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#amber isles: the dragon war
makapatag · 2 months
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THE LUNAR AMBAHAN OF SRI BATA KUTING
The patient Knight stood, lunar 
symbols embroidered into 
draconic cloth, scintillates
singing of war and valor.
Her skin was porcelain and
her hair the color of night
right before the dawn. her eyes
the color of amber and 
perdition burns bright, hand on
her kampilan’s hilt, lightly.
She was lithe, her face feline,
cat-eyes, fangs, lithe, sensuous.
The Lunate Knight watched now, as
the raiding crew fast approached.
Wreathed in crimson bahags, crowned
now by blood-colored pudong,
brandishing spears, bows, long knives,
adept at moving through shores,
feet padding as if they were
walking on the seas. They shout.
Rallying war cry: now she
readied her grip, she knew that
the villagers are safe: they
retreated to their mountain
refuges, traps are ready;
so is she, Blade of Goddess.
She was garbed in moonsilver:
cuirass, sabatons, gauntlets
nightcloth silks, sarong, and veil,
then a helm in dragon’s shape.
Waritra, the one slain by
the Moon Herself, wielding Dark.
Killed by the Lunar Goddess
to protect Light from Chaos.
As the Gatusanon blades
advanced in their raiding, she
brandished her blade, bells ringing,
steel sings against ironwood.
The first steps upon the shore,
she was lunar lightning, her
abyss dark hair crowned her face
like the darkness crowns the moon.
The coconut trees and the
river mouth and the craggy 
shores and the ironwood trees,
coral snakes, wild civet cats,
in anticipation, wait,
for coming violence.
The roars crashed against the knight’s
silent fury. Their steel rang,
every stroke of her sword brought 
a splatter of blood, a brush 
held by a brutal painter,
the raiders fall to water.
The massacre is the Moon
cleaving into the ocean.
At the end, a final knight
of the enemy, the sea.
His own sundang was tasselled,
ringing with bones and brass bells.
Clad in elephant hide
breastplate, veiled by a headscarf
large, thick, like a crown, or horns,
an eclipse now arising.
No words were needed, no song
to sing: they let their blades speak.
Flash! A violent first clash.
Blade hits blade, a temple’s bells.
Pleading merit or mercy,
grant violence as ritual.
After three rounds of intense
clashing, seawater frayed, sprayed,
They broke, and the raider said:
“You fight for folk who hate you!”
And the Lunate Knight cackled:
“You think you are equal to
Grandmother Cat! I laugh at
you, whose hubris is deeper
than the ocean itself! 
May your name perish to time,
that grand annihilator,
which stretches from Goddess’ light.”
And then they clashed once more, steel
ringing. They moved like tigers,
sailed through the air like falcons,
blows the speed of crocodiles.
In the end, a hitch in guard,
Grandmother Cat’s Viper Blade
reached through and skewered, then she
stepped forth, kicked him, threw him down.
Her foot stomped on his wrist, forced
his hand to open, kicked the
blade into the surf, the sea.
“Yield!” cried the brute sea raider.
“I yield to your superior
skill. Enslave me as your shield,
and teach me the Moon-Graced Blade.”
The Knight’s grin showed her shark teeth.
“The Law of the Sword Isles states
that you are now in my debt.”
“That is the way of the world,” 
now replied the Sea Raider.
“In my debt you are my slave.
Sail with me, to ocean’s end,
aid me in my lonely quest,
to bring about this world’s end.”
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elizabethsproctor · 2 years
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The Shadow of the Dragon Maester
Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Female OC Summary: Aemond spends his days posturing as the should-be king of Westeros while another courts the once object of his desires: the she-dragon Vhagar. Alone and indignant, the girl watched the prince become man as the greatest dragon of the Seven Kingdoms wept in solitude— a mere symbol in the long political war. She would fly, once more, and the girl would soon dance with her prince. Inspo: This lovely headcanon from @faces-ofvenus! Chapter: 1/?
“The Dragonkeepers had long been a male order, as were all things considered sacred and truly righteous in Westeros. They were bold men, charged with guarding the unkempt and uncouth foul creatures— many were dragonseeds— never to be legitimized sons. Following the king’s proclamation of the Realm’s Delight’s heirship, one of the few, if not the only, changes temporarily considered before being questionably implemented from the darling, dearest, lavenderblush dragon princess was the admittance of women into the Dragonpit. It was a time— years— before the women had established themselves as more than concubines to the dragon riders of the Blackbay— but they became well thought of as dragon healers. Dragon maesters, some would say, as their craft could not be mimicked by the greater sex. It was once said that Caraxes was returned from her long night by an unnamed dragon maester— a woman with full, brown and amber hair— dark gold skin— the rumored bastard of Baelon Targaryen and a princess of the Summer Isles. Her name was never written, nor were the names of any Dragonkeeper— they were merely the men, and then the women, who supported the Targaryen’s only claim to dominance, and for their great duty, they were repaid with the shadow.”
The Dragonkeepers had long been a male order, as were all things considered sacred and truly righteous in Westeros. They were bold men, charged with guarding the unkempt and uncouth foul creatures— many were dragonseeds— never to be legitimized sons. Following the king’s proclamation of the Realm’s Delight’s heirship, one of the few, if not the only, changes temporarily considered before being questionably implemented from the darling, dearest, lavenderblush dragon princess was the admittance of women into the Dragonpit. It was a time— years— before the women had established themselves as more than concubines to the dragon riders of the Blackbay— but they became well thought of as dragon healers. Dragon maesters, some would say, as their craft could not be mimicked by the greater sex. It was once said that Caraxes was returned from her long night by an unnamed dragon maester— a woman with full, brown and amber hair— dark gold skin— the rumored bastard of Baelon Targaryen and a princess of the Summer Isles. Her name was never written, nor were the names of any Dragonkeeper— they were merely the men, and then the women, who supported the Targaryen’s only claim to dominance, and for their great duty, they were repaid with the shadow.  
The girl had been so lucky— a pleasant face, though worn and red from dragon fire— a pleasant face— one that had not been entrusted with the care and upkeep of Sunfyre— all other pleasant faces in the pit knew Aegon well— save the few of inky hair or boyish stature. Malaney had hidden in the shadows for much of her time, and there she held her place well. She had, instead, been entrusted with Tessarion, the dragon of the boy Daeron— who had never ridden her. Her blue wings grew by the fortnight, and in the pit were whispers that it was she, not Vermax, who would succeed Vhagar in not only strength but size. Neither of these gossips were welcome at court, and the whispers remained only as such. And if the she-dragon would grow, in truth, so large— so domitinable— why had she been entrusted to a mere girl, one of foreign birth? The web of lies— secret mistruths— extended farther than Malaney dared to see beyond her quiet, hollow perch— but— when she did look, she looked upon Vhagar— and the look was something near-to lust. She couldn’t imagine that something so beautiful— powerful— could be held in the shadows along with her. 
She had been only a girl when Aemond walked into the pit, a dark shadow etching an evil print over a newly found scar— his eye had been cut out. The she-dragon Vhagar followed slowly— loudly— behind, and they had all bent the knee. She had peered into the darkness and watched his frown, so forlorn and years old, pervert into a rapid smirk. Vhagar had graced the pit with the Lady Laena and her golden consort, but news of her death had set the pit aflame with questions of who would tame her. To see the boy— the frequently shamed and often nervous pubescent— hold the reins of the greatest dragon in the known world— truly, they all thought. He will one day be king.
Malaney remembered him. A boy of blond hair and quivering blue eyes. He had soiled himself in front of Tyraxes— just a feeble creature— not even a year old. He had seen her, as she had seen him, and he had drawn his dagger with a wavering hand and threatened her life if she ever spoke a word of what she had seen that night.
He may one day be king, she thought— the Seven worked in mysterious ways— but he would always be afraid of being burned, and even as she watched Vhagar follow obediently behind her new lord, Malaney knew the boy would die. 
She was still a child when she went to the she-dragon. For her size, Vhagar’s temperament was mild. She was the goddess of war, and thereby destruction and all evil things, but she could oft be found quietly sleeping or peering into the dark nothingness of the pit. How similar are we, Malaney thought, and by all accounts, she loved the dragon. She had known nothing but the pit, and with every flight Vhagar took, she lifted Malaney’s spirit along with her— some say perhaps this was girlish— perhaps this was fancy— but the girl was but a child and had been burned like no Lannister or Baratheon before her. If she wanted to dream, history would allow it.
“Aōle lykemās,’ she whispered to the beast— she had spent months waiting— watching— peering in the shadows as Aemond ran his cautious fingers over the scales of the warrior. She knew that dragon’s responded to their master first— then blood. If she came to the beast when Aemond was nowhere to be seen, Vhagar would take her in.
Vhagar opened her eyes and hummed methodically, much like her master— Malaney stepped forward. 
“Mizozliwashen a,’ she nodded. “I will protect you.”
Vhagar bowed her head— as if she understood— Malaney walked slowly forward, tepidly. The pit was empty— and no one else saw them dance. 
The she-dragon sighed deeply, and the steam from her nostrils burned the girl’s hand— she turned her face to look away— unafraid— she gave all due reverence.
She grew close enough to place her hand on the dragon. 
Every prayer was granted. 
Vhagar opened her lovely— dreadful— eyes. 
Years passed as Malaney frequented Vhagar in the pit. Prince Daeron was sent away to Oldtown to play the cupbearer to a dying lord. Befitting of the boy— his slight frame was dwarfed by the growing Tessarion. The sapphire queen favored Malaney, deeply— they were both delighted to see the boy sent away. 
Malaney was the perfect steward, regimented and nimble. Her skin never tanned, and it was said the girl never left the pit before her eighteenth nameday. Hatched from a dragon egg— it was said— but something was always being said.
She watched Aemond with the dragon, and she imagined what Laena looked like atop the back of the queen. Aemond lacked veneration— he had, as it came to be known, taken Vhagar in a state of mourning. She had been weak, and would have denied him at all other times. He did not know what it meant to train and tame a beast. He was perpetually a boy— even as he grew to be a man. 
He lengthened, and his hair grew. He refused to look upon Malaney— his shame was great— and she refused to look upon him as her envy was large. They danced— it seemed— around each other for four and a decade before the sun shone.
Aemond had designated one Dragonkeeper, Joash, to the care of Vhagar— the beast deserved a fleet, but Aemond trusted only the aged man. He had no tongue. When Joash was done cleaning and feeding the dragon, she was kept in the dark until the time came again or Aemond desired to impress his shadow upon the realm. Aemond found himself absent for moons— and Malaney— a  simple Dragonkeeper— could not reconcile his distance. There in the pit, Vhagar moaned for companionship, and what was life above the candles and dust of the pit in comparison to the heat— stench— ferocity of one like Vhagar— the only rival to the Black Dread?
She hated him— the hate was vile— the jealousy was emerald— the fury was like dragon fire. 
It was his eighteenth nameday, and Malaney could hear the triumph in the city. She would not venture out. Dragonkeepers, unlike all others in King’s Landing, save those of the Sept, were exempt from all requisite gatherings. Music played throughout the day, and the Keepers who ran returned under the guise of wine and stronger drink. They played their games and touched her without recognition, but she watched Vhagar coldly.
The night grew still and few torches lit the way to the she-dragon’s lair. 
There was no word in High Valyrian for personal apologies. She had no desire to apologize on behalf of Aemond or any other on land. She wanted to apologize on her own— for her own inaction— for not mounting Vhagar herself— for her fear.
Malaney cried great tears while kneeling before the dragon— Vhagar hummed her constant song in response.
The room grew still, and when Malaney looked up at Vhagar again, she could see a silhouette in the eyes of the beast. Her wings were flexed— finally the time had come. 
“What are you doing,’ a voice beckoned from behind— arrogance. 
Malaney stood and faced her foe. They had danced for so long— knives to each other’s throats— and she knew he had never once considered her.
“I had fear that you would not visit her on this joyous day.”
He waited to hear the words— My lord— Prince— Your Grace— and when she would not budge, he edged her— stepping forward. 
“I am here,’ Aemond said, placing a hand on his dagger.
Malaney did not waver. The boy— the man— had no sword. He would not hurt her, of this, she was sure. 
“As am I— as I am all nights. And days.”
Aemond looked at the dragon and then again at the girl. “I had assumed you were some common whore.”
Malaney dropped her head. “In the pit, my lord? Surely not.”
“Money can be made in all places.”
“You refer then to our first meeting? As a boy?”
He unsheathed his dagger, but made no move— instead, Aemond inspected it in the light. “That very meeting,’ he said slowly, his eye moving up to the eyes of the girl— but she was now woman as well. 
“You’ve known I am no such thing.”
Aemond walked past Malaney— he went towards Vhagar— he placed a hand on her side. 
“I could order her to burn you now, and she would have no second thought. You know this.”
Malaney did not turn— she hung her head. 
As a girl, she had learned that fear was the only evil to defeat. Her earliest memory was toying with an egg that had hatched a wyrm. The wyrm had initially coiled into the girl, a toddler, nustling her and attempting to nurse from her equally adolescent breast. By morning, the wyrm had begun to feast upon the calf of the child— a scar that stood until that day. An older Maester, Elisabeth, had struck down the firewyrm and nursed the child back to health. They called her the Child that Lived, but there was no one in the pit to write songs or even to sing them. Malaney knew no fear except of what came from above— and to his demise— Aemond had been below. 
“Why challenge me?”
Aemond lifted his head to the dreary, webbed ceiling. He hissed: “Why challenge me?”
Malaney finally looked upon the man again— her eyes were dark in the pit’s shadows. Vhagar breathed heavily. 
“Vhagar knows honor, and so she will acquiesce to you, but her heart would forever be turned against you.”
Aemond stepped again towards Malaney— he wore all black and for the first time, she saw the reddened scar of his injury. “Do you know her better than I do?”
She burned—  hotter than all dragon fire before her—  she burned— all the dragonriders of yesteryear within—  whatever was equal in her as her adversary—  it was aflame. 
“I know her better than the First Men know the land— than the sun knows the horizon— to die at her hand would be glorious, and so I await you— my lord.”
There they stood— silently— for minutes, some would say—  Malaney staring into his eye. Aemond broke away eventually, looking back onto the beast— he placed his hand on her hide and sighed. 
“All that I am, I owe to the creature… Do not take that from me.”
He walked away from them both— as he would come to do for years.
Malaney stood, expecting the steel of a Valyrian dagger at any moment— after moments, she turned, and knew that she was alone. Vhagar was silent— her weeping had halted— as if she was absolved of her loneliness. 
She even wept in the presence of the girl— the woman— she even wept of solitude in the company of Malaney, but it had been assuaged— and for the first time— she understood why the she-dragon loved the prince. 
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noxspost · 6 months
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house of war
This gets Perun and Arawn are laughing as Mars was cleaning up the kitchen and he spoke “yeah and also I would punch the bitch first.”
Then Perun states “burn bitcher burn!” this makes Jerkier tear up and he spoke “the original title is burn bitch burn because he was such a bitch to me and then I changed it to burn Witcher burn.” Mars looks at him “it is okay to be mad at him and it is your choice to forgive but not to forget for that will do more pain.”
Jaskier nods and he was wiping away tears he leaned into Aphrodite. She was wearing a dress which was a form fitting and it was big and puffy sleeves and the skirt was layered and the necklace was just hitting the collar bones. Jaskier’s mom had tan skin and pink hair which was in a bun and some of her hair was framing her face.
She was tall but lean yet she had muscles. She was looking at him with warm amber eyes which were comforting. her socks were black and fishnets. He leaned into her arms, she holds him tighter “I missed you mom.”
“I did too.” She turned to Jason and sighed “I am sorry about Juno and Hera when Gaea was being rude.”
“none taken thanks for caring for my friend when I was gone.” She smiles and he returns the smile. “now son what is your choice?” they waited for him to speak Guan Yu was so focused on the puzzle that he had spaced out the other conversations.
 until he looked back up from his 5000-piece puzzle and asked "why," he looked up “why is Jerkier crying? do I need to go kill someone?”
mars looked at him “don’t worry but Geralt is probably gonna get smacked or punched.” Guan Yu went back to his puzzle after smirking and commented “okay if he is going to slapped I want 30 crowns and 13 Drachmas.”
Jaskier smiles again as he turns but still holding on to his mom like a young kid “thanks but wait I was about to do that when Geralt showed his guilty ass to save me he didn’t even apologize and he asked for my assistance I just did it to save Ciri and also the observed not okay I hate them.”
This gets Guan Yu to nod and then Mars walks over to hand him food which he gladly takes and signs thank in CSL.
Mars signs in ISL a you’re welcome. Jason then stands and said “well I am going to see my grave in Camp Jupiter. See you later Jaskeir.” He waves as he shifted to his wolf form and Jaskier smiles and spoke “πες γεια στο σπουργίτι για μένα.”
Jason nods then leaves after Arawn gives him a piece of pig on his way out. Venus was tanner than his mom and her hair was red and her eyes gleam brown. She was wearing a baggy shirt which had a belt made of leather from a dragon and the buckle was silver.
 She was wearing a pair of trousers that ended roughly around her knees she had boots that went all the way up to our knees and on her belt she had straps and clasps also a few bags in order to hold things the clasps held her compass her watch a key and dagger one of the straps held one of her guns and a couple vials the bags had other things in them.
She had fingerless gloves which went up to her elbows. She looked pretty with her earrings which were roses and knifes. She wore her hair in a Bubble braid that switched between a normal wave bubble braids are formed and the bubble that was made of smaller braids. Jaskeir learned many things from these ladies.
