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triumphingmybest · 6 months

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Crimson Refrain: A BG3 Fic

Rating: M Ships: Astarion/Original Female Character, Gale/Original Female Character Tags: Established Relationship, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, More Tags to be Added

Nearly a century after Baldur’s Gate is saved, their once adventuring party has settled into normalcy. Xalyth the half-drow fighter and Gale reside in Waterdeep, where Xalyth picks up odd jobs and Gale devotes himself to his research. Ashe the redeemed bhaalspawn and Astarion reside in the Underdark, where Ashe researches the local flora and fauna and Astarion leads the settlement of freed spawn.

Their peace is disrupted when Ashe begins having disturbing and prophetic dreams. Concerned about a potential bhaalist uprising, the party dusts off their boots and hits the road to Baldur’s Gate once more. What follows is a tale of loyalty, trust, and the lengths one would go to save themselves.

A new adventure set post-canon.

Chapter 1: Things Buried and Rotted Word Count: 7.1k Read on AO3

What would it be like for the Pretender to fall?

Ashe awoke with a start, her chest heaving as she collapsed from her dreams back into her body. A cool hand on her chest stilled her.

“It’s alright,” A trance-rough baritone assured. “We’re here in our bed. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Ashe looked to her side and was met with her partner’s calm face, the colored light of the jarred mushrooms in their Underdark home painting colored shadows across his pale skin. There was no sunrise in the Underdark, but the timepiece on the wall confirmed that it was well before morning. “Sorry, did I disturb you? I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t apologize. It’s alright.” Astarion gave her a smile, pushing her hair from her face as he placed a gentle kiss on her sweat-dampened forehead. “The nightmares again?”

“Yes,” Ashe frowned, her brow furrowing. She had kept the nightmares from Astarion as long as she could, but at some point her partner’s concern had won out over his respect for Ashe’s desire for secrecy.

I told you once that I’m not afraid. Not of you, your darkness, or our future. Living this past century of life with you has brought me more happiness than I could ever deserve. But living this life with you means sharing your triumphs as well as your struggles. I love you, and I’m worried about you, please let me in.

Well, she couldn’t very well hide it from him after that. It was hard to admit her concerns out loud. She thought- they all thought- that she had left Bhaal behind in that blood soaked ruin under Baldur’s Gate a century ago. But these nightmares, the voices… There was no other explanation. “They’re getting worse, Astarion. I thought- I don’t-”

Astarion shushed her before she could attempt to finish the thought. “Let’s let your nerves settle before we talk this through, hm? Take a moment and wash your face, I’ll make you some tea, and we can talk in the sitting room.” Ashe nodded, and immediately mourned the loss of her partner’s cool touch as he stepped away.

She watched as Astarion rose from the bed, the blankets slipping from his shoulders to bare his naked form. To know that a vampire was ageless was one thing, yet it was another entirely to witness it.

Life in the Underdark was difficult and taxing, but the exertion of it all did not even begin to compare to their time on the road. While Ashe’s edges and belly had softened, Astarion’s hard lines of muscle remained. As an elf, the years had not touched her in the same way they would others, but she still saw the creases in her face that had not been there before a century laughed and lived through. Astarion had laughed and smiled more than he ever had, and yet his face remained unchanged. The scars on his back still stood as a harsh reminder of his torment and always would, even with the scars on his mind beginning to fade. Ashe had thought hers were beginning to fade too.

Ashe watched as Astarion pulled his red silk robe over his shoulders and walked down the hall before rising out of bed herself. She crossed their room to the shallow washbasin and lifted the water jug only to find that it was empty. Well I could just… Astarion had forbidden magic in the house after the most recent time she’d accidentally summoned a cambion to their study. But surely a simple create water spell would be fine. Ashe listened to ensure that Astarion was far enough out of ear shot before she whispered the words. There was a shimmer of red-violet light and the jug filled with fresh, cool water.

And no cambion in sight.

With a smile at her small victory, Ashe poured the water into the basin and washed the sweat from her face. The cool water felt nice against her skin, and it did help to ground her. After drying her face with the nearby towel, Ashe slipped on her own robe and padded across the hall and into the sitting room.

“Feeling better?” Astarion asked, placing the warm mug on the table before sitting on the sofa, arm held out to his lover.

“Much.” Ashe confirmed, picking up the tea and accepting the invitation to curl up against him. Astarion wrapped his arms around her, and Ashe let out a contented sigh. She blew across the top of her mug before taking a sip of the tea, the bitterness of the oversteeped leaves drowned by the sweetness of the love that went into its preparation.

“You washed your face?” Astarion ran a thumb across Ashe’s cheek, and she leaned into his gentle touch. “Odd, since I didn’t see you come to the kitchen, and I’m quite sure that the jug was empty…” Ashe froze and her eyes grew wide. Astarion’s lips quirked into a smirk.

Busted.

“It was a just a little create water spell, I don’t see how-” “And last time it was just a little mage armor before going mushroom foraging and a hells-damned cambion-”

“- I know, I know. I’m sorry.” Astarion held her gaze a moment before he sighed, abandoning the topic. They both knew that it would absolutely happen again. “Now, let’s talk about these nightmares. You said they’re getting worse?” Ashe tensed, and Astarion’s grip on her strengthened. “Yes,” she admitted. “I keep hearing a voice, taunting me. It says how I was too weak to be a true child of Bhaal, that I’m a fool to think I had been saved. That my blood will be spilt in sacrifice to his name as the Pretender Spawn. That…” Ashe hesitated.

I know your weakness. It’s pathetic, really, all of these people you’ve collected as friends. The half-breed fighter who saves everyone on the off chance that she may find some sense of belonging? The wizard who fumbled his chance to be a god? What about him? The one in your bed? What of the sad little vampire spawn that turned down everything to love you?

She’d heard the words many times before, but they weren’t the ones that woke her this time.

What would it be like to turn them all against you one by one? What would it be like for the Pretender to fall?

“Love?” Astarion’s voice broke Ashe out of the twisted memory.

“Hm? Oh, uh,” Ashe gripped her mug tighter to keep her shaking hands steady. “It’s just violent, the things the voice says. It’s a bit unsettling.”

“I see.” Astarion frowned, and Ashe couldn’t quite tell if he bought the lie or not. “Well, have you given any more thought to visiting the ruins in the Undercity?”

“I mean I don’t want to.” Ashe set her mug of tea down and pulled her knees to her chest. “I had hoped the whole bloody thing would’ve been buried and rotted.”

“Even buried and rotted things have a nasty habit of rearing their ugly head when they’re least welcome.”

Reflexively, Ashe took Astarion’s hand in hers squeezing it gently as she did when Astarion seemed ages away. “Are you with me, Astarion?”

“I am.” Astarion confirmed, returning the comforting squeeze. “Buried and rotted the thing may be, it’s the only lead we have to any potential Bhaalist uprising. It’s worth investigating.”

“And what if there’s nothing there? Or what if there is something there for that matter?”

Astarion scoffed. “Darling, you know I’m not good at that part. I’m just saying it’s a start.”

Ashe hummed, turning the idea over in her mind. If nothing else, it was a start. “You’re right.”

“Can I get that in writing?” Astarion teased, and Ashe found herself smiling as she nudged him with her elbow.

“I guess we should set out for Waterdeep in the morning,” Ashe released her knees, slowly unfurling from herself. “We should see if we can get Xalyth and Gale to come with us.”

Astarion lit up at the prospect. Though they hadn’t had the chance to discuss it, Ashe had taken note that Astarion was taking any excuse to shirk his duties as leader of the settlement lately. “Oh Xalyth absolutely, I miss traveling with her. Though, and I’m sorry to ask this, do we have to invite Gale along?”

“Astarion.”

“It’s nothing personal, he just talks too much.”

Ashe huffed. And of course you’re a silent traveling companion, my love. “That sounds pretty personal.”

“Always griping about his knees. Sure the wizarding and chosen-of-god thing keeps one young but if the knees were bad then-”

“- Gale is-” Ashe interrupted, ready to jump to Gale’s defense. But, it seemed that old rivalries died hard. Gale was genuinely a friend, and one of the most powerful and talented wizards that they knew. Still, sometimes it was hard to say the words out loud. And Astarion knew it.

“Go on.” He prodded, amused.

“Gale is a generally capable wizard and an asset to the team. Also, Xalyth mentioned in her last letter that Gale was in need of-” She caught herself before she said sunlight. “He needs to get out of the tower and the academy.”

If Astarion caught the slip, he didn’t pursue it. Instead, he twisted his lover so that Ashe was in his lap and facing him. “Well, there’s tomorrow’s plans settled.” Crimson eyes traced where Ashe’s robe had begun to slip down her shoulder, baring her tanned skin. “As for the rest of the evening, well,” Astarions hands left fire in their wake as they trailed from her hips to waist, resting on the tie that kept her modest. “I have some ideas of how to pass the time. If you’re open, of course.”

Ashe placed her hands over his, and slowly tugged the tie loose, baring her skin to the chilled ever-night air. “There is nothing I want more.” There would be time for her worries in the morning, but for now nothing else mattered.

It was late afternoon when Xalyth stepped onto the landing and tossed her gauntlets into the enchanted bin next to the door. She gripped the doorknob with a bit more force than intended, swinging it open so quickly it nearly slammed into the wall behind. Xalyth reached out just in time to prevent all their neighbors from hearing her arrival.

“Gale, are you home?” she called out.

“In the kitchen, my love.”

If she’d waited just a moment, Xalyth would’ve smelled the onion and herbs coming from the kitchen herself.

“Hello! I- Xalyth, the boots!” Gale greeted her with a wooden spoon in one hand, while his other gestured wildly at the trail of blood that ended where Xalyth stood unbuckling her weapons belt. “How many times have I told you? All armor, including boots, stay outside.” It had taken her nearly twenty years to remember the gauntlets reliably, and apparently it would take another fifty for the boots.

“Sorry.” Xalyth stepped out onto the porch again, kicking off her boots and placing them into the bin. She could hear Gale cast a spell she had come to know as prestidigitation, not “pressing indignation,” as she had once called it. She recalled Gale trying not to laugh at the misnomer and failing quite spectacularly. Their magic lesson had been postponed in favor of teasing one another for personal strange pronunciations which, of course, later led them to exchange softer, more sacred words pressed to the other’s skin.

“Hello, my love.” Xalyth wrapped her arms around her husband’s plush middle, resting her head against the back of his shoulder as he stirred something delectable in a pot.

“You’re not getting blood on my robes again, are you?” Gale asked.

“I left all my armor at the door like you told me to,” Xalyth assured him. She discreetly wiped her face with the back of her hand. Only a thin trail of red had made its way onto the wizard’s robes, but surely he wouldn’t notice.

“Hm, well thank you for that. Now, I’ve just about finished with the mushroom sauce that will pair wonderfully with our roast pheasant, and later, we’ll enjoy Morena Dekarios’s spiced rum cake I’ve almost perfected. If you’d like to wash up for dinner, I’ll have it out by the time you’re finished.”

“I thought you liked me fresh from battle,” Xalyth teased, tucking a few loose strands of grey behind Gale’s ear.

“You know I do,” Gale’s voice lowered, turning his head to place a quick peck upon her lips. Xalyth smiled, moving her hands to his waist as she leaned in for more, and he…pulled away. “However! I have spent the better part of the day trying to work with those damnable mushrooms you so lovingly brought in from that Underdark trader. I know dinner is a tad early, but I will not have them go to waste now.” Xalyth rolled her eyes as she released the man from her grip and went to wash up.

True to his word, Gale had the table set with two steaming plates by the time she returned. She had to admit that for all his fussing over the perfect meal composition, she was absolutely spoiled rotten by Gale’s cooking.

“So how was your day? Weren't you supposed to meet up with Professor Runelan?”

“We agreed to meet once we made any discoveries,” Gale clarified. “And seeing as I’ve made none, there has been nothing to meet about.”

Xalyth sighed. “Gale, you’ve been holed up in this tower all summer. Surely you’ve made some progress since the end of the term.”

“Well, some, but hardly anything worth noting. You see, the subject of transcendent-”

“I don’t need to know the specifics.” Xalyth had listened to many of his ramblings about magical research over the years and knew when one was about to start. She’d be finished with her plate before he’d even started if she allowed him to go on. “I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it later, but let’s eat before it all goes cold,” she reminded him with a gentle smile.

“A capital idea, my love.”

Xalyth made sure to compliment her husband’s cooking out loud, though she generally preferred to pay her respects by cleaning her plate in record time. “The mushroom sauce turned out very well. An earthy, nutty flavor, but also unique in a way that adds depth to the whole dish. It’s good.”

“Why thank you.” Gale looked pleased with himself for a moment before he continued. “I’m concerned about the cake though. My mother had a certain way about it, something she didn’t write down that I can’t seem to-”

“Gale,” Xalyth stopped him. “We’ll get there when we get there. Enjoy your dinner without worrying about dessert. Of course it’s not going to taste the same as when Morena made it. I don’t think it has to do with the recipe, maybe just the memories.”

Gale sighed, resting his fork against his plate and reaching over for Xalyth’s hand. “Astute as ever.” He smiled fondly at his wife, the creases by his eyes reminding her of the many years he had spent looking at her this very same way. Xalyth couldn’t help but smile back. “You’re right,” Gale said. “Enough worrying for now. I haven’t even asked you about your day. What was the quarry this time? A dastardly hag? A horde of ill-mannered goblins? A foul-smelling ogre?”

“Oh, nothing so dreadful,” Xalyth brushed it off as she polished off the last of her pheasant. “Just some gnolls who made camp near the trade route. The standard fare.”

“That sounds pretty dreadful to me,” Gale admitted. “I could live another lifetime quite thrilled not to encounter another gnoll. Nasty creatures. Well, I’m sure there’s not another in sight, and the merchants are all supremely grateful for your help.”

Xalyth shrugged but took the bait. “Well, it was rather challenging when my partner went down and I had to fend the pack off myself. What kind of mercenary forgets their good armor? Anyways, the merchants were all very frightened and traveled far behind us. We drew out the first wave, and I thought it was over. Roscwinth, the other merc, was looking a little rough, so I passed him a potion—thank you for restocking me, by the way—and not a moment too soon. When we gave the all clear and the caravan started their approach, we heard growling and then more gnolls were on us. Roscwinth fell unconscious, and I thought he was a goner. But, one of the merchants had a stroke of bravery and threw a clay jar at a gnoll, distracting it long enough for me to drag him behind a boulder out of the way. A few of the other merchants noticed and threw things to distract them so I could pick them off one by one. Not the support I had been expecting, but successful, nonetheless.”

“They must have really believed in you,” Gale smiled. “You rallied all those people to face the thing that scared them for weeks. You know, I don’t miss the days where our tadpoles and my orb threatened our existence, but sometimes I miss seeing your victories for myself.”

“You could come with me, you know. I’ll be stopping by the Yawning Portal tomorrow to see if there are any new jobs. With your magic, I know you’d make a much better partner than the one I got for the last job.” Gale did not seem convinced. Xalyth sighed. “Fine. I can look for a new job, and you can tag along—bring your books, get a drink, soak in the atmosphere. You know, get out of the tower for a bit.”

“The Yawning Portal is so loud, hardly the place for studying,” Gale countered.

“Then let’s go to the Fiery Flagon. It’s not nearly as busy. Plus, it’s been awhile since our last visit. I’m sure the old captain misses swapping stories with you.”

“But if we go there, you won’t find any travelers who might be in need of some work.”

“Forget about that for now. Let’s just go out on the town. We haven’t been out together in awhile, and I think it would be nice.”

“I like staying home.”

“You’ve stayed home all season. You need to get out of this tower, Gale.” Xalyth collected the dirty dishes and set them on the far table.

“Oh, allow me.” Gale got up when he noticed Xalyth looking around for a rag to clean with.

“Gale, I can take care of a few plates. Don’t trouble yourself with it; you already did so much to make this delightful meal.”

“I was just going to use a little magic,” he admitted.

“Oh, very well,” Xalyth relented. She had to admit his magic did come in handy more often than not. “So, it’s decided? Tomorrow we’ll pay a visit to the Fiery Flagon?”

“I…can’t.”

The definitive word gave Xalyth pause. She turned to face her husband. “Why not? What’s wrong?” Xalyth made her way back to the table and sat down again. She took his hands in hers and looked into his eyes. “Did something happen?”

Gale sighed, slowly removing his right hand from hers and raking back his silver hair. After a few beats of silence, he picked up a knife from the table, balancing the silver on his upturned palm. The knife wobbled as the muscles in his hand trembled, his knuckles knocking together and causing the silver to nearly slip. Gale rested the back of his hand against the table to steady it, but the knife still vibrated in his open palm. “See?”

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say,” Xalyth said. “So you can’t balance a knife in your hand. What’s wrong with that?”

“The problem is that I cannot hold it still for even a second,” Gale clarified. “I- my- everything just shakes all the time. I thought my knees were going to give out the other day when I was on the stairs going to feed Clawdia-”

“Did you feed her today, by the way? I haven’t seen her since I got home,” Xalyth interjected. Gale huffed and gave her a look. “Sorry. Please continue. You were complaining about your knees?”

“Yes, yes I am,” Gale emphasized. “I cannot simply go out on the town anymore. It just feels different. When people look at us, have you not noticed the lingering stares?”

Xalyth shrugged. “The people who know us know who we are and what we are. It doesn’t bother me.”

“Well of course it doesn’t bother you,” Gale gestured at his wife. “You still look like that and I- well, the last time you visited Blackstaff one of my students made a comment about how could you be my wife when I look like I could be your grandfather?”

“Really?” Xalyth looked unimpressed. “You’re upset because some snot-nosed punk called you old?”

“Well, did you not see how some of those snot-nosed punks were staring at you? Their hallway discussions were quite disturbing. I’d rather not repeat the things they said about your…assets.”

“You could tell them your age hasn’t taken a toll on your libido, I bet they’d find that equally disturbing.”

“I am a distinguished professor. You know very well I cannot say that.”

“Well I can.”

“Xalyth.”

“Look, I’m just saying you should worry less about what you think people are thinking about you. We live in a city. People see stranger things all the time,” Xalyth squeezed Gale’s shaky hands. “Yes, you are aging, but you are not dying. I promise you I am aging too, even if my body shows it less. But we are both very much alive still. Your senses, your mind—they are the sharpest they have ever been, my love. I have no idea how you can bear to read those tiny inscriptions on your magic books, or how you know the exact spice missing from a soup. They say memory is the first to go, and yet you still remember every one of our tressym’s birthdays, past and present. You’re studying transparent, er, translucent-”

“Transcendent physiology?”

“That, yes exactly.”

Gale seemed to relax at her words. “I suppose you make a good argument. It’s just that sometimes I feel like I’m living on borrowed time already.”

“You once told me Elminster lived for over three centuries. If he’s any estimation, then you really shouldn’t concern yourself yet.”

“But I’m not Elminster.”

“No, you’re not. You’re Gale Dekarios.”

“Gale, and Xalyth Dekarios,” Gale reminded her. “You know, I think you’re right. Maybe they do have a few adventures left in them still.”

“Now that’s the spirit! And you know, I heard a rumor that if you start making Mrs. Dekarios go into town to do all the shopping alone because you’re afraid of your knees giving out, she will put you in the grave herself.”

Gale went to speak, but stopped. Xalyth could see the gears in his head turning as he held up his index finger. “Wait, is that- are you threatening me? Xalyth! You know, I could end this right here and now with a well placed fireball, or frankly many spells. I won’t because I love you, but I will have you know I’m quite a powerful wizard.”

“You are! You’re my powerful wizard, and I love you.” Xalyth whispered, pressing her forehead to his. Gale closed the space between them, pressing a kiss against her lips. They parted naturally after a few moments, Xalyth standing up once more. “Now that that’s settled, did you actually feed Clawdia today?”

“No, I thought you did it.”

“I did not. No wonder she hasn’t returned yet. I’m sure that new rug you ordered is about to pay dearly.”

“Weave save us all.”

When Astarion awoke, his lover was still trancing soundly beside him, a lock of her hair falling into her face. Gently, he brushed his fingertips across her warm skin, tucking the strands back into place. She stirred at the touch, and Astarion stilled, holding his breath. After a beat, Ashe quieted once more and returned to what were hopefully much more pleasant dreams than the ones she’d had earlier in the night.

Loath as he was to leave her, he did suppose that someone should tell Aurelia and Leon that he would be taking a leave of absence. Presumably, that someone should be him- they hadn’t taken it too well the last time he announced his absence via note tied to Barnaby, Ashe’s “pet” bulette. It had taken the better part of a month to repair the damaged foundations caused by the beast’s romp through the settlement.

Regretfully, Astarion pulled himself from the bed and crossed the room to wash his face. There was still water left in the jug from his paramour’s rogue spellcasting, its contents tepid as he brought the liquid across his cool skin. As he wiped the towel over his face, he couldn’t help but look into the mirror where he saw nothing.

In three centuries one would think that you would forget that you were supposed to see something reflected in the glass. No. Even though the absence of his own reflection no longer startled him as it had for the first hundred years, it did serve as a stark reminder of what he was. For the first months in their new home Ashe had not hung a mirror over the basin. Instead, she kept a small hand mirror in her chest of drawers, using it discreetly when she thought he was not paying attention.

Darling, he’d asked when he caught her balancing the humble glass on her knee as she tried to untangle her hair, what exactly is it that you think you’re doing?

After talking her down from her embarrassment, he had convinced her to just hang a mirror above the basin. He’d already spent centuries scowling at a reflection he couldn’t see, there was no reason to try and hide from it now. Still, that didn’t stop her from having a portrait of him commissioned to hang just to the right. She’d spent months picking the artist, and several more sending back revision after revision. It had to be just right. She insisted that the portrait shouldn’t be flattering (which the artist and Astarion both gawked at) but should instead be as honest as it could be. Of course, she’d declined to tell the artist exactly why she had such a request, but the result spoke for itself.

It had been odd to see his face. It seemed… Different. Of course, the crimson eyes and the pointed fangs he’d expected. It was how foreign the rest of him felt that had shaken him. Had the crease between his brows always been so deep? Was the slight blemish on his left cheek new? Of all of the things he’d accepted one could forget over 200 years, somehow he’d never expected to forget his own face.

He stared at his static “reflection” in the parchment as he fingered a sweet-smelling balm through his curls before donning his apparel for the day. He spared another glance and half a smile at his resting lover before leaving their shared home, closing the door quietly behind him.

Living outside of the gates had been Astarion’s idea. He gave Ashe a myriad of reasons for the choice. From an easier walk for her to get to the various fungi she so loved to study, to a better and less cluttered view. Really, it was about safety.

Releasing 7,000 starving vampire spawn into the Underdark was neither a small undertaking nor a safe one. He never regretted his choice, he did truly believe that the damned souls deserved some chance at a life, but the more he considered the consequences the more he feared. He remembered his first years after his transition. While hunger tugged painfully in his belly even now, it was nothing compared to the agony of the first years.

Howling in the kennels, clawing at the bars of his cage, insides searing with the need to hunt and to feed. The moments themselves were hazy but Cazador’s visage was clear as he stood outside of the cage, staring down at the animal that had once been Astarion. Control yourself and rise, he sneered, dangling a rat by its tail. The small creature squeaked hopelessly in the predator’s grasp. What had once been Astarion gathered what small shreds remained of his self control to fight the anguish and stand silently. Good, Cazador would praise, scratching some sickening itch in the back of Astarion’s useless brain.

He remembered the crack as the rat was thrown onto the floor, the fresh corpse just out of reach of his cage. He remembered the pain of his sobs against his raw and parched throat, the way he prayed to any god that would listen for just a drop of the blood pooling beneath the creature to make its way into his cage so that he might lick it from the soiled floor.

If the spawn’s thirst was anything like he remembered his own, Ashe was going to remain far from the settlement.

Of course, that was not his only fear. 7,000 spawn. Several of which he was responsible for. He had lured them from parties and flophouses with the promise of romance and sex. He let them have their way with his body, but they didn’t know of the poison in his kiss. They didn’t know that the moment the act concluded, their bodies sated and guard down, they would be whisked away to be slaughtered like cattle. Except that they weren’t slaughtered, it was worse. They were trapped and starved, waiting for the release of death that wouldn’t come. It was all Astarion’s fault.

Sure, it was under Cazador’s influence. He didn’t have a choice in bringing someone back for his master, but he did have a choice in choosing them. If Astarion had been his own mark, he wouldn’t have put it past himself to seek revenge. Living within the walls with Ashe could have made her a target, and so he didn’t.

Before too long, Astarion arrived at the gates. Gates was a technical but generous term for the big and battered wooden doors that bridged the gap between two towering cliffs. A flag hung flaccidly from the “tower” on the left, colored in bone white and sinful red. The draftless Underdark made it difficult to read, but Astarion could see it clearly in his mind’s eye- he’d made it. The black and gold filigree surrounding the words in the center, proudly declaring “Libertas Aeternus”. That had been a century ago and he had been a different man, filled with delusions of what this life would be. Now there was something almost darkly funny about the name.

“Well, what are you just standing there for? Open up!” Astarion called as the man in the tower stumbled over himself to begin opening the gate.

“Sorry sir! Right away sir!”

Astarion tsked and observed his nails as the wooden doors gave a heavy groan, protesting with the effort of pulling open and revealing the path inside. “Finally!” he huffed indignantly, stepping onto the cobbled stone path. “If I am late, I’ll make sure that the others know exactly who is to blame for my tardiness.”

Astarion didn’t hang around to listen to the spawn’s apologies. Astarion wasn’t really going to bestow any punishment upon the poor soul. Really, Astarion was already running late to the Fourthday meeting- his own fault for taking so long to drag himself out of bed. Still, if he was going to be late, he was going to be late. It was nothing that could be helped.

Astarion strolled leisurely through the streets of Libertas Aeternus. For a town of undead, the square was alive with movement and purpose. Vendors had small stalls selling their various vanity wares, and people walked through the streets talking and laughing. Their numbers had fallen over the century, from 7,000 to under 4,000, but the surviving spawn had managed to thrive, finding unabashed happiness in their cursed existence. By all reason, the sight should fill Astarion with joy and pride.

