#anyway excited for rock tundras :)

[dire-vulture]

sure now all the lantern oil is dropping for me

#just got 7 lantern oils while gathering dfdsaf #pheel talk #text post #anyway excited for rock tundras :)

[strawberry-jammers]

a child to protect (pt 3)

tommy x child!reader || a fun time

tommy gets cloths for (y/n) to wear in the tundra, and has a little fashion show

pt1 pt2 pt3 pt 4

The next morning Tommy got up to steal more things, and make (y/n) more clothes for colder climates. Tommy whent outside to get some wool, having stolen everything he wanted from technos. He needed to get some supplies for his kid.

Tommy opened the door from the basement, walking outside to the cold air. It smelled of winter goodness and blood. Tommy didnt pay to much mind, not even to the fact he was supposed to be hiding. Tommy started his walk to the forest for some sheep. “I think blue would be a good color, ghostbur would love it-”

“HEH tommy what are you doing near my home??” ah. He forgot about the blade. “Hey hey man hahaha funny seeing you here!” techno growled. “It's literally my home, what are you doing here?” tommy looked at the blade. “This is my home! Technoblade i think you've gone a little crazy there bud.” techno pulled out a pickaxe. “Ill sick this threw your teeth, get out of my house tommy.” “blade blade, this is our house! We own it together-” techno was tired of this. “Wait how long have you been here??” tommy grabbed a grapple. “A day or so.” he bite the golden apple. “That's where all my stuff whe- wait is that mine!!!” tommy walked back inside, albeit quickly and panicky. “Finders keepers, besides it was in our house.” “IT'S LITERALLY NOT YOUR HOUSE!” tommy shook his head, eating the apple. “Do you have any wool or something to make cloths with? I need to make some.” “yeah, your outfit is atrocious, it's also torn up and dirty and stuff.” tommy yelled back, “NOT FOR ME BITCH!” techno stood there a bit confused, until he heard a bell sound from below them. “hEH??”

before

 (Y/n) sat in the room, playing with the stick Tommy gave them months before. They had to wait for their dad to come back, but after awhile they got restless. 

(Y/n) heard loud noises upstairs, but they were more determined to find something new to do. Looking around the room, they saw a gold bell next to the prime log. Eyes sparkling, they crawled over to the bell, holding their stick in hand. Sitting next to the bell, they touched the shiny thing, intrigued. They then had a bright idea

Beat the thing with the stick. 

So they started to bang the bell with the stick. It was loud, very loud, they soon stopped and started crying instead. They were really close to the bell and hurt their ears. A faint “hEH'' was heard upstairs, but (y/n) couldn't hear it over their crying. Tommy quickly climbed down the ladders to get to his child. “Hey hey, shhh it's okay, are you hurt?” tommy asks. Rushing over to the small child. They kept crying, Tommy not knowing what to do. “Shh shh hey hey it's okay, it's okay.” he said softly, trying to calm the child. (y/n) over time stopped crying, feeling more and more sleepy as time went on, all the while techno just stared at them, rightfully confused. Tommy rocked his baby till they fell asleep, placing them in their crib. Tommy looked at his child happily, before turning to the person he was fighting a second ago.

“So, got any wool?”

------

Techno, albeit against his will, let tommy and (y/n) stay with him for the time being. In exchange, they had teamed up for the time being. Techno didn't really like his predicament, having to deal with an annoying brat and an orphan, but he had to go with it. The voices enjoyed having the baby around, so techno couldn't kill them.

Shortly after their confrontation, techno went out to gather wool for the two. Tommy took what he had and started to make more clothes for the child. He had learned the basics of sowing from eret way back when, so he tried his best. 

"(Y/n), try this on." The baby looked at him, just wanting to play with the crows that visited often. "No." Tommy sat there, baffled. "D-did you just tell me no??" "No!" "Okay well now you just lying." The kid giggled, continuing to pet the crows. Tommy grabbed his kid, sitting them on his lap. "Your trying this on." The kid pouted, but complied, slipping on the sweater. "Good?" The kid nodded, crawling off tommys lap and sitting with the crows again. 

Tommy sat there for a second, contemplating. "How the fuck do i make pants…"

Tommy had to ask techno if he knew how. He didn't, since he's never had to make pants, so he asked Phil if he had any baby cloths or if he knew how.

“Helloo” techno says as he enters phil's home. “Jesus christ- you know your not allowed in limburg tech.” techno shrugs. “Eh, anyway i came here for something.” phil nodded. “What is it that you need? Ore, food, books-” “i need baby clothes.” “WHAT-” phil wasn't expecting that request. “I need baby clothes, got any? I know wilbur was once a kid so.” phil looked at his old friend questioningly. “Do you have a kid??” techno looked very offended at this. “Ew no id never adopt an orphan. No, tommy needs it.” phil was still confused. “Techno, tommys not a baby-” “NO NOT LIKE THAT! He found a kid so now he's raising them, and they need baby clothes.” phil nodded. “Ohh sorry mate, yeah i think i have some of wilburs old cloths. Lemme go check.”

Phil came back with a bag full of wilburs old clothes, he said just to take it and see which would work for a baby. 

“I wish i could come visit, but tubbo needs me for some fucking reason.” techno nodded. “Thank you phil.” philza smiled. “Anytime, now go, make sure tommy didn't kill any of the animals.” techno panicked. “NO THE TURTLES-” 

------

“Okay little (f/i), we’re gonna try this on okay?” (y/n) nodded, ready for the cool new outfit they are gonna get. 

Tommy pushed a mirror in front of the child. “You like it?” they baby wore a striped yellow sweater with some cute little overalls. They also had snow boots and a beanie to go with it. (y/n) smiled, giggling partly at the fact that they were looking at themself. “You look cute big man! Now, lets see if there's anything else you might like.” 

The rest of the day was spent picking out clothes for them, seeing what fit and what they liked. Tommy was having fun with this, so he suggested they do a fashion show for when philza could visit. The kid was excited at this, wanting to meet the all so old philza minecraft. Tommy took care of the clothes that they didn't like or just plain wouldnt fit, while (y/n) messed with the toys that were found in the bag. 

“TECHNOOOO!” tommy yells, climbing up the ladder. “Whaaat.”he says, in the main part of the house. “Can phil come here tomorrow???” techno climbs down the ladder to meet the loud child. “Why?” tommy throws the bag in a random corner. “(y/n) wants to meet phil and show them their outfits.” tommy says, not as loud as before. Techno sighs. “Ill see if he can.” YEEEES!!! (Y/N) (Y/N) I HAVE GOOD NEWS-” tommy yells, climbing down the ladder as fast as possible. Techno chuckled, getting back to what he was doing prior.

The next day, phil came by as requested. He was excited to meet the young child, remembering when wilbur was young. Philza opened the front door of the cottage. “Helloooo.” techno says as always. “Hey mate, how's the wife?” techno snorted. “Great great, sitting in the boat as always.” they stare at edward who was staring at them as always. “In all seriousness, whos taking care of tommy been?” he asks, sitting down at one of the chairs. “Fine fine, nearly lost my hearing but other than that fiiine.” phil chuckled. “yeah he’ll do that.”

Tommy came up stairs, hearing the new presence come into the house. “Phiiilza, big p how you beeeen!” philza stared at him. “Don't call me that. I've been fine, visiting tech whenever i can. I heard your raising a baby? How's that going.” tommy sat in the chair next to the old man. “Great! (y/n)s been great, having spent some time alone, their happy with the constant attention.” tommy says happily. “What do you mean by alone?” phil asked, concerned on what he meant by that. “Uhh, anyways me and (y/n) wanna put on a little show for you! They wanna show off their new outfits.” phil let it slide, not wanting to pry to hard. “Aww mate, i wanna see the outfits.” tommy smiled, running off. “TECHNO SET THE STAGE. (Y/N) GET HYPED!!” techno snorted, displeased.

Philza chuckled at his old friend. “First i let him into my home, not killing his child, and now i'm doing shit for him? Ugh.” techno works on the little stage area for the two kids. “Calm down mate, he's just excited.” techno rolled his eyes, sitting next to phil. 

“WE’RE BACK!!” startling the two old men, Tommy runs up the stairs with (y/n) covered in a small blanket. He says the outfits are a surprise.

“Ready everyone?” phil and techno say yes while (y/n) says no, their favorite word. “Youre not ready (n/n)?” (y/n) shook their head. “Hat!'' Tommy gasped. “Your hat!” tommy grabs (y/n)s hat from the pile that he brought up and put it on their head. “There! Now you ready?” the kid nodded, getting ready for the fashion show they had been preparing for. 

“Okay!! Go little (f/i)!” (y/n) crawled their way in front of the curtain that blocked the old men from seeing the other two. They tried to stand up, having the help of Tommy to get on their feet. They stood proudly, showing off their winter outfit. They adorned a dark green winter coat, with black pants and little snow boots. They also had a grey beanie to add to the outfit. 

They continued this, philza thoroughly enjoyed the show they had put on, and techno thoroughly hated it. He kept trying to leave, but Phil kept dragging the piglin hybrid back to his seat. He didnt wanna ruin the fun the two were having. 

"Tadaaa!!!" (Y/n) said, having finished the show. Phil clapped happily, while techno slowly clapped as to not be the only one not clapping. Tommy picked up the small child, holding them in his arms. "That was fun, right little (f/i)?" Tommy asks. (Y/n) nodded, giggling happily. "Fun!" Philza laughed, standing up. "I better get going, Don't want ghostbur getting worried." "Awwwww buy you haven't fully met (y/n) yeeeet." Tommy complains, Phil just laughs at him. "I'll be back eventually. Now i have to go. Bye (y/n), you did really well back there." "No!" (Y/n) says, even tho they looked pleased with the compliment. 

"Bye everyone, have fun cleaning that up." Phil says, referring to the stage and piles of clothes. Techno snorts in annoyance while Tommy just ignores phil's comment. Philza leaves the house, closing the door behind him. 

"Anyways, have fun with that techno!!" "Oh no you don't! GET BACK HERE!!!"

#tommyinnit x reader #tommyinnit x y/n #mcyt x reader #dreamsmp x reader #tommyinnit

[bills-pokedex]

Oh hey Bill, how does it feel to fly under your own power? I've always wondered how that feels...I've flown on a Pidgeot before but I feel that doing so under your own power must be a completely different experience!

In a word, anonymous . . . it's liberating.

Imagine that you've spent your entire life being held down by weights tied around your limbs. One day, you're able to take off those weights for the first time. Imagine how that must feel, how your limbs feel when you lift them above your head, how fast you run without weights tied around your ankles.

That's what it feels like.

[This answer doesn't surprise Lanette, actually. It doesn't even worry her. She just presses post, then hands the phone back to Bill, and they both stare out at the sunset from atop the lighthouse beacon. She leans against him, hand resting on his wrist, feeling the skin beneath it. Skin, not scales. Not yet. That part surprises her.

It's been several months since the two of them started focusing on other projects. It's not that they had lost interest in the blog. It was more that there didn't seem to be much left to say. Oh, sure, there were questions left unanswered, and Lanette's aware she'll have to make Bill answer them eventually. But . . . it seems less like a priority now. Less important than the world in front of them and the questions they had yet to answer, not from readers but from each other.

How long has it been so far? Half a year since that incident in Crown Tundra. Two since their first adventure into Galar. Lanette isn't even pretending that she'll eventually go home at this point; in a way, she's already there. She knows that's the answer to one of Bill's questions—probably more—but she enjoys the idea of holding out from answering that one, even just for a little while longer.

Bill inhales deeply, rocks back on his heels, and closes his eyes.

"I hope you're not bored," he says.

"What do you mean?" Lanette answers.

"I mean it's been rather quiet," Bill tells her. "We have our research, but how long has it been since we've last had something exciting happen?"

Lanette smirks. "Given the fact that 'exciting' usually ends with one of us kidnapped or stuck as a pokémon, why are you saying that like it's a bad thing?"

"Hm. Maybe you have a point."

Bill opens his eyes, then jumps. Before Lanette can stop him, he's perched on the railing, facing her. And then, he's gone, off the edge and dropping towards the sea. Lanette doesn't have time to shout; her voice catches in her throat as she leans over and stares down at the black waters below.

Then, there's a flash of green and a wind, and she's swept off her feet and arcing into the air until she lands squarely on a flygon's back. Bill beats his wings once, then sets off, flying away from the shore.

"Where are we going?!" Lanette shouts over the wind.

"Off to find some excitement!" Bill calls back. "Let's see which of those two scenarios you're talking about will come up this time!"

It takes a second for that to sink in before Lanette leans against her partner's back. She pulls herself close to his ear.

"You know," she says, "I wasn't going to say anything beforehand, but supposedly, there have been new legendary sightings in Sinnoh."

Bill glances at her without turning his head. Then, his dragon's snout twists into a wicked grin, and he picks up speed.

"Do you think Bebe has enough room for a trainer and her dragon?" he asks.

"Absolutely not," Lanette replies, "but I'd love to see the look on her face when we drop by anyway."]

#powerverse #flygon #pokemon bill #pokemon lanette #{Lanette's clearly been spending too much time around Bill.}

[owvinea]

don't forget to be polite | 1/3

notes: hewwo hewwo another phil&techno fic,, are we rlly surprised. anyway have a funky hybrid headcanon thing ig. 1/3 chapters word count: 1242 ao3 link

part 2

Supply trips to the Nether weren’t uncommon.

Sure, their little cabin houses held double chests upon double chests of supplies, deeming them probably one of the richest people in the world, but a supply check never hurt, did it? They couldn’t afford to lack ingredients now, couldn’t afford to be missing anything crucial that could cost them greatly.

So when Phil noticed their ghast tear supply lacking, he hadn’t hesitated to drag Techno to the hot dimension by his arm, cape, tusks or ears if he had to. They weren’t going to have a drop in supplies, not if the avian could help it.

And the trip has turned out to go smoothly, without much trouble. Well, little to no trouble.

It really was a blessing and big advantage to be traveling with Techno. Phil almost felt like he was cheating life when they walked past a hoard of piglins eyeing their full netherite sets sharply, taking the lack of gold as a warning sign. But one of them made a questioning, wary huff, scarred ear full of earrings flicking this way and that, and all it took was for Techno to make the exact same sound back, except more friendly and reassuring.

It was almost magic. They all lost interest, turning around to get back to their own hobbies and whatever it was they were doing before the two of them slammed into the red island floors.

And, well.

Given the fact Phil has had many embarrassing near-death experiences with piglins too wary about his lack of golden protection, the way the crowd almost parted for them made him smile triumphantly.

“Thanks for savin’ us back there,” Phil threw it out there with a hesitant smile, their heavy boots clinging against the netherrack that grew soft red moss all over it. The lava flowing around them left a hot feeling on his skin, almost similar to sun if it wasn’t so intimidating. “What’d you say to ‘em?”

The question left Techno confused, eyebrows quirking up in confusion as his tail caught a stray piece of netherrack, forcing the piglin to take the thing into his hands softly and dig the rock out of the soft fur. “I jus’ said hello. They greeted me first, it’d have been rude not to greet ‘em back.”

Ah. Beans.

-

It wasn’t until much later that it clicked, when they were finally setting up camp and Phil was trying his hardest to get a fire going that the two were approached by a lonesome animal. As the flames crackled to life, a little stray cat poked its head through the bushes and inched closer to the warmth, hackles raised.

Phil smiled at the sight, wings swiftly folding against his back to make himself seem smaller. Orange light framed his hand as he reached out to let the cat sniff his fingers. The little feline pushed its nose against the pale skin, snout wet and cold, until it hissed and skittishly ran to tangle around Techno’s legs.

A frown grew on Phil’s face as Techno’s chuckles grew louder. “Of course it’s gonna like you more.”

He paused the sharpening of his sword to look down at the cat, piglin ears flicking as he crouched and let his tail sway curiously. The feline sat down and stared back into his eyes, ears pressed flat against its head.

The cat meowed.

Techno didn’t hesitate to make his own “meow”, ear flicking in Phil’s direction as the man burst into laughter.

“D’ya just greet every single creature?”

“The cat greeted me first- it’d be rude- Philza- Phil! Stop laughing!”

-

Almost experimentally, Phil decides to ask Ranboo for a quick favor. The boy was a hybrid himself, and with the boy’s admirable ability to also befriend most animals on sight, Phil asked him to let a fox visit the tundra. Just for a little, no need to tame it or give it home, but just… for science.

It’s a cute little thing, fur as white as Steve’s, eyes holding barely any thoughts as the little fox munches on some berries Ranboo dropped off as well. Techno doesn’t understand, looks at Phil like he’s grown a head or two. “Are we keepin’ it? I thought we already had enough pets in the cabin?”

And then the cute little thing meets Techno’s glance, and lets out a little squeak, bordering a cheerful yip.

And to Phil’s lung-killing amusement, Techno repeats it right back with his own tone before resuming. “It’ll get crowded-”

Phil is very well losing his shit.

“Oh my- Phil, is this about the greet thing again- it’d be rude not to greet back- shut up!”

Phil is gonna die.

-

His little experiment continues its trek as he decides to test the limits, bit by bit.

Maybe, in another time, decades ago where Techno’s stare was hard and cold and he still flinched whenever Phil passed behind him, out of sight, he’d consider this… experimentation a little out of hand. Even a little rude, perhaps.

