’s nice.

“Who are you?!” Tommy snaps, accusingly. How did he know this was his older brother anyway? He could be some weird stranger.

“Wilbur Soot, your older brother.” He replies, casually.

“Huh, my last name is Soot…” Tommy mumbles to himself.

“No shit, we’re family,” Wilbur sighs, as if Tommy had made the worst joke in existence, as he begins leading the boys , quietly through a trail in the forest.

“Who’s this, your boyfriend?” Wilbur asks, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Tubbo quickly shakes his head.

“Is he mute?” Wilbur asks.

“‘No, he’s not mute, and he’s my best friend, my brother even,” Tommy defensively spats.

“Then why isn’t he talking?”

“He doesn’t like talking in front of strangers.”

“Uh huh,” Wilbur rolls his eyes. He continues to walk down until they get to a small clearing, to a shack with the name “Mystery Carava.”

Next to it there was a road, with cars leaving and driving in.

“We could have walked down the road instead of hiking!?” Tommy asks, panting. He was this close to smacking Wilbur.

Wilbur smirks. “I prefer the scenery trail.”

“This is it? Why is it called the Mystery Carava?” Tommy asks, looking up at the weird van looking shack.

“The N fell off,” Wilbur shrugs, walking inside and gesturing for the boys to come in.

Inside there was a guy fixing up a bear statue. He saw the boys and ran over.

“You’re here!” He exclaimed. “I’m Philza Soot, but you can call me Phil.” He smiles. He has blonde hair like Tommy’s but longer, and wears a green cloak. Is it a family trait to have a fashion sense?

“Well I’m Tommy! And this is my best bud Tubbo!” Tommy grins, pulling an arm around his best friend, who smiles sheepishly.

“Oh well, I see you’ve met my son, Wilbur, hope he wasn’t too rude,” Phil laughs awkwardly. “His twin, Techno, is out getting some meat for dinner.”

Both boys look at each other. “Ready to see your room?” Phil winks.

The room is small, with a window in the middle and two beds against the two walls. It was in the attic.

Tommy takes the red bed instantly, jumping on it and laying out all his stuff. Tubbo takes the tree covered bed, leaving his suitcase by the bed, not bothering to unpack it right now.

“Wanna go explore the forest?” Tommy asks, looking out of the window at the forest looming around the shack.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean- it seems kind of dangerous-“ Tubbo mumbles, not wanting to get himself in danger on the first day.

“Exactly! What if it has like a

that we can

” With that, Tommy grabs Tubbos arm and drags him out of the room and down the stairs.

The forest is beautiful, especially with the nice tint of the sunset.

“Tommy, it’s getting late, can we please go home?” Tubbo mumbles.

“Do you want to be a pussy?!” Tommy glares.

Tubbo shrinks. “No, sorry.”

Tommy keeps running until he tripped over a branch and hit his shoulder on a tree.

“Are you okay, Toms?!” Tubbo cries, running over.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” He brushes himself off, grabbing his shoulders. “That was really hard for a tree…”

“Well maybe cause you ran into it!?” Tubbo exclaims.

“Or maybe…” Tommy looks at the tree, feeling it. “It feels like metal.” He turns to Tubbo, who walks over, playing with the sleeve of his green sweater.

“Hm,” Tommy looks all around the tree, before finding a button, pressing it excitedly.

The metal part opens, lifting, showing...

“Disks?” Tommy asks, grabbing them immediately.

“What are you doing? What if it’s booby trapped?” Tubbo snaps.

“Or it’s just disks. What are they?” He brushes his fingers along the black circle. There were two disks in here.

“Maybe we should go home, see if Phil has any way to play them?” Tubbo suggests.

Tommy sighs, looking up at his best friend, then at the darkening sun, “Yeah, you’re right,” he says as he begins walking. Then he realizes something and stops “Hey, Tubs?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember the way back?”

After what feels like a lifetime of walking, they reach the caravan.

“I don’t get why it’s called a caravan, it’s not even a van!” Tommy complains as he walks in.

There was Phil, frowning, with Wilbur sitting by the cashier desk, his legs resting casually on it.

“Where were you?” Phil asks accusingly, having clearly already the role of

“Out in the forest?” Tommy exclaims, shrugging.

“Do you know how late it is? Couldn’t you have sent me a text or something?!” Phil asks.

“We don’t have phones.”

“Told me where you were going?”

“We didn’t think we needed to.”

Phil sighs, walking closer to the boys, “I know you two grew up without a father… but I’m here now. You- you need to tell me where you are. I don’t know if you can take care of yourself, like Techno. Please, boys, work with me, and I’ll work with you. I know the system isn’t kind, and you’re not used to having anyone but each other, but I swear to you, I’m not leaving you, just please stay safe and work with me here.” He rests his hands on both of the boys’ shoulders.

Tommy looks down at his feet. “Fine, but we both know this arrangement is temporary,” Tommy says before walking upstairs.

“Tommy-“ Phil tries, but Tommy is already gone.

Tubbo begins following, but Phil grabs his shoulder, pulling him back.

“Hey, Tubbo, I- I know you’re not related to Tommy or me, but you’re just as much my son now, as he is. You’re a Soot. I promise.” Phil smiles.

Tubbo blinks. “Thank you, Phil,” he says, then walks up.

It was the first time Tubbo had talked to them.

——— ———

“So, I found a disk player in the storage room, I hope Phil won’t mind us stealing this,” Tommy says, bringing in an old disk player and dropping it on his bed.

Tubbo looks up at him. “What if the disks are haunted and we summon an evil demon?”

“If that happens, that’d be like, really fucking awesome, ya know?”

He hooks up the disk player and puts in the disk, connecting it to a speaker.

“Audio log one, side A. It’s been a year since I moved to L’Manburg,” the voice on the speaker says. It sounds familiar, but Tommy can’t put his finger on it.

“And in all my time researching the strange fantastical elements of the town, I never could have expected this. The town has strange mystical elements, ones I can describe but not exactly explain. Just yesterday I saw a giant bee that was purple! That’s not how bees work! Trust me, I know a lot about them. Kind of an obsession of mine. My brother keeps telling me to relax, stop looking into these things. But I won’t. I will get to the bottom of this. This town could be the key to figuring out why I have these horns.” As he says that, Tubbo jolts up, touching his own horns. “He’s like me?”

“My goal for this week is to see if I can help my friend and restore his memory. Perhaps his half enderman nature could have something to do with it.”

“Half endermen? But those don’t even exist!” Tommy yells.

“I hope my brother understands…. He’s always been a loud guy, and I love him, but... at least my new friend is kinder to me. Alas, I must get going, before P gets annoyed and sends T after me. Until next time, my precious disks.”

And that’s when Tommy stops it.

“Oh my god….” Tubbo mumbles, stunned.

“This guy is a total nutcase!” Tommy snaps.

“How are you so sure?” Tubbo asks.

“Look at the guy, he’s talking about endermen and purple bees! That’s not even possible!”

“Maybe not…” Tubbo sighs, he can't help but relate to this mysterious man, with his horns and love of bees.

