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teshamerkel · 3 years

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 22] (30 Pages)

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Tobias and Nia meet a few new faces and explore Ghatha.

Nia only has to realize there’s a robbery happening right in front of her before she’s on her feet and ready to help, but it’s a different reason entirely that makes her take off after the thief and their pursuer in a desperate sprint.

She knows she heard that bird use the word “lizard” to describe Tobias—and that can only mean one thing.

Nia can barely keep up with the chase, eyes trained on the blue feathers of the bird as she races down crowded city streets, dodging carts and ducking under the legs of huge Pokemon. The bird is dangerously low to the ground as she chases after the thief, and for a moment Nia fears she’s going to lose sight of them both.

But then a vendor pulls into the street from around a corner, and the fluffy brown thief snags the corner of it, tripping. The bird is on him in an instant, screeching and pecking to keep him down. Nia pulls up short to the scene, panting, a little unsure of what to do. She thought she’d have to catch the thief herself, but...

“Give! Me! My! Money!” The bird shouts. “Or I’ll peck your eyes out!”

The thief kind of looks like a scruffy dog. His spiky, striped fur is bushed out in fear as he shoves a tiny sack away from himself, cowering and covering his eyes with his paws. Still, the bird doesn’t let up.

There’s a small crowd watching the spectacle, but a pained whimper from the thief finally gets Nia to move forward, palms out. “H-Hey, I think he learned his lesson—”

The bird stops her attack to land on the rescued pouch of money, whipping around to glare at Nia. “Did I ask for your opinion?”

Nia gulps, taking a step back. That beak looks sharp. “W-Well, no, but—“

There’s a scuffling sound, and when Nia and the bird look, the thief’s bushy tail is slipping back into the crowd.

“Oh, great!” The bird chirps with an agitated sweep of her wing. “Look, now he’s just gonna go rob some other poor shlub! I had it handled, y’know!”

Nia shrinks back. “S-Sorry, I just thought you might need help, a-and you said, uh—”

“Said what!? Spit it out!”

“Y-You called Tobias a lizard! Which means, um—“ Nia breaks off, glancing at the slowly dispersing crowd. Too many Pokémon are still listening in. Nia looks back to the bird desperately. “Well, that means you’re...like me. Right? Not a normal Pokémon?”

For a moment Nia fears she‘d heard wrong as the bird stares at her with narrowed eyes. But then she chirps, “What animal would you call me, then? If you’re really not a normal Pokémon.”

Nia slumps with relief. “A bird. I’m not sure what kind, though. Bluebird? You kinda look like a robin, just with different colors.”

The little bird’s eyes light up, all animosity gone in an instant. “You’re like me!” She flaps up to circle Nia, tweeting a chipper little melody. “I mean, I came to Ghatha expecting this, but still!”

The bird snatches up her stolen bag and nudges them both out of the way of the crowd and towards the doorway of a shop.

“So you really are?” The bird asks, leaning in close to whisper, “A human?”

Nia laughs, giddy with delight. The bird had been so aggressive just moments ago, but now she seems friendly as anything. And she’s human! Like Nia and Hazel!

“Yup!” Nia crouches to meet the bird’s height (and the riolu had thought she was tiny!) as she lowers her own voice. “So I’m guessing you’re here for the convention too, right?”

“Yeah! I got into town a few days ago.”

“We just got here today and—“ Nia cuts herself off, dread suddenly overtaking her excitement. “Oh no. I left Tobias in the plaza! Oh, he’s gonna kill me.” Nia straightens up to peer down the street, but there are too many Pokémon bustling around for her to tell if Tobias followed her. That is the way she came from, right?

“He was at the plaza? Wait, is he the orange lizard I ran into?”

“Yes!”

“Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him! We just gotta backtrack the way we came, right?”

Nia nods, hesitant to share the bird’s confidence. “I-I guess. But he’s going to be mad I ran off without him.”

The bird waves her off. “Eh, he can get over it. C’mon, we can look for him together!”

The bird loops the strings of her pouch around her little body, then lifts off the ground. With a chirp, she dives back into the crowd. Nia yelps and hurries to follow, eyeing the little bird worriedly as the two of them are immediately jostled. The bird is tiny even to Nia, and she’s worried about the little Pokémon being just as fragile as normal birds.

“Y-You can fly higher if you’d like,” Nia offers. “You don’t have to stay with me.”

The bird’s determined expression falters. “That’s okay. I’m uh. Not super keen on heights.”

Nia blinks, surprised. A bird that doesn’t like flying? That’s a new one. Well, not that she’s really one to talk. She could’ve woken up as a bird, too.

“What’s your name, by the way?” The bird chirps.

“Oh! It’s Nia!”

“Nia? Nice to meetcha! I’m Juniper, but just call me Junie. Did you pick your own name?”

Nia smiles. “Yeah. It felt like it was connected to my past somehow.”

Junie laughs, a melodic sound. “I just picked mine because it sounds nice!”

Nia giggles. As she opens her mouth to respond, she catches sight of Tobias fighting his way through the crowd. “Oh! Tobias!” She waves her arm.

He looks up, frowning at her and then Junie in turn. Once he reaches them, they all step to the side of the street to get out of the way, in front of a flower shop.

“What did I just say about getting separated?” Tobias snaps.

Junie pipes up before Nia can respond. “Oh, calm down, Dad! At least she tried to come help me!”

Uh-oh. Tobias glares down at Junie, lip curling. “At least I didn’t get robbed like an idiot.”

Junie calmly starts to preen her wing, not even looking at the angry charmander. “Hm. Takes one to know one, I suppose.”

“I could punt you into the Obsidian Sea you little—“

“Okay!” Nia squeaks, stepping between the two. Tobias glares at her but takes a step back. Junie looks like she is living for the drama, eyes sparkling and a cheeky smile playing at the corners of her beak.

Oh no.

“L-Let’s just get somewhere we can talk, okay?” Nia begs.

“Why?” Tobias growls, still shooting daggers at Junie.

“Uh, l-let’s just say that Junie is looking for the same thing we are.”

At that, Tobias finally looks at Nia, surprise on his face. It doesn’t take long to make it back to the small plaza with the fountain. Nia sits on the stone again, Junie hopping up next to her and Tobias standing at their side.

“So you’re here for the convention too?” Tobias asks, skeptical.

Junie matches his hushed tone, but nods excitedly. “I’ve been waiting for something like this for months! I knew I wasn’t the only one, but I couldn’t seem to track any other humans down. It’s all so hush-hush, y’know?”

“How long have you been here?” Nia asks.

“About half a year, I think?” Junie says, gazing thoughtfully up at the sky. “What about you two?”

“I’m not human,” Tobias snorts, as if the idea is ridiculous.

“And I’ve only been here a few weeks,” Nia says, shrugging. “We’re from the Lexym Guild.”

“Cool! Haven’t heard of it myself, but I don’t travel much,” Junie says, tilting her head in a way that’s distinctly avian.

Tobias gives Junie an almost offended look. “You’re a flying type. What do you mean you don’t travel?”

Junie smiles at him, sickly-sweet. “Some of us don’t live up to our types, hothead. Happy to see you’re following the script.”

Tobias narrows his eyes, a thin wisp of smoke drifting up from his nostrils. Nia shoots Junie a pleading look that the bird ignores.

“A-Anyways!” Nia interrupts with a clap of her hands. “Junie, do you know where the convention center is that we’ll be meeting at tomorrow?“

“Sure do!” Junie points behind them with a wing. “I found it yesterday. I was just going to check out some of the shops on the other end of town when that mutt ran me over.”

“Zigzagoon,” Tobias huffs. Nia stares at him for a moment before she realizes it’s a correction. Pokémon have such strange names.

“Would you mind showing us the way, then?” Nia asks, smiling down at Junie. “We were just gonna ask around, but this makes everything much easier!”

Junie hops to her feet. “Sure! This place is a maze, so stay close, all right?”

“We could’ve found it on our own,” Tobias huffs. Looks like he’s settling into one of his moods. Nia ignores the comment and gives the little bird a thumbs-up.

And with that they’re off, with Junie leading the way back through the crowd. Once they’re caught up in the flow, trailing behind a short elephant Pokémon, Junie hitches a ride on its rough, tire-like back. She winks at Nia’s surprise with a wingtip held up to her beak. The elephant must not even feel her weight, light as she is.

As they walk, Nia looks again at the buildings they pass, forming near-impenetrable walls on either side of the street. Businesses and shops are labeled by signs and wares in the windows, stacked high. She wonders whether the upper floors are something like apartments.

“I wonder if Junie would show us those shops she mentioned,” Nia comments idly to Tobias. “After we find the convention center.”

“You don’t have money to waste,” Tobias grumbles. “We still need to eat.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t look!” Nia points out, trying to disarm his attitude with a cheery tone. “I’m curious about what kind of stuff they sell.”

The elephant Pokémon turns onto a small side street, and Junie hops off to stay on the main path with Nia and Tobias, fluttering forward again with the utmost confidence. Nia doesn’t know how long they walk, but the cobblestone underfoot is starting to wear sore on her paws when Junie finally chirps, “Almost there!”

Sure enough, the buildings are thinning out ahead, bright blue sky and warm sunlight replacing stone buildings and colorful paint jobs. Then, suddenly, it all opens up.

A cool, salty sea breeze blows against Nia’s face, and her jaw drops at the sight before them. “Oh, wow.”

The city has opened up into a huge plaza, the cobblestone bright and colorful underfoot. It’s clearly being prepared for something, a celebration or festival, maybe. Tents and booths sprawl throughout the space like an open marketplace, and colorful flags and banners crisscross the blue sky between them. Pokémon wander around, chatting happily and helping to assemble the structures or set up their wares. It’s strange seeing something so human-like in the Pokémon world, and Nia walks further into the plaza as if in a trance, trying to take it all in.

“Yeah, I guess there’s a big magic show happening somewhere around here tomorrow,” Junie chirps. “All the merchants are probably trying to take advantage of the crowd.”

“Oh! We heard about that!” Nia says. She shoots Tobias a hopeful look, remembering how he had perked up at the flygon’s mention of fire manipulation.

He sighs, but when he talks it sounds like more of an act than actual irritation. “We could probably go, since it’s cheap.”

Nia bounces in place before turning to Junie. “You wanna come with us? It’s after the convention tomorrow! And apparently the magicians are famous!”

Junie laugh. “How could I say no? You have literal puppy-dog eyes!”

Nia giggles, and Tobias shoots them both an exasperated look. As they wander across the plaza, she tries to explain the term to him.

“So it’s like saying someone has baby-doll eyes?” Tobias asks, looking torn between frustration and genuine curiosity.

Nia blinks at him, incredulous. “‘Baby-doll eyes?’”

“It’s a move, you idiots!” Tobias blushes as they stare at him, and it takes some of the bite out of his voice. “You make your eyes look really big and pitiful and it makes your opponent more reluctant to attack.”

“Huh.” Nia exchanges a baffled look with Junie. “I…guess that makes sense?”

“More sense than whatever weird stuff you talk about all the time,” Tobias grumbles.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Junie responds.

Before a real argument can spark, Nia stops, staring at a huge building to the right of the plaza. “Whoa.”

It’s strangely...modern looking? In a seaside city of rough stone buildings stacked in layers like bedrock, all crooked angles and fast-paced whimsy, this building stands out as something...neater. More official, maybe. It’s large and impressive, with complex carvings and intricate structures built into its architecture.

“This is the convention center!” Junie says with a dramatic flourish of her wings. “Pretty snazzy, huh?”

“Do you think we can go in yet?” Nia asks.