But it’s just lighthearted fun now, and Techno’s his old friend of many, many years. The piglin survived death and a half, he could surely handle a little fun from his old friend.

And so, right the next morning, Phil interrupted Techno’s rushed breakfast of bread and butter to pull him into the bee farm, claiming an emergency.

“Did they die?” Techno questions as Phil pulls open the door, rushing the both of them into the warm room. “Got poisoned? Queen died? What’s wrong?”

Phil stayed silent, watching as the piglin hurriedly checked the hives and machines. Bees flew around him and settled in his hair, let down and a little messy as he just woke up not too long ago, buzzing. He absentmindedly hissed back, the noise imitating the buzzing of the little yellow creatures around him as he poked around the nests to ensure their safety. “They seem just fine to me, Phil. Phil? Phil, why are you laughing, what-”

-

The next part of his experiment is unplanned.

Really, Phil hadn’t planned for it to progress this far, but it happens before he can even realise it.

It’s just a simple hunt for shipwrecks, temples, anything they can get their hands on. Techno has been itching for a totem of undying for a while now, the absence of one constantly putting him on edge. A mansion wouldn’t be a bad find either.

Of course, it’s not uncommon for them to get sidetracked. Techno had a big tendency to get distracted and forget the task at hand, and Phil simply loved him too much to pull him away from the exciting, short-lived tasks.

So here they were, exploring a deep ravine.

And, like, it’s not that Phil disliked running into endermen, they were just a pain to deal with.

As soon as the deep ender rumble echoes through the cave, Phil’s feathers ruffle and his wings are ready to carry him away.

That is, until Techno repeats the noise and moves on.

Phil watches him mine some lapis, mouth opened in a question he didn’t know.

“This should be enough lapis for now,” Techno turns to him, holding out the stacks of lapis until he sees the expression on Phil’s face. “Phil?”

“How the fuck did you mimic an enderman?”

“Ender and piglin are pretty close in pronunciation. It’s really not that hard. ‘nyway, the lapis-”

“-what the fuck, what the fuck-”

“-the lapis, Phil!”

#dream smp #dsmp #dream smp fanfiction #technoblade #philza #dsmp fanfiction #dream smp headcanon #dsmp headcanon #mcyt

[bluewritesao3]

Guilt or a shitty job?

Summary: You join the mandalorian on a vaguely described job to the back water planet of Vispoc, that holds far more than originally anticipated leading to a very much needed history lesson and some emotion

Warnings: I think this gets angsty towards the end (I’ve never written angst before so bare with me pls) . talk of consumption of fogs, Talk of canon events like order 66 and the empire. Talk of Jedi stuff. 

Taglist: Let me know if you wanna get tagged. Send me and ask or DM

Word Count: 3.5k (this was meant to be a dabble)

Masterlist | Cross Posted on A03

Gif credit: @johnboyuga​

Kneeling on the floor of the Crest, you meditated in the quiet of the ship with the less then talkative Mandalorian hidden away in the cockpit and the miniature Grand Master Yoda safely tucked away in his hammock. The quiet offered you the peace you needed to gain a greater control over your thoughts and emotions. “Peace. Serenity, Harmony. We must master ourselves before we can hope to master the force.” You muttered your last masters teaching to yourself with closed eyes basing in the steady silence. 

As the ship jolted and rocked beneath your knees, you centred yourself more ignoring the shifting metal biting into your knees. When you’d found the right peace and began to slip into a trance, the heavy thunking of boots echoed through the ship throwing you out of your almost trance-like meditation. “How far out are we?” You asked still knelt on the floor with your back still turned to the shiny Mandalorian.

He passed by almost too quietly, looking less shiny in the artificial lighting of the ship, you heard the quiet noise of the baby’s little sleeping compartment opening. “A hour at least,” He said distorted by his helmet as  as he ducked down into that you originally assumed was the Mandalorian’s sleeping space and was now the child’s. “We’ll be landing in a few.” 

You sighed and pushed off of the floor, wiping your hands on the course weave of your trousers. Watching the Mandalorian always surprised you that a man covered in impenetrable mental could be so careful with a baby. The Mandalorian carefully fished the child from his little hammock and situated the groggy blue bundle into the crook of his arm. You smiled at the sight, the child had a strong connection to the first and had a tendency to project life events into it, you’d originally assumed that he was doing it intentionally while the Mandalorian was away. The more you asked the child about these events the more he would immediately perk up and begin babbling as if he was glad you asked. “What’s the planet like?” You asked out of simple curiosity because it wasn’t like there were any windows in the hull of the Crest and since taking off you didn’t know any details other than the Mandalorian found work. 

“Find out for yourself,” The Mandalorian muttered, you could see he was far more focused on the child than anything you had to say. “Going to need you for this one anyway,” He added retreating back up into the cockpit with the child in hand, you followed quietly without knowing why the Mandalorian was traveling to the planet of Vispoc but you’d agreed to help the Mandalorian with whatever work he had going it was mainly babysitting but you’d fallen in love with the little green gremlins upon first meeting.

Ascending into the cockpit, the pair of you worked like a well oiled machine so that the Mandalorian was able to take off and flue without any interference with the child. Staring out of the window, you stared at the slowly approaching planet. It looked as if a large part of it was made up of water spotted with green land masses and white spieling clouds obscured quite a bit of the water and land masses. “Looks safe enough. Don’t want repeat of Trask.” You muttered stroking one of the child’s large petal shaped ears. 

The child cooed quietly as he played with his favourite control level knob, slowly turning it in his little clawed hands. Out of the corner of your eye you could see the swirling clouds wind in tighter on themselves like an incoming hurricane. “Slightly observation. Might wanna avoid using the jetpack when we’re planet side.” You warned side-eyeing the stoic lump of beskar casually tilt his helmet and give the planet a brief second look before pushing a few buttons.

“Says it’s water-rich and windswept. Got no major populations or star ports.” The Mandalorian uttered helmet barely picking up on the words as he looked at one of the screens embedded into the ships control panel. “Gonna be a bumpy landing.” He added and you took it as a sign to buckle your seat belt and clung to the child, his little arms raised in excitement when a few alarms began sounding as the Mandalorian began the bumpy decent onto the planets surface.

The closer the Crest go to the planets surface the more you could feel the planets attainment to the force. At first you thought it was the child of the winds you were sensing but it felt older like an ‘accumulation of energy’ as your late master called it when somewhere or someone had a strong connection to the force. “Do you feel that too?” You asked the child and received a delighted squeal as the Crest was battered by the winds and thrown to the left. 

Glancing out of the window at the fast approaching planet, you began bracing for an impact just like the frozen tundra wasteland the new republic had chases you both into. The control panel flashed and alarms beeped in time with your pounding heard as the Mandalorian yanked on the ship’s controls, slapped various buttons and flipped switches with a level of blind accuracy you’d only seen from your fellow Padawan’s during group training or sparing practice.

 As the Crest touched down on the rusted abandoned hanger, a withered painted sign proudly pronounced the planet’s name, Vispoc, while another clearly announced that the planet had some affiliation with the republic before the Empire came to power. You breathed a sigh of relief and drew in the clam the sense of peace you’d tried meditating on hours ago. “You good?” The Mandalorian asked sounding a little breathless and gently smoothed down the child's wispy white hairs, who’d seemingly enjoyed himself, maybe it was the sudden flashed of the escape pod that had put you on edge or maybe it was something entirely different. “Looks abandoned.” The Mandalorian observed taking in the dilapidated hander and strips of torn fabric hanging off of stacked cargo boxes. 

You nodded shakily and began unbuckling yourself with the wild settled on your shoulder in preparation of you having to single handedly climb down the ladder into the cock-pit.  “I’ll feed him then we can go. Okay.” You told to the mandalorian and leaving him to do whatever was needed in the cock-pit before the three of you ventured out into the cold of the planet. As you began your decent into the hull of the ship the child began to gargle a little at the mention of being fed. “Stars you’re a hungry thing aren’t you.” You commented as your feet touched the grated metal in the full. 

Settling the child on top of the largest cargo crate as you set about mashing up one of the ration bars and rehydrating it with a little water from a flask. Ration bars and recycled water was not a good combination and you could attest to it seeing as it was the only part of your diet for at least a year after the purge. While you worked the child babbled and made grabby hand towards the small tin rectangle you held in your hands even though he was sending images of a particular frog with blue and black stripes he’d probably seen before you arrived through his connection in the force. “Sorry bud. We don’t have any blue and black striped frogs or any amphibians at all.” You joked and offered him a spoon of mushed up, rehydrated ration bar, he took the first spoonful without an issue but after the second and third you think he’d began to realise that it wasn’t a froggy mush. 

He quietly grumbled aloud to himself in his own baby garble and frowned as a new spoon of ration bar mush was presented to him. “Listen, maybe I can convince your Dad you get some froggy pets.” You promised as you tried to sooth him by motioning towards where the Mandalorian was still hauled up doing post flight checks. “Then you can hunt ‘em yourself.” You added hopefully appearing the small grumpy child and offered the spoon again. 

As if he’d actually considered it the child made a noise of agreement and began wolfing down every spoon of ration bar mush fed to him. “Y/N, you really shouldn’t promise him such things.” The mandalorian’s modulated voice came out of nowhere in true Mandalorian fashion causing the baby to immediately perk up as if he’d been given a stim-canister. “I have too many pets as it is.” The Mandalorian added as he pulled open the locked metal cupboard where he kept all his weaponry and began to load himself up as the Crest’s ram opened up with a mechanical whirling. 

Depositing the child into his little cloth bag, “This looks questionable at best.” You muttered taking in the silvers of landscape revealed to you by the slow opening of the Crest’s ramp. Standing at the mouth of the ship, you slowly scanned the landscape, the hanger the Mandalorian had parked in seemed derelict from years of abandonment and seemed perfect for a smugglers crew to hide some coveted cargo. Noticing the out-cropping of a large temple-like structure was peaking out from behind the large mountain looming in the foreground. 

“Here,” The Mandalorian said holding out the hilt of your Lightsaber, the cold sunlight glinted off of the dull weathered durasteel illuminating some of the symbols carved int other space between the emitter and the switch. “Might need it.” He nodded to the Lightsaber he’d once referred to a laser sword.

Reaching for the long metal hilt was a lot harder than you originally anticipated. ‘This weapon is your life.’ Your late asters words echoed in your head. Feeling the Mandalorian’s visor trained on you was almost burning its T-shape into your face. With a shaky hand, you firmly grasped the all to familiar leather wrapped hilt of your lightsaber and just held it trying to become comfortable with its weight again. It’d been the same as the one you’d built when you’d been selected as a Padawan and taken part in the gathering on Ilum. You were sure your hesitation was as clear as Vispoc’s oceans. “If my master could see me now. Hesitant. They’d be so disappointed in me.” You explained shakily, your late master never got ashamed or angry when you put a foot wrong or hesitated but they were always disappointed when something sailed or went wrong. As you hooked it onto your repurposed belt and gun holster, the child snorted as if he was getting impatient with all the waiting around.

Descending the ships ramp, the weight of the baby on your left felt like nothing compared to the history of the weapon hanging on your belt rhythmically bouncing as you walked. With the Mandalorian at your side, the both of you approached the village at a slow speed, only stopping when the winds picked up significantly and blew particularly hard. The dark rock bit into the palms of your hands as you shuffled along the mountain trail, hand on the wall searching for something to steady yourself when the winds blew. Farther up the trail the Mandalorian waited quietly but impatient, you could see where the child’d picked it up from, as if the winds didn’t bother him in the slightest and you was convinced that it was all the beskar that was weighing him down. 

With your free hand holding the child’s side bag closer to your body, you had a much clearer view of the temple-like building that was peaking out from behind the mountain. Two large stone pillars flanked a set of double doors. Above the doors harsh winds swirled around one another like a brewing hurricane, in front of it was a raised dais with set stair leading down to what you assumed was the ground. Feeling the force trying to pull you in the direction of the temple, you brought up your shield again forcing the pull to detach itself from your being. “That part of me is too scared to even think about going there. Just yet.” You muttered into the wind and gently patted your Lightsaber as if you was trying to reassure yourself that you’d have to work up the courage to visit a temple again before became part of the living force. 

Once on the move again the unlikely pair came to the mouth of a mountain-side village. A small handful of the homes seemed to be build from cylindrical walls and topped with dome roofs, the whole place felt restless with the scrapes of brightly painted fabric banners whipped around in the significantly more gentle wind. Other homes were built in close quarters with one another jutting out slightly from the sides of the mountain, they followed the natural lines of the paths and the mountain faces. “What or who are we looking for, Mandalorian? ‘Cause this place looks abandoned.” You asked glancing around the village and grimaced when you caught sight of the warning on the wall signed with a blood red imperial symbol. 

The mandalorian sighed deeply as if he knew the whole trip was a bust. “He said it was in the village. Maybe there’s multiple villages.” He cursed clearly frustrated as you allowed yourself to slump down onto an outcrop of stone that seemed like a good place to sit.

“I doubt whatever you’re looking for is still here, Mandalorian.” You muttered promptly gesturing to the bright white grimy sighs screwed to the side of one of the cylindrical homes. It clearly stated that the village now belonged to the empire and all the occupants were in evacuate immediately or be arrested. “No doubt all the villages are under Imperial hold regardless of size.” You added  gently offering the baby some of the jerky you kept in one of the bouches tied to your bed. 

“Come one we’ll try the next on.” Was all the Mandalorian said before speedily continuing down the trail. 

Watching the Mandalorian’s gate, You could see the that everything was beginning to weigh on him because it was much long ago that he’d found out he was raised by religious zealots and you’d honestly contemplated leaving there and then given the Jedi’s history with that particular groups of Mandalorian’s. Even if you’d spent almost 3 decades in hiding the teachings of your late master wouldn’t relent, emotions only clouded one’s judgement. 

Hours down the line, you and the Mandalorian had traded off the task of carrying the child. The mandalorian now had the child’s side bag slung safely across his body with the child filling the safe space between both you and him. 

The pair had visited multiple villages across the planet, even come across a largely developed town that yielded little to no information about whatever if was the Mandalorian was looking for. You suspected that whatever he’d been tasked the retrieve was inside of the temple-like building you’d seen when visiting the first village. The force connection was only growing stronger and carried whispers with them, they gently scabbed the very edges of the shield you had built after feeling it at its strongest for the first time. The child clearly wasn’t as effected as you were, maybe it was because he hadn’t had as much training, you weren’t sure but it worried you given that the child was 50 and just about had a grasp on lifting things.

Sitting in the cantina listening to the quiet chatter and howling winds, you carefully fed the baby spoonful after spoonful of bone broth. Subtly trying to watch the Mandalorian out of you peripheral you watched him fidget and continuously open and close his fist almost like he was waiting for someone, antsy was the word your brain suppled you with. “What exactly is it we’re looking for?” You asked gently wiping away any spilt broth from the child’s face. Waiting patiently, you took a sip of the water from the cup in front of you and watched the Mandalorian silt his helmet as if he was contemplating telling you what exactly they were doing on this windy hellhole. “You said you’d might need me. That implies that it’s something Jedi related.” You surmised slowly piecing together the small fragments of information you’d collected on the journey from one village to the next. 

“It’s Jedi. I just don’t know where to look.” The Mandalorian huffed laying his hand flat on the table. “I’m open to suggestion,” He added allowing his shoulders to drop a little like he was relieved to share the job with you. “The Jedi are a mystery at most. Why doesn’t anyone know anything?” He asked sounding completely lost and a small part of you was itching to teach someone about the ways of the Jedi but the much larger part of you that was acting purely on instinct screamed that revealing such information would only get more killed. 

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you slowly began drawing circles on the table avoiding the black t-visor staring straight at you unrelenting. “Because we’ve been wiped from history,” You began to explain hearing the child whine a little but you pushed on. “Our temples had fallen into disrepair or burned to the ground. The Empire sentenced us to death and denied a trial.” You explained farther remembering all the time you’d spent running and begging for your life, all those you’d cut through just to survive to see the next sun rise. 

Without seeing the Mandalorian’s face, you couldn’t tell what expression he held, sometimes you were envious of the emotionlessness the armour offered him but he sat silently and listened as you rambled. Casting a quick glance around the cantina because anyone worth their information knew that cantina walls had ears. Always. “As the Republic fell the Empire rose and wiped us away with it. Anyone that’s still left knows better than the out themselves.” Memories of the great purge flashed across your memory, the stand-off between your late master and the commander and the clones chasing you across the length of the republican cruiser. It’d be enough to put any 12 year old into hiding and to never some out again. “Our relics became decoration and prices to be won. Our Lightsaber’s were another’s trophy.” You babbled nervously as you ignored the small green hand of the child clinging to your sleeve or the forced wave of calm being pushed onto you by the child. 

The Mandalorian tilted his head noting that he was listening and absorbing all the information you were providing him with, the way he stared at you when you finished simply said ‘but why?’ and in all honesty you couldn’t give him an answer. “The thing I’m being paid to find. Theres a possibility that it’s Jedi.” He explained and you’d never felt such a strong urge to fling someone across the cantina and through your blooming anger, you nodded in understanding that the Mandalorian needed to make money some how and if it wasn’t chasing bail jumpers or debts half ways across the galaxy it had to be something Jedi related. Maybe this was the biggest fuck you to the Jedi from the Mandalorian’s. “If I’d known I wouldn’t have taken the job.” He added guilt dripping from the words even if they were mechanical. 