“What are you guys doing with my disk player?” A voice asks, and they look up and gasp.

It’s a young man with a pink braid who is wearing a white tunic with a red jacket, and has red eyes….

It must be Techno.

“Uh…. hi! I’m Tommy!” Tommy shoots up.

“Yeah I got that part.”

“We just wanted to play some disks we found in the forest!” Once again, Tubbo facepalms at his brother’s lack of a filter.

“You found disks in the forest?”

“Yeah! In some weird tree compartment!”

“That’s interesting, look, next time ask me, or I’ll make sure you won’t even be able to grab it.”

Oh great, this guy is threatening violence.

“Why are your eyes red?” Tommy asks.

“Uh, contacts,” Techno quickly responds.

Those eyes look far too real for contacts, but Tommy drops it, not wanting to anger the man any further.

“Anyway, welcome. Try not to die.” And then he leaves, closing the door behind him.

“Try not to die!?” Tubbo gulps.

“Well… that was something.”

“Guess we have a mystery on our hands!”

“Mystery….?” Tubbo asks cautiously.

“Well yeah? We have to figure out who the man recording the disks is, and if these enderman creatures are real!”

Tubbo smiles, trying to hide his apprehension at the idea of looking for danger.

“So far, this place feels more like home than Manchester ever did.”

“I mean, we’re in a foreign country, but yeah,” Tubbo shrugs.

“That guy on the disk has the same bee obsession that you do!” Tommy points out.

“Yeah, I guess he does.”

“Are you assuming one's gender, Tobias?” Tommy teases.

“Don’t call me that!” Tubbo smacks his brother over the head.

“Oh what are you gonna do? Tackle me with your short legs? I could take you easy!”

“When was the last time you worked out, Tommy?” Tubbo snaps back with a grin.

“When was the last time you did?” Tommy pushes Tubbo.

“Asshole!” Tubbo pouts.

Tommy laughed, taking off his shirt for bed.

“Sleep well Tubs,” Tommy whispers, turning off the light.

“You too, Toms.”

Who knows what this town has in store for them. They’re together, and that’s what matters.

——— ———

“Is it almost ready, Sam?” A man asks, as Sam works on the portal.

“It should be, Mr. President, just give me a moment.”

“We need to hurry up before the goons find us.” The man gulps.

“I know, I know. Dream and his forces will never track us down here.”

“You consulted Karl right?”

“Of course not. Karl can suck my dick, this is for the sake of humanity.”

“I hope this works… for my sake and Earths.”

“Mine too,” Sam frowns.

“Because if it doesn’t I know what will happen.”

#dream smp #dream smp fanfiction #tubbo corruption arc #angst

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atomicstrawbrys · 4 years

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A.K. (3/?)

Alfred is a high school star with everything he could possibly want- until a student comes from England and suddenly becomes priority number one. USUK. High school AU. //

Previous / Next

“You did what?!” Gilbert laughed, pounding his fist against Alfred’s bedroom wall as he laughed. “Jesus, Al, I always thought you lacked some common sense, but you gave him an allergic reaction?!”

Alfred felt his cheeks redden, and he turned away. “Yeah, well, it’s not like I meant to! I thought, I dunno, I thought it would be romantic!” He whined. Alfred had invited Gilbert over after school and confided both about his crush and his failed attempt to woo him, and he was beginning to think that doing so had been a mistake.

Gilbert’s shrieking laughter started up anew, and he fell back against Alfred’s bed. “Alfred, you are the biggest goddamned idiot I’ve ever met!”

Alfred exhaled, lying beside him on the bed. He stared up at the ceiling, examining the faded and admittedly tacky poster of a ‘hot cheerleader.’ He remembered being attracted to this once, but the model’s candy-apple red lips and bright blue eyes didn’t do it for him anymore. His thoughts wandered to a radioactive green swathed in deep purples and mysterious blacks, and a blush rose to his cheeks. His voice grew soft.

“What if I’m in love with him, Gil?”

Gil paused, for once taking a moment to mull the idea over. “Well, maybe, but I don’t think so...I think that to love someone, you gotta know ‘em, and you don’t really know anything about this guy.”

“But I-”

“No, you don’t. You might think you do, you might think you wanna be with him forever, but that’s just called being horny, man.” Gilbert laughed, and Alfred elbowed him.

“Gilbert-!” Alfred groaned.

“Just hear me out! Listen, Antonio, Francis and I are going to a movie after school tomorrow. Tell ya what, you and Arthur can come along. We’ll even make sure you sit together, provided he wants to come. You can get to know him some more, see if you really do like him, and you’ll be with friends, so it won’t be as awkward.”

“That...sounds good, actually. What kinda movie is it?”

Gilbert smirked. “Horror.”

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me!”

Gilbert just laughed.

The next morning, Alfred approached Arthur’s locker before first period, clearing his throat to get his attention.

“Uh, h-hey,” He smiled, and Arthur acknowledged him with a nod.

“Andrew. I hope the morning’s been well.”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Alfred ignored that Arthur had managed to get his name wrong yet again. He could always correct him at the theater. “I uhm, wanted to ask you something.”

At this, Arthur paused, and though he still wouldn’t look at Alfred, his tone did seem a little more interested.

“What is it?”

“Do you...want to go see a movie with me? It’s uh, Attack of the Mutant Zombies Four. You’ll love it! So...will you come?” Alfred asked, wringing his hands in front of himself. “I think you’d have fun, a-and you should see the town some, with you being new and all..”

Arthur shut the door to his locker and turned to face Alfred, looking up at him. Alfred gulped.

“So...this is a date, then?” Arthur tilted his head, eyebrows furrowing.

“NO! Nonono- God, no, Some of my friends are coming too! You can meet some more people, have some fun, whaddaya say?” Giving him a crooked smile, Alfred crossed his fingers behind his back.

Arthur looked down, tugging on one of his many ear piercings. His lip drew into an adorable pout, but it disappeared almost as soon as Alfred noticed it. “I guess I could go. I’ll text my brother and tell him I’ll be late. Thanks for the invitation. I have to get to class- I’ll meet you here when school lets out.”

And with that he was gone, leaving Alfred to bask in the euphoria of acceptance.

He was going to hang out with Arthur!

True to his word, Arthur met up with Alfred in front of their lockers. Francis, Gilbert, and Antonio were there too, and Matthew had even decided to tag along, pretending not to notice the smitten looks Gilbert always gave him whenever he was around.

“Alfred? Do you and Arthur want to ride with me?” Matthew asked, jingling the keys to his truck. “We can split three up in each car, so no one has to ride alone.”

After looking to Arthur for a curt nod of approval, Alfred agreed, and when they climbed into the back seat of Matthew’s truck, he could only hope that his heart wasn’t beating too loudly.

Matthew was quiet as he drove- he always was, so Alfred took the opportunity to ask Arthur a few questions. He did want to get to know him, after all, and right now he had his attention all to himself.

“So! England, that’s pretty cool. Why’d you move to some dumpy old town in America?”