One was how to love himself without being overly full of himself and narcissistic he had also learned the art of navigating nobility from Venus and all the fun so she cues of being in a very much stuck up part of society and he was taught how to navigate social situations between two parties that were on edge for example idiots not paying witches enough money for dealing with the monsters and beasts.
His mom had taught him the best ways to silently curse people so their clothing didn’t fit right or their makeup didn’t sit right he had also learned the art of how to sneakily kill someone mostly with poison or she called it a weaker and smart person weapon.
 He also learned how to use charm speech which was really useful in dealing with crappy people. it did convince people that he wasn’t as strong as he actually was which was very good he even worked on a Witcher a little bit.
His ma Zagreus had taught him compassion history and a lot of things of his own teacher Achilles had taught him when he was in the House of Hades when he was younger well from Zagreus Jerkier learn properly how to properly get blood and was taught the importance of a willing participant and the other bits of his domain he was taught how to heal with blood and how to heal himself with blood he learned how Zagreus’s domain was really.
Mars taught him how to heal and lots of things about plants which ones were dangerous how to spot foxglove or comfy and other things related to plants he was also taught by his dad Ares and how to fight his other siblings as well taught him that and he was trained in how to fight but with Ares his dad he had been taught how to dance why because it won was good exercise 2 it was very good working on his footwork and also it was just fun it was a good way to decompress after his lessons in the Roman camp and he was younger.
“okay I think I want to go home but not right now.” Venus nodded and then she patted his head before she went away to the library and Mars leaned over the breakfast bar and spoke “I hope you finally tell Eskel how you feel about him.”
This makes Jerkier blush a deep red and he exclaimed stammering a bit “really Uncle Mars I told you there was more pressing matters than telling him my silly crush!”
mars didn’t believe him and raised an eyebrow “oh really I distinctly remember you gushing over how pretty he looked even with his face scars you said that he distinctly reminded you of one of your friends. you kept rambling on how beautiful he looked carried himself with kindness and respect and he was just adorable the way he interacted with his goat I distinctly you remember that happening over letters.”
He turns to his mom before speaking with embarrassment “mom! Stop I have told you he thinks he doesn’t deserve any love but sure he is big and strong that he easily kill me but Instead he just held me and he wrapped around me like a blanket or a pillow I’m sorry if I’m attracted to strong people and he is just…”
he realized and buries his head in his hands and he spoke again “I may think he is hot and I love him for how he is. I want to scream compliments at this man because he cannot get the fact that someone actually cares through him romantically and actually wants to have a romantic relationship with him he’s so self-conscious I desire to scream compliments at Eskel I want to be aggressively affectionate but I don’t know if he’s comfortable with that so I’m just in the corner.”
this makes Aphrodite and Mars chuckle and Mars remarks “well you are For sure Ares’s child she is very aggressively affectionate but not too much so you’re definitely his but I suggest to give Eskel gifts first like ambrosia and nectar not the medicine ambrosia and nectar.” This makes him laugh “I don’t think Eskel will understand me giving him the nectar.”
Aphrodite smiles and then “well yeah he never had unconditional love towards him but I think the nectar had embroidered bottles to do him good he deserves something nice all of them do.”
there was an unspoken name that she didn’t speak but she was holding it in her mouth the Jaskeir knew what she was talking about she meant what she said when they deserved love and affection even the one who abandoned him twice because Geralt could not understand the fact that he was allowed to feel emotions now he did only took like five years to understand that.
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docpiplup · 2 years
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Tyrion Lannister Appreciation Month 2022
Day 12: Intelligence  -> Bookworm &
Day 26: Favourite fancasts -> Warwick Davis & Peter Dinklage
Tyrion Lannister looked up from his books and shivered, though the library was snug and warm. Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack.
When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leather-bound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. His reading lamp was flickering, its oil all but gone, as dawn light leaked through the high windows. He had been at it all night, but that was nothing new. Tyrion Lannister was not much a one for sleeping.
His legs were stiff and sore as he eased down off the bench. He massaged some life back into them and limped heavily to the table where the septon was snoring softly, his head pillowed on an open book in front of him. Tyrion glanced at the title. A life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure, no wonder. "Chayle," he said softly. The young man jerked up, blinking, confused, the crystal of his order swinging wildly on its silver chain. "I'm off to break my fast. See that you return the books to the shelves. Be gentle with the Valyrian scrolls, the parchment is very dry. Ayrmidon's Engines of War is quite rare, and yours is the only complete copy I've ever seen." Chayle gaped at him, still half-asleep. Patiently, Tyrion repeated his instructions, then clapped the septon on the shoulder and left him to his tasks.
Tyrion I, AGOT
On the eighteenth night of their journey, the wine was a rare sweet amber from the Summer Isles that he had brought all the way north from Casterly Rock, and the book a rumination on the history and properties of dragons. With Lord Eddard Stark's permission, Tyrion had borrowed a few rare volumes from the Winterfell library and packed them for the ride north.
He found a comfortable spot just beyond the noise of the camp, beside a swift-running stream with waters clear and cold as ice. A grotesquely ancient oak provided shelter from the biting wind. Tyrion curled up in his fur with his back against the trunk, took a sip of the wine, and began to read about the properties of dragonbone. Dragonbone is black because of its high iron content, the book told him. It is strong as steel, yet lighter and far more flexible, and of course utterly impervious to fire. Dragonbone bows are greatly prized by the Dothraki, and small wonder. An archer so armed can outrange any wooden bow.
He had expected to find them impressive, perhaps even frightening. He had not thought to find them beautiful. Yet they were. As black as onyx, polished smooth, so the bone seemed to shimmer in the light of his torch. They liked the fire, he sensed. He'd thrust the torch into the mouth of one of the larger skulls and made the shadows leap and dance on the wall behind him. The teeth were long, curving knives of black diamond. The flame of the torch was nothing to them; they had bathed in the heat of far greater fires. When he had moved away, Tyrion could have sworn that the beast's empty eye sockets had watched him go.
There were nineteen skulls. The oldest was more than three thousand years old; the youngest a mere century and a half. The most recent were also the smallest; a matched pair no bigger than mastiff's skulls, and oddly misshapen, all that remained of the last two hatchlings born on Dragonstone. They were the last of the Targaryen dragons, perhaps the last dragons anywhere, and they had not lived very long.
From there the skulls ranged upward in size the three great monsters of song and story, the dragons that Aegon Targaryen and his sisters had unleashed on the Seven Kingdoms of old. The singers had given them the names of gods: Balerion, Meraxes, Vhaghar. Tyrion had stood between their gaping jaws, wordless and awed. You could have ridden a horse down Vhaghar's gullet, although you would not have ridden it out again. Meraxes was even bigger. And the greatest of them, Balerion, the Black Dread, could have swallowed an aurochs whole, or even one of the hairy mammoths said to roam the cold wastes beyond the Port of Ibben.
Tyrion stood in that dank cellar for a long time, staring at Balerion's huge, empty-eyed skull until his torch burned low, trying to grasp the size of the living animal, to imagine how it must have looked when it spread its great black wings and swept across the skies, breathing fire.
His own remote ancestor, King Loren of the Rock, had tried to stand against the fire when he joined with King Mern of the Reach to oppose the Targaryen conquest. That was close on three hundred years ago, when the Seven Kingdoms were kingdoms, and not mere provinces of a greater realm. Between them, the Two Kings had six hundred banners flying, five thousand mounted knights, and ten times as many freeriders and men-at-arms. Aegon Dragonlord had perhaps a fifth that number, the chroniclers said, and most of those were conscripts from the ranks of the last king he had slain, their loyalties uncertain.
The hosts met on the broad plains of the Reach, amidst golden fields of wheat ripe for harvest. When the Two Kings charged, the Targaryen army shivered and shattered and began to run. For a few moments, the chroniclers wrote, the conquest was at an end … but only for those few moments, before Aegon Targaryen and his sisters joined the battle.
It was the only time that Vhaghar, Meraxes, and Balerion were all unleashed at once. The singers called it the Field of Fire.
Near four thousand men had burned that day, among them King Mern of the Reach. King Loren had escaped, and lived long enough to surrender, pledge his fealty to the Targaryens, and beget a son, for which Tyrion was duly grateful.
"Why do you read so much?"
Tyrion looked up at the sound of the voice. Jon Snow was standing a few feet away, regarding him curiously. He closed the book on a finger and said, "Look at me and tell me what you see."
The boy absorbed that all in silence. He had the Stark face if not the name: long, solemn, guarded, a face that gave nothing away. Whoever his mother had been, she had left little of herself in her son. "What are you reading about?" he asked.
"Dragons," Tyrion told him.
"What good is that? There are no more dragons," the boy said with the easy certainty of youth.
"So they say," Tyrion replied. "Sad, isn't it? When I was your age, I used to dream of having a dragon of my own."
"You did?" the boy said suspiciously. Perhaps he thought Tyrion was making fun of him.
Oh, yes. Even a stunted, twisted, ugly little boy can look down over the world when he's seated on a dragon's back." Tyrion pushed the bearskin aside and climbed to his feet. "I used to start fires in the bowels of Casterly Rock and stare at the flames for hours, pretending they were dragonfire. Sometimes I'd imagine my father burning. At other times, my sister." Jon Snow was staring at him, a look equal parts horror and fascination. Tyrion guffawed. "Don't look at me that way, bastard. I know your secret. You've dreamt the same kind of dreams."
Tyrion II, AGOT
"I once had the great good fortune to see the Citadel's copy of Lives of Four Kings," Prince Oberyn was telling her lord husband. "The illuminations were wondrous to behold, but Kaeth was too kind by half to King Viserys."
Tyrion gave him a sharp look. "Too kind? He scants Viserys shamefully, in my view. It should have been Lives of Five Kings.""He reigned more than a year," said Tyrion.
Oberyn gave a shrug. "A year or a fortnight, what does it matter? He poisoned his own nephew to gain the throne and then did nothing once he had it."
"Baelor starved himself to death, fasting," said Tyrion. "His uncle served him loyally as Hand, as he had served the Young Dragon before him. Viserys might only have reigned a year, but he ruled for fifteen, while Daeron warred and Baelor prayed." He made a sour face. "And if he did remove his nephew, can you blame him? Someone had to save the realm from Baelor's follies."
Sansa was shocked. "But Baelor the Blessed was a great king. He walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne, and rescued the Dragonknight from a snakepit. The vipers refused to strike him because he was so pure and holy."
Prince Oberyn smiled. "If you were a viper, my lady, would you want to bite a bloodless stick like Baelor the Blessed? I'd sooner save my fangs for someone juicier . . ."
"My prince is playing with you, Lady Sansa," said the woman Ellaria Sand. "The septons and singers like to say that the snakes did not bite Baelor, but the truth is very different. He was bitten half a hundred times, and should have died from it."
Sansa IV, ASOS
The galley was also where the ship's books were kept. Her captain being an especially bookish man, she carried three—a collection of nautical poetry that went from bad to worse, a well-thumbed tome about the erotic adventures of a young slave girl in a Lysene pillow house, and the fourth and final volume of The Life of the Triarch Belicho, a famous Volantene patriot whose unbroken succession of conquests and triumphs ended rather abruptly when he was eaten by giants. Tyrion had finished them all by their third day at sea. Then, for lack of any other books, he started reading them again. The slave girl's story was the worst written but the most engrossing, and that was the one he took down this evening to see him through a supper of buttered beets, cold fish stew, and biscuits that could have been used to drive nails.
He was reading the girl's account of the day she and her sister were taken by slavers when Penny entered the galley.
Tyrion VIII, ADWD
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ariellewm · 1 year
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The Known History of The Amber Lily
Before the Doom of Draca Isla Pyramis, the large island continent located southwest of the western continent, was home to a rich diversity of floral and plant life. Amber lilies (The Blood Flower) were among the most abundant.
The lily has eight thick curved petal-like segments ranging in warm colors of a variety of reds. The ends of the petals fade into an orange hue and would brighten throughout its growth. The long tips within the petals have a golden, yellow hue that would sparkle in the sunlight during the day. At night these lilies glow bioluminescent when they reach maturity.
Many Naga's and Nagi's use the flower for healing purposes. One popular method is making herbal tea. By placing a lily blossom at the bottom of the cup or pitcher, they pour boiling fresh spring water over the lily in the cup and let it set for many minutes until warm enough to drink. They lily was also used to treat wounds and burns by making pastes from the bulbs and petals with other mixtures. Sometimes even smelling its blood orange, sandalwood aroma can improve respiratory illnesses and relax the body.
Naga's and Nagi's along with the Dragon's explored outside of their home, making new ones in all different parts of the world. Royal Naga/Nagi nesti's (families) as well ventured out at sea to explore, including that of the Agskaga nesti. Sailing across the Lapis Sea, they brought along with them seeds of the amber lily, in hopes to grow them elsewhere. They would find the perfect place for them to thrive located between two large continents, The Central Isles. There the soil and climate conditions would allow for them to grow.
The once home to the flourishing lilies would fall along with the rest of the island continent and those that lived there. A large catastrophic event would flood and fill the land with lava from the surrounding volcanoes. This made the amber lilies sacred to that of the Agskaga's. It would soon be the royals new house symbol.
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Original design by Arielle W.M., Digital by @wyyvernn
After The Blood War, the amber lilies were introduced to the public. The sacred lilies were traded to kingdoms, cities, and villages in exchange for gold, silver, jewels/crystals, and other goods. This quickly grew the royal nesti into a respected, rich house along the isles. It had piqued curiosity among healers, who specialized in healing practices and potions. By studying the Blood Flower, they discovered plenty of other useful healing properties. Only a selected loyal few were allowed upon the royal's vast fields to learn about the lilies and to buy/trade directly from the Agskaga's. Their seeds, however, would never find its way to the continent of Glarium or to the western continent.
After a tragic demise of the death of the king and queen, private healers were forbidden to visit the fields. Trading still continued but only among royal allies.
Benefits of Amber Lilies
Improves heart health (chewing edible petal, herbal tea form)
Relieve headaches, depression, anxiety (aroma, soaking petals in tub, herbal tea form)
Strengthen brain activity (aroma)
Cures insomnia (herbal tea form, aroma)
Heals scars or other wounds (in paste form)
Reduces pain or injury (chewing edible petal, herbal tea form)
Improve respiratory illnesses (aroma, herbal tea form)
Treats poisoning (in paste form)
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adamburt1984 · 9 months
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Five Things I think of!
Living Area (Belle Isle/Middleton/Hunslet, Leeds)
My Home/ My Cats
Hunslet St Mary Church Tower
Little Train Statue (at Hunslet Lake Park)
Middleton Railway
Morrison (Supermarket)
Former Living Area (Harehills, Leeds)
My Former Home
Taj Takeaway
St Aidain's Church
KFC
Smell of Curry/South Asian food
Leeds City Centre
Some shops/Stores include my favourite store, Forbidden Planet and WHSmith
Leeds Town Hall
Cinema (Vue in The Light Centre)
Leeds Kirkgate Market
Foods
My Home
My Cats
My Computer
Playstation 5/4/3/2/1
Vector and Cozomo
My Bed
Rest of Leeds
Roundhay Park
Oakwood Clock
Royal Armouries/Horned Hemlet
Crown Point
White Rose Centre
Leeds
Leeds Town Hall
My Home & My Cats
Roundhay Park
Leeds City Centre
Owl Symbols/Icons
Yorkshire
York Minister
Yorkshire Dales
Yorkshire Tea
White Rose of York
Whitby Abbey
London
Big Ben
Sherlock Homles
Royal Guards
Tower Bridge
St Paul Cathedral
Manchester
Manchester United
Manchester Town Hall
Manchester Central/Comic Con/MikuMeeks (Cosplayer)
Bee Symbols/icons
Beetham Tower
United Kingdom (UK)
Big Ben
Union Jack flag
Royal Guards
Red Telephone Boxes
My Hometown (Leeds)
Japan
Hatsune Miku
Anime and Manga
Mount Fuji
Tokyo Tower
Cat/Ao Island
USA
Superheroes/DC/Marvel
Dr Pepper
Stars & Stripes
Statue of Liberty
Liberty Bell
New York
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
One World Trade Centre
Hot dogs
Brooklyn Bridge
The Philippines
My Mum
My Relatives
Jeepneys
Jollibees
Filipino Heroes
China
1 Chinese Foods
2. Chinese Dragons
3. Chinese Imperial Guardian Lions
4. Genshin Impact
5. Kung Fu/Bruce Lee
Singapore
Merlion
Supertree Grooves
Joisu Toki (Cosplayer)
Marina Bay Sands
Singaporian Flag
Australia
Koalas
Kangaroos
Barbacube
Bamgnrang
Stevie Irwin
BBC
Doctor Who
Harry (Death in Paradise)
Some Comedies
Fake News
Eastenders (Hate it)
Disney
Toy Story
Mickey Mouse
Sox (Lightyear)
DisneyWorld Castle
Marvel & Star Wars
Genshin Impact
Hu Tao
Lumine (Traveler) and Paimon
Amber
Teyvat
Some Soundtracks
Christmas
Christmas Tree
Kevin the Carrot
Nutcrackers
Pig in Blanck
Turkey
Halloween
Jack O' Lantern
Black Cats
Skeletions
Ghosts
Sweets/Candies
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Some NPC / PC sketches for my campaign. Gonna clean them up and colour them in on my computer later. 😁✨
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christinesficrecs · 2 years
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Hello bby, I don’t know if this is gonna be super specific or a shot in the dark but is there anything available that is similar to By moon and stars by kellifer_fic????? Thank you in advance !!!!!