“Is that why you gave me my saber back,” You began planting elbows on the table quietly seething with something akin to anger. “Out of guilt for taking the job?” You questioned staring directly into the black abyss of the Mandalorian’s t-visor.  “Be clear with me Mandalorian. Was it guilt.” You demanded anger flaring a little, knowing full well that the Mandalorian had been adamant on him keeping your Lightsaber locked up out of harms way or at least till he trusted you to carry it and keep it out of the kids reach. 

“We should go.” was all the Mandalorian said as he rose from his seat, took the child and excited the cantina to go back out into the drab wind-swept landscape leaving you sitting alone at the table looking for the peace you’d been able to find before landing. 

Gingerly resting a hand on the hilt off your Lightsaber and glanced around wondering if anyone had noticed it on your person. “Memories of an old friend.” You whispered dropping the shield and walking out of the cantina, the Mandalorian stood of to the side holding hands with the smaller version Grand Master Yoda. The pull of the force called to you in a way that you’d never experienced since the gathering on Ilum and being on the surface of coruscant. “If we’re going to a temple. Stay close and ignore the whispers.” You warned and set of in the direction of the temple wishing the spirits there were at least laid the rest and not running rampant through the temple. 

#Din Djarin x reader #din djarin x jedi!reader #jedi!reader #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian #Din Djarin #Blue writes instead of doing uni work #blue writes

[thessalian]

Thess vs Achievements

I haven’t quite had the spoons for major sessions of Horizon Zero Dawn over the course of the week ... untli tonight, anyway. But I did manage to gather up a few spoons and thus far have achieved the following:

Level 50. Largely by dint of hiding in bushes and having a stealth-sniper build so ridiculous it may occasionally break the game a little bit.

Figured out the Concentration ability. Given that I also picked up the Quick Reload upgrade and the Handling on my precision bow is kind of ludicrous, it’s really helpful when getting through things like Thunderjaw hunting grounds. HIt Concentration, and with the right upgrades and a steady hand, you can pick the weapons and antenna off a Thunderjaw without setting off any kind of alert at all. Also helps with double-tapping a Glinthawk in the chest to puncture its Chillwater reservoir so that it freezes, flails, drops out of the sky and dies.

Figured out exactly where to hit a Longleg so that it explodes and takes out everything within a fifty-foot radius. And since the damage their explosions do is based on my weapon damage, and my weapon damage is fucking insane, that includes things like ... other Longlegs. Seriously, two Longlegs taken out with one arrow at a couple of hundred yards; it was nuts.

Played around with the Ropecaster. Pinned a Glinthawk to the ground. Also, since I just about maxed out Tear on my Ropecaster upgrades, it was losing parts and armour at a fairly alarming rate as it struggled. That was cool.

Also played with the Blast Sling. That just ... yeah, so much boom.

Got all the mugs and metal flowers. Just one more vantage to go before I have all the main zone collectables. Getting the last flower was fun because it involved climbing a rock face, murdering a whole bunch of Glinthawks and one-shotting four Scrappers in four seconds with precision arrows to the antenna array. Apparently I have enough Handling on that bow that I can effectively rapid-fire a sniper rifle.

Also cleared all the bandit camps and corruption zones. Ended that latter with a literal bang because hiding at the back was a corrupted Fire Bellowback. BOOM. The former? Another situation where I took out the alarm and spent an awful lot of time waiting for people to come into my line of sight with barely an alert. I’m almost sad I’m out of bandit camps now.

Even actually progressed through the main story some! Which meant I also got the other achievement of “scanned all the machines in the main game”. That would be the Deathbringer. Which, again with the help of Concentration, I took out before it even got a look at me - two of its primary weapons and one of its heat vents, and it kind of blew up without even seeing what took it down. Which is as it should be. I think only one Watcher really knew where I was and barely got a shot off, and the last cultist I took out from a stupid distance with an arrow to the face.

Basically, there’s a lot to love about this game. The combat’s this weird but compelling blend of exciting and meditative (at least the way I do it; others might tilt the balance more towards ‘exciting’ but I like the methodical approach), and everything in this game supports the story above all other things. The characters and tribes tell the story. The enemies tell the story. The environment tells the story most of all. Whether it’s climbing the ruins of a corporate skyscraper or wondering how we get desert within spitting distance of jungle within spitting distance of tundra...

Also, the lore collectables. I mean, yeah, like with just about every other game, there’s a codex. Thing is, they mix it up a bit. Some are video logs. Some are audio logs. The things that are just text are concise and often tell the story by not being overt about it. Want to show a corporation that has no respect for anything but their own bottom line? This bunch did it with two memos. (Those of you who’ve played it? The coffee-people meeting memos.)

I am quite tired and I do require sleep because the electric company people are coming by tomorrow afternoon (somewhere between 13:00 and 17:00; dunno which but I should be awake and in something resembling clothes by 13:00 just in case), but I just wanted to say the thing. And honestly, I like these achievements better than the ones I have to talk about as regards work.

#Thess plays video games #Thess liveblogs Horizon Zero Dawn

[waveypedia]

Home is Wherever I’m With You [HDLW Sibling Week]

Day 1 - Adventure

Ao3

“You guys are gonna love this one!” Webby crowed, her face pressed against the glass of the plane window. “Della and I have crafted the perfect adventure. It’s full of traps, puzzles, and opportunities for daring stunts!”

“So what’s in store for us today?” Dewey called from the pilot seat. It was his first adventure as a solo pilot, even though he’d been taking lessons from Launchpad and Della for months. “Death-defying stunts? Villanous curses? Bad baddies?”

Webby grinned back at him enthusiastically. “We might see a sword horse!!”

Huey flipped through his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. “Statistically, the chances of us encountering a unicorn are little to none. From our travels, unicorns mostly reside in glades deep in forests. We’re flying over the tundra.”

Dewey pulled a hand off one of the Sunchaser’s contraptions to gently punch Huey in the shoulder. “Look at you, calculating the likelihood of a unicorn spotting. Nerd.”

Huey rolled his eyes and shut the guidebook. He leaned back in the copilot’s seat, where he was keeping a careful watch that everything was running smoothly - just like Donald when Dewey piloted solo during full-family adventures. “The numbers don’t lie.”

“But did you take snow sword-horses into account?” Webby asked, finally turning her attention away from their descent to look at Huey. “They’re incredibly rare, but they live solo lives out here in the tundra. They canter at the speed of the wind!! Some brave adventurers report sighting one, but no one can ever get proof.”

“Sounds like a glorified Bigfoot,” Louie offered from his place in one of the Sunchaser’s seats. 

“But we can fight it!!” Webby interjected enthusiastically. “And earn its trust!! They say if you do, it’ll grant you one piece of sage advice for your future.”

Dewey frowned thoughtfully. “Well, not many people can say they’ve been granted advice from a snow unicorn. Anyway, coming in hot!!”

The Sunchaser made a less-than-graceful landing (Launchpad was his teacher, all right), sending snow flying up in clouds of soft sparkles around them. The four kids grabbed their gear and buckled up the last of their snow-protective clothes before stepping out of the plane and onto the snow. Webby was first, and her eyes sparkled with excitement as she took in the terrain for a moment.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Webby exclaimed, gesturing to the expanse of snow sparkling brightly in the sunlight. “And to think! Today, we’ll be one of the first to see and conquer a real snow sword-horse!!”

Louie slipped a canteen out of his pack and took a sip of some hot chocolate he had saved. “Yep, looks pretty snow-y.”

Dewey punched a fist in the air. “I’m ready to fight a unicorn!!”

Huey snorted affectionately and pulled out his rusty, trusty compass, emblazoned with the Junior Woodchuck logo on the side. “We go north first, right Webby?”

Webby opened her backpack and took out a slightly torn map, tied with a piece of glittery pink string. She was nodding before she’d even unfurled the map, but it confirmed her answer. “Yep!! We go left until we hit the rock shaped auspiciously like a tornado, and then we turn right. And then, when we get to the lone pine tree hidden behind the stone hills, we walk in a circle three times around it and follow the sun!”

Huey frowned. “A rock shaped like a tornado? That’s an… interesting description.”

Louie raised his head to the sky and covered his forehead with his hand to block out the blindingly bright light, reflecting off the snow and clouds. “Uhh, Webs, we can’t see the sun.”

Webby shrugged, positive as ever. “No worries! All the legends say that won’t be an obstacle. We’ll figure it out when we get there!!”

Without further ado, the pink-adorned duck strode off in the direction of their adventure. “Let’s go!!”

Dewey followed quickly behind her, rambling excitedly about how fun it would be to fight a unicorn. Huey and Louie exchanged a glance and a shrug, and then tagged along.

As they walked, Huey tried to start off a round of some of the hiking songs he had picked up at the Junior Woodchucks, but was quickly rebuffed. However, when Dewey tried to start a rendition of “1,000 Bottles of Apple Juice on the Wall” (the Uncle Donald-approved version he regretted teaching Dewey when they were on a road trip when the boys were five years old), Webby and Louie were suddenly much more enthusiastic about Huey’s options. He was more than happy to oblige, and even got them going on some sea shanties when the tunes started getting overly repetitive. Dewey grumbled for a bit, but before long, Huey and Webby’s collective, contagious enthusiasm had infected him, and he was singing along as loudly and proudly as the rest of them.

When the tornado-shaped rock first came into sight, the group of four was lagging behind Huey’s precisely-calculated pace for the best optimal productivity on adventures. But the sight spurred Webby’s already-high excitement, and she nearly sprinted the rest of the way. 

When the rest of the group reached Tornado Rock, panting, Webby was leaning against it with barely contained enthusiasm. “Took you long enough,” she said cheekily, but with no malice and a beaming smile. 

Louie shrugged and flopped down on the ground. “Ugh, Webs, why’d you have to run? There’s no time limit.”

Webby shrugged, still beaming. “The spirit of adventure!” She checked her watch and sat gently on the ground next to Louie. “So, lunchtime?”

Dewey plopped down beside her, and Huey followed suit. “I thought you’d never ask!!”

Louie rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, we know, you were flying the plane, you didn’t get a chance to snack.”

Dewey ripped open his lunchbox and grabbed impatiently at the first thing he could - a sandwich. He opened the foil easily and stuffed it in his mouth. “I’m hungry, Louie!”

As his brothers squabbled in the background, Huey glanced up at the rock towering above them. “Huh, I guess it really is actually shaped like a tornado,” he conceded quietly as he unpacked his lunch. “Accurate description.”

Webby followed his gaze, tracing the grooves and cracks in the rock with her eyes. “Yeah. You know, Isabella Finch, Uncle Scrooge’s inspiration, was the one who named it!!”

Huey perked up. “Really? That’s interesting. I don’t think I remember an expedition to this specific tundra in her journals.”

Webby shrugged, smiling. “It was a group expedition with some other seasoned adventurers. George Mallardy, for one.”

“The guy that Uncle Scrooge sort of was responsible for his death?” Huey asked apprehensively, raising his eyebrows. “I’m not entirely sure I want to be following in his footsteps.”

“But they’re the only other people to accurately depict and record tundra sword-horses!!” Webby exclaimed, leaning forward. “Wouldn’t it be so cool if us, for our first solo adventure, were the ones to do it second?”

“I’d rather be first!!” Dewey called. 

Huey shrugged. “I guess so. I am curious about snow unicorns. If there’s only one depiction of them, even if it is from Isabella Finch, how do we know it’s accurate?”

“I guess we’ll have to find out,” Webby replied, her eyes sparkling.

The kids packed up their lunch, making sure to leave no trace behind, and continued on their trek. Webby tracked their progress with a map, watching carefully for the hills of stone that would eventually rise out of the fog. Snow started to fall gently while they walked, and Dewey made it a game to see who could catch the most snowflakes on their tongue. Soon they were all running in uneven paths and laughing - or laughing as best they could with their tongues stuck out. By the time the first gray hints of the stone hills crested out of the clouds, Louie was winning staunchly, but Dewey refused to be beat. He nearly fell forward into a snowbank, but stubbornly kept going.

Their amicable chatter died down as the hills came close enough to touch - and Webby did touch, reaching out a purple-gloved hand to wipe away a few errant flakes of snow. The group paused, speechless at the sheer size and gentleness of the rolling hills.

Webby took in a deep breath, in and out, making a large cloud of breath in the cold air. “Snow sword-horses, Isabella Finch’s legacy, here we come.”

With Webby in the lead, the four ducks rounded the hills and finally made their way into the small clearing in the middle of the stone. And found…

“Nothing,” Webby said, her word hanging in the quiet air. Surprise and disappointment were etched across her face as she stared at the empty clearing.

Huey, ever the Dad Friend, snapped out of his stupor first and stepped forward to lay a hand on Webby’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Maybe we made a mistake.”

“Yeah, a mistake,” Louie echoed. “It was probably George Mallardy. He almost caused our uncle’s death. Can’t really trust that guy.”

“Maybe the sword horse is still around here somewhere,” Dewey added.

Webby pressed her beak tightly together. “Yeah, you’re right! Let’s keep looking.”

They scoured the clearing for any hidden passages. Huey analyzed the map carefully, looking for any possible errors or misleads. Dewey took it upon himself to rap each and every inch of the stone hills, looking for a secret passage. Louie walked in circles around the hills, looking for any other landmarks.

After an hour had passed of searching with no luck, the group reunited in the center of the clearing, where the pine tree would be. 

“Any luck?” Huey asked grimly, already knowing in his gut what the answer would be.

Louie shook his head regretfully.

“No,” Dewey muttered, the disappointment clear on his face.

Webby rubbed her toe anxiously against the snowy ground. She opened her mouth, clearly unhappy, and then froze, surprise overtaking her features.

“Webby?” Louie asked cautiously, but she ignored him in favor of leaning down and brushing snow away from a certain spot on the ground. Her brothers stared, frozen, for a moment. But when a splash of dark green peeked out from the snow, Dewey instantly dropped down into a crouch to help her. Huey and Louie followed suit in realization, and in no time they had cleared a little patch of snow away, revealing a tiny pine tree sprout.

“Huh,” Dewey said, breaking the tentative silence that had lain between the four of them while they dug. “I did not expect this.”

“It’s only a baby,” Webby breathed.

Louie frowned. “That’s weird. Isabella Finch and George Mallardy probably came here like a century ago. How could the tree be only a sapling?”

“Maybe it got cut down and replanted,” Huey reasoned logically.

“Or maybe it’s like a phoenix,” Webby breathed, the corners of her beak turning up. “It’ll come back! 

Dewey smiled. “It already is.”

Huey stood up, and held out a hand for his siblings. “We should get back to the plane. Maybe back at home we can do more research on magical pine trees and mystical tundras.”

Webby smiled softly and pushed herself to her feet, the last out of the four of them. “I’d like that.”

She unfurled the map again, and they trekked back to the plane, a little subdued but still energetic. Despite this branch of their adventure being mostly complete, their return seemed to go by in a blink. Soon they were boarding the plane and shedding their snow gear. Dewey settled into the pilot seat and, after a moderately smooth takeoff, they were in the air.

After about a half an hour of flipping through his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, Huey slipped out of the copilot’s chair and made his way over to Louie and Webby. Louie was scrolling through something on his phone, and Webby was reading one of the books Scrooge had given her for her birthday. Darkwing Duck was playing idly on the Sunchaser’s tenuously supported TV in the background, but neither were paying attention to it.

“Look at this,” Huey announced, sliding into the seat next to Webby and holding out his book. It was open to one of the pages about plants and fauna. Huey tapped a small paragraph in the corner with his finger, and Louie and Webby leaned in to read.

“Longer-living plants, like redwoods, go through many stages in their lives, many of which last long periods of time,” Louie read aloud. He glanced at Huey. “That’s purposefully vague. I don’t think it relates to the pine tree.”

Huey’s eyes glinted, like they always did when he got excited about a research project. “Maybe it’s purposefully vague. Either way, it’s a good starting point for an investigation!” 

He smiled. “We may uncover the mystery behind this pine tree and the unicorn just yet.”

Louie typed in a search on his phone. “Heck yeah we will. Ducks don’t back down, remember?”

Webby tucked a colorful bookmark in her book and set it on the chair beside her. “You’re right.” She pulled out her own phone and started to search too.

“This adventure is looking to be bigger than ever!!”

~

hi this is very messy n bad cause i wrote it in an hour but i also have a lot of other big projects goin on (i’m writing the script for an instaronpa!) but i don’t usually have the motivation/time to do events like these. i’m going to try to do a little bit each day, so the parts will be shorter than what i usually write, but hopefully there will be 7 of them!! what i did was i set a timer for 30 minutes and tried to do just that, but i was only halfway done so i kept going. idk if i’ll have the motivation to keep doing that though

anyway i think this is gonna be like a connected story btw. all the more pressure to finish it ahaha. i hc that in this story, they’re all a little older, like teenagers (hence why they’re on an adventure by themselves). there’s one comic where dewey really wants to learn how to fly, so i snatched that headcanon when i realized if they’re on their own, they need a pilot. i considered briefly having Launchpad fly them in and not go, but I like Dewey flying. The whole “Webby planning an adventure” shtick is a brief nod to a couple lines from my group chat fic, where Della inspires Webby to plan an adventure. Since that happens when they’re at their canon ages, this isn’t the adventure they’re talking about. it’s just my inspiration.

title is a lyric from Home by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes. (two for two on using secular songs I sung at camp last year for fic titles haha)

see you tomorrow for the next installment of Home is Wherever I’m With You!