Arthur frowned at the question, looking out the window and watching the power lines go by. “Dad said the change of scenery would be good. I’m here with him and my older brother. His name is Alistair. My brother, I mean. Not my dad. His name is Calum.”

“So...what about your mom?” Alfred scooted a little closer, and Arthur tensed, quickly putting his hood over his face.

“She didn’t...accept me, I guess. She ‘n dad divorced over it and now I’m here. I don’t want to talk about her.”

“Okay, okay…” Alfred bit his lip, lightly patting Arthur’s shoulder. “M’sorry. I shouldn’t have been pushy. I hope you like it here, though.” Alfred gave him a small smile, catching Arthur’s gaze. “I uh, I think you’re really cool, Arthur.

For just a moment, Alfred thought he caught a hint of red blooming on Arthur’s face, but the hood was shoved down further and he turned away again.

“Yeah. Thanks, Arnold.” Arthur mumbled.

Alfred only sighed and shot an exasperated smile over to Matthew.

Gilbert and the others were already waiting for them inside the theater when they walked in, tickets in hand. Alfred had paid for Arthur’s, and though he was certain Arthur noticed, he didn’t say anything. He also got two sodas and a large popcorn, just in case, though Arthur did have to help him carry it all.

The ticket vendor took each of them in turn, tearing their tickets and repeating the same monotone “Second door on the left” whenever one of them passed through. Alfred and Arthur were the last to do this, the other four walking ahead of them. Arthur didn’t seem to be in a hurry, though, so Alfred kept pace with him. Once they reached the door he started to gesture to it, only to notice Arthur staring at the sign for another showing, which had started only a few minutes ago. “Love at First Sight” was the title, and Alfred supposed it must be a romance.

“...Do you....want to go see that instead?” Alfred asked, Arthur jolting as he realized he’d been noticed.

“No, no, I..it’s okay. You want to go to the other one, and all your friends are in there…” He rubbed his arm, suddenly seeming very small.

Alfred glanced back at the other screening room, then back at Arthur.

“...It’s okay.” Alfred smiled, his voice soft. “I like romance, too. We can catch up with them after.”

For the first time since he’d met Arthur, Alfred watched as his crush smiled fully, up to his eyes. Unlike the simple amused grins and smirks he’d caught before, this smile was purely genuine, and Alfred felt his heart ache over it.

“Well, then. I guess we’d better go in before we miss any more previews. I love watching the trailers.” Arthur waved him along and opened the door to the screening room, sodas still tucked carefully in the crook of one arm.

They found a seat in the center of the room. There weren’t many others around- apparently, the movie they’d given up was far more popular. Still, Alfred couldn’t bring himself to care. He shot off a quick text to Matthew to let him know that they’d catch up after, then turned his phone off so he could enjoy Arthur’s company, as well as the film.

In all honesty, Alfred didn’t remember much of the movie. He was sure it was good, though, as it kept Arthur entertained for the whole duration. Alfred, however, could only look at him, and when their hands brushed in the popcorn bucket, he couldn’t help but sigh at the way Arthur’s fingertips gently ghosted along his palm before pulling away.

Yes, he was very glad they’d seen this movie instead.

#please reblog/comment!!#reblogs > likes #usuk #ukus #usukus #hetalia #aph #hws #APH America #APH England #hws america #hws england #alfred f jones #alfred f. jones #arthur kirkland

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i-am-worm · 4 years

Photo

So to start with I’m going to show off my little shelf of treasures. This a long in depth post (but don’t panic the rest about beach plastic will be nowhere near as long or descriptive).

These are things that are ‘whole’ to degree. When I find toys on the beach, if they’re not broken I pass them on to parents with their kids or take them to a charity shop. The guys on the shelf are all the little guys that are a bit to worn to go to the shop, but seem a pity to throw away. I usually just find a limb, a head, a butt (yes really).

So from the top we have this little swing with a tiny baby I found on a separate day. I suspect that the ‘swing’ is part of a religious offering item but had no deity or writing attached to it. I’d usually leave such things but this was a rusting pointy object that was a danger to dog paws and people’s feet, so I took it away. Couldn’t find much info on the best way of ‘disposing‘ of it respectfully so for now it sits there. Bubble blowers and part of bubble blowers are a common find as are cars. Got a couple there, with a very flattened fire hover craft and a FRICKING BENDY BUS. First generation apparently ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/9003948@N05/30980755893 ).

Below that we have a very sea worn Ferby. You can see how much it’s faded here:

Its fur is quite brown now.

Then we got two very interesting pieces. Both are tiny nuggets o plastic i almost threw away before I took a closer look.

This guy bugged me for years. I thought I recognized it but wasn’t sure. Then recently I found what i thought it reminded me of-

I think its Cherubimon! It’s feet are not right but you can see the rings on its ‘ears’ and the spiky collar.

Then there is this little blue duck-goblin thing.

No idea who it is or where it’s from. If anyone has any ideas please let me know!

Then we have a foamy star, a purple incense holder (I think)a pirate crazy bone, a little articulated Yoda and then this surprise egg.

I found this ‘Balaban Turkish surprise egg’. I rattled so it could have a toy inside still!..or mud...or drugs.

Lucky it did still have a toy! The instructions had melted away but I did eventually manage to figure it out and put to together.

It was a little castle with a fish!

and when you pushed the lever at the back...

The fish leaps up happily and the door opens to reveal a croc guard. Adorable.

Now to the next shelf.

We got a vintage and rather bleached girl duck, a scuffed apple jack. A few worn dinosaurs (my utmost favourite thing to find on the beach. Makes picking off mountains of rubbish worth it). Then there is a minion. Not my fave thing to find but this was interesting.

I found the minion after a storm. He couldn't stand up as he had these pins for a stand. Then later I found a stand...a minions stand. From the same collection (kind surprise I think) but for a different model. Shows how much plastic (and minions) stuff is out there.

Then there is this...ray gun mould? I found.

Odd but cool! A one eyed pom-pom, a teeny tiny Capitan America and these two awesome freaks:

Horrid buggle and a zombie ice cream!

Now for the final shelf-

Lots of little men.

Tiny hand painted knight with a broke sword, a (I think!) Lego batman rubber duckie ring (yes really). Then a few war torn soldiers and a cowboy.

There is a half of a waffle, a pink lady bird with a magnet and Velcro at the bottom (?), a lobster mould, a gooey tiger and a rubber yellow man. The yellow man has a tiny green plane likely from a Christmas cracker next to him. A few sea worn plastic gems too.

I found the blue gem with a sea Urchin skeleton fairly recently after a storm. Never found an urchin skeleton until recently, it is so cool.

Then I have a tiny little sparkle sea horse I found on Littlehampton beach with my mum.

And a few glowing stars also found in the sand at random times. Not the most worn ones I’ve displayed I’ll admit.

Oh and red whistle...has ‘ACME’ on it. really.

And that's the ‘Treasures’!

There is plenty more I have to share but it’s all the parts and such-like which are easier to display and don’t have as much ‘background’ to them as it ‘s hard to place a limb.

