#passing thoughts I may or may not expand on later

[dirtytransmasc]

I think something about HOTD and it's framing is that it had the chance to do something beautiful, or more accurately, it did something beautiful and fascinating either on accident or with intentions that make it practically meaningless, and fucked themselves over with it cause now they can't use it.

the way the shows pacing, framing, and story writing is set, it is insanely easy to get caught up in the pro TB anti team green narrative, cause there is just so much information getting launched at you, you barely have enough time to understand what your seeing surface level, let alone processing it critically on your first watch.

but the more you watch it, the more you process it all, the more logically and critically you think about it, that pro TB narrative starts to lose standing. you see how flawed Rhaenyra is, you see the true situation the greens are in (between a rock [death] and a hard place [usurpation], to put i tot simply), you see the web of politics binding.

if the writers saw what they had done, they totally could have used it to their advantage, they could have used it to really beef up both sides in terms of characterization. or maybe they did realize it, maybe they did it intentionally (I can't tell if I think they're competent enough to do that, whether I like it or not, or incompetent enough to do it by accident and then fumble the bag with it...), maybe that was the intent overall, to destroy TG, not by making them actually awful (outside of what they did to Aegon), but to instead go so overboard you can't see anything else but their TB bullshit.

either way, it had so much potential and they just squashed it.

#I dont think all the writers/staff for hotd are bad at their job #but enough of them are to making me a little feral #they got me my first watch through #I was very pro black #I fell for their pedestalling of Rhaenyra and the damning of Alicent as cruel and bitter #but the more I thought about it and eventually rewatched it (twice) I was like... wait stop hold on a minute #every time you watch it again you notice more #you can think about all the powers at play #you can really think deep thoughts #and you realize who the true enemy was the whole time (hint: its not Alicent) #hotd #house of the dragon #hotd discussion #passing thoughts I may or may not expand on later #this is not as in depth as it could be #just airing the brain thoughts #alicent hightower #pro team green #anti team black

[daylite-writes]

Traitor readers always hit different! How about traitor reader with all of the harbingers (but I got a special bias for Pierro) 😫. Like betraying one is bad enough betraying and hurting all? Oh boy

Oooh I like this! I am gonna split it up into separate little instances of what I think they’d be like though for my sanity. I may expand to a few other full traitor fics (esp the Pierro one I really popped off on that damn) later on if I get ideas!

Certain characters take it MUCH better than others, varying from a scale of “Oh that’s Lowkey Hot” to “DIE”.

cw: yandere (?) behaviors, murder, manipulation, imprisonment, forced marriage, forced experimentation

~~~ Harbingers reacts to Traitor!Reader (ordered best to worst ~~~

Childe definitely takes it the best. In fact, this is honestly preferable for him. He’ll let you escape back to your leaders after you find out, giving you a head start before chasing you across Teyvat. The adrenaline is the hot part. He can’t get enough. He’s so easily bored. Come on baby, run a little faster. Make it fun. And after he follows you to your master’s base of operations, he’ll slaughter them and offer you an official place within the fatui’s ranks. Under him, of course! He won, after all, and the winner takes all.

Pantalone doesn’t see this as the worst thing. He’s very familiar with traitors, spies, and secrets. Though how you got around him for so long is a mystery. Once he finds out he’ll just be so sweet. Come on, treasure, just tell him everything and he’ll protect you. No? Oh well. A pretty enough price—or a favor from his more violently inclined coworkers—will have them abandoning you forcefully or not. Then he can scoop you up and… convince you to come home with him. It’s just more leverage to have over you, and it’s perfect for a man with control issues.

Pulcinella just… drops you. He has a nation to run, and his proximity to important information is too valuable. Unlike many of his colleagues he is not willing to bend the rules for feelings. He’s old, and he knows whatever feelings he feels towards you (platonic, romantic, familial, whatever) will pass with time. He reports this information to the proper place, and trusts the people he commands to take care of you properly. It hurts, but most things do at first.

Signora really thought you loved her. She hasn’t felt passion in centuries, and now as soon as her frozen heart thaws it’s revealed you're a traitor? Her heart can hardly take it. It hurts so much. Leave. Go now before she changes her mind and kills you. She cannot bear to have another lover dead in her arms. So take this chance and go, if you don’t, ice will encase her heart and she will slaughter you.

Columbina goes the kidnapping route essentially immediately. You can’t be a spy if you can’t report back to your masters! She’s very gentle though, running her fingers through your hair, humming happily, showering you with beautiful outfits and clothes. Even if you’re paralyzed from her haunting melodies, and feathers and eyes unfurl from the corners of your vision. Like a bird in a cage. It’s really your fault for catching the attention of someone so insane and powerful.

Arlecchino reacts similarly to Capitano, she is very proficient at breaking people down, ruining them, and turning them into what she thinks you ought to be. How dare you? This is a betrayal she will have to remedy. Loyalty is necessary. She’s crueler than him about it. Less patient. You will not be coming out of this unscarred. It’s better to just give in quickly, convincing her you learned your lesson, that you’d never betray her again. Reguardless of what you do though, several house of hearth members will be stalking you whenever you’re away from her, so don’t even bother trying to get back to your masters. It will not end well.

Pierro. Oh Pierro. You’ve never seen the man so sad. For a second, he looks almost pathetic. That is, before he motions for his men to drag you down to whatever dungeons are within the palace. He doesn’t visit you for weeks, but as soon as you start to think he’s never going to look at you again, he’s there, outside your freezing cell. The sadness so heavy in this man is wiped away by fury. He, personally, drags you from your cell. You can’t even walk as he pulls you along, stumbling every time you try to get your footing. He drags you for what seems like forever, ignoring you. Eventually, you’re in the Tsaritsa’s cathedral, with the ice goddess herself standing where the priest was. She smiled at you, and fear floods your body as he forces you down the aisle. He mutters something about how lucky you are. How many strings he had to pull with his god to allow this. You’re married there, ice freezing your ankles as you stand where a bride would, heart heavy in your throat. You know then that the only option is to say “I do”.

Scaramouche does not and will never take this well. Another betrayal? Typical of humans. He will go into a rage when he faces you, and chances of you escaping that rage in one piece is slim to nothing. If you don’t, ice floods his veins as he curls around your body, just asking why why why. If you do, he’ll drag you to the infirmary, force some poor healer to fix you, and then toss you in the dungeon similar to Pierro. He won’t visit you, thinking that this is a proper punishment. You abandon him? He’ll abandon you. He’ll come around sometimes though to yell at you or sob on your lap. Other than that, expect a life of imprisonment with mild favoritism and some physical scars.

Sandrone doesn’t take it well at first. When faced with your crimes, she immediately lashes out, destroying several of her newest machines and scarring you physically. After she calms down, though, she’ll calmly figure out everything that you leaked, who you leaked it to, and begin to work while you stay in a cell in her lab. She comes back to you a few days later, in which you’ve been completely abandoned, with some sort of mechanical collar and a tracking chip. Oh calm down, she’ll say as she rolls her eyes. The surgery is quick, but done without any anesthesia. The collar records everything and will shock and paralyze you upon exiting her laboratory. The chip is for tracking, but it can also release poison into your bloodstream. There! She was being so nice, not turning you into a machine. Say thank you, it might make her more likely to feed you.

Dottore has a breakdown almost immediately upon hearing this. He’d cackle, pacing in front of you, rambling on about how bold you were to try this shit with the cruelest of the Harbingers. Really? Playing with his heart is probably the worst mistake a person could ever make. He’s never been too enamored with human bodies, but monsters? Abyssal creatures? He finds them so beautiful, and he’s been needing a new subject. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt! Just be quiet and let him make you into the ideal version of yourself. He’d never dare do this to you if you weren’t a traitor, he loved you, but all bets are off as soon as you sabotaged his work and smuggled information. And the worst part? You’d still be his lover. Forever bound. Just more monstrous than before.

~~~

Lowkey I can’t believe I wrote for all of them. I didn’t think I do them all but then I had IDEAS. Which is somewhat uncommon for me. Everyone clap!

#genshin yandere #Yandere Genshin x reader #yandere harbingers #yandere dottore #yandere childe #yandere sandrone #yandere pierro #yandere pantalone #yandere Signora #yandere scaramouche #yandere arlecchino #yandere Pucinella #technically? I mean he’s here #yandere columbina #i think that’s everyone #asks #requests #genshin fanfic

[breekento]

Another HiguNana Analysis

Since y’all loved my comparing and contrasting of Higuruma and Nanami, I thought I would word vomit some more of my thoughts considering they’re all that runs through my mind these days.

Just a reminder these are my personal head-cannons don’t hate me.

But first, let’s talk about their similarities.

They aren’t the type of man to hit you up at midnight asking for a booty call or splitting the bill over a cheap dinner while they talk about themselves the entire time. They will wine and dine you but not before buying your outfit, nails, and treating you like an absolute goddess on this earth without expecting anything in return.

They’re both established businessmen, bordering on workaholics. They take their career seriously but Hiromi is more likely to take their work home him due to the personal and dark nature of his job.

I alluded to this in my previous HiguNana comparison post but they both care a lot about their appearance but not in a narcissistic manner. They like to look professional and put together even if they have differing styles. They wake up early enough before work to leave the house with a clean shaven face, neatly styled hair, and pressed suits.

Now let’s get into their differences!

Socially:

Higuruma is more extroverted than Nanami. Nanami can turn it on when he needs to, he has learned from years of being in business to be confrontational and direct. Nanami isn’t the type to go out of his way for conversation and pleasantries, unless of course it’s you. He is polite to service workers but isn’t the type to expand in the conversation like “How is your day going?” It takes him longer to truly open up but when he does he is completely vulnerable and that is reserved only for you.

Higuruma, on the other hand, is the type of man that elderly women adore. When they bag his groceries, he slides a hefty tip asking, “What do you have planned this evening?” He’s more witty and charming outwardly while Nanami reserves his lighter side for only you. Although Hiromi is more extroverted, it doesn’t mean his treats you like any other girl. He places his partner on the highest pedestal in his life. His charm and personality can give other women the wrong idea, confusing his politeness for flirtation. On the other hand, he makes it abundantly clear who his one and only is, showing you off at any moment.

In arguments:

They both are calm and collected when it comes to disagreements. They aren’t the type to yell and shout at their partners.

Nanami is a more quiet and stern man when he’s angry. He may lower his voice, speaking sternly when he’s angry but never belittles you. He’s a very protective man so most of your arguments would stem from your lack of awareness. Knocking on the door and getting angry with you for not looking through the peephole, forgetting to lock down at night, and being too friendly with strangers are all reasons Nanami would become cross with you but only from a place of concern.

Hiromi is more submissive in arguments. He’s the type of man to notice your anger immediately, desperately trying to win your forgiveness. Looking at you with sad puppy dog eyes, upturned eyebrows with a soft “Come on, doll. Don’t be angry with me.” He would rarely make you angry but on the off chance he did it would be due to him coming home later than expected after spending long hours at the law firm.

During sex:

Nanami is dominant through and through. He will never pass up the opportunity to watch you have your way with him but prefers to be in complete control. He loves watching you squirm and whimper beneath him. He’s a more possessive lover, reveling in the fact that only he can put you in such a state.

Hiromi is a good mixture of whatever the vibe of the evening is for. He has more of an ability to be submissive, watching you above him as he worships every inch of your body with sweet phrases and loving eyes.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk nanami #nanami kento #fanfic #jjk fanfic #higuruma hiromi #jjk x you #higuruma x reader #nanami x reader #higuruma hiromi x reader

[shellswritesstuff]

hi, hear me out. johnny with a s/o he meets at wu shi? like they are also a part of the earthrealm gang. THANK YOU!

(YES. OKAY OKAY I SEE THE VISION. I loooove the idea of reader being part of the main group, if you want more lmk,, id love to expand on this.)

Johnny Cage/Reader - Wu Shi Romance (HCS!) (SFW.)

𖦹 When you first arrived at the Wu Shi Academy, you felt at peace. A bit hopeful for the fights to come. You were eager to meet your teammates, those who would take on such a task to defend Earthrealm must be great people.

𖦹 You were right! For the most part...

Kung Lao, Kenshi, and Raiden were all here on their own volition. Their own personal missions and reasons for being here were noble, and you respected them. A friendship would soon blossom.

𖦹 And then there was Johnny Cage. Movie star, model, self-proclaimed 'sexy pants.' Being from Earthrealm, you knew exactly who he was. You've heard quite a bit too.. some things worse than others. 𖦹 You were a fan! Johnny's movies were some of your favorites, and now you get to meet the guy. You were excited to train in the same place as him, maybe even learn a thing or two!

𖦹 All of this was true... until he opened his mouth.

"Well hello there, pretty lady." Johnny waltzed up to you with what was either confidence or stupidity. (You'd soon come to know it was a mix of both.) "I know you're new here and all.." He raised his left arm, flexing for you.

"So, if you're ever in need of a sparring partner.." A mental note to kick his ass was taken. "...I'd be a luckiest man in the academy to get my hands on you."

This guy cant be for real right? The only way this could get any worse is if he... WINK! There it is. 𖦹 For next few months, you'd be training under Liu Kang. Spending just about all of your time with the team. (If you want more about their relationship developing lmk! I'm planning on making a drabble or maybe a slow burn!)

At first, Johnny's flirting was non-stop. Jabs between training sessions, compliments via passed notes during the monk's lectures, you name it - he's tried it. Though, his antics never failed to make you smile. It was harmless, and on days where you couldn't bare even your own company.. he was surpisingly... docile. (As well as he could be.)

𖦹 "I'm not feeling it today, Cage." You let out a huge sigh, adjusting your wrist wraps. "I'd give anything to have slept in. It's not my day, as I bet you can see." That morning, Liu Kang had you all run around Wu Shi, only stopping to do various fights. You'd felt sick from the moment you woke up, if you can call little sleep you've had rest.

Johnny had caught up to your speed, running beside you. He had said some pun about how we're 'running' out of time before the tournament. You'd at least cringe and maybe even laugh, but he only got a huff in reply. You thought he'd poke you some more, add to the impending migraine coming your way. Much to your surprise, he just ran faster.

"OH!" He collapsed to the ground, catching the attention of a few passing monks. "OH THE HUMANITY! I THINK I MAY HAVE.." Johnny winked at you before grasping his side. "PULLED A HAMMY! THIS.. THIS IS IT FOR ME.. OH IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD HELP ME." He reached out his hand for dramatic effect as people surrounded him.

The training drill was swiftly cancelled for the day.

After dinner that night, you found yourself at 'injured' Johnny's door.

"Knock knock." You made your presence known as you slid open the sliding door. "Feeling better after pulling that hammy?" Johnny sat up with ease, meeting your gaze as you leaned against the partition. "Learned that in Hollywood?"

"Who said I can't act, huh?" He grinned, pretending to shove dust off his sleeves. "More importantly, are you feeling better?"

𖦹 From that day on, you two would gradually grow closer. Sitting next to each other for breakfast and dinner, and even partnering up for sparring. He'd still insist on going easy on you, but after a few ass kicking later, Johnny would learn not to underestimate you.

(I have SOOO much to say, so I'll make this a two parter! Thank you soooo much for reading and my ask box is open!!)

#mk1 #johnny cage #johnny cage x reader #mk x reader #mortal kombat #mortal kombat x reader #liu kang #mk headcanons #mk drabbles #mk fic #mk fanfic

[yan-lorkai]

Hi! I remember that a while back, you did some yandere alphabet for Idia? If it’s alright, could you expand on the part for letter Q? The idea of thinking you successfully escaped him and the Island of Woe only to be tracked down and brought back from where ever you are hiding has my brain in a chokehold right now. Thanks!

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ A/N: I maybe expand a little too much, as this is somewhere between 2k and 3k lol. But I love him too much! Oh and Ortho also appears in the fic to help Idia, hopefully he's not too ooc! It took me a while to finish this, but I hope you like it darling. ⁽⁠⁽⁠ଘ⁠(⁠ ⁠ˊ⁠ᵕ⁠ˋ⁠ ⁠)⁠ଓ⁠⁾⁠⁾. Yandere alphabet anon was referring to can be read here!

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Warnings: Yandere content, kidnapping, memory loss induced by drugs and spells.

The early hours of the morning are always the worst for Idia, sleepless nights thinking about you and if you are safe find their way into his heart and mind, the same way he used to stay awake after the incident with Ortho. It's been exactly a week and a half since you fled the Styx guarded base and he hasn't slept since.

The ticking of the clock seems to drag on longer than necessary, causing Idia to let out a long sigh as he lets the footage of you remain frozen on one of the monitors he watches so carefully. He runs one of his fingers over your face and part of him wants to feel your skin again, your characteristic smell, see your smile.

Instead, he touches the cold, inanimate glass, and feels his heart break again. It's his fault, really. It's his fault for not paying attention to you, to what you wanted, to letting you stay in your room, alone, but mainly because he taught you how to deactivate the Styx system in case of emergencies so that you could escape if something happened.

Even though time passed Idia worked every day to find you, his love wouldn't let him stop trying, he needed to protect you from the world and make sure you never left him again. If you left, then it's definitely because someone threatened you, someone definitely did something to you and he would find out who it was and what that person did, but later. He was committed and determined to find you.

He will ratify his mistake, this time he will really protect you and keep you close. This time, he will tell you "I love you" every day and night.

