#but he steals its artifact and tells himself its for research

[eric-the-bmo]

So for my game tonight- Theodore's unconscious right now, but as soon as he wakes up... Imagine this, because this is what the session's opening will be like for him:

You're ripped out of whatever dream-state you were in (was it a nice dream? did you forget everything you've gone through while you were sleeping?). You're on the floor.

You realize your body Hurts. Your nose is broken.

Maybe you'll vaguely realize where you are, or maybe you'll try to remember what happened-

But you're going to get decked with a baseball bat, held by your former friend/party member, who most likely has the intent to kill you. He's knows it's you.

Panic- fight back? Do you fight out of instinct or because you remember what you've caused and decided this is a viable act of karma, so you fight to get him to hit you more?

If you haven't by now, realize the consequences of your actions: Your mentor, who kept you from dropping out and had hope for you, both for the changeling and human world, is gone- possessed- and it's your fault. Your former friend's boyfriend is also gone, you tried to kill another party member's friend (and the party in general), and you've practically kickstarted a war while you were possessed by the BBEG. Your party already lost some trust in you earlier before- all trust is obliterated because of this.

Do you have anything left?

#ended up writing a whole essay in the tags again #im so normal about how horrible his life has become #he just wanted to have some escapism but got caught up into a resistance #and his quest for investigation and escapism lead to intense trauma but he couldnt just Leave #he has to stay and help save the world now #so he's plagued with nightmares and the escapism has become worse that what he originally tried to escape from #but he keeps going #because while both options are Bad at least there's fantasy and wonder here- he cant leave #and so he's offered power by the bbeg and fights against it #but he steals its artifact and tells himself its for research #and then he gets offered power by a villain and declines- he doesnt want that he just wants knowledge #he wants things to think about to distract himself from everything from the fact he's a college failure & from everything he's been through #and then the artifact offers him an escape with the possibility to change things- the Power to do that and make things better for himself #and to maybe release some of the anger buried in his heart #and theodore knows its fake. he Knows. #but he fails to resist just for a moment and now he's lost everything #and what does he have left? #he was failing college anyway and now there's no one in the changeling realm to help him. he's the cause of his own ruin #and so he's going to spiral. #his rage at himself with be extended outwards until he finally and completely destroys himself #theodore absolutely deserves consequences for what he's done #but that doesnt deny the fact i view him as a tragic character #(though i do worry if he comes across as too pathetic and/or whiny at times) #the discovery of the supernatural world made his life worse not only bc of outside factors but also bc of his own actions #Theodore was made to be a tragic character- he was never meant to have a happy ending- and by god is that happening #eric finally speaks #ttrpg oc #theodore carter #rainbow in the dark #ttrpg character

[crocwork-clockodile]

Chosen's Choice

This is my third and final piece that I wrote for my creative writing course, and perhaps the one I'm proudest of. Previous pieces are Don't Look Back and The Tale of Sir Gylbard.

Dividers by @plum98

Author's Note: This piece is a brief excerpt from a hypothetical longer story about a young man named Bran, who is a mage and the Chosen of Asta, the goddess of magic. Bran grew up always believing that this was the highest honour anyone could hope for, usually reserved for high priests and legendary folk heroes. However, as Asta directs Bran to continue surpassing his own accomplishments in magical research –creating new spells, new magical artifacts, new studies– with little time to rest in between, he is beginning to wonder about her supposed love of him. After communing with Asta and receiving his newest assignment, Bran rejoins his grumpy ally and self-appointed mentor, an old wisewoman named Muirenn, in her cottage.

Heart settling in his stomach like a lump of cold porridge, Bran pushed the cottage door open just enough withhis shoulder and slipped in. Of course, the fire was still burning quietly in the hearth, and Muirenn still sat facing it in her rocking chair. Her mug was empty now, resting on her lap.

“You shouldn’t have waited up,” Bran mumbled, knowing it was futile to say so. If he had any luck, maybe Muirenn would focus on him ‘fussing over an able body’ and forget to ask about Asta’s newest communication. He approached her, trying hard to look nonchalant. Muirenn continued to stare into the flames, brooding. No one could brood like Muirenn. Finally deigning to look at Bran, she examined his politely outstretched hand before placing her mug into it. Thankful for the reason not to look at her, Bran moved to the small basin across the cottage’s common room to wash the dishes from their dinner. He tried to ignore the way his gut churned as the thought of what this experiment Asta had asked of him would do to his mind, let alone his body.

“I don’t suppose she even gave you a pat on the head for the work she’s had you do, lad?” Muirenn’s voice floated over from the rocking chair, carefully unemotional.

“Asta always acknowledges my hard work,” Bran said. He tried not to wince when he heard how pained he sounded.

“Hmph. You keep saying so, lad. But she’s always got you running ‘round asking for better after you’ve finished.”

Bran didn’t respond. It was impossible to reason with Muirenn when she was annoyed.

“And now what, eh?” she was relentless. “What’s she got you doing now, that you’ve done the impossible again? Are you to steal fire from the sun? Bottle the demon king’s soul? Make a spell to turn ghosts into badgers?”

Bran gripped his sponge and scrubbed viciously at a stubborn bit of something in Muirenn’s mixing bowl. He couldn’t tell her about this.

“Well?” Muirenn’s voice was developing its familiar edge that Bran thought could shave a horse’s tail. With his shoulders creeping up to his ears, he searched for the courage to tell her about Asta’s experiment. He would need Muirenn’s help to take care of himself once he started it, and her knowledge of medicine was vaster than anyone else’s. Besides, she would only be more upset with him if he didn’t tell her, and she just had to watch the Sylvan Prism affect him in ways even he couldn’t predict.

“Asta was quite pleased with the Prism. She said She had never seen its equal,” Bran began. “She said now that I had distilled the raw magic of the Elves into a single object, She wanted to see how their wild, unpredictable magic would affect a mage.” He could feel Muirenn’s gaze like a hot poker between his shoulder blades. “She… She said She wanted me to absorb it into my body, to see how I could handle it,” he said in a small voice. “As an experiment.”

“Damn it, Bran!” Muirenn roared, thumping her cane on the ground as she rose from her rocking chair. Bran shot to his feet and whipped around to face her. “You can’t keep letting her use you as her little testing-rat! What d’you think’s going to happen when she finally bleeds you dry and there’s naught left of you but a husk? Or a pile of ashes or goo?”

Bran grabbed his field journal from the nearby table to shield himself. “She won’t do that,” he said, “I’m Her Chosen. She loves me.” This assertion, once the only thing he knew for certain in life, now sounded like a child’s plea for reassurance. Muirenn heard it.

“She loves your faith and the power that gives her,” she snarled, temper making her eyes shine like coals. “She loves you as long as you’re useful.” Muirenn strode across the room, the rhythmic pounding of her cane punctuating her anger more than it ever supported her frame.

“Well, what do you want me to do then?!” Bran cried helplessly, holding back frustrated tears. “I can’t tell her no! Asta’s my Goddess, I’m Her Chosen! What am I supposed to tell Her when it’s been weeks and I still haven’t gotten started?”

“That you ain’t killing yourself just because some goddess wants to know what’ll happen when she meddles in things that ought not be meddled in?” Muirenn suggested.

“I can’t tell Her no, Muirenn,” Bran insisted again. He knew this with the same certainty he knew his own name.

“Why not? You’ve already made so much magic, you’re the inventor of more spells than anyone in Chelonia. If anyone could tell some god that’s got greedy, it’s the one who’s been givin’ ‘em all the knowledge and power to begin with.”

Bran shook his head, clutching his field journal closer. “I can’t defy my Goddess,” he said, “I know She must have Her reasons for asking this of me. Besides,” he continued, almost in spite of himself, “I don’t even want to think of what She would do if I dared anger Her.”

Muirenn paused. She tilted her head to observe Bran. With her frizzy hair and eyes now softened from their glare, she looked more like a massive grey owl than ever. After a moment, she said, “People can always leave gods, Bran. When they’re not worth followin’ anymore.” Her voice was soft, unreadable.

 “So, what, abandon Her?” Bran demanded, “She’s the Goddess of everything I am! Without Her, I can’t do magic anymore. Magic is my life, Muirenn, it’s the one thing I’m good at, the one thing I love! You know that!”

“So make another one,” Muirenn said.

"What?"

“Make another goddess of magic, boy,” she said, her anger cooling to exasperation. “You can still have your mage power with a new bugger in charge.”

Bran wasn’t sure how to respond for a few moments. “Asta is magic,” he said finally, “She is the Web personified. Without Asta there is no magic. I’m a good mage, but even I can’t just make up a new Web.”

“Asta tell you that, did she?” Muirenn asked flatly, arching her eyebrow in a look that could wither stone. Bran couldn’t bring himself to affirm it.

“Aye, all gods start small, lad,” Muirenn said, leaning more heavily now on her cane. “None of them started out as ‘magic itself’ or ‘the sunraiser’ or the one who gets last judgment on your soul after you die. They got that way with faith. And new small ones pop up all the time.”

“But—”

“It’s just a matter of time,” she continued doggedly, “Asta’s only the one in charge of magic because charming supporters and history have given her a head of steam by now. And if you ask me, the world’s the worse for it.”

“Now wait a minute—”

“A god what doesn’t mind their business and don’t understand their place ain’t a god worth following,” Muirenn’s tone was once again razor-sharp. “They are where they’ve got to because it’s people what put ‘em there! The only reason any of ‘em are this big in their britches is because people got foolish and started givin’ gods faith. They do a job, usually important, but you don’t put faith in the local farrier. They’ve gone and gotten ideas now, but there’s no use for a queen bee without workers. Bees actually have more sense than most, because when a queen’s no good the workers replace her. The gods are only as good as they mind their jobs and take care of them as gives ‘em faith.”

And somewhere, in the core of Bran’s soul, a hairline fracture in the bedrock of Belief grew into a greater crack of doubt.

Thank you! That's the final piece from the semester! Now that I'm officially done with classes, I presumably have time to write more creative pieces, so if you liked any of these, please let me know! I'll know to write more and share them here. As always, please don't repost. Stay safe and healthy <3

#my writing #creative writing #Chosen's Choice #gale dekarios? granny weatherwax? never heard of 'em #this TOTALLY wasn't born of a Pratchettian argument i could feel inside me as i was playing bg3 and being annoyed with at least two gods #(does vlaakith count?) #anyway i think i still made this my own #please let me know if you like this #feel like i'm tossing my writing into the void a little bit lol #original writing

[themadauthorshatter]

MAJOR TIME AND EPISODE JUMP IN THE NINJAGO PG-13 TOUCH-UP UA!

We're jumping ahead to season 2 because I'm impatient and want to fix Misako; I WLL NOT HAVE THIS WOMAN BE CALLED A BAD MOTHER IN THIS UA!!!!

We're mixing episodes because we're starting with Lloyd watching school kids playing kick ball before he continues training with the ninja, which he is getting better at. When he's done, he leaves to go back to watching the kids play.

The ninja all get the jist that Lloyd's not himself. At all. He's more withdrawn after training and lessons, he's spacey, and he's just not all together.

Zane opts to talk to him, but Jay beats him to it, ruffling Lloyd's hair and telling him he's getting stronger by the day.

Lloyd thanks him and goes back to watching the students, particularly one that is getting picked up by his dad.

Now it's Kai's turn to ask what's going on. Lloyd repeats it's nothing, and leaves, though he gives one last glance at the father and son as they're approached by a woman, the man's wife and boy's mother; it is one of the worst reminders of who he is and what the dynamic of his family is.

The ninja debate on this, Zane seeing the family and understanding that want of Lloyd's, having personal experience with the whole "outliving his family" thing, but he's not going to go and talk to him about it because they've already bugged him enough.

Cue the serpentine and Garmadon being spotted at the museum and reviving the grundle, which I'm renaming the Valciraptor because this is PG-13 Ninjago now.

Garmadon wills it to life with the mega weapon, which is the 4 golden weapons mixed with the 4 silver fang blades, but only has it target Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane, shreds and scraps of their clothes, gloves, and armor to lock the Valciraptor on them and not on Lloyd, which Skales is starting think is tedious.

The ninja still 'stop' the resurrection of the Valciraptor, ensuing in a small little fight against Garmadon before he flees, and the serpentine generals leaving with the golden sarcophagus.

The ninja all give chase, but Zane, for once, is the fastest, stopping them just as they try attempting to get underground through a manhole.

He sighs at not stopping them, but secretly pats himself on the back for catching them before they could damage the artifact.

"Zane? Zane! Wait up!"

Zane has a moment of, 'wait a second,' before turning to the rest of the ninja, who are half his size, stumbling in their oversized clothes, and talking in higher, more youthful voices.

While they freak out over being kids, Zane can only suffer from a sudden existential crisis because he was now the oldest and must look after them.

Zane spots a cop car speeding toward them and, with a fantastic idea, races back around the corner they all just came from as the car stops infront of Kai, Cole, and Jay, Jay shouting they're the ninja when the cops ask, "What are you kids doing out, stealing from the museum?"

Cue Zane sprinting back around the corner, purposely misnaming each of the younger ninja as he embraces them all, saying he's been worried sick and thanking the officers for finding them; the three rascals wandered off again.

"Wait, these are YOUR children?"

"Yes. Hayden-" Zane gestures to Jay. "-has quite the habit of wandering off. And Nyle and Juniper-" Gestures to Kai and Cole. "-are good enough to keep their eyes on him."

"Why didn't you stop them first?"

"With all due respect, have you ever tried leaving a conversation with a more well off parent about our children wearimg the same costume, Officers?"

The cops nod at each other begrudgingly before the officer that has been silent speaks up, "Well, we suspect they stole the golden sarcophagus from the history museum about a block away."

"My children are 9 and 7 years old. How could they even LIFT such a heavy piece of gold? If you still do not believe me, check the security cameras."

They do. And it is shown that the children are innocent; the camera they watch from shows black and white footage and hides the foot chase between the ninja and serpentine. What it does not hide is the Valciraptor bones growing ligaments, muscles, veins, and skin, shaking where it stands, and then stomps away.

The cops excuse the family, saying it's a new animatronic they're working on, to ease a frightened Jay and Kai.

The team leaves, Cole on Zane's back for a change, and Jay panics, asking what they need to do. Kai isn't as freaked out, saying they're safe as long as there's light.

Cole tells them to calm down and focus befor asking Zane if he has any more ideas.

Cut to Lloyd taking a break from training and reading a comic book and overhearing Wu and Nya as they worry about where the ninja are. Before they can elaborate more, the phone rings, which Nya answers.

"Hello? Nya? It's Zane."

"Zane? Where are Cole, Jay, and Kai?"

Zane, dressed in normal clothes from a bag he keeps in a hidden pocket of his gi, looks over at Jay, Kai, and Cole as they all watch him, Jay staring off as he sits, Cole leaning against the wall, and Kai pacing back and forth. "Well... We are in the city, but we have a small problem."

"What's happened? Tell us everything," Wu replies

Cut back to Nya, Wu, and Lloyd, where we hear Zane through the phone.

"Garmadon brough back a Valciraptor, a beast that supposedly feasts on humans. He has made sure it targets us the most, but we will need to stop it before it preys on anyone else in the city."

"Why can't you just stop it?" Lloyd asks; Nya put Zane on speaker.

Cut back to Zane, who winces and kneels down, holding his phone out for Kai to talk into, though he does say as a joke, "Remember, son, speak nicely to others."

"You'd better be glad I'm a kid right now, Zane!" Kai snaps as he takes Zane's phone. "Sensei? Nya? Lloyd!?"

Cut back to The Bounty, where Nya and Wu are flabbergasted and Lloyd fights back a smile and laugh.

"Is... Is that you, Kai?" Nya asks.

"Yeah, and- HEY!"

"NYA, SENSEI, GARMADON BROUGHT BACK A VAL-CAR-SOMETHING, WE ALMOST GOT ARREDTED, I DON'T WANT ZANE TO BE MY DAD, WE LOST THE THING GARMADON BROUGHT BACK, AND I NEED SOMETHING WITH CAFFEINE IN IT! I'M LOSING MY MIIIIIIIND!" Jay shouts at the top of his lungs before Zane takes his phone back and picks up a now emotionally melting down Jay.

"We've had a long night," Zane sums up as he stands. "What do you advise we do, Sensei?"

"Do you know anything about this Valciraptor?"

"Yes. It is nocturnal. And it seems to be vulnerable to light."

Wu is quiet for a second before replying, "Stay in the light, then, and find out as much as you can." He turns to Nya and Lloyd. "Nya, Lloyd, ensure you join them the minute you find them."

They agree, though Lloyd giggles out a quip about the ninja needing protection, which gets an, "I heard that," out of Kai, a desperate cry for an energy drink from Jay, and an agreement and "Be careful," from Zane, and the call ends.

The group of Wu, Nya, and Lloyd set out, Wu going to the tea lady for something he KNOWS will help and Nya and Lloyd looking for the ninja.

Cut to a gag of Zane hanging up, Cole sighing at how the call went, Kai groaning, and Jay whimpering that he just hopes they bring a soda.

Cut/Time jump to Lloyd and Nya walking around the city as they try to find the ninja. They're quietly observing, until Nya talks about the comic Lloyd was reading, noting how he used to read it a lot before, but recently he hasn't, which is strange because she thought he loved the series.

He tells her that he does, but lately all he can think about is Garmadon and facing him in battle. The training doesn't help and, thinking back on before he became the Green Ninja or even found the serpentine, all he'd ever wanted was to be a normal kid with a normal family. Granted he's more than happy to be with Wu, Nya, and the ninja, but he sees other kids with their parents and he can't help but feel jealous. He doesn't say this word for word, but Nya gets the point.

They find the ninja at a library, Zane and Cole being the only ones actually doing research on the Valciraptor while Kai comforts Jay, who just got done crying.

Thankfully, Nya saves the day with a sports energy drink and Lloyd winks as he shows the back pack he has contains weapons for the ninja, which had been dropped during their freak out.

Nya calls Wu and tells him she and Lloyd found the ninja, but Zane informs them that he can't exactly find anything on the Valciraptor, save for the most basic knowledge, so they're at a loss for information.

That is until Lloyd notices a teen reading the same comic book series he has been, and tells Wu to meet them at the comic book store Doomsday Comics when he finds the tea they need.

Cole tells him to focus and Lloyd replies that he is, and knows someone who can help them.

The call ends as Wu arrives at the tea shop went to th o get the Traveler's tea, the owner jabbing that she hopes he's not going anywhere anytime soon because she's out of stock. He tells her he needs Tomorrow Tea, which she does to look for. Wu looks out the window and silently prays for the ninjas' safety as dusk approaches.

With the ninja and Nya, they arrive at the comic store, where they meet the owner Professor Doomsday, which is what Lloyd calls him, as he was the only teacher at Darkley's that was actually nice to him.

The professor is impressed by how healthy Lloyd looks now, compared to his school days, but Lloyd talks business, asking about the Valciraptor, and if what he taught about it was true.

Turns out this beast was loosely related to dragins and used to be a thorough replacement for assassins and was used more for fighting rebellions by tyrant leaders. It didn't hunt only ninja, it feasted on anything it could get its claws on, especially after consuming its target.

Zane isn't exactly listening, because it's completely night out now and the street lights are dim as hell.

Cole notices Zane slip out of the shop, but is stopped by a girl, who tells him her friend thinks he's cute.

Outside, Zane spinjitsu changes into his gi just as the Valciraptor stomps around the corner and growls at him. He glanes at the other ninja, Lloyd, and Nya still inside the shop, and then unsheathes his shurikens. "Let's dance, you poor excuse of a dragon."

He races forward and leaps to the Valciraptor, which snarls at him at comes close to biting him in half. Zane kicks off it's muzzle and lands on a street light, tapping it to try to get the light back on.

It only makes the beast angrier.

In the store, Doomsday notes that it's strange how Lloyd's friends want to learn about such a dangerous and mature subject concerning the Valciraptor, and Jay asks, "What if we were to say that it was brought back?"

Cue Zane being thrown through the window and the Valciraptor chasing after him; the comic book shop is pretty big, about the size of a Barnes and Noble shop.

Cole asks if he's okay, but Zane goes right back to fighting off the beast, which doesn't work because it bites his leg and slams him down twice before throwing him against the wall.

The other ninja change, not as well as they'd like to, Lloyd included, and Nya leads everyone out of the shop and into the street.

The fight gets serious as the ninja can barely ude their spinjitsu and Zane is knocked unconscious and almost becomes a popsicle before Cole pulls on its leg and it kicks him away. Jay and Lloyd are up to the plate as Jay tries something he hopes works, disassembling the lights in a didplay to make a replica light sword toy a become to scare the Valciraptor as Lloyd makes and energy ball and Kai attacks it with scissors.

It knocks away all three of them, making Jay lose the super bright light sword. The Valciraptor sniffs at Lloyd before turning to the ninja.

Good thing Wu arrives with the Tomorrow Tea and Nya, in a panic, throws it to the ninja, which Lloyd catches, until it falls out of his hands and into Zane's. Just as he opens it, Kai stops him, realizing that it will also age Lloyd up along with the ninja and Valciraptor. Lloyd shouts to use it anyway, but every ninja objects, Kai, Jay, and Cole wanting him to still have his childhood and not miss out on it and Zane begging him to not throw his life away, and that such acts are too unfair, even for a boy of Lloyd's upbringing.

The Valciraptor, pissed beyond all reason, tears the sword out of Kai's hands and goes gor a snap. Lloyd, acting in the heat if the moment, snatches the tea and shouts, "Nothing in my life was ever fair! What's the difference NOW!?" as he throws it right into the Valciraptor's jaw as it shuts, shattering the tea instantly and making it wither, age, and dissolve right then and there.

It also restores Kai, Jay, and Cole, Cole checking on Zane, who's okay, even though he's a little concussed.

In the sudden silence and ash, Wu asks almost silently, "What about Lloyd?"

They dig through the ash, and Jay gasps at finding him.

Lying unconscious is Lloyd, who has aged up to either 16 or 17. He has grown taller and thinner, lean like Zane, his hair is very long, and is now at a point to where his gi now fits.

The "episode" ends with Cole carrying Lloyd as the team goes back to the Bounty, Doomsday asking Wu to promise he'll take care of Lloyd, as he couldn't back at Darkley's. Wu promises and the episode closes as they leave.

The next episode starts from Lloyd's perspective as he wakes up, greeted by the ninja, Nya, and Wu. He's still sore from the instant growth and winces as he sits up and examines his hands, especially noticing that his feet touch the ground. He asks what happened, but stops and puts a hand on his throat, surprises by the new pitch he now has.

Despite everyine telling him to take it easy, Lloyd gets up and walks very stiffly to the bathroom mirror, where he sees himself and the result of throwing the tomorrow tea at the Valciraptor.

He's literally speechless, examining his face, hair, and body as he realizes what he's done in order to save his friends.

That doesn't stop Kai from saying as gently as he can that they tried to warn him. Lloyd asks very sharply if they would rather have him sit back and watch them die, and Kai barks that he, actually, shouldn't have been in the shop when the Valciraptor yeeted Zane through the window, that he should have followed Nya.

There's more arguing and Lloyd tries to do a stand off, but his legs give out from under him and send him to the ground.

Pins and needles race through his limbs as Zane and Cole help him stand up, Wu elaborating that Lloyd needs time to adjust to his new body, and maybe his mind too because he aged from 7 to 16 in the span of a couple minutes and now has to get used to the teenage hormones that are no doubt going crazy.

"But what about the serpentine and my dad?" Lloyd asks as Zane keeps one of his arms over his shoulder. Cole affirms that he's not fighting or leaving the Bounty until he gets better. Kai mutters that he also needs a haircut, tugging his hair for more emphasis.

Wu assigns Zane as the caretaker for Lloyd and assigns Nya to join the ninja, as they've spotted a small group of serpentine in the outskirts of the city. Kai and Jay object, but Wu tells them that Nya needs the training and Zane is more experienced in taking care of someone medically, which will help Wu exponentially.

Nya gets an old, plain black ninja gi and her own weapons before heading out with the team, leaving a very sulky Lloyd with Zane and Wu, the former helping him to the shower.

He holds onto Lloyd's hands and walks backwards, practically leading an wobbly legged teenage Lloyd to the shower. The last few steps, though, he lets go, which leads Lloyd to catch himself on the door frame before he falls.

"What was that for!?"

"I didn't mean to be cruel, nor do I intend to be. If you wish to find your father in a hurry, then this is the fastest way I can think to help you adjust."

Lloyd nods and takes his shower, struggling to stand every now and then, but getting stable on his feet. Zane's waiting for him, when he's done, with a pair of scissors. With a look at how long his hair is, Lloyd shrugs in slight defeat, "Make me bald."

Zane snickers and gets to work, having SOME experience from helping Nya and the other ninja.

With the ninja and Nya, they're successful in catching two of the five snakes, these two being a Fangpire and Hypnobri, and demand to know why they're in the city.

The Fangpire pulls an uno reverse card and demands to know what happened to the Valciraptor and Lloyd.

Nya asks why it matters, since Garmadon has the megaweapon, and the Hypnobri accidentally spills the tea that the megaweapon is "acting out" in a sense, not obeying its master's wishes and even starting to crack, which we see in a cut to Garmadon as the snake talks/narrates.

Garmadon commands the weapon to speak to him, but it only shows his reflection and grows cracks into it.

Cut back to the ninja and Cole asking what Lloyd has to do with it. Neither of the snakes know, but they need to find and retrieve Lloyd or Garmadon's going to get two new wallets.

Cut back to the Bounty after the ninja and Nya finish interrogating the snakes, where they see Zane walk out with Lloyd, who's getting a little better at walking and now has an awesome new hairdo. They all have to admit he looks pretty good, but get back on track with explaining what they learned about the megaweapon and Garmadon trying to find Lloyd.

Wu deduces Garmadon has practically abused the weapon's power and it's at its limit and tells a growingly stressed Lloyd he must stay on the Bounty, no matter what. Lloyd, however, isn't listening as he comes to his own conclusion: the snakes must have seen him use the Tomorrow Tea against the Valciraptor, but didn't see the monster die or him grow. They reported to his father, and now the final battle must begin NOW.

"This is all my fault."

Cole tells him it isn't, as the final battle was alway going to happen and Lloyd should really calm down because his hands are glowing with energy that his little body couldn't exactly make use of before.

