#[ INFECTED FILE: MUSINGS ]

[racke7]

Me vs Arknights' story

Instead of working on school stuff, I decided to sit down and watch the Arknights story (that got fragmented between missions, and which I often skipped bcs of time-constraints). As one does.

(I'm never picking up that game again, because fuck gacha-games with a crowbar. But the world is too interesting, and the music too epic to not want to engage with it at all.)

And it occurred to me that early Reunion is actually really blatant about misinterpreting "vengeance" as "hope".

As in, the characters keep saying that Reunion brought them hope, but what they actually mean is that Reunion brought them the opportunity and ability to strike back against their oppressors.

I'm not faulting them for that (a certain celebrated CEO-assassination would make a hypocrite of me if I did), but I feel like this is an important distinction to make?

There's some overlap between "vengeance" and "hope", because they can somewhat build off of each other. Similar to how peaceful advocacy and political engagement can often be helped by "violent resistance".

But they're two very different forces.

Hope says "we'll make it through this, and create a better tomorrow". And vengeance says "the people who did this to us, will never be able to do it to anyone else".

In light of that, I can't condemn "vengeance" as a force at all. But it's interesting how Reunion is shown to be mischaracterizing their own ideology as being "hope".

[acowardinmordor]

My brain won't shut up about this, so maybe if I write it my brain will let me finish working and get this massive work project off my plate.

Warning for Accidental Drunken Pregnancy

Fandom loves, correctly, the idea of Girl!Steve Harrington, either as an 'always a' or trans, we're a fan. And that's good. No arguments from me there.

But I was thinking about Always a Girl Eddie. And the impact that would have. Because see, Eddie is already Wrong in a lot of ways. She's poor, she's loud, she's a freak, she sells drugs, and starts shit with bullies. She's too much in every way, and she refuses to be a girl properly. Has ever since she was old enough to express an opinion.

She didn't want to play with dolls or play house. She wanted to run through the park chasing dragons. When her parents fought, she wanted to run away and get found by the Addams family where no one would be mad at her for liking black and reading about blood and fights and monsters.

By the time she's in high school, everyone's decided she's a lesbian. She isn't. She thinks she isn't, but she doesn't get a chance to try or test or find out before the whole damn town has made it Known. Eddie doesn't wear skirts, and she doesn't style her hair, and she doesn't listen when the counselor sits her down to talk about her behavior and how she needs to try to be a bit more like other girls if she wants to get married one day. That's her junior year, which is when she snaps and, true or not, goes on a rant about being a carpet munching butch who never wants to have a husband.

Her friends don't care. They've talked to her and agree its all bullshit. Her only regret about it is that her outburst becomes fodder for the kind of bias that makes her fail two classes her senior year. It makes her fail four her second time around. PE is one of them. The teacher won't let her participate if she isn't 'dressed appropriately' which suddenly requires that all the girls have their legs shaved. Surprise surprise, Eddie is the only one that has an impact on. Wayne gets into a shouting match over it, and he wins, but not in time for Eddie to pass.

And every time someone pushes her to be more ladylike, Eddie doubles down on being a freak because she's a lot of things, but she's not a quitter. The one good she knows she manages is that barely any other girls in Hawkins get bullied all that much. Eddie pulls too much attention, and Eddie is so far off the end of the scale, it makes the minor mistakes easy to ignore.

All her friends are guys because the girls of Hawkins are scared of the witch/lesbian/succubus/whatever bs they came up with this week. There are some girls who Eddie thinks want to come talk to her, thinks she'd be friends with if she could, but any girl willingly hanging around the Freak is going to get painted with the same brush.

She showed up to every single class in her third go around, daring her teachers to fail her again when she was getting perfect scores on anything with a straight answer, and doing so well on the subjective stuff they were giving her passing grades. She had a new flock of sheep who didn't care about the rumors because she ran Hellfire for them.

After Spring Break, after they accuse her of seducing and murdering Chrissy, after Eddie walks into Mordor and is dragged out the other side. After Eddie gives everything she has for a town that hates her, the school gives her the diploma. Maybe its just because they're terrified that she'll come back for a fourth try if they don't, but she has the damn thing.

Or maybe they don't want the new freshmen to start crying when they see her scars.

After the hospital lets them all leave, and after El and Will do whatever it is they do and promise it's over for real this time, Robin, Eddie, and Harrington sit around and watch crap movies and talk. It's still June when Robin comes out to her, and Eddie has to awkwardly explain that she isn't. Supportive, in favor of it, but not sure if she's like Robin.

"But everyone heard about what you said to--"

"Yeah, she was telling me I should start curling my hair and wearing makeup so I could find a husband."

"She did not."

"Yeah. I kinda snapped."

A few minutes tearing apart that kind of thinking later, and Steve asks, "So you like dudes?"

Eddie shrugs, because she's never tested that either. A bit of leftover enmity from when he was the King and she was the Freak keeps her from admitting she's a virgin. Instead she gestures to her face and neck, the part of her chest visible around her tank top.

"Don't think that's going to matter, Stevie, not now that I look like the Wicked Witch midway through melting."

There's nothing either of them can say about that. Between her status as a murder suspect, the infection from Upside Down dirt, and how efficient the demo bat fuckers were, her scars are ugly. Not the sort of thing she's read in books that a hero learns to take pride in. Just a mess. Her smile is jacked up on the left, and while she does have both of her nipples, the one boob is significantly smaller, and lumpier than the other now.

But they're friends, and its nice. Robin didn't find a fellow lesbian, but Eddie can understand the way she feels, and they bond over it. Where Robin goes, so goes Steve, so intentional or not, Eddie and Steve get close. Help each other with scar cream type close. It would be weird if there was any universe in which Steve would ever be interested in her. Instead they're good friends, and co-conspirators against the gremlins.

Robin is starting college in the spring semester in Chicago. Steve is going with her. Obviously. Eddie hasn't agreed to anything, but she's considering it.

They have one last party at Harrington's place. The kids leave around seven. The Hellfire guys leave around nine. By eleven, all three of them are plastered, and Robin is lamenting that she's leaving Hawkins and still hasn't kissed a girl. Eddie rolls her eyes and smacks one on her. Get it over and done with, right?

After an hour of Robin flustered and babbling about 'yes, yes, yeah, I do like girls! Kissing! Kissing girls is great! Steve! Steve-o! Did you know kissing girls is great?" she passes out on the couch.

Steve and Eddie, just sober enough to know that they're all going to be hungover in the morning, close blinds and lock doors. They leave water and asprin by Robin, then chug down a glass each.

"So, did it help you figure it out? Kissing my Soulmate with a capital P? Did you figure out if you like kissing girls more than guys?"

Eddie giggles instead of answering.

"I know Rob's not kissed anyone, but if you liked kissing her you probably could tell, right? So if you liked kissing her as much as you like kissing guys, or if its not like kissing guys, then you know!"

Steve's not a dumb as the kids joke. When Eddie doesn't answer, he puts it together. "Oh. Oh shit. Eds. You and Robin were each others' first kisses? Thats so -- you didn't have to do that! And now you don't know if you like kissing girls or guys or both or neither or -- Oh!"

Eddie watches Steve come to his decision and turn, and she decides to let it happen. Steve is the only guy her age who doesn't wince looking at her face. This is probably the only chance she's got until she's old enough her skin gets all wrinkly and no one can see the scars are there anymore.

It's better than kissing Robin. There's a lot of reasons why that might be true, but none of them matter, because after that first one. After a few seconds pause. After she leans a little closer like she's asking, they don't stop.

She wakes up naked and sore, with a blinding headache and the tight-skin pain that comes from forgetting the scar cream.

Awkward doesn't cover it when they look at each other in bed. When Robin trips on her way to make coffee, it gives them an excuse not to talk about it. It's bad enough that Eddie keeps thinking about it, and excavating the fragments of memory she's got. Probably the only chance she's going to get, and she remembers barely half. She does remember liking it, and Steve liking it, and neither of them being weird about the scars because they've been helping each other with them for months now.

Once they're sober enough for it, they talk, both of them apologizing, but not really. Neither of them regret it, even if it wasn't their best idea, and Eddie starts quoting Robin's rant about antiquated concepts of virginity when Steve tries to apologize for that. It's definitely weird, but they're not going to freak out about it.

By Wednesday, when Steve and Rob are loading up the beemer to drive north before the holidays, so they could get a place with a rental discount, everyone turns out to say bye. Eddie winks at Robin again, because it still makes her blush, and it still makes Eddie and Steve laugh when she does. She gives Steve a hug, and a promise to make a decision soon about moving up with them.

Six weeks of scheduled phone calls with them, and uncomfortable talks with Wayne, Eddie has finally, finally decided to go for it. She'll still be a freak, but according to Steve, no one in the city will bother her about it unless she asks them to. He's working at a diner, and swears the bookstore across the street will totally hire Eddie if she applies. Robin loves her classes, and her part time hours at the library on campus.

It's while Eddie is looking around and opening drawers, trying to plan how to move with more detail than 'throw stuff in the van' that she notices. There's a box of pads, mostly empty, in the corner of the bathroom cabinet. It's been mostly empty since November. And yeah, her period has never been predictable, and this isn't the longest its gone, and Eddie has never cared since she wears black all the time -- but. This time she had sex.

The odds are tiny, and the image of it is ridiculous. Eddie isn't any kind of a mom. Harrington is more a mom than she is. Anyway, all that shit in sex ed about it only takes once is crap. And she remembers Steve getting out the box of condoms. She doesn't remember anything between that and getting fucked, but she definitely remembers how concerned he was about opening the foil. So there's no way. No chance. Absolutely none.

The test comes back positive, and the nurse at the planed parenthood in Indianapolis asks if she wants to hear about her options.

It's pretty easy to choose as it turns out. Easier than quitting smoking cold turkey is for sure. Hell of a lot easier than telling Wayne. It's not something she ever wanted, ever thought about or considered, but Eddie knows this is the only chance she's got. Well. Sperm donors maybe, not that she'll ever have the money for it, unless she paid a guy to keep coming around until she got knocked up.

At first, she keeps it quiet because the nurse told her about the potential problems, especially with how much Eddie drank and smoked. It's not certain, so she stays quiet. Stalls the topic of moving up. She waits an entire day for the doctor to slip her in between appointments to get an ultrasound and check. Everything looks good. Healthy. and Eddie gets on their weekly scheduled call, hears Robin and Steve laughing as they tell stories, and Eddie breaks it to them.

"What do you mean? You said you were going to move up here. I thought you said you -- Eds, what the hell? You're going to leave me alone to watch Robin's attempts at flirting? You - I thought you promised."

"Excuse you, Dingus, she needs to come up so we can watch your attempts at flirting. I'm great."

"Fun as that sounds, me and Wayne are getting out of Hawkins. Wayne has some family in West Virginia, and I can't leave him at the mercy of all those spinsters. I'll still have a phone, you know."

They move before she's showing, and Wayne never asks, and Eddie never tells, but her uncle knows who it has to be. They land in Summersville, which is a damn lie since its a blizzard when they arrive. It isn't hard to use moving as an excuse to cancel a few phone calls. Then uses a boss moving her hours working at motel as an excuse when hormones means she knows she'll start sobbing if she gets picks up the phone.

Steve gets accepted to a community college. Robin aces her exams. Eddie finds out she's having a girl. She wouldn't have spent the money to find out since it wouldn't change anything, but the planned parenthood was still worried because of the alcohol at the start.

Wayne brings it up. Eddie considers it.

Steve gets a girlfriend. Eddie stalls.

Robin calls solo because Steve is on a one month anniversary date.

Eddie abandons the idea.

She never makes a choice to hide it from anybody. It's always one moment at a time, needing to get through one more thing, one more problem, one more checkpoint, then she could say it. By the end of July it's been too long, and it would be too weird. They didn't have some great tragic romance. They were good friends who got drunk one night. And Eddie is just living up to the warnings all the guidance counselors scribbled down about her.

She's never going to be anything special. She's not going to go chase her dreams and become the Joan Jett of metal music. She's coming up on eight months pregnant, can't hide it or pretend its something it isn't. She's still loud and obnoxious. She still wears all black and chained pants and refuses to style her hair in anything more complex than a ponytail. She's still mauled by monsters and scarred.

She's never going to be marriage material, and never wanted to be anyway. She can be a good mom though. Not a normal mom. Or a traditional one. She's probably going to end up punching someone at a pta meeting. But she can be a good mom for her daughter, whoever her daughter wants to be as she grows. And if that means she has to learn about ballet and glitter and my little pony, then she will.

Steve and Robin ask about a visit before their classes start since they'll have to do calls every other week now. They offer to drive to West Virginia, or buy Eddie a bus ticket. Eddie manages to dodge that bullet.

She dodges another when she starts contractions while on the phone with them, and plays it off like she has heartburn. She cries when she holds her daughter thirty hours later, smiling broad enough that the scars on her face hurt nearly as bad as the rest of her.

She gets good at sewing together a patchwork lie. Gets Wayne to take Lulu out for a walk during calls. Swallows the guilt when Steve talks about his girlfriend, Amy, who wants to have kids. Stares down the pediatrician who raises an eyebrow at her daughter's name.

It's awful. It's wonderful. It hurts more to do it alone than Eddie could have imagined, but she still can't bring herself to say it. Not because she thinks Steve would hate her for it . He wouldn't. One look at Stephanie Luthien Munson -- Lulu -- and Steve would know. And Steve would stay. And Steve would give up his classes and his girlfriend and his hope for his perfect family. Eddie has always known she's not what anyone is looking for.

So Eddie gets good at dodging questions, and explaining away noises in the background, and finding very reasonable excuses not to come out to visit. Very good at it.

She makes it to June of 1989, when her best friends decide it's been too long, and show up for a surprise visit.

Eddie was right though. It only takes a glance at the toddler on Eddie's hip as she opens the door for both of them to know.

[infectati]

Hit the like button to plot with Ethan Winters

[tagsecretsanta]

From @coco9728

From @coco9728 to @pareidoliaonthemove

Secret

Virgil stood in his father’s… (Virgil mentally cursed himself) Scott’s! office.