It's only a matter of time.

"Brother, your tea is going to be cold." Ortho's voice snaps him out of his thoughts, just a second long enough for him to take a deep breath. Ortho points to the tea that rested next to some sandwiches, both untouched.

You used to make him sandwiches too, you used to sit and listen to him. Reluctantly Idia drinks his tea even as the cold liquid rips down his stomach, the pain doesn't seem to register in his mind as he drinks until not a drop remains.

"Why?" He asks his younger brother and then turns to his computer screen. The question torments him too much. Why did you leave him? Don't you love him anymore? Did he do something wrong?

"I don't know." Is all Ortho can answer as he leans over the computer. The younger Shroud reviews security camera footage, watching your pleasant expression turn to one of despair as you run through the empty halls of STYX late at night.

He and Idia watch you leave the main building and disappear. "What are the chances of them still being here?" Idia asks him, a single drop of hope still present in his voice.

And his brother sends him a look of pity, but as the voice of reason Ortho forces himself to explain. "Very low. Styx patrols scanned every corner of the Isle of Woe and did not find them, so my calculations suggest that they may have gone back to the Land of Dawning and gone elsewhere afterwards."

Idia turns around, appearing to have an epiphany. A small smile forms on his blue lips as he looks at Ortho like he hasn't looked in recent days; it's the same look as when he's about to win a game.

It's the look of someone who realizes they have the advantage in a game. And Ortho almost feels sorry for you, almost, but you chose to run away and leave him and leave Idia without trying to tell them what was wrong. He doesn't know if he can trust you anymore, and he doesn't know how his brother can trust you anymore. The signs are all there, you weren't forced to do this. You premeditated everything. And if that's not the case, Ortho wants to hear your reasonings.

"Of course, heavens, how did I not remember that?" Idia laughs, but it's not a pleasant sound. It's painful, as if his soul is being ripped apart, as if all the joy in the world has ended. "We receive supplies every month, they must have gotten on one of the ships and from there gone to Sunshine Land, which is closer to here. It's just a few days of travel."

"Don't you think they would go to Queendom of Roses?" Ortho asks, staring at the small map that his brother opened, interested in his thought process.

Subtly the younger Shroud pushes the plate of sandwiches towards the older one, wanting his brother to taste the food after so many days hiding in his laboratory to work non-stop. Idia notices this, obviously, and despite anything tasting like sand on his tongue, he still forces himself to eat it.

His stomach complains after so many days of hunger, but the pain doesn't bother him. "They're smart, Ortho. They know that if they went there I would follow them, after all Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Trey Clover and Riddle Rosehearts live there, and they are people Yuu-shi trust a lot."

Ortho watches Idia's fingers slide across the keyboard and the numbered folders slowly appear on the computer display. IP addresses, real-time videos of the houses and neighborhoods that each of your friends lived in being displayed on the huge monitors. And Ortho almost can't contain a sigh of admiration for his brother being so knowledgeable.

"They are closest to Ace and Deuce, and these two live in areas close to each other. The cameras would have recognized Yuu the moment he saw them, if they didn't then they didn't go there." Idia concluded his trail of thoughts.

"How are you going to proceed then?”

Idea smiles. "First I will adjust our satellites, then I will go to them with my suit." He hesitates a bit, but lets out a sigh and fluffing his brother's soft hair, he asks. "Can you get me some water from the River Lethe, Ortho?”

Nodding, he does as he's told.

The older Shroud's gaze returns to the bright screens, eyes tired and watery, with a location in mind now he redirects his satellites to find you. And in a few seconds they would find something interesting, the internet today was something fascinating and it was at his disposal; people were always recording themselves, taking photos and sending messages, and Idia had access to everything.

His satellites were his eyes and ears. And soon they would see you. Soon he would have you back.

The ticking of the clock no longer bothered him. The monitor screen lit up with a location and your face appeared on a background from a video made by a kid who wanted to be famous in Magicam, it was so quick, just a thirty second but it was enough. A reverent sigh leaves his lips and he feels himself smiling, feels his chest tighten and a new wave of determination wash over him. He almost couldn't contain his excitement.

Ignoring this, Idia observed the background of the video and ran a recognition search on its database. There were few options to explore and little by little he eliminated them until there was only one likely place left where you could hide. It was a hunch, a feeling that, like the people of that country, you would take shelter in an inn in the middle of nowhere, where there was only forest everywhere.

Where surely you had thought that he wouldn't discover you.

"Brother, here it is!" Ortho brought with him water from the River Lethe in a bottle. Water capable of erasing memories and making a person reborn; just as you would forget and be reborn to be the person Idia knew you were.

"Your suit is also operating at full capacity and ready for use." He informed Idia.

For the third time that day he was smiling. He knew where you were and he would have you back soon. Idia took the bottle, watching how the water shaked and shone, part of him would hate to have to erase your memory. But this part lasted remembering that you chose this, this part wanted you to face the consequences.

"Let's go, Ortho."

......

Your days have been filled with the sensation that at any moment, you would be back in Idia's arms, subjected to his gaze as if you were a rare specimen deserving of isolation and study. It was disconcerting, terrifying. And now, small things made you anxious; a shadow behind you, the wind whispering in your ear, a nightmare in the middle of the night.

Honestly, you seemed like a zombie. Dark circles under your eyes, exhaustion draining you like a leech. But at least you were a very much alive and safe zombie. A zombie that had been doing its best to disappear without a trace, and so far, it had worked.

You avoided crowded places, some days not even leaving the small house where you were staying, afraid that Idia might find you. He shouldn't be able to find you, right? You hoped not.

You hoped that the ghosts STYX had captured had been released and attacked Idia. You hoped their system had short-circuited and everything exploded – him, the ghosts, the secret organization his family commanded.

You wanted everything to disappear. The hot sun on your head, the heavy bags of food you carried, the cicadas flying by your head. The shadows of the trees moving in the wind, the barking of dogs, and the singing of birds. Everything could vanish, and you wouldn't mind.

Today was the last day you would be here, with plans to go farther away, to do the impossible if it meant escaping Idia Shroud, once your best friend and boyfriend, who had slowly revealed his darker colors as your relationship progressed. He was untouchable, but you were not.

You had been here long enough; it was time to move. It was time to find another place to hide, another place to live, and then move again. You needed to be in constant motion; otherwise, he would find you.

A tired sigh escaped your lips as the outlines of the small cottage you were staying in began to be seen on the horizon. The small wooden roof reflecting strangely on a figure standing by the door. No, not a figure, but two.

Shiny, made of metal. Austere as if nothing in the world disturbed them.

Your heart stopped at the same second. It beat so fast that it seemed to crawl and fight against your ribcage to escape. You controlled yourself, taking a deep breath and surveying the terrain, ironically, as Idia had insisted you do before making a move.

The perimeter was clear, and there was no one hiding anywhere. If you were going to escape, now was the time. Slowly but determined, you moved away on shaky legs, holding your breath while your eyes remained fixed on the two static figures.

Mechanical arms closed around your waist, and you screamed, trembling like a kitten about to get its first shot. Due to the short stature, you deduced it was Ortho behind you, holding you so tight it seemed he wanted you to suffocate – and hey, he did, since you betrayed him and his brother but he won't act on these thoughts because his brother loves you.

You struggled, your eyes still trained on the two figures in front of you.

"Oh, that?" He laughed at your confusion. "A hologram."

You turned to look at him, trying to find a weak point you could use, controlling the apparent growing panic on your face. A solitary drop of sweat descending on your forehead.

"For someone who managed to escape us, you didn't think of the obvious, did you?" Ortho teased, his grip tightening every second as you continued to struggle and push him back. His yellow eyes gleaming with mischief as if you were just playing.

A few months ago, maybe you would have enjoyed playing with him, helping Idia test Ortho's infrared sensors by playing hide and seek, unaware that such modifications were made only to make finding you easier. But you knew now, just as you knew that the young Shroud had several new changes in his program.

And you couldn't do anything. Even the command to turn him off was different from before; Idia changed it several times and never repeated the same password.

And now you had an idea why; so that you could never use them if needed.

"You know it doesn't have to be like this," he murmured with a little laugh in his voice. "You're just going to tire yourself out."

But you didn't listen, forcing your feet to work and propelling yourself backward to throw him off. If you couldn't escape running, you would escape rolling and crawling like a wounded beast. But Ortho didn't budge an inch, genuinely intrigued by what you were attempting to do.

It was like trying to push a car uphill, alone, your arms and legs quickly growing tired. And the worst part was that all this futile effort amounted to nothing.

Descending from the sky in his STYX suit, Idia looked different. Satisfied. Still, the same tired expression that adorned your face was etched on him; you didn't sleep for fear of him finding you, and he didn't sleep for fear of losing you. His lips trembled for a second, and his eyes gleamed as if he would burst into tears.

You almost preferred him to cry. At least then, you would have the pleasure of telling him how pathetic and weak he was.

Instead, he approached you. And he was calmer than you thought possible, so calm and confident that each step felt like your death sentence had been assigned. Back to the apathy of your dark, empty, and mostly lonely room.

For someone who claimed to love you so much, Idia left you alone most of the time, so distant, unreachable.

You should never have agreed to go there in the first place; you should never have agreed to meet his parents or that organization. Never should have shown kindness to him.

"Is it not enough? Having stolen me from the only place I knew in this world, now you want to steal my freedom too?" It was a question you knew the answer to, preparing for what was to come.

Idia had other plans, choosing to open his hand to show you a small vial with a crystal-clear liquid. "Do you know what this is?"

You gave him an ironic smile. "Surprise me, Shroud genius. It's not like I'm going anywhere!"

As if to prove your point, you resisted Ortho's grip once again, but it was a futile attempt.

Idia smiled at you, the same giant and awkward smile you used to love, as if he knew something you didn't. And you really didn't know – how he was here or how he found you. Or what he held so firmly as an ace up his sleeve.

Whatever it was left a bad feeling in your chest, his hand slowly caressing your cheek as if he needed to feel that it was real. His thumb traveled from the contours of your lips to your cheek and up, holding your face with great reverence.

"Remember those Greek myths you used to tell me? Remember the water from the river Lethe?"

Of all the things you prepared to hear, that wasn't one of them. Your heart was pounding like crazy in your chest, and Idia wanted to hear one of your tales. You almost laughed in disbelief.

Still, you answered, buying time for someone to come check on you or a gap to open. "It's water that makes people forget things. What about it?"

Idia shook the vial with the fascination of a curious child, as if he expected the liquid inside the flask to erupt in bubbles or explosions. Nothing happened, but he looked at you in a peculiar way, his smile widening.

"Exhaustion has made you sluggish, Yuu-shi." He seemed to find amusement in that. Shaking the flask once more, he added, "What do you think is inside? Poison?"

Yes. Yes, you thought it was poison. Maybe he was just deceiving you, playing some mind game to make you lower your guard. Or whatever; you didn't care at that moment. You cared that you were trapped in the place with no way to escape. Finding a way out was your priority.

At your lack of reaction, Idia continued talking. Perhaps he liked being able to explain things to you, as he had done so many times in the past. His fingers focused on slowly opening the flask's lid.

"I've always found it curious how the stories from your world are distorted, strange. But there is some truth in one of them: the river Lethe exists, and its source is within STYX." Now open, the flask released an attractive and sweet smell. It smelled exactly like your favorite dessert, but there was something more.

It made your mouth water, your mind filled with thoughts, and you leaned forward, eager to taste that water. Moments ago you were struggling to not get closer to him, now you there was a great wall separating you that you needed to cross. You didn't why you were acting like this, but you needed it.

Ortho loosed his hold on you and watched as you throw yourself into his brother's arms eagerly, getting closer and closer to him, unable to resist the small spell Idia had cast on the water and that was strongly tempting you at that moment.

"Say ah, and I'll let you drink." Idia slightly pulled the flask away, watching your consciousness and will struggle with each other.

You were no match for this game. You never were, never would be. You were just a being without any magic living in another world entirely alone, a being that needed his protection. A simple spell had completely taken away your free will, how sad.

"Ah!" You intoned as he ordered, opening your mouth so you could drink from the precious liquid.

Idia brought the flask to your lips and watched as you took a sip of the water of forgetfulness. The liquid went down your throat, leaving a cool and effervescent trail behind. For a moment, nothing happened, but he didn't panic; after all, you were there in his arms. He won again.

"Did it work?" Ortho asked, curious. And Idia nodded, knowing it had worked before even seeing the result.

Your eyes, once filled with dark memories and worries, became glazed and distant as if you were no longer in control of your body. An ethereal veil seemed to envelop your mind, completely erasing all your memories.

From now on, you would only know the world Idia presented to you. There would be no more of your world, NRC, and your annoying friends. No more silly thoughts that made you feel anxiety and fear or the desire to escape. From now on, your home would be wherever Idia was.

The brothers watched with satisfaction as the transformation took place. You, without remembering who you were or what had happened, looked up to meet Idia's yellow and cunning eyes, your eyes reflecting only serene emptiness. You seemed to want to ask something, but you couldn't formulate it in words.

You observed his arms around your waist and the scenery around you. The place was beautiful and peaceful.

"Things are confusing, aren't they, Yuu-shi?" Idia held your chin, making you return your gaze to him. There was something hungry in his look that almost made you take a step back. Almost because his arms kept you in place. "I'll explain everything when we get home. For now, don't you think it's better if we rest a bit?"

As if waiting for this moment, a yawn escaped your lips, and you noticed how tired you were. Your back ached, your eyes watered, and a second later, another yawn escaped you. You nodded. A nap sounded so good right now.

Idia held your hand, guiding you to the small cottage that you had made your home during the time you were missing. After you and he had slept a little, then you would go home together.

#twisted wonderland #yandere twisted wonderland #yandere idia shroud #yandere idia #yandere idia x mc #yandere idia x reader #yandere idia x yuu #idia x mc #idia x yuu #idia x reader #idia shroud #twst idia #twst idia shroud #tw yandere #yandere ortho #yandere ortho shroud #yandere ortho x reader #ortho x reader #ortho x mc #ortho x yuu

[within-your-eyes-if]

A Few Updates

Hello everyone!

I have some exciting news and a few thoughts I want to share. Another long update, I'm sorry!

Codex Update: As you know, I've been working on updating the Codex. I've put a lot of thought into each entry, balancing new ideas with existing lore. While a lot of elements were already established, delving deeper into some topics has inspired some new ideas, and I want to ensure everything fits seamlessly. With this in mind, I'm considering releasing what I have so far while I continue to ponder over some of these newer concepts and refine older ones. In the next few days, I'll be going through more feedback to address some issues found before I plan to release the update.

New Story: I'm excited to share I've released a prologue and first chapter for From Here to Again! Writing something different is meant to help me grow as a writer and expand upon things I might not have considered before, especially when writing Twine.

I will not be making a Tumblr for this story right now, sorry!

I know I've shared other stories that I planned, and here are some updates on those:

Nautical Lost would definitely benefit from a later release as Within Your Eyes grows, as this story will expand upon the world lore and some events that will happen.

The Innkeeper (a working title), I decided to hold off on because I'm terrible at management games, it seems. It was meant to be a fun little story with shenanigans. However, I do want to revisit the idea later.

Short Stories: I've expressed I want to make some short stories, but I feel like there's a point in WYE I want to pass first before getting into them. But I do have one I'm working on that I want to release alongside Part Two that delves into the past.

Worries About Burnout: I know some of you are/might be worried about burnout, but I feel like I have a good system for myself. Writing is a journey I haven't explored much before. I did write, but it's something I didn't think I was good at because, honestly, I was told I wasn't. I know I'm not the greatest, but I want to grow and learn as a writer. I've been taking breaks to focus on other things I enjoy, even if it's still writing out ideas for other stories.

I appreciate all of the concern in this regard, not just for my well-being, but also for the love of my story. To see it abandoned would be heartbreaking not just for my readers, but for me as well. 'Within Your Eyes' has been an idea long in the making, shifting and growing. It's something I've always wanted to share, and I'm so happy I have!

Time for Questions: I'm ready to start answering some of your questions regarding Part One. Enough time has passed, I believe, to start delving into these. To respect those who haven't caught up yet, I'll include any spoilers under a 'Read More' tag. However, be mindful that some questions themselves might contain spoilers.

Regarding certain asks/scenarios, I think that discovering the answers through the story rather than in a post might be more rewarding. While I may still respond to these, I'll be thoughtful about placing them under a 'Read More' tag as well.

Regardless, I've been thinking more about how I should approach questions, not only in a way that's satisfying to you, but also benefits the story.

Closing Thoughts: Sorry again for the long update. I've been very reflective after releasing a second story, and I hope no one sees this as me diverting from WYE. I'm grateful for every one of you and for all of your words of encouragement and love. I hope you enjoy From Here to Again (if you decide to check it out) and continue to look forward to our Warden's journey.

Thank you!

#within your eyes if #wye progress update

[deputyrook]

Impressions- 3/? Mark Hoffman x Psychic!Reader

PART 1. PART 2.

You're a reluctant psychic. He's a detective. And a serial killer.

(Weren't you supposed to be afraid?)

Word count: 4581

WARNINGS: Child abuse, attempted infanticide, corruption, stockholm syndrome, drug use (painkillers), blackmail, power imbalance, abusive dynamics, overt threatening, general Saw-levels of horror & violence.