With a shout, the energy blasts outward, knocking back the ninja, Nya, and Wu, just a little bit because he energies himself a shield. No one's thrown off the deck of the Bounty, Llyod just shoves them back a little too hard without directly touching them.

Zane determines the increase in power he now has and asks Wu if power is somehow connected to one's emotions, which he says can be the case.

Lloyd apologizes for almost throwing them overboard, which they accept as long as he doesn't do it again(he never will), and Wu tells him that his emotions and his powers are like different streams that go the same way; they're going to to seperate and hard to see together, but when they meet and converge into a river, they'll be united and strong. If it doesn't make sense, I'm so sorry, I'm not good at being a wise mentor. Lloyd is about to protest, but nods and agrees.

With the power of Process of Elimination, the team comes to the conclusion that Garmadon and the serpentine are probably at Ouroboros, all things considered.

They head there, their dragon following, which has totally been here the whole time, it just hunts and whatnot and comes back, though the ninja instruct it to stay with Lloyd once they reach the city.

During the flight, which takes a couple days, Cole finds Lloyd reading a book Zane lent to him, a fictional one talking about mature subjects like the societal underworld, politicians involved in and protecting people from it, and the society itself blind to what's going on. Forgetting Lloyd's sudden physical growth, Cole tells Lloyd that he's a little young to be reading a book like that. Lloyd, however, says he's tried reading it before, about a week ago, but barley understood it. Now he's starting to, proof that his mind is slowly catching up with his body. Cole takes a seat next to Lloyd as the younger admits that since his sudden growth, he's been seeing more of the world, kind of like before when he was younger, but there's more to see now, like he's a fish in a tank that's left the decorative house it stayed in only to find it is now noticing the tank is really the ocean for the first time, and is about to swim and explore it all.

Cole puts an arm around him, pulls him close, and assures him that he doesn't have to explore this ocean alone, that he has Wu, Nya, Zane, Kai, Jay, and himself(Cole) with him, as they are his school, if they're still using the fish analogy.

Lloyd thanks him, resting his head against Cole's shoulder, and admitting tearfully, and wuite self deprecatingly, that even with how much bigger he's gotten, he still has a lot of growing to do. Cole assures him he'll grow pretty quickly, knowing Lloyd.

They arrive and head out, the Bounty a good distance away as to not attract attention. Lloyd tells them to be careful, which they do, as long as he promises to stay put, Kai offering to buy him candy if he does, which Lloyd does not find funny at all.

Cole, being smart, offers that if they aren't back in thirty minutes, he can join in the fight, which Wu reluctantly agrees with, to calm his nephew.

They leave, Zane looking back and gesturing for Lloyd to remain out of sight as he stands on the deck.

Lloyd instead crouches and then sits down, examining his hand again before one of the dragon's heads rubs against it, so he can give ot pets. He chuckles as he does. "Guess I'm finally taller than Brad," he says to himself.

Back with the team, they arrive and enter in secrecy, watching from a close enough distance as Garmadon tries to make the weapon work as the serpentine return from searching for Lloyd and the Valciraptor, which they report is dead while Lloyd is purely missing. Garmadon groans and calls them all useless before pacing and turning to his last ditch effort: using the weapon to summon Lloyd to him.

Wu has none of that and spinjitsus his way into the center of the arena Garmadon and the serpentine have gathered, knocking out and away a few snakes and a general or two.

The rest join in and the battle begins, Garmadon and Wu duking it out, with Garmadon demanding, "Where is he hiding!?" as Wu snarks back, "This battle is between us!" while the ninja and Nya fight against the snakes, which are coming at them in very overwhelming numbers.

Cole and Zane are fighting back to back and doing fairly well as Zane hopes Cole was serious about that "thirty minutes" thing, because goodness help them if he doesn't show up.

Funny Zane say that as we cut to a sort of TV, Viewer prespective of a montage/jump cut extravaganza that cuts between Lloyd and the ninja fighting, quiet, slightly humorous, kinda bored soinding music playing for Lloyd as he rests his head in his arms on the table and looks at the clock to see only five minutes have past. He leans back with a sigh and blows some hair off his forehead as he taps a finger. Cut loud, kind of desperate, fighting, action music playing with Wu kicking Garmadon away and doing some wicked staff attacks that knock away Skales and the Fangpire general. Garmadon gets back up and the two have one of those weapon colliding glare offs as Garmadon seethes, "You stole my family once, I will not let you do it again!" He pushes Wu back and slashes at him, Wu dodging and asking, "You really think he will be safe back among the serpentine!? Not even you can protect him from them, and you LEAD them!" Garmadon shouts, "ENOUGH!" and lunges at Wu. Cut back to Lloyd, who's leaning against the railing on the bow of the Bounty and having a staring contest with Shard, who blinks, making Lloyd smirk at the victory. He checks the time on his phone and finds that seven minutes has past since the team left. CUT to Jay as he's thrown into frame by Skalidor before Zane dropkicks him for old time's sake. He helps up Jay, who thanks him, and they tag team Skalidor, who hisses at tail whips Zane and right hooks Jay. CUT back to Lloyd, who's balancing on the railing with the dragon watching, each head knowing what stupidity this 7 year old in a 16 year old's body is going to cause. He quickly switches feet ans his foot slips, making him lose his balance and fall to the dirt. The camera would linger on where he was standing as he hisses in pain and groans, "Ow." CUT to Cole as he wrestles the Hypnobri general to the ground and smashes his fist into his face, knocking the snake out standing back up in time for a Constricti to land on his shoulders and choke hold him. As he fights it off, Kai and Nya take turns fighting off Skales and an assortment of snakes, Nya even getting a few good hits in with her chakrams as she dryly remarks that she should've left ninja-ing to the boys. Cole throws off the Constricti and shouts, "Wherever Lloyd is, he better get here now!" CUT to Lloyd chewing on his nail as he's crouching on the ground, occasionally looking at the dragons through the corner of his eyes, like his eyes move but his head doesn't, and looking at the arena at the center of the city. He does this a few times before checking his phone again. Fifteen minutes has past and he can't take the suspense anymore as he climbs back onto the Bounty, quickly changes, and runs to join the fight, though the dragon trots after him in time to see him stumble a little. He saddles up and flies there instead, as he'll need all the energy he can get. (Thank goodness that's over.)

The ninja, Nya, and Wu are surrounded and back into the center of the arena, all of them bloodied, bruised, and worn from fighting, the snakes and Garmadon swarm in, ready to deliver the final blow, Garmadon having figured out he can create a killer lightning storm that doesn't TECHNICALLY go against what the weapon does.

Too bad Lloyd drops in super hero landing style and uses earth powers to knock the snakes back, and accidentally make the team fall. Garmadon remains standing and points the weapon at him, demanding to know who this tall, teenage, powerful ninja in green is; for anyone who says he should know his son is the green ninja, Garmadon doesn't know Lloyd threw away 9 years of his life to save the ninja, and it's kind of dark out, so he can't really see his eyes.

Lloyd stands up, stumbling a little, but still stands, gesturing for the team to stay back as he rises. He and Garmadon have a stare off before Lloyd gets into a defensive stance.

Garmadon laughs, remarking that this warrior is here in Lloyd's place, probably because they hid him somewhere. Lloyd's shoulders drop, because he's right there, but Garmadon interprets it as the ninja's plan being foiled, remarking that it was clever of them, but it was still stupid. He also can't help but thank Wu for keeping Lloyd away from the battle.

Before he can say more, Skales charges, clocking Lloyd with an upward swing from his staff into Lloyd's jaw, knocking him down. He shouts if THIS is Ninjago's hero, an amateur who's all bark and no bite? Lloyd kicks him back for that and stands as he picks up a sword one of the snakes dropped, holding it up as much as he can despite the weight. The snakes laugh, and Lloyd gives a 'bitch, really' face and throws the sword at Skales, which bangs into his staff and scares him.

"I'm not here to play games!" Lloyd shouts before pointing to the megaweapon. "The weapon's on its last legs. Use anymore of its power, and theres no telling what could happen!" Garmadon scoffs, retorting, "You expect me to just hand it over that easily?"

The serpentine back away, some even pulling the team back with them as carefully as possible. Lloyd notices and realizes what's about to happen.

Soon it's just Lloyd and Garmadon. Tv perspective, the camera would be above the now open ring as the two circle each other from far away, spinning counter to them. It cuts to a perspective behind Garmadon's boots as he walks, steady footed with Lloyd in the background of the frame trying to be tough, but still kind of stumbling. Cut to the same perspective, but behind Lloyd's less sure feet with Garmadon stalking in the background.

From where the team stands, Jay asks to no one in particular if the two aren't really going to fight, considering what the team knows. Upon hearing that, Wu has an 'oh, SHIT' moment, and tries calling out to Garmadon to not fight.

Too late, because he takes a swing at Lloyd, who barely dodges in time and gets a punch into the cheek that sends him back into the ground.

Garmadon shouts for him to get back up, that if he wanted a fight, then he'd get what he wanted, as he was the so-called green ninja. Those words, minus the green ninja bit, trigger a very unpleasant memory for Lloyd, one where an older boy yelled at him and beat him up for being the son of Lord Garmadon. He's snapped out of it with a kick to the face from a serpentine; he was unconsciously crawling away.

Garmadon shouts for his opponent to man up and stop being a coward and Lloyd shakes his head before standing up.

This time, Lloyd apologizes to his father and races towards him, using a trick he picked up from training with the ninja: he sends some lightning in Garmadon's direction, which he blocks, before sliding and kicking his feet out from beneath him, making Garmadon fall as Lloyd kips up, one that he's been practicing and celebrates pulling off prematurely. (Again, 7 year old in a 16 year old's body)

Garmadon gets up with a cool sweepy motion and kicks the back of Lloyd's knee before kicking him HARD in the face, enough to make his nose bleed.

He laughs that NOW this is a good fight, and asks very tauntingly where it's been in the first place, as Lloyd struggles to his feet as he holds his nose. He throws apologies and martial arts to the wind as he shouts and left hooks Garmadon close to the eye. Garmadon has none of it and uses two of his four hands to grab Lloyd's hands before returning the punch to its sender, kneeing, and kicking Lloyd away once more, but not without a surprise blast of ice to the megaweapon, freezing it to uselessness.

On his back, Lloyd fights tears as Garmadon shouts at him for getting in the way, being no better than the ninja and always trying to ruin his plans. Lloyd, barely able to keep it together, bites that what he's been told is true, that Garmadon really is evil.

Garmadon kicks him numerous times for that, in the face, ribs, and arms, shouting he doesn't know anything about what he's had to do for his son.

Lloyd crawls back and throws his hood off, revealing himself for everyone to see, those who don't know, at least.

All that rage and battle adrenaline Garmadon had immediately gets washed away by horror as he sees and recognizes the green ninja's face, even though he's bleeding, starting to bruise, and has tears streaming down his face.

Silence washes over the entire arena; not even Skales has something dry to say.

Garmadon and Lloyd stare at each other, the father struck with guilt and horror as his son glares at him as he doesn't bother trying to stop his tears, even backing away when Garmadon reaches out for him.

"L-Lloyd? How?"

Lloyd rolls onto his front and pushes himself up, grunting out, "The Valciraptor. I used tea to make it age into nothing but bones. Kai and Jay and Cole, the weapon made them turn into kids." He stands very slumped over and holding his side and turns around to Garmadon, who puts the pieces together, and glares at Wu.

"You... You fools! Look at what you've done to MY SON!"

"All Sensei did was bring the tea to our location," Lloyd replies as he takes a breath and straightens, wiping his eyes and meeting his father's gaze head on. "I wasn't going to let you take my family away from me."

Those words put a SPEAR through Garmadon's chest and opens the teams eyes, especially when Lloyd turns to them and smiles to say what he said was true.

Garmadon trembles as emotions flood him. He's beaten and attacked his son, turned his ENTIRE family against him, and has ultimately proven that the evil from the great devourer's venom has truly shaped who he is.

But he still has the megaweapon. With a shout, he smashes the bottom part into the ground, commanding the weapon to turn back the clock and to give him back his son, to give him back his boy and give him the power to destroy those who've taken everything from him.

The weapon cracks even more and begins to start working, but a panic reaction from Lloyd takes care of that:

The teen's eyes go from their usual red to green, and then gold as he shoots a blast of energy at the weapon just as it too blasts at him and the team. Despite a little back and forth, the gold and green blast overwhelms the megaweapon and it is destroyed in Garmadon's hand, leaving nothing but the fang blades and the now permanently dormant golden weapons.

The gold and green energy blast morphs into enery tentacles as Lloyd slightly hovers off the ground. Before they can do anything, he drops to the ground, the energy fading and everyone still alive. Garmadon's eyes lock onto the unconscious Lloyd and he drops to his knees, only watching him as his own tears fall from his eyes

The team silently collect the fang blades and the weapons, though Zane chooses instead to carry the unconscious Lloyd on his back.

As they leave, the serpentine all back off, giving them room to leave. Skales does try telling them to attack, but Garmadon weakly grabs his arm. "No. That's enough. Let them go."

The episode ends as the team reaches the Bounty and Lloyd cries as quietly as he can, which Zane notices. Kai asks if Lloyd's okay, but Zane says that Lloyd's just having a bad dream, as he did get triggered earlier, and will be okay when he's in bed. Kai shrugs it off, and Lloyd thanks Zane, who smiles sympathetically as the episode closes.

NEXT EPISODE: We start with a another jumpcut montage, but it's not crazy like before. Somber-ish music playing as we switch from Garmadon, who's leaning against a table while dealing with a major shame-over from fighting with Lloyd. The serpentine watch him closely, but are too scared to ask what their plan of action is now. Cut to Lloyd as he lies curled up in bed with the blankets over him. He's still physically and mentally beaten up by what happened in Ouroboros and would rather stay in bed than talk about it. Tv perspective, the camera would be on a tired and drained Lloyd as he hears and feels his bed creak slightly behind him as someone sits down. It cuts to show it's Wu, who has some bandages on his face from the battle and is silent for his nephew's sake. He goes to put a hand on Lloyd's shoulder, but Lloyd sits up and removes the blanket. They stare at each other before Lloyd hugs him, Wu returning the hug and rubbing the back of Lloyd's head. Cut to Garmadon staring at the sky, with Skales and some lower ranked serpentine watching him. One brave soul gulps and approaches him, offering some water, because he's been standing and staring for hours on end. G-Dog politely turns down the free drink and returns to standing and staring. Zoom in on Skales glaring him down as the serpentine quietly agree that since the fight, Garmadon's been about as useful as a water in a spray bottle used against a house fire. Cut to the ninja as they train on the deck, Nya included, all of them stopping when Lloyd walks out and awkwardly shrugs as he forces a smile.

As he warms up, Jay checks in on him, maybe we can have a visual gag of Zane doing something cardiovascular by running between where the deck meets the front and back of the ship behind them as they talk.

Jay asks if Lloyd's feeling any better, all things considered, including that he hasn't left the bunk rooms in a week, and Lloyd says he's fine, not as good as he'd like to be, but fine as he is. Jay then asks about what happened with the megaweapon, more specifically when Lloyd did the cool hovering thing, to which Lloyd responds that he still can't remember what he did or the events slightly prior, even though he's tried remembering and repeating what he did, though he does ask if they've had luck with the weapons and fang blades.

Kai pauses from his spar with Cole to say they've still had no dice. The elemental weapons are dead and there's no bringing them back. Behind them, Zane sprints around them, on a mission to get in as many laps as he can.

Lloyd deflates at the fact that Wu was right about the weapon being at its limit, but continues warming up.

Nya, from her place on some sort of mini obstacle course, relays that she and Wu did some digging and noted that the weapons had certain reactions when placed beside certain weapons; the scythe looked less like dead stone next to the 'earth' fangblade, the one used in the trophy for the talent show, there was a defined red edge to the sword next the the 'fire' fang blade, etcetera. Lloyd, who switched to doing push-ups, wonders what it could mean.

Kai jokes that maybe it has to do with Garmadon getting the fangbaldes and making THEM into another megaweapon, but Cole quite literally kicks his ass for this, which sends Kai to the deck with a surprised yelp. Cole ignores the glare from Kai as he says whatever the change is, it's most likely important. He also apologizes for how messed up his blood family is, concerning what Lloyd said about them being his family. When Lloyd flinches away, Jay tries to lessen the words by saying, "Hey, at least you still have Sensei. A-and your mother." Lloyd shakes his head at this and admits, "I wouldn't know. I've... never met her. I mean, I remember her, but... something happened. And I never saw her again."

The ninja ans Wu are dead silent, but Kai gets up to continue his spar with Cole, and try to steal the rank of leader, only for Zane, who's been running this entire time, to surprise leap onto his back and send him back into the deck, Kai shouting, "No! Not again!"

The ninja laugh, and Lloyd lets himself chuckle, Zane saying to him as he holds a wrestling Kai, "Regardless, Lloyd, I believe we should be able to make up for what you've lost, if you'll allow us." He nods and says he does, thanking Zane as Kai breaks free.

Too bad the moment's broken by an alarm going off, Wu informimg them that venom from the great devourer has been found at anither museum in Ninjago City, one that's bigger and more expensive to go to than the one where the Valciraptor was revived. They all head out, even Lloyd, who figures he could use the change of scenery.

Quick cut to Garmadon sulking, but a Hypnobri saying they found the ninja at sea, and that they overheard Lloyd admitting he was apologetic about what happened with the weaopn. Garmadon, too desperately, commands that they get there immediately, missing and smirking Skales, who nods a 'well done' to the Hypnobri.

Back with the team, they make it to the city, the dragon and Bounty hidden a top a building as they arrive, carrying the fang blades with them along with the dead elemental weapons for safe keeping, and because they missed using the weapons.

Turns out the venom, like before, has given life to some of the museum's exhibits, but instead of bobbleheads, it's extinct creatures that used to hunt in Ninjago before humans were a thing, creatures like sabertooth tigers with cobras for a tails, bears that stand tall as giraffes and are long as hell rather than squat and fat, maybe a mini Valciraptor and Treehorn, and all sorts of nasties that makes the hair on even Zane's arms stand on end.

As the museum's director explains the situation, Lloyd stops and notices a painting of a crowd, maybe a battle in a village, and the camera would zoom in on his face, more specifically eyes because his face is hidden, as he stares. TV perspective, the director's voice fades into a crowd screaming in terror, particularly a woman screaming for her child to stay with her before the child himself screams for his mother.

A tap on the shoulder from Zane snaps him out of it, the white ninja asking if he's okay, which he semi-lies about. They rejoin the group and find the beasties, each person taking on one: Cole gets the monster long giraffe bear, Kai gets a large, wolf sized doberman with a long long and snake head and a bat head, Jay gets the sabertooth, Zane has to deal with treehorns agian(he looks at them with a glare, pulls off his hood, and lets a very scary, psychotic smile grow on his face because these things are the size of pitbulls.), and Lloyd is left to a cheetah-horse hybrid that spits acid at him, acid similar to what we have in our stomachs to digest food.

Each creature is oddly colored and had grown a stoney patch with veins of the devourer's venom pulsing all theough their bodies.

Where are Wu and Nya during all this? Well, Nya saw a woman almost get nommed on by one of these creatures, but the woman threw NYA out of the way and dealt with it herself with a blade hidden in her research scroll. Another beast comes running, but just as she goes for her blade again, Wu saves the woman as Cole takes care of it, apologizing for being a bad driver. Wu asks if she's alright, the camera on him, and he gasps at who he just rescued, even though she would've been just fine.

Cut to the ninja each fighting off their respective monster and winning, though when they hear shouting from Zane, they find him panting in a room full of dust and stone bits with a smile on his face. They're all terrified, but Jay's the only one brave enough to say Zane's lost it, which Zane responds to by throwing a recreated treehorn bit at him.

Lloyd isn't as successful as the cheetah-horse keeps knocking him back with it's front hooves and going for a bite, though he does well enough to get a few kicks in and block it woth his sword. It snags his collar instead and shakes him into a wall, which makes him see stars, before it goes for a bite and Lloyd gets in a killing blow with a sword. It falls, and he lies on his back, worn from the fight and not noticing the mini, great dane sized Valciraptor bites his hood and drags him back, making Lloyd choke. He's dragged awsy from his sword and his powers aren't exactly working right now, so he's left flailing and kicking to try and break free.

Thank goodness a blade pierces the Valciraptor and a boot stomps in it, destroying the creature. I hope you remembered that woman Wu saved, because she helps Lloyd to his feet as he coughs and thanks her.

The two meet eyes and the woman gasps, the team rounding the corner with Wu at the lead. Lloyd has major déja vu as the woman holds his face, tearing up as she examines him, asking if it's really him.

Wu speaks up to Lloyd that he probably wouldn't remember, as he was a CHILD when it happened(there's being a child, like a little kid, and then there's being a CHILD, like a 2 or 3 yesr old) and a crowd that heavy would have been too overwhelming for a three year old to handle. The ninja are flabbergasted and Lloyd backs away, a look of 'it can't be' on his face before he runs, overwhelmed by what's going on and not turning back when the woman calls for him and starts to give chase before Nya stops her, saying he just needs a lottle bit of time. Jay apologizes for breaking the moment and asks who this woman is, considering how skilled she is for being Wu's age.

Wu states that this is Lloyd's mother, the woman taking the wheel and introducing herself as Misako.

Cut to Garmadon and the serpentine generals as they fly a fang-copter over the water, Garmadon looking and asking for where Lloyd is. Skales replies, "Right HERE!" and shoves hin into the water below, where he falls and resurfaces to see them fly away. He calls them bastards and traitors and swims in a random direction, hoping it's right because damn him, if it isn't. Skales and the other generals bid good riddance to bad rubbish and the other leaders decide Skakes would maje a great leader. He ddoesn't disagree.

Back at the museum, the team has split up in search for Lloyd, the groups being Wu and Cole, Zane and Misako, and Jay, Nya and Kai, who's joining so Jay doesn't do anything suspicious. Zane catches Misako up on the series and tells her what's happened. She's not too happy about the fact her son fought his father one on one and got his ass kicked or the fact that he thought it was a good idea at 6 years old to befriend a bunch of snakes, but knowing what happemed and what he's been through, she can't exactly throw in her two cents. Zane admits that she's back in Lloyd's life now, and the two of them can catch up personally.

They find Lloyd sitting with his knees to his chest near a bottomless pit, which is restricted from entering to the public, and Misako quietly sits beside him. Zane stays back, but sneakily grabs some rope in case they fall.

After a few minutes, in which the rest of the team arrives, Misako carefully puts a hand on Lloyd's head, apologizing to him as he meets her eyes. Turns out he's been crying and he sees that her eyes are tearing up very much so. Out of misunderstanding, and a broken heart, he asks why she left him. Misako quickly hugs him, crying that she held on as much as she could, that she should've carried him rather than led him by hand as he was only three years old at the time. He thinks back to that painting and remembers more clearly as Misako weeps it was an attack and they should have left as soon as it began rather than sit and wait for Garmadon. Lloyd remembers vaguely how his father was back then as well, and says almost bitterly that his father hasn't changed a bit.

Misako pulls away and gets a closer look at him, asking how he got so bug if only four years have past. Zane's the one to spill the tea, the Tomorrow Tea that is, and Kai tries joking about it, stealing my spilling the tea joke, which earns him 'drop dead' eyes from Lloyd and Misako.

Whatever doubts they had about Misako vanish instantly.

Lloyd has one more question, though: Where was she while he was in Darkley's, even when he was thrown out?

Misako gives Wu 'How could you!?' eyes and then hugs Lloyd again.

She looked everywhere for him. The bus he was put on headed toward Ninjago city while her bus headed toward Jumonakai village, the two locations essentially being like Maine and California. She looked in every orphanage, boarding school, refugee camp, and anywhere else she could think, going from village to village to try and find him. She never really found him, but she found out about the serpentine and the dark island.

We get the explanation from before about the Overlord, his indestructible army, and that HE'S the one Lloyd needs to take down, not Garmadon, though they all move rooms so no one falls in the bottomless pit.

The ninja collectively shudder at this, and then Misako notices the fang blades, asking about them and the dead weapons. Lloyd drops the megaweapon and fang blade bomb and Misako realizes that the great devourer is gone with a capital G, which is bad because it could've been a last resort. She also remembers something she learned, when Lloyd talks about the weapons reacting to the fang blades. She holds the nunchucks with the fangpire blade and everyone is surprised to see the weapons merge into a cook buton sai mix that can be nunchuck-y with the push of a button. Lloyd asks how it's possible, since the weapons lost their power, and Misako explains that things don't really die, they just become something else, something more powerful. This is a voice over as we see a giant stone warrior come to life with help from the great devourer's venom.

Cut to Jay taking back what he said earlier, because Lloyd's mom is a badass. He's not exactly paying attention, instead asking Wu and Misako why they didn't find him earlier or why Misako hadn't joined the team earlier when Lloyd was first brought on the Bounty. Wu explains that he had called Misako to fill her in, and Misako was on her way, choosing to travel by foot between bus rides because she was tired of getting cat-called by other men and having a sore rear from sitting for nearly four hours straight. She at first started the research to cope with what happened, but it became a hobby and "safety net" for when she couldn't find Lloyd. If that doesn't paint a clear picture that Lloyd is, was, and always has been her first priority, I don't know what does

The stone warrior interrupts the moment, shocking EVERYONE. It takes a swing and they all dodge it, Misako throwing Lloyd out of the way as she flips back and readies her blade again. Lloyd isn't about to lose his awesome mom, so he leaps off the wall and kicks out the warrior's knee, making it fall.

They run to a 'party' room, one that's proper for fighting, and the duel begins, the ninja unsheathing their weapons and each one merging his with a corresponding fang blade after seeing their weapons fail where Jay's succeeds. Cole's scythe mixes with the Hypnobri blade, making it a staff sword on one end and a wicked double bladed scythe on the other, Zane merges his shurikens with the Constricti blade, giving him a staff that his shurikens can be removed from that turns into a bow with ice and venom arrows, and Kai merges his sword with the Hypnobri blade, at girst complaining that his weapon is the same before seeing it is every pyromaniac swordsman's dream when the sword becomes something of a whip that spews fire when it slashes and cracks.

They do more damage to the warrior, Lloyd getting in aome good hits with his powers, which he keeps in check as Misako fights with him and commends him for doing well in battle.