Hey!
Well, hopefully you were looking for GoT fusions of a sort. 🤷🏻‍♀️
By Moon And Stars by kellifer_fic | 15.9K | Mature
"Have you heard of this Alpha?" Stiles asks, shuffling up his pallet so Scott has room to sit. Scott does with a grateful little twist of his mouth. Stefan forces him into the Stilinski ceremonial armor when they travel and Stiles can see that it's heavy and doesn't sit well on Scott. He can't shift encased in metal and Stefan knows it.
"I know of him, mostly stories that seem a little fantastical. Shifters exaggerate just like common people. They like their war stories."
"Tell me of him. Tell me a war story."
Unknown Kindness in a Cruel World by Dexterous_Sinistrous | 35.3K | Explicit
The prince carefully observed Stiles. “Do you know who I am?”
Stiles knew he should have. “No,” he answered, knowing the pimp would be unhappy with that answer.
“Are you afraid of me?” The prince asked, his eyes never leaving Stiles.
Stiles’ heart was pounding in his ears, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He knew the pimp would want him to answer with a quip or flirtation. But Stiles didn’t want to lie—not to the prince. And he couldn’t tell why. “No,” he truthfully answered.
as my lord commands by wearing_tearing | 2.5K
So you are highborn,” Derek says after a few minutes. “I should be calling you ‘my lord’.”
Stiles makes a face at him.
“You do that and I’ll piss in your boots.”
and the wild things roared their terrible roar by hoars | 4.9K | Explicit
Derek as Khal Drogo (but set in snow beyond the wall) and Stiles as Daenerys Stormborn (although he's a greenseer of the Children rather than a dragon).
I'll Tell You My Sins (And You Can Sharpen Your Knife) by the_deep_magic | 2.5K | Explicit
Derek is the rightful king of Westeros, ruler of the Seven Isles, and Azor Ahai reborn... yet his uncle sits on the Iron Throne. Stiles’ god has promised Derek a victory of fire, but has yet to deliver.
A Devotion by TroubleIWant | 77K | Mature
There’s a boy exiting the doors as they approach. Where Derek is tan from hours outside, the boy is pale except for a few beauty marks on one cheek. He’s dressed in fine riding clothes, and flanked by a guard wearing the sign of the royal house. A noble, then. He’s younger than Derek, but, considering his higher station, a bow would be appropriate. Despite that, Derek can’t help looking curiously at the boy, who’s looking back at Derek with just as much interest. For a moment, their eyes meet - the boy’s are a deep amber in the sunlit courtyard, ringed by long, tawny lashes.
A gloved hand smacks the back of Derek’s head and he instinctively flinches away, hunching his shoulders. He loses track of the other boy as they pass one another, and as he turns to get another look, the knight grabs his shoulder and marches him forward into the stable.
“Keep your eyes to yourself,” the knight instructs. “And next time, show the proper respect to Crown Prince Stiles.”
an exaltation of larks by llassah | 25.3K | Explicit
All Derek wants is to get through the lambing season with his body and spirit intact. He had thought that the blizzards would be the main danger, not a highborn omega with beautiful eyes and a stubborn streak.
Foolish devouring things, build your castle in me by LunaCanisLupus_22 | 23.1K | Explicit
“I will marry you,” he declares. “But should any more harm come to my father or my people, I will raze the earth itself until I feel the lifeblood drain from your corpse and paint my skin with it.”
It is not an idle warning, but from the princeling it has none of the desired effect. Derek feels no fear, but in this instance at least diplomacy triumphed over the spilling of more blood. It is all the same to him anyway. But Regent Peter was most insistent they avoid a drawn-out, gruelling war.
“Then we have reached an accord.”
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cricketnationrise · 3 years
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Quarantine Reads Part 6
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5
126. Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce: flashback book. takes place between Street Magic and The Will of the Empress in the emelan series. tw: war, violence, death, threat of sexual violence, torture
127. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: memoir in the form of a letter to his son focusing on being black in America.
128. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson: first in the elantris series. also sanderson’s first novel. epic fantasy. political intrigue. demons posing as religious leaders. if atlantis was just a place for powered people along the coast and then suddenly everyone inside decayed and became a myth.
129. Stuffed Vol. 1 by Extended Play: adorable comic strip collection where a girl’s stuffed animals are alive and talk to her and each other. all of them are mythological creatures: unicorn, dragon, gryphon, etc. chaos ensues. you never see the parents’ faces. can read for free on webtoons (and i think tapas? i’d have to check)
130. The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories by Robin McKinley: short story collection. fairy tale riffs mostly.
131. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett: book 12 in the discworld series. 3 witches need to help out a scullery maid on her way to a ball, a cat turns into a hyper sexual man, a prince turns into a frog, there’s another witch in a bog, reanimated butler
132. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: okay look. this is one of those that i am glad i read and i absolutely will never read again. there’s so many philosophy tangents, everyone is whiny, and its 1812 for like 2/3 of the book. 2 epilogues, why???
133. The Isle of Youth: Stories by Laura van den Berg: short story collection, women-centered
134. Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman: found the webcomic at the beginning of the pandemic, got a physical copy a few months later. sweet high school comic about Charlie and Nick falling in love with each other
135. The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan: her magic systems are always interesting. woman’s dog finds a child abandoned on the beach. the kid has gills. alternating timelines, the woman’s childhood and young adulthood in the lead up to WW2 and post WW2 from finding the baby. eventually the timelines connect.
136. Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher Morley: eager to get away from her layabout brother, a woman buys a book wagon and goes around to various farms/towns selling books to locals. falls in love with the previous owner of the wagon
137. Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman: book 2 in the Seraphina series. dragons and humans are living tensely next to each other, seraphina and a few other half dragon/half humans have to stop an all out war. also the antagonist can control minds. so. oh! and seraphina ends up in a poly relationship at the end
138. The Dragon Slayer of Trondheim by EK Johnston: middle grade novel about a girl who becomes the bard for a dragon slayer. very cool world building. set in canada.
139. The Giver: Graphic Novel by P. Craig Russell: beautiful artwork. words all taken from the novel by lois lowry. all in blues and whites before Jonas gets the memories of colors.
140. Serpentine by Philip Pullman: short story set in the golden compass universe sometime after Amber Spyglass. illustrated.
141. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman: book 2 in the arc of a scythe series. please read the first one first, this is a continuation for sure. alternating POV.
142. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett: novel following one woman’s life through her eyes, her second husband’s eyes, and her daughter’s eyes. i believe it is ann patchetts first novel.
143. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh: graphic novel with loads of queer representation, magic, and growing up in a small town tw: parental abuse, danger to minors
144. The Toll by Neal Shusterman: third and final book in the arc of a scythe series. extremely satisfying ending to the series.
145. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde: essay collection, focus on racism and feminism
146. The Little Witch by M. Rickert: tor.com short story, spooky vibes, older woman takes in a strange little girl
147. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow: i’m so mad i didn’t get a chance to read it when it first came out because WHERE had it been all my life. doorways to other worlds, a huge dog that is fiercely protective of its owner, magic, fun names. framework is that the book you are reading is a book written by various characters in the story. that shit is my catnip. content warning: harm to dog (THE DOG IS FINE I PROMISE), murder, protagonist held prisoner in her room multiple times
148. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: very strange book. i loved every second of it. the weirdest boarding school you’ve ever attended. if you think i’m being vague i am. a story you’ll want to discover on your own.
149. A Room with a View by EM Forster: follow this one young woman around italy and then the english countryside as she deals with society’s expectations. writing style takes a little bit to get used to but worth the time to read it.
150. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: buckle up buttercups. this book has everything: found family, queer representation, kids with powers, small town charms, a cat!, heartwrenching poetry, on purpose child acquisition, sticking it to the man, Extremely Upper Management, the antichrist. everyone needs to read this book. i now need to get my hands on everything klune has written. i also wouldn’t mind like, 40 more novels in this universe.
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tagged by @thiswaycomessomethingwicked. Found this sitting in my drafts after third of a year later. No time like the present, right?
Rules are: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.
(how convenient that AO3 shows 20 works per page by default!)
1. It most certainly is a morning and the doorbell rings. Like the beginning of a horror movie, Sam thinks as he makes his way from his room to the front door. (The Night In Gale, 2019-10-11, Good Omens x Supernatural)
2. The remnants of the stained glass creak and shatter under the heavy plate sabatons. The men clad in deep red robes watch the armoured figures walk through the raided monastery in careful silence. (Moon And Destiny, 2019-08-24, Les Misérables x Wizardry)
3. “Alright squad! Who are we doing this week?”  (One Gay at a Time, 2019-08-31, Les Misérablex x Queer Eye for the Straight Guy)
4. Light. Everything is is spinning. Light, even behind closed eyelids. It’s omnipresent. Radiant, blinding, magnificent light. (Like A Teen Girl,[1] 2019-11-15, W.I.T.C.H.)
5. Witches have pricking in their thumbs, Varen had his stomach worms, and Lyris had her teeth. She could feel them vibrating in her gums. It usually went away with a couple of flagons of mead, but apparently not tonight. If anything, it made it worse. So here she was, Lyris called Titanborn, tipsy but not yet drunk, sitting by the campfire with the two of Companions and a growing feeling of dread as her teeth planned to run for the hills. It made her only more irritated. (Mind How She Goes, 2019-11-30, Elder Scrolls Online)
6. “Well, are you going to stand there the whole night?” (The Past, the Present, the Death, and the Devil, 2019-12-19, Les Misérables)
7. There is this thing they don’t tell you about dying – it gave you mother of all headaches. In all those tomes and epic sagas there could had been at least once mentioned that the brave heroes and mighty beings who returned from the Other side felt like a horse kicked thorough their head. This terrible pain was usually why your freshly resurrected dead scream in agony and want to destroy things. (The Many Deaths of Me,[2] 2017-04-30, World of Warcraft)
8. As strange as it was, Lyris finds an odd sort of peace here. It is not her old home – she doubts she could ever return there – but her cabin near Riften is a new home. At first it was a house, but she made it a home. It was a hard work to get there, and she is rightfully proud of it all. (To Be Found, 2019-12-09, Elder Scrolls Online)
9. Say what you want about the Tribunal and Vvardenfell, there is something that draws a good hero to the city of Vivec. That something might be a divine presence, but most likely it is simply the presence of a quarter with publicly accessible forges and looms in the close proximity to a bank and the drop site for commissioned works. (The Battlespire, 2020-05-09, Elder Scrolls Online)
10. “Your Majesty, a message for you.” The chamberlain presents the envelope on a silver tray with a gentle bow. Queen Ayrenn picks it up with her delicately manicured fingers, and the soft warm breeze of early autumn attempts to snatch the piece of creamy paper from her as it hurls large honey and amber coloured leaves before finally settling them on the ground. (War Ends, 2020-07-26, Elder Scrolls Online)
11. “Allow me to ask you again for clarification, Your Ex-” “Charles, dear brother. Simply and plainly Charles, for we all are equal in the eyes of the almighty God.” “- Charles: I have died.” (The Man Who Saved A World, 2020-08-12, Les Misérables)
12. So that’s it, you suppose. You are going to sit down on this chair, because someone has to. (The Tale of Two Fates, 2020-09-05, Death and Taxes)
13. There is a saying in Ferelden: When you think you’ve reached the bottom, the Maker shows up with a shovel. Like most farmer wisdom, even this one applies in Orlais. (Land Turned Red, 2020-12-29, Dragon Age)
14. So you come to the supermarket on Friday morning and in the ice-cream isle is a poorly paid and even poorerly shaven retail worker unloading boxes of frozen pizzas, eyeing them like man who’s missed out on breakfast and his contract doesn’t include lunch break. (Observations of an Unconcerned Bus Driver, 2021-03-07, Stardew Valley)
15. They are giving him that look. He knows it well and hasn’t seen it in a long long time. It is the look that says: “I can’t believe that out of all the people in Thedas, he was the one to save us.” (Fine Literature, 2021-03-14, Dragon Age)
16. A young woman stands in a garden. It is a beautiful garden, very lush in spite of all damnation raining from the sky lately, now that the Veil is gone and… And all that. (Houserite, 2021-03-29, Dragon Age x Homestuck)
17. If you asked Solas, it was the most predictable outcome, blatantly staring you in face, shoving middle finger into your nose and blowing a raspberry. However, nobody asked Solas and even less people cared for his issues with Sera’s behaviour, and thus when Dorian goes missing, almost everyone is surprised. (The Excellent Week of Dorian Pavus, 2021-04-09, Dragon Age x Doctor Who)
18. Talent. A short and complicated word. What is a talent? (Necromancer’s Virtues, 2021-05-06, Dragon Age)
19. Fucked.That’s what they are. Fucked. Completely and thoroughly. The Trade Tongue is a limited and insufficient language and lacks any imagination whatsoever when it comes to cusswords. (The Wolves Breach Through, 2021-05-29, Dragon Age)
20. There are a lot of ways to tell that you’ve woken up the wrong way in the morning, and I was pretty certain that I’ve hit three of them at least: Every fiber of me was aching, two men were looming over me with worried expressions, and the sky was dark. Especially the last bit was extremely worrisome, since I was fairly certain I fell asleep in my bed at home under a solid ceiling above which is mum’s room and after that is the attic and after that is a roof and only then you get to see the sky. (Real Feeling of Sharing,[3] 2021-01-10, Dragon Age)
Observations:
I use the opening lines of a story like most people use headlines; luring in the reader by making them think “Hold on, what’s going on?” and hoping it ignites strong enough curiosity for them to read further to figure it out. For that reason more often than not the opening lines are not exactly related to the story.
A surprising amount of mu openings also clearly say: “The story you know is over.”
Also very specific thing which is less about opening lines and more about the trope of my fics: A suspicious number of beginnings based on the fact that the person of focus is dead or implied to be, or implied to be really close to it.
I also don’t like long introductions to the story, so it’s either “Things are happening now, figure it out dear reader” or “This is a thing I am going to focus on because it’s my thing, deal with it, plot will come later.”
Favourite opening line is from The Wolves Breach Through, especially because it quickly evolves into a rant about langauges. The Night In Gale is a close second, because I love to take a piss on the source material. For this reason The Battlespire also comes close to the top, although the fic in itselfwas shit.
[1] Like A Teen Girl should get renamed, because the story evolved from “Parody of the Magic Highschool Girls premise” to “Drama With the Lads”, but I eh, who cares anyway, right?
[2] The Many Deaths of Me deserves to be rewritten by older and more experienced me. It could be a great fic.
[3] Probably going to get renamed to Original Real Feeling of Sharing, but only when I start the next story from the series.
tagging: @timesthatneverwere @thewronglong
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gettoknowyou meme, tagged by @capsfightclub tyyyyy ❤
this got wordy because I am PERSONALLY INCAPABLE of being brief. I’m tagging @thetrashpitals @saint-patrice @kureally @laings @denisgurianovs @mayorwagner but feel free to ignore
Name: sray
Nicknames: SR (just initials, the ‘s’ is a fake one I was granted by my undergrad dorm in 2007)
Zodiac Sign: sagittarius sun, libra moon, gemini rising, with a whole bunch of uhhhhh capricorn placements? & earth dragon in the east asian lunar calendar system
Height: 5′5″; have been told I look AT LEAST 5′7″. I can walk in 5-inch heels tho (not for like ... long, but I CAN)
Languages Spoken: English & as of ...yesterday ich spreche/schreibe ein bisschen Deutsch (ich heiße Sray und ich liebe Hockey)
Nationality: slavic-norse american mush. 1/4 Polish, 1/4 Finnish, 1/8 Québécois; the rest is British Isles jumble. Ojibwe about six generations back: my grandfather’s family were cowardly royalists (A Long-Standing Family Tradition, tbh) who yeeted to the Sault during the Revolutionary War & thereafter intermarried with the actual locals. so I may actually share (a very small amount of) blood with tj oshie, as the Ojibwe are counted among the Anishinaabe
Fave Season: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm fall
Fave Flower: azaleas & crocuses. I like how crocuses are like “bro fuck a winter, so what if it’s january, gonna break through this frost crust & BLOOM”
Fave Scent: to wear, orris, vetiver, sandalwood, or rose+toasted almond+amber (my alltime favorite fragrance is commodity velvet, which is those three & SADLY EXTREMELY DISCONTINUED, I’m not just pulling shit out of nowhere). as candles or whatever, musks & ambers & frankincense; also eucalyptus
Fave Colour: to wear, black; to decorate, cobalt blue; in art, yellow (I can’t wear it but good warm golds are so soothing)
Fave Animal: raccoon, 
(I left to go look at something else & came back & “raccoon,” was just hanging out & it’s too good. leaving it. I like cats & those little jumping spiders with the peacock tails & mantis shrimp also. & nudibranches. whales. sneks. uhh. bower birds? most birds even though they’re jerks. I like a lot of animals for someone who largely disdains Outside)
Fave Fictional Character(s): yang wen-li (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), katerose “karin” von kreutzer, hildegard von lohengramm née mariendorf, siegfried kircheis (all those from legend of the galactic heroes), aglaya lilich (pathologic), tiffany aching, sam vimes (discworld), arthur (inception)
Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: coffee af (but I really like tea & good hot chocolate. I just. my daily is coffee)
Average Sleep Hours: bro I don’t even know anymore I oscillate between like 6 and 16
Dogs or Cats: to host in my home, cats; in principle, both
Blankets: in winter: sheet, cotton woven blanket, fleecy woven blanket, duvet in a cover, crocheted throw over my legs & feet, & another fleece throw over all that. in summer, MAYBE a sheet but probably just me lying on my stomach with an ice pack wrapped in a towel at my side or on the small of my back
Dream Trip: east coast of north america, every nhl arena I can get to via amtrak. montréal to miami, babes
Blog Established: 14 months ago??? shrug???
