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silverynight · 3 years

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Can you write a oneshot about the kamboko squad and their mission during the Entertainment District Arc? I could imagine the hashiras just keep on visiting Sumiko. (The poor ladies must be so confused on why Sumiko is so popular 😭.) If you want, you can also write about the boys putting on their make up before the mission. Either way I feel like the chaos would be great >:D (Sorry for my bad english!)

(This is not going to follow the main events of that arc, only Tanjirou posing as a courtesan for another mission)

***

If he's being honest, Tanjirou doesn't think too much about appearances, not even then as he's trying to pretend to be a girl. He just needs to find the demon who's been terrorizing the whole Red District and then go back to his friends.

"You're really pretty, Sumiko," one of the girls (her name is Kana, if he remembers correctly) comments carefully removing Tanjirou's makeup after he's been helping all of them carry heavy stuff around the house. She had said she wanted to pay her back by helping her with something. "You just don't know how to apply makeup. Don't worry, you have me now."

He thanks her sincerely, feeling grateful for the kindness the girl has showed him, but he doesn't even waste his time finding a mirror to look at the final result; he keeps moving around the house, helping all the girls while trying to get new information.

"You're so nice to us, Sumiko!" One of them almost sobs, wrapping herself around him. Tanjirou immediately feels bad again for hiding his true identity from all of them. They deserve so much better. "I really wish you find a nice, wealthy person so they can get you out of here!"

"But you know most of them wouldn't buy a scarred girl," says another, earning glares from the ones around.

"It's alright, really!" Tanjirou assures them with a huge grin. "It means I'll get to stay with you and help you as much as I can!"

Suddenly, he's surrounded by girls in an embrace that for a moment, makes him feel like he's back at home with his family again. He holds back a sob.

When he's back in his room he gets another letter from Zenitsu; despite him being usually talkative in most of them (he mentions Nezuko a lot, which Tanjirou is very much glad about) this just contains a couple of words, which surprises him.

All the hashira found out about your mission.

Tanjirou frowns, looking around to see if there's another page on the ground, another piece of parchment with more information.

He has no idea why Zenitsu thought that was something he should know.

***

Kana is aware the House she was sold into is popular, but she's never seen something like that before.

The first swordsman that arrives both scares the girls and attracts them at the same time; he's the most handsome man they have had in a while and of course everyone around wants to be the one to entertain him.

He's tall and even though he's completely covered from his neck to his feet in some sort of uniform, they all can see he's pure muscle underneath.

He's blond, but has red tips that make him look like a torch all the time. All about him screams fire.

Oh, they all like him.

The woman in charge looks at him with such a pleased expression as soon as she sees the money he's carrying.

"Let me show you the girls..."

Right then though, Sumiko walks out, carrying a huge chair over her shoulders; she leaves it near the entrance. Honestly, that girl is unbelievable strong.

Her dark red hair is a mess, her makeup is already falling off, but her cheeks are still pink because she's been doing nothing but heavy chores since she arrived.

The woman in charge is already pushing her away so the customer doesn't see her (because that woman believes the scar on her forehead is too ugly and therefore no one would ever want her).

"I want that one," the client says without hesitation.

"But she's–"

He purposely ignores her and takes Sumiko in his arms.

For a moment, Kana wonders if she's witnessing what some people call "love at first sight" because the man looks so in love already.

When he walks away with her, she thinks that maybe she'll never get to see Sumiko again and feels a little bit lonely because of it. The girls in the house have really grown fond of her rather quickly.

***

Sumiko returns and the beautiful people keep walking in the place asking about her.

A man with dark hair and deep blue eyes and a permanent neutral expression on his face arrives the next day. He's really handsome, but Kana notices he's less popular among the girls because of his somber demeanor.

"Leave him to me," one of Kana's friends winks. "I love quiet ones."

"I want to see Sumiko," he says, surprising everyone again.

Then, before he takes her, Kana swears she sees a fond smile quirking his lips up as Sumiko beams at him.

"Tomioka-san! Hi! Do you want a report?"

The last sentence doesn't make any sense so Kana convinces herself she just imagined it.

***

They have lost the ability to get surprised; as the third one walks in (a tall man with huge arms and a flamboyant personality) this time, they all know he has come to see Sumiko.

She's really popular now; Kana and her sisters (as she calls the other girls that work with her) have accepted it a while ago. However, they have never felt jealous of her; they really love her, the girl has charmed her way into their hearts with kindness.

"Look at you," the man grins at her; he's so tall he has to kneel in front of her. He's so clearly flirting with Sumiko, Kana has no idea how she isn't a flustered mess already. "So pretty. You look like my future wife."

Sumiko chuckles, like she's used to hearing things like that.

"You're so funny, Uzui-san."

***

It's not unusual to get female customers; many girls arrive at the House, looking for a pretty girl to have some fun with.

No, what surprises them is that the girl is really beautiful; she has long, pink hair and an innocent look on her face that tells Kana she doesn't get to visit that sort of places very often...

Perhaps it's her first time.

However, her shyness vanishes as she sees Sumiko, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer before kissing her on the cheek.

Kana gives the other girls a knowing look before they all leave Sumiko and the client alone.

***

Kana counts nine; they're nine loyal customers that only come to see Sumiko. They come really often and sometimes bring her gifts that Sumiko immediately shares with the other girls.

"I think it's more than... physical," Kana mumbles, saying out loud what everyone there has been thinking for a while now. "I think they're in love with you."

"Uh?" Sumiko blinks at her in confusion, after taking a sip of her tea. "What are you talking about?"

"The people that visit you," Kana insists, rolling her eyes. She's never met such an oblivious girl.

"They're just being nice."

Kana decides not to keep bothering her with that and instead asks about something that has been troubling her for a while.

"So... About the one with scars all over his chest," shs mumbles, remembering the first time she saw him; he's handsome, but he always looks like he's about to growl or bite someone. "The one with white messy hair. Is he... Has he been gentle with you?"

Sumiko blushes to the tip of her ears, quickly realizing what she's trying to say.

"It's not like that... Uhh, I m-mean, he's... not usually... He knows how to be kind," Sumiko stammers.

Kana nods, recalling the day; how she begged the master of the House not to let Sumiko go with him, but the woman just huffed that he had the money so they couldn't deny him.

She's glad he's not aggressive with her; part of her knows that he's also in love with Sumiko in his own way.

***

Shinobu can't help but smile fondly at Tanjirou as the boy puts back his haori. He seems happy to be wearing his uniform again, even though all the Pillars think he looked really pretty as Sumiko.

"I'm glad the demon won't hurt anymore people," Tanjirou grins, looking at Muichiro who swoons with delight at the attention. "Thanks for helping me fight him!"

"Anything for you, Tanjirou!"

Next to them, Tengen is already begging Mitsuri to give Tanjirou one of her skirts and assuring her he'll convince him to wear it in the hashira headquarters for their next meeting.

Shinobu rolls her eyes.

"Kocho-san, can I bring some of the girls to the butterfly estate so they can start working there?" Tanjirou asks, eyes opening wide. He looks adorable and he probably doesn't even know it. "Please, they don't like working in that House!"

Shinobu sighs, knowing that by "some" he means anyone who wants to come with him, which is probably all of them.

She doesn't even bother to ask her fellow hashira what they think, because judging by the ridiculous, fond looks on their faces they're ready to say yes to anything Tanjirou asks them.

"Fine. We'll get them out of there."

"Thank you!" Tanjirou beams and she can't help but smile in return as she ruffles his hair.

Kyojuro takes the opportunity to put him over his lap as Giyuu glares at the flame hashira, however, he takes Tanjirou's hand in his before kissing it gently.

They're hopeless; Shinobu has no idea how they didn't ruin the whole mission because none of them could stop paying visits to Sumiko. How did no one notice there was something weird going on there?

***

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#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #tanjiro kamado #kyojuro rengoku #giyu tomioka #sanemi shinazugawa #shinobu kochou #tengen uzui #mitsuri kanroji #muichiro tokito #kyotan #giyutan #anonymous #asks #ask silverynight

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aspoonofsugar · 2 years

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Do you think there’s symbolism in the colors that Mirabel and her family wears in Encanto? What about all the butterflies?

Hello anon!

I mean, I have watched the movie only once, so I am not sure I can give a proper analysis on all the motifs and details :)

That said, when it comes to their colors, I found this on TV Tropes, if it can help:

The family as a whole has a rainbow theme, with the warm and cool colors split between the two branches. Pepa's side wears red, orange and yellow, and Julieta's wears blue and violet. Abuela wears a violet-red dress, symbolizing that she is the original progenitor. Bruno wears a muted green poncho, symbolizing how he's that he is the odd one out and Black Sheep of the family (green is right at the middle of the color spectrum). Pedro wears white. He is the only posthumous Madrigal, and his love remains in each family member through the magic of his sacrifice.

When it comes to the butterflies, their meaning is explained in the song Dos Oruguitas. Here, you can find an English translation.

Dos Oruguitas is a song about two caterpillars in love that must accept separation to turn into batterlies and embrace the future. This is about two things.

1) It is a metaphorical retelling of Alma and Pedro’s love story and how the Madrigal Family is born.

Pedro and Alma are the two caterpillas in love. They are forced to leave their home and to explore the world searching for a new place. Finally they must separate to protect the future (symbolically their children). Pedro dies, but because of his sacrifice, Alma is given a miracle (symbolized by a butterfly) that she uses to protect her family and make it prosper.

The mircale aka the butterfly is symbolic of the sacrifice of the two caterpillars that let go of each other in order to secure the future aka their three children’s safety :’’’). It is probably not by coincidence that Julietta, Pepa and Bruno actually resemble little chrysalids as babies. They are the potential of the future that must be preserved. They must turn into butterflies, even if it means Alma and Pedro can’t stay together.

This is why Mirabel says so:

Mirabel: We were saved because of you. We were given a miracle because of you. We are a family because of you.

2) It is about Alma’s arc and her inability to let go of the past, so to actually accept and enjoy the future Pedro gave her.

Let’s compare the verses in Dos Oruguitas with Alma’s part in Welcome to Family Madrigal:

In a world that keeps changing Knocking down its walls Here comes our miracle Our miracle Our miracle Our miracle

We swear to always Help those around us And earn the miracle That somehow found us The town keeps growing The world keeps turning But work and dedication will keep the miracle burning And each new generation must keep the miracle burning

You see the difference? Alma thinks that the miracle must be preserved, crystalized in time, while the whole point is that the miracle is about embracing change and the future. It is about transformation:

But the stars don't shine, they burn And the constellations shift I think it's time you learn You're more than just your gift

But the whole point is that Alma is scared of the future because of the huge trauma of her past. It is really not that surprising that she has so much trouble with Bruno’s gift specifically:

Mirabel: Bruno left our family because you only saw the worst in him.

She could only see the worst in Bruno because deep down she could only see the worst in the future. She sees every change as dangerous. But in this way she ends up damaging the family and missing what the miracle is really about.

Pedro’s sacrifice is not about granting the family a magic candle (a symbol of light, but also of grief). It is about gifting Abuela with a sea of colorful butterflies:

Aka all the members of the Madrigal Family (All of You). This is why Mirabel specifically has a butterfly motif. It is because she embodies the miracle and its spirit:

Abuela: I asked my Pedro for help. Mirabel... he sent me you.

In the sense that she is one of the many butterflies that were born because of Pedro’s sacrifice. But also because she is the one in the family that reminds others what the miracle is really about. Hence she symbolically embodies the miracle:

I would move the mountains Make new trees and flowers grow Someone please just let me know, where do I go? I am waiting on a miracle, a miracle

I would heal what's broken Show this family something new Who I am inside, so what can I do? I'm sick of waiting on a miracle, so here I go I am ready

Waiting for a Miracle actually foreshadows what Mirabel would do throughout the movie, but with a twist. Mirabel initially thinks of a miracle as some magical power that is given, but the miracle is actually who you are inside (Open your eyes, what do you see? I see me, all of me). This is why the Madrigal’s gifts are really just magical projections of the people’s personalities and best traits. And sometimes they can be limitating (Luisa, Dolores that need to respectively relax and talk more, but feel defined by their gifts). Other times, they change and needs not to be restrained (Isabela, Pepa).

So what about Mirabel? Why does her gift manifest at the end of the movie? Why not in the beginning? What is her gift about?

Her gift is her love for her family and the ability to see them for themselves and to love ALL of them, just because they are them. It is a gift that can’t manifest with all the pressure Abuela puts on her and the others. Actually, it is a gift that can’t manifest in the house built by Abuela because it is a house where everyone must shine individually. Everyone must have their own special room. Mirabel’s idea of family is instead the opposite.

It is an idea of family where everyone lives together in a place and where everyone shines, but does not burn (so the family does not go into a burn out) and make others shine. So, Abuela’s house needs to be broken and there needs to be a new foundation. A new home. Mirabel’s home that embodies a different idea of family:

Only in such a house Mirabel can truly shine and find her own place. And ironically, while trying to save the magic she ends up doing what she sings in Waiting for a Miracle.

She moves the mountains:

She makes new trees and flowers grow:

She heals what’s broken:

She makes Abuela realize that the family is not about the past (a burning candle), but about the future (new colorful butterflies flying away into their own futures):

Ay, butterflies, don't hold on anymore You must grow apart and come back You'll carry on forwards There are already miracles, chrysalises are breaking You must fly, you have to find Your own future

And that she needs to let go of these butterflies if she wants them to find a future too. Because the family is really not about a single person, but it is about many people living together and mixing their own lives...just like a madrigal aka a song where several singers sing different notes at the same time:

This is our home We've got every generation So full of music A rhythm of its own design

#encanto #encanto meta #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (December 6/2020) - End of Week

What started as a sad but calm day ended with a revolution where morality was questioned and blood was shed. The server’s first canon death since the three lives rule was implemented occurred, and all hell broke loose.

Dream’s motivations have started to be laid bare, but whether or not he’s in the wrong or right remains foggy as ever in a world where everyone’s morals are gray.

Also, the prison’s construction continues and some strange red corruptions called “Blood Vines” have sprouted up on the server.

A short summary of the week’s total events is at the end of the post.

---

- HBomb hosts Niki and Wilbur’s L’Cast

- Fundy continues work on the chess board

- Ranboo is leaving a book with messages to communicate with Tommy

- Fundy and Ranboo visit Tommy and help him through the Nether to find blaze rods. It’s a very...interesting...time... Fundy fills Tommy in on the fact that Dream is officially recognizing L’manburg as a country.

- Tommy falls in lava and loses all his stuff

- Then he burns to death

- Then he falls in lava and loses all his stuff again

- He FINALLY gets an ender chest

- Lazar asks him for help since he’d fallen in lava and needed help getting out. As Tommy does so, Lazar questions why Tommy hasn’t turned against L’manburg. Tommy says it’s because Tubbo is there, but Lazar points out that Tubbo was the one who exiled him.

- Ghostbur comes on and says he has a gift.

- Tommy attempts to rescue Lazar from the depths of the lava pit. Techno starts arguing with him.

- Tommy falls in lava and loses all his stuff again. He gives up on helping Lazar, who is understandably annoyed at him.

- Philza joins the call wondering wtf is happening and why Tommy keeps dying, but Tommy just ends stream

- Psyche! After credits scene. Ghostbur asks Tommy to return to Logstedshire so he dies in lava to fast-travel back. Ghostbur gives Tommy a lodestone compass named “Your Tubbo” that points back to L’manburg at all times. Tommy puts the compass in his ender chest right next to the discs, saying he’ll keep it close to his heart.

- Thunder’s frustrated that Tommy got exiled exiled because the Prank War he was setting up between Dream and Tommy can no longer happen and Thunder’s great villain arc has been cancelled - he is no longer a villain now.

- Now, he wants to do the clay prank to George instead to try and get Dream and George to turn on each other as revenge for Dream burning his house.

- Puffy builds Tommy a second Christmas Tree.

--- Note: From this point on I tried to include more specific details than normal since it’s an important and confusing event ---

- Quackity declares war on the Dream SMP from Mexican L’manburg. He gets George, Sapnap and Karl on to help. He’s rigged TNT under Eret’s castle bridge and wants to invoke the same ideas as the Mexican Revolution. He wants to put M.L. on the map by staging an assassination and using George’s dethronement as an excuse to start a political movement.

- Sapnap wants to take on Technoblade but Quackity tells him that they have to take things step by step and that it’s an extremely bad idea to do it now.

- Eret asks Hbomb to be one of his knights. HBomb agrees.

- George wants his kingship back

The explosion goes to plan with H and Puffy as witnesses.

--- ---

CANON DEATH: KARL

Cause: Death by explosion and falling

--- ---

- George distracts Eret while Quackity, Sapnap and Karl steal his throne. Punz joins Eret’s side as one of his other knights.

- The M.L. side reconvenes in L’manburg and drink invisibility potions. Dream is in Mexican L’manburg. He is tearing the dirt to shreds. Meanwhile, Eret gives a speech to his Knights as they head to Party Island. Dream, alone, is invisible in Boomerville.

- Sapnap gets Dream to log (he says it’s lag). The Dream SMP faction blows up M.L. with TNT. The Mexican L’manburgians kill Puffy.

- They want to head to the Holy Land. Dream says he wants to talk. They collect at the Church.

- They argue. Dream threatens to kill Quackity permanently and make sure Mexican L’manburg can never rise again. (Also Karl’s acting is genuinely good holy shit)

- Sapnap tells George that he thinks Dream has completely turned against them, and that they’re better off disowning him.

---

Dream: “You’re painting me as this tyrant when I’m just trying to maintain peace.”

He refers to it as his castle, his throne. He calls the people of M.L. “terrorists.”

---

He says that in his eyes, Mexican L’manburg does not even exist, and that he’ll speak to Tubbo about making sure he sees that it doesn’t exist as well.

M.L. argues that putting a human life above a few blocks of gold is more important.

Dream refers to himself as the “ruler” of the Dream SMP, the “leader,” letting it slip that “king” is a meaningless title.

He says that Quackity is causing the most problems, the number one “enemy” of the SMP right now. Similar to how he referred to Tommy defying him.

He says that Quackity is not like Tubbo, who is a “fair, just ruler” and that is why New L’manburg is recognized and Mexican L’manburg is not. Tubbo would never do what Quackity did. Wilbur and Jschlatt and Tommy would. He says that he waited until New L’manburg had a reasonable leader to recognize it.

- “Un-killing” is implied to be a thing, where the person who gave you your canon death can take it back.

---

Dream: “The king is a figurehead and he knows that!”

Eret: “I do.”

Quackity: “So that’s what you are Eret -- a puppet--”

Dream: “Yes! -- no he’s not a puppet-- h-he has no power and I have - and - it’s the same thing and--”

(Dream proceeds to deny Eret being a “puppet”)

---

- Quackity decides to dissolve Mexican L’manburg for a clean slate and call it something else. He wants the server to have a precedent of establishing new countries without having to go to Dream for recognition every time.

- Eret agrees to recognize Quackity’s new country if they apologize and return the throne.

--- ---

CANON UNDEATHING: KARL (?)*

* Dream says that the death is still canon later since plot was based around it. I don’t know what Karl considers his death count to be?

--- ---

- Sapnap declares that he no longer wants to fight Techno but Dream instead. He says he wants to slay Dream in front of everyone.

- Overall, Dream and Eret declare it a “failed coup” and say that the destruction is just a consequence of “what happens when you don’t plan anything” but Quackity is satisfied that his new country has been “put on the map.”

- Quackity declares the country to be named “El Rapids” in honor of Cedar Rapids.

- Punz no longer wants to be an official Knight.

- Quackity misses Ghostbur and wants to speak with him. He tells Ghostbur about the war. Ghostbur asks if it was a revolution - Quackity says yes! Ghostbur also informs Quackity that he burnt the sacred texts - How to Sex 2 - in lava.

- Karl streams with the intention of rebuilding and preparing for Pokimane’s visit

- Karl steals Eret’s Museum Llamas and gets caught in the act. Fortunately this doesn’t spark up the war again. They take a llama to Party Island.

- They get into trouble at Boomerville and Lazar joins.

- Dream comes online and asks Sam about the prison’s progress. Bad gets annoyed at Sam for destroying the beachfront property value, and he didn’t authorize the seizure of the land. Dream is there helping to shovel but Bad wants him to stop. Bad is angry about the prison being built and starts shouting at Sam.

- Bad tries to negotiate with Dream. Dream refers to the prison as containing a “prisoner.” Singular. And that the prisoner would have nothing, and Bad would be in charge of helping to guard it. There are going to be multiple “layers.”

- The prison will be in the middle of the ocean bit, and Bad would have a terraformed beachfront property. All of the land would be considered property of the Badlands - including the prison.

- People are going to have to go through PORTALS to escape the prison.

- Bad starts to come around to the prison idea. Dream tells Sam he thinks they need more hands to help, potentially Ant and Eret.

- A strange, giant red “egg” has appeared in the corner of Bad’s statue room. He feels a strange aura coming from it, and he’s unable to bring himself to break it.

- Dream says Eret can’t help with the prison but he can help make the beach nicer. Bad says he might want to put Tommy in the prison but Dream says no, Tommy’s already exiled. So the prison isn’t for Tommy.