@hdlwsiblingweek2020

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #dt17 #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #webby vanderquack #hdlw #wavey writes #my fanfic #ducktales fanfiction #hdlwsiblingweek

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #429

“i’m just a bad luck charm to blame when things go wrong”

Are all-nighters something you have grown used to? God no. I have those SO rarely. I don't know how I used to do it. Do you usually wear sunglasses when you’re driving? I don't have sunglasses, and my driving permit has long since expired. Is there ever a time that you enjoy cold showers? COLD, no. A tad chilly, very rarely. I have to be burning the hell up. What clothes are you most comfortable in? Men's pj pants and tank tops. Is there anybody you’re not ashamed to tell anything to? No, not anything. Have you ever unbuttoned someone else's pants? Yes. Are you good at painting nails? Nooooo. My hands are way too shaky. If it’s late at night and you’re hungry, what do you reach for? Usually a granola bar or piece of bread, lol. What word should you really probably remove from your vocabulary? I don't know. I don't really use any words I find wrong/offensive. Will you eat something if it falls on the ground? NOOOOOOOO SIR. Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? God no. I'm not a vegetable fan. Do you see the value in education? Of course I do. Are you more physically flexible or situationally flexible? bitch neither lmao Does anybody know about your sex life other than your partners? I don't have one now, but my mom knows of some things from the past. Do you make an effort to eat healthy? Yeah. I could try harder, but I do try. Have you ever lived with a girlfriend/boyfriend? Pretty much. I wasn't an official resident, but I was essentially always there and just counted as a guest, I guess. Would you ever be a stripper? No way in hell. Can you honestly say that you love yourself? No. Do you think that you’ve ever actually been IN love with someone? I don't just "think" it, I know very goddamn well that I was. Have you ever done a psychedelic drug? If not, would you ever consider it? No and no. Did you ever see the movie Good Burger when it came out? Not when it came out, but I've seen it and love it. How often do you clear your browser history? Never. Honestly, have you ever eaten raw cookie dough? Yeah man, gourmet shit. Do you consider yourself a burden to anyone? Why do you feel this way? I absolutely do. I'm just a leech at home. A financial burden to my parents since I'm unemployed. I have a lot wrong with me that my mom has to deal with. Who was the last person to carry you? Why were they carrying you? Probably Jason, realistically. I'm probably too heavy for anyone in my life to carry me now, and there hasn't ever really been a reason to besides him just being cute many years ago. Are you a clingy kind of person? If so, how has this affected your past relationships? I know I am. I'm lucky that I don't think it really affected any. I'm not OBSESSIVELY clingy at least, just moderately so. Have you ever witnessed someone drowning? Did you help in any way? Jesus, no. Have you ever felt like you just weren’t enough for someone? Who in your life has made you feel that way? I absolutely have. No one like... intentionally made me feel like that, I just felt it due to my own self-doubt. The times I've felt that that I remember have been in my only two serious relationships, but not endlessly. I'd just do something stupid and feel like it for a while. Have you ever been at a party where the cops came due to complaints?No. What were you doing the last time you spent a night away from home (or wherever you regularly reside)? I was having a sleep study to determine whether or not I had sleep apnea. Where do you like to sit when you’re on the computer? In my bed. Do you feel as though you’re good at understanding/communicating with animals? Absolutely. Are photographs important to you? Do you like to take a lot of pictures? Not incredibly important, because nothing is quite like actually experiencing that moment, but I definitely like to have some of major events. I honestly don't take a lot of pictures documenting my own life, but rather like nature and stuff. And when people pay me to take family/couple/child photos for them. Would you rather hike through the desert, the prairies, the forest, or the tundra? The forest, for sure. So long as I had my camera. If you could reconnect with someone from your past, who would it be and why? Guess. -_- What was the last game you played? Was anyone else playing with you? Do you prefer to play games alone or with others? World of Warcraft. And well, it's an MMO, so you're playing with what, thousands of other people? I mostly do solo content though, but I do usually chat with guildies when I'm on because I'm close and comfortable with them. What is the longest distance you’ve walked in a day? Idk, but definitely far. Do you prefer homemade food or restaurant food? Restaurant, sadly. What was the last new food you tried? Ummm... I want to say sweet potatoes, back at Thanksgiving. I didn't hate them, but they were okay. What is your most recent regret? I dunno, probably something really minor like eating/drinking something unhealthy. What was the last unexpected thing to happen to you? How did you react? I guess that would be the sleep apnea diagnosis. At least, that was the last big one. I can't think of anything in-between. I was very shocked, even doubtful that the results were reliable. But given how my APAP mask has almost completely solved my nightmare issue, I think it's safe to say it's correct. Name your three closest friends. Sara, Girt, and uhhh... Sam. Do you get excited or annoyed when the phone rings? Annoyed, honestly, lol. Do you prefer writing poems or stories? I prefer writing RP, which is pretty much just gradually writing stories. What pisses you off more than anything? Probably rapists, specifically when children are the victims. It's just... so, so repulsive and unforgivable to me. Like I don't understand how a human being could possibly be so diabolical as to scar someone like that. What’s the appropriate age to have sex? I think you should be adults, honestly, given the risk of pregnancy. Not that I followed that, so I can't really talk, and I know most people don't either. When you're really in love with someone and have a sexual side, it's kinda... hard to avoid 'til you're 21. Is there anybody you’re really jealous of? It's so stupid, I'll probably always be so jealous of the girl Jason dated after me. Even though I know they're not even together anymore (well, last I heard a few years ago). Is pornography evil or are you neutral about it? Meh. I'm not into it, but I don't think it's necessarily evil. I personally don't get sex without emotional commitment, but you do you, so long as you are both consenting adults being safe about it. Do you prefer to be monogamous, or are you more a casual dater or swinger? I'm strictly monogamous. I'd be way too jealous to share a partner with someone, and then there's the heightened risk of STDs, too. Have you ever had a crush on more than one person at once? Do you now? Yes, but I don't now. Who is your favorite relative? Excluding my immediate family, Uncle Rob. He is so damn funny. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? I know I would, realistically. Do you think you will be in a relationship three months from now? No. What’s the greatest thing that happened to you today? It SUCKED while actually doing it, but I'm very satisfied having done around 20 minutes of cardio today at the gym. Cardio is something I 110% need in my life. Have you had any beer this week? I've never had beer. I hate the smell of it, and it's associated with memories of my dad as an alcoholic anyway. Could you cry right now? Nah, I'm in a good mood. If you could see one person right now, who would it be? I'd honestly love to hang with Sara again. Do you wear contacts? No, but I wish I did versus glasses, contacts are just WAY too tedious. What color shirt are you wearing? It's a dark teal. Song playing right now? Ha, I am STILL obsessed with Powerwolf's (but with Alissa White-Gluz's vocals) "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend." Do you wear the seat belt in the car? Absolutely always. Please, please, wear your seat belt. Has anyone ever mistaken you for someone else? Yes. There was a kid at dance who, from behind, thought I was his mother and he just ran up and hugged me from behind and I nearly had a heart attack. Do you like the color orange? Yeah; it reminds me of Halloween. Sometimes, do you wish you were someone else? Not really entirely someone else, but a much better version of myself. What is the weather like today? It's hot as shit and pretty hazy. Do you want any piercings? UGH like you have no idea. Have you given anything up for Lent? No. You do what you want, but I honestly think it's a dumb concept. Would you rather go to a rock concert or a rap concert? Rock, for certain. Have you ever dated someone that was a different race than you? Yeah; Juan was Hispanic. How old is your best friend? She's 23. What does your favorite necklace look like? It's a spiked choker with some dangling chains. It's fuckin' hot. Are you keeping a secret from anyone? I don't like the wording here. I don't have anything I'm hiding from someone in particular, and nothing they need to know at all. I just have a few inconsequential secrets I just don't share with anyone. Would you take a million dollars if it meant you had to die a month later? Uh, no thank you. Do you keep any type of diary or journal? You could say surveys are like snippets of a diary of sorts for me. I share a lot and use them to vent and just jabber on about my thoughts and feelings without exactly burdening anyone with them. What was the last thing that made you really happy? I'VE LOST A POUND SO FAR AT THE GYM!!!! :') It's been just one week, I know, big whoop, but it means A LOT to me. Prior to this, the numbers had just been gradually creeping up and up... but not anymore! :D Can you remember what you dreamed about last night? Very vaguely? Or maybe that was the night before's dream... Have you ever gotten kicked out of a class for being disruptive? Definitely not. I was a well-behaved, quiet student. Have you ever injected a drug? Noooo. Do you think the whole day is better if you smoke pot? I've never smoked. Last time you killed a bug? A while back when an ant walked over my laptop. Are you wearing perfume? What kind? No. The last male you spoke to… is he attractive? That would be my personal trainer, and yeah, he's very handsome.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''fuck up'' by shane dawson

[sage-nebula]

Hello! I know that it is not actually a pokemon type so to speak but I'm staring down an essay deadline with less than half the word count. Would you mind talking about your favourite pokemon that is a dog or canine? Like the pokemons that are also dogs? Does that make sense? Sorry I'm very sleep deprived right now. Thank you so much for always being such a lovely presence on my dash and I hope you have a brilliant day!

Thank you for the compliments, and I would be glad to talk about some of my favorite PokéCanines! I’ll talk about all of my favorite canine pokémon, though please do note that I am leaving out the Ecruteak Trio because it is hotly debated whether they are canines or not and I do not feel like getting into that tonight. (For the record, I feel that Entei is definitely canine, Raikou is feline, and Suicune is too hard to tell, but still, I don’t want to get into it, so I will leave it at that.)

Growlithe / Arcanine — Probably my favorite of the canines for personal, sentimental reasons. When I imagined my previous dog in the Pokémon world, I imagined her as a Growlithe who would evolve into an Arcanine, because the PokéWorld doesn’t have a sheltie pokémon and I felt that the fluff and warmth of Growlithe fit her best, along with the ‘Dex descriptions of them being very loyal and willing to do anything to protect their trainer. My previous dog was exactly like that. But I also feel that Arcanine would be just such a wonderful pokémon to be companions with because they are gigantic, fire-breathing fluffy puppies, and riding them across the countryside would be AMAZING. (Not that I live in the countryside, but I do live in the midwest, so the plains are everywhere and not hard to find.) They’re just so good.

Smeargle — Okay, I will admit, Smeargle loses some points for being bipedal. HOWEVER. They gain those points back by virtue of how cool they are! While they’re not very useful in battle, sadly, due to low stats and the like, Smeargle are cool because each Smeargle has a different color paint (it’s not really paint, more a bodily fluid they use like paint, but close enough), and that as they grow up they let other Smeargle that they are close put their pawprints on their back. (So in other words, Smeargle A let’s Smeargle B use Smeargle B’s ink to put Smeargle B’s pawprints on Smeargle A’s back.) The ‘Dex always says “comrades,” but listen . . . we know what it means when two Smeargle have each other’s pawprints on their back. They are in love. 

Houndour / Houndoom — ACTUAL HELLHOUNDS, THEY ARE GREAT. True, the fact that their breath smells like sulfur is kind of gross, but their design and concept are so incredibly cool, and I also just absolutely love the mental image of a Houndour puppy having gigantic paws they have yet to grow into. It’s just the absolute cutest. I also like to imagine that my current dog would be a mixed-breed Houndour and Poochyena in the PokéWorld, so there’s that, too.

Flareon & Umbreon — Listen, some of the Eeveelutions look like felines, some of them look like canines, and others (such as Jolteon) make it really hard to tell. But I’m convinced that Flareon and Umbreon are both canines, and I love them both. FIRST of all, Flareon DOES NOT deserve the hate it gets. It is small and soft and so incredibly warm, it CAN be useful in battle, and most importantly, FLAREON WAS NOT THE FALSE PROPHET AND DID NOTHING WRONG, EVERYONE WHO HATED FLAREON DURING TPP SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. If you don’t know what I’m talking about there, you don’t need to know about it, but just know that Flareon had a lot of libel posted about it and it was completely unacceptable. As for Umbreon, Umbreon is the Eeveelution I connect with the most given that I am naturally nocturnal, and I love how its rings grow stronger depending on what phase the moon is in. Shiny Umbreon is also choice. They’re definitely the best two Eeveelutions (though Espeon is also up there, sorry Espeon, although Espeon is also one of the feline ones and so shouldn’t be discussed here anyway).

Poochyena / Mightyena — As discussed in another ask, technically hyenas are not canines (or felines), but I’m still going to include them here because the localization team at the very least thought that Poochyena looked like a puppy (“pooch”), hence its name. I LOVE these two. Although my Mightyena ended up underperforming in AlphaSapphire, I’ve always loved the scruffy look contrasted with how loving and puppylike they can be. Also, again, I like to think of my current dog as a mixed breed Houndour/Poochyena, so there’s that, too.

Absol — Absol is another contested one, but I always thought Absol looked canine to me, so I’m going to count it. Absol is wonderful because it not only has a super cool design (though could also benefit from a dual typing, I feel), but also because this is another poor baby who has had so much unfortunate slander spread about it. Absol just wants to help! Absol wants to warn people! And people decide that instead of being grateful, they want to blame the messenger!! Absol does not deserve this at all, and the world likewise does not deserve Absol. That is a fact.

Lillipup / Herdier / Stoutland — Before anyone says anything, NO, these are not shelties. Lillipup is more like a yorkshire terrier, and while Herdier and Stoutland seem like they could be herding dogs of some kind (it’s even in Herdier’s name), I can assure you they do not resemble shelties. More like they resemble oversized yorkies. REGARDLESS, I loved them. Lillipup is adorable, so is Herdier, and while Stoutland is less cute and more gruff, it is also an absolute BEAST. BW confused me because I always took Cheren down easily, but Bianca regularly fucked up my shit with her Stoutland. (And yet they tried to make Stoutland Cheren’s ace in the sequels, smh . . .) My Stoutland was also very reliable. Very good doggos, 10/10

Rockruff / Lycanroc — WOLVES!!! FINALLY WOLVES!!! oh my GOD I waited SEVEN GENERATIONS for this!! To be fair, when I was a child I mistook MIghtyena for a wolf because of the coloring and the fact that it looked like a canine, but as I got older I learned the truth and was back to being disappointed. And while the fact that this line is pure rock (which has a million weaknesses) is disappointing, and while I’m also not fond of Midnight Form being bipedal, I can forgive it because we finally have wolves AND ALSO Rockruff is adorable and perfect AND ALSO because so is Midday Form. Plus, despite rock-type having so many weaknesses, my Midday Lycanroc is pretty strong, so. It works out.

Yamper / Boltund — Okay, I will level with you: a corgi evolving into a greyhound is kind of weird. Also, I do question why they used yorkshire terriers in Unova when they should have saved them for Galar, and instead maybe had like, American bull terriers (a.k.a. pitbulls) in Unova instead (although I guess some could argue that Snubbul / Granbull are pitbulls, but I disagree, I think they look more like English bulldogs than pitbulls). Regardless though, anyone who says that Yamper is anything other than adorable does not have eyes (the puppy has a heart on its butt), and also they are the GOODEST of puppers in how they bring your pokéballs back to you. And while it took me a bit to get used to Boltund, my Boltund, Poppy, is AMAZING and  love her very, very much. This line is great and I love them. ♥

Zacian & Zamazenta — FINALLY, SOME LEGENDARY WOLVES!! And not only are they legendary wolves, but one has a tuft of fur it can turn into a shield around its neck and the other CARRIES A SWORD IN ITS MOUTH, HOW BADASS IS THAT. I do get a little annoyed when people call them doggos when they are actually wolfos, but that doesn’t change how excited I was to have some legendary wolves at last, particularly ones dedicated to beating up hellspawn from space. I love them, they are beautiful, 10/10.

So those are my favorite canine pokémon!! If anyone disagrees with any of these pokémon being canines, I do not care and I do not want to fight about it, please do not send discourse my way. And as a final note, here are two lists of future canines / dog breeds I hope to see in future gens:

Dog Breeds: SHELTIES, miniature schnauzers, Italian greyhounds, German shepherds, Siberian huskies, dachshunds, shiba inu, some kind of spaniel, chihuahua (and it HAS to be fighting-type, it HAS to), and many others. You can never have too many doggos.

I also have to have one more final grievance at the fact that we didn’t get shelties in Galar either considering that sheltie is a nickname for shetland sheepdog, and this breed of dog ORIGINATED IN SCOTLAND, which at least part of Galar (particularly the Crown Tundra) was inspired by, ffs Game Freak why did you miss this opportunity. 

Wild Canines: Maned wolves, African wolf, African wild dog, dingos, coyotes, and just more wolves in general, honestly. I would say more foxes too, but we already have several fox lines, and while I wouldn’t say no to them, I want to see more wolves get attention first.

Anyway, thanks for asking!! I love Pokémon and I love canines, so this was a fun ask!

#pokemon #bladeangelx

[dem0nsiget-wolvden]

Sun and Moon: Part Two

It was several moons after the bear attack when the humans were spotted again.

