#// that’s not to say i pin all of his bad behavior on his hoarding or his childhood trauma

[rejectshumanity]

*deep breath* alright gang! let’s talk about dio’s childhood trauma, his compulsive need to maintain control and show off through materialism, and how it all manifests in his hoarding tendencies 🙂

( major tw for mentions of childhood abuse, alcoholism, food insecurity, hoarding, and discussions of mental illness )

along with his father’s alcoholism, and the physical and verbal abuse he and his mother suffered at his hands, dio’s early childhood was defined by food insecurity. although his mother tried her best to ensure he was well fed, often skipping meals herself so that he could have something to eat, dario’s excessive drinking and philandering meant that the family was often without money for food. not only that, as dio grew older, he started running away from home to escape the abuse, spending multiple days at a time on the streets. 

as a result, he developed a compulsive habit of hoarding his food, and hiding it to store for later. once he started doing this, he never let himself finish a full meal, no matter how hungry he was at the time — the idea of being without food in light of the very real possibility there wouldn’t be any at home was a source of great anxiety. this habit became so ingrained in dio that for several months following his adoption, he would continue to steal food from the kitchen whenever he got the chance, hiding it in various places throughout the joestar mansion. naturally, he was too prideful to let on that he was doing this; the few times his stashes were discovered, he let jojo take the fall for it.

even then, a lack of food was just one of many contributing factors to dio's feelings of insecurity. when he lived in poverty, he had almost no possessions to call his own, and whatever he did have was liable to vanish. often, he would return home to discover that his cherished collections of novels and penny magazines were gone, sold in his absence for drinking money. sometimes, if dario was on a particularly expensive bender, he would even sell off his son's spare clothes for booze, leaving dio with nothing but the shirt on his back.

dio learned early in his childhood that whatever few possessions he managed to cling onto could be forcibly taken away from him at any time, that he can’t trust anyone not to steal from him for their own gain, and that he must always be prepared to fight tooth and nail to prevent this from happening. 

consider this scene from phantom blood. when dio first arrives at the joestar mansion, he reacts instinctively — violently —when jonathan attempts to carry his bag.

now, you could interpret this scene as just another instance of dio being shitty to jojo as a part of his master plan to bully him into submission, and i wouldn't necessarily disagree. but given how impoverished his childhood was, how little possessions he had, and how insecure and tenuous his hold on those few possessions was, this moment in particular really does come across as a trauma reaction to me. it's evident in the way he appears so alarmed when jonathan reaches for his bag, and how immediately and viciously he lashes out without a second's hesitation. i have no doubt too that he’s had to fend off street thieves in the past, and likely did so with a similar maneuver.

( i think it's also worth mentioning that with this interpretation, this moment becomes one of the earliest incidents in which we see dio's mask visibly slip, followed by his furtive efforts to save face. even considering his desire to be cruel to jojo, he acts entirely on impulse here. i'm particularly fascinated by the way he mentions wanting a servant to carry his bag, like he’s trying to excuse his trauma response as righteous indignation, and how quickly he composes himself again after the violent outburst. )

it's not until we get to stardust crusaders though, that this aspect of DIO's trauma visibly manifests in a severe hoarding problem. by this point, the state of DIO's home has become both a reflection of his current state of mind, and a long established pattern of sickness stemming from his childhood experiences. the lack of security he felt as a child in regard to his possessions never really went away. once he has the power and the capital to do so, he spends a significant amount of time seeking out rare and valuable items in the pursuit of luxury, attempting to impress his followers and affirm his delusions through the sheer magnitude of his wealth while failing to see his hoarding for the mental health problem that it clearly is.

he is aware, at least on a subconscious level, that his piles of miscellaneous treasure are unsightly. the mansion’s foyer is kept relatively clear of clutter for the sake of appearances, but the deeper into the house you get, the more objects there are to step over. he’s filled multiple rooms with piles upon piles of gold and jewels, paintings and sculptures, luxury clothing, weapons and artifacts, rare instruments, expensive wine, books and books and more books, but he doesn't take the time to organize or arrange anything. his piles of possessions are interspersed with the occasional dead bodies of his leftovers, lost amid his vast hoard and overlooked by whoever's on housekeeping duty. it's the perfect visual representation of DIO's dangerous appetites, and ultimately, his emptiness as a person. it's as visually chaotic as it is profoundly disturbing; as hollow and meaningless and destructive as DIO's pursuits.

quite honestly, DIO doesn’t even remember acquiring most of his hoard, and he stopped keeping an inventory of it all long ago. he is even willing to acknowledge that his obsession with wealth and power doesn’t actually bring him happiness. of course, that's not to say he would be willing to give any of it up. simply put, he must have it all. regardless of any fleeting moments of self awareness, the hoarding remains a fixation — a sad reflection of his insatiable desire to acquire more, and more, and more, despite knowing deep down that he can never truly be satisfied. 

last but not least, i headcanon that in addition to hoarding objects, DIO collects interesting people. naturally, he favors stand users and others with special abilities for their usefulness to his cause. there are a rare few he keeps around purely for their company, although for most of them, i wouldn't consider it friendship. a better equivalence would be a cat who spares a mouse, so it can play with its food instead.

[twothpaste]

Thoughts about Porky?

my thoughts on porky are such a vast tangled web of forever spaghetti that i'm not even sure where to begin or what to pin down. the premise of a tormented child ascending to near-godhood out of sheer misanthropic spite towards the whole wide world makes my brain do backflips like a sea world dolphin. i'll ramble a bit about him.

he's ness' foil. just two chubby kids who probably grew up with their (un)fair share of bullying. the only thing distinguishing them was the familial abuse porky suffered, which he inevitably regurgitated. then destiny comes along, choosing ness over porky, and the jealousy just eats porky alive. watching his bestie accumulate friends and accolades, unable to accept it's his own rotten behavior that's driven a wedge between them. gotta imagine the burden of cutting porky off was almost unbearable for ness. somethin' that keeps him up at night, wondering if he'd just been a little kinder, or sterner, or more understanding - maybe he could've saved his old friend? not quite yet realizing it was Not At All his responsibility to "fix" someone who'd dug his grave and laid in it. porky's the kinda bad guy you love to hate, but considering his upbringing, you hesitate to blame the poor schmuck. all he knows is authority and manipulation. if you gave any ornery ostracized thirteen year old unlimited power - instead of empathy and guidance - they'd probably go down the path of vengeance, too.

he's lucas' foil. both of 'em were given plenty of reasons to hate the world. when faced with an unhappy childhood, do you choose love anyways, and move forward? or do you let it become your villain origin story? porky refuses to grow up, to such an extreme degree, that he's gotta drag everybody down into neverland with him. thinks he's got human nature all figured out, when really - kid dropped out in eighth grade - his expertise starts at the middle school lunch table and ends at Lord of the Flies. where lucas seeks to bring about a brighter future, porky's terminally obsessed with the past. barfs up the same old hierarchical capitalist bullshit he grew up with. hoards memorabilia. makes monuments to his warped nostalgia, as if anyone on the nowhere islands knows or cares. even tries to mold lucas into a makeshift ness - one last final battle, one last chance for destiny to stop me, here, take this baseball bat, come get me, let's play. but it doesn't worrrrk, because the gilded past he aches for is long buried, and these people aren't actors in his self-aggrandizing biopic. where lucas wakes up and says, "i don't have to be the same coward i was yesterday," porky says, "me? change? not a chance in hell." even if it costs him everything. porky's real worst nightmare is a world that moves on without him. once he's trapped in his time capsule, that's exactly what he's got in store.

i think he's the sunk cost fallacy incarnate. the sheer momentum of a thousand horrible decisions he can never turn back on. earthbound porky might get a little bit of slack, sure. but given a bazillion years worth of opportunities to change, mother 3 porky actively chose to get worse. what fucks me up most is how real he is. can't call a villain like this "insane", or even terribly exaggerated, when i'm lookin' out the window these days at billionaires, covid deniers, fuckin' terfs and maga hats. some people really would sooner die, or become all-consuming monsters, than admit they were wrong. it's all or nothing. in his eyes, either he's a visionary hero, or everything he's ever done was irredeemably reprehensible - and all the torment and criticism and loneliness he endured was therefore deserved. he can't bear the weight of it, so he simply doesn't. that's what underpins his character, to me. like. the moment he'd admit fault, or apologize, or express an ounce of regret? he'd cease to be porky. denying himself the human capacity to grow, forever, just to spare his fragile ego. could almost pity him. almost.

a perfect villain for both of the stories he terrorizes, and my favorite villain in anything ever. when itoi said "porky is truly a poem in himself" he wasn't kidding.

[bontenten]

The Choosing

Pairing: Daichi x f!reader (ft. Captain Squad <3 and Sakusa)

WC: 3.2k

Genre/Warnings: Crack/Bad Humor, Smut, Romance, Reverse Harem, Royalty AU!, mention or hints of size kink, exhibitionism, creampie, breeding kink, dick and ball worship, you’re perverted and gross

Summary: You are the Princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym and you need to choose a husband.

Repost from my main because I say so. Lee... :gru: i miss u

Also, no beta we die like Daichi.

It’s a tradition carried through many, many generations that the daughters of nobility from the Kingdom of YoreNaym must choose a suitor from the eligible bachelors from the neighboring kingdoms. It’s a show of kinship to the other kingdoms and also a means of securing peace.

At some point, everyone’s sister’s cousin’s second uncle’s sworn brother’s adopted daughter’s nephew twice-removed will be related and connect back to the Kingdom of YoreNaym. In short, the blood of this kingdom’s daughters unite the lands. No incest, there’s enough genetic diversity, if you will. And because you are also a princess of this kingdom, it’s your turn. Yay.

While growing up, you hear the elders say that the youngsters should be grateful that they have the agency to at least pick a suitor. They spin their looms and cackle, reminiscing that, “Back in our days, we didn’t get to have a choice. Our elders appointed a spouse for us from whichever kingdom had a suitor. Unlike you girls who get to choose, ungrateful wenches…”

Does it really matter? It’s just the false pretense of choice, isn’t it? At the end of the day the selection of eligible bachelors are all chosen ahead of time, deemed worthy, and then after the initial picking, you are just allowed to pick. It doesn’t matter who you choose, any one of them will fit the criteria. Maybe you’ll just close your eyes and pick one randomly. Can you actually say, “I’ll choose my own hand and marry myself.”

That’s pretty brave, hell yea that’s a main character move right there. Speaking of which, who are the eligible bachelors you can choose from today? It’s practically your engagement day, yet you really haven’t been paying any attention at all.

“Hey,” you whisper, lifting the curtain of the palanquin. A maid quickly answers to your beckon.

“Yes, my lady?”

“Who are the candidates today again? You have a...list or brochure of sorts?”

“Just a moment, my lady, I’ll retrieve the scroll for you.”

You open the scroll and peruse the contents. Huh, all the neighboring kingdoms are going all out this year. There’s the Kingdoms of Nekoma, Inarizaki, Fukurodani, Aoba Johsai, Shiratorizawa...Wow, even Johzenji and Nohebi have candidates? Funny, all of these are all presenting their crown princes too. As they should, you are the most beloved princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym, and the suitor you choose will bring you back as a blessing to his kingdom. It’s a total bummer that the Kingdom of Itachiyama isn’t participating this year. Sakusa’s crown prince succession is next year! You have heard so many swoon worthy stories about that princeling, even paid handsome amounts of money for paparazzi paintings of the beautiful man. No one will find out that the princess of YoreNaym actually hoards little pictures of Prince Sakusa in her panties drawers. It’s a shame you aren’t picking your husband next year.

There’s one more Kingdom on the list that surprises you. Kingdom of Karasuno, or more commonly referred to as the Kingdom of “Fallen Crows”. According to legends, they used to be quite a prosperous kingdom, but after a few generations of inept leadership, a drought, and poor trade economy...the Kingdom has mostly faded into obscurity. It’s been years since a suitor candidate has been offered. So who is it?

“Sawamura Daichi,” you whisper to yourself, “Interesting.”

The festival ground outdoors is especially grand. There are a huge number of tables prepared off to the side for guests. Trays of food, fruits and wine are provided for every single guest in attendance. You are led by the attendants to the temporary throne seat as the guest of honor. As you make your way to the throne, all the guests stand up to acknowledge your entrance. It’s so pressuring and a part of you wishes you can just dig a hole and bury yourself on the spot. You don’t even want to think about how many eyes are on you. They are all just jealous because, really. Take my word for it, I’m the narrator.

When you take a seat, the guests reseat themselves. A shaman comes to the center stage and bows to you.

“My lady, the time is auspicious, let us commence the Festival of Unity. At this time, I’ll be introducing the eligible bachelors from neighboring kingdoms near and far. They have passed the arduous tests and come as the best to offer in asking for your hand. Each of the suitors will present to you with a talent or skill, as to show you their excellence. After the demonstrations, you will be allowed to take your pick. Whereupon you will—”

“Okay, I get it! They will participate in a talent show, we clap, and I choose a husband, I got it!” You snap, cutting the shaman’s words off. Your patience is wearing thin.

A number of guests can be heard mumbling in the crowds, probably commenting on your behavior. Your eyes scan the guests, you can care less. Judgmental eyes, scheming eyes, lecherous eyes, disgusting eyes....Your gaze meeting with a pair of eyes that are absolutely blank. Wait, not blank as in emotionless. Non-judgemental? The opposite of unkind? Dare you say, polite? He gives you a smile and returns to taking a sip from his goblet. You scan his clothing up and down to look for his family crest. Black and orange. A crow. Karasuno.

Your thoughts are jumbled as an increasing amount of questions fill your mind. He? Karasuno? That Kingdom of Fallen Crows? You barely hear the shaman announce the first candidate.

“Bokuto Koutarou from Kingdom of Fukurodani.” Bokuto is a very large, very well built man. He is wearing his family crest of an owl across his back proudly. You can tell his chest is incredibly broad, the bulge of his big tiddies stretch the tight shirt he’s in. If you squint hard enough, you can maybe see the outline of his nipples through the training shirt, but maybe that’s just your perverted imagination too. Bokuto comes to the center stage and greets you.

“Hey! I’ll uh, demonstrate my strength to you, my lady.” He easily picks up a huge hunk of metal and lifts it with ease above his head. Damn beefiness, those arms of his. Seeing the bulges flex when he flexes has you dreaming of mouth along that delicious flesh. And when he pins you down under his massive body? Ooh, if this is the first demonstration, you’re excited to see the whole lineup today. Gasps and murmurs can be heard in the crowd. Bokuto grins and drops the load on the ground. You can almost feel the tremors beneath your feet. Truly, a herculean feat.

“Thank you, Bokuto, I have seen your demonstration and all those here are witnesses.”

Bokuto’s demonstration is a showy start of the competition for your hand. The shaman announces the next candidate. “Ushijima Wakatoshi from the Kingdom of Shiratorizawa.”

Ushijima walks up to the stage exuding the regal aura of nobility; a byproduct of his strict upbringing. The twin crests of an eagle decorate his shoulder pads. His expression is quite cold, but there’s a saying, “it’s always the quiet ones.” You lick your lips and study him some more.

“Greeting to the princess,” he says with a deep bow. “I also bring a demonstration of my martial prowess.” Ushijima takes off the bow and quiver of arrows from his back and nods at his attendant who then catapults three apples high up into the air. Everyone’s eyes follow the  trajectory of the objects, squinting to see what’s happening. No way.

Ushijima draws the bow back and calmly shoots one arrow, perfectly spearing the three fruits along the shaft. The crowd bursts into cheers. You also find your tight grip on armrest loosening, the tension from the scene dissipating in a moment. Ushijima’s calmness, accuracy, decision-making...he would make a very suitable partner for sure. Co-workers of sorts, that is.

You know your marriage carries a lot of weight politically and the fate of the whole universe will rest on your decision. Maybe not the whole universe, but close enough. But, marital bliss is important too right? Is Ushijima the right choice? There are still many more candidates, it’ll be best not to make a rash decision. Your gaze wanders over back to the Karasuno prince who is clapping earnestly for Ushijima’s performance. He’s acknowledging a rival’s strength, you think to yourself. Well, that’s certainly a rare but admirable trait. A confident man, he is.

After Ushijima’s demonstration, Oikawa Tooru’s enchanting musical performance offers a much desired change of pace. The rhythm and melody from his zither carries both the energy of fortitude as well as a graceful spirit. Quite stunning, but just not quite the musical vibe you’re feeling at the moment. Bummer, maybe a different day, really. Could be friends?

Kuroo Tetsurou from the Kingdom of Nekoma offers a particularly memorable performance too. Kuroo comes to the center stage with a trough filled with flames. Everyone is at a loss as to what is going on. Kuroo flashes you a grin before taking out a few pouches containing some powders. In a poof, the flames burst alive with colors blending blues and purples. And moments later yellows and greens, even reds. No one has ever seen fire change color like so.

“Witchcraft!” someone gasps.

“No it must be alchemy. Dangerous craft,” another adds.

Kuroo bows to you. “My lady, this is called chemistry, a discipline of science.”

Kuroo’s smiles teeter on the edge of flirtations and you cannot deny that your heart flutters just slightly when you see his crooked grin. He’s intelligent, humorous, and attractive. Definitely also a contender. A union with him might be fun. And especially when you see Kuroo run a hand through his messy, black locks and give you a piercing gaze, you almost wonder if this is the feeling of chemistry. It feels like you are naked under his seductive, golden eyes, completely submitted to his will and absolutely drugged. And you fear that if he sends you another one of his grins, you’ll come untouched. Dangerous, send him off immediately.

“Thank you, Kuroo, I have seen your demonstration and all those here are witnesses.”

After Kuroo, many more candidates also come to the center stage for their demonstrations. Kita Shinsuke from the Kingdom of Inarizaki composes and recites poetry on the spot. His literary talents and mastery of public speech move a very large crowd of the literati officials. Kita is a charismatic leader and commands confidence. But he doesn’t seem to be the best fit. Your brain says ‘yes’, but your coochie just isn’t feeling it. The nerve signals say no.

Terushima Yuuji demonstrates a one-man comedy show, but his storytelling skills, although humorous, fall just a little short after Kita’s. Had Terushima been slotted for a different position, perhaps he would make a stronger impact.

Daishou Suguru. Interesting. But tongue itself will eventually get boring too.

A few more candidates demonstrate their talents to you. Most of them fail to impress you at all. Your blank expression is more than enough to make a few almost shit their pants or cry on the way they exit the stage. It’s really not their fault, you’re just a bit tired after seeing so many performances and demonstrations. You are just trying to find the best fit after all. It’s your duty and responsibility as the muthereffing princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym.

“Sawamura Daichi from the Kingdom of Karasuno.”

The crowd is silent as Daichi stands up from his seat and makes his way to the center. His shoulder is relaxed and his head is held high. He doesn’t have the large build of Bokuto nor is he decked out in regal fabrics like Ushijima. His hair is simple and clean. His expression is polite and pleasant. Amongst the sea of beautiful and talented men, Daichi is like an ordinary seashell buried in the sand. But like how too many bites of dessert beckon the simplicity of water, Daichi’s humble presence makes him stand out in particular.

Daichi bows deeply. “I send my deepest regards to the princess. I am Sawamura Daichi from the Kingdom of Karasuno.”

“Please rise, Sawamura. What demonstration do you bring to me today?”

“My lady, I have nothing showy in particular. I only bring myself. And please feel free to call me Daichi.” You can feel his piercing gaze on you, confident and assertive. So he has some guts. It beckons you to submit, but you bite back. Grrrrr.

“Just yourself? That’s quite cocky of you Daichi. Others bring talents and demonstrations of qualities that make them fit as my suitor. What do you have to offer for me to choose you? Or is that something you are not looking for at all?”

“Karasuno,” Daichi begins, “Karasuno is a good kingdom. For many years long ago, our people have suffered greatly and we have gained a poor moniker. However, for the last few years, the kingdom has made significant progress and improvements. Alongside my brethren and officers of my court,” Daichi gestures to his entourage sitting off to the side, “We have come a long way. ”

“You tell me much about your home, Daichi, but what about you?”

Daichi pauses for a moment to collect his thoughts. He is well aware of the pressures you are putting on him, testing his convictions to the limit. You are a princess after all, so it’s only natural that you test his qualifications. Diachi swallows his nerves and faces your confrontation head on.

“I come to tell you the truth, my lady. I cannot hide these facts about myself or my kingdom. I am truthful, honest, but I have an unshaken belief that my kingdom will prosper because I have my closest and trusted with me. Each of them have their talents and strengths. Karasuno is a band with a bit of everything, and we’re family.”

You inwardly sigh. It seems like Daichi won’t be completely living up your hopes. At first you thought that his confident yet humble demeanor must hide something. Something incredible, because he can sit back and freely applaud other men for their talents. Something remarkable because he doesn’t feel the need to jump out in front of others. Something big. Very big.

“I don’t doubt your family’s bond or strength, but I am here to choose a suitor, a husband in layman's terms. So, I suppose that—”

“Wait,” Daichi cries out, and gestures towards his Karasuno brethren.

A tangerine head jumps up and brings out a scroll. He skips a few steps towards you and passes the document over to the shaman who brings it to you.

“My resume, if you will, my lady. I have no other talents but what is shown there.”

You glance at Daichi, studying him closely. From his clenched fist, you can tell that even in this moment, he’s a bit shaken and nervous. You undo the ties on the scroll and unravel the contents.

All eyes are fixed on you, trying to decipher every microexpression you make. The slight widened eyes, the twitch of the brow. The slight part of the lips and the deep breathes from you trying to calm the invisible fire that’s building in your core. It’s big. If the resume is accurate, Daichi’s demeanor truly is hiding a beast. A massive, humongous, schlong. Finer than any specimen you have seen in banned pictorial books you read and hide under your massive princess bed.

The sheer size and girth of the XL 2d image is rendered in X-TRA fine detail. You brush a finger onto the parchment, tracing the lines depicting the veins running along the shaft. You gulp, rubbing your finger down what is drawn as a big, swollen tip that’s glistening. Artists these days are so detail-oriented, it looks as if precum is just dripping from the tip and shimmering. So realistic, you just want to take it all into your mouth. To gag or to choke. Neither are a question.

The balls, those massive balls that are the storehouses for an endless supply of fresh cum. Organics from the finest the kingdom has to offer. Precious jewels hanging at the base, ripe for your licking. It looks so juicy and plump and you want nothing more than to rub your cheeks, cooing at how cute they are.

You know it’s good. It better be good if the painting is depicting something this sumptuous. If this is the real deal, then you really have nailed the jackpot and secured a brilliant future for yourself. Marital bliss. Bedroom adventures. Bedroom adventures where he’ll fulfill every nightmarish fantasy you ever have. It’ll be hard at first, your cunt’s so tight and he’s so big! But it’s okay, you’ll take him like the royal princess you are because the Kingdom of YoreNaym raises whores and sluts only!

No scratch that. Coital activities can take place anywhere. Maybe you’ll cockwarm him while the two of you hear what the morning court has to say about the affairs of the kingdom. Maybe you’ll find yourself tumbling around in the garden after a cute game of hide and seek, skirt hiked up, as he fucks a grass stain into your back! Okay. That might not be the best idea. Perhaps just once. For novelty’s sake.

But hear me out, when you are sneaking into the kitchen for some snacks, he’ll pin you on the large baker’s table and just take you right there to fuck his babies into your womb. His cock pumping into you as the table creaks and shakes from his thunderous movements. He’ll fill you to the brim with copious amounts of his hot cum, heaps and heaps of them, just like the baker fills the buns with cream custard in the most obscene fashion ever. Watch your belly rise and bulge up like pastries in the oven. Oooh cummies.