I’ll start uploading them bit by bit soon, but I wanted to start with these guys are they’re interesting to me, and they give you an idea of what's to come. These are the ’whole’ guys. Can you imagine how many small bits are out there? Yikes!

#beach plastic #beach cleaning #beach finds #worthing beach #littlehampton #treasures

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gigikiwiandco · 4 years

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Fanmade Frisk Hart Clips #6

[The Rainbow Kids and Asriel are hanging around at Frisk’s place since there aren’t any immediate new monster signals. Frisk, Chara, and Asriel are sitting around their room, unaware of what’s happening with the Six.]

Asriel: Wow, that day went by fast.

Chara: Yeah.

[Frisk, Chara, and Asriel walk to the living room where the Six are.]

Frisk: Alright, guys! Time to get ready, your folks will be here soon!

[Then Frisk, Chara, and Asriel hear the sound of Blue vomiting into a bucket, looking like she’s very ill.]

Blue (poisoned): For goodness sake, how much do I possibly have left in my system?! [vomits again]

[The healthier three look around and see the rest of the six in the same condition. Yellow is vomiting out the window and passing out, Cyan and Orange are taking turns vomiting into a garbage can, Green is trying to clean any mess up and tries not to vomit, and Purple has his glasses off while he’s vomiting into the toilet.]

Orange (poisoned): I feel like I set my own stomach on fire... [vomits again]

Frisk: [panicking] [dials number on phone] Alphys, we need help! Like, right now!

[A few minutes later, they’re all at the med bay in Monster Town, each of the Six still vomiting into the buckets the nurses gave them. Frisk is pacing while Asriel and Chara are sitting in chairs. Alphys walks over to the three to tell them what’s wrong.]

Frisk: *worried* What’s happening to them?

Alphys: *concerned* T-They do show v-vomiting and w-weakness.

Chara: *worried, sarcastic* Clearly!

Green (poisoned): *pretending to feel better* N... N-Not true, no need to worry. I’m fine... *stops pretending* [vomits again]

Asriel: *worried, confused* I don’t get it... If Green’s healing powers cure sickness, why isn’t it working?

Purple (poisoned): [vomits again] ...I wish I knew, I feel worse just trying to think about it.

Alphys: W-Well, there’s e-evidence that it’s poison, i-it was probably enchanted with anti-magic to b-block out healing a-abilities.

Frisk: *worried* Anti-magic?! I thought that didn’t actually exist.

Alphys: *concerned* I-It is c-common that people in E-Ebottberg don’t even know what it is, so I h-highly doubt it’s F-Flowey or your school’s l-librarian.

Yellow (poisoned): *angry* Oh, when I get my hands on whoever did do it, I’m gonna- [vomits again] ...tie them in a knot and- [vomits again] ...rip their arms off. [vomits again]

Alphys: *concerned* There is a cure, b-but it’s in a place called Twisted Hollow, where zombie creatures lurk.

Frisk: *determined* Well, we’ve been through worse. I have a feeling Madame Meh knows what it is and how to get it safely. Don’t worry, guys! We’ll get you that cure, I give my word!

Cyan (poisoned): Thanks, I should hope you can- [vomits again] ...hurry.

[As Frisk and Chara leave to get ready for the quest, a sixty-foot-tall lady who’s appearance is obscured by shadows watches them on a mystical orb.]

???: Don’t worry, my young relative. I’ll make sure the one responsible pays for what they’ve done, for my name is Karma. I will send a message to my best guard.

[With a snap of her fingers, Karma creates a letter with her magic that appears in front of a centaur who’s apparently a militant general of his species.]

Karma (in her letter): General Artimas, I have written to inform you that one of my dearest family members is embarking on a dangerous quest. I want you to watch out for her and keep her safe when the worst arises. Sincerely, Karma Hart.

Artimas: [reads the letter] My former love... [puts away the letter, grabs his sword] I will promise you, whenever she walks into Twisted Hollow, your relative and her friends will be safe!

[Artimas starts to gather a group of his soldier in order to help Frisk and Chara fend off the zombie creatures.]

———————————————————————————————————–

I made a couple non-canon major OCs for you in case you want them, I’ll post Karma’s design on DeviantArt whenever I can.

———————————————————————————————————–

Original Frisk Hart timeline creator: https://thematchmakeramethyst.tumblr.com/

(She made it because she likes The Six Who Fell Before You so much.)

#tswfby #frisk #chara #cyan #orange #blue #purple #green #yellow #ocs #karma hart #centaur #swordsman #tw poison #tw vomit #zombie mention

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theparanormalperiodical · 5 years

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Scary Halloween Costumes: Your Guide To Realistic and Really Spooky Costumes (On A Budget)

“In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy.

In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it”

Set your stop watches people - we’ve got 11 days to prepare for the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween.

And despite the cultural traditions echoing across the world, there is one phenomenon that dominates the rest.

Halloween costumes.

It’s the personalised touch Christmas loses out on, and it's the one day of the year we can awaken our inner child.

And no, I don’t mean the therapeutic kind where you get in touch with your real, raw self. I mean the inner child that wants to pull on a Pennywise cosplay and eat an unrealistic amount of processed crap.

Working out your halloween costume requires thought and consideration. And then giving up on creating a latex prosthetic and slapping on a pair of cat ears.

But at the Paranormal Periodical, we like to do things a bit different.

If you like things spooky and you’re a bit skint, pull up a chair - welcome to your complete guide to realistic halloween costume ideas!

Every year we see the classic costumes: a witch in a black hat; a vampire sporting a single drop of fake blood on the lip; and a zombie with a scrape of blood down one arm.

I’ve decided to shake shit up.

I’ve taken the most common costumes, and gone back to the roots of the creatures. Yep, I’m rewriting halloween, and putting scary back on the menu!

So, if you’re considering being a witch, vampire, zombie, or mermaid, here is your guide to the realistic costumes.

Let’s get spooky!

The Witch

It’s a classic.

It’s the go-to option for women, merely requiring a pointy hat you can grab from Claire’s, and the clothes from your goth phase when you were 14.

Add a smudge of black eyeshadow, practice a cackle, and boom.

You just got halloweened.

But actual witches from way-back-when weren’t so Instagram.

In fact, they were considered the worst kind of women: hag-like, old, ugly, disgusting women. If you can think up a trope for a stereotypically ugly woman - which isn’t necessarily true, I mean, people rock unibrows every damn day - then put it in your costume.

Back in the 1640s, witches were considered poor, crone-like women. That’s a moustache, wrinkles, hairy brows, squinted eyes, and crooked teeth.

Also, they had teats! No, that’s nothing to do with their actual nipples, you won’t have to do anything to your own.

Basically, a point of ID for a witch was a devil’s mark - that’s scars, pimples, birthmarks - anything which symbolised their pact with the devil. Or, they had extra nipples which their animal sidekicks would suckle from.

Speaking of scars, if a witch pricked her finger, and it didn't bleed, the subject was a witch fo sho. And if they placed their hands on a dead body that they had killed, the body would start to bleed.