This time, it was the long-haired human from before, as well as two new humans, that came running into a slightly protected valley in the hills of the tundra. They arrived in the morning, their sled dogs running over the crackly, almost gone remnants of the last snow, spring almost in full swing.

Smoke Cloud had been on a scouting mission when Wowasi came swooping back, letting out a squawk and ruffling the scout’s ears before the sleek raven flew back the way she’d come, Smoke Cloud bounding along below.

She stopped at the ridge Wowasi had landed on, looking down the slope, seeing the humans pulling things off of their sleds, their dogs milling around where they were tied to them.

Smoke Cloud noticed one of them, the dog in front, staring directly at her, her fur bristling uncomfortably at that, turning and bounding back down the ridge, and towards the towering conifers of the forest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Atka noticed the raven that swooped over head twice, watching it the second time it showed up, watching it land on the ridge, just as a wolf showed up, Atka watching it.

He was young enough, and hadn’t been far enough from the sledding farm he grew up on to have never seen a wolf other than Kenai, the old wolf that the farmers owned.

Kenai had told them about his time in the wild when he was younger, the hungry times that his pack had faced, until his mother finally brought he and his siblings to the farm so they’d be taken care of. He’d been taken by the farmers, his siblings being given to other humans.

Atka just watched the wolf, who seemed to notice him watching, turning and disappearing just as suddenly as it had appeared.

Atka hadn’t realized his tail had raised up until he felt a nudge from his side, turning to look at Syka.

“What’s with you?”, she asked, tilting her head slightly, looking unamused.

“You didn’t see the wolf on the ridge?”, he asked.

“No.”, Syka said, lifting a paw to scratch her ear. “Sure you weren’t seeing things?”

“I’m sure, Syka.”, Atka snapped, looking back at the ridge so he didn’t have to deal with the bossy female anymore.

“A wolf? Do you think it’ll attack?”

Atka turned slightly, recognizing the voice as Takaani, turning to the younger Husky.

“I doubt it. There’s a lot of us, not to mention the humans. We’ll be alright, Takaani.”, he said, wagging his tail reassuringly.

“Not if they decided to attack with their whole pack.”, Syka said. “You heard what Dinari said. They’re a big pack.”

“Dinari doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They only saw two of the wolves, and they said from what they’re understood, Peggy doesn’t even know how many of them there are. Now stop scaring the others.”, Atka snapped.

Syka just dipped her head slightly, before she settled down in the sparse snow below her. Atka knew she would have slunk off if she could, but they hadn’t been detached from the sled yet.

Atka just stood at the front of the group, but glanced back every now and then to check on the rest of the team, most of whom had settled down in the snow. The only one actually watching him was Kaskae, but Atka ignored the large black husky’s glare.

He just turned back to look at the ridge where the wolf had been and then disappeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abaise stood on the announcement rock in camp, waiting for everyone to gather, seeing Cracking Ice creeping as close as she could to the rock.

It was only a few moments later when Abaise stepped forward slightly to speak.

“Smoke Cloud has discovered that the long-haired human that Vixen and Swift Snow encountered has returned.”, she said. “She has come with a couple other humans and a team of sled dogs. They have set up camp in the tundra.”

Abaise heard worried murmurs, mostly from the older wolves, or those with pups. Cracking Ice and several of the other young wolves looked like they were about to burst form excitement.

“I want everyone to steer clear of them when you can.”, Abaise said, casting a glance at her. “They are not threats, but we don’t want to provoke the other humans or the dogs in anyway.”, she said. “We will leave them to their business and hope they leave us to ours.”

“What if they’ve come to watch us?”, Sycamore Branch piped up, looking embarrassed as everyone turned to look at him. “There were humans that watched our old pack.”, he said, glancing at his sister Dusk Sky, who was sitting beside him. “They put these collars on a couple of our wolves, but other than that, they mostly left us alone. We’d see them watching our hunting parties or scouts, but they just seemed to want to watch.”

“Sycamore’s right.”, Dusk Sky said. “They were actually very nice. They took one of our pups that was dying from a disease our herbalist didn’t know how to treat, and brought him back healed.”, she said.

“I understand.”, Abaise said. “But we don’t know how the other humans will react, or how their dogs will.”

“At least with their dogs we can talk to them.”, Kotsim said.

“True.”, Abaise said. “But still, my point stands. Do not interact with them if you can help it.”, she said, looking over her pack, seeming most of them nodding in agreement, only a few of the younger wolves taking a few moments before they nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cracking Ice had meant to listen to her mother’s rules, she had.

But her mother hadn’t exactly told them what to do if they found themselves confronted by one of the sled dogs in the tundra on the way back home from a scouting mission.

“So, you’re one of the wolves we’re here to research.”, the large dog said from his spot on a small rock, blocking the game path into the forest.

Cracking Ice eyed him, bristling slightly. “And what if I am?”, she said, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Relax.”, the dog said with a chuckle. “The name’s Atka. I’m the sled team leader.”, he said.

“Cracking Ice.”, she said, eyeing him.

“Mm, that’s a fitting name.”, Atka said, eyeing her. “You’re much different than any other wolf I’ve ever seen.”

“And just how many have you seen?”, she asked, her tail flicking slightly.

Atka started to say something, before he laughed slightly. “One.”, he said.

Cracking Ice raised an eyebrow slightly, before she titled her head. “Mm, then you must be such a great judge on what wolves look like.”, she said, earning a slight grin from the large dog.

“Well, I still think the name fits.”, he said, sitting down in the tiny remnants of snow left from spring finally being upon them.

“What did you mean, research?”, Cracking Ice asked, tilting her head slightly. “You said you’re here to research us.”

Atka nodded slightly. “I’m relatively new to all this, but my mother used to run in a research sled team.”, he said. “Basically, the humans set up camp, watch a wolf pack for awhile. Might catch a few and put radio collars on them, which are harmless.”, he said.

“Why?”, she asked.

Atka shrugged slightly. “Nothing bad, that’s all I know. They don’t exactly sit down and let the dogs in on what happens.”, he said. “It’s a struggle most of the time to even understand them. A lot of figuring out what the hell their noises mean.”

“I don’t envy you.”, she said. “For figuring out their speech and not being able to, you know. Go where you please, do what you please.”

He just laughed. “What do you think I’m doing now?”, he asked, straightening slightly.

“And they just let you out? Where’s the rest of your team?”, Cracking Ice asked.

“Well, no.”, Atka said. “I slip out of my tether. I like to roam some nights.”, he said.

Cracking Ice just hummed, flicking her tail, looking amused. “Well, definitely sounds like you’ve got a wild side.”, she said.

“Now I know you’re just teasing me.”, Atka said, grinning at her slightly.

Cracking Ice went to speak, but went quiet at a slightly distant howl. She glanced over his shoulder, and sighed. “I, uh, I have to go. That was my mother.”, she said.

Atka glanced back. “Your mother?”

Cracking Ice nodded slightly. “Abaise. She’s the pack leader. If I don’t get back on time she won’t be happy.”, she said.

“Sun, or Moon?”, Atka asked.

“S- sorry?”, Cracking Ice said, tilting her head.

“The humans call your leaders Sun and Moon. One’s a silver wolf and one’s a golden color.”, he said.

“Oh, then Sun. My father Kotsim must be who they call Moon.”, she said, just as there was another short howl. “I really have to go.”, she said, and went to brush by him.

“Wait.”, Atka said, stepping in her way, their muzzled close to each other when she glanced at him. “When can I see you again?”, he asked.

Cracking Ice went to tell him that it probably wouldn’t be ever, but found herself stopping before she said anything.

“I- I’m a scout for the pack.”, she found herself saying instead. “I travel up through here every couple of days. The next time I’ll be through here at night will be on the half moon.”

Atka nodded slightly. “Three days. I think I can handle that.”, he said, smiling. “I look forward to it.”, he said, before he trotted off, leaving Cracking Ice watching him go, before she turned and bounded off into the forest when she heard an angry howl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abaise knew something was up with Cracking Ice.

She’d noticed it after her daughter’s first scouting mission after Smoke Cloud had discovered that the humans were back. She’d tried to ask Cracking Ice what the matter was, but she had just assured her mother nothing was wrong.

Abaise knew better though, but she figured that Cracking Ice was just on edge, like many of the wolves were.

She’d voiced her concerns to Kotsim, but her mate didn’t have much to offer the conversation that Abaise hadn’t already thought of.

She laid curled up with Kotsim in the thin winter sunshine, the two of them curled up to try and converse more heat.

They’d moved to the mountains, into the sparse forest that covered the foothills. It wasn’t as protective as the coniferous forest, but prey was more plentiful, and easier to catch.

Even so, they’d been struggling. Abaise had finally had to resort to having the hunting party made of her pups do most of the hunting, as they were more experienced and better at catching prey.

“Abaise, get out of your head.”, she heard Kotsim yip, as her mate nudged her cheek.

She shook her head slightly, and turned to look at him. “Sorry.”, she said softly. “Just... worrying.”

Kotsim chuckled slightly. “Tell me something I don’t know.”, he said, grinning at the soft growl Abaise gave him. “We’ll be alright. We’ve had rough winters before, and we always pull through.”

“Yes, but never with this big of a pack.”, she said, her tail thumping worriedly. “We’ve grown so much even since last winter.”

“And that just means more helping paws.”, Kotsim said, licking her nose slightly. “It’ll be ok.”

Abaise just huffed slightly, laying her head down on his side, closing her eyes.

She hoped he was right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cracking Ice had not meant to stay out this late.

She’d been on a scouting mission to the glacier, hoping to find some kind of food, with no luck. She’d stayed out there far too long, desperately hoping to find something to supplement the tiny prey pile in camp.

Now, she was stuck in the middle of the tundra with the starting of a blizzard falling around her.

She could tell by looking to the west, not even able to see the mountains that she knew separated the glacier from the tundra.

She was starting to panic. She’d probably freeze out her by herself, as the sun was setting, she could tell by the fact that the light was slowly fading.

Cracking Ice just stopped, standing still for a bit, to get her mind in order. She had to come up with a plan, not pace back and forth. All that would accomplish would be to make her lose her bearings.

“Cracking Ice!”

The light gray wolf whirled at a bark behind her, both relieved and confused to see Atka bounding up to her.

Over the past few weeks, the two had grown close, Atka sneaking out to visit whenever she had a scouting mission in the north. But she had no idea what he was doing out in this weather.

“Atka, you shouldn’t be out here.”, she barked, bristling slightly. “This is just the beginnings of a blizzard.”

“I know.”, he said. “I’ve been waiting for you, and when I hadn’t seen you before the blizzard started coming over the mountains, I knew you’d be in trouble.”, he said. “Come on, I found a cave over this way. We should be able to stay warm in it.”, he said, turning and bounding off.

Cracking Ice wanted to be annoyed that he’d risked his own safety for her, but really it just made her heart melt a bit, before she bounding after the large husky.

Sure enough, not far from where she’d been standing was a small hill, a crack in the side of the rock, Atka disappearing into it.

Cracking Ice followed, squeezing inside, the opening a bit of a tight squeeze, but it opened up after. While there was a hole at the top, causing some cold wind and snow to blow through the small cave, it was nothing like the cold outside.

Atka had already settled down against the back wall. “Come on, it’ll be best if we curl up to conserve body heat.”, he said.

“Sure, that’s the only reason.”, Cracking Ice said, smiling slightly, her tail waving, as she walked over, easily tucking herself into a ball against Atka’s belly, laying her head on his flank, feeling him chuckle.

“Hey, if that’s what it’ll take.”, he teased, tucking himself around her as well, his head resting on her flank too.

Cracking Ice just relaxed, snuggling into him slightly. This wasn’t the first time they’d curled up together, but she knew that there wouldn’t be any chance to get Atka’s scent off of her after curling up to weather a blizzard together.

Her mother would know why Cracking I’ve had been so distant, why she took so much time on scouting missions now.

On one paw, it might make it easier, but Cracking Ice knew better. Her mother would be pissed that she’d disobeyed her order to not interact with the humans or their dogs, though, to be fair, it hadn’t been her fault. Atka had found her, not the other way around.

“You ever think about what you would want to do?”, Atka asked softly. “If your mother hadn’t marked you as her heir?”

Cracking Ice hummed softly at the question. “I’d probably just continue to be a scout. I like traveling around, seeing things most of my pack never would.”, she said.

“What about... father?”, he asked quietly.

She raised her head to look at him, meeting his ice blue eyes.

“What, like... go with you?”, she asked, tilting her head slightly.

“No, no.”, Atka said. “I wouldn’t even suggest that. Sledding’s alright, but only when you were raised in it. Besides, pure wolves don’t usually pull.”, he said, frowning slightly. “They’re usually used for breeding. The ranch I grew up on, they had an old wolf, Kenai. His mother left him there when he was a pup to stop him from starving.”, he said. “But he always talked about missing the wild.”

“Then what do you mean?”, Cracking Ice asked, still watching him.

“I mean, would you stay with your pack, or move? Just roam, see the sights farther even than here.”, he said.

“I’d probably stay with my pack. I like to wander, but our valley here is more than enough space for me to do so.”, she said. “And I’d miss my family. My siblings and my nieces and nephews.”, she said.

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”, Atka said, laying his head back down on her flank.

“What about you? What would you do?”, Cracking Ice asked.

“If I wasn’t a sled dog?”, he asked, humming slightly when she nodded, before he glanced away, his ears pulled back slightly in a bit of embarrassment.

“Stay here. With you.”, he said. “Be wild. Not have to deal with Kaskae or any of the other dogs that aren’t my biggest fans. Be able to go where I went whenever I want, without having to slip out of a lead.”, he said.

Cracking Ice had frozen at his addition of ‘with you’, looking at him, before she laid her head down on his flank. “You could you know.”, she said softly. “My mother may not want us to interact with the humans or any of your team, but there’s not much she could do if you wanted to join.”, she said.

Atka looked at her, his tail tapping slightly. “And if she did? If she didn’t allow me into the pack? What would you do then?”, he asked.

Cracking Ice started to answer, to say she’d respect her mother’s wishes, wait until she was leader to bring Atka in, but that wasn’t what left her mouth.

“I’d follow you.”, she said. “We could start our own pack, if she refused to let you join.”

Atka practically beamed at that, sitting up to lean over and start licking her face, Cracking Ice yipping in surprise at that and the cold across her belly his movement caused.

“Alright, alright, do that when it’s warmer.”, she said with a laugh, pushing him back down with a paw, and curling up with him again.

Atka just laughed. “Sorry, just... I’m really happy to hear you say that.”, he said.

“It’s the truth.”, Cracking Ice said softly. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it’s the truth.”

The two just curled back up together, talking quietly, plans for if Atka joined the pack, if they had to start a new pack, things Cracking Ice wanted to change as leader.

And as the blizzard raged outside, the two young canids found themselves falling more in love than they thought they could with someone so different.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

((Alright, part two! Posting this as is, cause I already knew when I started this that I would need more than just two parts (which was my plan). I will probably take parts one and two and put them onto AO3 tonight, so I’ll share the link here later! But for now, enjoy this second part, and the buildup for quite a lot of conflict and lore in the next part!))

#wolvden #my wolves #my pack #cracking ice #atka #sun and moon #wolvden writings #wolvden stories #my writing

[real-jaune-isms]

Volume 7 Chapter 3 Review

My first time with this, it’s probably gonna be longwinded and awkward...

Starting off with 3 scenes basically happening at once is interesting. The airship flying them in to start the mission, Ruby and Jaune getting briefed on it, and the whole crew getting their gear upgrades. The briefing conversation plays over shots of them all getting their personal briefcases of stuff, and of some normal soldiers fighting smaller Grimm in the tundra. The new clothes scene is most important though. We see: Their happy faces, Blake and Jaune both pondering haircuts while Jaune runs his hands over the sash he kept from Pyrrha (ow my heart), Yang attaching her arm upgrade, and Ruby getting at a new cape before Oscar approaches her. Oh, and on the briefing screens RWBY and JNR are registered as civilian Huntsmen. They have their licenses!!!!

Let’s talk about the cape for a sec. Her red cloak has been an heirloom she’s kept for 6 volumes now and about 17 years. The last vestige of her mother. So is it really such a good idea for her to get a new one and just go with it? Is that abandoning the sentimental value and very essence of the original cape? It’s been worn and weathered since Volume 4, so an replacement or a stitch job would be good, but the latter would be ideal. I don’t really mind the new one so much because she asked for it and clearly she had a reason for that. It’s the exact same in every visual way as far as I could see, and she’s keeping the old one. The message is still alive in her wearing it, and times must change. It’s better to get a new one than risk damaging the original any more.

Anyway, after we see the few shots of them prepping for this mission, a very old Geist possessing a bunch of ice and hiding in a Dust mine, the airship doors open and we see the team in all their new glory. They jump out accompanied by the Ace Ops, and all make stylish landings. Ruby only uses her pogo gunshots to slow her descent, and Blake swings her weld fixed Gambol Shroud to Spider-Man swing around the buildings to land. But Weiss and Yang use their semblances to do it, and the aura percentages on Blake’s scroll later represent that accordingly. Good attention to detail. And we hear from Weiss that using your Aura can keep you from freezing, a good reason why they can all wear such stylish clothes and not die of frostbite.