So why did it make something thick and bitter roil in his gut?

Astarion didn’t pursue the thought. Instead, he picked up his pace and stepped into the arcane tower- now repurposed into a town hall of sorts. He made his way through the familiar halls, and he could hear a conversation behind the doors to the main meeting hall.

“Astarion isn’t here. He probably won’t be here. He’s been neglecting his duties for months now and it just keeps getting worse. I know that you don’t want to-”

The conversation stopped as soon as Astarion entered the room, Leon’s mouth closing as the man leaned back into his seat at the large oval table. “Oh dear,” Astarion drawled, “I didn’t realize I was interrupting something. Well I suppose I should just-”

“-Not interrupting.” Aurelia said, halting Astarion’s planned escape. “We just did not know whether or not to expect you.”

“Well this is a meeting for the three of us, isn’t it?”

“Generally, though lately it has just been the two of us.” Leon didn’t even have the decency to lower his voice.

Astarion sneered, biting back the dagger at the tip of his tongue. As blunt as he was, Leon wasn’t wrong. Last tenday he had “accidentally” missed the meeting due to “a matter of urgent judicial importance” and two more tendays before that he had been so late that he might as well have missed it.

Aurelia, ever the peacemaker even now, cut through the silence and disrupted the developing tension. “Well, I was just beginning to go over the trade ledgers from the past month.” The tiefling thumbed through a journal as she summarized its contents, Astarion did what he could not to zone out.

Developing a functioning society from nothing was a big ask, and not one without strife. Still, their three-tiered approach to governance had held strong thus far. Aurelia chaired the settlement’s trade. Surprisingly, vampire spawn with their inherent stealth and climbing ability were particularly adept foragers in their treacherous surrounds. Additionally, their feeding habits generated a lot of exsanguinated livestock, which could then be cleaned, butchered, and sold to other denizens of the Underdark.

Leon spoke next, detailing the state of their defenses, which he chaired. An untrained vampire spawn was a fierce opponent, but a trained and armed one was deadly. Though the rocky cliffs surrounding their settlement kept them mostly out of harm's way, they kept a small trained militia for the standard dangers of the Underdark, equipped to handle anything from hook horrors to a drow raiding party.

When Leon was done, it was Astarion’s turn. With his past magistrate experience as well as being the catalyst behind all of this, Astarion was the natural choice to head the judicial system. In the beginning it had been exciting. He wrote law into existence where there had been none, and established the framework of a society where people like him could live freely. Now, maybe some of the laws and punishments weren’t quite up to standards held by the likes of Wyll Ravengard, but it was largely a fair and just system. In the beginning there had been precedent to set, and he had been shaping the mold for their society to grow into.

Now, however.

“I have nothing much to report.”

“Nothing much- Astarion-”

“Okay,” Aurelia interrupted Leon. “I know there’s some disputes that have been filed in your office waiting for you to review, and I know that Mindir and Bronwyn are still waiting to hear back on the-”

“The damned deep rothe calf, I know.” Astarion pinched the bridge of his nose, every sinew in his body tensed. With a deep breath, he forced his posture to relax and donned his easy smile. “It will be handled.”

Aurelia sighed. “Well, I look forward to hearing about it next tenday.”

“Actually-”

Aurelia paused her movements to look at Astarion, and Leon frowned.

“I’m going to be out for at least the next tenday, if not longer.”

Leon slapped his palms on the table. “Astarion, there are matters that need your attention. You can’t just continue to-”

“Ashe has some business in Baldur’s Gate, and has asked that I accompany her.”

Leon and Aurelia shared a look. The pair had a deep respect for the wood elven bhaalspawn, knowing that she was instrumental in ensuring their freedom from Cazador. Astarion shrugged. Checkmate.

“I’ll return once her business is handled, in the meantime I’m sure that the two of you can handle any disputes over cattle rights and trinket theft.”

“Of course,” Aurelia said, “and please be sure to give Ashe our well wishes.” Leon frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It would be my pleasure. Now,” Astarion placed his palms flat on the table, ready to stand. “If there wasn’t anything else…”

“No. That’s all.”

“Excellent. I shall see you all upon my return.” With that, Astarion took his leave, making his way back to his office. Sure enough, there was a large stack of parchment awaiting him on the large wooden desk. He dropped unceremoniously into the large chair and began to flip through them one by one.

A dispute over ownership of a poem, a flower stolen from a garden, the damn complaint about the deep rothe calf born on someone’s property for the third time. The corner of Astarion’s lip quivered and raised as each filed complaint was more frivolous than the last. Finally, he swiped all of the papers into the waste bin with a huff.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Astarion looked up and his expression immediately softened. “Ashe? What are you doing here?”

“Well,” His beloved began, walking across his office and having a seat in the chair on the other side of his desk. “Gale had asked us a little while ago to bring some sussur flower petals on our next visit, and this is the best place to find them. So I figured I would pick some up, and we could set out from here together.”

Astarion hummed. “A brilliant plan as always, my darling.”

Ashe’s eyes were darker in the dim light of his office. Almost ruby in color, as opposed to the Azalea pink they appeared in the sun. Oh, how he longed to see her in the sunlight once again. The golden rays reflecting off of the deep amber of her skin, counting her freckles as they darkened in the height of summer. A century largely spent in the Underdark had left them ghosts of blemishes across her skin, and he missed them. He should have taken the chances while he had them. Spent the days lying naked in the grass, peppering kisses across every freckle on her skin while the sun warmed their backs.

“Indeed.” Ashe agreed with a grin, before glancing over at the waste basket. “Everything okay?”

“Things are just fine. Just clearing out some old files. You know what sorts of things just collect when you do the same thing day in and day out for over a century.” Astarion dismissed the question easily, and if Ashe could tell that it was a lie, she did nothing to give it away.

“Alright. Aurelia and Leon are okay to handle things while you’re away?”

“Yes. I have instructions to give you their well wishes.”

“Excellent. Well, if there’s nothing else to handle here…”

“Nothing else. We should be good to take our leave. Did you bring the cloak?”

“Of course.” Ashe rummaged in her bag for a moment, pulling out the thick black cloth. “I added some lilac to the oils this time, hopefully it smells a bit more pleasant than last.”

Astarion took the cloth and gave it a light sniff. It didn’t smell good by any stretch, but the thought was kind. Ashe had spent years working on the right concoctions with which to treat cloth in order to allow him to walk through the sunlight unharmed. The protection still would not hold through the brightest part of the day, but if smelling a little strange was the price that he had to pay in order to spend even a moment in the sun, so be it. “Thank you.” He tucked the cloth into his own pack before slinging it over his shoulder.

“Well then.” Ashe fixed the strap of her own bag on her shoulder. “Shall we?”

Astarion smiled. “I’d follow you anywhere.”

Ashe smiled softly at that, bringing a hand up to caress his cheek gently. “I know. And I swear never to lead you anywhere you do not wish to follow.”

Astarion leaned into the touch, holding his lover’s gaze and basking in the pure, unadulterated love. He waited a beat before interrupting the silence. “Sap.”

Ashe tsked, dropping her hand. “Let’s go.”

Blood ran down her arms, pooling in the center of the ritual chamber. Her blood mingled with that of her unfortunate sacrifice’s, the crimson dripping steadily from the ceiling. She closed her eyes as she took in the ecstasy of the moment. The feel, the smell. She grinned at her holy tribute. She could feel how pleased her father was, the feeling sinking deep in her bones. Her plan was going perfectly. It wouldn’t be long before the Pretender would fall.

“A wonderful job as always, master.” The creature spoke from behind her, interrupting her meditative state. “‘Tis always such an honor to behold the- Ah!” The creature screamed as a dagger pinned its hand to the wall.

“Silence, Vralroc. Or the next dagger will not be so harmless.”

Without so much as a whimper, the butler pulled the dagger from its own hands, the dagger clinking against the stone ground.

“I’ve been in her dreams. She plans to come to the temple within the tenday. When she arrives she will find this offering and be inclined to act. When she does, she will fall right into my trap.” She smirked, rubbing her fingers together to watch the deep red hue spread across her skin. “Isn’t it brilliant?”

Her question was met with silence.

“Speak!” She yelled, sending another dagger flying. This one embedded itself in the creature’s foot.

“Yes, master! Your father is no doubt pleased! There has never been another as clever as you! All shall bow before you as his chosen!” She basked in the praise, rising from where she knelt on the dais. Pride swelled within her chest, and she could feel the Urge content just under her consciousness.

It was time. She would not fail.

#bg3 #bg3 oc #bg3 tav #bg3 durge #bg3 fic #astarion #gale #gale of waterdeep #astarion x oc #gale x oc #tri writes

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mygalfriday · 3 years

Text

you heard it from those other boys but this time it’s real (River/12)

Prompt #4: Double Date

Technically, this might be her fault but as a self-proclaimed psychopath River hardly possesses a conscience that needs to own her every mistake. And she certainly has no intention of claiming responsibility for this one. She fully intends to blame Hydroflax.

Finally settled in their brand new flat, she and the Doctor had decided to have a bit of fun playing hosts for the evening. Acting as a normal married couple who throw dinner parties and play board games had seemed like a laugh. The problem, of course, was that they didn’t know anyone on Darillium to invite. It had only been a few weeks and they’d spent most of that time christening every available surface of the flat. Neither of them had been inclined to get dressed and meet their neighbors.

The only two people they know happen to share a single body. The Doctor had been adamantly opposed to having one of her former husbands as a dinner guest and River, relishing his jealous scowl, had relented quite quickly. So they had decided to invite Nardole round for dinner and proceeded to bicker over the menu and the wine until they actually felt like an ordinary couple with ordinary problems. Of course, they’d made up immediately – impossible to stay angry when you’re both grinning at each other like idiots.

Eventually, they’d decided River would make the appetizers, the Doctor would make the main course, and they’d make dessert together. The Doctor hadn’t even blushed when she’d made a filthy joke about it. He’d only looked at her with exasperated affection and kissed her quiet. A girl could get used to that sort of domesticity.

While technically the robot body Nardole now inhabits doesn’t need to eat, its system does have the ability to convert food into energy to help maintain the electrical charge. River had spent a good hour convincing the Doctor that cracking open their dinner guest to study this phenomenon would be in poor taste. When the day in question actually arrived, things went surprisingly well. River actually made her appetizers instead of popping out somewhere and stealing them; the Doctor didn’t explode the kitchen while making the beef bourguignon; and Nardole was an excellent first guest.

The problem appeared during the main course. One moment Nardole had been licking the gravy off his spoon and praising the buttery garlic of the mushrooms while the Doctor leered at her smugly, and the next he’d simply dropped his spoon and powered down, his head drooping against his metal shoulder.

River looks to the Doctor, frowning. “Should we be worried?”

He shakes his head, his brow furrowed and his fingers tapping idly against the table. “Don’t think so,” he says, eyeing Nardole like the exact opposite might be true. “Lots of people eat too much and need to nap.”

“Not midsentence. And he’s not people, darling,” she sighs. “He’s a robot.”

Before he can reply, Nardole’s head begins to disappear – sinking into the confines of his metal body. River can only watch in helpless fascination, like a pedestrian witnessing a car crash, as Ramone appears in his place. He yawns widely, as though he’d been interrupted mid-nap, and blinks as he takes stock of his surroundings. When he sees River, he breaks into that big grin that had endeared him to her the first time they met. “Hello you.”

River darts a glance at the Doctor, who looks too bewildered by this turn of events to even be properly annoyed about it. “Hello Ramone. Everything alright?”

“I think so.” He squints, as though taking stock of himself. “Nardole ate too much.”

She pointedly ignores the Doctor’s terribly unsubtle gloating. Gesturing to the spread before them, she asks, “Hungry?”

“I could eat.” He looks down at his plate, brows lifting. “Is this for me?”

Pasting on a smile, River nods. “Yes. Of course.”

Finally seeming to realize he’s about to have dinner with his wife and her ex-husband, the Doctor shifts uneasily in his chair. His right eye twitches.

“Oh, how nice.” Ramone leans forward, inhaling deeply. “Whatever it is, it smells delicious.”

“Beef bourguignon.” She bites back a smirk, glancing at her husband. “The Doctor made it.”

“Did you really?” Ramone shovels a generous bite into his mouth and groans, eyes falling shut. “It’s very good.”

The Doctor’s grip around his fork tightens and for a moment River wonders if she’s about to have the privilege of witnessing her two-thousand-year-old husband start a food fight. At last, he sighs through his nose and loosens his white-knuckled grip on the poor cutlery. “It’s River’s favorite,” he grumbles, “So I learned to make it.” His eyes narrow and he stares pointedly at Ramone as he adds, “Because I’m her husband.”

River rolls her eyes and reaches for the pinot noir.

Undeterred, the Doctor presses, “We’ve been married for centuries. In multiple universes. Did she tell you that?”

“Hmm? I think she mentioned it.” Too engrossed in his food, Ramone doesn’t appear to notice the Doctor’s annoyance despite his complete lack of subtlety. It’s part of the reason River had gotten so annoyed and erased his memory; he’s such a dear, dense thing. If only he weren’t so damn pretty.

Helping himself to a glass of wine Nardole hadn’t finished, Ramone turns his attention back to River. “I like the new flat,” he says, smiling at her. “How are you enjoying your stay so far?”

And thus begins the most awkward evening of her life. Considering the length of her life, tonight ranks pretty high on a fairly substantial list of terrible evenings. She makes polite conversation with her ex, telling him about the new furniture she and her husband just ordered from the next planet over and how offensively high the shipping cost had been. They discuss mutual friends and reminisce about previous adventures, all while the Doctor stews in silence, scowling at his plate. River keeps her hand on his thigh under the table, squeezing every now and then just to see him twitch.

After what seems like hours, dinner finally comes to an end. Ramone wipes his mouth on a napkin and pats his metal belly. “So, what’s for dessert?”

River opens her mouth, already smirking, but the Doctor cuts her off with a glare. “There is no dessert,” he says firmly. “At least not any you’ll be getting.”

“Spoilsport,” River murmurs, ignoring Ramone’s puzzled glance. She pushes aside what’s left of her wine and conjures up her most charming smile. “Actually, I think we’ll call it an early night, if you don’t mind. The Doctor has a headache.” She tips her head, nose wrinkling. “Or he’s about to, at least.”

“Erm. Yes.” The Doctor quirks an eyebrow at her, his leg shifting under her palm. “There’s definitely some throbbing.”

She nearly chokes, smothering her surprised laughter in a strangled cough that makes her eyes water. The Doctor grins shamelessly at her, looking triumphant and smug in a way she absolutely shouldn’t find sexy. She really does anyway.

“Right,” Ramone says, eyeing them strangely. After a moment, he seems to give a mental shrug before pushing back his chair. His metal body clicks and whirrs as he rises, suddenly towering over them both. “Thanks for dinner. It was lovely.”

River presses her lips together, still far too amused to manage speech.

The Doctor, damn him, looks cheerful for the first time all evening. “Our pleasure.”

Together, they walk Ramone to the door and see him off, waving in the doorway until he disappears down the corridor with clunky steps. The moment they shut the door behind him, the Doctor dissolves into laughter. Helpless but to join in, River tugs him in by the collar of his shirt and presses her giggling mouth to his cheek. “You jealous idiot,” she laughs. “He’s no one, you know. Just a bit of fun.”

He huffs. “We’re fun.”

“We are,” she promises, swaying into his chest. She tips back her head and meets his soft gaze. With a sigh still bubbling with laughter, she admits, “We’re… everything.”

The Doctor dips his head and kisses her – a bit rougher than normal, just possessive enough to make her shudder. Nipping at her lip as he pulls away, he nudges his nose against hers and whispers, “Dessert?”

River grins, slipping her arms around his neck. “I’ll clear the table.”

#drfic #river song #twelfth doctor #river x twelve #riverdoctorpromptweek #my fic

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strawbunniiee · 3 years

Text

A Girl and a Ghost Ch. 3: The King’s Revenge

SOOOOO this is the part where the plot thickens :)

if anybody else wants me to tag them in these chapters so you know when they come out i will gladly do so andksnkfs

hope you enjoy! ive had tons of fun with writing these :D

dont mind me, just lettin my frendos know that this is a thing skfnkdjf

@salamifuposey @monsterbride99 aaAAA when i initially posted this i COMPLETELY forgot to do this a a a a a sorry

King Boo was furious.

How could that peasant, that foul impure abomination of a Boo do this to his beloved crown? It contained his power, it was so incredibly important to him...

And that filthy little purple haired brat! How could she so carelessly throw a rock at him like that?

He plopped his body down in a chair and marinated in his own rage for a few minutes.

After a few moments of enraged silence, he spoke.

"...I have got to get my revenge on those two. But... how will I do it?"

King Boo began to brainstorm a way to get the ghost Rabbid and his little idiot friend in hot water.

"Torture? No, no... one of them is a ghost. It wouldn't hurt him... Torture could be done with the little nuisance however. Perhaps a bit of childhood trauma will teach her not to mess with the wrong people." he thought aloud.

He spent almost fifteen whole minutes thinking of gruesome ways to get back at them, until it finally struck him.

"...Oooh, I know. I know exactly what to do now. It'll mostly affect that bloated rabbit, but I can still do some damage to his moronic pipsqueak pal."

He grinned maliciously and floated towards the doors of his manor.

"I'm about to open up some old wounds of yours, Tommy." he said to himself.

———

Meanwhile, Phantom was racing through the sky with Jawaii in his arms, panicking. He would never let King Boo lay his foul hands on her.

They were both absolutely dead silent the whole time until Jawaii opened her mouth.

"...Do you know that guy?"

Phantom halted for a moment and looked down at the young alien he held. "...Yes, I do, but I don't think I would like to go into detail at the moment. We have a very... rough history, I will say."

"Oh... I get it. It's okay, I won't pry. I understand." Jawaii said.

"Just remember that if King Boo ever tries to hurt us, I'll make sure he will regret it for the rest of his days." promised the Rabbid ghost. "I swear on it."

Phantom resumed his flight and soared down to the ground safely. He gently set her down in the grass.

"That was actually really fun! We should do that again sometime! ...without being scared off by an evil ghost, obviously. That would just make it less fun." said Jawaii.

"I'm glad you were entertained, I suppose... King Boo is quite intimidating. And rude." said Phantom.

Jawaii put her hands on her hips. "Well, yeah! I mean, he made fun of your weight! No friend of mine is getting made fun of like that!"

Phantom laughed a bit. "Oh, don't worry, I wasn't that harmed by that statement. I er, get that all the time."

She frowned. "Why do people tease you about that, that's dumb! Besides, I think you're perfect just the way you are!" She gave him a hug.

He hugged back and smiled. "Awww... thank you. I was born like this, I can't help it you see."

"You're a giant fluffy singing ghost bunny with a mustache, I have no idea how anybody could hate THAT! Cuz I don't."

"Oh, don't make me blush from all of these compliments!" said Phantom, smiling.

Jawaii jokingly grinned evilly. "Never. I'm gonna shower you in compliments 'til you DROWN!"

She cackled maniacally as she began relentlessly saying nice things about him with Phantom begging her to stop. Soon, it became a full-on flattery war to see who could out-compliment the other. They had a grand old time.

Eventually, the sun began to set.

"Oh yikes, I better get home. I had no idea we stayed out here for so long! Mom is probably having a heart attack as we speak!" said Jawaii.

Phantom was quite alarmed, his ears sprung up in worry and concern. "She's having a what?! Oh, poor child, I hope your mother is all right..."

She burst out laughing hysterically.

"Wh-what's so funny? I thought your mother was dying!"

"No, dummy! That was an exaggeration, I meant that she's probably WORRIED about me!" Jawaii continued giggling like a maniac.

"Ah. I see now... Thank you for correcting me!" Phantom joined in on the laughter.

They got themselves together after a moment.

"Oh yeah, mind if you could fly me over to my house..? We're kinda far away from home." said Jawaii.

"Of course!" Phantom replied happily.

Jawaii climbed on his back and the two flew home.

———

After flying back to town, Phantom gently set Jawaii down in front of her home.

"See you soon, my friend. I enjoyed showing you around Spooky Trails today!" said Phantom.

"Cya tomorrow Phantom! I had a good day today too!" She ran up to him and gave him one last hug.

She walked up to her door and waved goodbye to Phantom. He waved back.

"Moooom! I'm hoooome!"

Jawaii's stepmother Stella ran in.

"Oh, Jawaii! Thank goodness you're all right! I was so worried, where were you?"

"Sorry I came home late! But I spent today with a friend of mine."

Stella had a look of pleasant surprise on her face. "You made a friend? That's so wonderful! I know you haven't really ever had any friends, honey, I'm so happy to hear that you finally made one!" She smiled.

Jawaii grinned. "Yeah! I'll tell you allllll about him! He's the best."

They sat down at the dinner table with the food Stella made.

Jawaii dug into her mashed potatoes and ate it like a wild animal that had nothing to eat for the past 3 weeks.

"Honey, chew slowly. I don't want you choking!" said Stella.

"Sorry, Mom..." Jawaii said, frowning.

"It's okay. I don't want you in the hospital or anything, especially after you just made a new friend!"

"Oh, I've known him for a while, actually. We've been hanging out together a lot!" she smiled, her mouth still full of food.

"...Jawaii, sweetie, don't talk with food in your mouth.“

"Oh yeah! Sorry again Mom.."

"Anyways, that's why you've been out so much lately? I'm so happy for you, Jawaii!" Stella smiled.

Jawaii gulped down some water. "Yep! I'm glad I'm his friend too!"

They spent dinner talking about all of the fun adventures she and Phantom had gone on.

Jawaii however, conveniently left out any mention of them being in danger, she wouldn't want to worry her stepmother of course!

"Oh yeah! I meant to ask you this, but I got totally sidetracked but where's Dad? And where's Hakai?" asked Jawaii.

"Your father is out destroying planets again, and your sister is having a sleepover with some friends of hers." said Stella.

"Ohhhh. Wonder why Dad's out so late. Hope he's alright."

"I'm sure he's fine, hon."

Jawaii had another sister though, and her name was Roe. She went to a boarding school and wasn't home most of the time.

She stretched and yawned. "Hey Mom, I think I'm gonna hit the hay today."

Stella gave her a small look of surprise. "Oh! You are? Usually you're quite a night owl. Maybe you're just tired from all your little adventures with Phantom."

Jawaii smiled. "Yeah. Maybe. Anyways, g'night Mom! Love ya, don't let the bed bugs bite."

Stella gave Jawaii a hug. "Aww, good night sweetie. Love you too.”

Jawaii ran upstairs, changed into her nightgown, brushed her teeth and jumped into bed, quickly falling asleep after her long, tiring but fun day.

———

That same night, the Mushroom Kingdom was as quiet as ever when it was nighttime. The once colorful, cheerful inviting land was deathly silent, almost hauntingly so.

Princess Peach was safely tucked in her bed, sleeping peacefully.

But little did the sleeping princess know, this would not remain for long.

King Boo had finally made it to the castle after venturing there to exact his revenge. He knew how dearly Phantom loved Peach. Breaking them apart forever would be the ultimate punishment for stepping on his turf. He knew that either way, the plan would work. If Phantom didn't come to the manor, him and Peach would be separated forever. If he did, however, it would give the vengeful king the chance to trap him and Jawaii in his manor, to torture them and possibly even kill them somehow.

He knew he could kill Jawaii, that was no problem, but Phantom...? Could he possibly do it again? ...No, he's a ghost now. He can't be killed again. But the king knew that even if he couldn't die, he could still make him suffer for as long as he wanted. Possibly even for eternity.

He phased through the castle walls, not having any of the guards notice him. Then, he finally found her room. There Peach slept, defenseless, ready for the taking.

In the blink of an eye, he snatched her from her bed.

Peach immediately woke up and let out a shrill scream of horror, alerting the Toads guarding her door.

But it was too late. He had already burst out her window with her and was headed straight towards his mansion.

———

Tap, tap, tap.

Jawaii woke up very late that night to a tapping sound she heard at her window. She went over to it to find one of the Peek-A-Boos she had met in Spooky Trails, tapping away at her window.

"Hey... aren't you that kid who Phantom is friends with?"

Jawaii rubbed her eye and yawned. "Yeah. Why do you ask? And how are you at my house anyway?"

The Peek-A-Boo had a somber expression on his face. "Well... I have to tell you some... bad news."

Jawaii was horrified of what was about to come out of his mouth next. Did something terrible happen to Phantom?

"His love, Princess Peach was kidnapped by King Boo. And... Phantom is gone. He went off to go save her. Knowing King Boo, Phantom may not come back in one piece. ...The other Rabbids told me it was best to go tell you. That way, you would know where he is. You deserve to know..."

Jawaii was devastated. How could this happen?

She knew she had to save him. And if she couldn't save him... then she wouldn't let him suffer alone.

"...No. I'm not going to let this happen to him."

The Peek-A-Boo was taken aback in surprise by Jawaii's response. "...I dunno if you should go. You're only a kid. You could get seriously hu-"

"I don't care." said Jawaii.

She jumped into her closet and changed into her usual clothes, grabbed a lantern and ran out of the house and into the black, haunted forest that she met Phantom in.

#jawaiis cheesy fics #mario rabbids #mario + rabbids #mario + rabbids kingdom battle #phantom of the bwahpera #tom phan #rabbids #fanfic #fanfiction

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dweetwise · 4 years

Text

a short one this time, ft. a lighthearted breakfast together <3

ship: felix x ace warnings: none word count: 2350

[previous] [next]

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire (part 4)

Ace had a pretty good feeling about this morning.

He'd tried to slip away gracefully to avoid the awkward morning after, but Felix had stopped him. In Ace’s opinion, getting in some silly chatter and morning cuddles was much preferable to a walk of shame before the sun was even fully up. At the very least, it beat going to his room to start the day with a shot of gin from the mini bar like he’d originally planned.