You dream about the bathroom again.

Your mother is there, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows and her hair tied back. It's your childhood home, the bathroom on the second floor just beyond the top of the stairway, painted a garish teal that was popular in the late 70s.

You think you are four years old. Your mother is chattering to you as she fills the tub. She's telling you that she's sorry, but it has to be done- that you're sensitive just like her, she can tell, and that this life will ruin you.

She has to save you from it. You deserve better than this, she says to you, smoothing down your hair with wet hands. Life is too bad, too hard. Too filled with pain and bad people. You're not like them.

The water is cold, and dark. The bathtub seems to expand as you're held underwater- you open your eyes, and they burn. Blurry shapes pass across your vision. The darkness seems to go on forever.

(You were dead for three minutes, the doctors said, before they were able to resuscitate you.)

Somewhere in the haze of the dream, you zoom out to a bird's eye view, and the bathroom starts to decay. You see the top of the toilet crack, the mirror shatter and fall. A chain is attached to the radiator, snaking around your ankle. The light flickers. There is a puddle of blood in the centre of the room.

When you wake up, you are drenched in sweat.

You don't text Mark Hoffman about that dream, instead groggily taking a handful of painkillers to ensure a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

It had only been after your near death experience that you'd started getting flashes, the images and emotions that your childhood friends didn't. At the time, the doctors chalked up to trauma. Later, you learned to keep it quiet.

Maybe, somewhere in the world- wherever she was now- your mother had woken up after the same dream. You are just about the same age now as she was then, and when you look in the mirror, you see the same tired eyes.

She was right about one thing, you think, your recent visions coming back to you. Life is full of pain.

As you lay back down, your cat Prawn crawls up beside you and starts purring relentlessly. He shoves his face against yours, like he can tell you're feeling down. He smooshes against you, and despite yourself you chuckle, petting him softly.

The last thing you wonder before you fall asleep is what your mother would think of what you're doing now. She may have been right about life, but she was wrong about you.

You are like them. Maybe worse.

---

---

"What do you mean, you haven't had any visions since yesterday morning?" Mark asks as he drives, gloved hands gripping the wheel so tightly that you're surprised he doesn't leave a permanent indent on it.

"I took some painkillers yesterday. They block out the noise, at least for a bit," you answer, sparing a look over at him, "I wanted to be a normal human being for a while."

He shakes his head in what appears to be annoyance, distaste or disappointment- you can't tell which.

"Quit complaining," He says, without even a hint of sympathy. You wonder if sympathy is an emotion he knows how to feel, "Pills aren't going to make you feel normal."

With your senses dulled, you feel cut-off from the world around you, and by extension, Mark Hoffman. Without the bleed of other people's emotions, thoughts, and memories into your mind, you feel more independent, more a person. It comes at the cost of your intuition, but at least you can tell a bit more clearly where Jigsaw ends and you begin.

Still, somewhere along the way, you stopped flinching every time Mark Hoffman looked at you. It's incredible, what the human mind can normalize. How it can change fear to thrill to anticipation.

"It'll come back, it always does. Pretty soon, if my timing is right," You shoot Mark a look, "Wouldn't want to be useless to you."

He sneaks a glance back at you. "I'm sure I could find a use for you."

For a second, it feels like the energy in the car changes. With that insinuation, there's a tension between you that becomes obvious. The air in the car feels tight.

It feels dangerous. Your cheeks flush, and you don't exactly know how to respond to that, so you drum your fingers on your thigh and look out the window.

"It's been affecting me," you admit, finally, changing the subject. "I've been connected to this web of the worst of humanity. I needed a break."

Mark scoffs. "You're telling me that shutting your eyes and pretending it's not happening is going to make you feel better?"

"A little," you lie, before you sigh and stretch. "Maybe when my intuition comes back, I should just go to a dog park, close my eyes, and pet all the dogs."

"You get any hits on the dogs being mistreated, you can send the owners my way," Mark replies, deadpan.

You actually laugh out loud at that, mostly out of surprise. Mark still looks serious- he really doesn't smile all that often. Was that a joke? Probably not entirely, but either way, you can't help but smile as you shake your head at his audacity.

Your suspicion that Mark is at least somewhat serious is confirmed when he continues.

"We could do a lot of good work like that," Mark adds quietly after a moment, "You pick them. I test them. You sense the threats, I deal with them from the inside. A pretty fucking effective team, if you ask me."

"Is that what you want? Us to murder people together?" You ask, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Yeah," Mark replies simply, seriously. A shiver runs across your skin, and at that single word, your stomach drops. It seems too real a possibility, suddenly. That you could actually do it. That you would actually do it. That you could do it, together, and not get caught.

"Did you forget that I'm here under duress?" You reply uncomfortably. The words sound like a lie even to you as they leave your mouth.

"Really? I don't see a gun to your head." He points out. You shuffle in your seat, and pick at a seam on your jeans. He's right, and the guilt of it hits you square in the chest.

What are you doing here, if it's not because you've been forced to be? The answer just makes you feel more guilty, rising like bile in your throat.

You've enjoyed being needed. He's dangerous, and he's taking you seriously, bringing you along. He needs you, he wants you here.

You've been having fun.

He'd kill you in a second if you threatened him, without an ounce of regret. You still like him. Are you insane? Suicidal?

Fuck. It hurts your head. It takes every image you've ever had of yourself and crumples it into a little paper ball. And sets it on fire. You don't even know who you are anymore.

"How would Jigsaw number one feel about that?" You ask instead, trying to hide the sudden waves of turmoil that crash through you, making you feel sea-sick and confused.

"Pretty soon, it won't matter," Mark's voice is dark, and he looks straight ahead at the road as he drives. Once again, you have no idea where he's taking you, but you've been driven well outside of the city centre. The area is dilapidated, and you pass lawn after lawn filled with detritus and garbage.

It didn't even occur to you to try to remember the route to get here.

"I wasn't sure about it at first either," Mark murmurs after a while, with a cruel twist of the corner of his mouth, "Then I realized. They have a real chance to get out alive. Maybe they learn their lesson. Maybe they don't. Well, then, we can just put them back into the games until they figure it out, or they die. It's housekeeping."

"That's fucked up. These are people you're talking about. With their own lives and hopes and dreams," Is it him you're trying to convince, or yourself? Maybe you're pushing your luck, arguing with him as much as you are. It's weightless, regardless. Here you are, tagging along, no gun in sight.

"Nah. You said it yourself- the worst of humanity. Fuck 'em." Mark pulls into a long driveway of an old abandoned school building, driving his car around the back and parking in the grass, out of sight from the road. You can see broken windows, glass scattered around the entrances, and brick walls splashed with colourful graffiti.

He turns off the engine of his car, and then turns fully to you.

"Come on. You wanna find out what you really think?"

--

Mark has a key to the back door, and the rusted lock opens with an imposing click. Even with the key, it feels like you shouldn't be here. A sense of foreboding edges your awareness, and you can tell the medication is starting to wear off by how deeply you're unsettled in this atmosphere. You seem to be entering through an administration sector of small back offices.

The building smells of mildew and grease, of rust and water damage. As he enters the hallway, Hoffman flips a series of switches just to the left of the entry, which light the narrow back hallways in an uncanny florescence. If not for the light, you would have thought this place was abandoned.

Something bad has happened here, or is happening here.

"Follow me," he murmurs, and with confident strides, he leads you through the administration section and out into the main hallway of the school. You trail behind him quietly, wondering if you would be able to navigate your way out of this building again if you were left here.

He takes you up an old metal stairway, and then into a large room which you can tell used to be a library. Compared to the other parts of the building you've seen, this room is much better kept, clear of rubble and debris. Someone's taken the time to clear it out, at least mostly. Old bookshelves stand empty, and a series of round tables in the room now hold various pieces of equipment.

It's been turned into a workshop, you realize.

Blueprints are spread across the tables, along with a number of cassette tapes and what appears to be recording equipment. A large black television is set up on a TV cart near the front of the room, with wires connecting to a receiver of some kind.

Resting on one of the tables, contrasting so severely with the rest of the equipment on it, there's an old, faded teddy bear.

"See that?" Mark says, pointing to the toy. "I wanna know what kind of a read you get on it."

"Why do I feel like this isn't going to be fun?" You murmur anxiously, but you do as he instructs, approaching the table and picking up the bear. Turning it over in your hands, you close your eyes, and allow the feelings to creep up onto you.

You were right. Something bad happened here.

There was a little boy, no older than six, you think, who had held onto the bear so tightly. You feel his confusion, more than anything else at first. What had he done wrong? Why was his teacher so angry?

Why did it hurt so much?

Pain flashes through you, bright and sharp, from your elbow to your shoulder. You cringe, still holding the bear, trying to piece together what had happened to the boy. You can feel his fear, pure and unrestrained, making you shake.

"Got it?" Mark asks, and you realize he's come up to stand right behind you. He leans over you, his chest nearly touching your back, and speaks low, directly into your ear. It makes you shiver for a different reason. "Now, open your eyes. Watch."

Holding up a remote beside you, you open your eyes to watch as he clicks on the television with it. It crackles to life, and it takes you a second before you register what you're looking at, through the static of what appears to be a live feed.

A man that you would guess is in his mid-60's is restrained to a chair in an abandoned classroom, each of his arms fastened into metal contraptions. Something large is attached to the back of the chair, almost looking like an industrial turtle shell.

"Holy shit," you breathe, your eyes going wide. You drop the teddy bear in shock at what you're seeing, as the man begins to yell for help and writhe in the chair, trying to free his arms

"No, hold onto it," Mark says into your ear, reaching around you. Placing his hands on top of yours, he guides your touch back to the bear, his chest now fully flush against your back.

As you touch the toy again, the impressions come back, stronger this time. Not just the boy, but others as well. Left alone, trapped somewhere, difficult to breathe- suffocating in darkness. Where is my mom, I want my mom-

Anger begins to churn inside of you, so thick and strong it sickens you. You grit your teeth as you stare at the screen.

"Hello, Martin," A distorted voice says. Jigsaw. You can't see the TV from the camera's vantage point, but you can see the person in the chair whip his head toward the sound. "I want to play a game."

The man on the screen whimpers. "No, no, no," he moans.

"You worked at this school for almost three decades before they finally fired you. There were never any charges laid. But there were rumours for years about how you took out your rage on those who couldn't fight back."

You can feel the tears starting to well in your eyes as you stare up at the screen, transfixed in horror. The kids weep and scream in your mind like ghosts, begging to tell you how they suffered.

"You called it your isolation room. A closet hideaway, barely larger than a cardboard box. How many children did you force to stay there, curled up and injured for hours, for the sake of discipline?"

"It was a mistake!" The man yells out, voice breaking, "Please, I'm sorry, I was doing my best-"

"You have two minutes to press down on the peddles under your feet. Doing so will tear away the top layer of skin from your hands, degloving them. Keep your feet pressed down until the process is finished. Once your hands have been degloved, you will be able to pull them from the machine and press the buttons releasing you from the chair."

The man wails in misery. Mark Hoffman rests his chin on your shoulder, and you can feel his eyes watching the footage with you, so intently. The heat of his body pressed against yours, his large, rough hands over yours. The terror and anguish of the children, the shrieking of the man in the trap. It makes you dizzy.

"If you fail to do so before the time runs out, spikes will emerge from the contraption on your back, impaling you. Now we will see how disciplined you are."

The man gasps, and then, as the timer begins to tick down, begins to scream in earnest. You watch as he presses his foot down on the pedal, feeling the reverberation of his panic bounce back onto you.

"I can't do this," you say, squeezing your eyes shut, your nails digging into the fabric of the toy. Your head pounds with the echoes of the children crying, with their shame and embarrassment and panic, and with the howling screams of the man on the screen. It all layers, in a cacophonous symphony of violence and horror that drowns out all other thought.

"It's too much, it's so loud. I can't think, I- I need to shut it out." With one hand letting go of the toy, you dig into your jacket pocket, fishing for your prescription bottle.

"No, no," Mark snaps. He grabs your wrist, tight, and snatches the bottle of painkillers. "No more fucking pills. Watch."

"It's too much," you whisper, wincing. Your mind screams, unable to make sense of all of the information it's taking in. You need to think about this, but all you can do is feel, overstimulated and shaking-

"Detective. I don't think you've introduced me to your friend."

The dry voice cuts through everything else. You realize the screaming has stopped. When you open your eyes again, you see someone has paused the feed on the television.

It isn't live.

Mark freezes, his body immediately going stiff behind you. Although you've never heard this voice before, you recognize it all the same. You drop the teddy bear, as Mark removes his hand from your wrist and steps back away from you. The removal of the warmth of his body leaves yours feeling colder than before.

"Uh oh. You're in trouble," A second voice chimes in, sing-song and clearly elated that you've been caught here, together.

You're hoping Mark will say something on your behalf, but he doesn't. Your head pounds, and your skin feels almost too-sensitive, but if your intuition has ever told you anything, it's that this is not the time to fall apart.

So you turn, looking at the source voices, and muster up all of the courage you can. You are proud that your voice wavers only a little.

"Um. Hello. Jigsaw, and... Amanda Young, I assume." You cast a furtive glance at Mark, who finally seems to have recovered and composed himself, standing up straighter.

John Kramer sits in a wheelchair, wearing a long black and red robe that trails on the ground. Amanda stands behind him with her hands on the handles of the wheelchair, leaning her weight on it

Nothing about John Kramer suggests that he is weak or feeble to you, despite his thin frame and poor health. Instead, you sense a chessmaster, and a conqueror sits before you, a King in a throne. You get the image of a strategist who has been leading his troops through a war, claiming victory after victory through careful battlefield positioning.

"I can explain," Mark says slowly, keeping his voice even and calm.

"Oh, I'm listening," Kramer replies, tilting his head slightly and watching you carefully. His tone is curious and measured, and you sense that he's already re-arranging his plans in his mind, re-evaluating them and trying to determine how you're going to affect things. If he's angry with Hoffman, you can't tell.

"I wanted to test them myself, before I told you, in case it ended up being a waste of time," Hoffman says, shooting a glance at you, "I've never met someone so good at reading people. Except maybe you."

"You've got to be kidding," Amanda says, nearly laughing, "So you took them here, and showed them the footage from our last game? I knew you were an idiot, but this is really next level."

"We already abandoned this place as a workshop," Mark gestures to the TV, sounding irritated, "I sure as hell wasn't going to leave any evidence lying around after I took them home. Place would have been cleared out by tomorrow morning."

"And if they, oh, you know- reported you? Told someone?" Amanda asks. Mark looks like he's about to argue back at her, but John holds up a hand.

"I know you're smart enough not to take unnecessary risks, especially with your identity. But you should have brought this to my attention immediately," John says to Mark. Hoffman actually grimaces, like a kid being scolded.

John turns his attention to you, in cold and calculating interest, "What do you have to say?"

Cherish your life, the wind whispers in your ear. Right now, your life felt pretty fucking cherished, in the it-is-literally-on-the-line sense.

"I guessed that Detective Hoffman was one of your accomplices a few weeks ago," You answer, hoping that you're not going to talk yourself into a corner, "Not that I had any proof, but...he's been keeping a close eye on me, since then."

"And why haven't you gone to the police?" John asks, critical. The big question. Something urges you to just lay all of your cards out on the table.

"I don't... know, to be honest. Sometimes, things just come to me. Pieces of information, like drops of rain before a storm," John looks at you in interest, waiting silently, so you continue. "I feel like... the first one was personal, right? Like tiger stripes across the face, rough, rudimentary, righteous. He took something from you. Like the sun going out," You look at Mark. "The two of you are similar, like that."

Amanda and John stare at you, and you're worried you've said too much. Maybe you shouldn't have called his engineering rudimentary. You clear your throat, and shuffle your weight from one foot to the other.

"Interesting," Jigsaw remains expressionless, tone dispassionate. He looks at Mark's hand, still clenched around your prescription bottle, "...And the pills?"

You swallow. "Dampeners," you answer simply. He nods, like he understands, somehow. Amanda snaps her attention from you, to Mark, to John, like she can't believe what's happening. She makes a noise of clear protest.

"Come here, for a moment," Jigsaw says. You very much do not want to do that, but with Amanda glowering at you, you don't feel like you have much of a choice.

You walk over until you stand in front of him, heart hammering in your chest. With a hand, he beckons you to lean down, closer. Amanda looks just about ready to leap over his chair and strangle you.

As you lean in closer, you feel a prick on your neck. You look down to see John holding a needle, sticking it into your skin. He pushes an unknown liquid into your body.

"Oh," you say simply. Should have seen that coming.

The room goes dark.

---

When you wake up, you have gone from being in a bad situation to a much, much worse situation.

Somehow, you can sense that you were unconscious for a very long time. Now, though, you are wide awake, with adrenaline beginning to flood your body. Good- you're going to need it.

The first thing you register is that your eyes are very dry. The reason for this is immediately clear: your eyelids are being held open by a metal optician's speculum. You glance around your dark surroundings frantically in silent terror, unable to move your head. Some kind of a warehouse? No- a gymnasium. The school.

You can't move your body, either. You seem to be suspended in the air- how high up, you can't say- with your arms and legs locked into some kind of device. The height makes you nervous enough that you don't try to squirm.

Fuck. Stay calm. This is a Jigsaw game, which means there's a way out of it.