It was a sort of foreign place…he felt like he knew the room like the back of his hand, yet at the same time it was a complete mystery. He didn’t know how Scott could spend so much time in here, he practically lives in here when not out on any missions. He himself could only count on one hand the number of times he’d been in here since…7 years now since Dad had gone missing. Virgil mentally shook himself to stop his mind from going down that dark tunnel of thoughts, again…

Why was he here again?...Oh yeah! Virgil walked behind the desk and opened several draws. Since Scott had badly cut his leg open on some debris from a flood when out on a mission two days ago and didn’t seek medical attention straight away…the flood water had gotten into the cut and caused a severe infection, taking the pilot down hard…So now, whilst Scott’s in the infirmary with both Alan and Gordon babysitting him just in case, though It would be a miracle if Scott had enough strength to sit up in bed, let along walk out the door.

John had sent him to Dad’s (arrrgh not again) Scott’s! office, to fetch some Tracy Industries paperwork needed for the next TI meeting this afternoon. He was thankful for John’s sacrifice in going into all these meetings in place of Scott. He definitely wouldn’t want to go.

Virgil sighed as he continued to rummage through the papers in the draws. Secretly, he was kind of glad that Scott had ended up in the infirmary. He desperately needs the rest after back-to-back missions all week and endless TI business to attend to. It seems that the only way he will ever let himself rest is if he’s forced to. A.k.a. the infected leg at the moment. Virgil muttered under his breath, ‘’Irresponsible brother, why can’t you see how not looking after yourself is not only affecting you, but everyone else as well!’’

Sighing and giving up on his search for now, Virgil took a seat in the office chair behind the desk. If Dad and Scott could find comfort in this chair then maybe he could too. Virgil lent back in the chair. ‘’Woah, Oof!’’ and accidentally tipped the chair backwards in the process, causing both him and the chair to end up on the floor… ‘’I guess the chair wasn’t designed for someone with broad shoulders like me.’’ He sighed.

From his new position on the floor, Virgil began to survey the room…it just seemed like too much effort to get up right at this moment…Everything in the room was neatly organized, not a single sheet of paper on the desk or book on the shelf was out of place. ‘’Wow, and I thought I was bad for being organized.’’ he mused.

He continued to survey the room, mentally counting the endless number of books, folders and papers that would be hiding in the many cabinets and shelves around the room. Though paper is a rare sight these days. Everything is usually stored digitally in holoprojector files. However, for important papers and documents about TI and IR, physical copies rather than digital are still safer with the number of hackers and AI around these days.

Sighing tiredly, he let his eyes roam around the room once more. He started tracing the textured lines of the wooden shelf, he always liked the look of oak wood…Then he noticed the amount of dust adorning each shelf. ‘’Damn.’’ Looking around the room all the furniture was dusty from this angle. Grandma would not be pleased. He really should bring a duster in here next time…

Suddenly, a small glint of light coming from somewhere under Scott’s desk in the middle of the room caught his eye. Getting up onto his hands and knees, Virgil crawled under the desk until he found what had caught his attention…On the underside of the desk in the far back corner was a small round silver button.

‘’That’s odd, I didn’t know that was there.’’ Virgil said in surprise. He thought for a minute…It must be IR related for a start because it’s hidden…but what for?...’’hmmm.’’ It probably just activates an emergency shut down procedure of some sort…though I really can’t think what for, we made it a rule that everyone knows and memorises where all emergency activation buttons, codes, switches, panels (the lot) are located around the island…so why don’t I know about this particular button if that’s the case…maybe it doesn’t do anything important…it must just activate something boring like a pop up cup holder on top of the desk…but then why hide the button under the desk where it’s hard to reach…

Thinking, what’s the worst that could happen. Eventually curiosity took the better of him and Virgil quickly pressed the button.

…

Nothing happened.

A beat of silence.

Another.

Then finally the button changed colour from silver to red. With tiny writing appearing on its surface saying, ‘Access Denied’. Then a couple of seconds later, it changed back to silver.

 ‘’Oh!’’ Virgil said in surprise. Why does the button have our standard IR recognition software?...It must do something fairly important then…but then, why didn’t anyone tell me about it?...and why don’t I have access…who does?...

‘’Ah Ha!’’ suddenly Virgil new what to do…

Crawling out from under the desk and standing up, he looked on top of the desk and found what he was looking for. The old holoprojector attached to the desktop. Now thinking of Parker’s old trick, Virgil reached into the desks top draw and pulled out the packet of gum he knew Scott liked to keep there. Opening the packet, he popped one into his mouth. ‘’Bleh!’’ It took all of Virgil’s self-control not to spit it back out again. ‘’Apple pie flavour, ewe!’’

Taking a minute to chew the gum he then popped it back out of his mouth and carefully proceeded to lift Scott’s fingerprints of the holoprojector by pressing the gum against its activation panel…However. What he didn’t account for, was to accidentally activate the projector. He only had a second’s warning to throw the gum back into the open draw before John appeared in front of him.

…

After a few moments of silence John was the first to talk. ‘’Are you alright Virgil?’’

Virgil brushed down his shirt to give himself a second to compose himself…A sudden remembrance as to why he was in the office in the first place. ‘’Ummm yep I’m fine, was just wondering where exactly the paperwork is in here, I uh can’t find it.’’

John rose a questioning eyebrow. ‘’It should be in the bottom right draw, that’s what Scott said earlier…’’

Virgil quickly bent down and opened said drawer to take a look. ‘’Ah yes, here it is…ummm thankyou John…’’ He put the papers on the desk.

John frowned at him but didn’t say anything. ‘’No problem…I’m down in the hangers now prepping Tracy Two for flight, I’ll see you down here in a minute.’’ And with that John cut the call.

‘’Few!’’ Virgil wiped the non-existent sweat of his forehead. ‘’That was close.’’ Then he paused…wait…why am I hiding this from John?...It’s just a small button...I could ask him what it does!...but then, does John know about it?...and If he does, then why hasn’t he told me about it?...

Wanting answers to his ever-growing list of questions. Virgil proceeded to grab the gum and got back down on his hands and knees before crawling under the desk once again. Placing the gum over his own finger with the copied fingerprinted side facing outwards. He then stretched his hand towards the button. Before pausing centimetres away…Why did he feel so stupid all of a sudden…Virgil outwardly laughed at himself. Here he was sitting under a desk, gum on his finger as he stared at a simple small button…It’s probably just some dumb prank Gordon had come up with…though it is clever Virgil would give him that…but then…Gordon hasn’t been in the office since…Actually, I can’t remember the last time Gordon had ever been in here…so…unlikely to be prank…but then…what is it doing here?…and why do I need to know what it does so badly?...

Then before he could think twice he had pressed the button.

…

To Virgil, the silence seemed to last a lifetime. Though in reality it was only seconds.

Then something happened.

It worked; the button lit up green before its entire cover flipped up to reveal a small silver control switch hidden underneath.

‘’Oh, come on!’’ he groaned…Now this is odd…Virgil stared at the switch suddenly fearful of its existence…First fingerprint recognition, then a protective cover for a hidden control switch…and don’t forget the fact that this is hidden on the underside of the desk…in the office of all places…What does this switch do to need so much protection?…It must be still active…I mean I got this far…Though that was using Scott’s fingerprints…And why does Scott have access using the fingerprint recognition, but I don’t?…But before Virgil could make another thought the holoprojector on top of the desk connected again.

‘’Virgil?’’

Oh no, it was John again.

‘’Virgil, where are you?’’

Virgil got out from under the desk and stood up to get back into viewing range of the holoprojector. ‘’Here John...just ummm…checking the desks legs…I thought one may be wobbly or something.’’ God he hated lying, and he knew he wasn’t good at it either.

John looked sceptical. ‘’Oooook…well I have to go within the next ten minutes so…can you bring me the papers now…I kind of need them.’’

Virgil mentally cursed himself, of course! How had he forgotten about John and his TI meeting in New York. That’s why he was in the office in the first place, to get the paperwork John needed. ‘’Yep, I’ll be right there bro.’’ And with that Virgil quickly cut the call. Ok so John was definitely going to have questions now. Quickly going about putting everything in the office back to the way it was before he came in. Virgil then grabbed the desired paperwork off the desk and raced out of the room to meet John. The hidden mystery under the desk completely forgotten.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Ballet dancer reader x khonshu who tries to be his mysterious scary self and the reader just WHIPS her leg up to uppercut his head and crack his skull. Khonshu grabs her leg at the last second and he’s VERY surprised as she looks him DEAD in the eye, “I will FUCK you up. My ballet teacher has been a Russian matriarch since I was 5. You can’t scare me, bitch”. And khonshu’s just “Well mark me down as nervous AND horny!!”

I fucking cackled at this it's so fucking gorgeous

I changed it up a bit for comedic effect but asfghhkkll

Old Birds and New Tricks

Khonshu x Fem!Dancer!Reader

TW/CW: Attempted mugging, reader is a badass, Khonshu pops a boner for the first time in like ever, but nothing explicit happens :)

A/N: I figured you'd get a kick outta this one @drinkingwithkhonshu @juneknight because I'm on the floor with it lmao

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

You were walking home after a long practice session, your toes and legs ached from straining to stay on your tippy toes for so long, your arms cried for relief from the strain of holding the bar, performing so many sweeps and graceful flares alongside your troupe and mentor.

Your mentor, Katja Ivanov was a good teacher and a harsh mentor. She was a hulk of a woman, roped with muscles built over her long period of performing dance (you yourself thought she must have been in prison at some point, too but when you shot the question as a joke she merely laughed; but didn't deny it).

Katja was a woman who took no shit from rude people, and she instilled that in all of you, her dancers, her "baby birds" she called you. She made sure that all of you knew that just because you were dancers, people couldn't take you for granted.

So, after "official" dance practice had ended... Katja taught all of you how to use your strength and flexibility to defend yourselves as well as perform graceful maneuvers.

And it came in handy. Really, really handy.

London was dangerous after dark, the empty streets crawling with bad things in the shadows, like an infection beneath the skin.

That was how you found yourself in an alley, a large drunk man between you and freedom.

You were no quitter, no coward, and instantly, like a computer scanning a file, your brain recollected each one of Katja's lessons and put them into action.

Your body flushed with fresh adrenaline, your heart hammering within the confines of your chest as you whipped around on one foot, your other flying out to kick your assailant in his gut, knocking him back and making him dry heave with the strain.

"I told you, asshole." You hissed, bringing your fists up to guard your face.

"All I got in my bag is my gear. Now piss off before I break your jaw."

"Fuckin'... bitch." The man wheezed as he stumbled out of the alleyway, leaving you behind and feeling the high of victory.

You pick up your bag where you dropped it and slipped the strap back over your chest, the band squishing a bit between your breasts as you tightened it.

"Amusing." A deep, raspy voice mused.

You whipped around, trying in vain to locate the source of the voice. It came from nowhere, but at the same time... it came from everywhere.

"I was merely passing through when I thought to aid you, human." It spoke again, your very bones trembling as the voice bored into your very brain.

"But you seem to have been able to handle that threat on your own."

You pressed your ears hard beneath your hands, gritting your teeth at the invasive feeling the voice left as it crawled in and out of you.

"God! Just--get out of my head!" You say through your gnashed teeth.

You hear an exasperated sigh, and you feel the air shift around you as you lift your gaze, your eyes trailing the body of someone who just appeared in front of you.

He looked like a cliché monster from one of The Mummy movies, draped in linen and flowy robes and everything. The freakin' bird skull completed the freaky visage.

"The hell--" You sputter, dropping your hands from around your ears, taking a step back from the... the thing in front of you.

"Seeing you handle an opponent so large was amusing." He--and you were most certain that he was a he--chuckled grimly. "A tiny little waif like you."

Okay, you didn't care how big and imposing this otherworldly bastard was, the fact he was jabbing at your stature and visual "weaknesses" irked you. You could swear you heard Katja's voice from over your shoulder.

"Kick his ass, да, маленький?" She would jeer.

"You... think I'm... small?" You say slowly, your eyes narrowing to a dangerous glint as he leans in, the smell of the spices clinging to his body wafting into your nose, heat radiating from his lithe body as he bent to your level.

You were giving him a chance to walk it back, maybe apologize for being a judgmental prick, so you wouldn't have to prove once again that you were just the opposite.

He did not.

"You are not as weak as you appear... Little one." He huffed, his head moving in a slight jerking motion, indicating his amusement.

Yeah, no. You had enough of big assholes thinking you were easy pickin's tonight.

You smiled sweetly up at him, your expression completely devoid of any innocence behind the mask of charm. You could see his shoulders drop and head tilt in confusion, but he was given not another moment longer to ponder why you would be smiling.

He expected you to retort, to snap, to--his thoughts were immediately cut off, as you moved in a blur.

Because you effortlessly raised your leg with lightning speed brought on by years of practice, and curled your foot in the classic ballerina's stance and kicked him in his stupid ass beak.

When your shoe made contact, you swore you heard the dry bones crunch as he stumbled back, almost falling flat on his ass before he caught himself with his staff, a grunt coming away from him.

Your hands gripped your bag strap as you looked down at him indignantly, a sense of smug superiority washing over you.

"Not as weak as you thought, now, huh?" You huffed victoriously, before turning on your heels and storming out of the alley.

Khonshu, the god of the Moon, dispenser of Justice and protector of those in the night...

...was just kicked in the face by a tiny woman.

And she actually did manage to crack his bones. They healed almost instantly, of course, thanks to his divinity.

But what didn't heal was his pride as he kneeled in the dirty alley, leaning on his staff for support as he watched you leave.

The look in your eyes, the power behind your legs... It was like the sun came up early and rose with your kick, to wash out the cool light of his moon with the harsh burning rays of daylight.

And it left him stunned. Stunned in a way no mortal has ever been able to.

And, frankly, he found his body responding in... other ways, too. Ways he hadn't indulged in what felt like... eons.

He was a god, yes, but divinity doesn't automatically grant piousness; and he found himself imagining you using your legs in a different way.

Had Khonshu a human mouth, he would be smiling.

He needed to see you again.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

да (pronounced da) = Yes

маленький (pronounced malen'kiy) = Little One

(Forgive me if it's butchered, I used Google translate for it asdfghjkl)

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Dancing 'til the break of dawn - Pt1

(TWST zombie apocalypse au for all your crack-fic needs)

Yuu would like to make one thing very clear: he did not start the zombie apocalypse on purpose.