After Clover checks in with all the groups about keeping in contact and keeping an eye on Aura levels, Blake catches Yang staring and they have an adorably awkward exchange about Blake’s haircut and how Yang likes it but doesn’t know how to express that. Marrow seems annoyed he has to watch a high school love story unfolding in front of him, but Harriet teases him about being childish and that shuts him up. They head toward the mine entrance, but Team RWBY hangs back to discuss how uncomfortable they all are with having lied to Ironwood last episode about Salem and the lamp. But Ruby reasons that they don’t know if Ironwood is in the right mindset for that bombshell right now and they WILL tell him soon. Fair enough. A flashback to Oscar’s interruption earlier reveals he’s pretty torn about it too since it’s exactly what they hated Ozpin for doing to them. Either way, they enter the mine and a comment about the path being blocked leads to a chilling realization. This is the mine that caved in and killed Ilia’s parents. This is why her life went so terribly, and it’s a major reminder of the awful relationship between humans and Faunus and how bad things can get. That prompts Weiss to try and apologize for her own bad attitude about it all in Volume 1, and some harsh truths from Marrow about complacency with injustice for the sake of living free of making those hard moral choices. Wise words, a lot to think about with this world and even our own.

But there’s no time for thinking about changing the world’s prejudices, they need to send Blake through a dark opening in the rubble to see if it’s safe for them to blast a hole big enough for everyone or if there’s any nearby Dust they might agitate. I get the whole faunus seeing better in the darker area of the cave thing but... couldn’t Marrow have done it too? Or was he too big and thicc and they had to send the lithe teenager? I tease, I tease. Height and muscle mass may be the legit reasons, plus her weapon is also less bulky. Before she goes in, both Blake and Yang see the SDC logo printed on some discarded boxes, likely a reminded of the last place they saw it: branded on Adam’s face. Not a good memory to recall in a tight situation, but it shows they’re still dealing with that. Good news is, when Blake goes through there’s no Dust on the other side. Bad news, the Geist gives a legitimate jumpscare that literally makes Blake jump back in surprise and pull her weapon to shoot at it. That of course clues the others in that she found something, and we see Harriet’s weapon as she deploys mechanized armor to go over her arms and boost her punching strength. Reminds me of the controls for a mech, fake arms you wear and move in the cockpit to move the real giant ones. But these have plenty of power all on their own and bust open the wall of debris. Makes sense to boost her upper body strength to counterbalance the power in her legs.

They chase the Geist into the mine until they encounter the new Centinel Grimm burrowing up from the ground. Team RWBY gets to show off their weapon upgrades/new moves as they dispose of them: Blake does a lot of slashing and stabbing as usual and Weiss does mostly the same plus shooting ice at the bugs and using glyphs to stop them from lunging. But the real stars seem to be Yang and Ruby. Yang added sticky bombs to her gauntlets’ arsenal, and Ruby can now spin Crescent Rose’s blade 180 degrees to slice a severed centinel half on her backswing. Cool. But Marrow shows off his own party tricks with his rifle that becomes a large blade edged boomerang and the ability to stop two Grimm still with nothing but a snap and the word “stay”. Clearly a reference to dog obedience training and possibly showing the power words can have, a reference to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which I still believe he’s based on. All that kid had to do was say the word and the entire town came running to face a supposed threat. However, I’ve also heard that his inspiration is actually “A Dog and it’d Shadow”, which might suggest he’s going to go down a bad path for the sake of his own benefit... Regardless, Harriet zooms up and tosses the centinel against a wall, which seems to stop it. They report sighting the target and engaging with further hostiles to the others, who take that as a cue to speed things up. When next we see them, Harriet runs past Weiss and Ruby to take down the last Centinel with a single punch before Ruby had time to even take a shot at it. Instead of being petty about a kill steal, our little rose goes gaga over Harriet having a speed semblance like her, while the Hare of course boasts she seems to be faster based on Ruby’s reaction time. They suddenly hear Clover announce he’s fighting the Geist with Qrow, and when it eludes them too everyone converges in a central cavern.

Now let’s talk about JNR’s section of the mission until they meet up with the others. They make their jump too, Jaune having added Hard Light Dust to his shield and using it like Link’s paraglider in Breath of the Wild to float down gently, and then gravity Dust from the central crest to negate the final impact and bounce into a flip landing. Stylish~ We don’t see how, but Ren and Nora landed fine too. And their accompanying Ace Operatives Vine and Elm give rather indirect compliments, much to Jaune and Nora’s annoyance. As they walk through an ice tunnel and Vine reports its stability and their approximate time of convergence, Nora gushes about how exciting it all is before turning her enthusiasm on Ren. He handles a direct compliment about his new outfit about as well as Ren handles any show of emotion... he does not. He just tries to redirect the topic to the mission. Annoying to all the Renora shippers, absolutely, but also kinda his MO. His semblance, his very nature since the tragedy of Kuroyuri is to not get emotional because that can get them in trouble if it’s at the wrong time. He still needs to learn there are plenty of right times to have emotions, LIKE WHEN YOUR UNOFFICIAL GIRLFRIEND WANTS YOU TO RETURN THE COMPLIMENT!!! He better learn from that mistake... But at least there’s dense as a rock Jaune to compliment Nora instead and miss the point of what she was doing. The good boy is trying his best to be nice.

When they hear RWBY’s squad announce the fighting has started they start booking it and slide down an icy slope that’s revealed to have Centinels emerging at the bottom. Vine uses his semblance to stretch out and grab hold of the walls and Elm uses her’s to root her feet in the ground, both so they can stop moving toward the enemy. But that’s not JNR’s style, so they charge right into the Grimm and take them out quickly. A gravity burst shield bash from Jaune, new grappling hook mode for the blades on Ren’s guns, and Nora just bashes some skulls. This approaches earns another indirect compliment before they took finish the journey to the main mine cavern.

Meanwhile Qrow is with Clover and looking very cool in his new digs. They head in and discuss Qrow’s history of teamwork and how he doesn’t really do that anymore... cue sad STRQ vibes. Also he almost trips and Clover catches him, a perk of having someone at your side. After he gets the rundown from Elm, we don’t hear from thes two until they’re chasing down the Geist. It reaches its icy armored body, and gathers extra pieces from the walls around them. Qrow notices one bit it’s trying to get will pull down a support beam and warns Clover to stay back... just in time. The Geist gets away, but in its wake the two men share a conversation about Semblances. Qrow reveals his misfortune and how it burdens him to solitude or else situations like that one could go way worse. But Clover surprises him with the fact that his own Semblance is, of course... generating good luck.

The look Qrow gives him... a lot of people say it’s gay panic as he falls head over heels for this charming military man who can balance him out. I’ve come to see it a bit differently thanks to another post I saw. It’s regular panic. Panic and self-loathing, because he sees his perfect mirror image. Clover is sober, charismatic, a good leader, doesn’t ruin things with his very presence, and has skill and wisdom beyond anything Qrow has been able to demonstrate. This is everything he wishes he could have been for the kids from Volumes 4-6, the kind of huntsman he wants to have been at Beacon... a version of him who might have been able to keep Team STRQ together. But it might also be him getting a crush on a charming guy who balances him out. Regardless, they call everyone to meet up in the middle.

And meet up they do, the various types of Dust in the large central chamber having such effects as floating the dirt their boots kick up and evaporating a drop of Jaune’s sweat when it hits the ground. Cool set piece, though they need to be careful with how they fight otherwise they could set off the Dust and ruin the Amity Satellite launch site... and kill them. The Geist is hanging from a giant piece of ice jutting from the ceiling, and when the teams spot it the big boy dramatically drops down to fight them. Ruby panics upon seeing it added Dust to it’s body so they’ll have a harder time fighting it safely, but the Ace-Ops kick into action almost immediately. Elm and Vine use their Semblances to keep it in place and expose the Grimm joints between its ice limbs, which Marrow throws his weapon to sever. But that leaves some Dust crystals falling through the air, so the Flash gets the lightning in his eyes and speeds in to catch them before they hit the ground... Oops! I mean Quicksilver does his Days of Future Past thing to move around the falling debris at superspeed and grab the Dust... DAMMIT! I mean Harriet gets the lightning in her eyes and pulls a Days of Future Past to move around the falling debris at superspeed and grab the Dust. But the boomerang cuts another part of the arm and knocks more Dust off out of her reach. Lucky for them, Clover is there to catch it just in time. He passes the crystal to Qrow and jumps into the action.

The Ace-Ops continue to run around the Geist and to distract and disorient it, and they get the other arm off. With a flick of his lucky charm, Clover jumps up and loops his fishing line around the Geist’s mask face, and it actually hooks. What comes next brings a look of astonishment to Team RWBY’s faces. He pulls the Geist out of the ice by its face, and Harriet runs up its torso to give a jumping Shoryuken with her mech fists to kill the Grimm. But that leaves a lot of Dust crystals falling through the air, and the Ace Ops scramble to grab all of them. One remains and Harriet runs to get it... it’s a close call... and Ruby beats her to it. Who’s faster now?~ But much to Ruby’s surprise, upon seeing her in action Harriet claims Ruby’s Semblance is unlike any speed Semblance she’s ever seen, that there’s probably more to it than she realizes... or we do for that matter~ I can’t wait to see what they do with that. Yang points out that Ruby has an awful lot more going on in terms of power than Harriet realizes, earning a grin from Weiss and a very cute giggle from Blake. Regardless, mission accomplished and Qrow and Clover have a little banter over if Ruby’s catch was luck or talent. Glad to see the Atlas MVP’s acknowledge our Team has some skill of their own. Even happier to see Elm effortlessly put Ruby on her shoulder and carry her around to celebrate while Yang and Nora start dancing.

Next thing we know we’re back in Mantle as the police ship drops Forest off. He goes into an alley, where Tyrian suddenly appears under a flickering light to creep us all out and kill a short lived fan favorite character. RIP, good good protest boy. 

And that’s pretty much it. Sorry it took a while.

#RWBY #rwby reviews #rwby spoilers #volume 7 spoilers #rwby volume 7 spoilers #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #lie ren #oscar pine #qrow branwen #clover ebi #marrow amin #elm ederne #vine zeki #harriet bree #bumbleby #luck of the caw #forest the protestor #tyrian callows

[planetchildus]

Okay so hear me out. It’s rough. It’s so rough. There’s no title. I honestly don’t really know where it’s going to go, but here’s the birth of an idea. I figured I’d post it here first and just see? Once it has a name and a more concrete thought process, I’ll post more. Anyway I’d love to hear feedback if you have any. Cool thanks 👉🏻👈🏻

The frozen tundra crunched beneath the paws of the great beast. The wind and snow of the blizzard made it nearly impossible for any creature to make sense of the landscape, but she knew this waste well. And something, or someone had intruded. She had picked up the scent not long ago. Two humans. Both male. Invading her territory. She had left her pack to investigate, or rather, hunt. No one entered her land without invitation and lived. Her reputation was well known in the northern water tribe, and if the raging winds and blizzards of the wasteland weren’t enough to keep people away, the ferocity of the Bai Lang would. She enjoyed having that kind of influence over the tribe. A sort of respect that hadn’t been granted in the south. The scent grew stronger, and finally the form on someone moving along the horizon could be spotted through the raging storm. Bai Lang was not afraid of being seen, her white coat was the perfect camouflage. They wouldn’t know she was there until it was too late. The closer she stalked, the stronger the scent. She noticed that the two were moving in unison, but awkwardly. Once she was close enough to understand the smaller was being carried by the larger, she stopped. She recognized a scent. The smell was familiar, it triggered a memory. Warmth, sun, water, friendship, youth. Her heart raced. No one was dying today. She picked up her pace. No longer the hunter stalking her prey, but a lonesome creature excited to meet an old friend. But as she continued to close the gap between them, she sensed something different. Something had changed. The scent was the same, but life had changed her friend. Adolescence had come, new responsibility, new weight, new hurt. He was different. And this boy he carried, who was he? And for the first time since discovering them, she wondered, why on earth is he here? Her excitement faded as she realized the oddness of this situation. She would observe for a moment before making herself known. She followed him to a cave, where he sought shelter. Once inside she watched him bind the boy, who appeared unconscious. These two were not friends. A friend would seek help for one who seemed in need of medical attention. Not hide in a cave in the middle of a snow storm while tying him up. She climbed to the top of the rock, just above the opening, and listened as the older boy talked. Really just to himself, she thought. Your companion isn’t listening. And you don’t know I’m here. As she listened, she gathered enough to understand this situation. This young boy was the avatar. And her prince fully intended of taking him home. No. Not today. It had been a while since she had dueled a firebender. Or anyone. She began to regret not keeping up with her bending more.A howl pierced through the wind as she warned her opponent of her presence. With a soft thud, she landed from her perch on top the cave. Zuko blinked hard against the snow, trying to make out the new shape outside the cave. A pair of yellow eyes burned against the wall of white. He shifted his position into a fighting stance. The wolf snarled as her head lowered and her haunches bristled. He doesn’t recognize me, she thought. He has no idea who I am. As she took as step toward the cave, Zuko took a step back. She needed him outside, where she would have the advantage. Another step forward and a burst of fire flew past her head, singeing her whiskers. He missed on purpose, that shot was carefully aimed. It was a warning, like a sacred animal that knows its unmatched, but will still try and intimidate. If she were in her human form, she would have chuckled. Nothing had changed in him, not really. He would be predictable, and she would win this fight.

#atla #atla fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #Zuko #zuko fanfic #aang #gaang #gaang fanfic #oc fanfic

[nitewrighter]

May the Fourth be with you. (Gency Star Wars au please).

Also seeing as it’s May 4, I’m also going to plug my Star Wars OC fic “Wake” here if anyone’s interested in reading a story about a Jedi Healer and a Mandalorian trying to survive Post-Order 66. This fic however, is going to take place shortly after the fall of the Empire, back when Luke was establishing his own Jedi order.

—-

“Are you sure about this navigator?” Hanzo murmured as the two of them walked toward the cockpit.

“We’re past Hutt-charted space and with the feedback from the moons messing with our instruments this much, at this point, she’s our best bet if we’re going to find those caves,” said Genji, craning his neck slightly to see the willowy hooded figure a short ways ahead.

Hanzo pressed a hand to his forehead, “We’re dead,” he muttered.

“I thought we agreed we’d stay positive, brother,” said Genji.

“You’re positive, I’m realistic,” said Hanzo, “And of course you’re willing to bet our lives on a pretty face.”

Genji just huffed and elbowed him and they both shut up as they entered the earshot of their navigator. Hanzo was right. She was unnervingly pretty. A half-Diathim who towered about a head and a half taller than him, Mercy had a faint yellow-moonlike glow to her and large eerie ghost-blue eyes. two slits had been cut in the back of her cloak to accommodate her two membraneous wings that trailed only halfway down her back. She glanced over at him and smiled as he and his brother took their seats on either side of her to switch off of autopilot. He smiled back, felt Hanzo glaring at him, then turned his attention out the window of the cockpit.

“This is so exciting,” she said, looking at the fizzing and incomprehensible readings on the Ichimonji’s navigational monitor, “It’s an honor to help out the rebellion. It’s an honor to help real Jedi–”

“Not Jedi–” Genji quickly corrected her.

“Historians,” Hanzo peppered in.

“And it’s important to find alternatives to Ilum,” said Genji.

They were lying to her. They felt awful about it, but it wasn’t like her people were using all those Kyber crystals anyway. They could stand to part with a few handfuls.

“But you’re with the rebellion! You’re restoring the Jedi Order!” her voice was bright and Genji’s stomach twisted in knots, “You know, Masters Kenobi and Skywalker saved my people from the Confederacy years ago, and we still tell stories of them to this day.”

Yes we definitely care who those are, thought Genji, looking out the window. The thousand moons of Iego and their intersecting gravitational fields made the space around them a veritable minefield of debris, but she seemed to effortlessly chart their course through it. It was another couple hours before they reached their destination, though.

“Welcome to Thysoi,” she smiled as she brought them through the moon’s atmosphere. Thysoi was a craggy volcanic tundra of glassy violet-colored rock formations with steaming fissures and sulfrous-smelling multicolored pools. Contrasting against the violet of the environment though, were veins of bright blue wildflowers.

“So your people just… keep caves of Kyber crystals hidden away?” said Hanzo, gingerly stepping around a steaming fissure.

“We did not want further conflicts arising over Iego after the Clone Wars,” said Mercy, “We found our best means of protecting ourselves was keeping our resources secret.”

“Including the mountain of Kyber hidden on one of your moons.” 

“We mostly kept to Millius Prime,” said Mercy, “Empires and rebellions have come and conquered my people so many times, many different Diathim civilizations scattered among our moons were born and lost with the wars,” she gestured at a ruin that had to be hundreds of years old, “Including Thysoi. For a time, whole chapters of our history were lost among these moons as we focused on survival… My people, of Millius Prime, actually weren’t aware of these caves until after the battle of Endor. They started… singing to us.”

Hanzo rolled his eyes but Genji was fascinated by this.

“That’s how you know your way through all the debris fields,” said Genji.

“Yes!” said Mercy, excitedly, “Oh! You must have read Jovdan Saareti’s dissertation on the Journals of the Whills!”

“…yes, that is… definitely a thing I have read…” said Genji.

Hanzo dragged his hand down his face.

“Oh this is so exciting!” said Mercy, “Helping real Guardians of the Whills! You must take me with you when all this is done!”