“Sorry kiddos, afraid it’s closed today for preparations.”

Junie hops onto Nia’s shoulder to look towards the new voice.

The speaker is a large fox, with creamy white fur and a bundle of long tails trailing behind him. He has glittering red eyes, and a satchel sitting heavy on his back. A maroon scarf is tied around his neck, with a pretty emblem pinned to it. Nia isn’t sure if it’s just the creature’s foxy face or if his smile is as mischievous as it looks.

He’s beautiful, but Nia’s gaze flicks past him, to the Pokémon following a beat behind. The second newcomer floats along like a ghost, skin an inky black and eyes a ruby red, and his long arms hold a clipboard. He has a tail curled around a golden mask, and weirdly enough the features on the mask almost look...human?

Nia gasps as it clicks, bringing everyone’s attention to her. “You’re a yamask!”

There’s a moment of stunned silence, and Nia cringes, ears growing hot. What a way to make a first impression.

The yamask thankfully doesn’t seem offended, and Nia would almost say he looks pleasantly surprised. His voice is warm as he says, “Yes, I am. I take it you’re here for the convention tomorrow?”

“How’d you know?” Junie chirps.

The yamask’s easy smile grows. “I used to be human too, once. I can usually recognize fellow lost souls. My name is Will, by the way.”

He holds out a hand and Nia hurries to shake it, trying to make up for her rude first impression. She suppresses a shiver at how his skin feels cool and not totally solid, almost like condensed mist.

“I’m Nia,” She says, giving him an apologetic smile.

“Call me Junie!”

Tobias stays silent and narrows his eyes at Will. The yamask accepts it with a polite dip of his head.

“I’m Keegan,” the fox adds, stepping forward. “Not a human, though—just here to help out with preparations!”

“He is also the second in command at Ghatha’s guild,” Will adds, giving them a sly look. “Don’t let his modesty fool you.”

That catches Tobias’ attention.

Keegan laughs, holding a paw to his chest in mock offense. “Me? Modest? I must be slipping. I’m keeping the plaza under control, but Will’s the one who orchestrated this whole meetup in the first place.”

“Wait—you put this together?” Junie chirps. “The human meetup?“

Nia blinks, suddenly remembering her flyer from Afon’s Cap. “Oh. The will of the Humans movement!”

Will laughs, his smile turning a shade self-conscious. “I’m afraid my friend came up with that. He insisted it was clever wordplay.” Before anyone can respond to that, Will barrels on as if trying to escape his own embarrassment. “Are all three of you human?”

“I am, and Nia is!” Junie chirps. “Toby’s just tagging along. Do you think there’ll be a lot of other humans at the meetup tomorrow?”

Will nods. “I’ve actually met quite a few of them already! It’s encouraging to see such a large turnout. After working so many years to gather enough resources, it’s great to finally see our efforts make some actual progress.”

“Hang on—years? You’ve been here for years?” Junie shouts from Nia’s shoulder. The riolu winces and slaps her hands over her sensitive ears.

Will gives the bird a concerned look. “Yes? I’ve been working on founding this organization for the last three or four.”

Nia feels a tremble building in Junie’s talons as she suddenly falls silent. Oh. Did Junie…did she not know how long humans have been showing up here? Did she just assume this was a relatively new occurrence, and somehow no one ever told her? Nia is suddenly incredibly grateful that Maggie informed her about the humans’ decades-long conundrum the day they first met. She’d be a mess if she was in Junie’s position and hearing this for the first time.

“S-Sorry, I don’t think she, um…knew how long humans have been showing up here,” Nia says, putting her thoughts aside to address Will’s worried expression. “She’s only been here for half a year. I mean, I’ve only been here a month, but Maggie told me right away, s-so…”

“Really?” Keegan asks, ears flicking forward with interest. “You’ve only been here a month and you’re already Seekers?”

Nia blinks and Tobias suspiciously asks, “How did you know that?”

Keegan laughs. “Whoops! Rai always says my eyes are too sharp for my own good. I recognized your bag. It’s pretty standard for Lexym beginners.”

Nia lifts her arm to look at the plain brown satchel they were given when starting out. It’s a bit worn and ripped, but otherwise nondescript. Keegan must be really observant to have made that connection. No wonder he holds such a high position here in Ghatha.

“It’s just me and Nia on the team,” Tobias grumbles. “Feathers isn’t with us.”

Junie doesn’t respond to the jab, so Nia hesitates before gently prying the bird from her shoulder and shifting to hold her in her arms. She’s a bit too round to fit comfortably, but definitely light enough. After a moment of hesitation, the trembling bird turns to burrow her face into Nia’s fur.

“Are you sure she’s all right?” Will asks. He looks like he’s itching to reach out and comfort Junie himself.

“F-Fine,” Junie says, shaky voice muffled. “Just...Just give me a second.”

Nia strokes a hand across Junie’s soft feathers, hoping that the bird won’t get mad about it later like Tobias would.

Will shifts his gaze up to Nia, who for once is the more emotionally stable one. “There will be more information available tomorrow at the convention, in the form of public speakers and information booths. We’ve gathered research and accounts to try and sort out how this keeps happening, as well as theories that hypothesize why it’s happening at all. I’m hoping to get everyone on the same page so no one is left feeling so lost or alone.“

Nia feels something tense and tight in her uncoil at the words, and she gives the yamask a wobbly smile. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Yeah, you lot sure got it rough, getting dropped here without any warning,” Keegan says, tone light but oddly genuine. “Figured the least we could do here in Ghatha was host the meetup itself.”

“It’s still very much appreciated,” Will says, giving Keegan a warm smile. “I know the guildmaster wasn’t fond of the idea.”

“Eh, Rai’s just heard too many conspiracy theories coming in from the underground, lately. Old guy has to learn to chill about humans.”

“He doesn’t like humans?” Nia asks, a little alarmed despite herself. She shoots Will a concerned look, but the yamask doesn’t seem worried.

Keegan waves her off with a flick of his tails. “Nah, he’s usually fine with ‘em. Just a little more...suspicious than he was in the past. I think he’s just stressed. He really needs a vacation.”

“Actually,” Keegan continues, turning to Nia and Tobias. “Since you’re Seekers, feel free to come work on some missions through our branch of the guild if you‘re planning on sticking around Ghatha for a bit! Normally you have to go through a big administrative thing, but I can waive you through.”

Nia can’t help feeling unnerved about going to the guild where this Rai Pokémon is, but Keegan seems fine with humans if he’s so adamant about helping Will out...

She offers him a shaky smile. “S-Sure, if we stick around long enough. We aren’t planning to be here more than a couple of days, but we might take you up on that.”

Tobias snorts, and Nia hopes that Will and Keegan don’t hear it as the clear dismissal that it is.

“Will!”

Everyone turns to the voice. An adorable white pony Pokémon with a mane and tail like cotton candy is trotting up to the group, his hooves clicking against the cobblestone.

“Fidel!” Will greets. “How goes preparations?”

“Just have a few questions about layout for you and Keegan,” Fidel responds, a weary smile on his snout. “Have a minute?”

“Of course.” Will turns back to them. “I’m afraid we have to be going. But I’ll see you all tomorrow?”

Nia nods, and even Junie manages an affirmative sort of noise.

Will smiles. “Good. Rest up—it’ll be a big day.” The yamask turns to follow Fidel into the convention center.

“Let me know if you all need anything,” Keegan adds, following after Will with a cheery wave of his tails.

There’s a moment of silence save for the distant churn of waves and the lively activities of the plaza. Tobias and Nia speak at the same time.

“I don’t trust them.”

“That was the cutest Pokémon I’ve ever seen.”

They exchange a bewildered look.

“Don’t trust who?” Nia asks.

Tobias spreads his arms like it’s obvious. “Either of them! Will’s setting up this big thing and being all vague about it, and Keegan apparently works for someone with a thing against humans—while helping out Will! The human! You can’t tell me that isn’t suspicious.”

“You’re suspicious of everyone!” Nia scolds, frowning. “I thought they were both really nice.”

“You’d think a boulder about to smash in your face was nice.”

Junie snorts a quiet laugh into Nia’s chest, and she holds the bird out in front of her, offended. She thought Junie was on her side!

The bird still looks exhausted after her meltdown, but shrugs. “Sorry, it was funny. Besides, Toby needs a few wins.”

“Stop calling me that!” Tobias snarls.

“You’ve got it, Toby.”

“No fighting!” Nia says, trying to sound authoritative and failing miserably. She lifts Junie up over her head like a toy so Tobias can’t reach.

He gives Nia a dry look. “We’re the same height.”

Nia just stares back at him with wide eyes and a furrowed brow.

“Nia, who were you saying was cute?” Junie chirps, apparently switching targets. “I mean, you do you but I kind of got dad vibes from Will and Keegan seems older too but—wait, how old are you guys?”

“Do you ever shut up?” Tobias mumbles, rubbing at his temples.

“I meant Fidel!” Nia protests, bringing Junie back down to meet her gaze. “And n-not in like an interested way! I-I meant like, like a ‘My Little Pony’ kind of cute! Did you see him? He’s objectively adorable! His mane is made of cotton candy!”

Junie twitters a laugh. “Whatever you say.”

“Okay, you’ve lost carrying privileges,” Nia says.

Junie doesn’t move. Nia doesn’t drop her.

“You gonna...follow through on that?” Junie asks.

“U-Um. Well. Can you walk okay now?” Nia asks, afraid of the bird still being shaky on her feet. Er, wings?

Junie laughs, then struggles out of Nia’s hold. “You’re way too nice! I almost feel bad teasing you. Toby’s a much better target.”

“Hey!”

“Um. Sorry?” Nia offers, unsure.

Junie just laughs again and shakes her head. “So, where’re we going next?”

“‘We?’” Tobias growls.

“Yup! You’re stuck with me now!”

Nia sighs, giving Tobias a helpless shrug before turning back to Junie. “Well...you mentioned shopping at a market earlier? It looks like these shops are still setting up, so could we go there and look around?”

“Sure!” Junie chirps, flapping back into the air. “I’ll get us there in no time!”

Nia moves to follow her, glancing back to see a disgruntled Tobias tagging along behind them. Junie flies confidently ahead, and Nia can’t help marveling at the little bird. Junie bounced back so quickly from the revelation that humans have been stuck in this world for years. Nia was a mess when Hazel really drilled that lesson home for her.

Maybe Junie’s just stronger than Nia is.

__________________________________________________

“So you never answered me earlier,” Junie says, conversational as she hops around the table full of jewelry and gemstones.

The shopkeeper, a terrifying, navy-scaled dragon, is watching the little bird with open suspicion, and it’s making Nia nervous. Junie seems oblivious to it. Nia glances behind her hoping for backup, but Tobias is lingering at the stall they’d just left, where an array of musical instruments lay scattered across the counter for purchase.

For a moment, Nia pauses to watch him now that he’s alone. He’s sorting through the instruments with careful hands, face unreadable but somehow softer than usual. Huh. What’s he thinking about?

He lifts something like a ukulele to stare at it, gaze a million miles away. Nia kind of wishes Junie wasn’t here with them so she could try and talk to her partner about the reverence in his movements and the warmth in his eyes. Does he like music? She didn’t know that.

”Hellooo! Earth to Nia!”

“A-Answered you about what?” Nia asks, snapping back to reality and hurrying to focus on Junie. Hopefully the little bird didn’t notice Tobias’ expression. Nia could see Junie teasing him about it and it genuinely upsetting him.

“How old you are!”

“Oh.” Nia stops. “Uh, I think I’m about 18? Maybe? How old are you?”