Felix had seemed much more relaxed this morning, though he was still awkward; at this point, Ace just accepted it as part of his charm.

Suggesting to get breakfast together was a spur-of-the-moment idea—as if Ace ever had any other ones. As soon as the opportunity to spend time with Felix in a casual setting where Ace didn’t smell like week-old-liquor presented itself, Ace took it, and Felix happily accepted.

Which is why Ace wasn’t really nervous when returning to his room to get more presentable. He even had time to start cleaning his messy room in preparation for Felix's visit for tonight, because after only a quick shower and even quicker internal debate between two different shirts, Ace was ready to go.

And from the way Felix's gaze immediately drops to said shirt, he seems to have made the right choice.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Ace offers with a grin, pleased with picking the navy blue button-up with a pineapple print.

It's cute how quickly Felix's nervous demeanor seems to calm down in Ace’s company. He goes from tense and running a hand through his hair to smiling in just a second, whatever he was fretting about momentarily forgotten.

“I was worried I'd be late,” Felix says, stepping into the elevator and coming to stand way closer to Ace than is appropriate.

But this time, they don't have an audience that would make it awkward.

“You really do worry way too much,” Ace offers with a carefree smile.

“I've been told that,” Felix smiles sheepishly, before his eyes are drawn downward, to the second button of Ace's shirt that he deliberately left unbuttoned.

Following suit, Ace lets his own gaze roam appreciatively over Felix's outfit, a sadly not as tight tee with a tasteful, open vest and snugly fitting washed denim jeans. His hair is loose and looks even softer than it was in the morning.

All in all, he looks extremely kissable.

“I like the look,” Ace says, meeting Felix's eyes. And if he tilts his head up in silent invitation, nobody can prove it.

“Me too,” Felix says, returning a small smile, before flustering. “I mean—your look. The outfit,” he explains.

And somehow, the awkward floundering makes him even more kissable.

Sadly, the elevator ride isn't infinite, and they arrive at the lobby floor before Ace can instigate a make-out session.

“Shall we?” Ace offers with a smile.

“After you,” Felix agrees, oh-so-polite.

They give their room numbers at the restaurant counter, and then are off to the breakfast hall that’s somewhat crowded despite the late hour. Ace isn't surprised that people decided to sleep in after the rude wake-up in the middle of the night, but the crowd does make it somewhat of an annoying experience.

Luckily, he has company to keep him entertained while they wait in line.

Felix trails after him, which Ace doesn't mind in the slightest, but it's only when the German stops in front of the cereal section and looks at him meaningfully that Ace cocks his head in confusion.

“You were supposed to help me pick,” Felix says, deadly serious.

Ace tries not to laugh that Felix seemed to take his earlier invitation literally. He really shouldn’t be surprised at the man’s quirks anymore.

And that's how Ace ends up improvising a three-minute lecture about why corn flakes are superior to muesli.

“I see,” Felix says, nodding in understanding, reaching for the cereal—

And choosing muesli.

“Hey!” Ace exclaims, mock offended. “Didn't you listen to any of what I just said?”

“Yes. I just don't agree,” Felix says, way too nonchalant, spooning the cereal onto his bowl. “I like this one better.”

“It has raisins!” Ace exclaims, flabbergasted.

“I like raisins,” Felix points out.

“Oh, babe,” Ace sighs dramatically, shaking his head. “And here I thought you had taste.”

Ace quickly peeks back up at Felix, needing to make sure he didn't take the joke personally.

“Shut up,” Felix snorts, elbowing Ace. “Come on, let's go argue about juice next.”

After a brief conversation about juice ("Who the hell drinks apple juice!?" "I don't like the texture of orange pulp") followed by going through the rest of the breakfast selection together, Ace discovers that Felix is an incredibly picky eater.

When they sit down at a table, the difference between his and Felix's servings is hilariously prominent.

Felix's plate holds two pieces of toast, a fried egg and some sliced fruit, compared to Ace's overflowing plate featuring 90 % of the entire breakfast selection.

Usually Ace wouldn’t care about other people’s eating habits, but the knowledge makes him a little nervous about their dinner.

“Really adventurous with the white toast, I see,” Ace teases.

“At least I don't have bacon with pancakes,” Felix shoots back.

“I ran out of room on my plate!” Ace protests, but Felix only smirks behind his cup of coffee. “So, what kind of food do you like?” Ace prods, digging into his meal.

“I don't really have a preference,” Felix says diplomatically.

But Ace can smell the bullshit a mile away.

“Really?” Ace asks, raising an eyebrow. “So you wouldn't mind if I picked the place for dinner tonight?" he teases, only to realize something. “Uh… we're still on for that, right?”

“I hope so,” Felix says, smiling bashfully.

"Good, just checking!" Ace grins. "Well, since you're not picky… how about a Mexican place? What about sushi? Or an oyster bar?”

Predictably, Felix cringes at his suggestions.

“I'm… not great with spices or raw fish,” Felix admits.

“Or?” Ace pushes.

“Steak, shrimp, mushrooms, tofu, kebab, or greasy food in general,” Felix lists and Ace tries not to look too confused at how someone can so nonchalantly rule out entire food groups.

“What about Italian?” Ace asks.

“I don't like pizza, either,” Felix says apologetically.

“I'm not taking you to a pizza place for a first date!" Ace protests, while simultaneously trying to figure out how someone can not like pizza. "I was wondering how you feel about pasta or risotto?”

“That…” Felix considers. “Actually sounds nice.”

“Italian it is!” Ace grins victoriously. “I'll find a nice restaurant, just leave it to me.”

“Alright,” Felix says with a small smile.

“Now…” Ace says, realizing he's been running his mouth instead of actually eating. “Excuse me while I stuff my mouth with bacon pancakes.”

Felix huffs out a quiet laugh before following his example.

They eat in silence, or as much relative silence as a bustling dining hall allows. Ace does his best to not eat like a pig, feeling Felix’s stare on him as the other sneaks glances. After not having had any food for 24 hours, Ace is kind of surprised he didn't pass out in the parking lot, especially after the bright idea to have a few drinks on an empty stomach.

“So, how…” Ace trails off mid-sentence as he suddenly notices a couple of pigtails sticking up right beside him, narrowly missing the kid’s head when he reaches for his coffee.

“Good morning!” the kid, a little girl, beams up at him.

“Uh, hey there,” Ace says, a little taken aback at why this random child is approaching him.

“Hello,” Felix jumps into the conversation, getting the girl’s attention. “We meet again.”

Ace shoots Felix a weird look; does he know the kid?

“Did you remember to give him your number?” the girl asks Felix, tilting her head in curiosity.

A grin spreads over Ace’s face in realization, while Felix only clears his throat self-consciously. Ace didn’t really pay much attention to their company in the elevator last night, but the girl clearly remembers them.

“He did, yeah,” Ace says, shooting Felix a smug look over the table.

“Good,” the girl huffs, before turning back to Felix. “You need to stop being so forgetful, mister!” she accuses, hands on her hips.

Ace bites his lip to stop from chuckling as Felix flounders for an excuse to this sassy eight-year-old.

“You’re right,” Felix settles on. “It was silly of me, I’ll try to do better.”

While Felix is talking, the kid seems to get distracted, standing up on her tiptoes to peer into Felix’s now empty cereal bowl.

“What did you eat?” the girl asks, like a typical nosey kid.

“I had some yogurt with muesli,” Felix explains, way more patient than Ace would be in his situation.

“Do you like Froot Loops?” the kid asks.

As Felix calmly explains that the cereal in question isn’t his favorite, Ace starts discreetly scanning the room for the girl’s mother. He tolerates kids just fine, but he’d rather not have one ruin his unofficial date with Felix. Hopefully, the girl isn’t lost or something—

“There you are!” a woman appears from the crowd and gives the kid an exasperated look, Ace distantly recognizing her from the elevator last night.

“Hi mom!” the girl interrupts her cereal debate with Felix to greet the woman.

“I’m so sorry, I swear she was right behind me a second ago—” the woman glances at Ace and Felix apologetically, steering her daughter away with a hand on her small shoulders.

“No worries,” Ace defuses with a smile. “Kids, huh?”

“Always getting into trouble,” the woman agrees with a sigh, grabbing the girl’s hand. “Come on now, let’s go back to our table.”

“Bye, misters!” the girl calls.

“Goodbye,” Felix offers, and even Ace forces a smile and wave as the pair disappear into the rush of the dining hall.

“So, you got any kids?” Ace asks, having noticed how patient Felix was with the girl.

“No, I… maybe in another life,” Felix says, sounding melancholy, and Ace realizes there's probably more to that story. “Um. You?” Felix asks, clearly not wanting to elaborate.

“Nah,” Ace says. “I have a niece, though. She's a real demon. Great kid.”

“That sounds accurate,” Felix says, smiling. And somehow, Ace gets the overwhelming feeling Felix would be a great dad. “At least she has an interesting uncle.”

“Oh, you don't know the half of it!” Ace grins, taking the opportunity to tell Felix about some of his more memorable moments with his niece.

All too soon, they finish the last of their breakfasts and Ace offers to walk Felix to his room.

“Thanks for the company,” Ace says when they’re coming up to Felix’s door.

“You as well,” Felix says.

“See you tonight?”

“I'll call you,” Felix promises. “I should be available around five."

“Can't wait,” Ace grins.

Felix turns to his door, but then almost instantly whips back around to face Ace. His gaze flicks obviously to Ace's lips as he swallows.

“I have an hour before I need to leave for my meeting,” Felix says. “If you want…”

Ace's gut flutters at the implications, but then he remembers he has things to do. Though he'd much rather make out with Felix than go find a fence or shady pawn shop that will buy his shit, now is not the time.

“Sorry babe, I've got some errands to run,” Ace says good-naturedly, pretending not to see how Felix deflates in disappointment.

“I see,” Felix says.

“I'll make it up to you later,” Ace promises.

“It's okay, I should prepare for my presentation anyway,” Felix says, and upon the mention of his work, instantly seems more tense.

“Well, good luck with your work thingy. I'll be waiting to hear from you!” Ace says with fake cheer.

“Right,” Felix says, reaching for his door. “See you later.”

When the door closes in front of his face, Ace can practically feel the anxiety radiating from within the room. Ace really has his hands full, if he's going to get the guy to relax and forget about his work like he promised.

In the next thirty minutes, Ace ends up turning his own hotel room upside down while he scours it for valuables. He finds the watch he was looking for, as well as an earring behind the headboard, and some spare poker chips in one of his jacket's pockets.

He can’t help but smirk as he runs his fingers over the poker chips; it looks like destiny is trying to point him in the direction of the casino after all. And who is he to deny fate? After all, it's what brought him this far.

Ace thinks back to a couple months ago, where he—or well, his alias, Diego Sanchez—had still been living a somewhat stable life. Over the course of a year, he’d managed to pick up a few part-time jobs to fund poker tournaments and talk himself into more than a couple of loans. But as with most things, Ace had gotten too cocky, and his associates had figured out he wouldn’t be able to pay back the debts he owed.

At this point, uprooting his life and starting over was something Ace was very familiar with. For the last few weeks, he’d been motel-hopping across the country, having shaken the debt collectors off his trail while he tried to figure out the next place to settle down—at least for a little while.

Meeting Felix was just the kind of morale boost he needed right now. Even as Ace opens his wallet and finds a whopping two dollars among the handful of stolen credit cards, he knows he’s going to be okay.

He grabs his things and throws on a blazer along with shades and a hat; even if he should be safe, it doesn't hurt to protect his identity.

Finally, he heads out into the city, with an agenda of restaurant, pawn shop, and casino.

#riconti #ace visconti #felix richter #dbd fanfic #dweetwrites #dbd #dead by daylight #felix x ace

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turtletimewriting · 4 years

Text

Logan’s Adventure- To the doctor’s

Summary: What it says on the tin!

Note: Woop woop! I actually found some motivation to write so feeling good about these ones! I will say, there isn’t any tickling in this one so if you’re reading purely for the tickles then sorry!

This is based on the tickle forest idea by fluffomatic so check them out!

Beginning!--- Patton’s part!

_._._

“Well where do you think we should go?” Virgil asked. Logan took a pause to consider the options.

“Well all options are valid and useful so I guess-”

“Cool because if you don’t really have a strong opinion, then I say we’re going to the doctors,” Virgil stated and marched on the stoned road leading straight into the village. Logan huffed a laugh at him, “Just... I guess now that you’ve mentioned it, I don’t want to end up getting bitten or a rash or whatever.”

“Sounds good to me,” Logan smiled before shyly linking their hands together.

Now it was of course no surprise to see that the side that looked like a prince straight from a Disney film would create a medieval European village. The houses all stood tall with dramatic black wooden frames but still somehow made them feel at home immediately. Maybe it was because everyone they passed waved and nodded at them and the first house they passed had a mother placing a hot apple pie on the windowsill. There was colourful bunting strung up the old fashioned oil lamps and they could both almost hear the Disney-esque music playing in the background. It was a short walk until they came across the doctors.

Walking in, the receptionist smiled widely and waved them over. Luckily, the waiting room was pretty much empty with only one girl fidgeting and tapping her foot. “Hello lovelies! How can I help?” The receptionist spun on her office chair to face them. Despite how friendly everyone was, Virgil automatically kept looking around the office leaving Logan to do the talking.

“Hello, I’m afraid we don’t have an appointment nor are we actually ill. This is our first time... travelling through and we wou-”

“Oh!” The lady butted in and started typing furiously on the computer, “That’s no problem. So would you like a drop-in session to go over how to protect yourselves and basic aid for the wildlife here, right?”

“That’s sounds great, thank you.”

“No problem. I just need to ask some questions so the doctor knows what to ask you all about?”

“Go ahead.”

“Right, so firstly names?” The receptionist asked much to both of their surprise. Usually most of Roman’s creativity meant that any imagined space and people knew them. Typically every villager would rave about a certain red clad prince hero, they would bake for a certain lovely young man in bright blue, Logan made an effort to challenge the professors and every villager knew to leave the poor shy man in black to himself.

They both answered basic questions about themselves before the receptionist boredly asked one last question that froze them, “Okay last one, are you lees or lers or switches?”

“Uh... what?” Virgil whipped round to actually face her for once and Logan simply bluescreened.

“Do you prefer being tickled, the ticklee, or tickling someone, being a tickler? Or, of course, a little bit of both?” The receptionist asked as if she was simply asking them what they’re favourite colours were.

“Of course Remus would also create not only paperwork but... stupid questions,” Virgil grumbled but he already knew he was going to answer quickly. Yes this was an anxious nightmare but then he wasn’t about to cause a scene to someone innocently doing their job. He’d just have to get Remus later.

“I’d say both... switches?” Logan asked with a nervous look to Virgil.

“Yeah?” The lady asked clearly wanting a bit more.

“I’d agree with that but I do think it’s important to note that Logan here leans strongly to the lee side,” Virgil quickly butted in.

“What?” Logan demanded.

“Okay great! You’re all good to go. You won’t have to wait long. Probably no more than five minutes. The doctor will call you. You can take a seat while you wait but I will say that the girl also waiting was bitten by lersquitos so maybe keep you’re distance,” She smiled widely and submitted the form before Logan could fight against any of their answers.

“Thank you,” Virgil smiled before dragging his bumbling stuttering boyfriend by the shoulders and sitting them a couple of seats away from the girl.

“You. Are. A... nightmare,” Logan finally snarked once his mind finally loaded from the betrayal.

“Eh, the doctor’s need all the information they can grab. That means they need to know about your ‘stress relief’ mechanisms,” Virgil breathily whispered into his ears while trailing his fingers up his arms, leaving Logan flinching and childishly giggling. They stopped however when the girl groaned at their teasing.

“Uh, excuse me. I’m sorry if this is really rude, but we heard you got bitten by... a something. Do you mind telling us about that?” Logan asked

“Oh, uh a lersquito,” The girl answered with a judgemental look. She answered as if they had asked what colour the sky was.

“Yes. That... What is that?” He asked. The girl took a deep breath and releasing an obnoxiously long sigh.

“Yeah it’s just a bug. It bites you and you get into a ler mood. It’s like...” She awkwardly paused but continued while never once looking at them, “you can’t get the idea out of your head and it’s like your fingers can’t keep still, y’know. They mostly hang out around water, so yeah.”

“That has got to be a Remus creation,” Logan nodded to himself and the girl simply shrugged them off and continued staring at the wall while slowly flexing her fingers.

“Yeah wait!” Virgil suddenly perked up, “how on earth do we fight against that! A bug that bites you! I didn’t pay attention to any bugs. We may have already been bitten! And, and, the map goes through the forest. How on earth are we meant to-”

“That’s why we’re here. Surely the doctor can help us,” Logan answered and smoothed his bangs out of his eyes, much to his dismay.

It wasn’t much longer until they got called by the doctor. She was dressed like any other doctor with no indication that she specialised in any tickle related stuff. “Hello, c’mon in!” She waved them inside a room. It looked also completely normal. There was a typical notice board behind her desk filled with different flyers and information. This was the only indication that they were in a world created and based on tickling. Even Logan had to admit that it was distracting to see a massive poster of a a cartoon man getting absolutely destroyed by bugs with glowing pink mushrooms in the background.

He snapped back to attention when he noticed the silence. The doctor laughed at them both considered Virgil was still entranced by the poster. “Sorry! Uhm, can you repeat that?”

“I just asked if this was your first time through?” She asked with a polite smile.

“Oh yes! Right. Yes this is our first time travelling and we would like to be prepared for anything that may get us... in trouble.”

“Ah well there’s not much advice I can give,” She responded.

“Of course it wouldn’t be that easy,” Logan mumbled under his breath but the doctor kept talking without pause.

“Just apply basic common knowledge and you’ll be alright. Don’t mess around with any weird plants, leave the white flowers alone, be careful around animals. Remember if you do get into trouble then come see a doctor if you’re worried. Did you have any more specific questions?” She asked Logan who was still flicking back and forth between the blatant poster and her.

“What is the most common reason people visit?”

“Well usually it’s the ants. Not a lot of people remember to look where they’re standing and, to be honest, their colonies are not obvious. They sting you and can almost triple your sensitivity. Not a problem if it’s a kid but if you’re in the middle of work then it can be a nuisance. Also, if you do get stung and it lasts more than four hours without treatment then seek medical help immediately.”

“Is there any way to... cure the sting?”

“It’s a simple lotion. It won’t make it disappear, you’ll still be quite sensitive, but it really helps dampen the effects. The sting is enough so that your clothes tickle you so a lot of people will buy it in bulk,” She answered while handing them both the tiniest travel bottle of the lotion. It wasn’t much but then he guessed it made sense that they wouldn’t hand them loads of it.

They chatted but otherwise the doctor was reluctant to give them anymore considered her stance was thoroughly ‘just use common sense’. Virgil kept his gaze fixed on the notice board but the longer they talked, the more confused he looked. Even Logan ended up nudging him to try and get him to pay attention.

As they were leaving, Virgil finally spoke up. “Wait, can I look at something?” He asked but he was already leaning over her desk to pull off one of the notes. Unlike the other leaflets, it was just plain paper with a scrawled hard to read chicken scratch.

He showed it to Logan with a concentrated frown. It read:

The treasure is kinda smelly and gross but you’ll love it!!!!

“Is that a clue!” Logan gasped, intentionally snatching it from his hand.

“It just stuck out as weird,” He pretty much said to himself because now Logan’s mind had latched on. Any mind based puzzle and Logan was in his happy place. The wording all screamed that this was a treasure that Remus created or at the least Remus made the clue. Had they missed more clues? Were they supposed to have any idea what this means? This was so vague! It spoke about the treasure but not about what the password to unlock was. Maybe the password is what the treasure is!

Logan absolutely didn’t pay attention to Virgil saying thanks to the doctor and shoving them out the door. Virgil merely fondly rolled his eyes and pushed them out of the village and up to the path. Back to the adventure!

The path led straight into a heavy forest with vines and the constant chirping of birds. The bushes seemed like they were always moving with different animals scuttling about and Virgil could already feel himself start to sweat as the heavy trees trapped the heat in the forest. All this time, Virgil had to admit he did feel a little worried about getting unfairly sneak-attacked but also that was nothing compared to now. The thick heavy forest only showed that they were truly in the thick of it now. They weren’t sightseeing around a village. They were in an adventure.

They had barely stepped through the forest before stopping. Across the path was a weeping willow. It was just as gorgeous as terrifying. The soft pinks and white rustling together in a beautiful dance of a feathery bright petals. But also that was the most obvious trap he had ever seen in his life. Logan was still mumbling to himself staring at the clue so he carefully plapped the clue out of his hands and silently pointed at the tree.

“Ah,” Logan said.

“Yeah. Ah. What do we do?” Virgil sighed. Logan looked around with a wince. The path carved through extremely thick trees and bushes and dense foliage.

“There’s no good option here. We could keep to the path and just take whatever this tree does or we could go around it.”

“But god knows what’s in there!” Virgil gasped!

“So do we go forward knowing we will get tickled by these... feathery looking branches or get tickled by the unknown. There isn’t a good option here,” Logan sighed.

This adventure took 20 minutes!

Total time: 46 minutes.

OOH BOY THAT WAS SOO LONG, I’M SO SORRY!

The adventure continues, but what shall our boys do?!

1) Go forward

2) Go off the path

Now, Logan and Virgil know about lersquitos, tickle ants and discovered a clue! But now Logan is distracted with figuring out the clue!

#TicklyAdventure #Tickling #ts virgil #ts logan #turtle writing

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irishmacguirefucker · 4 years

Note

I need to know about the barn cats for emotional support reasons

FUCK YEAH I CAN DUDE. Be sure to read past the cut, I talk more about the kittens in the second half.

It started with one really. They were having a bit of a mice issue and figured what better to deal with it than a little hunter. The plan was to ask around, see if anyone had some to sell, but one kinda fell into their laps. Lenny, Mary-Beth, and Hosea had taken a little trip into town. There was a beautiful old bookshop they were headed to, looking to spend a bit of their new earnings on some novels. After spending far too long in the bookshop, they were heading to the general store for supplies.

When they were nearly there, there was a commotion across the street. They watched as the barkeep of the saloon chased a scrappy looking cat out of his bar with a broom. Without thinking, Mary-Beth ran to defend the poor animal. She’s always been quick, and she managed to scoop up the fleeing feline before it could get underneath the porch of the general store. The angry barkeep stormed up to her broom in hand, and Lenny and Hosea took a protective stance directly behind her. “That your cat, girl?”

The brunette responded with just as much venom. “Yes she is and I don't appreciate you beating her like that, she ain't done nothing wrong!”

She glared right back at him, and he looked offended that she would dare to speak against him. “She was sitting on my goddamned bar! Keep your animal in check, next time I ain't gonna be so nice.”

Lenny bristled, and nearly pushed the man from where he was getting so close, but Hosea held him back before he could. “Now there’s no need for all this ruckus, we’re taking the cat away now. Come now Mary-beth, we had better get her home.”

The barkeep was still red-faced with anger but didn’t say more as the small group walked away. They got to the porch of the general store, and Hosea was about to address Mary-Beth when an old woman sitting on the bench outside spoke up.

“Now you don't mind old Larry, he’s nothing but an angry bastard.” She said, putting down her knitting on her lap.” That your cat there, young lady? I could have sworn she was the stray that's been running ‘round here since the springtime…”

Mary-Beth flushed at the slight chastising tone in the elderly woman's voice, but she just laughed. “Don’t worry girl, I’m just glad someone is looking out for her. Are you going to keep her?”

Mary-Beth turned to Hosea with the biggest puppy dog eyes. “Please Hosea, she’s all alone! And we need a cat to take care of the mice, let me bring her home!”

Hosea laughed kindly at her pleading. “Now how could I say no when you ask so nicely. Come on Lenny, it seems we will be getting the supplies ourselves since miss Gaskill has her arms full.” Lenny just laughed along and followed the older man in.

Mary Beth nearly followed him when the older woman stopped her. “Now don’t go bringing her in there, they’ll have your head for bringing an animal inside. Come, sit by me while you wait on your father.”

Mary-Beth didn't bother to correct her as she sat on the small bench. The cat had begun to calm down, now focused on aggressively sniffing Mary-Beth's perfume scented curls. “We needed a barn cat, she’s quite the little blessing!”

The old woman smiled kindly. “She’ll be good at her job, she’s been killing mice ‘round here for months.”

Mary-Beth and the woman conversed for a while as the men got supplies. It was nice to make conversation with the locals, it wasn't a pleasure they really had back in her outlaw days. Never without a motive at least. The men walked out and they each said their goodbyes to the sweet old lady and headed back to the wagon. By now the cat was completely calm, just enjoying the scratching and petting from her saviour.

Mary-Beth reluctantly handed her to Lenny while she climbed into the back of the wagon, and when Lenny carefully placed the tabby in the wagon as well it immediately went and laid beside the girl. It was a calm ride home, and everyone was happy to see that they had found an answer to their mouse problem, and an adorable one at that.

In Mary-Beth’s defence, she had no way of knowing the cat was pregnant.

She hadn't been so round when they picked her up, but now a few weeks later she was looking ready to pop. She had become quite the spoiled cat in her time at the ranch, but she had no interest in actually staying in the ranch house. She spent a lot of time exploring the property, and some of the gang were a little worried she might just run off. Luckily she stuck around, taking a particular liking to the loft above the barn.

To everyone's surprise, Molly was practically the cat’s biggest fan. She had cats back in Ireland and had liked them since she was a little girl. Whenever she saw the pregnant tabby she would give her a little treat, or pet her until the feline got bored. The redhead was a little sad that the cat didn't seem to spend much time inside the ranch house, but in a way, it encouraged molly to go outside herself. She was the one to find out the cat was giving birth. They all knew she was close and each member was a little worried about finding a litter of newborn kittens in their beds, but the only one hoping to be there when it happened was Molly.