You sigh and squirm in the seats as you continue examining the masterpiece of a dick. You feel your heartbeat racing wildly as if you are caught tinkling in the castle fountain. It’s unknown if you ever did that, by the way. Just saying, your memory is failing you just a tad. But oh gosh, you’re wet already. The slick pooling between your folds is just soaking through your princess panties; the ones in the drawer where you keep all your secret prince Sakusa drawings heehee. But Sakusa’s pretty face aside, you are now face to face with the most magnificent dick pic you’ll ever receive. Not really unsolicited, but damn work of art. Literally.

The crowd is silent when you clear your throat and roll up the scroll, taking extra care to not let anyone else touch your new precious treasure. You lean forward and perceive Daichi. Daichi gives you a cocky grin, showing his teeth. Slightly stained with the wine, but it’s just temporary. It doesn’t matter as long as the real deal is...well, real.

Daichi catches your eyes wandering to the outline of the bulge between his legs. The glorious dickprint that he’s casually showing to everyone present. It puts Herculean Bokuto to shame, Ushijima into a blushing mess. Kuroo nearly snorts his colored powders. Daishou’s tongue hangs out and dries. Oikawa is sent to the medics. Kita no longer waxes poetry about the weather. Terushima leaves the party early.

Daichi is smug and casually asks, “My lady, would you like to examine the goods? I am a pure man and would not carelessly offer tastes to anyone. But you are a princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym. You can have a sampling before you commit. Satisfaction guaranteed.”

[xenoredux]

The Legend of Silver Fang - Episode 5: The Beasts

If you haven’t read episode 4 yet, you can do so here.

As mentioned before, the major story beats and overarching plot are the same. This is written under the supposition that, in fantasy land, this is a mini series with episodes that run about 2 hours in length each.

Some things to be aware of going in:

This story is violent as shit!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR: Animal injuries, animal death, sickness via poisoning, eye trauma, weaponry, cannibalism, fire damage to property and animals, wacky cult antics, child abuse and endangerment, suicide, starvation, dogfighting, bullying, and idk probably something else terrible. Seriously don’t read if you don’t like this kind fuckery

I was trying to achieve a decent adaptation that combines the strongest elements of the anime and manga. It will not be precisely like either and will occasionally totally deviate from both

This isn’t meant to be “better” then the canon. It’s just the way I’d go about rewriting the Akakabuto arc if I had that level of ungodly power lol

Character designs made to represent several mentioned characters can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Others will be left up to the reader’s interpretation. A link to the next episode will also be provided at the end. If a link isn’t available, the next episode just hasn’t been posted yet!

I KEEP POSTING THESE SO LATE IN THE DAY AAAAAHHH

The Igas and Gin are frozen where they float. Kurojaki's teeth clack against the scythe's handle as he sadistically taunts them. This day marks the end of the Iga clan he says (though it sounds more like "Ish ey marsh he and ufh eh Uhguh clun.") Akame barks back someone along the lines of "OH YEAH?" before turning to the others.

The albino levels with them: four against, what, 40? Not good odds. But maybe if there was a diversion some of them could get away. Akame passes his share of herbs to Jinnai and says that no matter what happens the Ohu soldiers must receive these herbs. Even if it costs the remaining Igas their lives and their legacy, no innocents will die just because some mottled dickhead bamboozled them all.

With a final command for them to get moving, Akame vertical leaps outta the lake and busts Koga heads the minute he lands. The other three good guys exit stage right while the gettin's still good. Gin looks back, almost certain someone's gonna come after them, but the Kogas are all too concerned with chasing Akame in circles to care about anything else.

Shinobi slaying is easier said then done, turns out. Akame didn't become Chief Ninja Daddy without some skills to back the title up. He is eventually pinned down by several heftier dogs, but it takes a few minutes of him humiliating his opponents first. As payback one of the cannibals chomps down hard on Akame's hind leg and jerks it back at a nasty angle. Akame lets out a manly scream of pain.

Jinnai, Kirikaze, and that silver guy are still running back home unimpeded when they hear Akame's hollering. Kirikaze is especially affected by his old man's tortured yowls and he begins crying big fat tears of sorrow.

So overwhelmed is he by his progenitor's wails that he tries to double back, but Jinnai tackles him and tries to smack some sense into him. Kirikaze's gotta nut up for Akame's sake. This scolding almost works, but another scream from the chief threatens to break the rest of Kirikaze's resolve.

They have reason to be concerned. Kurojaki's started wiping the forest floor with Akame's pale ass, bruising the Kishu heavily and giving him a nice big slash across the throat. The cut on his neck isn't enough to kill Akame, but combined with his other injuries it's enough to sap his remaining strength from him. As Akame tries to gather his bearings and defend himself the scythe comes down across his neck a second time.

Another scream of agony reaches the trio. Jinnai and Kirikaze are still fighting over whether to save the army of strangers or their dad when Gin decides he can't stand moral dilemas involving family. He spits out his share of herbs and shoves them towards Kirikaze.

Gin tells the bros that he's willing to double back and help Akame so long as they can pull themselves together long enough to cure the Ohu dogs. As the Akita moves towards the marsh, Jinnai asks him if he's so insolent as to disobey the chief's orders.

"Akame isn't my chief," Gin states matter of factly, "so I can do whatever I want." And so he turns and leaves the two Kishus to collect their herbs and continue their journey. Before they go the two decide to come back and help the moment they deliver the plants.

Akame coughs up blood and falls limply to the ground. He's hurting something fierce. He tries to go all Mind Over Matter with his body, but he's having too much trouble standing up to fight anymore. Kurojaki cackles triumphantly. Maya is grinning in a nasty way while their son yips excitedly, too young to understand that Daddy's committing an atrocity.

Emboldened by the support, Kurojaki decides it's time to deliver the killing blow. He leaps towards the incapacitated albino all ready to shreddy, too busy to notice the other Kogas trying to stop a silver striped blur from slamming into him. Gin lunges through the air, grabs Kurojaki by the hind leg, and does an anti-gravity version of the worm that sends both of them flying to the ground. Gin lands elegantly on all fours, but Kurojaki is slammed face first into the dirt. The moment he makes contact with Mother Earth, the cannibal lets out an unholy screech.

Everyone is taken aback - even Akame is frightened by the noise - as Kurojaki continues vicerally screaming for a moment more. It's at this moment that Gin realizes he hadn't seen where the scythe's blade had landed. Kurojaki lifts his trembling head and turns to face Gin.

The blade has been buried deep into the black devil's right eye. Icky red squidge oozes from the wound and down his cheek as he heaves a shallow, rattled breath.

"You little motherfucker," he pants, his remaining eye bulging and rolling around wildly in his head.

The other Kogas are now a terrifying mix of horrified and pissed the fuck off, and Kurojaki's ready to take advantage of that. As Gin gapes in horror at the live demonstration of why running with sharp things is a bad idea Kurojaki commands his crew to tear the invaders limb from limb. He especially wants that little stripey shit's head on a pike.

Obedient as ever, Kurojaki's mohawked mooks spring into action. Gin leaps to Akame's side to protect him. A couple of especially speedy Kogas advance on them before the others, but Gin's entire bloodstream is full of adrenaline right now and he manages to pick them off easily.

Before the rest of the hoard can descend upon them, Gin snags Akame up by the scruff and leaps into the trees with him. The Kogas watch as the two make their getaway. This only serves to frustrate Kurojaki. As Maya is fussing over his sliced up face he screams for the cult to follow the two.

Unaware of what's gone down, Jinnai and Kirikaze continue their jog home. They've been making good time but are stopped suddenly when another dog they've yet to meet jumps out of the bushes before them. He's just as surprised to see them as they are to see him, and they all trip over each other.

The dog, a tempermental German Shepherd, barks that the two dipshits need to watch where they're going next time. The Kishus apologize before scampering off with their herbs.

To the surprise of no one this rude dog is John. The upstart has finally left the village to pursue more heroic avenues. This is nice, but he realizes it's not quite going according to plan when he notices several dogs of intederminate breed running up to him.

These three dogs have the decency to stop and ask if John's seen a couple of white guys with plants in their gobs passing by. John pulls an "I know something that you don't know" face and tells them to fuck off because he's not going to enable them to chase down a couple of geeks with weeds.

This pisses the mohawked mutts off, as does the fact that John stinks of human civilization. They go to give him a taste of Whoopass Stew (1992) before John recites the navy seal copypasta from memory and teaches them some humility via a few well aimed bites and mean names regarding their haircuts. As soon as they realize he's a capable fighter the trio runs off with their tails tucked both metaphorically and literally between their legs.

This is getting bizzare. John's just arrived in this forest and already he's seen two groups of oddballs he can't begin to understand.

Back at the Iga House Gin has brought Akame home. He sets the ninja chief down gently as the other Kishus come to greet them. The Ohu soldiers, most of who are feeling much better now, are also glad to see Gin is still kicking.

Gin's happy to see them as well. He runs over to where they're gathered to more properly say hello. Most dogs are back on their feet, but he can't see the tallest one of them all. He asks where Ben is before realizing by the look on everyone's faces that this isn't a question they want to answer.

The crowd parts to reveal Jinnai has finally gotten Ben to eat his share of antidote. Ben's a hotass mess, though; his eyes are bloodshot, his mouth is foamy with excess saliva, and his muscles are all twitching involuntarily. He looks miserable as he stares aimlessly into the woods.

Akatora comes over to him and offers a friendly nudge and a whispered, "Hey, you okay?" Ben simply responds by snapping at him. Akatora tumbles backwards, stunned that his old friend and mentor would react to him so aggresively.

Akame pads over to Akatora and tells him not to take Ben's bizarre behavior to heart. Ben's had bad shit in his blood longer then everyone else. It's gonna take him a second to come out of this haze.

Luckily the dane seems to be regaining his composure, for he has managed to stand up and steady his limbs. The soldiers seem mostly relieved at the sight, but Gin notices Akame is still staring at Ben in concern. Is there something he's not telling them?

While alla this was going down, Hyena had wandered off by himself and ended up being taken prisoner by the Kogas. Worse still, he's been trafficking the corpses of dead Igas into their slapshod fridge (i.e. a dank, chilly cave).

As he drags the icky, ewwy canine cadavers along, his captures taunt and jeer at him for being both a wuss and their munchie packmule. One particularly nasty looking sucker with no tail tells him to move his ass before they decide to add him to the every-growing pile of carcasses. Hyena just whines miserably and goes back into the body storage. He's just flopped down another lifeless Kishu when he hears a sudden commotion outside. He cowers far back in the cave.

"MORE of these assholes?" says a newcomer. "Jesus, these woods are full of lunatics."

The Kogas have turned to look at their visitor. Three of them point him out as being a direct threat. They'd run into this dickhead in the woods, and though he stinks of men he's more powerful then any housepet they've chomped on before. While the cannibals encircle John, Hyena pokes his head out of the cave just long enough to recognize the GSD as one of the dogs he'd seen at Ohu. What on Earth is HE doing here?

Back at the Iga house the Kishus have organized to face off with the Kogas. Enough is enough. They can't allow any more innocents to get swept up in this stupid war.

Ben is feeling more lucid now and he insists that the Ohu dogs aid the raid against the Kogas. They outnumber the mohawked mongrels together and lbr this has become personal for the troops. Akame worriedly tries to convince Ben not to subject himself or his bros to this, but the dane refuses to leave it alone. Akame reluctantly agrees to let them help and begins leading the way back to the marsh.

Ben is just behind the shinobi, but he's doing a shit job at keeping with the pack. Despite having scolded Gin for running off course, Ben keeps drifting farther and farther off trail. In fact, he's essentially in the treeline now, and a concerned Gin and Cross follow to ask him where he's going.

Ben freezes up. He takes a deep sniff and realizes he's not with the others. Everyone stops running, concerned. Akame attempts to be stoic, but his brow twitches intently.

Ben tells everyone it's nbd bruh, he's just gotta take a piss, it's fine it's fine it's cool it's fine. Akame grunts and tells Kirikaze to continue leading the pack while he checks up on the big guy. Kirikaze nods and directs the others to follow him.

The only stragglers are Gin and Cross. They're both too concerned about Ben to follow orders. The two of them sneak closer to where Akame and Ben are huddled and strain to listen to what they're saying.

Akame looks sadly at Ben as the dane stares blankly ahead.

"Ben," Akame says in a low voice, "look at me."

Ben pauses for a second as if focusing hard, then turns his head. He's not looking at Akame. He's not even close to meeting eyes with him.

"Akame?" he says with a tinge of fear in his voice. "What's happening to me? I can barely see."

Akame sighs and apologizes to Ben for all this. It's a side effect of the poisoning. Ben was doped up on the bad shit long enough that there was potential for it to do some damage to his senses. The eyes and ears are most suseptible to the poison's effects, and it seems like Ben's eyes are feeling the hurt.

Ben's shoulders slump as he softly shakes his head. He figured his sudden astigmatism and fading peripheral vision had been brought on by Akame's bioweapon. He just hadn't wanted to admit it.

Gin is shaken to hear this, but he's not as upset as Cross. The Saluki is trying and failing to contain her tears.

"He'll never see--" she says before running off, unable to stand it anymore. Gin only lets her go when he hears the conversation continue.

Ben asks if he'll become totally blind. Akame says yes. Ben asks if he'll be blind forever. Akame says yes again. Ben asks if he'll be able to keep up his duties as commander. Akame doesn't respond directly but instead tries to soothe the dane by saying that he owes Ben a great debt and will pay it forward by being his eyes.

Ben takes a moment to think before thanking the Kishu, but he has a request. Cross is ready to take his place as commander when he becomes totally incapacitated, but as she was his successor she'll need a right hand dog of her own. Akame figures that all Ben's soldiers are so jacked that any of them would do nicely, but Ben has his eyes (no pun intended) set on one guy in particular.

That kid Gin... he's a good fighter, sure, but he's also young and eager and empathetic. He's got a good head on his shoulders, boundless potential, and clearly has had some training before. Within a few months he'll be fully grown, and by then he'll make a great lieutenant. Gin only now realizes he's been holding his breath.

Meanwhile, John has made quick work of the lingering Kogas, adding those who didn't flee to the abnormally high count of dog bodies in the area. When he's sure it's safe to come out of hiding, Hyena slinks out of the cave to meet John.

John recognizes the little twerp from Ohu mountain, but he's still in Fight or Fight mode so instead of saying hi he just gears up to cream him. Hyena whimpers and begs for mercy, insisting that the Kogas took him as a POW and that he's still loyal to the Ohu army. John rolls his eyes and takes Hyena's word for it before turning to leave.

Hyena dares not be alone in this above-ground graveyard, so he follows John. The shepherd either doesn't realize or doesn't care that Hyena's his new little tagalong. They wander for a bit, Hyena taking every chance he can to suck up to John, before John tells him to shut the fuck up and listen.

The dogs fall quiet. The sound is faint, but they can distinctly hear a low mumbling, or, more accurately, the muffled sound of a crowd speaking amongst themselves. Someone literally barks a command and all the voices fall silent. John nudges Hyena to follow his lead and the two sneak closer to find out what's going on.

As they advance on the group they realize that it's more of the Kogas. The cannibals are having a meeting.

Kurojaki's eye socket has stopped bleeding and instead has collapsed in on itself, the tattered lids laying concave in his skull. He's sitting atop a boulder looking down at his cult as he gently strokes the babyhawk atop his infant heir's head.

As his son mouths absentmindedly at his father's paws, Kurojaki informs his people that now is the time to strike. They've killed several of the remaining Igas and they still have enough people to take on both the ninjas and any allies they bring with them. It's time to take the Iga homestead as their own and secure a glorious future for their breed. And as an added bonus, he thinks to himself, we can fuck up that guy who took my eye.

Hyena and John take a moment to spy on the hoard from afar. Hyena points out the big guy on the rock as Kurojaki, and it's clear as day that he's the leader of this band of hoodlums. John nods and, having learned nothing from his previous ass whooping at the hands of a pack leader, puffs out his chest and readies himself to attack.

John says he's gonna tear the whole lot to smitherines and singlehandedly lower the cannibal population in the area to 0%. Hyena tries to convince him that attacking a warlord in front of his entire legion of followers is a bad idea, but John's ego demands stroking. He's already taken off in a sprint.

The shepherd tears through several of the Kogas before they even realize what's happening. He rips the throat out of one particularly unfortunate bystander who proceeds to tumble to the ground. The miserable cur seizes wildly as he dies.

Everyone is caught so off guard by this development that they don't stop John when he walks up to the bottom of Kurojaki's perch and tells the merle cyclops that his reign of terror is over. Kurojaki has literally no idea what the fuck is going on, but he rolls with the punches and tells John that he'll be crushed like a bug before the group departs on their actual mission. Before any crushing can commence, a rumbling can be heard coming closer.

It's (predictably) the Iga and Ohu dogs. The Kogas have an Oh Shit moment before scrambling into battle position. They're a little wary of the fight given there's an absolute shittonne of dogs running towards them, but Kurojaki tells them not to be a buncha bedwetting babies and fight anyway. He passes his literal bedwetter baby son off to the boy's mother so he can join the brawl. John just shrugs and goes to attack the guy nearest to him.

As army meets army, the blood begins to flow. Despite how much larger the Ohu pack is, it's really anyone's game, for the cannibals' desperation to keep their cause alive pushes them forward. Still, the Ohu dogs are holding their own. Even Ben is managing to fight off his enemies. Unfortunately for Smith, the dane's poor vision throws a spanner in the works, and the Spaniel gets a couple of chomps on the ass. Don't worry about it, Ben, he's young. He'll heal.

As the battle grows more and more out of control, Kurojaki slinks past his men and into the woods in the hopes of baiting one particular target into following him. To his delight, that target falls into his trap; Gin notices him leaving and gives chase.

Gin's too caught up in the task at hand to notice Kurojaki's leading him on purpose, but lucky for him Kurojaki is too caught up in his own plan to notice he himself is being ambushed. Akame saw Gin following the cultist, and he's bolted out of the woods to save Gin's silver hide.

Akame smacks Kurojaki face first into the dirt and is about to give him an atomic noogie when Gin's all like WAIT. Gin lets the cat out of the bag and tells Akame he knows that Ben wants to scootch Gin up the platoon's pecking order. Gin wants to use this chance to wipe the forest floor with Kurojaki to prove that Ben's right to think that.

Akame is a touch offended that Gin's a filthy eavesdropper, but he understands his motivation. He just sorta shrugs and lets Gin face off with the warlord. Gin puts up his doggy dukes and gets the ball rolling with some fighting words.

Meanwhile, everyone else is fighting a Koga of their own and they're doing a good job of it. Even Hyena is making an honest, if hopeless, attempt at mauling one of the smaller guys. He's failing miserably when he's aided by Smith, who follows up his generously saving Hyena's life by mocking him for being a wussypants and asking him why he hasn't fucked off yet.

Hyena wants Smith and the others to appeal the No Hyenas Allowed rule of their club because he's decided to be a good guy now. Smith isn't sure if he believes him, but whatever, the traitor can serve as a canine shield if nothing else. The two continue snapping at their enemies.

As the fight rages on, John makes his presence known to the platoon by leaping beside a bloodied Ben. John manages to choke out a sincere word of praise for the other dogs' fighting abilities before more graciously humbling himself to Ben by proclaiming he's ready to fall in line with his commander's orders. Ben's newly-beshitted eyes are having a hard time recognizing John, but he'd know that stuck-up, twatty voice anywhere. He instantly welcomes the shepherd back into the fold.

Gin and Kurojaki are standing off in earnest now, but they're still not really getting anywhere. They're surprisingly well matched, Gin always managing to strike and Kurojaki always managing to either dodge or deflect. They've only faced off for a few minutes more when the rumble of a bazillion dog feet advances towards them.

The Ohu and Iga dogs have managed to subdue the Kogas and now they're bumbling towards the fighters. To make matters more dramatic, a storm has been brewing. As if called in as reinforcements a bolt of lightening strikes a nearby tree and catches it on fire. With a terrified, "Shit!" Kurojaki turns tail and runs, a frustrated Gin following behind.

But before Kurojaki can run very far, someone calls down to him from above. He breaks stride and looks up. It's Wilson, finally appearing onscreen again for the first time in a while. His long, white muzzle is rippled in a snarl, and he calls Kurojaki a gutless coward for abandoning his men. And it's not just his men he's abandoned. Has he really forgotten about...

...his own son? Wilson suddenly lifts a small, mottled bundle of fur into view. It's Kurojaki's infant child, and he's crying with fright. Though Kurojaki cannot see it, Maya's body is lying beside Wilson as well, her neck broken and twisted at an ugly angle.

Gin freezes and looks on in horror, as do the other soldiers who come to a stop beside him. Everyone wants to stop this but they're too stunned to speak. The sky rumbles as if angry, lightening flashing and illuminating Wilson's spiteful white face.

"T-tesshin!" Kurojaki cries in recognition. "My boy! What are you doing with my boy?!"

"Can a fucking demon like you truly feel love for a child?" Wilson wonders aloud. "You certainly didn't show any mercy towards mine. You've never understood the horror of what you did, but now you will. I'll make you see. I'll make you pay."

Wilson begins to shake Tesshin back and forth by his tiny grey scruff. A sickening chorus of wails and squeals comes from the baby. The other soldiers are appaled by Wilson's vengeance, as is a now very desperate Kurojaki. The Koga master begins climbing uphill after Wilson, his paws splayed far out in front of him as if trying to grasp for his son.

"Stop!" Kurojaki wails desperately. "Please, please stop!"

For the first (and last) time ever both the Ohu and Iga soldiers are in agreement with Kurojaki. They also call out for Wilson to put the child down. Gin feels helpless to stop this injustice. It's cut him to the quick more then any adult dog's endangerment has yet to. Ben tries to reason with Wilson to stop, but he's distracted by Cross. She's quaking with some overpowering emotion that's not exactly anger and not exactly fear.

Kurojaki nears the hilltop as Wilson's swinging quickens and he jostles Tesshin around like a ragdoll. The Koga leaps with an enraged roar at the Collie when suddenly the two of them are joined by Cross. Before any of them can acknowledge her, Kurojaki collides with Wilson without thinking to stop and sends both the collie and his son tumbling off the hill's edge.

Kuroj screams in horror as he sees both Wilson and the baby descend into the dark gorge below, and the army dogs join his yelling as Cross mounts the hill and descends down into the dark behind them.

The wind blows mournfully as Kurojaki stands mouth agape on the hill, staring into the black pit with his remaining eye. So busy was he with his child that he has only now noticed his wife's bloody corpse sprawled beside him. His eye fills with tears.

But the tears evaporate quickly as he's taken by an overpowering fury. He turns to the stunned soliders and swears at them, damns each and every one of them for bringing his wife and child into this. He will singlehandedly kill them all.

In a (half) blind rage, Kurojaki flings himself headlong into the gaping crowd. First he tears into the massive Moss. Then he slashes Akatora up the shoulder, gives John a concussion, brings Ben to his knees, bam, bam, bam.

So powerful is his rage that one would think he's about to make good on his promise of Ohu decimation, and for the first time the soldiers and their newfound allies start backing away from their foe. All except Gin, ofc, whose protagonist moral code is preventing him from faltering.

Kurojaki's all too willing to beat Gin's ass for causing just about every bad thing in his life lately, so he runs at Gin with reckless abandon. Both he and the Akita leap at each other. A shooting star's comet trail follows Gin's arch in the sky.

The symbolism of it is enough to trigger a convenient, empowering flashback in Gin's mind of his maybe-probably-mostly-confirmed-not-dead father defending baby Gin from Akakabuto. He remembers Riki's signature bear-hunting move, a hard bite to the top of the animal's muzzle. Thinking fast, Gin performs this move on the murderous merle mongrel flying towards him.