“16!” Junie chirps, fluffing her feathers with pride. She glances over at Tobias. “How old is Mr. Grumpy Scales?”

“About my age, I think,” Nia answers, trying to remember what Maggie had told her. “Maybe a bit younger?”

Junie immediately hops off the table and flies over to Tobias, shouting, “Hey! Old man!”

Nia mourns how quickly the soft, unguarded look on Tobias’ face shifts to a sneer. She’d better go defuse this.

“I’m barely older than you!” Tobias snaps.

“Well how was I supposed to know that when you act like a crotchety old geezer!”

“Lord help me,” Nia mumbles.

The two of them have been bickering nonstop for over an hour now, and Nia’s getting to the point where she isn’t even phased by Tobias’ snarled threats. Still, Nia wishes Junie would just…calm down. For two seconds. She really likes the little bird, but she doesn’t enjoy her provoking her temperamental partner.

“Junie, for my own sanity please lay off on teasing Tobias,” Nia whines.

“Better listen to her if you wanna keep your feathers,” Tobias threatens.

Junie looks like she has a sharp retort ready, a gleam in her eye, but she pulls back when she sees Nia’s exhaustion.

“You’re lucky your partner’s a sweetheart,” Junie says instead to Tobias.

“Why? Because she’d try to stop me from murdering you?”

“Because I’d gladly tease you all day otherwise! You’re too fun.”

Tobias’ eyes narrow so Nia lifts the bird into her arms, far too tired to worry about personal boundaries. “H-Hey, how about we find some food soon? It’s almost evening.”

For once, Tobias and Junie agree on something, so the three of them navigate through the rest of the marketplace and find a cheap little diner tucked away between a bank and a fabrics shop. After following the stone staircase down to a lantern-lit tavern, they take a seat at a wooden booth in the corner built for smaller Pokémon like them.

Looking at the paper menu, Nia has no clue what half of the meals even are, and Junie seems equally clueless. In the end, Nia just decides on ordering a quiche of some sort with some berries and nuts she knows she likes.

After they pay, Junie eyes the red bandana wrapped around Nia’s arm. “So I know you said you’re a Seeker, but how exactly did that happen? Gotta be honest, Nia, you don’t seem like much of a fighter.”

“She could kick your tail,” Tobias grumbles from where he’s sitting with his head tilted back and eyes shut. Nia’s not sure whether that was a compliment towards her or if he’s just trying to insult Junie. Probably the latter.

Junie tweets a laugh. “I weigh like two pounds—I’m sure she could!”

Nia smiles, rubbing at her scar through the bandana. “I-I mean, you were pretty terrifying taking down that thief. I can fight a little bit, but I’m not a big fan of it unless we’re sparring and nobody actually gets hurt.”

Junie tilts her head thoughtfully. “Huh. Well, how did you two become a team, then?” The words ‘when your partner wants to fight everything’ go unsaid.

Nia hesitates, unsure how to sum up the circumstances that led to Nia saving Tobias’ life and convincing him to team up with her.

Luckily, Tobias pipes up, cracking open an eye. “She needed a way to look into leads about humans and I needed a partner to become an official Seekers team. We already knew each other so it just worked out.”

Junie makes a thoughtful noise in her throat but doesn’t answer, and Nia wonders what Junie really thinks when she isn’t talking.

“S-So what do you do, Junie?” Nia asks. “Since you’ve been here a little while now.”

Junie shrugs and looks down to trace the cracks and whorls of the tabletop with her eyes, voice a notch quieter than usual. “Well…I woke up near a little town called Stonebrook, so I’ve just been hanging around there, mostly. It’s like a two day journey south of here? Real sleepy little place, real quiet. I make a living doing odds and ends around town and finding wild berries to sell.”

The description is strangely...quaint. Nia honestly can’t imagine Junie living somewhere so quiet and doing something so normal. Not that the little bird sounds super excited about it or anything, but Nia can’t help being surprised when even she thinks it sounds boring—although any quiet life would seem uneventful after being dragged into life-risking adventures in mystery dungeons.

Tobias must think the same, because he arches a brow at Junie. “Really?”

Junie puffs up, looking genuinely bothered for the first time. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Tobias grins, clearly thrilled to finally get a rise out of her. “Just can’t imagine a nosy little pest like you living the quiet life.”

“N-Not that it’s a bad thing!” Nia adds.

Junie glares at Tobias. “Look, I don’t have a lot options, okay? It’s not like I have anyone I know or anywhere else I could go, especially when I can’t fly and I’m like a foot tall and I could get crushed on accident!”

Tobias doesn’t respond to the outburst aside from a lazy, unimpressed blink. Nia is a bit more worried. She lays a comforting hand on Junie’s back, like she did earlier, but the little bird turns on her.

“Stop that! I don’t want your pity!”

Nia yanks her hand back, ears pinning flat to her skull.

“Hey!” Tobias snaps, slamming his hands down on the table. “If you don’t want pity then stop acting like a whiny little kid!”

“I am a kid!” Junie shoots back, bordering on a shout. Nia casts a nervous look over Junie’s back to where the other patrons and workers are looking at their table. Uh-oh. Nerves churn in Nia’s gut.

The little bird takes a shaky breath, voice and eyes lowering. “Look, I didn’t ask to be brought here. I...I hate heights and I hate being so little and I don’t know anyone or anything and I just...I don’t like feeling so helpless and trapped all the time. I don’t know if I want to go back to the human world, but now I don’t know if I’ll even get a choice!”

Okay, wow, there is a lot to unpack there. Nia isn’t sure where to start, but that last bit makes her think of the scent of pecha berry tea and Hazel’s soothing paws.

“H-Hey,” Nia starts, quiet. “Is this about what Will said today? About how long he’s been here?”

Junie doesn’t respond, but Nia can see the way her feathers start to tremble again.

“I...I was lucky,” Nia admits after a moment of hesitation. “I got a heads-up about the whole situation a while ago. Honestly, you’re handling it a lot better than I did! I was a mess. Crying all over the place.”

There’s the slightest quirk of a smile on Junie’s beak. Nia smiles too.

“I know it’s scary, to think about how long humans have already been here, and how that means it’s going to be...really hard, finding a way back. But that’s what Will’s working on, right? He seemed pretty optimistic about it! All we can do is trust him to look into it and hope for the best.”

Nia doesn’t know where the comforting words are coming from. Maybe from the reassurances she’s told herself hundreds of times since waking up in this world.

Nia thinks of Hazel’s warm smile and adds, “And we’ve got each other, right?”

At that, Junie finally looks up. It’s upsetting, seeing tears swimming in the feisty little bird’s eyes.

“I get scared too,” Nia says. “About...uh. A lot of things, really. And I can’t imagine being a flying type, but I get how terrifying it is to not know anyone, or what you’re doing, or what anything is. But I have people who help me with that! I’ve got Maggie and my friends at the guild and Tobias to help me figure out what to do and what to learn so I can stay safe.”

Nia stumbles over the charmander’s name, not sure how he’ll react to being brought into this, but a quick glance shows that he’s watching Nia talk with a weirdly unreadable expression. He’s frowning, but it looks more like he’s focused, rather than anything negative.

“A-Are the people in your town nice?” Nia asks.

Junie sniffs and nods, wiping at her tears with a wing. “Yeah. I don’t really talk to them about anything serious, but they’re fine.”

“Have you tried asking them to help you figure stuff out?”

Junie hesitates. “No, I haven’t. Are you not...y’know, scared to ask for help? If you feel as helpless as I do?”

“Oh, I’m terrified!” Nia laughs. “Like all the time. But...like humans, most Pokémon seem to want to do good. They want to help. You should really try talking to them, seeing what they know and what they’re willing to teach you. Maybe try training if you can find someone to instruct you, to help you feel stronger, too. I’ve been learning a lot from books, but other Pokemon definitely help a lot!”

Junie’s looking at Nia with a thoughtful expression. Then she shakes her head, and the ghost of a smile comes to her beak. ”Maybe you’re right. I just...it’s hard to be that open, y’know? I feel weak enough in this body, but to let myself be so open about my emotions, too...”

“It’s hard,” Nia agrees, voice soft. Her feelings still get hurt all the time and it sucks. “But you can’t do this alone. None of us can. You have to have someone you can trust.”

“I trust you,” Junie responds, immediate and sure.

Nia pulls back, surprised and touched all at once.

Junie laughs at her expression. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all mushy!” Then her laughter dies down. “And I’m sorry for snapping at you. You’re a really good person. You don’t deserve that.”

Nia waves her off and tilts her head towards Tobias. “Don’t worry about it. I’m used to it.”

It’s meant to be a lighthearted quip, but instead Junie’s expression darkens, and she shoots Tobias a glare. A real glare, so obviously different from the playfighting the bird’s been instigating all day. Tobias glares back.

“A joke!” Nia yelps. “That was a joke! Please don’t fight again!”

Junie’s eyes narrow, but she huffs and turns back to Nia. “Fine.”

Nia breathes a sigh of relief. She knows she didn’t touch on all of Junie’s problems—

(The little bird doesn’t know if she wants to go back to the human world? Why would she not want to go back?)

—but Junie seems to be stabilizing and the argument has been averted for now, so Nia will take it as a win.

“Food!” A red and white bear Pokémon announces, stumbling over to their table with trays lined along his arms.

Nia watches with wide eyes as the Pokémon dips and sways like an inflatable tube man outside of a car dealership, staggering forward like he’s absolutely trashed. The food, however, stays firmly balanced on the plates, and once the dishes are placed on the table, the Pokémon bows and stumbles back towards the kitchen like nothing strange just happened.

Junie looks as baffled by the cheery, drunken bear as her. Nia shoots Tobias a look, but he’s just dragging his plate closer to him like this is a regular occurrence. Nia shakes her head and chalks the incident up to her ever-growing chart of incredibly weird Pokemon behavior. Maybe she can ask Xander or Andyn about it when she gets home.

Nia stops in the middle of grabbing her utensils.

Home? Is she thinking of the Lexym guild as home now?

She thinks of Maggie and her friends, of her little alcove with Tobias that smells like herbs and moss. She thinks of blue crystals and the creaking of wood, and she realizes there’s a sort of familiar warmth to the thought. Nia’s not entirely comfortable with that (her home isn’t here, isn’t even in this world), but...maybe she can have two homes? A temporary home, here, with Tobias and the guild, and her actual home in the human world.

But what about when Will does figure out how to return, and she has to leave this home behind?

Something aches in Nia’s chest at the thought of no more vines smoothing back the fur on Nia’s head. No more Andyn and Ezra play wrestling, or Xander’s team destressing by playing games in their quarters. No more Val making her feel confident and strong, no more Tobias dragging her into magical, dangerous, beautiful dungeons, and no more of the rewarding snorts of amusement that she manages to get from him sometimes.

She knew she’d be upset if she got attached. She’d even confided in Avery about it, told them that she wasn’t planning on getting attached to the Pokémon here. But that’s just what she’s doing, isn’t she? And that’s what she just recommended Junie do, too.

Was that the right thing to say?

Nia’s mind is saying no, but in her heart she knows she would have completely lost it by now if she didn’t have the support and affection of her friends. She needs them right now, to get through this and to be brave enough to figure everything out. But that’s only going to make it worse when she has to return to the human world and leave them all behind, isn’t it?

“Nia? You okay?”

Nia snaps out of her thoughts at Junie’s voice, and blinks hard once she realizes her vision is blurry. Even Tobias is watching her. They’ve both already dug into their meals, and Nia hasn’t even touched hers.

She hurries to grab her fork, laughing a noise that’s a little too sharp to be normal, and says, “S-Sorry! Spaced out for a bit. I’m fine!”