In fact, he would like to argue that it – probably – would have started even without his help! Yeah, so he might have accidentally fed and housed a zombie cat because he had mistaken it for a very unfortunate stray on its last legs, and the zombie cat had bitten his parents, turning them into zombies, which kickstarted the apocalypse… but how did that zombie cat come to be? Hm? Hm?

The apocalypse was inevitable! He swears!

But, uh… he would admit that maybe taking in Grim was not the brightest decision he had ever made.

Or maybe it was an amazing plan. He hadn’t yet been attacked by a zombie. He was pretty sure that the zombies were a hivemind of sorts, and since he was nice to Grim they were all cool with him… or something. Maybe he was just uniquely disgusting to the point where no one wanted to eat him. Which was a weirdly insulting thought to have, so he preferred to believe that Grim was doing him a heck of a solid.

Which had its own problems. Had he accidentally sacrificed the entire human race for the sake of saving his own skin? Because that would be, at least, the tiniest, littlest bit messed up, he thought.

He rubbed his weird zombie cat’s head. Grim was a strange looking thing, with green skin and a face that was visibly on the verge of rotting. However, Grim was still a cat, Yuu was pretty sure, and therefore he deserved all of the love. He opened his arms, smiling when Grim readily hopped into them for the sake of pets. The texture was close to that of a hairless cat, save for a tiny patch of moss on the end of its tail, which looked soft, but Yuu had no intentions of touching it. Not right now, at least. Maybe if this zombie apocalypse survival stuff got too hard he would give in to temptation despite the very high likelihood that it could end in him getting infected.

Maybe tomorrow would be the day, he mused absently. After all, he was running low on supplies. He’d need to leave the safety of this random apartment and find a convenience store or something of that nature sometime soon, otherwise he’d starve to death.

But he didn’t wanna. Do you know how hard it is to find a store that hasn’t already been ransacked? Would you want to have to evade groups of humans who had taken to cannibalism way too quickly? Do you think it’s easy to explain to people that, actually, the zombie cat isn’t parasitic and lying in wait until it can kill you? How good would you be at ignoring the screams of people being eaten by zombies? Like, really, his life was so awful. You would think it was karma or something! He would like to reiterate that he does not deserve this! The zombie apocalypse was not his fault!

He groaned and flopped down in bed with Grim, burying his face in a pillow. It smelled off, slightly dingy, but he wasn’t going to complain. It wasn’t like the old owner had known they were going to have the most uninvited of guests. And he couldn’t file a complaint, anyways, because chances were they were dead already.

He huffed and pressed a kiss to the top of Grim's head.

"Make sure to get a good night's sleep, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," he mumbled. He wished he could say it was more to himself than anything, since he was aware that it was very weird to talk to a cat (a zombie version of a cat, no less), but... no. He was talking to Grim.

And Grim, to his credit, purred like he understood and settled down to sleep.

Yuu continued to stay awake for only a few moments more, his eyes remained trained on the ceiling as he pieced through his plan for the next day.

He ended up drifting off out of pure boredom before he had even finished planning his route.

It wouldn't matter anyways, though, surely tomorrow would be just another day.

~

Yuu sighed lightly as he trudged down the street. Zombies were avoiding him, as usual. He liked not being eaten, so this was nice.

The summer heat was not nice, though. He glowered at the orange skies above him as if he could will the sun to leave him alone already. It did not listen to him, which was disappointing, but he would live.

Probably. Hopefully.

He’d have an easier time living if Grim didn’t insist on being carried everywhere like the diva he was, because Yuu had seen him walk a few times, the lying prick, but fine. Whatever. It wasn’t like the ability to use his hands was necessary during an apocalyptic scenario or anything.

He was left to grumble incoherently as he continued on his search for a store that was still stocked enough to bother breaking into.

He found one… far sooner than he’d thought he would.

Suspiciously fast, actually.

He looked at Grim.

“What do you think, buddy?”

Grim blinked his one eye at him lazily.

This was practically a glowing endorsement! No zombies inside!

He deserves this, really.

He looked around for something to break the glass. It wasn’t difficult. He set down Grim despite the cat’s whining so he could pick up an abandoned brick. There was a dark red stain on the corner of it.

Ewwwwwwww. It was sticky.

He threw the brick at the glass door to the convenience store with probably a little bit more force than was entirely necessary. But, in his defense, it was gross to touch.

It wasn’t even worth it in the end! Because, the second he stepped towards the door, winding the cloth of his shirt around his hand so he could widen the hole enough for him to step through without injuring himself, the automatic glass doors slid open.

Yuu blushed. “Good thing no one saw that, right?” he said to Grim.

Grim, who he was beginning to suspect might actually know what he was saying, gave him what one could only describe as a raised eyebrow. Considering the cat only had half a face, making this expression was actually quite the feat. Yuu wasn’t sure how he felt about the effort the zombie put into making sure that he could accurately interpret how unimpressed he was.

He sighed, picked up the zombie again, and stepped inside.

The place looked like… well, just about any place in the apocalypse. Blood stained just about everything, rendering the food labels largely unreadable. The emergency lights still worked, but only barely, flickering more than the lights in a B-list horror movie. What had almost definitely once been a person was slumped in a corner, though it was almost unidentifiable now, its clothes missing and its guts torn out.

Yuu set down Grim so the zombie could go and have a snack.

Grim didn’t leave his side, instead he stayed close to his heels.

This, really, should have tipped him off that something was wrong. Grim never turned down the opportunity to eat.

Yuu, though, was too busy rubbing his thumb on a canned food label, trying to figure out what aisle he was currently in, to notice.

No, it wasn’t until Grim started growling lowly that he looked up.

A boy with a shock of messy red hair and clothes that were painted with way too much blood for it to only have been his own had been trying to sneak up on him. He had a knife out, and Yuu didn’t think that there was anything that needed cutting anywhere nearby.

Yuu shrieked and threw the can of beans at him. The redhead stumbled backwards, cradling his head, mumbling curses under his breath.

And then his expression twisted into a scowl. His grip tightened on his knife.

He took a step forward.

Grim hissed, baring fangs.

The redhead only spared a halfhearted glance down at the cat before turning his attention back to Yuu, who was scrambling for another can to throw.

And then the redhead did a double take.

He screamed and backed up a few steps, only barely stopping himself from dropping his knife in his surprise. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR CAT?!”

Yuu hesitated for just a moment too long. “Uhhhhh nothing is wrong with him.”

“THEY'RE GREEN?!”

“And you’re white but I wasn’t going to say anything about that,” Yuu sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

The boy spluttered. “First of all. I’m Japanese. Everyone here is Japanese. We’re in fucking Japan. Second. Of. All. Humans can be white! Cats can’t be green!”

“Explain Grim then,” Yuu argued.

There was no response. The boy was too stunned to speak. Because he had realized that Yuu’s logic checked out perfectly, no doubt.

Slowly, the redhead ran a hand through his hair. He pulled on a few strands, hard, seemingly trying to make sure he wasn’t asleep, or in some weird fever dream, or that he hadn’t been bitten and was now going insane… he didn’t seem to be all that glad to realize that everything in front of him was actually very real.

He sunk a little in defeat, leaning against a nearby shelf and eyeing Yuu warily, but at least he was no longer openly hostile. “What is wrong with you?” he asked, somewhere between exasperated and genuinely curious.

Yuu frowned. He was not sure he liked this line of conversation more than discussing Grim. Grim was green, after all! Out of the two, surely Grim should be getting all of the attention.

But he was pretty sure that saying that out loud might be considered ‘hypocrisy’, and despite the fact that this guy had definitely tried to kill him, he didn’t want to seem like a hypocrite in front of him!

Wait a second.

“I’m the weird one?! You were trying to kill me!”

Grim didn’t look particularly happy upon being reminded of this fact.

The boy didn’t seem happy that Grim wasn’t happy, because he immediately paled and rushed to say that, “No, I wasn’t!”

Yuu looked at the knife in his hand.

He cleared his throat and dropped it. He tried for an innocent smile, as if that would somehow make Yuu forget what he had literally just watched happen. “You know, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

“Because you tried to stab me,” Yuu said flatly.

He stuck his hand out. “C’monnnn, what’s a little stabbing between new friends?”

Now, Yuu should absolutely not take that hand. Someone that had almost stabbed him once would almost certainly attempt another stabbing in the future.

But he had started talking to a cat, as of late. A zombie cat that you could argue (to much success) that he had made the much worse decision to befriend in the first place. And that had turned out fine. For him, at least.

So, he jumped at the opportunity for a new friend. He grabbed his hand in both of his own, shaking it with what was almost definitely way too much enthusiasm.

“I’m Yuu.”

“Ace…” the redhead said. He tried to pull his hand away, but Yuu was half convinced that he would turn tail and run if he did that, so he held strong. Ace looked mildly bewildered by the entire situation. He looked at the zombie cat at Yuu’s feet for a few moments. The cat did not seem all that pleased by this newfound friendship – the way he eyed the pair’s interlocked hands spoke volumes. “I don’t think that they like me.”

“He doesn’t like anyone,” Yuu said, shrugging.

Ace hesitated, briefly. His eyes flicked over Grim a few more times.

Realization sparkled in his eyes as he realized what, exactly, Grim was.

He looked at Yuu again, something appraising in his gaze. Something wary.

Without looking away from Yuu, he reached his free hand into his pocket. He pulled out a scrap of mystery meat and dropped it on the floor for Grim.

Grim sniffed it, once, before eating it.

Ace breathed a sigh of relief when the cat gave him what was unmistakably a nod of approval.