The final trademark fashion statement comes from one of the witch tests: dunking.

Aside from being stripped to her scanties, the witch’s thumb was tied to her big toe and a rope was cinched around her waist. She was chucked into a body of water - if she floated, she was a witch! If she sunk, she would die!

Yeah, it’s not a good test.

So, how does all that shizz translate to a costume?

Here’s how:

For the signature makeup, go with a heavy brow, and dark, eyelined eyes to perfect the squint.

Then, fake scar it up. I’m talking dots of red on your hands, maybe draw a pink circle on your face for a nipple, and slash a lipstick scratch up your arm.

Or, ditch the red dots on your hands for literal red hands - just like the blood pouring out of your victim’s body. It could be fake blood, it could be red nails, it could even be patches of dark reddy-brown!

Whatever it is, finish the look with the iconic style of a witch:

Follow up with the fashion twist on a black pointy hat, tie a rope around your waist to give shape to the look, and tie some wool or string around your fingers.

That’s right; accessorise your way to authenticity.

The Vampire

This is the unisex approach to halloween.

Couple of drips of fake blood, maybe an Edward Cullen inspired quiff - anything can be a costume if its teamed up with the im-100-years-old-but-look-17-so-its-not-creepy smoulder.

But there’s a lot more to the vampire phenomenon that didn’t make it into Nosferatu, nor Twilight.

Vampires were popularised in the 19th century, so most of their style inspo was based on Victorian vibes. But in terms of their bodies and faces, there are some striking features you need to know about:

Vampires were often regarded as have bloated faces and bodies, and ruddy looking skin; these are the supposed effects of blood drinking.

And this blood was also believed to seep out of the mouth - and the nose. But fangs? They were rarely reported.

These features from past vampire sightings have been typically debunked via two explanations: the disease, Poryphoria, a group of diseases which cause blistering and itching in sunlight, and the past’s lack of knowledge regarding decomposition.

So, fancy reworking your Edward Cullen into something a little less up-to-date?

Here’s what you need to do:

Take your fangs and fake blood stash from last year, and do the classic drip from the lip look.

But this time, smear a little under your nose, too.

Speaking of facial features, it’s time to get ruddy - that means giving yourself a flushed look. So, grab some blush - reddy, pink tones, only - and go to town. I’d suggest a patchy look for the deathy vibes.

And make sure you leave your contouring kit in your make-up bag - aim for a bloated, round-faced look. Or, opt for loose clothes or something baby bump-esque to bloat out your half-dead body.

To finish the look, dab on some liquid latex and pull apart to give wrinkly, blistery skin in patches. You can even check out my tips for being a zombie to ensure you achieve the death you aim for!

The Zombie

In more recent years, this has become to go-to for quick costumes, thanks to show like The Walking Dead.

But it’s not the easy part of the look that I love, it’s this: a zombie is an inclusive halloween costume.

Anyone can do it.

You can pull out your FX make-up stash to show your skull’s skin peeling off and limb rotting, or simply pull a face and make a groaning noise.

You don’t even have to buy new clothes! Put on your usual get up, and stick your arms out like a Mummy.

#nailedit

But - if you’re asking me - achieving the realistic death look isn’t an expensive or difficult feat.

Zombies are supposed to be the undead; they’re infected and they’re decaying.

So, let’s go through some of the features of slowly rotting corpses:

A few minutes into death - aside from going cold, and going pale - cells begin to die and leak as they breakdown. Couple hours after the beginning of that process, things start to get shitty...

Yep, piss and poop just start leaking out ya body.

Then, your skin starts to sag, leaving it pale with red patches. Then, that skin shrinks, making your hair and nails appear as if they are growing.

Following this, your skin turns green as you begin to digest your organs. Then bugs, like maggots, take part in consuming your body.

It’s not long before you turn purple, lose hair, and slowly become a skeleton.

And there you have it.

#decayed

Question is, how can achieve this look?

Settle in folks, and let’s get dead.

(Oh, and I can assume you don’t want to be a skeleton with purple skin draping on your bones; so let’s cut to the early effects!)

To get your undead chic on, here’s what’s on your to-do list:

For ya face, make things red and patchy with a dab of red lipstick smudged around your visage. Oh, and don’t forget to moisturise and highlight - think less leaking cells, more dewy finish.

A few patches of grotesque green will further the final look. You could even put gel on the ends of your hair to make it seem wet, or longer, and define your fingernails with brown eyeshadows.

Yep, start contouring your nails - let’s start a #trend.

Ready to take things to the next level? Cut some gummy worms up, and latex ‘em to your face.

Et voila, ya ded.

The Mermaid

Our final option is the current Insta-fave.

Joining the ranks of the pastel-aesthetic is the glittery, highlighted-on-fleek mermaid.

But why be pretty, when you can be pretty damn realistic?

Fact is, nothing is more realistic - and scary - than climate change. So, it follows that any mermaid will probably be struggling in the plastic-filled hot tub that is the ocean.

It’s time to swap the dewy, contoured fish finish for an actual mermaid. Or, well, a dead one.

Typically, a dead human who had been left in the ocean would have several zombie-like characteristics that would be exacerbated by the sea water.

Your body breaks down much more slowly in water, and salt water - like sea water - would slow the decaying process even more so. A body left in the ocean for 2 weeks will look the same as one left in open air for a week!

So, that’s the red, patchy, dewy finish we already discussed with zombies.

And instead of the pruning you get in a bubble bath, imagine blistering, black skin. Plus, that skin also becomes swollen, and bleached, giving you the bloated, patchy glow that you don’t see in The Little Mermaid.

Oh, and don’t forget your body!

Thanks to accumulating gases, the abdomen swells from bloating.

Fun fact: this is what makes corpses turn upside down and rise with the torso and head at the water’s surface!

So, are you ready to get your mermaid on?

Swap your Ariel wig and beachy waves for patchy, red and green skin, and use latex to create blistered, wrinkled skin in patches.

Simply follow my tips for a go-to zombie look, and like, make it wetter.

Don’t forget to stuff a jumper down your shirt to puff out your abdomen - bonus points for farting out those gases filling out your torso.

Now, go get your fish on!

So: which supernatural being are you vibing with this All Hallows’ Eve?

And which of your past halloween costumes have you been most proud of?

(Mine was my Man-Spider costume from last year...)

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ichigopanhpff · 4 years

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BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 16

Read Ch. 15 | Masterlist

SPOILER ALERT: I’m sure S4 will at least cover the U.A. School Festival Arc before ending it. You’ve been warned!

With the Hassaikai incident behind them, the day to days at U.A. lulled on. But today was an exciting day: Snipe-sensei announced the school’s annual culture festival and wanted everyone to brainstorm ideas. The usual tropes of a maid café and haunted house had already been thrown out there, much to everyone’s excitement and chagrin. The period went on with a few more scattered ideas left and right from students until the bell chimed.

“We’ve narrowed it down these three categories and will discuss more back at the dorms tonight,” 2-A’s class rep, Miyake, stated before letting everyone head out. “Takahiro, be sure to stop by before going back to the first years.”