This catches Kurojaki by surprise just long enough for Gin to rabbit kick the shinobi bastard into the dirt, bloodying both it and his foe's face in the process. Gin lands back on Earth with an equally small amount of grace by spraining every ankle he's got upon landing. He plops down onto his stomach and quivers as his muscles relax, and Kurojaki has been knocked down hard enough that he's not yet making an effort to get up.

The other dogs run forward, panting congrats to Gin for being so awesome and stuff before they move to descend on their enemy.

John makes himself known to Gin a second later when he's like whoa hold up everyone lmao chill, this is Gin's battle and he should be allowed to finish the dude off himself. Gin's just now realized John's returned, but before he can say HUH WHAT John tells him to handle business before he's offered an explanation. Already feeling a bit overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation, Gin turns at a familiar female voice telling everyone to hold their horses.

It's Cross! She's holding a fussy but living Tesshin in her jaws. Beside her is a battered, humiliated looking Wilson. The Collie sways unsurely, totally unwilling to hold anyone's gaze.

While Wilson wallows in his post-attempted infanticide guilt, Cross sets the child down. Kurojaki is a total sack of shit, she says, but he's still this little guy's dad and only remaining parent. This decision can't be made lightly because it will always come back around to affect the kid.

Gin takes this as a chance to stall on his decision and runs over to Cross, overjoyed to see she's still alive. Cross, looking even more tired then you'd expect, gives him a coy wink. She's told him before she has a soft spot for kids, yeah? After all, she's always believed they have the potential to be better then their parents. As she says this she allows Tesshin to toddle up to his daddy and lick his bloody nose.

But it's still ultimately up to Gin whether or not Kurojaki lives or dies. The decision weighs heavily on the kid. Yeah, Kuro is a violent murderer, a cult leader, an advocate of genocide, and an all around assclown, but watching Tesshin lick his deadly dad's face with unconditional affection awakens something in Gin.

He can't shake the memories of his own puppyhood. He was taken too early from his mother and only ever got to be held by his father once before he was forever stripped of the chance to have a peaceful childhood. He's steadfast in his decision to be with these soldiers, but can he truly say he's comfortable subjecting another child to the loss of their innocence?

"Kurojaki," Gin starts. The cannibal king meets Gin's gaze with his single eye. "Get out of here. Take your people with you. Don't ever come back."

Kurojaki understands this is the only chance he's got to leave, so he picks his sorry ass up and leaps with a noticable decrease in elegance into the trees. All he leaves behind him is a puddle of nose blood... and his infant son. Tesshin simply sits beside his papa's nose goo and yips pitifully, too small to understand he's been ditched but having enough cognition to know neither mommy or daddy are with him and he's frightened.

"Miserable piece of shit didn't want the kid as bad as we though," Kurotora grumbles.

The others in the crowd can't help but agree. Some of them believe it's time to kill Kurojaki after all, but Gin tells them to lay off. This whole debacle has been a real fuck of a shit and more unnecessary casualties are only going to make things worse. So long as Kurojaki actually fucks off once and for all, that's all that needs to happen.

A new discussion begins about what's to be done with the baby when the Kai Bros finally take notice of Hyena. Akame thoughtfully dashes off elsewhere as the tiger-striped trio start telling the grey-haired square to get the hell outta here. John breaks up the bloodthirsty posse by explaining that Hyena's lowkey alright actually. John's elaboration on his experience in these woods and his opinion about the Weimaraner doesn't mean much to the Kais given they've never met him before, but Gin helpfully explains that John's an old friend of his who's come to join their ranks.

He gives John a warm, appreciative smile. For a moment he looks very much like the boss smiling proudly at all his troops. John's brow is furrowed as per ush, but he can't help but smile softly back.

But John quickly wipes the smile off his face and gets back to business. Yeah, sorry about leaving the pack initially and all, but he had a bit of self discovery to do. Ya see, John went and battled with the boss. Surprised at his insolence, he's now got the attention of everybody there.

Anyway, John tried to beat the leader into submission, but he failed spectacularly and for the first time he can remember. The experience taught him something he's still too proud to state clearly, but the important thing is that it motivated him to come back. Oh, btw, the big guy himself has a message to share, generously saving the audience from further elaboration on events they've seen take place:

Akakabuto's stronghold is expanding further, and, though on a forgivingly smaller scale then the Ohu dogs, he is also attempting to grow an army of followers. The sonuvabitch may be a horrifying monster, but he ain't fuckin' stupid. He is aware that a massive hoard of dogs are coming to get him, so he's setting up counter measures to stay one step ahead of them. The troops have to hurry and expand their numbers fast, for the battle is rapidly approaching. It's only a matter of time before Akakabuto and his bears begin overtaking human settlements.

This is all well and good, like thanks for the update and all, but everyone becomes distracted by the unmistakable smell of shit burnin' down. Cross is the first to notice the orange-gold light and incredible heat illuminating the woods beyond. The dogs rush over to see what exactly is happening.

It's the Iga manor. The ancient house is quickly going up in flames, much to everyone's surprise. Even more Nani? inducing is the culprit of the mansion toasting himself, Akame.

The Kishu is standing unwavering in front of the burning building. He's grasping a burning tree branch in his mouth, no doubt having gotten it from the tree that had previously been smoldering. The night sky is alight with storm and flame alike as Akame's children run up to him and ask him what the fuck he's done.

Turns out Akame's just tired of the bullshit. He's tired of constantly having to hold off the violent cannibals they have as neighbors. He's tired of living separate from those who could serve as close allies and true friends. He's tired of leading his sons and daughters into battles they cannot win.

Fuck the house, Akame's turning a new leaf. From now on he'll be dedicating his power to the Ohu army's cause and he encourages the remaining Igas to come with. At least then their ability to whoop ass will be useful beyond gang wars.

"Akame!" a ragged voice hollers from somewhere in the woods. "You little coward!"

Everyone looks. It's Kurojaki, his mottled fur caked in dry blood, his single eye bulging. He runs over to the Igas but he doesn't make as if to attack them. Instead, he just keeps yelling, his thoughts spilling like vomit from his mouth.

Akame just HAS to be this extra, doesn't he? First Kurojaki loses his wife. Then his own child is used to humiliate him. And now Akame is burning down the one solace he had left, swiftly destroying his life's mission of overtaking the manor. With one last gibbered out swear Kurojaki leaps into the burning house.

The smell of roasted kindling is quickly laced with, then overpowered by, the stench of burning hair and melting flesh. Kurojaki screams bloody murder as the flames engulf him. Gin gazes into the abyss of Kurojaki's one eye before it pops, bubbles, and oozes down his cheek, its gooey remains soon joined by his eyebrows and the last fringes of his white mohawk. Despite his agony the mongrel makes no effort to escape the flames, instead collapsing without struggle on the immolated wooden floor.

If this whole sight wasn't fucked enough, a whole chorus of desperate cries also approach the house. It's several of the remaining Kogas all hollering out to their leader. Loyalty may be a virtue, but the outpouring of devotion from the cult leads each and every one of the mohawked dogs to leap into the flames alongside their master.

Upon realizing the hoard won't stop making like they're campfire marshmallows, Gin tries to stop them. He's just shoved out of the way. The only Koga who neither leaps into the flames or runs away is baby Tesshin. Instead the child begins nestling into, oddly enough, Wilson's ankle as he watches his family burn to death.

Akame squints into the flames as the Kogas' agonized screams fade away. The cloudy night sky finally starts drip dropping rain down on the scene and working quickly to extinguish the house. Once the flames have subsided everyone gathers to stare into the wreckage.

Gin takes the first step into the charred remains of the manor. The blackened, crumbling corpses of so many canines litter the floor. Gin hasn't felt like crying this much since his first beating from Gohei, but something physically holds him back. He lip trembles as he looks from the bodies to Akame.

Despite everything the shithead put him through, Akame, with poise unmatched by anyone on Earth, respectfully wishes that Kurojaki and his people could have dedicated themselves to a cause that wasn't so heinous. He also wishes that they may now rest in peace. Many years of anguish and war have lead up to this point, but if nothing else it served to prove that Kurojaki had a lotta resolve.

Now that nobody's gonna come in the middle of the night and kill them dead the group allows themselves to settle in and get some shut eye. Everyone is curling up beside each other when Wilson awkwardly walks up to the hoard. Tiny little Tesshin follows behind him.

Wilson seems especially interested in speaking with Gin, who is nestled in between Ben and Cross. While the Collie coyly bows respectfully to Gin, Tesshin recognizes Cross and runs to her so he can tug on her ears.

Wilson apologizes for the whole almost-committing-infantacide thing. He's deeply ashamed of how low he stooped to strike back against his Kurojaki. Now that he's gotten to see him die in literally the most painful way possible, Wilson hasn't got any ill will towards any Kogas anymore, least of all the only truly innocent one. He accepts that what he did was super shitty even if he'd been blinded by immense grief. He wants to do right and contribute to something that matters, so he'd like to know if everyone - Ben, Cross, Gin - would allow him to stay with the pack.

Nobody responds for a moment, though Gin makes as if he wants to say something. Instead the first to speak is Cross. She tells Wilson that despite the immorality of his behavior she understands his pain. She takes a deep breath and places her paw over Ben's, which seems to have signaled him to lean soothingly against her. Cross begins explaining to Wilson - and Gin, just cause he's there - what her life was like before she joined the Ohu army.

Cross was, as most of the folks here were, a hunting dog. She met Akakabuto once or twice out in the wild, but it took her a while to stand off against him in earnest. Before then she had been bred to another Saluki (Ben politely doesn't say anything to this) and had a litter of puppies. She was blessed with the chance to raise and live with her children into their early adult years, but this is Ginga so her backstory wouldn't have been brought up if it'd stayed idyllic forever.

Her master brought her and her 2 year old children along on a hunt one day when the group was met with the pants-shittingly horrifying sight that is Akakabuto. The bear struck one of Cross's sons across the face, snapping his neck and killing him instantly. Cross and her other children tried to defend themselves and their owner, but one by one her kids were brutally murdered.

The only reason Cross herself survived was because when Akakabuto struck her across the back - the thing that left the scars she bears to this day - she took a fall so hard that she couldn't get up and he believed her to be dead.

All throughout this battle Cross and her kids had been looking desperately to their master for help, but he never given it. While they'd tried to defend the man with their lives, he had been running away and leaving them for dead.

Akakabuto eventually grew bored of the dead dogs and left them behind. When she felt some degree of safe, Cross had crawled over to each of her children's corpses and wept into them.

For a while Cross had nothing much to live for. She didn't care about her owner anymore - in fact, she hated just about the whole of humanity at this point sans one human child who had once fed her while she was wandering aimlessly - and her children were all dead. The only thing that kept her going was her hatred for Akakabuto, her burning desire to see him pay for what he'd done to her.

But she had never been a stray before, and despite her strength it was hard to make ends meet. She barely ate enough to fill a cavity most days and she was quickly growing weak, emaciated, and depressed. She'd felt like giving up.

It was around this point when a red and white Akita Inu had found her. At first she had been afraid of him given he was a wild-looking, battlescarred character with an unreadable face, but he'd shown her a kindness she hadn't felt for a long time. He'd lead her back to his pack, an impressively large collective of other former hunting dogs, and told them that she was their guest. They were to treat her with kindness and feed her back to health before letting her go.

The soldiers were mostly nice to her, if a bit awkward regarding her emotional state. Most of them were dudes and the chicks in the bunch were more about biting and killing then offering any TLC. There was one dog who was especially kind to her, though. His name was Ben (Ben smiles and twitches his ears at the mention of his name), and he was an extremely noble, involved dog who lead the first platoon. She and him instantly clicked, and so they became fast friends.

Cross quickly regained her lost weight and, with Ben's help, regained her lost muscle mass... and then some! So grateful was she for both Ben's kindness and the boss's generosity that she insisted she stay with the pack. She humbly requested membership to the first platoon, promising that she could keep up with the others. She even offered to train under Ben's supervision if need be.

The leader had smiled at her and responded with a gentle nod and a twinkle in his eye. The rest, as they say, is history.

So engrossed in Cross's story was Gin that he'd barely noticed when Wilson laid down beside them. He also didn't really notice when Ben told Wilson that he was welcome so long as he used violence as a means of achieving peace, not as a means of releasing his anger. Nor did he notice when Tesshin wobbled over to Moss and his son and was happily invited to spend the night tucked between the pudgy Mastiff's enormous paws.

But he does notice when Cross winks at him and tucks herself tightly against her doghusband, and he takes this as a sign that storytime is over.

Gin settles in beside his friends to sleep, now better understanding the depth of their devotion. As he dozes he imagines Riki (or, at least, the dog who looks a shittonne like Riki) offering shelter to a boney Cross, training up gentle giant Ben, and lovingly smiling down from his perch at his ever-growing pack.

He imagines the Riki Dog smiling down at him, too, and reaching out a paw to him. Before he can imagine himself touching paws with the boss he fades into a deep, dreamless sleep.

At the buttcrack of dawn the troops head out. They're now joined by John, Wilson, the remaining Igas, and even Kurojaki's little son (who Moss has begun happily carrying around in between the folds on his back). The mission to find more soldiers continues on, and all the dogs begin the journey southward to scope out more canine meatheads for their cause.

Bust out the water wings, folks, because the troops are headed to the seaside. Gin's never seen the ocean before, so he's super weirded out by so much water in one place. John considerably refrains from mocking him for not  knowing what the sea is and explains that crossing the ocean is necessary to reach different countries. Given that John once lived in some mysterious land called Your Up, Gin takes his word for it.

The gang boards an abandoned ship half submerged in the ocean. Gin takes a chance to gaze over the edge and into the water below. His eyes sparkle with curiosity as the waves wash to and fro before the boat.

His gaze follow the waves as they go out and out and out further and further away, the expanse of water stretching out miles ahead. Also miles ahead is a mass of land that looks no larger then a grain of rice. Gin excitedly calls out that he's found a foreign country.

Wilson politely tells Gin that he's got a good eye, but that's not a foreign country. It's just Shikoku. Ole Willy used to travel there frequently during his circus days, and it's also where he met nomadic Mortal Enemy #2.

Before Wilson has a chance to elaborate, Ben interrupts. He closes his foggy eyes and takes in the sounds of the waves before saying that yeah, Shikoku's pretty lit. Lotsa bodybuilder types over there, dogs specifically bred and raised for battle. This fills Gin with the sort of glee that'd seem excessive in a hyperactive schoolgirl. Gin begs the dane to let him go on a field trip to Battle Dog Island.

Everything is a blurry mass of God-knows-what in Ben's eyes, but even he can tell Shikoku is a long ways away. He asks how exactly Gin plans on getting there, to which Gin responds with, "Swimming, of course." This is foolish, obviously, as doggy paddling that far through these waters would be impossible. Ben kindly but firmly tells Gin that he'll be just as much help in gathering troops here.

Ben turns with a degree of finality back into the captain's quarters, his face turning redder then normal as he bonks his muzzle into the doorframe. Despite his upset at being denied permission to abandon ship Gin follows after him in concern when Wilson calls him back.

He tells Gin that he's sorry the kid can't come, but Ben knows best. Gin disagrees - he HAS to go. It's his duty to take Ben's place on the trip, for the newly disabled dog won't make it very far in these conditions.

Several of the dogs seem confused about what this means before Gin passes around volume 3 of the manga and catches them up to speed on how Ben's poisoning has started sapping away his sight. As some of them "ohhhhhhhh" in realization, Smith chimes in with a haven't you people ever heard of not leaving the commander of a platoon behind.

John insists that Gin's a tough cookie, perfect to take Ben's place. So long as he has his immaculate bestie beside him, ofc. He'll be going with Gin, too. Not wanting to be left out, Smith also insists on going. So do the Kai Bros. So does Wilson.

Cross looks as if she wants to say something, but she restrains herself. Gin notices and asks her if she'd like to Come Along by Cosmo Sheldrake. She unconvincingly says she'd love to but she can't leave Ben alone in his condition. It's pretty obvious she's keeping something from everyone, but before they can pry she trots off to join Ben in his quarters.

Smith mutters about how he thinks Cross has been looking a little differently lately but he can't quite put his paw on how. Gin doesn't say anything. Instead he just watches her leave.

Nighttime comes right on schedule. The Ohu dogs are sprawled across the poopdeck, pooped from their travels. Most of them are asleep, but some are only pretending to snooze.

Gin is one of those fakers. He slowly and quietly gathers the other pretenders to join him towards the front of the ship. He has a moment of hesitation before leaping into the water when he sees how aggressive the waves are tonight, but he tries not to show any doubt. This has to be done.

Just before he's about to go, the ever-so-gentle scrapping of claws on wood directs his attention behind him. The gathered gang looks back and sees the Igas are also awake and eager to join them.

Akame feels it's his responsibility to lighten Ben's load in this regard. He'll be leaving the near-sighted dog in the care of Papa Moss. Besides, God only knows what the dogs in Shikoku are like, so why not bring a ninja along just in case? Finally satisfied with the group's size, everyone gathers their courage and jumps into the ocean.

Huge black and blue waves toss the dogs around as they struggle to stay afloat. Smith hesitates at the boat's edge upon realizing what sorta Jackass stunt they're pulling here, but he can't back out now. He gives a loud squeak as he cannonballs into the water.

John's rolling his eyes and mocking Smith's masculinity from the boat when he realizes that he can see a pair of eyes glimmer from nearby. Someone is awake and moving towards them! "Oh shit," John manages as he leaps gracefully in after the others.

Turns out that the nosy parker was just Cross. Upon seeing everyone abandon ship she comes trotting, then running, to the deck's edge. She can just make out the shining wet fur of the dogs in the ocean. She hopes aloud that they'll make it.

A confused, groggy voice from behind her catches her attention. She turns to see that Ben has woken up. Moss is trailing behind, a still snoozing Tesshin draped across his broad forehead. Ben asks Cross what she's doing awake. All is still. The silence speaks volumes, and Ben realizes that Gin has taken off in one of his hare-brained schemes again. Cross is about to defend the kid's decision when Ben sorta just shrugs and sighs.

Ben figures that when someone like Gin gets an idea in his head, he won't abandon it. He'll either learn his lesson the hard way or live to do them all a great service, and Gin's proven time and time again he's not likely to up and die on them. Besides, the dane admits, he kinda wanted to ask Gin to ride (swim?) shotgun anyway, but he couldn't justify asking the youngest troop to do it. Though Ben can't see the dogs swim away he still looks out towards the sea.

The dogs swim for a longass time, paddling in their namesakeway as the waves threaten to toss them into space. Shikoku both is and isn't as far away as they imagined, and this eats away at their patience while they grow more and more tired. Gin is capable of leading the charge given his childhood waterboardings but he's also losing steam.

The only thing keeping him moving is the sliver of moonlight above. When the partial moon is intercepted by the clouds, the shape it forms bears resemblance to Riki's silhouette atop his Throne Hill. Gin can't let the big man down.

After a while the dogs come across a reprieve from their struggle: a tiny island, little more then a small hunk of muddy, sandy land sticking up out the water. Shikoku isn't much further now, but the whole lot is swung out. There's just enough room on the puny isle to allow everyone refuge for the night.

The dogs all adorably snuggle up beside each other to keep warm against the cold ocean winds. As Gin rests his head across John's shoulders he takes one last peek at the moon. The Riki Clouds have vanished. He just sighs and closes his eyes.

Night turns to day and things are getting interesting in Shikoku. A nationwide dog fighting tournament is in full swing, making everyone reading this instantly a little less comfortable. In this particular fight, two Tosa dogs named Niouryu ("Nio dragon") and Musashi ("master warrior") are duking it out to a screaming crowd of weirdos who like watching dogs sumo wrestle.

Musashi's gotten the drop on Niouryu and is clearly winning via attempted strangulation. For the sake of saving Niouryu's life and so as I never have to write that name again, the fight is broken up and Musashi is declared winner.

This is very exciting news for the Musashi fans in the crowd because it means that the dude has won the Dog Wrastling championship for the 2nd year in a row. True, he's working his way up from middleweight to heavyweight, but this ain't no small potatoes. Musashi's unmatched prowess is celebrated as he is donned in traditional championship garb. The dog proudly holds his scarred head high as he gazes wistfully into the distance. His nose twitches as he detects something strange on the wind.

Musashi's trainer takes him back to his kennel alongside several other competitors. All of the dogs, Mushie Boy included, begin barking, seemingly alerted to something nearby. Musashi's trainer doesn't know what to make of this so he leaves the kennel to go snooping around in the hopes of finding the source of the dogs' intruige.

Unseen to all but the fighters' noses, the Ohu dogs reveal that they've made it to Shikoku by posing mysteriously atop the high stone wall surrounding the kennels. Gin gazes down at Musashi. They GOTTA get this guy to join the army.

The Ohu dogs climb down from the wall and disappear into the nearby woods until the sun begins to set and all the humans are gone. The kennel dogs have just settled in when the same smell from before recaptures their interest. Musashi growls but refrains from barking when he sees three synchronized silhouettes approach his cage.

"Who is it? Who's there?" Musashi says with all the confidence of a lion who's punched God to death.

The shadows whisper in low voices that that's not important right now. What is important is that Musashi agrees to come with.

Musashi doesn't feel like missing bedtime so he tells them to fuck off. One of the silhouettes, the one missing an ear, tells him that if he doesn't willingly join their canine convoy they're gonna force him to. Musashi demonstrates that this is an incredibly stupid thing to say to a fighting champion in a way that surprises the trio. He knows how to open his kennel and he's feeling cranky. He grabs the one eared dog as the stripey group tries to scatter.

Luckily for the Kai Kens the other kennel dogs are barking up a storm, all jerring and yelling FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. This noise would serve only as an irritant if it didn't cause someone, a human, to call out in confusion. A light inside a nearby building turns on.

Moments later the circular beam of a flashlight can be seen from the other side of the yard. Musashi has an Oh Shit moment and releases the dog he's holding. He tells the three that he's impressed by their ballsiness, but if they wanna live to see another day they need to pound pavement.

The dogs seem less afraid of Musashi's threats then they do of the man with the light. As the man calls out to the dogs the three brindles scramble out of the yard, each making a beeline for the treeline. Once he's certain they've left, Musashi meekly sits down and waits for his master to come find him. The man joins him within a moment and scoffs, scolds Musashi for breaking out again, and finally leads the dog back to his kennel.

The Kai Bros (btw it was so obviously the Kai Bros who came aknocking on Musashi's door) start heading back into the forest, kicking pebbles in their path and muttering about how it sucks ass that they didn't successfully kidnap someone to fight a war with them. As Chutora and Kurotora begin detailing just how much ass the situation sucks, Akatora tells them to shut their yapholes and hide. Someone - a LOT of someones, it smells like - are following them. The brothers dive into the bushes.

An asstonne of quadrapedal silhouettes dot the hills nearby. The strangers smell unfamiliar and are poised as if they mean business so Akatora tells everyone to head back to Gin. His littermates start whining about how running away isn't very cash money of them but Akatora nips them on the backsides to move them along. By this point he wouldn't have needed to put tooth to butt. The pack has descended from their vantage point and is headed straight for them.

The trio takes off in a gallop as tens of angry looking dogs, all barking and yelling for the intruders to stop, give chase. Kurotora's got a terrible Napoleon complex going on so he gives up running and instead tries to fight some of the dogs away. This backfires phenominally badly because the pack swiftly overpowers him, then overpowers his bros when they come running to his defense. Manly, agonized screams ring out in the night.