Followers: there’s like 560 of you on this ride I have no idea why love u tho
Random Fact: I won my school- & district-level spelling bees in new jersey when I was in fifth grade; I was disqualified from the county-level one on the word “guarantee”
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session 12 notes
one day . one day i swear i will fix this formatting but today is not that day
Lol late is my brand
Let's go
The halflings can stack up under a trench coat
Adam has disguise self
Aerana and asyna don't need to do anything kinda
Now we're talking abt the road to el dorado
We just killed loser boy
Kenku got info from adam, cel and theo
What are we doing lmao
Adam is jiggling the small room's door and we go inside the room
Inside looks like an office, shelf w pickled body parts + cataloguing what the parts r and what they do
They were running away lmao ok
Yes we're still salty about this
"different interpretations of charm person" - jacob, 2020
Body part stuff
No halfling writing system in waterdeep
Dwarf toes, elven ears
Magic items ? Cel rolls perception 22
Weird jar w dull amber colored liquid, don't know if it's magical but noticed; unlabeled
"the jar of necrotic pee" - jacob, 2020
Smells like aloe
Adam smells his fire-resistant potion and it smells more like burnt ash
Smth else cel found has strange engravings
Just looks like metal bar
Boxy squarish iron bar abt the size of a halfling; it's strong but surprisingly light
Adam picks it up and hits a wall w it
Adam rolls for attack, 4
Nothing rlly happens
Makes a ringing sound
None of us can read giant
Looks rlly strange, written in blocky linear runes
A few things on it that stick out like engravings of ppl
Big bearded humanoids but small and fine so difficult to make out
Adam rolled 17 for investigation through files
Some stuff related to running wig shop; shop was at least somewhat a legitimate business
Notes abt billing for criminal organizations and guilds
Some ref to meeting w xant middlemen who would collect bodies
Names
Noska
Hired gorrick to track us down ??
N ?????
Adam looking for a key in the desk, doesn't find it
Head to the chest, adam tries to open
Not locked
A bunch of teeth
It's a mimic, adam has to roll damage
Adam is hit
Adam takes 10 damage
We're looking at diff things around the room and then hear a screech of pain as adam gets bitten
Slams down on adam's hand and four little eyes pop up and stare as it eats adam's hand
Mimic takes 9 damage as adam explodes
Cel shoots an arrow into the eye
22 to hit, 8 damage
Adam uses cutting words
-1d6
"hey fuck"
Adam could try to pull his hands away
Adam pulls his hands out
Adam bends down to it and takes a ration out of his backpack
"dom I'm gonna bend down to it"
The chest has closed back
Adam is going to throw rations instead, dex check
13; doesn't open so adam drops food on its head
Chest sits there looking at adam and eventually out of the side of the chest a weird stretchy amoeba-like arm comes out of it, takes the food and throws it in its mouth
"who's a good boy ? Who's a good boy !! Who's a good chest !!" adam, 2020
Adam takes out all his five rations and makes a trail leading out of the room
Chomper ? Maybe
It looks uninterested and its eyes have shut
Looks exactly like a chest now and hasn't moved; still has an arrow but just looks like a normal chest
It's a small chest that's pickuppable
Adam wants to walk his chest
Adam casts sleep on the chest
7d8s
27hp
When adam casts sleep the chest doesn't move, adam rolls perception 5
Adam tries to pick it up from behind v carefully from the bottom
It's kinda stuck to the floor and the wall; doesn't appear willing to budge
Asyna is still ape!asyna
Tries picking it up from behind like adam
Rolls a 6; won't move
One of its creepy tendrils sticks out and hits ape!asyna
10 bludgeoning damage; ape!asyna basically got slapped but now stuck to the chest
It's kind of loose now
Ape!asyna rolls a 20 and yanks it off the wall, now just dangling off asyna's arm and it's heavier than asyna thought it was
Feels dense
Adam is gonna try and tie its mouth shut
"he kinda starts flailing around a bit" dom, 2020
"aw he likes his new leash" jacob, 2020
Jacob gets hit again
Ape!asyna is gonna try and pull it off, 17 and gets off
Large clump of fur comes off and it's painful
adam "I'm going to try and use centrifugal force to swing it over my head"
"make a strength check" dom, 2020
Rolls 17
Slams it on desk, doesn't let go, nature check adam has no idea what it is
At some point the chest drops off, we stand back and adam casts shatter
11 damage
Chest kind of melts into the floor almost like it deflated, starts snaking way across room until it finds a hole and slithers up and disappears
"fuck you too chompi" adam 2020
Where it dissolves is 20 gold
"n I c e . That was worth the four spell slots" adam, 2020
Adam disguises self and turns into his dad
Adam is a tiefling
Dad is not a tiefling
Taller, dark black hair but not curly, short on the sides + floof forward
Looks more confident than adam
Same freckles
No one knew adam had freckles
Look p similar overall
Sounds the same as adam when he talks
He's a human
We don't know it's adam's dad
"a real dilf" dom, 2020, about adam's dad
"not like your REAL DAD, JACOB, JESUS" dom, 2020
Now we don't have time to unpack ALL OF THAT
Gonna find a hotel or smth
Except gotta disguise selves first
In the wig shop there is any wig u could possibly desire
Some mounted beards
Can't tell if any of the wigs r magical
I don't haAve magicccc :(
Adam puts a blonde wig on the ape
I thought asyna un-aped
Asyna un-apes and disguises self as asyna
Theo takes a long brunette wig w a braid down the back
Cel wants to pretend to be adam's child
Gets a curly dark hair wig
Hammer pants
Cel theo and adam all have freckles
It's nighttime springtime in waterdeep; it's raining
Trades ward going to find a hotel
Avoid own houses for awhile
Going to nearest inn
Let's go to the yawning portal
It is an inn not just a bar
Typ is in fact in the trades ward
One room as the father and two daughters and one room as lesbian elves
Durnan's downstairs and is friends w mirt
We head over to typ
This ward is busier than others we've seen at this time of night
Walk over to side entrance of typ
It never shuts down; always ppl here
Familiar warmth as we approach
Bard competition
Ppl placing bets, drinking, sitting in booths
The rooms r upstairs
Adam calls himself lysander
"a room for me and my daughters"
They get a room on the third story
Room on the third floor
We rendezvous in adam's room
We hear a scream echo out from the well
Adam has two plans
One includes his pants
The pants plan is we track down the dude w the pants
Second includes him singing, waiting to get mugged by the zants
Get mercenary help ?
Pants is plan c
Durnan is plan a
Cel is portia
Theo is lavinia
The doors lock
Long rest? Long rest maybe later
Adam and cel go up to one of the goliaths
"hey there big friend"
He looks like a well-read person
Takes out honey and asks him if he knows what it is
O it's honey
"well there r means of finding this out . For a price"
How much per item - FIVE GOLD
Adam hands him 10 gold and the big rod
"this is a jar of ointment that was first created by the wizard kyogton" I have no idea what that wizard's name is but that's what it sounded like
A dose can be swallowed or applied to the skin and in addition to healing and rejuvenating health, any poison or disease it may have is instantaneously cured
Can't tell how many doses in it
It's v expensive, v rare
Now the stick and he looks uber interested in it
"hm , where did you find this"
"my dad's attic ,,, he's a hoarder"
"let's make a deception check with a capital d"
Nat 1
Adam tells this guy the whole thing and the guy nods
"this is a valuable piece . Would you be interested in parting with it"
Cloud giants made them so their servants could help them build their castles
It's an immovable rod
Writing speaks of ancient cloud giants that were war-inclined
Flat button on the end of it
He sticks it out into the air and presses the button; when he takes his hand away, the rod doesn't fall and it stays floating in the air
Adam grabs onto it but he can't move it
Anybody can push the button tho
Adam asks what the goliath is offering
Offers us 5,000 gold
Adam gets his name - woetheir ????
Woetheir frequents typ when he's here
They're going on a quest; were asked by the open lord to complete a task on the isle of chault
Adam's gonna go to bed
Cel's gonna take a bath
We take long rest
Durnan time
Adam gives durnan a quick rundown of what happened
"ayo what's poppin durnan long time no see my guy"
It's morning it's 9ish breakfast time
Doesn't give any indication whether or not he recognizes them
Adam asks for scrambled eggs and bacon
Adam's asking if he knows anything abt the xants
Theo asks durnan if there's somewhere more secluded they can talk
Gestures to one of the booths and theo cel adam go over
They're uh . Telling durnan everything p much
He has look of passive disinterest but slightly less disinterest the more of the story they tell
"how is mirt?"
"he has renaer and floon"
"he's let himself go"
The xants r v powerful; leadership inscrutable even to open lord herself
Prior, durnan didn't care abt open lord
Guesses whoever obtains the stone would b hunted by the city which could b problematic
Half a million gold dragons
Could get help outside the city ? Roots go deep but do not extend outwards
Flee or contact city officials
"I think theo has a crush on him" adam, 2020
Stone is likely being taken or was already taken to guild hq
We could bust into hq but probs bad idea
Durnan says he's sure anyone could break into xants hq
Lmao durnan sounds so weighed down by life
Every now and then he looks over to well
Durnan is basically saying friendship is magic
The xants don't often come to typ and don't draw swords there
They fear it and durnan
"what's the hole?" adam rolls for insight, dirty 20
Odd expression comes across durnan's face
Mixture of disgust and longing
Uh … disgust and longing … for a hole? Ok durnan
We don't have to talk abt that I guess
Cel asks durnan to send a message to mirt to let him know we're safe but probs not gonna see him for awhile
Apparently the xants aren't too particular abt their henchmen
He says ask the barkeep abt it
Passive perception
At some point durnan leaves and right as theo says that we hear a loud thump and someone says "cripes"
Jones ?
Cel looks under the table and there's jones
Cel drags him out
Theo has a new idea "hey guys let's not go through with using adam as bait yet"
Adam looks down at the goblin and threatens to make him deaf
Plan d is to eat jones
We take jones upstairs
Theo explains her new plan
If the stone is already at their hq
We go to them
Jones doesn't mess w the xants
Why is jones rhyming
What r we talking abt lmao oops I was looking at primary results
I'M SCREAMING I DIDN'T KNOW GOODSPACEGUY WAS 81
No one has asked us for info abt the stone ?
Lmao is this like @me abt what's his name
Jb nevercaught ???? Jp nevercaught ?????? Idk who he is
What's our goal
We gotta figure out what we wanna do ig
We just wanna know where the xants r otherwise we duct tape his mouth and tie him up
"consider it stroked and very, very much needed" jones, 2020
To the dock ward in a wrecked whale oh the wrecked whale
"not the erect whale" cel, 2020 ????
There's a knock at the door
There's no peephole
Asyna asks "who is it"
HAHAHHAHAHA
MARGUERITE LMAO
"uh I work at the bar downstairs uh durnan had some - he wanted to speak to the drow"
I'm screwed
He has page hat on
"first durnan said we could stay as long as we'd like"
And he was offered money by this guy to speak to me
There's an elven man w v long and stringy hair, pointed nose and pointy ears
Looks rlly skinny and physically weak
Looking over scrolls
"guess who"
What the fuck
Nareel ??? naREEL????? WHO THE FUCK IS NAREEL???????
I don't kNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING !!!!!!
The stone fascinates him
Offering us partial membership
Occasional encouragement to go on various missions
He has resources
Treasure and gold involved, but not for the weak-willed
Offering 500 gold for completion of a task
They have captured a high-ranking member of the xants and tried to get info of him
More resilient than they thought he would be
They need him back in three days
Is this a roast session ???? Of aerana ???? When she dips to hang out with the other guy ???????
They're trying to figure out who her friend is
Jones wanted to be a painter
Adam is offering to have jones join us to maybe kill him??????
If he wants gold he has to go get it
They'll keep
"I'm gonna fill your goody bag real good so you better keep your mouth shut" adam, 2020 to jones
Oh god I'm such an avoidant lmao
Oh god I don't
"these conversations will become more difficult as things become more difficult but I think for now that went as well as it could have possibly gone"
"you will find him in your basement"
wHICH BASEMENT
We're gonna go home
To the north ward we go
You go to the basement
The ropes look kinda weird
He's not tied with rope
They're metal bands looped around him
Metal bindings
Doesn't look like he's gonna get out of it
Adam and cel don't see anything out of the ordinary but have noticed things moved around a little bit
Dwarf w dark brown skin, white/gray beard, looks roughed up - not injured, just worse for wear
Adam has him make a wisdom saving throw
Adam charms him
Approaches him first
Adam starts massaging his shoulders
Jfdkaslfha then takes the gag off
"are you here to let me out?" the dwarf
"even better I'm here to spend some quality time with you" adam, 2020
Says he has to get back to the master
Master silgar must be fed
His sacred duty is to feed master silgar
Master silgar has a shimmering son what
"Shakes the oceans with a swish of his body"
In the beginning there was xanathar and then he said silgar should be the one they care for until the seas rise and destroy the city
Controls the eye of the xanathar as the eye of the xanathar control him
His name is ot stillgeer
Adam says his name is cain
Blasphemy for adam to propose bringing lord silgar to him
Lord silgar lives in a great temple
He's the high priest of silgar
We're telling him it's our summer home
Adam winks at everyone and we go upstairs
Adam casts second-level sleep on him
44hp puts him to sleep
Adam is gonna disguise-self a beard when the dwarf next wakes up
Stage it so it looks like he had been there for a month
Everyone changes their clothes
Tally marks on the wall
It's like late afternoon at this time
Adam tells him he woke up after 79 days, rolls for deception
Rolls a 24
Looks over and says "79 days"
"am I dead"
"no but the xanathar want you dead"
"I'm free"
23 for deception
Lord silgar is a fish? A fish ? A goldfish
Lord xanathar loves his goldfish more than anything
Ot has to replace the fish
19 mans is telling the truth
Not really any sign we're being watched when cel rolls for perception
We watch ot, take turns resting and surveilling our own house
Night comes
When asyna is on watch in the tower
Sees figures start making way across street to our house
6 humanoids start trying to break into the house
Glass shatters as one goes through a window
The tapestry was lord silgar
The goldfish has no connection to the koi fish asyna spoke to
Two objectives?
Find the stone
Or control the xanathar w a fish
The stone is a map to half a million gold
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shiftingpath · 5 years
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How many distinctive little arcs did the game you play go through? Oh, and something I've always had a problem with, how do you end it? Is there just a send off after the climax where you describe them continuing to do cool things?
aaaa there were a bunch! it was basically divided into books, of which we had… 7 I think, and chapters and then episodes. you can sort of see how it worked out in the first book writeups, this is more or less how it worked for the rest of the game too. the books were like, 
1) Rise of the Solars: Solars find each other, coming into power, making some changes. ends with the Wyld Hunt taking Towersong, defeating the Solars, who go into exile in Karn
2) Exile: finding their feet in Karn, making allies and friends, uncovering secrets of Towersong’s founding and the many-layered crimes that made it up. ends with the return to Towersong to defeat the Wyld Hunt
3) The Wheel of Fate is Turning: beginning to rule Towersong, scrounging resources, retaking the abandoned satrapy of Earthseat, allying with the Kreeha’s Lunar queen, hearing of the threat of the Nowhere Walker and the Mask of Winters, putting control of the Saltspire Leagues into Iselsi hands. ends with the beckoning and defeat of the Green Sun.
3.5) One Atom of Justice: the OVA! weird experimental arc during Calibration during which the Time of Cascading Years comes to earth being my Dragon-Blood Zyden from the last campaign continuity. destruction of the Amber Post, near apocalypse. ends with the defeat of the Time of Cascading Years and the severing of the rope that hung the Maker.
4) Towersong Tales: branching out beyond Towersong, drawing the interest of the dead and the forces of heaven. the discovery of the Usurpation and Manus’ past incarnation, fighting Lookshy for the artifacts found within Denandsor. ends with Elmira claiming the key she needs to automate Towersong’s defenses.
5) The Lessons Learned in Winter: the Bull of the North becomes a threat. Towersong comes to Medo’s aid against him, the Dragon-Bloods there befriend the Solar circle, meeting the fourth member of the Circle, the star falls on Taraktuti, the defeat of the Bull. ends with Manus pulling forth the Eye of the Autochthon, the subsequent death of the Bull, and the rising of the Nowhere Walker.
6) The World Left Blind: the journey into Ramastan. Manus gets married, the discovery of Hidden Hand’s grave and the identity of the Mask of Winters. the Seal is unlocked, and the Solars take their closest allies and travel to aid the Maker. the rise of the Necropolis of Ixut, the death of the Mask of Winters, the coming of the Nowhere Walker. ends with the rescue of Ramathus from within the Viator, the return of the Eye, the rejuvenation of Ramastan, and his renaming to Autochthon. 
after that, we got a nice short timeskip to a few years later or so. our GM asked us in advance for one or two things we’d each like to see that would really round out the experience and wrap up our stories, so we each submitted those and got them as Return of the King-style post-ending scenes. Elmira’s two children were born; her sorcerous daughter with Schala Vizigraf and her Sublime clockwork daughter Metis, who now runs Towersong’s Academy. Lark was reunited with his family, his newly-exalted Lunar sister, and his new baby sibling Robin. Manus crafts his first artifact and uses it to help convince the Isle away from civil war, aided by the Mirror Flag. the Nowhere Walker, now Autochthon’s fetich soul Ramathus, comes to Towersong to beg their forgiveness for his crimes. Manus extends the gift of the Uhrgraf: a second chance. the Nowhere Walker comes to dinner at Lark’s place.