“Got it, Class Rep,” she replied with a mock salute.

As the three girls made their way down, she passed by some third years from the General Education department grumbling about the first years in the hero department’s live music show and how conceited they were because they were doing it for “them.” Ren and Seri couldn’t help but stop in their steps to glare at the two who walked passed.

“What are you looking at?” the black haired girl stared with disdain before walking off.

Ren gritted her teeth, trying her best to hold back her rage. Seri clapped a firm hand on her shoulder, making her look straight at her owl friend.

“They’re not worth it,” Seri remarked. “They don’t understand.”

Letting out a hard breath through her nose, she followed the rest of her class to the 2-A dorms. The discussion went well into the early evening and finally decided on something completely unique and exciting. All was left was to make the reservation for the gym and then the real work will start. Ren walked back and stretched her arms upward, groaning aloud. Feeling the chill set in, she bundled herself into her uniform jacket and sped walked the rest of the way back.

She opened the door to welcome the warmth to defrost her bones, only to see a crowd and heard someone’s strong and sultry singing voice.

“It’s unanimous!” Everyone shouted. “Jiro’s gonna sing!”

The R.A. smiled to herself as she removed her outside shoes to place into her locker before entering the common room to greet the class.

“Welcome back, Ren-senpai!” Ochaco warmly acknowledged. “Did your class decide on what you’re gonna do?”

“We’re doing a Cirque du Soleil inspired performance.”

“We don’t know what that is but it sounds exciting!” the girls cheered.

Ren looked around the room and saw a bunch of instruments scattered around. At the far end, Tokoyami could be heard strumming a guitar that captivated those nearby.

“Whoa, Tokoyami! You play?!”

“I had to free myself from the F-chord first,” he lamented.

“Sweet Les Paul,” Ren commented with her eyes sparkling in excitement. “And you got it in the classic sunburst color too. Nice.”

“Senpai, you play too?” Jiro enquired.

“Well… I dabbled. I’m more of a bassist, really,” she sheepishly replied and suddenly found an electric blue Explorer guitar in her hands.

“I wanna hear your sound!” the purple haired girl exclaimed. “Please!”

Sucking in a breath, she placed the strap around her shoulder and made small adjustments so it fit in her hands. The instrument was heavier than she expected, given how big the lopsided body was. Taking the pick nested in-between the low E and D strings, Ren casually played a simple blues riff that rang out the entire room. Swaying her head to the motion, she closed her eyes and let her feelings momentarily take over. Reopening them, her shoulders lightly jumped at the entirety of 1-A staring in awe.

“That was freaking awesome!” the rocking girl praised with fire in her eyes.

“How did you play that?!”

“That was such a bittersweet melody!”

“Gah, why couldn’t you be a first year?! Our show would kick so much butt with you in it!” Kaminari lamented.

As the barrage of comments and admiration continued, Ren couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle. For the first time in a long time, she felt like her age doing normal high school things instead of worrying about the doom and gloom in the world.

“Can you join our band and help us?” Jiro pleaded, to which their R.A. gave an apologetic look and placed her hand on her shoulder.

“No can do. I got my own thing,” she answered. “You’re all gonna add your own flare to it and knock ‘em dead.”

With everyone’s parts finally settled, class 1-A’s rockin’ performance was set to go. Ren smiled to herself and picked up the bass guitar resting on a chair. It’d been about two years since she last picked up any kind of instrument. It was one of the many hobbies she casually picked up to relieve mental stress from her investigations then. Giving it a quick tune, she warmed up her fingers with some basic scale progressions before jumping right into bass slapping a riff at a quick speed. Jiro immediately recognized it.

“That’s one of the songs my dad composed!” she exclaimed. “You’re a Screaming Death fan?!”

Ren’s hazel-green eyes widened little by little in excitement and did a small hop with the bass dangling on her body.

“Your dad’s Kyotoku?! No. Freaking. Way.” The pink-haired girl geeked out at the earphone jacked girl.

The two girls grasped hands and eagerly chatted with one another about music and all the bands Jiro’s dad composed and produced for. They ended up taking the conversation into Jiro’s room and chatted into the night. The two overslept the next day and ended up being late to class. Ren had to run to 2-A’s dorms after classes to discuss the story line for their performance along with costume ideas and stage setting, with many arguments thrown in between.

It was a mad race to put a production together given the amount of work needed. In the end, she was put in charge of writing the story due to having the highest grade in literature composition. Those who weren’t performing worked on props, costumes and staging. The poor heroine dragged her feet back to 1-A all sloth-like and groaned like a zombie. Angling her head up, she saw Togata’s side profile walking with a little girl in tow.

Before she could hide, he already spotted her out.

“Hey! Ren-chan!” the tall blond boy happily greeted and waved his arm madly. The child hid behind him, clutching to his pant leg. She hesitantly greeted him with a weak wave and walked up to them, not expecting to see the two so soon.

“How’s your body doing?”

“I’m all better!” Togata strongly replied and posed with flexed arms. “I’m taking Eri-chan around U.A. so she won’t get scared with all the crowds for the festival.”

She looked down and saw a small girl with wavy silver blue hair shyly peeking from around his leg and jolted back upon making eye contact with her wide carnelian eyes. The horn that was once protruding out of the right side of her forehead looked like a bump now. This was the first time Ren got a good look at her.

Eri, the child who took away Mirio-senpai’s quirk.

As much as she wanted to get angry for it, the third year made her promise she wouldn’t when they were at the hospital. He reasoned saying Eri’s suffered enough and should be allowed to live a normal life, considering how blessed his was before losing his quirk.

As expected of the senior she admired.

She couldn’t argue against that.

Ren had to dig deep to find the better version of herself and find forgiveness to this child.

To fight through the dark lingering animosity in her heart for taking her pillar away.

Letting out a light sigh, the second year got down on one knee to meet the girl face-to-face with a small and warm smile.

“Hi, Eri,” she softly greeted. “I’m Blink.”

The light blue haired girl gingerly peeked out again and was met with welcoming hazel-green eyes.

“You were there too…” she shyly uttered out. “With Lemillion and Deku. I remember you.”

“I was, but I’m okay too. See?”

Ren flexed her left arm up with a toothy grin, trying her best to hide her fatigue.

“Shall we get going before it’s too late?” Togata suggested and the three made their way over. When they got close enough, they could see class 1-A doing dance rehearsals outside. The tall third year immediately hid behind a bush and dragged Ren with him by her hand.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“They haven’t noticed yet,” he snickered and saw a glimmer of mischief in his beady cerulean blue eyes.

“Oh no…” She groaned out and placed her hand on her forehead. “Mirio-senpai, please…” she begged.

“What sort of sudden entrance will get a laugh out of them…?” he uttered to himself and popped his head out of the bush.

Not realizing Eri already came out of hiding, Togata pushed his butt through the bush and shouted, “The peach is ripe!” with no one noticing. Ren couldn’t do anything but face palm with embarrassment.