Junie looks concerned, but what’s Nia supposed to do, pile her own concerns onto Junie ten minutes after the little bird had her own breakdown? And it’s not like Tobias wants to hear it. So Nia digs into her quiche, pleased to find that it might just be the best meal she’s had since arriving in this world. She shoves her worries away the best she can and lets the food improve her mood.

“So Will said there’s gonna be informational booths and stuff at the conference tomorrow,” Nia says once she swallows, trying to sound excited. “What do you think they’ll be about?”

Junie’s concern melts into her own excitement. “I hope they talk about Pokemon types! I’m still trying to figure all of that out. Like, apparently I’m a flying type or whatever. Why the heck does that give me an advantage over grass type Pokemon? Like, fire types having an advantage makes sense--fire burns grass. But flying types? What am I gonna do, flap the grass to death?”

Nia laughs, a bit more real this time, and starts explaining what little knowledge she’s gathered about type advantages, as well as some mnemonic devices she came up with to help remember the typing matchups. Like making study tips for a test!

Tobias jumps in to make jabs and insults throughout, but Nia can’t help feeling that something’s off about him. She swears she feels him looking at her, stare burning into the side of her head, but when she turns to meet it he’s always looking away, at his food or around the restaurant.

Finally, she catches his eye, and frowns with the slightest tilt of her head. Junie’s rambling on about how much molting stinks, so Nia mouths, You okay?

She’s not expecting a response other than an eye roll, so she’s surprised when Tobias looks back at her. Really looks, like he’s considering his answer. Eventually, he gives her a short nod before going back to his food, quieter than usual.

Nia frowns as she drags her attention back to the conversation with Junie, mind still trying to focus on two things at once.

That was...odd. For Tobias, at least.

#pmd #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon #riolu #charmander #rookidee #pmd seekers of soul #tesha draws #tesha writes

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ask-iamnotanalicorn · 3 years

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Previous: The Nightmare Moon Timeline

The Tirek’s Reign Timeline

After Nightmare Moon’s return and battle for the throne, Princess Celestia and her protégée, Princess Cadence, subdued the maddened alicorn and managed to imprison her. Celestia had no time to celebrate not having to re-banish her sister for another thousand years; she went into a deep study, searching for the missing key that would activate the Elements of Harmony and free Luna of the poison darkening her mind and feeding on her ancient wrath. Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor took over running the throne of Equestria, giving the sisters time to find a solution and reconciliation. She is a wise and fair leader, despite her youth, and the uneasy country began to settle.

But with Celestia so distracted and Cadence not yet trained in monitoring the ancient dungeon of Tartarus, Tirek made his escape unnoticed. He was more cautious now than in his last quest to steal Equestria’s magic: the theft of a few ponies’ magic here, the emptying of a lonely hamlet there. Rumors of a magical plague and a strange monkey-horse creature who ate magic were all Cadence and Shining Armor had to go on, and they and the Royal Service were baffled by this creature or affliction that struck and then vanished again and again. Panic began to spread through Canterlot as more and more ponies on the outskirts of the city reported their magic stolen.

By the time word of a magical plague and centaur sightings reached Celestia, the only pony present who would recognize the significance, it was too late. Tirek had gained enough magic to come into the open and make his attack. First Cadence and her husband and guards fell, unprepared for what they faced. With Cadence’s alicorn magic combined with the many ponies’ he had stolen, Tirek defeated Celestia in spite of her best efforts. And lastly, ignoring her spitting invectives, he drained Nightmare Moon, as well.

With such potent magic flowing through him, Tirek’s lust for more power grew worse than ever before. He set out to steal the magic of every pony and magical creature in Equestria - and there were none who could hope to stop him.

----

In the town of Featherhorn, there lived a young stallion with his parents, brother, and sister. He was a perfectly normal pony... or he would have been, were it not for the wings and horn he was born with. He got on alright - he had a few good friends and a supportive family, a love for his work and a faith that sustained him – but there were a number in the town who disapproved of him. He was the butt of many jokes and accusations, and often distrust. And the cultists who carried on in town caused trouble and made things worse for him, since he got the blame. He found it more and more tempting to stay out on the road, plying his trade and absorbing the confusion of strangers better than he could take the dislike of his own neighbors.

One day while the stallion was home, the town received word that a monster was coming. The monster had stolen the magic of the princesses, and now he was a giant, rampaging across the land and stealing the magic of every pony he found. He would soon be upon their town, and there was little time to flee - for who could run faster than this massive monster? Were they all doomed to lose their magic, and worse, their marks?

There was a small chance: a system of caves where they could hide, deep enough that the monster might not find them. But there was not enough time to get all the townsponies out, especially the sick and old; they could already hear the creature’s thundering hoofsteps on the horizon. If only they could distract it somehow, or slow it down... but who could hope to even do that much with a monster so powerful?

Nopony expected the young stallion, the alicorn imposter, to speak up:

“What if he believed there was another alicorn?”

The plan was dangerous. He would need help; handicapped in both flight and unicorn magic, he wouldn’t be able to fool the monster for long on his own. Few were willing - and of those who were, only a small number had the abilities that were needed. In the end, it was the stallion’s own brother and mother who helped him craft the final bits of his plan.

When the monster came upon the pony town, ready to further engorge himself with pony magic, the brown stallion appeared in the sky. He flew with confidence, bolstered by the carefully-directed winds of his expert flyer mother. His horn blazed with gold and silver light, bright as a star, aided by his magically gifted brother. And the monster believed the facade, and hungered only for more alicorn magic.

The chase lasted an hour, carefully-aimed magically bolts reflected through Sales’ horn by Pitch Black, skillful dodges aided by Pitch Forward. They had no hope of continuing the charade indefinitely, but that hour was enough; the townsponies were able to escape, hiding deep where the power-mad centaur wouldn’t find them. When at last the centaur swatted Salespitch from the sky and drained the magic from his injured body, the monster was enraged to taste such a miniscule amount. Black and Forward attempted a rescue, and were drained as well, their weakened bodies falling beside the unconscious Salespitch.

When the monster turned back to his initial target and found the town empty of all ponies - what’s more, he could not detect pony magic anywhere nearby - his wrath burned the town to cinders. But when he returned to find the ponies who had tricked him, in order to punish them further, their bodies had vanished.

Eventually, the monster left, continuing his rampage across the landscape. In a hollow of a tree, Pitch Black waited with the unconscious body of his mother and the severely injured body of his brother, the three of them blessedly undetectable now that they lacked their magic. But Black did not need his cutie mark to remember his driving purpose: to be there at the zero hour, when those he cared for needed him most.

The townsponies found them eventually; the father and daughter were overjoyed to find them alive. But Sales would not waken, though the best healers in the town mended his wounds. Badly injured and drained of magic, he slipped into a coma. Only alicorn-level healing magic might stand a chance of healing him, but that was lost to the monster.

But the town had been humbled. The one many of them had scorned the most – the pony who so hated being mistaken for something he was not – had taken up the very trait that caused him such trouble in order to give everything for the sake of those who despised him. The townsponies of Featherhorn vowed to protect him until he could be healed, and to keep away the members of his cult should they reappear to take advantage of his comatose state. And should he waken, they would treat him with the respect a hero deserved.

The monster still rampages. None in this group of refugees can hope to defeat him. But they have a refuge where they can stay safe until the nightmare has passed - and but for three of them, every pony and zebra has their magic. Perhaps one day, their fallen few will regain their magic, and the princesses will rise again.

But for now, they wait. And they guard their fallen hero.

-----

Fun Facts About The Tirek Timeline/Art:

- Yup, you guys just got a pretty close parallel to the mysterious Tirek Incident. It obviously didn’t go down quite like this in the comic timeline, but some of the important bits are in there. We’ll eventually find out what happened. I so wanted to avoid too many spoilers, but the story wouldn’t make sense without SOME of them, so... merry early Christmas, I guess XD

- And yes, I did consider letting Sales die in this timeline. But I just can’t kill off my boy. I also snuck in the meaning behind Black’s cutie mark, I’m curious to know what ya’ll think :D

- When Tirek sucked the magic out of Nightmare Moon, he unwittingly drained out the corrupting magic that was so heavily influencing Luna and fueling her rage and paranoia. Additionally, Luna got to see her sister lose her magic while fighting to protect her from Tirek. They reconcile over this event and join with Cadence to search for the missing Elements of Harmony.

- The Crystal Empire will come around because it has to, but Sombra bides his time a bit more when he realizes there’s a GIANT MAGIC-SUCKING CENTAUR hoarding the collective magic of the entire nation of Equestria, and it has bomb-blaster beams that can level towns.

- Meanwhile, a certain race of bug-ponies are infiltrating the Crystal Empire, seeking safety from the magic-eating centaur who is just TRASHING the place for fun now that he’s got so much power to chuck around. Plus there are rumors that this kingdom was once RUN on love, and Chrysalis really wants to figure that out. There’s a whole ‘nother story in there, I’m certain, and it probably involves a few specific changelings making friends with a few crystal ponies and learning about giving love. Maybe this time, without several humiliating defeats via pony love shockwaves and weaponized rainbows to harden her pride, Chrysalis might actually be willing to give it a try herself.

- This is a timeline where the princesses DO find ponies who can wield the Elements of Harmony. Ironically, Twilight was drained of magic along with the rest of Canterlot, but her studies in magic theory and history lead her to studying ancient texts about the Elements, and one thing leads to another until the princesses meet her. Also, Twilight is a bit better at making friends in this universe since she wasn’t constantly distracted with trying to please Celestia (not that I blame Celestia for the canon events, I mean look what could have been avoided in THIS timeline!). They don’t have the special Super Power-Up box and keys, but I like to think the initial power burst of the reactivated Elements does the job on Tirek as well as it was meant to on Nightmare Moon.

- No, Luna does not get the bad magic back when her magic is restored along with everyone else’s. The Elements don’t play that game, that stuff is burned. She and Celestia go back to ruling Equestria together once this is all over while Cadance works on connecting with the newly liberated Crystal Empire and their changeling allies.

- Honestly, I didn’t expect it, but this is one of my favorite of the art pieces in regards to composition and color. I just really like how the color turned out, and the magic glows. I was rather happy to find I could duplicate the effect of Tirek’s magic illustration from the show without too much trouble. :D I also borrowed a lot of tones directly from a screenshot of the show scene. It’s really nice when art things come together!