Somewhere insultingly close by Gin and his coterie have noticed the commotion. John proposes that sending the most overzealous and tactless of them to convince a champion fighter to leave his home wasn't a great decision. Though Gin realizes he fucked up by doing this, he's too proud to show the embarassment he feels for his idea. Instead he just tells everyone they oughta go see what the screaming's for so as to make sure they're not down three soldiers.

The troops head deeper into the forest, each keeping their eyes peeled and ears open to see if they can find the disappeared brothers. The Igas try to contribute to the search by leaping through the trees and ahead of the pack. The thick smell of an unfamiliar group lingers in the air, but no one can be seen.

No, wait, there is someone there. A sliver of moon shine casts a dim spotlight over a muscular dog carrying something red and black and striped all over. It's Musashi! He's got a concerned look on his face and a busted up Akatora stretched across his back.

"I'm guessing the Kai brothers didn't convince you to come peacefully?" Smith asks, the urge to alleviate the situational tension clouding his manners.

Musashi shrugs and allows Akatora to slip from his shoulders and onto the ground. Gin quickly looks over the Kai Ken as John snaps at Musashi for doing this to their friend. Musashi's eyes grow wide and spiteful. He tells the dogs to lay off for chrissakes. Believe it or don't, he's here to help. Akatora agrees in a choked voice; Musashi rescued him when he was too injured to save his brothers.

Gin asks Musashi to explain what the shit's happening so the Fite Club veteran lays it all out. The triplets were attacked by a pack that lives in these here parts, a pack that's lead by a dastardly bastard whos exploits encourage gossip even among the most seasoned of fighting dogs. This aforementioned bastard goes by Bandit Bill, and he's a notoriously brutal brown doberman who lives in an abandoned Buddhist shrine. He's a territorial sort and was probably upset that a buncha insolent strays came piddlefarting around his domain.

Before Musashi goes on about Billy the Kid he gives a broken smile and says he'd gone to follow the obnoxious brothers upon realizing that they might have ties to the giant army of dogs that's been growing and moving across Japan. Gin gapes, somehowhaving been oblivious to how a nomadic collective of dedicated troops might catch the populace's attention.

Musashi states that he's glad the army seems real because it means he can be flattered at how they've come to recruit him. Bee tee dubbya, he's totally down to join them. He's been a fighting dog long enough for it to get dull. The old man is ready to live out the rest of his life as one big adventure.

A second later a white dog drops down from the trees. It's Akame here to say that he and the other fair furred folk have managed to locate Chutora and Kurotora. The good news is that they're still alive. The bad news is that they're in front of a weird, ancient looking monument swarming with buff-looking dogs. Musashi confirms that that's Bill's pad, though he doesn't understand why Bill would keep trespassers around instead of just killing them.

Gin immediately announces a rescue mission. Musashi tells everyone to hold their horses. He's gonna go home and bring back his posse to help sort this out. Bill isn't a bloodthirsty idiot - standing in front of him isn't a death sentence - but he needs to know these guys have backup. It'd also be easier for locals to get information outta him  as opposed to new guys from across the sea. Better to talk then fight, yeah?

Musashi departs while warning the troops that it'll be a hot minute before he busts open all the kennels at home, but he swears he'll be back by morning. Given there's not much they can do til Musashi gets back, the dogs set up camp for the night. The night seemingly passes without incident, and the crowing of a rooster can be heard as the sun rises.

Wait, did I say rooster? Oopsie! I meant Smith starts shrieking to the other soldiers that OH SHIT, GIN IS MISSING. John wakes with a start at his friend's name, and as soon as he's truly concious there's no doubt in his mind as to where Gin is.

Predictably Gin has run off to solve this problem by himself. Only this time he has a moment of self reflection. He realizes aloud that he very often ends up helping, yes, but he also has the habit of tying situations in big, complicated knots by making decisions on the fly... just like he's doing right now.

And yet he can't say he feels remorse for it. He doesn't have the time to. He needs to save his friends. He needs to prove himself to Ben. He needs to do this to protect the village, the people, his family, his Daisuke.

The ancient monument, Bill's Bandit Bed-n-Breakfast, is lookin' pretty eerie in the shady woods. The only thing that makes the dark, imposing forest more intimidating is the two dog heads sticking out of the dirt smack dab in the middle of the monument's front yard. It's Chutora and Kurotora, and both are exhausted from struggling to escape their halfassed graves. A deep, slimy voice cackles triumphantly as something lithe, black, and endlessly shitty exits the building.

It's General Sniper! The bastard merrily licks his lips as he watches the Kais struggle to free themselves from the Earth's unwelcome hug. Mr. S is just about to go on about how great he is or some shit when a dog from Bill's pack, one who had totalled the Kai Bros, runs into view and tells him there's an issue. They have a visitor, someone none of Bill's crew has ever seen before. Sniper runs to the arch out front.

Gin's parked his little silver ass just in front of the arch and is refusing to explain to any of Bill's soldiers why he's here until he has council with Billiam The Bad Guy himself.

"I am a representative of the leader of Ohu," he says in the deepest voice he can muster, "and I shall tell you no more. Please allow me to speak to your boss."

"Oh, no, I don't think that's going to happen," Sniper says snidely.

Gin is surprised to see the hoodlum here, but Sniper doesn't explain himself. Instead, his brow crinkles cruelly as he repeats what Gin said: so, he's here to rep for Ohu, huh? Got himself a promotion, ey? How charming.

Sniper turns to Bill's men and explains that this stupid kid's boss is a tyrant trying to take over Shikoku's prime real estate, ignoring Gin's protests and cries of What The Hell Dude. Bill's men approach Gin to tackle him, but Gin leaps past them before they can.

Gin continues to frog-hop his way onto the front lawn where he's shocked to find two of his compadres buried alive. Little Chu and Kuro, Too yell at him to get out, it's a trap! But Gin's too stubborn to listen. He ignores their pleading begins trying to dig them out instead.

While Gin is distracted, Sniper launches himself into the Akita and sends him flying. Gin quickly rights himself, his nose bleeding, and swears aloud while telling Sniper it's unsportsmanlike to strike from behind. The little German chickenshit better be ready to fight because his treason will not go unpunished.

Sniper yells a barrage of death threats at Gin as if all of Twitter is rushing through his veins when he hears one of Bill's men call for everyone to retreat. Sniper looks up and dumbly utters a confused "Huh?". The Ohu dogs have caught up to Gin, and they're here to stop this madness!

Sniper tells Bill's troops not to puss out of a fight. They've got enough dogs to rival these suckers. The troops comply and the fur starts to fly. For a moment it seems like the Ohu dogs will be able to swiftly end this battle. Unfortunately, they lose the upper hand just as swiftly.

Sniper has made his way over to Kurotora and he's got his fangs pressed up against the black brindle's jugular. He mumbles through a mouthful of dog neck that the Ohu folks must surrender to The Bill Brigade or else he'll start killing the helpless hostages. Gin blurts out for the Ohu dogs to stop fighting without a second thought. Sniper responds by telling his ex-army not to move or else the stripey guy gets it.

Bill's fighters take this as a chance to start beating the shit outta the now motionlss soldiers. Gin's eyes fill with tears of frustration and realization at the severity of the impossible situation before them. Before anyone can die, however, someone else comes in and smacks Sniper so hard he flies back a few feet.

It's another Doberman, a brown and tan one with sunken eyes. This other pinscher says in a deep, silken voice that Sniper can kindly fuck off with this sadism. Bandit Bill can handle his own intruders, thank you very much. Besides, he doesn't believe in killing for the fun of it. If Sniper wants to be his right-hand man he needs to respect the rules of Bill's domain.

Sniper half-snarls, half-whines to Bill about how all is fair in love and war. Gin tells his cliche ass to shut up because the Ohu lads aren't here to fight. They're here to ask for help.

Before any more nonsense can go down someone calls ahoy from the arch. It's Musashi! The big man has kept true to his word and has brought tens of his fighting buds with him, many more dogs then the Ohu guys knew lived in his kennel. Indeed a small army of Tosas trail behind Musashi-sama as he steps up to greet Bill.

Mushmush asks in the voice of a gossiping old biddy if Billy has heard of these guys. They're bear hunters with good intentions, ya know. Bill says that yeah, he's heard about the bear stuff, but their former general here has a different story to tell.

Gin insists Sniper is a big fat stupid ugly liar. They're not here to steal land or dominate Shikoku or whatever, they deadass just need soldiers for their cause. Musashi interjects by saying he's not one to get involved in work place drama. To him it seems the real issue is that Gin and Sniper need to settle a beef they've been fostering. Bill appreciates the sentiment (as well as any chance he gets to watch a good fight), so he agrees. Let these two handle this shit the old fashioned way: with tooth and nail.

Gin licks the tacky, drying blood from his nose and dives at Sniper so as to get this party started. Sniper catches him off guard and sends him flying into a tree's trunk. Gin starts scrambling to his feet but he's not quick enough to dodge Sniper snagging him by the scruff of the neck. John almost rushes forward to intervene when Akame restrains him and assures him that they can save Gin if it comes to it, but they'd better hang back in case they upset Bill.

Sniper wildly moves his jaw around and leaves big bloody slashes across Gin's neck, his teeth fumbling around the kid's collar. Realizing he can't tear Gin's throat out with the big leather slab in the way, Sniper has another idea. He tells everyone to watch what happens when you fuck with Mr. S as he gives Gin's neck a hard squeeze and an even harder twist. All the dogs gape in horror as they hear a bizarre, powerful snap. Sniper releases his grip on Gin's neck and the Akita tumbles to the dirt.

John swears loudly. He wastes no time in detailing how he's gonna shove Sniper's ass down his throat when a weak cough makes everyone aware that Gin is still moving. Even Sniper is surprised as the dogs watch Gin hobble to his feet.

Blood is oozing from Gin's clearly not-broken neck. Just before one can say "wait so like what happened", Gin's leather collar slips off his shoulders and hits the ground with a small thump. A white tear in the leather ring explains the strange breaking noise.

For just a second Gin is lost in the memory of when he was given the collar. It wasn't Gohei who'd bestowed it upon him. It had been Diasuke. The boy had said that it had once been worn by Gin's dad, which may or may not have just been a cover for a convenient purchase from Pet Smart. Regardless, Gin silently thanks Daisuke for giving him protection he didn't even know he had, and he thanks God himself for giving him the massive muscles he needs to tear Sniper a new one.

And tear he does, for he begins giving this asslancing all he's got. He runs rings around Sniper, leaps down upon him from the trees, and finishes off his display of hypermasculinity by swinging the Doberman from a hind leg until the pitiful would-be dictator cries out for him to stop.

Gin does indeed stop, but not without placing a humilation cherry on this assbeating sundae. He swings the pinscher into a branch of a tree. When he lets go all can see that Sniper's dangling from the branch by his spiked collar.

"Shit! Damnit!" Sniper howls, defeated. "Let me down! Someone let me down!" But nobody comes to his aid. Either they're too stunned or, like Smith, are laughing at the ridiculous sight. Bill takes Sniper's dangling very seriously, though, and he calls up to Sniper that he's ashamed to be the same breed as him. Then he turns to Musashi with a smile. He would be giving a slow, polite clap if he had hands.

Gin relishes the moment by boldly telling Sniper to never show his ugly mug again because he's the one dog alive, the one dog in the whole world, who Gin will never forgive. The youngin gives the stuck up commander one last chance to fuck off and live peacefully elsewhere. Sniper only responds with more swearing and even more desperate pleas for help.

Gin thanks Musashi for his backup. He's about to thank Bill too when the Doberman takes a step back. Oh no, he's not getting buddy-buddy with anyone yet.

Musashi looks like he's about to roll up his non-existant sleeves and convince Bill otherwise when the dobie explains: Bill would like to meet this Ohu Boss guy himself before deciding if he's gonna join anyone else's army. He's willing to go with, but no promises on whether or not he'll be killing any bears.

Gin figures this is as good as it's gonna get, so he nods and welcomes Bill into the fold. John playfully elbows Gin in the side. This is all well and good, but it's about time to get back to Ben, yeah?

Before everyone can start planning the cruise back, Musashi stops them and gives them a tip. There's an even stronger dog who lives out here, some dude who's rumored to be the strongest in the world. The Ohu troops look intrigued. Some of them excitedly ask Gin if he'd like to meet this superdog. Of course Gin's like HELL YEAH. The dogs all depart, leaving Sniper cursing and swaying from the tree.

And so all three of the packs (the Ohu soldiers, Musashi's crew, and Bill's cronies) join together and start their trek to meet the world's strongest dog. Next stop: the city of Uwajima. Gin allows Musashi to show them the way, but he can tell by how his men fall in behind him that they're really taking his lead.

Gin can't help but feel a warm sense of pride well up inside him. He hopes he can be as good a commander as Ben. He hopes he can do right by the Ohu leader.

After another day long road trip the dogs emerge panting from the forest onto a cliff overhanging a seaside city. Seemingly having remembered all the times Ben refused to speak up about his own prospective recruits, everyone quickly asks Musashi to describe the dog they're after. Musashi's less reserved then Benny is so he settles on his haunches and launches into a story for the ages.

Benizakura ("crimson cherry blossom") is his name, and dog fighting is his game. The dude is an astoundingly tall and muscular Tosa Inu mix as well as an honored veteran in the fighting world. Legend has it he was born 10 years ago in Japan's snowiest mountain region. He was born to two village mutts of unknown ancestory and for a while he was a simple housepet. That was before he turned 2, at which point his master realized there was money to be made off of him after having seen him tear a cheeky village dog he hated he limb from limb.

By the age of 3 Benizakura had effectively dominated the dog fighting championships. He'd body slamming his way through medium, then large, then heavyweight dogs one by one. He traveled all over Japan and had made his mark on history by never losing a single fight. It came as a surprise to nobody when he finally entered the running for the nation's top canine yokozuna (highest rank in sumo wrestling.)

When he'd clawed his way to the big leagues, his greatest opponent was Japan's then-current champion yokozuna. This dog was an equally imposing purebred Tosa named Tsuna Arashi ("rope storm"). Tsuna was no spring chicken - by this point he'd been about 8 or 9 years old - but he'd spent the last 6 years of his life claiming and reclaiming his championship title. Though it was apparent upon their first meeting that Tsuna respected Benizakura's perserverance, the champ had no intention of letting the younger dog take his glory.

Musashi says that this fight was one for the books which I guess makes it highly unfortunate that dogs can't read. Hell, even the wet-behind-the-biceps kids Musashi used to train would recount it with awe.

See, the two dogs' gameness had been admirably strong. They'd never once relented in their assault of each other. Not when their muscles began to quake, not when they drooling bloody spittle, not when Benizakura's ears had been torn to ribbons. Kick, bite, snarl, tear, claw, throw, strike.

Their faces wet with blood and their muscles failing, neither dog refused to give in. And because of that the match's thirty minute time limit came to an end. No decided victor could be decided between them.

Tsuna Arashi was carted away by his master and Benizakura was left in an exhausted rage. He hadn't won. He hadn't even lost. He'd gotten nothing. Nothing at all but a face full of scars and two ragged stumps where his ears used to be.

Time passed without much incident for Benizakura as he continued his training at home. He still had the respect of his peers, and the dude was as strong as ever. His ears couldn't be saved, but they could be cropped, and so his master gave him a battle crop so low his stumpy little ear nubs were almost flush with his skull.

After a few more months of training Benizakura's owner suggested a rematch against Tsuna, but the dog's owner declined. Tsuna was an old fart by now. His eyes were riddled with cataracts, he had developed diabetes, and he was ready to retire. And so Benizakura was blue balled cruelly by fate, never managing to win himself that championship from his greatest foe.

Musashi pauses for a moment before Gin asks what happened after that. Musashi continues his tale of whoopass woe by detailing that, being a dog and not having the context to these conversations, Benizakura never stopped itching for a chance to beat Tsuna Arashi for real. He'd continued his training, continued his hoping.

Three years later just before his 6th birthday, Benizakura finally felt ready to try again. When he came to realize Tsuna would never return on his own accord, Benizakura had busted out of his kennel and gone to find Tsuna himself.

Benizakura crossed water and shore and forest to find Tsuna Arashi, and eventually he did. What he found horrified him. The blind, elderly dog was locked in a pen and being chewed up and spat out piece by piece by the next generation of fighting dogs.

Tsuna Arashi had become a miserable bait animal biding his time til one of his master's newest pupils got too overzealous and handled him just a little too roughly. The sight stopped Benizakura's blood cold. It was then that he'd realized that if he stayed in the fighting game this would be his future, too.

Enraged at the injustice of it all, Benizakura leapt into Tsuna's pen and killed the other dogs, their humans looking while the beast of an animal ripped their livelihoods apart. And this is what they would call him from now on: The Beast. A fitting name given his mauled appearance and massive stature.

But Benizakura either didn't notice the humans screaming or he didn't care. Covered in blood, he'd merely leapt out of the pen just as swiftly as he'd leapt into it, this time leaving a dazed and confused Tsuna Arashi behind.

Since then Benizakura hasn't returned to his OG master. Hell, the only evidence that he may still be alive at all is the fact that Uwajima locals catch a glimpse at him now and again. The Beast has become a sort of Japanese Bigfoot. Though the muscleman lives as a cryptid nowadays, Musashi swears by his belief that The World's Strongest Dog is still alive. The hard part will be finding him.

Meanwhile, back at the ship the Ohu dogs have claimed as a temporary home base, Cross has been left in charge because both Moss and Ben have had to take off due to pressing circumstances. Cross is pretty miffed at being left behind, but Ben had just assured her that her service is appreciated and he'd be back in a jiffy.

Problem is that several jiffies end up passing by as Cross waits and she's getting tired of leading troops on simple hunting missions. These dogs can take care of themselves without someone telling them how to hold down the fort. But what about Gin?

Gin's nearing 2 years now, but he's still so young and has so little experience. Dogs don't have cell phones or group chats so there's really no way to tell how he's doing. And so Cross nudges a subordinate named Luke, a speckled pointer mix, and tells him to take care of business while she gets the scoop on the wayward pooches.

Luke seems bashful in accepting, trying to murmur out something about how Cross might not be in the best way to brave the sea, but Cross won't be having it. She says her goodbyes and then dives into the waves. The tide has settled exponentially but the ocean still does a good job at knocking her around.

While Cross is boogie boarding, Wilson and Gin are poking around the peaceful streets of Uwajima. Most of what they see is quiet, amiable people going about their business, but there is one especially loud something happening nearby. Gin says it sounds like a lotta hooplah for boring city stuff, but Wilson disagrees.

Willy had once traveled here when his circus made its rounds in Shikoku and, if memory serves correctly, bull baiting is a common sport in the region. That's probably what they're hearing now. He assures Gin it's not worth getting involved - bulls don't fight bears - but Gin ignores him and goes to see anyway.

The two make like everyone in this damn story does and stand atop a hill overlooking the bullfight. It's a big runny-aroundy event taking place inside a wooden pen surrounded by hooting, hollering humans. Several of them are cheering for someone called "Don", and in the pen with a very pissed-off bovine stands an absolute unit of a dog.

Gin's eyes widen as he examines the pooch: massive Ginga pecs, Tosa Inu mix, ears cropped almost flat against his head. It's him. It must be him. Benizakura. Wilson tries to explain that Musashi said Benizakura is more like a sasquatch then a regular sports enthusiast, but Gin just excitedly grasps at Wilson's fluffy white chest and tells him to look, look! As the two watch, the dog, presumably the aforementioned Don, uses all his chunk to snag the immature bull by the neck and flip it over using its center of gravity against it. The crowd goes fucking nuts, and too Gin is beside himself with delight. Wilson concedes that maybe, just maybe, this dog IS the strongest in the world.

Someone in the pin comes and separates Don from the bull. As he does so a young boy comes running up to grab Don by the neck and shower him with praise. The old dog seems pretty pleased with himself, holding his head high as the onlookers cheer.

Wilson's not entirely convinced this dude is Benizakura, but he does believe that the army could use this veritable canine tank in their ranks. He asks Gin how he proposes they get the Hulk Hogan of animals to come with. Gin deadass just takes off in a run.

Wilson calls out to Gin to slow his roll, but this roll ain't stoppin' anytime soon. Gin leaps over several gawking onlookers, each one alarmed and confused. Then the Akita aims right for Don while yelling, "Forgive my rudeness, Benizakura!"

The old dog falters, confused. He poses as if ready to take a blow from Gin, but no blow comes. Instead Gin pulls the canine equivilent of a pantsing and yoinks Don's collar from around his neck.

Don's boychild seems insulted that Gin dare makey his dog nakey and demands he drop it, bad dog, spit it out. Don stands growling at the Akita and Gin stands growling back in return. Gin's worried for a split second that this dude might really just be some random guy, but his fears fade when the old dog snarls through a face full of scars, "Who are you? How do you know my real name?"

Gin smiles around the collar in his mouth as he's overcome with relief. But he doesn't get more then a moment to enjoy having found the living legend because the big guy is running towards him, scolding him for his unorthidox greeting and offering him a similar one in kind. A huge white paw lashes out at Gin's face, smacks him silly, and throws him off his feet.

Wilson watches in a panic on the hill. He wishes he had either backup or a unicycle so he could fix this mess. Benizakura Confirmed lashes a paw out at Gin's face once more, only this time Gin has the foresight to brace himself against it.

The crowd seems stunned that a dog only 2/3rds "Don's" size could stop his strike. Wilson is equally surprised. So is Benizakura.

Upon remembering that they paid to be here, several people in the crowd encourage the new Little Guy to give his all against "Don" while others encourage the sumo vet to snap the youngster over his knee. But Benizakura doesn't do anything escept look intently into Gin's eyes, staring like he means to find something.

Gin smiles his soft, goofy smile once more and tells Benizakura this is what the lawbooks call a case of Pinch, Poke, You Owe Me A Coke. He only struck Benizakura once. Benizakura has struck him twice. Big Man owes him a free hit, and he'll be coming back for it later.

Benizakura seems first confused, then insulted, then confused again by Gin's forwardness. And with nothing more then a wink and a duck, Gin leaves Benizakura behind, foot raised and jaw slack.

Gin leaps back out of the pen and joins Wilson. The crowd goes nuts once again, this time because they're all wondering what the shit they just saw. Wilson and Gin quickly depart.

The Collie scolds Gin for putting so many human eyes on them. Gin says he'll explain why he did what he did later, but for now they need to let everyone know that The Beast lives. Not only that, but he'll be expecting to see Gin again.

On a familiar shoreline, a white mass of hair is lawling miserably around the sand. The fuzzy mop turns out to be a dog, and the dog turns out to be Cross. She didn't stop and take a break like the other dogs but instead swam until she'd reached Shikoku. Her unusually wide sides heave as she coughs up sea water. She tries to settles down for a second, but her ears don't follow her lead. They perk up when she hears a commotion nearby.

Her legs are killing her, but she hobbles to her feet and sways tiredly as she follows the sound of someone - no, several someones - speaking. One of the voices is high and desperate while the other two are deeper and more threatening. As Cross slinks into a hunting crouch, she sees who's doing all the yapping.

A long dog of very small stature is being encircled by two much, much larger dogs. The short king is a Dachshund. It seems like he's trying to look tough while being harassed by the two taller bullies. The big dogs are peeved that weenie boy wandered into their territory, and now they're making like they're going to eat him.

Though she's tired enough to sleep for a week straight, Cross's unyeilding sense of justice refuses to let her rest. She leaps towards one of the dogs and cracks him upside the head. She stands over the living hotdog and snarls at the two, telling them to beat it, beat it. But neither of them wants to be defeated, so they ready themselves to fight.