“What?!” Genji and Hanzo spoke at the same time.

Mercy’s face dropped. “I–I won’t get in your way. My people have feared getting entangled with the Rebellion, but I can’t simply sit and let us be conquered by whoever’s in charge over and over again. When I get you these crystals, I want to come with you–And see the rebellion,” her eyes sparkled, “And meet Jedi!” 

“I…” Genji started, having a lot of trouble saying no to those big eyes.

“Absolutely not,” said Hanzo.

Genji looked over at Hanzo with some indignation but Hanzo gave him that steady glare. “It’s too dangerous,” said Hanzo, turning his attention back to the half-diathim, “You’re risking too much just showing us where these caves are.” 

“But the rebellion could use healers, couldn’t they?” said Mercy, “I’m pretty accomplished in my town, but I feel like I could do more…” 

“Oh–well–Healers…are… needed everywhere!” said Genji, “You’re just as useful around Iego as you would be in the rebellion!”

Mercy pursed her lips as they reached the mouth of the cave. “So you don’t want me to come?”

“We would love if you came,” said Genji as the three of them walked in. Her diathim glow became even more apparent in the darkness of the cave. 

“Genji,” Hanzo said his name through gritted teeth.

“But it’s far too dangerous–especially transporting something like Kyber across the outer rim,” Genji took her hand, “If anything happened to you–”

“Genji,” Hanzo said again with a huff and Genji released Mercy’s hand. 

“We should find and stow some of this kyber first, shouldn’t we?” said Genji, smiling and lighting up a couple of glowrods and handing one to her. She smiled as well.

The cave dipped deep, deep, into the surface of the moon. In certain chambers they could feel the sweaty warmth of nearby lava tubes. They would reach a fork in the cave’s path, and Mercy would easily say, “This way,” and they would continue on their way. 

Mercy, it seemed had no shortage of questions about the rebellion. She didn’t seem to have gotten that far beyond the Quarren-run spaceport Genji had found her. Thankfully the Galaxy was large enough for him to fudge up some answers for her. No, he was nowhere near Coruscant. He and his brother were Chandrilan. And he found the Jovdan Saareti dissertation on the Journal of the Whills so utterly moving that he simply couldn’t bring himself to describe them. She seemed very impressed by this. Hanzo stayed quiet for the continuation of their journey into the cave. Though there came a point in listening to Genji and Mercy talk, that Genji wondered if it was possible for Hanzo to hurt himself from rolling his eyes too hard. It was easy to lose track of time in the caves though, and they took a break and became quickly aware of how long they had been walking.

Mercy wandered off to look around the rock formations, leaving Genji and Hanzo to talk.

“I don’t like this,” Hanzo muttered.

“I know,” Genji said quietly, “She’s too nice. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

“You’re the one who keeps digging himself into a deeper hole in that regard,” said Hanzo.

“Oh and staying completely silent isn’t suspect at all,” said Genji, folding his arms.

“You’re just trying to impress her. Besides, that’s not what I mean. I don’t like putting all of our faith in some backwater moony when the stakes are this high.” 

“She’s not a backwater moony!” said Genji, offended, “Were you listening to her? She’s read Jovdan…Sarter’s dissertation on the… Willy thing.”

“You don’t even know what that means,” said Hanzo flatly.

“Neither do you,” said Genji, he straightened up a little, “Besides, I think she likes me.”

“She doesn’t like you, she thinks she likes adventure and Jedi and everything beyond the sad pile of floating rocks she grew up on, when the truth is there’s nothing but horror and death out there.”

“Well aren’t you cheerful,” huffed Genji. They both quickly shut up as Mercy re-entered the chamber, filling it with even more light between her own bioluminescence and the glow-rods.

“Where to next?” asked Genji.

Mercy’s lips were pursed. “I–I’m trying to figure it out but…” she pressed her fingertips to her forehead, “It’s like an echo chamber. It’s like we’re too close for me to find them.”

“It’s okay,” said Genji, “We’ll just take our time, let you re-center yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mercy, “I knew where we were going before…”

“You can at least get us out so we don’t die down here?” asked Hanzo flatly.

“I–yes…” Mercy looked down, fidgeting with her hair slightly and looking crestfallen. Genji shot a glare at Hanzo. “I… I really did want to help the rebellion, but…I just can’t pinpoint the source.” 

Genji suddenly grunted.

“Are you all right?” she perked up.

Genji shook his head. “I’m fine, just… got an awful ringing in my ears for a–” he grunted, “Oh that’s bad–” he said, covering his right ear. 

“You aren’t hearing anything,” muttered Hanzo, “Stop getting her hopes up–”

Genji grunted again.

Mercy suddenly touched Genji’s forehead with three fingers and the ringing in his ear suddenly evened out to the hum of a tuning fork.

“You hear the singing too,” she said quietly.

“That’s singing?” managed Genji, only barely recovering from the migraine of the previous ringing.

“If it’s weaker for you, you might be able to pinpoint its source better,” said Mercy.

Genji pointed down a narrow cavern corridor, “That way,” he said.

It was another 20 minutes of descent into the cave when the ringing in Genji’s ear stopped.

“Don’t tell me you lost it as well,” said Hanzo, but Genji gave a glance down to the glowrod in his hand and turned it off. Mercy did the same. They both looked at Hanzo.

“We need to be able to see in case there’s a cave in,” said Hanzo, flatly.

Both Mercy and Genji continued staring at him. He huffed and turned his glowrod off as well.

As the orange light of the glowrods dimmed out, the entire chamber lit up in green and light blue.

“…Oh,” said Hanzo.

“It’s beautiful…” said Genji, looking around. He heard the noise again, not the ringing, but the tune, and he turned his head to see a single crystal jutting out just so from a lumpy volcanic formation. He walked over and took ahold of it, and it snapped off easily, practically jumping into his hand. It felt warm in his palm.

“The Shimada brothers have outdone themselves once again,” A sharp voice bounced off the walls of the crystalline chamber and both Genji and Hanzo turned on their heels to see a white-haired woman clad in black and gold standing with one hand on her hip at the chamber’s entrance. Instinctively, Genji stuffed the Kyber crystal in his hand into his jacket.

“Come on, you didn’t think I’d let you two wander into nigh-uncharted space alone, did you?” said Ashe.

“Wh–” Mercy looked at Genji, and then at Ashe, “Who is this?” She looked at Ashe, “Are you with the rebellion?”

“The Rebe–” Ash sputtered and then broke into a high raucous laugh. “Is that–” she broke down into giggles looking at Genji and Hanzo, “Is that what you told her?!” She looked back at Mercy, “Oh sweetheart…”

In the soft glow of those crystals, Mercy’s face was stunned. She looked at Genji.

“We’re with the Crimson Dawn,” said Genji.

“No–” she started.

“We didn’t set out to be with them–!” Genji started.

“Genji,” Hanzo spoke and Genji caught himself.

“It’s nothing personal,” said Ashe, shouldering her blaster rifle, “It’s just the way these things shake out. Sooner or later, everyone gets played. Now,” she looked at Genji and Hanzo, “My associates and I can take it from here. Hanzo. head back to my ship, grab me a crate and some hover-dollies—”

“No,” said Mercy.

“Come again?” said Ashe.

“No!” said Mercy, “I set out to give these crystals to the order that saved my people! I’m not going to give them to you!”

Ashe huffed and drew her blaster from her side, “Goddamn bleeding hearts—” she muttered, pointing it at Mercy.

“No!” Genji lunged forward.

“Genji!” Hanzo moved to stop him. 

In retrospect it was very stupid even pulling a blaster out in a kyber crystal-filled chamber to begin with. Ashe fired, but Genji seized her wrist and shoved it upward. The shot hit a kyber vein in the ceiling, instantly resulting in a white hot blast that shook the whole chamber. Mercy saw the blast hit the ceiling, seized Genji around the waist and yanked him back from the explosion. Ashe and Hanzo were knocked toward the entrance to the chamber by the blast, Genji and Mercy were knocked back. There were a few beats where the entire chamber was rumbling as they were all groaning and trying to regain orientation.

“You just blew up 30,000 credits, you idiot!” said Ashe, stumbling up to her knees. She drew her blaster again but Hanzo seized her wrist.

“Are you insane?! You’re going to shoot again!? Look where we are!” he shouted in her face.

There was another rumble. 

“We need to get out of here,” said Hanzo, looking up at the ceiling, “The whole area is volcanic–if that blast means a vein of lava is headed for these crystals-”

“I’m not walking away from this empty handed!” snapped Ashe.

There was a pause. Still gripping her wrist, Hanzo head-butted her, knocking her out in an instant.. He didn’t have time to argue. He slung her over his shoulder. As it stood with the Crimson Dawn, Ashe dead meant a whole lot more problems for them than Ashe alive.

“Genji,” he looked back at his brother but saw Mercy clasping him in her arms.

“Go,” said Mercy, “I’ll get him ou–”

Another blazing white blast suddenly exploded behind her and she screamed. There was a beat where Hanzo stood in horror at the sight of them both consumed by the blast, but then instinct drove him to run. 

“I’m sorry,” was all he could think, “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t look back. He wasn’t sure what guided him out of that cave, perhaps it was the combination of short-term memory and sheer panic, but he and Ashe made it back to her Crimson Dawn barge and took off as more white-hot blasts and spurts of lava spilled out from Thysoi’s surface. He slumped Ashe’s unconscious form into the co-pilot’s seat, buckled her in, and took off. He watched the surface of the planet below, bursting and bleeding in white and orange-red, before taking a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, Genji,” he said, softly.

—

Genji’s eyes blearily opened and he groaned in pain. Mercy perked up next to him. He wasn’t in the cave, not anymore. Where he was was almost blindingly white. His eyes trailed to Mercy.

“You’re… you’re alive?” he managed to say.

She held up her arms, wrapped in mummy-like bandages. Several bandages blocked off sections of her face as well, mostly a large section of her cheek and under her jawline. “Diathim can survive the vacuum of space,” she said, a little ruefully, “Turns out we’re tougher than we look.”

Genji almost chuckled but it hurt to laugh. He glanced down at that Bacta-filled suit encasing his whole body, and then noticed that the legs were a lot shorter than they were supposed to be. He shut his eyes and took in a shuddering breath.

“Where are we?” he said, trying to take his mind off of what he had just seen.

“I got us back to the ship…back to your ship… but you were…” Mercy’s voice cracked, “I was losing you. I activated a beacon and… they found us.” 

Mercy looked over her shoulder to a young woman with spiky dark hair and freckles. The woman smiled and walked over.

“You’re on the Med-Bay Ship Breha 2,” said the woman, “Welcome to the Rebel Alliance.”

#gency

[bills-pokedex]

Hey Bilbo! I'm a dragon type field researcher currently writing my doctoral thesis (with an eye towards their relationship with their diverse ecosystems) and have been raising 'em for ages besides. It's exhausting work, but I love it (baby dragons are so goofy!). Please tell us about some of your favourites or some exciting new developments in draconian study! (I'm positively giddy over our new Galarian friends)

... “Bilbo.” That’s a new one.

Anyway, I do agree that dragon-types are fascinating creatures, and that the ones discovered in Galar are particularly so. Really, all of them are highly mysterious; there’s so much that we don’t know, which is to say you’re entering into a prime field of pokémon research.

On that note, I suppose the most exciting new development may just be the discovery of a dragon-type regi, not previously referenced in the Hoenn texts. Few people have been able to access the ruins associated with them just yet, but texts surfaced from prehistoric dig sites around Crown Tundra detail a terrifying beast of ancient Galarian lore. According to the story, the people of Crown Tundra once feared a legendary dragon that terrorized the lands from the skies. To combat it, the people summoned legendary golems of rock, ice, and steel—the titans themselves—to combat this devastating foe. Their battle raged day and night for nine days straight, and at the end, the dragon fell to the earth. To ensure that it never rose again, the people used the power they had wielded to summon the golems in order to fashion a new golem from the heart and skull of the dragon, and the excess energy pooled into a nearby statue to create a sixth golem of electricity. These two golems are supposedly housed at the very site where the dragon was slain.

But of course, that’s just a story, as far as we know. Some of the biggest research into dragon-type pokémon is really focused on the location of the ruins, never mind the golem itself.

Aside from that, to answer your other question, I’ve been partial to dragonite for some time—and I’m in fact still working on locating and making contact with a particularly legendary member of the species—but I must admit I’m growing more and more partial to flygon for, well. Personal reasons.

#asks #regidrago #regieleki #pokemon headcanon #pokemon lore #Anonymous

[1stunseeliefaelass]

Ale's Sidestory Part 5

It had been a few days since Death's last visit on his birthday. Ale had begun to wonder how preparations for him were going. Or if he had already met with Lilith by then. She would still remain as vigilant as possible for her Atan, or any sign of him. With some foresight, she knew fully well that Lilith was more powerful than her. Enough to the point where Ale was certain the bitch could obliterate her from existence if the need should come. So if she was protect her Atan more effectively, she'd have to get creative. Ale resigned herself to leave her village and explore around for an answer to her problem. Of course she left a recorded message on a small crystal for Death. Just in case he came around before she could return home. Ale wasn't entirely where to start or what to look for, but one thing was certain. She wasn't going to come at Lilith empty handed. Even if it takes a long time, even if she'd have to settle for taking vengeance on the demonic whore, she'd get it done. All for her Atan's sake.

Ale left her home at the crack of dawn, carrying a homemade danish to eat as her breakfast. The villagers watched her with equal curiosity and concern. Ale rarely ever left home due to her blindness, and when she did, she'd always end up needing an escort. The captain of the village militia came up to her,

"Elder Ale, if you seek something outside the village, then just send a more...able person. I'll even go in your stead."

Ale shook her head, "No no captain, I must go myself this time. But if you insist on helping me, then you may follow. Or if you're needed here, you can send someone else of the militia."

"You will need aid Elder Ale, that much everyone here knows. I shall accompany you as you've permitted. I have another who can cover for me today."

"Very well, come along now then. I started this early for a reason after all." Ale stated assuredly.

He saluted her briefly before telling one of his men to call for his second in command to hold down the fort while he was away. Then he hurried after Ale, who despite her blindness, was never once slow in her stride. Ale could tell where she was going to an extent with the living vines at her feet and hands, but an extra helping hand never hurt anyone now did it. For that she allowed the captain to follow her, he was young so his name was among the ones she didn't know very well. For now she'd settle for calling him, Captain, which he didn't seem to mind given their previous discussion. With his help, she eventually began walking in the direction of a road that would lead to a town an hour or so away. Well it was an hour away for anyone on a horse or other transportation. For those walking, it took about two to three. A long walk to most, but for the Lepus, it wasn't really that bad.

Meanwhile Death was actually traveling with his kin as they tried to find a new spot to set up camp for the next few days or so. It would last a few weeks at the most if they got lucky. Death was used to the moving, it was the way of life for him and his brethren. He just wished they could stay in one spot for longer than a few weeks at the most. Eventually the Nephilim finally stopped again, but only for a break. Death sighed at this, but took the time to hunt Strife down. He'd slacked behind a bit, his clothing not made for the icy tundra they'd come to. Death removed his cloak for him, but Strife quickly straightened up.

"Nah bro I'm ok....if-f anything...g-give it to War or F-F-Fury...."

Death watched Strife shaking despite standing straight, and looked down to War and Fury. Fury had passed out in her side cart that was attached to Strife's horse, on the horse's other side was another cart, where War sat patiently. Both looked just fine, having been bundled up by Death during an earlier break. Death chuckled and handed his cloak over to Strife,

"Just put it on Strife, you're not weak for being cold." Death told him gently.

Strife sighed before taking the cloak and putting it on. To his surprise, the inside part was actually covered with a thick fur. He couldn't help but bundle up in it a little.

Death smiled behind his mask, "Better?"

"Yeah, thanks Death. And I know I'm not weak to you but..." Strife stated in an unsure tone as he looked at Absalom from a far.

"I know Strife, but pay him no heed. He's always been mainly concerned with strength. At least you've got me to notice your accomplishments." Death replied patting his brother's shoulder.

"Yeah, that's true. Thanks again for always believing in me."

"Of course, now rest up and perhaps eat something while we're here. We may have more traveling to do yet." Death told him before walking back to where Absalom was. Absalom had gotten reports from his army that a few of their kin had expressed wanting to stop soon. Absalom wanted to keep going but Death, having overheard a few key details, told him,

"Perhaps I can scout ahead for trouble. It shouldn't be anything trifling. We've not seen anyone yet after all."

Absalom pondered a moment then spoke, "Very well Death, but I won't have you going alone. Take Strife with you."

"Absalom I just spoke with Strife a moment ago. I don't it's wise for him t...." Death tried to say.

"Just take him with you Death! If he's as tough as you seem to think he is, he'll be fine. Just get this done." Absalom snapped at him before walking off.

Death sighed before walking off to get Strife's attention again. Strife was predictably excited for this occasion. It was his second mission with his brother now. Death couldn't bring himself to express his concerns. That perhaps Absalom had asked for Strife to go along to perhaps weed him out. He swallowed this assumption hard into his throat. Strife, noticing this action, asked him,

"What's the matter?"

"Hmm? Oh Nothing. Let's get moving once the other two are taken care of for now." Death replied, leading the horse further into the group.