As you look back up above you, you can just make out through the darkness large jug of something positioned directly over your head. You catch the scent of something pungent and acidic.

It is becoming significantly harder to stay calm.

Below you, off to the side of the room, a television crackles to life.

"Hello," Jigsaw's voice says, addressing you by name, "I want to play a game." You can't see him, but you can imagine the puppet. Is the voice John's, Mark's or Amanda's through that modulation? You can't tell.

"You have been given a gift. A unique way of seeing the world. But you turn reject this strength. You silence it with painkillers, living in a wilful ignorance when you could know so much more."

So if it's John, someone has told him more about you. You wiggle your fingers. In each of your hands, there is some kind of device with a switch. Never a good sign.

"In your hands are two switches. By flipping each the switches, a single drop of acid will drop into your eyes, blinding you permanently. If you do not do so within two minutes, the restraints on your arms and legs will release, and you will be dropped in a tub of acid. I assure you, you will not survive."

Whimpering softly, the panic bubbles up in your chest, making it hard for you to catch your breath. It's much more difficult to turn inward and rely on your intuition with your eyes pried open- and maybe that was by design. If you could only shut them for a moment, then maybe your intuition could help you find a different way out of this.

"Will you embrace your gifts permanently by blinding yourself? Or will you die in ignorance? This is your test. Make your choice."

As the timer begins to tick, time seems to slow. You think of your mother's hands, holding you under the water, and the last words she said to you before she attempted to drown you.

Life is full of pain and bad people. She was right about that. You think of the kids from the school, forced to wait alone, curled up in the dark by their teacher. You think of Mark Hoffman, who delighted in the teacher's suffering.

You think of your cat Prawn, curled up by your head, and of the last time you grabbed lunch with Allison.

But she was wrong. Life is worth living, regardless.

You aren't going to fucking die here, alone. Not because of Jigsaw.

You flick the switches in your hands.

True to his word, the last thing you see are two drops of liquid, dripping down from above you into your eyes.

You scream as the acid burns you. You scream and you scream, until your voice breaks and your throat aches. You can smell the horrible scent of the acid burning your eyes, and hear something moving beneath you. A machine powers down, and you're slowly and gently lowered to the ground, no pool of acid waiting to swallow you whole.

When the restraints release your hands and feet, you rip the speculum out of your eyes, moaning in pain as you shut them and clutch at them. You curl into yourself, into a ball on the cold ground, and try not to cry.

And then, as you lie there in the dirt, panting and moaning, your awareness explodes. Your sixth sense replaces your fifth and crystallizes, smoothing out and filling in the gaps.

When you hear feet running to you, you already know whose they are. Detective Mark Hoffman, followed by Allyson Kerry. Detective Rigg isn't far behind.

You don't need to see to know.

"Kerry! Get over here, now!" Mark's voice barks out. You feel him lean in close to you, wrapping a blanket around your shoulders and holding you to his chest.

"You did it," he murmurs into your ear, only for you to hear, "You fucking did it. I knew you'd win."

You reach out, clinging to him. It still feels comforting. It still feels protective.

Lies upon lies.

---

yes. I accidentally nuked my blog. 🥲 but thank you for the support on this fic series! I would love to hear what you think- comments help me figure out what people are enjoying about the fics and what people want to see more of 💕

TAG LIST: @icarusinstatic @honimello @haven-is-happy @karmaswitch @the-jester-calamity @teamhawkeye @thebrideofcaliban

NEXT CHAPTER

#mark hoffman #slasher fic #saw franchise #slasher x reader #saw movies #sawposting #costas mandylor #detective hoffman #mark hoffman x reader #mark hoffman x oc #my writing

[denofbloodandlove]

This is something that I have never done before but after reading and thinking and delving into kinks that I never thought I would have liked I decided to try my hand at it. This may have typos and it may seem sporadic sense I am ‘out of practice’ with writing. I hope it flows and I know this will not be to everyones liking, but I wanted to do something different.  More may be added later, who knows.  Enjoy.   And like normal don't be a douche and steal.

Araya always knew she was different, different in ways that she could never really fathom.  All her life she had been an outcast, from her silver hair to eyes that glowed almost yellow.  From a child living in foster homes, she knew that she would never have her own family, parents would pass her up, they seemed almost afraid of her.  Her eyes too bright, her hair to unnatural, her teeth too sharp, her grin too wolfish, ever her ears were different.  Her life was filled with loneliness, a hollow that was never filled. She always felt empty, from her childhood to her teenage years to adulthood. When girls and women of her age were out testing the waters with sexuality, she turned her head, not interested in any human, not is sex of any kind.  The only thing that ever pulled her to any form of euphoria was gazing at the stars. She felt connected to them in some way, a if she belonged in the stars. When she stared into the vast emptiness of the dark sky, she wished that something beyond stared back, seeing her for her, not a freak the others accused her of being.  

Now at twenty-five, she was still alone, free from the system she lived in a shit fucking rent apartment, one room with barely a toilet or kitchen.  Her job as a diner waitress was next to nothing, but it paid her measly bills and groceries.  But even that was an anomaly for her.  Food, like men never meant anything to her.  She only ate because she felt she needed to, something normal, but to be hungry. She never knew what it felt like, never thirsted for water.   Only thing that she ever yearned for was the stars, the fathomless, endless oblivion.

Tonight, was like every other night, she sat outside in the hard plastic chair and stared out into the emptiness.  “Whatever is out there, find me, take me away from this existence.” She muttered before her odd eyes closed, her body relaxing in the night as sleep took over her muscles.  Tonight, her dreams took her to the stars, bright lights whirled around her dreams, creating rainbows of colors, circling, and expanding.  Her body felt weightless as she drifted up and around, as if she were floating in the clouds, she so often stared at.  But a massive jolt woke her up from her sleep, the plastic behind her back cold and hard as she shifted her weight in order to move from the chair but her limbs would not budge, her legs immovable.  Fluttering her eyes open she gasped then blinked, the sight of beings greeted her instead of the fake plants and dried earth that she normally saw. Her heart stuttered as she looked around, she was in a warm room, the walls, each one clear showed what she longed for the most: the stars.  Black emptiness stared back at her, the stars blazing in all their glory, so close she thought she could touch them.  

“Princess. Eyes on us” A deep baritone reverberated through the room, and she glanced at the huge being staring at her. Her eyes roamed down his body as she realized that he resembled her, his hair was white, his skin pale, eyes that were so blue they burned, his ears pointed and his teeth sharp, sharper then hers, fang tipped teeth showed through his own wolfish grin.  

“Princess, I have been searching for you for too long, I thought you were lost to me.  Taken and dumped on a planet by my enemies.  Dumped to die on a waste filled planet while I ravaged and murdered my way though the stars, searching for you. Tell me, how long have you wished for the stars? How long have you felt empty and hollow?  Ever wondered why?” She watched as he moved closer to her, his hands removing the cloth he wore as a top garment.  

“Too long.” She mustered to say as she watched him shed his pants, revealing his whole body to her, his muscles were long, protruded and defined, not like that of human men. His hands were longer, sharper, black talons tipped and his feet were the same, his cock was massive, pulsing and thick like her thigh.  She was petite, small with bigger tits then normal, thicker thighs also.  She had once heard a man whisper she had thick thighs saved lives, she never really understood that mantra until now.  As she thought of that however, she realized that she had been bound, what she thought was her cold plastic was a hard table, her arms were bound as was her legs.  Each limb strapped down by a thick leather strips, black locks linked to the table kept her stable.  

“You see, that’s because you were not of their world, you were of mine.  A Princess that belongs to me, you were given to me, given to a King to take and fill, you were made for me Princess, and only me and mine.  You were made to keep my people going.   A whore, concubine, fuck toy, cock sleeve, whatever you wish to be called, but to me, you are just Mine.  Ours.” He says as he looks over his shoulder to the other two giant males, both have also removed their clothing, but neither have moved forward. Their cocks are just as thick and long as the one in front of her.  “I am King of my race, my brothers the Princes, the few last remaining of us.  And the only ones with the birthright to fuck and impregnate you.”

Arayas body suddenly becomes alive as she smells him so close, her pussy aching, growing wet with a need she has never felt before, her flesh feeling swollen and her womb feels empty, an emptiness that she has never felt, a hunger that she has never craved.  

“That’s it Princess, I told you, you were made for me.  Made perfect to respond to me and my bloodline.”

A whirling of mechanics sound around her as her legs are bent and opened revealing her naked body.  She can feel her pussy stretch open, the cold air gliding along her wet lips.  She watches as the Kings hand grabs his hardening cock, and she stares, the massive thing has ridges and bumps all around it, the head is larger then the thick shaft.  The head is more pointed then rounded and the slit is larger, wider.  

“We have cum and eggs that I am going to fuck into you, incubation is only days and when you have been bred properly and the first brood is out of your womb we are going to fill you again.  And again.  And again. But we will take our pleasure too, not only for our species, but because we want to rip you apart, to fill you in every way.  Our bloodlines call to one another.  And you will scream, you will cry and we will enjoy every minute Princess.”

Her hunger grows as she is moved once again, instead of her limbs moving, the table tilts back, laying her down flat.   His hands glid along her slim legs and she feels a long sharp tongue enter her pussy, tasting her juices, she can feel the snake like tongue lick almost into her cervix and then out, her thighs clench with need as he raises above her.  “Your cunt is tight and unused, I am going to enjoy ravaging it.” He growls before shoving the head of his cock into her.   Her back arches as she screams as pain rips through her, the head of his cock is bulbous thicker then the shaft, the hard burrs rasp inside of her, scraping her virgin flesh, tearing at her, stretching her.  She feels his talons grip into her thighs spreading her open further as he pulls out and forces his way in deeper.  Tears spring to her eyes as he finally gets his whole head into her pussy, then pulls out again and shoves more of his massive cock into her.  His huge body shadows hers as he leans over her, his hips fucking into her he’s making the metal table move with his thrusts.  

Sobs rack her body as she looks up, her belly she sees is swelling every time he pushes into her pussy, the massive thing taking up all the space within her.  As he slides out her belly flattens, every time he surges in it expands, her skin molding around the hard tipped head, she almost worries that he is going to rip her belly open, but the hunger is still there.  Its clawing at her insides to move so he can take more space.

“More” she begs through sobs, and he pushes more of his length into her swollen pussy.  She cant take her eyes off her body, the filling and receding of his cock in her.  That is until she feels a warm hand on her head, easing her neck back.  “Your body knows what to do Princess, breath and your jaw will work.  The Prince says as he places his own massive cock at her mouth.  Her tongue slide out and taste the thick pre cum of his large slit, and like an aphrodisiac, her pussy pulses and gushes around the Kings cock, allowing him to slide deeper.  And as the Prince said, her body is suddenly not an empty thing, but one that is run off of instincts.  Her jaw open wider then ever and in a sigh the Prince forces his cock down her throat. Gagging on his dick, she fights for air as she is fucked from two holes.  The cock in her pussy is to the hilt, she can feel her guts and abdomen so distended she feels like she is going to explode, but the cock in her mouth is fighting for space down her throat, but she needs more, she needs it practically touching the other cock invading her body.  She loosens and with a deafening roar the Prince in her throat slide all the way in, her throat bulging as she swallows him into her body.

Her two holes are stretched, her lungs burn and she wonders what it would feel like to have her ass taken as the same time by the third brother.  There will be a next time she assures herself as she feels the cocks moving in tandem, ripping her open, splaying her and filling that hollow she always had.   The growling grows and each cock moves and the thrust become harder, sharper.  And suddenly she feels the cock in her pussy shudder, followed by the one in her throat. Great, thick ropes of cum pump into her pussy and throat, she can feel the thick masses moving through the cock and into her.  The Prince in her mouth pulls out and cums on her tits, her face, coating her in a viscous liquid.  But the one in her pussy keeps pumping her full.   Her pussy is so tight around his cock his cum has no where to go but into her womb, stuffing her full, and with one final shudder she feels a huge thick alien egg deposit right into her womb.  

Dragging his cock out, she looks down at her swollen belly and can feel the thing inside of her begin to move about, making itself snug inside her belly.  “You will hatch my brood in a matter of days then we will do this again.” The Kings says.  “But until then, we will use your other holes until we are sated.  And Princess we have been searching for you for ages, we have a lot to give.”

Her eyes mist over, for the first time she feels full, she feels right, she no longer feels hollow inside, and as she leans her head back and opens her mouth, hungry for more. 

#tentacles #monster #monsterkink #alien fucker #monster fucker #mywriting #monster breeding

[gingermaple]

hi im trying to keep it professional here but may i request you to talk about your thought process/design inspirations behind your Tango? I don't think I've ever loved a Tango more than i love yours

i'm so glad you like him so much!!! he's definitely one of my favourites to draw :D

most of my mcyt designs follow a similar pipeline, where i create a first design that is simple; based on the skin, my impression, and common fanon ideas. then later down the line i throw all of that out the window and shoot them with my patented Creature Gun.

so originally, tango was just A Guy. (see this post for an idea of how he looked) until i woke up one day and decided that he needed to become an absolute fucking critter.

i went into my very first draft of a new design with a few basic ideas that i wanted to follow:

Generally small, but have his clothing/accessories be big

Have the red glasses be a major design element

Be some form of lil critter with a tail, paws, and big ears

Be as shape as possible (this was the most important aspect to me)

Here was my very first pass with those concepts in mind:

More under the cut:

the first thing i realised was that i accidentally inverted the red and black on his outfit, the second thing was that he had come out looking somewhat rodent-like, so i decided to build upon that idea in my second draft, as well as further exaggerating his glasses and proportions:

i liked this much better, but decided he still wasn't shape enough, so after even more stylization, i eventually got to a point where i was happy, and we ended up with the critter of all time!

along the way, i also ended up with a rough idea for what he even was, that being a hybrid of my own made up rodent-adjacent mob that would live in the nether. which i ended up sharing an idea for in this post, thought i'll probably expand further upon the idea in the future.

overall i am insanely happy with how his design turned out, and i'm overjoyed that other people feel the same!

please never hesitate to ask me about my designs/my design process! i have so many thoughts that i'd love to share and a lot of the more fully fleshed out designs have a good amount of concept art that likely won't be seen outside of these sorts of asks.

#art #mcyt #hermitcraft #tangotek #character design #answer #galaxyinacup #rat rambles #<- new tag for these posts where i share ideas/concepts/etc. #might change it if i think of a better one though #thank you so much for asking me this actually #longpost #posts like these talking about character designs and such won't all be this long #it really depends on who you're asking about. tango was just the character concept equivalent of a landmine lmao

[deadlymistletoe]

Charming Stranger

Pairing: Aragorn x f!reader

Genre: Romance

Description: When a charming stranger helps you regain control of your horse in the woods, you don’t expect to see him again. You definitely don't expect him to be the king of Gondor.

Warnings: None

Word count: 1989

A/N: Yes, this is inspired by how Ella meets Kit and doesn’t find out he’s a prince until later in the Live Action Cinderella. And yes, the title is a pun for Prince Charming.

“Caspian please!” You pleaded with your horse as you clung to the dark stallion in an attempt to hold on as he raced through the woods.

You’d ventured to the woods near your village on the outskirts of Gondor in order to collect herbs for the apothecary you helped your parents run when a squirrel had raced past your horse’s feet and given him a fright, sending Caspian bolting through the woods as you tried, unsuccessfully, to slow him down before you could fall off.

“Woah.” You turned your head as hoofbeats that belonged to another horse sounded and a chestnut came up beside you, the dark haired rider catching the reins of your horse and murmuring words in another language as he coaxed Caspian to slow down, your legs almost touching as he drew in beside you.

Finally, the man managed to draw Caspian to a stop, and you straightened in your saddle, trying to compose yourself as the man smoothly dismounted his horse, standing in front of Caspian and stroking his nose as he continued talking in that strange but beautiful language.

It wasn’t long until Caspian had calmed down and the man turned his striking grey eyes on you.

You swallowed under his gaze, your eyes tracing his figure without your permission as you took in the dark hair to his shoulders and the long, but shapely coat he wore.

His voice, soft and slightly accented broke through your thoughts, your eyes snapping up to his face again. “Are you alright, Miss…?”

You blushed, feeling as though you’d been caught doing something you shouldn’t as you answered him. “Y/N.”

He bowed his head towards you. “A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

As he handed Caspian’s reins back to you and mounted his own horse, you called after him, both feeling slightly daring and worrying that he’d leave without a word if you didn’t. “And does this woman get to know the name of her saviour?”

An unreadable look crossed his face, and for a moment you worried you’d overstepped, but then he smiled. “My family calls me Estel.”

You tilted your head. “Isn’t that elvish?”

He gave a nod, but didn’t expand on why a man had an elvish name.

You wanted to keep him talking, hear his voice again, you realised as you fumbled for an excuse to keep him here for a while longer.

“Are you a ranger?” You asked, nodding towards his coat that had clearly been well worn and repaired many times over. You wondered why he continued wearing such an old item, when the tunic and trousers he wore underneath were clearly of well making.

“You could say that. May I ask why a beautiful woman is on her own in the forest?” You had a feeling he was changing the subject on purpose, but you didn’t want to push in case he left. Besides, you quite liked the way it sounded when he addressed you as a ‘beautiful’ woman, something you hadn’t heard from a man before.