That is, they ready themselves to fight until realizing that Cross is a bedraggled woman. They pause to laugh at the absurdity of what they believe is some homeless chick saving a manlet from assault before Cross sinks her teeth into one's neck and begins shaking.

These dogs are little more then overgrown puppies, maybe 2 years old at most, and though they're nasty little things they're not very good in a fight. "Hey, lady, stop! Let Beth go!" says the one Cross isn't ripping holes in. The dog in her grasp, presumably Beth, begins whining and crying, obviously not used to real fights.

"Okay, okay! We'll go, we'll go! Please stop!" Beth whimpers submissvely. Cross lets him go with a loud grunt and swears at the unruly teenagers as they make a break for it.

Cross pants as she watches them go, and suddenly she's back to feeling weak. The adrenaline has all but left her system and her righteous power has been turned to a mushy lightheaded feeling. She turns to the little dog to see he's smiling gratefully at her.

He thanks her for her help, though he assures her he definitely could've handled the delinquents himself. She smiles back at him. She asks him what he's doing out here and he responds in a way that surprises her.

The Dachshund explains that he's heard about a roaming pack of dogs playing military, running their own corps and organizing men to battle a man-eating bear. He hopes to join those dogs and prove himself just as capable as any warrior, but his training hasn't been going so well.

He sighs dreamily as he imagines aloud how wicked it'd be to be one of the cool kids. All the cool kids, they seem to get it. It being fame and glory, of course.

Cross's smile grows encouragingly as she tells the little dude to keep at it, for he's bound to contribute to a good cause someday if he keeps that attitude up. He thanks her, then tells her that it's time for him to get back to training. Maybe this time he'll stick to killing squirrels instead of chasing down bigger dogs.

She asks him for his name, and he grins a broken smile. Oliver is his name, and he's pleased to make her aquaintence. After Cross shares her own name Oliver enthusiastically lets her know that if there's ever anything he can do to repay her for her good deed, all she needs to do is give a howl.

As Oliver waddles off, Cross's smile quickly fades. She's not feeling too hot. She's been put under an unusually large amount of strain lately and hasn't allowed herself a moment of rest. Something in her stomach cramps up. She's been puking a lot lately and it looks like what little she has in her gut is coming back up. She tosses her cookies all over the forest floor as the lightheadedness comes back.

She tries to stumble away but her head is too foggy. Her legs give out under her and she rolls to her side upon realizing just how long she'd been at sea. She allows her eyes to close as she breathes in deeply. So distracted by her tiredness is she that she doesn't notice when a long, dark shadow falls over her.

Back in Ohu, the boss is facing off with not one but two oversized red-backed bears. The unusually beefy animals don't intimidate the boss, but their origin does cause some concern. These two are beary obviously assassins sent - and fathered - by Akakabuto himself, the types of visitors the Akita has gotten very used to in the past couple of months. Clearly Redhead isn't happy with an especially jacked dog keeping his troops from more human BBQs. Whatever dude, it'll take more then a couple of homicidal teddies to down this masterful bear killer.

Actually, check that: it takes a couple teddies doing something unexpected to down him. The two big-boned barbarians combine their powers to knock a goddamn tree over and roll it the boss's way. Captain Canine is able to dodge the attack, but he can't do so without leaping over a lump of debris that's blocking his path. Turns out that bear ninjas and dog ninjas have something in common, as the poor dog learns first hand that bears understand the concept of pit traps.

There's no skewers this time, but as the leader tumbles into pit the uprooted tree trunk comes rolling in after him. He gasps and tries to get out of its way, but it's too late. The trunk hits the bottom of the pit with a loud WHAM. The sound of splintering wood and a yelping dog meets the twin terrors' ears.

The assassins grin between themselves. Yes. Finally. The Ohu leader has been defeated. The army will soon crumble, and Akakabuto's reign will be unstoppable.

But enough of alla that, I know what you people really came here to see: John yelling at Gin for making a rash decision! Yes, ole Johnny Boy is annoyed that Gin plans on not only finding Benizakura alone, but wants to leave the rest of the troops hanging back while he does so. Like, Gin, dude, you have an army of walking powerhouses and you don't want their backup against The Strongest Dog In The World Trademark All Rights Reserved?? Especially after the bastard hit you in the face twice???

Various dogs begin barking their suggestions. Gin should beat the shit out of the old fart for disrespecting him (so says the Kai Bros), and Benizakura would be outnumbered and thus forced to comply if everyone ganged up on him (so says Bill.) Gin politely speaks up with a deliberate, "Be quiet," which gets everyone to settle down. Akame clears his throat and nods to Gin, clearly having something he's gotta say. Gin bows and gives the Kishu the floor.

Akame explains that given neither Ben or Cross are here, the next commander in line is Gin. He admits that Gin is young and his decisions are brash, but he can't recall any time Gin's pigheaded determination didn't end with the Ohu dogs getting what they wanted. Besides, it's probably for best that the kid doesn't wanna face this with violence. You don't convince people like Benizakura to join you through ass kicking alone, and if there's one thing Gin's proven he can do it's convince people to be cool.

Gin's face is flush with relief as he quietly thanks Akame for his support. Musashi also agrees with the white guy's elaboration. He tries explaining things from a fighting dog's perspective.

If they all go in to kick Benizakura's ass, he'll just fight them off til he can't fight anymore. They'd just be another challenger, nothing more. But no matter how good a dog is at fighting, he's still just a dog. There is always a side to him that's soft and doughy and vulnerable to what he feels is important. Suddenly becoming aware of himself, Moss peers up at the top of his head where a tiny Tesshin is curled in a ball.

Gin allows Musashi to finish what he's saying before going on to explain himself: it's childhood rules, guys. He hit Benizakura once, Benizakura hit him twice. Ergo, Gin gets one free punchy. Smith laughs and elbows Gin in the chest, guffawing about how the baby of the team would find a way to skew such simple, immature logistics to work on a hardass like Benizakura. This plan is crazy... so crazy........ that it just might work!!!

A while later Cross finds herself on the wooden floor of an old barn. She rubs her face to clear her eyes of grit. Once her vision is clear she sees that she's not alone in the room. A dark shadow of what seems to be a massive dog is sitting before her, its eyes shining as they catch the room's sparse light. The stranger asks her in a crumpled, kind voice if she's doing alright.

Cross's brain finally reactivates and she's all like OH SHIT. The dog before her is an aged Tosa mix, his jowls greying and his face smattered with scars. But that's not nearly the worst of it, she realizes, because it turns out she's been chained to the wall.

She scrambles to her feet and demands to know who this random senior citizen is and why she's stuck in her own private Hotel California. Oldie barely reacts. He just gently informs her that his owner is willing to care for her. She'll be safe here.

As Cross pries desperately at the metal stake chaining her up - no dice - the mutt explains that she's lucky to have been rescued. She'd been delirious, mumbling strange things in her sleep about bears and wars. She also mentioned something about Shikoku, which, spoiler alert, is where she is right now.

Cross finally stops fidgeting and lets this sink in. So she made it after all. She's so glad at the prospect of finding the others that she stops struggling and smiles to herself, then to the other dog.

She gingerly thanks him for saving her, like really she's super grateful and all, but would he mind letting her off this chain? She's on a mission. The dog does not offer to set her free, but he doesn't not offer it either. Instead, he just says that she needs more rest.

Besides that, he's become very curious about her circumstances. What in God's name is she doing out here? So gentle is the old dog's gaze that she heaves a sigh, sits on her haunches, and begins describing Akakabuto to him in livid detail. And then she continues to tell him about the boss, and Ben, and Gin, and the sea, and then something much more recent.

Everyone who didn't leave with Gin was just chilling out in the woods one day hunting some food and determining where they'd go next when a scout they'd sent off, a black lab named Kurobe, had returned with some pretty shitty news: all of the platoons sent up north had been killed, wiped out in one fell swoop. Speaking of being wiped out, Kurobe was also bleeding heavily from deep lacerations. She'd collapsed in a heap before Ben before her breathing had ceased. Kurobe had died soon after.

Livid over the gruesome sight, Moss told Ben that it was time to get serious about his fucky eyesight and get to either an optomitrist or a veterinarian in a nearby human village. Ben wanted to argue, but Moss pushed that there wasn't much time left before the final full moon. Something had to be done about the slain soldiers.

Besides, how was Ben to lead his platoon if he couldn't see? Cross had looked at Ben, part of her hoping he'd stay, part of her hoping he'd leave and return with his vision intact. Ben had decided to leave.

Moss and Cross had discussed what to do. They'd want a small base camp for Gin and the others to come back to, but someone would need to head north to sort out the whole mass murder thing. They decided that the dogs should be split between the two platoon commanders available, those being Great and the newly promoted Cross.

Cross had then elected to hang around the dock to regroup with Gin and welcome back Ben when he returned. Better yet, she'd take a day or two to lead Ben to a village herself. Moss had buckled at the suggestion, asking warily if she wouldn't prefer to stay with Ben at the doctor's.

Oblivious, Cross had said that'd be excessive. She could stand on her own four feet without her man, and the hubby would want someone watching over his troops. Then her face fell, her cheeks stinging with embarrassment. She'd noticed Moss looking at her distended belly.

"You should resign when you can," Moss had said sympathetically. "Take it easy til then, but resign when you can. For your family's sake."

And with that he had departed, had followed behind Great as the dane had directed half the dogs away. Cross had stood shaking from both frustration and anguish before Ben trotted up and reminded her that he had a hot date with an eye surgeon. She'd just gritted her teeth, licked his face, and led him through the woods.

The old dog had been listening very intently to Cross this whole time, and even now she could tell he was paying her mind despite his focus being outside the shed. The dog remarks that this has all accumulated in her coming to find some scruffy punk kid with tiger stripes, huh? Well, he doesn't believe in guarantees, but he can promise her that she'll be seeing that kid soon. Cross cocks an eyebrow high enough to count as a Dreamworks audition before realizing what he means.

Not 50 feet from the hut is Gin, his nose to the dirt. Cross notices him as he gets closer. She wants to call out to him, but the old dog cuts her off. He says that he understands why Gin's doing this - he'd done similar rash things when he was young - but he won't be going easy on him. If the kid wants a fight, then a fight is what he'll get.

Cross is concerned about a heavyweight champ punching the shit outta a teenager so she tells the dog to fuck off with that idea. But of course he doesn't. Instead he says that if the Akita wants to die for his cause, then he will.

As Cross struggles to free herself Gin pads lackidasically into view. He calls out to Benizakura and lets the old meathead know he's here for that second hit. Cross gives up trying to loosen her chain and tells Gin to make himself scarce before his head gets lumped in.

Gin's surprised to see her and asks what she's doing here, but she just continues to tell him to get away. By it's too late. The old dog, Benizakura, has climbed onto the roof of the shed, and now he's plummeting down towards Gin. He lands inches in front of Gin. Gin boldly tells Benizakura that he wants him to join the Ohu army. Benizakura's like dude, we've had plenty of exposition for the day. He already knows what Gin's here to do.

That said, The Beast isn't going to abandon his cushy life as a bullbaiter because someone asks him nicely. If Gin wants him as an ally, he'll have to convince him. Gin says he agrees to a fight, but on one condition: if Benizakura pummels him into an early grave, he has to promise to take Gin's place in the army.

Benizakura accepts this offer without hesitation. He shows the exact same amount of hesitation when he grabs Gin by the neck and throws him like a football. This surpises Gin so much that he can't do anything but take the L.

Cross tries to escape the shack by pawing at a wall covered in loose boards, but she can't quite seem to make them break. She looks out at the two brawlers in a panic. Benizakura continues his assault on Gin by headbutting, kicking, biting, and finally throwing him into the side of the hut.

Cross doubles back from the wall as Gin smashes through it, splintered wood flying in all directions. When the dust settles Cross can see that Gin might have met his match. He's bleeding from the face and ribcage, and his eyes are rolling around without focus.

Cross commands Gin as his superior to leave immediately. Dying like a showoff isn't going to help anybody. Gin stubbornly picks himself up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, while Benizakura looks in through the new window he just installed.

"Get back out here!" the Tosa demands. "You think you're tough? You call yourself a man while you're in there cowering behind a pregnant woman?"

Gin never received a birds and the bees talk during his younger days so it never occured to him that Cross's rapidly growing ponch was the result of her and Ben's alone time instead of her taking seconds during meals. Cross pulls away from him as if ashamed. She says she didn't tell anyone because she was worried they'd think lesser of her for being with child. None of the other chicks in Ohu's ranks have let this happen.

Feeling awkward but sympathetic, Gin tells her that she managed to get here fulla babies so clearly she's not as weak as she's worried everyone would think she is. Before he can further reassure her, though, he remembers what he's here to do.

Gin climbs out of the wall his spine obliterated and tells Benizakura that he refuses to leave until The Beast joins him. As he nears Benizakura, Cross climbs out of the wallhole and chases after him before she's clotheslined by the chain. As Cross flops around in desperate rage, Benizakura takes a moment to look at Gin's bloodied forehead.

One of several massive scars he hadn't noticed before has split open on the kid's forehead. And yet Gin's still here, still standing before a muscleman who has broken dogs' legs like toothpicks. The kid snarls in determination as his forehead blood runs into his face.

Benizakura is distracted for only a moment before snapping out of his stupor and lunging at Gin again, but that pause was all Gin needed to plan his next attack. It should be familiar to Benizakura given he invented it. Making like he's Benizakura and Benny is a bull, Gin snags the Tosa by the flabby skin of his neck and uses his massive weight against him to fling him off his center of gravity.

The two leave the Earth behind for a nanosecond before Gin slams the dog, a monster 3 times his own size, face first into the Earth. Blood gushes from Benizakura's nose as he falls into a heap.

Cross has ceased using her words and is barking like a maniac, but nobody but the three of them is listening. Benizakura wriggles on the ground as Gin looks over his shoulder at Cross. His face says "hell yeah" but then his body goes "oh no" as Benizakura rights himself and slams as hard as he can into Gin's side. The Beast pins Gin to the ground with one massive paw on his neck and the other on his rib cage. Gin squirms violently and Benizakura stands over him panting and swaying. He seems to be... smiling?

Yes indeed, the bull of a dog is smiling ear to ear. And then he begins to laugh. His laugh grows into a bellyfull of guffaws and snorts, his eyes squeezed shut in hysterics. His laugh is as coarse as the rest of his voice, but there's no malice in it. He genuinely sounds like he's heard the funniest joke of his life.

Beizakura sits back on his haunches, still laughing, and allows Gin to get up. Gin doesn't understand if this is an insult or a mental break. Cross is so confused she quits yapping. Benizakura finally stops his chortling and wipes his eyes dry of tears.

The old dog proclaims that this was great. It's been a long time since he'd felt so alive. To think he'd almost forgotten what fighting other dogs was like! He thanks Gin for the fun and says that he'd intitially thought Gin was just some punkass kid who'd grown too big for his britches. But he understands that Gin's got real dedication.

And if he's the youngest in his army's ranks - woof! The other troops must be just as amazing. So sure, he'd be happy to live out his winter years fighting alongside the Ohu dogs. Why not?

Gin's jaw falls open in a dopey looking smile of its own. He's kinda amazed that this whole thing actually worked. While he catches his breath, Benizakura pads over to Cross.

"Benizakura, thank--" she begins, but he politely cuts her off.

"So formal, you people," he says. "Just call me Zak." And with that, he uses his powerful jaws to yank the chain from Cross's collar. The thin but sturdy metal loops snap in half.

The three are just about to head out when the door of the nearby house opens. Everyone stands surprised as the boy who was with Benizakura at the ring steps out with a large bowl of dog kibble. He seems confused and asks his dog Don what's going on. He watches as the Akita and Saluki run away, and then panickedly follows when the Tosa joins them.

"Don!" the child cries out. "Where are you going? Don't leave!"

Gin notices this mildly underwhelming goodbye become a melodramatic one as the boy trips and spills the food he was carrying. Benizakura pauses and looks back for one last time. His gaze meets the boy's, and the child begins to cry tears of confusion and hurt.

Gin's own eyes glaze over as the sight fills him with a sense of familiarity. The child's desperate face reminds him so much of Daisuke's. Is this how Diasuke felt when Gin left? Was it worse given Gin took off without saying goodbye? Gin doesn't know. All he knows is that it hurts to watch the dog give the boy a solemn smile before turning away forever.

Cross lopes up beside Gin and they wait as Zak catches up to them. The boy is still calling out and blubbers desperately. Gin's wet cheeks match Zak's. The old dog isn't so proud that he hides his pain, and he simply chokes out his desire to leave. The others nod and lead him away.

Gin lags a few feet behind as his thoughts jumble with memories of Daisuke. Gin had forgotten how much he missed his boy. He'd forgotten the last time he'd felt like a dog instead of a soldier.

The dogs slow their pace. This allows them some time to share their thoughts with each other. Zak is pretty broken up about leaving his boy. He's not so steadfast in his decision to fly the coop anymore.

Gin pauses thoughtfully before sharing his own experience with the Tosa. Gin had to leave his boy behind when he joined the army too, and it was one of the toughest decisions he'd ever had to make. Even though it hurt him in a way he's never been hurt before, he did it because...

Gin pauses as his eyes well up. The other dogs wait for him to finish his thought. Gin chokes on his words as he says them, but he still manages to spit them out.

"But I had to leave him because I knew it was the only way I could keep him safe. Because if we succeed, he'll never have to face that kind of danger again."

Everyone falls silent. Cross's eyes are wide as she takes in Gin's words, and Zak's face is stony before he nudges Gin's side encouragingly.

"Okay," is all the big guy manages to say. "I understand."

But the waterworks gradually subside and Gin's focus shifts back to the mission at hand. After running for a shorter time then you'd expect, the trio meet up with the Ohu dogs in the area.

Everyone is very impressed to see The Beast in The Flesh. He's impressed by them, too, and he quickly takes on the role of everyone's surrogate grandpa by telling them stories from the good ole days and calling them variations of "whippersnapper." The strongest dog in the world easily finds comraderie among his fellow punchy people. While he worms his way into everyone's hearts, Cross meets up with Musashi, Bill, and their comrades.

This vacay has come to an end, so everyone goes to cross the sea once more. Benizakura chauvinistically offers to help Cross carry her pregnant self across the waves, but she blows a raspberry at him and jumps in before she has to answer any questions about what he old dude said regarding pregnancy.

This will be the last bit of goofing before the journey back because oh my god there's a lot to do when they get to shore. Ben has to be retrieved, John is set to lead some of this gang to find more soldiers, Moss's crew up North needs to be checked on, and, most importantly, everything must be organized before the end of the month. That's when the war will truly begin, and everyone will have to contribute.

----------

AND SO THE SERIES CONTINUES. Just two more episodes after this one, get ready for ‘em. They should both be up before the end of the month. Also keep your eyes peeled for something else, visual stuff this time, that’ll be coming shortly too.

Episode 6: The Battle

[fanfictrashdump]

Queening a Pawn, 8

Summary: During the Time Heist, Loki stole the Tesseract and escaped. He did not expect, however, to be pulled through a Time Loop that delivered him to a Midgard more than a decade older, wiser, and bitterer. Having just lived through his unsuccessful attack in New York, Loki must learn to live in Midgard after the defeat of Thanos (post-Endgame). The question is, who is Loki without a quest for a throne or total domination?

Pairings: Loki x OC

=

Loki sat to the side of the agent's training grounds, attaching weight to different lengths of sticks and slats of wood– the nearest thing to a sword or dagger he was currently allowed in the gyms. And, even then, they were granted on his good behavior and the recommendation of both Thor and the compound manager. He sent a rogue smirk to a handful of agents who glanced at him, cross-legged and surrounded by materials like a child, and made any sort of mocking face. It turns out that they were no longer feeling high and mighty when they had no idea what he was doing, and though he had been exceedingly well-behaved the month he had been living free in the building, the agents seemed to be waiting for him to snap. He carefully balanced a makeshift blade in his hand, feeling it tilt severely to one side. With a frown, he undid the adhesive bandage and shifted the weight further down the wooden length and tried again. He certainly wasn't making much headway, but the tedious work was proving cathartic to his grossly unstimulated mind.

The sound of giggling pulled him out of his focused reverie. A short glance to the door made him double-take and wonder if his isolation or lack of magic was causing him to have hallucinations, because he could swear there were a dozen or so tiny humans rushing into the gym.

"Hey, what did I say about wandering off? James?"

Loki suppressed a smile. Delilah had been bringing up the rear of the group with the Falcon at her side and had stopped to stare down a small, blond boy who had clearly been on his way to grab at the bows and arrows. The child gave her a wide, knowing grin and rejoined his peers a second later. "STARK agents have to be big and strong to help catch all the bad guys, right?" There was an angelic chorus of yes at her question. "Well, this is where they train. STARK agents, SHIELD agents, and some Avengers, like Sam, come here to get fit. They train with weapons, with each other, and some even train with their powers!" There was a wave of oohs at that, and Loki chuckled to himself as he wrapped up another set of sticks.

"Whacha doin'?"

When the Asgardian looked up, he couldn't help but smirk. "I believe, James, you were told not to wander off." He was already on his feet before the child could even protest. 

Making sure the child was with him, he approached the group with unease. The agents were already staring daggers at him when the boy snuck off to him and their sentiments weren't improving when it came to a whole hoard of them. Loki cleared his throat and Lilah spun on her heel looking friendly if a little confused. He gestured the boy.

"James! You're going to lose cookie privileges if you keep sneaking off, OK?" The tone she was using on the child sounded familiar, and Loki couldn't tell if he was offended by it or not…

A hand tugged on his shirt, and he looked down to spot a freckled, brown-haired boy looking curiously up at him. "You're Loki. My mom said you were bad." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam wince and Delilah mouth I'm sorry. 

Ah, youth! 

If there was something to be expected of children, it's ruthless honesty. It was actually quite refreshing to be described in such binary terms without any of the vitriol behind it that it usually had. The crowd gathering to stare at him had grown, but he paid them no mind as he took a knee, leaning against his arm as he leveled with the boy.

"I suppose your mum was right about that–," he looked at the name tag pinned to his shirt, "–Jackson."

"I heard you brought a bajillion aliens that killed a bunch of people!" A redheaded girl in a purple dress exclaimed, a little too excitedly for the content of the message. "But then my dad said that Thor said you weren't a bad guy no more!"

"What do brains look like!?"

"Guys!" Lilah admonished, clearly having lost control of the pack of wolves.

"Why'd you kill those people?"

Delilah cut over the crowd. "Lo, you don't have to–"

"I suppose," Loki started, ignoring the wild signals she and Sam were giving him, "I was unhappy and I trusted someone who I shouldn't have, not knowing he would hurt a lot of people."

"Why were you unhappy?" The same girl in the purple dress asked. She looked struck with sadness at the confession.

"I had a fight with my parents," he replied, and immediately felt like an idiot. What was worse was that it was true, but he wasn't dwelling on that truth at the moment. "They hurt my feelings and I got sad and a little bit crazy. A lot bit crazy." The kids giggled.

Several of the children had sat down around Loki, as if he were telling a deranged campfire story. "But you're not a bad guy no more?" James asked.

"Er… I've gotten better. I got caught when I was doing naughty things and they brought me here and then they put these bracelets on so I can't be naughty, anymore."

James was already feeling the manacles before Loki could even react. He decided that staying as still as he possibly could had the least chance of getting him killed, afterward. "What'd they do?"

"They stop me from doing magic."

"I saw a magician once. He pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Can you do that?" It was Jackson who queried.

Loki chuckled. "I'm afraid not. At least not with these on." He tapped his wrist twice.