(also, we’ve already got plans for bonus content! we’re not done playing them, just done playing them as our primary, regular game :D )
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necrokittytales · 5 years
Text
Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 28)
Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font. If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here. NSFW here!
———————————————————————————
Hilda woke up to the loud sound of machinery, making her entire house shake. Her first thought was that the actual dragon came back to finish what it started. She leapt out of bed and ran to the observatory, already started to transform into one of the constellations. But she stopped abruptly when she recognised the giant robot from Dr Kahl standing outside her observatory.
“Mowrning Miss Berg!” The man, and the robot, saluted her with a happy grin on their faces before seeing her outfit. "Hoho! You might vant to cover a little! I can tell you’re cold!” He chuckled, noticing Hilda’s breasts through the thin nightgown.
The woman immediately crossed her arms and frowned at the man. “You could have called before starting!” She shouted up to him.
“Calling is offerrated! Hologram or nothing,” Werner shouted, walking past Dr. Kahl with a scientific little doohickey . “You’re not blanning on sdaying inzide totay, are you? Ve may need to sbray zings zat do not like zee human skin,” he mentioned, eyeing Hilda.
Hilda raised an eyebrow at Werner. “Eh… actually I’m planning on seeing Cags today.”  She looked at the two men working with their machinery. For every piece of debris they picked up, another two fell from another place. It felt like they were destroying more than what they were clearing up.
The woman sighed and tried to comfort herself with the thought of a free telescope and a 50% reduction on the cost. “I see you guys have everything under control… just… please don’t destroy my house…”
“Ja, ja. Ve are professional!” Werner turned just in time to duck as one of Kahl’s inventions nearly sliced him in half. “Vatch vere you’re svinging zat zing, you idiot!”
“Hello, Hilda!” The woman turn to see a familiar large carrot hopping her way with a friendly greeting. He paused as he got a bit closer to the observatory and then whistled. “When did you decide to start renovating?”
“Oh! Hy Psy! Well, I wasn’t really planning for it. Ya see, what happened was…."  
The woman explained what happened to the observatory, excluding the details of her evening with Cagney. Psy nodded his head, making the appropriate facial expressions at the various points of her story.
”..and now, Dr Kahl and Werner are clearing all so I can start building up again. IF I can get the funding for it, that is!“ She sighed, a bit sad. "Anyway, you need something? I was about to head to Cagney’s.”
Psycarrot brightened up. “Well, I just decided to pop by after hearing all that noise. It’s awfully convenient for you to be heading that way as well. I got to give him back the key to his shed if he’s home. Do you mind if I join you?”
Hilda thought for a moment, and came to the conclusion that it would be less awkward if somebody else was present. Plus, it would be a good test to see if they were really back to normal or if there was still some tension left. “Eh, sure, let’s go.”  With a wave of her hands, she cast a cloud big enough for both of them. “Hop on!”
Psy hopped onto the cloud and away they flew toward Cagney’s field. “I haven’t seen him in a few days so it’d be nice to touch base with him about some of those honey suckles he’s been growing. Figure out what type of mulch he’s been using to get them as bright as they are.”  As the cloud cleared the forest and Cagney’s field came into view, the carrot peered inside. Psy groaned. “Darn, still not here.”
Hilda squinted her eyes and saw a figure in Cagney’s favorite tree. “Hey! Somebody IS down there!” She immediately approached the tree to find Carlos lying on the branch with his face covered by his hat. “Hey! I know you!” She yelled, waking up the cat and nearly sending him falling from the tree. “What the heck are you doing here?”
“Señorita Luna! Oh, por favor! Don’t hurt me!” Carlos held on to the branch with claws. “Petal’s said he wasn’t gonna be here for a few days, I’m just keeping his spot warm.” He smiled nervously.
Psycarrot glanced at Hilda slightly suspicious. “You haven’t been scaring guys again, have you Hilda?” He teased.
She looked at Psy confidently. “M-me? Naaah. I just had a very civilised conversation with him when he trespassed in my home the other day.” She looked at the cat and his multiple wounds and bruises, and shrugged, feeling slightly guilty for coming down so hard on him.
Carlos looked at the woman with wide eyes. “Well, if that was civilised, I don’t want to see what’ you think is barbaric!”
“Yeah, you don’t. Now get down from there before I make you get down,” she threatened the cat.
“Fine, fine!.” He climbed down. “But I don’t see why I can’t stay. I’m not bothering anybody, I have a place to sleep and I’m keeping an eye on his property. It’s a win-win!”
Psycarrot brightened up. “Say! You don’t know where that grumpy weed is, do you? He was all hush hush about it with us! I think he was going to another isle.”
Carlos and Hilda chuckled at Psy’s pun.
“Maybe something happened to him on the way?” Hilda said, worried. “It’s a long way for him…”
“Hmm…I remember he was in a hurry. He needed to take care of something really serious.”
Psy flexed and cracked his fingers. “I see that my vast psychic skills are necessary to see more than what this simple minded feline realizes he can provide us! Step this way, my good fellow and allow me into your mind!”
Carlos raised an eyebrow. “Read my mind?” He got closer to Psycarrot and crossed his arms. “Are you one of those charlatans at the circus?” He said not convinced of the carrot’s habilities.
“No, the real deal, my feline fellow!” Psycarrot had the cat stand in front of him and he began to massage his own head. “You…originally thought he was a girl. A very angry girl…your mind is telling me about a different flower in New York that you…oh. OH! Oh, eh, well looks can be deceiving I suppose!” Psy managed, seeing an image he would have rather not seen, or at least not in public.
Carlos paled and stepped away from the carrot. “I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Hilda laughed. “You looked a little too far, Psy, hahaha!”
Psy nodded, wiping his brow. “Ye-yeah.”  He had to admit he wasn’t quite sure what he would do if he ever saw the flower from the cat’s memories but he doubted he could keep a straight face. So he concentrated on the day Cagney left. “Cagney said he was going to…well either fix things or fuck things,” Psy admitted sheepishly. “Sorry, just wow, uh…”
“Fix things?.” Hilda started to have an idea of her best friend’s plan. “Shit! I think I know what that dumb dandelion is up to…”
____
Cagney woke with a clanging and a yelling outside of his prison. He blearily blinked and looked up to see bee guards storming through, smacking their batons along the bars of the cages as they walked through. “Rise and shine, sweethearts!” one guard yelled.
“What’s going on?” Cagney grumbled, wiping his eyes. He didn’t know how long he was asleep or if the sun was up or not and the yelling was certainly not helping his mood. Granted, he did feel a lot less pent up than he had the last few days, but the circumstances leading up to and following that point were a bit…stressful to say the least.
The old bee shook worriedly. “They’ve come to take us to the Reprogramming camps!”
“What are you talking about, old timer?” he asked, as the bees walked toward the cat’s cage first.
“The Camps. It’s where they take problem bees and turn them into mindless drones, or "model citizens” as our Queen puts it. It wasn’t so bad at first. First, they were just taking the real bad riff raff, the ones that were stealing and have repeated violence and stuff. But lately, it’s been anyone who’s so much as hiccuped in front of her.“
"Huh, then why are you in here?”
“I stole and sold royal jelly,” the old bee admitted.
“And you haven’t been to the camps before, because…?”
“Oh I’ve been! But I’ve got a metal plate in me head from the last war, so it hasn’t been so successful! But I hear now that they got some even stronger force that could change that!”
Cagney did not like the sound of that but shrugged. “Well, I’m not a bee, so I’ll be just fine.”
“Don’t be so quick to think that!” The old bee warned, “I’ve seen fellas with twice as much spitfire and sass as you come back as tame as a kitten.”
Despite the seriousness of the threat, the carnation couldn’t help but grin at that last part. He tapped on the wall connecting his and Amber’s cage. “Ya hear that, ya dumb feline? They’re going to turn you into a kitten….hello?” There was no reply and the carnation scratched his head as the guard bees stared into her cage.
“The feline prisoner is missing, sir,” one of the guards spoke up.
“What?” Another guard fluttered over and quickly unlocked the cell before stepping in. The carnation had to take a peek as well. Sure enough, Amber was nowhere to be found.
The guards flipped over all the furniture and blankets in the room yet there was no cat. The one with the key pushed the other one. “We have to find her!”
“What about the other two? Should we bring them down?”
“And risk Rumor finding out we lost one of the prisoners?! Are you mad?!? Quick, I think I smell something furry this way!” The bees took down the hallway, leaving the two occupants still locked up.
Cagney grumbled. “Least she could have done was take me with her,” he lamented.
“Weren’t you two at each other’s throats yesterday?” The old bee asked.
“Yeah, your point?” He groaned. “How did she even get out of the cell to begin with?”
“I didn’t.”
The two men turned to see one of the walls shifting until the little orange cat dug her way out, covered in dried honeycomb wall debris. She flicked the stuff off of her fur and pushed open the unlocked cell door. She stood in front of them, beaming.
Cagney gaped at her. “How the hell did you do that?”
Amber stuck out her tongue. “Trade secrets. Now, if I unlock your cage, are you going to try to kill me again?”
“Ooh, I’d really like to,” the flower admitted, much to the bee’s chagrin.
“Fine, then you can rot in there.”
“No, no! Wait. Ugh fine!” The carnation scowled, crossing his arms. “Fine, I won’t try to kill you.”
“Great, I accept your apology and also feel bad for what happened due to your actions,” Amber responded smugly, extending out a nail and starting to lock pick Cagney’s door. After a few rotations, the satisfying sound of a click echoed through the hallway and Amber was soon pulling open the second door.
“Wait, wait, you whippersnappers (young people) have to take me?” The old bee protested.
“What? Why? You actually have a reason for being here…I think
"Well, if you don’t let me out, I’m going to raise the alarm,” the old bee threatened.
Cagney nudged Amber. “Be a good girl and go unlock his cage.”
____
The three escaped convicts started to quickly travel down the length of the passage, looking for an exit. They couldn’t stick around here. It was only a matter of time before they were caught by some patrolling guards. It didn’t take long for them to get hopelessly lost.
“Cagney, really think, you don’t remember where they brought you or how we got in?” Amber asked as they rounded another corner in the hive.
The flower shook his head. “I didn’t. Thought we would be just lead out the way we came. Wasn’t expecting Rumor to be completely psycho.“
“And yet, you still had whoopie with her,” Amber grumbled, “didn’t your parents ever teach you not to stick it in goofy?”
“Considering my parents have split up, they didn’t,” the flower grimaced, “I honestly didn’t think Rumor was carrying a torch for me.”
Amber nodded. “The thought of anyone having feelings for you is hard to believe.“
“Bees are naturally attracted to flowers and vice versa, so if you two are done squabbling, we really need to keep moving!” The old bee hollered at the two.
The group stopped as the sound of buzzing drew closer. “Quick, through here!” Amber squeaked, scampering down another hallway.
The three came to a door and the old bee immediately panicked. “Oh! No, this is the worst place we could be!” The old bee cried.
“What? Why?”
“This is Rumor’s office!” the bee exclaimed, pointing at the royal insignia on the door.
Cagney hesitated. “Shit, he’s right.”  He had just been here 24 hours ago, negotiating with the queen bee. And this is one of the last places he wanted to end back up at.
Amber’s eyes lit up. “Think there could be some treasure in there?” She asked hopefully.
“Is that all you think about?” The flower grumbled.
“Well, no, sometimes I think about cream and a warm fireplace.“
The bee shook his head. “There’s no way I’m going in there!”
“Well, there’s no way back that way!” Amber hissed, pointing from whence they came. She glanced around. “The only other way is toward some place called the waste dump and considering honey is like bee throw up, I don’t even want to know what’s considered waste to them!”
“Anything’s better than the office!” The bee flew down the hallway before either Cagney or Amber could stop him.
The buzzing grew louder and the two exchanged nervous looks. “Office?” Amber suggested
“Office.”
They turned around and quickly entered Rumor’s office, shutting the door behind them. Cagney looked around some more. “Looks like Rumor’s not here.“
“Shh!” Amber shushed, putting a paw over his mouth, peeking through the keyhole. The Carnation leaned down and peeked through other one.
In the corridor, a couple of bees walked by, pushing a cleaning cart. The fugitives recognised one of the bees as the young fellow they met back in the cells, before he was taken to the reprogramming camp.
”…I’m telling you, I’ve never felt better! You should totally go!“
"I don’t know… I heard spooky stuff happens in there,” the other bee answered, cleaning some dust from the corridor decorations. "You don’t come back the same bee.”
“All lies! It was like a day at the spa! All I did was talk and enjoy massages! And I’m telling ya! Those ants really know what they’re doing”
“Ants? What are ants doing in here?”
“Oh! No no no! It’s cool! They made like a treaty or something with our beloved queen. Oh! And at the end of the day, after I let aaaall my stress and concerns out, they give you this lovely bracelet!” Cagney and Amber saw the young bee show his wrist to his friend.
“..WWRD?” He read. “What’s WWRD?”
“What Would Rumor Do! Isn’t it neat? Now, whenever I get too tense, I just look at this and think about our magnificent queen and all that she does for us, and I feel like I can do better! It encourages me!” He said, excited while leaving the corridor.
Amber heard some movement behind the royal chamber’s door in the office. The cat turned toward the door. Her fur stood on end as the door knob jiggled. “Hide!” She whispered, jumping under Rumor’s desk.
Cagney blanched. “Where the hell would I hide?!” He hissed back. The carnation wasn’t fast enough and braced himself as the door to Rumor’s bedroom opened.
“Thank you for seeing me, Queen Narween,” Rumor said to a slim winged ant, smaller than the bee, as they came out of the room. Rumor looked like she had been crying, her eyes were glassy. “You’re really a good~.” The bee opened her eyes widely at the view of Cagney. “friend?”
The ant noticed the surprise on the bee’s face. “Intruder!” She yelled, pointing at the flower. A couple of huge ants with massive jaws came out behind the royalty and threatened the carnation with their teeth.
“NO! No! Wait!” Rumor yelled, stopping the ant guards. “Its…um…my appointment. Just a pollen gardener!” She tried to calmly say. “I’ve been expecting him.”
Narween looked at Rumor skeptically but ordered her guards to stop with a gesture of her hand. "Oh… my sweet dear.” She caressed Rumor’s cheek softly. “Friends don’t lie to each other. Who is this?” She gestured to Cagney with an open hand.
Rumor’s eyes brighten at the touch of the ant. “He-he’s Cagney…" 
A creepy smile appeared on the ant’s face and she took a couple of steps towards the flower. The ant guards remained defensive. "I’ve heard so much about you…Cagney.” She pronounced his name with disgust. “You’ve really hurt my sweet Rumor. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Cagney had a very bad feeling about all of this, especially with how Rumor almost responded passionately to the other woman’s touch. Was this her girlfriend or something? He hoped not, otherwise, there would be some explaining about the events from yesterday. He almost glanced toward Amber’s hiding spot but stopped himself. The ant appeared very perceptive and no doubt might pick up on the fact that he wasn’t alone.
He puffed up his chest and gave the ant an intimidating glare. “What do I have to say for myself? I have quite a lot to say for myself. Like, who the hell are you? And what the hell is going on here?” He turned to Rumor. “Because right now, it’s looking more like a loony bin than a hive, Rumor.”
Amber could have slapped herself. Her many, many brushes with possible injury and impairment had made her hyper aware  of potentially deadly situations and this just screamed ‘Danger!’ to her. Cagney had no idea what he was getting into but he was smart enough not to look her way. She had crawled into a tight crevice of the desk and watched the scene anxiously through a slit in the wood.
Narween looked at Rumor to see what she was going to do about the flower’s insolence. The bee frowned at Cagney angrily.
“Looney? YOU want to talk about looney? What about yesterday? Uh? Sleeping with me to get what you want for that fucking witch!?” She took a deep breath to cool down and looked at her desk. “You know what.? I’m tired of this.” She took out her scepter. Cagney noticed something different in it, it looked as if it had loosened his golden brightness and was a bit cracked, like a branch.
Rumor waved the scepter muttering a chant and in her hand appeared a dark red silk cloth. “There!” She wrapped it up in a ball and threw it at the flower’s feet. “This bandana will allow to see the solution to every problem! You’ll be able to help her on your own.” She said sadly. “You simply have to wear it whenever you need to think clearly”
Narween ordered her guards to stand back to leave some space for the flower to pick up the fabric, and looked curious at the carnation.
“Take it and get out of my hive, Cagney.” Rumor said, crossing her arms and turning her back to him. She had to do an effort not to cry.
Amber looked at the piece of fabric fearfully. “Don’t touch the cloth, don’t touch the cloth, don’t touch the cloth,” she silently prayed to herself.
Cagney resisted the urge to snarl at the bee. “You wanna blame me for this? Really?!” He knelt down and scooped up the bandana, clenching it in his fist as he drew closer. “I’m not the one who asked for sex, Rumor. That was YOU, asking me to give you the 'greatest orgasm of your life.’ And not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty damn sure I did just that!”
Cagney threw his arms in the air. “Yeah. I’m just as responsible for what happened next, I’ll give you that! And if I had known what I knew now, I would have had a hell of a lot more questions before I’d have done that with you!”