The vets were fine with watching over Fury and War, ready to teach them how to eventually join the ranks. Death and Strife meanwhile went on ahead, with Strife eating on the way. Death only allowed it since the wind was loud to drown out any noise he'd be making. They did not find much, as Death had expected. Though they did see the occasional mini herd of Limts running around. Limts were rodents about the size of a child's ball, with a bunch of fur covering their bodies. They also sported large mouths and drooly tongues as they panted every so often. They could live in all climates, so it was no surprise to Death there were some running around. Strife eventually joked to Death,

"Hey think I could catch one? They'd probably be good for a meal."

"Let's focus on our task for now. If there is indeed nothing, I'll let you try and catch one of them." Death replied simply.

Eventually the duo came across a steep hill, which lead off the mountain. Down the cliffs where someone who wasn't careful could fall to their doom. Death decided they'd best survey this spot a bit, as it could prove dangerous to be sure. After a little while, the two felt the ground shaking beneath them. As if something big was underneath the mountain itself. The earthquake like phenomena stopped as shortly as it had begun luckily. However, Death now noted the absence of Limts. Any that he did see, where scrambling around in panic. Hiding in little holes underground. After a few moments, the two of them discovered why. A large, mighty gray Dragon flew over them as the two men were swept off their feet by the sheer force of wind from the wings. Death grabbed a boulder that he could only hope was fixated into the ground under the snow. Grabbing Strife as he failed to grab onto anything. He placed Strife beneath his body, against the boulder as Death took the brunt of winds. Finally as it all quieted down, they stood up and saw the Dragon's tail clip the rocks high up. Naturally they fell and collided with more stones on the way down before heading right for the brothers. Death ushered Strife to move, and both ran for it. Death however became trapped under a large rock, or his arm did anyway. Death knew his arm was broken under there and that he wouldn't be going anywhere now. As Strife turned back to aid him, he shouted in earnest,

"NO! GET THE HELL OUT HERE! RUN YOU FOOL! GO!"

Strife only lingered for a moment as his brother shouted to him. He quickly took off, hiding just out sight as an avalanche came crashing down. Death braced himself as the snow came upon him. Death came to shortly after, completely engulfed the a cold, darkness. Above him, he could hear the sounds of frantic digging. Barely he also made out Strife's panicked voice crying out for him. Soon however, as he was beginning to slip into unconsciousness, a sudden burst of air from beside him came. He also heard little chirps and coos. Looking down, he saw an all white Limt with a single brownish black spot on it's head. The little critter was a welcoming sight, despite the fact he wasn't free yet. He took a moment to regain his breath thanks to the new tunnel in the snow, then he shouted as loud as he could,

"STRIFE!!! ARE YOU THERE?!!"

He heard Strife respond but couldn't make out what he said, he could only guess at this rate. Regardless he shouted to him again,

"GO GET HELP!!! NOW!!! I'LL BE FINE JUST GO!!!"

He heard footsteps above him heading off, he could only assume Strife understood. In the meantime, Death busied himself with using Harvester to dig himself out as best he could. Turning the scythe into a shovel, he poked at the snow above him and made it fall in droves. The Limt crawled up body to settle on his head, and eventually Death was able to see sunlight. He kept going until he was certain no more would fall on top of him. Even using some freezing spells to hold the rest of the snow around him in place. The Limt then hopped off of Death's head and began to chew at the snow around Death. He only stopped to occasionally puke out the melted icy water. Eventually Death convinced the critter to stop entirely and dug around himself until it reached his waist. Unfortunately he was still stuck thanks to the boulder, which was too big even for him to move easily. He went to strike at it with Harvester, but paused when watching the Limt walk up to it.

"Snow is one thing, but a massive rock is another story. You won't be achieving that by yourself fuzzball." Death said, though his tone wasn't unkind.

The critter seemed deterred at first, however, it instead began making little calls into the snowy abyss. From the snow, sprouted more Limts of various colors. They all converged around the one who called them and after an exchange of chirps and other cute little sounds, they all gathered around the boulder. Some even hopped onto the sides of it since it was jagged in spots. Then to Death's shock, the Limts all began to bite pieces off of the massive rock. Spitting it out as they went. This went on for a little while until Death was able to move the boulder on his own. It was still excruciating as his arm hadn't healed, but he powered through the pain all the same. With one final yell of pain he finally was free as the boulder rolled off of him with a last great shove. Taking a moment to catch his breath again, Death watched as the Limts stared at him now.

"Thank you."

He recieved happy coos of acknowledgement before they all scurried back to their respective holes. All save for 'fuzzball', who waited patiently for his new friend to come out from the snow. Death soon did so, and held his arm as he made a careful trip through the snow. Only to be followed by his little savior. Finally Death stopped and picked up the curious critter with his good arm.

"What do I look like a princess? What are you following me for?" Death inquired snidely.

He only a little 'merph' sound in response before it snuggled his hand.

"Hey hey easy on the snuggling fuzzball. Don't get so attached..."

He started to say before hearing a happy bark from the Limt. This certainly surprised him,

"Did you just....bark at me?"

The following barks convinced him he wasn't hallucinating that part. The critter only stopped barking when Death said the word fuzzball again. He then noted how this Limt was a little small, and realized what must've happened here.

"Great, you've imprinted on me. Ugh, fine. You can stay. But I'm giving you a better name than Fuzzball." Death stated, only to receive a tiny growl in protest.

"Ok fine you little weirdo, you can keep the name. Geez." Death said shaking his head.

Fuzzball then settled happily as Death wrapped his left arm around him so he'd be secure. His broken and crushed right arm swaying about in the meantime. Fuzzball noticed this and inquired about it with a worried cooing. Death brushed it off and kept going, as he could hear Strife being yelled at by Absalom now. Realizing this he picked up his pace, with Fuzzball purring a little.

"Wait now you're purring? What kind of rodent are you?" Death asked, only to get no response this time.

Explaining the situation to Absalom was a real pain in the ass for sure. But at least it convinced him to stop and camp for now until he could find a less dangerous spot for everyone. Strife was just glad to see his brother was safe, and didn't mind Fuzzball being around. If anything he adored the cute little fuzz bucket. Death decided to let Strife and the others get to know Fuzzball while resting up. His arm was healing, just slowly due to being crushed. Absalom really didn't know what to make of Fuzzball and debated making stew out of him. But since Death had already named it he decided against it. However he demanded proof that it could be useful. So Fuzzball decided to prove himself by grabbing Death's arm in his mouth. Limts has retractable teeth, and Fuzzball wasn't using them right now. Instead he began gumming Death and made a strained and high pitched call of sorts. He started glowing as well, and Death's arm glowed with him. Death finally woke back up briefly to witness what was going on now. He realized before long that Fuzzball was actually healing his arm. Within a few minutes, Fuzzball stopped and panted heavily to catch his breath. Death's arm still hurt in spots, but decided to heal the rest on his own, letting Fuzzball take a nap alongside his cot on a floor cushion. Absalom was still unsure, but kept his word since the critter had proven himself useful. Fuzzball purred in his sleep, lulling Death back to sleep not too long after. Strife then began to eat a warm lunch with Fury and War, making sure to save some for Death and Fuzzball when they woke up.

[lurkingcrow]

It has come to my attention that I maaaaaaay have gone a little far with that last bit of sad meta.

Just a tad.

So in honour of @fireflyfish I would like to tell you all how the Clone Wars ended with Peace Kittens and Cupcakes and everyone lived happily ever after.

So first of all you need to understand that it is all Qui-Gon’s fault. Sure, he may have been incorporeal for over a decade but it still comes back to him. And his strays.

See, when he was a young Knight, his hair short and braid freshly cut, Qui-Gon happened to be assigned a diplomatic mission to a rather wild and windy planet in the Mid Rim. Now as it happens, when he was caught in the middle of a blizzard seeking shelter amid the icy tundra, (because of course negotiations went explosively wrong) Qui-Gon felt the presence of a small animal in great distress. Being the Jedi he was, Qui-Gon just HAD to go and rescue the poor creature from whatever was threatening it.

It turns out that this particular planet is home to a rare species of large, vaguely force sensitive felinoids. Not sapient, but mildly empathetic. And they are fluffy. Very fluffy. Imagine something akin to a pale blue snow leopard.

And Qui-Gon has found a kitten, sadly curled up in the crevice between rocks and sending out a constant message of “lonely-lost-help-lonely-cold” and what is Qui-Gon meant to do except bundle the kitten up in his robes and murmer soothingly to her while she warms up?

He shares his food with her and sends lots of gentle emotions her way and the next thing you know the locals are absolutely stunned as the missing Jedi turns up from what should have been certain death with one of the sacred cats nuzzling contentedly at his neck.

Oh right. Legend has it that the cats are spirits of the snow, sacred messengers of… Yada Yada - look all you need to know is that they’re rare, and considered good omens and anything be who befriends one is considered somewhat holy. Qui-Gon’s furry friend has managed to single pawedly end the conflict he was sent to mediate without so much as a twitching her whiskers.

Qui-Gon is a bit reluctant at the prospect of leaving behind the kitten now his mission is over, but the locals are most accommodating - no, no they wouldn’t dare separate the holy kitten from her protector just yet, hey it’ll take some time to hammer out the fine points of the treaty so how about you take her with you and bring her back in about a year’s time when she’s full grown and she’ll be the symbol of our new peace? Ok?

Qui-Gon agrees and this is how the Mace learns to dread the prospect of Qui-Gon Jinn exciting returning to the Temple with a “souvenir” from his mission. “Treaty” as Qui-Gon names her is absolutely adorable and completely devoted to following Qui-Gon everywhere he goes. It doesn’t take long however before Treaty begins to grow. And grow. And the Temple has never been so grateful as the day Qui-Gon and his 300kg mass of fur and teeth leave to fulfil the conditions of the agreement. Even Yoda was somewhat relieved. Qui-Gon may have insisted that she was a sweetheart but the old Master did NOT appreciate the way she would hide in the council chambers and just STARE at them all until the tension was too much and someone would call a recess. Too much like her “parent” she was!

So off went Treaty and while he thought of her occasionally, Qui-Gon otherwise went about his business, finding trouble and collecting strays. And Padawans.

It’s now decades later and Qui-Gon and his Padawan are given the message that they’ve been specially requested for a mission officiating commemorations of this peace treaty. Wonderful! They land back on the windy planet and the locals are ecstatic to see Qui-Gon! Both furry and not so furry. Obi-Wan is a little worried when a giant blue predator seems to come out of nowhere and bowl over his Master, but he doesn’t seem to be in distress and oh, right! He’s heard rumours about “the devil cat” that once lurked about the Temple! She doesn’t seem so bad to him though…

The mission goes well and Treaty spends every moment twined around Qui-Gon’s legs purring like crazy or lazing beneath his chair playing with the edge of his robes. Until some idiot tries to set off a bomb and ooh, NOW Obi-Wan sees why the locals treat the giant cat with respect and awe!

So they track down the villains, attend the ceremonial renewing of the peace and are just about to leave when Treaty shows up after disappearing somewhere for a bit. With a kitten.

She seems rather insistent that Obi-Wan take the fluff all and the locals are in raptures about the luck this will bring, and so one again the Temple is greeted by a smug Qui-Gon Jinn accompanied by a small blue kitten (and one half heartedly scowling Padawan, because honestly you try to be annoyed with a kitten for more than a few minutes - it's impossible, especially when the kitten in question is an empathy who knows exactly when you're about to give in). 

The pair find themselves constantly assigned to offworld missions for the next year or so in the basis that Obi-Wan needs to start preparing for Knighthood. They both know it's really because Mace starts to twitch at the sight of blue fur and no one ever did manage to remove the claw marks from the central fountain...

For the record, Obi-Wan named the kitten "Nobody" . He took great pleasure in answering the question of "Who you looking at?!" when posed by assorted badguys who would shortly learn just how much damage a Celine's claws can do. Eventually though the time came when Nobody went home, and Obi-Wan reluctantly admitted that maybe he might miss her. Just a little.

(Years later he has a Padawan or his own and Obi-Wan muses that it really was a good thing he had experience dealing with a rapidly growing mammal who was uncomfortably attached to him and had very poor impulse control. He was rather amused though when Anakin eventually did get around to asking who originally owned the nest of blankets in this cupboard and he could truthfully answer "Nobody.")

Skip ahead another decade and the Clone Wars are in full swing. It seems like they can barely get a moment to breathe and then General Kenobi receives as request he cannot turn down. That icy little planet is once more insisting on a Jedi presence at the renewal of the peace treaty. Because of its position they can't risk offending the locals or else there's a chance the Separatists might get a foothold. So off goes Obi-Wan and Anakin, because the message requested two Jedi and he was in the area anyway.

Again, a Jedi steps into the snow only to be taken down by an overly affectionate giant of a cat. Nobody is happy to see Obi-Wan. Nobody is overcome with joy. Anakin thinks Nobody is worthy of his former Master. 

They spoil a separatist plot, and the ceremony goes as planned. It's time to go, and Nobody is waiting for them at the shuttle. 

With a kitten .

Anakin names her "Angel" because he is a sap and is absolutely besotted with this tiny ball of fur that broadcasts love and affection at him non-stop. It makes Obi-Wan smile to see his former Padawan so happy. Also, he would be lying if he claimed not to enjoy the look on Master Yoda's face when yet another of Qui-Gon's line ends up with a feline companion. He outright laughs when the council realises that Nobody came back with them in the hold.

The 212th and 501st get used to cleaning up cat hair and eyeing every shadow with great suspicion. Nobody thinks the clones are excellent playmates. Angel just wants to be up high. Anakin's shoulder is her favourite perch (he will absent-mindedly give her scritches while he plans out the next assault and Rex SWEARS you can feel her rumbling purr through the floor panels).

They have many adventures together, but what you really want to know is how this all saves the galaxy. The answer comes from the fact that General Kenobi is infamous for the way his giant carnivorous sidekick has made him nigh on impossible to kill, or even temporarily disable. Nobody is as overprotective as Anakin as both Ventress and Grievous have learnt, much to their chagrin. 

At the same time no one can separate Anakin and his Angel and the constant reassurance and love has left Skywalker calmer and more balanced than he has ever been! He and Obi-Wan have even managed to have a couple of serious talks about the nature of their relationship and the fact that they are both attached as all hell to one another. Oh, and Obi-Wan admits he knows about Padmé. When Anakin splutters and frantically asks how he knew Obi-Wan doesn't mention that they both have the subtlety of brick, but instead points out that Angel has a piece of Padmé's favourite feathered headdress beneath her claws and the synchronised "look at me, aren't I cute, don't I deserve a treat?" faces are not enough to distract Obi-Wan from the fact that it is they both slept at the Senator's last night.

So anyway. Sidious is irritated. Kenobi needs to go. Preferably so do the future rugs. But he can't do anything overt so subterfuge it is.

A Senate function is the perfect ruse. Knowing that Kenobi is allergic to a particular sort of space-durian, he arranges to have cupcakes catered using that fruit as the base. Oh, Kenobi will avoid the of course, but she will hardly be able to turn down the alternative Palatine had made especially for him! The alternative that of course has a high dose Force Suppressor added to the mix, which should temporarily render him vulnerable to external attacks. He has arranged a Patsy to do the poisoning, and all he has to do now is  pretend to oversee the preparations.

His request for Anakin to show up early to check the security arrangements works as planned and once the bothersome beast disappears for a bit, the Chancellor takes the opportunity to reinforce his place as Skywalker's "trusted mentor". He should have been paying more attention. So should his hireling. Because just as the drugs were about to be added to the baked goodness his syringe bounces light into the corner of the room and Angel pounces. Down goes the Patsy, down goes the giant kitten and up, up ,up goes the special cupcake to go "splat" against the gaudy chandelier.

Because he doesn't want to risk the hefty payment he has been promised the would be poisoner takes a look around and sees another, slightly fancier than normal, cupcake and empties his payload into that one instead before opting to skedaddle as fast as he can. Giant cats were NOT what he signed up for.

So of course and the time comes it is not Obi-Wan who gets a mouthful of Force supressents but Palpatine. And the funny thing about being a wrinkled sack of corruption hidden behind Force illusions is that when your connection to the Dark is broken, even momentarily? All those nasty side effects come running back in and suddenly you look every bit of the Sith Lord you are.

And this was a well attended event.

The cat is out of the bag and Anakin and Obi-Wan are forced to fight this most unexpected of enemies. It's not an easy a fight as you might think because while his Force powers might be mostly out of commission  a the Sith Lord's  a lightsaber skills are phenomenal. Palpatine does of course attempt to both to sway Anakin to his side and set off Order 66 but there's one major problem.

Darth Sidious, Sith Master from the Line of Bane, Chancellor of the Republic and Future Emperor of the Galaxy... Is allergic to cats. Oh when he had his powers it was easy enough to suppress, but now? Now he is constantly sneezing and can barely concentrate enough to let out an occasional bolt of Force Lightning!

The fight goes on but in the end Anakin makes the final move and fulfils his destiny. Palpatine is no more! And everyone lives happily ever after because of adorable Peace Kittens and cupcakes!

That's it for now! I hope you enjoyed it 😁  Please let any and all good kitties in your life know that if they spot any Dark presences around baked treats, they should feel free to rectify the problem through judicious ankle biting I. Honour of Angel's glorious deeds! 😉