She hadn't seen the cat in nearly two days and she was worried. She asked around, and nobody had seen the feline. Eventually, she recruited Jack, Mary-Beth, and Tilly to help her look for the cat properly. After nearly two hours of searching, Jack burst into the main house and grabbed Molly by the hand to drag her outside. He was speaking a mile a minute, but the moment she heard the word ‘Kittens’ she was running to keep up with the boy. When she got to the barn, she saw Kieran climbing down from the loft. He had been working in the barn at the time and climbed up to help the girls look, and found the healthy litter with their mother.

She had 6 little kittens, each of the suckling from their mother in the straw. Kieran explained as much and one at a time each of the girls climbed up to take a look. They were all surprised when Molly climbed the ladder, but she was determined to get a look at the babies. As she sat among the straw, gazing at the squirming babies she called down to the others. “Will they be alright up here? It's so cold…”

Eventually, they decided that when the kittens opened their eyes properly they would try and move the little nest into the main house to be watched properly. After helping Jack take a look, Molly very carefully climbed back down the ladder and followed the others into the house once more.

A few weeks later, there were kittens roaming the whole ranch. It took a little getting used to for some, trying not to let them get underfoot, but it was nice. They had all taken to calling the mother ‘Mama’, and Jack had named nearly all the kittens after spices from the herb garden. One of them, however, Molly named. It was a stark white kitten that she had her eye on from the start. It acted a little different from the others and the mother always had an eye on it. Eventually, they determined that the white kitten was deaf, though that didn't stop him from rolling with his siblings just the same. Molly had been enamoured with it from the start, spoiling it and carrying it around. She named him Shamrock and called him her lucky little prince. He ended up being the most spoiled cat of the bunch and followed Molly around the house like it was his job. The moment she sat anywhere, he was in her lap. His fur grew to be long as his mother’s, and Molly brushed it often. Not to say she didn't also brush the other cats as often as they would let her, but Shamrock was the only one who seemed to enjoy it rather than just tolerate it.

Dutch is not a fan of Shamrock. He does not appreciate that he’s basically stealing his girl. The cat also does not like Dutch, he literally growls at the man when he leans over to kiss Molly. It's very funny.

The other kittens are Yarrow, Mint, Basil, Sage, and Mushroom. Yarrow is a near copy of her mother, just smaller. Mint and Basil are nearly identical orange longhair Tabby’s, both male. Sage is a grey tabby but she has short fur. Mushroom is solid grey.

Jack named them, it was right around the time Charles and Hosea were making the Herb garden and teaching the boy about different plants. The boy is mushroom's favourite. The grey cat almost acts like a dog, wrestling with Cain and climbing all over Jack. They go on adventures, the three of them, like a little team.

Yarrow is the best hunter, just like her mom. She's particularly great at catching birds, when she got bigger she actually took down a few crows in the garden.

Sage is a menace. She can get into anyone's home somehow and will climb all over their stuff. It drives Grimshaw absolutely crazy.

Mint and Basil can only be told apart by Mint’s one white sock and the white tip of Basil’s tail.

#rdr2 #ranch au #mary-beth gaskill #hosea matthews #lenny summers #cats #writing #rdr2 ranch au #ask #headcanons #Anonymous

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abloomntime · 3 years

Text

A Bloom In Time Ch17 A Maid’s Job

(See if you can spot the Skyrim reference.)

Lemons.

The first thing that he noticed upon fazing through the floor into the kiddo's space ship today was the strong smell of lemons coming from the kitchen. If he had a nose it'd be wrinkled up from the amount of lemon in the air and making him cough if he had lungs still. But instead he just found it annoying as the smell wafted in through the kitchen and the hole in the kid's ceiling. Was someone making a lemon merange pie or too much lemonade? Well he wasn't the only one who found it annoying when the little ankle biters commented on it as well snorting and giving a few coughs as they inhaled the strong smell. This wasn't what he was expecting when he popped in from the forest. He just wanted to see her for a moment and make sure she was ok-.....And totally not because he was worried about her adjusting or that her hand was hurt by any means keeping his mind a float with worry. NOPE! Absolutely not. Strictly business relationship as a boss coming in to see how his newest employee was adjusting to the whole new serving a powerful ghost king. ....And maybe because he wanted to make sure she was actually there and everything that had happened in the last two days was actually real and not a hallucination from hitting his head hard doing that ridiculous crawl. He shivered. That was still an experience he did NOT want to remember or repeat. He would've gotten here sooner but he was a little busy with some very important business last night. He had to reset the trap Poppy triggered, combed through his forest for anyone else lurking around(took a while it was a big forest), making his minions get back to work, looking over the limited plants that actually grew around his forest to make a garden......

Yes. You read that right.

The idea had come to him in that moment during their talk yesterday. What did Poppy love more than anything else in the world? ...Sadly not him- FLOWERS!! She loved plants and growing things, so what better way than to help a new employee settle in than a small welcome to the new 'company'? That and he didn't want to see her anymore upset than needed. SO long after he dropped her off at the kid's ship he went plant hunting. .....Not too surprising that in a dead cursed forest not a lot of things grew there, but he was making due with what was availible. So ordering his minions to dig up some of the small bushes and multicolored mushrooms of all sizes he went. I mean, technically he knew mushrooms weren't a plant, but you try finding something else in a forest where everything else is dead. Needless to say his minions were extremely confused as to why they were running around carefully digging up fungus and what little plants they could find around there.

"Be pecking careful with that! You think stealing shovels was easy?," he yelled at another minion dropping their shovel again. "For peck's sack! I made sure they're small for a reason!''

The minion who dropped their shovel apologised before quickly picking up the mini shovel again before going over to help two other minions of his pushing a large blue mushroom up from the ground. Roots becoming visible as they heave-hoed the large thing up.

"And careful with the roots! They need those to live!''

"Uh, Boss." One free handed minion looked up at the giant ghost who stared down at him just as another one of his comrades ran by holding a small red mushroom towards some unknown location. "Would you remind me why we're digging up all these plants?"

The ghost huffed. "Because I said so and felt like it that's why! Why aren't you getting one of those ridiculously too huge apple bush things like I told you?!"

They looked suddenly nervous. "U-Uh....B-Because you told Two Hundred Four that boss. I'm Eighteen. "

".....Oh. Well you go grab another one!"

"Y-Yes, Sir. Mr. Boss!"

Snatcher scowled as he ran off and sighed shaking his head, but raised his head back over when he heard one of the minions yelp. The minion helping to push up the big blue mushroom was hanging off one edge of it as it teetered and hanging onto it for dear life despite only being three feet in the air. The other two were hopelessly jumping and reaching for him to pull him down.....And Snatcher brought a claw up to facepalm himself just as an explosion went off behind him and another minion went flying before tumbling head over heals in the dirt before face planting a few feet away from the tree. ...They were fine as they sat up and shook the dirt off them as yet another comrade of theirs rushed over to check on them, scolding and yelling something about 'I told you carrying the apple by the wormy guy was a bad idea' or something like that. It was going to take a while to put this thing together with this lot. Which is why he needed to buy himself more time to put this thing together and to keep those kids out before they went blabbing off spoiling his idea to her, he was already a little paranoid about a certain hatted child keeping her mouth shut about a certain little secret of someone's identity. Another reason why he came up here. Maybe he could make some excuse about Poppy needing space from the terrible haunted forest for a while and to just relax. He thought it'd be a good excuse considering how freaked out she looked from the whole exploring adventure, but when he popped up he wasn't expecting lemon to sucker punch him in the face.

"What's with the strong smell?," he asked as the kids yawned and came trudging in through the door that lead to the bedroom but they were a little busy trying not to gag on the smell.

"It wasn't me!," Hattie protested before anyone could ask her.

"I never said it was." He eyed the two for a moment. Bow yawned and wiped at her face tiredly and Hattie looked slightly nervous as if Snatcher would decide it was her spraying whatever powerful perfume this was around, both still in their pjs. "What are you doing up this early?"

"The smell woke us up," Bow yawned as she spoke before giving a few coughs to it. "We thought you were messing with us again."

"Trust me. If I was it'd be something much better tactful than some smell...Wait. You could smell that all the way through your sleeping? You sleep worse than the dead." Hattie blew one of her famous raspberries at him and gave a small pout to his remark, to which he rolled his yellow eyes and turned his attention to the kitchen where it seemed to be coming from directly, and with a zip away from the children the giant ghost went up and over to the double doors of the kitchen area and being a ghost he easily stuck his head straight through the doors without opening it and raised a brow. Nothing out of the ordinary other than a nice clean kitchen, but the lemon smell was there though. As if someone had JUST finished cleaning the place-

"Rumbi?"

He turned around and stuck his head back out through the doors just in time to see the little girl peek under the control panel. "What's got you so up tight now?"

"Rumbi's gone!," she replied worriedly. Hattie leaned back up and went to the other side of the control pamel looking under the buttons and levers but still no tiny robot in sight. The poor girl worriedly looked up to the ghost still halfway through the kitchen doors. "He was right here!" She pointed to the carpeted floors. "He's always right here! Where could he have gone?!" She gave a slightly more worried look and grabbed at her hair. "Did he get stuck in the kitchen again?!"

"Wasn't there when I looked." The small child made a distressed noise and he held up his hands. "Wait up, Kid. Don't say good bye to that head of yours just because the annoying machine is playing a magic trick. He's probably stuck somewhere waiting for someone to help him."

"YEAH!! BUT WHERE?! WHAT IF HE FELL DOWN AND CAN'T GET UP!?"

"That's literally just what I suggested,'' he grumpily muttered to himself but sighed. He didn't like seeing the kiddo any more stressed than the next person so he guessed discussing the plan to secretly busy her with Poppy would have to be put on hold for the time being-....Oh wait. He looked back to the distressed and confused kids and made a clearing his throat noise to get their attention back on him. "As much as I like dramatic fear in the morning, where's Red?"

"Ms. Poppy?" After Snatcher nodded with a grunt, Bow pointed her hand up towards the attic entrance. "In there."

"Why is she in your cruddy attic?"

"She said she wanted to sleep somewhere her size."

Ah. That made sense. He almost forgot how tiny the some of the ship's areas were actually. Of course he could get around no problem getting around ghosting through walls, but he guessed Poppy would have a harder time having to crawl through the child sized tunnels to get anywhere on this blasted ship. Ignoring whatever Hattie was yapping about Rumbi to them, he gave the attic a suspicious look and slowly made his way towards it. It certainly was quiet up there, besides a rather peculiar noise he rose a brow too. With a hum he floated his way over towards it and just popped his head right on in and......Oh...OH! Well at least he found the source of the lemon scented cleaning products, and ..Huh. Was it just him or did the attic look less dusty that it usually was? Hoisting himself the rest of the way up through the whole he managed to spy two small pink glowing objects in the dark, those said objects turned back around away from him as the small vacum cleaning turned away from him to start sweeping back up the long orange carpet stuck up here making that light sweeping sound as he went. Well at least he knew what was making the strange sound up here, but it was the sight of the lightly snoring woman on the floor that really caught his attention as his brows rose. The redhead was laying on the floor snoring away obviously passed out, but was surrounded by cleaning supplies. A small broom, mop here, a bucket there, and a few things of soap. Well.....This explained a whole bunch of things actually, Poppy must've cleaned up a little bit. He thought he remembered her saying something about being a light sleeper when he was still alive. The ghost floated over her and stared down at her current state of being. Body lightly going up and down in her sleep. Her body curled up to her right side and holding a pillow to her chest. Poppy looked rather peaceful in her sleeping state which made him not want to disturb her at all...Which what he was exactly going to do.

A claw gently moved the messy hair of flames away from her soft face and paused when she lightly hummed and stirred, but not too much as she relaxed back into the same position just a second later. She didn't wake to see the fanged smile or the softened eyes of the spirit watching her or hear him give a small huff of a chuckle at the dare say cute sight before turning his attention back towards the exit just as a small vacum cleaner was starting to slowly go by. The small robot beeped in surprise when he was just picked up by a giant purple hand and carried through the air towards the exit by the ghostly figure giving off a few curious beeps to it all. A moment later the ghost's head shoved itself outside the hole in the roof just as the platform elevatoring between the levels went down and out came most of his body. Being a large ghost he easily was able to go near the floor but still have some of his body stuck partially through the ceiling as he held up the robot with a questioning look.

"Looking for this, Kiddo?," he asked holding the blinking robot.

"RUMBI!!" A feeling of releif washed over the child as she raced up and over to the ramp towards him as he held him out to her. The corner of his mouth in a semi smile as he watched her smile and grab Rumbi from him, hugging the sweeper to herself in a hug and sighing. "I missed you! What were you doing up there?"

"PLeaSE clEAN OuT Dirt filterS. MASS capaSITY MaKeS it UNCoMFORTABLE fOr mE," was his only answer in that robotic voice of his.

"I think he's saying to dump out the dirt he swept up," Snatcher clarified gazing at her as Hattie happily nodded and looked happily at the robot in her arms practically skipping to the kitchen to presumably dump out his filters into the kitchen trashcan.

"Actually that's a good question." Bow was gazing up to where the platform was rising fazing through his body and such with curiousity on her face. "How did he get in the attic? Did he accidentally ride up there?" She asked gesturing to the platform. "And where is Ms. Poppy? Is she still asleep?"

"Yeesh. So many questions and it's only been fifthteen minutes since I got here." He rolled his yellow eyes at the curly haired girl's light frown. "She's still asleep. Just leave her alone until she wakes on her own. I think she deserves it after dealing with everything don't you think?"

Bow shrugged and walked off in the same direction towards the kitchen as well presumably for breakfast he guessed or to see what her friend was doing in there. Fine by him. He could wait for as much as he needed. There was books up there to keep him occupied for a while.

***********************************************************************************************

Someone stirred.

Probably shouldn't have fallen asleep on the cold hard floor but she was so tired by the end of her little adventure between the two rooms that she zoned out almost immediately afterwards. Not a good idea to stay up so late just to clean up but she couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried and she wasn't about to go sleeping in some dark room that looked and smelled like an old closet no one used for like ten years, so it gave her one job to do anyways. She doubted the children would mind or notice one or two rooms cleaned anyways. Children in her experience didn't usually didn't. But something felt oddly unsettling somehow. A shiver running up the spine and odd feeling settling in the stomach kind of deal. The one watching her saw the shiver along with the stirring and had looked up from his book right above her, his full attention right on her now. ......Poppy gave off a cough. Probably due to the strong-ish smell still in the air. It had lessened a lot during the hour and a half she remained asleep while everyone else was awake but it was still enough to be noticable. Her face noticably cringed before groaning and slowly pushing her aching muscles to sit her top half of her body up, pillow she was previously holding onto flopping to the ground as the hand that held it made it's way up to rub at her face as she yawned and stretched out her back.

"Hey, you." Poppy literally jumped falling back onto her with a gasp of surprise. Knocking over the metal bucket close to her foot which tumbled over with a few metal clangs and those bright blue eyes of hers snapped open blinking into the darkness and her brain trying to register the dark figure of the ghost floating and giving her a neutral look. When in reality he was chuckling internally. "So you're finally awake."

It took a while for the still tired woman to really recognize who exactly the blurry black figure was talking to her. Which involved more yawning, more blinking, more rubbing at her face, and more silently staring at him before the idea of who he is finally came to her in the form of the the dark purple ghost.

"......Snatcher?"

"The one and only. Took you long enough to wake up."

"Wait. Were you watching me sleep?," she asked awake-ness finally starting to slowly over come her body.

"Like I'd do that." He held up the red book he was currently holding. The cover reading 'How Black Holes Are Formed And How To Avoid One.' "I've been sitting here reading waiting for you to finally get up," he answered truthfully. He had been reading, only looking at her every so often.

"Really? What ever for? Seems a bit rude to just spook someone like this if ya ask me." That pout he knew all too well when something annoyed her graced her face as she made herself stand to those tired legs of hers.

"I have a job for you."

"Oh really? How lovely. And what might that be?"

"I see you've been rather busy yourself." He pointed a claw down at all the cleaning tools and the open box of cleaning wipes. "And rearranging your living space quite a bit." His eyes flicked up and over towards the far side of the attic. All the crates, barrels, and chained trunks were all moved over to one corner of the room along with the globe and useless telescope. But it seemed everything was rather clean. "And I take it you're responsible for the strong smell everywhere."

......She looked sheepish for a moment, momentarily gazing at her hands. "I-I'm sorry. The soap was pretty strong s-so I orginally only used a few drops in the mop water but when I was mopping the kitchen I accidentally knocked the bottle over and spilt a lot of it everywhere. I-I'm sorry if I caused any trouble with it. I made sure to clean all of it up I promise." She then glanced behind her. "A-And if me moving everything was wrong I'll gladly put everything back. It was just so dusty I couldn't breath a single breath without sneezing from the dust bunnies-"

She stopped when Snatcher held up a hand to stop her rant. "Don't apologize. The old place never looked better. Did you really stay up all night cleaning here and that kitchen?"

She sheepishly nodded having been called out by the ghost. "Um...Y-Yeah. T-This may sound strange, b-but when I can't sleep I clean. Growing up in a house of farming folk, there was plenty of dirt scattered about so I often helped to clean it all up."

A hum came from him. Of course he already knew this but decided not to comment on it. "I see....Well I don't want you staying up so late again. Next time try my advice and read a book. I used to do it and it did wonders for me."

"Oh. Y-Yeah right. I just thought it'd be rude to leave the kitchen like that with a sink of dirty dishes from that cat's cookin."

He paused for a moment. ".....Oh. So the cat showed up again. Did you meet her?"

She nodded and smiled happily at the memory. "Yes. Cookie was so kind and she was kind enough to show me a few places. And gave me food! OH MY PECK!! Her food was to die for!....Uh n-no offense."

"None taken. But getting back to it, I said I have a job for you today." He closed the book and let go of it leaving it to float in mid air before it flew back over to the neat stack of what few books were up here. Poppy watched in slight amazement but was quick to snap back to the ghost when he spoke again. "I'm going to be very busy for the next few days. I think I found a way that might help you out even if it only brings a little piece of mind, but I'll need some time to prepare it. And I can't have you running around blindly everywhere while I'm trying to figure it out. You understand that I hope, and if I'm going to help you then you can help me."......He gave a softer look. "I don't mean to sound rude. But I can't have freeloaders taking up space here you know." Actually it was because he needed her to be busy, if he didn't he'd have no problem with just letting her stay here laying about all day if that's what she wanted to do. But he couldn't. He needed her and the kids occupied for a while and the plan he's been cooking up for the past hour and a half was just the ticket to do it.

Poppy nodded understandably thank goodness. "I understand. Where I'm from you had to earn your keep where ever you were stayin', and it's only fair after you're going through all that trouble." Her hands rested to her hips as she gave a smile.

He huffed a chuckle and gave a smile back of his own. Oh he could almost hear her say 'Hey, Princey!' like back in the old days with the same smile. But he smiled at her and pointed a hand to the cleaning supplies scattered at her feet. "Well, since I thought you did an excellent job here and you obviously have had previous experience, I thought we'd do something easy on your first day on the job! I want you to go around cleaning the entirety of this rusty space craft!"

....Her smile dropped a little as she stared at him and blinked. "...Wait a gosh darn pecking second." She pointed a hand at him. "You want ME to clean the entire ship?" She asked pointing to herself.

He smiled. "You didn't hear me wrong. But to answer you. Yes."

"HA! You gotta be kiddin' me! You want me to clean the entire place? By myself?"

He nodded calmly as if they were just talking about books or something like that. "Yep! Every room, hall, nook and cranny, mop, sweep, dust-...The whole work! I don't doubt you could do it. And you wouldn't be doing it yourself. Those two are more than capable of helping you out if I tell them too. "

She stared at him flabbergasted. Opening her mouth to speak but nothing came out so she closed it and shook her head before frowning and seeming to find her words. "Are you just having me do a maid's work because I'm a woman?"

He frowned back with an honest voice. "No. I'm asking you to do this because I'd like any kids of mine to have a clean place to live. And like I said, It's going to be hard to manage them and my forest while I'm going out of my way to help you. This isn't exactly a-an easy thing for me to do for someone like you you know." The sincerity in his voice as she stared at him for a little while longer made most of that scowl melt away from her face. "Besides. It'd be more of a win for you won't it? You get to navigate the place, keep yourself occupied while I'm stressing over planning for YOU might I add, and it's a chance to get to know your host family." He shrugged. "Everyone wins. You get help. I get help. Kids get a clean place. There's no downsides.....Unless you spill more of that soap stuff."

She snorted on that last bit shaking her head with a smile. "Trust me. I think I'll stay away from that stuff for a while." She turned and began walking towards one of the large dressers near the far side of the room with the small pile of books stacked ontop of it. Next to the books was a pile of photos, drawn pictures, and a teddy bear. "Just give me a second to grab a few things."

"Sure. Take your time with that. By the way..." Those yellow eyes glanced down towards her hand, the soreness long gone by now and only a light bruise remaining on it. "How's your hand? From what I've heard it was hard for you to manage yesterday. And while I'm at it I suppose I should know what the kid's robot was doing up here, she had quite the small panic attack."

"That's a bunch of questions thrown at me at once don't ya think?"

"Hey. Im returning the favor for what happened to me earlier."

"Those girls?" He hummed a yes behind her and she smiled. Children could throw a lot of questions at you if they were curious enough. So to answer one on his questions, she held up the wrist with the very light bruise as she stopped in front of the dresser and began to grab the many photos and pictures. Slipping them into her leather apron's bigger pocket, she had slipped it on last night to help carry around the smaller things she brought around to clean. "It feels much better thank you. I guess I just needed to let my arm rest a while, and ..well...I figured I'd use the little fella to sweep up the dust from the thing since that's what he was for..R-Right?"

He glanced back down to the orange carpet as she grabbed the small teddy bear, and had to admit it did look a much lighter orange when it wasn't covered in dust. "Alright. But next time be sure to notify the kid. She sees that thing as a beloved pet and I don't think she appreciates him disappearing without a trace...What's all that?" He gestured to the toy she was holding.

"Oh. I found this and a few things in the ward robe over there and thought she might've lost them." She gave a small shiver, "B-But I don't think the skulls in there were a very nice find."

"Hey! I gave those as a mushy Winter Solstice Token to them! They should be grateful! It's not every person in space owns they're own cursed skulls to ward off harmful spirits! The attic was a great place to put them to keep ghosts out! Most love to haunt creepy dusty attics so I was doing them both a huge favor!"

"Wow. I guess you really are an expert huh?," she asked as she made her way towards the lift just as it started to rise up again towards them.

"Hey. It takes one to know one don't you think? And who better than the most powerful spirit on this measly planet?"

She still smiled and rolled her eyes at him. For some reason she was getting an aura of bragging child. "Ok. I guess you're right. But It's best I return these to her."

The her she was referring to was obviously Hattie cuz who else would have the idea to leave photos and pictures in a haunted ward robe he supposed...That or her face was in some of the pictures she was holding so it was a dead give away. She stepped onto the platform as soon as it came up and he floated behind as she did so, wobbling a little as she started to descend but managed to push herself back up into a standing position as Snatcher just fazed through the attic floor and popped through the control room ceiling and wouldn't you know it. He found the girls exactly where he thought they'd been for the past hour and a half. Watching cartoons early in the morning waiting for that cat's cooking show to come on, Right now sait orange calico was talking about something involving how to properly cook spices for a veggie burrito or something. I dunno. He wasn't exactly an expert in cooking and outside of reading a thin cooking book like once a long time ago out of sheer boredom he had no experience in that stuff. But both girls looked up when a flash of messy red caught their attention (obviously Poppy's hair) and smiled when they looked up and saw the two standing there. Rumbi happily sweeping past them back down the ramp towards the tv before the platform touched the ground and Poppy stepped off it. Giving off a shaky sigh and looking back up towards it as it ascended, she never would get used to that was she?

"Hi, Ms. Poppy. Good morning!" Bow happily waved from her pillow on the floor as Hattie turned back to the tv with a smile. "Why do you have a teddy bear?"

She waved back to the small child smiling. "It's just something I found in the attic I thought might belong to someone. And you don't have to call me Miss. Just Poppy will be fine." She made her way down the small ramp as Snatcher flew over the railing. Stopping by the tv she stared at Hattie who looked up at her feeling the eyes on her and Poppy kneeled down to her level to hold out the teddy bear. "Hey. I think this belongs to you."

"Yeah!" Hattie reached out a hand smiling and grabbed the toy from the older woman. "Thanks!"

"Uh huh. I think I found some other things of yours." Tilting her head Hattie watched as Poppy began pulling the pictures and drawn pictures of hers from her apron's pocket and she happily started grabbing them from her as well. "Did you do these?"

She nodded looking through all of them and still grabbing them one after another as she handed them out and looked at them all. "I took them on my first space adventure. She held up one picture with what looked like her outside a ship in space. "This is me!"

Poppy of course smiled at her happiness. "I'm really happy for you, but maybe don't leave all your things in random spots. Ok?"

He nodded not really paying attention to what she said but she sure did look up when Snatcher cleared his throat and caught the attention of both the children. "Now that I have you attention. Guess what you two are doing today?"

"Going exploring."

"Not even close." He pointed at them with a stern face. "You two are going to help her clean up this dump!" Instantly the girls went to whine but he shot that down real quick as he had to multiple times before. "Hey! You two live here too! So you ARE going to pitch in and lend her a hand! I won't hear any excuses! Besides, don't you think it's unfair if SHE did all the work while you two goofed off." Hattie stuck her tongue out at him and he narrowed his eyes at her. "Ok wise guy. I know you're perfectly capable of beating a maniac blondie who gained control of all time and space for a couple hours, so you're MORE than capable of cleaning the place-"

"How about we play a game first?," Poppy suggested with a smile and all three looked to her.

"A game?!" Hattie's smile came back at the prospect of playing instead of doing any boring cleaning.

"Playtime? Now? Are you sure you're feeling ok?," Snatcher asked doubtful but Poppy held up a hand.

"Cookie told me yesterday about how helpful you two are," she answered truthfully, "But I was wondering if she was telling me the truth about you two being able to help anyone."