Good times end when the ninja are thrown off and Lloyd remembers the bottomless pit.

He shouts for everyone to give him at least five minutes and ahouts for Nya to follow him, which she does, as the rest keep fighting.

Even though they do well enough, the stone warrior follows where Lloyd and Nya ran, the remaining team trying to stop it.

Cut to it finding and charging at a meditating Lloyd, Misako crying for him to move because he's right infront of the bottomless pit. As the warrior swings, Lloyd falls back, and the warrior falls with him, having lost its balance from swinging at him.

Misako and the ninja are all quiet, Misako fighting tears as Nya says that all Lloyd told her to do was move the rope around the pit and keep her distance, and that she didn't know he'd do this.

Misako sees a glow from the pit and gasps as Lloyd hovers back out of the pit, looking very much like how he did before when he destroyed the megaweapon to protect his uncle and friends. He touches the ground drops to his hands and knees with a sigh, looking back at the pit and laugh-cry about his plan working as Misako hugs him and slyly pulls him away from the pit.

The others are equally glad, though Cole threatens him that if he does something like that again, he's keeping Lloyd in a harness on his chest to keep an eye on him.

They try to laugh it off, even though Misako gives him murder eyes, and all leave the museum, Lloyd sheepishly asking Misako if she's coming with them.

Upon seeing the 'please say yes' in his eyes, she hugs him and agrees that she'd be more than honored.

The episode ends with the team welcoming Misako on the Bounty, and a cut to an unconscious Garmadon floating on his back and washing on the shore of the dark island, exhausted from swimming and plotting on how he can get back at the serpentine. From a first person POV shot, a figure watches him rest, hissing out in a distorted voice, "Ah. He's perfect."

#ninjago #ninjao jay #ninjao cole #ninjago zane #ninjago kai #ninjago lloyd #ninjago rewrite #slight violence #angst #emotional damage tw #daddy issues #reanimated animals tw

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Melting Ice and Warmth and Words

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Teba x Saki, 8505 Words

I made this fic for @zzariyo for my server’s gift exchange event! Hope you enjoy, I had a lot of fun with it :3

In which Harth is the gay best friend(TM), Teba is a god damn fool, and I become a lesbian for Saki. Also this was slightly based on a post about how Saki threatens Teba with a sword.

This is the tumblr version but check it out on AO3 if you prefer

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"Historians probably hate you," Harth mumbled, as he tested the weight of his bow. "This is, what, the third time you've stolen priceless artifacts?"

Teba continued flipping through the pages. The sound of rustling parchment melded with the crackling fire behind him. A soothing mix of leather and pine aromas filled the Flight Range.

"It's not stealing if no one knows it exists," Teba countered, not bothering to look up.

"Yet."

He shrugged. "Yet."

Another sigh filled the air, and the two of them went back to their respective preparations. Harth set down his Swallow Bow and went to fill up two sets of quivers, while Teba continued poring through the personal history of a dead Champion.

It had been a day or two since he had found yet another artifact from a century ago. The depths of the Flight Range, and the expanse of the not-so-well-kept records in the library hid all too many secrets, to which Teba had taken full advantage.

This journal was worn, cracked smoky leather showing its fragile age. Although in comparison to its two predecessors—Revali's Diary and The Great Revali's Diary respectively—this journal was in much better condition. Other than by the contents of the pages itself, Teba had discovered you could decipher the chronological order of the diaries based on how sophisticated the titles were. The more extravagant ones being more recent, that is.

The warrior let out a huff after perusing through another paragraph of dark, cursive writing. He continued digging through the pages with an aura of frustration. Harth, ever one to press his buttons, glanced back.

"So if you don't plan to inform everyone else about your latest finding, yet, what exactly are you doing with it now?"

Another turn of the page. "The same thing I've done before. Searching for clues."

A smirk formed on Harth's face. "Hm. You know these days it's hard for you to read a cookbook properly without help."

"Shut up will you, I'm trying to focus."

A shrug, and then a beat of silence; the two of them basked for a moment in the piercing wind that cut through the Flight Range.  The flickering shadows cast by the fire only served to add to the almost haunting beauty that tonight brought. The chilling midnight moon was a barely distinguishable sliver, white against white in the brewing storm. Teba could only long for the soft hammock of his home. Although, it's not like he would be relaxing anyway.

Nearly all hours of the day, if he wasn't practicing with his bow, he was poring through a damn book. It definitely wasn't out of a passion for reading, but more of a desire to spite his superiors.

Elder Kaneli had yakked his beak off about how the "bow of Champion Revali is our last physical connection to our valuable history" and thus was not to be taken out of its chest, ever. So there went Teba's dreams of dissecting it and constructing a masterful bow of his own.

Kaneli had said that a "young Rito like yourself shouldn't spend so much time out in the cold." So there went Teba's desire to devote himself to archery, shackled by the Flight Range's new "curfew," which was essentially a bedtime.

And, years ago, after a teenage Teba had found the very first diary of the Rito Champion, showing it off to the respected elder as quick as he could, Kaneli had beamed in his rocking chair and said, "Oh hoo! We shall get to storing it immediately!" So there went Teba's achievement, gathering dust in a box for a good three weeks before he had just decided to start sneaking into the records at night to pore through it. "Preserve the paper's integrity" his ass, he knew the librarian just hated him for that time his makeshift bomb arrow had caused her tail feathers to smell burnt for a month.

At nearly every turn, there was always something that hindered Teba's progress towards getting clues about how to master Revali's Gale. If that wasn't enough, Kaneli had been nagging him more and more lately about settling down and relaxing. Just a few years ago, Kaneli had been all about training him to be a mighty warrior, but nowadays the elder just couldn't seem to shut up about "exploring new pastimes!"

So here he was, with his new pastime. Reading, like the thrilling warrior he was.

Teba rolled his eyes after skimming through another paragraph. He hurriedly turned through a few more pages, the rustling parchment catching Harth's eye once again.

"So how's the research going? Is it just brimming with inspiring details about how to command the wind?"

Teba chuckled, although there was clear bitterness in the tone. He held up and flipped the journal around, so that Harth could read the contents written within.

"You tell me..."

~The Eighth of Nayru's Moon~

Once again, that little knight has failed to so much as acknowledge my presence. He probably wouldn't know charisma and impeccable skill if it was shoved right into his perfect face— and goddess believe me, I have tried as such.

Just today, I was— formerly assumed alone— at the Flight Range, practicing my Gale, when from the corner of my eye I saw him watching me. His face, an unfortunate yet predictable bland block of carving wood. Even after witnessing my masterful abilities? HA! His dead gaze borders on blindness.

To think, the King is looking to appoint him as the princess' personal guard. I should think someone as unperceptive as he would do better as a cleaning maid. Forget the quick instincts of battle, I'm sure he'd be dead in an instant. He just blankly looks and looks, and stares and stares. All he ever does is stare at me, unassuming... with those striking blue eyes of his.

Too striking. Distracting even. If he dares show his stupid, atrociously awful face at my Flight Range again, I might just have to nip his poorly drawn bowstring myself. Followed by a legendary duel to the death, of course.

Then again, if he for some reason stops by tomorrow, I wouldn't mind that much.

Harth leaned back and gave Teba a smirk. "So, that's a no on the Gale research then?"

Teba let out another huff, snapping the book closed and getting on his feet. "Nothing but boy troubles in this one. He has to have kept more entries out there that could actually be useful to me."

Fiddling with an arrow shaft in one wing, Harth went back to filling the quivers. He let out a laugh. "Ah, I'm sure it's not all useless! At least now you know you're not the only Rito in history who's terrible at flirting."

A scoff. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"That was literally about as straightforward as I could have been with this topic."

"Well do me straighter."

Harth proceeded to have a coughing fit for five minutes.

The sounds of wheezing laughter and less than polite comments from Teba echoed through the Flight Range.

"Hylia, I may not be looking for a wife, but I hope one day I adopt or something just so I can tell my grandkids how much of an idiot you are," Harth finally said, at the end of their colorful banter. "But yes, thank you for proving my point. A Boko skull has a better grasp on charisma than you."

The warrior crossed his wings over his chest, looking away. "Well sorry that I've been focusing on my strengths rather than dabbling in immaturities."

"Remember when you were in the infirmary and you tried to tell that nurse, Saki," he snorted, "You tried to tell her she had nice posture–"

"Shut it. Shut it and quit your grinning before I shove you into the fire and use the arrows as kindling."

Another laugh echoes, and the most Teba can do is narrow his eyes. But after a beat, he perks up and looks back in his direction. "How do you know her name?"

Harth raised an eyebrow. "Saki? Well I don't know, she treated me during that Ice Talus accident a month back. I probably just asked for her name at some point, you know, like a normal person." He shook his head. "Spirits above, Teba, you've probably been in that infirmary more than I have. Have you really not gained the social skills to ask for someone's name?"

He stared at the very interesting and engaging wooden floor, shifting his weight between his legs. "I don't have to answer that."

"Oh, woe is you. Kaneli never gave you a pep talk about how to make friends?"

"HA! I think our conversational topics peaked in the days where he actually encouraged my archery training. Less 'pep talk,' more 'lecture,' nowadays."

"Alright, alright, save your daddy problems for breakfast, Teba."

Teba glowered much in the way a Lynel would to its soon-to-be-dead prey, feeding Harth's amusement.

"Anyhow, you needn't go so hard on the guy, he just doesn't want you to kill yourself, which is especially relevant tonight." He turned around and picked up the now fully stocked quivers. "Now that you've finally managed to tug your beak out of that book," he tossed one to the huffy bird, "Let's go slay some monsters."

Teba's earlier expression morphed into stern concentration, emotion dripping away in favour of a practiced warrior's focus. He grasped one of the arrows and inspected the tip. "Fire arrows? Wouldn't bomb arrows be more effective on monsters?" The night seemed to turn colder to match his more serious tone.

The charcoal feathered Rito slung his bow and quiver onto his back, speaking quickly as he worked. "Not necessarily. We want as much vision as we can, can't risk getting blind-sided by even one of its attacks. Explosions would give even more cover to an already invisible foe." He also mumbled something about how he barely had the income to afford them.

There was a moment of silence as Teba calculated and turned over Harth's words, before putting the pieces together. He gave a confident nod as confirmation.

"So… have you ever slain a Wizzrobe before?" Harth asked.

The warrior smirked to himself, turning towards the exit with bow and quiver. White against white as he stood on the snow covered landing.

"Not yet."

- - - - -

Thunderous sounds in a frozen tundra; it came after the ripple of footsteps.

Jaded peaks weathered grey, the sky couldn’t be distinguished from the land. The snow had pounded harder and harder as they flew, flurries coating the feathered fletchings on their arrows.

Harth landed first, walking around on the open, frigid expanse. Teba did a sweep of the surroundings from the air. Nothing.

The base of the Hebra Mountain Trail— just under the shadow of the South Summit— this was where the last attack was. Hopefully it was where the final one was too.

There had been three travelers total; two Rito, one Hylian merchant. Minor injuries. Most all ran away at the first sign of frostbite. It was normal for the occasional monster attack to come up every now and again, and it just wouldn’t be worth the resources to hunt down every Lizalfos and Bokoblin that happened upon some unfortunate soul. By the time anyone lives to tell the tale, the beast has probably already moved miles from where it was last seen. The Hebra wasn’t exactly the most accommodating of places to enjoy long term.

And so that was the excuse. Save the supplies for bigger threats. An Ice Talus, Hinox… Hylia forbid a Lynel. A Wizzrobe would probably be off dancing in the sunset by now, and thus, no warriors should waste supplies looking for an “unnecessary fight."

Teba remembered scoffing when he heard the news— a scoff apparently so spiteful, that it had earned him a rare glare from Kaneli.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Teba. You won’t be recklessly going off alone to find it, understand? I mean it!”

Teba perched on one of the cliffs, getting a clear view of Harth below, surrounded by white on white on white. Harth turned his head and gave a thumbs up in his direction.

Well, that was one half of the instructions followed. The “stupid” part is still up in the air, though.

Teba unslung his Falcon Bow from his back, resting a fire arrow on the bowstring’s serving. If someone were to look up at where he crouched, they would be greeted by a piercing golden gaze; a pair of cold suns that sent you shivering.

That was the intent, anyhow. A warrior with a gaze like fire. Like lightning, like metal, like suns, like steel. That’s what he’d been told in the past, so he might as well use it to his advantage.

Still… he remembered once how someone had compared them to honey.

“What?” He had been taken aback by the sudden observation.

“Or like butterscotch… I use it a lot when baking. Oh! I’ve seen gorgeous dandelions like it too.” The nurse—“Saki?” Did Harth say?—tended to the wound just below his eye. “You should be thankful the color is so pleasant, the sight is probably what caused that Moblin to miss its mark!” Saki smiled and for the first time, Teba understood what it meant to call something “the sun.”

“Make sure you don’t use those eyes of yours to go looking for more trouble. Or else…” She had narrowed her eyes playfully. Noticing him just staring at her in silence, she cocked her head to the side, curious.

“Sorry, was there something you wanted to say to me?”

Yeah, but I’m not sure what. All he could really notice at that moment was how relaxed her posture was around him. Usually, he was surrounded by his fellow rigid warriors, or the stance of someone that looked in his eyes and saw fire. So…she was a nice change of pace.

Too bad his communication skills could be trumped by a deflated octoballon. Teba's sigh manifested into a small white puff in the cold air. Nevermind that now.

He had to stay focused. Teba would cut no corners when it came to using Harth as bait. However, he couldn’t deny the somewhat pissy mood he was in. No Gale, no practice, no clues, no fights. Sooner or later the village might just strap him into a rocking chair and say it was for the best. What a joke… At least killing off a dangerous creature would help let off some steam— ice? Magic ice…water…arrows… fuck.

Teba rolled his eyes at his own incompetence. Can’t even be a decent wordsmith in my own head. Harth was right.

A sudden flash of movement and his mind immediately crashed back to reality. Eyes instantly trained back to the ash colored Rito on the ground, who had now turned and aimed his bow at the horizon. Not even a second after the movement was made, Teba had an arrow nocked and aimed in one practiced, fluid motion.

Harth had two arrows nocked, aiming towards an unseen target obscured in the haze of snow.

Black against the pale of midnight’s frigid sheet of snow. If Harth could see something, it would no doubt also see him. He stepped forward, Swallow Bow unwavering in the wind

Teba adjusted the draw of his bow, training its angle to match Harth’s movements and ready to release at a moments notice.

The crunch of talons on snow. A small patch of dead bushes just a few paces in front of Harth.

One step.

Two…

Suddenly, an arctic fox dashed to the right and disappeared into the snow.

A draining silence. Steady, freezing breaths condense into puffs of clouds out of Teba’s beak. There was still a knot of tension in his chest, but he could start to feel it ripple out, like a patter of footsteps as a mix of closed off fear and anxiety walked out the door. Still, he didn’t falter his draw. After a moment, he saw Harth put down his bow and sigh. The Rito turned towards Teba’s direction to give him a smile and a shrug.

Harth met his gaze.

Then, the expression on his face suddenly morphed into shock.

Teba didn’t think twice.

He snapped around and let gravity take him, loosing the already nocked flame. The hiss of fire flew and connected with its target with a satisfying crack! Midfall, he could hear Harth shout a much too late “Behind you!”

The fire arrow hit rock, crumbling stones clash against snow. The burst of flame roared like thunder on the cliffside. Although the creature wasn’t hit, the area of effect was still large enough to singe at the tips of cloth.

A pearly white robe that faded deathly blue. The glow of ice and dark silhouette. A shrill cry escaped from the Wizzrobe that had stood, wand in hand, behind Teba’s perch just seconds ago. Even in distress, it wore a chilling grin.

Bastard. You won’t get another chance.

Another flame nocked and loosed with lightning speed.

The creature laughed, as if in pity, and twirled in its step.

Gone.

Teba gave a flap of his wings to stop his momentum. His talons safely connected with the ground, and Harth was at his side at once.

“Are you alright!? Are you hit?!” Harth started to inspect his wing, but Teba continued staring at the sky, “S-Say something, dammit! Teba we need to—”

He held up a wing, the gesture with an unspoken tone of “shut it.” Teba readied another fire arrow and pointed into the air. He whispered.

“Listen…”

His eyes narrowed in concentration, trying to discern sounds from the muffle of wind. Harth pressed back and covered Teba’s blind spot, nocking an arrow of his own.

The wind was unaccompanied. The dead bushes shuddered a tempo.

And then the midnight sang.

Like the pleasant echo of a music box…a lullaby that seemed to twinkle against the brink of night and day. A ripple of footsteps. A sparkle to his left, skipping like stones, as if the wind was water. There was a faint laugh, but Teba was the one to smile.

Gotcha.

The Wizzrobe had barely manifested before the fire arrow flew. A burst of orange connected with its frail arm, and the creature shrieked. Harth quickly turned and fired his own shot, the arrow nearly lodging into its face, but arching low and hitting its torso instead. The Wizzrobe panicked while the two Rito went to reload.

“Go for the face!” Harth shouted as he went to grab two arrows from his quiver. “It’s the only part that’s not protected by that stupid magic robe!”

As if on cue, the Wizzrobe had started laughing to itself, its arms flailing wildly as the flames that engulfed its person suddenly disappeared. It gripped its Blizzard Rod in both hands, starting to twirl with a sickening grin.

Teba aimed for the sky. “Move!”

Harth shuffled back in obedience as fire soared. The arrow crashed into a giant sphere of ice that hurtled from the heavens, shattering into pieces just a few feet above their head.

The impact caused them both to fly backwards, the bow knocked out of Teba’s grip.

Hmm… fuck.

Teba crashed hard, tasting dirt and snow. Luckily Harth was able to get in position to fire an arrow.

Its arc through the air was cut short by multiple more icy spheres hurtling down around the Wizzrobe.

Harth cursed under his breath. While they were far enough away to avoid the barrage of ice magic that would no doubt freeze them with a single touch, it would be nearly impossible to get close enough for a kill. Teba picked himself up and crouched beside Harth.

“How much fire total?”

Harth shook his head and stared at the ground. “I was so concerned with not arousing suspicion…sneaking out to fight was one thing, but—”

“This is no time for regrets. How many fire arrows, dammit?”

Harth let out a huff. “I bought a bundle of five and split them between us. The last fifteen in each quiver are regular ones. Although at this angle I doubt they would be of any use.”

Teba’s eyes sat calculating for a moment. “So I’ve used two. One hit, one miss. And you—”

“I landed the third just earlier on its torso. The forth…” He turned in the direction of the shower of ice. He could see it smash against the wooden remnants of an arrow. “I used just now.”

Hylia forgive the less than polite words towards the spirits that Teba spoke.

Harth gave a nod towards Teba’s quiver, while handing him his Swallow Bow. “Here. I gave the extra to the best shot around. I’ll distract it while you make the last shot count.”

Teba scoffed. “You and I both know you can’t just adjust to a new bow on the fly and expect to be accur—”

“Well if you’ve got a better plan, I’m more than happy to hear it!”

Teba grimaced. Always life and its impossible instructions.

The warrior slung his quiver in front of him, indeed confirming the last fire arrow nestled between the regular ones. He took the Swallow Bow in hand and gave another glance towards the Wizzrobe.

Its earlier spell had stopped now, and it was now skipping all too happily towards them. The ripples of its chiming steps seemed to glow brighter and brighter as it approached.

Tsk. What a gloat. It’s not even bothering to sneak up on us anymore.

Harth gave a flap of his wings and hovered. “I’ll lure it near the base of the mountain trail, and you flank. Do what you must, it’s all you.” He took to the air and began taunting the Wizzrobe, attracting its attention.

Teba cursed. He harshly slung the quiver back around him while taking up the bow. In the motion, a journal dropped into the snow.

“Crap, the…” He trailed off, observing it for a moment. The words on the page it had opened up on caught his eye.

~The Twentieth of Starset Moon~

I hope a Wizzrobe carries me off before I see him again. I envy their magical ability to disappear from sight at a moment’s notice. Maybe then I wouldn’t embarrass myself so in front of Link.

I've always  called my eyes a mere jade. A simple enough descriptive hue, and on occasion it would serve as a masterful segue into a pun about how the best warriors have a gaze that can pierce like stone. But no, he just had to call it, “grass.”

“Actually, I’m fairly certain that the hues of Hyrule’s earthly flora are much lighter than the color of my eyes.” I had said. “Like I previously stated. Jade, or emerald works. Jagged jade if you are akin to alliteration.”

Curse my arrogance as my response only caused him to elaborate. “It’s not just the color” he had said. “It’s like a sensation. I like just looking at fields. To lie in them, and smell, and be in comfort in the grass and outside.” He shrugged like nothing was wrong. “Your eyes give me that comfort.”

Hylia is a cruel goddess to curse us Rito to become round puffballs whenever emotions get the better of us. THANKFULLY, he didn’t notice as he then started to ramble on and on about his—slightly concerning—knowledge about the flammability of plants. How flaming weapons and flint produced different embers. How any fire arrow can become a bomb arrow with enough kindling. How you could tell the flammability of certain flora based on the shade of green. He noted how my own eyes were not the most flammable, so… there’s that compliment, I suppose.

There was a roar in the distance as ice crashed onto the earth. Teba snapped the journal shut again.

The Wizzrobe had cast another spell, a blur of charcoal feathers could be seen dodging the attacks.

Teba stood sifting through his thoughts as quickly as he could. Whatever power above had caused him to stumble upon this entry…he’d have to thank them later when he had the time and the faith.

The idea was obvious in hindsight. If he couldn’t guarantee a shot at a small target, then make the target bigger.

The warrior took the fire arrow in one wing, and the journal in the other. The diary was old and dry, and obviously it had a much bigger surface area than an arrow tip.

So he quickly took the very last fire arrow and pierced it through.

It burst into flames in an instant. It certainly wouldn’t pierce anything, but with the bigger area of impact…combined with a new reckless plan, there wouldn’t be any need to.

He smiled and took towards the air.

“Uhh, Teba???” Harth yelled as he saw his friend approach, flying closer with a flaming book arrow in his beak. “What are you— fuck! Ay! Over here, princess!” Harth tugged at the Wizzrobe’s robe, luring its face towards Teba.

He couldn’t talk with the arrow and piece of flaming historical documentation in his beak, but he cocked his head in such a way to signal to Harth to turn.

“But?! Its face!” A fierce shake of his head in response. “Dammit Teba!”

Harth soared around the creature in a semicircle, avoiding its bursts of ice that make the feathers on his neck puff. The Wizzrobe turned to wave its wand, it’s backside now exposed to Teba.

The warrior quickly unslung his quiver and threw the leather strap around its neck, the weight of the arrows falling on the other side towards its chin.

“TEBA WHAT THE FUCK!?”

The Wizzrobe halted its midair dance, turning in the direction that the new weight had come from. The Blizzard Rod was already starting to glow.

“That’s right!” Teba shouted, as he took the flaming book arrow out of his beak. “Show me that ugly grin of yours!”

He gave one last flap of his wings before letting gravity take him, nocking the arrow on the Swallow Bow. As predicted, he couldn’t fully compensate for the difference in the bow.

Its weight was all different, the string strength was all wrong, the grip was much more loose than he’d have preferred—

Through the haze of snow, and paper, and his own pale feathers, the Wizzrobe’s shining grin greeted Teba in full.

White on white.

He narrowed his eyes.

“Catch!”

The arrow loosed.

The flaming book seemed to soar in slow motion, or perhaps that was just on account of its weight. It arched high, nearly on path to connect with the creatures gleaming teeth, but the strength just wasn’t there and it bowed lower still to the Wizzrobe’s neck.

FWOOSH!

The journal was destroyed on impact, paper glowing and fluttering. The creatures’ attire was set alight, but all it did was laugh like it was an inconvenience. Like a party trick it had already gotten tired off. It started to try and pat itself down, but…

“Let’s see you laugh now, bastard.”

The quiver’s leather wouldn’t catch on its own given its natural resistance. But with the flutter of dried parchment…

All it took was one fiery page, and the arrows caught. The Wizzrobe suddenly suddenly shrieked, but the sound was muffled and cut off by sputtering and the sound of what Teba could only assume was suffocation. The bundle of arrows glowed like a campfire, the flames engulfing the creature's neck and already licking at its face. It attempted to remove the quiver wrapped around it with both arms, tossing the Blizzard Rod into the air in panic, but it was already too late.

The giant necklace of kindling roared in the Wizzrobe’s face, and in seconds, the icy beast was reduced to mist. The wind its grave, as the last of its magical robe rippled in the night.

Teba landed on the ground, eyes bright with unexpected happiness as he cheered.

“WOOOOO! Did you see that!?! I can’t believe that worked holy fucking shit, take THAT asshole.” He shouted into the air with a rare show of relief. THANK YOU Champion Revali and that Hylian knight arsonist! Gods, who knew reading would be so—”

“ROD!”

“Wh—” Teba turned in time to see Harth flapping towards him. But closer still, Teba saw the blur of the Blizzard Rod falling through the air, just seconds away from impacting the ground.

Hmm…

Gravity surely wouldn’t simulate the effects of waving a magic ice wand around, right?

SHING!

Fuck.

A burst of ice exploded from the rod’s impact, Harth slammed into Teba just as he could feel the cold travel to the tips of his wings.

The two Rito crashed into the snow, and Teba was able to taste the delicious flavours of snow, stone, and dirt for the second time. He propped himself up with a wing that was now faintly aching. He had a bit of a coughing fit, as Harth got up.

“Teba…” he trailed off, still in a bit of shock. “Wh…Where the hell’d you get a crazy idea like that from?”

The warrior had the strength to shrug with one shoulder. “New hobby?”

Harth playfully shoved Teba back into the snow as they both laughed.

Teba stared up at the frozen sky. It was already fading blue, the brink of night and day tipping towards a yet unseen sun.

That wasn’t so bad. Just a few arrows, a quiver, a book, and we’ve got justice for our village. If we hurry we can make it back before breakfast and Kaneli’s none the wiser.

Harth stood over him and offered a wing. “Alright, let’s go grab your bow and get out of here. I think I can feel my tail feathers freezing off.”

Teba shivered, reaching out to get up. “Yeah, no kidding. It’s almost like it—GUH!” He crumpled to his knees.