“My family owns the apothecary at the nearby village. I was hunting for herbs, but a squirrel spooked my horse.” You ran your hand down Caspian’s mane as you spoke.

“And does your horse have a name?” When you told him he smiled, looking at your horse. “A fine name for a fine horse.”

You giggled as Caspian preened under the attention. At Estel’s questioning glance you elaborated. “You’re full of compliments today, aren’t you?”

He grinned, about to speak when the two of you were interrupted by distant voices, clearly calling someone although you couldn’t make out the name.

He sighed, looking back at you. “That will be my companions, I rushed off without a word when I saw you pass. I have to go.” He hesitated before leaving. “Will you be able to find your own way home?”

You nodded with a smile. “I’ve been to these woods many times, my lord.”

He nodded, but before he left he reached over and took your hand, lifting it to his lips. “My lady.”

And then he left, calling out to his companions as he disappeared into the trees.

You were still smiling when you got home.

~

You’d spent the past couple of weeks drying out the herbs you’d collected, and you hadn’t been able to forget the ranger you’d met that day.

Everytime he crossed your thoughts, you’d find yourself smiling, a blush covering your cheeks whenever someone questioned you about what was making you so happy.

You were once again lost in your thoughts as you sat behind the counter of the little shop, writing purchases into the book, when you heard a disturbance outside.

“The king is coming! The king is here!”

Your mouth fell open. The king had come to your village? Of course, it had been said that he was visiting all the villages and cities in Gondor, but it had already been awhile since the mysterious king had been crowned and with no news since you’d started to think he’d forgotten your little village, being so small and on the border as it was.

Clearly you were wrong. You glanced at your mother, who nodded with a smile. “Go on. I’ll watch the shop. You can tell me about this king later.”

You placed the book and ink to the side, untying your apron from your waist and dusting imaginary dirt from your dress as you rushed out the shop and onto the street.

People were already lining the dusty road, having come out of the shops lining the main street to get a glimpse of the king nobody had seen the face of.

You joined them, watching in anticipation as the group from Minas Tirith drew closer to your end of the street.

The first thought you had when you saw them was that the king’s horse looked familiar. 

Then the man on the horse looked in your direction and you realised exactly why the king and his horse seemed familiar.

Grey eyes met yours and you gasped. He nodded his head to you and, still in a state of shock you stepped back, bumping into the person behind you before you turned, breaking eye contact and hurrying back to the apothecary.

You gave your startled mother no explanation as you grabbed your bag and left out the back door, making your way to your house.

It was only when you were alone in your small house that you let yourself freak out properly.

It hadn’t been a ranger who’d helped you that day, but the king! Then again, weren’t there rumors that the king had been a ranger in his youth?

Either way, you groaned when you remembered how casual you’d been with him, how you’d not so subtly admired his figure, how you’d made excuses for him to stay, how you’d borderline flirted with him after he’d called you beautiful.

There was no way you could ever face the king again.

So you made up your mind; you would stay far away from the king while he was here, staying either in the apothecary or your home, and nothing could go wrong.

~

Your plan worked for less than a day. The next morning, your parents were unable to run the shop, so you agreed to do it for them while they ran errands.

Less than an hour after you flipped the sign on the door to say ‘open’, you heard the bell tinkle from where you’d been sorting herbs in the back room, announcing a customer.

“Just a moment!” You called, putting the lids on the jars and grabbing a couple to take with you to put on the shelves.

“Sorry, we just got some new supplies so…” You trailed off as you looked up and came face to face with the very person you were hoping not to see. “Oh.”

A jar slipped from your hand, but apparently the king’s quick reflexes extended from out of control horses to everyday life, because he easily reached out and caught it before it hit the ground, holding it out to you.

“Thank you, your majesty.” You murmured, taking the offered jar and placing it on the counter along with the others in your arms.

He sighed. “Must you treat me like a stranger now?”

You shot him a glance over your shoulder as you arranged the jars. “Aren’t we? All I know about you is your name, and even that may not be true now.”

“I never lied to you, Y/N. Estel was my name growing up, I was once a ranger and I believe you are a beautiful woman with a fine horse.” You fought back a blush at the last past, turning to face the king with crossed arms.

“Why are you here? Surely you have better things you could be doing.”

You tilted your head as you waited for an answer. Maybe he did think you were beautiful, but if this was just a game to him then you weren’t going to be made a fool of anymore than you already had.

He swallowed. “I know this is only our second meeting, but you intrigue me. You’re beautiful, talented, you aren’t falling over yourself to make a good impression on me.”

He hesitated, meeting your gaze. “If you do not already have a suitor, I would be honoured if you’d allow me to get to know you better.”

You shook your head with a sigh, looking away. Yes, you were attracted to him, and yes, every word he uttered only made you want to get closer to him but still… “I am not of royal or noble blood. It would not be proper…”

He cut you off, moving closer to you, so you were almost touching as you lent back against the counter, gently lifting your chin to face him with a calloused hand. “I don’t care, I have never cared about that sort of thing. I spent most of my life as a ranger, so if you think something like that would bother me, you’d be wrong.”

You swallowed. “Convince me, then.”

He frowned slightly. “What?”

“Convince me that you mean what you say and this isn’t a game to you.”

He didn’t reply in words, moving his head closer to yours until your lips were only inches apart, and for a moment you thought he would kiss you, but instead he pressed a small wooden box into your hand before stepping back.

“Open it.”

You did as he said, giving him a questioning look at the round, bronze disk inside, a small blue gem in the middle and designs you’d only seen on royal armor etched around it, sitting on a pillow of tiny white petals.

“I will be here for five days, of which I will spend wooing you as any man would. After that, should you be convinced, and willing, my friend will be passing through again in four weeks time. Show him this token and he will bring you to Minas Tirith to stay as long as you wish.” 

You opened your mouth, not sure what to say, but he held a finger to your lips. “I do not expect an answer now. I know you may not wish to leave your parents, but it would not be forever. You would be free to leave and return as you wished.”

“Okay.” You agreed. “You have a week to convince me.”

He grinned. “Alright. But if we’re going to do this properly, you have to call me Aragorn. No more ‘your majesty’.”

You matched his smile. “Very well, Aragorn.”

~

And as Aragorn kissed your hand before mounting his horse five days later, you already knew what you would do when the time to choose came.

King or ranger, this charming man who had been nothing but a stranger mere days ago had stolen your heart.

Taglist:

@fizzyxcustard @bookworm-with-coffee

#imagines #female reader #lord of the rings #aragorn #aragorn x reader #my writing

[hyperfixatedfandomer]

I know you by heart (Amnesia AU)

Ok y’all remember the chaotic blorbo thought? My brain suddenly expanded and I found a way to make it even more heart-wrenching.

.

Imagine if Quaritch, after trying to get away on his ikran at the end of the movie, passed out and ended up on some island million miles away from the Metkayina with amnesia? All of his (human and recom) memories are gone so now he is, by all means, a clean slate.

He is found by a different tribe, they see that he is frankly confused as well as terrified, and let him in out of pity. They teach him their ways and slowly, Miles creates something of a new life amongst the Na’vi.

One word and image that keeps popping up in his head almost every day though, is that of a spider. Arachnids do not exist on Pandora, but he presumed it was a memory he had when he was an avatar. He feels like it���s important and weaves the animal into his jewellery as well as engraves it on his weapons.

But the rest of the memories do not come back, and it wrecks him to his core because he can feel that there was something, someone important. So important that his heart feels like it’s bleeding without them, like a big chunk of it was ripped away and no matter how much Miles tries to just live on, he can’t let go but feel this agonising emptiness.

Until, a couple months later, Metkayina reach the Island where Quartich’s tribe resides because its leader Tonowari and his right hand Jake are uniting the reef clans against the sky people. The Olo’teykan of Miles’s tribe filess them in on their tribe and mentions the mysterious dream walker who had their memories erased and began their life anew here. The leader notes that this avatar is a warrior like no other, despite the fact that they cannot remember where they’ve learned to fight the way they did and at the end of said introduction, Quaritch is introduced, with a new look and name.

Jake is bamboozled, Tonowari is bamboozled and so is the strange sky boy who stands beside them.

Miles’s heart lurched violently at the sight of him, and the man doesn’t even notice how tears begin falling down his cheeks. Seeing his face alone is akin to finding a beautiful oasis in the middle of a scorching, dead desert. The Na’vi feels like this boy is the piece he’s been missing, the piece he desperately needs back in his arms, but he freezes as he watches him take a step back with an alarmed expression.

Jake is arguing with the Olo’teykan as he doesn’t believe that Quaritch could have amnesia all while Tonowari, while believing the claims, is still trying hard to dissuade himself from closing his hands around the recom’s throat. Miles payes them no mind however, as he, almost instinctively gets on one knee to be on eye level with the boy and smiles warmly at him.

“ Hey there, kid” he addressed him in na’vi, the words feeling just right on his tongue for some reason, but the stranger’s eyes widened at his sentence.

“…y-you can speak Na’vi?”

“It’s the only way I can speak” he shrugged.

“…What was your name again?” He asked timidly.

“ Iam. What is yours?” Recom’s ears leaned forward, afraid he’d miss it if he didn’t strain his hearing.

“… my name is Spider…”

Iam’s eyes widened as something deep in his soul shifted and he gasped. There was no doubt about it, he was that missing piece, a piece the man couldn’t afford to loose. It didn’t matter that he now had a new life. He’ll split himself appart if it means staying with this human.

He needed him.

“…I know you, don’t I?”

A tiny nod followed.

“…Would you like to remind me?”

The kid shook his head.

…

“…Would you maybe like to start over then?” He didn’t mean to, but the question came out as a desperate plea as he tilted his head. “Please?”

Spider’s eyes finally met Iam’s, and he could feel the bits and pieces of the memories he had lost slowly coming back. The blonde’s distant laughter echoed in his ears and couldn’t wait to hear it again.

“…sure. Let’s start over.”

.

.

.

Yeah, this is the idea. I may expand on it with headcannons soon who knows 🤔

#avatar spider #avatar 2 #avatar #spider socorro #avatar headcanons #avatar way of water #miles quaritch #avatar quaritch #miles spider soccoro #recom quaritch #spider avatar #miles spider socorro #miles socorro #avatar miles quaritch #quaritch avatar #na’vi quaritch

[thefirstknife]

The Veil and the history of the universe

I've been thinking about some connections between certain very specific concepts for a while now and mostly about how they relate to what we know about the Veil. It started with wondering about the reason for Lightfall's Collector's Edition books to bring back the concept of the OXA Machine and give us extra knowledge about it.

From there, it spiralled into more similar concepts that connect other prediction technologies, the Vex, the Darkness and most importantly how Maya Sundaresh seems to be involved with all of them. There's a lot of little details in a lot of different places about this (as well as from different times of Destiny, including one very interesting one from vanilla D1).

It's not really a theory or an attempt to solve everything, but more like an interesting dive into some possible overall connections between concepts that tend to repeat, most of which are tied to the new discoveries about the Darkness; how it's connected to the psychic aspects like memory, fear, pain and so on.

Contents:

The OXA Machine and the Psions

Inspiral raid lore book

The Device of the Future War Cult and Maya Sundaresh

The Veil

Since my line of thinking started with OXA, I will also start with the OXA here.

The OXA

What is the OXA Machine? Originally mentioned in the Collector's Edition booklet for Destiny 2 which is about Calus recounting his conquests and all of the actors that betrayed him in the Midnight Coup, the OXA is a "clairvoyant Psion machine." It's assumed the Psions made it and it was destroyed when the Psions were conquered by the Uluran. However, years later, a Psion scientist called Otzot rebuilt it and this time, Calus ordered for it to be captured and used. He also freed Otzot so she was known as "Freeborn Otzot." She joined the coup against him because he wanted to free all Psions and she feared that would ruin her unique position as the only free Psion.

It was also mentioned by the Psion Match, who wrote the entries in the lore book Confessions. Match was a councilor to Calus during his exile and wrote many entries on Calus' descent into what we know him as. Match writes the following (and gives it a possibility that the Psions simply inherited this machine and didn't make it originally):

Now I think of the OXA Machine, eternally lost and eternally rebuilt, passed down from civilization to civilization like a ship's black box.

This was a fairly vague concept, but we can easily figure out what this thing was: it's a machine used for storing information and prediction, much like any other in the Destiny universe. It wasn't used much as anything other than background flavour and you may know it from the strike Insight Terminus which mentions the OXA and Otzot in the dialogue at the end of the strike. We'll get to that a bit later.

For some reason, OXA was returned with extra details in Lightfall's Collector's Edition. It massively expands what the OXA is and gives the full description of what the acronym means. Page 13 in this transcript (chapter named "I am thirty-five years old" in Caiatl's book):

"The Odyle Xenotaph Anarchive. Sometimes OXTA, depending on how you construct the acronym. The alien oracle that led us to the graves of Aark." Must be wary, now. OXA is a Psion myth, and the Psions are a sensitive topic. My father wants to free them from bondage. "It claimed to record the story of the galaxy, and to prophesize what may yet come."

"A black box for galactic civilizations, if you prefer it in pilor's terms.” The Evocate-General nods to the pin on my right pauldron. I am conscious of my shaved-down tusks, of the sores left by the fighter's interface. "The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA."

The full name - Odyle Xenotaph Anarchive - isn't random gibberish. The odyle is a reference to the Odic force. This force (od, odyl or odyle) was thought to be responsible for some natural phenomena like magnetism, hypnotism, electricity or light. It was primarily tied to the human nervous system and relied on people's natural psychic sensitivity to perceive it or feel it. In this context it's most likely being used to represent some form of mental/psychic way of being influenced by or using this machine. In order to access it, one must have psychic abilities to access the source of this primordial source, like the Psions, who made (?) and remade it.

A xenotaph is most likely a play on the word cenotaph; a cenotaph is a symbolic grave built for someone or multiple people when there are no actual remains to bury. Literally, it's an "empty tomb." Here, the term swapped to "xeno" to indicate "alien." A xenotaph most likely means that it's a tomb of alien cultures which is also explained in the full definition given to Caiatl: it is literally a recording of dead alien civilisations. Similarly to a cenotaph, it's also technically an empty tomb; it's not direct remains of these civilisations, just a record of them.

An anarchive is a really tough concept to explain, but basically where the archive is simply a collection of information, an anarchive is the process of engaging, analysing and changing of the archival information for new and future purposes. This is possibly where the predictive aspect of the OXA comes in; the OXA holds information of the past civilisations, requires a powerful psychic to access and allows them to engage with this archive and come out with new information about the future, "prophesising what may yet come."

So in conclusion, the OXA is a psychic link to the history of the universe which allows those with special abilities to not only access this information, but also engage with it and learn of possible future events.

Why add this information for Lightfall? The OXA has always been more of a curiosity of an alien culture, not some sort of a major plot point. But when they take a past curiosity and add new information to it, much like with Nezarec, it may signify some sort of importance in the future.

As I mentioned earlier, pretty much the only time OXA was mentioned directly in game was in Insight Terminus strike. The Vex had information about the OXA and the Psion Kargen was trying to access it through the Vex. Two different lines at the end of the strike mentioning OXA:

Hmm, there’s only one data artifact here, labelled “OXA,” and it’s seriously corrupted. Metadata says it was last accessed by an “Otzot” centuries ago.

And:

There’s an almost unreadable data artifact here, labelled “OXA.” It’s heavily corrupted, but I’m able to make out “MSund12” from the access log.

The Vex records show that the OXA was last accessed by Otzot, but that it was also accessed by MSund12. This is Maya Sundaresh. So in one go we have a link between the Vex, the Psions and Maya Sundaresh who was a Golden Age scientist. They were all aware of and able to access the OXA.

There's one more Psion that mentions the OXA, in the Sisters weblore which is from Season of Dawn and relates to the Psion sisters that hijacked Osiris' Sundial. When they discovered the Sundial and inspected it, they were happy to find a machine that allowed to manipulate time and offer predictions. One of the sisters, Tazaroc, compared the Sundial to the OXA, but noted that the Sundial was better:

“It is so clear,” said Niruul, reverent. “An unobstructed glimpse into what was and what will be.”

“Not the troubled ramblings of a mad thing, like the OXA,” said Tazaroc.

Tazaroc considers the OXA to be "a mad thing" and that it only offered "troubled ramblings." The Sundial is far superior in its design somehow, but it's important to ask the following: do the Sundial and the OXA tap into the same (or at least similar) source? Are there other similarities between the two besides just the ability to look through time?

What should we take from this section? There is a great repository of knowledge and information about the history of the universe and the species that inhabited it which is stored and documented somewhere and it is possible to access and interact with it. The OXA is one example of this as presented through Psions and how they utilised it.

Inspiral

The lore book for Root of Nightmares raid is a curious one. The whole concept is that each entry in this book (10 total) is a record of the past that left an imprint of itself... somewhere. Each entry begins with a description of who left this information and how.

The first entry is immediately relevant here. It starts with a description of the recording:

It most definitely fits the feel of there being some sort of "black box for galactic civilisations" where data fragments are left to "mark their passing." This first entry is about the Ecumene, an alien conglomerate of species that united together to form the Ecumene itself. They are also extensively documented in the Books of Sorrow, as the Hive have came across them and wiped them out.