Next Week: Discorded

#mlp ask blog #mlp #tirek #pony ask blog #alicorn #salespitch #pitch black #pitch forward #celestia #luna #cadance #princess cadance #sacrifice #love

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getallemeralds · 4 years

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explorers of arvus: port draavos / 3.23.20

and now for something different: the misadventures of the hope’s guard

so for the past 3 years ive been in an ongoing dnd5e campaign run by michael called Explorers of Arvus, which is super cool and super fun and i love it a whole lot! and back when i used twitter, i’d liveblog our sessions and that ended up being my way of note taking bc im otherwise quite terrible at it

after i stopped using twitter, that had the side effect of me not keeping notes anymore, so i kind of didnt remember any of the past couple sessions? especially because its hard for all 6 of us to have like, schedules that make sense, so there’s a lot of distance between each session.

and then i realized i can just take notes shitpost-liveblog style and then just… like, put it on tumblr or whatever. i’ll probably make like, ill probably port over my old liveblog threads onto here sometime but until then: we played d&d today! Time For Shenanigans

some quick context: we’re called the Hope’s Guard, but our unofficial silly name is Chunch Bunch the Dungeon Master is Michael aka Skalter aka @openlyeight Taure M’ea is a half-elf paladin played by Penn aka @penn-name and she is doing her best. Sieron Astora is a human (secretly half-orc) wizard played by Jorb aka @jorbs-palace and he’s basically the protagonist, and also starting to be gay for Charlie Charlie Wickfield is a halfling wild magic sorcerer played by Leos aka us and she’s known for being very chaotic, lighting things on fire, and having a high charisma score but no idea how to articulate anything Thorne is a half-orc warlock played by Solar aka @craftlands and he grew up in nonsense land aka the feywild and i love him, and also he’s fine-tuned to be able to snipe the shit out of anything within a 600 ft radius of him w/ eldritch blast Silje Cottonwood is a tabaxi blood hunter played by Nyx aka @patheticnyas and he is very edgy but also a cat and is VERY gay for Thorne our general goal is to stop some motherfucker called Halvkar / the God-King from… i dunno, being a huge bitch? he dumped zombies all over Arvus and that’s a problem. its late at night and i just played d&d for several hours

AND SO: WE PLAYED D&D FOR THE FIRST TIME OF THE DECADE

last time:

chunch bunch beat up the cult and now we’re FINALLY GOING TO ARVUS, YALL (also we picked up a cat) (his name is silly. its silje but literally pronounced like “silly”) sieron hatched a child! so like, we have a lil coatl friend now OH RIGHT SIERON HAS A MOM. sierons mom is here charlie and sieron attempted to have a gay scene but charlie went off script by being “[internal dial up noises]” when sieron said something really heartwarming we’re in fort draavos! and now we’re picking up sidequests and just kinda wanderin around. woo!

NOW, ON EXPLORERS OF ARVUS:

thorne and charlie discuss the morals of necromancy, and also the concept of “[charlie voice] necromancy racism”

EVERYONE IS BONDING WITH CHARLIE TODAY taure gave charlie the rune of wound closure and told her to stay safe and im :keralisweep:

accidentally started a cutscene bc charlie is very loud in a temple, oop. some priests(?) glared at us and walked off and im sure they wont stab us later! ingrid the adorkable friend has been having reoccuring nightmares about a dark figure w/ black robes standing above a bleeding platform high in the air over a swamp and summoning undead, so we’re gonna go hit that up! it MIGHT be like, a vision of the past, but even if so thats still pretty relevant also there’s a cool half orc lady named undril silvertusk who we’re gonna escort to camp vengeance! she’s awesome

thorne: i was in a dungeon once charlie: you got better! thorne: [points] i DID get better!

summer: can i roll to steal the laser gun? michael: if you find the dragon, you can try to steal the laser gun.

solar: guys, we have to protect the lesbians at all costs. and if one of them turns out to be an ancient gold dragon and curses my dick, then so be it

taure: dont worry, i wont let you die. ingrid: …okay :D!

THE HOT SPRINGS EPISODE IS FINALLY HAPPEN sorry thorne. charlie dabbed at a buff tiefling charlie is too fucking short for the hot springs. also she’s like 50% hair so she is Dying

time for food! we ran into an adventuring party that is apparently based off one michael was part of in another campaign, and i think the buff tiefling is his? also taure ordered samples of everything and then got Super plastered

thorne rolled really good to infodump hardcore about arvus artifacts and it is cute and id die for him oop michael asked for all our passive perception

omg theres an introduction of a ~mysterious character~ and originally theyre supposed to just sneak off but then michael realized they’d be genuinely interested in thorne’s infodumping so now theyre just Lurking

the opposite of a slow burn is a fast explosion

[everyone gets distracted quoting realtime fandub]

oops taure is depressed! ALSO SHE BROKE UP WITH SIGRA??? charlie is VERY bad at emotional support so she’s just “uhhhhhhhhh”, but thankfully thorne catches her before she faceplants into her potatoes CAN ANY OF US CARRY TAURE??? SHE’S IN FULL ARMOUR AND ALSO PASSED OUT

michael: what do you do with the bottle? summer: eat it

charlie get haircut! WITH SWORDS. her hair is now like midway down her back so its like, a bit shorter than when she first met everybody silje: do you want this [the hair he cut off]? charlie: UH WHAT WOULD I .. DO WITH IT… silje: …make a rope? charlie: yknow what i might as fucking well, who knows if id need spare hair

penn: i dont think taure is horny tho! summer: ITS OK, SILJE IS HORNY ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US

michael: Sieron, Str of 10- action hero Thorne, str of 14- twink nyx: silly, str of 13- cat solar: i guess thorne is a hunk. michael: thorne is a twunk summer: the t in thorne stands for twunk

taure, extremely drunk and sad: CHARLIE IM SORRY I MADE YOU BURN DOWN THAT LIBRARY (sieron and thorne carried her to bed and she ended up apologising a whole lot about literally everything)

jorb/sieron wants to know if charlie’s hair has any lingering wild magic nonsense!

thorne’s staring out the window! and also discord kept censoring solar when they were trying to say that THIS ENTIRE AREA IS WITHIN THORNE’S RANGE. solar: i could shoot someone at the thundering boar tavern [from our tavern] jorb: [as thorne] WRONG TAVERN, IDIOT!

solar called soldier:76 a cornfucker and it blindsided me so hard

michael: silje cottonwood, dark edgy blood hunter. [flops over on camera] NOTICE MEEEEEEEE

WE’RE NOW MAKING NONSTOP FORT DRAAVOS PUNS. i had to go clean pepper’s litter and when i came back they were STILL GOING

thorne pets silje on accident bc silje ws doing an anime squat on the balcony’s railing and is now having a crisis of “is it appropriate to pet the furry?” AND ALSO SILLY IS VERY SOFT

jorb & michael: [say something cursed] summer: [looking around frantically] I DONT HAVE AN IMPROVISED WEAPON solar: Allow Me. [brandishes baseball bat on camera]

#leo chirps #txt #summer.txt #dnd #explorers of arvus

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tumblunni · 6 years

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Also yeah while im on the subject

I really hate fantasy settings where magic is limited by biological sex. Because usually its used to enforce some sort of stupid gender stereotype that the writer believes is "biologically innate" rather than predjudice, by making up a world where it actually is biologically innate. Or its like "oh but women cant do those jobs" but again, a made up excuse for it to be LITERALLY TRUE. And usually they either dont even touch on the subject of trans and gay people (since it often conflates heterosexuality with gender...) or else it actually does bring it up and just creates a cavalcade of even more everything-ism...

Like i mean i love the game Jade Coccoon and considering it came out in the early 2000s i can understand it being more sexist, and its supossed to be a dark game anyway and a lot of the societal structures in Syrus Village are meant to be wrong and evil even if the characters act like its the way the world should be. The villain of the game is basically the toxic atmosphere of your shitty town and their paranoia of things they don't understand. Tho that means the player kinda has no motivation to finish it cos the main conflict is also saving those same villagers from dying and theyre all fucks. Anyway i'm going offtopic! What i mena is that i dont think it was a particularly sexist example of the inexplicable gender segregated magic trope. But just cos its a fave game of mine im gonna pick it to talk about anyway. Hope i dont sound too negative on it, cos seriously i love it loads!

Ok so to use Jade Cocoon as an example, here its a thing that only men can be cocoon masters and only women can be nagi. Tho it also gets a bit complicated because nagi is also an ethnicity as well? Its kinda like being romani, they're a race of displaced people who travel the world giving their magical services to other countries while searching for their lost homeland, which you end up finding at the end of the game. So yeah its extra weird cos male children of the nagi race are born with no powers whatsoever and cant even become cocoon masters, yet they get the ruling position in this homeland place? Like thats a better metaphor for how christian societies work, honestly!

Anyway im going offtopic again!

Basically, cocoon master = adventurer dude who catches monsters, nagi = magician who purifies those monsters so you can use them in battle. So when you catch stuff it becomes an inventory item rather than being able to use it on your team right away. And also nagi women can fuse monsters together to make super badass new ones and basically the gameplay system works really well to make you believe your wife is absolutely necessary to your quest and you would die without her, even if she cant fight. And honestly its actually kinda romantic! I just wish it wasnt presented as this weird sacred heterosexuality arranged marriage nonsense where all women are physically unable to go to a dungeon and all men are physically unable to not fight every day. Or at least thats how the powers work and if you try and step out of that role you fuckin die. Like it would be romantic to have a couple of a battle partner and a supporter magician if they actually chose it, yknow?

And whats annoying is that they actually do bring up the subject of people defying gender roles and canonically state that you not omly die but bring a curse upon everyone and are hated forever. They dont mention trans or gay people, instead the excuse is that a man loved his wife so much that he tried to learn nagi magic to lift the burden from her. Cos oh yeaj women get 'punished' by god for doing this magic?? Cursed tattoos all over their body the more they use it, and everyone hates them and eventually they turn into a fairy and forget they were ever human. And in the japanese version you can actually fight other nagi women who met this fate, theyre just another monster that you can fight and capture. They were censored in english cos they looked like really racist stereotypes of black women! Ugh! So yeah anyway nice straight husband is punished by the magic straightness enforcing rules of the universe for loving his straight wife too much. So what is the even point? If a man tries to use nagi magic it creates the "black cocoon" of cursed doomness and blah. Literal punishment for not conforming to gender. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Anyway this setting always made me wonder about all the stuff it just glosses over with this implication that every one of these relationships worked out fine. Like even before we rub lgbtq topics all over a retro videogame, there's a lot of logical holes! Like seriously how many of these arranged marriages ended up loveless or abusive? How many women just didnt want to stay confined to one room forever and not even have anyone look at them because their magic markings are shameful yet its also shameful not to want to do it?? How many men were terrified of going out on this advebture fighting literal demigods sent by heaven to punish humans? How many of them just had no ability to fight and died immediately because of shitty traditions, while perfectly qualified women had to sit there and watch it happen? What if there werent enough straight men and women of the same age and people were forced into gross pedophilic shit or other horror scenarios just cos there has to be this one magical straight couple or the village dies? Whenever theres this stupid gender magic its ALWAYS portrayed as idyllic and never failing ever, unless *gasp* people dont follow the gendrules...

And then SERIOUSLY do no queer people exist in this universe?? Man i'd be so interested in their stories! I actually had an oc idea of a self insert version of me as a travelling merchant. Because maybe what if nonbinary people could do both sides of the magic at once and thus adventure alone without being tied to a village's straight marriage system? So i'd just go around purifying monsters and then be a place you could buy new and rare mons from other villages without having to catch them. Maybe an easier way to get the super rare drop fusion materials for tiger pattern and stuff? And like seriously itd be good to have a character to talk to who agrees that your village is made of assholes. I cant say its bad writing cos it was clearly intentional, but they shoulda at least put a bit more incentive to keep playing even if you didnt care about these people. Also it would help plug the plothole of how a village even survives if it doesnt have the required people to form this magical straight marriage. Have some mysterious enby avengers who travel all across the world and save everyone regardless of country! All we ask is you buy some of our lovely souveniers! Maybe a pet patalchu for your family? Seripusly why dont they ever show anyone using the purified monsters for anything other than fighting the unpurified ones? You'd think they'd be really useful in repairing the village and guarding the walls and like..regular industrial jobs. Help the place actually advance and not have to live day to day on scraps,bickering amoungst themselves as the monsters grow ever closer to breaking through. Hell, you could even have them help spin the cocoons for other monsters! If this magic only depends on having a dick or not, then cant we just dress up some animals in the magic straight marriage outfits? XD

And like aaaa man im getting so emotional just imagining a trans woman who's constabtly told she will literally bring about the apocolypse if she tries to fill the female role in this ritual. And then one day she tries to spin the magic silk and she thinks she's committing the ultimate sin and they were all right. But the magic responds to her touch, and she makes a spell more beautiful than any other woman in the village! It would probably be harder for a trans man cos the magic doesnt have so much of an immediate proof like that. Just going out and winning a fight with a monster can be called "dumb luck", and knowing these assholes they'd probably keep calling it dumb luck even after the thousandth time you save their life!