- Once the prisoner is in there, Dream says they would only be able to be let out “by the server.” It’s got certain secrets that only Dream and Sam know about. Sam says that he could potentially escape from it, but it will be so impenetrable that even if you know the secrets it would still be difficult to escape from.

- Bad shows Dream the Egg. Dream gets creeped out by it.

- Another Red Corruption has appeared near Hutt’s Pizza, and another at the Mansion. Everyone swears that it wasn’t there before, and there wasn’t enough time for someone to place all of it manually in the time that they were down there.

- Bad stabs Dream for trying to “hurt it.” He likes it for some reason.

- Bad asks Dream about who the prison’s for. Dream says “if you can’t kill somebody, you need to lock them up.” He mentions that it’s one of the more powerful people on the server, someone who either provides a threat now or in the future. He has someone in mind.

--- ---

Dream explains to Bad and Sam that the reason he switched sides in the Manberg-Pogtopia War was because Schlatt gave him something.

And that thing is “a card up his sleeve” until he needs it.

A book of great value.

It puts Dream in danger if people know of it, but also gives Dream power.

The “most valuable thing on the server.”

Something pertaining to the prison.

Something where they wouldn’t believe Dream if he told them what he was given.

--- ---

- The corruption grows AGAIN despite Dream, Sam and Bad all being in the middle of the ocean

- Another corruption appears on Tommy’s Power Tower

- The water level in New L’manburg has risen again, covering George and Quackity’s mushroom house

- The prison is going to be as tall as a MOUNTAIN

- Dream proposes the idea of Bad giving him the disc to piss off Tommy. Bad says that Skeppy has it so he’ll have to ask some other time. He might trade some information about Schlatt’s book in return for the disc.

- Bad says he likes the name a dono came up with for the corruption -- “Blood Vines”

- Dream and Sam removed the Blood Vines on the Mansion to Bad’s dismay. Sam burns the Vines and Bad goes on a murderous rampage against him.

- Technoblade got a “Bee our guest” achievement

- Dream burns down the Eiffel Tower again.

- The prison will be reinforced with 15 layers of obsidian, and the guards will have Ender Pearl Stasis Chambers that are alarm-activated.

- The Blood Vines have sprouted up from Schlatt’s Grave.

The prison’s unofficial name as of right now is “Pandora’s Vault,” but it is subject to change.

Upcoming events:

- Karl will be touring Pokimane around soon

Potentially Scrapped:

- Elytra Challenge

- Bad and Skeppy’s plan to burn the disc *

* Bad mentioned it on stream, but it’s unclear if it’ll still happen

END OF WEEK RECAP:

11/30: Fundy bonds with Wilbur, Cursed Lore Day

12/01: Creation of Mexican L’manburg, Girl Dream visits, Mexican Manhunt

Note: not sure what’s up with 12/02. Probably messed up the dates? Whoops.

12/03: Sleepy Bois Family splits in half, dethroning of George

12/04: Day of the Exile, Badlands start to divide

12/05: Tommy’s first full day in Logsted, Sean’s visit

12/06: The Mexican L’manburg Revolution, end of M.L., start of El Rapids

---

!!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

- Wilbur had two special lodestone compasses in his inventory. He didn’t want HBomb to see, but H looked anyway.

#mcyt #dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts #dream smp end of week recaps

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spooderboyandtincan · 3 years

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The 12(ish) Days of December

A/N: I intended to write a Hanukkah themed chapter, but unfortunately I suffered some burnout and I couldn’t really start it :(((((( I plan and hope to add on to this in the future, I just wanted to get it out here on time! Happy Holidays everyone!!

Read on Ao3

/ST*RKERS DNI/

“Che palle!” May cried as she and Peter stepped out of the elevator. ��Tony, what the hell is that?!”

“It’s a giant teddy bear,” Tony called back from the kitchen. “It’s for you, Pete!”

“Me?” Peter gasped, his face lighting up. He charged toward the ten-foot teddy bear and tackled it. The giant brown bear teetered slightly with his weight but didn’t tip over. “He’s so soft!”

Tony came out of the kitchen with a wide grin on his face. He wiped his flour-coated hands on his pants and tried to give Peter a hug without pushing him off the bear,

“He’s so beautiful!” Peter giggled, wrapping his arms around the bear’s neck. “And huge!”

Tony nodded in a proud, self-satisfied sort of way. Besides being delighted that the boy clearly adored his gift, he now had proof that this was obviously how one should react when presented with a ten-foot-tall stuffed animal. He'd have to take a picture and send it to Pepper.

May tossed her purse on the floor and shook her head at Tony. “As long as you can find a place for it, I’m not complaining,” she chuckled.

“I’ll rent a storage unit somewhere,” Tony supplied, taking a sip of coffee from his Iron Man shaped mug. Tony treasured that mug, which had been gifted to him by Peter several months ago. He never brought it in the lab for fear that Dum-E or U would break it, and he kept it in the cabinet next to his “1# IronDad” mug (also a precious gift from his kid).

He looked back to Peter, who had wrapped his arms around the bear, which was tilting dangerously. “Be careful, kiddo,” he said, biting his lip. But the moment the words got out of his mouth, Peter and the gigantic teddy bear started to topple to the ground.

“Shit-!” he began, darting forward, only to be met by Peter’s giggles.

“Nooo. Leave me. ‘M comfy.” He rolled onto the bear’s big belly and sprawled across it. “This’s perfect,” he hummed, closing his eyes.

Tony and May shared a slightly exasperated yet fond glance. Tony flopped down next to Peter, tucking a curl behind his ear. “Now that I think about it, spider-baby,” he mused, “I’ve got something else for ya.”

Peter perked up and opened his eyes. “What?”

Tony gave him a large grin and ran a hand through his curls. “C’mere.” He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led Peter to his room.

May sighed. “I swear to god, Tony, if you’re giving him an Audi….” she muttered.

“I’m not!” the man insisted. Peter rolled his eyes and sat down on his bead.

Tony put a warm palm over his eyes. “Close your eyes, bud.”

Peter tried to keep his eyes closed as Tony ran to his own room, tearing through what sounded like wrapping paper and knocking boxes over with no absence of cursing.

Moments later, a small, leather 4x4 inch box was placed on his open palm. He opened his eyes and looked first at the box, then at up Tony, who smiled. May shrugged and gestured to open it.

Inside the box rested a thin, slender watch with a smooth black strap. The face of the watch was rectangular, and when Peter pushed the button on the side it lit up, displaying the time above what looked like a mini arc reactor. It resembled the StarkWatch he was wearing that very moment, except it looked more high-tech.

“A new StarkWatch, specially customized for you, by yours truly,” Tony said. “Your old one looked pretty busted, even though they’re supposed to be indestructible.” Peter snickered at Tony’s gentle jab. “And it’s got a few minor upgrades. You can set the lock screen, for one. And it should be trackable from anywhere in the universe, and I mean everywhere. And you can call me, or May, or Ned or Rhodey or whoever from the top of Mount Everest or the bottom of the Mariana Trench.”

“Wow,” Peter whispered, tracing the sides of the watch before strapping it onto his wrist. “Thank you, Mister Stark! I love it! It’s so cool!”

“What happened to ‘Tony?’” he grumbled playfully, giving his spider-baby a kiss on his head. “I’m glad you like it, buddy. It’s basically the same stuff as your old one, just better.”

Then, to both Peter and May’s surprise, Tony bent down and grabbed a colorful red bag covered in golden glitter. Peter laughed.

“Tony, it’s only the ninth!” May snorted, her eyebrows raised past her hairline.

“That’s because we’ll need these before Christmas,” Tony said wisely. He handed Peter a soft package wrapped in green tissue paper and watched him tear the packaging in half.

“It’s so ugly!” he cried, holding up a garish green sweater. There was a plastic red ball attached to the big reindeer's nose and tiny bells were tied onto the reindeer’s harness. Little snowflakes were patterned all over, and Peter couldn’t help but laugh. “I love it, Tony!” Peter pulled the sweater on and was delighted to find that the fabric was incredibly soft, instead of the unbearably itchy sweaters he had owned in the past. “It’s perfect!”

Tony laughed fondly at his already thrilled kid. “If you think it’s good now, wait till you see this. FRI, lights off,” he ordered.

Peter felt Tony fumble with something on his shoulder, and suddenly the sweater lit up. The reindeer’s nose lit up bright red, the snowflakes began to glow, and, as cliché as it might have sounded, the bells gave a merry jingle as Peter laughed.

“I love it!” He tackled Tony with a hug, relaxing slightly in the man’s arms.

“Good,” Tony chuckled, “‘Cause I’ve got about three more for you and your aunt each.”

“Tony, where’re we going?” Peter whined, his breath fogging the window. “Tell meeee!”

“My lips are sealed,” Tony said, pretending to zip his lips shut and throw away the key. “We’re almost there, Rudolph, don’t worry.”

“Rudolph?!” Peter snorted.

Tony reached over the console to ruffle his hair. “I thought you might want a Christmas nickname,” he explained. “Plus, y’know, you already had a nickname available that only required a bit of simple reconstruction, Roo.”

Peter shook his head. “Just tell meeee!”

“No. Never.”

“Pleeease?”

“I physically can’t, buddy.”

“Tell me! Tellmetellmetellme pleeeeeeeeease?”

“Will… to keep secrets… decreasing,” Tony said robotically. “Fine. We’re going ice-skating, Petey-Pie.”

Peter gasped, his big chocolate eyes going wide. “Really?!”

Tony grinned and glanced over to his kid. “Really.” He wished he could stop the car and give his sweet boy a hug.

“But…” Peter bit his lip. “I don’t really know how. I mean, I went ice skating with Ned a few years ago but we mostly fell over and bruised our butts.”

Tony chuckled fondly. “That’s okay kiddie, I’ll show you the arts. Rhodey and I went when we were in college, and man, we had a blast laughing at each other. Oh- we’re here!”

“Tony, I don’t have any skates!” Peter realized as they hopped out of the car.

“I already got you some, Pete, don’t worry,” Tony assured him. He opened the trunk of the car. “And I brought you an extra hat, a coat, a scarf, some better gloves, extra socks and a pair of snow pants.”

“Tony,” Peter began, leaning into the hug the man offered him all the same. He grumbled and rolled his eyes but let Tony wrap a scarf around his neck and trade his thin woolen gloves out for much warmer, thicker ones. Peter had to admit he felt a lot warmer. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Thanks, Pete. M’kay, I’ve got these fancy red and blue skates for you and red and gold for me.”

“And I’m sure the color choices were random?” Peter asked sarcastically. “Wait- these have the Spider-Man logo on them! Mr. Stark, are there Spider-Man ice-skates?!”

Tony bent to kiss his forehead. “There are, Pete. Pretty cool, huh?”

“So cool! I love ‘em, thank you, Tony!” He held up the skates to admire them. “They’re great!”

“No problem, buddy. It was my pleasure.”

Peter flopped down in the snow and pulled on his skates. He looked up to admire the tall oak and pine trees swaying gently with the wind, the last leaves of fall scattering along the icy roads. A pair of snowflakes drifted down to his coat, and Peter felt a sort of peace flow through him.

“Petey? Are you comin’?” Tony called, skating back and forth along the edge of the pond. Peter knotted the laces of his skates tightly and struggled to his feet.

“I’m trying!” he yelled, staggering forward. He leaned over the ice and felt a bit dizzy. It was about a foot down to the actual ice, and Peter knew without a doubt that he would slip if he tried to get down. “I dunno, um….”

“I gotcha, Petey, don’t worry.” Tony held out his arms and gave him a reassuring smile. Hesitantly, Peter lowered stepped onto the frozen pond, grabbing Tony’s arm and clinging to him as he got both feet on the ice.

“Good job, Roo!” the man praised, lifting him up by the armpits so he was standing up a bit straighter. He couldn’t help but compare Peter to a fawn who just stood up for the very first time, and the boy’s big bambi eyes weren’t helping his case. “Getting on the ice is the hardest part. I’ve landed on my ass more times than I can count.” Tony frowned at himself. “Sorry I said ‘ass,’ don’t repeat that.”

Peter snorted. His skates slipped and he felt Tony’s arms tighten around him. “Whoa there, buddy. I gotcha.” He tucked a loose curl behind the teen’s ear and kissed his cheek, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

“‘M’kay, you ready, Pete?”

“Heck yeah!”

Tony grinned. “Okay, first, you said ‘heck yeah’ instead of ‘hell yeah’ and that’s adorable,” he teased, chuckling at Peter’s eye roll. “Second: let’s wreck this rink!”

Though of course, they ended up making more of a wreck of themselves rather than the rink.

The very second Peter slid his foot forward, he found himself spontaneously falling backwards. Luckily, Tony caught him easily and gently pulled him back up.

“I meant to do that,” he huffed, his small hands scrabbling at Tony’s coat. “It was- completely- intentional.”

“Of course it was, Roo, I know that,” he said with a raise of his eyebrows. “No one has the grace and agility you do.”

“I am graceful, Tony! How dare you?!” Peter grumbled.

Tony might have made a quip about the arms wrapped tightly around his waist for support, but he decided his poor kid had suffered enough. Despite bumping into every table or chair in his path, Peter was surprisingly graceful, especially when he swung with ease through the air on a thin stand of webbing. “You are graceful, buddy, I promise,” he admitted. “You wanna give it another try?”

Peter stuck his tongue out at him, adjusted his hat, and gingerly took a step forward. Tony tensed, ready to lunge forward and catch him if the boy slipped, but found himself letting a quiet cheer. “Nice job, Pete!”

Peter beamed at him, his legs spread far apart and his arms extended for balance. He tipped backwards and Tony started to jump forward, but Peter flailed his arms around and regained his balance.

“I think you’re getting the hang of it, kiddo!” Tony called as Peter made his way to the opposite side of the pond. He winced suddenly, protectiveness flooding through him at his retreating figure. “Be careful! Wait for me!”

He caught up to Peter easily and zipped in front of him, catching him by the shoulders. “You’re doing great, baby!”

“Thanks,” he giggled, looking down at his shoes. He wiped his red nose with the back of his hand and sniffled. “‘S fun!”

Tony smiled and adjusted Peter’s scarf. “Glad to hear it.”

“Tony?” he asked. “Can you do a figure eight?”

The man paused to consider this, clicking his tongue. “Only one way to find out!” he decided.

Peter watched excitedly as he skated out to the middle of the pond, looking practically weightless. Tony took a deep breath, prayed he didn’t break any bones, then pushed off. He zoomed around the pond in a perfect figure eight, only faltering for a brief moment, and traced over it twice before he skidded back to Peter. “Ta-da!”

Peter applauded, clearly very impressed. Tony bowed exaggeratedly and pretended to be embarrassed.

“D’you think I should try?” Peter asked.

Tony smiled fondly. “Only if you want to. I know you’d nail it though.”

And he did. Peter skated carefully to the edge of the pond and performed the figure eight beautifully, spinning in circles and laughing when he got a bit too dizzy.

Tony skated up to him, his eyes huge. “Jesus, Petey, that was fantastic!” He pulled the embarrassed teen to his chest and wished, not for the first time, that Peter wasn’t wearing a hat so he could kiss the top of his head. He settled for Peter’s cheek instead. “Wow, baby, that was amazing! Wait- I gotta sign you up for the Olympics. Where’s my phone- oh, I got it.” He pulled his phone from his coat.

“Tony, nooooo!” Peter protested.

“Tony yes. You’re too talented.”

“It was just a figure eight!” he giggled. “And you did one too so you hafta sign yourself up.” Peter looked up to the gray sky and shivered as the brisk winds tore at his heavy coat and scarf. He leaned even closer to Tony.

“You cold, baby?” Tony rubbed his back gently, hoping to generate some warmth. “Wanna go back home? We can come back here anytime you want.”

Peter sighed a bit sadly, but he had to admit he was freezing. He and Tony skated back to the car quickly. Snowflakes began to fall rapidly down as gusts of wind tried to upset their balance. Tony helped Peter onto the bank and they hurriedly yanked off their ice skates.

They found refuge in the car only when Tony turned the heater up full blast and leaned over the console to pull Peter into his arms. Peter’s shivers that had been worrying him far more than Tony had been willing to say eventually died off and together they watched what was now practically a blizzard raging outside.

“Just in time,” Tony mumbled into Peter’s curls. “Feel any better, baby?”

He grew worried when he received no response and pulled back. Peter’s eyes were shut and his breathing slow, though he made a small whimpering noise in the back of his throat when Tony pulled away. Tony smiled, a tender, loving light in his eyes and pulled Peter back into his arms, cradling his kid against his chest and rubbing his back soothingly. “‘M here. ‘M here, baby, don’t worry,” he cooed, planting a kiss on his forehead.

Peter curls tickled his cheek, his warm breath heating the skin of Tony’s neck. The console between him and his kid was uncomfortable and hard against his side, but he wouldn’t have moved for the world. Tony held Peter tightly and closed his eyes.

Maybe they could stay there a little while as they waited for the blizzard to pass.

III

Tony had been brewing a hot cup of coffee in the kitchen when a disheveled, sniffling, sleepy Peter face-planted into his back.

“Whoa, bud!” Tony spun around and caught the boy under the armpits. “Hey, hey. Are you okay?” He tilted Peter’s chin back and found that his nose was bright red, his eyes were half-lidded, and his bedhead was a lot worse (though still absolutely adorable) than it usually was.

“‘M fine,” Peter sniffled, leaning heavily against his chest. “Missed you.”

“Oh, baby,” Tony murmured, wrapping his arms around the small teen, “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, okay?” He gave his definitely-not-sick spider-baby a smooch on his temple. “You’re pretty warm,” he noted with a hint of worry in his voice. He pressed the back of his hand to the teen’s forehead. “Do you wanna lie down, kiddo?”

Peter shook his head weakly. “Wan’ you.”

Tony’s heart melted and he turned into a pile of mush. In this tired, sick, achy state Peter was clingier than ever, and all he wanted was him. He wanted Tony. He kissed Peter’s temple. “I’m gonna stay right here, Petey, don’t worry,” he assured his kid. “I promise.”

Tony held Peter with one arm while he rummaged through the kitchen cabinets with the other. “FRI? What’s up with the spider-baby?”

“Peter is exhibiting symptoms of a common cold, such as coughing, sneezing, a runny nose, and a fever,” the AI replied. Tony felt a pang of worry and empathy in his heart.

“Okay. I’ve got your pain meds,” he announced in a whisper. “Do you want water or OJ?”

Peter decided on the latter, not bothering to raise his head but simply mumbling “juice” into the man’s chest. Tony hummed in agreement and attempted to pour a glass for himself one-handedly (most of the juice ended up on the counter, but holding his sick kid was far more important than pouring orange juice).

He led the boy to the couch, a steadying hand around his shoulders. Peter snuggled against him, coughing and sniffling. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and shivered.

Tony placed two white pills into palm. Peter took a hesitant sip of his drink and gulped down the pills. Tony tucked an errant curl behind his ear and placed a kiss one his temple.

With Peter still in his hold, he strained to reach the weighted electric blanket that had fallen behind the couch. With a painful crack from his twisted back, he finally managed to get his fingers around the feather-soft blanket and settled back on the couch with a triumphant grunt.

He wrapped the electric blanket tightly around them both. Peter’s shivering caused a surge of fierce protection to run through his veins, and Tony hugged him to his chest, pressing a kiss to his soft, though slightly sweaty curls. He glared at the dark corners of the room, as if somehow the very cold that was making his child suffer so much would leap from the shadows.

Peter found comfort in the vibrations of Tony’s chest and the beat of his heart. The calloused fingers running through his hair and the occasional kiss against his temple soothed him beyond measure, and without ever realizing it, Peter started to drift off. Compared to when he had woken up, soaked with sweat, wheezing and sniffling and rather nauseous, he felt so much better in his father-figure’s embrace.

Dimly, he noticed that Tony was talking to him. He thought he recognized the words coming out of his mouth, and he realized suddenly that Tony was reading Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree to him. That book had been Peter’s favorite when he was a small toddler, and hearing the familiar words aloud brought a big burst of happiness to his chest.

Peter let his eyes slip shut for a second. The headache that had been pounding in his head was completely gone and in Tony’s arms, he felt incredibly warm and cozy and happy.

When his eyes opened again, he determined that Tony had finished reading the book. If he had had enough energy, he would have asked him to read another. But much to his delight, he realized Tony had already picked up another book.

And just before his eyes fluttered shut, he heard Tony’s gentle voice speaking, full of love. “I love you, Petey.”

I love you too.

“Mmm, Tony, the spaghetti was fantastic!” May exclaimed as she loaded her plate into the dishwasher. “I need that recipe, it’s just too good!”

Tony looked at Peter out of the corner of his eyes. The boy shook his head frantically and drew a finger across his throat. Tony snickered. “Thank you, May, I’m glad to hear that,” he said.

To be completely truthful, he felt like throwing up. During the dinner, Peter had chatted enough to distract him, but now his emotions were left to himself, and Tony had barely been swallowed by them. He stuffed the last plate in the dishwasher and took a few long, deep breaths. He massaged his forehead and blinked, sitting down heavily on the couch.