This. This is the guy she admired and had feelings for. Ladies and gentleman, Togata Mirio. At least his sense of humor was still intact.

“What are you doing?” Aizawa suddenly came around and saw the two of them crouched behind the shrubbery.

“I just got dragged along the way,” Ren let out tiredly and got off of the grass. “I have to start working on my part of the festival.”

“I heard you guys are doing a play of some sort?” the tired homeroom teacher of 1-A asked.

“A mix of dance and performance. I’m in charge of the script.”

“I look forward to seeing the final product!” the third year beamed.

Eri hid behind Togata again as class 1-A came up to greet her one by one while Aizawa explained why she was here. In the end, Midoriya and Togata took the young girl around the school grounds to see the preparations being done for the culture festival. Ren greeted everyone and made her way up to her room to work on the story line.

After two hours of solitary confinement, she couldn’t take it anymore and decided to get some fresh oxygen into her brain and took her notebook along. Exiting the elevator to the common area, the band team of 1-A was taking a short break from practice.

“How’s it going down here?”

“Ren-Ren! Just in time!” Jiro called and quickly walked over with some sheet music in hand. “I need your help with an arrangement for the bass and guitar.”

“Without honorifics already?” Yao-Momo noted with a smile. “That was quick.”

“I could do away with all that, frankly,” Ren stated and rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. “I get it’s a sign of respect in Japan and all, but it really freaked me out when I started school here. I thought I was in trouble when my classmates called me by my last name with –san.”

“Well that’s understandable,” Jiro let out a small laugh. “The way you carry yourself doesn’t exactly scream Japanese either.”

“Hey now, watch it,” their upperclassman playfully warned and gently poked the girl on her arm. “I know I don’t have a lot of the fine etiquette of the culture down, but I can at least speak it close to fluency. Although, the slang is super* hard.”

Yao-Momo, Kaminari and Jiro burst out laughing, while Tokoyami coughed trying to conceal his. Bakugou just sat back quietly watching everyone and let out an amused smirk.

“The way you said that was super* cute, senpai,” Kaminari complimented between his giggles. “It’s almost out of character for you.”

Since the electric blond boy was out of her reach, all she could do to retort was by lightly throwing a couch cushion at him before looking at Jiro’s sheet music, not caring whether or not it hit.

“This was the part I wanted to try rearranging.” The purple haired girl pointed to a specific bar. “It’s hard for me to sing and play this part together. And here’s the guitar’s…”

“Jesus, Kyoka,” Ren groaned out and stared at it wide-eyed. “This is way too hard for a beginner to play. Tokoyami and Kaminari’s fingers must be throbbing like hell.”

“It’s nothing compared to the fruit we bear in the end,” the dark raven poetically drawled out and closed his left hand in a fist, only to let out a sudden “ow.”

“‘This pain is nothing’ huh?” she teased with a smirk and an arched brow before going back to look at the music tabs.

“I got a little overzealous when it came to the original arrangement,” she timidly replied and tapped the tips of her headphone jacks together shyly.

Scanning over a specific riff again, Ren took a mechanical pencil out from her pant pocket and scribbled on the sheet music before handing it back. “If this arrangement works out, the drums and synth will have to change too.”

She stood and walked up to the band set up area. Re-reading the sheet music once more, she approached the crow-headed boy.

“Tokoyami-kun, your guitar please,” she requested. “I’ll play the arranged version with Kyoka so we can make adjustments on the fly. Let’s start four bars before it. Bakkun, count me in.”

“Don’t call me Bakkun,” he blurted out and tapped his drumsticks and hit the snare.

Jiro played her part on the bass and sang while Ren played what was written on the sheet. Then came the arranged part, mixing rhythm and melody to near perfection and continued playing a few bars after before stopping.

“How’d that feel?”

“A lot better already,” she confirmed. “The bass definitely works out, but the guitar can have more flare.”

“How about this instead?”

The pink-haired girl played a simple melodic riff and ended with a vibrato on the sustaining end note. The two girls continued their discussion.

“It’s like watching two pros work,” Kaminari remarked with admiration to Bakugou, leaning against the wall with crossed arms. “It’s pretty amazing considering all the stuff senpai went through.”

The ash blond boy continued watching their resident advisor. He couldn’t help but respect the tenacity and personal strength she had for going through what she did and still manage to smile like she did. Compared to himself, he was still weak in that aspect.

Watching her call Tokoyami over, she reviewed the changes with him and gave him a few pointers in playing the edited part. He nodded and wrote the advice down on the sheet music before observing her hand position so he could play it efficiently.

“Well, your hand’s much bigger than mine, so you’ll be fine with this arrangement,” she chuckled before turning to the rhythm guitarist. “Kaminari, your chord progression should go like this.”

The pink haired girl played the electric blond’s part with a rhythmic strumming pattern with some chord cut offs.

“Remember you’re keeping the groove of the band together with Kyoka and you don’t have to play every note in the chord. That should be easy enough for you. I’ve marked it down on your sheets too.”

“You have my thanks, Ren-senpai,” Tokoyami humbly replied.

“Thanks senpai!” Kaminari cheerfully replied. “You’re always helpin’ us out!”

“It’s fine. Don’t sweat it. Just put on a good show,” Ren grinned and turned her head. “Bakkun!” she called. “Think you can keep up with the changes?”

“Of course! Who do you think I am?” he grumbled out.

“Uh huh,” she flatly replied to tease him. “Anyway, I’ll leave you guys to it. I have a manuscript to finish up,” she lamented.

She made her way to sit in the common area and set her notebook on the table as the band team finalized the new arrangement. Thumbing through where she left off, Ren read through the bulleted story plot she had in mind and pouted with knitted brows, twirling her writing tool on her fingers.

The concept she came up with the performance was “air” and “freedom.” It was to be a very whimsical and fantastical theme, but how was she going to ground it? There were too many things going on with what she wanted and began crossing out unnecessary plot points.

It needed to be so simple even a child can understand it.

She felt a sudden light bulb pop off in her head.

It had to be that.

Quickly turning to a fresh page, she madly scribbled down the new concept and primary plot points like Midoriya would with hero quirks and all its details, sans the muttering. Reading it over again, she was satisfied with the general structure. Ren quickly took her phone out and took a picture of the notes to send to her class rep via group text. Within three minutes, she got a unanimous approval from everyone.

She changed the concept of the performance to “hope” instead and it will be nearly entirely of no dialogue. From the performance aspect, it shouldn’t be too much trouble with the choreography. The costume team, however, was going to kill her with some of the ideas she had in mind. From there, she gave a more detailed outline of the story plot and whose quirk to use for staging effects.

Any free time students had were eaten up with rehearsals, wardrobe fittings and fleshing out every little detail. There were times people were so exhausted, they ended up having a makeshift sleepover in the common room. Tonight it was some from the band and staging team with Ren.

“How’s everything coming on your end, Ren-Ren?” Jiro asked and leaned her head on her left shoulder like a pillow. Todoroki was on her right.