“Teba!” Harth propped up his back as he went to inspect him. He gasped when he saw his wing.

The black feather accents were laced with ice, the very tips of his wing were already starting to become glassy and stiff. Teba held back a yelp as he felt the ice grow further up his wing.

“Oh shitshitshit, that Blizzard Rod still got you.” Harth frantically went to remove a piece of cloth from his armour to wrap it around the ice. “Try to keep that warm. Uh. The mountain lodge is nearby, maybe we can get a blanket? Oh shitshitshit….”

Teba mumbled something incoherent as he felt the ice grow further.

“Guh… We can just keep this incident between us like planned, yeah? Kaneli is gonna be pissed that I blew up his quiver.’”

“Idiot! Get on my back, you could lose a wing!”

“It’s not as bad as it looks. I could probably still fly.”

“Your feathers are snapping off, fuckface!”

Harth tried to get Teba to stand, but stopped when he started to hiss in pain. The cold on his left wing was starting to course through his whole body, and he shivered.

“Ok, ok. Maybe it’ll warm up when I get in the air. I’ll just start flapping a lot to keep the blood flowing. That’s how that works, right?”

“At that rate, you’ll not only be brainless, but wingless too.” A sudden voice echoed.

The boys looked up to see a set of pink feathers descend from the air. Harth’s eyes glowed with both immense relief and confusion.

“Thank Hylia, Saki….wait, what are you doing here, I—”

“Shhhhh…” Saki took out a sword, causing further confusion and shock to come to the boys. “All you need to know for now is that I was by the Hebra Trailhead Lodge when I heard a commotion that I can only assume you two fools caused.” She tried to press the blade against the ice on Teba’s wing.

Teba’s eyes darted between Harth and Saki. The feathers nearly everywhere on him but his left wing started to puff up given how close she was. He could smell a mix of nutmeg and warm safflina from her.

“I…uh…” Teba was rapped in the head with the broad side of Saki’s sword. “Ah! Hey—”

“Don’t move, before I decide on amputation.” Both of the warrior’s eyes widened. “Just joking! Ahaha… for now anyway.” Her cute little chuckle echoed in the air.

Saki finally put down the blade. She shook her head, the curls of her hair bouncing above her shoulders. “It’s already too strong to scrape off.” Harth’s head was turning left and right above them, like a child trying to get a peak of the action. Digging through the satchel on her shoulder, Saki took out a few heads of sunshrooms.

“Hold these, we don’t want that ice magic seeping in any further. It can spread to the blood faster than you think.” Teba’s beak was still agape when he obliged.

The pink colored Rito gave him a soft smile as she tucked a wing under his neck. She expertly flipped the Feathered Edge in her wing, so that it’s blunt side was aimed at Teba,

“Now, if your muscles move and contract any more, it’s just gonna cause any of the ice inside there to snap, effectively paralyzing you. We need to make sure there's no chance of that happening.”

Saki leaned down and pressed her head against Teba’s for a moment, planting the Rito equivalent of a peck on the cheek. “Take that as my premature apology.” Saki said. And that was the last thing he heard before he saw the swing of the blade’s hilt and everything went black.

- - - - -

Teba awoke with the sun in his eyes. He blinked, adjusting his gaze before identifying a blur of pink feathers in front of him.

“—and no doubt they’ve discovered you’re missing by now if she hasn’t said anything already. I’d fly back myself to inform the elders, but…” She trailed off, fiddling with the bandage.

“I could do it. You’ve probably already got your plate full with—gah!” A broad side of a Feathered Edge whacked Harth’s head.

“No. You need to keep that cut warm and toasty and uninfected. This bind won’t hold in those strong winds, and we can’t have the Tabantha skies blowing dust and grime into it.” Saki used her blade to cut the excess bandage on Harth’s neck, to which he slightly gulped.

Teba tried to sit up from where he lay. The Hylian style bed creaked under his shifting, and he muttered something about missing hammocks.

Saki suddenly stood, eyes lighting up to see Teba. “Oh good! You’re awake, let’s see how you’re doing.” She rushed to hold his wing, to which his heart immediately jumped into his throat.

“Saki, I—” Teba attempted to be articulate, but was distracted by the tenderness of her touch, and the sudden sweet smell of nutmeg and vanilla in the air.

“Stop moving your wing, Teba.” Saki examined all sides of his wing with a practiced eye. “I made the elixir in time to counter any frostbite, but you should still rest for at least another hour to make sure all the ice inside is truly melted.”

He couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. “You…remember my name?” It had been a few weeks since he had last seen her in the village infirmary. Usually he only saw the older doctors tending to patients.

“Well of course.” Saki cocked her head and gave him a warm smile. “I remember all my stupid patients.”

“Am I included?”

“Yes, Harth.”

“Nice.”

Teba’s eyes widened when she unsheathed her blade again. So much was happening so fast that surely if he wasn’t coddled in bed right now, he’d be snapping bones from the whiplash.

Saki held the metal near his wing. “The ice on your coat has softened by now, so I’ll just scrape it off,” Her blade gleamed with her bright smile. “Stay still!”

The warrior’s eyes continued to flicker between his wing, the blade, Saki, and Harth. Looking out the window, he saw the crisp blue sky glowing above a now serene and pleasant white snowfield.

“I don’t understand. Where…how long have….” He trailed off, but looked back at Saki. “What are you doing here?”

Saki stopped for a moment. “I…” Her shoulders sagged a bit as she paused. “Well…I know the elders said not to engage with the Wizzrobe incident. But…” She fixed her eyes on his wing.

“I’m a part of this village, and I care about its people. Those who are hurt, were hurt, or could be. I don’t like standing by when I could be helping.”

She looked back up and met his gaze. A pleasant blue that greeted the sun. “You understand, right? ‘We risk our lives everyday, might as well use it for something worthwhile.’ That’s the excuse you told me when I first met you.” She brushed a feather under one of his eyes. “Although, you were half unconscious, so I don’t blame you if you forgot. So anyhow! I stayed here in case any travelers came by with wounds or injuries. Keeps my heart at ease rather than just cooping up at home.”

Saki went back to removing the thin bits of ice on his wing, humming to herself. Teba savored the moment for what felt like a century, heart fluttering every time she glanced up to check on him.

Harth finally quipped in, tone playful. “Guess you’ve pretty much got the same mindset as us “fools,” eh, Ms. Saki?” He kicked back in his chair and crossed a leg over his knee. “Birds of a feather….heh.”

Saki snapped her head around to glare at Harth. “Actually,” the tone could cut steel, “The difference here, is that I had the common sense to not go out looking for a fight. I had the basic logic to understand that fighting a monster on its own turf would be reckless and idiotic. I had the brains to gather further supplies than a mere five fire arrows. And I actually had the decency to inform someone of my whereabouts should anything unexpected happen, rather than having the arrogance to think things would always go according to my own plans.”

She sighed again. “I hate to make Amali worry, but I’d rather stay here to look after you two while she informs someone to come pick you both up.”

Harth shut his trap real quick after that, to which Teba would have probably laughed if he wasn’t also scared of the possibility of getting the same treatment from her.

After a few more minutes, Saki finally finished up and patted his wing. Teba mustered enough courage to speak.

“Thank you…for everything.” He tried to prop himself up in the bed. “I can probably fly back in this condition. Kaneli’s probably gonna kill me twice over if I don’t get back soon.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to piss daddy off,” Harth snickered.

“Fuck off, Harth.” Teba and Saki quipped simultaneously. Teba however, was a bit taken aback by how calmly and sweetly she had spoken. The thoughts were knocked out of his brain when Saki rapped his skull with her blade again. “Ow! Would you—”

Saki pointed the blade at his throat. She was so close he was sure she could hear his heartbeat fast…and it wasn’t just from fear.

“Firstly, no. Neither of you boys will be leaving anytime soon so long as I’m here. You will be staying in bed,” she glared at Harth, but kept the blade on Teba, “And you will be keeping your tail feathers glued in that chair.” Saki turned back to Teba with a sweet smile.

“You will be staying here for the next eight hours, not so much as scratching the tiniest itch on that wing. Then, when someone comes here to pick you both up like I discussed, you will keep seeing me for at least another two weeks so I can monitor your injury. And perhaps when that’s all done, I will think about baking you a pie in celebration of your heroic feat tonight.”

She pressed the Feathered Edge a bit closer to his throat. “However, if this turn of events does not come into fruition…let’s say, if for some completely silly reason either of you decided to leave this cabin and fly home, well. I will just have to make sure to give you a reason to stay bedridden for another month. Do I make myself clear, warriors?”

The boys nodded as quickly as they could.

“Wonderful! I’m so glad we’re on the same page!” Saki's smile and tone was so quiet and sweet as she sheathed her blade once more.

Teba could still feel his heart thumping against his chest. There was a pleasant silence as the lodge was filled with the crackling of fire, and the occasional chirp of a morning bird. He stared at the way Saki’s eyes dazzled like a delicate sky.

Saki clicked her tongue. “Oh you poor thing. You’re still freezing aren’t you? Your feathers are all ruffled up.”

On instinct, the feathers on his neck—and pretty much everywhere else over—puffed up. “UH. Oh! Yeah. Cold. Very cold…yes.” He looked away and started coughing. Saki got up to get something by the fireplace, while Harth did his best to hide his snickering. Teba silently mouthed “help me” to Harth, which only further hindered his attempts to hide a laugh.

The pink Rito flashed one last pleasant smile at the two of them as she made her back towards the door. “Alright, I’m just gonna grab the firewood outside so I’ll be back in a moment. You’ll be alright, right? Nothing’s still aching or anything?”

Even muscle in Teba’s body seemed to melt at the way she curiously cocked her head to the side with a smile. The best he could do was mumbled out his thoughts before he had the chance to think them through.

“With you looking at—after me, I think I’ll be fine.”

Saki chuckled and Teba felt a combined feeling of pride and embarrassment. As she closed the door, Harth looked back at him.

“Very smooth. Quite the wordsmith.”

“Shut it, fuckface.”

- - - - -

TWO WEEKS LATER.

“What do you want?”

The doctor grumbled rudely as Teba did his best to not seem like a complete idiot. “Uh…Saki?”

“You want Saki?”

His mind shifted to a daydream. “Yeah…” Whenever her name was mentioned he couldn’t help but smile, but that fell away when he snapped back to reality. “WAIT, I mean— no. I don’t want— I mean not no, I just didn’t mean it like— I just.” Teba grumbled some more. “Where she is. I want where she is, or… need. I don’t want. I’ve never wanted— I just need the location. Her location, currently. Which is not here. Where is she. Please…”

Teba put on his best smile despite the fact that he felt like his body was suddenly on fire. Perhaps that was a habit learned from the Wizzrobe incident.

The doctor shook her head. “Kids and their incoherent rambling— She's coming back from Slippery Falcon last I checked. Baking another Get-Well-Soon fish pie, I assume.”

“Ah, great! That’s fantastic. Yes. Yeah! Great. Thank you so much, Una—”

“Get out already, Teba. This place is for the sick and injured. Not the…” she glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, “awkward, and alive. Both of which are actually quite surprising to see from you…”

He managed to give a weak mix of a scoff and a nervous laugh before promptly leaving.

Descending the many steps of Rito village, Teba’s mind raced with thoughts.

Just gotta not fuck up one conversation. Just a simple question! Just...quick little hang out...thing. Yeah. Yep. I can do that. She’s seen me blabber worse when I’m unconscious, so what’s one sober conversation. I’ve killed things! Why am I even stumbling over a few words? Tsk. Yeah. I’ve seen monsters and beasts and blood and blades, I've got this. This is doable, I can do this.

He suddenly bumped into a pink colored Rito at one of the turns, and she laughed as she fumbled with the honeycomb and butter held in her arms.

“Oh my! Well, good morning, Teba.”

I can’t do this.

“And where are you off to this lovely morning?” Saki tilted her head curiously, to which Teba’s eyes immediately dilated.

“…uh…I…” Was it just him or were her feathers slightly fluffier than usual? “I just wanted to…say hi.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Well.” She gave him a cheerful wave with a free wing, clutching her ingredients close to her chest. “Hi!”

“Y-Yeah. Hi…” Teba just stood there as Saki continued walking up the stairs behind him.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck do something, idiot I don’t have—

“Actually Teba…” Saki suddenly turned back around to face him. He quickly leaned a wing against the railing to seem casual. “If you’re not doing anything right now…do you mind helping me with something?”

Teba felt like he responded just a bit too quick. “Yes! Definitely. I can do that.” He coughed, and held out a wing. “You want me to hold something for you?”

She beamed. “Yes! Come on.” She shifted her baking ingredients in one wing, and used her free wing to hold his. Saki dragged him along as their feathers intertwined. Teba’s soul immediately left the mortal realm and his physical body was left stumbling and sputtering.

“WAIT! I—I DIDN’T MEAN! UH—I MEAN SURE— IF YOU’RE OK—BUT THIS ISN’T—”

“I have something heating up upstairs, so hurry along now.” She spoke quickly, not really having the extra confidence to look him in the eyes. But at this point they could both feel each other’s feathers poof as they held wings.

Carrying a mix of honey, Tabantha wheat, and butter, they both eventually made their way to the public kitchen where a fire was roaring.

Teba started grumbling apologies, but Saki cut him off by shoving a wood spoon and a bowl into his chest.

“Your rebellious nature won’t apply to cookbooks, yes?”

And with that, they got to it. Teba’s mind was still processing the events of fifteen minutes ago so while he stared blankly at Saki, he struggled to do the basic task of mixing.

“Here,” she held his wing and adjusted his grip on the spoon. If she wasn’t a pink Rito she might have blushed. “Try not to fling the batter out the window.”

They both started to gain just a bit more confidence as they continued working. Teba started to tease Saki a bit as he held the bowl with the salmon filling above her.

“What’s one little taste? It’s all gonna be eaten at the end, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you dare, it’s still raw!”

“Just one little dip.”

“If you stick one dirty little feather in that bowl I swear I’ll—”

Teba continued trying to dance around her, but she eventually got it back after a quick whack in the head with a spoon.

The morning flew above them, and the shades of a blue day were laced with clouds of white. The shadows of the hut spun across the floor like a spell. Eventually, the aroma of savoury fish with hints of butter filled the air. Teba grabbed a fork.

“This Get-Well pie was for me, yeah? So let me just—” Saki slapped his wing.

“Not yet, gosh.” She stole his utensil. “You forgot the most important part!”

Saki pressed the edge of the fork on the plain face of the fish pie, giving the little fishy a simple, honest grin.

“There!”

“That’s a bit creepy.”

“What?! No…it’s cute! A joyful little fish!”

“You know that this is just gonna be decapitated by me, yeah?”

“It’s about the sentiment, Teba. Hush.”

True to his word, Teba used a knife to take the first bite, decapitating the little creature. Stuffing his beak, his eyes immediately lit up. The flaky crust paired perfectly with the soft meat, the taste and texture beyond amazing.

Saki tilted her head, curious. “Well? How is it?”

“Mmmbfhbgm. Myeah. Yum.”

She clapped. “Oh I’m glad! I actually ignored the ratio a bit and put a bit more butter, so it’s good that that worked out.”

“What happened to following the instructions and rules?”

She narrowed her eyes and crossed her wings over her chest, playfully. “I don’t know… What happened to that priceless journal from Master Revali that was found to be missing from records a few days ago?”

“Damn. Fair enough, then.”

Saki suddenly gasped. “Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry I completely forgot about the time. You usually sneak off to practice Master Revali’s techniques by now, don’t you?” She went to grab a napkin. “Here, you can wrap this up and take it to the Flight Range, I didn’t mean to keep you for so—”

Teba went to grab one of her wings. “Hey hey! It’s ok. I’m still supposed to keep off the wing anyway, right?”

Saki scoffed, but didn’t pull away. “Oh, like you’ve been following that…”

“Better late than never?”

“Mhmm…”

Teba finally let go, and they stood in front of each other for a bit. Saki played with the curls of her hair, avoiding his gaze. Teba felt his feathers fluff up again, as he mumbled something.

“Hmm?” She looked up.

“Oh. I…didn’t say anything.”

“Ah, Right.” She looked away.

Fuck.

The warrior struggled to find the right words. In an effort to do anything but stay silent, he went to hold her wing again. Both of their feathers immediately floofed in response.

“S-Sorry. I should have—”

“No, it’s alright.” She kept his grip. “It’s alright.”

They both looked in opposite directions, Teba coughed again while Saki fiddled with her hair. The warrior continued screaming in his own mind, begging for some form of suitable and understandable words to come out of his beak. When he turned to speak, Saki cut him off with a soft smile.

“You know, Teba. You don’t have to say anything.”

His beak opened and closed for a few moments, confused. Finally he settled on his thoughts. “Can I try?”

She nodded. “If you really want to.”

Saki wrapped her wings around his shoulders, looking up at him expectantly. When he looked into her eyes, all he could feel was the embrace of a summer’s wind. It was blue. Cerulean. Perhaps teal, or a comparison of sapphire. There was a romantic simile in the world somewhere that he didn’t bother to find.

This close, he could see her eyes dilate, and count small imperfections on her beak. Teba stood as still as ice, before breathing out a bit in relief. He allowed himself to smile, and held her hips and swayed to some unknown rippling melody. Perhaps for just this moment, he accepted it. His words didn’t matter as his gaze lit up sweet and gold and honey. Finally, as they swayed and danced in warmth, the sun to the sky said,

“You look nice.”

#reblogs appreciated! #Teba: I'm gonna go get justice for my village so that no one else gets hurt! #Also Teba: *nearly dies on multiple occasions* #Teba is just the 'this is fine' meme and i love him for it #botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda botw #loz botw #botw fanfiction #teba x saki #tebasaki #yes the fried chicken couple #teba #saki #saki botw #harth #harth botw #teba botw #botw gift exchange

[stormkrigeren]

Whumptober Day 1!

Link to the Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34210837/chapters/85120435

Title: Bound - Lois

Prompt: No. 1 ‘All Trussed Up And Still Nowhere To Go’ - “You have to let go”, barbed wire, bound

Word Count: 2475

Lois preferred rope over handcuffs, and duct tape over rope. Duct tape was best because it was surprisingly easy to break, but she was rarely lucky enough to be tied up with it. Lois could tell that today wasn’t her lucky day the moment the goon wrapped a length of plastic boating rope around her wrists and yanked it tight.

She loved her job. The title of ‘investigative reporter’ practically gave her a free pass to be as nosy as she liked (and Lois was admittedly quite nosy) while also revealing the truth on a variety of issues, affairs, and dealings. No one would blink twice if she walked into a warzone or gang territory or some crooked mogul’s office with a pen handy and far too many questions in her head, and no one was surprised when her life was threatened only for her to diffuse the situation a few minutes later. That was just how Lois worked, and she loved it.

The one and only issue with her job was the fact that if her life wasn’t being threatened, her freedom probably was. Sometimes it would just be a threat to get her so discredited that no one would ever publish her works again, removing her freedom of speech, but Lois was good at her job and no one ever found anything to discredit her on. So more often than not whatever fraudulent idiot she had revealed that day would instead tie her up and leave her in a warehouse somewhere until either the police or her boss showed up with a ransom because investigative reporters, especially ones named Lois Lane, were surprisingly valuable (the highest number she’d ever heard was close to a million, which of course didn’t pan out, but it was interesting to think about).

Today had started out pretty normally - Lois had woken up, gotten ready for the day, and taken the subway to work like she usually did. Upon arriving at the Daily Planet’s Head Offices in the Upper East Side of the city, she had clocked in and gotten to her desk with the intention of kicking off the work day with a little bit of research and note-taking in preparation for her interview with some S.T.A.R Labs higher-ups that afternoon. The company had received a contract from the Department of Defense to investigate and research the Kryptonian scout ship that had crashed in downtown Metropolis and was now in government custody. Any Kryptonian 'artifacts’ found in or around the ship were catalogued by S.T.A.R Labs before being transferred to various labs and other research companies around the nation for studying, the biggest transfers usually being made to the S.T.A.R facilities in Central City and Metropolis, and third-party contractors such as Kord Industries, LexCorp, and WayneTech. The distribution of findings for individual research was all well and good, but a whistleblower had recently come to Lois with some disturbing finds: some of the artifacts, especially alien weapons, were disappearing from large shipments without a trace.

When the time of the interview drew near, Lois checked in with Perry before catching a taxi to the S.T.A.R Labs headquarters downtown. Her appointment was with a few scientists from the company’s board of directors that worked with the Kryptonian scout ship the most, and luckily for them, all three of them had enough tact to not back out of the meeting when they realized that the reporter the Daily Planet had sent over was in fact a lady on the high road to a Pulitzer Prize. A board room was procured for their usage, and Lois, being well-familiar with the drill, started her recording app, pulled out her notes, and started doing what comprised the bulk of her job as an investigative journalist: asking questions.

How was work on the Kryptonian scout ship progressing? Had any significant discoveries or breakthroughs been made so far? What sort of artifacts were they dealing with, and how did they decide which ones to distribute for outside research? Were the scout ship’s contents primarily weapons, or other items? What was the company’s response to rumors about misplaced shipments?

The scientists happily answered her questions, occasionally going off on a tangent about some discovery or the supposed usage of some unknown object but otherwise provided Lois with some pretty good fuel for her next article up until she came to the final question. All three of the researchers shifted uncomfortably in their seats and exchanged the briefest of nervous glances before Dr. Rhems, the head consultant for their Kryptonian armaments division, launched into a spiel about how their cataloguing system was infallible and they had not seen any evidence that items were missing, the rumors had to be false or else they would have known. To solidify his claim, he even offered to show her their records and prove that whatever data people were basing their opinions off of had to be wrong. Lois immediately took him up on the offer.

Taking his fellow scientists’ leave, Dr. Rhems led her through the building before finally stopping outside a door that supposedly led to where the Labs kept their records pertaining to the Kryptonian artifact research program.

“You have to understand, Miss Lane, that S.T.A.R Labs is not the only facility performing research on Kryptonian weaponry,” he explained as he fished a key card out of his pocket, nearly dropped it, and finally managed to tap it against the scanner beside the door, “It’s quite possible that one of the other contractors involved in the program may simply not be cataloguing their artifacts correctly-”

“They are,” Lois snapped back as she followed him through the doorway, “The issue is within your own company. The records available to the public show that half of the missing items disappear while still in your system. I know this seems a little far-fetched, Dr. Rhems, but it's looking like there are some shady dealings going on within your facility to steal Kryptonian weapons, and possibly other items, without your knowledge.”

“That’s impossible! This is one of the most secure facilities in the state, and every one of our employees has undergone rigorous background examinations. Surely this must be some sort of journalistic ploy to discredit S.T.A.R Labs, Miss Lane-”

“With all due respect, Dr. Rhems, please stop trying to dissuade me before I’ve seen your evidence against the so-called ‘rumors’. I’ll make my decision on what to tell the public once you can prove to me that the accusations aren’t true.”

Dr. Rhems paused at that, stopped in front of a laboratory workstation and glanced quickly between Lois and the racks of Kryptonian armaments on the far side of the room - apparently this lab was where they were stored for cataloging and documentation.

“Well,” the doctor said finally, “if you’re so sure you cannot be persuaded...”

The scientist tapped a button on the workstation’s keyboard and Lois distinctly heard the door behind her lock shut with a hydraulic hiss and low shunking sound. Before she even had time to turn around, Dr. Rhems was pulling what looked too much like a genuine Kryptonian sidearm for comfort out of his labcoat and levelling it at her head. There was no doubt in her mind that it was real, and Lois should know - she had used one.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Miss Lane,” Dr. Rhems confessed, “But I am going to have to ask you to comply while Caleb ties you up - don’t want you getting away before we’ve come to an agreement, you see.”

At his behest, mostly because she was unable to do otherwise with a Kryptonian sidearm pointed at her, Lois took a seat in the chair the scientist pointed to and waited in silence to see what he would do next. Dr. Rhems typed another command into the workstation console and the door unlocked to slide open just enough for a nervous-looking intern to slip inside before the door locked shut again. The young man had apparently been given orders to follow them and wait outside the lab until his boss let him in, and after a brief, curious glance in the reporter’s direction, he immediately got to the task assigned by fetching a length of plastic rope - the kind typically used for camping due to its lightweight nature - from a desk drawer and using it to tie Lois’ hands behind her back. Under Dr. Rhems supervision, he tied the knots as tight as he could before proceeding to tie her ankles to the chair legs, and though Lois hated to admit it, she was thoroughly stuck where she was.

“You can’t keep me here for long,” Lois reminded Dr. Rhems, holding back a wince when the uncomfortable cordage bit into her ankles and resisting the urge to give Caleb a solid kick to the nose went he bent down to adjust the rope, “My editor will wonder where I am if I don’t check in soon, not to mention the fact that I’m legally under the protection of both the US government and the Kryptonian remnant. I just have to scream ‘Superman’ and someone will be here within ten seconds.”

If she stated that last sentence a little louder than necessary, Dr. Rhems didn’t notice and simply cocked the blaster (improperly, Lois noted) as Caleb finished tying her up, “You won’t scream. You wouldn’t dare.”

“Maybe I will,” Lois answered, resisting the urge to smirk. Dr. Rhems apparently had enough confidence to do so himself, and shook his head self-assuredly.

“As you said earlier, Miss Lane, you should wait to hear my side of the story before forming an opinion,” he stated calmly, “Let’s start with a simple fact: alien artifacts created in and designed to be used in an environment different from Earth are a little difficult, and expensive, to maintain. Sure, the technology works here, but until we can fully understand it, we have to ensure that it does not deteriorate or lose function when not used properly. I would read you a few excerpts from my paper on the apparent bio-technological advancements in Kryptonian technology that make their mechanism borderline-organic, so simultaneously holding some level of innate intelligence or purpose but also being susceptible to deterioration if not maintained, but we don’t have time for that now.

“Without going into too much detail, S.T.A.R Labs is not getting the funding it needs from the Department of Defense. No significant advances or research is able to be done without money, Miss Lane, and we don’t have a lot of it,” Dr. Rhems continued, “The solution? Getting rid of artifacts we do not have the facilities to maintain while also making a little bit of cash - in short we’ve been selling Kryptonian technology to foreign buyers.”