"Of course we can!" Hattie puffed put in pride and Bow nodded eargerly beside her. "We're the best helpers in the world!"

Faking curiousity hummed and rubbed her chin, "Oh really?...Hm. I don't think I believe you."

"What?!" The hatted child stomped her boot down and scowled. "Yes we are! We can do anything!"

"Oh really?"

"YEAH!! And we'll prove it too!" Bow again nodded with the same scowl.

Poppy smiled and nodded her head. "Ok. If you two really want to prove yourselves and make me believe you I guess I have no choice but letting you help me play my game."

"That's right! You don't have any choice!.......Uh. What game?"

Poppy's smile widened as she stood up. "Why the helping game of course. I use to play it all the time when I was little. I challenge you two to a competition. If you can help me real good, then I'll believe you and you get a nice reward from your daddy."

"A reward!?," Bow asked lighting up immediately and snatcher's eyes widened.

"Hey! Whoa! I never agreed to thi-"

"YES! A nice reward from him! But you two have to win the game and beat me or else I'll get that nice big reward from him instead. And you don't want to lose do you?," her sly smile sent a challenging feeling run through the children. "Deal?"

"DEAL!! BUT WHEN WE WIN I WANT A MOUNTAIN OF COOKIES AS A REWARD!!," Hattie demanded. "ILL BE THE BEST HELPER EVER!!"

"ME TOO!! I WANNA HELP!!......Um..How do we help?"

Poppy smiled again waiting for this to happen. "You both can help by proving to me you really can clean a few TINY things for me. We'll make it a challenge. You two both get one room, I'll get one, and then your daddy can be the judge and pick which one's the best."

"Like with Conductor and DJ Grooves movies!," Bow exclaimed excitedly. "I'm gonna win!"

"NO! IM GONNA WIN!," Hattie shot back and Bow frowned at her.

"Oh yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Fine by me. Tell you what. "Poppy gently pried the girls apart. "Why don't you each pick a different room instead of doing the same one? It'll be faster and that way you each can be judged fairly." She looked to Hattie still clutching all the pictures close to her. "Since Im guessing you might want to put those away, why don't you go do your bed room?"

"Fine! But I get Rumbi!" Her head snapped to the small robot sweeping past her. "COME ON RUMBI!! I'M GONNA WIN!!" The small machine beeped and fastly swept after the young girl as she ran towards the entrance to her bedroom somehow NOT dropping the multiple things she was carrying at the moment.

"FINE! I want the Metro Room!"

Snatcher's jaw had affectedly dropped by then and could only watch as bow ran off in the direction of the storage room and Poppy smiled, stood, wiped her hands together, before placing them on her hips and giving the ghost a winner's grin as he continued to stare off in the direction of the two children....Before looking to her jaw snapping shut as she chuckled at his face and he sputtered before demanding something of her.

"How the PECK did you do that!? And so EASILY!?"

She shrugged. "Well. Instead of fighting and making them do it, why not make it into a game they could enjoy. Hope you can get that reward ready."

"Oh ha ha! Very funny! Don't you think I'll be sticking around for this. I got business to attend yo you know."

"I thought you might say that. And I understand. Just be sure to have it when you come back." She snorted again at his surprised expression and he frowned more.

"Well don't you forget your job for now either!," he demanded crossing his arms.

"I didn't forget nothin', yo purple onion."

"Oh really?" She nodded and he smirked. Before pointing a claw straight up. "Hate to catch you in a lie, Princess, but didn't you already forget the things you need to do the job up there?"

Poppy stared at him for a moment be fore blinking and snapped back up towards the attic. Oh gosh golly she forgot all the stuff up there! She hurried off up the ramp to catch the platform before it could rise back up without her and Snatcher snickered to himself. It was a shame he couldn't stay and watch how this went down, he'd absolutely would SO watch but unfortunately he had to get back and work. As someone had to direct those chumps on how to work things. But he was sure of one thing. This would absolutely keep her busy for a while. Which is EXACTLY what he planned on.

#flowercrown #a hat in time snatcher #a hat in time florist #Florist #The Florist #A hat in time the florist #ABloomInTime #Snatcher #snatcher x florist #florist x snatcher

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anomander-dragnipurake · 4 years

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Bowser’s Castle Chapter One: Anger

First off, this fic is an alternate path for Possessed, breaking off from it at the end of part one. Second, the reason it exists: Bowuigi is my OTP for this fandom. So while playing Superstar Saga for the first time, when I reached the part where Cackletta possesses Bowser, which happened around the time I started working on part 2 of Possessed, I naturally made the connection that Bowletta and Booigi are very similar in nature. My next thought was that after that experience perhaps Bowser would be disgusted by the idea of possession and thus wish to do something about King Boo possessing Luigi which was the sole thought that ultimately led to this fic. And I know It's implied at the end that Bowser doesn't remember anything that happened to him while Cackletta was controlling and that he doesn't even know that that's what happened but that's less fun so we're just going to ignore that for the sake of the fic.

Luigi’s car was still where King Boo had parked it, making it easy to circle round to it and find. Where to now? Luigi asked with a mental sigh as King Boo hopped in.

‘Uh…’ King Boo paused, holding Luigi’s hand on the ignition. ‘I don’t actually know. I didn’t think this idea would work so I didn’t plan for anything beyond this point. … You don’t have any more friends, do you?’

No. Unlike Mario he’d never been good at making friends. And the few friends he’d met in adventures, he’d never had the courage to try to keep in contact with them.

King Boo laughed. ‘You’re so pathetic, it’s funny.’

Luigi already knew he was pathetic; he knew it better than anyone. There was nothing funny about it though; he hated it even while lacking the willpower to change it.

‘Whatever though. I can think of at least one more person who should have a fun reaction to this situation.’

Who? Out of decency most people would dislike this situation but Luigi couldn’t think of anyone else who’d have a ‘fun reaction’.

King Boo didn’t reply as he started the car at last. Apparently, Luigi would just have to wait and see.

***

“Lord Bowser sir, King Boo’s here to see you,” the goomba said as they poked their head into the room. “He’s possessing an uh… ‘meatsuit’ as he calls it and he says he wants to talk to you. He’s waiting for you in the throne room.” Message delivered, they fled, as most goombas tended to do for fear of getting yelled at for delivering unwanted news, and thus no clarifying questions could be asked.

“King Boo’s the one who beat Mario up, right?” Bowser Jr. said before Bowser could even decide if he wanted to bother with trying to call the goomba back for more questions.

From the way Bowser had heard it, ‘beating up Mario’ wasn’t quite what King Boo had done. It was close enough though so… “Yeah, supposedly three times.” And Bowser was jealous about it but he wasn’t about to show that in front of his son.

Looking back down at the kitten still carefully cradled in his hands – Bowser had been teaching him the proper way to handle them – Junior gave her another little pet. “Maybe that’s what he wants to talk to you about. If you two teamed up, you’d be unstoppable, right? You could take over the whole Mushroom Kingdom and more.”

“Maybe, I don’t know.” And it that was it, would Bowser go with that idea? On one hand it would be a guaranteed victory against Mario but on the other it would mean working with King Boo.

“Let’s go see then. I want meet him.” With exaggerated care, Junior gently placed the kitten back on the cat bed with her siblings and mama before hopping up and rushing out of the room. He didn’t even bother to close the door behind him.

With a sigh, Bowser rose to his feet too. He’d have preferred to ignore King Boo until he left but it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. Might as well go see what he wanted to hopefully get rid of him fairly quickly.

Moving far slower than Junior meant Junior reached the throne room well before Bowser did. Upon approaching it, Bowser could hear his chatter from halfway down the hall.

“… still in there? Or is he like gone now?”

King Boo’s reply was spoken much softer, rendering it indecipherable. Which was odd all by itself but his voice didn’t sound as high pitched as it should.

“Isn’t that going a bit far then? Like… it’s kind of super creepy to think about even if he is one of the bad guys.”

Bowser reached the throne room. Junior had perched himself on the arm of the throne so that he would thoroughly tower over the fellow that stood at the bottom of the throne’s dais who was decidedly not King Boo because he was human.

“His suffering is the whole point though,” the fellow said. He then turned his grin towards Bowser. “Hey Bowser, it’s been while, huh?”

"Who are you?" He was familiar but Bowser couldn’t place where he’d seen him before.

“You really don’t recognize me? I guess that’s to be expected though. It’s a-me King Boo.” He laughed, very boo-like but also very not. “And guess what I’ve done.”

Bowser’s scowl deepened to hind his confusion because why and how was King Boo suddenly human and why did Bowser recognize him? “What?”

“I’ve thoroughly defeated the Mario bros, so much so, they had me captured in a cell but Mario let me go almost right away. Not that he could’ve kept me locked up for long anyway but that’s beside the point. I’ve utterly defeated them, something you’ve failed to do time and time again.”

With an angry growl, Bowser strode all the way over to grab King Boo by the neck to lift him to face height. “How?” He was clearly missing something here and he didn’t like it. He also didn’t like King Boo’s new form or him coming here to gloat about defeating Bowser’s enemy.

“Even as stupid as you are, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that this body of mine is familiar.” He seemed totally unphased by Bowser’s manhandling. “That’s because it’s Luigi’s, Mario’s brother, I possessed him and am now using him as a meatsuit.”

Bowser’s initial flash of rage at being called ‘stupid’ was immediately replaced by revulsion. Possession and his body being controlled by another being was something he had personal experience with and honestly it was probably the worst thing that had ever happened him, he still had nightmares about it sometimes. So this disgusted him on a personal level.

“Stop it,” he said, squeezing King Boo’s neck a little harder.

“Stop what?”

“Possessing him!”

Another boo-like laugh that sounded creepily strange coming from a voice that wasn’t a boo’s. “You disapprove, really? And here I was thinking you’d just be jealous over how thoroughly I beat the Mario bros when you never could.”

“It’s disgusting so stop it.” Bowser breathed a puff of smoke in his face.

“Nope! And there’s nothing you can do to make me stop. Unless you want to kill Luigi, I guess. It would be a disappointedly quick end to my game but go ahead if…”

Bowser growled and headbutted him as hard enough to make his own head hurt a little. King Boo made another small laugh that faded out as he went limp, his eyes sliding shut.

“Uh… Papa, did you just knock him out?”

Bowser turned to face Junior, still standing on the throne’s armrest. “This is disgusting.” He gestured with the limp body. Junior hadn’t been there for the incident with Cackletta so he probably didn’t get why Bowser was so enraged by this. He didn’t have time to explain right now though because he had to deal with it.

“KAMEK!” He stamped his foot hard enough to shake the whole room a little.

It was maybe a grand total of five seconds before little old Kamek was rushing into the room. “Yes, Lord Bowser?” he said, wheezing a little from the run over.

“Take care of this,” he said, pushing the now not so green fellow towards Kamek.

“Um… may I ask what this is? And what exactly you’d like me to do with it.”

Bowser groaned but thankfully, Junior, hopped down from his perch to explain the situation better and faster than Bowser probably ever could. He was a smart kid.

“Okay so uh… you want me to get King Boo out of him?” Kamek asked when the explanation was finished.

“Yes!” Bowser thrust the body towards him again.

“Sir, I don’t intend to be contrarian but this is King Boo we’re talking about here, I’m not sure if I can…”

“Just do it!” Bowser stomped his foot again. This was his castle; things were done his way here. If he wanted King Boo forced out of Greenie’s body, then Kamek was going to find a way to do it whether he liked it or not.

“Yes sir.” Kamek saluted before gesturing a couple shyguys over to take the body from Bowser to carry away presumably to his lab.

“Does this mean we’re going to be at war with King Boo’s kingdom now?” Junior asked after all the minions had filed away and it was just the two of them again.

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” It would probably be awkward if that did happen because some of his minions were boos, asking them to fight their own kind was bound to cause issues. Also, how did one wage war against ghosts? Yeah sure, sometimes boos could be defeated by physical force, but normal ghost certainly couldn’t be. But those were only potential future problems and thus he wasn’t going to worry about how to deal with them until they came to pass. For now, he was angry and wanted to punch something until it broke into a million pieces.

#My writing #super mario bros #Luigi's Mansion #mario & luigi superstar saga #Booigi #Possession #Mentions of Bowletta and Cackletta #Bowser is a good dad no one can convince me otherwise

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us2dinosaurplanet · 3 years

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The Stay on Dinosaur Planet: Chapter 3-The Starfox Team Reunites

Meanwhile, back at the Great Fox, Slippy was busy with building backseats for the Arwings. Nevertheless, since Bubbles and Misty weren’t there to help him, consequently, it took him a long time to finish. However, he was able to finish in time for the rest of the team’s arrival.

On the same day as they prepare their arrival, Adeleine received their message. Therefore, she painted out a triangle, jumped out of Misty’s pouch and rang the triangle. Adeleine: “Wake up, guys! Come on, get up!”

After they awoke, she jumped back into the pouch and threw out pancakes towards them, then leaped out. Fox: “Uh, gee, thanks for the wake up call, Adeleine but why did you wake us so early?” Adeleine: “I need you guys to eat up before they arrive.” Fox: “Who?”

Then Adeleine turned on the message that she received from the rest of the team. It was an image of the rest of the team still back on the Great Fox. Slippy: “Hi, there, guys. This is Slippy…” Falco: “Falco…” Peppy: “Peppy…” D.W.: “And D.W.” Slippy: “And if you just received this message, then we should be leaving the Great Fox by now.” Falco: “That’s right, Fox, we’re coming down to the planet now…” Peppy: “We’ll need to perform the oath and regain our lost powers…” D.W.: “And we would also like to hear about your adventures on Dinosaur Planet. I’m looking forward to these stories and I will assume that it will become an excellent addition to mine. Well, we’re leaving. See you guys there.” Peppy: “Bye, Fox. See you soon” Falco: “Hang tight until we get there.” Slippy: “Can’t wait to see you and the others again, Fox. Signing off.”

The message was shut off. Fox: “Wow! I don’t believe it; they’re actually coming. Can you believe it, Misty?”

When he looked towards her lounge chair, he saw that she wasn’t there. Fox: “Uh, has any of you seen Misty?” Bubbles: “I have, she went to take a morning dip in her princess form again.”

Just then, Misty came out of the water. Fox: “Misty!”

Fox ran towards her and kneeled in front of her. Fox: “Misty, you’re not going to believe this…” Misty: “I know; the rest of the team is coming to the planet. I heard it all from underneath the water.” Fox: “What? Oh, great.” Misty: “So, tell me, Fox, is Falco really back?” Fox: “He sure is, Misty. He sure is.”

Meanwhile, back at Thorntail Hollow, Falco and D.W. landed their Arwings almost close to Fox’s. They got out of their Arwings along with Peppy and Slippy. Blossom and Buttercup deactivated their space suits. D.W.: “Wow! This place is beautiful. It almost reminds me of one of my stories.” Slippy: “All right, guys, let’s go look for Fox and the others.” Falco: “And how do we do that?” Slippy: “Well, if I’m not mistaken, they should be wherever Blossom and Buttercup’s wristbands will lead us. I’ve uploaded tracking devices in each of their wristbands so the Powerpuff Girls will be able to find each other, in case they were ever separated from each other. OK, girls, find the area to which the signal from Bubbles’ wristband is the strongest.”

Blossom and Buttercup searched the entire area until they stopped at the gate behind Fox’s Arwing where the signal was the strongest. Blossom and Buttercup flew towards that direction while Falco, Slippy, D.W., and Peppy followed.

They followed the girls passed the Lightfoot Village, through the maze (literally) and into the well to where they arrived at Cape Claw where the other were waiting for them. Falco and Slippy arrived down at the beach first. When Fox saw his friends, he leapt off his lounge chair. Fox: “Guys!” Falco, Slippy: “Fox!”

The guys ran towards each other. Fox: “I’m so glad you glad you guys could make it.” Slippy: “I can see you’ve received our message.” Fox: “Well, I guess you could say that.” Falco: “Man, Fox, I’d never thought I would actually say this, but…” Fox: “You already did…and it’s good to see you see you again, too, Falco.”

Falco was speechless. Slippy: “Say, Fox, is Princess Peach around?” Fox: “Princess Peach? Oh, yeah, the glue that holds us together, she around.” Falco: “Where is she?”

Suddenly, the guys heard a faint soft voice near by. It was Princess Peach. Peach: “(Gasp) Oh…my stars! Falco?” Falco: “Princess Peach?” Peach: “Rayman, Rayman, look, it’s Falco! He’s back!” Rayman: [“Falco? Falco! ”]

Peach and Rayman ran towards Falco and they were all over him. Falco: “I know, I know, I missed you guys, too.” Peach: “Falco, you idiot! Don’t you even realize how badly we’ve missed you?” Falco: “You’re not alone.” Rayman: [“I’m not surprised.”]

Peach suddenly pushed herself away from Falco. She seemed as though she was about to cry. Peach: “You senseless moron! I was worried sick about you! You left us without saying good-bye! I thought something terrible happened to you! How could you?” Falco:” Whoa, Peach, chill out! I’m OK, aren’t I? I mean, gee whiz, don’t you ever think about yourself?” Peach: “(Sniff) So, what? At least I always say good-bye to my friends before I leave them, unlike some people.” Falco: “Worrying too much, as usual, huh, Princess Peach? Good to see nothing has changed. Speaking of which, how’s Mario doing; discovering his own fingers, as usual?” Peach: “Worse, he thinks he’s the most famous being in the entire Mushroom Kingdom for discovering that he puts his feet in his shoes.” Rayman: [“That idiotic scatterbrain plumber is always forgetting about his own body parts everyday. What’s next; will he think that he’s the master of the Lylat System for discovering he has a brain?”]

Fox, Peach, Slippy, and Falco laughed at Rayman’s joke. Fox: “Don’t worry, Rayman, I have a pretty safe bet that we don’t have to worry about that happening.”

They continued laughing. Falco: “So, Peach, how about it, will you forgive and forget?” Peach: “Well, Falco, you may be an idiot but you still seem to remember Mario’s condition. I’ll let you go, this time but don’t expect a second chance from me if it happens again.” Falco: “Heh, heh. Right.”

Just then, Fox noticed something. Fox: “Whoa, what the…? Hey, Bubbles, you’re sisters are here.” Bubbles: “Huh? (Gasp) Oh, my gosh! Blossom! Buttercup!” Blossom, Buttercup: “Bubbles!”

Bubbles flew to her sisters and the girls did the girls had a group hug in a way most unusual and energetic. Bubbles: “I can see you’re in a better mood, huh, Buttercup?” Buttercup: “I sure am.”

She looked at Falco. Buttercup: “No thanks to some people I could mention.” Falco: “Hey, didn’t I already apologize?” Buttercup:” All right, all right, sheesh, don’t get all nasty on me. Anyway, Bubbles, I heard you were on a mission with Fox.” Bubbles:” You bet!” Buttercup:” So, out with it, how was the mission?” Bubbles: “It was the best mission ever!”

Bubbles talked really fast as she went on with telling her sisters everything. Bubbles: “We met some dinosaurs. They were really nice and helped out on our mission. We met a cute dinosaur named Tricky and he was very helpful during our mission. We flew to the floating lands and collected Spellstones, which holds the planet together. We collected Krazoa Spirits, which channels magic energy back to the planet but instead revived an old enemy. We also met some mean dinosaurs called Sharpclaws and really mean one named General Scales who was responsible for the planet falling apart. Then Fox promised that we could stay here for a while after we finish the mission. Then we met this blue vixen named Krystal who was in bad shape and thanks to her, we get to stay here A LOT LONGER.”

Blossom and Buttercup were speechless. They exchanged looks and then back at Bubbles. Blossom: “Gee, Bubbles, it sounds like you had a good time.” Bubbles: “Are you kidding me; I had a blast!!! I love Dinosaur Planet and best of all we’ll be coming back here and spending our time here instead of Corneria from now on.” Blossom: “You mean it? That’s great!” Bubbles: “I know!! We’ll never be bored on our usually meet up date ever again!!!” Blossom: “Wow, Bubbles, you must be really excited about this!!” Bubbles: “I know, but to be honest, nothing makes me happier than sharing the moment with my 2 favorite sisters.”

The girls then put their arms around each other. Fox: “Aw, isn’t that sweet? The Powerpuff Girls are finally back together again.” Peppy: “But we aren’t.” Fox: “Huh?” Peppy: “Not until we perform the recovery oath to return our lost powers.” Fox: “Recovery oath?” Falco: “Right.”

Then the guys and D.W. joined their left fists in a circle. Then, one by one chanted the oath and then watched as their crests slowly returned to their hands. Fox: “Yeah!” Slippy: “All right! Our powers are back! Our powers are back! Our powers are finally back!” Peppy: “I may not be so sure, guys.” Fox: “What? What do you mean?” Peppy: “The oath may have only returned our crests, not our powers.” Fox: “What? Are you really sure about that” Slippy: “No! Please say it isn’t so!” Peppy: “Well, I may be wrong. The oath may have restored our powers, as well. It depends on how long Falco has been gone.” Falco: “Terrific!” Slippy: “Falco, you had better hope that our powers aren’t gone!” Falco: “Chill out, Slippy. Even if they are, we’ll just get them back the same way that we received them in the first place.” Slippy: “Hmph!” D.W.: “Well, there’s only one-way to find out.”

D.W. placed her hand on her broken arm and performed her power code with her finger. She slowly moved her hand from her arm and before anyone knew it; her arm broke through the cast. D.W.: “My arm, it’s healed. My arm is finally healed. I can finally type with 2 hands again.” Fox: “Is it official?” Peppy: “Yes, it’s official.”

The guys started celebrating.

Just then, Falco stopped for some reason. Falco: “Hey, wait a minute, something’s wrong here.” Fox: “There is?” Falco: “Are you blind? Of course there’s something wrong. Where’s the ocean princess? I’ve been waiting a long time to see her again.” Fox: “Who, Misty? She’s in the ocean.” Falco: “If she’s in the ocean, then that means…”

At that moment, Misty popped out of the water. Misty: “Oh! My stars, I thought I heard some familiar voices from underneath the water and I was right. How’s it going, you guys?” Slippy: “Misty!”

Slippy ran towards her immediately. Falco smiled as he stood by for a bit Falco: “Hm, jut as I thought.”

He went after Slippy and kneeled right to him in front of Misty. Slippy: “Misty, I would like to be the first to say that I’m glad you’re in your princess form again.” Misty:” Thank you, Slippy; I really appreciate that. Hello, Falco, glad to see you’re finally back. Hmph! Better late than never, I suppose. I’m surprised you still remember my secret. You’ve been gone for too long, it almost felt like an eternity to me.” Falco: “Oh, no, not you, too.” Slippy: “Tsk, tsk. The ocean princess is still angry with you.” Falco: “Hey, stay out of this, you moron! Listen, Princess, there is no way I could possibly forget your secret. That form of yours makes you so beautiful that I couldn’t forget it even if I wanted to.”

Misty blushed but seemed annoyed. Misty: “You’re just saying that.” Falco: “No way, I’m serious. I’ve waited so long to see that form of yours. I didn’t mean to leave without saying good-bye. I’m sorry. So, about it, are we cool?” Misty: “Well, OK.”

Misty dove back into the water and came back out in her human form. Misty: “I guess I can forgive you. I’m just happy to see you back again. So, other than leaving us without saying good-bye, how was your trip?” Falco: “It wasn’t so bad. How about you? Have you guys been up to anything while I was gone?” Misty: “Sure, we've been up to plenty.” Falco: "Great, love to hear about it." Misty: “Sure.”

OK, these guys are going to get involved into a long conversation, right now. It best that I started the next chapter.

#Ultimate Story 2 #Dinosaur Planet #The Stay on Dinosaur Planet #Fox McCloud #Misty #Ocean Princess #Bubbles #Blossom #Buttercup #The Powerpuff Girls #Peppy Hare #Slippy Toad #Falco Lombardi #D.W. Read #Princess Peach #Rayman #Thorntail Hollow #Cape Claw #Great Fox

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eveningcatcher · 4 years

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Portia x Muriel headcanon

"Pepi, are you there?" Portia called out to her beloved kitten, "Don't go too far away, okay?"

Pepi sat down on the grass, purring.

"It might be dangerous, you know?" She crouched and started collecting some plants, "So we're going back as soon as we collect herbs for Mazelinka, got it?"

The cat meowed, walking away deeper into the forest.

"Just don't go far away, okay?" She continued to pluck plants.

"Let's see... I got Chamomile but I also need, what was it called once again..." she rubbed her temple with the clean hand, trying to remember the plant's name, " Rhodiola, yeah, that's it. If I remember correctly, Mazelinka told me it grows a bit deeper in the forest," she stood up, putting the herbs into the basket, " Pepi!" She called, " Come on girl, we're going on an adventure!" Just as she was about to call her cat once more, the little siamese came out of the bush with a little branch in its mouth.

"Aw, did you find this for me?" She pats the cat's head, "Thank you, you're an amazing dear. Let's go now," she pointed forward, "Into the forest! And possible danger, but who cares?" She started talking to the cat, "It's more interesting that way, you know? Maybe we'll find a ghost or something like that. That would be so cool!" She said, her eyes gleaming, "Girl, think about it," she lowered her head to the cat, who just stared at her, "That would be- oh look!" She walked a bit on the left from the path, "I think this is the plant!" Pepi sat down, grooming herself as Portia cut the plant by the handle, "Babouche said that mushrooms are growing in the forest, wanna go and find them with me, Pepi?"

"Mroow."

"Let's go! Don't ask where 'cause I don't know," she giggled by the end of the sentence, " On the bright side if we get lost we can always orient by the stars during the night." She chuckled nervously, "You'd protect me, wouldn't you?"

Pepi meowed in approval, jumping on Portia as she tried to climb to her shoulder, burying her claws gently in her clothes.

"What's wrong dear?" She pats Pepi's head, looking in the direction her beloved cat is hissing, and she realised something was wrong. A giant black wolf was walking to them, with a gleam of curiosity in its bright yellow eyes.