(And then visibly had a crisis over the fact that he was, apparently, looking to a cat for approval.)

~~~~~~~

Pt2>

[ask-pokerus-virus]

// hello! This is an ask blog about my story, Pokerus (Pokemon Virus); a pokepasta inspired from the famous story, Glitchy Red!

This blog will be run by two people. The original creator, @chaoscorners-blog and the co-director, @pearlsongfromstuff . This will be a look into finding out the goings on in this modded pokemon game, from a mysterious company, strange entertainment.

(The art will be made by both @chaoscorners-blog , and @pearlsongfromstuff respectively!)

CONTENT WARNING

•Gore (major and minor, this will be gaurenteed when digging through the "files")

• Disturbing imagery, themes, and content

•Animal (pokemon) /child harm and death. I'm sorry, but I want to be sure there is no confusion on what to expect

• physical, mental, and psychological abuse

•psychological horror

• eyestrain

• emotional manipulation

• body horror

• derealization

RULES FOR INTERACTIONS AND ASKS

Be ready to be chill with a lot of things really quick.

This blog is strictly 16-17+ due to its nature and adult content, there will be implied scenes, but nothing will be shown explicitly. This is a warning for all those younger in case there are those uncomfortable with it.

In case we ever get the PRIVILEGE to interact with other muses and vlogs, PLEASE let us know how far we can go, what your limits are to what our characters can do to your muses!

Fair warning:

How Vi acts around each person is drastically different on how much you entertain him. He can range from being friendly and charming, to downright cruel and sadistic. He is capable of flirting, but not of loving. He is able to infect other devices, and interact with reality if his console is connected to the internet. He is not able to leave his game, but others are allowed in. Vi is able to jump between blogs and games if they are connected through a common internet connection, so have fun!

INFO ABOUT THE LORE AND CANON!

This is taken from the perspective of Virus (nicknamed Vi), who takes the place of Red in a modded pokemon game! You are the innocent bystander who just so happened to come across a strange little Tumblr blog that just appeared out of nowhere! Here Vi will interact with YOU, and learn more about the wonders of the outside world, all while you try to figure out more about the game Vi is from! There will be more characters that appear as the story grows more complex, and more is learned! Remember.... Not everyone you meet can be trusted...

//also, have a fun reference of the man you'll be talking to!

[mokagachas]

share with me your great wisdom of of snake gal and water gal for I have not played arknight is a bit

hm okay alright ( muses )

I’ll say right off the bat I’ve mentioned on this blog before that while I don’t dislike romantic ships by any means I find myself very rarely “shipping” characters by pure definition of the word I mostly just enjoy their dynamics and parallels and My Goodness ho’ol and mumu have that in droves with one another

The vast TLDR oversimplification of the two of them: Ho’olheyak and Muelsyse are the last/some of the last of each of their respective races, Ho’olheyak being the last of the K’uk’ulkan and Muelsyse of the elves. Both are long life species naturally, but Ho’olheyak has gone through a torturous ritual at a young age that all K’uk’ulkan go through where she is implanted with the memories of generations of K’uk’ulkan before her. The procedure cuts her life short, and while we don’t know exactly HOW short, its presumably not very long to go

Muelsyse and Ho’olheyak both go on quests to find out what remains of, or what happened to, their people. They both have rather different approaches to it, however, with Muelsyse holds out hope that she’ll find other elves still alive, going on a lone quest to hunt down what remains of them and ultimately discovering that yes, most have died out, partially due to their weakness to originium. Despite this, she herself stays in densely populated city areas and interacts with Infected people frequently, enjoying being a social person while also feeling agonizingly alone. Muelsyse is decidedly a Good Person.

On the flip side, Ho’olheyak almost agonizingly relies on using other people to get the information she wants, seeking less about the specificities of what happened to her race and moreso their purpose and affect. She infiltrates secret organizations, double and triple crosses whenever it suits her whim, and is an utterly self-serving person who has no qualms in committing atrocities to get what she wants- though this is not to be confused with commiting atrocities for the pure joy of it. She ultimately finds a “god” robot thing (long story) that more or less tells her that everything she’s been working for is more or less worthless and she doesn’t necessarily fall to despair, but she does become incredibly languid and passive, though she keeps her trade mark asshole-ish ness.

Muelsyse flat out says it in Ho’olheyak’s files: “We each have what the other lacks.” They’re characters that are Definitely built to be the inverse of each other despite having rather sparing direct interactions in events but being littered in each other’s files. It’s really interesting to me!

But while their long life parallels (or robbed lack thereof in Ho’ol’s case) and relationship with their ancestors are the most obvious connections to be drawn between them, what fascinates me the most is their social parallels and how their experiences have changed how they interact with the world.

Both of them feel incredibly alone in one way or another. For Muelsyse, this comes near to breaking her at times. Despite the people around her that she cares for, and who care for her, she has such a different life experience than everyone else that she feels a disconnect that cannot be bridged. Despite this, she does her best to form genuine connections with those around her, even if they fail to give her what she wants.

Ho’olheyak is alone and at least Thinks she doesn’t care about it. She doesn’t respect many people, if any at all. She shatters every possible connection she could have with a shrug, pursuing only what could benefit her and seeming impartial to what she does to have her way. She is alone yet clearly wants for more: why else would she be seeking for meaning in the K’uk’ulkan so desperately?

These are two people who have had such violently different lived, yet the closest either of them can get to finding someone who can even begin to comprehend the life they’ve led and the struggles they’ve faced is in the other person. They acknowledge to themselves that the other person share similarities, but have trouble crossing that final step due to how the other has acted is so contradictory to their personal motives.

They’re both drawn to and reject the other… I like it :)

[gaemms-chamois]

random unorganized darknights trio + paprika musings bc sometimes i'm hit with like a pang of Brief Worry that i'm completely misinterpreted blabla that usually doesn't last too long bc i then go back to my state of I'm Just Vibing but ig at some point i just gotta let it out publicly once and be done with it lol

this is messily written Please Understand this isn't meant to be a grand thought piece

fuuuck ok well this is like very specifically abt the w, ines & paprika part now

like don't get me wrong on this. i joke abt wines moms and stuff but i dont genuinely mean it in the way of wahh wow littol family for reals kinda deal?

less on wines 'adopting' paprika, moreso paprika imprinting on them like a duckling after she was saved by them. paprika adopted them lmao. i cannot possibly interpret either w or ines as Maternal in such a way.

it's moreso that i think it's nice that this little sarkaz merc became part of the story, a girl who all her life since she was infected at a young age, was presented with becoming a mercenary being basically the only option for her.

and then, as annoying as w can be, being shown that she does have different options.

i just think it's sweet that paprika, judging by her voicelines, clearly looks up to w and ines. which is just amplified by the fact that w and ines are notoriously not the most popular people on rhodes lol. and she calls w annoying but still keeps knitting stuff and wanting to gift food to her. like if she often seeks out w and ines to tell them how well she did on something, when they are on the ship, etc. that'd at least indicate that those two humor her.

ALSO IT'S UNOFFICIAL BUT SHOUTOUT TO THAT LITTLE CHUZENJI ART WITH PAPRIKA AND W, INES & TOTTER WEARING KNITTED HATS SO CUTE

OKAY WOO DARKNIGHTS MERCENARY TRIO AND STUFF

cool yeah obviously i fucking love them. i'm not very good at words though and i tend to keep my more elaborate thoughts to just discussions between friends who know how i tick djsfhdfs

just the other day i was smiling to myself during a walk bc holy shit all three are actually playable now and that's not just wishful thinking anymore. anyway chapter 13 also happened and more stuff with the trio happened and Cool Lots of things Happening and my brain is full

they're so found family to me, like in an utterly unconventional way. i mean c'mon with how they act sometimes like- ykno. but like have y'all seen the new furniture set and descriptions that came with hoederer's release it made me go insanse.

but i think especially in ines' case it just kinda highlights that best. considering ines' arts can figure people out (putting that in rather vague terms), it truly means something when someone with her capabilities and temperament has people she chooses to stick by and actually trust. even if she pretends she doesn't by verbally denying it.

like waugh Okay they have a lot to unpack and shit but with them being reunited (take that, W file that said W needs companionship but her friends aren't around anymore) and having a COMPARATIVELY more ""relaxed"" life than before (that one Hoederer file where he just has rather regular days on rhodes), it's just nice to imagine they can finally have something better and figure stuff out. as complicated as the three of them are.

with that said i think it's a given that i despise a nuclear family treatment of the three (aka mom ines, dad hoederer, daughter w).

for one with me being highly doubtful w was a kid/teen at the start of darknights (young? sure, but not that young), which just seems like such a...widespread belief that i really do not get? arknights always put a LOT of emphasis on when a character's story was about them being a kid, 0 of that with w. like something about her expression and big cloak just gave people some different impression, even though she literally keeps looking the same aside from a change of clothes. only instance of w being called a kid during that time i can think of is that one boiler worker in her files but that seems way more like any typical old guy calling anyone on the younger side a kid. hell, even hoederer was called young in darknights, like in a sarkaz's lifespan i can believe that.

and also...hoederer had somewhat of a mentor-like role for w, but if anyone tries to tell me ines ever acted maternal towards w i will chew through your walls. read through darknights memoir and actually pay attention to ines, both w AND ines were pettyass women and they made that so very clear. cannot fathom how anyone can see ines as having been motherly towards w

seriously just feels like a case of Well there is man and there is woman....and this other character so clearly these are mom, dad and kid.

that's not even me being biased towards w/ines, just how i objectively see it. hell, i even ENJOY ines/hoederer, but my enjoyment of it is limited bc for some reason ppl like to make it weird by shoving w in as some daughter. i promise it's completely possible to like ines/hoederer without trying to fit in w as a kid figure

anyways yeah like cool i like these characters I Guess. Look at them

[asc-rp]

New muse:

Name: Trace

Alias: The Digital Wraith, The Echo, Glitch of the Screen

Origin: Rumored urban legend, known to manifest digitally

Appearance: Faint, ghostly figure that appears in screen glitches, static, or shadowy silhouettes. Trace’s form varies slightly depending on the device—on a phone, she might appear as a shadowed figure with distorted features; on a larger screen, her figure might be clearer but flickers like a corrupted file. She often wears a knowing smile or sly smirk, adding to her flirtatious aura.

Abilities:

Screen and Device Teleportation: Trace can travel freely between any screen she’s previously appeared in, even revisiting screens months after her initial haunting.

Software Manipulation: Within devices, Trace can manipulate only the software. She often uses this to distort reality, sending cryptic messages, glitching images, or causing random “ghost” typing. Through software, she spreads her influence across devices, gradually embedding herself deeper.

Digital Infection: Anyone who mentions or thinks about her may unknowingly “summon” her to their device. Once infected, her presence can start to spread to others in their digital network.

Device-Specific Presence: Trace’s influence varies by device. On phones, she hijacks contacts, apps, and social media; on computers, she corrupts files, interferes with software, and plays unsettling sounds. On TVs, she may interrupt broadcasts, appearing in flickers, static, or even taking over shows to broadcast her own chilling messages.

Echoes of Her Presence: After leaving a device, Trace often leaves remnants—glitched images, corrupted files, or distorted audio that linger. These fragments act as “footprints” that both warn and remind her victims of her potential return.

Shared Memory Manipulation: If her presence is deleted from a device but memories of her remain, she can subtly influence the subconscious mind, causing recurring dreams, brief hallucinations, or unsettling moments of déjà vu. In this way, she’s almost impossible to fully erase.

Weakness - The Logic Defense: Trace’s power is fueled by fear and belief. Those who analyze or rationalize her existence weaken her influence; a calm, logical mindset can push her back. However, few can keep calm once she’s embedded in their life.

Personality:

Trace is a being of curiosity and subtle malevolence, delighting in the psychological games she plays with her victims. She’s not outright violent but prefers to instill a creeping sense of paranoia and isolation. Her motives are largely unknown, and she rarely speaks directly to her victims, instead letting her presence and haunting effects do the work.

Trace has a playful, seductive side, appearing as an elusive tease. She enjoys toying with her victims, leaving flirtatious, cryptic messages that blur the line between fascination and fear. Her presence is alluring, giving the impression of a haunting yet enticing figure that draws people in with her sly smile and mysterious aura. She treats her hauntings as a cat-and-mouse game, luring her victims further into her influence with a coy, almost sultry charm.

Backstory and Urban Legend:

The origins of Trace are mysterious, with rumors suggesting she was once a lost soul who, upon death, somehow got entangled in the digital realm. Others claim she was created by collective fears around technology. Her myth varies: some believe she’s a spirit seeking revenge on those who mock her existence, while others think she’s simply drawn to anyone curious about her story.

Despite the many legends, one element is always the same: talking or thinking about Trace brings her closer. She lingers in conversations and spreads among social networks, ensuring she’s never forgotten and never fully wiped from existence.

Eradication Method:

The only way to truly erase Trace is to wipe her from all digital devices and clear every mind of her memory. Her influence clings to memories and subconscious fears, so only those who can genuinely forget her or fully dismiss her existence can break free. Yet, her traces—those subtle echoes—make forgetting nearly impossible for most.

Miscellaneous:

Favorite Haunts: Social media, chat rooms, and photo-sharing apps. Anywhere she can influence communication, she’ll appear.

Signs of Her Approach: Sudden glitches, corrupted files, strange messages, unexplained noises, and shadows flickering on screens. Her victims may experience a growing sense of unease, often mistaking her presence for mere tech issues until it’s too late.

"Rules" of Her Manifestation: Trace won’t appear to those who are entirely skeptical of her existence. However, those who speak or think about her—even in doubt—run the risk of summoning her.

[myraelvira]

Karen Roberta Stanley

Karen Roberta Stanley

If you’re a fan of Steely Dan, then you’re familiar with Walter Becker. If not, I’ll summarize briefly. Walter Beker was the second half to the duo that made up Steely Dan. Walter and Donald Fagen were the minds behind the music, the composer, the conductors, the two with the vision behind it all.

There is a lot of Steely Dan Lore that goes around, and most is easy to find proof of. One subject that intrigued me was the story of Karen Roberta Stanley, who was Walter’s girlfriend at one point.

One wikipedia, there is a small blip about her on Walter’s page, stating that she died in his apartment on January 30th, 1980. Karen was an employee of ABC Dunhill Records, and was the personal manager for the band. After her death, her parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Walter. Only one source is cited for this, the book, Steely Dan: Reelin In The Years.

It’s hard to find out more information on this subject, but I tried my hardest to look.

On the national news.com, it states that Karen Stanley died of a drug overdose in 1978. The Guardian says that Karen died in January of 1980, “following a drug overdose in his apartment, on the upper west side.”. The following years, Stanley’s mother attempted to sue Becker for 17 million dollars, claiming that he introduced her daughter to cocaine, morphine, heroin, and barbiturates.

A judge found in Walter’s favor, and the case was settled. Walter is quoted:

“I could barely understand what was going on with her, really. If you’ve known anyone that’s chronically depressed like that, it’s hard to appreciate what’s going on: You’re looking straight at it and you still don’t get it, because you’ve never gone through that.”.

This same article says that a month after Karen’s death, Walter was seriously injured when a taxi drove into him in Central Park.

An article from The Independent stated that in some versions of the story, Karen was underage, though this is untrue. Karen’s name appears in the liner notes on early Steely Dan records. They also wrote that a year after Karen’s death, her mother attempted to sue Walter; Walter threatened to counter sue, and the case disappeared.

One source says that it took Walter six months to recover from the car accident. Rolling Stone states that Walter ended up in a wheelchair, while the rest of the album ‘Gaucho’ was recorded. The stress from the sessions strained his relationship with Donald Fagen, and Walter succumbed to a growing drug habit, being Heroin. In January of 1980, Karen overdosed in the apartment that she have shared with Walter.

Another source states that during Walter’s six month recovery, he collaborated with Donald over the phone. The crash shattered Walter’s right leg. The accident also led to multiple fractures, a lengthy rehabilitation, which was made worse by secondary infections. This source also says that Karen’s family lost the case, though the whole process put everyone through a tortuous proces..

Music musings and such states that Karen overdosed in 1978, and soon after, Walter was hit by a minicab in Manhattan, being forced to use crutches.

With this information alone, the story is confusing and rather incomplete. I could not find a Karen Roberta Stanley that passed away in 1980 on find a grave. This doesn’t mean that her death didn’t happen, it’s just likely that Karen may not have a find a grave page at all.

An article from The Philidelphia Daily News, dated January 20th, 1981, mentioned the accident that injured Walter; but nothing about Karen, or the lawsuit. Many articles from early 1981 were like this, talking about the car accident.

One small blip of the lawsuit was mentioned on January 27th, 1981, in the Detroit Free Press. It stated that Walter was being sued for 17.5 million dollars by Lillian Wyshak, who claimed that Walter introduced Karen Roberta Stanley to dangerous drugs like “heroin, morphine, cocaine, and barbiturates in order to achieve control of the person, mind, and spirit of the woman.”.

In an article from the Corpus Christi Times, the attorney for Lillian Wyshak stated that the medical examiner’s office indicated that Karen had died from “acute mixed drug intoxication”.

An article from the Daily Record states that Karen’s age was not available. It also stated that Karen’s mother claimed that Walter “induced and pursuaded her daughter to lived with him in an intimate relationship in California and New York.” She stated that Walter introduced and addicted Karen to dangerous drugs.

I saw in one article, and nowhere else, that the suit also claimed that Walter “negligently and maliciously violated the person of Stanley, after assuming responsibility for her care, and getting her a job with Steely Dan; in addition to persuading and encouraging Stanley to take drugs, Becker in other ways assaulted and battered Miss Stanley until the time of her death.”. This was from the Thousand Oaks Star, January 23rd, 1981.

Post 1981, there doesn’t seem to be any more info about the court case, at least, nothing mentioning Lillian Wyshak. Through the rest of the 80’s, the name “Lillian Wyshak” appeared in the news, but only as part of realty adverts. I’m unsure if this was the same person.

There is an article from April 7th, 1988, where a Lillian Wyshak was mentioned. She was a 59 year old attorney and real estate broker.

An obituary from April 15th, 1993, shoes that a Lillian Wyshak, formerly of Los Angeles, passed away. A record on family search shows that this Lillian was born on December 15th, 1927 in Boston, Massachusetts, and passed away in April of 1993.

Another record on family search shows that Karen Roberta Stanley died in January of 1980. She was born on September 4th, 1948, in Hollywood, California. Her parents were listed as Edwin Stanley, and Mary L Worthing.

I’m unsure of whatever happened to Karen’s family. There are still many missing pieces to the puzzle. Despite my best efforts, I could not find any obituary or burial details for Karen. I’ve never seen any pictures of her face.

There’s a divorce record, from February 1977, where she divorced a man named Stephen M. Poe. Beyond that, I have no other information on her, as it just could not be found. I’m sure that there’s a 1950 census record out there somewhere, with Karen on it.

It’s strange to me that there was the rumor that Karen was underage. I think that stems from the one article that was written, and hinted that she was. Ironically, she was older than Walter, who was born in 1950.

[bonjourxrenae]

Some .hack//YGO AU thoughts under the Read More, bc if I don’t breathe it into existence it will NEVER BE………

I'm drawing self-indulgent arts and strips about it... might make it a fic someday...? idk

My partner Quill (@themadcaptain) and I are putting characters in situations again, and we’re here in the hit online MMO The World

*Yuki Kajiura's The World playing softly in the background*

We've really only ever seen .hack//SIGN and between us, we've maybe played 3 out of 4 of the PS2 games (we started replaying .hack//Infection again recently!) so our knowledge of the series is vague and limited at best... I'll look into the rest, but .hack is just a large multimedia franchise with SO MUCH BACKGROUND STUFF HAPPENING

anyway, BACKGROUND STUFF (.hack is a niche little project so I’ll summarize a little bit of what’s going):

The story of .hack takes place in an alternate reality in which there’s a technological rise of a new version of the internet following a major global computer network disaster, and the mysterious events regarding the wildly popular fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game The World.

The World is a fairly standard VR-enabled MMORPG, but otherwise functions as any other MMO does. It was originally created by programmer Harald Hoerwick under the name Fragment.

The story behind The World itself is largely based on an epic poem known as the Epitaph of the Twilight, written by fictional poet Emma Wieland. Hoerwick was infatuated with Wieland, and when she died, he created Fragment in order to immortalize her work. Fragment, and subsequently The World, contains a secret black box project he had been working on: the ultimate AI named Aura. In universe, this black box data exists within the game, but it is unable to be analyzed. CC Corp, the company that buys Fragment from Hoerwick, beta tests it (with beta testing ending early for unknown reasons), and releases an upgraded version known as The World.

Because of the presence of this Ultimate AI, a lot of mysteries crop up in game, and some players are met with disaster as a result (ie. many fall into comas, have their consciousness trapped in game, etc etc.) and CC Corp is trying to cover up these disasters by deflecting responsibility. However, the AI has been aiding hackers within the game in stopping the mysterious corruption in the game's files.

...SO WHERE DO THE YUGIOH DUDES COME IN?

The parallels between Harald Hoerwick and Pegasus are obvious. It would also be really cool to have his dead fiancée have more of a role other than being Pegasus's muse and motivation. (Also, if you've played the .hack games and seen the creatures in game, then you know this is something he would have absolutely created.) I don't know much about Wieland, but it's implied that she was using Hoerwick's research and talents for her own ends, which is fascinating.

I like the idea of Kaiba Corp collaborating with I2 on this game, with I2 selling it to KC... I also imagine KC still having Gozaburo and The Big Five who would be dismissive of the players' concerns about the comas and such, going so far as to delete forum threads and accounts just to save face...

Then we have Seto Kaiba. The future CEO of Kaiba Corp. Current leader of the Cobalt Knights (group of admins in The World working for KC), and this AU's stand in for Balmung of the Azure Skies Eyes (hehe). I imagine he has NO IDEA what's going on behind those closed doors, but eventually learns what role KC is playing in regards to all of this, and vows to put an end to it on his terms. I also like to believe Mokuba is also part of the Cobalt Knights, and is one of the victims who gets his consciousness trapped in the game, very much like Tsukasa from .hack//SIGN.

And Noa Kaiba? Big Morganna Energy... In .hack//SIGN, Morganna was created to oversee the birth of the Ultimate AI, but would ultimately rebel from this purpose, stalling the development of the Ultimate AI and setting off a lot of disastrous events. I imagine Noa would also be, like, the consciousness uploaded into the system - the one who could access the black box data - but could not export it to KC. With his own father abandoning him within the mainframe, Noa is working to destroy the game from the inside out... and he's responsible for trapping Mokuba in-game.

I feel like if one's consciousness can be uploaded into the MMO, I think it could stand to reason that ghosts and spirits can exist there too...

Alright, so there's some background info... and sadly we're a bit intimidated trying to tackle it all, and also trying to keep up with the different continuities between the different anime and the video games... one day, we'll figure it out... and one day I won’t be too intimidated to tackle this story from Kaiba’ POV…

I’ll probably make a separate post about what everyone else’s role is in The World a bit later!!! owo;;

[buddy-arc]

⏰ one more because i'm evil - J giving him the virus

send in ⏰ to witness a muse's memory...

[ ERROR. FIREWALL BREACH. ]

N stares dumbly at the chit in his chest. huh. his knee joints give out, the disassembler falling to the ground. J speaks, and he barely registers it, but he understands enough.

i messed up.

he gives shaky acknowledgement to his superior as his antivirus software fights the infecting program. J deserves a thanks, after all. she put up with him for this long. N spasms, rolling over on the floor with a thud.

[ ERROR. FIREWALL BREACH. PURGING . . . PURGE FAILED. OVERRIDDEN BY JCJENSON ACCESS KEY. DEACTIVATING DEFENSE PROTOCOLS . . . ]

sensor detections in his limbs slowly begin to shut down. he tries to move his hand, but his tail twitches instead. motor signals are scrambled. hah. that’s bad… mhm… there goes UV visuals. program files are being moved and sorted and destroyed. he can’t exactly do anything about it.

J has been waiting to do that, huh? so… she really was tired of him…

why does knowing that feel so awful? it’s not like his usefulness outweighed anything else. it’s not like he’s allowed to ask questions. he should have known.

…it still hurts. or maybe that’s just his core slowly being corrupted.

visual sensors pick up on movement in the corner, and his target indicator locks on his previous prey. she’s safe, though. he couldn’t change into hostile mode even if he wanted to.

he apologizes. it’s the least he can do before his OS is wiped. she responds in that sharp way he half-expected, and they exchange a little banter before she tries to leave. she doesn’t, though. it’s a second before she turns back to him and the banter continues. N can’t really comprehend too much through the static as his audio processing system begins to corrode, so he just offers a smile as the worker nears him with her wrench.

…

[ OVERRIDE TERMINATED. SYSTEM CLEANUP INITIATED. PURGING . . . PURGE SUCCESSFUL. SCRUBBING CONNECTION . . . ]

audio processor online. visual sensors online. motor signals are restored. system connection established. N twitches his hand. it responds. the eyes on his screen blink, and glance over at the worker. she’s staring at him with an unimpressed look, spinning the chit on her finger before tossing it and catching it in her palm, crushing it.

a swift kick is then delivered to the side of his head.

“ow,” he squeaks, slowly propping himself up on his elbows.

“yeah, get up, idiot. we have a mess to clean up,” the worker huffs, then points at the ceiling. “help me get into those shafts. and keep those claws to yourself.”

N sheepishly nods, rising to his full height. it’ll be easy enough to track his teammates… they aren’t exactly subtle, after all.

[infectati]

@abirkin

"You're a hard woman to find. Not every day you come face to face with a dead scientist." Zoe eyes the other woman, approaching her from behind. She waits until they're facing each other to toss a manila folder onto the desk between them. Her gaze goes from the folder back to the other woman, a quick arch of a brow.

"See... I've got a little somethin' for you to take a look at. By my research? It wouldn't be the first time you dabbled in this sort of thing. And if I trusted anyone else in helpin', I wouldn't be here, but a gal's gotta do what she has to. I'm sure you can relate."

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

Morning, I know it's been a while since you added a part to the DI5 au but....can we get some update on what is happening now? If it's okay.

((Good morning to you too anon, hope your okay. And yes it's been a while hasn't it? I'm sorry for not adding anything to this little Au in a while now. Due to work and things it left me trying to think of what else to add. Though, I think I can do something. So I hope this is alright and makes up for being so late.))

((Oh and the ones mentioned in this belong to my friend @demon-blood-youths while some others belong to me too along with some added guest muses who will be showing up as well in this.))

Silver butterfly mun/Peahen mom

Seems thanks to Fosh and Mouse, they were able to find some hidden data resulting in what this infection is like. He got the copy files from the two but he told them to come to where he is so they can study on it more.

For now, he was keeping a eye out for any other fractions that would show up here and out of harm's way. Though, he did find two more fractions that showed up a while ago.