“You mean stealing and profiting off of property of the US government, not to mention that the UN is currently trying to rule both artifacts and the scout ship itself as property of the Kryptonian remnant,” Lois corrected him. Damn, she was pretty sure she was losing feeling in her hands considering how tightly the intern had bound her, but if she could just slip one hand out of the rope…

“Everyone knows the UN won’t succeed in the ruling - that technology is far too valuable to belong to a couple of do-gooder extraterrestrials,” Dr. Rhems answered, “And before you ask what I’m going to do with you or why I’ve decided to tell you all this, the answers are simple: I’m going to ransom you and get a bit of extra ‘funding’ out of it, and once your ransom has been paid and you are released, you are going to write me an article about the corruption going on in our own Department of Defense that has led to the gross underfunding of essential research facilities such as S.T.A.R Labs.”

“And just who do you think is going to pay my ransom?” Lois asked. Her plan was to keep him talking, keep his focus off her and the fact that after rubbing the skin raw and nearly spraining her wrist, she had just about managed to get her right hand out of Caleb’s tightly-but-poorly-tied attempt at binding her up. Poor kid - he hadn’t done too bad of a job considering that typing would be a pain-in-the-ass tomorrow, but it wasn’t enough to keep Lois off her game. Dr. Rhems was still going off about who he was going to call for the money for her release when she got both hands free, and right on time the thick laboratory door crumpled beneath a hand strong enough to bend steel as Superman himself stepped into the room. Lois wasted no time when the two S.T.A.R Lab scientists were distracted by his arrival, and she lunged at Dr. Rhems to knock the blaster out of his distracted grip, cock it for firing (properly, she noted), and point it at the bastard’s head.

“Well, Dr. Rhems,” she couldn’t help but announce with a smirk, “It looks like I was right about those missing shipments.”

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

It was Perry who picked her up from the S.T.A.R Labs facility after Lois was done giving her account to the police - part of her wished it had been Superman who flew her back to the Daily Planet offices, but he was still busy talking with an officer about the two scientists who had been holding Miss Lane hostage - and after a short drive back to the familiar newspaper building, it was Clark who first noticed the blisters covering her wrists and insisted on getting the first aid kit to treat them. Still, Lois ended up looking after the injuries herself, mostly because Clark, despite his kindness, strength, and adorable handsomeness, was a bit on the squeamish side and still had work to do. It wasn’t the worst she had ever dealt with - her wrists only required some antibacterial cream and bandages, whereas her left ankle had nearly been sprained when she lunged at Dr. Rhems with her feet still tied to the chair and required a bit more care in the form of an ice pack. Despite her injuries, Lois was having a pretty damn fine day - her typing skills weren’t as affected as she had imagined, her phone had still been recording throughout the whole hostage situation, and she had enough evidence pieced together to make the leading story of the evening edition. A sprained ankle and wrists that were raw as fuck after trying to wriggle her way out of plastic boating rope of all things were a small price to pay for the front page.

#whumptober2021 #no.1 #bound #DCEU #Lois Lane #fic #Red Capes #whumptober

[currentfandomkick]

Marinette did not sign up for this part 4

hey, so OG chapter 4 will now be chapter 5 as the gremlins hijacked this chapter.

part one here   previous part here   ao3 here

--

            Damian stared in quiet horror as he looked over Ladybug’s exploits after hacking into Paris’ servers. His sister—the one he took down with little effort—had been defending the city for a month before he appeared. From the video of “Stoneheart” he could tell she was given no training. And her partner was flirting with her! When he should be focusing on the mission!

             What gathered from further research was the following: his sister and her ‘partner’ were untrained. Their teammates were also untrained. A team of ten untrained teenagers—perhaps younger—were tasked with keeping a villainous coward from stealing their magic artifacts, and with stealing his in turn. A team lead by his sister. A very alone, scared girl from his one interaction with her. Smart (he saw now she knew how to save her own skin. Redirecting his attention was a good move at the time). She is smart and creative because if she isn’t, then her city and her will lose. Be under the control of some madman.

             He had to get there, and he doubted he could convince Jon to help him at the moment—why are kyptonians always fighting one another when you need the assistance of one?

             Father would stop him.

             The League was keeping Father in Gotham and he didn’t have individual access yet…

             He was stuck for the moment, and did not like it. Perhaps Grayson could prove useful? He’d ask once the man was done resting from patrol.

---------

             Cass was enjoying Paris. She spotted the possible sister at the bakery with her adoptive mother. They were happy. Cass likes that.

             Cass moved quickly through the crowd, managing to make it to the bakery.

             Marinette ran into her.

             “Ah! Sorry!” the girl managed to catch her things before they hit the ground.

             Cass waved her hands, indicating there was no harm or foul. The girl was no clumsy—Shifu Cheng was ill-informed. Those reflexes and her expression before indicated nothing but an intense focus on something else. On what, Cass wasn’t sure.

             Yet.

             For now, Cass took a seat in the bakery, smiling at the kind woman working the front. Sabine Cheng, the woman who raised the maybe-Bat.

             Cass began doing her own research, messaging Babs that she saw Soup Girl for a moment, and would be assessing her parents. She knew of cases in Gotham where things weren’t always right, and she wanted to be certain that this girl was safe, regardless of if she’s a Bat or not.

--------

             Tim decided to ignore Babs offer in the end. The possibility of owing Jason was low given both him and Cass are on the Case. Jason is good, don’t get him wrong, but the chances of Jason actually talking to the girl in a real conversation before the rest of them? As Red Hood?

             This is a calculated risk and the odd are in Tim’s favor. (Well, not in Jason's.)

--------

             Steph hummed as she went over the designer pool she was looking over. Shockingly low given its Paris—granted 200 girls is a lot to investigate… she didn’t give the others all the information she had though.

             According to Damian, she “posts a disgusting amount” which means she’s posting or tagged often. When she used some of Babs old filtering program with social media involved, it brought the candidates down to 30. She could go through thirty teenage designers social media and comb over who at least has some genes that are dominant from the Wayne side. Her natural hair had to be medium brunette at the lightest, so the natural blondes took out seven candidates right off the bat. While blue or green eyes would give them more priority on the list, eye color genes are weird. Weirdly, five of her candidates had attached earlobes, so she only had 18 left after that filter was put on… Bruce’s hair isn’t curly, so two girls with intensely curly natural hair were taken off the list. Bruce’s thin lips only knocked out two more candidates.

             That left Stephanie Brown with 14 designers in Paris to find and investigate in the right age range, because she doesn’t think Bruce started having sex at 15, unlike Tim who is allowing college kids into his ‘could be Bruce’s daughter’ mix.

             Stephanie is also going to need a plane ticket to meet these girls, and that means getting help from one of Wayne kids… Or stowing away on the private jet that she knows Tim can and will be using sometime today to do ground work himself.

             She’s cool stowing away—Babs is covering for her on principle since Tim wouldn’t take the deal. Steph was smart enough to relinquish one piece of blackmail in total in exchange for use of Babs filtering tech—she has more than that thanks to one Supergirl spilling a number of things Babs has done over the years. Has Stephanie mentioned she’s the only one of the Bats to listen to Oracle, Queen of Technology, in this bet? She is, and she is better for it.

-----------

             Marinette managed to make it to the Agrests Mansion with little issue this time. Today she was going to one of the production lines with Gabriel to learn how to reset the machines and program them to follow any simple stitch pattern she wanted. It was good.

             She also noticed that during none of her times with Gabriel, was there a single akuma sighting. Not an attack—those never happened anywhere near their time together. It was an… interesting pattern. She was beginning to suspect that if Hawkmoth wasn’t Gabriel (he was akumatized, it can’t be him. Get that theory out of your head Marinette), then it had to be someone who worked for him, and high on the food chain.

             She made sure to memorize each of his ‘supervising managers’ and partners’ names. One of them had to be Hawkmoth. And Gabriel had to be someone that this Hawkmoth either really respected or really didn’t want handle re-scheduling with. Which would be all of them…

             She really wished she had more time to dig into their lives herself. For now, she had to trust Max and Markov to do the research… which reminded her, her name had been pinged on multiple searches in Gotham last night. From numerous devices. If the Bats were planning anything…

             Marinette gripped her purse a bit tighter. Her team has her back. She just doesn’t want them caught up in this mess too. She wishes that Aquaman never showed up. If he hadn’t, then the Bats wouldn’t be looking into her civilian life, the one they already knew about but only now deemed worthy of their attention.

             She wished they would just stop—she won’t look into the Great Detectives. She knows she’s not one of them. That she wouldn’t hack it in Gotham. But Damnit, in Paris? Her Territory—she does more than hack it. Sure, she may have blown herself up that one time, and yes, there is the timeline where as Princess Justice she may have sort of broke the world by forcing it to conform to that akumatized version of hers’ idea of Absolute Justice (apparently she was ruthless, made no exceptions and took out a third of the Justice League using Multimouse at the time on top of it all). Yes, she is not a perfect leader. Or hero. But Damnit, her (admittedly two) supervillians have been almost caught twice. Her re-akumatazation rate is much lower than any of the Justice League’s heroes’ normal villain or general crime recidivism rate by more than a little. By a lot. She’s not some Detective but she’s a damn good strategist, a champion at improvising and she and her team do work with the public and victims and reworked so much of Paris’ social culture to lower akuma-creating circumstances and keep the public emotionally healthy.

             She’s no detective.

             She’s a Guardian. That means caring about the details that shift the bigger pieces. That means adaption with what is there and creating what she needs. That means knowing her limits and getting help—to set an example and prove that not even her or Chat are an island. That even superheroes need help, need others and need to work together.

            She’s no detective. Detectives work alone.

            Her? She’s forged a team that (she hopes) could become the new Order of Gaurdians with her… some day. For now, they’re heroes with the same mission and different roles to play.

            Marinette just wishes that she could shut up this hunch since its been disproven. Her instincts on guilt and possible baddies aren’t the best—Adrien’s job is to sense what’s wrong and take them out. Hers is to make whatever is needed to help fix things, to push someone forward and help them grow. Her job to craft a better tomorrow today… and to do that, she lost the parts of her that picked up Danger. She can still find Caution signs (and her anxiety will always invent danger) but real Danger detection went to Adrien when she agreed to become Ladybug in the first place… And until both her and Adrien renounce their roles as the pair wielding the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses, she’ll always be missing it.

            The same way Adrien is missing his ability to think outside the box—seeing things as what they could become to help them went to her. He can only see potential threat and act on them. She can only see potential aide and act on that.

---------

            Jason grinned when he managed to make it into Paris. The second there was some damn akuma attack, he was grabbing the baby Bat and hunting Hawkmoth his way—she need the jewelry? Fine. She can have it. The guy brainwashing kids? The one that slaughtered the city? He’s Jason’s. ---------

            Bruce didn’t like being benched. He doesn’t like not knowing he had another child. He especially doesn’t like that this one is constantly preventing an apocalypse and his allies can’t be bothered to even send him anything about it. Not even a basic ‘she’s not living on the streets’ like Jason did. Or ‘she’s got parents here, calm down’ so he could get this stupid instinct to storm Paris and take on the bastard threatening his family that he didn’t know he had.

            Apparently Barbra has a hunch, but isn’t sharing until she has “conclusive evidence” of his daughter’s identity. Damian just isn’t speaking of it. As if being someone’s father biologically gives him a built-in alarm system for when he’s had a child and the ability to track them down at birth. Damian being raised in the League of Assassins should be enough proof to the contrary there.

            The others were… he wasn’t absolutely certain, but fairly certain his self-proclaimed ‘middle kid club’ were tracking his missing daughter down themselves. Possibly to claim her as part of their group, specifically.

            God, she was so young, It was before he even heard of the League that she was born. In that lifetime before becoming Batman. Would she like him? He was absent her whole life—did she want to meet him, meet the family? They’re a mess, he knows it. But they’re his—he chose them and they chose him. Would she chose him too?

            He watched another video of Ladybug in her early days, before she and her partner (dear god he’s cat-themed. Is it genetic? Should he test her and himself for some ‘drawn to dresses-as-a-cat’ gene?) were given any kind of training.

            She blew herself up to stop her city from being taken over by ‘Animan’ and his creatures.

            His daughter.

            Exploded.

            (She died. She died and he didn’t know. God he’s a horrible parent, and he hasn’t even parented her yet.)

            She died.

            To keep her city safe.

            She somehow reconstituted. But her face, in that video, she was shocked.

            His daughter should be dead but she’s not.

            Magic, he’s so glad his daughter uses magic.

            He. He’s going to need to consult someone. Raven? Raven should work. He can’t talk to the Justice League—nothing wrong with talking to the half-demon all of his Robins that lead the Titans has worked with.

            Loopholes.

            The Justice League is horrible at closing them.

---------

            Dick wanted to be mad when Damian came clean to him about the needles. He wanted to freak out over almost losing a sister he hasn’t met.

            He did.

            But.

            But this is Damian.

            Damian who still has trouble connecting. Who still flinches at certain tones of voice and phrasing. Damian who desperately wants to do Good but… struggles.

             Damian who has all of Bruce’s communication problems and then some.

             So no, Dick did not scream when he found out Damian only sparred “the blood daughter” because she looked too frail and weak for her to be considered anything resembling a threat to him. He did not sigh when he found out that Bruce didn’t know when Damian assumed he did. He did not hit himself when Damian discussed the various weapons he’d gifted her as a apology with the bouquets over the years and their meanings.

             He did take a deep breath, and begin explaining from this baby bat’s stance what had happened.

             “Imagine for a moment that it was me before I became Robin, and I was almost killed by someone who only let me live if I never contacted a shared parent or that parent’s known family. How do you think Pre-Robin me would have responded?”

             “You would have feared for your life and done whatever you could to prevent contact.”

             “Now, imagine I wasn’t told who to be avoiding, only aliases.”

             “You would avoid everyone with an alias that you did not help them create, and keep them from unknown aliases.”

             Dick snapped his fingers. “Exactly. That’s what this sister, what are we calling her?”

             “Her alias is Ladybug.”

             “Yes, that is what Ladybug was going through before Aquaman made contact.”

             Damian was quiet for a moment. “She must be on edge.”

             Dick nodded at that. “She probably is.”

             Damian furrowed his brow. “Do you think the League would allow me to contact her and end our agreement?”

             Dick rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure, but we can try.”

             “… And if they refuse?”

             “Then we find another way. We’re Bats,” Dick reassured Damian. He just hoped the missing members weren’t doing anything too rash…    

-----------------

             Marinette made a (painful) decision. Adrien and her would swap miraculouses—at least until there were less pings on her sites from Gotham. For added protection, she kept the Mouse miraculous on. Chatte Noire was less known, and she doubted Wonder Woman or Aquaman informed Batman about the miraculous of Creation and Destruction’s particular… refusal to let anyone but a pair chosen together to wield them at any point.

             Chatte Noire would only be on call for a day or so… what’s the worst that can happen?

--------

the characters are jinxing themselves, and procrastinating the (vague) plot of Shenanigans. i swear. 

if anyone can message me on how to add in a read more, that’d be great since i know these can get long to scroll past for mobile users.

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace @jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @laurcad123

#maribat #bio!dad bruce #marinette did not sign up for this #part 4 #long post #my writing #i hate formatting #how do i tag

[lucyhblack]

This chapter really gave me a lot of problems.

To start with I had very little to talk about Blue, so I spent some time trying to elaborate his story... in the end, I ended up having to summarize some things so as not to get too long.

Who knows, maybe I can tell you how Blue and Stretch first met in the future.

Blue

Nº: 236.296

Species: Poket Monster (Pokemon)

Genre: Pokesans (can also be called Sans only)

Family: Swap

Class: ---

Type: Fighting

Size: Normal size

Evolutionary Stage: Final

Special Ability: Inner Focus

Attacks: Swift /Comet Punch/ False Swipe (Normal) Power Up Punch /Close Combat /Quick Guard / Dynamic Punch/ Wake Up Slap (Fighting)

Tenacious Pokesans.

These pokesans have a tireless spirit and are always full of energy. It will challenge everyone and, even if lose a battle, will never give up on your goals.

***

Born in the wild, he spent his days as a typical pokesans of his Family, setting traps, helping other forest dwellers (who would not need his help if it weren't for his strange traps to begin with) and challenging any other Pokémon (more than once) to improve your combat skills.

He ends up being “adopted” as a pupil (more like a request from some pokemons that are no longer supporting the daily challenges of the little energy ball) by a wild Pokealphys, also of the Swap, who acts kind of like the guardian of the forest where they live.

One day he hears about Monsters in the forest and he is excited to investigate. To your disappointment the two Monsters (a skeleton and a fish) have no Pokémon partner (and everyone knows that Monsters are complete useless in battles, always preferring to act rather than fight, blergh!).

He is disappointed, but still watches over them (partly out of curiosity, since he has never seen a Monsters before, partly at the request of Pokealphys).

A while later (seeing them photograph, exclaim, write and fall into thickets of pokefloweys or be chased by pokepastrys swarms, while trying not to interact with the pokemon) he decides to take them to a cave that may interest them after hearing them talk about magical levels and evolutions.

In the cave they run into another Monster who was stealing the "stars" on the walls. The thief launches his own pokemon to attack the three, to which the pokesans is excitedly enters the combat and was winning (with a little help from the skeleton Monster who gave him hints) until the opposing Monster used a strange artifact in his pokemon that doubled his power, but caused him to get out of control.

The enemy Monster flees abandoning his uncontrolled pokemon that ends up injuring the skeleton Monster when it tried to defend the pokesans. The young pokemon and the Monster end up being saved by the Pokealphys who arrive attracted by the screams of the Monster fish that has fled the cave in search of help.

The two are taken to be treated and after being completely healed the Skeleton Monster, who presents himself as Stretch, announces that he will continue his journey, his companion Dynne (the Monster fish) will stay in the forest to set up a research base and study (with the pokemon approval) the cave and its “stars”.

Since he will be alone, it would be nice to have an experienced and strong companion to accompany and protect him. Very enthusiastic Blue accepts the role of "bodyguard" and sets off on a journey with his new master.

The researcher and his companion, now named Blue, travel for more than 1 year until Stretch is invited to take over the laboratory in Swapville. There are many intriguing reports from pokesans about the region and he accepts, moving with Blue there.

Blue was very excited to get a trainer and be on a trip until he realized it was more of an exploration trip than a training trip.

But its alright! After all, he also learns a lot and can face many different types of Pokémon wherever he goes.

He is less enthusiastic when they settle in Swapville and his combat options are limited to forest dwellers (who soon learn to avoid their daily traps and challenges) surrounding the laboratory. For a while he resigned himself to training alone and trying to improve his traps (since they are sometimes useful to Stretch too).

Everything changes when a young Monster seeks his master to get a trainer's license and, after an incident in the laboratory with an out of control pokesans, he swaps places with Sans, the young trainer's pokesans, for a real training journey.

He is even divided on abandoning his master, but Sans has proved he is strong (he even evolved!) and promises to take care of Stretch for him. Besides, this is the chance to make your dream...your destiny come true!

(and Papyrus seems to be a very cool Monster too)

Energetic and excited, he loves to fight and help others. Want to become the strongest Pokesans (or at least be recognized as a powerful pokesans) in the world!

Initially he wears a gray jumpsuit without a hood, with short sleeves that ends in shorts and with yellow details. He has blue combat gloves (boxing type). He gains an “armor” (just a sill with simple light gray shoulder pads) made by Stretch to help him in his training when they move to the laboratory and a blue silkskarf on his neck, also present from Stretch (given shortly after they met and started traveling together).

Over time the armor will wear out and shortly before evolving it will fall apart to Blue's great sadness (Stretch later explained that this was expected and that it would fall apart when the pokesans were about to evolve).

When he evolves (later on the training trip with Papyrus) the jumpsuit gets darker and with blue details instead of yellow, the shorts become pants that cover up to the feet, remain short sleeves and your gloves become a simple gloves (gain space for fingers).

He grows a little while evolving, but its tail (which is quite short) does not change in size.

Blue has unlimited energy and at the beginning he is very tenacious, hard-headed, the type who wants to solve everything right away. Very hardworking, but rarely manage to stop and listen to what others have to say.

As you evolve, control your energy better, becoming more focused and serious in combat. He still has that lively joy, but now he is less likely to jump into things and really listen to others.

#undertale #underswap #pokemon #pokesans #us!sans #us!papyrus #us!undyne #us!alphys #pokealphys #fanfic #sansdex #my au #From Pockets to Monsters

[oddsandendsandthings]

Did somebody say Pokémon AU??

I honestly have no clue if this has been done or not. But here' what I'd think a Pokémon AU would look like complete with Pokémon teams.

So for the most part everything follows the show with the added bonus of Pokémon being a thing. The Magnus Institute exists to investigate and catalogue paranormal and supernatural experiences that fall outside the range of regular Pokémon shenanigans. So in the beginning, Jon is an even more cynical ass that chalks everything up to being just typical ghost Pokémon messing with people. But there are greater forces at work that fall outside of even Arceus's range of understanding. And there is more to fear than just Pokémon lurking in the shadows.

Jon: He wasn't like most kids with grand dreams of being a Pokémon master. He was and still is much more content reading a book than training Pokémon. All the ones in his team caught him more than the other way around which is really just par for the course for Jon really. He also can’t be bothered to name any of them.

Absol: It just started following him after the brush with the Leitner and just refused to leave. It tries to warn Jon about bad situations but the man has zero self-preservation instincts. Essentially acts like a beleaguered mom looking after her self destructive toddler.

Rotom: It really just kinda came with the tape recorder.

Unknown: Jon didn't intentionally catch it. The unknown just live in the Archives and made themselves at home in his office until one finally just tapped into a pokeball conveniently left on his desk. It likes helping him find real statements in the Archives and tries to work with its brethren and Absol to warn Jon about incoming dangers. He’s just too buried in statements to see ominous warnings literally floating above his head.

Buneary: It was the first and only Pokemon he ever purposefully caught. It hated him when he caught it and it still hates his guts now but they both refuse to let the other go out of spite. Tim gets a kick about teasing him about it.

Purugly: His first pokemon given to him when his grandma's purugly had kittens. It spends all its time skulking around the archives just doing cat things.

Chandelure: He caught it in the woods as a litwik as a kid and used it as a reading light. He doesn't believe in the stories surrounding them stealing your life force but it definitely does and he’s just too hyped on caffeine to notice.

Martin: I imagine Martin as the breeder type who loves to nurture Pokémon from eggs and just overly spoil his entire team. He of course names all his pokemon after Romantic poets.

Joltik:  Used to belong to Jon before he gave it away after the Leitner incident. He really just kinda threw the ball as far as he could and it hit Martin upside the head. Jon doesn't realize that Martin was that kid or that that Joltik was his and it makes both of them very sad. The only pokemon he hasn’t named since he doesn’t know what Jon named it and it didn’t feel right to change it.

Araquanid: He named it Byron after Lord Byron. Pokémon who, depending on who you ask, either drowns unsuspecting Pokémon or cares for them. Fits Martin to a T if you ask me and he would take pity on a poor, misunderstood spider.

Sylveon: He named it Felicia after Felicia Hemans. He raised it from an egg he found in the backyard. It was also his first Pokemon period that he hid in his room because his mom didn't want any Pokémon in the house. When she did find it she begrudgingly allowed it. She always seemed to dote on it more than she ever did Martin himself...

Klefki: Named it Will after William Wordsworth. This little guy is half the reason Martin is able to get into half the places he does.

Chansey: Named Keats. Another Pokemon raised from an egg, it is just as doting as Martin is to the others in the archives. It is also consequently the most powerful member on his team.

Zorua: Named Percy after Percy Shelley. He initially thought he was catching a volpix when he caught it. He bonded with it over having to hide who he truly is too. It is the overprotective guard dog he deserves that no one realizes how dangerous it truly is.

Tim: his team is comprised of beautiful Pokémon that can absolutely kick anyone's ass at a moments notice. They are all as salty as they are beautiful. He names his pokemon after famous actors and actresses.

Roserade: Named Angelina after Angelina Jolie, it was the first Pokemon he ever caught, the two are a dazzling duo charming anyone that crosses their path.

Yamask: It showed up and started hanging around him after his brother was taken by the Stranger. After that, he knew without a shadow of a doubt his brother was dead. He dotes on it constantly because of it despite how much it creeps others out. He, of course, named it Danny.

Milotic: Named Kiera after Kiera Knightly, he evolved it from a feebas he hatched from an egg. He still treats it like his baby.

Lopunny: It was his first Pokémon. His brother gave it to him as a gift and he took it as a challenge to get it to like him enough to evolve. He named it Audrey after Audrey Hepburn.

Liepard: Its stealthy nature is extremely helpful when scouting locations and doing research for the institute. It also hates Jon as much as Tim does. He named it Jackman after Hugh Jackman.

Diancie: He inherited it from his bro after his passing. Danny found it while exploring an old cave and used to travel everywhere with him. It and Danny are still inseparable. Its name is Mila after Mila Kunis.

Basira: Her team is as practical as she is. They are all extremely powerful and could easily take down the entire league if she wanted to. She just doesn’t want to. Her no-nonsense attitude means she just doesn’t see the point in naming any of her pokemon.

Arcanine: What's a cop without their traditional canine companion? Her arcanine fell in love with Daisy's before they even had a clue they were made for each other and set them up in a very 101 Dalmatian style.

Serperior: Her first pokemon given to her from the local pokemon professor. They share the same unimpressed icy stare.

Mightyena: They are truly cut from the same cloth and is honestly more of her partner than her official partner.

Alolan Ninetails: Her strongest Pokémon and her fiercest protector. It loves playing mind games with people.

Umbreon (evolved during the Raynor incident. It seems especially keen on picking up on paranormal activities making it very useful to have on hand)

Mewtwo (cause if anyone has a legendary Pokémon, it's Basira. She caught it during one of the section cases she took and just didn't tell anyone)

Daisy: She is the “gotta collect them all” type of pokemon hunter. She catches any new pokemon she comes across and sends them to the local professor cause she has to fill that pokedex.

Arcanine: Second verse same as the first with this one of being a staple of being a police officer. It will look for any excuse to burn someone. The only person it likes besides Daisy is Basira and her Arcanine.

Houndoom: Her first pokemon she got as a houndour. She terrorized the neighborhood kids with it and is essential for her hunting down both new pokemon and perps. 

Treevant: She caught it as a phantump after it showed up as she was looking into a cold case. At least if she never was able to file an official report, she at least knew how the case ended.