Portia stood there, not daring to even flinch. She knew that sudden reactions won't help, so she slowly started to back off as she held her cat still.

The wolf noticed her getting away, so it started to walk closer, fixing its gaze on Portia. It walked slowly as if it were a bit scared of Portia herself.

"Easy there," Portia said as she raised her unoccupied hand, trying not to disturb the animal, "I don't want to fight, okay?" she gave the wolf a worried smile.

The wolf sat down, shifting its head.

"I'll be going now, alright?" Portia took the opportunity and picked up the speed.

The wolf seemed to notice, so it stood up and walked to Portia, whimpering.

"I..." Portia looked at Pepi for advice, who just meowed and hopped off her shoulder, starting to play with the wolf.

"Weren't you the one who was scared of her?" Portia giggled, "Mazelinka won't believe me when I tell her who I've met in this forest," she pats the wolf, " Oh, aren't you a good girl? Sorry for being scared of you," she crouched to the wolf, combing its fur with her fingers, "Your fur is so soft..." she smiled as she stood up, "Sorry but we have to go. Come on Pepi," she snapped her fingers twice, " Say goodbye to the wolf and let's get going." She waited for Pepi to nuzzle her head on the wolf, saying her farewell to the tame wolf.

"Now, off we go!" she smiled as she continued the conversation with Pepi, as if nothing happened, "You know, I hope the mushrooms I took aren't poisonous," she giggled, "I can't remember if Babouche said that the mushrooms had a dark brown colour," she stopped talking for a moment, trying to recall the conversation she had with Babouche. After a couple of moments, she brushed the thought off and continued talking, "Guess we'll find out at Mazelinka's."

She would continue with her chatter if she didn't hear someone walking behind her. She quickly turned, adrenaline running through her veins, only to find that it was a false alarm.

"Oh, it's you," she smiled at the wolf, "Whatcha doing here buddy?" she continued walking, with the wolf and Pepi following right behind her, "Sorry, but I don't have any treats on me, so you should look for food somewhere else. Come on," she pointed at the forest, "Pepi and I will visit, right girl?"

"Meoww."

"See? Now go, to your family and...friends?"

The wolf walked right in front of Portia, tilting its head to the side, giving Portia the saddest look. Soon enough, the wolf was not the only one who looed at Portia imploringly; Pepi joined, sitting to the wolf's left, pleading not only with sad eyes but also with her constant meowing.

"Ugh, fine, we'll stay," the animals looked at her with utter joy, the wolf howling happily as Pepi walked around her legs, meowing happily.

"We won't stay for long though," she started explaining to the animals like she would explain it to her brother, "Because if we do, Mazelinka will get us with her spoon," she shivered at the thought as she followed the wolf who lead them back into the forest, "There is no mightier weapon than that wooden spoon," she laughed as she tried to imitate Mazelinka's voice, "Made from the full palm wood and older than the two of you rascals," she giggled.

"Meow," Pepi got in front of Portia, looking for Mazelinka, "Mrrow?"

"She is not here, cutie. It was just me."

Then, out of nowhere, the wolf started barking happily as she ran past Portia, nearly knocking her over.

"Ow, slow down," she flinched as she looked at who the wolf ran to. A giant man, who must have been at least half a meter taller than she bent down to the wolf, giving it a pet. With a low, scratchy voice, he said, "Inanna, I have been looking everywhere for-" he raised his head, looking straight at the girl.

"Um, hello there," she gave the man a gentle smile, "Her name is Inanna?"

"..." the man stared at her for a moment, then let out a sigh, "If you went right behind you, you'll get out of the forest."

"Don't worry, I'm not lost."

"Then leave. The forest is dangerous, you'll end up hurt."

"Oh please," she brushed off his comment, "This forest fears me!" she puffed her chest, forgetting how she got terrified of the wolf just an hour ago.

"..." he just stared at the short girl with a smile, "Says the girl who collected poisonous mushrooms."

"So they are poisonous," she giggled, "But I was told the mushrooms were brown..."

"You're probably looking for Maitake mushrooms."

"Yes," she snapped her fingers, her eyes glowing, "That's what they are called! Could you please lead me to where they grow?"

"...Fine," he sighed, "But then leave."

"Alright, alright, I promise," she said as she dropped the poisonous mushrooms on the ground, following the man, "So, you know the forest well?"

"Yes."

"That's... great, and useful," she smiled to him, a bit nervous at how stiff the man is around her, "Honestly," she started talking to the man, trying to break the silence, "When Pepi and I first saw Inanna, we were terrified, haha."

"She means no harm."

"Oh, we realised that," she smiled, "I didn't catch your name, sir."

"..." he was silent for a moment, but decided to respond to the chatty girl, "Muriel."

"Well, thank you, Muriel, for helping us! It means a lot. I'm Portia!"

He was silent for a moment, not knowing how to respond to her kindness, so he just changed the topic, "We're here," he gestured at the mushrooms.

"Already?" she started to collect the mushrooms, "I guess that the time does fly with a great company," she smiled.

"I...guess," his cheeks flushed, "You're... not that bad," he returned the smile.

"Aw, thank you, you're so kind," she giggled as she struggled to take a particular mushroom, "You're not going to take any?"

He just shook his head in response.

"Why not, there is enough mushrooms for at least seven people, plus if you cut them like this," she showed him as she cut the mushroom with a knife, "It will grow back by the next morning. As long as you don't take the root, too, of course."

"I just... don't have the will to collect mushrooms now..."

"Oh, if that's the case, then I'll cut them for you! Here," she gave him half of the mushrooms she collected, "This should be enough for the both of us!"

"...Thanks."

"I should be thanking you, Muri, for showing me a way to this place," she walked alongside him, giving him a friendly pat to the back, "You're so kind!"

"Don't, don't call me that."

"Why not? The nickname is cute, just like you~" she giggled, "You know there's no need to be dense around me, alright?" she told him, as she admired the silence of the forest.

It seemed that the more she was in there, the more familiar the forest seemed to be. All of these mysteries regarding this rumoured forest intrigued her, and her interest peaked when she met Muriel. This soft giant is something else. He is so distant and a bit cold for Portia's taste, however, she felt like she could spend a day beside him, not doing anything.

"So, where do you live?"

"That's none of your business."

"Come on, don't be like that, I would like to hang out with you sometime," she admitted.

"...You're weird," he responded after a short silence.

She didn't take his words to heart, instead, she raised her unoccupied hand to her heart, pretending to be hurt, "Are you saying I'm a bad company?"

"No," he shook his head, "I'm just saying you shouldn't trust strangers. For all you know, I could be a murderer."

"Oh please, as if you would do anything bad to me."

"But what if-"

"Sh," she placed her index finger over her lips, "Stop making excuses! If you don't want to- oh my gosh!" she stopped midsentence, walking to a bush next to her, "Is that... a chicken?!?"

She crouched right next to the chicken, extending her hand.

"What are you doing?" Muriel asked her.

"I'm showing her my hand so that she could sniff it!" her eyes gleamed, "I don't want it to be scared of me."

"It's not a dog, there is no need for that," he crouched beside her, "Also Yolky is not shy, just don't make any sudden movements and it should be fine."

"Yolky?" she asked, carefully taking the chicken in her hands, "Is this your chicken? Did it get lost?"

"It's not my chicken, it's more like a... neighbour."

"Neighbour?" she looked at him, "So you live in a forest?"

He nodded hesitantly while giving the chicken a little pet.

"That's so amazing! Did you make a house in here?"

"Yes," he nodded, blushing.

"On your own?" she asked, hugging the small chicken, not letting it get out of her tight grasp.

"Well yes, but it's not that impressive."

"Don't be like that! You should have more confidence! Making a house on your own, in the middle of the forest is amazing!"

"Mrrow," Pepi walked in between Portia and Muriel, nuzzling her head on the chicken.

"Oh, fudge! I'll be late! Mazelinka will kill me!" she put the chicken down and stood up, "Say, do you want to come with me to the Mazelinka? She's my honorary grandma!"

"I don't think I should..."

"Nonsense, she'll love you, trust me!" she grabbed his hand, tugging him with her, "Plus her soup is truly something else! You have to try it."

"I have some things I need to take care of," he said, thinking about all of the protection trinkets he needs to make.

"Oh, if that's so, then I guess I'll see you later," she said sadly as she walked back to town, "Bye, hope to see you soon!"

Muriel didn't go immediately, instead, he waited for her to get out of sight, into the streets of Vesuvia. He turned back and, along with Inanna, went into his hut. This day was quite out of the ordinary, but he didn't care. He knew she won't be able to remember him, which made him feel a bit gloomy. Even though she was a bit too talkative for him, she seemed like a good person. He shook the thoughts away, knowing it won't do him any good. This is the path he has chosen to go down to, there is no time for regrets now.

This is for the best, he thought as he picked up some herbs from the table, For both me and her.

As he walked out of his hut, back into the forest, he continued with his thoughts:What good would it be even if she stayed around? She would run away as soon as she would find out the truth... As she should.

He decided that thinking too much about her was doing nothing to his benefit, so he focused all of his attention on making the protection trinkets. Time passed by, but Muriel didn't notice, nor did he care. He just enjoyed the silence, the sound of the wind, the smell of the grass after the rain. Yes, this is where he belongs.

"You know magic?!?" Portia asked him.

"What the," he flinched when he saw the girl crouching right next to him.

"How long have you been here?"

"About..." she put her index finger on her lips, "Let's see... fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?!? What have you been doing for fifteen minutes? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want to disturb you," she explained, "You looked so into what you were doing, so I just waited for you to finish it. What is that anyway?" she pointed at the protection trinket, "Are you putting a curse on someone?" her eyes gleamed at the thought.

"What? No, it's just a protection trinket," he dug some dirt, taking an old trinket out, "After some time, the magic in the trinket weakens, mostly because of someone trying to break in," he frowned, thinking of a certain goat man.

"Wow, that's so great!" she carefully observed him burying the new trinket, "Can you teach me?"

"I don't see how you could be interested in this," he shrugged, having a question on his mind. How is she able to remember him?

"Oh, please~" she begged him, "Wait, is that something like a family secret that I'm not supposed to know?"

"It's nothing special... But if you want to learn that badly-"

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" she put a flask down and gave him a tight hug. She pulled away, handing him the flask, "I felt bad for not giving you any of Mazelinka's soup, so I brought some for you."

He took the flask, and felt the familiar smell of myrrh, "Thank you. Here," he handed her some myrrh from his pocket, "I assume you've already noticed, but people... forget me."

"Oh, I thought I just had a headache or something like that," she flushed from embarrassment, "Why does that happen? Are you cursed?"

"I... guess you could call it that."

"You poor, thing," she covered her lips with her hands, "Is that why you put these protection trinkets?"

"Let's just put the matter aside," he sighed, not knowing how to explain his situation to her, "If you have myrrh around you should be able to remember me."

"Oh, that's one of the ingredients in the soup!"

"I noticed," he said, "The one who made it is great at green magic," he smiled.

"Green magic?" she asked him, "Mazelinka knows magic? What's green magic?"

"Green magic is like... friendly magic," he didn't know what he was talking about, but he didn't stop, "It's not flashy, but it's more of a... family type of magic, the one to..."

"Calm you down?"

"Something like that," he smiled as he continued to explain everything he knew about green magic.

#saveportia #portia #muriel #the arcana #portia x muriel

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raisingsupergirl · 4 years

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A Recipe For a Pho Night

Okay, this typically isn't a food blog, but guys, if you've never had pho, you're missing out. And now that 2020 quarantines have made it even harder to sit down at a Vietnamese restaurant, how will we ever enjoy this most excellent of savory soups? Well, by making it at home, of course! And now that winter's creeping in (it's currently a cold, rainy Sunday as I write this) there's no better time to fill the house with delicious smells! But before you freak out over the ingredients list, don’t worry! Pretty much everything can be substituted, altered, or just left out based on your preferences and availability (I happen to dislike sweet broth, so I didn't use much brown sugar). Even the measurements are only there because SOME of you can't make anything without having exact amounts spelled out (hey, nobody's perfect). The whole point of pho night is to have fun, so get creative, and let your family join in. My daughters absolutely loved picking out their ingredients for the spring rolls and the soup, and watching it all cook right before their eyes really sealed the deal (though they needed my help rolling the spring rolls). And now, without further adieu, here's my recipe for fresh spring rolls and pho (because of their similar ingredients and fun, do-it-yourself assembly, they pair perfectly):

INGREDIENTS

Marinated beef: • 1 brisket (sliced thin) • 4 tbsp oyster sauce • 1 cup soy sauce • 2 tbsp minced garlic

Broth: • 16 cups beef stock (or 3 soup bones if making from scratch) • 1 large onion • 2 golf ball-sized chunks of ginger (what? That's totally a legit measure) • 3 cinnamon sticks • 5 star anise • 4 cloves • 1 tbsp coriander seeds • 4 garlic cloves (optional) • 1 tbsp brown sugar (or to taste) • 1 tbsp fish sauce (or to taste) • 2 tbsp soy sauce (or to taste) • 1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Noodles: • 1 box rice noodles (I used thin in this recipe) • sesame oil (or any oil)

Garnish: • ½ package medium shrimp (raw, deveined, no shell) • 1 bunch of cilantro • 1 bunch of rosemary (because I couldn't find Thai basil) • 1 bunch of mint (because it grows in my back yard) • 6 whole baby bella mushrooms • 2 serrano peppers • ½ red bell pepper • ½ yellow bell pepper • 6 green onions • 1 can bean sprouts • 1 lime (cut into wedges)

Spring rolls (because you're not going to cut up all those delicious veggies and NOT wrap some in rice paper!): • 1 package spring roll wrappers • ½ package medium shrimp (cooked, deveined, no shell) • ½ cup matchstick carrots • ½ cucumber • ½ avocado • any other veggies/herbs you’ve prepared for the pho garnish

Serve with: • Soy sauce • Sriracha • Hoisin sauce • 1 bottle of sake (to drink!)

INSTRUCTIONS

First, let's start with the brisket. You'll need to prepare it earlier in the day so it can marinate. And it's worth noting now that pretty much everything you cut up for this meal will need to be SUPER thin (so it can cook in the broth in your bowl), and the beef is no exception. And because of that, it's easiest to slice it with a sharp knife while it's STILL FROZEN. First, cut the fat off of the top, then slice/shave it perpendicular to the grain (to make it more tender) as thin as you can. Then cut the slices into 2-inch pieces (or smaller if you prefer). Prepare the marinade (oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic) and combine it with the beef in a sealed container or bag. Set aside for at least three hours and no more than 12 (to avoid getting too mushy), and mix it occasionally throughout the day.

Next, lets talk about the foundation of this recipe: the broth. Because it's so important, you want to make sure to start out with a high quality beef stock. I made my own the day before by boiling 3 soup bones in about 2 gallons of water (it reduces) for 4 hours on low heat (then refrigerating it until the next day so I could skim the fat off of the top), but buying it significantly speeds up the process. Whichever way you choose, pour the broth in a large stockpot and set it to high heat. While it's coming to a boil, preheat your oven's broiler, then slice the onion and ginger into large chunks. Spread out the chunks in an oiled, oven-safe pan. Then, place the cinnamon sticks, star anise, coriander seeds, and cloves in another oven-safe container (these spices are all complimentary in flavor—along with cardamom pods, which I couldn't find—and give pho it's signature taste, so try to find as many of them as you can. Also, whole spices make them easier to remove later for a clearer broth), and pop it all (onions, ginger, and spices) in the broiler until they're all lightly toasted—about five minutes for the spices (until they're just aromatic) and ten minutes for the onions/ginger (until they get a good char).

Once your stock is boiling, throw in the onions, ginger, and toasted spices, then cover and reduce to medium-low heat for at least twenty minutes (and up to an hour while you're preparing everything else). Strain/scoop out all the solids after thirty minutes or so, then either keep the broth on low heat or just turn it off for now.

Now's as good of a time as any to cook your rice noodles according to the instructions on the package (they don't take long, so don't overcook them!). When they're done, rinse with cold water (so they don't keep cooking and fall apart) and toss with a couple tablespoons of sesame oil (or whatever oil you prefer) to keep them from clumping. Dump them in a bowl and set aside for later.

Now it's time to start slicing the vegetables! Like I said before, everything should be super thin so it cooks quicker, so take your time and enjoy the process (hopefully with a glass of sake and some good conversation… heck, you can find some more knives and put your dinner guests to work). Full disclosure, the veggie bill is totally up to you, but in this case, I recommend green onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, hot peppers (jalapeño or Serrano), bean sprouts, lime, cilantro, mint, and Thai basil (though I couldn't find any basil, so I substituted rosemary, which actually worked great). Remember to slice everything thin and 2-3 inches long (with the obvious exception of the sprouts and herbs, which can be left whole, and the lime, which can be quartered) so they work with the pho AND the spring rolls.

And since we're talking about the spring rolls, go ahead and cut up everything (carrots, cucumber, avocado) for those, as well. And if you're putting shrimp in them, go ahead and throw half of the bag of medium shrimp into your boiling pho broth for 20-30 seconds (to flavor the shrimp AND the broth), then scoop them out and put them in a serving dish (side note: I almost cooked my rice noodles in the broth, as well, then remembered that the noodles leave behind milky, starchy water, which would have ruined the broth. Crisis averted!). While you're at it, fill a pan or other container (it has to be slightly larger than the size of your rice paper) about an inch deep with cold water (or pho broth, if you're feeling really adventurous!) and set aside.

Place all of your a la carte ingredients in little piles across a large cutting/serving board or in individual bowls and set them in the middle of your dinner table. You want to show off all of your hard work!

Speaking of the dinner table, time to turn to the final (and most fun) phase. Other than your garnishes, set up the table with your raw brisket (yes, raw), raw and cooked shrimp, noodles, optional sauces (sriracha, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sweet Thai chili sauce), rice paper, pan of water, plates, bowls, soup spoons, forks/chop sticks, and your preferred drinks. Crank the covered broth to a rolling boil on the stove and direct your lucky guests to their seats—the show is about to begin!

SPRING ROLL ASSEMBLY

As your broth heats up, start with the spring rolls. Place one sheet in the pan of cold water for about 30 seconds or until soft (like Goldilocks, you don't want them too hard or too soft/brittle. If this is your first time, you may waste a sheet or two before you get it right). Remove it, place it on a plate, and fill it like a tiny burrito with whatever ingredients you prefer. Be sure to experiment with all of the herbs, veggies, and cooked shrimp (do NOT use the raw shrimp or beef. Yes, I have to say this. Yes, there are people out there who need to be told the obvious). You want your filling to be about the same size and shape as a hotdog, and it should be offset to one side of the rice paper. Now it's time to try your hand at rolling that bad boy. Fold the sides first (each end of the "hotdog") to seal it up. Then fold the short side of the rice paper over your "hotdog" and tuck it under the ingredients to tighten them up. Lastly, roll the whole thing up. If you get a little tear (shredded carrots are sharp), don't worry. You'll have a couple layers by the time it's completely rolled, so it should seal. If not, who cares? You're about to dip it in your favorite sauce and devour it. Remember, have fun!

PHO ASSEMBLY

By the time you've had a few spring rolls, your pho broth should be boiling. Time to assemble the main course! Place about a half-cup of rice noodles in the bottom of each bowl, then top them with the same amount of raw beef or shrimp (or both!). Now, carefully bring in that big pot of steaming, delicious-smelling broth and ladle it over each bowl of rice/protein. Sit back and enjoy the oohs and aahs as the shrimp turns pink and the beef turns brown (that marinated beef really helps elevate the pho broth). NOTE: Cooking in the bowls is the fun/traditional way to do it, but briefly pan frying the beef instead actually gives a slightly better flavor. Alternately, throwing the protein into the pot of broth before ladling is just fine, too, but be careful to not overcook it! Anyway, you do you.

Now that your protein is cooked, instruct your guests to fill the bowl with anything and everything their hearts desire. It's best to go quick and start with the "harder" (mushrooms, herbs) ingredients first, so they have the best chance of cooking through and imparting those delicious flavors. Also, it's possible to put in TOO much stuff (know from experience...), which will cool the broth down too much, so when it doubt, do several smaller bowls to try out different combinations.

Take a few pictures of your masterpiece, stir it all in, let it steep for a couple of minutes, and then dig in! Like everything else with this recipe, there's no wrong way to eat pho. Chop sticks, forks, soup spoons—go at it however you like. And finally, when everyone has tilted up their bowls to drink those last, irresistible drops of soup, store the remaining ingredients in separate containers, and your leftovers will make a delicious stir-fry later in the week!

Well, that's all I've got. If this isn't the perfect recipe for a dinner party (whether it's with friends or a quarantined family, rain or shine, winter or summer), I don't know what is. My family loved getting creative with all of the possibilities, and their end results were (almost) always delicious. Pho night is sure to become a regular at my house, and hopefully it will at yours, too!

#pho #pho night #pho recipe #recipes #cooking #home cooking #dinner party ideas #dinner party #momblr #mumblr #dadblr #vietnamese food #asian food #foodie #foodblogger

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ilovethetalkingclock · 4 years

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A Not-Sew-Magical Sequel (LALALOOPSY CREEPYPASTA)

(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS CONTENT LIKE LANGUAGE, GORE, DEATH, PARASITES, DROWNING AND DARK COMEDY. IF YOU GET SCARED BY THIS, DON'T YELL AT ME FOR IT. YOU CHOSE TO READ IT.)

(story under the cut, based on a dream I had)

(don’t worry, it’s not a screamer, i’d never do that.)

No matter how many years passed and will pass, I liked and will still like Lalaloopsy. All the characters and concepts were and still are very interesting (though Jewel was always my least favorite) and the couple episodes I saw of both the original show and the reboot of Netflix were cute and in the case of the reboot actually very emotional. I also watched all the movies and while a majority of them were slightly flawed one way or another, that didn’t stop them from being good. Hearing the toys being discontinued and the Netflix show canceled indeed made my heart sink.

But that’s not all what I wanted to talk about. Onto Lala-Oopsies.

If you don’t recall, Lala-Oopsies was a spinoff line. As the name suggested, the characters were in mixed rainbow colors and body proportions that deviated from the usual Lalaloopsy dolls, looking like, in my own words, mutants. They came as princess/ballerina hybrids and mermaids, with the ‘Littles’ (which in the original Lalaloopsy line, were the younger sisters) as fairies. They had one movie, “Lala-Oopsies: A Sew Magical Tale”. It was like all the others, cute, a bit funny, and a simple Lalaloopsy adventure with the Lala-Oopsies.

What I never knew was that they were apparently planning on a sequel.

I was at a garage sale of sorts (i know, very cliche) when I found a blank DVD case. Here’s what it read:

“LALA-OOPSIES-SEQUEL(UNFINISHED)”

“Is this a joke?”

“Oh, that!” The owner of the sale noticed me and casually went on “I worked at MGA Entertainment… they were making a sequel to the Lala-Oopsies movie… some guy decided to make that, apparently as a joke, and he was fired as it had quite a bit of… crazy stuff. We decided to cancel it altogether as we didn’t have any other ideas... We were handed copies of it from the guy who made it before he was fired. The footage is all there. There’s a lot more stuff that happened after that, but I don’t really wanna go into full detail. If you wanna know completely, it’s worth only a dollar. Not somethin’ I’d wanna watch again.”

Out of morbid curiosity, I agreed to buy the thing.

So I went home, made sure to get my DVD player on, and opened the case. There were two discs. One that read “MOVIE” and another that just had random scribbles on it. I tried to make out if the second one actually said anything, but I couldn’t read it for shit. I got out the one that read “MOVIE”, making sure it was the film itself, and placed it in.

Hoo boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

There was no menu or trailers, though that was kinda expected considering it was unfinished. It just went straight to the movie.

It all looked official one way or another. Some scenes were fully animated, others were simple animatics, others were in between. But I’ll just say before we get on that it was not at all the usual Lalaloopsy fare. There was no sign of anyone’s pets at all throughout the whole movie. There wasn’t any music, like, at all, and that just made it a bit more unsettling.

Well, most of it wasn’t. It started off like your usual Lalaloopsy movie. Bea was walking down a path and singing a song about math to herself. A rather bad one, if you ask me. So bad, I have easily forgot about it. While walking, she finds the door that leads to Lala-Oopsies Land.

As the first movie took place in mostly a story that Bea was reading, she is surprised that apparently Lala-Oopsies are true. She leaves to find her friends, the rest of the Original 8 to be exact, and tell her all about it. This exchange from the conversation is what mainly caught me off guard.

Jewel: “So you just managed to find something from a story you read once in reality? I don’t believe it one bit.”

Spot: “Jewel. This is felting BEA SPELLS-A-LOT we’re talking about. The brains? The genius? The nerd? The know-it-all? She doesn’t seem to be making it up.”

Was felt their way of saying fuck? That was not in the other Lalaloopsy stuff I knew, as it was aimed at young children. I figured that was at least one of the reasons it was never finished. I decided to keep watching to find more reasons.

The Lalaloopsies were at the door to Lala-Oopsies Land, and as she didn’t believe it before as shown by the previous exchange I wrote about, Jewel was understandably dumbfounded. “Felt me, there really is a Lala-Oopsies Land…”

So of course they all opened the door and entered. Only as it turned out Lala-Oopsies land… wasn’t exactly as the story told.

The skies were orange like the original, but were more of a sickly shade of it. The ground was grey, rotted, and corpse-like. The mushroom ‘trees’ looked much more like actual fungi, and the strawberry-milk rivers and seas looked spoiled and curdled, and I could even make out a skeleton (presumably of a drowned Oopsie) in them. Bea probably put it best.

“Well… it seems the book apparently romanticized a couple details…”

The group decided to venture in and explore anyway. I couldn’t help but bring up the fact that a couple of them coughed quite a bit when they went in. Okay, scratch that, they were coughing violently, like they just inhaled smoke.

Pillow: “Felting seamstress, this place is polluted.”