And man, i wonder how gay relationships would work in such an annoyingly strict system of enforced heterosexuality? Would it be like the magic isnt REALLY gender locked at all, and it can just be any couple with either partner taking either role? Or would it be that it is one magic per gender but the bigoted villagers were wrong about it being impossible to do things without both? Like maybe when you're going into battle alone as a single cocoon master you cant fight without catching other monsters. But when two cocoon masters love each other their magic is amplified and they become able to like.. I dunno.. Imbue each other with elemental strength so they can fight the monsters hand to hand? Cos really the elemental system is the only reason you cant do a no monsters run of the game as it is. Maybe since they cant purify monsters but they can still catch them, they equip the monsters as sort of a power rangers transformation? Or socket them like materia on their weapons? Or just if the world was less segregated into tiny sexist racist villages they could simply buy the purification coccoons from another local nagi, and villages without a coccoon master could buy the services of travelling ones. Oh, and maybe two nagi lesbians could be even more badass! Cos if they can only purify and not fight, maybe their double purification is so strong that they can just straight up walk into the forest and monsters don't attack them. They dont even need to do the full spell, they can calm a beastie's rage just by holding out their hand and patting it on the head. So they coukd be infinately more effective and not have to just tenporarily clear single travelling routes of a few monsters, but actually work towards slowly purifying the entire forest and creating a peaceful land again. Tho i mean the game did have a unique atmosphere with the whole 'no hope of ever beating them' aspect. It was unique to see a society formed around the idea of never going into forests or you Die. But magical lesbians and their family of a million pet dragons is honestly better!

And uhhhh ive gone all offtopic now and i camt stop thinking about how much i love magical lesbians with a million pet dragons