His head drooped and he looked away. “I came here to ask for your help, Rumor! And I was willing to work for it, sure! You could have told me no or to buzz off. You were my friend, I would have listened!” He looked back up at her, daggers in his eyes. “But you saw an opportunity and you took it. So here we are. Congratu-fuckulations!”
He didn’t dwell on Rumor’s hurt expression, instead dangling the piece of cloth in front of her. “You want me to put this on?”
“Please don’t put it on, please don’t put it on, please don’t put it on,” Amber desperately begged to herself.
“Fine! I’ll put this on!” Cagney snapped, tying the bandana around his neck. “You think it’ll help me think clearly? Because I haven’t been thinking straight for the last week and if a piece of fabric is going to suddenly change things, I’d like to see it try!”
Rumor felt worse at each word the carnation yelled at her, turning red in embarrassment for her moment of weakness. She turned slightly to see the flower putting on the fabric and she looked at him wondering if she had done right.
Seconds later, Cagney started to feel a bit light headed. His angry thoughts started to fade away at the view of Rumor’s glassy eyes. Had he just been saying horrible things to the friend who was willing to give him what he needed to help Hilda? Hilda… that name made him feel slightly angry for some reason.
Narween seemed very pleased to see what she was witnessing, the guard ants still at the defensive.
“Cagney?” Rumor asked worried. “Y-you ok?”
Cagney blinked unsteadily. “What were we talking about just now?” He asked.
Amber gaped at the scene. The carnation had been outright yelling one minute and the next, acting like someone had just kicked him in the head.
The bee looked at Narween worried but the ant reassured her with a nod.
“You-you were yelling at me for trying to help you with…Hilda.” She despised the witch so much, she could barely say her name. She looked Cagney into his eyes, trying to identify any sign of change in him.
Cagney shook his head. “Yelling at you? Why would I be yelling at you? About Hilda? Why the heck would we be arguing about her?” He asked, the very name eliciting a bad taste in his mouth.
Rumor’s expression lightened and she looked back at Narween. The ant smiled back at her. “Well, I see you have everything under control here.” She walked towards the door, accompanied by her guards. “I leave you with your…meeting.” She left the office, closing the door behind her.
Rumor turned back to Cagney. “Eh… d-do you remember anything from yesterday?” She needed to see if her magic erased everything prior of being worn, or simply it distorted the memories, but she knew it might be a little too soon to really know. Some magic artifacts required some time to fully act.
Cagney struggled to make sense out of yesterday. It seemed like a muddled mess but gradually pieces started to fall into place. “Well, uh, I remember coming here cause I had to ask you for a favor.”
The flower scrunched up his face. “Hilda’s dome was broken. I accidentally broke it, and she said I had to fix it. I had to come bother you to try to fix it, I think.”  He made a face. “Why the hell would she have made me bother you? You’re really busy! If she wanted it fixed, she should have come here herself, right?”
“Right!” Rumor said, happy to see Cagney realizing that. He just needed a little push. “Uh… d-do you, do you remember what we… 'talked’ about… in my chambers?” she asked, blushing slightly, remembering their love making session and how abruptly it ended.
“You were offering to help but the more we talked, the more I realized how right you were about everything. And we got to flirting and we…did, holy shit” Cagney turned red in the face as he recalled their coital session.
The bumblebee underneath him, squirming and squealing in pleasure. He couldn’t even remember how long he was waiting to hear her make those sounds.
Rumor smiled shyly as she noticed his redness. “Yeah. That was… pretty amazing, actually… w-was it good for you?”
Cagney tried to play it cool. Rumor was asking him if he enjoyed their magical night together. “Y-yeahh!” He stammered before clearing his throat, “I mean you’d have to have honey for brains to not see how much I enjoyed myself.”
Rumor’s heart beat so fast. Her spell seemed to be working perfectly. Cagney now realized she was the one for him, and not that filthy human. She looked at her feet. She needed to be certain of the efficiency of the magical cloth. “Eh, and…do you remember how it ended?”
The flower concentrated. “The end?” For how muddy the rest of the memories were, for some reason the end was still fairly vibrant in his mind. Perhaps it was because it was such an emotionally fueled moment that it didn’t melt away with the rest of the memories?
He brightened as he remembered he had imagined he was making love to Hilda in that moment. “Oh, yeah I said Hil-!” His voice was cut off mid-speech as the bandanna constricted against his neck.
He tumbled down, knocking some items off of Rumor’s desk before he collapsed to his knees. The thought of Hilda moaning in sublime ecstasy within his grasp turned painful and he couldn’t breath.
Amber had been bracing herself to hear some really disgusting sex stuff about this Carnation that she really didn’t want to hear, but watching him fall to the ground almost made her leap from her hiding place. What the hell was going on?
“Cagney!” The queen yelled and she reached for him. “Cagney, look at me!” She forced him to face her. “Focus on me! Please, Cagney! Look into my eyes and breath slowly!”
After struggling a bit, Cagney finally focused on Rumor. He felt how the silk cloth relaxed around his neck, allowing air to finally pass into his lungs.
He rubbed his neck, continuing to breathe carefully, lest that happen again. “Christ, Rumor, you’d think they’d make this bandanna a little softer,” he grumbled. He softened at her worried expression. “Hey, hey, no, I’m okay, don’t freak out, dork,” he chided. He leaned in to her touch. “This feels nice though, you can keep doing this.”
The queen worried expression turned into a blushing smile, even though she didn’t appreciate being called a dork, she kept caressing his cheek.
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If only thinking about Hilda almost made him choke… what would happen if he actually saw her? She would have to work fast to erase every memory of the witch before that happened…not that Hilda would show up in her hive. 'That’s it!’ She thought to herself, 'I’ll keep him in my hive until he forgets all about that blimp!’
Rumor cleared her throat. “ I’ve been thinking… Since we’re doing business together maybe-maybe you would like to work in my Royal Gardens? That way you won’t have to walk all the way here every time. You will have your own room, of course! As well as a team of gardeners. Everything you need will be take care of!” She said with bright eyes, hoping he would accept.
“That, that would be amazing! I mean, I have to get my old garden taken care of, but that shouldn’t be too hard.”  Cagney eyed her sideways with a smirk. “You’re being awfully nice to me, what’s the catch?”
“Catch? Well, I guess you’ll technically be working for me. Does that bother you?”
“I think I could get used to the idea of having you on top,” he chuckled.
Rumor blushed heavily, laughed and pushed him slightly. “Oh! You! You better watch your tongue in front of my workers!” She was really liking this. It felt so right!
He stuck his tongue out and waggled it at her. “Just let me know how you’d like to see it when the workers aren’t around.”
Amber was wondering what the hell was happening.
He glanced toward the direction of where the ant went. “Unless your girlfriend has an issue?”
“Girlfriend?” She took a second to understand what he was referring to. “Oh! Narween? She’s just a friend. A very good one. And to think we used to be rivals! She bought other small hives to make honey but my high quality has always beat hers in the market.” She helped the flower to stand back up. “And then one day, she came in peace. We had a looong talk and now we’re partners and best friends!” She said, a little too excited, as if she was over acting it.
Cagney pulled a petal. “Huh. Yeah, I don’t even remember seeing the honey she makes in the village store. Best friends, huh? Well at least you’re not lonely,” he teased
Rumor frowned at him but kept her smile. “You know… I’ll be less lonely if you accept the job.” She held her hands on her back and gave him a hungry look. “I could show you where your room would be right now….” This felt incredible for the queen, to speak freely, to the point, with naughty overtones. Is this how he felt with Hilda? No! She shouldn’t waste her thoughts on that witch. If everything worked out, in a few days Cagney wouldn’t even need the bandana anymore. He would be completely free and, hopefully, they would finally be together.
Cagney nodded. “If you got the time… And the energy,” he hinted, the allure of the bee once again stimulating his interest, “I’d love to see it.”
She bit her lip and walked to the door. She stopped in front of it and took a deep breath, stood straight, changed her expression to her typical noble stare and opened the door. She had to make sure nobody would get any ideas about them. Gossip literally flew in this hive.
They both left the room, leaving the little cat burglar alone in the office. The door was closed after they got out with the sound of a few locks.
Amber popped her head up and looked around. “What the hell is going on around here?!” She exclaimed. She looked around the room for something. Magic mirror? Evil puppet? Hypnotic ant monster?
The bandana. Cagney was all ready to brawl until he put it on and then suddenly he and the crazy queen were flirting and oh man was she glad they didn’t start anything on the desk.
And the staff that the bee have been holding; it made the bandana come out! “The staff has got to be the source of this,” she realized, “I have to get out of here!”
She started to make a beeline in the opposite direction of Rumor and Cagney only to stop. That scepter was dangerous. Really dangerous. And from what she had just seen, it wasn’t restricted to bees. Anyone could suddenly find themselves wearing a bandana or a bracelet and their brains turned to mush. Plus, she really couldn’t leave Cagney to his fate. She groaned and plopped herself down on her butt. “I hate being the hero,” she grumbled.
She had to get that scepter out of the bee’s hands.
But how? Amber wasn’t good at magic, having none of her own, and so there was no way she could just confront Rumor head on. She couldn’t take on a bee and her really unsettling ant friend. And if Cagney was really zonked, he might attack her too!
She had to play to her strengths. And her strengths were being sneaky and stealthy. Amber glanced around the room, already planning out her route to follow the two bosses.
____
Cagney followed Rumor to what he assumed was his room. For the most part, the workers did not give him a second glance. Word did travel fast in a hive. No doubt they heard that he had accepted the gardening position and realized he didn’t need to be arrested.
But the cat he was with. Amber. She was still around. He really should have mentioned to Rumor that she was in the room, but something deep in his gut had prevented him from doing that. Oh well, maybe he could help her look for the cat later. After she showed him the bedroom.
She finally came to a door and opened it up, revealing a very similar set up to her own chamber with access to ground and water. Even in the privacy of the room, Rumor still remained calm and regal like. He wondered if he could get her to drop the act now that they were alone.
Or so he thought.
Amber clung to the beams holding up the ceiling of honeycomb. It was fortunate that they had some form of structure for her to even grab onto, much less hide behind. Honeycombs were strong and all but a place of this size and capacity probably needed a bit of help to stay intact. She had been following Rumor and Cagney, hoping the queen might hand off her scepter to someone less capable but no such luck. She squeezed through a gap in the rafters to get into the room only to freeze as she saw the way the flower eyed the bee.
Oh, she definitely did NOT want to see this. She turned and tried to hightail it out of there only to remain stuck. She looked to see her tail tangle on some of the nails. She tried to pull it out quickly only to stifle a pained gasp. She had to go slow otherwise they would hear her. She regrettably go to work on freeing her tail as quickly as she could.
Cagney planted his roots into the moist soil, enjoying the feeling of dirt again on his feet.  When this was all over, he was going to go home and stay burrowed in his garden for a week. He paused. But he wasn’t going to go home. Not yet at least. This was his home now, right? There was a reason he wanted to go back to the isle but he couldn’t quite figure it out.
The line of thinking distressed him and he chose instead to play with Rumor. He placed his leafy hands around Rumor from behind, fiddling with top of her breasts. “Ready for round two?” He asked.
Rumor bit her lip, wanting very much to have a Round Two but stopped herself from just submitting once more. Yesterday’s events were still very much in her mind, especially how Cagney blurted out Hilda’s name at the end of what was supposed to be very stress relieving coitus. “Cagney, I don’t think I have the time at the moment.“
Cagney nuzzled against her. “You’re the queen, ain’t ya? You’re saying you don’t want to mess around just a little bit?”
She was the queen, wasn’t she? She could allow herself to indulge in this again. Besides, the bandana looked like it was already doing its job. Cagney had barely mentioned Hilda ever since he put it on. “I suppose there’s some time,” Rumor admitted, sitting down on the bed and beckoning him closer.
The flower approached her but paused. “Ya gonna hit me again?”
“Depends on how good you are,” she smirked.
“Great.”
Keeping his position in the dirt, Cagney leaned over in front of Rumor and pressed a surprisingly gentle kiss to her lips.
The bee was caught off guard, expecting the roughness from yesterday. She quickly responded in kind, taking her hands and softly stroking along the sides of his face, rubbing the sensitive spots on his petals that her bee vision could see. The flower shivered at the contact, his tongue slipping out and begging for entrance to Rumor’s. She granted entry and met his tongue with her own, enjoying the sweetness of his nectar.
His fingers crept alongside her shoulders and pulled away the royal garments she wore, exposing her black and yellow skin. She shivered at the contact with air and she reached out to pull his stem against her. She enjoyed how warm the plant felt. She started to rub down his rough stem to shamelessly try to coax out his piece already.
Cagney squeaked in surprise at the bold gesture. He pulled away from the kiss and smugly eyed her. “Guess you really don’t have a lot of time if you’re already wanting the big finish.“
Rumor blushed at being called out. “It’s just, well after yesterday…”
“Yesterday?” He asked, “didn’t we have some fun yesterday?”
‘Yes, and you screamed out another woman’s name during sex,’ Rumor wanted to remind him but stopped herself. Ugh, Hilda wasn’t even here and she was already putting a damper on this ardent affair. “Never mind yourself,” she replied sharply, “just hey!”
In his absent-mindedness, Cagney had torn a little bit of one of the garments. He looked at the piece of cloth in his large hand. “Oops.”
“Oops? That’s silk, how did you rip silk? You better fix it after this!” She gasped, trying not to let on to the fact that the thought of the Carnation ripping her clothes off was actually kind of hot.
Cagney nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fix this…” there was an odd feeling inside of him as he said those words. Like he had said them before.
Rumor rolled her eyes. “I’ll just have the Royal tailor fix it, don’t concern yourself further…“
Why had he said those words? He remembered clutching someone tightly to his breast, repeating those words. Hoping he could make them true.
“Cagney?”
The flower looked back in her. “Huh?”
“Is everything alright?” Rumor asked, trying not to look too worried.
“Yeah, yeah everything’s fine,” he said, even as he swore he could feel someone small in his arms.
Rumor eyed the flower a bit worried before gently pulling him towards her lips. She focused on the moment and try to keep the thought of the meteorologist out of her her mind. 'Better keep her away from his thoughts as well…’ she said to herself, raising the intensity of her kiss and stimulating him. "On second thought, maybe you could give more work to my tailor,” the queen said, sensually looking at her torn up clothes.
Cagney returned the kiss, trying to match the intensity of it while trying to ignore the weird feeling that festered within his chest.
He ground himself into her touch and pressed kiss after kiss along her cheeks and her neck. His fingers tugged at the garments, trying to pull them off, but now shying away from outright ripping them. He already had so much to try to do, he didn’t need to add more to it.
What did he come here to do? He was here to work for Rumor, right? He came here to try to fix something but the more he tried to focus on what it was, the more it slipped away, agitating him further.
He could feel his stem starting to thicken as he continued to paw at her breasts and her hips
Rumor let some soft moans escape from her throat, rubbing her body impatiently against his. She caressed his sensitive spots behind the petals slowly leaning on him. “Take me,” she moaned between playful tongue kisses. “Take me now!” She ordered, stealing a really heated kiss from the flower.
The order reverbated deep within him and he couldn’t help but growl at the authority behind her words. He resisted the urge to just forget and submit. He grabbed Rumor and pulled her fully into him, his tongue darting out and caressing the insides of her mouth. He could feel a heat growing within him as his stem continued to thicken and his petals turn ragged with her touches. The frustration of it all, wanting to screw Rumor into oblivion yet still remember what he had come here for was proving too much for his regular form to take and he felt himself gradually transform.
The queen abandoned herself to the flower’s needy and gradually rougher touches. This was surreal for her. Two days ago their relationship was purely business, and now, here she was, quivering and almost dripping from their still covered crotch.
She rubbed herself against the thicker part of his stem looking at him with preying eyes, not paying attention to the slightly changes that started to appear in his body.
He flipped her around so her back rested against his chest and removed the garments around her pelvis, exposing her sex. His fingers dipped down and spread her vaginal folds, fingering the  sensitive tissues to prepare her for penetration.
He felt so pent up. He wanted nothing more than to pollinate the queen bee, make her scream, hoping that her shrieks of pleasure would shake him from whatever lingering thoughts kept him from accepting this was what he wanted.
“Are you ready?” He groaned, rubbing his penis against the outside of her vulva, silently begging for her to let him in.
She gasped in surprise and spread her legs to allow Cagney to reach better. Her body was burning with desire. “Hhnng… yes! Don’t make me wait any longer!” she cried, caressing his neck and moving her hips to the touches.
He slipped it in easily as her entrance was already slick with desire. He lingered inside her without moving, enjoying the feeling of her warm walls wrapped snugly around his cock.
This felt even better than yesterday! He ran his hands along her body pausing as he felt the bareness of her wrists. There was supposed to be something there. He grit his teeth, growing increasingly frustrated by how his mind refused to remember. He knew there was supposed to be something there. So why couldn’t he remember?
He should start soft. She asked him to…right? But Rumor didn’t ask for that. Someone asked for that. But it wasn’t Rumor. He thrusted into her slowly at first but quickened his speed as she wiggled impatiently.
He felt like he was losing his mind. His teeth elongated and sharpened as he warped his shape. His petals looked bedraggled and his stem had thickened and fleshed out. She felt increasingly tight on his growing member as he continued to rut into her, his lustful groans turned into a growls
Rumor moaned at the slow friction and turned around when she noticed the tightness in her womanhood. “Cagney, what are you~CAGNEY!?” She yelled, surprised to see the monstrous figure of the flower thrusting and growling. The queen tried to pull him out and release herself from of his grip. “What’s going on!?”