"But you can still fight! I saw a video of you on YouTube with some daggers and–"

"Oh, that's what Delilah's here for." The woman in question flushed, immediately, when fourteen small children and Sam turned their full attention on her. "You should ask the agents for the video of her fighting me. She's so scary! I'd be on my best behavior if I were you." There was a few woahs and wows at that. "But, even if she wasn't, I wouldn't be much trouble."

James tilted his head and his demeanor and blond hair reminded Loki of Thor. "Why not?"

Loki thought for a second, before leaning in conspiratorially. "Don't tell anyone, but I kind of like it here. I don't want to get kicked out." The children all nodded in understanding, adorably serious about the confession. Loki made a show locking his lips and gesturing to Sam and Delilah with his head before straightening up. "I think you imps have gotten enough high security secrets out of me for the day."

Someone came running into the room, jumping beside Loki and giving a scream of surprise. The kids were off their feet, screaming "Bucky!" at the top of their lungs. A moment later Sam and Bucky had kids hanging off them as they moved to the secondary gym to play some dodgeball.

Lilah tried to contain the grin on her face, looking at Loki out of the side of her eye when she came to stand beside him. "That was–"

"Too much?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No. It was brilliant?" The word seemed foreign on her tongue, or perhaps it was its relation to him. "Did you really just explain the Battle of New York to a bunch of eight year-olds?"

"I suppose I did, yes." She nudged him in the ribs with a smile. "What?"

"You're good with kids?" The observation sounded like a question from her lips.

Loki smirked, turning his head to face her. "You're surprised." His was most definitely not a question.

"A little bit, yeah. Pleasantly surprised." Copying his pose, she nudged him in the side with her hip. "Thanks for entertaining their questions. I hope it wasn't bad for you." Lilah cut him off before he could protest. "No, really. Thank you. It's a big deal… or, it is to me." She unwound, reaching for the hand nearest her, curled around his bicep and gave it a squeeze. "I'll see you a little later, Lo." She retreated, walking backwards to face him for a few paces, offering him a smile and a wink, before turning and disappearing through another door. Loki stood still for a long moment, biting into the inside of his cheek as he determined whether or not it was concerning that his heart felt like it was overinflated.

Valkyrie's voice appeared suddenly beside him. "Close your mouth, Loki. You'll catch flies."

He groaned, his head hanging, immediately. "Do you just appear anywhere you're unwanted or is it a happy coincidence?"

"I follow the scent of yearning and desperation." She quipped.

Loki smirked. "So, you end up chasing your own tail quite often, don't you?"

Valkyrie laughed, clapping Loki on the back which jolted him a half-step forward. "I think you're confusing genuine concern for desire, there, Snakeboy."

"Am I?"

"He's not my type." Loki knew exactly what she meant. There was silence between them. "Delilah on the other hand…"

He tilted his neck left and right, his spine cracking as he did so. The tension in his neck was only rivaled by the tension in his jaw as he ground his teeth together in response. "Perhaps you can make your intentions known to her."

"Oh, Lokes," she cooed, grinning. "Who says I haven't?" Loki cut his eyes at her, failing at keeping his expression even. "She's a good kisser."

"Well, I suppose you don't mind lowering yourself to such a standard," he drawled, looking at his fingernails with feigned interest. "Considering your life in Sakaar and all."

Delilah stuck her head out the door with a smile. "Brunn! You're here!" The human scurried from the door towards them. She had tied her red and gold STARK Industries t-shirt at the back in a knot and had braided her shaggy fringe out of her eyes.

"I'd ask how the dodgeball was going, but you look about ready to pass out," Valkyrie commented, straightening some of the braids in Delilah's hair until it resembled a warrior's pompadour–fit and ready for battle.

"They've divided themselves into humans vs Lokis and are waging battle… except they're all Lokis and we're the humans and instead of battle, they just wait for me to chase them and then play dead."

Loki couldn't help but snort, quickly trying to cover up the laughter with a cough. Lilah narrowed her eyes at him with a shake of her head. "I should have chosen my armies more carefully. I'd have definitely conquered the world with a handful of children at my command."

"Just when I thought you could be a positive influence," Delilah joked before looking pleadingly at Valkyrie. "Do you mind rallying the troops? They're on the adrenaline kick."

"My pleasure," Brunnhilde declared with a wicked grin, loosening her shoulders before leaving them and kicking the door open. "Alright, where are those tricky Lokis?" She yelled, before the door closed behind her.

"Oh, Lord. She's worse, isn't she?" Delilah muttered with a sigh. Loki nodded with a smirk and she groaned in defeat.

"I wasn't aware that you and the Valkyrie were…" he trailed off.

"Were…?"

"Involved?" He finished, looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

Delilah let out a cackle. "Involved? With Valkyrie?" Her smile fell almost immediately and a flush rose up her already pinkened face. "What exactly did she say?"

"Nothing much. Went on about your abilities in kissing." He said, easily, with an airy gesture of his hand.

"Oh. Nothing else?" She fidgeted, tugging at the end of one of her braids.

Loki smirked, crowding her. "Is there anything else? Are you keeping secrets from me?"

"Obviously."

"Is that advisable?" The space between them continued to shrink. "I am the god of lies."

"Secrets are not lies," she challenged, sticking her index finger into his sternum.

He closed his fist around her finger. "Lies of omission–"

She snatched her hand away, making a face at him. "–are only lies when you consciously withhold information for your benefit," she countered, "I went to Catholic school."

"So, you're well practiced on your knees?" He quipped, raising an eyebrow in challenge. He let out a hiss when she jabbed him in the shoulder. "I apologize. That was too easy a target."

Lilah looked up, and in the moment she looked like the portrait of innocence. Her wide green eyes were glowing under the fluorescent lighting of the gymnasium, hair tastefully in disarray from running after the little monsters. "I'm too easy a target?"

His insides did that same overinflated song and dance number. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering over her cheek. "Not at all."

She shivered in her spot, but remained unflinching. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you haven't decided how to murder me," she explained, slowly. "But I'm certain it'll end in some sort of cannibalism."

He wetted his lips, and for a moment he swore her eyes widened but a fraction before darkening. "It's not murder I'm contemplating, but I might take you up on the cannibalism," he husked, his fingers now trailing her neck. "You're avoiding my question, dearest. About the Valkyrie?"

"We're just friends. She just knew you'd bring it up with me." Lilah blushed again, setting her mouth into a scowl to avoid looking weak.

"And why would she want that?"

Delilah didn't answer, finding herself mercifully delivered by a notification on her smartwatch. When she turned her attention back to him, she had reset her casual mask. "Would you, er, like to come with us to the mess hall? The kids were hanging onto your every word, so…"

"Would you like me to come?"

Delilah rolled her eyes. "Really? Would I ask you if I didn't?"

He was getting comfortable in this banter. "Must you answer my every question with a question?"

"Must you?"

Loki chuckled, tilting his head like a curious pup. "I would love nothing more than to accompany you and your little monsters to lunch," he assured, fist over heart before he bowed. "Provided, of course, that I am not the adult in charge."

"Lo, I wouldn't put you in charge of watching paint dry, much less of minding small children." There was a glint of a frown in his face at the comment, that was quickly covered up by a smirk. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that. You're very capable, just not the most responsible adult I know. You like having fun and doing pranks and–"

He waved off her concern. "It's fine. You needn't bother with explaining yourself."

"No." She had Loki's hand in hers. "It's just– I'm good at taking care of people and bad with talking and I'm sorry."

Loki squeezed her hand. "I'm not worth your time, pixie."

"Hey! Don't badmouth my friend!"

He genuinely laughed at her heated response. "Are you going to slap me again?"

"I might. You're a good person, Loki."

The phrase knocked something loose in his chest and he took a rattling breath to try and ease the ache. Before he could respond in kind, the rabid pack of children had exited the gym with Valkyrie and Bucky in tow, looking more tired than all the children, combined. He dropped Delilah's hand amid the chorus of Lokis being shouted at him, and he couldn't help but smile. He wished he was half as interesting as what these children thought he was.

"Have you all fought valiantly against the Valkyrie and the Winter Soldier?" He asked, bending down to face them. They all nodded, excitedly. "Well, we shall feast with the gods, then!" Loki was nearly knocked off-balance by James, the sweet, nosy blond, clambering onto his back and winding his small arms around his neck. "Alright, come on, you lot."

It was no time before Loki found himself the most popular person in the former Avenger's compound. He sat at the center of one of the long lunch tables with a mess of children sat around him, hanging onto his every word. Delilah smiled from the next table over. The demigod was regaling the children with a tale of how he convinced Thor he was a normal stray dog for a whole month, only to pop up and scare him the second he tried to give him a bath.

"Is it true you're a prince?" A little girl asked, to his right.

He bit down on a piece of asparagus. Every time he had a vegetable, so did the rest of the table, so he figured he would do some poor parents a favor. "Yes, I am."

The little girl gasped. "Do you think I could be a princess one day?"

Delilah expected Loki to brush it off as an absurdity and say that Princesses were born that way, but he was beaten to the punch by another girl down the line. "Don't be stupid! You can't just become a princess! You have to be one for forever! "

Loki frowned. "That's not very nice, Alice. Is that any way to treat your peer?" Delilah and Valkyrie both looked at each other, nearly choking on their juice boxes. "In chess, a lowly pawn can become a Queen. Why is it inconceivable for an ordinary person to become a princess? Through hard work, you can do anything. Apologize to Callie, please."

"But she–"

The look Loki sent the child could have very well melted paint, and it took less than a second of it for Alice to mutter an apology to Callie and continue her meal, somewhat sullen. "The only thing stopping any of you from being whatever you like is the time you put into it. If you're not willing to work harder than anyone else, you're not fully dedicated. That goes for anything: prince, princess, warrior, healer, engineer– anything."

"But, can I be a princess, though?" Callie asked, again.

Loki smirked. "I'll put in a good word for you with King Brunnhilde. How about that?" The rest of the table began clamoring for the same favor. "Alright, I'll talk to her. Let's go fetch your dessert, you imps." All fifteen left the table to get some sweets, and sat right back down. Loki had sneaked a few extra cookies with his scoop of ice cream and was alternating bites.

"Oh, shit," Delilah muttered, making Valkyrie frown and turn towards the table where she echoed the sentiment. "Loki, you're not supposed to have ice cream, remember?"

The Asgardian frowned, narrowing his eyes at Lilah, who seemed to be staring quite pointedly, but he had no idea at what. "Pardon?"

"You know! The way you get cranky when you eat something frosty," she explained carefully, lifting her eyebrows. Loki glanced down.

The hand holding the ice cream scoop was beginning to turn dusky blue at the contact and he quickly set it down on his plate with a chuckle. "Right. Of course." He rubbed his hands together quickly to dispel the color. "Do I have any on my face?" She shook her head in the negative, but did prompt him to pull his collar up. "Thank you."

"Really? Him changing species doesn't freak you out?" Valkyrie whispered. "His eyes literally turn the color of nightmares!"

"Loki is Loki is Loki is Loki…," she countered, stuffing a piece of brownie in her mouth. "Stop laughing at me!" She threw a piece of her treat at the King's cackling face.

"In chess, a lowly pawn can become a Queen and I already have a lovely pawn in mind," Brunnhilde imitated Loki's mannerisms and smoky tone.

"You're such a shit friend, I swear!" Delilah complained, though she was laughing, too.

"Delilah, let my awful flirting trick you right into my pants."

"I certainly hope to have more finesse than that, my King," Loki said, suddenly standing beside the table with a smirk. Delilah flushed a deep rouge, lowering her face to stare at the table, hoping the ground would decide to show her mercy and swallow her whole. "The children have finished their lunch. Where should they be taken?"

"Sam and Bucky are on drop-offs. Let me get them!" Lilah squeaked, all too eager to volunteer and leave her place in that conversation.

"We should put a bell around your neck, so we know when you're creeping around."

"And miss her face turn that fetching shade of red? Blasphemy!" She had returned with Sam and Bucky and was busy giving instructions about where they were going now. "You could probably do with thirteen more royals in your court, couldn't you?"

"I thought there were fourteen kids?"

"Alice will become royalty when she learns some manners!" He snapped, much to her amusement.

Valkyrie smiled. "I'll take your suggestion under consideration, Prince."

"Thank you, my King." His eyes flickered upwards to where Delilah stood, clearing the kids' lunch table. "Now, about that pawn–"

"Not going to help you, Snakeboy. She can do better."

"She could also do worse!" He defended, almost pouting. He hesitated before tacking on, "can't she?"

She laughed heartily. "Here? No. I think you're bottom of the barrel, I'm afraid." Valkyrie hummed, contemplating before sucking against her teeth and sighing. "But for some reason, she's sweet on you, anyway. Don't fuck up."

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Walking Dead: Open Your Eyes (10x07)

So obviously a really shocking thing happened in this episode, and I wanted to be totally impressed and on board and all that, but I have some problems.

Cons:

Siddiq was actually a super interesting character and I really wanted to explore his PTSD and get in to his role in the community. So, predictably, he now must die. I'm going to praise some aspects of his death in the "Pros" section, but for the most part it just doesn't track for me. There are so few genuinely interesting characters left on this show, why kill this one?

Also, Dante being a secret Whisperer doesn't make any sense at all. I wanted to be pleased with the twist, because it was certainly unexpected and that can be refreshing, but here's the problem: I thought one of the big tensions going on here is that Alpha's cult of personality would be ruined if anyone knew that Lydia was still alive. Dante knows, and is still loyal to the Whisperers. Who is this guy? We have no investment in him as one of Alpha's loyal followers. I liked Dante and found him interesting on his own merits, but now I'm having to deal with the fact that he was just there to be a setup for a twist!

More than anything else, though, the thing that annoyed me about this episode was Lydia's behavior. Carol takes her along to confront Gamma, as part of a trap. Gamma sees Lydia and runs off, crying. Lydia is extremely upset with Carol for "using her" in order to upset Gamma. She says something about how Carol is just the same as Alpha, and runs off by herself. What a weird, pointless, over-sized reaction! I could see Lydia being a little annoyed at the slight manipulation, but for her to run off on her own like that? What the heck? That felt so contrived, like it was just there to add further complications.

There are other nits I could pick, like inconsistent character work (Aaron was interesting in this episode so I don't want to complain, but all of his anger issues from earlier this season seem to have vanished??), and the lack of characters like Michonne and Negan. It's frustrating for key story beats to remain on hold for so long in between the episodes.

Pros:

I will say this for Siddiq's death. I genuinely did not see it coming. It's been years since the death of a main character on this show genuinely surprised me. They always follow the same pattern of building it up and telegraphing the coming end way too strongly. But this is episode seven of the season, and Siddiq's role has grown a lot over the entire course of Season Ten. I thought he was sticking around. And even when Dante started to choke him, I kept waiting for him to get out somehow, or for someone to come along and rescue him. And when he didn't I was genuinely astonished.

I also liked that Rosita and Siddiq got some screen-time together. We haven't seen a lot of them as co-parents, and now we're going to have to see Rosita dealing with his loss, after having suffered so much already. It was nice to have such a strong reminder of their friendship and affection for each other, right before the tragedy. That's effective story-telling and makes me feel invested in the characters! Who would have thought!

Even though Dante being a Whisperer doesn't make a lot of sense when you think through all of the implications, I also appreciated that surprise as well. It sinks in slowly. Earlier, when Dante "accidentally" kills the captured Whisperer and pins it on Siddiq, it seems plausible that in Siddiq's messed up, traumatized mind, he might have inadvertently given Dante the wrong medicine. And then as the truth starts to become clear, it makes sense that Dante would kill the Whisperer to stop him from giving any information away about the hoard. So that was a cool way of doing that reveal.

I appreciated Carol trying to get information by being kind, and then switching to torture when that didn't work. Also, it was kind of bad-ass that Daryl stepped in and threatened the guy after he started saying some nasty shit to Carol. On the one hand, she definitely knows how to look after herself. But on the other, it's still nice to know that Daryl has her back.

One of the highlights of the episode for me was Gamma and Aaron's conversation. Gamma is there specifically to gather information, and Aaron probably knows that. But Aaron's words to Gamma are working to get under her skin (so to speak). Alpha encourages Gamma to remember her priorities, to put all thoughts of her dead sister and the baby that Alexandria saved out of her mind. For Gamma to then see Lydia, and realize that her Alpha has lied to her... that's such a pivotal moment. It was framed and acted very well. This season has done an excellent job of setting up the stakes and the rules of the Whisperer's organization. It makes perfect sense to me why Gamma would be so devastated at the sight of Lydia. It means Alpha lied, and it also brings up her feelings about her dead sister, the one Gamma killed in order to save Alpha. The whole reason she was given a title in the first place. This is delicious drama that is obviously going to have big ramifications moving forward.

I think I'm going to stop there. I'm annoyed that Siddiq died, because I thought he was interesting and that there might have been more we could have gotten out of his character. But I do have to praise the twists and turns here, because real shocks are few and far between on this show these days!

8/10

[thenobodyhasarrived]

Writing Abuse

So, I just realized a big pet peeve of mine: people incorrectly representing food issues and abuse in all media but mainly books. As someone who was abused as a child I thought to make a list of some of the big things I see off the top of my head. This is on mobile and my abuse was largely centered around food so keep that in mind.

1.) Hiding food:

I've seen some stories, a lot of times fanfiction if I'm being totally honest, have the idea that as long as the abuser does not see the person being abused eating that it has been successfully hidden. That is, usually, extremely incorrect. whenever I read a character just taking from the pantry when a parent figure is asleep, I get incredibly stressed because that would have gotten me in a huge amount of trouble. A big part of hiding food is what I like to call cushioning. Cushioning is when you do not eat the first or the last of anything, ever. If you open a package then it is far more likely to be noticed. If you are the last one to eat something then the package has to be thrown away and the loss of the package becomes much more noticeable. people are much less likely to notice a little bit of something taken from the middle. Unless the abuser has multiple children and abuses each of them in a different way or only abuses one of them, and unless those non abused children stick up for the abused kid and realize that food is being deprived from them, then the loss of the food is very prominent.

2.) Obtaining ≠ Success

So another thing is that it's not just about eating the food, it's about being able to keep down the food. If the character has been abused this way for a long time then it usually becomes kind of ingrained that eating is bad all of the time. I am almost perpetually hungry but I cannot bring myself to eat enough to fill my stomach more than half of the time. I once didn't eat all day and then made myself a plate of spaghetti, ate a single bite, and then stared at the plate for 4 hours after because even though I was ravenous I could not eat the food for the life of me (this often results in stress which could result in crying or anger or complete dispassion depending on how a person responds to trauma.) so it's not just about being able to get the food to eat, it's about being able to physically and mentally make yourself eat.

3.) Behaviors

I want to preface this with saying that my father was the one who abused me and I haven't seen him since about between the ages of 12 and 14, and I am 18 now and I still experience these behaviors. Being possessive over food is a very big behavior. A lot of times these cues are subtle and even the person experiencing the behavior might not know what's causing it. One of my behaviors is that whenever I eat something off of a plate I will curl my arm around it, no one really notices because my posture is very casual it kind of looks like I'm just steadying the platw but in reality it's so that no one can take my plate or take from my plate without my permission and so that I can hunch over/snatch my plate if need be. Being giving with food is also a common behavior. Just the phrase "I haven't eaten" sends me into a panic regardless of who's saying it. I once overheard a conversation between two people that I didn't know at my high school, it was exam week so we were not having a lunch that day we had to bring our own, and one kid said that he fainted the day before because he didn't drink anything for a few days and then I heard the dreaded "and I haven't eaten" which was compounded by "in days". I gave him my water (of course), I think I gave him a granola bar and maybe also a Pop-Tart. I offered to give him money so you can go to the vending machine. And then I told him the only reason I wasn't giving him more was because his stomach probably couldn't take that and I didn't want to make him puke. I had a friend with anorexia and I would give her parts of my lunch every single day I would split it in half,and that was as young as an elementary school because to me when you have the opportunity to eat you have to take it because you don't know when you won't be able to eat next. so there is some dikotomy there and if you're writing it or experiencing this it can swing from both sides of the spectrum rapidly or stay on one side of the spectrum or just have certain situations that make their behavior swing. In my household I used to have to ask every time before I ate and the answer was often no. so even years after whenever I open the fridge even if the house is empty I will still ask if I can eat something or I will avoid eating something because it hasn't been opened and I can't pretend I didn't take anything later.

4.) Trash

Under no circumstances should the food your character is hiding end up in the trash.if there's even the slightest chance that the parent might find a rapper or an apple core in the trash then it does not go there. I used to eat apple cores stem and all because it was easier to hide the fact that I ate apples that way. I had my granola bar wrappers and things like that in my book bag and then I would throw it away once I got to school and when there were no school times I would either keep them hidden somewhere in my room until I could dispose of them or I would take them and throw them away at a friend's house. This is something that only works if the abusive parent also does not search the child's belongings.

5.) Food Hoard

The character will almost definitely even years after the abuse have a place where they hide food. Even if other people know that it exists, they still need to be reassured that should they want to they can eat whenever they have safe food from a safe place. a food horde is filled almost exclusively with non-perishable items because they're easier to hide because they don't go bad.

6.) Gaslighting

gaslighting is essentially when someone tries to convince you that something that did not happen did happen or that something that did happen did not. It's something that's very common with abusers. An abuser will ask if they've ever broken a promise and you're supposed to say no even though they have— I've always been a bit slow when it comes to social cues so even with my siblings begging me to lie and say the right thing I was very blunt and I would say yes which would result in worse things. it's not something I see as much as I think I should see in any story about abuse because even physical abuse is usually compounded by some sort of mental abuse. The abuser will try to paint themselves as a decent person when they are anything but, they will say that it was your fault and you made them mad or that they wouldn't hit you you just misremembered because you fell and hit your head and haha what a klutz! I'm including false justification with gaslighting and by false justification I mean things like "my side of the family is prone to obesity and I just don't want you to be fat I want you to be healthy that's why I'm doing this it's to keep you healthy it's a good thing". even if an abuser knows they're in the wrong they will not admit it unless they have to keep their victim complacent somehow, and even then it will be an apology that ultimately pins the blame on the victim or some sort of backhanded compliment etc

There is so much more but as I am on mobile it's already getting lengthy on my screen. whether someone is experiencing abuse and wants help dealing with it because it's a situation they can't get out of or someone wants help writing an abused character, feel free to either reblog this with a question or comment with one or two directly DM me if you want to stay more private. My abuse also extended into verbal and a little bit with physical but not a lot and of course emotional. I'm pretty open about it and I don't mind talking about it now because I'm comfortable, so genuinely feel free to ask me questions I will not mind.

[a-dragons-journal]

Hi! I’m not an other kin, at least as far as I know, but I am genuinely curious about the other kin stuff. I swear I’m not a troll or a dick who wants to mock you, and sorry if my questions are too personal and make you upset. I was wondering what kind of dragon you are, if there are different types of dragons, if you’re the kind of dragon from mythology or if you’re a fancy kind of dragon that hasn’t been written about? Also, are you mentally a dragon all the time and do you hoard stuff?

I’m always happy to answer questions!! No question is a bad question when asked in good faith, and just the fact that you express concern about being offensive is enough for me to not be offended. I’m just immensely grateful you’re putting in the effort to seek out correct information before jumping to conclusions about us

I don’t really have any moniker other than “dragon” for myself - “Western dragon” is probably the most specific I can get, and that just means I have the traditional Western body plan (four legs, two wings). If my species has a name for themselves, I don’t know it.