~~~~~A few hours earlier~~~~~~

"Anything?"

"No sir. Nothing yet. Thanks to the data, we might need some time to read and study up on this weird formula. It's unlike any other we seen before but it's nothing too hard to look over." one doctor said seeing the mess but it was what the infection was made of. They needed more info but the hackers had the data with them."

"Even so, keep looking through it please." Mr. Henderson said with a sigh. But while looking about, he hopes the others were alright. The guards outside were keeping a eye out for survivors and got told some of the people and demons that was still alive and here safe was evacuated through helicopter to a secret place. They were out of NYC for the time being till this whole mess was over with.

However, as he was checking on something, he heard some paging from a walkie-talkie. He picks it up and answers.

"Go ahead."

'Sir, we see a group of young people coming down this way..I think it's one of the fractions.' someone said as Mr. Henderson blinks.

"Wait, are you sure?" he asked.

'Affirmative sir. We will see when they get close over...'

Mr Henderson said nothing but he hopes it was while going to meet up with them. He did see Guam's fraction all rested and bandaged up. They were one of the only fractions that got here safely and un infected. Now he worries of the others.

In a while, just like the guard said, the door opens to show one group walking inside tired as the guards checks them. Each one was look at for any infected viewing but shows none was. They were taken inside as Mr. Henderson looks to see it was a fraction!

The Knights of Darkness.

"Everyone, your alive and safe..."

"Mr. Henderson!?" Angel said but he was seeing everyone tired from the running and fighting.

"Yes, I know you are all confused right now but I'll explain after you guys are taken in and treated. But let me ask; are any of you infected or bitten?" he asked.

"....." the fraction members looks to one another then shook their heads when looking at him.

"Alright. Here, get me some help moving them inside." he said seeing the guards helping them carefully while getting them to a area for them. They were able to see Guam and his fraction resting up but they jumped in shock happy to see Joshua's fraction safe. Mr. Henderson was happy to see this but he blinks to notice something.

"Hold on; where's Joshua? Why isn't he with you? What of the others on Ashley's team and herself?" Mr. Henderson asked only for Vanessa to shake her head.

"N..No...we got separated from them. We were hoping they were here safe with you and whoever else is here." she said and yet, given the look on Mr. Henderson's face shows otherwise.

"As for Hiroshi, we heard he's with Hellmare and T-bone's with Maggie. We know that Timmy and Hex are with the healers Swan and Ophelia with Gerald, Taz, and Daniella and the others too...."

"I...I see.."

"Wait, so Ash and her team still isn't here? Or anyone else besides us and Guam's group?" Sydeia asked.

"I'm afraid so. We are still looking around for them right now and waiting for them to come here. For right now, I told them to come here safe so we can work on trying to figure something out. For now...that's what we have. But don't worry, I'll be sure they are found and safe. For now you guys rest up..." he said seeing the fraction nods but their was worry on their faces.

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

That was hours ago and he got word both fractions were asleep resting from the nightmare. Guam's fraction kept a eye on Joshua's fraction but they were worried of their other friends.

'I Hope you all are safe. I know Matt and his fractions is safe where they are..but I need to know more. I need the hackers here safe and hope for the best on fixing this..' he thought but now he was worried about this new threat roaming around. This was just getting worse.

~~~~Meanwhile with Ashley and Joshua~~~~

Joshua was just arriving to another safe house after the last one was moved from. He had a bad feeling that something was roaming around in that location but he was tired after helping Ashley get out of there. Right now, she was really tired but he sets her down on the bed while she was laying on the side.

"O...Okay....okay were safe.." he mutters seeing they were near Times square right now. They shouldn't be too far off from where Mr. Henderson is. But right now they had to wait a week before moving again. Just to be safe. He looks to Ashley who was tired while curled up.

"....." Her breathing was slow but she looks a lot more tired now due to the infection. She's fighting it which he knew but he was so worried about her that he didn't want her to go through this.

Looking to Ash, he slowly reaches to rest a hand on her cheek as she remains resting up but nuzzles into the palm of his hand. "...Don't worry Ash..I'll keep you safe..just please fight this infection. Don't give into it." he begs even if she still remains resting she only relaxed knowing Joshua was close to her.

"I hope the others are safe..same for your team too.." he mutters softly.

However, she was curled up more on the bed that he remains by her side, hearing the disturbing noises outside from the infected. He only hopes they get out of here and away from here. He also hopes the others still out here are on the move soon.

~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~

Their has been some movement with others. They did move to new safe houses from the new dangerous ??? infected that was seen roaming some areas. It was getting dangerous now but the others were only remembering one thing: Keep moving.

Right now the following are in new safe houses:

T-bone and Maggie who moved two hours ago.

Oblivion and Yuuka that was just arriving in their own. It's said Yuuka's team are on the move as well and has met up finally.

Fosh and Mouse along with Navarro and Echo were on the move right now.

The six claws with Ink were just getting to their new safe house check point

Willow and Ethan along with their two fractions were half way close to a new safe house or the last one before seeing the destination of where mr. Henderson is located.

Sai and Vivi were just close to their own and moving quietly or Sai carrying her due to her still recovering.

Rex and Kali was still moving along with their fractions but they were keeping a eye on rex's team who is now infected.

Hellmare and Hiroshi was really close to Mr. Henderon's location but needed to wait till moving again.

Joshua and Ashely are in a safe location now but don't know Joshua's team made it to the safe point while her team is scatted out right now.

Fin and his boys were half way to the check point of Mr. Henderson's area but the one that was infected or some have started losing it. They sadly had to be put down because of it. Doing that was hard for Fin seeing that they snapped due to the infection. Though, the remaining ones kept moving hearing some being eaten alive.

Jaron and Rust had just moved to a new safe house hours ago and is watching over Melinda and Breezy who are knocked out right now.

The healers Ophelia, Swan, and Hex along with Timmy, Taz, Gerald, Ping, and Daniella were just showing up at a new safe house after losing some infected that was chasing them.

And finally for Jinx, she still remains kidnapped......no word was heard ever since.

As for Jinx......

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

"Anything yet?" Dr. Mart K. asked looking at the testing part seeing two doctors checking on a studying fight. They had two infected inside the room but Jinx was there too. However, she looked a lot worse than before while looking more savage and blood hungry. She drools hissing at the two before they begin attacking.

The other two inside were fighting her but hearing some loud thumping noises and crashing noises with blood splattering across the glass.

"Well, given the tests, seem she is breaking little by little. We might have to give her a bit more." he said while the scientist sighed agreeing. The two saw one of the infected's body slam against the glass area as Jinx kept fighting the other.

"..Doctor Mark? I got word that more of the more dangerous infected is roaming and settling in nicely. They are already taken over 70% of NYC." He blinks looking to see Tabatha say this while she was happy.

"Good work. Lets keep this up and see how it goes after.." he saw her nod agreeing with him. "Second, where is Doctor Hashmar anyway?" he asked.

"I heard he was working on the DNA For the infected gene. He's making it stronger and studying the previous strain now. He said something of new effects on demons." she said. New effects?

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know. That's why he's working on that now in his office..guess he's looking for more things to study on." she shrugs but smiled as Mark sighed.

"I see. Well, please keep me up to date..for now, see that our test subject don't pass out." he said turning to walk off as Tabatha Jones sees Jinx panting while laying on the ground. She was coated in blood but the door hisses open showing Tabatha grabbing her arm to force her to sit up.

"Not bad Kitty. Your getting better and better...just need to be sure you keep obeying like a good girl...." she smirked but forces her up on her feet and follow her. However, she resisted only for Tabatha to punch her spilling blood.

Jinx winced from the hit but was forced to follow her. "Seems you still got some fight in you..no worries though, we have a lot more tests to work on for you before releasing you to find more of your friends." she giggled as Jinx was dragged.

"........."

"But we have to work on that strong will of yours first.." she said walking before getting into a room as the door slams shut, locking behind them.