Rumor’s desperate wriggling to escape only led to Cagney tightly grasping her, pinning her arms to her sides, and jerking her back down roughly on his enlarged penis.
He hadn’t been in this form for a while, not since he broke the dome. And he was supposed to be fixing it. But he wasn’t. He was here, abusing this sexy bee. The more he touched her, the less he started to care about anything else. Except for screwing the honey out of her.
The carnation’s capacity of speech in this form wasn’t the best but he managed another snarl, “What’s wrong, Rumor? Can’t handle me like this?”
“Handle you!?” She moaned. “Since when you can turn like this?” She was more surprised than worried. The thick member of the flower pounding her wet vagina, sending waves of pleasure all over her body, making her shiver and groan loudly.
She started to love this feeling of being trapped like a fly between Cagney’s strong vines. It didn’t take long for the bee to accompany the carnation’s rough love making with her hips.
He didn’t answer the bee, instead choosing to nip and bite at her neck. He could feel himself close to climaxing as her walls started to spasm around him, indicating she was also near her edge. He continued to keep her pinned, his vines rubbing and stroking the front of her clitoris as he erratically rammed into her.
A final thrust of his hips sent him shooting his load deep inside her, coating her with the sweet, sticky nectar. He let out a rather monstrous growl, unable to call out an unknown name. He kept Rumor planted firmly as she started riding out her own orgasm.
Rumor screamed Cagney’s name as her orgasm exploded like a bomb through her shivering and wet body. That was the best orgasm she ever had, including the one from yesterday.
“My queen! Everything o~OH GOD!” The cleaning bees from before opened the door and saw the weird scene in a flash before shutting the door again. “W-we’re so sorry my queen!!!”
“P-please don’t kill us!”
Rumor’s reaction was slow, she was still panting, lost in the afterglow of her exquisite orgasm when she tried to speak and sound like her usual self.
“Hhh… you’re…hhh… you’re dead, if hhh you say anything… hhh.” She could only think about Cagney and how much she wanted to be with him, even in this monstrous form. She wondered if the silk cloth was responsible of his transformation.
“Of course, my Queen!”
“We won’t say anything my queen”
“We heard and saw nothing!”
The cleaning bees kept reassuring the queen as they walked away from the door.
Their problems continued even into the hallway. A large female bee guard stopped the smaller workers, startling them. “Why aren’t you cleaning?” She demanded.
“AH! Oh! Eh… uuuhh… we … we thought we heard something but.. eh…~!”
“Turns out was just a bird smashing into the window….” They replied nervously.
The guard narrowed her eyes. “Get back to work,” she said in a severe tone. The little bees nodded and continued their cleaning routine.
The guard eyed the door they were standing by and paid attention to any sound. They were still looking for the fugitives and it would be horrible if their Queen found out they managed to reach this level in the hive.
____
Amber knew what sex was. She had had it a couple of times. She liked it, usually.  She had actually been wanting some sex for a while now and it was getting to the point where she was seriously considering offering herself to anyone as long as she got a screw. There was only so much self loving could do for her. The point being, despite how long it had been since she had sex, she was fairly certain she could recognize it when it was happening.
This was not sex.
Amber had watched the entire thing with the expression of someone who was watching two trains not only crash but also start screwing each other like spring fueled rabbit. She had freaked out once or twice but thankfully her voice was drowned out by the vocalizations of the bee and flower. She was incredibly heated and knew she could probably pass for a furry strawberry with how red she was.
She held her freed tail in her paws, frozen to her spot until the door slammed open, jarring her back to reality. She fled the way she came, wondering how long it would take for her to forget the image of Cagney screwing the bee into oblivion that was burned into her mind.
____
After a while without hearing the bees, Rumor pulled Cagney out of her dripping sex of his big load. She tightened her thighs together, enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling inside her, and turn slowly towards Cagney, still in his last stage. He seemed a bit confused, still panting from the effort and releasing soft growls.
The queen wanted to comfort him, she  extended her hand and reached for his cheek. “You ok, Cagney?”
Cagney blinked unsuredly and growled at the hand before realizing it belonged to Rumor. He allowed it to make contact with his head briefly before wrapping a vine around it and growling quietly. He was still very much coming down from his high, unsure if he enjoyed the touch or not..
Rumor didn’t dare to move and looked at the carnation worried. Did she turned him into this? Maybe she did the spell wrong…
At the sound of the growling the guard from outside stepped in, pointing a gun at the couple. “HOLD IT TheoooOOOOHMYGOD!” She saw the flower holding onto a naked Rumor who didn’t seem very comfortable with the situation. The carnation must be assaulting her beloved queen! “LET HER GO! NOW!” She yelled, pointing the gun at Cagney.
Cagney turned at the shout, still somewhat confused. When he saw the gun being aimed at him, he bared his sharp teeth. He released Rumor and advanced upon the bee. “I’m going to break you like a ceramic pot,” he snarled.
The guard shot a few rounds, planting a couple of bullets in his stem, but it only seemed to make the monstrous plant angrier.
“STOP SHOOTING!” Rumor covered herself with her clothes and shouted at the guard who obeyed immediately lifting his hands.
“B-but… my Queen?.” The large bee said confused.
Getting shot did not feel good. So Cagney was fairly sure he was about to make the large guard bee feel worse than him. Before the guard could lower his hands, Cagney backhanded him through the door with a vine. “Ha! Hahahaha!” He cackled. “Bet that didn’t feel good!”
“CAGNEY!” She quickly put on her dress, picked up her scepter and turned the dirt into salted water.
The result was instantaneous. One second, Cagney was raring to knock out the next guard. The next second, he had collapsed, the saltwater stinging his roots. Without the dirt to support his greater form, he quickly shriveled back into his second form.
He wasn’t shrinking in pain persay, but he definitely wasn’t being quiet about it either. “What the hell? What the hell is going on?! Ow, ow, ow!” He hissed, trying to get out of the water.
“I haven’t hurt this much since Tauros landed that lucky shot the last time Hilda and I went at it!” He groaned, just the memory of it making his stem sting even more.
Rumor growled, angry at the sound of the sky witch’s name. She clenched her fists and got to the door. “I hope you enjoy your new home.” She got out and slammed the door behind her. A series of clacking noises came out of the door suggesting it was being locked.
Rumor stood for a while in front of the door looking down. She was feeling horribly guilty. This was the second time her passionate time with her beloved flower had ended with him blurting out Hilda’s name and being locked up. She was seriously starting to believe their relationship wasn’t meant to be.
“My Queen!” The large bee approached Rumor worried. “You ok, your Majesty?”
“..I’m fine”
“I’m sorry I didn’t react sooner, my Queen. I will execute him inmediate~”
“No,”  Rumor interrupted. “You will NEVER speak of this. You saw NOTHING.” She threatened the female guard. “And the two cleaners who were here earlier. Send them to my office.” She walked towards her room. “Cagney is the new royal gardener. Make sure everybody knows”
The guard looked at her unbelieving, but nodded softly. “As you wish, my Queen”
____
Cagney tried to follow her but couldn’t open the door. Had she really locked it?! He didn’t have the strength to break it down. And without the soil, he was stuck like this.
“UGHHHH!” He growled and proceeded to punch the bed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong once more.
____
“Ugh. Here he comes again,” one of the bee guards at the entrance of the Honeybottom building said to his colleague, when he saw a familiar reptilian silhouette, approaching fast and dripping with water.
Sullivan was livid. He had spent an entire day explaining the incident to his superiors and authorities, and no-one cared about the individuals the bees arrested. He stomped up to the guards. “Let her out!” Sullivan yelled. “Or I’ll get her out myself!”
“C'mon, pal! don’t make me throw you over the bridge again!” The bee replied.
“Go ahead! I’m an amphibian! I’ll just swim back out again! At least let me see her, you brutes!”
At that moment Hilda approached on her cloud accompanied by Carlos, who was clutching desperately to the cloud. “Oh great, more weirdos,” the other guard murmured, watching the woman land softly in front of them.
Hilda heard the salamander yelling and quickly approached the entrance of the hive. “Wow. What’s going on here?”
“Hey! Mi amigo! How are you doing?” Carlos said, happy to see the amphibian. After the fiasco at the docks, Amori ordered him to keep an eye on Sullivan and to find the masked cat he claimed was the cause of his failure.
The sailor turned to the familiar voice. “Carlos? What are you~Miss Berg? H-hi!” He said, surprised to see the meteorologist.
“Eh, hey there…you.” Hilda completely blanked. She knew the amphibian had something to do with boats, and he often came asking for detailed weather reports, but she never managed to remember his name.
“Sullivan.” The sailor said, noticing the doubt in the woman’s face.
“Suuullivaaan! Yes! Of course! I knew it! Just…you know…my head is always in the clouds,” she chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh! You know each other? What a small island.” Carlos smiled. “What are you doing here? Anything I can help you with, my friend?”
“Ugh, not really. Unless you know how to get in there and out. Alive.” The bees looked at them listening carefully. The group noticed their dirty looks and stepped away.
Sullivan explained what happened at the docks and how Amber and Cagney got arrested by Rumor’s guards and never got out.
“..and now, I’m trying to at least see Rumor and talk some sense to her! She’s not the queen of the world! She can’t just arrest people as she wishes!” Sullivan finished talking, pacing in circles angrily.
“Ugh, dumb weed! He must think all cats are burglars now!” Hilda said, a bit pissed herself. “I’ll go in Sebastian”
“Sullivan.”
“Sullivan.” She corrected, and walked towards the guards.
“Hi there, I want to talk with Cagney,” Hilda said to the guards at the door. The bees looked at each other and back at the woman.
“No visitors, miss,” one of them finally answered.
“Look,  I know Cagney. He must have said something stupid and made things worse. I want to talk to him so I can make sense of what actually happened and clear this whole thing up with Rumor.” The bees were starting to lose their patience.
“Only bees allowed inside miss. Please, go away!” Hilda was about to yell at the bees when a hand pulled her roughly away from the bees.
“Señorita Luna, mire!” Carlos pointed at a large group of tourists getting inside from another large gate. The bees took a look at their yellow and black stripes badges and let them in without paying any more attention to them.
Hilda smiled maliciously. “That’s a great idea, kitty cat! We’ll CRASH the bus into the door! No-bee is gonna be able to STOP US!”
“Qué dices loca? No! The tourist group! We can get in as a tourist group, you psycho,” Carlos said, surprised to her enthusiasm to crush the vehicle.
“But that was the last tour for today! We’re going to wait for tomorrow! And who knows what horrible things they might be doing to my poor Amber!”
The woman sighed, tired. “Fine, but I like my plan better…” .
____
Amber tiredly plodded down the halls. This place was a giant maze and her normally acute sense of direction was horribly messed up by all the sweet smelling honey. She figured it had to be night by this point, right? She would need to sleep soon since she didn’t have an opportunity to take a cat nap during the day.
However, she was very wary of where she could sleep. The hive was swarming with bees and she constantly had to be on the lookout for the next patrol or cleaning crew. She had to find a safe place and there were very few places that the bees did not barge into.
Well, there was one.
The Queen had made Cagney’s room practically off limits to anyone other than herself. Amber grit her teeth. Cagney had been acting real goofy ever since he put on that dumb bandana. And he wasn’t exactly fond of her before either.
The sound of wheels clattering indicated that one of the cleaning crews was returning, and she scampered back up near the ceiling. She had to think of some way she could get in there without the large Carnation murdering her on sight. She watched the cleaning crew as they swept and dusted the hallway.
Geez, didn’t the cleaning crews ever stop? She’d imagine a hive could get very messy really quick without them, but seriously it felt like they were here every. As one of them pulled out of cloth to polish something, Amber’s eyes lit up. “Hey, that could work.”
____
Cagney grumbled to himself as he observed his stem. The wound had pretty much healed at this point, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t sore to the touch. He was glad? Yeah, glad, he’s supposed, that he got shot in his third form and not the second. There could have been a lasting injury with the second form.
He heard the door knob rattle and glanced over to it curiously. The doorknob stopped rattling and he shrugged. “Must have just been someone trying the wrong door,” he figured. He paused again, this time he swore he could hear scratching above him. A small figure landed near him and he turned on it.
It was Amber. “Heya, Cagney!” She greeted cheerfully, taking a step forward.
There was suddenly no more ground underneath her paws as the flower scruffed and dangled her in the air. “Rumor’s been looking for you,” he evilly grinned, “kind of a dumb move for you to come here, don’t you think? Maybe I oughta dunk you in the salt water before I call the guards.”
Amber’s fur raised at the sight of the water but quickly waved her paws at him. “No, no no! Rumor already found me! See?” Her little paws gestured to her neck. Tied around it was a bright yellow bandana. “We’re on the same team now! Go bees! So no need to dunk the kitty!”
“…You’re lying. I’m going to call the guards.”
Amber shrugged. “Oh, sure, sure, go ahead and call them, I guess. And I’m sure they’ll come take me away, but man, the Queen is going to be super mad about it when she finds out you woke her up to turn in her secret agent.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
The cat batted her eyes at him. “How do you think I was walking around all day in the hive? You think I’ve been hiding this entire time? No, sir. Rumor made me one of her Secret guards. And only she knows about it.”
The carnation stared at her. “I thought I was the only one to get one of those bandanas,” he mumbled, putting her down.
Amber raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re unhappy because you think you’re not the only one to get mind controlled by a bandana?”
“What was that?”
“Oh, eh, I mean. You’re still special. Mine’s slightly different from yours. I’m here to guard you.”
He chuckled. “Guard ME? Really? That’s hysterical.”
“I don’t know, you look a little bit beaten up. And no offense, I don’t think it’s from the sex.”
His eyes widened. “How the hell do you know about that?!”
Amber smiled. “Secret guard, remember?”
Cagney groaned. “Just, whatever, fine guard me.”
“Awesome! I’ll start by checking out that bed!” The cat crawled onto the small bed and began to knead the blankets.
The carnation walked over to her and stared down at her. “Hold on, aren’t you supposed to guard me?”
“Hmm? Oh yeah, wake me up if someone comes in and I’ll -yawn- defend your honor or whatever,” Amber yawned, curling into a small ball.
Cagney rolled his eyes and sat down next to her. “Well…this sucks.”
Amber flicked an ear at him. “You know what helps make things suck less?”
“What?”
“Petting a fluffy animal.”
The carnation scoffed, crossed his arms and looked away. “Yeah, right.” Amber hummed and remained lying down. There were a few quiet seconds that passed before Cagney glanced at her. “Really?”
“Mmhmm.”
He uncrossed his arms and extended a hand out to her. “So, I just, pet you?”
“Yes.  But only one direction. And not my belly unless I say so.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Only if you’re a moron.”
He scowled but very cautiously placed a hand on her and began to carefully pet her. He raised an eyebrow. “Huh. This isn’t hard.” He froze as she started to vibrate. “What is that?!”
“I’m purring,” Amber explained, not opening her eyes.
“Is that good?”
“It’s good, it feels nice. That’s my way of saying this feels good and I like it.”
“Why don’t you just say that then?” He snorted, continuing to pet her.
“I think purring gets the point across better, don’t you?”
The cat had a point, carnation could feel himself relaxing the more he petted the small asshole, her vibrations making him feel unnaturally calm. His thorns started to recede and he could feel his leaves start to perk up. He sighed. “I wish I could figure out what’s going on with me and Rumor. Like, everything’s going well and then suddenly she’s kicking me out or turning my soil into ocean water. Something feels wrong.”
Amber grunted. “Maybe you guys aren’t as close as you think.”
The flower did not like her questioning his relationship with the bee. “What are you trying to say? Rumor’s the whole reason I came here!”
Amber sighed. “Yeah, I hear you.”  
He eyed her belly curiously. “What happens if I pet your belly?”
Amber opened one eye. “…Do it and die,” she warned. The flower smirked.
“I’d really like to see you attempt that.” He reached down and stroke to rub her belly…only for Amber to clamp down on him like a bear trap and bite his hand. His eyes widened and he pried her off. “Dammit! That hurt more than Berg’s sewing needles!” He swore. He stopped midswear, still cradling his hand.
Amber licked herself. “Good, I warned you.” She squeaked when he grabbed her.
“Do it again.”
“Do what again?” She asked.
“Bite me again.” He looked completely serious.
“Are you serious?” Amber gaped at him.
“Yeah, because -AH!” Amber bit him on the hand once more, this time breaking the skin. The flower had to resist the urge to fling her off. He grasped the bed and whined. “You didn’t want to listen to why?!”
Amber giggled, leaving the carnation to swear. “Things start to get clearer when it hurts!” He growled, “And I-I didn’t come here just for Rumor! I came here to help Hilda!”
The cat released him. “Yes! Yes! And what else?” She asked excitedly. Cagney opened his mouth only for his hands to claw at his throat as the bandanna. He coughed and choked and Amber could only rub up against him. “Hey, hey! You okay?” She asked.
The carnation swallowed hard. “I,  uh, really wish I had some water. Some unsalted water,” he coughed, rubbing at his throat. “You think Rumor will bring some tomorrow?” He asked hopefully, “Could give me a chance to apologize to her too!”
Amber sank onto the bed. “I’m sure she’ll do SOMETHING,” she resigned herself. She wasn’t going to try biting the carnation again. If he actually choked and perished, lord knows she would feel intensely guilty about it all.