There are a ton of different kinds of dragon, hailing from many, many different worlds. “Dragon” is sort of an umbrella term, to be honest - it covers a wide range of creatures, and it’s hard to even pin down a set definition for the word without excluding something that we would definitely classify as “dragon”. (I wrote a whole 3-page essay on the problem of defining “dragon” for an English class once, actually.) It’s part of why there’s such a large proportion of dragons in the otherkin community. As for my world specifically, honestly, I don’t know whether there were multiple species of dragon or just my species. (I’ll let y’all know if I find out. :P)

Whether or not I’m the kind of dragon from mythology is… complicated? Technically I think the answer is “no,” just because my life as a physical dragon didn’t take place on Earth, but there are a lot of similarities between myself and dragons as portrayed in contemporary Western media - the body plan and appearance, fire-breathing, hoarding, etc. But Western mythos isn’t the only mythos out there, either, and there are a lot more dragon myths that I don’t share more than superficial similarities with! So… yes and no?

Whether I’m mentally a dragon or not all the time is also kind of complicated, in part because it’s hard for me to even say where the line between “human” and “dragon” even is in myself a lot of the time. A lot of otherkin consider themselves nonhuman in all but body. I’m not one of those - I exist as both human and dragon, all the time. Some days I may feel more or less dragon, but it’s always present. A lot of my behaviors, instincts, and traits are very clearly Human, and some are pretty clearly Dragon, but quite a few fall in a blurry in-between, where I really can’t say which they belong to (if not both). There’s not a clear delineation for me. …Hopefully that makes some sort of sense, and didn’t just confuse you more. :P

I do hoard stuff! (This one’s simple, at least xD) My hoard is mostly crystals - 178 was the last count, if memory serves, and I’m going to a rock and gem faire tomorrow where I’m sure to pick up at least a few more. I’m trying to add dice to my hoard too, but that’s somewhat harder because they’re more expensive (coming in sets and all) and I’m a bit picky about which dice I like. I’ve still gotta get a friend to buy me a bulk dice bag for a birthday or sommat. Honestly, I’m not sure how much of the crystals thing is because I’m a dragon, how much is because I’m a witch, and how much is just because I Like Shiny Things (which is one of those blurry in-between “is this a dragon thing or a human thing” traits xD).

Feel free to send follow-up questions, comments, clarifications, etc. anytime!! My inbox and DMs are always open

[sis-tafics]

The Most Magical Place on Earth - Epcot

PART TWO

Summary: You and Jensen go on a vacation with the Padaleckis and get into a little trouble in Epcot

SERIES MASTERLIST

Characters: Reader, Jensen, Gen, Jared, Tom, Shep

Pairings: Jensen x Reader

Word Count: 2000

Warnings:  Language, drunk!Jensen, drunk!Reader, very light public smut

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading. I kinda started writing this after I went on a vacation to Disney a few months ago. I’m looking at it maybe being 4 parts long. This is just supposed to be a fluffy little series, no heartbreak or angst or any of my normal things

This is unbetaed, all mistakes are mine.

“Time to get up babe,” his lips brush over your forehead as he leans over the bed.

“No,” you groan, pulling up the covers, trying to pray away the throbbing in your head.

“I thought you were going to get Jared drunk last night?” He teases and you can hear him walking towards the windows.

“Dont! Jense, don’t you dare open those curtains,” you grumble, your mouth dry as hell.

He chuckles low, coming back over to the bed. You open up the covers, peeking up at him with one eye. He smiles softly, crawling back beside you, pulling you to his chest, “I guess a little longer won’t hurt.”

“Mhmm,” you snuggle against him, tangling your legs with his, “you’re really warm.”

He presses a kiss to your forehead, “Yeah, I got a little burnt yesterday, it’s not too bad.”

“It’s supposed to be hotter today,” you yawn.

“Well we will be drinking our way around the world, so I’m sure I won’t notice.” You guys are going to Epcot around ten but you know Gen and Jared had wanted to get the kids some breakfast, you are probably skipping that now. It’s funny, Jared drunk by himself was a handful, you and Jensen drunk together was a nightmare. It’s like herding cats. Not that either of you got too stupid, just any and all shyness that you had fell away.

You press your face against his, eyes falling shut, “I’m going back to sleep.”

“Go ahead sweetheart,” he runs his fingers through your hair, his other hand finding yours, squeezing it.

“You’re too good to me,” you mumble.

“Nah,” he chuckles and it rumbles through his entire body, but then he stills, brushing your hair back, “I don’t deserve you.”

That wakes you up. You lean back a little so you can look at him, gently touching his face, “What are you talking about Jense?”

He shakes his head, “I don’t tell you that enough… You’re good with my friends, you’re cool about my job-”

“To be fair, you’re cool about me working crazy amounts of hours.”

“And you’re good to me,” he smiles softly.

You giggle, “Well no shit Sherlock...I’m kinda in love with you.”

“I know, but you’d be a good person even if you didn’t, and that’s one of the reasons I love you.”

You can’t help but smile, pressing your lips to his, “Where’s this coming from? You’re usually only a sap when you’re drunk.”

He kisses you back before peppering kisses all over your face, laughing low, “Quiet...I’m pre-drunk.”

“I like pre-drunk Jensen,” you giggle, wrapping your arms tight around him and pulling yourself closer, snuggling up against him.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispers, rubbing your arm.

“I’m working on it,” you yawn, pressing your face to his neck, letting the warmth wash over you.

________

It is a little after seven and you and Jensen are long gone, laughing like idiots. Shep is on your shoulders, Tom is on Jensen’s and you two are bouncing through the crowds, making the kids giggle uncontrollably.

“Pluto!” Shep shouts, pointing at the character as you guys are about to pass it and you stop in your tracks, grabbing Jense’s arm.

“C’mon, let’s get them pictures so Jared and Gen can catch up,” they were a bit behind you, sick of trying to keep up with you two.

“Alright, get off,” Jense growls playfully, lifting Tom off, letting him drop quickly and catching him so the boy squeals and laughs. Shep squirms excitedly until you put him on the ground, and immediately his hand finds yours as you get in line.

“Aunt Y/N/N,” he tugs on your hand.

“What’s up bud?”

“I’m hungry.”

You squeeze his fingers gently, “ We will get some food right after this.”

He nods, smiling excitedly, his attention now focused on Pluto. Jensen’s arm wraps around you and you lean into his side as he leans down and kisses your neck, nipping, making you giggle.

“Knock it off,” you hiss, “we are in public.”

“So?” he does it again, and you laugh, twisting to say something but he catches your lips with his, kissing you deeply.

“Eww,” the boys say together and you and Jensen laugh against each others lips.

“Eww is right,” Jared’s voice booms as him and Gen walk up beside you. She shoots him a bemused look.

Jensen shakes his head, pulling you closer, resting his forehead on your shoulder. You scratch his scalp lightly, only one more family ahead of you guys now. He presses a kiss to your skin, “Another margarita for you after this?”

You giggle low, “Yep, but you gotta step up your drinking game old man. I think I’m a couple up on you.”

“Quiet,” he tries but ends up laughing.

The lady ushers you guys forward and suddenly Shep wraps his arms around Jensen’s leg, too nervous to go up to the oversized dog.

“Whatcha doin’ buddy?” Jensen ruffles his hair.

Shep looks up at his uncle then to Pluto, shaking his head. Jared steps up, squatting by his son, “Do you want me to go with you?”

Shep nods, but still doesn’t let go of Jensen until Jared takes his hand, taking him up to meet the character. You pull out your phone, shooing Gen forward to join them and taking her phone so you can get a family photo of the four of them.

“Smile!” You pry, taking a couple of photos before deciding one of them would be good enough.

Gen comes over to you, flipping through the pictures with a smile, “Thank you.”

You give her a small hug, “No problem.”

“Do you and Jensen want to run off for a bit? You guys have been watching the kids all day.”

“I think they’ve been watching us,” you giggle as Tom runs towards you at a million miles per hour, crashing into your legs with a big hug.

“Uff,” you grunt teasingly and Gen laughs.

“Seriously, you two go have some fun.”

“But I wanna go with Aunt Y/N/N!” Tom says and Shep is right behind him.

“Aunt Y/N/N said we were going to get food!”

“Me and Daddy can get you two food, why don’t we let Aunt Y/N and Uncle Jensen go for a little bit?”

Jensen grabs Shep from behind, flipping him upside down so he giggles manically, squirming like crazy, “Uncle Jensen!”

“What are we doing?” Jensen looks between you and Gen, tickling the wriggling Shep.

Gen grabs her son from Jensen, flipping him upright, “You and Y/N are going to have some kid free time.”

“I don’t mind Gen, really,” Jensen tries, making a face at Shep before looking back to her.

“I know, but you two didn’t come to babysit our kids, you are on vacation too.”

Jensen and you both shrug, it really isn’t a big deal to either of you, you’re family.

“Get lost,” Jared smirks, “I don’t need to see you two making out again.”

Jensen punches him playfully in the shoulder, and even though he has aviators on, you know he rolls his eyes.

Jared shoves him back, “I don’t want to see either of you until the fireworks.”

“I’m sick of your face too Jare,” you stick your tongue out and he laughs.

Jensen laces his fingers through yours and pulls you away from the Padeleckis. You don’t even make it ten steps and his arm finds its way around your waist, “What do you want to do for two hours?”

“Hmm...Well I am hungry, and I am nowhere near drunk enough to spend the night with you,” you tease.

“Ouch,” he laughs, “So margaritas for you and then…”

“Let’s do German food.”

“Sounds good to me,” he presses a kiss to your cheek, going back to holding your hand as you make your way through the crowds.

Not thirty minutes later you are sitting in the Biergarten Restaurant and both you two are another beer or two in, maybe, here they serve it in liters so it is hard to tell who is drinking what. What you do know is neither of you stop ordering.

You glance at his watch, “Shit Jense, we gotta meet up with them soon.”

“Hmm,” he looks down at it before pulling out his phone, “Where are we meeting them at?”

You giggle for no reason, “I don’t know, aren’t you s’supposed to know?”

“Shush,” he smirks, texting.

He puts the phone back in his pocket, smiling widely, “Okay, c’mon.”

“Where the fuck are we going?”

“I dunno,” he grabs your hand, “Not here.”

He pulls you behind him, grinning, as you two walk into the cool night air.

“Jense!” you squeak, trying not to laugh as he leads you through the people, “Do you even know where we are going?”

“Nope, it’s an adventure,” he starts laughing again and you join him, wrapping your arm around his waist and his hooks over your shoulder. He presses a kiss to your head, squeezing you tightly against his side.

People are crowding around the lake, getting ready to see the fireworks, pushing each other to get closer. Jensen keeps you towards the back as shops start to close down, stopping every once in awhile to bend down and steal a kiss.

You swear at some point you hear someone yelling for him, but you are too focused on your boyfriend, too caught up in his giddy laughter and free behavior as he drags you through the hoards.

Finally around France he stops, diverting to the side, down the dark part near an ice cream shop with it’s lights out for the night as a voice comes over the intercoms, announcing the start of the fireworks.

“Jense?” You giggle.

“Shh,” he whispers against your lips as he pushes you towards a semi-hidden corner, where no one will pay any attention with the show on the lake, “they stole you away last night.”

“It’s your fault, you passed out before I got back,” you tease, kissing him, tugging his bottom lip between your teeth.

He growls low, pinning you against the wall with his hips as his lips travel over your neck, leaving you trembling against him.

“Jensen,” you moan, cupping his chin, bringing him back so your lips crash against his in a desperate kiss.

The fireworks boom in the air as he presses his thigh between your legs. You whine, grinding down as his hand palms at your breast, “Y/N, baby…”

“Please Jense,” you pant. You’re just on the right side of drunk, the side that makes you brave enough not to think of the thousands of people less than twenty-five or thirty yards away.

He growls low, his fingers undoing the button on your shorts, hand slipping past the fabric and into your panites.

“Shit,” you his, holding onto him tight, your face buried against his chest as his fingertips play at your damp folds.

“Fuck baby, you’re-” But he’s cut off.

“Well, what have we got goin’ on here,” Jared’s voice cuts through your little world.

Both you and Jensen jump, his hand retreating from your pants, and you can’t help but whine a little at the loss.

Jared strolls up followed by his uncontrolled laughter, “Hand check?”

“Shut-up Jared,” Jensen grumbles, his face falling when he looks back at you apologetically.

“Now I thought this was supposed to be a family friendly park and here we have-”

“Shut-up Jared,” you groan, knowing right now you are never going to hear the end of this.

He chuckles, “Do you two need a chaperone?”

Jense’s face falls against the crook of your shoulder, “Please stop.”

Jared shakes his head, winking at you, “Never, this one is too good. I caught you two trying to get it on at Disney.” He can’t even get the words out without busting out laughing.  

You glare at him but it only makes him laugh harder. Jensen catches your chin with his index finger, making you look up at him, “He can only keep this up for two more days.”

“Oh no,” Jared smirks, “This one is getting told for years.”

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[eldbitch-horror]

Updraft: Dragon Riders

Can also be read here! leave a kudos or/and a comment if you liked it :D 

Adam is a gifted dragon tamer, born to be this way.

Nigel is a nobody, feral and living at the expense of others.

Fate has its ways of bringing unlikely allies together in times of need.

A low rumble shook the ground, disturbing the loose stones on the cave floor. A beast hid deep within, size and might that could scare even the bravest of men. Yet here was a young man, in a simple tunic and cloak approaching. Entering the lair. Another earth shaking noise came from the cave. The man didn’t stop, didn’t flinch. Fearless.

Adam smiled when he saw it. A large dragon with deep blue scales, glistening with tiny crystals embedded in them. They twinkled like stars on a clear night.

“Galaeth, it’s time to wake up.” he whispered, and another earth shaking growl, snore, was interrupted. It rose in pitch to a scratchy whine.

“Galaeth, come on. We have to go to the mountains. Just in case that nest is still abandoned.” It just elicited another raspy whine, but the dragon rolled, pushing his hoard in large waves as he got himself right side up.

“Perhaps we could wait to check nests until the late afternoon?” Galaeth did not speak words, but vibrations from his throat. Adam could understand. He was special.

“It’s going to be hot today, and my britches are already bothering me.” Adam explained.

Adam got the riding saddle ready, nothing like a horse saddle. It was specially made to wrap about the neck, and the very base of the wings to keep it secure. He lined it with sheep hide. If he were a dragon he wouldn’t want the leather rubbing against him all the time.

While he prepared, Galaeth tried to sneak a few more minutes of sleep in. Adam would give him a disapproving huff, and Galaeth, sensitive to his emotions, would stir and sit himself up. He perched, like a grumpy cat. A fifteen ton grumpy cat.

The saddle was prepared, and Adam clambered up his friends legs with help from his head and tail.

“Why are you irritated?” Galaeth asked, thin muzzle tilted back to look directly at Adam with a deep green eye.

“My britches are rubbing my thighs and I don’t like it.” He explained, tugging on the fabric as emphasis, and an attempt to relieve the prickly feeling.

Galaeth was quiet in thought. He didn’t know much about human fashion, but he mused perhaps the fleece that lined his saddle might work for Adam? He knew better than to start poking suggestions at him now though. Instead, he took long strides out into the afternoon sun, making sure not to let Adam get knocked on anything.  

Even more stunning in the sun, Galaeth’s wings shifted iridescently, rainbows dancing like the northern lights across the membrane. These too were flecked with ‘stars’. The little crystals throughout his body glistened and reflected light. When the sun hit just right, small rainbows could be traced along the ground around him.

He could feel Adam shifting on his back, bracing for lift off. He didn’t have to ask if he was ready. He broke out into a run. A dragons run is much like a large cats, lunging motions. Surprisingly smooth, and much faster than other gigantic creatures could. His wings spread, and caught the updraft, and they were off.

The climb was a smooth, but slow process. Humans were sensitive little creatures. He knew Adam’s blood needed time to adjust to the changes in atmosphere. Galaeth still had a chuckle every once in awhile at the thought of it. These itty bitty creatures creating bonds with the only creature that was above them on the food chain. Typical human behavior he supposed. He found Adam to be especially crafty. Like the foxes in the woods, conniving, squirming their way into places they shouldn’t be. Like on the back of a dragon.

“Galaeth?” despite their time together, Adam always seemed timid. Not out of fear of the dragon himself, just of speaking in general. “Don’t forget where the nest was.”

Ever patient, Galaeth nodded his head, the spikes along his neck contracting and then stretching with the action. He banked, body going from parallel to vertical of the ground. Adam hung on, leg muscles accustomed to gripping the saddle, feet tucked into the closed stirrups. He refused to use the leg straps. They rubbed too much.

After their sharp turn, they were within the mountains in minutes. High enough that breathing felt more difficult. An elixer kept Adam’s blood accustomed to the lack of oxygen, despite it costing most of the Vfarda he earned. It was essential for his life now.

The dirt was whipped, small rocks flying as Galaeth brought them down for a smooth landing. He helped Adam down with his tail. Adam adjusted his pants, then began walking along the rocky ledge. It was a few square miles, though for a dragon it seemed like a ‘small’ space.

The nest was just a few hundred feet in, burrowed under a ledge. Galaeth kept his distance, but made sure all was well. It was Adams job to find these lost hatchlings. There were no dragon tracks, or evidence besides their own upturning of the mountain sands.

Once he was closer however, Adam saw something beside the nest. Tree? Not even the enchanted saplings grew that fast. A few more steps and Adam stopped dead in his tracks.

“Adam, what is it? You are in danger?” Galaeth asked, still at their landing spot. The voice echoed in Adam’s mind, and he shivered from it. It never stopped feeling intrusive, though not completely unwelcome.

“I don’t know, there’s another human- wait!” Adam was ripped out of his frozen state when he saw the figure picking up an egg, and trying to smash it against a rock.

“Hey! Hey! Stop that!” Adam cried in a voice that didn’t even feel like his own. The figure seemed unafraid, but did set the egg down.

“Adam, think before you act.” The warning went unheeded as Adam was already drawing his dagger from his belt.

“Get away from there!” He snarled. Now that he was closer he could make out features. Long blonde hair, sharp cheekbones, and deep eye sockets. Uneven lips pressed in an unreadable expression. Not that Adam could easily read that anyways.

“Get out of here, kid. These have been here for days. Guys gotta eat.” As he spoke, the man picked up an egg to try and smash it.

Adam shrieked, lungs burning as he covered the ground between them. “No no no!” He snarled, now just a few feet away. This man drew a sword in retaliation, and abandoned his egg to get into a blocking position.

He was too out of breath to say much, but he shook his head, “You can’t do that. They’re mine.” Adam hated lying, and that was not a good lie at all.

“You laid these? Now that I have to see.” The gruff man smirked as he spoke, his eyes not leaving Adam. This made Adam wilt. Not only was his lie bad, but he hated being stared at.

“I didn’t mean that. I mean that they’re mine as in I found them…” He had to stop to take a deep breath, “I have to take them back. Or else they’ll die.” This man seemed unphased. Uncaring. It made Adam’s little rage burn up again.

“I really don’t care, kid. These are mine now. I can live off of these for weeks. What are you even going to do with a fucking dragon? Five dragons? They’ll eat you before you have the chance to give them cute little names.” The man left the defensive position, and into an offensive position.

Before he could follow up his threatening body language, or continue talking any kind of venom, Galaeth came charging in. Adam took several paces back, and the beast put himself between Adam and the rude man. He let out a bellow, every sharp tooth bared, spit flying. The man could feel the heat coming from this creatures belly. For the first time in a long time, the man was shaken. Disoriented even. Galaeths sharp ears were pinned back, and though his maw closed, his lips were still curled back to expose teeth. A deep growl shook the earth beneath them.

Adam was just sitting back, watching. He was quite pleased at this display, and glad for a chance to catch his breath.

“Leave the boy alone.” Galaeth snarled, though Adam was the only one able to understand that.

“These your babys?” The man asked worriedly, “Sorry about that, here you go. Just, I’ll just go, darling.”

“They aren’t his.” Adam chimed in, now getting up to take his place beside Galaeth. Adam alone was just a boy, but beside Galaeth he felt like a hero of the old stories.

“Not his? How do you know?” He realized how stupid he sounded after the words came out of his mouth. He couldn’t possibly be looking at a rider. Dragon rider? Just stories. It had to be.

“This is Galaeth, we are Falder.” Falder was the term for a rider and his dragon. A special bond between the two that went deeper than a telepathic connection. The man seemed stunned by this, still trying to get his wits about him. The strange man decided he would be more careful at who he drew his sword to at a later date.

“Who are you?” Adam inquired bluntly. He was certainly in no mood to be friendly now.

“Names Nigel, could you uh. Ask your friend to quit looking at me like I’m lunch?” The following exchange was bizarre gibberish to him. Mostly gurgles from both the dragon and the boy’s throat. Galaeth did however relent, and Nigel was able to take a deep breath. Now for some smooth talking.

“Would you like some help with these eggs then? I could help carry them. Anything really.”

Adam was going to say now, but Galaeth interrupted him,

“Let him help. I would love to give him a fun ride.” His tone was far too giddy, and Adam picked up that his draconic friend was being devious.

“Fine, yes, you may help.” Adam was still curt, but began gathering the large eggs and putting them in a big satchel. Nigel timidly helped, nervously watching Galaeth just in case a Nigel morsel was due for snack time.

[riverofmemoriesft]

. Between the Lines . 159

Lucy's eyes snapped open, staring blankly at the ceiling above her. Her breath came in harsh gasps and she shook a little as she came to terms with reality. After a moment, she let a soft breath of relief out and threw an arm over her eyes.

Nightmares were a pain in the ass.

And since she'd joined Fairy Tail, they were all she dreamed of.

Her hand smacked something warm and there was a snort of annoyance. She stiffened irritably as a muffled voice mumbled, "Stop, that hurt."

"What the hell," she seethed, "Are you doing in my bed, Natsu Dragneel?" Awake, she turned and slid up to rest on a propped elbow. She glared down at him and he blinked tiredly up at her from shadows onyx eyes, his pink hair hanging in his face. Furious, she scowled down at him.

An entire week of avoiding her and he decided it was okay to crawl into her bed?

Bastard! I should kick you to the curb!

Natsu didn't seem to know - or care - what he'd done wrong, because he simply squinted at her and then grabbed her by the waist. She squawked in surprise when he merely tugged her down and buried his face in the pillow. "Tired."

She squirmed, smacking his shoulder. She received a wisp of flames in her face for her efforts. "Natsu," she hissed again.

"M'sorry," he slurred, ignoring her when she tried to squirm out from under his arm. She was a bit annoyed with how easily she was pinned, to be honest. She went still, narrowing her gaze. He rolled his head to he could peek up at her from beneath his bangs, looking a little anxious despite his exhaustion. "Didn't mean to. I was thinking."

Lucy took a deep breath, struggling to hold onto her anger while he stared at her with large puppy-like eyes. Finally, she let it go. Rubbing a hand down her face, she rasped, "I'm mad at you, you jerk."

For a week now, Natsu had avoided her. Not that she could blame him entirely; the horrified look on his face when she'd quietly informed him that her mother had died sealing his father away at an unknown location was enough to tell her that he didn't know what to say. It had still hurt walking into the guildhall only to realize he'd left the moment she'd turned onto the street.

When the guildmaster had demanded a group go out to show magic to the expectant town, she'd volunteered alongside Levy and Erza, fully expecting him to go with her. She'd been hurt when he'd remained silent, onyx eyes locked on a space above her head.

Lucy knew that everyone had noticed.

But they'd said nothing, respectful.

Even Mirajane had said nothing, only a quiet, "Make up soon, okay?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated, voice clearer this time. He watched her nervously now, as if concerned he'd be removed from where he was comfortably arranged. "It's...your mom died 'cause my dad asked her to. I didn't...I don't know what to…" He made a frustrated sound and hid his face in the pillow.