Tony’s heart was beating out of his chest. He looked up to the boy, who was texting someone- probably Ned, completely oblivious. “Pete?” he began shakily. “Do you think we could talk for a second?” He and May shared a glance. She realized immediately what he was about to do and gave him an encouraging smile and a thumbs up.

“Yeah!” Peter vaulted onto the couch with a laugh. His grin faded when he saw how worried, how scared the man looked. Alarm kindled in his chest. “What’s wrong, Mr. Stark?”

Tony couldn’t bring himself to laugh at the cookie crumbs in the corners of his mouth or the way his hair frizzed everywhere as he pulled his Santa hat off. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

“Um-” Tony had to clear his throat. He reached down and grabbed a briefcase leaning against the couch that Peter hadn’t noticed before. “Uh,” he tried. He pulled two papers out of the briefcase and stared at them for a long while. “Do you think that you could give these a read, kiddo?”

Peter nodded silently and took them. He looked up at Tony, his head tilted in confusion.

He looked to the papers. His eyes widened in disbelief. “W-what? I-” He turned the papers over as if there would be a sticky note saying “IT'S A PRANK!” on the back. “What? W-what? I-I don’t-” Peter shook his head.

He couldn’t stop looking at those cream-colored papers.

Child: Peter Benjamin Parker

Adopting Parent(s): Anthony Edward Stark

The rest of the paper was blank, except for Tony’s signature at the bottom.

“Am I asleep? This-this is a dream, right?” Peter's eyes were filling with tears but he didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“It’s not a dream, sweetheart,” May said gently. “It’s real.” She squeezed his knee, hoping to ground him.

“Really?” He opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to form words. He gaped like a fish, reading the adoption papers over and over again. “You-you wanna adopt me?” he finally managed to squeak out.

Tony finally gathered the courage to look at his kid. “Yeah, baby. But only if you want to, okay? Nothing would change, though. We’d- just be making it official. Everything would be the same except-” He throat closed, and suddenly he couldn’t speak.

Except Peter would be his official son- legally, on paper. And Tony would be his official dad. (There was no way Tony wasn’t already his dad.)

“What are you thinking, baby?” he murmured, instinctively tucking a curl behind Peter’s ear with shaky hands.

Tony’s gentle touch was enough to break the dam of emotions that had been holding back. Peter sniffled, then burst into tears and practically jumped into his dad’s arms.

Tony hugged him tightly, rubbing a hand up and down his back and pressing long kisses to his temple. Peter blubbered into his chest, happy tears soaking Tony’s sweater. May wrapped her arms around the two and squeezed them both tightly.

Tony felt tears prickle in his own eyes and he dropped his forehead to Peter’s curls. “Is that a yes?” he finally managed to say.

Peter giggled wetly and nodded frantically against his chest.

A grin as wide as a dinner plate crossed Tony’s face. He realized suddenly that tears were streaming down his cheeks, but he didn’t wipe them away. He kissed the top of Peter's head and squeezed him tighter.

May pressed a quick kiss on Peter’s cheek and stood up. “I’ll be back in a bit,” she said, sensing that the father and son might want a moment alone.

Tony rocked his kid back and forth, rubbing his back and pressing kiss after kiss to his cheek. “I love you,” he murmured into his chestnut curls. “I love you.” IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou.

“Love you,” Peter babbled. “I love you too. I love you.”

He held Peter at an arm’s length, still grinning. Then he pulled his kid back to him again and kissed his cheek, wiping away his tears with the pad of his thumb. “I love you.”

Peter sniffled, wiping his nose with his sweater. He wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck and curled around him like a koala. He leaned heavily against his dad’s chest, his breathing beginning to even out. Tony’s chest vibrated with every “I love you so much, Petey” and his ceaseless murmurs of love and comfort.

“Love you, Dad,” he said sleepily, his eyelids drooping.

A lump formed in Tony’s throat that he couldn’t seem to swallow past. Tears started to trickle down his cheeks. “Petey-” he murmured, his voice hoarse. “I love you so much. So damn much, okay?” He ran his hand up and down the boy’s back, kissing his temple and trying to blink his happy tears away.

Tony felt himself slowly drifting asleep. He blinked, and then his cheek was resting on his kid’s curls. His eyes closed again, and suddenly May was there, draping a blanket over them. He tried to tell her to get Peter’s special heated blanket, because his poor kid couldn’t thermoregulate and absolutely hated the cold. Then he realized that she had already tucked it around the boy and sighed in relief, finally letting himself relax.

May settled on the opposite side of Peter and wrapped an arm around him. Within minutes she was snoring quietly, but Tony was too tired to notice. A wave of joy and peace and love washed over him, and his eyes slipped shut.

~~~~~

/ST*RKERS DNI/

~~~~~

Taglist: @imissyoutoo @aj-that-person @tonystark-deserves-better @nathaly-ab @skeeter-110 @peter-and-tony-vlogs @teammightypen @joyful-soul-collector @loveliestdisappointment @depuella @scwene-qween @honeythepooh @pixiethefirecat7 @spider-man-lover @jami161 @bringitonvoldie @queen-of-sarcasm-25 @roxy3457 @memilon @iron-loyalty @gralaca @bitchingpretty @pillowspace @thatminecraftgal @clockworkteacup @hatakehikari @wtfischeese @keep-a-bucket-full-of-stars @skydiving-without-a-parachute @yansi1923 @slytherin-hamilton-life-12 @dead-inside-pt2 @name-me-regret @zanderljones @spidy8664 @hold-our-destiny

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beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

Text

The Thief and the Tinker, Part 4: Circles and Cycles

part 3

Part 4

Viren: *smirks and plinks Runaan's coin to Ethari*

Ethari, furious: You throw another Moonshadow at me and I'm gonna lose it.

Circles and Cycles

Angst rating: 8/10

Back to Ethari, because we're not done with him yet. Ethari is soft, but he isn't weak. He won't be a willing pawn for Viren. He loves Runaan to the point of invention, and his devotion is more constant than the moon itself. He'll agree to do what Viren says, and he'll be Very Sad. But his spirit is in no way broken. Viren bribing him with the coins containing his family will only have the opposite effect. It'll give Ethari something to fight for.

We could get Focused Chaos Ethari. We could get Angery Trickster Ethari. We could get Rules, What Rules? Ethari. Let him try to steal the coins, try to break them, try to kill Viren, and be stymied at every turn, until he settles and seems cowed. And then all he does is craft his way out of the problem.

What if we are gifted with Iron Man Elf Ethari, who pretends to build a fake Key for Viren, but meanwhile he's really building a coinbuster with whatever he can get his hands on - primal stones, magically imbued gemstones, stolen artifacts, his own arcanum, his own reputation as the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove. He'll use almost - almost - anything, to stop Viren and free his family.

Ethari may have to choose between those two things, though. And he's a hero, deep down, just like his family, just like his daughter. If he has to choose, he'll choose to stop Viren and save Xadia. He'll pay the same price as his family has if he must.

He'd let Viren think he was motivated purely by wanting his family back, but Ethari is far too steeped in the illusion and sacrifice for that to be all there is to his motives. It's a so-close-and-yet-so-far thing, how he and Viren almost embody the same ideals. Almost. Ethari would take one look at Viren, who just burnt down his whole Forest, he'd see the biggest threat in Xadia, and he'd say anything to get a chance to stop this juggernaut of destruction from getting his hands on whatever that ultimate power really is, locked behind that missing key. If he has to abandon his people and bawl his eyes out to convince Viren he's in, then he will.

And Viren wouldn't make it easy for him. He knows clever when he sees it. He went through all this trouble to persuade Ethari to work with him. He would need to keep Ethari as off-balance as possible to ensure that he keeps working as he should.

Angsty jewelry, anyone?

Viren giving Ethari his husband in pendant form to remind him what he's working for, when Viren and Ethari both know full well that only dark magic can open the hellcoins. Ethari wearing another pendant of his love, except it's not a metaphor this time. It's literally his love, in a coin around his neck.

Viren would love making Ethari stay close to him of his own free will if he ever hoped to free Runaan. Making people bind themselves to you is a big power flex. Remember that TDP stream future-season teaser note about Bait being in a creepy restraint in a future season?

This card is written on in all-caps, so that really could be "Bait" or "bait," or--knowing this show--both. Viren's been using Runaan as bait for Ethari all along. Putting his coin in a dark magic pendant casing for Ethari to wear would be a great parallel for that. Oh god. Oh man.

Maybe he'll stab the coin's scary casing right through that circle on Ethari's chest, right over his heart, make that Iron Man reference really obvious. Ethari also losing his shirt at some point, for angsty Viren-related reasons? It's more likely than you think. I mean... Ethari is literally involved in both forms of forging at this point. Shirt's gotta come off for uhhhh work reasons. And because he's hot. Because of all the forging. Mmhmm. I mean how else are we finally going to discover what his markings look like this is research I swear

I mentioned that I liked god-tier villains, right? Yeah, this is amazing. I haven't wanted to die and ascend over an idea for quite a while, but Ethari vs Viren in a drawn-out battle of wills would kill me in the best way. Especially since, while it looks like they're essentially fighting for who gets Runaan, they're truly fighting a much larger battle with much higher stakes. They're fighting for the future itself. It's an epic struggle between the Narrative of Strength and the Narrative of Love. And we've seen what happens, over and over, when the Narrative of Strength gets to call the shots.

On a meta note: If Ruthari's story arc isn't a love letter from one trauma survivor to another, and on a broader scope to all survivors who see it, I don't know what is. Sometimes life just chews us up and spits us out and we can't stop it and it breaks us. But sometimes we can reach out and grasp the chance to help each other, even after that, even when it hurts a lot, because we know what it means to be loved, and to love, and to want a safer future for each other and for people we'll never meet. The future is worth standing together for, helping each other back up for, fighting side by side for, even if you can't see how it'll end, or even how to begin. We are stronger together, and sometimes we need to fight for our "together" before we can fight for anything else. And that's worth it, every time.

This is glorious, it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's amazing, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to scream into the void, it makes me want to slap someone with a semi truck. No, someone specific, don't worry, and he super deserves it.

Because Ethari is going to win. He was always going to win. He's soft, and he's clever, and he hasn't forgotten what love means. It's what he's fighting for. Not power, not control. Love. He doesn't want to dictate Runaan's future or anyone else's. He just wants his husband--and everyone else--to have one at all.

So he's going to win.

What thwarting Viren looks like, I couldn't possibly guess. TDP is no stranger to angst, so there will probably be a high cost involved in outwitting the dark mage. Maybe not everyone can be rescued from the coins. Maybe Ethari will lose his life, or his soul, or his vision, or something else really angsty. Viren could even kill him and resurrect him as a smoky craftsman, or a zombie craftsman, or something equally biddable but horrible. The only thing I'm sure of is that Ethari would never willingly make a working Key of Aaravos Ethari as long as there's a chance Viren could possess it. But I do believe that if he gets the right opportunity while he's busy saving the world from Viren's dark intentions, he'll break his husband's hellcoin open somehow and set him free, even if he has to smile at the devil to do it.

Ethari understands the difference between "you can" and "therefore you should." He might sacrifice his own world to save his husband, but he'd never sacrifice someone else's world. That's one of the Moonshadow cultural limits I've noticed: they accept boundaries when it comes to other people's autonomous rights, especially regarding life and death.

These limits could get pushed. Ethari will be under great duress and emotional strain if he goes through this kind of interaction with Viren. And maybe he will choose some dark things. Everyone else has. But I'm placing all my eggs in the basket labeled "Saved By Love." Either I'm right, or I'll get the best angst omelets in the universe. And I do love omelets. A villain invented them, you know. ;)

Another support for Ethari not making the key for Viren: the real Key exists!

Callum has it right now. The plot doesn't need Ethari's key (yet? ever?), but it does need Ethari to learn what he's made of, to stand up for something, or against something, or both at once. And once he learns what he will and won't do and the universe has rewarded his discovery with the return of his beloved husband then Ethari will be ready to take on whatever else the plot has in mind for him.

Depending on the plan, all of these events could happen in S4, as a setup for even bigger things to follow. Viren's wishes can be thwarted here and the show's overall tension will only continue to rise. It would let Ethari flex yes pls his skills so we know who he is, it would show how driven Viren can be for a long-term goal, it would let Claudia saunter further downwards, it would reveal some human/Moonshadow history, and it would resolve the seasons-long tension regarding Runaan's fate, allowing for the cycle of speculation, feels, angst, and Ruthari fanart to begin again. ;) Viren would need to find another way to pursue his long-term goal. And Callum's Key will get a little more clarity on just how important it is to the fate of the world - which will make everything he does, and everyone he talks to, and anyone who knows what he's carrying, intensely important.

Nyx is gonna steal it isn't she, omg chaos birb

To Viren, Ethari was a main course, meant to be devoured and consumed in his lifelong quest for something that will finally satisfy. But to Ethari, Viren was just empty calories to be passed over in favor of ordering his perennial favorite dish, one more time.

Once Ethari escapes Viren's clutches with as much of his family as he can rescue, Viren may turn back to looking for the real Key, especially if someone's seen it recently. Hunting a kid probably seems easier than hunting a full-grown Moonshadow craftsman who just outsmarted him. okay so maybe Nyx stealing it would be a good thing and save Callum's life

Ethari could go on to help repair the Sunforge, or rebuild the Moonhenge, or work on constructing Moonshadow villages in Katolis if he hasn't been ghosted for abandoning everyone after the forest fire. He might build magical devices for any number of reasons, to help all kinds of characters. Hopefully, wherever he goes, he'll have Runaan with him, in some way, for at least a little while. Cycles be like, and I feel like Runaan will not want to remain still for long, for whatever reason. Does he need revenge, atonement, justice, a new body, to find Rayla, to find Ezran? He'll be back in action as soon as he can, I think.

Okay, but, I'm so soft at the thought of a scene where Runaan and Ethari come before King Ezran. The husbands tried to save their people Runaan's way, the old way, and it only continued to endanger them. Following the cycle, as Moonshadows do, was the wrong move. But the son of the last human Runaan killed reached out with mercy and broke a thousand years of suffering and sorrow and hatred. Ezran did what Runaan couldn't: he saved the Moonshadow elves from total destruction. And that, more than anything else in the world, could soften one very broody assassin's heart toward humans again.

What would Runaan do, if his heart truly changed toward humans? What would he say to Ezran? I could see him struggling for a long moment before dropping to one knee to pledge his heart as he once had to do before the Dragon Throne. He doesn't know any other way but to serve. Ezran, reading the whole room and everyone's feelings before he tells Runaan that No, we don't do that here. That he's free, and free means free. No chains, no oaths. Just trust and friendship. He should get to make his own decisions for a change, even though that can be hard and scary sometimes. Runaan being genuinely scared, because that's too much freedom. But he's not alone. He has Ethari, and Ezran, and Rayla, and Callum, and their people, and their allies. And no matter what else happens, the people of Katolis - elven and human - will find a way forward. Together.

part 5

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #tdp parallels #tdp angst #heavy angst #viren #ethari #runaan #moonshadow elves #hopepunk #ezran #runaan's super getting a tart of jelly tm

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sxvethelastdance · 3 years

Text

In Poison Places, We are The Anti-Venom (Friends Never Say Goodbye)

@liulaoweek ... With a twist.

Day 1: “Growing Up/Dream”

Day 2: “First Time”

Day 4: “Battle/Healing”

Day 6: “Promise.”

What is a dream, but a hopeful vision of the future?

Kung Lao ponders this question- or something similar one day while bent over a plate of dumplings, chewing as thoughtfully as one can in a bustling room of their fellow students. The Kung legacy has never been one to sit idle fantasizing when the time would better be put to use seizing his aspirations, so this new knack for revelation is off-putting. Soon enough he is pulled gently from his reverie by none other than his time honored companion, who slides into the seat next to him. Liu Kang has long grown from the gaunt serious eyes and stick thin frame, color in his cheeks and light in his eyes at the outset of their youth.

“Spare koin for your thoughts?” Whispered Kang among the prickle and prattle of their classmates. This made Lao snort, stifling the laughter that always comes from his friend’s strange colloquialisms.

“But our vows of poverty, a-Kang.”

“Then perhaps you’ll be so generous as to gift me with these material burdens, free of charge?” They are shoulder-to-shoulder now, voices low and smiles plastered upon their faces, lined by the many smiles and shrieks of days young.

Liu Kang taps him on the leg twice, signaling their move to a space much more inclined to the conversation. Kung Lao finds that he doesn’t have it in him to deny the other, perhaps has never had it in him to begin with. So follow him he did, deeper into the caverns of the temple and into the place where they most often trained. He finds himself oddly weary, but when the other man lays eyes upon him he finds himself re-energized by the gentle concern that flits about his face.

“a-Lao… What is it that troubles you?” This compels him to smooth the tense wrinkles, if only for Kang’s sake. However, he cannot help the deep exhale that gives way to what has plagued him for the better part of a week now. Even longer, if he considered how long he has been aware of the time.

“I have been thinking. Perhaps too much.”

“No such thing, where you are concerned.” Teases Liu Kang, bumping his shoulder against Kung Lao’s, who makes a show of rubbing where he has been struck.

“Har-har, I sometimes miss the days where you admired my quick thinking, shī dì.”

“I still do. What I do not admire are the lashes that come of it.”

“Oh come now, it has been a long time since we were whipped for our misdeeds by the Masters.” Or since they have had the wit to do so. The inevitable manifestation of his arcana brought to life a number of possibilities, starting the imaginary stopwatch for when he advanced past what the Wu-Shi’s instructors could teach him.

“Yet my rear aches as it did when we were children at the mere thought.”

“That is just it… We are not children anymore, Liu Kang. You are to be a healer, and I the champion of Mortal Kombat.” It is not until these words have left his lips that he realizes the depth of his mistake. This frightens Liu Kang, who stares at Kung Lao not unlike the child he once was, afraid he would disappear. Kung Lao feels an arc of panic along his spine, unused to that look upon his friend’s face. It has been so long since anything came into question between them. The transition from sworn brother to partner in all things had been seamless, almost easy to ignore if not for the way that his hand finds it’s way to the man’s cheek and his gaze, which takes great pains to avoid looking at the his lips.

“Are you saying that-“ The younger man does not even have the room to finish this query, for Lao, aware of his lack of forethought (seized by it and the pit in his stomach) is is already reaching with remedy, brushing the bangs from Kang’s face as the gap between them narrows.

“No- never. What I am saying is… I would have you with me, in any capacity. Come with me, Liu Kang.”

“What of Lord Raiden?” Asks the other man, ever concerned with the particulars. It is Liu Kang who dwells vigilantly upon logistics, what fate and its hands threaten. He is a far cry from what he once was, conviction and calm cultivated in the one of the Order of Light’s finest students and an advancing apprentice in the healer’s ward. Yet he cannot help his vigilance here, knowing well that what beauties and joys they possess can be snatched away in an instant. It is the mark of his past made productive, and particularly troubling despite his want.

“What of him?” Kung Lao’s eyes are no less sharp then that hat he has taken to wearing on his head, the master of a weapon without one in it’s time as a family heirloom. However, as Liu Kang is drawn to the determined edge that, he is reminded of the days where they would play pretend and muse about the future, not once entertaining the thought that they would ever be separated. Now they are older and debatably wiser, if one could call being willing to take on any force in the six realms wise. But seldom is anything rational in the case of these two, who are first and foremost concerned with what keeps the other safe.

A life with Kung Lao, it is all he has ever asked for in a life that taught him that the act of expectation was a danger to skirt. They killed and made monsters of many. Yet it was in the quiet nights and his legs tangled in Kung Lao’s as they fought the winter cold at each other’s side within the place that brought them together that he expected a life where the best outcome was to live and die by the same creed so long as they were together. And still, he hesitates.

“I do not have a mark.” It burns him, the thought of Kung Lao having to look after him, the way that he had when he first arrived to the temple, unable to lock eyes with anyone. It would put his most treasured person in the position of protector once more. Without an arcana, he is a liability.

“You do not need a mark to be at my side. After all… Who else would I have to call me needlessly foolish, to put me back together after running headfirst into battle? Certainly I cannot settle for any less than the best. ” His Kang is entirely too gorgeous when the rigid set of his jaw and etched worry in his give way to the soft hands that map him and threaten no harm to the Grand Champion; only to raze any and all things to the ground that threaten to steal Kung Lao from him. It is the shine of his eyes when sparked with passion, the warmth of his palm when he presses it to the side of his face to inspect for injury, how firm his voice is in its convictions and soft with something reserved completely and utterly for him. That is what heals.

"You truly must be more careful with yourself. You are all that Earthrealm has." All that I have, Liu Kang wants to say. Luckily, he does not need to.

“And you are all that I have. When I am with you… I feel closer to than I have ever been to worthy- that I am more than an inheritor to some legacy. You renew my spirit and command pride from me in all that you do. You could never be a liability, Damn anyone, Elder God or otherwise who disagrees. You are my strength, truly.”

“Kung Lao…” Speechless, Liu Kang cannot find the words to convey just how much the other man has given him. How is through his patience, his encouragement and trust that he is now stronger than he ever imagined himself being. No longer are they children indeed. The baby fat has faded from Kung Lao’s cheeks, and no longer does he wear the cap that covered his head upon nights that he found himself missing his home and unable to speak. They are stronger than they ever imagined themselves being, and it is because of the comfort and courage wrought of two beings who have committed to seeing, knowing, and understanding one another.