She curled back up only to perk up once more as she felt a hand on her. She looked to see Cagney petting her again. He looked embarrassed. “I’m still kinda stressed,” he admitted.
Amber sighed. “You may pet the belly. But only for a few seconds.” She rolled onto her back, exposing her tummy to the confused carnation.
He gently touched the area, wincing although he couldn’t quite remember why. He broke into a silly grin. “This is so soft!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Amber grumbled, “Softest part of the cat.”
“Like the feathers on baby birds!”
The cat batted his hand away. “Okay, no more belly rubs!”
“Fine, fine. Man, that was really soft though.” The carnation resolved himself to petting the cat who started to yawn again. “Think things will make more sense tomorrow?” He asked.
“Hopefully,” Amber purred, nuzzling into his hand.
“You sure?” He was greeted with only the sound of snores and he turned to see Amber had fallen into a deep sleep. He exhaled. “Well, shit, it better start making sense soon. I feel like I’m going crazy here.” The carnation passed out next to her shortly thereafter, his hand still midscratch on her ear.
———————————————————————————
CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 ; CHAPTER 21 ; CHAPTER 22 ; CHAPTER 23 ; CHAPTER 24 ; CHAPTER 25 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 26 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 27 ; CHAPTER 28 (nsfw)
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Goblin: A Character Guide
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History
Evolution (before Year -150,000): The keeper Mimiron discovered kaja'mite and used it on many different races. Several subjects were a small primitive life race that roamed around the forests near Ulduar and by consuming the kaja’mite they became the intelligent race we know as goblins. They share a common ancestor with pygmies as well as producing other subraces. These include: Hobgoblins, produced from alchemy experiments that made them stronger and bigger but dumber; Gilgoblins, aquatic goblins made by Hobart Grapplehammer and mainly inhabit Vashj'ir; Goblin Zombies who were once residents of the Town-In-A-Box and captured and transformed by the local pygmies in Year 26. They could be found on the Lost Isles before to its destruction.
Dragons Are Bigger Than Profit (Year -10,000): With the help of goblin artificers led by Meklo, Neltharion created the Demon Soul. The goblins also fashioned adamantium plates to hold Neltharion's body together when its power began to overwhelm him. When the Great Sundering occured, they were cut from their supply of kaja'mite ore and their intelligence decreased within generations. The goblins then took refuge on the Isle of Kezan and forgot the influence the ore had upon them. The Zandalari trolls began exploring after this time and discovered Kezan, enslaving the goblins and forcing them to mine for them.
Dig Ya Own Ore (Year -100): Given a heightened intelligence by the ore around them, the goblins manage to escape their slavery by the Zandalari. 
Grabbing the Booty (Year 0): Goblins of the Steamwheedle Cartel had taken over a Stranglethorn Vale settlement by this point named Blackwater Cove. The goblins renamed it Booty Bay.
We Wanna Piece of This (Year 4): The goblins witnessed the Horde’s victory over the humans and decided that there was profit to be had. Trade Prince Steamwheedle allied his Steamwheedle Cartel with Orgrim Doomhammer's Horde, offering new technology, maps and other useful information for gold. Orgrim hired them to oversee the production of the Horde fleet. After the Second War however, the goblins realised it was much more safe and profitable to remain neutral and deal with both factions.  
Now We’re Building Cities (Year 9): The goblin city of Gadgetzan is completely finished in Tanaris on Kalimdor.
You Gotta Look Our For Number One (Year 25): The Steamwheedle Cartel offered their services to both the Alliance and Horde The Venture Company, however, began hostile campaigns in various territories, which started various conflicts with the two factions. As well as this, some goblins joined the Dark Horde within Blackrock Mountain. During the War Against the Nightmare, several goblins were part of the dreamform army.
Exploitation 101 (Year 28): The goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel managed to create Kaja'Cola to boost their dwindling intelligence. However, Deathwing appeared Bilgewater Port claiming that the Hour of Twilight will soon fall. He fired at Mount Kajaro which eventually leads it to be on the verge of eruption. Trade Prince Jastor Gallywix requested a bazillion macaroons from the CEO of the Kajaro Trading Company in order to save the civilians who came to him. However, he took all of the money only to make all of the civilians, and the CEO, slaves. Gallywix took his new slaves on boat to Azshara, but were spotted by Alliance ships attempting to capture the Horde Warchief Thrall. Their ship is sunk and they are stranded upon the Lost Isles but discover an orc journal mentioning an orcish camp. They venture there and ask for aid. Aggra agrees to assist if they help the orcs. They attempt to make a base with a Town-In-A-Box but are attacked by Naga and Pygmy. They try to slay the “turtle god” of the pygmy, Volcanoth, but it causes the volcano to erupt. They rush back to Thrall and manage to help them fight off the rest of the Alliance. In return, the Horde agrees to overthrow Gallywix with them, however he surrenders and promises the Bilgewater Cartel will reform, becoming part of the Horde. The goblins settle in Azshara. 
Bombs Away! (Year 29): They assist the Horde in the Attack on Theramore Isle.
On Second Thought (Year 30): The goblins continue to help Garrosh’s Horde invasion campaign of Pandaria. Eventually, they join the Darkspear Rebellion. Garrosh and the True Horde on the other hand hired the Blackfuse Company.
We’ve Struck Azerite! (Year 33): After Sargeras wounded Azeroth by striking Silithus with his blade, causing her to bleed out a new ore known as Azerite. The goblins begin mining this and Gallywix presents this to Sylvanas.
Physical Traits
Life expectancy: Goblin lifespans are largely unknown, however they are considered to be middle aged at 40.
Height: Goblins are around 3 foot tall on average, unusually the females tend to be a little taller than the males.
Eye colour: They can have eye colours ranging from brown-amber colours and some have blue or even reddish shades.
Cosmetics: Goblins have green skin, as well as green blood and enjoy spiky hair cuts..
Personality traits
The Money Maker: Goblins are highly motivated by making profit and gaining finanically. This line of thought can include fraudulent or dishonest means, but also may lead to them wanting to begin and run new innovative businesses or companies.
These Hordes Know Nothing About The Sea: Unlike many original Horde races, goblins have mastered using the sea as a means of transportation. They can make boats and navigate tough seas.
Other races: Goblins are traditionally a neutral race, seeing as a bigger market means more profit. However, they’ve had Horde ties in the past: during the war against the Lich King some allied with Warsong Offensive, some even displaying the Horde symbol on their tabard. Within Icecrown Citadel, goblin members of the Kor'kron participated in the gunship fight. There is a known rivalry between gnomes and goblins due to both races been adept in engineering. Despite this, a marriage between the two races is known: Grizzek Fizzwrench and Sapphronetta Flivvers.
Other creatures: Much like their gnomish rivals, because of their advances in technology, gnomes have been able to make working animatronics of creatures, therefore don’t require to form bonds with organic animals. Their racial mount is the Trike. 
Culture
Languages: They Goblin, Orcish, and Common and speak in what we could consider a Brooklyn/New Jersey accent.
Government: Goblins of the Cartel are led by a line of Trade Princes. The first recorded is Steamweedle during the Second War. Gallywix is the current Trade Prince, although at the Gallywix Pleasure Palace resides Trade Prince Donais, suggesting that he works with him. There are other goblin organisations with other leaders however. The Trade Coalition is led by Vice Admiral Grezzlik and the Venture Company is led by Mogul Razdunk.
Military: Goblins have multiple different types of unit: Aces (bomber pilots), Bombardiers (sappers), Bruisers (law enforcers), Buccaneers (a pirate group, the Bloodsail Buccaneers joined the Uncrowned in Year 30), Grunts, Sappers (explosives experts), Techno mages, Tinkers, Engineers, Scouts, and Assassins. In the Second War, goblins controlled the capture of giant turtles and were dedicated to destroying enemy ships.
Religion: Goblins on the whole do not have a belief system: unable to commune with the Holy Light to become Priests. They can however become Shaman, suggesting a more elemental connection.
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naernon · 6 years
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OC Questionnaire - Estryon Thramian
Found this in my drafts, and decided to finish off what I had to distract from the tediousness of trying to decide what to do with the aspect of his backstory mentioned earlier. I filled this out according to how he was at the very start/before the events of Skyrim, unless stated to be what happens later on.
Feel free to use this for your own OCs, I don’t mind.
TW; Mentions of pregnancy (of a trans man). Also, some NSFW implications.
GENERAL
Name: Estryon Thramian
Alias(es): Estre is a little nickname Ondolemar took to using later on. Arelnian, the parent who carried him and the only one he met (they died when he was two, his father died prior to his birth), also called him this. It is also his birth-name. Perhaps a bit of projection on my part. I don’t mind my birth-name. (altho it could just be because if i do mind it, i’m in for bad time from it)
Gender: Male.
Age: 25 years old.
Place of birth: Sunhold, Summerset Isle.  Or rather, Alinor. Morning Star 19th, 4E 176 (The Ritual)
Spoken languages: Tamrielic and Altmeri. Unsure exactly how native languages vs the common tongue works in TES, but I’ll just assume/HC it’s either like Latin (commonly taught but not used in every-day conversation) or just very secondary compared to Tamrielic. So that’s the status on his knowledge of Altmeri. Also had a minor interest in Ayleidoon when he was younger, so he knows some basic vocab, but not too much. Like you know how some people go through HS and take the entirety of Spanish/German/Whichever for the full four years and as soon as they graduated they forgot all of it? That’s Estryon with Ayleidoon.
Sexual orientation: Gay.
Occupation: Thalmor agent. Mainly used in assassinations and to stoke the conflict in the Skyrim Civil War by framing (in murder, accusations of law-breaking, etc.), propaganda, etc. Prior to that, as I’ve recently elaborated, he was a member of a elite force in Summerset called the Accipiters. They’re, as said, are similar to the First AD’s Eyes of the Queen, except with more brutality and tendency to murder. They are charged with cutting down all heresy and resistance against the Thalmor in the Isles through more silent and undercover tactics. Through whatever course of events I settle with, he is suspended and demoted within the Accipiters and sent to Skyrim to work as, again, a basic Thalmor agent for the time being. It’s not like he’s put into a useless job. Thalmor forces in Skyrim, according to this , are rather stretched thin, and with someone as combat skilled as Estryon, his work is much, much needed. Doesn’t mean he likes it, though. He hates it.
APPEARANCE
Eye color: Vibrant yellow/amber.
Hair color: Pale cream/blonde color.
Height: 6′ to 6′3/4. Haven’t decided.
Scars: Slight slashes/cuts on his right cheek and a scar on his right bicep. Likes to use… risky methods in his assassinations because he’s a dumbass and that has given him a few severely close calls on fatal weak spots; there’s a medium-length scar across his left abdomen, a shallow, light scar on his collarbone (was an attempt at his heart), and a few small ones on his thighs.
Burns: No major ones, but a lot of little burn marks because 1.) He sucks at cooking and 2.) Little mishaps in destruction magic usage.
Overweight: No.
Underweight: No.
FAVOURITE
Color: Yellow.
Hair color: He likes lighter hair colors but it’s not a huge factor.
Eye color: Yellow, but as said, not too much of a preference.
Entertainment: Horse-back riding. Causing general issues and difficulty for those around him. Taking care of horses. This man really likes horses. He also has a fondness for burning different stuff he finds, some of that stuff being important shit to someone other than him. There’s one major entertainment he commits to a lot but I’ll leave that unmentioned for modesty’s sake.
Pastime: This dude really does not do a lot to entertain himself other than [censored]. He spends a lot of time meandering and wandering and just.. being there. Either that or he rapidly switches between different pastimes because he can’t stay with one for the life of him. (he gets bored very, very easily) But. If anything, as said, he likes to experiment with magic and alchemy, and he loves horseback-riding and taking pleasure rides. This easy tendency towards boredom leads to recklessness and an unhealthy lust for thrill and adventure.
Food: As typical of Sunhold natives, he gravitates towards sea-food and he likes crab. Not typical mudcrabs from just anywhere, however. As is common knowledge, there are a lot of different varieties of Mudcrabs and there’s one particular off the coast of Sunhold that is high-demand and very flavorful. But other than that, he has a guilty sweet tooth in general, and he B U S  T S  A  N U T for vanilla ice cream.
Drink: He’s boring. He just likes water. He enjoys some lighter alcohol, though,  and perhaps some tea, but again. Water.
Books: Enjoys magic studies and books. Doesn’t like a lot of heavy-information stuff other than that, though, but he does like a bunch of light interests like aromatics and alchemy. He has Arelnian and their large array of aromatic/alchemy books + store to thank for those two interests.
HAVE THEY
Passed university: Yes.
Had sex: Pft. Yeah.
Had sex in public: Depends. Like, straight up banging in like, a marketplace? Nah.
Gotten pregnant: No. Not during the events of Skyrim, at least. Not until much later.
Kissed a man: Yes.
Kissed a woman: Yes, once or twice.
Gotten tattoos: Yes. Little ones. He has an eagle wing on each side of each of his ankles, and the Dominion emblem on the back of his neck. All hurt like Hell (especially the Dominion emblem one) and he’s kind of halted off of getting any after that.
Gotten piercings: Ear piercings, yeah. He typically likes small gold hoops or little jewels, but he tends to go through long periods of time where he doesn’t have any in.
Been in love: Yes.
Had a broken heart: Oof. Yeah.
Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Yes. He oftentimes has trouble sleeping. Has been that way since he was little, according to Ohtehil, at least.
ARE THEY
A virgin: Pft. No.
A cuddler: Not really, but, I mean. He’s not beyond it. He’s just not a very personal person in general.
A kisser: Yes.
A smoker: Not frequently, no.
Scared easily: Not typically, and even if he is, he takes care to not show it. He might flinch and recoil and you can get a little bit of a gasp from him but other than that, no. Unless it’s something incredibly outlandish or unnatural or… terrifying. Like a dragon. A large, ebony black dragon with red eyes flying from the mountains and passing over you, rumbling the ground and triggering all your fight or flight instincts. Yeah. Kinda scary. (but even then all he did was dive out of sight and hide underneath a little rock overhang. he may have taken a bit of a tumble in the process but i’ll have you know his cold altmeri exterior ™ was still in-tact)
Jealous easily: Gods, yes. He wouldn’t let that be known, however.
Trustworthy: Absolutely Not
Dominant: In terms of personality, yeah. He hates being told what to do, he thrives on spiting others, and while he is quite reserved and quiet he still manages to be…. over-bearing and dominant. He has three very particular methods of getting what he wants and one of them is a glare that could kill and keeping all words to the minimum, while also having those words cut sharp. Does that make sense? He’s one of those people that just have an overpowering presence without the need to speak. That’s one reason he doesn’t have a lot of friends, really. Anyways. One other method is straight-up killing whoever he wishes to and the other… Well. If you’re talking dominance in bed, he adapts to what is needed, wanted, or what he’s in the mood for. Whatever leaves his target vulnerable to a swift kill, framing, or easy investigation of possible heresy/conspiracy. So yes, actually, I guess he is dominant. Quite so.
Submissive: In any other context other than the Spicee (tm) one, no, not really. If in that context, then, only if he wishes to be.
Single: Yes, no committal relationship until later. Although, there was one earlier, but I haven’t developed it completely. I’ll give a little peek. It was with Thalmor Agent Sanyon. That dead Thalmor, at a Talos shrine? Yeah. High-school sweethearts, if you will. Estryon finding Sanyon’s body at the shrine, or rather, going there at all ultimately sets the course of the events of the main questline. That little event, along with Ohtehil’s little ‘turn-into-a-werewolf-and-slaughter-all-your-colleagues’ theatrical go hand-in-hand in starting it all. Estryon finding Sanyon dead would not have happened at all if not for Ohtehil, actually.
RANDOM QUESTIONS
Have they harmed themselves: Minor things.
Thought of suicide: Yes.
Attempted suicide: No.
Wanted to kill someone: Yes.
Actually killed someone: Yes.
Ridden a horse: Yes. He’s quite the horseman.
Have/had a job: Yes.
Have any fears: He isn’t too fond of heights. Or blood.
FAMILY
Sibling(s): Ohtehil (22 years older) and Tretlas (55 years older).
Parents: Arelnian and Ciryarel Thramian. Both fought in the Great War/First War of the Empire on the Dominion’s side. Ciryarel was a skilled mage who worked rather high up in the Dominion and Arelnian was also well-respected as an informant and recruiter stationed primarily in Hammerfell. Ciryarel perished in the final battle and Arelnian received significant injury. Survived two years post-War, but a highly weakened immune system as a result of the injuries ultimately cost them their life.
Children: No. Later, however, he does adopt Lucia and Sofie and does have Diatres, his only biological child.
Pets: Cyrel, a smokey black and sleek Summerset-bred mare. Had her imported upon the discovery he would be suspended in Skyrim for longer than anticipated. Prior to that, she was being boarded for a rather expensive price over at the Sunhold stables. And then Umaril, a “Pocket” Salamander. Ohtehil got it for him for his 9th birthday not anticipating a long lifespan nor the HUGE size they grow to be. Once it started growing alarmingly fast and large Ohtehil figured as long as Estryon was enjoying himself it would be fine; once he grew older he could get rid of it if he tired of taking care of such a massive and intelligent creature. Estryon did not get rid of it. Quite the opposite. He’s the dude to have a suspiciously large bag being lugged around and you see him stop once he’s in the clear, unzip it, and suddenly his dog or in this case a very large monitor pokes his head out. His commitment to Umaril and Cyrel is incredible compared to his dedication towards actual people.
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