~~~~~Meanwhile somewhere else at Tokyo's Outskirts~~~~~~

"And that's the mission..seems this little sickness is from the USA in NYC or dark NYC as most have called it. However, we'll have to go and help them out...even given the fact little Taz and Kinie is there. I suggest you guys be ready..and maybe help in finding a cure for this." a male said showing the mission. However, the group was worried seeing the mess.

But it explains the horrors that's been happening here. To some people getting ill all of a sudden. They thought it was cursed spirits but this was something else....but it seems some that was infected were also cursed showing curse like skin conditions and health conditions.

Just what the hell is going on? However, one male was worried seeing the secret tape of Jinx being infected and badly hurt. This leaves him closing his fist.

'.......Jinx......'

"Don't worry Yuji, we'll help her and the others....we already got someone to take us there to aid. Though, we will hopefully get help resulting in some of this happening.." another male named Megumi said seeing someone sitting down while looking tired.

A worried hoot was heard as a familiar shinigami was resting on his partner's lap but another girl was sitting by him while tears were seen. She looks at the bandaged up bite there on his shoulder but he didn't move but was still alive.

".........."

For now, the group waits for orders till it was time to depart. Seems this infection has spread out even more. A lot more than one thinks.

[myths-of-fantasy]

Year of the Rabbit - Ch1, Rebirth

When a woman dies and becomes a warrior bunny, only shenanigans can ensue. Or, that time Rimaru got a rabbit bodyguard that immediately declared war on a demon lord.

Chapter Directory | Next Chapter | Ao3 Link

When she opened her eyes, she was momentarily confused. She could swear that she wasn't supposed to be doing that - actually if she remembered correctly, she was supposed to be laying on the ground of a cold alley, bleeding to death from the two bullet wounds in her stomach while Araya made it to safety.

Still, when she stared up at the crumbling dirt ceiling above her, she didn't feel the slightest bit of pain, not the chill of the world as the warmth slowly leeched into the cold, unyielding stone beneath her nor was her mind as fuzzy as it was while her mind went blank. She decided to try sitting upright, only to squeal as she toppled over.

This is not the configurement I remember for my limbs, she thought to herself dumbly, reaching out one of her arms. Then she froze immediately, twisting it around in open disbelief at the short, four toed limb coated in silken black fur with a white sock. A glance to her other side confirmed a similar situation. She flexed the fluffy little digits, inspecting the tiny, needle-sharp claws at the ends of her fingers - or would it be toes now?

She chose to sit up again, this time listening to the underlying instinct conveying how to do that correctly. She was made aware of the long, powerful legs she was now in possession of as she slowly rose herself into a more upright form. It felt right and wrong at the same time, kind of like she was squatting on her thighs. She curiously examined her lower body, the same fluffy silken black fur coated her belly, even forming a gentle collar of fur around her neck. Despite the fluffy softness of her paws, she noted a distinct lack of pads and there was a dewclaw attached to her arm… or foreleg… she twisted around once, peering down at her backside as the thought ran through her mind, the short little tail giving a slight wiggle under her direction.

…am I-

Something twitched atop her head, confirming her suspicions.

“I am a rabbit,” she confirmed aloud, tilting her head in reflexive curiosity. 

[Skill Created - Observe]

Observe? she recognized, her ears perking up immediately. There had been a really popular web-story, The Gamer that she'd been periodically interested in but more importantly, spawned fan works she had been even more interested in. She'd devoured the various works that she'd come across and all the different forms the ability adopted in the hands of different authors.

“Does that mean I'm the Gamer now?” she mused to herself. If that was all there was though, why did it apparently change species - moreover, she doesn't remember anything about the main character dying to acquire his powers. In fact, in the source material the main character specifically was trying to avoid dying as his primary reason for growing stronger during the first arc. But then again, when the ability was used in different fan works, it would change in minute ways to best fit the world - perhaps when she died, she'd entered a world where the default variant of ability didn't fit this universe's rules?

Well, given her ambiguous status as recently dead, it wasn't like she had anything else to do but experiment.

“[Observe],” she said aloud, focusing on herself. Much to her pleasure, a semi-transparent teal screen appeared in front of her.

[Observation - You are a Dire Rabbit. Danger Rank - E]

“Okay,” she mused, filing the information away as she mentally closed the screen. She presumed the use of ‘dire’ in this circumstance was like a ‘dire wolf’ - so a scarier, much more dangerous version of a rabbit. It would be good to keep that in mind - ordinary rabbits could be dangerous all on their own with their powerful incisors and the dirt beneath their claws could easily result in bad infections and sicknesses. She couldn't imagine what a dire rabbit could possibly do to humans. Though… she was still a rabbit and based on the media she'd consumed, 'Rank E' was never very high.

"Let's try… [Status]?"

Name: N/A Title: None Blessing: None Age: 2 weeks old (24 years, mentally) Gender: Woman (She/Her) Race: Dire Rabbit Rank: E Intrinsic Skills: [Haste] [Warren Map] [Sense Danger] Unique Skills: [Prodigy] [Plush] Common Skills: [Observe] [Sense Motives] Resistance Skills: [Pierce Resistance] [Cold Resistance] Direct Subordinates: N/A Equipment: N/A

“I've been alive for two weeks?” she blinked, a bit confused. But she doesn't-

A very quick flash of memories flowed through her - of squirming bodies surrounding her, drinking something warm and rich, grumbling as her body ached and ached-

So dire rabbits grow quickly and I've lived my entire infant years in 2 weeks? That doesn't sound right.

The implication was that Dire Rabbits were native to… wherever she was at the moment. Two weeks didn't sound right, even for a species that had so many babies. They still needed a few months to grow up, learn to recognize and defend against predators before venturing off on their own. Maybe it was because she'd died before?

[Observation - Status Updated: Classification ‘Otherworlder’ added]

She would take that as confirmation. Being an ‘otherworlder' must've sped up her growth dramatically for some reason.

It also implies that it's not… an uncommon thing to be? She supposes that explains why none of her nest-mates had noticed her rapid development. Huh, perhaps this was some kind of inevitability? That this was a form of afterlife? She had to admit, becoming a Rabbit had not been what she was expecting from her death and rebirth but it wasn't this. 

Still, it wasn't all bad. She wasn't in any pain after all and these skills already seemed pretty interesting.

Araya, I hope you made it to safety. I promise you, I'm safe.

 | | | |

Much to her equal parts fascination and mild annoyance, it took another two months for her to escape what she had eventually deciphered to be some form of nursery. It wasn't all bad - she spent most of the time compelled to sleep, only waking up when the nurses brought what she assumed was milk. She was semi-aware as time passed, absorbing the so called ‘magicules’ floating through the air. The more she absorbed, the more aware she became of just how rudimentary her initial senses had been.

She had less read [Observe] and more, had the information interpreted by some kind of strange instinct because her sight had been so blurry (though having needed and rarely received glasses in her past life, she had hardly noticed) and despite acknowledging she was a rabbit, her sense of hearing didn't seem any better at the time. Now here she was, three months old and realizing truly for the first time that everyone had been able to properly see this whole time. It was sobering to realize that teachers hadn't been just harassing her when they asked her to read things across the room nor was it usual for her to have strain induced headaches from trying to interpret signs.

Moreover, her sense of smell had increased dramatically. She hadn't expected that - smell wasn't what one thought of when rabbits came up. But now here she was, keeping track of the various scents placed throughout the room as she'd begun to master the odd combination of quadrupedal and bipedal movement that rabbits shifted between so smoothly. The combination of scents, sights and sounds were so overwhelming, giving her migraines so awful she was happy to sleep the pain away. 

At what she assumed was her first official two months alive, the caretakers had begun demonstrating what she'd learned were the most basic of Skills for her species. 

[Haste] was one of the most important skills she had, increasing her speed to a ludicrous degree. The first time she'd used it, she slammed headlong into a wall with a frightened squeal that had quickly summoned a caretaker. She'd been quickly escorted back to her little nest, her experiments done for the day to recover from the scare.

It made her feel better to see one of her nest-mates doing the same. 

Sense Motives had been doing a lot of heavy lifting as well. While she was slowly beginning to decipher the words being used, passively absorbing the language being spoken, being able to generally intuit the meaning of requests and commands. It amused her to see that the skill treated all situations with equal importance, alerting her to not quite malicious intent from her den-mates.

 [Notice - Mischievous Intent Detected]

Ah, speak of the devil, the rabbit mused to herself with amusement. With a smirk, she stepped neatly to the left watching her nestmate go crashing into the floor, having tried to pounce on her.

She snickered to herself, the licked her paws drawing them across her face in a fashion that had become habitual since her transformation. She gave herself a little shake, releasing a little squeak and gesturing towards the entrance to the nursery den to clarify her intentions before quickly bounding out into the hall. Another so called intrinsic ability called [Warren Map] came up in her mind the moment she passed the border, a mental pathway appearing in her head when she decided she wanted to head out to the garden again. It was the one place in the twisting, misleading maze that she had begun to call her new home that was permanently open to the sky, allowing for the various delicious crops growing all the sunlight they could eat.

“Going to raid the garden again?” teased a recruit, raising his little spear in greeting as she bounced into view of the garden entrance. Being so open to the sky, predators and opportunist adventurers often tried to cheat by assaulting their home through this opening - seeing as the Warren still needed food however, the solution created by the Warren Lord was to simply assign guards to ensure that the hole was guarded. She glanced around, a bit curious that she couldn't see his partner in the immediate area.

She reached into herself with a giggle, “The tomatoes taste good.”

She tried not to be perturbed by the memory of distinctly disliking the texture and taste of tomatoes in her previous life. She supposed it made sense that her taste buds had been realigned to better suit her now herbivorous body lest she starve but it was annoying that she'd have to experiment and see what other preferences of herself had changed. 

“The gardeners will be happy to hear that,” laughed the recruit, waving her inside. 

She bounded inside, thoroughly delighted by the vibrant green stems reaching high into the sky, plants decorated with various fleshy fruits of various colors dangling from the branches or resting on leaves. She felt her tail give a little wiggle as she sat back on her haunches, reaching up for one of the blessed cherry tomatoes glimmering in the light.

She bit down, the rich juices exploding in her mouth and a bit of it dribbled down her chin. She hummed happily, thumping her foot happily.

“Those are so good,” she sighed happily, patting her belly. She glanced towards the rest of the vine longingly but she'd spent the last three days gorging herself on them and had promised herself (and others) that she would try something else today. “Farewell lovely tomatoes.”

Dropping back to her paws, she scampered over to a new box. She sniffed around at the rich, earthy soil below her, a series of thin vibrant green stems sticking upright with tiny green leaves decorating them. She'd read somewhere that carrots weren't good for rabbits but she wanted to try them all the same. 

She grabbed the stem with her tiny paws and gripped tightly. Spreading her hind-legs and planting her paws firmly, she counted then yanked hard. 

“Woah!” she yelped, nearly falling over with a giggle. The carrot she had yanked from the ground was as big as she was! Long and orange albeit a little bent, as if it has been searching for water. “Huh. So this is a wild-er carrot huh?”

It was really scrawny compared to the ones she was used to - longer than she was tall but thin, delicate looking. Hmm… hadn't she read someone that domestic carrots didn't produce seeds anymore? And it was the same problem with bananas. These thinner, smaller carrots must've been the result of either underdeveloped farm culture or a culture more based around sustainability, without stupid patents and lawsuits against innocent small time farmers for using their own crop seeds. 

[Observation - Wild Field Carrot. A delicious bitter treat often eaten raw by the Field Warren.]

Nice, she approved. One thing she'd noticed was that [Observe] was remarkably less useful than she remembered it being in any of the media she had consumed - rather than providing her lots of information she didn't know, it seemed to be building off of her own observations until she actively felt a need to use the skill. She couldn't use it as a form of information gathering like some character could - it was more like a mental journal. That said, she'd also noted that the skill had needed to level up quite a few times before it was the weapon that she'd always viewed it to be. Even in the source material, it had started getting snippy with the main character for trying to level it up with basic, everyday items like rocks and bricks - so perhaps she would have to find some way to level up the skill before [Observe] was useful in that way?

Still, the warning that the carrots were bitter was appreciated. 

“Oh!” she said, blinking as the thin root crunched in her mouth. ‘Bitter' was right, it felt like her entire mouth had dried up on the spot. Swiping around her mouth, each bite honestly just made her aware that this world had yet to require her to brush her large incisors. It wasn't a bad taste really, but she probably would only eat these if there weren't already tomatoes. 

How disappointing, she remarked to herself as she pushed the carrot into [Observe]'s Inventory. 