“Say yes, Liu Kang. Be with me.” It binds them, and draws them chest to chest until he can think of little else but how his lips would feel against Kung Lao’s, how carefully hidden the other man’s tremors are concealed. He is nervous, and it is because of Kang that he is this way.

“Yes,” His hands scramble for Kung Lao’s tunic, breathing him in. “Wherever you go, I am to follow you.”

“Even Netherrealm?” Says his most faithful partner, playfulness returning as he runs his fingers along a spot that is certain to make him jump. Now it is Liu Kang’s turn to laugh, ducking his head and in the process bringing them closer.

“Yes, you foolish man. If only to drag you out by the hat. I will follow you there as well.” This is the promise, a life. Short of his soul, a man has nothing more valuable to give than his life to another. That is what passes in the searing kiss that joins them to one another. Soon enough they part, if only because they know that there is more to come.

“We will go together,” Begins Kang, a fire that so blissfully subsumes Lao in its waiting hearth.

“Or not at all.” Finishes Kung Lao, who swears that there is no force which could possible face the Kung legacy and the man who has clawed his way back to life and made. They have no chance, they just don’t know it yet.

As their bodies meet in feverish kisses and heavy, hot hands grasping, both Liu Kang and Kung Lao suppose that there is room to dream after all.

#liulao #shaolin rowdy boys #liulao week #tilallmyscarsbleedgolden #my fics

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dancingthesambaa · 3 years

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The Smell of Plum Blossom Tea Ch 8

Summary: Just like a butterfly wing, a single act of kindness can change the course of the future, it certainly did for MK as a black-furred monkey put out a hand towards him

Rating: Teen and up

Chapter 8: One By One

It’s been over a few weeks since the whole Bull King invasion and things have been pretty peaceful. The city has slowly begun to rebuild itself and people have steadily begun to go back to their day to day lives.

If there's one thing he can appreciate about society is that they always will keep going even when everything around them has been destroyed.

Macaque's own workload has finally eased up, the hospital didn’t anticipate that many wounded in that short span and wasn’t able to gather the materials. So, he has gotten calls from both Yanyu and some of the higher ups in the field for his assistance.

“This has been a pain in the ass,” he grumbled as he sat down on the couch with his cup of tea. “I really shouldn’t have let them off so easily for the fuckton of work they put on me.” His was then twitched as he heard a familiar/strange set of feet dashing their way towards him.

“Dad!” He sees his son, who had his jacket tied around his waist and staff nowhere in sight, smiles widely as he leaps to him and gives him a big hug, “it’s been so long!”

“Hey kiddo,” he was taken momentarily off guard by the hug, but smiled down at him as he petted his hair. “How was work?”

“Oh I didn’t go, someone is taking care of that,” he happily stated as he still held on tight.

Macaque blinked for a moment before he gave a small chuckle, “oh, is that so, well I was about to read and relax, you want to join?”

“Can you read out loud?” He cheerfully asked as he got himself comfortable on the couch as he laid down.

“Of course.”

“Yay!”

So Macaque began to tell the story of a blind girl and how she stood strong in the face of adversity and ridicule. He was in the middle of the part where the girl denies the deity gift of giving her sight when he heard the door slam open wide.

“Stay away from my Dad!/Don't worry old man, we're here!” MK and Mei respectively shouted out as they both held staff and sword out to fight the battle ahead, only to falter as they took in the scene of Mac sitting quite comfortably on the couch, while another MK laid on his lap with a content smile. “Uhhhh.”

“Took you long enough,” he said with amusement, “I was almost about to send a clone out to you myself.”

“Huh?”

“What? You don’t think I can’t tell a clone apart from my son?” He smirked as he patted the clone ahead, the only response was cuddling closer to him.

“You know?!” MK yelled out as he walked forward, still a bit cautious after his encounters with the rest of his clones.

He only raised an eyebrow as he showed off his shadow clone.

“Oooh, yeah that makes sense.”

“How come he didn’t attack you!” Mei threw her hands up in frustration. “I mean, come on! I had to deal with Portay MK and you have Mr. Cuddle Bug?!”

“Attack, Pfft yeah that's what usually happens during the first duplicate trials,” he said as he laid his book down.

“I’m sorry what?” MK has put away the staff at this point as he tried to sit next to his Dad, only to forget that the space was currently occupied by another him. He stared down at the clone laying in his spot then the clone looked up at him and just turned around and faced away from him.

“No,” was all he said as the next moment the clone disappeared and there sat the real MK with a wide grin, “so what was that about the trials?”

The six eared monkey raised an eyebrow at his son's actions as Mei wheezed in the background, “well usually when someone is learning the clone technique most of the time the clones would try to attack the user to prove their authority or their sense of identity.”

“That is actually terrifying,” he deadpanned.

“I thought you already knew this?” He questioned his son, who suddenly blushed.

“Well I may have accidentally learned I can do this,” he scratched the back of his neck as he laid on his Dad's lap.

“And you decided to test it out despite not knowing the consequences,” he sighed as he examined his son hair which was now sporting some very uneven ends and patches, “you even messed up your hair cause of this, I thought I taught you to not mess with magic unless you have me or someone competent in the arts.”

“I know, I know, but I just wanted some sleep and quiet!” He moaned out as he let the furry hands caress the knots and tangles in his hair, “I didn’t think it would lead up to this.”

“That’s how they all start,” he snorted as he felt Mei sit on his other side and lay on his shoulder, “so why don’t you tell me how this all began and tell me a bit more about your training with Wukong. I haven’t heard back on how that’s been going.”

“Training with the Monkey King is amazing!” He lit up as he talked all about his sessions.

Macaque silently listened to his son ramble on about his training sessions with Wukong and boy did that still send him reeling.

He still can’t believe that this is happening, that in all of these strange currents of events, Wukong actually made his son his successor. He still doesn't know how to feel about that cause, on one hand, damn straight his child can lift the staff no one has ever been able to before, he is so proud that he accomplished the impossible that mere words still can’t explain it. But on the other hand, Wukong recklessly decided to choose his son to be his successor despite his many enemies, does that idiot not comprehend the target he just placed on his back.

‘I swear I have half the mind to go up there and knock him silly for his complete ignorance…though how everything goes after that is the only thing that’s stopping me,’ Mac internally thought. ‘Who knows how he would react if I show up unannounced…probably would be just the sequel of our last fight,’ he bitterly thought. He has long accepted that his former friend probably wanted nothing to do with him anymore if they ever saw each other again.

“And then he goes on about how one must never- are you even paying attention?!” MK's voice broke out of his thoughts.

“Yeah I am, you were just talking about how your swings are easily blockable.”

“They are not that bad,” he huffed.

“You swing too wide comet/You hit like it’s a baseball bat,” both demon and teenager said.

“Okay, I may have a small issue.”

“And that’s why you're training,” he said as he took his hands out of his hair when he began to yawn.

“Yeah I know,” he sleepily said as he closed his eyes.

‘At least he is enjoying himself,’ he then focused his attention on Mei, who was also dozing off and began to groom her hair as well.

“Is that the best you got flame brain,” Daiyu cackled out as she flew higher in the air and dodged the fireball, “I met imps who were stronger than that-shit!” She felt a sharp pain explode from her back.

“Don’t you dare think you can outmatch me, little bird!” Red Son cockily stated as he twisted one of her wings and the two began to a downward spiral. “I have fought monsters thrice the size of you and remained victorious!”

“Not today's string bean!” She squawked out as she flips on her back as the two were falling so that the fire demon could break her fall.

It was a tense stand off as neither side gave in even when they were free falling, it was only when they were ten feet away from the ground did he jump off her. He hoped that this would have worked and broken a few of her bones, but alas it didn’t as she caught herself just before and stopped herself.

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue in agitation as he went in for another strike for her wings, only to get batted off.

“Ha, ain’t fooling me again Flicker! Or maybe that candle on your head is finally reaching its end!” She went for his neck only to get buffed by his hand grabbing her beak.

“I’ll show you who's reaching their end once I burn you into a fiery crisp that not even your brethren would want to feast upon!” He tried to keep her in his hold as he lit up, but she managed to kick free of his grasp.

“Ha! I like to see you try! My shithead brothers and sisters would eat everything and I’m not even counting the chicks that just hatched!” She flew up high and prepared for a dive bomb.

“Let’s find out!” His entire body began to lit up in flames as his eyes bore into her.

“They seem to be having fun,” Bohai said as he lazily watched them.

“Two people who like the thrill of the battle going at it, of course, they like this shit,” Minsheng scoffed as they laid down, “at least they're not doing battles to the death anymore, that usually gets bloody way too fast.”

“And leaves me having to deal with their injured asses,” Macaque grumbled as he petted the infant monkey's head.

“Your friends,” the jellyfish pointed out.

“I was forced into this,” he stated.

“And we’re still here,” the rabbit demon grinned.

“Unfortunately.”

MK and Mei, on the other hand, still couldn’t believe their eyes as they continued to see the arrogant demon that was trying to kill them happily fighting. Well the fight part not really, but the happy thing was a bit out of left field. They had walked into the sounds of fighting and, while still being very cautious as they remembered Mac and Ahmed's last fight, quietly tried to investigate what was happening. So to see this scene was a little jarring once they realized that the two were simply sparring with each other.

“Huh, I have to say this is the quickest redemption arc I have ever seen,” Mei mused, “not even a month ago he was trying to kill us and now he is all buddy buddy with Dad and his friends.”

“To be fair, I think they mentioned him before,” MK said.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” the said monkey popped in, “I have. I actually have known him longer than the both of you. His family sometimes would stop by for some items from time to time.”

“Huh, well that’s honestly not that big of a shock,” Mei pouted as they watched Red Son finally pin the vulture demon down.

“I told you, you can’t beat me! For I am Red Son, prince to the esteemed Demon Bull King and the mighty Princess Iron Fan!” He maniacally laughed.

“You're a prince!” He was startled out of it when two voices reached over to him.

“Indeed I am! Who dares step forward and-,” he stops himself mid sentence when he sees noodle boy and biker girl familiar faces. His face drops, “oh it’s you two.”

“Like I knew DBK was your dad and all, but it never occurred to me that you would be a prince with, well you know,” Mei hummed out.

“With what?” He growled the last bit out.

“With you being a reckless, two-bit side character that likes to leap before they walk,” she bluntly said.

“I am no mere Side Character!” He bowled out as his hair flame intensified.

“Aren’t you though?”

“I’m not”

“But you can be, like how I can totally be one as well.”

“I am no mere side character,” he spat out, “I am the antagonist that stands against the hero path! I am the flame of destruction that threatens to consume all! I am the prince of the feared and mighty who takes pride in oneself and all that they do!”

“…okay but aren’t some villains side characters?” She couldn’t help it, she was having way too much fun at this point.

“I AM NOT A SIDE CHARACTER!”

“I feel like we have gotten meta somewhere,” MK muttered out and then walked forward before Mei could say anything that would trigger the raging flame demon anymore. “Hi! I know we didn’t really introduce ourselves after…that, but I’m MK and she's Mei.”

“…Red Son,” he eyed the smiling boy in front of him, “and I already knew who you are, your father talks much about the two of you.”

“Awwww, fluffy head does,” Mei cooed as she turned to face Macaque, who was resolutely not looking in their direction.

“Wait, if you knew who we were, why did you attack?” The Monkie Kid couldn’t help but ask.

Surprising the both of them, the prince blushed a bit out of embarrassment as he muttered out, “I didn’t know it was the two of you in the first place.”

“How?!” Mei sputtered out. “Like we were probably screaming each other's names so many times?!”

“No! You peasants were just screaming! Nothing short of a name has ever come up in the middle of it all!”

“Wait-so that’s why you called me Noodle boy?”

“Noodle boy?” She snorted.

“Your biker girl,” he hissed out.

“Biker girl…hmm not that bad actually,” she put her hand under her chin, “though did you seriously just come up with that because of what we were doing?”

“Yes,” the demon unashamedly said.

Both humans looked at one another before they both laughed wildly.

“Hahaha! Holy shit, you are such a dork,” the dragon girl clutched her stomach.

“By the Gods, that is kinda adorable,” the monkey's successor was pounding his fist on the ground.

“I am neither a dork nor adorable!” The Bull prince roared out as he marched over to them in fury. “Take that back!”

“NEVER!”

“And thus the start of a beautiful friendship,” Macaque couldn’t help but say as the demon began to chase the two around.

“Yeah, I worked my back off for it,” Daiyu grumbled as she finally got off the ground from where Red Son was pinning her down. “That whole time I just wanted to throttle him at them just so I could feel my wings again.”

“Don’t worry, your wings have some use finally,” Minsheng couldn’t help but say.

Daiyu promptly smacked her wings against their head.

“What do you mean disappeared?” Mei asked MK when he rushed inside their super secret base.

“All I know is that they were shopping and now I can’t contact nor find either one of them!” MK freaked out as he gripped his staff. “What if they're in trouble?”

“Take a deep breath MK,” Sandy rubbed the human back, “we don’t know that, their phones could simply be out of batteries or they got lost talking to each other.”

“Even though they’ll never admit it,” he said.

“Exactly, but the shop isn’t open!”

That drew out sharp gasps as now they began to panic.

“He has never not opened his store before!” Sandy shouted as he gripped his hair.

“I think he’s been kidnapped!” MK screamed in agreement.

“I immediately fear the worst!”

Mei rushed over to one of the screens and began to type in a few things and up on the screen appeared both people talking to a lady.

“They haven’t been carted away to treacherous territories,” the giant sighed in relief.

“Oh thank god they're still shopping,” MK sagged in relief as he saw this, “wait Mei what is this?”

“I had cameras placed on all of you and you said this was creepy,” she has already lost her brother once, that was not about to happen again.

“That still is.”

“Oh look now they're following that nice lady, see they're just fine,” Sandy inputted as they watched the two slowly follow the woman shrouded in black when suddenly there was a trap that opened underneath them, “AH! I was wrong! I was wrong! This is bad! This is very bad!”

“Nightmare hole!” The twenty year old screamed out as Mei's eyes widened in shock, “what happened?”

“It looks like?” She began to enhance and zoom into the blurred picture and when it became clear it showed an eight legged spider lady standing above them all.

“A spider demon! Come on! No! Ew! Yuck! I do not want to mess with spiders of any kind! I hate spiders! Hate, hate, hate spiders! With their beady eyes and their creepy wiggly legs and their gross butt!”

“MK, right now that spider demon has our friends so you know what that means,” Sandy pumped them up. “It’s Operation save Pigsy and Tang from the Nightmare Hole!”

“Yeah!” Both teens pumped their fists in the air along with the cat.

“Should we call Macaque for backup,” Sandy asked as he started up the engine.

“Nope!” MK quickly said before Mei could, “we can do this on our own!”

MK slowly began to back away as the Spider demon loomed over him menacingly. She had managed to capture Sandy and Mei as well and only he was the last one standing. “I regret everything I said.”

“Aww, don’t tell me you're scared of spiders!” She said as she stepped into the light then that faint tickling in the back of his head finally eased up at the full reveal.

“Wait? I know you!” His jaw dropped as he saw just exactly who was standing in front of him.

“What?” They all shouted even Spider Queen who was stunned out of sheer confusion.

“No wonder you look familiar! Daiyu talks about you all the time,” MK stated as he lost some of his fear at the relief of finally knowing why she seemed so familiar.

Though as his fear was momentarily suppressed the Spider Queen was not as she blanched at the name, “you know Daiyu!”

“Oh yeah, she has a bone to pick with you after you ripped her off, she said something about wanting to pluck the meat off of your corpse after she gets done beating you to a pulp or something like that.”

“I am now concerned by that statement,” Pigsy said.

“Oh don’t worry, she’s a vulture demon,” Mei happily responded.

“That does not make it better.”

“Does for me sweetheart,” Tang smiled, “it makes sense for a vulture to go for a corpse because they are cartoons. It’s actually quite fascinating-,”

“Tang I love you, but please don’t say that as we’re currently being tied up like a lamb ready for the slaughter,” Pigsy begged.

“…what?”

The pig and human eyes widened at what both said, but luckily they didn’t have to say anything as the Spider Queen roared in rage.

“I may be a slicker, but I ain’t no sham when it comes to my silk! Tell that chicken legged, deep fried coward that I will personally send her down under if she even instigates that I would do that!” She roared in rage as she stood tall in MK, who promptly got scared once more as he realized what he just said.

“MK run!” Pigsy yelled out.

“Don’t need to tell me twice!” MK slid between the Spider Queen legs and he began to book it.

“Get back here little monkey boy!”

“I feel like I should tell Daiyu where Spider Queen has been hiding,” MK mused as they floated along the ocean.

“As long as I’m there, I really want to see her explode in fury before the bloodbath happens,” Mei snorted as she laid across the top.

“You know, I sometimes worry about you,” Pigsy looked at the young lady at that statement.

“Fuzz butt says that too.”

“Shouldn’t you listen to your doctor?”

“Shouldn’t you listen to what you said back at the cave, don’t you think just because we were tied up doesn’t mean I don’t have ears,” she teased as Sandy nodded.

“Wait, what happened?” MK looked at both of them in confusion.

Sandy leaned over and whispered what happened and the boy's eyes widened and sparkled with glee. “Ohohoho!”

“It was the slip of a tongue,” Tang said as he pushed up his glasses in nervousness. “Nothing more.”

“Yeah, what he said, just a slip of the tongue,” Pigsy twisted his hands.

“Some slip, some would say that it almost sounded like,” the twenty year old girl leaned in with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “an old married couple would say to one another.”

“WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!” They both shouted and they shared glances at each other only to catch a view of their red faces and promptly turn to face away from them.

“If you say so,” she backed off with her hands up.

“And we say so,” the pig crossed his arms.

“Very much so,” Tang copied.

Both Sandy and MK were in the background holding back their laughs as they could barely keep it together.

MK woke up to the shake of an earthquake and his whole world feeling off balance.

At first, he wrote this off as the aftermath of the earthquake as he quickly got ready for work as he prayed Pigsy doesn’t fire him. But as he walked down the street with his drink in hand he still couldn't help, but felt his whole world was just off balance, like everything was just missing a beat or so, it was the weirdest feeling.

“Maybe I just banged my head too hard, should probably ask Dad to check in case,” he muttered in his straw as he was about to yell out when he saw Mei standing in the middle of the road. “Mei, I’m glad you’re here!”

“Yes I am right here,” she grinned widely, “and what’s this about calling your Dad?”

“I don’t know if I have a concussion or something else, but something seems really off and I can’t put my finger on what,” he groaned.

“It’s nothing, just relax. Today is all about you.”

“Aren’t you usually the one who usually tells me to call him if things are getting too sticky to handle?” MK questioned as that off balance feeling was coming in full force.

“I am?” He could almost see her face contort for a brief moment before going back to her previous creepy grin, “I mean I am! But he’s probably busy doing stuff sweetie.”

“Sweetie,” he looked at her in pure disgust.

“I mean dear friend,” he never thought someone could grin that wide.

“Even when he’s in the middle of making medicine he always answers,” at this point he has begun to back up from Mei. He did not like just how off this whole thing was and it wasn’t helping that the crowd was just watching them.

“Don’t worry,” she ominously said, “I’m sure…”

“Macaque,” he supplied as he quickly got into position to bolt out of there as soon as he had the chance. This was definitely not Mei!

“Right Macaque will be just-!” Not just Mei, but the entire crowd of people's heads snapped towards MK.

“Did you just say Macaque!” They all yelled out.

“Yeah?!?” He was now more than freaking out as he looked for possible exits, he was not about to stay here a moment longer if he could. But then his whole world began to fade away as he saw the people just shake their heads and arms as they seem to glitch out.

“Nope, nuh uh, F this! Plan is officially done! Do not collect after Go! Finish!” He blinked his eyes as he saw that he was now in a shack and standing in front of him was a blue and orange demon. The blue one was just holding a jar of some kind, while the orange one was speaking.

“Done! Capital D.O.N.E! Done!”

“I think he gets it Jin,” the blue demon said.

“Well excuse me for being freaked out about this! Why aren’t you freaking out about this?!”

“Oh I am, one moment,” he said as he carefully put down the jar, “there we go….We freaking messed up so bad!” The demon began to panic, “like this is going to the top thirty bad.”

“Fucckkk!” Jin said as he gripped his hair.

“What is going on?!” MK yelled out his frustration as he collected the staff and kept a tight grip on it. “Who are you?!”

The two demons paused their freak out as they both dramatically posed.

“I am Jin!” The orange demon jumped up.

“And I am Yin!” The blue demon bowed low.

“And together,” they both said in sync as Jin landed on top of Yin back, “we are the Gold/Silver and Silver/Gold demons!”

There was a silence as both parties looked at each other before both brothers then began to fight over the name.

“It’s Gold and Silver nitwit!”

“No, it's Silver and Gold half bake!”

“Seriously, what is going on and why am I here?” He reiterated his point as that got the two to stop fighting.

“We heard about the great Monkie kid and knew he would be a worthy adversary,” Yin stated as he crossed his arms.

“Yes, so after our cunning plan we called out to you and you foolishly,” they both pointed to him, “answered.”