The End

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alaskamorgan1019 · 7 years

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Trapped inside

Authors note: I will be writing about the versions of Dark and Anti that I have in my mind. My Anti has one black eye with a blue iris, one normal eye with a green iris (that depending on mood can have green slime oozing out, running down his cheek), he has stretched ears (probably inch diameter) and a slender short frame about 5 and a half feet tall (a little bit shorter than jack in real life) . He has the darker green version of green hair that jack had in October 2016, and last but definitely not least slimy black tentacles (quantity varies upon situation). Dark is a bit taller than Mark, he about 6 foot, he's a bit more muscular, has a grey-ish/sick-ish tone to his completion, and he has Marks candy apple red hair ( XD is it possible to have a thing for unnatural hair colors). Dark has black soul-less eyes with bright blood red irises, also with prominent dark circles almost like black lines or eye liner around his eyes, like he hasn't slept in years. 💋Ch1 Open eyes "Mark! Where are you going we're supposed to be on stage in ten minutes!" Bob shouted out to the already far Mark. "I'll be back in a bit, I'm just going to go to the restroom before we do this thing. Don't wanna piss my pants on stage!" Mark exclaimed as he briskly walked out, off to his destination. Mark turned the corner to the smallest men's restroom he swore he'd ever seen. There was one other person in there, a shorter male with spiky dark green hair, using one of the urinals. He was wearing black sweater that was pretty baggy for someone of his stature, grey skin tight jeans and some worn dark green doc martens, they where almost as dark as the figure's hair but where also splattered in what looked like red paint of some sort. He must have been cosplaying as some demonic character because it looked like it must have been wearing a super light green almost white fountain. It looked very focused on its task at hand, so Mark decided not to say a short 'sup man' to brake to awkward pee sounds and silence. Mark unzipped himself then got to work. "Sooooooo..... You're 'Markiplier'." The smaller male hissed out as to react to a surprise that was sub-par. "Yes, yes I am!" Mark replied with a smile, "Are you a fan?" He inquired with his ego growing a bit. "No, but I have some friends that won't stop talking about you. You do seem all that though." The man turned and winked with his 'normal' eye. "Thanks?" Mark said unsure of how to react. He watched as the creature struggled to rezip itself within its poor choice in leg wear, then while the man was still staring at the ground, it walked to the sink to wash their hands. "You know a nice looking guy like you shouldn't be walking around all alone like this " The soul said as it looked in the mirror up at its reflection to check that its hair was still in place and then up at Mark's muscular back visible through his light coverage. Mark was blushing as he was finishing up. He turned around to see the figure's sharp toothed evil smile gleaming at him. "Who knows what could happen." It tried to say seductively but ended up saying as if he was a little kid trying to persuade someone to buy his lemonade by saying it is vegan. Mark smiled at the cute male as he waked over to the other sink to wash his hands. "Hon I'm real sorry but I think I can handle myself. If you are so concerned about my safety though, you can walk me back to the main stage and I may be able to talk some stagehands into letting you and your friends watch the show from backstage." He flirted back, looking at the younger creature's ass. "No sir that's not what I meant, " The man said as it rolled its eyes like an annoyed teen that no one can understand; he fumbled with something in his pocket. "What I meant is you need people to protect you from people like me!" It exclaimed with a cackle as it suddenly disappeared from next to Mark and appeared behind him as if out of nowhere and plunged a syringe full of a green poison into the older's neck. Mark started to fade in and out of consciousness as the figure stood over him and laughed manically. Time skip to a what seemed like just a couple hours later: Mark awoke in a mess of chains and confusion. He looked down at himself; his shirt was torn, his jeans wear ripped and one of his prized red sneakers was missing. The poor man looked like he was falling apart at the seems. His arms were chained above his head and his ankles were chained together. As he looked around, he found he was in an unfinished basement. Cement walls and floor lined his prison, bookshelves decorated with ropes, whips and mysteriously unknown objects, all the while a hint of an undefinable odor stunk up the air. Mark couldn't place it but it was most like a mix of the familiar scents flavored lube and mold. The smell and the unusual predicament Mark is in was starting to give him a distressing migraine. 'How did I get here? What am I doing here? What's going on?' Mark thought with a fearful look tattooed to his face. The poor man looked like a little boy who had just lost his mother in a humongous store. Much to his hysterical state; the panic worsened when the door opened. The light spilled into the dimly lit dungeon, down a couple stairs, and onto Mark's trembling expression. Cackling laughter and the shadow of the gangly monster from the restroom covered the shuttering male like a blanket. "So you're awake now! This is going to be fun! You are going to be back to your old self in no time! Come on baby, come back to me!!" It both choked and cooed out of it's sharp toothed jaws. "I'm here for anything you need baby! Just come back to me!" The creature said as it gently placed its warming palms on the mans' pale and frozen with fear face. "PLEASE I NEED YOU!!! STOP HOLD HIM FROM ME!!! I NEED HIM!!! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!!!" It began to shake and slap Mark's limp body. "I-ii d-don't know w-what you are t-talking about." Mark sniffed out between his tears. The lanky creature that started to look more like a young man now, it got down on it's knees in front of Mark to look him in the eyes. "Sure you do honey, j-just relax and remember. It will come to you and-dd he will come back to me. Jus-just arelax please ..... please." It said with it's fear and concern falling out of the cracks in it's voice. The demon fell back from it's position in front of him, hugged it's knees and began to sob, while rocking itself back and forth for comfort. 💋Ch2 Just remember Mark looked at the rocking male, something about him was making this all a little too familiar, like de ja vu. The demon wanted something from Mark; but sadly, he didn't remember anything off the top of his head about him that was or maybe even is a part of his life. Mark didn't remember anything about a life that involved this small man. He couldn't remember anything. Mark always had the will to try to help others before himself. This life principal was what he was taught from a young age. So when a small being is distraught and bawling into it's knees in front of him, and he isn't capable of being of any service; he feels bad and he feels like a bad friend. He may not know this man in front of him that well, but he knows he wants to help him and wants to be there for him. The small figure looked so helpless and alone in this world it was truly saddening. It need a friend to be there for it and it only. The figure's sniffles slowed as he began to try to stand up with great wobbly fashion. "Well, sir, if you do not remember yourself I have no choice but to leave you here until you do." The man fell back down to a kneel in front of Mark and grabbed his face softly in its, now, cold as ice palms. "Dark, I know you are still in there. Please I need you, I miss you, I love you. Come back to me. It's been too long. I need you." It's tears flowed once more. "What can I do" Mark said as softly as humanly possible, to not disturb the already woeful creature in front of him. "Dark, just remember. Please." The younger sniffled "please...." It leaned over to the chained man and put its arms around his neck with its forearms resting delicately on the humans shoulders. Green tinted tears fell from the soul's windows, they acidly burned the humans flesh though the rips in his thin shirt and the wounds the mere mortal had gotten conciseness with. But the figure's sobs that leaked vocally into Mark's ear hurt the man deepest, as Mark was still chained and couldn't comfort the younger man back with a nice warm hug, all he could do was sit there and try not to squirm in pain too much. "What was I?" Mark choked out in the almost silence. The small noises of it's sniffles and it's tears tingling and burning the older man's skin and flesh, filled the room. "Dark, please don't do this to me.... you were mine, we lived here, and we died here. You were my friend, my lover, and my soulmate. It feels like it has been an eternity since we have been together. I feel myself growing weaker. I need you. You are my other half. You need me." It sobbed more as if the tears as if had a purpose, as if it's tears were working to bring back what he had lost, all the while Mark withered and jumped in the pain from the flood of acid tears. "Tell me more, I really want to remember." Mark said through clenched teeth as he was trying not to hiss in pain too much. "I can't" It sniffled back in an almost inaudible response. The small helpless man continued to messily bawl on Mark's shoulder, he didn't want to disturb the already very hysterical man. Mark just sat there and tried to remember. He tried to remember the scent, the younger man's face, the place, the feelings and the chemistry, but nothing came of it. Then as if out of nowhere the small being began to stir, it suddenly stopped crying and stood up as if this short heart to heart had never been uttered. "I really wish you would remember, sir, but sorry I haven't got all of my day to waste on the living." The facade of a strong man faded as soon as the it turned to go up the stairs. After just a few steps forward the man fell into tears, his mask expired and his walk wobbled. The creature hobbled up the stairs he came from, looking back only once to show Mark his sorrowful expression. The poor demon looked so dramatically miserable in the flood of light from the hallway, a green tint highlighted his face in an unusually memorable way. Mark knew him from somewhere, the clouds in his mind felt as if they were beginning to fade. 💋Ch3 Remembered The memories of the creature was starting to clear; still the as it walked away and up the stairs, Mark knew that he was doomed to be here for a while if not forever. Mark's memory was only quickly sharpening when the soul was near. When they were in contact was the best situation, Mark could feel the burn of his mind trying coming back to him. Time skip: It felt like it must have been days before the creature came back. Though this time it came back with a large tray of good smelling food. It wore a black suit with a dark green under shirt, some wine red loafers and a black tie. The man had no green glow to its face now, if anything he had an almost fake peachy pink tint as if he had put some makeup on. Its hair had been spiked up with gel and now it was visible that the creature had inch diameter gauges and snake bite lip piercings. He was wearing a pair of dark green glasses, and it was now that Mark could see the creature had one eye with an oddly 'septic-ish' green pupil and one that was completely black with a glowing electric blue pupil. "So my dear darkimoo, clearly a normal human male would be severely dehydrated and starving by now...... My my my a week can go so quick. It's almost like I left you in here for longer., but oh no my poor baby, I made sure to it was only a week. AND look honey... I brought you your favorite meal.... remember, you used to love my chicken and dumplings. You used to say it reminded you of some place you went when to a lot you were little.... I think it was barrel cracker maybe." The man cooed as he sat the tray down in front of Mark about 2 feet away on the unfinished cement floor, then walked to stand right in front of the chained man. Mark could have sworn it hadn't been a week but then again it could have been. The decrepit old and falling apart at the seams basement Mark had been trapped in for all this time didn't have any widows; so, for all he knows it could have been anywhere from four days to a maybe even a week like he said. "Cracker Barrel." Mark answered softly to the front of the souls pants. "Ahhhhhhh yes baby, now I remember, it was Cracker Barrel yes, look at you honey. You're helping me remember you more too. You are always just sooooo smart, ya know I always loved that about you, you were just so smart and always want to learn. " the soul reminisced while unlocking the chains from Marks wrists "I remember when we would go out and lay on the roof and you would tell me about the stars. Sometimes your eyes would twinkle more than the stars. As you would look at them and point out the specifics, I would watch your sexy red and lifeless eyes start to fill with hope and twinkle of a life that hadn't been lost too early." It said as he began to work on his ankle chains. "It was soooooo hot and you would get furious when I would cut you off mid sentence with a lustful kiss. You would pull me off of you finish your sentence, tell me off then kiss me back even harder. Those were the best times. We were truly in love." "I'm sorry." Mark chocked out as he laid on the dirty ground. The feeling was coming back to his arms for the first in days, his knees got relieved for the weight that had left them bruised against the cement. "What for my dear, you are here now, you are finally turning your normal skin tone. You are coming back to me. Your are becoming your old self." The figure cooed as it crawled over to the very weak Mark. The creature delicately picked up Mark's torso and put him carefully on its lap. The tray scooted itself towards the couple, the dainty soul picked up a fork with some of the substance on it and as he was feeding a baby he fed the almost lifeless Mark. "who are you..... and...... who was I?" Mark tried to say between fork loads. "Awww baby. I'm yours, I'm Antisepticeye but you just called me Anti. And you're mine. You are Darkiplier but I just called you Dark. You were never really fond of that name but you loved me so much that every time I would call you that you began to boil a little less till it became like a little pet name. You loved me and I love you." Anti said as he unbuttoned his blazer to pull out a water bottle "Now you may not be completely alive but you still need water, so drink up my baby." Anti huffed as he pulled Mark to make him sit up. Mark reluctantly sat up; as weak as he was originally, he was beginning to regain his strength. Mark could now grab the bottle, he sat up on his own too. He tuned out Anti as he tried to drown himself by drinking so fast. The fatigue from his days that he was chained up, now seemed to have vanished. Mark felt like he could do anything, he felt like he could take off up the stairs and hopefully out the demon's front door to freedom. But something inside compelled him to stay, as if that something inside of him really loved the talkative monster sitting next to him. Mark decided to stay put with his new found strength. "--- eating and you said 'I wish we had more goo!!!" Anti laughed at his own story and Mark not wanting to be rude forced out a laugh too. The soul look right into the mans eyes and smiled. "I'm so glad you are back! I know you are because I know that laugh was forced. I know no matter how unfunny I can be you always try to laugh to make me feel good." The pink faded from the demons cheeks and became replaced with a green tint almost the same color as his eye. Mark tilted his head as a new thought popped into his mind. "I think I'm remembering you." Mark exclaimed in a quietly relieved tone. Anti got up, and quickly positioned himself on Mark's lap. The soul caressed the mortals face in his warming hands and graced its forehead with the contact of the mans. 💋Ch4 I'm out Anti pulled his face away from Marks, he looked at the mans lips then to his eyes. As they stared at each other, Anti was showing his partner a very sharp, devious and toothy smile; and Mark was half smiling too, but also he was trying to figure out what was going on with Anti's face. Its face looked like it was blushing but instead of the normal 'face turning red' thing, its cheeks were starting to have a sort of 'sick-ish' green tone. The demon didn't look to be ill but he started to look paler and more green in the cheeks. His skin tone looked to be, an almost white, mint green. The strange tone turning of the creatures skin was slightly unnerving, Mark remembered this tone from the restroom at the convention, he thought it was makeup then but now it seemed normal, almost natural. "How 'bout I take you up stairs and have you take a shower? Would that be okay with baby?" Anti cooed while placing his now warm hands on Mark's cheeks and rubbing his thumbs on the mans cheek bones. "Okay... ummm ... do you have any... ummm... of Dark's old clothes?" Mark stammered out as the warmth from Anti's hands comforted him. "Sure honey, I left all of your things in the closet where you had them. I'll get them for you while you're taking your shower. Okay?" The soul said as if he was talking to a child. Anti got up off of the human dusted his suit off a little bit and began to walk towards the looming stairs. Mark looked up at the creature as it strutted and thus tried to follow. The poor man looked like he was inebriated and Anti could see this. The soul went back to Mark, put the mortals arm around his shoulder and its arm around the mans waist. Now that Mark was stabled, the couple slowly made it up the stairs as they creaked with every step. "I really missed you, this house is wayyyy too big for only one soul to inhabit it." Anti said as he looked over and smiled at Mark "Well I guess I-I'm sorry for taking so long." Mark apologized kind of insincerely as they finished the stairs. "Nah it's fine babe, you're here, with me now. It's going to be all fine and dandy from now on" Anti toothily smiled as he exclaimed this with pure joy. The creature still had the mortal on his arm as they finished the last couple of steps. Then as soon as they were able to stand on flat ground Anti switched his grip to be a hug and for the first time so far; Mark wasn't happy to have the opportunity to hug the creature back, he actually felt like he was slightly trapped in the monster's grip but also with in the walls of this fortress. After a few seconds the couple continued walking and Mark got some strange new thoughts in his head. Like, 'Ya know once I get a little bit stronger.... I could possibly escape this place' or 'I wonder where the door is?' His thoughts continued to wonder as they ambled more through the house. The place was furnished like any normal home; in the living room there were a couple of nice couches and a nice TV, also a nice and shiny kitchen complete with a dinning room and a few china cabinets. It was just like a semi-normal house except for the long, almost endless, hallways. It seemed like there was just door after door after large gothic window after door. The hallway just seemed to lag on and on. 'No I definitely can't escape this maze of a house...' Mark thought to himself. "Thanks for getting that silly thought out of your head honey. It was starting to worry me!" The creature said out loud as the human looked over at it. The couple finally turned to one of multitude of doors and the demon opened it. "Here we are!" Anti exclaimed with an arm held out as it was showing off a brand new car. 💋Ch5 I tried "Thanks." Mark said as he unhooked himself from Anti and walked in to the room. 'This is nice, I guess' he thought "You're very welcome baby!" It smiled as it stood in the doorway and stared at the man. The creature walked in too, over to the shower knobs and fumbled around with them for a while until finally warm water flowed. 