“We’re moving along,” she sighed out and stifled a yawn. “Choreography’s halfway there and the costumes are down to the accessory making and adjustments. Still testing out quirks for staging effects though. Thank goodness I’m not performing.”

“Really? I was looking forward to seeing you on stage,” Yao-Momo expressed slight disappointment.

“Even if I could, I wouldn’t have the energy to rehearse. The scene changes for the story are eating up most of my time,” she explained with an apologetic gaze. “Maybe next year.”

“What’s the performance going to be about?” Todoroki asked, looking up at her.

“It’s a surprise.” Ren put her index finger up to her grinning lips.

“Ehh? Not even a teeny tiny clue?” Kaminari begged.

She shook her head.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy because snitches get stitches.” She dramatically splayed her hand over her forehead, making everyone chortle.

“Aw, c’mon! Just a teeny tiny little clue!” Kirishima tried coaxing their R.A.

“My lips are sealed.”

“What can we do to unseal them?” Sero asked almost seductively.

“Absolutely nothing. I am an unmovable rock,” she replied with a finalized tone and changed the topic. “You guys are sounding very solid based on the rehearsals.” “That’s because we have a great teacher,” Kaminari gave a thumbs up at Jiro.

“All you have to nail down is rhythm, Kami-kun. You’re still playing a beat ahead of everyone,” she gently scolded.

“That’s ‘cus Bakugou keeps improvising!” the electric blond complained.

“It’s not my fault you’re a dumbass who can’t count to four,” he shot back defensively. “I’m gonna teach you basic rhythm tomorrow.”

“I kinda wish my class did the battle of the bands theme.” Ren looked up at the Takamine acoustic guitar laying about on the couch and gently stroked the neck with a small smile. “I do miss playing.”

Deciding on a whim, she grabbed the guitar and casually strummed it. Jiro and Todoroki moved their heads from her shoulder and scooted back.

“Normally, I get really nervous playing in a crowd,” she revealed. “But since it’s just a couple of us tonight...”

“Oh what a rare treat!” the rocker girl squealed out and clapped her hands excitedly.

She strummed a rhythmic melodic chord progression and started singing in English.

With the amount taught to them at U.A., they managed to understand a good amount of the lyrics as Ren sang. It was a song about always letting your fears take over your life and having the courage to take control back from it, no matter what happens**. Unlike Jiro’s voice, her’s was soft and breathy, complimentary to an acoustic. Even though her heart carried all those heavy feelings from her past, she was still able to produce such a gentle and warm sound to lift other’s burdens and bring them tranquility.

With the strum of the last chord, the small audience erupted into quiet cheers and whistles.

“My voice isn’t as good as Kyoka’s since it’s more suitable for harmonizing and I don’t sing properly from my diaphragm,” she shyly confessed and lightly grasped her throat.

“Oh you’re fine,” Jiro disregarded. “You can at least do vibrato better than I can.”

“Senpai, I think I might be falling for you...” Kaminari gushed like a school girl half jokingly.

“Sorry not my type,” Ren deadpanned at lightning speed with a poker face.

“Oof, shot down immediately,” Kirishima chuckled and patted his friend on the back. “Tough times, buddy.”

She sang in Japanese this time. It was a popular song from a few years ago that left an impression on her. Jiro knew the song and joined in with her doing the harmonics, with Ren letting her sing some of the verses. The song ended with a gentle note and everyone applauded once more.

“Okay, that’s it!” She forcefully removed the guitar from her hands and handed it to Jiro, squeezing her eyes close and puffed up her cheeks. “No more! I got it out my system.”

“Ren-senpai and Kyoka-chan should do a duet together next time,” Yao-Momo suggested. “It’d be so much fun to watch!”

“A future collab huh?” The pink-haired girl turned to the rockin’ girl of 1-A. “Interesting.”

“I’m down to give that a try.” The two girls bumped fists with a smirk.

Carrying on idle conversations a bit longer, the students fell asleep one by one in the common area; Bakugou went back up to his room, who much preferred his own bed. The next morning came and those who were already awake were snickering. Jiro sneakily took out her phone and snapped a picture.

“This is too freaking amazing,” she tittered out and sent the photo to the girls’ group chat.

“I thought they had somethin’ goin’ on, but this really takes the cake,” Kaminari offhandedly commented.

With all the commotion going about in her ears, Ren winced and slowly stirred from slumber. Fluttering her eyes open, she saw the figures of Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Sero and Kirishima crowding over her.

“Oh, sleeping beauty’s awake!” Kirishima confirmed with a toothy grin.

“Sleeping—what?” she mumbled and turned to see Todoroki’s resting face extremely close to hers. Her sleep-ridden eyes widened gradually and was now fully awake. She also felt his arm loosely draped around her waist under the blanket and immediately threw the covers over her head as a feeble attempt to hide. Gingerly sliding away from him, the sleeping boy let out a small groan of protest and pulled her into his chest, cuddling her. She felt her cheeks grow warm.

“Oh my God, this is not happening right now,” she quickly whimpered out in one breath as she struggled to break free only to have his grip tighten. Suddenly feeling the ill intentions permeating through the blanket from outside, Ren inwardly panicked as she felt the corners being lifted.

“You can’t hide from us!” Jiro shouted as the whole group made an effort to lift the entire sheet up, only to see a sleeping dual-hair colored boy by himself.

Ren teleported back into the darkness of her room just in time. Her heart was pounding and her face was completely flushed from the commotion. Letting out a small sigh of relief, she rested her back against the door and breathlessly chuckled to herself in disbelief.

“Senpai! That’s not fair!” muffled voices shouted below and jeered.

Her peace was short lived when she heard her phone buzzing uncontrollably.

Curiosity and nervousness getting the best of her, she walked over to her desk and unplugged it from charging. Ren physically choked on her breath upon seeing the photo and exploding messages sent from the girls demanding all the answers. The sudden ring of her phone scared her and almost made her drop the device. She picked it up after looking at the caller ID.

“Ya wanna explain what’s goin’ on?” Tomoe’s voice asked over the receiver.

Ren stammered.

“The photo Jiro-chan sent to us.”

“Shiiiiitttt!!” she hissed out in English. “Now, hear me out–”

“I didn’t know you were into younger guys now,” she teased and slowly failed to hide her laughter.

“It’s not like that!!!” the flustered girl whisper shouted. “We were all–”

“Oh it’s a ‘we’ now?”

The accused girl groaned aloud in frustration.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Seri and I are coming over in a few hours to pick you up and go over some performance stuff anyway. You can tell us then. Bye~”

She heard the receiver click and all she could do was stand in the middle of her room completely dumbfounded. She took a breath and threw her head back.

“Words, Ren. Use. Your goddamn words,” she said to herself aloud.

This Sunday was going to be the longest day ever.

* “Very” in Japanese slang is 超 (ちょう) “chou.” Kaminari uses it often in the way he speaks. The kanji also means “super.” So if you were to say “This is super hard (これは超ムズイ) (Kore wa chou muzui)“, it’s still grammatically correct in more colloquial terms.

** I thought Incubus’ “Drive” would be fitting for Ren’s character, considering recent developments.

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