“…I was delivering noodles of course I was gonna answer,” his eyes twitched at the sheer ridiculousness of this.

“But you still answered and fell right into our plan to use you for our nefarious purposes!” Gin dramatically laughed.

“Until we knew that you were the Six Eared Macaque kid,” Yin added.

“Yeah before that,” he stopped his laughter, “we know we’re certifiably insane, but we ain’t stupid.”

“Yeah, we know better than to try to mess with what’s Macaque, I heard the last demon who tried that was tormented by him for a hundred days,” the blue demon shivered.

“I heard he once pulled the inside out of another demon just because he was having a bad day.”

“Well I heard he took on and defeated an entire army so that he could pass by.”

“I heard that he can suck some demon body and soul into a cursed item and make them fight for him.”

“Oh that one’s true,” MK butted in as at this point he sat down as he realized that they were not even a threat, just very amusing.

Both of them shivered as they looked at him in horror, “wait really!?”

“Yep!”

“Check that rumor off as being real,” Jin groaned as Yin held out a rather large book.

“Already on it.”

“What’s that?” MK asked.

“Oh it’s just a book with basically any rumors we happen to come across,” Yin proudly showed off, “most of them are probably not true, but it is amusing to hear. Like this one, it’s rumored that the Demon Bull King lost his horn after he insulted a deity and it broke off from sheer embarrassment after she had slapped him silly for a couple of hours.”

“Snrk!” He let out a sputter at the sheer ridiculousness.

“The Celestial Heavens is actually a conspiracy used to hide the good alcohol, cause if that shit was freely given the whole world would be gone.”

“Pffffft!”

“That we are actually all standing on a hand right now, but we just can’t see it.”

“Hahahaha!” MK let it out as he clutched his stomach. “These sound so stupid!”

“I know right!” Jin grinned, “that’s why we record them, cause they sound just so dumb!”

“They really do,” the Monkie kid said as he got his laughter back in control and sat back up, “so you're not gonna try to capture me again?”

“Like we said before, Monkey King is one thing, but we ain’t messing with Macaque. If you think Monkey King has a grudge, you should see that trickster when he really has time to think and plan on revenge,” the orange demon said.

“Ain’t nobody gonna get in his way,” the blue demon finished.

“Good!” He should probably ask about all his Dad’s revenge stories sometimes, he knows they would be good ones then a thought occurred to him as he scrunched up his nose. “So, why did you have Mei call me sweetie?”

“Ask Jin,” he pointed to his brother.

“Well, I thought since you guys are childhood friends and all you have feelings for one another, you know, like in the books and all that,” he shrugged his shoulders.

“Crush?! On Mei?! Grosss!” He yelled out as he can almost feel himself puke at the thought, “Yuck! No! God no! She is basically my sister!”

“I told ya.”

“You didn’t tell me shit.”

“Don’t fucking cuss around kids,” Yin hissed out.

“Well you should shut your damn trap!” Jin snarled back.

“Least threatening villains ever,” MK muttered to himself, “Wait? Did you seriously try to invoke the childhood friends trope? Like in romance novels?”

“Yeah!” Jin proudly stated.

“You read romance books?”

“You don’t? They are the best kinds of books with all the drama that surrounds them, the clashing of emotions, the tightly packed metaphors that can be placed in one paragraph to describe someone’s eyes. It's simply awesome! Have you read them?”

“Not really,” he admitted.

“I can give you some recommendations! Then we can-”

“Nope,” Yin drew his brother back, “we are not about to have a repeat of last time. Remember how you burned down the bookstore?”

“They deserve it for saying Ballad of the Desert was overrated,” he growled out.

“True, but we were supposed to be on the down low after nicking off with some bastard goods, I did not like having to run around with the gang on our asses, so we are leaving,” he deadpanned.

“Fineee!” He groaned out as the two suddenly stood upright and raised their hands. “We will meet again one day, Monkie Kid!” Then they threw down what was in their hands and a plume of smoke appeared in their spots.

“Bleh,” he waved the air around him as he heard a laugh and turned around to see them in the street.

“Hahaha! We’re the greatest tricksters!” Gin said with his arms crossed once more.

“Ever! Also please don’t tell Macaque about us trying to capture you! Thank you, bye!” Yin finished as the two disappeared in a flash of smoke for the final time.

MK could only stare at the empty space in pure shock as he tried to process just what happened.

“…I’m just gonna go back to the shop,” he gave up as he begrudgingly walked back to his car.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #mk #macaque #six eared macaque #mei #monkey king #PlumTeaAU

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goosedawn · 3 years

Note

i've never listened to Friends At The Table (though it's on my list now, dnd campaigns podcast wooo!) what would the storyline of the crossover entail? with the HermitCraft characters i'm guessing it's chaotic and interesting 😊

:0!!!! :DDD!!!!!!! if u end up giving it a shot i hope u enjoy it! they dont actually play dnd, they play a bunch of other tabletop games which are all really neat also! (also if u need a suggestion for where to start if/when u get to it, feel free to drop me an ask)

the story follows the typical structure of "group is sent off to do tasks for money, and eventually realise something bigger is going on" so i am largely following the plot in that way, where groups of adventurers are sent out to investigate a series of towers that appear to have some connection to the gods of the world. ajhsjjejhfhjef most of my thoughts about the au are more character based,, so instead of a proper plot summary i can give details and thoughts on where some of the hermits fit into everything so far (while. trying to avoid the big twists revealed in the podcast ig,,?) i also ended up including some sleepybees (sbi + beeduo) in the au but im still not 100% sure on where they fit in (as in i have too many ideas djhdkndnj)

ANYWAY uhhhh some spoilers for the universe im basing this off of, under the cut cos it got long :'D

context/setting:

the specific arc/universe that this au is set in is the one from Seasons in Hieron (SiH) which is their fantasy season! (its. its long,, this arc spans i think. 3 seasons? plus a short interlude season)

the setting was previously a traditional fantasy world that had some sort of great catastrophe (the Erasure) happen, and the current world is after people have rebuilt a new society! its described as "post-fantasy, post-post-apocalyptic" its very fun and subversive and afhdjfbj the worldbuilding is just. real good :>

-----

characters:

im still figuring out where different hermits fit into the au but i am basically taking aspects of various characters from the podcast and splitting roles and traits to hermits, so its all mixed up! also,, there are just. so many hermits,, i have not found places for all of them (not even most of them i dont think) but here is what i have so far:

impulse and zedaph work in the New Archives (a series of huge warehouse-like archives run by the orcs of this world!) impulse is an orc, zed is not! impulse works to retrieve artifacts for the archive, and zed,, hes just kinda there. learning and experimenting with pattern magic (a type of magic done by arranging and rearranging things in specific configurations, often they are obscure and weird things like "27 brown birds in a tree, 5 table legs, 500 buttons, 16 steps to the east" etc.) when the story finds them they are studying a fallen tower in the center of the Mark of the Erasure (a location still showing the effect of the great cataclysm that befell the world)

tango vaguely takes the role of Ephraim, prince of something or rather,,, idk man hes cool and has fire powers, very anime. his powers were a gift from the gods, and he goes on to hv close relations w them! he meets up with impulse and zed later on and become fast friends obviously

joe is an expert in pattern magic, and is on the run from the archives after having stolen a pretty nondescript notebook. its a nice notebook! hes just a human guy. he writes and recites poetry in order to do pattern magic using the notebook!

cleo hails from the city of *Nacre*, where people get multiple chances at life. people from there can get killed but will exist on as zombies, then if they are killed again, they exist as ghosts, and then they pass away fully. she is an undead pirate captain that joe somehow manages to sway over to their side ahjbhfbjf,, she is hunting down the lost prince/king of Nacre.

wels is a pala-din (pal-ah-deen, rather than paladin), a sort of living marble statue that serves one of the gods in the pantheon.

scar is ofc, a wizard! it. it should be noted that wizards dont really exist in this world, people who perform and study magic are mages, not wizards,, "wizard" is kind of a weird term to use sjbdbjhfjjhb scar takes place of The Great Fantasmo in the podcast, and similarly has an invisible assistant! he doesnt seem to remember much of his past...

cubfan works in Velas, a fishing town where the story "begins" he does not enjoy talking to scar, and seems to be sad whenever hes around. perhaps scar reminds him of someone, or perhaps of better times...

tfc hes a priest aagsuijdjhkdgjdkihwhjvd i swear theres a reason for this later,, the role of the npc alyosha is somewhat split between tfc and cub!

-----

others i have thoughts on but im not settled on yet:

im debating having xisuma as part of the pantheon, but if not, he would be a druid so he can shapeshift into animals sjbakjnsnfjb he would take the general role of Fero in the story, but would also be kind of split with evil x, who captures... a certain stubbornness and deepset frustration Fero has in later times.

etho could take the place of Samol, the first god to exist. he is the embodiment of this world, and is kind of isolated and strange wbhshjhbdbhjdjbdkjn,, strange /pos. hes also. kind of dissapearing though... i wonder why :)

while theoratically i could have xisuma as samol cos. yknow. admin. i think the vibes and role just fit etho better

and... if i had etho as samol i think it could be fun to have doc and bdubs as other members of the pantheon, if u go with their dynamic from the start of s7 they even fit the divorced couple vibe two of the gods have /lh /hj (nho pantheon pog..? maybe. theres a total of 5 deities in the pantheon tho...)

im leaning toward either false + stress or maybe gem + pearl pairs for two of the goddesses in the pantheon, but thatd probably depend on if i can find a better place for them ;P

techno and phil take the role of red jack, and techno is a Huge Oni Dude >:] in canon red jack has a cool horse!!! it fits!! hes also. heavily implied to be kinda immortal?? anyway. im torn on this because techno and phil ALSO fit the roles of some of the player characters, with relation to the missing prince/king of Nacre but im still working things out,,

no matter whats up with them, ranboo takes the role of bluejay, redjacks son, meeting up with tubbo and tommy who take the place of benjamin, the son of one of the player characters. tubbo and tommy kind of. get sent to another dimension to keep them safe,,? and live in a lie for many years before they are brought back.

when i first thought about this au, i also thought about the whole. sending child off into fake dimension to live life, and of course. i thought about. grumbot ofc and originally planned to have mumbo or grian take the place of that player character abhdfvnbrvbn but it also implies one or both of them would be paladins (not pala-din! just the normal religious knight) AND have connections to tubbo and tommy which is. funny but ehhhh idk.

-----

and that. maybe probably somewhat incoherent train of thought is what i have for the au so far! its. still very much a work in progress so thank you if you stuck through all that!! ive still got a lot to think abt in the au,,,, lots to figure out ;P hopefully i can iron it out a bit more in the future, but its fun to think about for the time being

#goosegoes #not g/t #i lost so many words from this draft #i kept forgetting to save it #anyway its like 2am ajbanjkjrjhfjdk i should sleep #anon #again thank u for asking aabjhskjnjkrhjbrjhjk #even if u dont read all of that it means a lot that u showed interest 💛#obscure crossover au

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vecnawrites · 3 years

Text

ArcAngel, Chapter 2

It’s been just a few days since Joan was born, and already, a circle to protect the newborn Angel is forming.

It was a great shock to the Arc Family that their newest member was an Angel, a quasi-mythical being that was the complete antithesis of the Creatures of Grimm. As it was, Vermilion, Juniper, and Adrianne were running interference, playing off that both Juniper and the newborn Joan were healthy, but needing rest and to be unbothered so no one came and found out the secret until they found a reliable way to hide their newborn’s wings...or the little Angel managed to pull them in.

As it was, they had to hide the youngest of the family’s status from Indaco, Injigo, and Violette, since they were very excitable and might accidentally let their sister’s uniqueness slip when talking about her. Bless them, they were a little too young yet to truly understand about how Angels could be hunted down and abused for their powers.

Crimson, Saphron, Verde, and Bleu knew and understood, and as such were involved in ‘Angel Wrangling’...not that there was much actual work involved. Her species was rather ironic, as Joan was an Angel. She only ever cried when she was hungry or needed a diaper change, usually just content to be cuddled in the arms of whomever was holding her.

~x~x~

Vermilion sighed as he looked through the books Adrianne had lent him. They didn’t say anywhere near as much as he liked. They had the basic powers that she would gain: Flight, Immunity to Human and Faunus Illnesses, Photokinesis, Healing...but not only did it not say when these powers would emerge (he was already having nightmares of a flying baby that would be captured and taken away from the family), and worse, there was mention of powers that each angel had that were completely unique to any other, so the ones mentioned in the book were likely useless.

But that didn’t stop him from taking extensive notes to make sure that he, that Joan, would have the information at her fingertips as she grew up. He wouldn’t allow her to go through childhood wondering why or how she had these abilities if he could help it.

He also refused to let her go through life without knowing the dangers of her power. Not only were the more significant powers draining, leading to to exhaustion if not used carefully, but in several cases they could kill the Angel in question if misused. Beyond that, there had been instances of families killed and the Angels taken and broken, making their golden wings turn pitch black as they were broken and forced to use their powers for the selfish whims of others.

Fire burned within him at the thought of his baby being put through that, the bright light in her eyes reduced to a dead flicker of what it was. “I promise, my daughter…” he vowed, “I will do everything possible to ensure you live your life without fear...and only you will decide what your destiny is…”

~x~x~

“Waaaahhhh!” Juniper jolted out of her doze as she turned to see her baby squirming in her bassinet next to her. Gently leaning over and gathering her baby in her arms, a quick cursory sniff told her that it wasn’t a diaper change, so she gently cradled her daughter in the nook of her arm and rocked her gently. “What’s the matter, sweetie? Let’s try some food…”

Carefully shifting, Juniper opened her robe, revealing one of her heavy breasts and gently twisting her daughter so her lips brushed against her nipple. She released a small laugh as her baby immediately latched on and began nursing, quieting down as she nuzzled closer, her little chubby cheeks moving as she pulled milk into her mouth and devoured it hungrily. “You can slow down, baby girl...mommy’s not going to run away, and she’s not going to run out of milk anytime soon…” she cooed, gently stroking her baby’s head, amazed at how she had so much hair already. They could already pull it into a tiny ponytail on top of her head. But the strands were just as golden as the tiny feathers that were attached to the wings on her back.

“I promise, baby girl...we won’t let anything bad happen to you…” Juniper murmured, gently rocking her baby and slowly beginning to sing, a soft tune that her own mother had sang to her, and her mother before that.

“Hush little child,

wipe your tears away,

you’re safe in my arms,

in the moonlit night~”

She could see her baby’s blue eyes (like the rest of the families, but somehow brighter and even more pure) focusing on her, even as she suckled, making Juniper tear up, this precious little life meant so much, not just to her, her husband, and her daughters, but to Humanity as a whole. “I promise, Joan. For whatever reason you were given to us, we will help you…”

~x~x~

Adrianne Nox never really thought of herself of someone who would do greatness. She was a mere pediatrician and midwife, living in a settlement outside Kingdom walls and ruled by itself. She had honestly thought she would go through her life pretty normally, help mothers give birth to their newborns, and care for those same newborns until she either retired or death took her.

She never expected to help a mother in this settlement give birth to an Angel.

Despite preferring healing, she was no slouch when it came to History, either. She knew that Angels were only born when there was an upcoming period of intense change in the world. She also knew that they were gifted with incredible talents and abilities, to help protect humanity from the Grimm.

But she also knew that they needed to be protected in their formative years. While they could instinctively use their powers to defend themselves, that could disable them when they got older. They were extremely vulnerable until the age of five or so. It would be difficult, but they would protect her, until she could protect herself. It would be easier than normal, since she was not only the one who helped birth her, but also the Pediatrician for the Arc Family, it would be pitifully easy to modify her charts to hide what she really was. She wouldn’t let the world’s newest Angel be captured and Fall, she swore on everything she was. “I swear, little one, nothing will harm you if I can stop it...”

~x~x~

The Arc Sisters were worried for their youngest sibling. All of them that were in the know, Crimson, aged seventeen, Saphron, aged fourteen, Verde, aged thirteen, and Bleu, aged twelve, sat in Crimson’s bedroom, books surrounding them. Every reference of Angels they could scrounge up from their family library. They knew that their newest sister was something special, and why Injigo and Indaco, seven years old, and Violette, a mere five, weren’t told.

The Twins weren’t exactly discreet, after all, and it was hard for a five year old to have any ability to keep a secret. They loved their little sisters dearly, but all of them knew that Joan was helpless right now. It was up to the family as a whole to defend her.

So the four were pouring over every tome they had lifted, marking down everything interesting they found, every bit of potentially useful information that they could use to help Joan understand her own roots, in a way.

Crimson was the eldest of the Arc Daughters, and even though she wasn’t a Huntress proper, she was trained by their father in the case of Grimm attacks breaching the walls. It hadn’t happened since before she was born, but it never hurt to make sure to be prepared. ‘I swear, Joan...I will protect you and help you learn what you need…’ she vowed.

Saphron was simultaneously amazed and worried for her baby sister. She had always loved to read those histories, hoping to write something as wonderful as she had read. The stories of Angelic help in the world filled her with hope for the future, and part of her wanted to make sure that her sister’s stories were recorded for the future to help others. ‘I promise, baby sister...I will make sure that everything is written perfectly, so no one can try and cast shadows on your actions…’ she promised.

Verde Arc liked to think herself an adventurer, and had shamefully been jealous for a few moments at the fact that her baby sister would have far many more than she could, until she realized what dangers she would be facing. Grimm would be, surprisingly enough, the least problematic thing she would face her entire life. The largest problem would be humans and faunus, surprisingly enough. For every Angel that helped bring about peace, there was at least two of them that had been forced to use their powers for selfish reasons, by selfish people, breaking them and making them shadows of themselves. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, allow that to happen to her newest sister. She would make sure she learned all the tricks that she had learned, from rock climbing to knot tying! ‘Don’t worry, Joan, big sis Verde will watch over you!’

Bleu Arc knew she wasn’t a fighter. She had never had the instinct for it, nor the stomach. But what she did have was her mind. She was considered arguably the most intelligent of the children, having been drawing prototypes and blueprints as long as she could remember. She adjusted her glasses as her keen eyes roamed the pages of the books around her, not reading the words, but instead looking over the pictures of the angels within them. What they were wearing, what they were wielding, what they were fighting, her mind already coming up with plans on what to design for Joan as she grew older and into the warrior that the world would no doubt make her. ‘I may not be a fighter like daddy or Crimson, but I can help you with my brain! I promise, Joan!’ she swore that her sister would have the best equipment ever!

~x~x~

The seven each continued their different plans as the four youngest of the Arc family rested, all of them working together, albeit in different ways, to ensure the future of the newest member of the family. They all vowed that she would only have to follow her own heart, not anyone’s desires but her own.

#ArcAngel #Arc Family

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moxtoons · 3 years

Note

What's the story behind Arianness and Noiren if you don't mind me asking? I saw your art and now I want to know more about them👀 (~thedinalixlegacy)

You want to know about my OCs????

I'm genuinely touched and speechless and this is the best gift I could have gotten for the holidays- (no ones ever asked about my OCs I am in genuine shock and joy!)

Excuse me while I grab 15 years of character building/story to cherry pick from and shove under a cut!

Long post below!

Arianness and Noiren are twins(fraternal) and have two younger brothers.

The twins, Noiren(Sith Lord) and Arianness(Smuggler)

The younger two, Orkra, later called Agent Scathe (Imperial agent/spy) and Aidesan (Acolyte).

They're all native to a small village on Ryloth. When they were young an army of Imperials came to their village to take supplies and take any "useful" Twi'leks. They were searching for force sensitives, ones that could be strong and fight in the war, or ones they could be sold to the Hutts.

There they find the four children, scared and huddled in the corner after watching their parents get killed by the troopers. A Darth observes the group and finds that Noiren and Aidesan are force sensitive. The children are taken one at a time to the ships as they decide where to send them.

Noiren and his younger brother Aidesan are send to Korriban for acolyte training while Orkra was sent to Dromund Kaas to be trained as an agent. Arianness is unfortunately sent to many different places, working under different Imperials watchful eyes until she is old enough and sold to a Hutt named Gorbada.

She never forgets who the Imperials are and what they had done to her family. She is determined to break free from her servitude and find her brothers.

Arianness later overhears that imperials are landing on the planet and long story short she Leia style kills her master and makes off in an Imperial ship. She becomes a smuggler with a grey sense of morals to get the money and resources so she can gather the information she needs to get her brothers back. Along the way she ends up making friends that become her crew.

While she travels space, Noiren has climbed quickly at the academy, surpassing his master and becoming a ruthless sith lord. He only cares for himself, and his younger brother, who he has done everything in his power to protect. He cares very little for the sith around him or any Imperials thanks to his past. Once he becomes a lord, he takes Aidesan under his wing to keep him under a watchful eye so no one can hurt him.

He travels from planet to planet with his brother to aid in war efforts against the republic and eventually stumbles across this guy

Kenaas. A young (rather airheaded) Nautolan Jedi, questioning the Jedi code. Kenaas becomes a captive on Noirens personal starship and eventually turns to the Darkside and stays beside his new companion (that's a whole other story, but he's very important to Noirens character growth and eventually becomes his love interest).