In this lore tab, we learn a little bit more about them. Their space was called the Habitable World and it consisted of a lot of different species joined together in the Ecumene through the power of the Deep. Aka the Darkness. This is interesting because we'd always think that any species alligned with the Darkness would be evil, like the Hive. Hell, the Hive themselves wiped out the Ecumene, despite essentially being tied to the same force. But obviously, now we know that the Darkness is not a uniformed force. It too has factions and different types of use.

The Ecumene were specialised in using the psychic aspect of the Darkness. The first entry, The Habitable World reads (still not on Ishtar and I will omit the big screenshots and just paste the text):

Meanwhile our Habitable World always grew. We offered the Fathomless Deep to any who wished to learn of our synergy, and it glossed the way to become more than we were.

And:

A new client-species drank of the Deep and understood the World as we tasted it.

And:

In the Deep may we be kept.

The third entry in the raid lore book, The Art of Symbiosis, is similarly interesting. It's a memory of the alien species called Qugu, also attacked and wiped out by the Hive. The title of the chapter refers to what we know of the Qugu from the Books of Sorrow; they are a species bound in symbiosis with another life form that they need to live. It begins with:

The Qugu were able to enter some form of altered state of consciousness known as "night-trances" to access past memories. This is noted by them to be an ability related to the Darkness.

I still hear from our parents, from our great-parents, distantly in my night-trances. And there are those nectar-made moments -- you know the ones, when you turn your thoughts to the Darkness and just listen, and the long sum of Qugu history graven there reflects dark-comforting advice.

And:

I have lived out my life with the tenebrous warmth of our ancestors over me like a (cloak/atmosphere?) between us and nothingness.

And:

I miss you. Funny, isn't it? How can you miss someone when you know they're always in the Dark? I close my eyes, and in the warm nest-hide of sleep, I know you are real and happy and out there on some other part of the world, far from the river, far from the [untranslatable] where our ancestors (dream/exist) together.

Both of these species had a connection with Darkness that was built exclusively on the aspect of the mental which is the domain of Darkness. As explained by Osiris in Lightfall, the Light is the domain of the physical, while the Darkness is the domain of the psychic, the mental. Darkness controls fear and pain and thought and memory. These species utilised their knowledge of the Darkness to form entire civilisations where these powers are crucial aspects of their lives.

The lore book details other characters and species that left their data fragments in what appears to be the memory of the universe. While some may have left their data fragments on purpose (like the Ecumene and the Qugu who mastered this Darkness ability), it's unclear if leaving a trace of your existence and your memories is voluntary.

For example, entry four, The Dark Below, is from Eris and entry seven, Irae, is from Mara who are both skilled in Darkness but it's not entirely clear why they would leave the few specific thoughts they had as data fragments on purpose; both entries are personal instead of representing their species. Entry five, The Brass Gardeners, is from the Vex who don't understand paracausality so it's unclear how they would leave the data fragment on their own. Entry six, Dark Glass, is from a Ghost recounting his close encounter with Darkness; again, this is a personal story, not a representation of Ghosts. However, consider that the Qugu entry is also a personal tale, it just happens to tell us more about the Qugu as a species as a byproduct.

Speaking of entries five and six, they're somewhat connected. Entry five, from the Vex, is heavily related to the Black Heart. Entry six is from a Ghost called Piri which we know from the context clues in the text. Piri is the Ghost of Lisbon-13, the only surviving member of the fireteam called Kentarch-3 who explored the Black Garden.

What do we have now with all this combined? Much like the OXA, we have information about how the Darkness is a repository of memory and history, how different species used it as a civilisational tool for collecting and sharing thoughts through psychic means. Even the Vex have somehow tapped into this, despite not being able to understand paracausality, though we do know that they tried, and they tried especially with the Black Heart which is a product of their attempts to recreate the Veil.

The Device of the Future War Cult and Maya Sundaresh

The Future War Cult was established in the Golden Age by Maya Sundaresh. Maya and her team experimented with a device, creatively named the Device, which was built on Vex technology.

We built the device in mimicry of the Vex gateway systems from Ishtar. An observatory, yes, but I think of it as a mind-ship. Capable of displacing its payload across space and time.

They experimented with it by letting different test subjects connect to it and observe what they see. Connecting with the Device had a lot of negative effects on people. A lot of them went mad with exposure, some died following exposure (note that going mad is a common thread with the OXA as well). Maya and her team eventually stoped their work with the Device, but the Device survived and was used again for tests by the contemporary Future War Cult during the City Age.

They acquired new test subjects and began letting them enter the Device to use it in order to experiment with the predictive Vex technology it was built on. It was crucial to the FWC and even their new leader, Lakshmi-2 was frequently using it. This is the source of their core belief that war is always coming and that they must always prepare for it.

This is interesting to us here because it's fairly similar to the OXA and what we've discussed so far. The OXA and the Device and even the Sundial to an extent are all predictive technologies tapping into some form of a source where the vast knowledge of the universe's history and future is held. It relies on a psychic connection to establish a link and to see through time. A lot of this is also built on Vex technology or ties in with the Vex in some form.

A very interesting bit here is the logs that the Future War Cult made from the experiments held in contemporary time, during the City Age. One of the test subjects exposed to the Device spent thirty minutes inside of the Device experiencing various visions and other sensations. Full log of her experience:

At 11:03 she reported a sensation of floating. At 11:06, a sensation of lights within the darkness of the Device. Between 11:06 and 11:32 she reported these lights variously as white, golden, and blood-red. At 11:32 she reported a sensation of someone taking her hand; a stranger, but also herself. Twelve subjects have reported similar experiences. At 11:33 she reported the sensation we have called "The Opening Of The Veil." The Device recorded temporal displacement of her consciousness to the order of six degrees. At seven she began screaming. Brainscans near-death. Removed from the Device at 11:34.

That's quite the line, isn't it? The Future War Cult logged a sensation that was presumably common enough among participants that it was given a name.

The Opening Of The Veil

Now, first, super important to note: this grimoire entry is literally from the beginning of the game. It's from vanilla D1. The game has gone under numerous changes for its plot and story. I feel like that's something that has to be said before jumping to conclusions. It could be a coincidence, something that feels more meaningful than it is.

However. Current writing can easily go back to what has been released, pick something and use it in the future, creating an apparent connection. This is such an evocative phrase right now, with current context, because...

The Veil

... has been described as a "physical manifestation of incomprehensible cosmic energy. Window into the mind and memory of the universe."

We consistently have this idea that there IS a memory of the universe's history and that records of it can be written and accessed through powerful psychic powers and mental links. The OXA records it, Inspiral records it. The Vex are a common theme of prediction engines and attempts at understanding this energy that permeates the universe. People peering into things like the OXA or the Device routinely get exposed to vast incomprehensible information about the past and the future, almost like they're accessing some common source where this information is stored.

While the concept of the odyle is not a real scientific thing, it might be a thing symbolically in the Destiny universe; a source of incomprehensible cosmic energy that functions on the basis of psychic connection. The Veil might be that odyle; a source from which the OXA and the Device and possibly the Vex (who have sought the Veil out in the form of the Black Heart) pull their information from.

The Veil might also be something akin to the OXA; like the OXA, the Veil is perhaps a similar device made by some civilisation somewhere to tap into this cosmic energy which is capable of connecting consciousness and allowing access to history and memory. This might be closer to the truth given the raid lore where Nezarec explains to us that the Veil is "the sapid secret of its [The Witness'] first victims." Whoever they are, perhaps they had the Veil and used it in the same way the Psions used the OXA; to access the memory of the universe and learn more about the past, but also about the future as well.

The sensation that FWC called "The Opening Of The Veil" might be describing that moment when someone successfully accesses this source, this odyle, where they can experience this memory and see how the history can potentially evolve into future events.

It's also interesting that Maya Sundaresh seems to be quite involved in pretty much every aspect of this. She started with Vex research on Venus. She and her team ended up becoming Vex simulations and her Vex research led her to the creation of the Device. She was also known to have accessed the OXA. Maya eventually curiously ended up founding Neomuna, a place where the Veil is kept and used to build the CloudArk, another exploration of linking minds and consciousness in a quite similar way to how it was described by the Ecumene and the Qugu.

The timeline here is unclear, as ever. Maya followed her creation, Soteria, to Neptune. At the same time, the Veil somehow ended there as well. We know that the Veil was stored in Nezarec's ship until Savathun stole it from him and hid it on Neptune. Did she hide it prior to Soteria's and ultimately Maya's arrival? Or did it get there because Maya was already on Neptune and Savathun deliberately left it in her care? Did Maya follow the Veil or did the Veil follow Maya, given her possible previous experience in touching it by heavy exposure to the Vex Network, simulations, the OXA and the Device through which she has touched the source of the memory of the universe?

Even if there's no connection between most of these, there's still a common thread of how Darkness governs consciousness, thoughts, memory and all other mental states of being. It's not just a way to see these things, but also a way to transfer them, merge them and interact with them in other ways. And this is also apparent through strand:

As I understand it now, it is the elemental manifestation of psychic connection. All minds are connected in a web of consciousness, which we can now see and feel. To wield Strand is to pull on the hidden connecting threads, and to use them to create, manipulate, and unravel.

Strand, being a manifestation of the Veil, further strengthens this idea that the Veil either is the source of this web (the odyle, the force responsible for these phenomena) or is capable of tapping into it in a very powerful way. Strand was also familiar to the Neomuna founders who understood that the Veil emits a "paracausal byproduct."

One way or the other, there's an underlying thread about the Darkness and how it relates to memory, history and consciousness and how different civilisations have been using this power for billions of years in different ways. There's definitely a point somewhere in this whole pile of information about the Veil's origin and purpose in its abilities to link minds through psychic connection and how all of that connects to other attempts at the same thing; to see the past, to see the future, to transfer minds through time and space.

And ultimately, possibly, why the Witness needed the Veil in particular to create a portal; the Light of our Ghost to transfer its physical form and the Darkness of the Veil to transfer its consciousness. Out of all of these different machines and devices, only the Veil is flawless in its execution when it comes to consciousness and psychic powers.

A problem to think about further: if this is on the right track, why would the Vex want the Veil, why did they want to replicate it (did they have it before? Maybe they're the first victims?) and what would it do for them outside of possibly being the source of predictive technology which is a very tentative link?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading and that it makes some sense. As usual, if it activates brainworms and gives you ideas, feel free to comment, suggest, correct or add anything!

#destiny 2 #the veil #psion #maya sundaresh #vex #darkness #strand #lore vibing #long post #been pondering this for days #just wanted to compile it all in one place #very interesting details overall and i wonder how many are deliberate hints to something important #hoping for some future season to deal with the psions. that would be a banger #it would be an excuse to bring back oxa now that it's been mentioned again in CE #and if ties into the veil then it would be a good way to research it #ghost asks 'who was otzot' but I ask WHERE is otzot #also the vex boggle my mind here. they tried recreating the veil... why... wuogh #and of course. maya?? she just casually relates to everything here. funky science lesbian

[pancake-blogging]

So the other day, I added onto a post from @too-many-blorbos and mentioned how I thought Robots in Disguise would've been improved if it were a sequel to Rescue Bots instead of Prime. Now over here, I'm gonna expand that with the other things I would change! Also, I thought it'd be fun to call this au/rewrite/whatever Rescue Bots in Disguise, or RBiD

Putting it under a read more, because it's probably gonna be... A lot.

The first change is the starting cast. As I established in the other post, we'll be replacing Bumblebee with Chase but keep Strongarm. Then, we replaced Sideswipe with Hot Rod (don't worry tho, Sideswipe will show up later with Sunstreaker in tow)

The show starts with Chase and Strongarm patrolling on Cybertron. Chase is trying to explain to Strongarm why they don't need to be concerned with one bot loitering in a public space, only for a speeding Hot Rod to rocket past them. The two pursue him, eventually catching up with him next to a Space Bridge.

Hot Rod is perplexed when told he was speeding to get here, and as Chase tries to ask if he's okay his hand brushes against the controls. The Space Bridge suddenly activates, and all three of them are pulled through to Earth.

On Earth, I've decided it would be more interesting to replace the human characters with a grown-up Raf who has a kid of his own (because I miss my boy and I want him to be there).

And while Grimlock was one of the better parts of RiD, I still feel like he isn't quite Grimlock-y enough. So, I decided to swap him out with a new Dinobot based off Spike from the movies; all you need to do is take Grimlock's Dino mode head and make his snout narrower and longer, add a sail to his back, and bam! You have a spinosaurus that's still just as intimidating as a T-Rex, while leaving the door open for a more traditional Grimlock to show up later.

One of the main plot points of the first season is that Megatronus returns with a plan to destroy both Earth and Cybertron, hence why the Primes saw fit to revive Optimus. In RBiD, however, Optimus won't be revived.

In every episode, Hot Rod will have at least one very brief encounter with a past Prime; they might be right next to/replacing his reflection in a piece of glass, he might see them standing opposite him at base only to vanish when another bot passes in front of them, or maybe he hears their voice telling him to duck in the middle of a battle.

Halfway through the season, Windblade shows up; still acting as an agent of Primus, her role in RBiD is still to help out the team, but now her primary mission is also to help Hot Rod establish a connection with the Primes. With her help, Hot Rod is finally able to have a full conversation with a still dead Optimus Prime, who reveals that he and the other past Primes have sensed an approaching darkness. He also reveals that Hot Rod was chosen to take up the mantle of Prime when the time is right – though Optimus fears they may not have the luxury of time.

As for the Decepticons... It is very strange that virtually EVERY SINGLE ONE is partially (if not mostly) animal-like, while there are (to my memory) ZERO animal-like Autobots. That's sending a weird message. So! Some of the Decepticons will have slight redesigns to be just normal humanoid robots, though exceptions can be made for ones with bestial alt-modes or when their animal-like features have a clear translation into their alt-mode, like Thunderhoof's antlers. Steeljaw is supposed to be a wolf in sheep's clothing, but since it's kinda strange that a half wolf man turns into an SUV I've decided to just make him a beastformer that turns into a wolf.

Also! Some of the prisoners aboard the ship should've been Autobots. And I don't just mean former Autobots, I mean Autobots that broke the rules but would still refuse to join the Decepticons.

At the end of the first season, when Megatronus breaks free, Optimus and the other Primes channel themselves through Hot Rod and temporarily transform him into Rodimus Prime. Shortly after Megatronus is defeated, however, he reverts back to a HEAVILY exhausted Hot Rod – another character (probably Windblade) points out that had he contained the raw power of the Primes in his body for too much longer, he might have died. The rest of the series, he's dedicated to honing himself, occasionally getting the odd power boost until the series finale, where he's finally able to become Rodimus Prime permanently.

#And that's what I've got so far! I'm sure I can come up with more if prompted though #Transformers #Transformers Rescue Bots #Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) #Transformers: Rescue Bots in Disguise #maccadam

[sgstories123]

Wong’s Blue Adventure

“Look, Wong. She is looking at you again.” The bartender, who was in his fifties with white hair visible on the sides, whispered. “I think you are going to get lucky tonight.”

Wong looked at the woman standing at the far end of the hotel bar counter. She looked to be in her thirties. She was in a red dress with only two sashes of cloth barely covering her breasts. Wong could clearly see the curves of the perfect mounds of flesh. They were not large but perfect for the slender, tall body. She had a slender waist that expanded into a sexy waist and a perky ass. The dress was long but had a long slit on the sides like a cheongsam, showing off the long, slender legs.

She smiled at Wong. Shit. Hope she does not complain to the hotel manager that I was staring at her. Wong thought to himself. He had only started this job as a part-time waiter for about a week and he did not want to be fired so quickly.

A group of men in business suits approached the bar and the bartender moved near them to prepare their orders. Wong was still at his end of the bar, cleaning up when the woman walked up to him.

She took his hand and slipped a $50 note into it. It was warm and soft, her skin smooth to the touch. “Thanks for the service.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Wong mumbled in surprise. It was the largest tip he ever got and he only helped to clear her glass once. Two days ago, when someone retched all over his clothes, he only got a $10 tip.

“When do you get off work?” The woman smiled at Wong, her hands caressing his hands gently. Wong’s manhood surged to attention.

“Erm. In about 10 minutes or so.” Wong replied looking at the clock.

“I thought so. Shift work timing is so predictable.” The woman looked up to the ceiling, with almost an air of disdain. She leaned forward slightly. Wong could smell the sweet, floral perfume emanating from her. “Come up to my room when you are done. I need some more service from you.” She whispered, squeezing his hands gently. She pressed another piece of paper into his hands before walking away with a seductive smile.

Wong’s mind was in a confused state. He is not a virgin but at 22 years old, he did not have much experience with women. He only had 2 previously girlfriends and been to Geylang once with his army mates. He was pensive on the thought of having sex with a stranger. But on the other hand, he felt proud that someone had wanted to hook him up, especially with such a woman who is older, pretty, and obviously rich and successful.

“Thanks, Wong. Your shift is up and you can go off now. Remember to put away those boxes before you leave.” The bartender came up beside him, after serving the group of businessmen. “You okay? What’s that in your hands?”

Wong looked at his hands. He was still holding onto the piece of paper that the woman had passed him. He unfolded it and on it was a room number.

“Wait. Did the woman give that to you?” The bartender smiled knowingly. “You lucky bastard. What are you waiting for? Go. I will take care of the boxes.”

“Is it okay?” Wong asked. “I mean, she is a guest at this hotel right?”