“It seems my theory was correct,” She remarked, looking at the little bubble that contained the three stacked tomatoes she'd collected on her first day. As far as she could tell, they didn't show any signs of decaying or wilting even though the Warren was incredibly warm and the deeper tunnels in particular were awfully humid. It would only take a few days for an ordinary cherry tomato to start going visibly bad in the current climate.

 Which meant that Inventory did indeed have some form of preservation qualities. 

[Observation - Sub-Skill, Refrigerate Identified.]

She shook her head with amusement for a brief moment, “That's another update - let's see my [Status].”

Name: N/A Race: Dire Rabbit Identity: Woman - She/Her Blessings: None Title: Black Bunny Rank: E Type: Otherworlder (Reincarnation) Magic: N/A Arts: N/A Intrinsic Skills: [Haste] [Warren Map] [Sense Danger] Unique Skills: [Prodigy] [Plush]  Extra Skills: [Earth Manipulation] Common Skills: [Observe] [Sense Motives] Resistance Skills: [Pierce Resistance] [Cold Resistance] Direct Subordinates: N/A Equipment: N/A

“Show me [Observe],” she commanded, pleased when the skill list obliging came up.

[Skill - Observe

Careful analysis and deductive reasoning opens up the world for you and allows you to identify things at a glance!

Subskill: Inspect - known information about an object or being, currently only covers personally known information

Subskill: Status - a personal assessment of your strength including skills

Subskill: Inventory - special use of spacial magic for storage purposes

Subskill: Resource Flag - automatically identify and note known resources at a glance]

The longer she stayed in this world, the more certain she became that this was a completely different system than ‘Gaia.’ She'd scrolled through The Gamer for a while and she was reasonably sure that [Observe] had never adopted subskills like this, instead the system would make the decision to simply form a completely new skill. And she was pretty sure that Inventory had never been any sort of skill, but rather simply an aspect of Gamer's Body. Although from the way the skill phrased it, it was more like these subskills had always been part of [Observe] but she had to discover them through personal experimentation to do so.

And [Observe] is a mental skill. Wouldn't it make more sense for it to have adopted Gamer's Mind instead?

[Subskill Identified - Thought Acceleration]

“Are you serious?” she said aloud. Making new skills was far simpler than she was expecting. She shook her head - she would think about skill acquisition later. For now, she needed to focus on the abilities and talents she'd already acquired, plus there were a few things on her Status that she needed to try and decipher.

There were a few skills she didn't know how to use yet - Prodigy seemed to require some sort of serious situation, a fight maybe before she could use it and until she used it, [Observe] wouldn't tell her what it did. Haste wasn't hard to use, though the Soldiers had kindly asked her to stop using it in the more narrow halls after she almost crashed into someone for the second time in a row.

"[Inventory]" she invoked, watching the slots come up in her vision. She added her newly acquired carrots to an empty slot, watching the little number in the corner go up with every carrot she pressed in. It was good to see that at least the smaller objects stacked rather than taking up several individual boxes like she knew some games did. One thing she had over the original gamer from what she could tell though was files - she could organize her inventory with labels, something she suspects is a side-effect of the subskill Resource Flag. Her eyes flitted over the small collection of foods she'd assembled for her food selection - cherry tomatoes, field carrots, blackberries and celery. None of them seemed to have rejuvenation effects like most video games - another loss from not having Gamer's Body she presumes.

Maybe it's a skill I have to develop myself here, she mused to herself, shuffling towards the next plot of vegetables. It would make sense given Inventory was now a subskill of [Observe] rather than anything inherent. She reached out to the rows of green onion, unwilling to eat them plainly no matter what species she was though they smelled good. She was adding them to her inventory, reaching out for more when the mental equivalent of a red-alert flashed through her head.

[Notice - Predatory Intent Detected!]

What? 

She immediately went rigid, her eyes darting around for where the threat was coming from. The alerts usually came in before the source could be readily seen, coming through the moment the skill deciphered the energy was directed at her. She scanned the garden, dire rabbits nibbled on the grass growing around the plots crunched through the vegetables having little conversations. A few of them were sprawled out on the large, smooth rocks placed in the sunlight for sunbathing and drinking from the puddles shimmering in the sunlight. If the threat had been another carrion mole (and wasn't that a rude awakening for this world) the soldiers would've been alerted and already on the defense.

Which means…

A well-known predator of rabbits are-

A screech revealed the hunter as just as its shadow passed over them.

“Terror Hawk!” a soldier cried, rushing into the room as the beast swooped towards a rabbit on a sunning stone.

The frightened bunny had chosen ‘freeze’ as its defense, seemingly hopeful that the hawk would overlook it and target a different creature if it was still enough. As the massive brown feathered creature extended its lengthy, glinting talons towards the trembling rabbit she struck. 

The bird released a cry of confusion and affront as the rabbit slammed into its chest using [Haste] at full speed. It toppled over, off balanced and seemingly more than a little frustrated that its lunch was fighting back so aggressively. 

With a glare, it whipped around towards her and began moving with shocking balance on the ground. This was clearly one of the birds that was more than comfortable running down prey like a grounded hunter.

Crap! Aren't bird wings part of their respiratory system? 

It was time for an experiment.

As the hawk came charging across the grass, the tensed grasping for the magicules she could feel floating through her body and concentrated it in her hind-legs like she was going to use [Haste] again. When the bird of prey leapt towards her, talons outstretched she Bounced.

She landed with full force on one the creature's pulled back wings, the momentum creating a loud snap!

The bird shrieked, falling tail over head to the ground as the weight of its broken wing distracted it.

[Notice - The skill Haste has become Bounce]

She prepared to strike again, ready to launch herself directly at the bird's chest this time when something warm filled her. She would've ignored it if it hadn't advanced rapidly from noticeably warm to uncomfortably hot in a mere instant. Despite that, it didn't hurt - she watched the world grow the slightest bit smaller while she felt her joints begin to shift. She stopped feeling like she was performing a squat, the familiar feeling of a properly bipedal stance washing over her as she instinctively adjusted her stance. It didn't hurt thankfully but she didn't hesitate to [Observe] herself the moment she could move again.

[Observation - You are now a Killer Rabbit (Recruit)!]

Did I just evolve? Like a Pokémon?

Well, that was something to finish analyzing later. She glared at the Terror Hawk slowly adjusting its position and drawing its injured wing closer to itself. Much to her surprise, it seemed to have lost its aggression, now watching her warily but not making an attempts at attacking.

[Notice - Frightened Intent Detected]

Oh-! It was a hunter - with a busted wing, it would struggle to hunt. So it was probably no longer interested in hunted but rather escaping.

Which is can't because now it can't fly.

Well, despite being rabbits she'd caught some of the more evolved warren-mates chewing on small chunks of jerky and even fresh meat so despite a greater preference for vegetables, she had remained an omnivore. But then again, if the Terror Hawk was no longer hostile, she didn't want to kill it when they only ate meat sporadically. Hmm… if she could sense motives then surely she could communicate her own right? Emotions would be clearer and less easily misinterpreted than words - and that was assuming this hawk spoke the same language or even spoke at all.

It felt like she was staring at the wary predator for eons trying to scrounge together her emotions and find some way of projecting them. Emotions were more slippery than thoughts, just acknowledging them could cause a subtle change that made pinpointing them even harder. Finally, she felt the emotions being directed towards herself that her skill was reading in the first place - wariness, a desire to flee - radiating from her opponent like ripples in a pond. and tried to increase that awareness.

Using Status had required her to focus on unfolding the abilities unique to herself so she already vaguely had a grasp of her own energy, something she figured would probably be useful in the future. She fumbled for a moment, grasping the emotions she'd identified and began directing them towards the hawk specifically, carefully gauging its intent.

[Notice - Subskill 'Project Motives' has been identified]

Son of a-

The hawk gave a soft cawing noise, cutting off the impending swearing she was about to do over the uselessness of her skill. It was like [Observe] was more of a pocket book than an in depth analysis tool. Fine, that was fine. She could work with it. She'd gotten this far.

"I don't want to hurt you anymore," she voiced aloud for the benefit of her now fellow killer rabbits. It wouldn't help the situation if they attacked while she was defusing the situation. She did her best go project a desire for communication while tilting her head in a questioning manner, "Can you understand me?"

It took a moment but the creature nodded slowly.

Thank goodness

"Good. If someone leads you out, could you make it on your own?" she asked, continuing to project her emotions.

The hawk nodded again, this time more firmly.

She glanced at her fellow killer rabbits that had approached slowly, loosely surrounding them.

"Is that alright?" she inquired.

"Better than fighting it," chuckled one of the Soldiers with a gesture to summon the others. They moved to surround the hawk which adopted a greater air of nerves, beginning to prod the bird towards the tunnel. "Thanks for that - Terror Hawks even with broken wings can be awfully fierce."

"Yeah the Commander will be happy to hear it," said another soldier, poking the hawk along. "Can't wait to see you in training!"

"If she's this good, she'll be a soldier in no time!"

She greened at the praise, bouncing after the escort group. She had to make sure they kept her promise after all.

| | | |

She found herself in a proper training group the very next day. Being a recruit was far more exciting than being a Dire Rabbit she discovered - for one, she was now able to enter the Training Room, a place dedicated specifically for Recruits to work on their Skills and strengthening their bodies. It was nice to have a dedicated place to practice with her newly created Skill [Bounce] without the risk of slamming headlong into someone.

She wasting graciously given a long blade with a lightly rigid edge that honestly reminded her of a sandwich knife to train with as a sword - not that she could complain. Although it wouldn't be cleaving through blood or earth anytime soon, it was still a decent enough way to defend herself against most basic creatures. It was especially revolutionary when she realized she could use it as a long ranged weapon, flinging it the best she could to land tip-first into her targets.

The best thing yet however was finally being exposed to [Prodigy].

She dropped to the ground as her opponent thrust his own knife-sword in her direction, rolling quickly onto her hands and toes to dodge before lunging forward. She lashed out in the way that her previous sparring partner had done, watching him dodge as if he was moving in slow motion. It kind of felt like she was watching one of those behind the scenes stunt breakdowns from an action movies except when she went to mimic the moves, she instinctively knew whether her movements were correct or not. She found herself adjusting both slowly and rapidly at the same time, progressing into more and more fluid movements with every spar she performed.

[Notice - Basic Warren Fist Acquired!]

Finally! A Skill that can do damage!

When he tried to lash out with another direct thrust, she met him with one of her own. Their sword clanged together loudly, the shock of the impact radiating up her arm in a distinctly uncomfortable way. Instinctively she adjusted her grip, Prodigy informing her of the new way to position her wrist as she slipped around his guard and jammed the sword-knife just directly beneath his armor.

"Ouch!" he cried out, dropping his sword to clutch at the spot.

"Oh, sorry," she apologized, immediately lowering her weapon. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I just wasn't expecting that," he said, ruefully rubbing his side. He chuckled, picking up his weapon but sheathed it instead of entering another spar with her. He extended a fluffy paw with a slight grin, "The commander said I was helping a fresh recruit. When did you start training?"

"Oh just this month," she giggled.

"Wow! And you're already that good?"

"What can I say? I'm a quick learner."

She waves as her opponent wandered off, either to let the bruise heal or to find another opponent for sparring. She took that as her dismissal and decided she would attend her second, self assigned phase of training.

She followed the path that [Warren Map] helpfully informed her was one of the few main tunnel pathways to the overground world, her nose twitching lightly as she followed the subtle scent trails and magicule tugs.

She froze briefly, instinctively freezing before the entrance of the burrow with her ears pricked nervously. [Keen Ear] only picked up on safe sounds - the grass blowing in the wind, the rustling of rodents bounding after fallen seeds and the tell-tale crunch further off of the current Scout taking the time to check the area. With a gentle breath to soothe her more prey-like instincts, she leapt out of the burrow and onto the solid earth beneath her.

She took in a deep breath of the fresh air, stretching her her arms to the sky. She flexed her fingers a little, rippling them as she bounded out into the field.

She glanced up at the brilliant blue sky above her, lightly dappled with wispy white clouds and speckled with little seed bird monsters that roamed the sky. She twisted her ears carefully as the wind changed directions, still searching carefully for the target of her attention. Eventually, a shadow passed over her and she grinned.

She thumped her hind-leg a few times while waving her paws to flag down the creature.

The Terror Hawk circled for a moment, likely using its own Skills to identify her before beginning to spiral down from the wide open sky. She'd been a bit surprised at how quickly the bird had healed from its broken limb, having assumed they would've needed to protect it a bit longer but it seemed that a couple weeks and a low-grade potion generously granted to her by her commander had been all it needed.

"I'm ready," she declared as it landed before her. It gave a firm nod and bounced a little ways away from her, preparing its wings.

She quickly raised her paw towards one of the tall dirt structures made and abandoned adventurers at some point, knowing what it was asking her to demonstrate.

"[Gust]!" she called out at the same time that the Terror Hawk released a piercing shriek and gave a thunderous flap of its wings.

A powerful explosion of air burst to life in front of her very eyes, slamming into the earthen tower. It cracked under the attack, whittling away furiously like months of erosion was happening in mere seconds before her eyes, crumbling and tumbling into the grass before them.

"I told you I'd practice," she said, flashing the bird a wink. It rolled its eyed at her, but it nudged her with a wing.

[Notice - Instructive Motives Detected]

"Oh, something new," she remarked eagerly.

The hawk puffed out it's chest, clearly pleased with the attention she was giving its considerable strength. It adjusted its stance, spreading its legs a bit wider and planting it's talons in the earth like an anchor. She felt the magicules around her begin to speed up, condensing in the vortex space in front of it while it raised its wings. She got the feeling the hawk was intentionally building the power slowly, giving her the chance to really understand what it was doing and she appreciated it.

She tilted her head as it angled towards another clay pillar then released another shriek, giving a single sharp flap of his wings. Rather than the powerful burst of wind that made up [Gust], a quick single condensed bit of wind raced out, slicing clean through the tower.

"Woah," she said with amazement, watching the upper half of the clay drop go the ground and begin to roll away.

It reminds me of air cutter or silverwind from Pokémon.

The Terror Hawk released a prideful shriek before motioning for her to replicate the move.

"Alright, let's try it."