As luck would have it Noiren ends up hearing through the Imperial agency that a "pirate" roaming republic space in a stolen ship has been working to find where acolytes train, which could very well be someone seeking to sell the information to people trying destroy the Sith academy. They decide to send Noiren and his crew to intercept the rogue Imperial ship on Hoth so the offender could be killed quickly and efficiently. He immediately attacks the thief and her crew (if anyone is interested i will be more than happy to share the crewmates too, I have many star wars OCs and most of their stories meet at some point)

The "Pirate" is Captain Arianness, who recognizes her brothers immediately but has no time to explain herself as she is swiftly thrown into battle. Shes heartbroken by how much her brothers have changed, but refuses to give up.

Kenaas Is the one that realizes that she and her crew don't return fire. Worrying that they may have attacked the wrong group, he insists Noiren step back.

The sith is reluctant and ready to kill if needed, but demands answers. Without the rush of battle between them he finally realizes who he had just been in combat with and is taken back. Now his initial questions have been exchanged for ones about how she got there, who these people were, and if she had been trying to find them.

She of course tells him everything, including that she wasn't working with the republic, all she wanted was so save her brothers and protect others like them from what they had suffered.

She learns that Noiren had been working for the Sith and the Imperials to keep himself and his brother safe while trying to track down their youngest brother in the agency,whom neither had seen in years.

Their reunion is touching, lots of questions, long stories and tears. He lies to his superiors after, saying he killed the pirate and her crew, and the two continue to work together to find Orkra.

It takes a lot of searching due to the fact that Agents are well hidden, even within the Imperial bases knowledge, and lets just say a moody sith lord and chaotic smuggler aren't stealthy and Noirens superiors become suspicious of him. With some information gathering of their own they find the young agent the group is looking for and use him as bait to try and lure them into a death trap. Knowing he is rogue brands noiren and his crew as a threat that needs to be eradicated.

Big battle commences and "Scathe" is now reunited with his siblings as they escape a base coming down on their heads. (Theres so much more to their brothers i swear but this is getting so long already lol)

All of them are now rogues,not wanting to fully take a side in the war yet and running from the imperial army.

They use Arianness's ship to go from planet to planet aiding villaiges like theirs to try and prevent anything like their own past from happening to them. (Kind of vigilante style???)

Theyre all grey, not exactly dark side, though Noiren is still heavily leaning that direction, and not really light side. Theyre just a renegade band of aliens trying to prevent mass suffering and slave trades while avoiding pointed attacks from sith lords and imperial ships. There are a lot of battles and craziness and Noiren has so much character development from just being an angry sith lord, but thats hard to convey in whats basically the spark notes version of a 15 year old character arc. (The republic also gets heavily involved in trying to hire them and whatnot)

Also keep in mind everything you just read takes place over the span of years. Arianness is jumping across the galaxy trying to get answers from anyone she can squeeze information from while taking odd jobs and trying to stay out of imperial space (and upgrading the ship she stole)

Note- Noiren and Kenaas are romantically involved and Arianness ends up marrying one of her crewmates and later has two children with him, so happy ending, still polishing and adding details, the full story has so much more (especially regarding the younger two, but this ask is specifically about the twins so I focused on them) but I've been rambling long enough.

Fun fact:

Arianness, Noiren and Kenaas have been around for about 15 years. Imagine my excitement when I was able to create them in SWTOR (I liked the markings in SWTOR much better for my gal and her brother than the ones I had originally given them so I just made those permanent :) )

Thank you for letting me infodump and I have SO MANY other characters so if you ever want a large masterpost about ocs (or even just more art of them.. I love drawing them) I'm more than happy to drop some. I dont get to share my OCs much and this has really been just. Wonderful. You really made my day, you know?

I may drop some info about a Torguta sith warrior I have in the future, she was exclusively made on SWTOR and follows that story pretty close, but she's a favorite so keep an eye out for her if you're interested.

Feel free to ask more about them if you want, too! I have so much passion and love for these guys and would love to share more about them!!!

#my art #mox's art #SWTOR #mox's ocs #Mox's Original Characters #Arianness the Twi'lek #Noiren the Twi'lek #Aidesan the Twi'lek #Orkra the Twi'lek #Kenaas the Nautolan #long post #this really made me so happy... thank you. i dunno if anyones gonna read this long ass thing and idk if my rambling is written well #but its so nice to be able to share my OCs with the world and to have someone actually ASK about them????#🥺🥺🥺 You made my night #hell this made my fukkin YEAR #thank you again #Mox rambles

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oracleofkairos · 3 years

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30 Questions For Your Guardian

These questions are taken from the post here by @fem-birb-woman, seemed like a good way to kick this off! 1.) What is your guardian’s name? What does it mean? What inspired you to choose that name for them? "The Oracle Of Kairos. I didn't choose it, but it was given to me by the followers of Osiris, after my frequent excursions into the Infinite Forest."

2.) What did your guardian name their ghost? What does it mean? What inspired them to choose that name?

"This here is Custode, means Guardian in a pre-collapse tongue. Little bit of a joke, but this little guy has seen me through many trials, and I'll know he always has my back."

3.) What is your guardians favorite weapon of choice? What mod do they use for it? Do they have a masterwork on it and if so, how many enemies have they killed with that weapon?

"The IKELOS_HC_V1.0.2 , a gift from Rasputin. I've tuned it to handle rank and file opponents, I have had the aid of others to bring it up to a masterwork of engineering, and frankly, I've lost count of how many this pistol has killed."

4.) Do they participate in the Crucible often or do they just go to complete the daily challenges? "I hate the crucible. I understand it's purpose, both for morale and training, but I still can't bring myself to enjoy getting curbstomped by other guardians."

5.) If your guardian had to choose to be another class, what class would they pick? Or would they stay the same? "I think I'd prefer to stay a Warlock, but I could see myself as a half-decent titan, but I'd be much more of a strategist than an unstoppable battering ram."

6.) What is their favorite subclass within their own class? "Stormcaller. I've always felt a more tangible tie to Arc energies, and since the reawakening of my light, that has only strengthened."

7.) What is their favorite subclass in a different class?

"Sentinel titans will always have my respect, they put themselves on the line to shield allies from harm, and they're very good at it."

8.) Would they rather receive a titan kiss ( a hard ass headbutt that mostly results in death ), asking a warlock a question that might result in a long explanation, or deciding to play the knife game with hunter and bet at high stakes? "Ask the question of a Warlock. I'd much rather have an interesting conversation than risk losing a body part, no matter how briefly."

9.) Would they prank other guardians or just their close friends? What kind of pranks would they pull?

"The Hijinks of the Drifter and Cayde always made me... Afraid, of pranks. I don't think I could bring myself to engage in such things."

10.) Which vanguard member to they like to hang out with the most? "I'm on good terms with both Ikora and Zavala, but I more often find myself discussing theories or new intrigues with Ikora whenever I stop by the tower. She's been a fine mentor and a better friend."

11.) Who would they fmk out of Skolas, Ghaul, and Calus? "Frankly, I hate everything about this question, but in the interest of honesty; Fuck Skolas, Marry Calus, and Kill Ghaul."

12.) What kind of hobbies do they do in their free time? Are there any particular skills they have that help them with this hobby(s)? "I've always found an interest in etchings and engravings, I've got a good hand from many hours with a pen, and that serves me to handle the tools when making carvings."

13.) What is their favorite armor set and what shader do they use for it? "Oddly, I've always been attached to the Exodus Down armor provided by Failsafe... It's always just... Fit me, in a way. Almost all our armor is perfectly tailored, but this runs deeper than that. And, in honor of the Followers of Osiris, I wear Kairos Bronze."

14.) Do they prefer silence or are they unbothered in loud areas? "Depends on what I'm doing, when studying or researching, I require quiet, but I do enjoy the bustle of the Tower when I need to relax."

15.) Are they afraid of storms? If so, is there a specific reason why? "To the contrary, I love storms. There's nothing better than wandering and just taking in the energy radiating from those electric clouds."

16.) Who were they before their ghost revived them? Do they know about this and if so how or what did they use to learn about themselves? "I know looking into such things is... Frowned on, but I have done some research into it. Between my own strange clicks, and the fact I was first revived on Nessus, I believe I may have been one of the crew or colonists aboard the Exodus Black."

17.) How close are your guardian and their ghost? If they are not close, would your guardian kill their ghost and choose to answer the darkness’ calls? "I love Custode. If anything were to happen to him, I'm not sure I could, or would want, to survive the experience."

18.) Would your guardian engage in a romantic relationship with Fallen, Cabal, Hive, etc? If so, what do they find attractive about the species? "This... Is an odd question, I suppose I couldn't deny the possibility of finding myself with a sentient member of any of those species. I wonder what a relationship with the hive would even be like..."

19.) Who is their favorite lore hero? Example, Jolder, Saint-14, Andal Brask, etc. Why is this person their favorite and in what ways do they inspire your guardian? What would your guardian say if they were face to face with them? "Osiris and Toland The Shattered. I could not hold them to the title of Hero, but I look to their works as examples on how to push the limits of Guardian knowledge, but also how to be mindful of the edges of madness."

20.) Does your guardian like plants? If so, what kinds? Do they prefer flowers or trees or shrubs? Would they start a garden?

"I do enjoy plants, and I actually have a small terrarium containing a blueberry bush inside my orbiter."

21.) If your guardian became obsessed with something, what would it be? "The infinite forest... I was... Unable, to resist the temptations of the possibilities within, and found myself lost for a long few years... I've only recently re-emerged, only to find Cayde dead, Osiris hostage, Mara, Saint, and others returned, and some mad scheme about swearing guardians to the darkness. It was... A difficult adjustment."

22.) Do they like reading books or watching movies or both? What genres are their favorites? Does their fireteam have the same taste? "I've always enjoyed both books and cinema, whenever I was invited to showing by other guardians. Historical fiction and high fantasy hold a special place in my heart, as they speak to our capacity for imagination."

23.) What kind of music do they like? Do they dance around anybody in any situation or in the privacy of their quarters? What would their favorite song from the Golden Age be? "I've always enjoyed Golden Age Classical, since I first heard it among Rasputin's broadcasts. And while I don't often dance, I do enjoy the occasional slow dance with a partner during The Dawning, or other festivals."

24.) What does their living space look like? Are there a bunch of pictures around or do Knick knacks cover the shelves? Do they enjoy bright, neutral, or dark colors? Would they purchase a fur rug? "I do my best to keep organized, but there's many, many little momentos of my travels, and it makes it difficult to keep things tidy. I prefer cooler colors, and I do have a fur rug I pinched from Clovis Bray's facilities. Bear, I think."

25.) Do they travel around the city often? If so, what are their favorite places to go and who do they go with? Are the civilians ever excited to see them or do they give them a look because of precious mishaps that resulted in property damage? "I often travel within the city, whether I'm visiting friends in the New Monarchy, or going to the various scrappers and book-vendors. I have a few good friends, and I do my best to be polite and respectful to all others."

26.) Are they good with kids? If not, how do they react when a child tries to talk to them? If they are good with kids, what kind of things do they do to entertain them? "I'm... Not amazing, with children. I enjoy their inquisitive nature, but I sometimes get too wrapped up in my explanations, and either scare them with things they didn't need to know, or leave them with more questions than they started with."

27.) Are they in love with Shaxx?

"No. In the words of a man with wisdom beyond his years; 'Every minute I spend in the crucible makes me wish I stayed dead.' "

28.) When your guardian sleeps, are they stiff and stay in one spot or wild and kick off the sheets? Do they have nightmares often and if so, about what? How often do they sleep? "Custode does his best to remind me to get a full nights sleep, and tells me he sometimes has to verify I'm still alive, given that I'm almost perfectly still. As for nightmares... They happen, especially after everything on the Moon."

29.) Do they enjoy coffee, tea, soda, or water? Would they mix all of these together and drink the liquid on a dare? "I'm partial to both Coffee and Tea, particularly one kind Eris was kind enough to make for me during our stay on Luna... And absolutely not."

30.) What about their personality attracts other guardians to them? What is it about other guardians that attracts your guardian to them?

"I enjoy other guardians with a passion for discovery and a desire for knowledge, and I often find others who seek me out for the same. Though there have been cases other guardians or fireteams have sought my guidance after my years in the Infinite Forest, hoping I have insight into future events."

#destiny the game #destiny guardians #destiny oc #destiny warlock

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (January 12/2021) - The Bathwater Mishap

After a couple weeks off, Antfrost has made his return at last!

Needless to say, there’s a lot to be filled in on. L’manberg’s now a crater, the Dream SMP faction’s future is ambiguous, and the Badlands’ power remains strong as ever.

But after Bad gives him the run-down, things start to go a bit off the rails when Skeppy comes online...

---

- Ponk continues his project from yesterday of a collection of gravestones/shrines to various people

- He tells chat that he is, in fact, a descendant of Helga. He and Lazar are descendants of the people from the Village That Went Mad.

- Fundy leads Friend around through the ruins doing hijinks with maps and item frames.

- Fundy roleplays a western scene with Friend and a picture of George.

- Afterwards, he walks around with Friend and talks to him a bit (he seems to be fluent in sheep-speak)

- Friend insults Sally and Fundy gets upset at him, trying to establish some boundaries for touchy subjects.

- Fundy brings Friend back to the ruins and returns him to safety.

- Fundy then goes to prank Ponk’s Casino. Ponk comes online.

- Ponk dies to the fall trap.

- Fundy does a fashion show with Ponk, walking down the catwalk. Fundy returns Ponk’s Yeezys and Ponk runs away. Fundy then realizes that Ponk still has Fundy’s boots.

- Ponk comes back and tells Fundy to follow him. He leads him to the Graveyard, saying “you will have your own spot.” Ponk instructs Fundy to kiss the Helga shrine to pay respects. He walks Fundy through the other shrines.

- Finally, Ponk shows Fundy the Sacrifice shrine. Fundy pays his respects.

Ponk: You will be here soon ;)

He then logs off in the shrine, leaving Fundy alone in the Graveyard.

- Fundy says he never dies. He has nine lives, he’s a cat! Well, part cat.

Apparently Fundy is 1/3 cat...oh wait, that’d only be three lives.

- Either way, Fundy wants to finish pranking Ponk

- Fundy explains that he wants to bring everyone together by making everyone hate him, so that they’ll work together. He won’t get what he wants, but at least everyone will be united.

- He said that while he worked under Schlatt, he thought initially that Schlatt had a good plan for the country. He says that every President was going for the right things, but had their flaws within themselves that brought them down.

Wilbur went insane, Schlatt was focused on his own goals, and Tubbo never wanted any war, and those three things led them to falling into pitfalls.

Schlatt was good for certain reasons, but overall it’s hard to say.

- Fundy then says that he sees Wilbur as someone who left him alone in the world to rot alone. He doesn’t see himself as the one who betrayed Wilbur, but rather that Wilbur betrayed him by exploding L’manburg and leaving him with no father.

- On resurrecting Wilbur, Fundy says that Wilbur could be resurrected at any point -- if it works, even! Say it does work, though:

“Do we even want that? Let’s be real, ‘cause like, Wilbur’s the cause of everything. Wilbur��s the one who started L’manburg, right? Getting Wilbur back is just gonna repeat the cycle. Ghostbur’s not done anyone harm, been friendly to everyone...might as well bring back Schlatt! ...Might as well bring back L’manburg! Like...do we need it? Is it good? Right? I don’t think it is, chat...I think it’s good the way it is.”

- Character Fundy is canonically in his 20s.

- Fundy finishes his Cube above the Casino.

- He says he’d like to create a new noteblock song on the SMP, but might have to destroy the Able Sisters Theme at the Jungle Base in order to use its materials. He heads to the Jungle Base and plays it a final time, but decides not to destroy it today. Maybe some other day.

- Antfrost has returned to the server after a two-week break! He’s missed...quite a bit.

- Badboyhalo gives Ant a tour. He’s surprised by the state of the Community House, but nothing compares to the shock of seeing the crater for the first time.

- He asks Bad about the state of the factions. If there’s no more L’manburg to lay claim to the crater, and the Dream SMP has no more enemy to oppose and has faded into the background once more, then...

The server is ripe for the taking, isn’t it?

Perhaps this is a good opportunity for the Badlands to grow in power.

- Bad then suggests they visit the Egg. Bad shows Ant the chamber, and how it’s completely full to the brim with vines at this point. Ant isn’t impressed with the job Bad’s been doing to keep the Egg at bay.

- Skeppy comes online. He does the fastest costume change the Dream SMP’s ever seen and becomes Red Skeppy for the Blood Vines Arc to continue. He asks to see the Egg and then starts making his way towards it.

- Bad, Ant and Skeppy all go down to the Egg chamber. Skeppy, once in the chamber, starts hyperventilating and yelling loudly. He logs off inside the chamber and Bad and Ant freak out.

- Ant says that he suspects the Egg and Skeppy have become too intertwined...and says that Skeppy might have to be put down. Bad protests strongly, but Ant insists that it would be a mercy killing.

- Bad says that instead, they should just let Skeppy stay in the chamber and let him live with the Egg for good. Ant says that’s no way to live.

- Ant says that they should take a vote with the rest of the Council. If they vote to kill Skeppy, Ant says that Bad can be the one to do it.

- Bad tries to suggest they try killing Eret instead. Or maybe it doesn’t have to be Eret, but killing any other person! Perhaps every other person on the SMP besides Skeppy, even!

- Ant suspects that the Egg is influencing Bad and brings him to Church Prime to be cleansed. Eret comes over to see what’s happening and Ant tells him to run. There’s a brief chase scene before they come back to Church Prime.

- Eret asks, if they need to kill someone for an experiment, why can’t it be Bad? After more debate, Eret then suggests the possibility of covering Skeppy in Ghostbur’s blue. If the blue can calm down other people, could it possibly calm down Skeppy as well? Badboyhalo suggests holy bathwater.

- Red Skeppy comes back online and comes to Church Prime to drink the Badboyhalo Bathwater.

- Skeppy drinks the bathwater and turns into a horrifying combination monstrosity of Skeppy and Badboyhalo. Skeppy starts talking like Bad, saying “muffins” in every sentence.

- They give Bad-Skeppy a picture of Catboy Skeppy and he seems to like it, putting it in his Enderchest.

- Skeppy drinks more bathwater, then turns into an “Evil?” version of Badboyhalo that swears

- Since Skeppy becomes more and more “Bad” with each bottle of Bad’s bathwater, Ant asks if Bad has any of Skeppy’s bathwater and Bad says the pools might have some.

- Skeppy drinks that water, but instead turns into a horrifying fusion of Bad, Dream, George, Antfrost and Sapnap, who’ve been in those pools. Trance Music for Racing Game starts playing.

DUDUDUDU

- The four attempt to brew the ultimate Skeppy Potion to get him back to normal, but Skeppy has disappeared again.

- Skeppy seems to have left for good this time, and the four are left wondering if they’ll be able to get him back another day.

For now, it seems the Manhunt amalgamation will roam unchecked...

- Ant gives Bad a Catboy Halo picture as a gift for Skeppy.

---

Upcoming Events:

- Council of the Egg Meeting

- Futuristic Tales From the SMP episode

#dream smp #dream smp recaps

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starkerisendgame · 5 years

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God-Father!Tony (Part Two)

P.1 | P.3 Tagged: @haysend @lousy-but-fabulous-flop @starkeristhenameshippingismygame @ruelukas22 @starkercrossedlovers @deliciousflapbanditfarm @richieleeparker @starkerthanreality @starkertimesstarkerdays @0happinessisfree0 @srrnnrrs @kokonutkiddo @nymeriasutcliff @pleasedontfollwme @tomhollandkru (I think that’s everyone who asked. If not, please forgive me!)

Still not the smut you want, but I promise, that’s what the last chapter is for. This explores Peter being a brat a little more, and the developing dynamic between him and Tony. Includes a little Tony-loving. We all know Tony radiates some serious Daddy/Dom energy but is also a soft, pliant boi sometimes, so there’s a little of that here, too.

I promise the last chapter will give you everything you want <3

Whatever Tony expected for the first week, wasn’t quite accurate. Peter had shut himself in his room that first night and hadn’t really come out of it, since. When he did, it was at odd times. Clearly hoping it would result in avoiding Tony. (Jokes on the kid, though. Tony was the master of odd hours.)

It was somewhere around the fourth bump-in that Peter seemed to realise avoiding Tony by making breakfast at odd hours wasn’t an effective plan. The kid had actually sighed at him when he turned the corner to find Tony making a sandwich at 2:15am. “Are you staying up just to keep an eye on me?” The kid had grumped, brushing past to get to the fridge.

Tony snorted so hard he almost choked. “Watch that ego, kid. It’s looking to be bigger than mine” he pointed out, setting down his knife and prodding at his sandwich. This whole regular eating thing was new to him, but the fridge was always full for once and it gave him something to do whilst he waited for re-boots or algorithms.

“So, what. You just don’t sleep?” Peter had asked, the genuine curiosity in his voice only almost hidden by the snappy tone. Tony wanted to point out that they were both here at 2am making food. As it was, he shrugged easily, picking up his plate.