As they were walking through, some sort of large insectoid jumped right on Peanut’s face Alien-style. Now I could really see why this movie didn’t make it. Obviously, everyone was panicking at the sight and trying to get the bug off. It wasn’t until like half a minute that Bea managed to find a stick on the ground and strongly swatted the insect away from Peanut’s face, though it seemed she also hit the face from this dialogue...

Peanut: “TRY AVOIDING THE FACE YOU IDIOTIC FELTING STITCH.”

...and stabbed the insect multiple times, pink-ish blood spraying from the body, gore getting everywhere. The other seven were so disgusted that Crumbs vomited right on-screen from the sight. Organs were coming out of the creature as Bea stabbed, and as I looked close enough the organs seemed rather human-like. That was pretty weird as the insect didn’t look human at all.

Well at least I found another reason for this movie’s rejection.

Before Bea turned the monster into an unrecognizable bloodied mush, I could make the colors of the insect to be that of the Lala-Oopsies fairy Lilac, hot pink and sky blue. Nah, I’m pretty sure it was just a coincidence. And yet…

Oh, that reminds me of another scene that happened later on.

The eight were venturing on into the islands riding on some sort of old rusted boat they found, and then suddenly some sort of sea serpent or something like that i dunno with the same color scheme as the mermaid Water Lily rose from the rotted strawberry milk oceans. Bea tried to row the boat away, but the monster attacked and even picked Jewel up and devoured her. There wasn’t any doll stuffing or anything cute like that. Jewel’s remains actually spurted crimson blood and human entrails as she was being chomped down on and eventually swallowed. Screaming as if the actress herself was getting violently disemboweled.

I can still hear her agonized screams as I write this, so that’s pretty annoying.

Pillow’s reaction perfectly described mine.

“HOLY FELTING SILK.”

My god... how the heck was a doll said to be sewn from a dress able to have human blood and guts?! Then again, it was a cartoon… a rather gory one if ya ask me.

In all honesty though, Jewel’s death was horrific yet satisfying for me. I never liked her the slightest.

During the attack, Mittens and Spot fell into the strawberry milk ocean as the boat was destroyed. It didn’t show the rest of what happened to them so I can safely assume they were either eaten or drowned. Or both.

So the ones left were Crumbs, Peanut, Dot, Pillow, and Bea.

They latched onto the boat’s remains as they headed to a large island.

The island’s inhabitants were all the princess ballerinas, both in the first movie and toy-exclusive, mutated to grotesque proportions, their hair all mussy and in tangles. Most of the princess’s faces were obscured by their hair, but the ones I was able to see were distorted in such a way I can’t really describe that well, though I’ll admit they looked pretty damn cool. Oh, their clothes were also a wreck too so yeah.

Crumbs became an idiot and decided to go up close to one (can’t remember which, i think it was Saffron?) to try and approach it friendly enough.

Saffron, like a wild animal, lunged at Crumbs and proceeded to violently rip her to shreds, and sure enough it was just as gruesome as Jewel’s death.

I remember just thinking to myself, “what the hell was this person on when making this?”

And yes, the remaining girls were horrified by that too and ran from the princesses as fast as they could.

Remember the scene I mentioned earlier with Peanut apparently getting attacked by that bug? Welp, they didn’t forget about that. Peanut immediately fell over, having a rather violent fit as she struggled for breath, her skin deteriorating as multi-colored insect larva ate their way out of her everywhere, some even lunging out like the chestbursters in Alien. (yes I know I already made that comparison before but still) They then proceeded to lunge at Pillow and devour her alive as she could only scream and the final two, Bea and Dot, could only watch.

As Pillow was honestly one of my most favorite Lalaloopsy, I just felt awful watching that.

Another princess, Anise, which I recognized full and clear with her pink and blue coloring, approached what remained of Pillow and grabbed some of the larvae, putting it in her mouth and devouring it, as her mouth was coated in a rainbow goo like that one My Little Pony episode with the zombies.

I would say it was disgusting, but a mutant doll eating a worm was the least of my worries.

She managed to speak words, which was strange because the princesses here were, again, mostly animalistic. Her voice was rather gravely, only vaguely sounding like the original.

“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING COMING TO A PLACE LIKE THIS?”

Okay, they weren’t even trying with that line.

Anise proceeded to grab Bea and beat her, but thankfully Bea was able to kick Anise right in the face, knocking her out before the grotesquely mutated princess could finish the job. Dot swiftly took Bea’s hand. Struggling to get up at first, the badly bruised Bea managed to get on her feet and run as Anise came to.

As they ran, Bea and Dot finally found the door where they came in. It tugged my heartstrings seeing the two tearfully look back, apparently reminiscing their friends, before leaving Lala-Oopsies Land for good.

It then cut to Bea in bed, very ill. She was apparently covered in radiation tumors and her hair was almost gone. Apparently the island was highly radioactive. Dot was next to her bed in tears, as Bea weakly said her final words.

“I’m sorry, Dot… sorry… for everything...”

Violently coughing blood, Bea finally kicked the bucket as Dot sobbed hysterically. The movie cut to black and ended there with, surprise-surprise, no credits whatsoever.

All I thought of was “How the hell did Bea get sick from radiation poisoning but Dot didn’t?”

So anyway I took the movie disc out and put in the one with all the scribbles.

It was a compilation of recorded clips, all of them surprisingly in the MGA Entertainment headquarters itself I presume.

One clip I remember was a Lala-Oopsies Princess Anise doll flying, chasing a random employee as said employee was in a panic. Yea it was a weird one.

Another consisted of another employee testing out a Princess Juniper doll. As they were squishing the head, (the Lala-Oopsies dolls had squishy foam heads) the doll suddenly started to bleed violently. Not gonna lie, I laughed at what the employee said.

“GOD DAMN IT GARY WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT MAKING THE DOLLS BLEED.”

Last one I remember was two employees talking to each other. One of them asked the other,

“What exactly was your motivation in making this weird-ass movie?”

The other employee just responded in a weird reverse demonic gibberish I didn’t have time to translate. The first employee’s only response was a flat “what”. Exactly my reaction too. I decided that was enough and took out that disc and put it away.

Where’s the case now?

In one of my shelves. I’m keeping it. I just think it’s pretty unique in a way.

Not like it’s cursed or anything.

The End

#lalaloopsy #lala oopsies #creepypasta #story #my art #trollpasta (mostly cause theres quite a bit of comedy elements)#scary #horror #death tw #dolls tw #body horror tw #parasites tw #gore tw

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vesuvian-american · 5 years

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How The Main 6 Handle STRESS!

Here’s a headcanon on how our babies handle stress and what to do to help them!!!! Let’s get into it! Enjoy!!!

Asra:

He rambles

He loses his cool

He’s really fidgety and cant seem to keep cool

He can also be a bit ill tempered but he never does anything to be rude to you

He just has little patience in stressful times

Like, if he stubs his toe while he’s trying to rush and do work around the shop

You’ll seem him ball up his fist and throw out a few curses before getting back to the task at hand

He needs some tea and a break

Make him up a nest of blankets and soft pillows and let him take a nap

Dont leave his side though

Just sit or lay with him while he rests, let him lay his head on your chest and play in those ivory curls of his

Forehead kiss him

Nadia:

She’s always been prone to headaches

But her stress headaches are a whole different breed

Nadia has never really had the patience for much of anything but please, don’t let the poor servants on her bad side during stressful times

She’s frazzled, irritable, all and all just not her usual self

One time, you caught her with two different pairs of shoes on

She just doesn’t pay much attention to detail when she is stress out

She needs a spa day

Take her to relax in the bath, have her hair washed and braided up, and order her a massage

While she takes a few hours off, please, help take the load off of her for a bit

Have all of the palace help come to you if they need anything, for the rest of the day you will be handling all of the Countess’ work

And you’ll be happy to do so

Get her some of her favorite wine and join her in bed for a well needed nights rest

Julian:

Our Julian, he’s almost always stressed over something

Except, that’s minor or acute stress

He’ll be clumsy, never stop talking, he’ll stutter here and there

But

When he’s really stressed over something huge

He’ll be quiet

And that’s really odd behavior from him so instantly you’re worried

He’ll chock himself full of coffee and just work on whatever he’s working on

You can ask if he’s okay but he’ll just respond with monotone short answers, its not to be cold but he’s just focused and in the zone while also internally freaking out

“I’m quite alright darling, no worries” :)

Give him a cold glass of tea, to combat the hot coffee, maybe chamomile to calm his nerves and tire him out

Without taking him from his work just yet, give him a deep massage on his neck and shoulders until he finally resigns himself into your touch

Get him out the house so he can forget about his stress for a while and then that night, have Mazelinka make that famous soup to put him to sleep

Muriel:

Muriel is always fairly quiet and reserved

He’s a man of few words

But when he’s stressed out and worried he seems to be a little more talkative

Every few minutes he’ll have a question to ask

“Does it hurt?”

“Are you okay?”

“What’s taking Asra so long?”

“Do you need something?”

From time to time you’ll have to hush him, because still even though he’s not saying much, this is a bblot for him so you know his mind is running a mile a minute

Just take him outside of the hut and into the forest for a while

He loves nature, so be out and immersed in it calms his nerves

You, Muriel, and Inanna all out in the forest on a walk picking flowers, berries and mushrooms

That will calm him down

Portia:

Poor baby girl!

She is really frazzled, she makes a lot of slip ups, a lot of stuttering, and her face is just constantly red

Her hair is going every which way, she becomes very forgetful too

She almost left the cottage to get to work on time without even getting out of her pajamas, she just woke up and ran out the door

She constantly feels like she has to do it all, she was Nadia’s most trusted servant, now she’s been promoted

But she still hovers around the servants and helps them with their duties, especially the new hires

Please, sit her down and get her a day off from work

Of course Nadia will say yes because she’s been worried sick about her too

“Don’t kill yourself for your work Portia”

She’ll sigh and try to protest but you really have to trap her in the cottage for a day to get her a break

Or go to the Rowdy Raven to give her time to let loose and to really truly get her away from the palace

She’ll really appreciate it at the end of the day, and the next day, she’ll have another day off while you nurse her hangover!

Lucio:

He really becomes a pouty baby

When there is work to be done and a million people are pulling him in a million different directions, give him a helping hand

You definitely want to help him become a better Count to Vesuvia and to do that there will have to be a lot to heal and reconstruct in the palace and out

The flooded district, the southend, the red market, the courtiers, the dark past of the coliseum, unhappy and fearful citizens

It all needs to be healed, and not by you, by him

That’s out of his element, he’s not a good people person like he previously thought, but with your guidance, he’ll make it through

But during this process, he’s completely and utterly stressed out, he’s damn near lost his ability to function he just wants to scream

He feels like he doesn’t have anytime to be himself, he’s pulling his hair out, his clothes dont match, he’s being rude to people

Get him out of Vesuvia

Go on an adventure

Show him the world in a more positive light without him thinking about conquering new lands, or “What will Vesuvia do without me?”

“They’ll be just fine Lucio, Nadia’s back there handling some business while we’re gone.. You need time to relax.”

He sees the world in a new light with you, he’s curious, happy, laughing, and really, truly, genuinely, enjoying his time out on the spontaneous journey

Having visited far away lands, he’s seen what he wanted for Vesuvia

And together, you both went back and made it happen

That was the first time in a long time he hadn’t thought about being a “bad” Count and/or being a ghost goat demon spirit thingy, he was free and happy to find the new him

The true him

#hc #headcanon #the arcana #The Arcana Game #main 6

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cursewoodrecap · 4 years

Text

Session 15: Burn the Temple, Topple the Thorns

We may have stretched the bounds of simple country hospitality too far.

Underground, Valeria and Clem consider a pressing question: are there any doors they can go through where they DON’T have to talk to the smug hobbit man? Good cave walls make good neighbors.

Investigating around can’t hurt, right? Clem picks a door at random - maybe all the cheesecaves are connected, like one big Cheesecave Factory - and peers in with her darkvision.

Not the next one over, but the one after that, since. Maybe they’re connected. Clem peers into the gloom of the cave with her darkvision, and can make out some lumpy outlines. As she creeps in, the ground under her feet feels disturbingly soft.

“Should I get the light?” asks Valeria. Clem nods. Valeria lights up A-Luxor. As the little floating beetle fills the cave with light, they see there is a carpet of fungus on the ground. Up against one wall, half-formed, a large, vaguely humanoid figure is growing out of this patch of fungus.

Valeria is like, “That’s horrifying. I was gonna just leave and shut the door? But we have to do something about that.” Clem agrees. Maybe they should set it on fire. As the half-formed creature stirs in the sudden light, she glimpses a small barrel someone has wedged into a nearby pillar. Oh, huh, there’s a length of fuse coming out of it. What on earth could this be?

We could sit here and wonder why this thing is rigged to explode, but the fungus creature is moving and growing in the light. The misshapen lump where a head would be pulls free and turns toward the two adventurers. With a massive effort, a big clublike arm tears away from the wall and slugs Valeria.

The other arm and legs don’t look fully formed, and Clem wastes no time hacking at the weak points with her sword. The body is soft and incomplete; there’s something fleshy underneath, but if there was ever a person in there, it’s long gone. It’s almost dead – this thing would have been a real monster if it had finished growing, but as it is it’s weak and unprepared. Valeria chops its bulbous head off, and it slops to the ground with a sickening flop. The thing lurches over and falls.

As it does so, a red splotch appears in the mottled green blanket of fungus over the walls, spreading rapidly outward.

Clem doesn’t like the look of that. “…should we run?”

Valeria shrugs. “We probably shouldn’t stay overnight. Maybe we just leave and close the door?”

The spreading red patch reaches a bulbous puffball mushroom bulging out of the corner, which turns a pulsing red and begins to emit an earsplitting, high pitched scream.

Oops.

Gral and Shoshana are skedaddling, because the temple worshippers have started gathering up torches and particularly sharp farm implements - you know, good old-fashioned angry mob stuff. Luckily, Gral and Shosha have enough warning to get well away before they come pouring out, making a beeline for the inn, so the spellcasters scoot back to the meeting place without detection. Rebecca’s hiding in the bushes right where she said she’d be.

“I got your friends to the safehouse, they’re fine,” she reassures them, with full dramatic irony.

They head a ways through the valley, but it’s not long before the torches in the distance make a sudden sharp turn and start heading down road we’ve been going down.

“Rebecca, they don’t know where the safehouse is, right?”

“No!”

“Because they’re coming right for us. They couldn’t have seen us, could they?”

The mob hasn’t even gotten to the inn yet; they can’t have already discovered we’re gone.

They hear a rustling from the wheat field.

They fuckin’ book it.

The awful sound echoes through the room. As similar screaming starts to emerge from the adjacent caves as well, the door that Rebecca had originally indicated flies open, and a bunch of figures hurry out, pulling on bags and cloaks.

“What the hell happened?” someone shouts. “Are those the people Rebecca was bringing?!”

“Quickly! Zis place is burned. Set off ze charges.” A Demish voice begins snapping orders. Torches light up as figures of all shapes and sizes start running toward cave doors.

A short silhouette glares up at the tanks. “Oh. I see. Bonjour.”

Clem audibly sighs.

Henri has no time for this. “You have no idea what you’ve done here, do you?” he hisses. “Before you begin with ze noble indignant speech, now is not ze time. Run! Stay out of ze fields!”

They don’t need telling twice. Valeria and Clem charge back down the path to meet up with the spellcasters.

Gral and Shoshana hear screaming, and see their allies abandoning all stealth and clattering towards them.

Behind them, the hills explode in cascading showers of soil and flame.

Rebecca’s aghast. “They’ve been using them for months now! What happened!”

Clem humphs. “I guess this is what happens when you build a safehouse among FUNGAL ALARMS.”

“But there was a system! They had a thingthat let them turn one off every night! There was a system!”

Clem wisely chooses to omit some details. “…seems like a flawed system.”

Rebecca does not have time to unpack this right now. “What did Henri say to do?”

“Run.”

“Where?”

“THAT WAS NOT INDICATED.”

She swears. “The cultists are coming this way – we don’t have a lot of time. I know some places we could try to hide. My dad, though - he’s back at the inn, I don’t know if he’s safe-”

There are too many of the cultists between us and the inn, though, so she leads us away from the awakening wheat fields to the thicker, less-tamed trees by the river. We find the densest brush we can, Minor Image up some extra shrubbery, and hunker down.

We can clearly see the cultists’ movements by the burning lights of their torches. They reach the destroyed caves and start to fan out, breaking into 2- or 3-person search parties, soon joined by silhouettes that emerge from the wheat fields. For the time being, our hiding place seems to go unnoticed.

What’s our plan now? Hunker and wait out the night? Now that the search parties are more scattered, we could make moves back to town, Trollsburg, or even Sturmhearst, or to cross the river.

Rebecca wants to check on her father, but she’s gonna follow our lead. We’re worried that even her tentative safety has been compromised; after this, the cultists might not bother hiding during the day anymore.

As we bicker, Shoshana surveys the area. Pretty much the only place the cultists aren’t searching is the temple itself.

...hey.

Temple’s empty.

What if we burned down the temple while everyone was out?

It’s alarming how quickly the group agrees to arson.

(In deference to previous campaigns: If we find any big fancy chairs, we will knock them over, as well.)

Rebecca does not want to be there while we burn down the temple, understandably. We direct her to Trollsburg, which the townsfolk should leave alone – tell Dr. Kjeller we sent her. She slips off into the night, and we shift from defense to offense.

As we roll stealth, Shoshana crits and everyone can see the change come over her. She now has a target, and the part of her that belongs to the Hunt…goes on the hunt. Her posture changes, ever so subtly. The way she peers into the darkness makes her eyes seem even more inhuman, gleaming in the darkness. And the shadows curl around her just a little bit more.

We sneak back to the temple, the predator’s instinct guiding us deftly around our pursuers.

It appears that the temple is not wholly unguarded. There’s three people Gral can see backlit against the windows, and none of them are Zelig. Hans and Franz still have bits of the floorboard peeled up. They’ve revealed more of the fungal carpet underneath, and they’re examining it and discussing what they see in hushed tones. The fungus is a riot of shifting colors; it’s almost like they’re reading it. There’s a third man there, a farmer, and soon enough Hans and Frans tell the third guy something and he immediately runs off.

“All the plants are informants for them,” Gral realizes aloud. “They’re getting info here. They know where everyone in the valley is.”

“Oh, good thing we’re gonna burn it then.”

Valeria goes ahead and casts Aid, because this is likely to get hairy, and Shoshana turns back to the party and grins a fanged grin.

“Firesong taught me this one,” she says, and hucks a Fireball through the window.

Subtle? No. Satisfying? Oh, yes.

Hans and Franz, coughing in the smoke, pick themselves off the ground and dive for weapons. It’s obvious the blast has done some heavy damage to them. (And to their clothes. Scantily clad buff men, hell yeah.)

Hans bursts out of the door, swinging a heavy fencepost with nails pounded through it, clobbering the first Clem he sees. We thought he was buff this morning, but he’s grown impossibly more swole. A button pops off his overalls as his inflated muscles bulge out of them.

The temple begins to fill with smoke as the fire catches. We hear that awful alarm-mushroom screaming again.

Shoshana cackles and Fireballs the place again.

Valeria pulls out her trident with a flourish and forks Hans right in his big unnaturally round pectoral, Rack’s vines curling around him. We’ve leveled up and she gets two attacks now, so she pops him again, and Hans crumples to the ground – we’re not sure he’s DEAD dead, but he’s out of the fight.

Franz levels his big-ass crossbow at the madly cackling witch in the window. HAHAHAHHAAHAHA-oh shit. She gets blown out the window, along with 2/3 of her HP in one shot.

Clem takes a cue from Shoshana and gets WAY too into this, cackling and swinging in with her big ol’ sword. These fellas have ogre stats, but she’s a veteran badass and cleaves Franz right in two. An on-the-spot medicine check from the medic reveals that…those are definitely not fully human insides. Ew.

She flexes over his corpse in a final show of superiority. She got these muscles WITHOUT juicin’, thank you very much.

The two halves of Franz fall heavily, crashing through the weakening floorboards and revealing a cavernous space underneath the burning temple structure. The fungal carpet is very on fire. (In Shoshana’s opinion it could stand to be MORE on fire, though.)

Alarms are coming from both the temple and the carpet. Gral listens for anything else, but he can’t hear whether the townsfolk are coming over the roar of the growing blaze. Maybe we jump down there and investigate? Or do we dip out?

Screw it. There’s a tempting hole, full of danger.

Clem rips off both her sleeves and uses one as a smoke facemask.

We gotta make sure this thing burns for good. We jump in the curse hole, because of course we do. It’s more of a basement than a cave, really. The flames from the floor above illuminate some crates and shelves and boxes – normal basement stuff. (Shoshana rolls a nat 1 perception, and so is too busy cackling at fire like a terrible arson goblin.)

One side looks like the shrine to Guile, hidden as shrines to Guile always are. There’s also an empty throne for Oberok, per tradition. It falls over.

On the other side, though, there’s storage - tables stacked up for banquets, picnic tables, chairs. One big chair has been dragged out, and an imposing figure sits, staring at us impassively. Rose vines have grown out from the chair, wrapping around his heavily armored limbs.

His armor gleams with polish, though leaves poke through the seams, and his closed helmet is sculpted to fit the face of a dragonborn. It clangs as he jerkily stands to his full height.

“Marius?” Valeria gasps.

The rose-bound knight draws a trident and turns to us. The vines behind him start to wriggle and writhe as he moves.

His purple cloak of office is missing. Valeria feels it hang heavy about her shoulders.

His mouth moves as if he’s about to speak, and silent rose petals fall softly out.

Shoshana doesn’t trust this. She casts Mirror Image, the flickering fire-shadow playing games with her figure. Marius’ head tilts as he focuses in on her, the thrower of the fireballs, so the squishy sorceress dives behind her bulkier friends for extra cover. Gral follows suit and dashes the other way, spreading out the party. The knight that might be Kyr Marius hefts a mighty trident and hurls it, nailing Clem. Vines burst forth from his gauntlet and snatch the trident as it hits true, snapping it back to his hand.

Marius had a magic gauntlet that did that, but he would do it with Rack’s glowing ethereal rose vines, not these squirming physical ones. Valeria, hesitating, hopes that if he’s using his same fighting style, there might be something left of her beloved mentor inside this growth-encrusted enemy.

Clem second winds, in preparation for Doing Something Stupid, and charges Marius directly. Bracing himself against her blow, Marius reaches out to one side and fires a blast of vines at Gral, who finds himself bound in foliage but manages to resist being dragged into sword range.

As Valeria and Clem rush to engage, the knight’s faceplate opens to reveal a familiar silver face, webbed over by the delicate tendrils of roots and sprouts. He breathes not a cloud of cold, as Valeria would expect, but a barrage of toxic spores and razor-sharp seeds. Rose vines climb through the cellar floor at Valeria’s feet, tangling and impeding her movements, but only seeming to aid the knight’s passage as he glides effortlessly to where Gral is held in place by vines.

Valeria had hoped to be able to cut the vines away to disconnect Marius from the Growth’s control, but as he moves away from his makeshift throne we can see most of the plants under his armor are untethered, growing out of his body. As she moves to tear Gral free with her claws, bits of charred ceiling begin to rain down around us.

Oh, right, the building’s on fire.

Shoshana pew-pews over a few spare pews, but her spells bounce off his armor, and Gral’s fear effects are just as ineffective.

Kyr Marius draws his sword, long-thorned vines growing from out of his gauntlet to wrap around it, a warped mirror-image of how Valeria’s smites manifest. He moves swiftly, pinning Gral with his trident and plunging in his sword for the killing blow - luckily only destroying Gral’s illusory duplicate, but brutally efficient nonetheless. Whatever this knight is, it’s certainly retained the veteran paladin’s skill.

Valeria bites the bullet and abandons her hesitation, imposing herself like a protective wall between her mentor and her friend. Nose-to-nose with him, his faceplate hanging open, she can see just how much the Growth has infested the once-mighty paladin. Tiny sprouts creep out from under his silver scales, thorns nesting side-by-side with his fangs and a riot of green plant matter all down his snarling throat. His eyes are gone, vibrant roses blooming in the empty sockets.

This...this is not a living dragonborn knight, by any metric. Kyr Marius is gone, and has been for a long time.

Turns out the Growth can’t really corrupt paladins much, but it can certainly make use of them.

Another chunk of the ceiling falls in, narrowly missing Shoshana. She lobs another Chromatic Orb at Marius, but again it breaks harmlessly on his armor.

The vines across the floor continue to expand around the party, blooming into roses with long, deadly thorns.

Marius swings in at Valeria. She catches it on the Eyegis, which blinks back at him. Marius does not blink back at it, his flower eyes entirely impassive.

Gral throws a Faerie Fire. Marius cannot get out of the way, but he crosses his arms in a defensive stance as vines cocoon him, absorbing the Faerie Fire, and he bursts free unmarked. He focuses in on Gral, raining blows down, an implacable, inevitable executioner.

Valeria interposes herself again, forcing Marius to take his attention off the bard. His sickly green vines wrestle with her glowing, translucent ones as her mighty Smite meets his swinging blade.

It’s eerie how little he reacts to Valeria’s sword tearing into him, an unstoppable automaton of plant.

One more Chromatic Orb fails. Shoshana, in frustration and fear at seeing her friends get clobbered, dashes forwards toward the melee.

Marius raises a wall of thorns around himself, finally acting in defense even as his face shows no pain. He looks like he might be preparing to heal himself.

Luckily, Gral’s got a way of dealing with walls. He strikes a minor key and passes through the thorn wall, zipping behind Marius and nocking one of his Heart-Seeking Bolts. The advantage granted allows Gral to bury it into a crack in the silver armor for a whopping 20 damage. Marius retaliates, whirling to hurl his trident, but it barely damages the half-solid orc.

Clementine tires of this fight. She charges through the wall of thorns – damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead – and swings in brutally for three hits, three maneuvers. 43 damage on a SINGLE TURN. Frickin’ Battlemasters!