'This is awkward. He really wants me to take a shower.' "Ya know you can get undressed around me, I've seen you in more compromising positions before. It won't really be anything new, I promise!" Anti giggled. Mark blushed as he took the demon's word and took off his shirt. 'So we've been intimate.' "Okay I may have lied a bit, but you look only a little bit buffer and a lot less grey than the last time I've seen you like this" Mark looked down at his hands and saw them to be a new shade of grey, granted it was like his normal tan skin tone had been mixed with a white-ish grey. He looked back at Anti with a puzzled look but it just kept looking at Mark as if he was a god, he even drooled a bit. 'Okay I kinda want to leave, this guy is creeping me out, why am I turning grey, what the hell is going on with me, Anti any comments?' "I'll stop here then until I get some privacy." Mark mockingly smiled back to make fun of the creatures newly star-struck nature. Anti huffed then perked right back up. 'This guy is so weird' Mark thought, 'Wait... why isn't he talking back? Hello Anti hello!!' "Oh, no problem man. Ya know what.... " The creature said as he slowly and nervously back out of the bathroom. "I'm gonna go get you some towels, you can finish undressing and then you can just hop in the shower while I'm gone!" It exclaimed as he turned and ran down the hall. Mark quickly shut and locked the door behind him, then began to examine the room. He saw a nice walk-in shower, a huge bathtub, a very "extra" porcelain sink, and a quaint toilet with a medium sized window right above. Mark went to go stand on the toilet to look out the window. The window outlooked a yard with some bushes to his left and right, and trees out in the background. 'I could probably open this window all the way and escape.' Mark stood on the toilet lid and propped open the window. He looked out then back into the room, to scope out the room, then he put his arms out through the window and pulled himself up. Mark got his head and arms out the window when he heard some knocking on the door. "Marky I got you some towels!!! Please let me in baby..." Anti cooed while trying to be seductive through the door. Mark ignored him while he pulled himself up to the window. "Marky please open the door!" Anti asked with a little bit of worry noticeable, Mark ignored him again. "Mark open the door, I know you can hear me." The creature playfully yelled. Mark was already a little bit outside. "You open the door or I will." Anti said sternly. Mark was about halfway outside. "Okay you've made your choice." The voice scratchily boomed from outside the door. Mark was almost all the way outside, only his lower half was still in the room as the door was burst open. Pieces of door scattered everywhere, "Sir, I must ask you to come to your senses, I am here for you and your beautiful ass" Anti angrily cooed and cackled as Mark was flailing, trying to crawl out the window. The man could hear cloth ripping "I TRIED to get you to see MY SIDE... I TRIED to make you see MY WAYS" Anti yelled as Mark felt something reach through the window and wrap around his waist. Mark started screaming, and was flinging his arms and legs around as much as he could as to fight what was bound to happen "Awww is the poor baby SCARED, if only HE WOULD HAVE STAYED INSIDE." Anti's tentacles wrapped around the mortal a little tighter as to not strangle the man but enough to have a grip on him. He pulled the man back in the room and tossed him gently on the floor, as not to hurt him too much. Mark sat against the tub and looked up at the monster with only a little bit on fear consuming him, but the man was mostly wondering what was coming out of its back. The creature was huffing and puffing as it was trying to calm down from the previous events, avoiding the human's eye contact. "What are those things?" Mark inquired with his gaze locked onto the soul's breathless body, the man felt a slight tingling around his mid section. The mortal moved his hand down to investigate as his gaze was still locked on the creature. He wiped some green goop from where the tentacles were, stood up and looked at Anti. "They are nothing... huff... just get in the shower." Anti said as he glared at the man. "They are clearly not nothing, I'm looking at something. You hav---" Mark rambled on as he was staring at the monster. "Just get in the shower." Anti yelled, the creature was trying to retract them back onto his person but was finding it difficult and painful. "I'm not getting in the shower til you tell me what they are, what you are and what I am." Mark said as he stamped his foot on the ground like a child. "Mark I'm not playing. I need you to get in the shower and clean yourself. Now!" Anti yelled back at the 'child' "No" Mark stamped back as to make the creature get tired of him and just tell him what's going on. "Yes" The demon growled back. "No" Mark taunted. "Yes" Anti roared as he put his hands on Mark shoulders. The shirt-less and slightly slimy man looked down to the soul. "Make me!" Cockily smiled the mortal. 💋Ch 6 The relief (slight smut) Mark cockily smiled as he was looking down at the little guy that was steaming with anger. Anti quickly jerked his hands from the mortals shoulder to behind his head. The creature brought his head closer and closer until their lips were together. The man's eyes widened from the initial shock of the interaction but soon mellowed out as he became involved. Anti tilted his head slightly to the left as to provide relief so they could get closer. Mark opens his mouth to let his tongue explore the souls saliva covered fangs. The situation of the sin was getting to be oddly amazing. It seemed as if their interaction was the answer to why Mark was staying in this prison. The human was just starting to enjoy the kiss when Anti pulled away. "It seems the role have been reversed." Anti smiled and started to giggle. "I was always the tease and you were the hot head. It was sexy when I would tease and make-fun of you til you were steaming. It was a fun, almost like our version of floor-play." "That does sound like fun." Mark said with his hands on his hips as his eye's irises turned blood red and began to glow. "Down puppy, just strip and get in the shower already." Anti commanded. "Okay. But you either have to leave the room or put your hands over your eyes." Mark ruled with his arms crossed. "Why are you embarrassed?...." Anti hissed and crossed his arms to mock the man. "No I'm not." Mark tried to hiss back. "Whatever"Anti shook his head and went to sit on the toilet lid. It watched Mark to see how much farther he would go before he turned around to check to see if it was watching. The man took his dirty old socks off and tossed them on top of his shirt. Mark's beautiful hands then went to work on his belt buckle. The man unhooked the belt from around his waist and lively pulled it out of the loops that held the item to his body. Mark turned around to make sure Anti wasn't watching the show he was putting on. The monster was sure enough just sitting there enjoying the view. Mark put his folded his belt in half and smacked it in his hands, Anti had chills running down is spine. "So what did I tell you, baby." Mark mocked but weirdly enjoyed calling Anti his baby. "Whatever, I was just admiring the sexy view." Anti smiled as he still had his arms crossed, two blackish green slimy tentacles squirmed out from behind him to cover his eyes. Mark turned back around to take off his pants and throw them onto the pile too. Mark then hooked his thumbs in the elastic of his boxers when the soul wolf whistled. The man quickly turned back to glare at the creature but saw that Anti was still in the exact same position that Mark last saw him in. Mark turned his back once more and slowly finished removing the undergarment. "Your human form has such a cute ass." Anti giggled "You would always say that about me too. I think I finally get why you asked all the time if we could role play, one human and one monster. It was pretty fun but I was never one for being a submissive bottom like you wanted, though.... you always did really like a fight." Mark just smiled at the soul and stepped into the running shower. The human washed and lathered his hair and body. Anti was just sitting on the toilet lid when an idea popped into his head. He slowly, as to not make that much noise, slid one of the tentacles in behind the man and slithered it around his hip to the man's member. The tentacle wrapped around it and rubbed the head with the tip of the tentacle. The limb started to act like a hand on the hardening penis, moving up and down the shaft. Mark was melting in the monster's touch, the action of the sene was getting to the point where Anti knew if he went any farther Mark would have cum. So along the lines of the first lust filled idea, Anti decided to quickly strip and sneakily hop into the shower with him. The creature stopped jerking and turned the man around to face him. 💋Ch7 Payback Mark looked down at the small man as it quickly grabbed the sides of his face and lustily kissed him. The interaction seemed to be driven by what Mark guessed to be a lifetime of repressed urges and loneliness. Anti was so happy to be back in Mark's (or Dark's) company. Mark didn't notice anything around them as the smaller deeply kissed him. The mans hair was reddening; he was growing taller, more muscular and grayer. Their height difference was growing but Mark wasn't paying any mind to the new upgrades as he started to need to lean down a bit and Anti needed to be on its tip toes to keep the connection. This lovely creature was the only thing on Darks mind now. The creature's serpent-like tongue was finding it's way around the mortal's mouth. The soul still had one tentacle on the man's pulsing member, Anti moved his beautiful and lush lips down to work on Mark's neck trying to find the places it could reach that would make him squirm and moan. The figure grabbed the man's wrists and held them up against the wall of the shower so Mark was in almost the same position he was in for the past week. Mark had to now squat down a little bit to see the partner eye to eye. The soul made sure that it didn't move to tentacle that was wrapped around them as to keep Mark on edge and to not give him any more pleasure. Mark tried to move his hips back and front to get some friction from the situation but to no avail the tentacle stayed still ,in place, on his member. Anti found a spot on his collar bone the made the man loudly moan, Mark didn't even know he had a place like that there but he was loving being explored. Mark was on edge as he looked at the soul with want in his eyes. "Anti please..... I ... need to..." The poor mortal whimpered. "Baby come on..... you need to what.... now use your words..... I know you can!" Anti seductively whispered into Dark's ear between the kisses and love bites. "Please I really..... need to....." Mark huffed as he began hyper ventilating in over stimulation. His neck became littered with bruises and bites. "Well .... no I'm not going to let you! The fun hasn't even begun!" The creature growled as it knew he was only starting and Mark was right where he wanted him. It tightened the tentacle around the base of Marks penis to ask like a cock ring. Anti turned Mark around so they were front to back. The monster contorted him with the help of its multitude of slimy friends. The man was held in compromising positions with his nice round ass sticking right out to were Anti felt like he could do what he pleased. The creature bent down behind the restrained being and used his hands and claws to grab and separate the humans cheeks. Anti played with the ass in his claws a bit, spanked the man then kissed and bit the newly reddened skin. After a few more spanks, the soul licked its lips and held his ass with the soft palms of it's hands. "Oh honey.... you are going to love this!" The figure said as it kissed and sucked around the man's asshole. Anti licked and bit the tender skin, the man soon became glad he was basically suspended by the souls helpers. After the initial shock of pleasure Mark felt he was able to regain his balance. This was a different type of interaction, different than any type he had endured before. He may have done something like this before to a female but never had this or anything like this done to him before let alone by someone of the same sex, this was new and very welcomed. Then it all stopped at once. "Baby I know you enjoy this but I'm going to have to ask you to stop pushing your ass in my face. Okay or I'll have to get ruff." Anti seductively growled. A rush of pleasure fell over him as the feeling soon returned from Anti's glorious tongue. The man moaned and screamed as this wonderful and breath-taking feeling once again consumed him. But as soon as Mark got lost in the moment again when it was once again taken from him. "Honey this is your last warning, I know I don't breathe but I feel like you're suffocating me." Anti angrily cooed. "Actually never mind the extra warning!" Mark yelped as the creature sunk his sharp claws back into the man ass. It left a couple more spanks and bites as Anti started to stand up straight from his position on his knees. Kissing and licking different areas of the man's back as if it had a purpose, as if Anti was trying to spell something. Mark relaxed even more as the monster behind him found the spots on the mortal's collar bone once again. Anti had the man eating out of his hand now; it felt like it could do anything that it what to him, like for once Dark wasn't in control. The human began to grind on his dominant partner and Anti didn't really mind. After a couple of minutes the creature gave into the suggestive moment happening on his nether reagins. The soul wrapped one of its hands around front to the man's nipple and the other to his asshole. Anti fingered Mark until it thought he was ready, knowing it was man's first time receiving anal in centuries. The monster slowly inserted on of his tentacles in Mark's backside and pumped it in and out for a little while before adding itself to the party. Mark moaned louder and louder, louder than he had ever moaned and groaned before. "Oh my god, Anti are you an angel or something." Mark groaned out. "Oh no..... far from it..... my dear." Anti said between its lip work. "Oh that interesting" Mark said in a newly found deeper voice. "What are you then, my baby ?" "The same thing you are honey" The soul answered as it unwrapped the tentacle from around the man's penis, thus letting him orgasm and cum better than he ever had before. 💋Ch8 Remembrance (fluff) With that Mark lost all feeling and limply fell, Anti was luckily there to catch him as the rest of his soul left the body. The creature looked down at the greying being in its arms though a blurring eye; Anti had finally got what he wanted for decades, whether they knew it or not. Mark was now finally gone and Dark was once again the only thing in the world that Anti cared about. This moment was too precious and emotional to move on from but the demon knew that it had to get it's partner cleaned up and to the bed, where he could rest. Thus Anti gently flopped the body over its shoulder to finish cleaning it. Mark already shampooed his glorious hair and washed his other areas but with what had just taken place, it needed another quick wash. After that was over Anti careful carried the naked being over to the toilet to have it limply sit there for a second while the creature dried itself off and got more towels for the being. Fluffy white towels filled the cabinet under the sink, Anti pick out two and shut the cabinet. The soul wrapped Mark in the towels and softly patted him dry. It used the smaller towel to dry his fire red hair then the body's neck and face. The creature draped the larger towel around his shoulders and patted them dry. Anti reached solemnly around the body's midriff to pat dry its back; its arms softly fell around Anti's shoulders, as if Dark was hugging it to say thank you. The demon blushed green a bit, glad that Mark was finally out cold and couldn't ask anymore questions. Anti gladly held the newly monstrous body back with an impulsive hug, grateful to be in its soulmates presence once again. After the body was dry Anti wrapped its lower half in a towel and tossed him over its shoulder again, then walked down the hallway to their old bedroom. Once inside the old gothic wine red room, Anti sat the almost naked body down on their old bed. It quickly got in its favorite blue hoodie and a pair of grey sweatpants then walked over to Dark's old closet. The creature looked through Dark's old things to find his lucky red flannel, and a pair of black pajama pants that had little hot pink mustaches on them. Anti turned green once more remembering when Dark would spend days in these clothes. The creature's normal eye began to water while more beautiful memories flooded back to it. Like the time Dark didn't want to leave the house so he set up a nice romantic meal on the roof, just for Anti. Or the time they had just finished the third season of their favorite show and Anti's favorite character was killed off, so Dark poorly drew and wrote some made up stories about it as a demon. They really loved each other but it was always Dark fixing the problems, Dark was never the problem, he was always the problem solver. Dark was always there to put the pieces back together, he was the person in the couple that was always composed, stable and collected. Anti was none of those things, it was anxious, disturbed and plagued with torment. Dark was there to cushion Anti's broken existence and Anti was there to be touched by Dark's fallen life. They were complete opposites but that's why they worked so well together, Dark was the strong, sane, secure one that kept Anti the fragile, unstable, falling apart one together. But for the time being it seemed the tables have turned and Anti was trying to stay strong. It finished picking out Darks outfit then went to go dress him. The body was laying perpendicular to the bed with his feet still on the floor. After removing the towel Anti found a stone grey man with a hairless and chiseled chest. The view was absolutely breathtaking but Dark would have something harsh to say about it leaving him naked, even if it would just be easier in the long run (he'd just be mad because he'd be cold). Anti slipped Dark into his pajama pants, glad that it's heavy partner loved going commando. With the little pink mustaches now covering his naked ass, Anti grabbed his arm and flipped him over to his stomach. Relieved that the flannel was a button up, it contorted the beings limp arms into the sleeves then ruffly flipped him over again to button the front about half way, just the amount that always made the creature, his Anti, just melt. The demon enjoyed their eye candy for a hot moment before it planned how to move him to his side of the bed under the covers. Anti ran to the over side of the bed and pulled the body's arms from above its head. It didn't feel like carrying the heavy being anymore, so dragging seemed like the best option. After the body was in position on his side of the bed, under his favorite comforter and knit blanket, Anti looked at him. He was so still and peaceful, it put its hand on the body's forehead, he was definitely warming filling with the existence that had been taken decades ago. Anti crawled over him like a little kid with a bad dream that can only be remedied by being held by a parent. It snuggled up against the side of the being, wrapping the body's arm around it for even more comfort. Anti loved laying, cuddling and spooning with it's soulmate, it loved being able to smell Dark's musk, it loved being able to feel his lucky flannel as much or maybe more than he did and it loved watching the figure's nose twitch a little bit when he was dreaming. The creature was now completely relaxed for the first time since Dark disappeared, it watched the particles of dust settled in the air. The curtain leaked little bits of the afternoon sunlight into the room. 'I miss you so much. It's been way too long' Anti thought. "I agree"

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