“When the sheer exhaustion wins out. Or when Pepper does that thing with her eyebrows” he remarked back, approaching Peter and leaning past him to reach into the fridge. He left an appropriate amount of space between them, but he could still practically feel the kid freeze. Saw the slight tip of his head backwards as Tony grasped the can of beer he had been aiming for and pulled away.

“Besides. You’d have to have been awake at several of the same points as me to come to the conclusion that forms the basis of your question and have a reasonable outcome that it would continue to form the same pattern in the future in order to have asked that” he pointed out with a shrug, taking his food to the coffee table. A small hologram hovered over it, awaiting his return.

He almost missed the small ‘bitch’ that Peter muttered. He considered Good Parenting and reprimanding Peter for his language, but then he considered the factors of the equation. Factor One: He probably wasn’t the best role-model for a functioning adult with appropriate language. Half his vocab relied on the existence of swear words. Factor Two: The kid was two weeks and four days from losing his parents. Four days from his entire life being up-rooted.

Logical conclusion: The kid was entitled to be a bit of a prat. Reasonable course of action: Research how long this was supposed to be allowed and what the appropriate emotional responses were.

As it was, he sat and bit into his sandwich, rotating the hologram. It was a concept for a new reactor design. Lighter, stronger. Classier. Switching them was a nuisance but it was the one thing constantly on his mind. He rotated it again, chewing slowly.

“Is that the arc?” Came from right against his ear, hot breath spanning his cheek and he jolted, almost throwing the rest of his sandwich through his hologram and onto the couch behind it. Peter had moved almost silently, enough that Tony hadn’t noticed.

And he’d leaned down, right against Tony. Enough that the heat from his body spanned Tony’s left shoulder. Grumbling, he set down his sandwich and brushed the crumbs away, glancing to the side. He had a good close-up of Peter’s jaw this way, and he could see in the glow from the hologram that there wasn’t a single hair. Not even peach fuzz.

It made him ache a little. He’d been in his early twenties when his parents had died. Had fled the nest early. Never really had a relationship with Howard, though not for the lack of trying. It had still struck him hard. Left him bottle-deep in whiskey and being dragged back to reality by Rhodey. But this kid...

Peter had been close with his parents. Meals at the table every night, they went to every school thing he had. Hung out like friends, not just parents and their kid. Peter had lost a whole part of himself, and so young. “Yeah” he croaked, shifting away a little. This close, he could see a little cut on Peter’s lip where he’d bitten it too harshly.

“It’s a new design. Lighter, a little thinner. Breathing is a pain when you’re wearing a chest-weight. So this one’ll be better. An improvement” he added, quietly. Howard’s words still rung in his head. Beside him, Peter made a soft sound, before turning to look at him. In the blue light, his eyes seemed to glow.

He opened his mouth, like he was going to say something. But then he pushed away. “Stop creeping on me” he tossed over his shoulder, scooping up whatever food he’d made himself and slamming back into his room, leaving Tony scowling after him. Brat.

Tony stayed up until the sun was glaring at him through the windows and Peter’s EDM music was pounding through his door. He called it quits, then, retreating to his room and burying himself under the covers. “J. Lights, 0%, please. Initiate Rainy Day Protocol with Parker and Potts only over-ride” he mumbled into the covers.

He fell asleep to JARVIS’s quiet confirmation.

Their week of respite passed quickly and in the same way. Peter danced around him, avoiding Tony whenever he could and being resolutely grumpy when they clashed. Tony tried to understand, really. He was a compassionate man. Logical. Understanding.

Except he was also a barely functioning adult who slept when he had no choice, ate when he remembered and was constantly running on bare minimum. He knew he could be a handful, sometimes. Couldn’t send Pepper enough gift baskets for putting up with him. But Peter?

Tony was walking on eggshells in his own home, constantly wary of another barricade of attitude. When they did meet, Peter was sullen, stroppy. And it seemed to move past the grief stage. Peter’s eyes were no longer red at the edges and he no longer seemed to float in a state of not knowing what to do.

Tony nearly dropped his coffee in shock when the alert to the second floor pinged and he looked up at see Peter leaning in the doorway. One, because Peter was approaching him. Two, because the kid was wearing...Practically nothing, frankly. A pale pink chiffon shirt that bunched around his shoulders and his collar like Cinderella’s dress. A pair of short-shorts in velvet black.

“Fuck” he yelped, wrenching his hand away from the burner. It wasn’t a bad burn, more of a surface sting, but it was a nuisance he could have done without. At his side, Dum-E whirred excitedly, brandishing the extinguisher. Tony twisted, raising a finger threateningly. “Use that and I’m gonna donate you to Oscorp” he muttered, shutting off the burner and trying to re-call where he left the medical kit.

Workbench five, Sir. Underneath the radiation prototype.

“Thanks” he murmured, crossing the space. He kept his head down, resolutely not looking at the work of sin standing in the doorway. It made his gut curl, twisting with repulsion at himself. Christ, he was in his late thirties and this kid was sixteen. Probably still had clear cum.

And that. That was a thought Tony was going to box up and pack away, like he’d never had it. He was going to box it up, right next to the comparison of the pale colour against Peter’s creamy skin. The way the shorts hugged thighs that were slim, but lean with definition.

“You’re Iron Man and you burn yourself on welding jets?” Peter sneered from the doorway, his footsteps ringing in the now silent room. Tony ground his teeth slowly, willing himself not to snap. Patience, he told himself. Understanding.

He yanked open the drawer, pushed aside the sheet of metal and pulled out the medical kit. His hand throbbed with each movement. There was a waft of something honey-like on the air, and Tony tensed, watching a small, slender hand reach for his wrist.

“I’m going out” Peter announced, taking a packet of burn cream and biting it open. Tony blinked, frowning. Out? It was...What time was it? The sky outside was darkening. So...Afternoon? Evening? Was Peter even allowed out at this time? Curfews were a thing. Didn’t responsible parents set a curfew?

More to the point, did responsible parents let their kids go out looking like that?

“Where are you going? What time is it? Are you wearing that? How long will you be out?” He fired off, wracking his brain for all the questions he could think were appropriate to ask. At his side, Peter snorted, eyes rolling so hard they almost disappeared.

“Seriously, stop. I’m just hanging out with MJ. She’s invited some friends over for pizza. Weirdo” Peter replied, smearing the cream across the red skin. Tony hissed, scowling across at Peter and defiantly wiping a hand across his temple. He was the adult here.

“Like...That?” He winced, gesturing. Peter raised a brow at him and squeezed a little harder than he had to, taping the gauze to Tony’s hand. He let out a harsh breath, sinking down into the chair. It put him level with Peter’s stomach, the smooth expanse of skin just visible through the sheer shirt.

“What are you, the police?” Peter griped back, pressing forwards until he was between Tony’s knees, reaching for the small scissors. “Relax. We’ve all dressed up nice. It’s a good opportunity for cool photos” Peter responded, leaning closer to snip the gauze and tape carefully.

Tony tried to argue, really. But between desperately trying not to look at Peter and desperately fending off Dum-E the boy slipped away, nothing but the faint scent of honey to mark his presence. “Christ” he groaned to himself, running a slick hand through his hair. Score one for the kid, he supposed.

Bar the odd flicker of worry, he largely forgot about it, losing himself in his work until JARVIS prompted him to call it quits, sometime around midnight. He relented and microwaved some fries and chicken, scarfing it before he plunged himself into the shower, rubbing at his eyes. He was rinsing off his hair when JARVIS’ voice interrupted the music.

Sir. Mr. Parker has arrived.

Arrived? Tony frowned, trying to recall what time JARVIS had said it was. The kid had been gone a while. JARVIS had nothing else to report however and Tony shrugged it off, sloughing the suds from his hair and cutting the water. He was loathe to leave it, the heat heaven on his body.

He donned nothing but sweats, hair still dripping when he left his room and wandered the hallway, catching Peter just as he was entering his own room. “Fun night, kiddo?” He called, making his way to the bar for a whiskey. Nothing soothed pain like a good single malt.

Peter paused in his doorway, turning to scowl at Tony. “Do you have to know everything about my life? Christ” he snapped, stepping into his room and slamming the door. Tony blinked, halfway through uncapping his whiskey. Peter had looked...Rumpled. A little rough. But Tony supposed that was down to a fun night full pizza and god knows what photography shenanigans. He shook his head, poured a decent glass.

Perhaps a talk about attitude, in the morning. As it was, he took his whiskey to bed, collapsing into the luxurious sheets with a low groan. As he sunk into the soft mattress he became dimly aware that he was somewhere to half-hard, a low simmer in his gut. He hadn’t touched himself since Peter had arrived. Hadn’t been fucked or fucked anyone for a few weeks prior to that.

Fuck it he thought, lazily rolling his hips against the bedding. The pressure from the mattress was just enough to bring him to half-hard and he let out a slow breath, allowing his imagination to run wild. Tony wasn’t a selective lover, happy with either a man or a woman. He liked to fuck and when he was in the mood, be fucked.

He thought about a lithe body, just a little smaller than his own. Smooth, pale skin under his touch, writhing as he licked his way down the pronounced ridges of a spine, down the the dip of a tailbone. The body beneath him panted, squirmed, pushing their ass up, begging for more. He hummed to himself, shifting a leg upwards and raising his hips just enough to push his hand into his sweats, fingertips just barely brushing the tip of his cock.

He could stop, if he wanted. It was a lazy kind of pleasure, one he could bask in for a while. And he allowed it, kept the position and idly swiped a thumb around the sponge-like skin of the head, pressing gently here and there and bathing in the warmth of the building lust. He imagined it as a tongue, wet and warm. Not sloppy - not yet. Firm and enthusiastic. Whilst Tony enjoyed being the one to spoil and devote attention to a lover, it was nice to have it reciprocated.

“Mmph, fuck” he mumbled into his pillow, brows furrowing as he gave in, wrapping his hand firmly around the head, squeezing just gently. It was not quite like a mouth, but for himself, it was enough. He let his hand slide, skin catching and dragging as he gave a slow, slow stroke. He’d need lube, if he wanted to do much more, and he groaned, both at the sensation and at the thought of having to move.

As luck would have it, Tony was a smart man. He pre-thought things. So whilst he had an impressive collection of toys in a large box, he also kept the odd small thing, such as bottle of lube, in his bedside stand. He twisted, pressed his hips and his hand against the mattress as he reached. It stimulated a low sound of approval, his mind gracing him with the thought of grinding his hips down against another body. They’d be on their stomach, like him. Nosing at his pillow as he ground the ridge of his cock against the round line of their ass.

Light moans, below him. The sound of the lube cap flipping open. He withdrew his hand enough to set the lube down, hook his thumbs into his waistband and drag down his sweats. It had been a while since he’d done this. There was no hurry. The press of expensive silk and cotton against his cock was good. The touches infuriatingly light. He moved enough to drizzle lube over his fingers, letting it run down his palm as he ground his hips.

In his mind, a body twisted, begged him not to be so leisurely. Hips thrust backwards, impatient against his own. Encouraging him to sink into a tight, hot heat. He obliged, letting out a breathless, deep whine as he wrapped a hand around himself, slick with lube he hadn’t quite let heat up. He gave a rather forceful tug, whimpering as he buried his face down, into a pillow that formed the space between two shoulders.

He thought about it, about pressing his cock slowly into the forgiving flesh. How it would welcome him, squeezing around him as it drew him in. Hot, slick heat. He matched his movements to his mind, thrusting his hips into his hand as the thought-body whimpered, pushing back against him. Whilst he wasn’t endowed like a horse, Tony knew he packed a considerate genetic gift.

He ploughed into his own hand, teeth biting into his pillow as he gripped it with a fist, panting wetly against the fabric. In his mind, his teeth sunk into a lithe shoulder, mottling the pale skin with red marks of his teeth. His hands fisted, twisting and tugging harshly on locks of dark brown.

Dark brown?

A vivid face flashed through his mind, high cheekbones and dark, sparkling eyes. Pale skin mottled with the odd freckle, neck bending as the hand in his hair dragged his head backwards.

Tony jerked so violently he squeezing down on himself, the horror mixing with the pleasure as his hips stuttered, the cum splattering over his fingers and onto his sheets as he yelped.

Peter.

The guilt overcame him so much that he didn’t sleep, instead gathering an armful of food and water-bottles and retreating down to floor 12, where he did most of his Iron Man work. Surprisingly, Peter hadn’t asked to so much as see any of it, yet. Then again, they rarely spoke unless it was Peter bitching at him for asking questions.

JARVIS alerted him when Peter had awoken, but the thought of talking to the boy made Tony’s skin crawl and his gut twist in a way that he didn’t trust, so he simply turned his music up louder. It was some lost time later before his phone buzzed

How would I order stuff to here? -AnnoyingChild

He blinked at it, frowning. Order stuff? Like takeout? Amazon?

Generally, the website has this whole page where you fill in the things? -RichGenius

Ha, ha. You know what I mean, jerk. It’s the Tower. Do I need to send it to a post box somewhere? -AnnoyingChild

If it’s addressed to Stark Tower, JARVIS can scan whoever they send and let them through to the foyer. They can leave the parcels there. -RichGenius

But he won’t scan the boxes, right? And you won’t snoop? -AnnoyingChild

Why would I snoop? Are you ordering drugs? Mail-A-Gram? -RichGenius

None of your business? But you won’t go looking through my stuff, right? -AnnoyingChild

Not interested, kiddo. Order your coke and bongs. -RichGenius

His phone buzzed with another angry response, but he left it, focusing on flexing his fingers. The Gauntlet moved smoothly. Flexed in time to his movements, wasn’t as stiff as it had been. Curiosity ate at him, however, and eventually he sat back, waved his metal-clad hand.

“Hey, J? Pull up Parker’s order. I’m curious”. He was thankful that there was no judgement in JARVIS’ voice, just a confirmation and Peter’s laptop screen flashing onto his own. It was in fact an Amazon cart.

Stuffed full of dildos.

“Fucking- Off!” He shrieked, swiping away the image scathingly. No wonder the little shit hadn’t wanted him to go nosing. Didn’t the kid have enough? Tony had felt at least one. For a sixteen year old, one should be enough. Right? By normal standards? He wasn’t sure, honestly. One young act of rebellion had been to spend $400 on Howard’s card on toys, so.

He stayed until a lack of snacks lured him back up, and he felt rather ridiculous asking JARVIS to make sure Peter was in his room before he stepped out of the elevator, creeping across his own damn floor to raid the cupboards. Since Peter was a child, of sorts, Pepper had filled several spaces with a generous variety of candy, and Tony was not above reaping the benefits of adopting a child.

They had a press statement, tomorrow. Just a brief announcement that his temporary generosity was now permanent. He thought about their whole situation as he rummaged, pulling down the odd box or packet to take with him. “Get me some balla sticks” came from besides him and he jerked, whipping around and levelling his hand at Peter’s face. For his part, the kid looked half confused and half annoyed, gaze flicking from his palm to his face.

Tony dropped his arm, aware that he was still wearing the Gauntlet, and flicked the cupboard shut. The kid wanted to act like a brat? He could get his own candy. “We used manners in his household” he sniffed, turning away from the kid and perusing his haul. Peter came up close, as he usually did. And wasn’t that interesting? That the kid had zero concept of personal space.

More so, when Peter curled slender fingers around his bicep and leaned across, resting against his side as he stole a packet of cookies. Tony snatched them back, scowling. His cookies. Peter arched a brow, letting go of his arm and leaning backwards slightly. “Manners” Tony reminded him, curling his arms around his bundle.

Peter leaned in again, making the hairs on Tony’s arms prickle. “Maybe you should teach me some” the boy muttered, low and sweet. If Tony hadn’t been acutely aware of his desire for munchies, he would have missed the crinkle of the packet Peter closed his hand around, and his own shot out, bare fingers curling over Peter’s wrist, tight.

Peter froze, eyes wide and pupils blowing as he stood stock still, staring at the place where Tony gripped. Firm, not enough to hurt or bruise. Peter’s lips parted with a soft breath and Tony twitched, letting go. He knew that look. Peter seemed to blink himself into reality, gaze flickering almost sheepishly up to Tony’s face. Tony’s mind flashed to the hours before, his hands, Peter’s cart, and he scooped up his candy, huffing.

Like a grown ass adult who makes his own choices, he locked himself back in his lab and passed out somewhere around 6am. He awoke to JARVIS prompting him, managed to drag himself into a suit and was snatching an apple from the fruit bowl, struggling to do up his tie one-handed when Peter coughed lightly from besides him. “You look like shit” he remarked, advancing. Tony bit into his apple with more force than he needed to, ready to snap back when Peter came closer, reaching out.

“Your hair is messy and your tie is sloppy. If you’re gonna be my- If you’re going to be announcing you’re responsible for me, you need to look better than that” Peter added, voice stumbling over itself as he grasped Tony’s tie, dexterous fingers re-doing the mess he’d made of it. He sucked in a breath, not even daring to chew his apple as Peter fiddled, before he was grasping the knot and the end tail, sliding it up slowly. He swallowed his mouthful whole then, feeling how Peter tested the tightness before he dropped his hands, blinking up at Tony.

“Fix your hair” he commanded, turning away but not really moving away as he ducked down for the cereal. Tony blinked, but obliged, setting down his apple to catch his reflection on the polished tile wall, smoothing his hair into something akin to styled. Besides him, Peter glanced, eyes widening slightly, as though he hadn’t expected Tony to do it. Tony told himself he did it because if he didn’t, Pepper would do it. Less...Nicely.

“Say nice things about me” Peter called as Tony moved away, hurrying for the elevator before Pepper took it upon herself to come up and collect him. She had this startling ability to tell when his 53-hours-without-sleep look was from emotions, and when it was from simply getting distracted. She would know his stint was nothing to do with nightmares or the like, and she would treat him as such.

Peter didn’t look at him as the doors closed, but he was waiting when Tony got back. He’d evidently been watching the statement, the TV on and already playing the remainder of the news. Tony raised a brow, loosening his tie as he beelined for the kitchen. There wasn’t enough coffee in the world. The announcement had gone remarkably well, frankly. He announced the official adoption of Peter and the press ate it up. Pepper had called it quits after 15 minutes of questioning.

“Did I meet your standards?” He asked, setting the coffee maker to double espresso. Behind him, from the couch, Peter grunted.

“It was nothing major. You hardly sang my praises” he responded, shrugging. Tony could feel the prickles running down his spine. Statements always pent him up. Always gave him a headache. In fact, so did most social interactions.

“Stop being such an ass- Stop being so stroppy and I’ll be sure to sing them next time” he muttered in response, pouring his coffee. He didn’t really have the patience for this, not today. He was running on bare, dying fumes and his hands shook when he poured the liquid. He kept his sunglasses on, shying away from the lights. He was going to drink his coffee, shower, and pass out for the next 24 hours.

“Rude” Peter remarked, having somehow moved from the couch in the midst of Tony’s mind chatting away to itself. He approached, reaching out and gently taking hold of Tony’s wrist, pulling it away from his mug. He made a grumpy sound, fingers closing around air as he looked across at Peter, perplexed. “Bed. You. Now” the boy announced, tugging his arm, his touch still light. It would take nothing for Tony to pull away.

“I have things to do” he protested, reaching for his mug again. Peter pulled more firmly this time, tugging him sideways a step.

“No. You don’t. You are going to go to bed. And when you wake up, you are going to shower” Peter replied, turning, but keeping his grip. He pulled Tony, who resisted petulantly for a moment, before following. It occurred to him then, that Peter had never been to his room. It also reminded him of his fantasising, and he made another grumpy sound, but followed along. Peter actually stopped outside his door, letting go and folding his arms.

Tony waited. It took exactly fourteen seconds for Peter to roll his eyes, turning his body away from the door and motioning. “JARVIS?”.

JARVIS, the traitor, slid the door open without remark. Peter smirked, head tilting at Tony. “There. Your internet bestie agrees with me. Now get to bed and actually sleep” the boy argued again, his tone firm. And Tony...Tony was Tony fucking Stark. He was a billionaire. Iron Man. The adult. He owned this Tower. He could tell Peter to fuck off. Could send him to his room. Could roll his eyes, walk away and lock himself in a lab.

But what did he actually do? He wilted, like a picked flower. Dropped his head and grumbled but moved past Peter, who kept his back to the open door. It was the most respect he had shown since they met. He moved to his bedside, took off his watch and his tie. It was then he realised Peter was still there, back to the door, which was still open. “What are you, a Sentinel?” He asked, tossing aside his belt.

“No. I’m gonna stand here until you’re in bed. Then I’m gonna go” Peter shot back, whole body twitching like he wanted to turn around. But he didn’t, he leaned back against the wall near the door, head ducked a little as he waited. Tony scoffed, but Peter did not appear to be lying, even as Tony stripped to his bare boxers and went to his walk in. The boy didn’t turn, either.

Comfortable shirt on, he sank into his bedding (fresh from his...Escapades) and folded his hands on his chest, raising an eyebrow. After a moment, JARVIS piped up.

Sir has fulfilled your demands, Mr. Parker.

What a way to phrase things. But Peter simply nodded, moving away, and the door slid shut behind his retreating form. Tony squinted at it for a little longer, before he huffed and rolled over, tugging his pillow to his chest. “J, same as usual. Lights, Rainy Day” he mumbled, burrowing into his bedding. He only slightly mourned his coffee.