Sawsbuck: She caught it as a deerling and was the first pokemon she ever caught. What kinda hunter hasn’t caught a deer right?

Espurr: She got it after the whole coffin incident. She just kinda cam across it by chance and felt a kinship with it about having to restrain a flood of overwhelming power it holds.

Lyanroc Midnight form: It is as vicious as she is when in full Hunt mode. 

Melanie: She is the one type kinda trainer and it’s, of course, ghost types. She is determined to prove the paranormal exists outside of ghost type pokemon.

Gengar: It was the Pokémon that started her fascination with ghosts and the first Pokémon she ever had.

Honedge: She found it when looking into that ghost train and couldn’t not catch it. When she’s threatening to stab someone, she uses honedge to do so.

Sableye: Found in an abandoned, haunted mine shaft.

Banette: Cause what kinda ghost hunter doesn’t have a haunted doll?

Gourgeist: She caught it as a pumpkaboo on her very first ghost hunting trip.

Spiritomb: Caught it poking around the wrong place at the wrong time she came across it and had to catch it cause if anyone would have a spiritomb, it would be her. It’s just as bloodthirsty as she is.

Sasha: Do I mean this team was made by Sasha or Not-Sasha? The answer is yes.

Mimikyu: The first pokemon she ever caught. Wait... wasn’t it supposed to be a pikachu?

Ditto: This one just speaks for itself.

Baynette: After she caught it she started reading up on the stories and pores surrounding certain Pokémon that put her on the path of working at the institute.

Gothitelle: It started crying nearly immediately after Sasha started working for the Institute but didn't buy into the wives tale about them predicting their trainer's deaths. It mysteriously disappeared after the Prentis incident.

Claydol: She found it wandering around artifact storage and felt bad for it.

Parasect: Her first pokemon. She really just found it as a paras in her parents' backyard as a kid and begged them to let her keep it. It evolved during the Prentis incident while trying to help her fend off the worms.

#I spent waaaaay to long on this #did you like my picks for pokemon teams? #think I picked wrong? #feel free to add more or correct things if you do! #pokemon AU #the magnus archives #tma #Jon sims #sasha #martin blackwood #daisy tonner #basira hussain

[corvvii]

LFRP: LEONNAUX ALTOIX

For all practical purposes a ghost, this Elezen only appears on public records as far back as three summers ago. It’s likely, then, that he’s chosen to live under an assumed name. He tends to use his appearance to his advantage, passing himself off as a Wildwood whenever it suits his interests—which, given the discrimination that Duskwights face, is more often than not.

He first stepped into the public’s eye as an academic—and, unbeknownst to all but those closest to him, the proprietor of The Cloak & Dagger (under the alias “Crow”). He is passionate about magicks, especially arcanima, and has a demonstrated talent for alchemy, both beyond what one may expect of a man who’s only twenty and one summers old.

In Character———

Profession(s): Academic — Director of Alizarine Research & Reclamation ( @alizarinefc ). Information Broker — Proprietor of The Cloak & Dagger, and current self-proclaimed leader of the Ebonguard ( @ebonguardls ).

Alignment: Generally neutral. Loyal to the Eorzean alliance, but not the msot law-abiding citizen. Has a misdemeanor charge on record (disturbing the peace) in Ul’dah.

Professional Talents: Magic — Arcanima. Alchemy. Warding and minor enchantment. Bartending/mixology.

Current Residence: The Goblet, Sultana’s Breath.

Likely Haunts: Ul’dah and Thanalan, primarily. Bookstores. Antique Shops. Magic Shops. Bars and Taverns. Gambling Establishments.

Hobbies: Gambling, primarily poker and other card games. Magic tricks, primarily sleight of hand. Reading, especially academic texts but also including poetry. He will die before he admits he’s tried writing some of his own. He has a general interest in music and fashion as well.

Abbreviated Bio: Leonnaux is a Shroud-born Duskwight. He is obsessively studious and somewhat selfish in nature, though simultaneously surprisingly laid-back. Those who can make it past his strictly-business demeanor might note a heart of gold, despite the kind of work he’s often involved in via The Cloak & Dagger.

Having run away from home and come to Ul’dah, he quickly had to find a way to make money, which led him to dip his toes into the criminal underworld... and after he took the plunge, he never looked back. He took advantage of his new-found freedom (both in person and, to an extent, in finances) to continue his studies into the flow of aether and alchemy.

Full Profile Here.

Out of Character———

I’m Mid and I use they/them pronouns! My personal blog is @penvmbral. I’m a college student who bounces between Central Time and Eastern Time. I’m generally most active during NA Evenings and Late Nights.

I play on Balmung, but I’m also experienced in Tumblr RP and am more than willing to do threads here! Discord RP probably won’t happen though because my DMs get buried super easily and I’m very easily-distracted with things like Discord. I’m 100% open to connections on other Crystal worlds as well!

Leonnaux is my main character, but I’ve generally been too busy to do much RP outside of my immediate circles unfortunately. I do want to change that, but I will admit to being a little picky!

First: I am a lore-strict RPer. I don’t mind bending the lore a bit if it means telling a better story or if the effect is mostly for flavor, but I take the integrity of the setting very seriously. I also tend play on the lower end of the power spectrum, so I’m not really interested in characters who spend their weekends hunting Ifrit in the Bowl of Embers.

Second: I value OOC communication above all else. If you are unable or unwilling to use OOC channels to the necessary extent to avoid potential issues regarding touchy material in RP and the like then I’m not interested.

I’m also not looking for shipping/relationship RP (Leon is taken and very monogamous) or ERP, but those are kind of givens.

Beyond that, I’m open to anything, but in particular I am looking for:

Casual acquaintances and friends!

Business contacts!

Long-term plot-focused RP connections!

Discord and Linkshell communities! (Note: I’m also willing to come hang out with FCs if they have an open Discord, but I lead my own and am not interested in joining another, sorry!)

Detailed RP Hooks Under the Cut.

Thanks for reading! I will likely be watching the notes of this post and reaching out to people myself from time to time, but by all means feel free to send me a message here on Tumblr. I generally respond within the day. My Discord is available upon request!

Tagging for Visibility: @balmungrp, @ffxiv-balmung-rp, @ffxiv-crystal-rp, @crystalxivrp, @mooglemeet

Hooks———

1. The Academic/Scholarly Community.

While the majority of Leonnaux’s career has been spent in seclusion, teaching himself the skills he’s learned, he eventually came out of his shell. Having gained some experience in a position of leadership, he is now more confident in his abilities as a scholar and as a mage. He’s always looking to expand his horizons, and has an extensive personal collection (although it’s doubtful that he’s read every book cover-to-cover). 

He also has a passing interest in alchemy, although he’s less skilled with it than he is with magic. He understands and can clearly explain most of the basic principles of Eorzean alchemy (at least the sort they teach in Ul'dah), but the most complex principles or foreign variants of the art are utterly lost on him… Not that he wouldn’t love to learn. Despite his talent for alchemy, he also doesn’t have the time or knowledge to go out and collect his own reagents and materials, so he relies heavily on outside help, be they merchants in Ul’dah or independent suppliers.

He is also the director of Alizarine Research & Reclamation, a company focused on such academic pursuits as well as the study and acquisition of artifacts, regardless of whether their significance lays in their history or their properties.

2. The Criminal Element

For a long time, Leonnaux’s primary source of income was selling information and watching the rumor mill turn. He’s always had somewhat of a disdain for law and authority, viewing such things necessary only insofar as they serve his ends. He sold secrets and whispers under the guise of a somewhat ostentatious man known as “Crow,” using his “messenger” (really a cover to ensure that he was taken seriously in his work, and to protect his identity/safety if things went awry) as an intermediary between himself and business contacts as a means of protecting his identity due to the nature of his work. More recently, he has taken to thievery if the price is right. 

“Crow” is also known to be the leader of a loose criminal network that he calls “the Ebonguard” and is the proprietor of an establishment known as The Cloak & Dagger, a restaurant meant to be a sort of ‘neutral ground’ for criminals and n’er-do-wells to do business and have a good bite to eat. 

Leonnaux is known to gamble his money in seedy places. More than happy to sit for a game of cards or a cigarette, one might notice that he can get an uncanny winning streak going under the right conditions. The keenest might be able to connect the dots to the pronounced talent for sleight of hand and other magic tricks that he seems to possess.

3. Contract Work.

Leonnaux is more than willing to take contract work, although he has his boundaries. This is in its own heading because he’s willing to take work to research things or track down artifacts as he is to sell information or organize heists to steal valuables. His only hard line is that he won’t kill on contract and he will not aid in any plot involving human trafficking.

Note though that Leonnaux is comfortable enough financially that he may not take every job that’s pitched to him. High risk jobs that offer little reward are likely to be declined, but if the pot is sweet enough then he can be convinced to do anything that doesn’t cross one of his hard lines.

(Note that RPing contracts in the east will be difficult, as I don’t generally play with IC teleportation due to playing on the lower end of the power spectrum.)

#balmung rp #ffxiv balmung #crystal rp #ffxiv crystal #ffxiv rp #[ eternally grateful to everyone who boosts this ty ty! i may have had a cocktail so ignore any stupid errors i made? ] #ooc | lfc #ooc | player speaking #corvvii

[tessatechaitea]

Metamorpho #1

I'll be disappointed if this series doesn't contain at least on Francium joke.

Ha ha! "Donated" by Rex Mason. What a complete and utter dick.

I get how exciting it must have been to be a looter of other countries' treasures. I did play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons as a kid and I never once thought about the poor orc whose home I was invading so I could shove a sword up his ass and steal his precious copper pieces (which I was absolutely disappointed in). Sure, it seems fucked up when you think about it like that. But that's before you remember the alignment system! The orc was automatically the bad guy with his evil alignment! Anything you wanted to do to him was just fine! He was the bad guy! If he didn't want me stealing his copper, maybe he should have made a show of giving up his evil ways and took on the trappings of man and elf! But no! He was content to sit in his dirty hole with his dirty family eking out a dirty living being a rotten, evil monster worth a few lousy experience points. You can't make me care about that stupid orc no matter how many John Gardner wannabes write Grendelesque fan fiction about how the bad person was just a regular ordinary person who got the short end of life's dumb stick! It's fucking propaganda! Wicked, my ass! Don't go making excuses for that witch! She knew what she was doing when she chose a life of flying monkeys and stealing shoes!

"Ha ha! Found. More sherry?"

It's weird to think that Western Civilization has mostly come to the realization that all of these treasures in museums were found at all. Sure, the people in power and the people in charge mostly aren't coming to that conclusion because why would you when you own everything now? But we understand the context of archaeological theft much better. But even as kids watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, how did we not realize Indy was obviously stealing that golden idol right at the beginning? It was in a secure location guarded by traps and after he stole it, the owners tried to chase him down to stop it. And he was as good a guy as you could get in 1981! I guess when one of the greatest tenets of capitalism is "Finders keepers, losers weepers," it's understandable that we all rooted on a terrible thief of cultural artifacts. Rex Mason has given up his exciting career of liberating treasures from dolts who don't know the value of their sacred religious objects because stealing from primitive people and Yetis who just want to be left alone has become too easy. Also he's full of guilt over having a son. His son must live in quarantine since he can turn whatever he touches into other elements. Sapphire's right breast is now polonium. I'm not even going to be distracted from reading this comic book by pondering how Metamorpho had a kid. Last I checked, spermatozoa wasn't on the periodic table of elements. The greatest female archaeologist, Jillian Conway, arrives to tell Rex she's found a cure for his condition (and probably his son's too!). Apparently the Orb of Ra won't kill Metamorpho; it'll cure him if he allows himself to succumb to its power. And she knows this because she was exposed to the meteorite too!

Gross. Can't she make herself hotter by becoming platinum?

Rex agrees to go looking for the Orb of Ra (which was stolen from Stagg) with Jillian. At first, I thought things were going to get romantic. And then I thought things might get alchemic. But then Rex decided the first thing he should do is kidnap his son and bring him on the adventure with them. So I guess this is going to be one of those kinds of stories. A wacky family comedy where dad has to handle the baby all by himself on a trip around the world while the too-disgusting-to-look-at love interest gets ignored. Rex leaves a note for Sapphire but her father trashes it and just tells her Rex kidnapped their son. Why she might believe him and how she came to marry Java, fuck if I know. This was back when DC actually allowed characters to have involved and intimate relationships that led to weird freak baby children!

I didn't realize it was canon that Sapphire Stagg is the best looking woman in the DC Universe (followed closely by Abigail Arcane).

Metamorpho #1 Rating: A-. Not a bad start to a nice little story about fatherhood, capitalism, and second marriages. It might also be about ugly people because all but one of these characters are hideous freaks. Sure, most characters would be hideous freaks compared to Sapphire Stagg. But even disregarding her ethereal beauty so powerful that I've already struck Erin Esurance from the top of my list of cartoon characters I want to touch in a sexy place, they're all disgusting monsters. I just made that list up. It doesn't actually exist. Never mind what I'm holding behind my back.

#Metamorpho #DC Comics #DC

[supremeuppityone]

Drowning Secrets in the Sea

This is a gift for the lovely @klarolinesbuttons — thank you for all of the wonderful works you created for the Klaroween Bingo Event! I hope you like your gift!

In this AU human story, Klaus discovers the archaeological find of the century with an ancient underwater city and now he’s expected to share credit with a brazen blonde upstart who enjoys arguing and flirting in equal measure.

Historical note: In 2001, there was an amazing archaeological find — the underwater city of Heracleion, that plunged into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago. Definitely ‘worth a Google’ when you see the amazing artifacts they’ve found! 

 “The thief is not the one who steals, but the one that is caught.”

— George Bernard Shaw

               Its bite radius seemed to be the size of a bloody golf cart, and rather than shrink back in terror when faced with arguably the most dangerous shark species in the world, Caroline appeared to be glaring at it while forcibly grabbing several gold Egyptian idols she’d excavated from the seafloor. Klaus swore that blonde menace was bloody insane as she faced off with the aggressive bull shark, defiantly swimming off without a backward glance to see if it intended to chase after her.

           As lead archaeologist for the ancient city of Heracleion, Klaus had endured a mind-numbing amount of red tape as his board of regents dictated every aspect of his research off the coast of Egypt, but he lost count of the number of times he almost quit after they sent Caroline Forbes to join his team. She arrived a month ago, with her sunshine curls, mischievous blue eyes and maddening spreadsheets that rearranged every one of his excavation processes. And her insufferable know-it-all attitude left him gritting his teeth after he secretly fact-checked her various research arguments with him only to discover that she might be the foremost expert in Egyptology.

           And that was when he knew he was in trouble. Because in his decades-long academic career, he’d never allowed anyone or anything to distract him from his research. But Caroline was a force of nature who swept into his life and left him completely out of his depth for the first time in his life. Klaus had tried to maintain a comfortable professional distance, but his control was worn thin every time she argued with him about proper sarcophagi preservation while wearing those distracting mid-thigh scuba suits she preferred.

           Shaking his head in irritation at the blonde’s recklessness, he forced himself to ascend slowly in the warm water to avoid decompression complications. When he finally broke the surface, he scowled at the cheeky grin that greeted him. Caroline leaned over the lower deck of their research vessel to help him scale the steel ladder. “Took you long enough, Klaus. I was starting to think my friend decided to play tag with you,” she teased.

           “Your ‘friend’ has a fearsome reputation for jaws of steel that ruthlessly hang on with no tolerance for provocation, and you chose to taunt the beast by encroaching on his territory. What the hell were you thinking,” Klaus growled, hating how his schoolboy crush made him irrationally angry at his colleague.

           Rolling her eyes, she bent over, inadvertently giving him a front-row seat to the perfection that was her magnificently sculpted arse as she retorted, “Well, I was thinking my friend could wait his turn because it’s finders keepers.” Straightening with one of the tarnished gold idols, she shrugged carelessly, “It’s the law of the land.” Excitedly stroking the statue, she gushed, “Do you see the beautifully rendered electrum? I estimate it’s 80% gold and the pharaonic head covering almost perfectly mimics the Amun-Gerb temple burial masks!”

           It was that unique adventurous spirit, along with her obvious enthusiasm for their scholarly endeavors, that had him completely captivated, Klaus realized with a small smile. Just the other day, the bloody lunatic had casually shooed away a venomous lionfish that had grown curious about an extraordinarily well-preserved stele she’d unearthed.

           But she wasn’t always so fearless.

          The first week she’d arrived, they’d breached a narrow passageway in the underwater cave where the oldest artifacts seemed to be located. Excited at the prospect of uncovering more priceless treasures, Caroline barely paid attention to the rope guideline strung along the cave walls as she paddled deeper into the dark cavern, their safety lights reflecting off of the vibrant red and orange coral.

           Irritated that she wasn’t following basic marine archaeology protocol, he quickly increased his speed to catch up her, intent on airing his grievances with his board of regents as soon as they surfaced. However, his indignation was short-lived when a cloud of air bubbles suddenly blocked the passage. Concerned about Caroline, he slowly floated forward, taken aback when he saw her furiously struggling against a jagged crevice. Her eyes were fearful as she flailed her limbs wildly, clearly unable to break free.

           Hating the helpless look of panic on Caroline’s face, he quickly moved into her line of sight, doing his best to calm her down so that she wouldn’t prematurely deplete her oxygen supply. His presence seemed to calm her down slightly, although she held her body rigid as he leaned closer to investigate the tangled ball of fishing line that prevented her tank from clearing the narrow passage.

           Klaus gestured for Caroline to grip her regulator so that it would remain safely in her mouth while he carefully helped her out of the buoyance compensator so that he could cut through the tangled line with his diving knife. Once he’d freed her scuba equipment, he helped her put everything back on, noting the slight tremor in her hands as she snapped the buckle in place.

           He watched her carefully as they slowly made their ascent, pleased to see that she’d shaken off her fear and was now swimming with smooth, confident strokes once more. Once back on deck, she’d quietly sat there, dangling her feet off the side as she stared aimlessly at the stunning turquoise waves that lapped gently at the boat.

           Sitting next to her, Klaus quietly told Caroline, “I was diving an ancient Greek trading vessel in the Black Sea a few years ago, and managed to get tangled in an old lobster trap. I lost my head for a bit, thrashing about in the water, but fortunately, one of the other divers appeared to help me. Later, he told me, ‘The sea is full of tricks; it doesn’t give up its secrets without a fight.’”

           She considered his words, squeezing his hand as she murmured, “I’m used to working alone. I’m very grateful you don’t, though.” she told him, the depth of her gaze searing into him, leaving him to wonder about all the things she’d left unsaid.  

           Realizing she’d caught him staring at her a beat too long, he replayed her words and finally answered, “Yes, yes, you’ve already established your superior appraisal skills with this site’s artifacts. Fairly certain I caught you drooling over the gold coins of Ptolemy the First you had spread out over the tables yesterday morning.”

           “Only because you kept classifying them incorrectly! It’s supposed to be creation date then metal weight, or else those stoner interns you brought along will never get them catalogued properly in time for your university’s unveiling,” she argued cheerfully.

           As she carefully set down the idol, she added, “And, it’s thanks to my superior appraisal skills that I secured your funding for this dig site another two years. Seriously, Klaus, you’ve been short-changing yourself for years if you’ve simply relied on a cursory estimated value of the artifacts you excavate. When you write reports to your board of regents, you have to sell them on not only the historical value of the artifacts but also the prestige and interest they’ll generate when unveiled to the public. They care about money and generating even more money under a thinly veiled guide of scholarly endeavors.”  

           He grumbled, realizing she had a point. “You’re quite well-versed in the duplicitous ways of academia, sweetheart. You must drive your own board of regents barking mad trying to keep up with your exacting demands,” he observed fondly.

           Caroline replied, “It’s really more about knowing people and how to appeal to their greed.”

           Klaus noted the slightly bitter tone to her voice, suddenly feeling the need to commiserate. “I know a fair bit about the greed in people’s hearts,” he began, resisting the urge to brush aside her wet strands when she jerked her head sharply at his statement. “My father fancies himself a world-renowned collector of priceless artifacts, but he’s actually a foul cutthroat who exploits the black market in an attempt to sate his bottomless greed.”

           Raising an eyebrow, she asked wryly, “So, you set out to become an accomplished archaeologist in one of the oldest civilizations known to man out of spite? I can respect that.”

           Not wanting to discuss his wretched father another moment, Klaus gave her a brief smile, and asked, “Well, what of your parents then? We’ve been so busy navigating the underwater work site that I’ve barely learned anything about you, love.”

           Carefully stowing the waterproof metal detectors, Caroline bit her lip, something he’d learned she did whenever she was debating something. “I never knew my father. You’ll have to tell me if that’s better or worse than having one like yours. My mom’s all I ever had.”

           Klaus observed the hard edge her voice took on — there’d only been one other time he’d heard it — when she found out he’d contacted her university to double-check her credentials. She’d been furious that he hadn’t trusted her and much to his chagrin, had forwarded him the incredibly detailed background check his own university had performed when they vetted her to join his research project. “Apologies, love, I didn’t mean to pry,” he replied, “I just thought since we’d been spending so much time together, it might be nice to get to know each other,” he finished awkwardly, feeling the tips of his ears burn slightly at the quirk of her lips.

           Caroline shook her head, scattering water droplets across the deck. “I’d like that.” Letting out a long sigh, she helped him carefully place the idols into bins of nitric acid and fresh water to start their preservation. “But, getting to know me is kind of a depressing conversation that requires many, many drinks. So, why don’t we finish up here and the first round is on me.”

           The acrid smoke filled his lungs as he made his way through the narrow bar, looking for Caroline. It was one of the oldest bars in Alexandria, a mishmash of old world-charm of the ancient Mediterranean port city with the eclectic vibe of the various tourists that drunkenly wandered in from the cruise ships. Klaus finally spied her blonde waves as she leaned over the well-worn bar to order a drink. When a drunken lout squeezed in beside Caroline and grabbed her wrist, her voice carried over the tinny, muffled classic rock playing through the speakers. “Let go before I make you let go.”

           Klaus was taken aback by the heat in her threat — even when furious, her tone was steel wrapped in sunshine. He was distracted from his thoughts when the stranger aggressively jerked her closer, slurring, “Just having some fun, but now I get to teach you uppity bitch a lesson.”

           Just as Klaus raced forward, blood rushing angrily in his ears, Caroline’s scowl turned into a dangerous blade and in one fluid move, she’d delivered a vicious uppercut to his sagging jawline with her left fist, and when he quickly released her right hand, she wrenched the boorish tourist’s arm behind his back, effectively pinning his sweaty head to the scuffed bar top with a hard thunk. Klaus arrived in time to hear Caroline hiss in his ear, “Go back to your cruise ship before I teach you a lesson, bitch.” With a final, cheeky pat across the back of his pastel polo shirt, Caroline let the stranger make his hasty, stumbled retreat out of the bar.

           Raising an eyebrow, Klaus couldn’t deny the small thrill he felt watching Caroline display this unexpected new side. “Impressive. I dare say you could use a drink.”

           As he signaled the bartender, she slapped a brown leather wallet on the bar between them, casually digging through it until she held up a credit card, announcing, “I agree, and it looks like Mr. Saltzman generously has agreed to foot the bill.”

           Against his better judgement, he fell for that impish wink she threw him, and slid the card toward the bartender to start their tab. Clinking their beer bottles together, he commented, “Care to tell me where you learned how to fight like that? Or that pickpocket routine, sweetheart?”

           Admiring the scribbles in various language along the wall behind them, she shrugged, “I grew up in a rough neighborhood. When no one’s looking out for you, you’ve got to look out for yourself. And I may have picked up a few other...unorthodox skills somewhere along the way.”

           As Klaus considered what Caroline wasn’t saying, he asked carefully, “Earlier you mentioned it was just you and your mother. What happened that she wasn’t looking out for you, love?”

           “My mom’s been sick for a long time which is why I started taking on more specialized assignments to try to keep up with her medical bills,” she ventured, taking a long drink from her bottle.

           Feeling a pang at her confession, he couldn’t help but inquire, “How bad is it, sweetheart?”

           “She needs a kidney and I’m not a match,” Caroline told him, worry lining her brow as she stared off into space. “There’s this waiting list and it’s her only hope now and I don’t know what I’ll do if...” she trailed off as she seemed to struggle to rein in her emotions.

           Klaus hated how defeated she sounded, all traces of her vibrant personality were gone and she looked so alone that he squeezed her hand. He suddenly felt the unexpected urge to tell her, “I had a little brother, Henrik, who was sick. By the time they found the leukemia, there was only time for a few rounds of chemo...we lost him within a year. I read him Greek mythology stories every day he was in the hospital.” A small, sad smile touched his lips as he added, “His favorite story was the one about the minotaur and the maze.”

           “My mom likes me to read Ovid to her when she’s getting her dialysis treatment. We’re both fans of Jason and the Golden Fleece,” Caroline said, nudging his shoulder.

           Klaus contemplated his beer as he revealed, “I think that’s part of why I became an archaeologist — to connect with that childlike wonder at ancient myths bigger than the world as we know it. There’s always a mystery to unravel with each new artifact; we’re restoring a bit of humanity’s lost heritage that we never even knew was missing. Unlike the other priceless works lost to the ages and likely never to be recovered like the coronet of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, or the end piece of the Bayeux Tapestry.”

           Caroline’s hand stilled as she reached for her beer, finally grasping it to clink it against his once more, cheerfully telling him, “I’ll drink to that.”

           He suddenly was aware of how close they were sitting. He watched her carefully, cataloguing too many emotions to decipher them properly. Heart pounding, he decided to take a chance. He closed the space between them, meeting her lips with his in a kiss that was hesitant but hopeful. Ignoring the catcalls of the drunken patrons, he deepened their kiss, encouraged by the way her hands touched his face, as if wanting to keep him in this moment.

           Suddenly, Caroline broke their kiss, her blue eyes full of regret as she told him sadly, “I can’t. We’re heading in different directions and it’s not fair to you. I’m sorry, Klaus.” Not waiting for his response, she abruptly left, disappearing into the night as he struggled to understand what happened.

           Several shots later, Klaus left the bar, weaving a bit as he made his way through the market square and back to the cramped office space that had been rented for the research project. He didn’t understand Caroline’s rejection — they were both respected archaeologists specializing in the same regional histories, their research project had been extended for several years — why did she believe were they heading in different directions? His thoughts were muddled from drinking, but he wasn’t sure it would make more sense after he sobered.