“You are so innocent.” The bartender laughed. “This happens all the time. But of course, for me, I am too old to be of anyone’s interest. It has been a long time since any one approached me.”

Wong was not sure whether the bartender was joking. He seemed so serious.

The bartender pushed Wong out of the counter. “Go now. You are only young once.” The bartender gave Wong a friendly pat on his ass. “Just remember to put on a raincoat.”

Minutes later, Wong was knocking on the door of the hotel room. He waited but there did not seem to be any answer. He looked along the empty corridor, worried that he may be seen by someone he knows. It all seemed so wrong.

He knocked again. He checked the room number on the slip of paper. It was correct. Did the woman play a prank on him? Just when he was about to give up and walk away, the door opened.

“Sorry. I was in the shower as I was not expecting you to turn up so quickly.” The woman was dressed loosely in the hotel bathrobe, her cleavage clearly visible. Wong’s manhood was rigid all over again.

The woman pulled Wong into her room and closed the door after him. The room was dimly lit with the curtains drawn closed. Without saying anything, the woman pressed Wong against the wall, kissing him aggressively, her mouth sucking his breath out of him. She groped his manhood, squeezing his balls hard.

“Not bad. Take off your clothes and get on the bed.” The woman commanded.

Wong hesitated but seeing that the woman did not seem likely to take no for an answer, he complied. He took off his clothes, folding them neatly on the dressing table. When he was left only in his underwear, he hesitated again, looking at the woman for confirmation. The woman did not say anything but merely stared at his manhood beneath his underwear.

“Do I take this off as well?” Wong mumbled shyly.

“Don’t make me repeat myself. What did I say?” The woman replied softly but Wong could feel that it was edged with danger.

Without another word, he peeled off his underwear, exposing his erect manhood to the cold air in the room. He got on the bed nervously, with his manhood hard and erect, pointing towards the ceiling at an angle.

The woman took off her bathrobe, revealing the perfect globes of breasts and ass. She straddled Wong, her legs pinning his hands. She pushed her vagina against his mouth while her hand held on to his head, forcing him to kiss her lower body lips. She grinned herself hard against Wong’s mouth, moaning softly as pleasure starts to rise within her.

Wong did not have much experience with cunnilingus. He licked the insides of her vagina as hard as he could, probing deep within the folds before finally finding the mound of her pleasure. He prodded and licked, trying hard to give the woman pleasure. He must be doing something right as the woman moaned louder and grind herself harder against Wong. She leaned backwards, grabbing Wong’s hard cock in her hands. Wong was surprised at the warm, soft touch of her hands, that he cummed in her hands immediately. He wanted to stop for while to enjoy the orgasmic pleasure but the woman continued to push herself against his head, caring only for her pleasure. She grabbed Wong’s head in her cum-drenched hands, refusing to let him stop pleasuring her. Wong continued to attack her vagina with his tongue but already he was tired and he could his tongue getting numb. He was about to give up when the woman shuddered, pushing herself even harder against him, her pubic hair almost shoving into his nose, as streams of love juice splattered across his face.

The woman collapsed on Wong, panting. Wong tried to push himself from under the woman but he was pinned too tightly.

“You came already. You are so useless.” The woman panted. She looked at the limp manhood, stroking it again with one hand, trying to revive it.

After several strokes, she got up from the bed. “Turn over and get on all fours.”

Wong complied, his ass sticking out as he got into a doggie position.

He heard rustling and turned his head to look. The woman had on a strap-on dildo and a whip in her hand. Shit. Is she into SM? Wong was afraid of the pain from the whip and dildo, yet at the same time, he was excited with trying something new. He felt his manhood coming alive again. Looks like his body has decided that it was worth the pain.

The woman stepped up and whipped Wong. It was not that painful, just a small shock. But then, the whips became harder and more frequent. While it was getting more painful, Wong could feel his manhood getting harder and thicker. It was as if the blood was escaping from his ass to his manhood. He groaned but he was not sure whether from pain or pleasure. It was all very confusing to him.

Without warning, the woman shoved a lubricated finger into his asshole. He gasped in shock. Initially, he was abhorred by the thought of something being stuck in his asshole. But as the woman started fingering him, a weird sense of pleasure filled him. He was not used to this feeling. Then a second finger was shoved into him and a third. He clenched the bedsheets tightly, feeling weak with the weird pleasure coming from his asshole.

The woman replaced her fingers with the dildo, pushing it deep within Wong. Wong groaned in pleasure as the dildo penetrated within him. As the woman fucked him with the dildo, she slapped his ass cheeks. Wong groaned louder and louder as the pleasure overtook him. His manhood was now harder than he had ever experienced, quivering in pain and pleasure, his pre-cum dripping continuously. The woman laughed as she fucked Wong. She leaned over and bit Wong’s ear. He gasped in pain but was soon overcome in orgasmic pleasure as the woman grabbed his manhood and stroked him till his dam broke and his cum spilled over.

Weak with pleasure, Wong collapsed on the bed, now drenched with sweat and other bodily fluids. Wong was so tired that he did not resist when the woman turned him over. He vaguely had the sensation that the woman was stroking his manhood, trying to get it hard again. He did not think he could go another round as he was feeling so weak and tired. But again, his body seemed to have other ideas. His manhood grew painfully rigid. It was pain and pleasure all over again.

“Good boy.” The woman purred softly. She straddled him again but this time, she held on to his manhood, slowly guiding it into her vagina. Wong gasped in pleasure as his manhood pushed open the tight, warm vaginal walls. As his manhood inched past each fold of the vaginal walls, his pleasure deepened. The walls closed in on his manhood, squeezing it tightly. If he had not already cummed twice, he would have already ejaculated. He could now feel the woman’s lower body rubbing against his skin. His manhood is fully engorged, pulsating deep within into the woman. It was so tight that he felt his manhood was being suffocated, with no room to manoeuvre. He took a deep breath on behalf of his manhood. He needed air.

The woman did not appear to be aware of him or his needs. Her head tilted towards the ceiling, she was only focused on her own pleasure. She moaned softly, slowly grinding herself against Wong’s body. She leaned backwards, rubbing her clitoris against Wong’s manhood, enjoying the warmth against her lower body.

“Fuck you, asshole. I don’t need you.” She whispered under her breath, seemingly lost in her own world. “What do I care? You fuck around, I can also do the same. Asshole.”

She leaned forward, squeezing the base of Wong’s manhood with her fingers. That surprised Wong. It felt so good that he almost ejaculated. With her fingers tightly squeezing his manhood, it seemed to grow even longer and thicker, pushing hard against the enclosed walls.

“I am going to cum.” Wong panted.

The woman looked down at Wong and gave him a slap on his cheeks. “Don’t you dare. You cum when I give you the order.” With that, the woman squeezed his manhood even harder, twisting his balls. Wong winced in pain as his need to ejaculate subsided.

The woman rode Wong hard, cursing sporadically. Every time Wong felt that he was cumming, the woman did the same thing, squeezing his manhood and twisting his balls. After several rounds, the woman finally reached her orgasmic climax, arching her body backwards, shuddering in pleasure as she sprayed her love juice all over Wong. Satisfied, she got off Wong and walked to the dressing table where she picked up her handbag. She took several pieces of blue $50 notes and threw it over Wong’s body.

“Get dressed and get out of here. I don’t want to see you when I am out of the shower.” She said curtly before turning towards the bathroom.

Wong wanted to protest. He was so close to cumming that he needed a release. He watched the woman with the perfect perky ass walked into the bathroom. Fuck. He knew there was no point in kicking up a fuss. He dressed himself quickly and picked up the blue notes. They were the same colour as his balls, he mused to himself. Well, at least with this money, he could go to Geylang and cure his blue balls.

[rainisawriter]

Dragophire Empire – S.W.O.R.D (ITYc1)

༻ITYC Ficography༺ ༻ITYC Tag༺

Genre: Comedy, friendship, slice of life -> fantasy au

Word Count: 4,581

Pairing: None

World: High&Low

A/N: So, I wasn’t sure how to write this and I’m not sure if I’m happy with it, but I hope it makes someone laugh or smile, at least haha I may expand on this later, who knows. Written for the @itropeyou challenge.

I Trope You! Challenge #: 1 – Genre Shift

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Murayama entered the gym of Oya Kou, beelining for the stage that sat at the back of the room. He hopped up before falling onto the sofa beside me, excitement dancing in his dark eyes. “Guess what?”

“You finally decided to be an adult, get a job and leave Oya Kou?” I quirked a brow at him and he pouted. 

“Not even close.”

“Yeah, something like that would never happen,” I snickered. “You’ll be at this school even as an old man.”

“So will you!”

“Yeah probably.”

A moment of silence passed by as we stared at each other blankly.

Finally, I scowled. “Are you gonna tell me or nah?”

“You broke first, I win!”

“I’m leaving.” I started to get up off the couch but he grabbed the back of my shirt, yanking me back down. Before I could insult him, he finally answered.

“I found a really cool video game store during my walk today.”

“A game store?” My brow furrowed. “Those still exist? Don’t most people just buy their stuff online these days?”

“Mostly, yeah, but you’re missing out on some great titles that way,” he clicked his tongue, waving his finger at me. “Listen up, kid.”

“I’m older than you.”

He ignored the comment. “There are a lot of gems out there that can’t be bought online because they no longer exist.”

“If they no longer existed, they wouldn’t be at the store, either.” I pointed out, making him scowl.

“Yah, I’m trying to teach you a lesson.”

“Your lessons are shit. That’s why everyone at Oya is dumb as hell.”

“Oi!” Nakazono glanced up from where he was sitting below the stage, a scowl on his lips. “We’re not all dumb, ya know.”

“You’re right,” I agreed, taking in the satisfied look on his face before adding, “Todoroki is pretty damn smart.”

His expression fell to a displeased scowl again and I snickered, proud of myself.

“You’re such an ass.”

“If you’re not an ass, are you even an Oya student?”

His lips parted to retort but then he paused, thought about it for a minute and nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

It was Murayama’s turn to scowl now, smacking my shoulder. “Will you focus for two minutes, please? This is important.”

“How is it important?” I leaned back against the couch, arms folded over my chest.

“Because we can find a new game to play that no one else is playing.” He paused, turning his head away and mumbling under his breath. “I was hoping it could be our special thing.“

My heart warmed at the words. He and I have been best friends for years, connecting after he and Cobra first fought. He was my brother at this point, but we didn’t spend as much time together as we could. He was always busy dealing with Oya drama and keeping the younger ones out of trouble.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working a lot lately so I could keep my apartment and still offer money to the Oya kiddos so they could get things they wanted. Admittedly, we haven’t been spending much time together lately, so it makes sense he would come up with something like this.

I knew I wasn’t meant to hear the last bit so I sighed dramatically, pretending to be annoyed. “Fine, I’ll go with you.”

He grinned, eyes lighting up.

“But you’re paying.”

He clicked his tongue, folding his arm over his chest. “Fine.”

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It was mid-autumn, the temperature dropping with each day that passed by. There weren’t many trees within the city, but the few that had been planted were already bare, their colorful leaves pooled at the bottom of their trunks. The world felt more alive, more magical during the fall season and I absolutely adored it.

I couldn’t wait for Halloween, especially since Daruma’s Halloween festival was always top tier.

I pulled my jacket tighter around my body as I headed in the direction of the store. Murayama was already waiting outside, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet as he peered through the glass.

“It’s about time,” he scowled at me, not waiting for a response before he darted into the store.

“And I thought I was impatient,” I scoffed, following after him.

No one was inside the store so it was eerily quiet. It reminded me of those old movie rental stores but, instead of movies, it was all video games for varying consoles, many of which I had never even heard of before. Murayama had been right when he said these things were gems that couldn’t be bought online.

A lot of my free time was spent browsing game lists, looking for interesting titles to save up for. Though I was picky and didn’t have a large library, I could name a lot of games simply by the description or by screenshots, but these games? I had never heard of any of them.

I hummed as I scanned the shelves, looking for anything that caught my eye though nothing did. Some of these names were insane, too.

Rocket Sizzlin’.

Killa Y.Q.Q.

Woman the Beaver.

Teenage Direction.

The Marvelous Enigmas.

Okay, that last one wasn’t bad. Feeling curious, I picked it up and turned it over. It was a pixel game about these sentient blobs of slime trying to pass for normal human beings. My nose wrinkled and I returned it to the shelf.

I wasn’t a big fan of older games and I don’t like pixel games. I prefer games with amazing graphics that make you feel as if you can jump through the screen and enter it. I like worlds that are so rich, you get lost in them, feel as if you’re part of them. Games that make you forget about the boring, mundane life you actually lead.

“If that’s what you’re looking for, child, I have the perfect game for you.”

I blinked in confusion at the old man standing a few feet away. He was short, the upper half of his body hunched over a cane as if it were the only thing keeping him on his feet. His head was mostly bald, with just a few strands of thin white hair placed at random spots. His mustache and beard was long but the hair was thin.

Where the hell had he come from? Why hadn’t I heard him? And how the hell did he know what I was thinking?

“Did I… say all that out loud?” I wondered, though I was sure I hadn’t. 

“Part of it, yes,” he chuckled, peering at me through small, dark eyes. “You were mumbling to yourself. A bad habit, I might add.”

“Oh,” I frowned, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Come, child. Allow me to show you the game you desire.” He waved his hand at me before slowly turning and hobbling away.

I highly doubted he would give me a game I enjoyed but I didn’t want to be rude so I followed him. He was so slow, though, taking five minutes just to make it to the other side of the small store.

Murayama poked his head around one of the shelves and snickered, clearly enjoying my annoyance. I flicked him off and he faked an offended look before disappearing again.

The man took a title off the shelf with a shaky hand, holding it out to me. I couldn’t help but notice how boney his fingers were, as if there was barely any skin left to cover them. “I believe you will enjoy this.”

I took it from him carefully, reading the title. “The Five Grim Kings.” Okay, not a bad title at all. I hummed, flipping it over to read the description. “‘The Dragophire Kingdom was once a prosperous nation united under one banner, but peace can not last forever.'”

He nodded, closing his eyes.

“‘The nation started to fight itself, splitting into five different factions, all of whom were vying for power and control. While they threaten to destroy themselves from within, a new power has risen from the darkness with the intent to destroy all of them.’ Huh, that sounds strangely familiar.”

The man nodded again, a frown on his lips. “They fail to realize that they are stronger together. It is your job to unite the five factions and destroy Kaxarene.”

I hummed with interest. It didn’t look like it was that old, either, the graphics looking pretty decent on the case. It was hard to believe that it was a PlayStation 4 game. Why wasn’t this listed on the website? I bet loads of people would enjoy this.

The game was ripped from my hand by Murayama who wrinkled his nose when he looked at the cover. “I didn’t know you were into medieval RPGs.”

I shrugged a shoulder, snatching it back from him. “They’re fun to play sometimes.”

“I found something better,” he grinned, holding up two copies of a game called Cosplay Rubber Duckies.

“You have got to be kidding me…” I deadpanned, making him scowl.

“Don’t look at me like that! It’s a really complex battle royale MMO where you fight against others to take control of the mind stone and rule the world.”

“The mind stone? Isn’t that a Marvel thing?”

“They don’t own the term, idiot.”

“You’re the only idiot here, idiot.”

The old man chuckled, a twinkle in his eye. “Will you be purchasing the game, then?”

I considered it for a moment before nodding. “Sure, it sounds interesting. I’m not paying for it anyway so I have nothing to lose.”

Murayama scowled, remembering that he had agreed to pay. “It better not be expensive.”

“Doesn’t matter. Oya Kou’s leader can’t go back on his word.” I snickered, shoving the game against his chest before approaching the counter.

He clicked his tongue in disapproval as he followed after me. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“Lucky? I think you mean unlucky. You’re a pain in the ass.”

“And you’re rude as hell. It balances out.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

The old man finally appeared behind the counter, slowly ringing up the purchase. When placed my game in a separate bag, slowly sliding it toward me. “Do be careful, child.”

My brow furrowed in confusion at the warning, a strange feeling of doom settling in my gut. Before I could question it, though, Murayama threw his arm around my neck and started to drag me from the store, complaining about how hungry he was.

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“Mother fucker,” I muttered under my breath, scowling at the TV screen. I was never good at battle royale games and I rarely made it into the top ten. “I died, you’re on your own.”

Murayama clicked his tongue, the sound barely picked up by his microphone. “At least you survived longer than last time. A whole minute and a half! You should be proud.”

I scoffed at his teasing tone. “I hope that duck with the Mohawk murders you and consumes your corpse.”

“Wow, that’s a bit drama – shit!”

I burst out laughing when said duck slaughtered him without much effort.

“You jinxed me!” He complained. “I lost because of you.”

“Tsk, tsk, Shiki. You shouldn’t blame others for your own shortcomings. You gotta own up to that shit.”

“One v one me.”

“Hell no. I’m dumb but not that dumb.”

“Liar.”

“I don’t even know how to respond to that so I’m just gonna switch games.”

“Don’t you dare.”

I hummed, grabbing The Five Grim Kings from its case. “Too late. I’m removing the disc.”

“I’ll kick your ass,” he threatened, but it lacked any real malice.

“Please, you could never beat me.”

Which was, technically, the truth. Both of you were on the same level and when you fought seriously, it ended in a tie every single time. He couldn’t beat me and I could never beat him. It’s super frustrating, but it is what it is.