Just as the vine-encrusted knight is distracted by Gral, Clem drives her greatsword straight into his chest, and SUPLEXES HIM INTO THE GROUND. He crashes to the ground, Clem’s full weight driving the blade in to the hilt.

Marius briefly tries to move. We can see through his damaged armor that it’s more like the vines are moving him than he is moving himself. But there’s just not enough knight left for the vines. He slumps with a spore-heavy gasp, his weapons clattering to the ground.

Kyr Marius of the Order of the Rose is dead. But we suspect he has been for a very, very long time.

We look to Valeria. She kneels by the body, solemnly collecting his weapons and his magic gauntlet, but laying his engraved dagger upon his chest, the one Flynn found in the hands of a fungus creature far down the river.

As Valeria kneels and offers a prayer to Rack, giving Marius what last rites she can, the rest of us take our last chance to case the basement before we flee the blaze.

We find mushrooms and fire. Whatever symbols and tools the cultists had were either made of ephemeral plants or upstairs and on fire. We kick over the rose-entwined chair, though. Fuck that chair.

Valeria stands, finishing her achingly brief farewell. There’s nothing left for us here, and the fire is threatening to overwhelm the temple.

The plants’ screeching has stopped; the puffball mushroom alarms seem to have burned. The room is full of thick, choking smoke and leaping flames, but it’s a small room and we’re PCs. We charge at top speed out through the collapsing walls, escaping with only moderate burns seconds before the roof falls in and the temple collapses entirely.

As we cough the smoke out of our lungs, we’re immediately on the defense - surely the villagers will have noticed their temple going up in flames, and we’re gonna need to dodge pitchforks.

Or...are we? The torchlights are still speckled across the valley. There are villagers on the road up to the temple, but they’ve collapsed to the ground, their torches flickering where they’ve fallen in the dirt. We cautiously approach and realize they are writhing and moaning in awful pain, as if they’re experiencing the fire firsthand.

“Good,” Valeria whispers viciously. It’s hard to tell whether there’s a trace of Hunt in her voice or simply raw, bitter grief.

Clem does a quick medical once-over of the nearest fallen farmer. Judging by this guy, the cultists aren’t quite fully human - there’s fungal growth under the skin, though not to the bulging extent of Hans and Franz. The feel of the growths isn’t quite like human muscles; they’re lumpy, like clay slapped onto a human figure by clumsy hands, tumors rather than integrated, natural growth.

Other than that there’s nothing physically wrong with them to be causing such pain, though they seem absolutely furious - Clem’s patient spits and tries to claw at Clem’s throat, but is too weak to do much more than twitch.

Valeria’s heard stories about this kind of thing. In her lessons about demonic cults, she’s heard of groups that form a pseudo-hive mind with their dark master. When the paladins would strike down the creature, the followers are struck down with sympathetic psychic pain. In especially entangled cases, usually the cults’ high priests, the mental blow is enough to kill them. Most followers just suffer incredible pain as the link to is severed, but physically will recover fully.

We don’t know if they’ll still be cultists when they wake up. The entity’s control will be severed, but they’ll still be the same people who willingly joined up in the first place.

If they won’t be down for good, we gotta get the hell out of here, stat. We book it to the inn to see what’s become of our guide Rebecca and her dad Aaron. At the inn, a battered-looking Aaron is pulling himself together as Rebecca helps him to his feet. Surrounding them are a few of the cultists, knocked out by the psychic feedback.

As Valeria rushes to Lay on Hands, Rebecca frets. “You’re back - what the hell did you do tonight?!” The, the temple’s on fire, and they were hurting my dad-”

“Oh, I did most of this to myself,” Aaron interrupts. “It was my cover story, I was gonna tell ‘em the four of you had broken out, grabbed Rebecca and run across the river. But they weren’t especially interested in listening.”

Valeria nods as she heals him, but doesn’t trust herself to talk. Gral takes over instead. “They’re disabled for now, no time to talk. Let’s get to Trollsburg.”

“Trollsburg? That thing Zelig was building?”

“Yeah. For now, it should be safe - nobody’s gonna try attacking a whole settlement of trolls. We’ll see how much damage the cult actually took in the morning.”

We hustle down to the river. Behind us, slowly, the lights from the search parties begin to move again, disorganized and scattered. Most head directly for the temple, the fire still blazing starkly against the night sky.

At the bridge, the massive overgrown troll Kjell is shouting in pain on the bank. “Ugh, what’s...happening...” he moans, clutching at his side. He doesn’t seem to be knocked for as much of a loop as the cultists, but something’s definitely not right.

Valeria approaches cautiously and gives him a Curing Disease worth of Lay on Hands. There’s a flash of anger in his eyes as if he’s about to unthinkingly strike her, but she calms him for long enough to take the cure, and it seems to soothe his pain.

The big troll rubs at his side exhaustedly. “Uh, thank you, shiny lady. That, that was – I dunno, that was somethin’ nasty. It started around the same time as the big fire. Woke me up! Woss goin’ on?”

Shoshana tries to give him a brief rundown. “I don’t want to alarm you, but the fungus we were talking about earlier, I think it might have started to infect you-”

“An infection?! I should wake up the phee-zee-ologist then!” Seems he’s already managed that; trolls do not suffer quietly, and three trolls are coming down the hill to see what all the yelling’s about. In the light of A-Luxor, we can see Dr. Kjeller in the lead, wielding the crude glaive he calls his amputatin’ stick.

“Hey, uh, woss goin’ on out here?! Did you folks have somethin’ to do with that there fire?”

“Uh, yyyyyes?” Gral admits, trying to figure out how to simplify the situation for trolls. “The danger was in the church. Many of the villagers were trying to trick you. Whatever Kjell got, they were trying to infect you all with it.”

Kjell sees the doctor and interrupts. “When the temple started burnin’ it hurt right here – “

“Where?”

He points to a spot on his abdomen, and Dr. Kjeller immediately swings his doctorin’ stick, expertly cutting out the bit pointed to. Man, troll regeneration makes surgery easy.

The Doc pulls out an extra-large jeweler’s loop and crams it into his eye as he pulls apart the hunk of flesh with his claws. “Yeup, that’s a fungus all right. This was growin’ inside you? Does it still hurt?”

“Uh, yes?” Kjell points to the bleeding hole in his stomach.

“That’ll pass, you’re a healthy troll. What happened in dat spot? I need yer medical history. Let me find your chart.” He listens to Kjell’s abdomen. “Arright, chartbeat sounds good.”

Clem, in all her medical knowledge, has no idea what a “chart” is, but the Doc was damn sure not listening to the heart area. Dr. Kjeller cheerfully neglects to explain.

“Yep, that’ll grow back soon enough. Don’t worry about it,” he tells the larger troll, who seems to be recovering quickly. “What happened there?”

“I remember I got hurt at one point? A beastie from the wood attacked me. Hit me with some kinda acid, an’ it didn’t grow back like normal. But that nice lady Zelig came by and healed me with magics. A real nice lady, she was.”

“So...Zelig is the one spreading the illness,” we tell the trolls. They’re pretty well convinced, given the hunk o’junkus in Kjell’s gut.

“All the villagers are behind this?”

“Some of them. Maybe most? It’s hard to tell. They can look like normal villagers,” Gral explains. “They’ve been infected a lot more than Kjell was; they can’t think straight. We’ve brought two who are okay.”

Kjell brightens at the sight of the innkeeper’s daughter. “Oh, I know Rebecca! She used ta bring me rabbits! Hiya, Aaron!”

“Hi, Kjell,” the innkeeper smiles tiredly.

“How’s the leg?”

He blinks. “That was 12 years ago?”

“...So, is it better, then? You humans don’t heal.”

“We do, just slower!”

“Dat sounds real inconvenient,” the troll says, his gaping wound already starting to close.

Dr. Kjeller clears his throat. “Well. I tink we are going to have a discussion. You folks are welcome to wait in my house. This is a very important business that must be discussed, but it is troll business.”

That seems reasonable. Shoshana raises a hand. “Can we pass out?”

“If you deem it medically necessary. Would you like me to carry you, so you may pass out earlier?”

“Um, no, that’s okay.”

He says something similar to “gather round” in a guttural language vaguely like Old Valdian, and the trolls gather and begin a heated discussion.

As all 12 trolls hurry over and join the discussion, Rebecca whispers, “Are we gonna be safe here?”

Gral gets Rebecca up to speed on what we know about the trolls, and how except for Kjell they all seem to be unaffected by the Growth. We’re as safe as we’re gonna get in this valley, at least for now.

“Great, I’m gonna fall asleep now,” she tells us. “It’s been a day.”

We start our rest but keep watches. About an hour or two later, Dr Kjeller returns to the house. “We have reached an accord,” he tells us solemnly. “We intend to leave.

“There are still many villagers, and we can see ‘em massing on the other side of the river. We trolls do not wish war. Now, we are pretty mad - lotsa folks had some thoughts about waging war against these people who tried to trick us. We don’t appreciate dat. But we must consider the eyeballs.

“If a group of trolls is invited to a place, and then attacks dat place and wipes it out, that would be very bad eyeballs. Bad for public troll families. No, not eyeballs, what was the word dat guy used? Optics. Yes, the eyeballs would be very bad.

“In da morning, we intend to depart from this place. Without the town, the moot can’t happen. There’s just not enough food. Well, there is, but now we can’t trust it. I will keep an eye on poor Kjell, he’ll travel with me a bit. He has a good heart, and a good chart. His dart I’m a little worried about, sounds like dat lady might have made it extra big to impress all us other trolls. I wish to keep him under observation; dunno what other conditions may happen if dat lady isn’t boosting him with her evil magics.

We will travel south in the morning. This area is dangerous...but we are twelve trolls. Once we are a ways from the valley, we will disperse. Kjell will stay with me and serve as my assistant and bodyguard. You see, sometimes I do an autopsy but lotsa creatures want to feed on the body so I need someone to stand there and guard it. Y’know, a body guard.”

The party considers our options. We’re missing one last plant for our spell, but the trolls will probably be willing to stop briefly for some flower-pickin’. It’s not like we’re gonna run into trouble with a frickin’ CR 25 encounter as our escort. Also, we need to stop by Sturmhearst - we should at least let Flynn and Fiona know what’s up.

We go back to the trolls, and realize Kjell is crying. “I must demolish my bridge,” he explains. “We must stop them from following us.” He built that bridge with his own hands; it’s a sad occasion. As the crew of trolls help him break it down, he gathers a bunch of the stones into a backpack.

“There there, Kjell,” says the doctor. “Remember, a troll’s home is not da bridge they live under. Your home is where your hearts is. Or you can do what I do.” He pulls off his hat and reaches inside, pulling out a toy-sized stone bridge. “A troll may live under a bridge, but a bridge does not need to cross a river.”

It’s probably very touching, if you’re a troll. Anyway, we’re going the heck to bed, and awkwardly trying to be stoic as Valeria cries quietly during her evening prayers.

In the morning, we can see a group of enraged villagers standing guard on the other side of the river, fuming impotently. But they wisely choose not to pick a fight.

We stay by the bank long enough to find a nice patch of Norbert’s Wort for our spell, and then make tracks to the annex. We enter the Sturmhearst camp around noon; trolls are hardly fast-moving. The trolls are wary of the annex proper; they’re well aware of what those flamethrowers can do. They’re just gonna go have a lovely picnic and we can catch up later.

Professor Ulmus greets us. “Welcome back! What’s that commotion out there, sounds like a pack of trolls stomping through.”

SO, ABOUT THAT.

We give her, Flynn, and Fiona a rundown and let them know the villagers are now incredibly hostile.

Flynn stands, reaching to buckle on his sword. “Sounds like we must set out immediately and defeat this evi!l”

“The...one we burned in the temple basement?”

“Aw, you’ve already defeated the evil? Is there any evil left to defeat? I’ve been off my game.”

Shoshana sighs. “So, I hesitate to tell you this, but I know your sister will pick you up and carry you in the opposite direction if you do anything stupid.” Fiona nods, and Shoshana explains that Zelig the evil ex-druid is still up and about, and she’ll be surrounded by cultists.

“Hmm. Well, I’m up for some heroics, but an entire town of cultists? I’m probably not up for quite that much heroics yet. Are you intending to stick around and hunt her down?”

“No, we were thinking we’d head for Mornheim and get our ritual done.”

“Yes, I’d rather this cult did not besiege my campus to get at you; it would be disruptive to our experiments,” Professor Ulmus snarks dryly. As we explain the trolls’ plans, though, a change comes over her and she interrupts us excitedly.

“Wait, Dr. Kjeller is here? I’ve been a fan of his work for quite some time. He wrote a paper – well, a sheepskin – on troll regenerative physiology – one of the best resources we have. His notes are succinct and, well, rudimentary, but there’s more insight there than anyone at Sturmhearst has ever provided! This could be key to my work!”

Uh, sure? We lead her over to trolls and she instantly begins an enthusiastic if baffling conversation with Dr Kjeller. As thet’re excitedly talking, Shoshana feels something tugging at her skirt. It is a squirrel, exhibiting troubling un-squirrel-like behavior. It chitters, tugs again pointedly, and runs into bushes.

Sure, what the hell. She gives a quick heads up to the team and hustles into the woods after the squirrel. Predictably, it takes her right to our grumpy druid friend, perched on a tree stump. “What the hell did you kids get up to last night All my sources are going crazy! I’ve got reports from every bird in the valley, chittering my ear off saying explosions, the temple burned down - hell, half the sources I have are saying other half are compromised! Ya kicked up a hornets nest! And then burned it down!!”

Shoshana gives him the summary, and tells him she might have figured out where the Mother Tree’s last guardian went. He nods at her description of Zelig. “Yup, that’s her. Explains why she abandoned her post, I guess. That’s another one fallen. At least it was the shroomheads this time.”

“As opposed to?”

“I’ve heard some stories. The more sociable ones, the shroom heads get em. My kind are pretty susceptible to that, you can imagine. It’s a pretty lonely life, doin’ what we do, and that whole sense of bein’ part of something greater – that’s not too far from what we do normally. And we like helpin’ things grow. Doin’ our thing and getting to be with people, that’s a hard offer to resist. But ya don’t have to worry ‘bout me, I don’t like people.

“Other types go in with the wolf guys. They go all dark and weird. They get like - y’know, I’ve seen a wolf bring down a deer midstride, yada yada the circle of life, that’s how nature be. So it can be hard to tell how many are just acceptin’ that cycle, and how many are, uh, takin’ a more active role in it, if ya get my drift.

“Still. Knowing she was behind it – I wasn’t gonna speak ill of another druid till I had proof, but it’s somethin’ else to hear it for real.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, you burned the central colony right after they all re-upped their connection; that’s gonna hurt a lot. They deserved it, probably. Anyway, Zelig’s operation in this area’s blown to shit. Dunno if she’ll stick around, maybe she’ll decide it’s time to seek more fertile pastures, as it were. I gotta stick around and guard the Mother Tree, so I’ll keep an eye out.

Not gonna lie, this was a mess. But it was more their mess than my mess, so I do owe ya one. My name’s Zalman. You can reach out to me with a message spell or somethin’, and I won’t just tell you to go fuck yourself, I’ll see what I can do. I got a lot of work to do here – you’ve given me a chance to reclaim the place.”

Shoshana shrugs uncomfortably. “Eh, my talents seem to be more for destroying than for fixing.”

“Then destroy the right thing! It goes against everything us druids stand for, but maybe we need a little fire.”

“Well, after a forest fire things regrow, right?”

“No, WE do that! It’s like a druid convention! Anyway. If you see the old bastard or his wife, treat ‘em as respectfully as you can, but tell ‘em I’d like a word. Where have they been in all this?!” He walks away grumbling, turning into a badger mid-grumble. He’s still kind of grumbling in badger.

She gets back to the annex just as Drs. Ulmus and Kjeller are saying their goodbyes.

“Thank you, Doctor! I look forward to corresponding!”

“I, too, look forward to the core of our spondence.”

As Ulmus fruitlessly tries to find out a nomadic troll’s address, Shoshana sidles up to Valeria. “You okay? I dunno if you want us to leave it alone, or to say something...”

Valeria twists her claws into her cloak, fiddling with the fabric and not meeting the sorcerer’s eyes. “...Thanks.”

The paladin is retreating into Stoic Hero Is Not Allowed To Have Feelings mode, so she’s not gonna talk about it, but she will allow a shoulder bonk of solidarity, and maybe even a light side hug.

We roll against taint as we trek out of the Growth’s domain. We all scrape by, Valeria turning down a deal from the Growth as she does.

#session recap #the growth #bad herzfeld #valeria argent #gral omokk'duu #clem haxan #shoshana bat chaya #professor ulmus #flynn fairgold #fiona fairgold #dr kjeller #druid devito #the cursewood

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askponevernites · 5 years

Text

Indignant Beginnings [Fort Tartarus]

26th Radiane, 817

Tempest Shadow’s eyes watered as Acacia Thorn smeared a yellow paste under each of her eyes. Changeling paste made with only cave-available ingredients worked, but that didn’t make it pleasant to wear. Nothing else happened, except the worsening of her mood. “Do you make every lone traveler go through this?”

“I make everypony do this.” Acacia hooved her a damp rag to wipe the noxious stuff away. “If the bugs capture the arrival tunnel, our newbies are all doomed. Can’t afford to let even one slip by.”

Tempest cleaned her face and all but threw the rag back at her. “They seem pretty doomed right now by the ‘caravan’ of pony bandits you let in.”

“Shut up and get in,” Acacia ground out. Her prosthetic left wing twitched in a stressed tic as she opened the gate.

Tempest stepped into Fort Tartarus. This small outpost was originally built around a distinct exit-only portal, through which all ponies (and some unruly livestock) exiled by the Empire arrived. Then, a few years prior, the sagging earth beneath the portal gave way into a massive sinkhole, demolishing half the fort and shattering the delicate magic that kept arrivals appearing in the same single place. Now they arrived in seemingly random locations in the tunnel exposed by the sinkhole. Most arrivals still made it in one piece, and the unlucky ones who ended up embedded in the stone usually died instantly. The fort above the tunnel had been repaired by now, but progress was only starting to be made on construction inside of it. For the time being, a staircase and an iron gate had been constructed. The gate had only been intended for emergencies, but it had become the cause of one. A bandit had killed a guard for the only key, wounded Cerberus, and locked himself and his cronies in.

Acacia Thorn had enough mares in her command to defend the fort, but executing a raid would risk changing that. So she did what everypony in Tartarus did when they needed a risky job done with concentrated violence: Hire an adventurer.

Well, Acacia had let Silver Torrent hire an adventurer. He did the job of giving arrivals some money to start their new lives and a sword to protect themselves. And he’d hired his friend, Tempest Shadow, former bane of Acacia’s work day and primary cause of several of the white hairs streaking her close-cropped blonde mane. Acacia had no doubts about Tempest’s competence anymore, but they just didn’t like each other.

“Has a locksmith gotten here yet?” Tempest asked.

“Yes,” Acacia answered, falling into step next to her, “but she refuses to go down and risk getting shot.”

Tempest rolled her eyes. Civilians. “I’m blowing the gate up.”

Deep in Acacia’s heart, she wanted to groan and put her head in her hoof. In the name of professionalism, she refrained. “Just don’t bring the roof down.”

A grin crossed Tempest’s face. “Worried about me?”

“Of course not.” Maybe a little.

“Good.” They reached the sloped pit where the portal had once stood, and Tempest continued down the stairs alone. She’d walked up these steps before--or steps that once occupied the same space as these--but never down. Cerberus used to bodily pick up ponies to keep them from stepping into the burning death of an exit-only portal. Now the stairs only continued on into the earth. Tempest gave a nod to the guards, who stood around the pit with crossbows ready, and descended out of their sight. As soon as she did, a distinct herbal smell hit her nose. She didn’t recognize it, or like it, but a sudden nostalgia for true plants still struck her.

Had something been smuggled down, or had the Empire sent down medical supplies? Ever since Empire officials had realized that Cerberus had been subverted to the Tartarites’ side, some of them had started sending occasional supplies down. It usually came on the backs of cows, sheep, or donkeys who had committed some small infraction or displeased their masters. Some Tartarites mistook this for compassion, but Tempest knew the truth: Sending supplies was just a bandage for the aristocracy’s consciences, to help them sleep soundly despite what they’d done.

The bandits had their backs turned to the gate, and hadn’t heard her. The one who looked best-equipped was chewing loudly on something wet-sounding. She built up a charge, lowered her head, and discharged an explosive ball of magic from the stump of her horn.

The gate ripped free of its hinges. The presumed leader spluttered a yelp when it hit him square on his hindquarters.

“Law Gone! We’re under attack!” shouted a cronie.

“You don’t bucking say.” The leader turned, his muzzle covered in green juice that dripped down his chin.

Tempest readied her iron spear with a laugh. “‘Law Gone’? Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

“That’ll be Bandit Emperor Law Gone soon enough!”

The fight was fast, and very one-sided. Tempest rushed the sole archer first, knocking the half-nocked bow from her hooves before blasting most of her face off point-blank. She bucked the swordstallion charging behind her square in the chest before rounding on him. He was winded and his sword-work was sloppy, so she easily ducked his swing and drove her spear through his thin gambeson and into his breast. By that point Law Gone had started to react, and she sent a blast of magic his way, too. He managed to deflect the worst of it with his sword, but his armor and some of his facial fur caught ablaze, forcing him to drop and roll to put it out. Tempest wrenched her spear free, jumped over the giant war rat sent towards her by the last remaining cronie, and used its back as a springboard to fling herself at its master, knocking him to the floor. She put her blade through his neck and jumped again, this time out of the way of Law Gone’s sword.

“So you killed my warriors! I’ll get more,” he boasted. “The Empire sends down more killers every da-AAY!”

Tempest had brought her spear up in an arc with its last victim still attached to the blade, and then down onto Law Gone, using the corpse as both a shield and a bludgeon. Law Gone buckled under the weight, and she took the opportunity to punch him in the snout. “You’re really not the brightest fish in the pond, are you?”

Law Gone spat, staining the floor green and red, and tried to stagger back to his feet, only to find that his left shoulder had been broken. He dropped his sword. For a split second, it almost looked like he might be surrendering, but Tempest’s split-second hesitation was all he needed to seize a glass orb from his belt and dash it against the ground.

Lavender smoke billowed out. Tempest sucked in a breath to hold too late, and a magical terror seized her--and the war rat, if its squeaky shrieks were anything to go by. By the time she’d collected herself again, Law Gone had scrambled through the gateway and up the stairs. The war rat hadn’t gone far; she’d broken its lower spine.

Hearing a commotion upstairs, and assured that her quarry was probably being riddled with arrows about now, Tempest retrieved her spear, cleaned it, and searched the bodies of her kills. There wasn’t much of use. A few coins, a dagger, a crude bow, and…

“Hey! Over here!”

“Oh you’re kidding me.”

“Nope! We’re your problem, now!”

Tempest sighed heavily and turned to the crystal that had just floated out of the archer’s bag to join her. Grey, nearly-featureless shades peered out of the polished octagonal main facet with empty black suggestions of eyes. She knew exactly what this artifact was: An asking crystal. There was no known way to get rid of these other than to be deemed too boring by the nosy faceless entities that communicated through them. Tempest opened her bag. “Fine. Get in.”

It’s so cool to have you as a protagonist. You’re one of my favorites.

“Get. In.” Tempest plucked the asking crystal out of the air and shoved it as deep into her bag as she could, then piled the bandits’ supply of mushroom meal sacks on top of it. Then she scaled the steps. “It’s me! Don’t shoot!” she called before she came into line of sight of any archers.

... There was a distinct lack of a dead Law Gone.

“Where is he?” she asked as Gardenia, the Greeter, trotted down to her.

“He got away,” Gardenia said.

“HOW?!”

“He was covering his face!” Gardenia protested. “By the time we were sure he was the killer, he’d fled! We couldn’t just shoot--”

Tempest turned away from Gardenia to address the guards. “Are you all cowards, or has Acacia Thorn never taught any of you how to body check somepony?! Where is she?”

“I was chasing him, but he threw down a magical smoke bomb at the gatehouse,” Acacia Thorn said, returning from Tempest’s blind spot. “By the time any of us came to our senses, he’d vanished.”

This was really happening. Law Gone had gotten away alive. And long tradition held that completion of a bounty on a group was contingent on killing their leader. “My payment!”

“Sorry. We bucked up.” Acacia sounded surprisingly sincere. “Look, if you go back down there, you can have your pickings of any supplies you find, and your food and lodging tonight’s on me.”

Tempest grit her teeth, but there was really nothing she could do at this point. “Fine, but you’re buying me drinks, too.”

“Deal.”

“Good. Gardenia, come down with me. The bandits’ war rat is half-paralyzed now, but it should live with treatment.” There were no bad domestic rats, just bad ponies. The wild varieties could be a different story when they were hungry.

Gardenia cringed. “At least you didn’t kill it...”

The two of them made their way down the stairs. Gardenia approached the rat and started praying in Old Ponish, while Tempest started to snoop around for loot. There turned out to be other bandits and even some misbanished changelings in the tunnels, and killing them netted some very modest equipment, some of which was at least salable. Much more valuable were the loose chunks of quartz she found; they weren’t gem quality, but they were pretty enough for carving. The bandits had also intercepted a small bundle of iron bars. Last of all, she encountered some terrified civilians, who thanked her for leading them to safety, but had nothing to pay her with.

All in all, not a total disaster of a day.

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New Key Item: [Asking Crystal]

[+ x20 Coins] [+ x1 Healing Herbs] [+ x3 Crude Dagger] [+ x1 Crude Bow] [+ x2 Crude Short Sword] [+ x1 Gambeson] [+ x2 Mushroom] [+ x1 Scroll of Radiate Ice] [+ x7 Flawed Crystal] [+ x4 Bag of Meal] [+ x5 Bar of Iron]

#location: Fort Tartarus #PC: Tempest Shadow #NPC: Acacia Thorn (Acacia)#NPC: Law Gone (Lagran)#NPC: Gardenia (Andrew)

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