He slept a good 12 hours, woke up groggily sometime in the early night. Fixed himself enough food to feed a horse and walked slowly past Peter’s door. The shower was running and Tony recognised one of his playlists making it’s rounds. He worked until around 1 am, retiring to bed shortly after to try and get his internal clock ticking on the right scale again. JARVIS had politely reminded him of a board meeting, and Tony had no desire to be both bored to death and mind-numbingly tired.

Peter wasn’t around when he left his room, fixing himself a smoothie and taking the elevator down. In the foyer, however, there was a considerable mountain of Amazon boxes and Tony jerked, snorting his smoothie rather unattractively.

He edged out of the elevator, sticking to the wall as though the boxes were a rabid, caged animal. He wiped at his burning nose, keeping his head ducked and his gaze down as he inched towards the door, where Happy was waiting for him. “Shopping spree, boss?” The man asked, already opening the door for him. Tony coughed again, shaking his head.

“Not mine, Hogan. Kid was bored” he responded, sinking into the leather and closing his eyes. He knew what was in those boxes. Knew the smaller ones likely contained the plugs and the lube. That the longer, thinner ones were undoubtedly the dildos. He twitched in his seat, rather pale.

The board meeting was supposed to be about the latest military contract. Tony hadn’t agreed to relinquish any Iron Man tech to the Government nor it’s Military, but he had agreed to help them advance their own products. Instead it was a flurry of talk about his statement, about Peter. How was the kid doing? Was it strange? Did he still get laid now he was a father? Did girls find it more attractive, or less?

He had a headache by the time he returned, slumping against the elevator wall. The only small mercy (if he could consider it one) was that Peter had collected his parcels. Except that meant that they were now in Peter’s room. Probably in Peter. He gripped the rail, knuckles white. It was like now he’d thought about it once, his mind was unable to lock the door, the thoughts invading his mind on a near constant basis. It was a terrible affliction of the mind. The inability to stop thoughts.

The elevator opened and Tony practically whimpered at the sight of his coffee machine, stepping out of the elevator and halfway across the room before he stopped, head cocking. It was faint, but there, like white noise, there was a quiet, discreet buzzing. Or, it would have been discreet. If not for the panting that accompanied it. Immediately his legs felt wobbly, as though he were a newborn colt.

Peter’s room was opposite the kitchen. Tony risked a glance over his shoulder, caught an open door and the faint shape of Peter on his bed and he bolted for the kitchen, flinging open a cupboard obnoxiously both to act as a barrier and to alert Peter of his presence. No sounds changed, Peter panting steadily, the odd moan breaking the litany. He ought to cough. Maybe bang a mug on the counter or something.

He really, really shouldn’t look.

Really.

Shouldn’t.

He shifted, glanced. Peter was on his hands and knees on his bed, face buried in the sheets and turned towards the wall. His hair was fluffed, as though he’d been tugging it. His ass was high in the air, his spine arched to the point Tony was sure it wasn’t comfortable. He was reaching backwards, holding steady what looked to be a slender vibrator.

Tony twisted, forehead bouncing off the open cupboard door as he jerked away, snatched up an orange and fled to his room. He felt dirty. Like some kind of back-alley pervert. The fact he was almost half-hard did nothing to ease his mind as he kicked aside his sheets, collapsing against his bed. He ought to think of something disgusting. Maybe have JARVIS pull up some surgery videos.

But Tony was a weak man when it came to indulging himself. He threw aside his panic fruit, pressing the heel of his palm harshly against his firming cock and grinding up against it, pressing his head back against the pillow. “Fuck. Fucking kid. M’gonna die” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut as he thrust against his palm, teeth grinding. It was messy, rough. He came with sparks behind his eyes and slunk off to the shower, leaning heavily against the wall with dead eyes as he contemplated his actions.

Hell, he thought numbly. He belonged in Hell.

Except...The anger, the betrayal, the disgust. It never came. Not from Peter, at least. And there was no way the boy didn’t know he had seen him. Tony waited until darkness to slip from his room, avoiding food (though his stomach protested) and locking himself down in Lab 2. Aside from that day, Peter had not come down here, and Tony presumed he was safe.

Until his music dimmed, somewhere after sunrise and he looked up, nearly stabbing himself in the arm with the screwdriver. Peter was walking down the steps, a plate in one hand and a mug in the other. For a brief moment, Tony thought Peter was bringing him food. Then he remembered what Peter actually was (Hellspawn) and relented to the fact he was likely here to call Tony a pervert and demand half the company in compensation.

Except Peter set the plate and mug down, peering curiously at the thigh guard he was dismantling, offered a small smile, and left. Tony dropped the plate he was holding, cursed as it landed on his foot. The coffee was as black as coal, as he liked it. The plate held a stir fry, meaty and seasoned nicely.

“J. Am I still sleeping?” He asked, taking the fork and poking cautiously at it. Perhaps Peter intended to poison him?

You are fully conscious, Sir. All vital signs and brain functions are as per.

“Is it poisoned? Spat on? Is it made with worms?” He continued, twirling a section of noodle on the fork.

I would alert you if it was, Sir.

“Thanks” he responded drily, reaching for the coffee instead.

The day got weirder from there. Peter asked about the meeting, cleaned his room, even offered to cook dinner later in the evening. Tony had walked smack into the coffee table at that, howling as the pain radiated down his calf. Peter had fetched him an ice pack and hadn’t even made a brutal remark.

It made Tony suspicious, his mind throwing together various calculations. Peter was acting nice. Was more tactile. Hadn’t even told Tony to fuck off yet.

Huh.

It lasted roughly two days. Tony knew this because on the second morning he and Peter collided in the kitchen, Peter’s glass of milk spilling down Tony’s silk, maroon shirt.

Peter promptly told him to fuck himself, slammed the glass down, and stomped off to his room.

Huh.

#Starker #IronSpider #Starker Fic #Prompt Fills #IronSpider Fic #Tony Stark/Peter Parker #Peter Parker x Tony Stark #Starker Fill #Starker Request #IronSpider Request #ironspider prompt #Peter Parker/Tony Stark #Starker AU #IronSpider AU

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megamanxfanfics · 3 years

Text

Looking back at the 1st Nightmare Arc

Well folks, here we are. It’s the end of the year and I successfully completed Season VI’s first arc! Today, it’s all about celebrating with an honest take on how I feel it all went down. No backstories on what took so long this time. Just all Mega lore and analyzing whatever I’ve managed to create in the Fanon. So let’s dive into it. This was an interesting one:

tl;dr? - Ep. 1: Boring Beginning, Exciting Middle Ep. 2: Steady Solid Stage! Ep. 3: Long Stage, Big Payoff Ep. 4: Strong Start, Very Expository Ep. 5: Another Long Stage, but not Draining Ep. 6: Reverse Pacing Ep. 7: Epic. As. Fuck.

Ep. 1: I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but Boring Beginning. I wanted it to start just like the game with the exciting narrative intro, except.. written out, it’s not all that exciting, but instead - expected. The same goes for Gate’s immediate monologue when you press start. I took the safe, easy route and just added stage directions to his discovery of Zero’s “piece”. Regardless, this was “A Broken World”, and I loved that title for a new Season #1. Honestly, I feel like this one really picks up from the middle, onward. Once we get into X’s first mission, the addition of the new reploids from the X5 ending didn’t really help at all. I got rid of them almost as soon as I introduced them, but it was supposed to serve a purpose. It was supposed to show us just how dangerous it is out there for noobies - especially the ones who think they know it all, like Cody. Once X fights High Max though, we almost mirrored the X1 feeling, which is exactly what I wanted. From here on, it’s pretty exciting and interesting to me. Because now X is all intrigued and worried about these new “Investigators” that have sprouted up. Giving X someone to fear again with High Max made for a really refreshing touch, too. Once he gets home to learn about them from Alia, the episode heavily leans on flashbacks from Xtreme 2, but they serve as a nice re-introduction to our 8 Investigators. I also really liked their Re-activation scene. That mirrored the vibe from Mega Missions when Doppler revived his select batch of Mavericks. Once they pinpoint their locations and X finds out that 3 of the Investigators are in Brazil, he wants to go there first. I feel such a hyped jolt of excitement at that Cliffhanger.

Ep. 2: Steady Solid Stage! It took forever to write out, but upon reading it, the pacing is surprisingly smooth as X explores the Amazon Forest. Calling it “The Nightmare Is Real” based on a random Rescued Reploid’s words was a little weak at first, but it comes back around to get real meaning by the end. During the stage, X’s dialogue with Iso kept things interesting, while he pursued that near-impossible sub-tank. [I swear, you can only acquire this with a jump part equipped, or exposing AI with the fire blade or something...]. I really really didn’t want X to use his Ultimate Armor so soon, for nothing, because I’ve added stakes to such a game-breaking power up. If he uses it, he blows out all of his stamina and needs to rest. Period. Using this to rescue Iso was not only a waste, but things probably would’ve gone down very differently, later. Anyway, that fight with Commander Yammark was perfect. At first, I thought it was a little short, but looking back on it, I love how they both get solid blows in, but then come to a standstill when they realize they’re on the same side. Having Nightmare Zero intervene was absolutely the right choice!! It gave us a new hook for something to come back to, as yet again, X had someone new to fear, like in X1. Since it’s an evil Zero, I’ll even say like X2. This is where the title “The Nightmare is Real” works, because... the Zero Nightmare was absolutely a sentient problem. And it wasn’t going away any time soon. X had to retreat and get out of there. Thank God for Alia’s force-teleporting. Pushing Alia's Love Interest during the debrief was also a very exciting development. I knew I wanted to do this, but at first I wasn’t sure if it was too soon to happen right here. Now, I feel like it was just right.

Ep. 3: Long stage, big payoff. Starting with Isoc’s report to Gate was actually not as boring as the 1st episode canon scenes. I made more of an effort to wake the scene up with stage directions or dialogue that makes more sense... Them talking about the possibility of Zero still being alive also sets up mysterious intrigue. Is he still out there?? And if so, how??? Will we see him???? Naming the entire episode, “The Outlier”, however is misleading. I suppose that could connect to Ground Scaravich, who wasn’t one of Gate’s original creations (in my Fanon). Still, giving X & Alia that slice of life romantic wake up scene at the near-beginning was absolutely refreshing. Not only that, but I think it was very necessary. Things are all Doom and Gloom this Season, which is my forte, but this shows that at Home you can still find happiness in Loved ones. The actual stage itself was an absolute pain in the ass and I knew it was going to be. I'm just glad it didn't completely burn me out. His fight with Ground Scaravich was bad ass though. X had the rare upper hand from the get-go as the menacer that Scaravich was afraid of. So he came in with confident energy and tried to beat him down for information. Of course, Scaravich didn’t let up and only revealed worse information, that those Reploids were being used for DNA Data. But that cliffhanger I left at the end, with Zero Nightmare applauding X for his kill...! It definitely helped me pursue a much sooner Chapter 4.

Ep. 4: Strong Start with the Zero Nightmare fight. I had a big challenge here, because I didn’t want X to win yet. We needed to build this feud and drag it out as much as possible. Zero Nightmare was gaining new motivation. He apparently knows about Zero’s existence, but thinks of him as a Fake. And thus we have the title “Where Is The Fake?”. Having X get weakened and willingly teleport away was a really mature choice. I think it shows growth. He could’ve done that plenty of times in the past. But here we go, X is wounded again.. I didn't want this to become a trope or slow us down, but it brought upon some very necessary world building and character development for the new reploids. Very much, the expository episode, this was an important chapter, because it set up things for future episodes and kept me on track, months later when it was time to think about the bigger picture. Kassy & Hal went to the Magma Area while Tack checked out the Laser Institute. The Nightmare System was in full effect now, and the goal was to show how dangerous the Nightmare actually is to some red shirts, before X goes in there. How effective that actually was in my execution, remains to be seen. At this point the episode title remains prominent, because X expresses sincere interest in finding the Real Zero, but they have... zero leads. (Sorry, I had to.) The Villains even had an interesting follow-up about Scaravich’s death and there was an interaction, which vaguely eluded to something new happening, from Metal Shark. So that will be something fun to look forward to. Ending at the beginning of a new stage is always a cool cliffhanger. Believe it or not, I wanted this to go all the way through the Rainy Turtloid stage, which would have given the title prominence for a 3rd time. But that’s okay.

Ep. 5: Another Long Stage, but its not half as draining as the Central Museum. In fact, all of the Reploid Interactions kept it really lively. Especially by the end. The Inami Temple was the first stage that I could hint at our location with the episode title - “Nightmare Rain”. I wish I could’ve done that for the previous episodes, but it’s alright. I took some interesting risks, during this stage write-through. I almost forgot about that frickin Monbando Reploid unit. I took a real risk by giving him an AI, but he keeps things interesting, giving X someone to talk to, which actually added levity to the situation where appropriate. That Nightmare Zero encounter mid-stage was what it was all about for me, though. I'm really proud of that one, using the stage layout to my advantage in an innovative way. All of that Levy stuff with Rescue Reploid 6 was another interesting choice. I have more in store for her, but I'm really hoping there will be more of a payoff, than just an Easter Egg Cameo. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can do with her in the next arc. Need I bring up X’s Reploid rescues in the Gaia Armor!?? That was a bright idea that I came up with after post-planning. The original plan was to have X revisit the stage later, but I thought about how this Acid Rain was killing them, so... time to settle the issue of an unused Armor. [X6 granting us the gift of using a modified Fifth Armor was nice, but it made me wonder, why can’t he access the Gaia anymore?]. The answer was just that he doesn’t really like it. But he used it to his advantage here, and now I had a new challenge ahead of me. I had to get rid of it. Another challenge was posed when X discovered a fucking portal in one of the tunnels. I wasn’t prepared for that! But thankfully, I was able to come up with a viable excuse rather than just X being scared of the portal. He ran out of teleporter rings!!!! This gave me new Fanon Mega-science to add to the stakes. Teleporter Rings now need a day to recharge, and it was clear that plenty more needed to be made. This gave Alia & Douglas something to do, so in the end, this was all good. But now it was time for X to face off against Rainy Turtloid. He’d have to come back for the others later. [Time will tell, how well or poorly that is handled, depending on how long it takes X to actually get back there.]

Ep. 6: This one basically had Reverse Pacing, but I liked it. It started with a Climactic, Rainy Turtloid fight. I mean, this was Epic and fucking Brutal. Thanks to my brilliant bring-back of the Gaia Armor, now Turtloid had to take it away and break the shit out of it. This is where “The Fight Becomes Dire” and I thought it was amazing. In my planning phase, that was never remotely on the table, but it worked out wonderfully. What was on the table was X possibly using his Ultimate Armor if the battle got too brutal, but I wanted to avoid that. [I had done practice playthroughs where I managed to get X to win in Normal Armor and definitely in Falcon Armor with some select weapon spamming and pattern memorizing. I was open to keeping it simple, I really was.]. But after X got smacked around like a bitch, it was time for payback. Especially considering Turtloid’s motivation to fight was “But I have to listen to Master...” Here we had the interesting case that both Men respected each other and didn’t want to fight, but they had to. {Even though X thought the Reploid Trapping and Nightmare acceptance was reprehensible}. X primarily focussed on that and tried to change Turtloid’s mind, but once his Gaia Armor was destroyed and X nearly died, it was time for some Ultimate payback. I’m really surprised by how epic and dark it got. I’m very proud of it. After the mission, due to some very necessary stakes and power limiters, X had to sit out for a day again, once again slowing our pacing down to a screeching halt. This one hurt me, I think. At least he wasn't injured this time... As I stated before, when I made the decision to include the Ultimate Armor into this Season, I did so knowing that there needed to be a price. It comes with him using up all his stamina. Therefore, he can't spam it with every mission or battle. The same rules applied to his shotokan moves in Season I & II, which have basically been replaced by the Ultimate Armor at this point. With more opportunity at exposition, however, I was able to follow up on the new reploids, who were now in trouble at their respective missions. [This is the stuff I needed to give X motivation for his mission choices during the planning phase, but it just wasn’t there]. And yet, one was debatably set up too soon. I had a new dilemma, where X was forced to sit out, while Kassy & Hal are stuck at the Magma Area, hurt. The choice to show X training the recruits in the meantime was a fun risk to take though. It showed productivity and progress in the downtime, hopefully eluding to the idea that these newbies can fend for themselves, while it inevitably takes X a while to save them in the future. I also got to develop Levy more and even create some juicy tension between her and Alia, which wasn’t originally planned. I had intended for a 2nd sex scene with Alia to happen at some point, but I didn't want it to be forced. Just more of an implied - ‘this is what’s happening while we wait’. But the addition of Levy’s flirting played into Alia’s insecurities, which gave it more of a purpose. And poor Douglas! Hahahaha. I was so tickled when I put that in out of nowhere. We got some much needed levity when he wanted to show X a new part, but instead he overheard them having sex and walked away with a “Nope!” lol!!! Its becoming very clear that I enjoy the in-between mission slice of life stuff Way more than the missions themselves. But then, when we get back to it... after X gave it a night, he and Signas found every excuse not to save Kassy & Hal yet, because my Stage Order plan still needed to be in play... At least Tack discovered that Portal at Sheldon’s stage. This saved my Stage Order Motivation, but it was still weak. If only Zero was around, then they could split the difference. But what I liked about this was that it showed just how bad of shape that X and co. were in. Yet again, the episode title remained prominent. “The Fight Becomes Dire”! The truth is, they were all over the place and X didn't know where to go first. For the first time in a while, our Hunters are overwhelmed and understaffed. And that was really noticeable here. I still think the ending is kinda weak though. There's no real cliffhanger other than knowing that X will pursue Shield Sheldon next. But overall, I liked the flow of this. There's a lot of forced slow downs in the momentum to have us sit with the characters and their decisions. It makes for a very different, sort of dismal pacing, which adds to the atmosphere of this looming Nightmare that won’t go away. One noticeable thing, however is that I failed to follow up on the Villains this time around. I had an ample opportunity to follow up on Gate’s thoughts for losing Turtloid again, who was debatably his favorite creation. I really botched that up, but I simply didn’t think of it at the time before posting. So who knows? That could be possible room for improvement in a future edit. Either way, the Villains are sure to be due for a check in soon.

Ep. 7: Epic. As. Fuck. But it took a minute to get there. Shield Sheldon's stage was more complicated to write through than I originally thought. Its the shortest stage in the game and yet all those damn lasers and their angles made for quite the challenge. This in itself, was a “Laser Light Phenomena”. Another immense challenge that I wasn't expecting was Sheldon's battle completely Flipping the Narrative on X. Admittedly, I really had a hard time finding motivation for those 2 to feud. Especially since he wasn't holding a grudge based on the past. I noticed a while ago, all of Gate's creations are so very willing to sacrifice themselves for Gate's cause. Like, to a nonsensical degree. Maybe that's their degree of Maverickism. They're just crazy... Anyway, this Deadlock Standstill might really play into my favor, since this recent Portal Experience is going to change X's motivations. I... don't want X to take a backseat, but... Rescuing the Reploids is going to be his 1st Priority from here on in. Especially since he wasn't able to save Tack and the bunch. Again, thats where stakes come into play. I didn't come into this episode knowing I was going to make that decision. But when I saw the layout of the "Pocket Dimension" as I'm calling it, and I factored in the time Tack spent in there, trying to rescue the Reploids by himself, there was no way I could have them all just hang out at a narrow ledge by the gate, or stuck in the gateway, scared. I wasn't gonna pull a lame idea that they managed to somehow unlock the gate, like I did with Data. (That can be the one trait that makes Data special and could play into his advantage in the future. But no one else's). Nightmare Zero wouldn't spare them either. He'd absolutely kill them in bloodlust. So... stakes were created. X took too long to catch up to him and thats what he gets. That last battle with ZN though... I'm really proud of where it went. I had some obvious limits this time compared to past Zero fights. That could be an analysis for another time.. But, I was happy to get pretty gorey by the end, there. And that pay off Cliff Hanger was so satisfying! It gives me all the feels.

The 2nd Arc is going to feel very different. But we ain't out of the woods yet. Rereading the 1st Arc served as a dual purpose. Not only could I gush about my favorite moments or be open about my choices and how things came out, but it is starting to reveal where else it's going. Kassy & Hal still need rescuing at the Magma Area. Cody & Data are at the North Pole! Tekk is at the Weapon Center. X still needs to save whoever is in the portal at Inami Temple! Let alone revisiting the Amazon and Central Museum again. Exposition is just waiting to happen, and now that Zero is back?? Things are going to get easier, but also a little bit harder for X. One thing I can definitely say is that seeing him will bring back some Unwanted Memories. And its gonna be very interesting to see how he deals with that. I'm definitely looking forward to writing the 2nd Arc out in the New Year.

Until then, folks. I hope you enjoyed reliving this with me. See you in 2021, which should hopefully prove to be a far more stable year than 2020. [God, I hope I didn’t just jinx everything...]

#Season VI Diaries #Looking back at the 1st Nightmare Arc #Ep. 1-7 #writing wins #writing woes #X #Alia #Investigators #New Reploids #Zero Nightmare #unexpected dilemmas #writing out of pitfalls #stakes #limits #forced slowdowns #dismal atmosphere #navigating dystopian writing

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