“Oh no, I’m taking the disc out of the console.”

“Oi, get your ass back here and be my distraction.”

I pretended to think about it for a moment. “Nah. We’ve been playing for five hours, bro, I need a break.”

“Five hours?” He replied in surprise. “No way, it’s been like five minutes.”

“We started at noon. It’s almost 5:30.”

“Your clock is just wrong.” There was the sound of movement over the headset, followed by a moment of silence. “Oh…”

I snorted. “Dumbass.”

He clicked his tongue. “You’re so mean to me. It’s hurtful.”

“Uh huh, sure. You want me to stream this or nah?”

“Absolutely.”

“Alright, gimme a minute.”

I was just about to insert the disc when my phone started to buzz from beside me. I muted my mic, removing one side of the headset so I could answer Yamato’s call. “What’s up, boss?”

“There’s been an emergency,” he grunted, sounding tired. “I need you to come in.“

“Seriously?” I groaned, leaning back against the coffee table. “Today’s my day off and it’s late. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No. The client is paying big money for this and we both could use the extra funds. Get your ass down here.” He ended the call.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, turning the mic back on. “Oi, I gotta go. Got called into work.”

“Eh~? Just ignore it.”

“Can’t. Yamato would actually fire me this time.”

“Man, imagine having your wealth in someone else’s hands. Couldn’t be me.”

“Because you’re useless,” I snickered. “Later.”

“Don’t kill anyone.”

I left the party, setting my headset on the TV stand. I considered putting the disc back in its case but it was already out so I figured I would save future me the trouble. I popped it into the console before standing up and grabbing my shit, heading out into the cool afternoon.

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I let out a huff as I fell onto the bar stool, scowling at Odake-san. “The usual, please.”

A smile tugged at her lips as she started to prepare my drink. “Long day, hun?”

“The longest,” I sighed out, hanging my head. “This job is kicking my ass.”

She hummed as she set down a glass of chocolate milk before leaning her arms on the bar. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

I grabbed the glass, taking a large gulp before slamming it back on the counter. “My boss is running me ragged, Odake-san! As soon as I get back from one errand, he’s sending me off on another! He also complains that I take too long despite going there and straight back. He’s a tyrant.”

“Who’s a tyrant?”

I stiffened, straightening my back and looking fearfully at Odake before whispering, “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”

She giggled with a nod, standing up to start preparing his drink.

I slowly turned on my stool, offering him a grin. “Hey, Yamato. How’s it going? How much did you hear, my guy?”

The tall man rolled his eyes before settling down beside me. “All of it.”

“Ouch.”

“I should fire you.”

“But you’re not gonna because you love me, right?” I grinned, nudging his shoulder.

He sent me a look but didn’t reply, choosing instead to thank Odake for the alcohol. 

I resisted the urge to click my tongue, downing the last of my drink. “Can I get another?”

“Coming right up!”

Yamato shook his head. “I can’t believe you come to a bar to order chocolate milk. You’re an actual child.”

“If I was a child, I wouldn’t be allowed inside the bar.”

“You know what I meant.” He sent me a look. “If Naomi finds out, she’s gonna be upset.”

“Don’t you dare tell her,” I hissed, smacking his shoulder. “It’s nothing personal, I just… the bar has a different vibe and sometimes I just need time away from Sannoh.”

“If Cobra hears that, he’s gonna be -“

“Really?” I deadpanned, making him snicker behind the glass.

“Don’t tease her too much,” chuckled Odake as she set another glass on the counter. “I like her company.”

“I like yours, too,” I nodded, taking the cool glass in my hand. “Thank you, Odake-san.”

She gave me a motherly smile, patting my arm. “Any time.”

After finishing my second glass, I said my goodbyes to the two and headed out into the night, ready to return home and get some sleep. I yawned loudly, rolling my neck. It had been a long day and Yamato expected me at the garage first thing in the morning to meet with a customer, so I couldn’t stay up too late or I’d end up oversleeping. 

Something caught my eye and I paused, taking a step back to get a better look. Whatever it was, it was catching the light of the street lamp, glinting softly. I approached it, glancing around for anyone who may have dropped it but the street was completely empty.

I kneeled down, fingers wrapping around the ice-cold metal so I could inspect it closer. It was a ring made of stainless steel, a black dragon inlaid across the length of it. In the dragon’s claws was a large orb made of sapphire. The blue seemed vibrant against the muted tones of the metal.

“Beautiful,” I breathed out, thumb rubbing gently over the orb. I glanced around again to ensure that no one was around before I slipped it onto my middle finger. The orb started to glow,  the metal growing warm against my skin. “What the -“

A circular wave of blue energy shot out from the ring, the world around me rippling like the surface of water after being disturbed. I prepared myself for what was to come next, but nothing happened. The world returned to normal, the night silent.

“I need sleep,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.

When I returned to my apartment, I went straight to the bed, flopping onto it and cuddling the soft blanket Cobra had given me for my birthday. As tired as I was, I figured I could fall asleep pretty easily, but I found myself lying there for over an hour, unable to sleep.

I scowled in annoyance as I pushed myself up, grabbing a soda from the fridge. Caffeine definitely wasn’t something to drink when you wanted to sleep but something told me sleep wasn’t gonna come for me any time soon. Might as well enjoy it.

I plopped down in front of the TV, grabbing the controller. Pressing the home button woke up the TV, showing the title screen of The Five Grim Kings. Murayama would probably bitch about not waiting for him but I was too tired to care. I’d just buy him some ramen and he’d forget about it.

As soon as I pressed the start button, the ring started to glow again. Rather than the warmth I felt before, it felt as if it were on fire and I hissed, trying to tug it off but it was too hot to touch. “The hell?”

The lights started to flicker, the TV screen glitching out. One second, the intro cinematic was clear and, the next, it was so blurry I couldn’t even see what was happening. I shot up with a frown, looking for something I could use to pull the ring off. I settled for the blanket, wrapping it around my finger and tugging hard but it wouldn’t budge. It was as if my finger had swollen, trapping the ring in place.

When I removed the blanket, a beam of light shot from the ring’s orb and into the TV. “What the fu -“

The light exploded, blinding me as it threw me backward. I don’t know what I hit, but it knocked the wind from my lungs, my vision blurring. As I slid down to the ground, my vision dotted with black, my consciousness slipping from my grasp.

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A groan passed my lips as pain shot through my skull. What the hell happened? Why does my body feel so sore?

“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.”

My body tensed as I shot up, wide eyes looking around frantically. “Oh my god, I’m in Skyrim?!”

“What is that?”

I looked at the large man sitting across from me, dirt covering his skin and his wrists bound with rope in front of him. I blinked dumbly a few times, slowly looking around. I was in the back of a horse-drawn cart, sure, but the guy sitting up front was no Imperial soldier.

Instead of armor, he was wearing a black robe and rather than being surrounded by trees, we were surrounded by an endless sea of yellow grass.

“I am so confused.”

“Did you hit your head or somethin’?” questioned the man, leaning forward.

“I think so.” I reached up to my head only to realize my wrists were bound, too. “What the fuck is this shit? Why am I tied up?”

“You got caught in Kaxa territory.”

“Kaxa?”

“Kaxarene.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to continue but he just stared back. “Thank you for clarifying, that definitely clears things up.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I was being sarcastic!”

His brow furrowed. “Sar… castic? What’s that?”

“S… Sarcasm doesn’t exist here? Oh god, I’m gonna die!” I cried dramatically, standing up and trying to yank my hands free. “Let me off this damn thing!”

“Sit down, now!” Snapped the driver, eyes narrowed at me. 

“I refuse! I have rights, ya know!”

“Please sit down, friend! You’re gonna get yourself killed.”

“I refuse! Try and kill me, I dare y -” I cried out when the cart came to an abrupt stop, making me lose my balance. The man tried to grab me but he wasn’t fast enough and I fell over the side, landing on the dirt path with an oof.

The driver jumped down, pulling a sword from within his robe. “I’ll save the hangman the trouble with you.”

I scrambled back as best as I could, scowling at him. “Stay away from me! You have no idea what I’m capable of! I’m warning you, man!”

But he didn’t stop advancing, lifting the sword above his head. 

The sound of hoofs pounding the ground made him pause, his eyes lifting to something behind me. I refused to check because I wanted to be able to dodge if he swung the sword at me. The man cursed, turning and rushing back to the cart, slapping the reins as he yelled at the horse to move.

It neighed loudly, taking off like a rocket. 

Horses raced past me after them, kicking up a cloud of dust that had me coughing. 

“Hey, are you okay?” A horse came to a stop in front of me, the man jumping off its back to kneel in front of me. The lower half of his face was covered by a red bandana yet he felt familiar to me. He pulled a knife from his belt, flipping it in his hand before reaching for me.

I scrambled backward until I hit something solid. Looking up, I realized it was the legs of a massive man also wearing a black bandana over his face. He, too, seemed oddly familiar.

“Ah, I’m not going to hurt you, I swear!” replied the first guy, holding his hands up. “I’m just gonna cut the rope.”

The second man reached down, grabbing my shoulder with one hand and easily hoisting me to my feet. “We don’t know who she is. She could be with Kaxa.”

“But she’s tied up. Why would they tie up one of their own?”

“To keep their identity hidden.”

My eyes snapped to the side as a third man appeared, blonde hair covering his forehead and dark eyes. I knew that voice well. “Cobra?”

His eyes widened in surprise before narrowing suspiciously. “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“The hell are you talking about?” I scowled. “It’s me. Is this some kind of prank or something because it’s super elaborate and I hate it.”

“Be quiet,” hissed the second man, gripping my shoulder tightly.

“That fuckin’ hurts, bro, damn.” I tried to pull away but his grip was like iron. Wait a minute… I looked at him, squinting at his half covered face. It took a moment for it to click in my brain. “Yamato?”

“Don’t act like you know me,” he hissed, ripping the bandana down to his neck.

“Wait, then that means…” My eyes fell on the first guy, still holding the knife. “Chiharu?”

Chiharu tugged down the bandana, looking confused. “How do you know me?”

“Chiharu only just joined us,” Yamato muttered, sending the blonde a look. “No one should know him unless…”

“They’re from Oya Lions,” finished Cobra, closing the distance between us.

“Oya Lions?” My brow furrowed. Did that idiot go and change the name of the school without telling me? I shook my head, lifting my hands. “Look, I’m not sure what’s going on but I am not your enemy, Cobra. I would never betray you!”

“Cobra look.” Yamato grabbed my wrist, showing off the ring.

“That’s…” Cobra’s eyes widened and he tugged down the bandana. “Where did you get that?”

“I found it on the street. Thought it was cool but now I can’t get the damn thing off.”

“She’s… she’s the chosen one!” whispered Chiharu, looking at me with wonder.

“Chosen one?” I laughed, shaking my head. “Nah, fam. If I’m your chosen one, you’re all fucked. There’s no way anyone would be dumb enough to make me someone that important.”

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.”

My head snapped to the side, growing wide. It was the only man from the game store, but he looked different. He was taller, for one, his back straight. Luscious white locks flowered from his head, falling to his shoulders. Standing on either side of him were Kohaku and Tsukumo.

“You,” I breathed out, my brain slowly piecing it together. I scowled, rushing toward him. “You did this, didn’t you?!”

Kohaku stepped forward, brandishing a sharp looking sword that made me stop dead in my tracks. “Not another step.”

“Does everyone in this damn world have a sword?” I complained, glaring at the old man. “Oi, what the hell is going on? What did you do to me?”

“I merely opened the portal to get you here,” explained the man as he stepped closer, patting Kohaku on the shoulder. He instantly relaxed, though his gaze did not leave me. “The ring chose you.”

“Well, I don’t choose it. Get this damn thing off me and send me home!”

“You can’t go!” cried Chiharu, rushing up to my side and giving me a pleading look. “Please, chosen one. If you don’t help us, the Kaxarene will destroy everything!”

Yamato scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. “We’re doing fine without her. We don’t need the help.”

“Oh, but you do, my boy,” stated the old man with a frown. “You’ve no idea the darkness that’s coming.”

“What do you mean, Niramo?” Cobra took a step toward him, his brow furrowed in concern. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“I’m afraid I cannot say.” Niramo lowered his head in apology before his gaze landed on me. “However, I can tell you that this one is the one who will help bring light back to Dragophire. It will never be whole again, but it can be healed by the one who possesses the power of the King’s Ring.”

Everyone looked at me expectantly and I swallowed nervously. “You guys are so fucked…”

━━━━━━༻🕯༺━━━━━━

-> High&Low/Rampage Taglist: @kiraaaeon, @simpforchuchu, @star2fishmeg, @thatpoindexterpixy -> General Taglist: @asterhaze, @mrskenpachizaraki

I think I got everyone that wanted on the taglist, let me know if I missed anyone!

#itychallenge #high&low #fanfiction #fanfic #writeblr #writing #comedy #fantasy au #trope #genre shift #ity challenge 1 #rains ficography #RFO - ITY

[dappersheep]

Part 3: Continuation of Fate

Kal’tsit brings Mizuki into a meeting room and offers him a seat. Other than a change of clothes, she seems completely unaffected by the passing years.

‘Your return is indeed unexpected.’ Kal’tsit holds a glass of water, her ten fingers tapping rhythmically across its exterior. ‘When you completed your series of metamorphoses and, as a ‘Firstborn’, sent the Doctor back to land, I thought you would climb up to the stars. But instead… You’re sitting in front of me, playing with your food just as before.’

‘Then, can I dig in?’ Several pieces of fruit have already disappeared down Mizuki’s gullet as he asks the question.

‘This is a reception room, everyone may freely enjoy the food that has been placed here. Moreover, this food was a change that you brought about. The desert has disappeared, the temperature has stabilized, and disaster has subsided. Terra has become a garden, and you had no small part to play in that.’

‘But, I’m also the villain who left humanity with nothing else.’

‘When the Doctor explained the plan to me, I did worry about its feasibility. Sacrificing the vast majority in exchange for the human race’s survival. It was insane… but ultimately, also the most rational and correct choice.’

‘Nobody wants to be sacrificed. Nobody wants to be part of that doomed majority.’

‘So, all Rhodes Island could do was put some stopgap measures in place. When Skadi became Ishar’mla, humanity’s fate was sealed. Collectively, all we could do was hole ourselves up in this prison and peek outside at a barely visible dawn.’

‘So how’s the Doctor doing?’ As soon as the words leave his mouth, Mizuki instantly regrets asking such a stupid question.

Even the Doctor has no hope of defying time. He begins to silently pray, hoping that Kal’tsit will not give him an answer.

However, when Kal’tsit opens her mouth again, the expression on her face remains unchanged.

‘The Doctor is still alive.’

‘Wh-what?!’

‘We managed to move the Sarcophagus here before we built the city. It preserves both the city’s power supply and the life of the one who gave us hope.’

Mizuki suddenly feels the weight of the world slip from his shoulders. He slumps into the chair, his face full of joy.

The Doctor is indeed alive, but even if the ‘Sarcophagus’ can close all wounds, it cannot turn back the clock. As the Doctor sleeps within it more and more frequently, the wick of life will eventually burn down to nothingness.

But, considering the Doctor’s condition is far from this dire state, Kal’tsit continues to conceal the fact from Mizuki.

It is also at this time that she feels the absurdity of reality.

All of humanity’s efforts to break its shackles and return to the sea of stars have been obliterated by history.

On the contrary, it was an out-of-control planetary transformation plan that birthed new life after the extinction of humanity.

She finds herself with nothing more to express beyond a sad sigh.

‘So, Mizuki, what do you plan to do before the Doctor wakes up?’

‘Nothing in particular. Maybe find some good eats, run a few errands here and there. I’m still a Rhodes Island operator, right?’

‘I’ll try to get your ID verification and dorm room prepared ASAP.’

‘Thanks. Appreciate it.’

Suddenly, as if she just thought of something, Kal’tsit hurriedly calls Mizuki before he can leave the reception room, and asks him to go sightseeing in the city.

‘One last question. Did ‘they’ really all leave?’

‘Hmm… My disaggregation was completed before the ascension, so I’m not exactly sure how ‘I’ went about it in the end.’

‘I see…’ Kal’tsit’s expression becomes serious.

Years later, mankind’s domain once again expanded to the edge of the sea.

The sea was once a source of calamity for humans, so the pioneers were told to fortify the coastal waters.

However, curiosity will always trump fear.

On a sunny afternoon, while the adults’ attention wanders, a girl slips off to play on the beach.

She carefully picks up jewel-like stones, wanting to sneak them back as a present for her little brother.

But as she walks, she spies on the beach—

A flower deep in slumber.

The Seaborn are nothing more than a distant, bygone nightmare, so the girl has no impression of the creature in front of her.

She steps forward and strokes the petals gently.

Seeingly sensing something, the petals slowly open, revealing the blue, jewel-like sensory organ beneath.

It is a Deep Sea Slider hatchling.

Seeing the girl, the newborn instinctively raises its appendages to attack.

However, after the girl offers it a piece of food, it confirms this gesture as friendliness. Its coiled appendages roll over the food and ferry it into its feeding organ.

It is at this moment, from the bottom of the sea to the stars high above, that the many receive a new perspective: Humanity today is no longer a threat.

We can coexist with humans.

#arknights #integrated strategies #stella caerula ending #arknights lore