           He fumbled with his keys, finally fitting the correct one in the lock. He didn’t bother turning on the lights in the downstairs work area, instead slowly trudging through dusty piles of boxes until he was at the foot of the stairs that led to the staff’s sleeping quarters. As he began the unsteady climb, he paused when he heard Caroline’s irritated voice. From the sound of it, she was arguing with someone on the phone. “It’s over, do you hear me? I’m done!”

           Was she fighting with a lover? He strained to hear more, not caring about something as inconsequential as manners if it turned out Caroline had only turned him away because she needed to end something with someone else first. “No,” she swore angrily, “no more. I told you I’m done and I mean it!” Klaus held his breath, waiting for her to speak again, but when he didn’t hear anything further, he finished climbing the stairs to his quarters and fell into bed.

           The next morning, the sun blinded him, and from his throbbing head, he could tell his hangover was shaping up to need more than his usual greasy breakfast to cure. Groaning, he clumsily pulled on less-rumpled clothes and made his way over to Caroline’s room across the hall. He hesitated before he knocked, replaying last night’s events from their heated kiss to her confusing rejection and then the argument he overheard. He cared for her, but if she didn’t feel the same, surely he could set aside his hurt so that they could continue working together.

           Easier said than done, mate. Every time he replayed her words and the regret in her eyes, his heart sank in his chest. Rubbing a hand over his scruffy jaw, he squared his shoulders as he gently knocked. “Caroline? Would you care to join me for breakfast before we start cataloging our excavations?” Frowning when there was no response, he knocked a bit more firmly, her door swinging wide to reveal her bed was already made. Gray eyes narrowed, he noticed that the small closet was open, showing that it was empty save for a few coat hangers. Caroline was gone.      

           His hangover was no match for the rising panic he felt, terrified that he’d pushed her away with his impulsive kiss. He raced downstairs, unsure what to do. Spying his phone on a desk, he grabbed it, frantically looking for her number. Before he made the call, however, a noise near the back of the office caught his attention.

           A local bank had donated a vault to secure the artifacts, and Klaus realized that the noise was coming from inside. Feeling a slight glimmer of hope that it was Caroline, he ran inside, stopping short at the sight that greeted him.

           It was the flash of silver on the gun that he noticed first, his gaze tracing the length of the pistol until he registered that it was his father who held the gun. “Mikael,” he snarled, refusing to show this contemptable man any fear. “We haven’t spoken in years. Why are you here?”

           Mikael’s smile was cruel and twisted as he revealed, “To finish the job my assistant couldn’t get done.”

           Klaus hated the way his father possessively ran his hand across the piles of gold and bronze coins, eyeing the intricately carved statue of Hapy, god of floods, with pure greed. “What are you on about? What assistant?”

           He nodded behind Klaus, the blade of his smile sharpening as he greeted, “Why, the lovely Caroline, of course.”

           Caroline suddenly entered the vault, stoic and coldly calculating as she studied Mikael. “I told you I was out. I’m not helping you steal this treasure from Klaus.”

           Klaus felt his temper rise, forgetting the gun his father had trained on him as he growled at her, “All this time, you’ve been working for my father?! Was anything you told me real?!”

           “Yes,” she snapped, momentarily tearing her eyes away from the gun, “My mom was on a waiting list for a kidney but Mikael used his connections to get her kicked off of it. He said he’d only get her put back on if I pulled this job for him.” At Klaus’ noise of disgust, she shouted, “That list is her only chance! She’ll die without a kidney and I already used everything I had to pay her medical bills — there was nothing left to try to buy her one off the black market!”

           Despite his anger at being betrayed, he also felt a sliver of sympathy for her situation. It was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen her, even when he saved her in the underwater cave it didn’t compare to the raw emotion he now found in her eyes, and it took everything in him to hang onto his fury. Gray eyes narrowed, he replayed her words, picking up on her obvious familiarity with the black market, not to mention the other unusual traits he’d noticed but carelessly shrugged off. Whipping his head around, he asked Mikael suspiciously, “You could’ve used any thief to steal from me. Why Caroline?”

           “Because she’s the best grifter in the world,” he answered with an approving nod in Caroline’s direction, “among her illustrious accomplishments, she stole the end piece of the Bayeux Tapestry from a collector whose family had hidden away for generations.”

           Klaus’ gray eyes widened and he couldn’t help but be impressed — the final section of that famous medieval work had vanished sometime before the 16th century. Over the centuries, it only had been spoken of in whispers in the academic and art worlds, believed to be lost forever.

           Caroline seethed as she corrected his father, “I’m a treasure hunter, NOT a thief.” Flicking her gaze back to Klaus, she explained, “It’s how I knew so much about ancient artifacts.”

           “Obviously, you’re not a professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago,” Klaus muttered, feeling completely ridiculous — he’d been quietly working on a lecture series that he’d intended to petition his own university to approve a visiting professorship for Caroline once their project grant had been depleted.

           Caroline sheepishly replied, “I may have picked up some digital forgery skills at some point,” she shrugged, “I knew your board of regents performed extensive background checks, so I wanted to be prepared.”

           Mikael sighed mockingly, “As amusing as this interlude has been children, it’s time to put an end to this embarrassing debacle.” Waving his pistol in Caroline’s direction, he ordered, “Start hauling the treasure to the front of the office. I’ve arranged for secure transport within the hour.”

           Despite the obvious danger, she narrowed her gaze at him as she challenged, “And if I don’t? Seriously, do you have any idea how many times I’ve had a gun pointed at me in my line of work?”

           While he admired her courage, Klaus barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her complete lack of self-preservation. He realized he was subconsciously angling his body as though trying to block Mikael’s line of sight.

           Mikael’s voice retained that cold, vicious certainty that had terrified Klaus as a child. “If you don’t follow my instructions, the fact that I will shoot both you and my worthless son is inconsequential. What should concern you is the depraved, agonizing torture I will visit upon your poor, sickly mother once you’re dead.”

           “Leave Caroline out of this, Mikael,” Klaus shouted, his heart plummeting when he saw how pale she’d grown the moment her mother was threatened.

           The fleeting warmth he felt when she flashed him a grateful smile was doused when his father chuckled darkly. “Useless boy, too foolish to understand he’s already dead.” The deadly click of the hammer as he cocked the pistol echoed throughout the bank vault, and Klaus hated the helplessness he felt, knowing he was about to die.

           Suddenly, Caroline whipped out a black handgun that had been concealed behind her back, tucked in her waistband. “Not him, Mikael. You.” She confidently stepped away from Klaus, keeping her cold gaze trained on Mikael.

           “You’re nothing but a scared little girl. You won’t pull the trigger,” Mikael taunted her with a sinister curl of his lip. Klaus registered the predatory way his father stalked toward Caroline, and he instinctively moved to protect her.

           A shot rang out with a sharp crack, sending adrenaline flooding through his system as he grabbed Caroline and threw them both behind a pile of dusty boxes. As he lay halfway on top of her, he quickly scanned her for injuries while listening for his father.

           He was surprised by the gentle press of Caroline’s palm on his back. “Klaus, it’s ok. It’s over.” She moved out from under him, pulling him to his feet as her smile turned grim.

           Klaus followed her gaze across the floor to where Mikael had fallen. The small bullet hole was centered in his forehead. A perfect shot. How the bloody hell did she know how to do that? “You saved my life,” he acknowledged in a harsh whisper, staring down at the monster who’d haunted his dreams for as long as he could remember. “He’d planned on killing me regardless of your decision to help him steal the treasure, and yet you risked your own life to save mine.”

           As she put away her gun, Caroline looked uncomfortable, shuffling her feet a bit as she muttered, “Well, I couldn’t just let you die after everything...” she trailed off awkwardly. As though noticing the way his eyes kept wandering back to his father’s body, her brow furrowed worriedly and she grasped him by the arm, leading him out of the vault and into their main work area. Biting her lip, she told him, “Mikael said there’s a transport arriving within the hour — so, we have a few options to take care of this. I just need to know whether you want him to have a burial. Or, do you just want him gone?”

           His thoughts raced as he processed her words. How in blazes did she know about these things? He thought back to his horrific childhood with that vile creature, and realized that he only felt relief as he’d stared at his father’s corpse. The cold, calm certainty of his voice still surprised him as he decreed, “Mikael was an abusive monster who deserves every indignity you care to inflict.”          

           Nodding once, she pulled out her phone, typing a quick message. Flicking her blue gaze at him, she announced, “Understood. I called in a favor and everything will be taken care of before Mikael’s security detail arrives. My friend has secured a safe house for you to continue your work at the site and the artifacts will be transported safely.” At his shocked expression, she gave him a small smile, explaining, “He’s the one who commissioned me to find the missing Bayeux Tapestry piece.”

           Curious, Klaus asked, “How did you find it?! The bloody thing has been lost for centuries without a trace — How did you even know where to begin?”

           Shrugging, Caroline coyly said, “I just happened to hear a few interesting whispers that seemed like they’d lead to an adventure.” Her tone grew serious as she seemed to search for something in his expression. “I’m sorry for everything. I lied to you and while I had my reasons, it doesn’t change what happened. I fell for you, Klaus.”

           Laughing nervously, she shoved her phone back in her pocket, playing with the frayed belt loops on her jeans as she couldn’t seem to look at him when she confessed, “I put everything I had into fighting it, but I couldn’t help myself — you’re so passionate about your work and fiercely intelligent when we debate and you have this crazy charismatic pull and my god, you look like you’re chiseled from marble...” she rambled, cheeks flushing. “And I’m sorry I left — it’s just all I’ve ever known; it’s what I’m good at. But it hurt my heart to do that to you, so I came back because I couldn’t stand the thought of what Mikael would do to you.”  

           Caroline fell for him. Klaus took a breath, not knowing what to say. It was everything he’d wanted to hear, but somehow, it still wasn’t enough. She’d lied to him. She’d every intention of stealing those artifacts, possibly irrevocably damaging his career. How could he trust her after that?

           She studied his face, as though cataloguing every emotion that flickered across it. In a small voice, she asked him, “Now what?”

           He sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I don’t know, Caroline.” Running fingers through his curls in frustration, he hated the way bitterness started to bleed into his voice. “I don’t know if I can move past everything. I don’t know if could ever trust you.”

           She was wistful as she replied, “I understand,” and placed a quick kiss on his cheek as she walked away.

           Klaus stopped her when she opened the door. “What’s next for you then? Off on another adventure?” He was still greedy for her presence, wanting to soak up their last moments together, but couldn’t bring himself to tell her how he really felt. Stubborn arsehole.

           “In my downtime here, I’ve heard a few interesting whispers that might lead to an adventure.” Caroline winked, taking her heart with him as she walked away.

           For the next week, he walked around the new office like a ghost, barely paying attention to his research as his every thought was plagued by Caroline, and occasionally yelling at one of his irksome interns if they dared to breathe wrong in his presence. He was a miserable bastard and knew he only had himself to blame. He let her walk away. Caroline was off on a new adventure and probably had forgotten all about him.

           When the package arrived, he’d been staring off into space, remembering the endearing way Caroline used to flush an angry red whenever he argued with her about discrepancies found in radiocarbon dating techniques. She’d been a veritable wealth of knowledge — surely it wasn’t solely the result of treasure hunting. Yet another thing he’d never know about her, he thought grimly. Mindlessly opening the box, he paused when he registered the crudely wrought bronze. A quick assessment revealed two bracelets, an axe head, four sickles and a handful of spear points. Was he actually  holding a shipment of priceless artifacts from the Bronze Age?

           Klaus’ hand trembled as he recognized Caroline’s handwriting:

           “There’s more where this came from. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, maybe you could stop by?”

           She’d written a series of GPS coordinates that made his heart hammer with excitement. Klaus knew that this interesting whisper would definitely lead to an adventure.

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#klaroween bingo #klarolinesbuttons #klaroline fanfiction #gift fic #i hope you like your gift #uppity bitch fanfic

[alittlepieceofwarcraft]

Deathwing: A Lore Guide

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History

Origins (before -150,000): The history of Deathwing, formerly known as  Neltharion, starts before the very first recorded date of Year -150,000. After Azeroth’s Ordering, Keeper Tyr battled with a monster, Galakrond, along with the aid of five intelligent proto-dragons: Alexstrasza, Malygos, Nozdormu, Ysera and Neltharion. Impressed by their courage and might, he and other Keepers turned to the Pantheon to gift the proto-dragons with powers to protect Azeroth with. Eonar bestowed Alexstraza with the titles Life-Binder and Dragon Queen, charging her with protecting all life, and gave her younger sister Ysera the name the Dreamer and bound her to the Emerald Dream. Alexstraza is the orginiator of the red dragonflight, and Ysera the green. Malygos was chosen by Norgannon to guard all forms of magic and the arcane, titled the Spell-Weaver. His dragonflight is the blue. Nozdormu was dubbed the Timeless One by Aman'Thul to protect time itself. He is the originator of the bronze dragonflight. Neltherion was charged with dominion over the earth by Khaz'goroth, becoming known as the Earth Warder and beginning with black dragonflight. This changed them all into the Dragon Aspects. Neltharion became bitter with his burden over time, and due to his connection with the earth he began hearing whispers from the Old Gods, imprisoned below, convincing him that he could rule the entire earth rather than serving it.

The Dragon Soul (Year -10,000): During the first invasion of the Legion into Azeroth, the Aspects allied themselves with the night elves and their allies to repel the attack. Neltharion convinced his fellow Aspects to pour their power into a yellow disc that had been forged well before this time, telling them their combined power would be able to defeat the onslaught. They complied, but there horrified when they saw that upon its use he killed both night elves and demons indiscriminately, and when they learned he had been the only one to not pour his power into it, instead wanting to use it to rule over Azeroth. Malygos' blue dragonflight attempted to apprehend from him, but instead Neltharion used it against them, killing the blue dragons and scattered the Aspects across the land and he left to go to location that would later be known as Highmountain. His skin was becoming cracked from corruption, revealing his molten heart. The goblins worked to construct a metal vessel to contain him and so, Deathwing was born. However, Malfurion Stormrage used the Emerald Dream to steal back the Dragon Soul. However, he was intercepted by his brother Illidan and Varo'then, taking the artifact to be used to power the portal to bring Sargeras into Azeroth. Deathwing attempted to recover it, but failed as it fell into the Well of Eternity and a future incarnation of  Nozdormu from within the Well managed to obtain and return it. After the Legion had been stopped and the world sundered, the Aspects sealed the Soul in a hidden location to try and prevent it from being used once again. After retreating to Highmountain once more, he was banished to Deepholm by Huln Highmountain, a hero for who the land was named for, with the aid of a rebellion of drogbar slaves. Deathwing did return, but went into a great slumber.

Awakens (Year 0-3): The powerful magics of the Dark Portal stir Deathwing. The Old God urge him to aid the orcs in their invasion. He takes the guise of a nobleman and moves to Lordaeron and attempted to meddle in human affairs by claiming the rumours of orcs were to mask rebels within Stormwind, subtly preventing those who believed him into not sending aid. 

Dragon Soul (Year 4): Seeing that the orcs had been weakened by the First War, he granted orc shaman and chieftain of the Dragonmaw clan, Zuluhed the Whacked, visions of the Dragon Soul and how it could be used to tame dragons to use as ariel weapons against the humans. As it had been enchanted so that he could not use the weapon himself, but orcs could. Nekros Skullcrusher managed to recover the artifact. Deathwing further went further into Nekros’ dreams to teach him how to use it. Sensing its disturbance, Alexstraza investigates.

Enslaving the Dragon Queen (Year 5): The orcs manage to subdue Alexstraza and bind her within Grim Batol, forcing her brood to obey them with her imprisonment. They used it to control her and force her to lay eggs for them to raise as mounts.

Outland (Year 8): The orcs left on Outland reform and reopen the previously closed portal to retrieve artifacts to open other portals to more worlds to flee to. Deathwing approaches Ner’zhul and asks for him to take some of his eggs to their homeworld in exchange for his aid. The area in which he places his eggs is gronn area and in retaliation, Gruul attempts to kill Deathwing, the black dragon narrowly escaping. He then takes on the form of a false Lord Daval Prestor, claiming to be a distant cousin of Prince Aiden Perenolde of Alterac, making himself known among the Alliance leaders to manipulate from within. He telepathically coerced King Terenas II of Lorderon to propose “Prestor” marry his daughter, Calia Menethil. 

The Battle for Grim Batol (Year 9): The Horde planned to move Alexstraza and her eggs to Dun Algaz . Deathwing saw the chance to steal a batch of her eggs and raise his another dragonflight. He failed and the Dragon Queen was freed. Malygos, Ysera and Nozdormu were pursued by Deathwing, however managed to elude them, and Prestor mysteriously disappeared after.

The Children of Deathwing (Year 25): Onyxia and Nefarian, children of deathwing, attempted to take control of the world. Onyxia took the guise of Lady Katrana Prestor to counsel Anduin as King of Stormwind in his father’s absence. Nefarian pretended to be Lord Victor Nefarius of Blackrock Mountain, managing to enslave the Blackrock Clan. Onxyia is killed in her lair. Nefarian is killed in Blackrock Spire.

Night of the Dragon (Year 26): Deathwing’s mate Sintharia conducts the research of making Twilight dragonflight. She is killed, but he retrieves her corpse that is reanimated by the Old Gods to continue laying eggs.

The Shattering (Year 28): Twilight's Hammer clan, now his followers, forge new plates for the black dragon. Deathwings returns from Deepholm and releases an immense force of fire across Azeroth, scarring the world forever. Ragnaros the Firelord is summoned by Deathwing with the intent of destroying Nordrassil. Sintharia is slain in Bastion of Twilight and a resurrected Oxynia and Nefarian are both eventually defeated for good in Blackwing Descent. Ragnaros is slain in Firelands.

The Hour of Twilight (Year 29): Agents of the Horde and Alliance are sent back over 10,000 years to the Well of Eternity and retrieve the Dragon Soul. It is then used within Dragon Soul by the Aspects and Thrall to destroy him. Their desiny fulfilled, the Aspects are reduced to a mortal state and the Age of Mortals begins.

Family 

Sintharia (prime consort)

Nyxondra (mate)

Nefarian, Sabellian, Wrathion, Neltharaku (sons)

Onyxia (daughter) 

Mordenaku (grandson)

Zoya, Onyxien (granddaughters)

Affiliations

Dragon Aspects (formerly) 

Black Dragonflight

Old Gods’ forces

N'Zoth

Twilight’s Hammer clan

Personality

Out of his Mind: After decades of hearing the whispers of the Old Gods, Deathwing has been twisted into madness with a longingto destroy all the mortal races.

Puppeteer: Deathing is incredibly cunning and prefers to manipulate others from behind the scenes rather than place himself in combat (at least prior to the Shattering). From human affairs to orc plans, he very cleverly controls the actions of others without them even being aware of it.

#deathwing #neltharion #wrathion #wow #world of warcraft #dragon #dragon aspect #twilight hammer #cataclysm #the shattering #dragon soul #guide

[actuallykiwi]

Once a Thief... Chapter 11: Hard Answers

The first half hour or so of the girls’ journey was spent in silence. From exhaustion or to let everything really sink in, they both rode quietly on the horse, thousands of thoughts going through each of their heads. Eventually though, Karliah took a deep breath and broke the deafening silence. “I suppose you must have questions.” Cimber chuckled. “Only a few hundred. I’ll start with: what in Tamriel is going on???”

The elf laughed softly. “That’s a vague question, but I’ll start from the beginning. Gallus, Mercer and I were all part of an anonymous splinter of the Thieves Guild, called the Nightingales. It’s an exclusive group of elite thieves, all guided by Nocturnal.” 

“Nocturnal... the daedric prince of shadow, right? I’ve read about her before, but I’ve never heard of her leading a group.” Cimber thought aloud. 

“Most people believe the Nightingales to be a myth, and honestly we’d prefer to keep it that way.We protect the shrines of Nocturnal and anywhere she chooses to abide, including any artifacts. In return, she grants us amazing abilities to aid us in our line of work.” 

“So, is it religious?” Cimber asked. “If you consider it to be. We’re not required to worship or pray to her if that’s what you mean. All we’re required to do is to protect what is sacred to her, and stay loyal to the shadows. Mercer decided not to oblige, and he... murdered Gallus.” Karliah’s voice cracked once again, and Cimber placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Were you two.. lovers?” 

She smiled sadly. “We were... very close. He was my mentor, as well as Mercer’s. I wouldn’t be as good as I am today if not for him.” Her smile faded and was replaced with a burning rage in her eyes. “Until Mercer took all of that away. He’s going to pay for what he did!” Her hands tightened on the reins of the horse. 

“Yes, he will. But let’s keep a level head about this, okay? Something tells me getting this information won’t be easy.” Cimber gave her shoulder a squeeze and she sighed, her grip loosening the reins. “Of course.” 

They rode on well into the night, watching the auroras in the night sky change from bright violet, to deep blue, to a soft cyan, dancing over the land like luminous curtains. Eventually, they grew tired and stopped to camp for the night just outside of Dawnstar. “Better to remain out of sight as much possible, lest Mercer find us. He might still be out here.” Karliah explained. 

Early the next morning, as the sun barely peaked above the eastern glaciers by the town and basked them in warm, glowing light, the girls quickly awoke and left. Along the journey, Karliah told her more about the Nightingales, including their history and their place in Skyrim today. Cimber told her about her journey to Skyrim as well, relaying what she had told Brynjolf. Their conversation lasted through most of the ride, and by sundown they finally entered the Reach. “Markarth is only a few hours from here. Be on your guard, the Forsworn are fairly active in these parts.” Karliah warned. 

Despite the growing tension, the Reach was fairly quiet, until a couple hours later when they rode by a small house built in front of a mine. Cimber grew suspicious at the sudden silence and instinctively unsheathed her bow. “Karliah, I don’t think we’re alone-” she was interrupted by a sudden cry of rage to her right, and turned just in time to see a tribal-looking male nord rush right at them. Both girls leaped off the horse in opposite directions and right into the action. 

Cimber grappled with the first Forsworn, using her bow to block the swing of his axe. She pushed hard at it to cause him to stagger and sent a rounded kick at his head, rendering him half-conscious. “The Reach belongs to the Forsworn!” He spat at her, before she let an arrow fly through him. 

Meanwhile, Karliah dove out of the way as the horse ran for safety, but not before an arrow hit its flank. It staggered a bit, but continued to limp as far as it could go. She cursed under her breath and rolled behind the stone wall by the road as another arrow hit where she was just crouching. She readied one herself and peered out the side to find her attackers. One crouched behind some rocks on the outcropping behind the house, and the other was slowly making her way towards her a little ways up the road. She waited until the walking one shot again, barely grazing the stone wall, and quickly loosed an arrow through her torso. By this time Cimber had taken the brief moment of distraction and downed the one higher up. Karliah smiled at her and stood. “I think that’s all of them.” 

“Agreed. Looks like we’re walking to Markarth from now on, though.” Cimber sighed. Karliah laughed and they set off for the capitol on foot. 

If Cimber thought the people of Riften lived tensely because of the Thieves Guild, it was nothing compared to the tension she felt as soon as they entered the city gates of Markarth. Despite it being so early in the evening, very few people lingered on the streets, but those who did quite literally kept looking over their shoulder.  “You could cut this tension with a knife.” Cimber joked. “Almost. Let’s just get some rest and get this over with. Come on, we’ll start in the morning.” Karliah gestured at the inn right across the stream that flowed through the city. Even though they walked a short distance to get there, Cimber couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. 

The inn was bustling with merry drunks and travelers, completely contrast to the city right outside. They paid for their room for the night and quickly made their way to it, hoping no one would bother them. Cimber plopped down onto her bed and turned towards Karliah, who was just getting onto hers. “So how are we gonna do this?” she asked. 

“Well, I suppose the real challenge is convincing Calcelmo to let us into the museum. My hope is that the information is there, otherwise this could be a bit more difficult.” Cimber grinned. “Come on. A couple of fantastic thieves, breaking into a museum? Difficult?” Karliah laughed. “You make a fair point. We’ll deal with this tomorrow. For now, rest.” 

And so they did. But in the morning, both of them couldn’t help but feel anxious about the task ahead of them. They were quiet as they gathered their belongings and exited the inn. The city was much more lively this time of day, but Cimber noticed there were twice as many guards than she had seen in any other city, even Solitude. They were careful to keep their heads down as they headed up the stone streets and steps to the jarl’s palace. She was glad the entrance to the palace was mostly vacant as they headed left up the rubble to the dwarven ruins, where they saw the old researcher buried in his notes. 

Karliah gestured for Cimber to approach, and she gently cleared her throat as she did so. Before she could speak, Calcelmo turned towards her, glaring. “What are you doing here? The excavation site is closed and I don’t need any more workers or guards. Why do you people keep bothering me?” She blinked and feigned embarrassment. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother you, it’s just... I’ve heard that you’re opening a museum soon, and I’m actually a huge fan of your research! I’ve been reading your published works since I came to Skyrim a little while ago and I thought it would be amazing to see your research in person!” She smiled brightly, and the old wizard seemed to get a little embarrassed himself. The whole act was supported by the college robes she was wearing. “O-oh, well, what kind of a mentor would I be if I denied an admirer a glimpse at the master’s ingenuity! Here, I’ll let you borrow this key to the museum. Feel free to browse as you wish and let me know what you think! However, I must insist my laboratory stay strictly off limits!” 

“Of course, sir! Thank you so much!” Her smile brightened as she accepted the key and trotted back to an impressed Karliah, leaving Calcelmo a little flustered and scratching his neck bashfully. 

“Do you even steal anything or do you politely ask and people give you what you want?” Karliah teased as the walked back across the palace to the museum. Cimber shrugged and showed the key to the guard. “A mix of both.” She giggled as they walked through the museum, and she had to stop to take it all in. 

Rows upon rows of priceless dwarven artifacts lay cozy in their golden-plated display cases. Grand, bronze statues of old dwarven machines stood posed on round golden bases, forever frozen in time and holding an unspoken past behind them. A full set of dwarven armor was set outside a side room, guarded by two tough-looking city guards. Several other guards patrolled the museum as Cimber and Karliah walked around and gaped at the wonders it had to offer. I might actually become a real fan of his after seeing all this... 