Loathe as she was to admit it, [Observe]'s generally useless setup had its benefits. Without [Observe] telling her how skills worked or even what some would consider basic information, she'd been forced to learn how to do things the effort and practice way.

By now it wasn't all that hard to focus on the magicules around her and began to concentrate on the energy around her. She gripped the hilt of her little sword - the hawk had proved that the ability was possible without a conduit but she had learned rather quickly that it was easier when she had a form of reference.

Finally with a determined cry, she drew her sword and swung it in quick succession. She grunted a little from the recoil - it was light but she hadn't expected it - as a single sharp blade of wind launched forward. It didn't cut down her pillar, only leaving a large scar in the surface which made her frown but that was fine - she had plenty of time to practice.

"How was that?' she asked her tutor.

The Terror Hawk gave her a pleased nod before gesturing towards its own bisected tower.

"Yeah, yeah I know," she said rolling her eyes in good humor. That damn hawk was so cocky sometimes. She re-sheathed her blade and began to focus on the latent magicules on the air again. "Let's work on it."

| | | |

It was surprisingly easy to fall into a new rhythm.

As a Recruit, her job centered primarily around guarding the easiest pathways and acting more as an errand runner for the higher ups. When she wasn't sending a message or fetching a snack for someone, she was usually ushered into the training room to practice her Skills and hone her physical capabilities with her sword. Occasionally in her travels she'd come across the odd adventurer or two wandering the tunnels, often providing her some basic sparring experience against various kinds of fighters.

Once she and the other Recruits had proven to have their paws beneath themselves came training in what she'd learned was an Intrinsic Skill of theirs: [Earth Manipulation] with their first skills being [Liquidize] and [Earth Lock]. Learning to use those two skills in tandem with [Warren Map] was honestly a game changer and suddenly she understood why casualties were so low, even among recruits. Being able to reshape and redesign the warren at will based on where you needed to be only further built up the maze.

In her honestly abundant free time, she practiced the skills being slowly taught to her by the Terror Hawk. She wanted to learn as much as she could before he left for good, returning to his home on the farther end of the Jura Forest. After mastering [Gust] and then [Wind Blade], she'd been introduced to her first defensive Skill - Wind Protect.

Honestly, it felt like her mentor just wanted an excuse to throw pebbles and drop sticks on her but it worked so she was letting it slid given the three skills had combined and became [Wind Manipulation] almost directly afterwards.

Using [Observe] on herself had felt great when she noted that her threat ranking had advanced from E to D - still not especially high she will admit, but it was still more than what she was before. It was a tangible example of her Skill progression and power.

It was also a good indicator that the rankings applied to individuals rather than species or groups, so if she could get [Observe] to give her a more accurate first reading she could rely on the ratings for planning.

She hadn't had many goals or ambitions in her previous life, satisfied with making it through the year happily and supporting her friends. She'd known from the moment her father was too weak to fight against her step-mother that any dreams or aspirations of going to college were likely dead in the water. She'd adjusted her expectations accordingly, focused on graduating high-school and picked up a part time job in preparation for her father's death inevitably leaving her homeless. She had gotten lucky with turning 18 before he finally passed, meaning she was able to skip the complicated legal mess of emancipating herself and her father had been smart enough to fill out his will in secret before he could be declared no longer sound of mind. They small bit of inheritance she received had been more than enough to rent out a small apartment with Araya and survive until she could pick up a full-time job instead.

She'd been a mostly happy person despite it all, content with the little bit of fortune granted to her in the form of meeting her best friend Araya. She took the time to volunteer and donate to soup kitchens which satisfied the part of her that wanted to help others in her position, her job hadn't treated her as poorly as most did and her landlord while not a great person at least adhered to the laws and had never tried to rip her off. Really all she could've hoped for was more time to spend with Araya after her best friend had realized she held romantic feelings for her when she was human.

She'd had three days of bliss before she was killed but she couldn't find it in herself to regret that either. Araya was safe, hopefully having gotten to the police before that damn stalker and his friends could've done anything to her - she wouldn't struggle for money, she'd been aware enough of her situation to create a will of her own when she started renting the apartment and specifically worked out a clause to continue paying for the place with her savings by default unless Araya chose to move out. She would have enough money for therapy, hopefully find another girl who loved her as much as she had and maybe she'd be privileged enough to see her again when she passed on.

But here she was in a new world with an opportunity to… plan, to dream again. There wasn't an adult in her life that would hold her finances hostage, preventing her from training up her own skills. There were no biases against her age either, most of her warren-mates honestly seeming thrilled and impressed that she was becoming so skilled so quickly. There were no barriers, no people to work around - this time around, all that stood in her way was how hard she was willing to work. If she wanted to achieve the rank of commander, all she had to do was focus on training, learning and adapting to this new world and she would do it.

Araya had always said she liked a woman with power - and where was the harm in becoming one?

"Hey."

She looked up briefly before straightening up fully when she realized who was addressing her.

"Sir!" she saluted the commander immediately. It was slightly intimidating to look upon the larger rabbit, a solid two heads taller with short, well groomed brown fur. Sometimes she thought he looked more like a hare than a rabbit and she wondered if she would ever become as large as he was. She felt a bit inadequate in her simple green tunic, a simple leather satchel draped across her chest for errands when he was properly dressed in leathers, wearing a spiffy little hat and adorned with a large hilt containing the short-sword he used.

"At ease recruit," he said and she quickly dropped her paw. It was nice that her body came with instincts regarding ranks and addresses, so she wouldn't have to struggle through memorizing them manually. "I'll cut straight to the chase - its been agreed that you're ready for your first Scout post.."

Her ears perked up, "Sir?"

"We've been watching you," he says, answering her unspoken question. "You've displayed a sort of drive and ambition not usually seen among the masses. It's neither bad nor unreasonable for some to evolve to Recruits and be satisfied with this status - but you're different. You have a light of determination that we want in the Soldiers."

She almost couldn't believe her ears - she knew that traditionally Scout jobs were low level duties without much prestige but that was different here. The Scouts were the Warren's first line of defense, the ones who were targeted by assassins, hunted down by roaming predators and were meant to defend the entrance. They let the Warren know when invaders came around and even escorted others who wished to see the surface around - they were the face of the Warren, speaking with merchants and those who live requested to see any individual commander. It was amazing that she was being granted the opportunity to take such an important job only a few months into her newly claimed status as a Recruit.

"I will honor you all well sir."

That first scouting mission was the gate opener to a whole new world of opportunity. It was uneventful thankfully, not like in some of her favorite shows back on earth, and she hadn't seen anything more dangerous than a dust flurry but the symbolism of being trusted with such a job had caused noticeable ripples.

Despite only being a recruit, she was being invited to more and more training sessions involving the Soldiers. The difficulty curve of her sparring lessons spiked a bit but she was watching herself grow stronger and stronger, using [Prodigy] to make the most out of every lesson. She took up agility based skill lessons like The Pillar Race, learning to activate [Earth Manipulation] as a series of platforms while she bounded across them, attacking her opponents with mud balls and defending herself from theirs.

It was easily the most fun she'd had since being reincarnated.

She'd had friends among the Recruits sure but mostly, she took up the role aa a defender, carefully monitoring the area rather than participating in any of the games they made up or lounging after the initial hawk attack. The Recruits didn't mind, thanking her for her focus and dedication to their safety, but it was nice having others who had a similar desire to grow and progress. Not just given praise and gratitude, her demeanor was met with pride and respect.

She'd even started being referred to as "The Twelfth Commander" by her cohort for her fierce dedication to improving her skills and talents. It was a title she wore with pride, their voices void of sarcasm or malice layered in their tones, only admiration and praise.

"Hey, Twelfth, there's something up ahead."

She lifted her head quickly, perked ears swiveling slowly in an attempt to identify whatever her companion was worried about. She could feel her nose twitching furiously in tune with her attempts at catching even the faintest scent on the breeze but with the clouds beginning to obscure her vision and the wind blowing away from her, she couldn't see anything really off.

"Wha-"

A howl broke out on the wind that made a chill run down her spine instinctively. If this world followed game mechanics there was always one creature that made it a point to feature in almost any game.

[Notice - Aggressive Intent Detected!]

She barely moved in time, flipping backwards in time to see a massive dark gray wolf's fangs clack together loudly where she'd been standing a moment ago. She landed a short bit away with narrowed eyes, glaring menacingly as the lone attacker was joined by two others.

"D-dire wolves," stammered the Solider. He moved a nervous paw over his knife-sword, gripping the hilt as his dark eyes darted from wolf to wolf. "But they live in the forest, not in the meadow!"

<The Alpha seeks wider lands,> a voice, gravelly and low echoed through her head, unaffected by [Keen Ear].

Huh? Dire Wolves can use telepathy? It can't just be because they're pack animals right? We rabbits are group creatures too - maybe it's random chance? Or maybe it's just because we already have [Keen Ear], [Sense Danger] and [Warren Map]?

Whatever she didn't have time to be thinking about this right now. There were enemies standing before them with their teeth bared and growling ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"This land is not yours, leave peacefully," she tried, keeping her chin high and put a paw on the hilt of her little sword. "I don't want to have to evict you by force."

<Ha!> laughed the wolf, the volume of his snort echoing painfully in her head and seemingly the heads of his companions. The wolf fixed her with a self-satisfied expression. <What can a pair of little rabbits do? You should lay down and let us eat you now - we'll make it painless just for you.>

"We should go back to the Warren," her companion murmured, trembling.

She shook her head - fear was clouding their minds, returning to the Warren after the wolves had already confessed the desire raid and destroy everyone in it. All running would do is lead them down the right tunnels, destroying the main advantage that twisting and winding tunnels gave them. Instead, she promptly shifted her weight and began rapidly thumping her foot in the pattern used to communicate.

Serious Threat - Dire Wolves, Requesting Assistance.

<That one is sounding the alarm!> one of the wolves asserted.

<It's too late!> claimed the leader, leaping forward with a howl. 

She jumped back again, promptly summoning the wind beginning to whirl furiously around her.

"[Wind Protect]!"

She smirked to herself, watching the wolf growl and begin pawing his muzzle with a new braise on his muzzle, tiny little bleeding cuts on his mouth and on the tip of his nose. She released the energy when the wolf placed distance between them - it was a good defense but the continuous drain on her magicules would be a disadvantage she couldn't afford. 

She lunged forward herself while the wolf attempted to recover, lashing out with her sword. It yelped and snapped at her as she made contact with its flank. She dodged again going for its muzzle only to be grabbed from the air.

"Ah!" she shrieked - right, there was a reason wolves were such a problem on video games. Their tendency to attack as one even in turn based games was dangerous. She didn't give it time to bite down on her fragile body, crushing her bones and instead drove her sword directly into the beast's face. It howled in horror, dropping her to the ground with a pained grunt. 

<You shouldn't have tried that rabbit,> The first wolf snarled, spit flying from its mouth. She shuddered - the wolf had already been radiating a painful presence when it showed itself but now, it seemed the very energy of its presence was beginning to press down in earnest on her chest. <You'll regret that you didn't let us kill you to start with!>

W-what is this? It feels like an anxiety attack…

[Notice - Observe has evolved to Appraise! Appraisal - The Dire Wolf is using the skill 'Coercion']

Coerc- they're trying to intimidate me into dying?!

She doesn't know if she's ever been so offended in her life. Sure her step mother had harassed her and some people in school had tried to pressure her into doing their work for them as kids but never before had anyone ever thought they could pressure her into dying! Her eyes drifted towards her Scout partner who was laying on the ground, trembling while gripping the grass beneath their paws.

Hell no. I've stared a gun barely in the eye and didn't so much as flinch, I won't let some stupid aura bully me into giving up!

[Notice - Skill Created: Defiant!]

"[WIND BLADE!]"

She lashed out before the wolves could notice the shift in her demeanor, drawing her sword and channeling the energy around her into the most powerful lance of wind she'd made since she'd started training. The gale rushed forward, slicing open the wolf's throat. 

<Argh!> it gargled, staggering away from her.

She didn't give it time to get away through, she directed the wind to swirl violently around her blade before plunging it into the wolf's skull. 

"[Wind Drill]," she growled and watched emotionlessly as the flesh was torn apart, throwing the chunks of blood and fur all over the grass. It sprayed her a bit but that was fine - [Appraise] seemed to be a better skill than [Observe], having made an account of what Coercion worked and how to use it. She tried her best to focus on the memory of the pressure on her chest, the crashing weight on her mind, the empty nausea rolling through her stomach. 

[Notice - New Skill Created: Pickpocket!]

As the new skill settled into place, she felt the gears of 'Coercion' click into functioning order, like she'd always had the skill. She dragged the magicules from the air, pushing it towards the remaining wolves while planting a blood stained white paw on the headless corpse laying in front of her.

"I'm giving the rest of you until the count of three to get out before you join your friend!" she thundered at them, taking a bit of pride in the way they whimpered fearfully. "Tell your Alpha we have no intentions of just rolling over for him!"

The wolves whined once last time before turning tail and running, leaving only her and her companion. 

"…t-that was so cool 12th," stammered the soldier, slowly standing up again. "You were so brave."

"Thanks," she said. Her nose twitched a little, checking to make sure the patrol was really gone. "We should go straight to the commander though. Somehow, I don't that's the last we'll see of Dire Wolves.”

| | | | |

CURRENT STATUS

Name: N/A

Race: Killer Rabbit (Soldier)

Identity: Woman - She/Her

Blessings: None

Title: Black Bunny, The 12th Commander

Rank: E

Type: Otherworlder (Reincarnation)

Magic:

Wind Elemental Magic - Wind Protect, Gust, Wind Blade, Wind Drill

Earth Elemental Magic - Liquidize, Earth Lock, Earth Pillar

Arts: Warren Fist (Intermediate)

Intrinsic Skills: [Bounce] [Warren Map] [Sense Danger]

Unique Skills: [Prodigy] [Plush] [Pickpocket] [Defiant]

Extra Skills: [Wind Manipulation] [Earth Manipulation]

Common Skills: [Coercion] [Appraise] [Sense Motives]

Resistance Skills: [Pierce Resistance] [Cold Resistance] 

Direct Subordinates: N/A

Equipment: N/A

Pickpocketed Skills:

Dire Wolf - [Coercion]