As per usual, however, Lucy understood fully.

"I know," she muttered, running her fingers lightly over his head. She flushed when he squirmed so that he could lightly rest his chin on her shoulder, studying her expression. "It's hard to figure out how to react to that kind of thing. There's nothing you or I can do, so why don't we just keep on the path we were on before? We need to focus on the Games. And why would you not go to the couch?"

"Because the bed's comfy?" He scoffed as if it was common knowledge. "I took my shoes off. See? And I took my scarf off, too, since I know you don't like when I sleep with it on."

She smiled a bit. Lucy prodded his naked shoulder with amusement. "And your shirt, apparently. Infected with some of Gray's habits, are we?"

He scowled playfully at his blonde girlfriend and then demanded, "It's the middle of the night. Why'd you wake up?"

"Nightmare." She wrinkled her nose and he puffed out smoke playfully. Lucy bit her lip before admitting, "Dreamed about the guy from Tenrou. He was...I don't even know where to begin describing what happened." She shuddered, not wanting to, and fell silent for a few seconds. "It was bad."

Pricking, prodding, ripping at the flesh of the person beneath him, all in the name of his country…

Natsu snorted and then closed his eyes, tightening his grip on her. "I've got ya Luce. I won't let anyone hurt ya. I'll protect you with my life if I need to."

Despite her annoyance, she smiled a fraction and made herself comfortable, her head resting against his.

"I know."

The guild seemed to release a huge huff of relief when they walked into the guildhall together the next day. Lucy glared when Levy practically sobbed her relief, crying, "You're okay, I'm so glad. It was like I was suffocating. Gajeel took a job without me because of it."

Natsu gave her a look, bewildered. "The hell are you talkin' about? Of course she's okay."

"Lucy!" Mirajane called, her voice strained. Lucy's head snapped around and she blinked when her friend gestured for her to come over. Natsu furrowed his brow, torn between going with her and figuring out if Happy had gone to Wendy and Charle's like he usually did when Natsu ended up wandering around at night.

"Just Lucy," Mirajane added, giving him a glare.

"Okay." Lucy flashed her boyfriend a smile and then sidled over to the bar, watching as he frowned and went to search for Happy. "What can I do for you, Mira?" Levy slid into a bar stool beside her, ignoring Mirajane's irritated frown.

"I want to help," Levy told her. "I've got nothing to do, remember? Gajeel and Lily are out, and Jet and Droy want to try a harder job on their own. I told them I'd pay for lunch if they did it successfully."

"...I think it's smart, but...Master doesn't want her to have the assistance," Mirajane admitted and then turned to Lucy. "We're leaving for the Games in precisely two weeks. Master requested that you take Cobra on a job outside of Magnolia in that time - without Natsu. The Council is demanding a report on what he's been doing, and Kinana's needed here. They'll trust your report more, anyways."

"Because I'm of royal blood," Lucy said bitterly and then propped her chin on an open palm. "I don't mind, actually. It'll be interesting enough as long as he learns to shut up and watch what he's doing. Is this another one of those test missions?"

"In a way." Mirajane's lips twitched into a smile. "Master's curious on how you'll do without your team, and he thinks that you'll do the best when it comes to getting along with him outside of Kinana."

"Huh. I see. Does he know yet?"

"Nope," Levy snickered, cutting in. Her hazel eyes danced with amusement. "They left that to you."

"Why do you know so much about my work?" Lucy asked, giving Levy a playful glare. She poked the short woman. "What else do you know?"

"That Natsu finally got himself back on track with being a good boyfriend?" Levy shrugged. "Happy likes to talk."

"...I'm going to throttle that blue cat," Lucy said with a dark look on her face as Mirajane cooed. "Alright, where's that bastard? I might as well get to telling him that he has to do something other than sit there with Kinana."

"He's actually been looking bored." Mirajane giggled. "He might appreciate this. I'll see to Natsu if he doesn't listen. Erza won't mind helping me deliver punishment."

Lucy shuddered at the images that conjured. Leaving her friends to do what they wanted, she hunted down Cobra, surprised that he'd arrived so early. He was grouchily sipping at a glass of water, watching her approach from narrowed eyes. When she got close enough, he snipped, "What are you? My babysitter?"

Lucy arched a brow. "What are you? A baby pouting because you have to be supervised? We know that you're trying to help us now and not try to use me as fuel for some ancient creation, but the Council doesn't entirely believe it. We're going on a job so that I can create a fantastic report to give to them."

Cobra scowled in a moment, thinking about what she'd said, and then gave a curt nod. "Fine."

"Good. I'll find one for us and let Natsu know that he's not allowed to come." Lucy moved to go and talk to the dragon slayer, and then paused when Cobra snickered.

"Good luck tellin' him he can't come. Dragon slayers don't like when they can't see their treasures, Blondie. Don't forget that." Cobra received a shocked look and he shrugged his shoulders. "What? I don't have a hoard, but I know about 'em."

"...mind your own business," Lucy muttered, frowning. She tilted her chin up proudly and crossed the guildhall back to Natsu. The dragon slayer was happily slurping down a drink that Mirajane or Kinana had offered, but when she came over he looked up. "Hey, Natsu," she began.

"Yeah?" He set his glass down, as if expecting that he wasn't going to like what was coming. "What do ya need, Luce?"

Still annoyed with him for his behavior over the past week despite him apologizing, she retorted, "Don't ‘What do ya need?’ me, Natsu. I'm taking a job with Cobra for Master. The Council wants a report on how he's doing. You're staying here with everyone else."

Natsu's jaw dropped for an instant and she wasn't surprised when began to try and argue. "But, Luce! You never go on jobs with other people! I'm your partner, why can't Erza or Gray or someone else do it? We're a team!"

Lucy snorted to herself. "Master asked Mirajane to ask me and that means I need to do it. And they'll trust my opinions more than someone else's in the guild, we think. I was and still am the princess of Heartfilia family. Natsu, my word holds a lot of power in things like this. To top it all off, I'm the one Cobra tried to hurt to begin with. Cobra's really changed - for the most part, I know you're eavesdropping you bastard - and I think we need to do what we can to help him. That means that you need to stay here and behave while I'm gone. It won't be more than a day or two."

Natsu glowered at her, onyx eyes blazing with anger. "It's not fair!" he snapped. "You're my partner! Not anyone else's! It's not like me going would be bad! I could help, Lucy!"

Aware that people were starting to look over and be nosy, Lucy scowled. "I said no, Natsu. Mirajane's going to make sure you stay here, by the way, just thought I'd tell you." He barely flinched at the subtle threat. "Have you ever thought that I might want to try a job on my own? This'll be - in a way - my first solo mission. I've only ever taken work with you guys."

"So?" He clenched his jaw, smoke leaving his nostrils. "It's better that way, we have fun-"

"We do," Lucy cut in firmly. "I love going on missions with you and the others, Natsu. Usually something goes wrong, but I have fun. But sometimes, I need to test how much farther I can go without having you trying to step up and protect me from every little thing, okay? I have my Spirits. The arrogant jerk who's still eavesdropping-" She spared a glare at Cobra. "-can do a decent job of helping. So just...stay here. We'll do something when I get back, before we go to the Games."

Natsu opened his mouth to protest some more, and then clamped it shut, scowling irritably. "Whatever," he huffed, and then pointedly turned away from her. Instead, he looked at Happy, who'd arrived mid-argument, and the blue cat jumped.

Lucy ran a hand down her face and shook her head. Levy gave her a sympathetic look while the silver-haired woman gave Lucy a proud look.

From where she sat beside Wendy at a table, Jellal across from both of them, Erza stared openly at Natsu, a look that promised violence should he act any more out of hand on her face.

Lucy decided against sitting at the bar and instead went to join them. Erza gave her a warm smile as she slid into the seat beside Jellal, a groan escaping her as she planted her head on the table. "Natsu's always been annoyingly clingy to those he is close to," Erza murmured, reaching over to rub her back.

"It's part of being a dragon slayer," Wendy said apologetically. "His instincts consider you a part of his hoard. Your hair really doesn't help. It's the closest color to gold that I've ever seen. It's natural for him to try and keep an eye on you at all times."

Charle sniffed. "What a brute."

"He needs to know that he can't be around like this and say that I can't go off without him," Lucy muttered into the table. "Especially after he avoided me for a week."

"Why was he avoiding you?" Wendy asked. Erza gave her a curious look as well and Jellal tried to keep from looking too interested while sipping at some tea.

Lucy hesitated. Loke had told her to be careful about the information she gave away. Taking a deep breath, she admitted, "Um, my mother...Igneel requested something of my mother. Wendy, you know my mother and yours met."

Jellal choked a little at that, but said nothing.

"Mhm," Wendy hummed. From where Charle was sitting irritably beside her on the table, there was a snort.

"Well...let's just say that my mother is the reason all of the dragons have disappeared." Lucy kept her voice low, not wanting Gajeel to hear. Wendy's eyes flashed with shock. "And because she did what she did, she died. When I told Natsu, I guess he saw it as his father being the reason my mom is dead. He didn't really know how to react."

Erza nodded thoughtfully. "He's never really had reason to worry about the feelings of others when it comes to his actions." Tucking a lock of scarlet hair behind her ear, she said with a sigh, "We'll keep an eye on him while you work with Cobra."

Lucy gave her a long look. "Mira told everyone."

"Of course."

The blonde moaned, and then looked over when Charle suddenly gasped, her eyes going blank and searching the empty air. "Charle?" Wendy said anxiously, her eyes filling with concern when she recognized what was happening.

For some reason, Jellal recognized it, too. He set his cup down and studied Charle closely. "...a vision."

When Charle snapped out of it after a good moment or so, her gaze found Lucy's first.

Her paw lifted and covered her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "The blood...it was...oh, no…"

No way to turn… There was smoke everywhere, filling her mouth, her eyes, her throat. A scream left her lips as she sobbed over the crumpled body beneath her, its eyes staring blankly at nothing as blood pooled around it. A shift of imagery, and a woman appeared. Her soft skin was slicked with her own blood, one arm gone. An agonized scream from a man as he fell to his knees beside the woman who knelt there in shock. A woman with her head thrown back, hair fluttering around her as magic rushed through her veins, burning her from the inside out...a flurry of panic as people fought for their lives...a dark smile...the roaring of creatures that no longer walked the earth…

The look on a black-haired man's face as something new emerged from the white light.

Lucy's face, soaked in tears as she sang a song of defeat.

A man of black and white rising from among the ashes, a blank-looking girl at his side.

The scent of death on the air.

The next few words that Charle uttered chilled each and every one of them to the bone:

"We're all going to die."

[durenjtmusings]

What if humans weren’t the only supernatural ‘hunters’?

Welcome to my first full story published online ever. It is meant to be an Introduction to a new type of 'hunter’ character in the SPN universe - one that will, eventually (hopefully), interact with Canon characters. She is drawn from ideas created by Seanan McGuire in the Incryptid and Sparrow Hill Road books*, but is wholly new - her own person, providing an alternative approach to addressing spiritual problems in the world of SPN.

2,657 words

No actual SPN characters or canon settings IN the story

Content notes: death, abuse, LGBT issues

I have a bunch of these stories outlined, with other ‘hunters’ of this type in the works as well. I would WELCOME anyone interested in writing fic in this AU, co-writing with me or beta reading future stories. Contact me @durenjtmusings​

Last Chance

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell [me] a story. Make some light.” — Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

Southeast Tennessee Early summer, 2003

As usual, she began catching rides just after dawn, following the pull of the Road – this time south and west towards the Tennessee/Alabama border. She wore her hair blonde and short today, in a blunt cut just past the jawline. Given the accompanying snow white complexion, she decided that a low cut lacy tank with wedge sandals and tight faded jeans formed a believable compromise between suggestive and sun poisoning. She was thin, a natural result of abuse and self-neglect, but still attractive enough that travel was predictably swift. Her first ride, a refreshingly earnest elderly couple, helpfully provided a light scarf-like wrap, “…to protect your lovely shoulders from all those nasty UV-rays, dearie.” When she hit SR-64 around noon, however, traffic became scarce and she was forced to walk miles in the unrelenting rays of a clear blue summer sky.  As the scarf became glued to her skin, both the heels and the jeans were loudly and thoroughly cursed as phenomenally stupid decisions. Given all her years traveling the region, she certainly should have known better. Despite it all, of course, she still felt frigidly cold at her core. She was always cold – or almost always, anyway.

Twelve years ago, she had wished desperately for a better life. When she ran away, she hadn’t just been running from the abuse, she’d also been running towards something. With nothing but her purse and the clothes on her back, she’d been heading for California - the pacific coast – as FAR away as she could get by stolen car. Unlike many, she didn’t have a specific goal in mind. She didn’t want to be a star; she didn’t want to be famous or rich. I just wanted to see new things, go new places, do different work, and meet new...people.

When she realized where she was heading, however, she rolled her eyes and allowed herself a loud resigned sigh. Oh hell, it’s Freddie. Again. Well, Freddie  had been something new, she had to admit.

As her final ride dropped her off at the 97 junction, the Road’s level of anxiety filled her with dread. Goddammit! I’m too late, she cursed inwardly. Freddie’d always been odd, but he had recently taken to lying in the middle of the road in broad daylight, causing havoc with lunchtime traffic patterns. When it was just an occasional car run off the road at midnight, she’d let him go with a stern talking to and a fierce glare. He’d disappear and sulk for a few months and then be at it again. They’d kept this up for a couple of years …but she’d seen that he was getting worse. His horizontal antics had slowly slid from juvenile trick to depression to malice. Now, according to the Road, Freddie’s weird aggressive passivity had caused a fatality. Now, sadly, she’d have to do something more final.

As the ambulance passed by, red lights flashing and siren blaring, she slipped the scarf from her shoulders and slid off the pavement to search the late afternoon shadows. He turned out to be an easy find. Just standing by the edge of the cornfield, Freddie had his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his bell bottoms, with his face turned towards the ground. As she approached, his shoulders twitched defensively underneath his tattered Star Wars t-shirt. She knew he knew what was coming. She’d warned him, time and time again. Man, I HATE this part of the job, she thought. He didn’t look up as she stopped beside him.

“Freddie, dude…” she said sadly.

“I don’t wanna go, Susan.” He still wouldn’t look at her. His tone was flat, his body posture tense. She recognized all the red flags for resistance. Great, just great, and now on top of it, I have to fight a 14-year-old boy.  Around them swirled the lights and buzz and hum of the accident - police cars’ flashing lights, the EMTs rushing about, bystanders milling around making exclamations of horror, etc. Officers were busy directing traffic around the crash and, as always, rubberneckers were staring. Susan and Freddie ignored the chaos, focused only on each other.

She didn’t know a lot about Freddie’s background. She hadn’t been the one to meet him - to explain the options and help him through the transition. She’d only met him a couple of years ago when he’d started creating problems. She knew that he hadn’t grown up around here, that he had been a more urban boy transplanted to this rural life. She knew that he’d been gay - or questioning - before it happened and that he hadn’t been accepted here. And while she was certain this had something to do with his depression and self-destructive behaviors, she didn’t know his story. She didn’t know WHY he did what he did. She’d tried repeatedly to get him to sit down and tell her - to share his private anger and grief - but he always refused, making a joke, or just laughing... harshly. She didn’t have many failures on her record and it nearly broke her heart that Freddie would now be added to the list.

“Freddie, it’s time to go now. You have to say goodbye now. You know that.” She was careful to talk softly, trying one last time to convince him to take the easy way out.

“I don’t wanna go, Susan.” Threatening this time, clearly holding back anger - likely years upon years of carefully hoarded anger. “I didn’t WANT this. I didn’t ASK for this. I just wanted to live my life but they wouldn’t LET me.” Finally, he turned towards her, his good eye startlingly blue in the mangled mess of his face. “I want them to PAY for this.”

And there it is, the final nail in the coffin (so to speak). There in his voice was that shift to vengeance - to lash out at those responsible. And at this point, he saw anyone living as responsible. Susan sighed, knowing, just knowing that this was going to be a bad day. A very bad day. Thank the Powers that I’ve lost the sandals, she reflected. She took a tiny step forward, tentatively reaching for his hand.

“I can listen, Freddie. You know I can listen. I can listen and I can tell your story. I can make sure everyone knows what happened, so that, maybe, just maybe, it won’t happen again…for someone. Wouldn’t you like to try to SAVE someone?” She’d made this appeal to him every time. She was obligated to make it again, even though she had little hope of success.

“I SAID, I DON’T WANT TO GO!” Freddie exploded into action, lunging to grab at the collar of her jean jacket with both hands extended, his face further contorted by rage.

She had time to think, “Better at me than at them,” and then her years of experience took over. The fight took longer than she expected, for what Freddie lacked in skill, he more than made up for in power. He’d had years to build up that power – especially since he’d used so little of it when playing his tricks on the road. She was careful to keep the fight away from the crowds, as this kind of wild energy was highly likely to have negative effects on the human psyche. Particularly when they couldn’t see the cause.

“Stay DOWN, Freddie, give it up. You’re DONE.” Finally pinned, Freddie struggled in her hold as Susan began to say the words. She detested these words, the ones that summoned the Dark Takers. The ones who came to collect twisted and involuntary souls always leered at her, making her skin try to crawl off of her body. And they stank. They stank of decay and agony in horrid places and grim defeat. She gritted her teeth to hold back the tears. She hated the very idea of this young boy with those horrors but she had no choice. He’d made it clear that he wouldn’t stop and the Road was adamant that no more lives could be lost.

“STOP! Stop Susan, please…stop.” His body had stilled as he cried out, his words quickly turning into a plea. Freddie remained tense, but no longer fought her hold. Susan immediately halted her chant, but held herself ready to continue at the first sign of another of his tricks. “Please…I just want…” Freddie’s voice choked off, as he attempted to grapple with expressing an avalanche of pent up emotions and desires.

“Hey, hey...” Susan said soothingly. “Take it easy. It’s a lot, I know. There’s no rush, we have all the time we want.” She carefully began to relax her hold and let a bit of a smile creep into her voice. “I’ve got nowhere else I need to be. How about you?” Thankfully, she felt his body slump and then begin to jerk with sobs. “It’s ok, kid. It’s ok to mourn the life you wanted, the life you could have lived.”

He told her then, in between sobs, about the girl and the teasing and the misunderstandings. All perfectly normal teen angst until they found them - with him dressed in her borrowed clothes. How it escalated so quickly to ugliness and threats from peers and adults alike. Each day an almost unbearable new torment until her parents took her away – his only ally. They caught him alone soon after, took him into the woods far from prying eyes, and terrorized him for what seemed an eternity. Freddie was calmer by then, his voice stronger, the anger returning. “They were wrong. I was not a freak. I am not a freak.”

“Of course not, Freddie.” Her voice was firm, and matter of fact. “You were discovering who you wanted to be – simply exploring the facets of your soul. Not a damn thing wrong with that.” She was holding him in her arms by then, both of them curled up by the side of the road, Freddie with is head buried in her t-shirt.

“Sadly, they were too limited to accept anything beyond their own expectations.” Her voice softened. “They were afraid of you Freddie. You scared them, badly, and they…well, I can’t begin to explain or excuse their actions.” Susan sighed. So many people, so many stories, so full of hurt and sadness.

“But you got away, didn’t you Freddie?” Susan prompted. “You ran until you found a road – this road.”

Freddie looked up, his good eye wide with surprise. “Yes, how did you know? I was hurt...bleeding...and I just wanted it to stop. I ran and ran, trying to hide in the corn, but it wasn’t tall enough, and they just…they just kept coming. It was getting dark and I couldn’t see well without my glasses, but when I found the road…” His face, full of hope, crumpled as the memories found him. Whimpering, he curled up tighter within her arms.

“You thought for sure you were saved. And then someone did come, but they didn’t see you, did they, Freddie? And then you…” And then you died, Freddie. You died horribly, with your face smashed in and all your possibilities cut short. “And then you ended up like this.” Susan patted his shoulder soothingly. “I know about you finding this road, Freddie, because, like you, I belong to the Road. It tells me where there are troubles and I try to help solve them.” And you’ve been troubled for a long time Freddie. Twenty-four years is a long time to be stuck at 14 years old, holding on to all that anger and pain.

“What happens now, Susan?” Freddie pulled himself out of her embrace and turned to look into her face. “Do I still have to go?” His expression was a painful mix of hope and fear. She hated the answer she had to give.

“You took a life, Freddie – an innocent life. That’s where they draw the line. You can’t stay here anymore.” At his panicked look, she softened her expression, reaching out to take his hand. “They say you have to redeem yourself, Freddie. You know that, don’t you?” At his rebellious expression, she gripped his hand more tightly. “It’s better if you go voluntarily, kid, trust me on this.” The threat of the Takers skulked again through her thoughts. “If you choose to go, they say it can be a point in your favor – a step towards your eventual release.”

“My release? How long will that take? And who are they anyway?” Freddie’s voice was dangerously edged with both sarcasm and despair.

Susan struggled to find the right tone - the right words to convince him – and then gave up trying. “I don’t know, Freddie, sometimes I think the Road doesn’t tell me shit.” She sighed and found herself wondering, once again, why they had picked her for the job. Because someone has to do it or the world would be chaos. She knew the answer – sort of – but that wouldn’t be much help to Freddie.

Susan turned his hand over and watched her own fingers trace idle circles in his palm. “I guess…in my job I’ve talked with a lot of folks, Freddie. And from that, I know a lot of it is about chances. Chances and what you chose to do with them. And all that pain and anger you’re holding on to? It makes you powerful, but it doesn’t help much in thinking about your options.” She tipped his chin up, forcing him to look her in the eye. “You gotta let it go, hon, you just gotta.” Susan let go of his chin and brushed a bloodied lock of his hair from his forehead. Her voice softened even further, as her hand slid down to lightly cup his shattered jaw. “I’ll tell your story – you know I will, I promise you that. I’ll write it and put it out there on the net where god and everyone can see it.” She could see it in his face, he wasn’t convinced. Like so many his age, the reality of the internet was a thing beyond conception. He needed something more concrete – more real. “I’ll tell them, Freddie, I’ll tell all the others I meet. You won’t be forgotten, I promise.”

She had him then, she could feel it through his skin. It wasn’t easy, though. It took time to convince him to say the words – time and lots and lots of talking. If it was easy, Susie-Q, she reminded herself, they wouldn’t call it work. By the time the night was spent, Freddie was still resentful, but however grudgingly, he agreed to go. The road was clear of all human activity by the time she passed Freddie over to the solemn and solitary guide in the thinning shadows. She felt herself relax for the first time since sunset. She had not been too late; there had been one last chance. She waved a silent farewell as his image faded away, to wherever it was they sent him, for however long they decided it took.

She’d wanted a better life. What they’d given her was a different…existence. And that had provided new things, new places…certainly different work, and new…stories.

So, not so bad a day at that. Not exactly a win, really. I’ll call this one a draw, I guess. She eyed the sky, estimating the coming dawn. Sensible shoes this time, dammit, she thought. As always, she was cold - all the way through to her bones. Time to find a willing rube and a ride, she thought. And hopefully, a good meal at a high end truck stop with terminals and a free connection to the net.

She had a new story to share.

Notes:

*If you liked this, I recommend the following free online Seanan McGuire stories that helped inspire me:

Good Girls Go to Heaven  

The Ghosts of Bourbon Street (pdf)

Bury Me In Satin (pdf)

And, of course - you could always BUY Sparrow Hill Road

Image Sources:

Opening Road image: http://s3.favim.com/orig/46/alone-countryside-girl-road-sun-Favim.com-423773.jpg

Girl on Road image:  https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3713/11698693665_ef58987edb_o.jpg