The show must go on, however. After allowing themselves a few minutes of admiration, they made their way to what they assumed was the laboratory door. “I don’t see anything on the Falmer language in here. We’ll have to keep searching further.” Karliah whispered to her. Cimber nodded, and once they made sure the coast was clear, she swiftly picked the lock and they vanished behind the door. 

“And now the fun part.” Cimber muttered as they crouched and began sneaking their way through the lab chambers. When the wizard guards began to appear early on, Cimber followed Karliah’s lead and clung to the shadows. When they approached a room where the door was on the opposite side, and at least five guards inside, Karliah pulled out a couple of white vials. “Invisibility. It will only last a few seconds and will stop working when you interact with anything, so we need to be quick.” She explained barely audibly. After carefully opening the potions and gulping them down, the invisible thieves dashed quietly across the room when the guard by the door left the post momentarily, and slipped through. 

In the next chamber, they eavesdropped on the conversation being held by the two patrolling guards. Apparently, the lower level just below them had a gas leak, and several people lost their lives trying to navigate it. Cimber exchanged a look with her partner. Karliah shook her head and gestured at a valve right above her. With a glimpse into the hallway where the guards were, they noticed a threshing trap that would clear the way for them. She grimaced, but agreed. Better than suffocating in whatever’s downstairs. Karlaih carefully pulled the valve, and the trap set off. The guards noticed in time, but not before one of them was hurt. “Help! I need help!” The guard rushed to their injured partner once the trap stopped, and dragged them out of the room, right past the waiting thieves. Cimber silently sighed with relief, and they rushed on to the next chamber. 

They pressed on for a while, hiding in the shadows and somehow miraculously avoiding detection. They eventually came upon a large chamber with at least a dozen guards and one mage, garbed in blue wizard robes. Staying safely behind the golden gates, Cimber found another valve, with no indication of what it would do. “What if it just alerts them that we’re here?” she asked. “I don’t think we have much of a choice. We could try sneaking through, but there’s too many, even with the shadows. We have to try.” Karliah suggested. Cimber sighed shakily and gripped the valve, her knuckles going white with her grip. She gulped and turned it. 

Two traps immediately went off: small pipes began gushing out fire, and a thresher trap in the floor took out a few unsuspecting guards. Curses and cries echoed out as the chaos ensued, and the mage and the few guards that made it ran out of the room, directly past them. Hearts pounding, they crawled out of their corner and into the chamber, but the traps never turned off. Karliah followed Cimber as she crawled onto the tables to avoid the threshers, and ducked low to avoid being singed. Once they safely navigated through, they exited out onto the patio overlooking the city. 

If they weren’t in the middle of a highly dangerous heist, Cimber would have stopped to admire the spectacular view. It was mid-afternoon now, and this part of Skyrim wasn’t being obstructed with an onslaught of snow. It was a clear, gorgeous sunny day, and the view went on for miles over the valley. But she only had a brief second to enjoy it before they were running into the next chamber: Calcelmo’s Tower. 

Even though it appeared to be empty, both of them carefully tread down the long entryway and up to his study. After picking the lock, they dug through his research, scattered across tables and dressers and shelves, until Cimber looked out onto the balcony. “Karliah, look!” She approached a large stone tablet overlooking the room, two languages written on it: and one of them appeared to be Falmer. “Should we copy this somewhere or...?” Karlaih thought for a moment before grabbing a piece of parchment and charcoal from his study. “Or we could make a rubbing.” She suggested. Cimber nodded and did so as quick as she could, wiping sweat from her brow out of nervousness. 

She had just barely finished the rubbing when the large chamber doors creaked open. Cimber peaked her head around to see the blue-robed mage and two guards walk in. “There are intruders in the tower, I just know it. Find them!” He barked, and they obediently began lurking around the room. Both girls swore under their breath and snuck to the stairs to their left, up toward the balcony over the entryway. The guards were easy to get past, but that left one problem: the mage was standing by the door. Now they were both directly above him, but the drop was higher than they anticipated. Karliah looked around momentarily before deciding on something. She dug out a gemstone out of her pocket and, after a quick silent prayer to Nocturnal, threw it as far as she could where he would hear it. The soft tinkling of the gem echoed in the hallway, causing the mage to jump. “Guards? Was that you?” He called out curiously before slowly creeping forward. Without stopping to be sure he was far enough away, she swung down to hang off the edge of the balcony before dropping down below, rolling back up and grimacing. Cimber didn’t hesitate to follow, and tried not to cry out as the impact jolted up her legs and back as she rolled back to her feet. The door was not on their side, however, and creaked just as it did when the mage entered. At the sound, he turned and already had a spell charged, but the girls had already dashed outside. 

Cimber took lead as they ran down the stone steps. “Over here!” She pulled Karliah into a small rocky alcove on the side of the walkway leading to the waterfall, just as the mage and his entourage burst through the doors. “They can’t have gotten far, come on!” He screamed as they ran past their hiding place. They both held their breath until they heard the other door close. Cimber inched her way toward the edge of the ledge, looking straight down the path of the waterfall. “Looks like this is the only way down. I see a little ledge on the other side, not as far down as the one in the tower. Think we can make it?” Karliah peered over her shoulder to look at what she was talking about. “Won’t know until we try! Just make sure to land in the water at the bottom!” She called out over the rushing water. Cimber nodded and stood right on the edge, staring at the small platform a little ways below them. She gathered up as much courage as she could manage, clenching her fists and taking deep breaths. Nocturnal help us, she thought, and jumped as far she could.

There wasn’t enough room on the platform to roll, so she took in full force the impact of the landing. With the waterfall now drowning out all other sounds, she let herself cry out a little as the pain shot through her. “Are you alright?” She could vaguely hear Karliah call out and lifted a thumbs up to her. She would so feel this tomorrow. Cimber carefully stood to her feet, which were now aching, and tried not to slip on the water splashing at her. She aimed for what she imagined was the deepest part of the stream below and leapt once more, this time welcomed with a softer, if colder, landing. Regardless it being water though, there was still a harsh impact with the height of the fall, so moving out of the way for Karliah proved to be painful. After a few moments, however, her partner splashed behind her, and they both, as much in pain as they were, ran out of the city as fast as their aching legs would allow them. 

And Ghorza, town blacksmith, would never know the story behind why two girls plummeted from the waterfall and dashed out of the city without a word to anyone. 

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#skyrim #fanfiction #lovestory #writing

[lulachamberlainfanclub]

Act I Games Museum

In Act I, there’s a text encounter on the road where you run into a museum. If you go back to Equus Oils and talk to Joseph about it, he tells you that there’s a file on games there, and that a game he wrote called “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down”. Conway has to sift through multiple files and finds about 15 other entries. They are all real, and I have collated this list of links.

Queue by Stephen Lavelle (Interactive Fiction)

Portal by Brad Fregger (Interactive Fiction)

Mondo Medicalis by Jonatan Söderström (First Person Puzzle)

The Postman’s Choice by Ben Vautier (Modern Art)

Calamity Annie by Anna Anthropy (Twine Lesbian Cowboy Game) (Thanks for the tip, @skeleton-justice-warrior)

Cart Life by Richard Hofmeier (Retail Sim)

Mainichi by Mattie Brice (Walking Sim)

The Sea Will Claim Everything by Jonas and Verena Kyratzes (Point-and-Click Adventure)

Everything I Do is Art, But Nothing I Do Makes Any Difference, Part II Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Gallery by Chris Reilly (FPS, Half-Life 2 Mod)

Digital: A Love Story by Christine Love (Visual Novel)

Radiator 1-1: Polaris by Robert Yang (Experimental Half-Life 2 Mod)

Brace by merritt k (It looks like merrit k has made all of her games unavailable online. Does anyone have any info on this? I really liked hugpunx.)

The Cat and the Coup by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad (Historical/Documentary/Cat Simulator)

Syberia by Benoît Sokal (Adventure/Puzzle)

Prisoner’s Dilemma by Richard Serra (Short Film)

The Walking Dead by TellTale Games (Narrative Adventure)

Then we come to If I Had My Way, I’d Tear the Building Down by Joseph Wheattree. At first I kinda expected to find that Carboard Computer had released a game by that name as “Joseph Wheattree”, which you could forgive me for believing considering the lengths CC goes to. They sell a physical copy of Lem Dolittle’s “The Entertainment” (which, at less than five bucks, is a steal. A really cool physical artifact of my favorite game). 

There is no such game, sadly, but my research has led me to a song by Blind (get it?) Willie Johnson. It’s a blues song about the Old Testament story of Samson and Delilah. How it maps onto the KRZ lore, I couldn’t tell you. Good song, though. If you like the blues.

IN ANY CASE. This is clearly a list of the games that inspired CC to make Kentucky Route Zero. Most of these games are short and free, some of them aren’t even games, and one of them has sadly been scrubbed from legitimate download by its creator. 

Of the listed games, I can tell you:

Christine Love’s “Digital: A Love Story” is really tremendous (as is all of her stuff)

“Mainichi” by Mattie Brice was a brief, interesting look into the life of another person

and “Queue” by Stephen Lavelle is a brutally depressing but extremely well-written 15 minute story

I hope you find something on this list that inspires you, makes you think, makes you feel happy, makes you feel sad, or whatever it is you want to get from games. 

EDITED TO ADD: I should also mention that Joseph's game is about the love triangle between himself, Donald and Lula Chamberlain. Important lore!

#kentucky route zero #non-krz #indie games

[girl-next-door-writes]

New York City Nightmare

Characters: Loki x Reader

Summary: There are moments that change your life and unfortunately for Loki when these moments present themselves he never fails to make the wrong choice.

Word Count:  2197 words

Prompt: New York City – Chain Smokers

A/N: This is for my 800 followers celebration as requested by the awesome @thorne93 who has now given me Loki feels.  This is my first attempt at Loki so I apologise in advance, also not a happy fluffy one folks.

This wasn’t part of the plan.  You had never been part of the plan but that was just typical of how his life was panning out.  The first time he had met you it was brief but that had been all it took.  You and Barton had been tasked to guard the mysterious crater with the weird hammer in the middle of it and while Barton had been engaged elsewhere you had spotted a lone figure approach the artifact. Cautiously you had stalked him as if he wasn’t already aware of your presence.  When he turned to face you the sardonic smirk on his lips fell and his eyes widened.  Sure, you were pointing a gun at him but the fire and passion in your eyes captivated him in a way he was not accustomed to.  

“Hello.” His clipped accent had you quirking an eyebrow.  He didn’t appear to show any signs of fear or even concern that you were armed and able to take him out with the squeeze of a finger.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” you demanded, your eyes never leaving him for a moment, not that you could have pulled your gaze away from him.  There was a calm almost ethereal quality to the man standing before you and his eyes swirled with such a mixture of emotion that reminded you of all those tales of people swimming in calm waters only to be pulled beneath by some dangerous tide and a shiver ran down your spine.  

“I am Loki of Asgard.” He stood up straighter, a little prouder, as the wind whipped at his long scarf.  Oh great, you thought, why are all the cute ones batshit crazy? Before you had chance to comment there was a shout from behind you and you felt something graze your shoulder.  You could have sworn you only blinked but in that split second he was gone, leaving you to wonder if he had been just a figment of your imagination.

As he stood on the Bifrost with his brother he watched in dismay as Thor smashed at the bridge determined to prevent his plan coming to fruition.  He cried out for his brother to think about what he was doing, that he would never see his midgardian again but as his plan crumbled around him like the bridge itself, it was the thought of never seeing you again that pained him the most.  There had been a part of him that had planned on returning, wooing you as a great king and now that chance for happiness was snatched away from him and he knew it was his own fault.  He had set himself on this path and had been met with destruction and despair. Knowing there was nothing here in Asgard for him any longer he let his grip loosen and as he fell into oblivion his one thought was finding a way back to you, wondering if you were his one shot at belonging.

Thrown to his knees before his captures once again, his body battered and bruised, they relayed their new offer.  It had been this way for what had felt like an eternity, them dangling the carrot of freedom in exchange for information that would allow them to continue building their empire.  They had tortured him not only physically but mentally, pulled memory after memory from him, turned him inside out until he didn’t know what was real anymore.  The creature rose from the stone throne before him and sneered down at the pitiful waif that was formerly considered a god. “This will be my final offer to you, you are outliving your usefulness and yet… There is something you desire, something above your freedom, and we are prepared to give her to you in exchange for services rendered.  You are to prepare our path, open the gate, and we shall take that planet you call Midgard. In return, we will leave the girl unharmed.  She is yours to do with as you will.  Do we have a deal?”  The gruff voice echoed through the chamber and Loki sat, head down gathering his thoughts. “Refuse and we will kill her in front of you in the most agonizing way we can devise.”  This had him lifting his head and snarling at the creature in pure hatred.  

“We have a deal.” He hissed and with that the plans were put in motion.

As time passed you wondered about the tall, handsome stranger and when it had become apparent that Thor was real you had done a little research on Loki, wondering if you would ever see him again, figuring a little backstory would only work in your favour.  You went on with your life.  Trained with Barton, got dragged into the initiative that Fury had been putting together and before you knew it you were sat in the hellicarrier patching up Maria and being informed you had to go after Clint.  Pulling up the footage of the initial attack your heart skipped as you saw Loki walk through the portal but there was something wrong.  He looked battered and bruised, like he’d just gone ten rounds with something bigger and badder than a Norse God.  Your brow furrowed.  Hopefully you could get Barton back, but this looked like a whole load of crazy that was gonna have Fury rounding up the troops.  When you had first met you had the sense of hidden danger lurking within him but from the footage he appeared wild, despairing and rage filled.  That wasn’t the Loki who had stood before you all that time ago and you wondered what had happened to him, your heart aching for whatever tragedy had brought him to this state.  Taking one last look at the screen you let out a sigh and turned to go suit up. Loki wasn’t your mission, Barton was.

“He is a monster.”

“He is my brother.”

“I don’t trust him.”

“That is sensible.”  The conversation on what to do with the prisoner had been going round in circles. Yeah, these guys were Earths mightiest heroes but that also meant they all thought they were right.

“Just, let me try.” You interrupted causing the men to turn and look at you curiously.  “I can’t explain I just think maybe he’ll tell me something.”

“Nat is with him, she will get the information.” Tony shrugged as if it was a done deal.

“I’ve met him before.” A silence fell as they each processed your words.

“Be…before?” Steve enquired, now on guard incase you were one of Loki’s minions.

“Briefly but, I won’t let him out and I won’t get in there with him, I just…”

“It wouldn’t hurt to have someone keep an eye on him once Nat’s done.”  Tony was watching you appraisingly as if you were one of his experiments.  He’d had the same thought as Steve only he figured seeing the two of you together would give him an answer to whose side you were on.  Steve frowned but nodded and watched you leave the room.  He had a bad feeling about this.

You walked into the containment area as Nat began to walk out with a smirk, Loki stalking the perimeter of his cage following her movements with an incredulous glare until his eyes fell upon you.  A flicker of surprise passed over his face until he realised the implications of you being here on the hellicarrier.  You nodded at Nat as she passed and then made your way cautiously towards the prisoner.  You had seen what he had done to Clint and you suspected that was nothing compared to what he was truly capable of.  Standing before you he looked like a little lost boy as he tried desperately to think of a way to get you off this flying deathtrap.  “Hi.” You said softly as you stood before the glass.

“Have they sent you to torment me?” he looked so defeated you wondered if this was simply an act, that he was trying to lure you in.

“No.” you said simply, your eyes scanning his for any hint of what he was truly thinking.

“You are so delicate, so fragile and yet there is a strength in you quite unlike any other.” He murmured as his eyes ran over every detail of your face.  As they landed on your lips he unconsciously licked his own.  “Why have you come to me?  Are you not afraid little one?”

“We have met before.”  You ignored his questions, speaking as if in some sort of daze.

“I remember.  You were pointing a gun at me at the time.” He smirked in a fond and amused manner.  You had thought you had posed a threat and he had thought that was adorable.  

“You were trespassing, trying to steal an unknown artifact.” His hair was longer than you remembered, and there were traces of bruises healing on his skin but those eyes… oh those hypnotic eyes of his were just as you remembered.

“Ohhh, steal is such a strong word.” He pouted playfully and you bit the inside of your mouth in an attempt to prevent the smile that was trying to appear.  There was something about him that was disarmingly charming and you could see how that would be dangerous.  

“Just so we’re clear, I’m not letting you out.” Taking a step closer you were almost touching the glass, it was intoxicating being this close to him and knowing the only thing between you was this unbreakable barrier.

“I didn’t ask you to.” He whispered, leaning his arm against the side and bending his head closer to yours.

“No, you didn’t” the words were barely audible as you studied each other intently.  A flush hit your cheeks as you wondered if he could read your thoughts.  He smiled sadly at you, all his attempts to keep you safe, all this play acting was taking its toll on him.  He could have come here quietly, opened the gate and watched your world burn but from the second he took the deal he had been plotting a way to at least attempt to save your planet without giving his betrayal away should it fail.  He needed you safe, though he couldn’t say why.

“I will ask you to do one thing though.” He said earnestly.

“What?” you asked cautiously, your eyes narrowed as you looked at him with suspicion.

“Get off this base.  Go now. Don’t ask why and don’t tell anyone just… please.” Opening your mouth to speak your thoughts were pulled away as the coms began to go crazy, Banner had gone Hulk and with a horrified look at Loki you turned and ran towards your team.

Standing in the Tower your eyes darted from Tony to Loki and back again.  “You okay Stark?” you asked cautiously as you slowly made your way towards him.

“Okay is such a relative term.” He hummed as he took another sip of his drink.  His eyes never leaving Loki who was watching you curiously.  Tony didn’t like the look in his eye and instinctively reached for your hand. “How you holding up kid?”

“New York City is being invaded by huge flying armored aliens and a Norse God, how do ya think I’m holding up?” you sassed and Tony tried to contain a chuckle.

“Just a regular Tuesday then.” He smirked at you causing you to shake your head with a smile.  No matter how bad things were you could always count on Tony trying to make light of the situation.  “Drink?” he offered.  

Loki watched your interaction and felt an anger rising within him.  He was doing this for you, everything was for you and yet here you were flirting with this imbecile.  Drawing himself up to his full height he glowered at you both.  “You would chose him over me?”

“I chose Earth.  This is my planet and I will be damned if I let anyone stroll in here and take it.” Your voice was soft but firm and part of you wanted to beg him to stop this madness, to go get a coffee and forget all this madness.  For just a moment there was a flicker of that little lost boy you had seen contained in the hellicarrier.  He had really hoped you would understand.  The pain and despair in his eyes was quickly overtaken with rage and he stalked towards you.

“Have it your way.” He spat as Tony stepped in front of you indicating for you to run.  

He had nobody but himself to blame.  As he stood there surrounded by Midgards finest warriors and his brother, his eyes flickered to you.  Steve noticed and took a step closer, placing himself almost between the two of you. Loki’s shoulders slumped and his head dropped.  Seeing him like this broke your heart.  Then again, the thought of Coulson and the destruction of New York left your heart shattered.  Nothing about this situation was fair and you turned away from the scene, blinking back tears as you walked towards Bartons car.  Sure this was a win but at what cost?  

Tags: @deanxfuckingadorablexwinchester @nea90sweetie@knittingknerdy@feelmyroarrrr @vintagevalentinexx @goody2shoessmut @cojootromuelle@palaiasaurus64 @littleblue5mcdork @littlenerdgirl16 @iwillbeinmynest @buckyhawk @beccaanne814-blog @canumoveyourseatup-no@callamint @like-a-bag-of-potatoes

#myfic #Something I wrote #Loki #Loki x Reader #800 challenge fic

[wolftheidioticfan]

Okay I’m gonna talk a bit about some older ocs’ stuff that i’ve had for a while. (for Zaeroin/Astral.) This probably won’t contain everything about them, but the main thing i’ve had for them for a long time.

Zaeroin was apart of a group that worshipped both Incuro and Rakka on Cabibera. They were always referred to as ‘the Cult of Talimoa’s Plague’ by others, though they themselves never had a name. They did live sacrifices of animals and things, and would attempt to summon workers of Incuro or Rakka. The rituals never worked, so they were going to move onto humans eventually. People got sick of them being in the city and tried to chase them off, successfully so. The group moved onto other places, deciding not to stay in one place too long. They continued to grow in numbers over the years, which made them more known and feared. Then, they settled on making their own village, finally sick of having to move constantly.

Zaeroin, growing frustrated at never seeing any signs of the two gods being shown, made a vow to find and retrieve a special amulet said to be crafted by Incuro as a gift to Rakka. The amulet was rumored to end up stuck on Cabibera after the effects made Rakka go mad. He promised to only return when he found the thing and utilized its powerful magic, then, they would be able to summon Incuro himself.

Meanwhile, in Econa, the three brothers had taken notice of this cult, feeling disgusted at anyone worshipping their discarded brother and his friend over them. (At least, Markious and Amaros hated it. Ludis has always felt anyone can worship any god they wish) Amaros decided that since Zaeroin was looking for the amulet, he was the most powerful of the group. If he could convince him of worshipping Econa instead, he could probably convert the whole cult. He decided upon one of his guardians instead of a worker (Guardians only exist in Econa and Talimoa. They’re highly special workers that make sure only those that belong in each afterlife stay there, they also sort out misplaced souls when they’re alerted of them.), and the worker was Astral. Astral was Amaros’ best guardian, and was told to spread what consequences and horrors would befall Zaeroin if he did not start worshipping the correct gods. The ghost agreed to the task immediately and set off after the man, first serving as a watchful eye to see what was going on.

 Something seemed very familiar to Astral about the person he was watching. He knew he lost his loved ones a long time ago, their souls didn’t even get a chance to go anywhere, as this was before Teuqontu and Talimoa, they were simply destroyed as Amaros did not like them for preferring Rakka to him, so there wasn’t anyway that Zaeroin could be one of them. But something about the situation and even part of his looks reminded the ghost of the one he had loved for so long, the one he had begged to go the right path. It partially cemented even further that he had to help the one he was sent after. Perhaps, she had been reborn as another somehow, and this was his second chance. It wasn’t uncommon for souls to end up reused, even if seemingly destroyed.

It was a few weeks before Astral revealed himself, a bit nervous of either scaring Zaeroin, or getting injured and sent back to Econa. But once he did, it went somewhat well. The ghost warned Zaeroin and told him he was sent by Amaros to try and help him, and the man seemed a little surprised by having a completely different god take interest in what he was doing. He was also quite inquisitive about Astral himself, but he refrained from answering too much right away. Zaeroin agreed to think about it, and ultimately still continued searching for the amulet. This disappointed Astral, who continued trying to convince him, telling him of what had happened to those he knew, and how easy it is for souls to get mixed up when Brevix transfers them around. Zaeroin ignored the pleads of ‘if you end up there you’ll get destroyed’ and ‘I don’t even think Rakka or Incuro would appreciate what you’re attempting to do’ and continued his journey.

But, the two continued to meet and talk. Zaeroin finally caved a little, saying that he’d try to be better, but he still at least wanted to see the amulet to calm his curiosity. Astral was skeptical, but ultimately was happy he was getting through to the other, and even agreed to help him find it. They set off again, eventually finding a wizard girl, whom was sent on some sort of nonsense journey for her school. She revealed her name as Oriana, and with her knowledge she agreed to help them out, saying that info on such a rare, powerful artifact would help her learning and get her an even better grade on her research paper.

It had been at least a year since the three set off, becoming quite the good friends. Zaeroin had kept his promise on trying to at least learn more about the Econa gods, finding himself kind of liking them, though in his own mind he was still plotting to summon Incuro once he got the necklace, but he was slowly starting to dislike the idea. What if it hurt his friends? What if it chased off Astral, since he was a guardian of Econa and all. He shrugged off the thoughts, he was still going to at least see it, they all had set off on this long journey and hell if they weren’t going to finish it.

They asked around the old town they were in about it, and got a few interesting answers about weird magical happenings from a mountainside building. They headed that way, where they did find strange things happening. Weird creatures out of the corners of their eyes, terrifying dreams, nonsense plants, noises, ect. Definitely something of Incuro’s doing. They came across the building and entered, finding a long staircase down. 

That’s where the case that contained the amulet was. At first they all just viewed it, very surprised and excited about their discovery. They proved it to be real, not only that, but they actually found the thing itself to boot. Zaeroin thought for a moment before quickly stealing the amulet, putting it around his neck. The rest of what happened was a blur to him, just that he came out of some sort of magic induced sleep with a lot of yelling. Yelling, and blood. Oriana was dead, and it had been his fault. He still had the amulet, which Astral refused to take from him. As he started to question why, it struck him. It was bound to him now, to take it would kill him. He had many regrets from that day, and Astral left to go back to Econa.

Astral returned to Econa to report what happened, only to be met with anger from Amaros and Markious. His guardianship was taken away from him, even his worker title. All for ‘helping a worshipper of Rakka’. He was sent out of Econa. He was beyond devastated at the news, but refused to fully blame Zaeroin, or even be angry at him. It was his own fault for caring so much for the man. He went back to find him once again, where the two remained very close.

After a while, Zaeroin just returned to his group, taking Astral with him as proof that the Econa gods held no care or love for their subjects, along with the amulet like he had promised years ago. Astral wasn’t exactly happy with the choice, but didn’t protest much as he figured nothing worse would happen to him, he couldn’t return to Econa anyways. Things carried out like they had a long time ago.

Incuro was summoned by Zaeroin, but only once. He brought so much mayhem and destruction, destroying a good majority of the group and a lot of other things until he returned to his own realm. It only brought more regrets to Zaeroin. Astral tried to assure him that it was mostly the amulet’s fault, and that even if he had planned before it to summon Incuro, he knew the amulet is what truly pushed him to do it.

The two roam around Cabibera now, unsure of exactly what to do anymore. both of their purposes were destroyed by what had happened, and the amulet for certain only sealed Zaeroin’s fate of ending up in either Teuqontu or Talimoa, not that he ever cared about going to either place to begin with. It worries Astral, as he’s not sure if he can even go anywhere else, or if he’s just stuck on Cabibera for the rest of time.

#Saltie's General Oc Tag #That. took so long. help. #zaeroin (saltie ocs) #astral (saltie ocs) #Oriana (saltie ocs)